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https://hackaday.com/2014/04/11/google-releases-project-ara-mdk/ | Google Releases Project Ara MDK | Eric Evenchick | [
"Cellphone Hacks"
] | [
"google",
"phonebloks",
"Project Ara",
"smartphone"
] | It’s been a little while since we’ve heard about modular smartphones, but Google has just released the
Module Developers Kit
(MDK) for Project Ara. The development kit gives an overview of the inner workings of the project, and provides templates for building your own modules.
Once you’ve agreed to the license agreement and downloaded the MDK, you’ll find a large specification document. It explains how a phone will comprise of many modules loaded into an endoskeleton, giving mechanical support and electrical connections. An interface block provides each module with power and data over LVDS. Modules are held in place by an
electro-permanent magnet
which can be toggled by software.
When you’re finished with the specification document, you can dive into the reference designs. These include templates and actual modules for WiFi, thermal imaging, a battery pack, and more. Mechanical CAD is provided as STEP files and drawings, and electrical design files are provided as Altium projects and PDF schematics.
We discussed both Project Ara and Phonebloks on Hackaday
in the past
, but now we’re starting to see real details. Google’s
Project Ara Developer Conference
takes place on April 15th and 16th, and you can register to take part remotely for free. Is this the start of an open, modular phone? Let us know what you think.
[Thanks to Adam for the tip] | 39 | 13 | [
{
"comment_id": "1342541",
"author": "nmolo",
"timestamp": "2014-04-11T21:57:41",
"content": "Anyone else get to attend the conference?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1342550",
"author": "dext0rb",
"timestamp": "2014-04-11T21:59:51",
... | 1,760,376,239.600377 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/04/09/building-a-quadcopter-with-a-cnc-mill-and-a-3d-printer/ | Building A Quadcopter With A CNC Mill And A 3D Printer | Nick Conn | [
"cnc hacks",
"Robots Hacks"
] | [
"3d printer",
"cnc",
"CNC mill",
"flight",
"fly",
"quadcopter",
"rc",
"remote",
"robot"
] | Quadcopters are a ton of fun to play with, and even more fun to build. [Vegard] wrote in to tell us about his amazing
custom DIY quadcopter frame
that uses a commercial flight control system.
Building a quadcopter is the perfect project to embark upon if you want to test out your
new CNC mill
and
3D printer
. The mechanical systems are fairly simple, yet result in something unbelievably rewarding. With a total build time of 30 hours (including
Sketchup
modeling), the project is very manageable for weekend hackers. [Vegard’s] post includes his build log as well as some hard learned lessons. There are also tons of pictures of the build. Be sure to read to read the end of the post, [Vegard] discusses why to “never trust a quadcopter” and other very useful information. See it in action after the break.
While the project was a great success, it sadly only had about 25 hours of flight-time before a fatal bird-strike resulted in quite a bit of damage. Have any of your quadcopters had a tragic run-in with another flying object? Let us know in the comments. | 17 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "1336661",
"author": "Groovenstein",
"timestamp": "2014-04-09T08:20:06",
"content": "Trying to fly synchronized with another quad to emulate swarming quads resulted in some props touching! Ultimate ended in disaster. I was amazed how many times we got away with it! Naza for the wi... | 1,760,376,239.251228 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/04/08/vcf-east-pr1me-and-att-unix-boxes/ | VCF East: PR1ME And AT&T Unix Boxes | Brian Benchoff | [
"classic hacks"
] | [
"att",
"bell labs",
"minicomputer",
"PR1ME",
"PRIME",
"System V",
"unix"
] | At the Vintage Computer Festival last weekend, there was a wonderful representation of small 8 and 16-bit home computers from the 80s, an awful lot of PDP and VAX-based minicomputers, and even some very big iron in the form of a UNIVAC and a Cray. You might think this is a good representation of computing history, but there was actually a huge gap in the historical reality. Namely, workstations and minicomputers that weren’t made by DEC.
[Ian Primus] was one of the very few people to recognize this shortcoming and
brought his PRIME minicomputer
. This was a huge, “two half racks, side by side” computer running PRIMOS, an operating system written in FORTRAN. Of course this made it extremely popular with engineering teams, but that doesn’t mean [Ian] can’t have fun with it. He had two terminals set up, one running Dungeon (i.e. Zork pre-Infocom) and a text-based lunar lander game.
Because the VCF East is held in New Jersey, it’s probably no surprise a few vintage AT&T Unix boxes showed up. [Anthony Stramaglia] brought in a few very cool vintage Unix workstations, dating from the early to mid 80s.
In the video
, he shows off two AT&T boxes. The first is
a UNIX PC
, containing a 68010 clocked at a blistering 10 MHz. Next up is the UNIX PC’s bigger brother, the
3B2 400
. This is the workstation found on just about every desk at Bell Labs in the 80s, meaning this is the same computer [Ken Thompson] and [Dennis Ritchie] used for their work on UNIX. | 44 | 22 | [
{
"comment_id": "1336485",
"author": "Sam",
"timestamp": "2014-04-09T05:50:51",
"content": "I had a UNIX pc. I still miss it– I actually gave it away when I moved from Chicago to Phoenix in 2000. I still kick myself.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comm... | 1,760,376,239.40906 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/04/08/serial-monitor-without-a-pc/ | Serial Monitor Without A PC | Will Sweatman | [
"Arduino Hacks",
"Microcontrollers"
] | [
"arduino",
"debugger",
"debugging",
"debugging tools",
"serial",
"serial monitor",
"serial terminal"
] | A serial monitor is an easy way to debug your projects. As we step through code, it’s nice to see a “Hey! I’m working, moving to next thing!” across the monitor, and not so nice to see nothing – the result of a bug that needs debugging. This has always meant needing a PC loaded with your favorite serial terminal program close at hand.
Most of the time this is not an issue, because the PC is used to compile the code and program the project at hand. But what if you’re in the field, with a mission of fixing a headless system, and in need a serial monitor? Why lug around your PC when you can make your own
External Serial Monitor
!
[ARPix] built this fully functional serial monitor based on an Atmega328 and a
102 x 64 LCD display
. While it doesn’t have a keyboard port like this microcontroller based
serial terminal
, tact switches allow access to the user interface to start and stop the reading and set the baud rate. The Atmega328 has 2K of SRAM, which is needed for the project. Apparently, 1K was not enough to handle all the data. All code, schematics and a very well done parts layout are available, making this sure to be your next weekend project! | 18 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "1336217",
"author": "Z",
"timestamp": "2014-04-09T02:33:36",
"content": "I’ve resorted to using LEDs to try to debug somethings in the absence of a serial monitor. This would have helped…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1336233"... | 1,760,376,239.192202 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/04/08/designing-a-front-panel-for-a-diy-project/ | Designing A Front Panel For A DIY Project | Eric Evenchick | [
"how-to"
] | [
"case",
"enclosure",
"front panel",
"inkscape"
] | When building a one-off DIY project, appearances tend to be the least of our priorities. We just want to get the device working, and crammed into some project case. For those that like to build nicer looking prototypes [JumperOne] came up with a slick method of
building a custom front panel for your DIY project
.
The first step is to get the dimensions correct. You CAD tool will generate these from your design. [JumperOne] took these measurements into
Inkscape
, an open source vector graphics tool. Once it’s in Inkscape, the panel can be designed around the controls. This gets printed out and aligned on a plastic enclosure, which allows the holes to be marked and drilled.
With the electronics in place, the front panel gets printed again on a general purpose adhesive sheet. Next up is a piece of cold laminating film, which protects the label. Finally, holes are cut for the controls. Note that the display and LEDs are left covered, which allows the film to diffuse the light. The final result looks good, and can provide all the needed instructions directly on the panel.
[Thanks to Ryan for the tip] | 12 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "1336036",
"author": "icanhazadd",
"timestamp": "2014-04-08T23:42:35",
"content": "+1 for the ORLY light :)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1336455",
"author": "Rob",
"timestamp": "2014-04-09T05:24:19",
... | 1,760,376,239.655572 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/04/08/festo-creates-bionic-kangaroo-steve-austin-unimpressed/ | Festo Creates Bionic Kangaroo; Steve Austin Unimpressed | Adam Fabio | [
"Robots Hacks"
] | [
"bionickangaroo",
"festo",
"Kangaroo",
"plc",
"Robot kangaroo"
] | [Dr. Wilfried Stoll] and a team at Festo have created an incredible
robot kangaroo
. Every few years the research teams at Festo release an amazing animal inspired robot. We last covered their
smartbird
. This year, they’ve created
BionicKangaroo
(pdf link). While
The Six Million Dollar Man
might suggest otherwise,
Bionics
is use of biological systems in engineering design. In this case, Festo’s engineers spent two years studying the jumping behavior of kangaroos as they perfected their creation.
Kangaroos have some amazing evolutionary adaptations for jumping. Their powerful Achilles tendon stores energy upon landing. This allows the kangaroo to increase its speed with each successive jump. The kangaroo’s tail is essential for balancing the animal as it leaps through the air. The Festo team used a thick rubber band to replicate the action of the tendons. The tail is controlled by electric servomotors.
Festo is known for their pneumatic components, so it’s no surprise that the kangaroo’s legs are driven by pneumatic cylinders. Pneumatics need an air supply though, so the team created two versions of the kangaroo. The first uses an on-board air compressor. The second uses a high-pressure storage tank to drive the kangaroo’s legs. An off the shelf
Programmable Logic Controller
(PLC) acts as BionicKangaroo’s brain. The PLC monitors balance while controlling the pneumatic leg cylinders and electric tail motors. Unfortunately, BionicKangaroo isn’t completely autonomous. The
Thalmic Labs Myo
makes a cameo appearance in the video. The Kangaroo’s human controller commands the robot with simple arm movements.
While the BionicKangaroo is graceful in its jumps, it still needs a bit of help when turning and taking simple steps. Thankfully we don’t think it will be
boxing
anytime soon. | 21 | 13 | [
{
"comment_id": "1335835",
"author": "Allah the king of rats",
"timestamp": "2014-04-08T20:19:05",
"content": "Looks like a jumping rat not a kangaroo.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1335979",
"author": "Rob",
"timestamp": "20... | 1,760,376,238.995136 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/04/08/zenotron-the-looks-of-a-kaypro-ii-with-the-soul-of-a-nebulophone/ | Zenotron: The Looks Of A Kaypro II With The Soul Of A Nebulophone | Kristina Panos | [
"Musical Hacks"
] | [
"4017",
"kaypro II",
"LED show",
"nebulophone",
"things that remind us of minecraft"
] | This beautiful instrument of musical delight is called
the Zenotron
, and it was built by [Mike Walters] for his friend [Zeno] in exchange for some keyboards. The Zenotron is the latest musical hack in a long line of awesome from the same guy who built
the Melloman
, its successor,
the Mellowman II
, and
Drumssette
, a programmable sequencer.
The sweet sounds of those babies all come from tape loops, but the Zenotron is voiced with a modified [Bleep Labs]
Nebulophone
synthesizer. Instead of the Nebulophone’s pots controlling the waveform and arpeggio, he’s wired up a 2-axis joystick. He left the LFO pot wired as-is. When it’s turned all the way down, he’s noticed that the joystick takes over control of the filter. [Mike] fed the audio through a 4017 decade counter and each of the steps lights up an array of four to five of the randomly-wired 88 LEDs.
[Mike] made the case from the top half of a small filmstrip viewer and an old modem, which is way better than the Cool Whip container housing we made for our Nebulophone. He re-purposed a toy keyboard and made a contact board for it with small tactile switches. This results in nice clicky feedback like you get from mouse buttons.
Of course there’s a demo video. You know the drill.
[Thanks to Joey for sending this in] | 4 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "1335675",
"author": "koplsopl",
"timestamp": "2014-04-08T18:10:36",
"content": "cute.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1335748",
"author": "strider_mt2k",
"timestamp": "2014-04-08T19:04:35",
"content": "Brilliant and ... | 1,760,376,239.702702 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/04/08/heroes-of-hardware-revolution-bob-widlar/ | Heroes Of Hardware Revolution: Bob Widlar | Aleksandar Bradic | [
"Featured",
"Rants"
] | [
"analog",
"bob widlar"
] | Bob Widlar
(1937-1991) is without a doubt one of the most famous hardware engineers of all time. In fact, it would not be an exaggeration to say that he is the person who single-handedly started the whole Analog IC Industry. Sure, it’s Robert Noyce and Jack Kilby who invented the concept of Integrated Circuits, but it’s Widlar’s genius and pragmatism that brought it to life. Though he was not first to realize the limitations of planar process and designing ICs like discrete circuits, he was the first one to provide an actual solution – µA702, the first linear IC Operational Amplifier. Combining his engineering genius, understanding of economic aspects of circuit design and awareness of medium and process limitations, he and Dave Talbert ruled the world of Analog ICs throughout the 60s and 70s. For a significant period of time, they were responsible more than 80 percent of all linear circuits made and sold in the entire world.
The list of his designs includes gems such as µA709, improvement over original µA702 and a Fairchild’s flagship product for years, µA723 — first integrated voltage regulator and LM10 — the first ultra-low-voltage opamp, which is still in production today. Students usually learn about Widlar via the textbook-classic:
Widlar Current Source
, a key piece in many of his designs, and the
Bandgap Voltage Reference
– both of which provide an infinite supply of mind-boggling exam problems. If there is one theme that’s common across all of Widlar’s designs, it’s that he has never designed an obvious circuit in his life. Every Widlar design comes with a twist, a unique idea and very often, a prank. A classic example of this is the story of LM109, the industry’s first three-terminal adjustable voltage regulator. In 1969, Widlar wrote a paper in which he argued against feasibility of monolithic voltage regulators due to temperature swings and packaging limitations. Since he was already an engineering legend by that time, the industry took it seriously and people gave up trying to pursue such devices. Then in 1970, he presented a circuit — LM109 — which used his bandgap voltage reference to achieve exactly such “impossible” functionality. It is most likely that he submitted both works within days from one another.
In addition to being a brilliant designer, Widlar was a personification of an age to come in Sillicon Valley, combining counter-cultural and in-your-face attitude with entrepreneurial passion and desire to build products that people love. He worked directly with customers and wrote his own app notes and data sheets. In fact, Widlar’s µA702 laid out the blueprint for how all analog IC data sheets are to be written in the future. His principle was “designing for minimum phone calls” and “if you make a million ICs; you get half a million phone calls if they don’t work right”. He was both destroyer of the worlds and creator of new markets; he came into Fairchild claiming that “what they do in analog is BS”, but left the company as a dominant player in linear IC for years to come, mostly on the wings of his designs. He then moved to Molectro (owned by National) but quickly ended up turning the parent company upside down and making into an Analog powerhouse. At the age of 33 he cashed out and retired in Mexico. But his hands couldn’t stay idle for too long. He soon came back as a contractor for National and, in 1980, ended up founding Linear Technology with Robert Swanson and Bob Dobkin,
Still, he always remained a troublemaker, free thinker, and an HR nightmare… closer in spirit to someone like Hemingway than a fellow “professional” engineer. Such attitude was contagious and it inspired a whole new wave of “prankster” analog geniuses like Bob Pease and Jim Williams. Widlar’s pranks are too many to count and it’s really hard to pick one that captures the spirit of the times the best. Maybe it’s when Widlar brought sheep to the front of National as a reaction to the firm not mowing the lawns due to cost-cutting (he really just needed an excuse to annoy the upper management). Or when he
cherry-bombed the intercom speaker
, again, just to upset one of National’s Vice Presidents. Some of the pranks were actual hardware, like a “hassler” circuit he built to detect audio, convert it to a very high audio frequency and play back the converted sound. The net effect of such a design was that the louder someone talked in the office, the more annoying the “ringing” effect caused by the feedback was. As a person would stop shouting to hear what’s causing the ringing, the effect would disappear as well. This way, he managed to get everyone in the office into speaking quietly, Pavlov-style.
Widlar passed away in 1991 but his legacy lives on. He truly was the original hardware hacker and more than just an engineer – he was an Artist. It’s because of guys like him that Analog still has that special feel and is more about “invention” than just following the straightforward path between A and B. And that is why Analog guys still greet everyone else with a “Widlar Salute”.
Now, when I have finished my inspection, and I am still mad as hell because I have wasted a lot of time being fooled by a bad component – what do I do? I usually WIDLARIZE it, and it makes me feel a lot better. How do you WIDLARIZE something? You take it over to the anvil part of the vice, and you beat on it with a hammer, until it is all crunched down to tiny little pieces, so small that you don’t even have to sweep it off the floor. It makes you feel better. And you know that that component will never vex you again. That’s not a joke, because sometimes if you have a bad pot or a bad capacitor, and you just set it aside, a few months later you find it slipped back into your new circuit and is wasting your time again. When you WIDLARIZE something, that is not going to happen. And the late Bob Widlar is the guy who showed me how to do it.
Bob Pease – Troubleshooting Analog Circuits
References
[1] Bo Lojek – History of Semiconductor Engineering, Springer, 2007
[2] Bob Pease – Troubleshooting Analog Circuits, 1987
[3]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Widlar
[4]
http://readingjimwilliams.blogspot.com/2012/04/my-favorite-widlar-story.html
[5]
http://analogfootsteps.blogspot.com/search/label/Bob%20Widlar
[6]
http://electronicdesign.com/analog/what-s-all-widlar-stuff-anyhow
[7]
http://silicongenesis.stanford.edu/transcripts/dobkinwilliams.htm
[8]
http://edn.com/electronics-blogs/anablog/4311277/Bob-Widlar-cherry-bombs-the-intercom-speaker-item-2 | 42 | 29 | [
{
"comment_id": "1335400",
"author": "Shakipu",
"timestamp": "2014-04-08T14:19:03",
"content": "Wonderful article. I got so much pleasure reading it in the office while I should work :). I lost 15 minutes of boring work thanks to you!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{... | 1,760,376,239.131067 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/04/13/desktop-sized-tamagotchi-is-even-harder-to-ignore/ | Desktop Sized Tamagotchi Is Even Harder To Ignore | James Hobson | [
"Arduino Hacks"
] | [
"tamagotchi"
] | [Vadim] was feeling a bit bored at work one day and dreamed up this rather odd project. He had a spare LED matrix handy, and thought, “I should build a giant Tamagotchi…”
and so he did.
In case you’re not aware, Tamagotchi’s were digital pets introduced in the late 90’s. You had to feed them, play with them and even train them — attempting to teach the responsibility of having a real pet. It was a bit of a fad, and to be honest, they were really quite annoying — but that didn’t stop [Vadim] wanting to make his own!
He’s using an ATmega328P with the Arduino boot loader at the heart of this project. The LED matrix is made of a group of four 8×8 LED modules with four shift registers (74HC595) and two Darlington transistor arrays to take the current — This is because the 256 LEDs need to be multiplexed down to 32 IO’s (16 rows + 16 columns).
Once the hardware was all done, he started coding — he’s actually coded the entire game from scratch, and while it’s not that complex it’s still an impressive amount of effort that went into this desktop sized Tamagotchi!
To see it in action, stick around after the break.
To learn more about hacking a Tamagotchi, there’s an
excellent talk about how to reverse engineer it
that we covered a few years ago. | 5 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "1346652",
"author": "supershwa",
"timestamp": "2014-04-13T14:44:21",
"content": "Brings back memories! My brother and I used to torture and overfeed my sister’s Tamagotchi and GigaPets. We were good brothers. ;P",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
... | 1,760,376,239.045612 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/04/13/printing-in-three-dimensions-for-real-this-time/ | Printing In Three Dimensions, For Real This Time | Brian Benchoff | [
"3d Printer hacks"
] | [
"support material",
"topolabs"
] | 3D printers don’t continuously print in three dimensions – they print one layer, then another, then another. This is true for every single 3D printing technology, but now
Topolabs has a very interesting technique
that changes that. They’re printing in three dimensions by moving in the Z axis while also printing in the X and Y axes.
The basic idea behind Topolabs’ software is to print a support block, then print an object right on top of the support. The support block can be curved and convex, and the finished product follows the contours of the solid support block. Unlike ‘printing with supports’, the printer extrudes along the X, Y, and Z axes, which should make the finished product much, much stronger.
There are a few drawbacks to the technique – a release agent must be applied to the top of the support block. In the video below, Topolabs is using Kapton, but hair spray or glue sticks will also work. There’s also a limit to how steep an incline a printer can print, determined by the size of the extruder nozzle. Lastly, this technique would be much better suited for a delta-style bot, but the team is getting very good results with a normal Cartesian bot.
You can see a few videos of the Topolabs printing technique below. | 37 | 14 | [
{
"comment_id": "1346397",
"author": "Hubert",
"timestamp": "2014-04-13T11:32:45",
"content": "The concept is nice, but I can already see a lot of failed prints with trying to print too shallow curves, the width of the hot-end could melt some plastic of the printed part. When this however is taken i... | 1,760,376,239.324277 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/04/13/the-ultimate-workstation-that-folds-up/ | The Ultimate Workstation That Folds Up | James Hobson | [
"home hacks",
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"portable work station",
"work station",
"workbench",
"workstation"
] | Looking for an easy way to keep on making stuff even though you’re living in a tiny dorm room? [Matt Silver] was tired of not having a dedicated work-space, so he spent some serious time designing this modular, re-configurable and
collapsible portable workstation ready for almost anything.
He started out by sketching ideas, playing around with 3D models in SketchUp, and eventually building a few prototypes using trial and error — and what he’s come up with is pretty darn impressive. It folds down to just under a foot by three feet squared and has casters to roll it around. Once unfolded, you stabilize it by placing your chair on one of the walls that folds down, and the desk itself is also re-configurable for different work surfaces. He’s included a power bar, an LED work-light, and it even has storage racks for tools on the side.
It’s a very thorough Instructable, and definitely worth a look through — especially to see how it magically unfolds! And if you’re wondering about how much it would cost to build, you’re probably looking at around $200 depending on what you already have on hand. What we really like is how it’s almost entirely made out of a single 4’x8′ panel of plywood — it’s like this guy works for IKEA or something! | 19 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "1346260",
"author": "S_Hennig",
"timestamp": "2014-04-13T09:50:15",
"content": "Pretty. I needed some solution to sit under my favourite coding tree when doing home-office. I will try to update the wheels for outdoor use and change the material for the floor-board to something more ... | 1,760,376,239.818278 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/04/12/sewing-conductive-thread-in-parallel-lines/ | Sewing Conductive Thread In Parallel Lines | Jasmine Brackett | [
"Wearable Hacks"
] | [
"conductive thread",
"neopixel",
"sewing",
"sewing machine hack",
"wearable"
] | [Cynthia] has shared a great video of
machine sewing parallel lines of conductive thread
onto ribbon using a cording foot which usually comes standard with most machines. This technique could be particularly useful when using addressable LEDs like a NeoPixel to get the ground, data, and positive lined up fairly accurately. Sewing the conductive thread onto ribbon also makes it a hell of a lot easier to attach to many garments or textiles, and also makes it easier to replace or reuse.
The method is pretty easy, essentially using the grooves in the cording foot to guide the conductive treads and ensuring even spacing. Two of the lines are sewn down approximately 3 mm apart using a zigzag stitch. The third line is sewn separately making sure the stitching doesn’t break the first two lines. In the video, a striped ribbon is used which has slight troughs that additionally helps the threads stay in place and the sewer to stay on target.
[Cynthia] of Cynthia Designs Studio has been experimenting with embedding electronics in textiles and has quite a few great videos that you can check out on the
Cynthia Designs Studio
YouTube channel
.
We have seen a
machine embroidered LED matrix
and a
hand sewn LED quilt
here on Hackaday, but those who have tried know that conductive thread can be very tricky to work with and keep conductivity. Do you have any tips or tricks for hand or machine sewing conductive thread? If so, please share in the comments below. | 5 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "1345986",
"author": "Galane",
"timestamp": "2014-04-13T05:53:41",
"content": "Here’s a challenge, get an old PC and sew up a working 8 bit ISA bus extender for something like a serial port card.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1... | 1,760,376,239.8691 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/04/12/turn-your-drill-press-into-a-bobbinspindle-sander/ | Turn Your Drill Press Into A Bobbin/Spindle Sander | James Hobson | [
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"bobbin sander",
"drill press",
"drum sander",
"spindle sander"
] | Drill presses are a staple tool of the typical garage — they aren’t too expensive and are indispensably useful — but have you ever thought of
turning it into a spindle sander?
You can buy drum sander kits fairly cheap, but the problem is they’re really difficult to use and really messy too — you’ll have sawdust everywhere in no time. What [Carl’s] done here is created a wood box for his drill press with different size holes for each drum sander bit. By attaching a vacuum cleaner to the box, you can clean up your mess while you’re still doing the work.
Just a note — drill presses aren’t designed to take radial loads like a mill is. If you’re planning on doing some really heavy sanding, adding a bolt through the entire drum sander bit and then coupling it with a fixed bearing inside of your box might be a good idea.
It’s a pretty simple hack, but could save you an additional power tool, and space on your work bench! Have a drill but no drill press?
No problem
. | 18 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "1345711",
"author": "slim.w",
"timestamp": "2014-04-13T02:43:41",
"content": "The bearings in these things aren’t really designed for the side loads. You’re going to wear them out pretty quickly doing stuff like this.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{... | 1,760,376,239.928838 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/04/12/a-virtual-cane-for-the-visually-impaired/ | A Virtual Cane For The Visually Impaired | Adam Fabio | [
"Lifehacks",
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"arduino",
"blind",
"cane",
"Google Science Fair",
"visually impaired"
] | [Roman] has created an
electronic cane for the visually impaired
. Blind and visually impaired people have used canes and walking sticks for centuries. However, it wasn’t until the 1920’s and 1930’s that the
white cane
came to be synonymous with the blind. [Roman] is attempting to improve on the white cane design by bringing modern electronics to the table. With a mixture of hardware and clever software running on an Android smartphone, [Roman] has created a device that could help a blind person navigate.
The white cane has been replaced with a virtual cane, consisting of a 3D printed black cylinder. The cane is controlled by an ATmega328 running the Arduino bootloader and [Roman’s] code. Peeking out from the end of the handle is a
Maxbotix
ultrasonic distance sensor. Distance information is reported to the user via a piezo buzzer and a vibration motor. An induction coil allows for charging without fumbling for tiny connectors. A Bluetooth module connects the virtual cane to the other half of the system, an Android phone.
[Roman’s] Android app runs solely on voice prompts and speech syntheses. Navigation commands such as “Take me to <address>” use the phone’s GPS and Google Maps API to retrieve route information. [Roman’s] app then speaks the directions for the user to follow. Help can be summoned by simply stating “Send <contact name> my current location.” In the event that the user drops their virtual cane, “Find my device” will send a Bluetooth command to the cane. Once the command is received, the cane will reveal its position by beeping and vibrating.
We’ve said it before, and we’ll say it again. Using technology to help disabled people is one of the best hacks we can think of. Hackaday alum [Caleb Kraft] has been doing just that with his work at
The Controller Project
. [Roman] is still actively improving his cane. He’s already won a gold medal at the Niagara Regional Science and Engineering Fair. He’s entered his project in several more science events, including the
Canada Wide Science Fair
and the
Google Science Fair
. Good luck [Roman]! | 31 | 14 | [
{
"comment_id": "1345430",
"author": "Honus",
"timestamp": "2014-04-12T23:13:41",
"content": "Very very cool!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1345499",
"author": "Ryan",
"timestamp": "2014-04-13T00:00:47",
"content": "Guess this is w... | 1,760,376,240.520858 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/04/12/developed-on-hackaday-the-top-pcb-dilemna/ | Developed On Hackaday: The Top PCB Dilemna | Mathieu Stephan | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"hardware"
] | [
"developed on hackaday",
"front panel",
"mooltipass",
"password"
] | The Hackaday community
offline password keeper
is slowly coming together. A few days ago we received the top PCB for Olivier’s design (shown above). If you look at the picture below, you may see the problem we discovered when opening our package: the soldermask was the wrong color! Given the board is meant to be placed behind a tinted acrylic panel, this was quite a problem…
After using some spray paint, we managed to get to the point shown in the bottom left of the picture. The next task was to find the best way to illuminate the input interface with reverse mount LEDs. Using a CNC mill we machined openings (top right PCB) but also removed some epoxy on both PCB’s sides, thinking it would provide a better light diffusion. We then wrote part of the Mooltipass PWM code and took these pictures:
Using the FR4 to diffuse the light
Cut through openings
We hope you agree that the ‘FR4 version’ looks better. The other version, which has the cut openings, illuminates unevenly because the smartcard isn’t under
all
of the LEDs. This raises several questions that we hope our dear Hackaday readers can answer:
Can this kind of machining be done in standard PCB fabs?
Instead of leaving the bare FR4 on top, should we cover it with white soldermask?
Instead of leaving the bare FR4 on top, should we cover it with white silkscreen?
Keep in mind that we would only need to machine one PCB’s side.
Another concern is the top panel. As previously mentioned we’re currently using a tinted acrylic panel, which may not be the best solution to prevent scratches. We’re thinking to use glass in the future (corning gorilla glass?) so we may also hide everything around the display’s active area. Do you guys have any experience with this? Would it be expensive in relatively small quantities?
As you can see, we still need to find the best compromises and we hope you can help us. Please post a quick message in the comment section below or contact the team in the official
Mooltipass Google Group
. | 15 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "1345191",
"author": "Charles Steinkuehler",
"timestamp": "2014-04-12T20:36:56",
"content": "If the slots you need are not plated, almost all PCB vendors can make them at little or no cost, as it is just a slightly more complex program for routing the PCB from the panel.White solderm... | 1,760,376,240.291507 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/04/09/an-emulated-commodore-64-operating-system-for-the-raspberry-pi/ | An Emulated Commodore 64 Operating System For The Raspberry Pi | Bil Herd | [
"Raspberry Pi"
] | [
"c64",
"commodore",
"commodore 64",
"emulator"
] | It’s no secret that Commodore users love their old machines with the Commodore C64 being chief among them with 27 Million units sold worldwide. Speaking as a former Commodore Business Machines (CBM) engineer the real surprise for us is the ongoing interest and devotion to an era typified by lumbering 8 bit machines and a color palette consisting of 16 colors. Come to think about it, that’s the description of Minecraft!
Jump forward to today and it’s a generation later. We find that the number of working units is diminishing as age and the laws of entropy and physics take their toll.
Enter the
Commodore Pi
, an emulated
Commodore 64
operating system for the Raspberry Pi. The goals of the project include an HDMI and composite compatible video output, SID based sound, Sprites and other notable Commodore features. They also plan to have hooks for more modern technology to include Ethernet, GPIO and expansion RAM.
A video demo of the emulator can be found below. If you’re just warming up to the
Commodore
world, you’ll definitely want to know
the real story behind the C128
.
Thanks to [
Terry Fisher
], head of PCB development at
Commodore Business Machines
for the lead. | 39 | 19 | [
{
"comment_id": "1338716",
"author": "Frank Buss",
"timestamp": "2014-04-10T05:57:30",
"content": "Nice, but why is it so slow? I’ve tried Raspberry Pi with VICE once and it runs in native C64 speed. I don’t know if it is a good idea to use a discontinued emulator, at leasthttp://zimmers.net/anonftp... | 1,760,376,240.607442 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/04/09/turning-an-analog-scope-into-a-logic-analyzer/ | Turning An Analog Scope Into A Logic Analyzer | Brian Benchoff | [
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"logic analyzer",
"oscilloscope"
] | When [Marco] was planning on a storage oscilloscope build, he realized having a small device to display eight digital signals on an analog scope would be extremely useful. This just happens to be the exact description of a simple logic analyzer and managed to
turn his idea into a neat little project
(German, Google
translation
).
The theory of operation for this surprisingly simple, and something that could be completed in a few hours with a reasonably well stocked hackerspace or parts drawer in a few hours. A clock generator and binary counter are fed into the lower three bits of a simple R2R DAC, while the 8 inputs are fed into an 8-input multiplexer and sent to the last bit of the DAC. With nothing connected to the logic analyzer inputs, the output to the scope would just be an 8-step ramp that would appear as eight horizontal lines on the screen. With something connected to the logic analyzer input, an extremely primitive but still very useful logic analyzer appears on the screen.
While it’s not the greatest analyzer, it is something that can be cobbled together in an hour or two, and the capabilities are more than sufficient to debug a few simple circuits or figure out some timings in a project. | 9 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "1338390",
"author": "Brane212",
"timestamp": "2014-04-10T02:34:41",
"content": "I did this long time ago on my Hameg HM412 ( 2 x 20MHz, 1980-ish production )But my version was integral – built into the scope. I had 8 channels for digital input.IIRC, they werent truely digital, just ... | 1,760,376,240.45416 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/04/09/gaming-on-an-8x8x8-led-cube/ | Gaming On An 8x8x8 LED Cube | Nick Conn | [
"LED Hacks"
] | [
"74HC574",
"arduino mega",
"Arduino Mega 2560",
"game",
"gaming",
"led",
"LED cube",
"playstation controller",
"ps1",
"soldering"
] | Building an LED cube is a great way to learn how to solder, while building something that looks awesome. Without any previous experience with soldering or coding, [Anred] set out to create a
simple 8x8x8 LED cube gaming platform
.
Rather than reinventing the wheel, [Andred] based the LED cube off of
three
separate
Instructables
. The resulting cube came out great, and the acrylic casing around it adds a very nice touch. Using an Arduino Mega, the 74HC574, and a few MOSFET’s to drive his LEDs, the hardware is fairly standard. What sets this project apart from many other LED cube builds, is the fact that you can game on it using a PlayStation 1 controller. All the necessary code to get up and running is included in the Instructable (commented in German). Be sure to see the cube in action after the break!
It would be great to see a wireless version of this LED cube game. What kind of LED cube will gaming be brought to next? A
tiny LED cube
? The
biggest LED cube ever
? Only time will tell. | 17 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "1338035",
"author": "Nicholas Santos",
"timestamp": "2014-04-09T23:57:07",
"content": "Single color LED cubes are so 2010 show me an 8x8x8 RGB cube you can game on and I will be impressed!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "13403... | 1,760,376,241.383455 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/04/09/x-wing-tri-rotor-brings-star-wars-to-life/ | X-Wing Tri-Rotor Brings Star Wars To Life | James Hobson | [
"drone hacks"
] | [
"tri-copter",
"tri-rotor",
"tricopter",
"trirotor",
"X-Wing",
"xwing"
] | Once you realize you can make almost anything fly if you strap a big enough prop and motor to it, you really start thinking outside of the box. That’s what [Rodger] did and he’s come up with this very impressive 19lb, 5′ long
X-Wing Fighter from Star Wars.
Recently [Rodger] has found new joy in making movie props come to life with the help of today’s technology. He started with
Project Thunderball
— a flying James Bond mannequin with a jet pack. From there he brought us the
Marty McFly working hover-board
, and now an X-Wing Fighter, his biggest flying machine yet.
It measures about 5 feet long, and is a tri-rotor design with three 100A ESCs, 1200W 1050KV motors, and 12″ rotors. The frame is made of PVC to conserve weight. Since it’s a tri-rotor with true vectored thrust, the X-Wing features much better yaw than quadrotors. Then only problem is it pivots around the odd prop out, meaning in this case, the X-Wing turns on its nose — instead of its tail.
Regardless, we can’t wait to see what [Rodger] tries flying next! Stick around to see the X-Wing in action. | 25 | 13 | [
{
"comment_id": "1337735",
"author": "Telek",
"timestamp": "2014-04-09T20:46:00",
"content": "Pretty cool!1050KV motors?! 1.05 Million Volts? We don’t have enough gigajoules for that! :-)(yes I know it’s a model)Also the description says 850W motors, not 1200W.Did he redirect his website to youtub... | 1,760,376,241.239862 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/04/09/vcf-east-wrapup-megapost/ | VCF East Wrapup MegaPost | Brian Benchoff | [
"classic hacks",
"Featured"
] | [
"amiga",
"apple",
"commodore",
"retrocomputing",
"VCF East",
"Vintage festival"
] | VCF East, the fabulous retrocomputing festival held in Wall, NJ this last weekend was a blast. We had a great time, dropped t-shirts and stickers to just about anyone who wanted one, took a lot of pictures, and shot a lot of video. Now that it’s over it’s time for the post-mortem, with one insanely long post.
We saw some very cool stuff that merited its own post, and much more that we simply didn’t have time to video. The previous posts from VCF East:
The Swyft Card
Streaming Videos To A Commodore PET
Briel Computers
Flappy Bird for the TI-99 and Fahrfall for the CoCo
AT&T UNIX Machines and a Prime Minicomputer
There’s still tons more, including a tour of the retrocomputer museum that hosted VCF East. The biggest talk was from [Dave Haynie], lord of the Amiga giving part three of a multi-year talk on the soap opera that was Commodore International.
Click that ‘Read more…’ to see all this.
MARCH
There’s a reason VCF East was hosted at
InfoAge
. This former military base and the DARPA of the 1920s is also the home of
MARCH
, The Mid-Atlantic Retro Computer Hobbyists. The MARCH exhibits range from analog computers, up through
homebrew terminals
, eventually ending in the mid 80s with a Mac 128.
The President of MARCH and organizer for the VCF East was kind enough to take us through a partial walk through of the MARCH exhibits. Items of note include one of the first generation of PDP-8 minicomputers. This beast used diode-transistor logic and core memory. Also on the walk through is a TV Typewriter, and a
Mimeo 1
, the most perfect replica of an Apple I you’ll ever find.
Altair 8800
A Control Data G-15
Computer Lib, signed by Ted Nelson
Digicomp
Heathkit analog computer trainer
The worst keyboard… in the world
Mac 128
PDP-8 signed by Ted Nelson
TV Typewriter internals
TV Typewriter
Autographs by Captain Crunch and Woz
The Commodore Soap Opera
VCF East, being located in New Jersey, has close ties with the Commodore community and over the past 10 years of hosting the event, they’ve been able to put together a series of talks from the people who were actually there.
The first talk in 2007 is from [Chuck Peddle], designer of the 6502, KIM-1, and the Commodore PET. The second talk in 2012 was given by [Bil Herd], covering Commodore from the departure of [Jack Tramiel] until the beginnings of the Amiga. This past weekend, [Dave Haynie] wraps it up with Commodore’s sad exit.
[Chuck Peddle]’s talk at the 2007 VCF East
[Bil Herd]’s Commodore experiences from the departure of [Jack Tramiel] until the release of the Amiga, VCF East 2012
[Dave Haynie]’s talk on the Amiga, VCF East 2014
This is probably the first time all these videos have been embedded in one place. That’s interesting in itself – note the increase in video quality, and the fact that we can do YouTube videos over 20 minutes or so now. If you have a very good eye, you will also note [Bil] can only count to nine and a half now.
An Absurd Amount Of Pictures
Intel 8-bit (and one 4-bit!)
There were, of course, a lot of 8080s, 8088s, and other Intel 8-bit CPUs. One of the best displays was from [John Chapman] and his Lawrence Livermore Labs MST-80B. He has a really cool
24-bit hex display
he’s also working on based on the old LED bubble character displays. All very cool stuff.
The 8080
The 8008.
Lawrence Livermore Labs MST-80B Trainer
MST-80B Trainer keypad
DEC
Backplane
Ted Nelson signature
PDP-8
Flipchips
Backplane
VT-180
Platters.
Big Iron
Apple
The only prototype SE with a non-clear case.
Another of the *original* Apple I.
Franklin CX, the luggable Apple II clone. Only about 30 exist.
The SE/30, the best computer Apple will ever make.
*The* Apple I. Original and rescued from Jobs’ office.
LISA
The only prototype Mac SE with a non-clear case.
Franklin Apple II clone
From left to right, a Mac ED, Lisa, prototype SE, and the rest are stock SEs.
Commodore
By far the best represented brand of 8-bit home computers was Commodore; everything from PETs with chicklet keyboards to Amiga 3000s. I’m an idiot, though; I was hiding my camera gear and random stuff behind [Rob Clarke]’s exhibit of Commodore Oddities but somehow I didn’t get any pictures. Like I said, I’m an idiot. Still, he had most of the Commodore TED machines – the 116, C16, Plus/4, and 232 all made an appearance. Here’s some Amiga pics:
Consignment
What good would a vintage computer festival be without people swapping gear, books, software, and hardware? VCF East had an entire room dedicated to selling, and it was
cramped.
The prices were pretty fair, as well: if I had to ballpark it, I’d say the prices were about half of what sellers on eBay are asking, although judging from a few forums I frequent, that’s about par for the course.
I was hoping to snag a nice Amiga monitor, but only ended up grabbing an old mechanical Apple keyboard (M0116, peach Alps switches), a few books, and a 14″ Apple CRT. The “cool” stuff went really fast, and surprisingly all the Commodore 64s were sold in the first few hours.
Interesting vendors of note include [Vince Briel] of Briel Computers.
We did a whole post on him
, but if you look closely you’ll see his next, unannounced project. The table full of software is from
Eli’s Software Encyclopedia
. Here are the pics:
Briel’s Replica 1
This is [Vince Briel]’s new, unannounced project. Yes, that’s an integrated keyboard on an Ohio Scientific replica. Cherry MX Blues with custom keycaps.
The asking price for this Mac 5400/200 was $10. I had that much in my wallet and space in my car. The X400 series of macs simply sucked. A lot.
Tiny Trash-80
Compact luggable
All in all, VCF East was an awesome event, and well worth a day trip if you’re within a few hundred miles or so. InfoAge itself was great, and well worth the trip even if there isn’t an event going on. There’s a ton of stuff we simply couldn’t get to, and we’re looking forward to the next year’s activities.
If you’re too far away to visit the next VCF East, don’t worry: there’s
VCF Southeast near Atlanta
in just a few short weeks.
There’s still one more thing we need to post – InfoAge is also home to a great hackerspace. We’ll get around to posting that when the our computer stops crying from all this video rendering.
If that’s not enough for you, [Fran] also stopped by and shot some video. She’s done editing about a third of what she shot, you can find that below. | 5 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "1337685",
"author": "pcf11",
"timestamp": "2014-04-09T20:14:58",
"content": "I’m glad I didn’t hear about it in enough time to go. I have too much of that old junk already.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1337700",
"author":... | 1,760,376,240.840211 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/04/09/using-simms-to-add-some-extra-ram-on-your-arduino-uno/ | Using SIMMs To Add Some Extra RAM On Your Arduino UNO | Mathieu Stephan | [
"Arduino Hacks",
"hardware"
] | [
"arduino",
"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yah3ViEggxA",
"SIMM"
] | A Single In-line Memory Module (SIMM) is a type of memory module containing Random Access Memory (RAM) which was used in computers from the early 1980s to the late 1990s (think 386, 486, Macintoshs, Atari STE…). [Rafael] just made
a little library
that allows you to interface these modules to the Atmega328p-based Arduino UNO in order to gain some memory space. His work was actually based on the great
Linux on the 8bit ATMEGA168
hack from [Dmitry Grinberg] but some tweaks were required to make it work with [Rapfael]’s SIMM but also to port it to the Arduino platform. The 30-pin SIMM shown above is capable of storing up to (hold on to your chairs…) 16MB but due to limited amount of available IOs on the Atmega328p only 256KB can be used. Our guess it that an SPI / I2C IO extender could lift this limitation. A quick (shaky) video is embedded after the break. | 70 | 16 | [
{
"comment_id": "1337118",
"author": "MRE",
"timestamp": "2014-04-09T14:10:51",
"content": "I have often though of ideas like this but never got around to working out how to make it happen. Really cool. When I saw the photo and read the first few lines I was all like “WHAAAT?!!! YEEEAAAH!!!” And abo... | 1,760,376,240.7476 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/04/09/create-your-own-j-a-r-v-i-s-using-jasper/ | Create Your Own J.A.R.V.I.S. Using Jasper | Nick Conn | [
"home hacks",
"Raspberry Pi"
] | [
"audio",
"home automation",
"iron man",
"jarvis",
"jasper",
"raspberry pi",
"tony stark",
"voice command",
"voice control",
"voice controlled"
] | Tony Stark’s J.A.R.V.I.S. needs no introduction. With [Shubhro’s] and [Charlie’s] recent release of
Jasper, an always on voice-controlled development platform
for the Raspberry Pi, you too can start making your own J.A.R.V.I.S..
Both [Shubhro] and [Charlie] are undergraduate students at Princeton University, and decided to make their voice-controlled project open-source (code is available on
GitHub
). Jasper is build on inexpensive off-the-shelf hardware, making it very simple to get started. All you really need is an internet connected
Raspberry Pi
with a microphone and speaker. Simply install Jasper, and get started using the built in functionality that allows you to interface with Spotify, Facebook, Gmail, knock knock jokes, and more. Be sure to check out the demo video after break!
With the easy to use developer API, you can integrate Jasper into any of your existing Raspberry Pi projects with little effort. We could see Jasper integrated with wireless microphones and speakers to enable advanced
voice control from anywhere in your home
. What a great project! Thanks to both [Shubhro] and [Charlie] for making this open-source. | 79 | 35 | [
{
"comment_id": "1336883",
"author": "hemalchevli",
"timestamp": "2014-04-09T11:24:21",
"content": "Looks cool, I’m gonna make it this weekend!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "3040929",
"author": "Kingcraft1111",
"timestamp": "... | 1,760,376,240.960228 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/04/11/the-ancient-greeks-invented-kevlar-a-over-2-millennia-ago/ | The Ancient Greeks Invented Kevlar Over 2 Millennia Ago | James Hobson | [
"classic hacks",
"Wearable Hacks"
] | [
"ancient kevlar",
"kevlar",
"linothorax"
] | In 356-323 B.C. Alexander the Great of Macedon conquered almost the entire known world by military force. Surprisingly, not much is known about how he did it! An ancient and mysterious armor called Linothorax was apparently used by Alexander and his men which may have been one of the reasons for his ever so successful conquest. A group of students at the University of Wisconsin Green Bay (UWGB) have been
investigating in detail and making their own version of it.
The problem is this type of armor decomposes naturally over time unlike more solid artifacts of stone and metal — meaning there is no physical proof or evidence of its existence. It has been described in around two dozen pieces of ancient literature and seen in over 700 visuals such as mosaics, sculptures and paintings — but there are no real examples of it. It is made (or thought to be) of many layers of linen glued together, much the same way that Kevlar body armor works.
The cool thing about this project is the students are designing their own Linothorax using authentic fabrics and glues that would have been available in that time period. The samples have been quite successful, surviving sharp arrows, swords, and even swinging axes at it. If this is the secret to Alexander the Great’s success… no wonder!
The group has lots of information on the topic and a few videos — stick around to learn more!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ERSx1o8wwk
[Thanks Repkid!] | 54 | 15 | [
{
"comment_id": "1342351",
"author": "Bogdan",
"timestamp": "2014-04-11T20:07:07",
"content": "might want to check the title….",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1342512",
"author": "Mike Szczys",
"timestamp": "2014-04-11T21:42:41... | 1,760,376,241.169336 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/04/11/reach-out-and-touch-your-next-project-with-long-range-rc-controller/ | Reach Out And Touch Your Next Project With Long Range RC Controller | Will Sweatman | [
"Arduino Hacks",
"drone hacks"
] | [
"arduino",
"digi xtend 900Mhz",
"drone",
"high altitude balloon",
"rc"
] | Long range wireless control of a project is always a challenge. [Mike] and his team were looking to
extend the range of their current RC setup
for a UAV project, and decided on a pair of Arduino mini’s and somewhat expensive
Digi Xtend 900Mhz modems
to do the trick. With a range of 40 miles, the 1 watt transceivers provide fantastic range. And paired with the all too familiar Arduino, you’ve got yourself an easy long range link.
[Mike] set the transmitter up so it can plug directly into any RC controller training port, decoding the incoming signal and converting it into a serial data package for transmitting. While they don’t provide the range of
other RF transmitters we’ve seen
, the 40 mile range of the modem’s are more than enough for most projects, including
High Altitude Balloon
missions.
The code for the Arduino transmitter and receiver sides
is available at their github
. Though there is no built-in error correction in the code, they have not had any issues. Unfortunately, a schematic was not provided, but you should be able to get enough information from the images and datasheets to construct a working link. | 27 | 13 | [
{
"comment_id": "1342054",
"author": "v665f6atu3",
"timestamp": "2014-04-11T17:09:24",
"content": "Too bad that using these radio modules is illegal in most parts of the world.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1342069",
"author": "Mike ... | 1,760,376,241.317109 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/04/11/geodesic-structures-that-arent-just-domes/ | Geodesic Structures That Aren’t Just Domes | Jasmine Brackett | [
"home hacks"
] | [
"3d modeling",
"3d scanning",
"architecture",
"art installation",
"geodesic",
"software",
"structure"
] | [Brian Korsedal] and his company
Arcology Now!
have developed a great
geodesic building system
which makes architectural structures that aren’t just limited to domes. They 3D scan the terrain, generate plans, and make geodesic steel space frame structures which are easy to assemble and can be in any shape imaginable.
Their clever design software can create any shape and incorporate uneven terrains into the plans. The structures are really easy to construct with basic tools, and assembly is extremely straight forward because the
pole labels
are generated by the design software. Watch this
construction time lapse video
.
At the moment, ordering a structure fabricated by the company is your only option. But it shouldn’t be too hard to fabricate something similar if you have access to a hackerspace. It may even be worth getting in touch with
Arcology now!
as they do seem happy collaborating to make art like the
Amyloid Project
, and architectural structures for public spaces and festivals like
Lucidity
. Find out what they are up to on the
Arcology Now! Facebook page
.
Would this be perfect for what you’ve been thinking about building? Let us know what that ‘something’ is in the comments below. | 18 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "1341910",
"author": "Squirrel",
"timestamp": "2014-04-11T15:40:30",
"content": "Ground not flat? Fix it in software…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1342020",
"author": "Dudecallednick",
"timestamp": "2014-04-... | 1,760,376,241.445515 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/04/11/beaglebone-black-and-fpga-driven-led-wall/ | BeagleBone Black And FPGA Driven LED Wall | Eric Evenchick | [
"LED Hacks"
] | [
"beaglebone black",
"fpga",
"LED panel",
"LogiBone",
"xilinx"
] | This is 6,144 RGB LEDs being controlled by a BeagleBone Black and a FPGA. This gives the display 12 bit color and a refresh rate of 200 Hz. [Glen]’s
6 panel LED wall
uses the BeagleBone Black to generate the image, and the
LogiBone FPGA board
for high speed IO.
[Glen] started off with a single 32 x 32 RGB LED panel, and
wrote a detailed tutorial
on how that build works. The LED panels used for this project have built in drivers, but they cannot do PWM. To control color, the entire panel must be updated at high speed.
The BeagleBone’s IO isn’t fast enough for this, so a Xilinx Spartan 6 LX9 FPGA takes care of the high speed signaling. The image is loaded into the FPGA’s Block RAM by the BeagleBone, and the FPGA takes care of the rest. The LogiBone maps the FPGA’s address space into the CPU’s address space, which allows for high speed transfers.
If you want to drive this many LEDs, you’ll need to look beyond the Arduino. [Glen]’s work provides a great starting point, and all of the source is available on
Github
.
[Thanks to Jonathan for the tip] | 25 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "1341548",
"author": "Mathieu Stephan",
"timestamp": "2014-04-11T12:01:40",
"content": "Damn… that’s exactly what I wanted to do a couple of years ago! congratulations!Idea for future improvement: add a dvi port to connect it to your computer",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
... | 1,760,376,241.514311 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/04/11/a-brilliant-and-elegant-cnc-pendant/ | A Brilliant And Elegant CNC Pendant | James Hobson | [
"cnc hacks"
] | [
"cnc",
"CNC controller",
"cnc pendant",
"mach3"
] | [Mike Douglas] has a small hobby CNC router, which works great — but you’re limited to controlling it from your PC. And unfortunately, there just aren’t pendants made for this consumer level stuff. Annoyed at having to reach over to use his keyboard all the time, he stumbled upon a simple, but brilliant solution:
A dedicated USB 10-key pendant keypad.
These USB keypads are designed for laptops that don’t have full size keyboards. They can be had for a few dollars from China, and let you expand your keyboard possibilities… All [Mike] had to do was print off some stickers to put on the keys!
It’s easy to program new hot keys in Mach3 — and there you go! Why haven’t we thought of this before? While you’re at it, why not build a
cyclonic dust separator for your CNC
too — and if you’re having trouble clamping down work pieces, [Mike] has
a pretty cool solution
for that as well. | 10 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "1341239",
"author": "viesturs",
"timestamp": "2014-04-11T08:39:25",
"content": "IMHO el cheapo usb gamepad (costs ~5 EUR in my local pc store) is safer – it is more convenient to press one more “dead man’s trigger” button with one hand to avoid accidental jogs, although I have no id... | 1,760,376,241.973481 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/04/10/the-infra-ninja-a-pc-remote-receiver/ | The INFRA-NINJA — A PC Remote Receiver | James Hobson | [
"computer hacks",
"Mac Hacks"
] | [
"computer remote",
"IR remote",
"mac remote"
] | Laziness sometimes spawns the greatest inventions. Making things to reduce effort on your part is quite possibly one of the greatest motivators out there. So when [Kyle] had to get out of bed in order to turn off Netflix on his computer… He decided
to do something about it.
He already had an Apple remote, which we have to admit, is a nice, simple and elegant control stick — so he decided to interface with it in order to control his non-Apple computer. He quickly made up a simple PCB up using the good ‘ol
toner transfer method
, and then populated it with a Bareduino, a CP2102 USB 2.0 to TTL UART 6PIN Serial Converter, an IR receiver, a USB jack, header pins, and a few LED and tactile switches.
It’s a bit tricky to upload
the code
(you have to remove the jumper block) but then it’s just a matter of connecting to it and transferring it over with the Arduino IDE. The Instructable is a bit short, but [Kyle] promises if you’re really interested he’ll help out with any questions you might have! | 19 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "1340954",
"author": "Qa",
"timestamp": "2014-04-11T05:30:03",
"content": "Nice! Partly related question : has anyone seen plans for a small battery powered IR adapter? It would take input from your favorite remote (or phone with IR like recent Samsung galaxy phones) and output IR us... | 1,760,376,241.57862 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/04/10/never-lose-your-pencil-with-oskar-on-patrol/ | Never Lose Your Pencil With OSkAR On Patrol | Adam Fabio | [
"Robots Hacks"
] | [
"autonomous",
"lego",
"opencv",
"OSkAR",
"robot"
] | [Courtney] has been hard at work on
OSkAR, an OpenCV based speaking robot
. OSkAR is
[Courney’s] capstone project
(pdf link) at Shepherd University in West Virginia, USA. The goal is for OSkAR to be an assistive robot. OSkAR will navigate a typical home environment, reporting objects it finds through speech synthesis software.
To accomplish this, [Courtney] started with a Beagle Bone Black and a Logitech C920 webcam. The robot’s body was built using LEGO Mindstorms NXT parts. This means that when not operating autonomously, OSkAR can be controlled via Bluetooth from an Android phone. On the software side, [Courtney] began with the stock Angstrom Linux distribution for the BBB. After running into video problems, she switched her desktop environment to
Xfce
. OpenCV provides the machine vision system. [Courtney] created models for several objects for OSkAR to recognize.
Right now, OSkAR’s life consists of wandering around the room looking for pencils and door frames. When a pencil or door is found, OSkAR announces the object, and whether it is to his left or his right. It may sound like a rather boring life for a robot, but the semester isn’t over yet. [Courtney] is still hard at work creating more object models, which will expand OSkAR’s interests into new areas.
[Thanks Emad!] | 4 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "1340693",
"author": "scuffles",
"timestamp": "2014-04-11T02:24:16",
"content": "Awesome robot :DCool almost bought the same hub for a quasi related project but wasn’t sure how the hub and linux would go about assigning multiple video inputs so I went with one that has individual pow... | 1,760,376,241.624137 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/04/07/vcf-east-vince-briel-of-briel-computers/ | VCF East: [Vince Briel] Of Briel Computers | Brian Benchoff | [
"classic hacks"
] | [
"8008",
"altair",
"Briel Computers",
"kim-1",
"Replica I",
"Vince Briel"
] | Judging from the consignment area of the Vintage Computer Festival this weekend, there is still a booming market for vintage computers and other ephemera from the dawn of the era of the home computer. Even more interesting are reimaginings of vintage computers using modern parts, as shown by [Vince Briel]
and his amazing retrocomputer kits
.
[Vince] was at VCF East this weekend showing off a few of his wares. By far the most impressive (read: the most blinkey lights) is
his Altair 8800 kit
that emulates the genesis of the microcomputer revolution, the Altair. There’s no vintage hardware inside, everything is emulated on an ATmega microcontroller. Still, it’s accurate enough for the discerning retrocomputer aficionado, and has VGA output, a keyboard port, and an SD card slot.
The
Replica I
is an extremely cut down version of the original Apple, using the original 6502 CPU and 6821 PIA. Everything else on the board is decidedly modern, with a serial to USB controller for input and a Parallax Propeller doing the video. Even with these modern chips, an expansion slot is still there, allowing a serial card or compact flash drive to be connected to the computer.
Video below, with [Vince] showing off all his wares, including his very cool Kim-1 replica. | 13 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "1333774",
"author": "Jake Mercer",
"timestamp": "2014-04-07T17:26:53",
"content": "YT Video is private.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1334044",
"author": "Jac Goudsmit (@JacGoudsmit)",
"timestamp": "2014-04-07T20:59:42... | 1,760,376,242.519447 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/04/07/multijoy_retro-connects-your-wayback-to-your-machine/ | Multijoy_Retro Connects Your ‘Wayback’ To Your ‘Machine’ | Rich Bremer | [
"Peripherals Hacks"
] | [
"flight simulator",
"Teensy",
"teensyduino",
"video game"
] | Moore’s law is the observation that, over the history of computing hardware, the number of transistors on integrated circuits doubles approximately every two years. This rapid advancement is certainly great for computing power and the advent of better technology but it does have one drawback; otherwise great working hardware becomes outdated and unusable. [Dave] likes his flight simulators and his old flight sim equipment. The only problem is that his new-fangled computer doesn’t have DA15 or DE9 inputs to interface with his controllers. Not being one to let something like this get him down, [Dave] set out to build his own microcontroller-based
interface module
. He calls it the Multijoy_Retro.
The plan was to make it possible for multiple controllers with DA15 and DE9 connectors to interface with a modern PC via USB. After comparing the available Arduino-compatible boards, the Teensy++ 2.0 was chosen due to the fact it can be easily configured as a USB Human Input Device. Other benefits are its small size and substantial quantity of input pins. The project’s custom firmware sketch reads the inputs from the connected controllers and then sends the converted commands to the PC as an emulated USB controller.
Four hundred solder points were required to support all of the desired functionality. Each function was tested as its hardware counterpart was completed. Problems were troubleshot at that time, then labels added to the wires. This method was necessary to keep everything neat and manageable. This whole process took several days to complete.
The enclosure is mostly 3D printed. Clear acrylic was used for the front panel which was made to look similar to controls you would expect to find in cockpits of old military aircraft. To ensure accurate and uniform connector-shaped holes a CNC Router was used to cut out the front panel. Labels were printed on a regular printer, cut out and attached to the back side of the clear acrylic.
Overall, this is a great build. The project covers many aspects; reverse engineering, electronics, programming, 3D printing and CNC machining. Not only does it solve a problem, it also looks good while doing it! | 23 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "1333568",
"author": "pcf11",
"timestamp": "2014-04-07T14:24:43",
"content": "You’re supposed to buy new equipment that you like today. Either that or what good is all of this carefully planned obsolescence?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"c... | 1,760,376,241.906163 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/04/07/3d-printed-camera-arm-saves-143/ | 3D Printed Camera Arm Saves $143 | James Hobson | [
"3d Printer hacks"
] | [
"3d printed arm",
"camera arm"
] | Professional camera equipment is notoriously expensive, so when [Raster’s] LCD camera arm for his RED ONE Digital Cinema Camera broke, he was dismayed to find out a new one would run him back $150! He decide to take matters into his own hands and
make this one instead.
The original arm lasted a good 4 years before finally braking — but unfortunately, it’s not very fixable. Luckily, [Raster] has a 3D printer! The beauty with most camera gear is it’s all 1/4-20 nuts and bolts, making DIY accessories very easy to cobble together. He fired up OpenSCAD and started designing various connector blocks for the 1/4-20 hardware to connect to. His first prototype
worked
but there was lots of room for improvement for the second iteration. He’s continued refining it into a
more durable arm seen here
. For $7 of material — it’s a pretty slick system!
Between making 3D printed digital
camera battery adapters
, 3D printed camera mounts
for aerial photography
, affordable
steady-cams
, or even
a fully 3D printed camera
… getting a 3D printer if you’re a photography enthusiast seems to make a lot of sense! | 29 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "1333327",
"author": "whitequark",
"timestamp": "2014-04-07T11:08:33",
"content": "I wonder how much the time of a guy who owns a RED camera is worth. The post seems to emphasize on cost, but it’s not obvious at all that this was in effect cheaper.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth... | 1,760,376,242.812092 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/04/07/hack-a-day-goes-retro-in-a-computer-museum/ | Hack A Day Goes Retro In A Computer Museum | James Hobson | [
"classic hacks",
"computer hacks"
] | [
"Apple Lisa",
"DEC gigi",
"DEC VT100",
"hackaday retro",
"retro edition"
] | Our friends over at
Hack42
in the Netherlands decided to have some fun with their computer museum. So far, they’ve been able to display the Hack a Day retro site on three classic computers — including an Apple Lisa, a DEC GIGI, and a run of the mill DEC VT100. We had the opportunity to
visit Hack42
last October during our
Hackerspacing in Europe trip
— but just as a refresher if you don’t remember, Hack42 is in Arnhem, in the Netherlands — just outside of Germany. The compound was built in 1942 as a German military base, disguised as a bunch of farmhouses. It is now home to Hack42, artist studios, and other random businesses. The neat thing is, its location
is still blurred out on Google Maps!
Needless to say, their hackerspace has lots of space. Seriously. So much so they have their own computer museum! Which is why they’ve decided to have some fun with them…
To get Hack a Day Retro on these old computers they are using an old Debian Compaq machine as the host computer for the DECServer90m. The DECServer90m is a remote serial port server with 8 configurable serial ports. It’s used as a terminal server for VAX, nicorVAX or other similar computers. It connects using coax Ethernet to be configured. The serial ports can be setup for printers, modems, or in this case, dumb terminals like the DEC VT100, or an Apple Lisa.
An Apple Lisa
The Lisa was one of the
first systems
to use a mouse and a graphical desktop!
DEC GIGI
The DEC GIGI VK100 is a strange beast. Even DEC did’t know what to think of it and couldn’t properly market the machine, thinking it was just a dumb terminal with color support and some extra gizmo’s like basic and graphics. It looks like a over-sized Commodore C64 but it has some nice connectors on the back, like a current-loop (for serial connections to even older computers than a VAX like a PDP8 minicomputer and three BNC connectors for component color output.)
They’re currently working on an even more complicated method to get some
really
old computers to display the page! | 17 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "1333116",
"author": "Biomed",
"timestamp": "2014-04-07T08:09:56",
"content": "I still have an Epson HX-20 looking for a museum home. Everything is still with it. Including manuals, plus has the bar code wand and tapes.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
... | 1,760,376,242.121675 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/04/06/arduino-controlled-marquee-arrow-points-the-way-to-whatever-you-like/ | Arduino-Controlled Marquee Arrow Points The Way To Whatever You Like | Kristina Panos | [
"Arduino Hacks"
] | [
"arduino christmas lights",
"Arduino Pro",
"christmas lights",
"MC3042",
"ssr"
] | Reader [pscmpf] really digs the scrolling light look of old marquee signs and as soon as he saw some Christmas lights with G40 bulbs, he was on his way to
creating his own vintage-look marquee arrow
.
We must agree that those bulbs really do look like old marquee lights or small vanity globes. [pscmpf] started by building, varnishing, and distressing the wooden box to display the lights and house the electronics. He controls the lights with an Arduino Pro and an SSR controller board. The 24 lights are divided into ten sections; each of these has its own solid-state relay circuit built around an MC3042 as the opto-coupler, with a power supply he made from a scrap transformer.
[pscmpf] shares some but not all of his code as it is pretty long. There are five patterns that each play at three different speeds in addition to a continuous ‘on’ state. In his demonstration video after the jump, he runs through all the patterns using a momentary switch. This hack proves that
Arduino-controlled Christmas lights
are awesome year-round. | 28 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "1332656",
"author": "notabena4us",
"timestamp": "2014-04-07T03:27:20",
"content": "+1Point the way… ;^)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1332764",
"author": "matseng",
"timestamp": "2014-04-07T04:21:26",
"content": "L... | 1,760,376,242.877358 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/04/06/hackaday-links-april-6-2014/ | Hackaday Links: April 6, 2014 | Mike Szczys | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"Hackaday links"
] | [
"beaglebone black",
"lcars",
"microwave",
"pcb fabrication",
"wireless sensors",
"wristwatch"
] | Back in September
we saw this awesomesauce wristwatch
. Well, [Zak] is now kitting it up. Learn
more about the current version
, or order one. [Thanks Petr]
Home automation is from the future, right? Well at [boltzmann138’s] house it’s actually from
The Next Generation
.
His home automation dashboard
is based on the
LCARS
interface; he hit the mark perfectly! Anyone thinking what we’re thinking? This should be entered in
the Hackaday Sci-Fi Contest
, right? [via
Adafruit
]
PCB fab can vary greatly depending on board size, number of layers, number of copies, and turn time.
PCBShopper will perform a meta-search
and let you know what all of your options are. We ran a couple of tests and like what we saw. But we haven’t verified the information is all good so do leave a note about your own experience with the site in the comments below. [via
Galactic Studios
]
We recently mentioned
our own woes about acquiring BeagleBone Black
boards. It looks like an
authorized clone board is poised to enter the market
.
Speaking of the BBB, check out
this wireless remote wireless sensor hack
which [Chirag Nagpal] is interfacing with the BBB.
We haven’t tried to set up any long-range microwave communications systems. Neither has [Kenneth Finnegan] but that didn’t stop him from giving it a whirl. He’s
using Nanobridge M5 hardware to help set up a system for a triathlon
happening near him. | 22 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "1332306",
"author": "Ralph",
"timestamp": "2014-04-06T23:14:53",
"content": "Hackvana doesn’t seem to be included in the pcbshopper comparisons.http://www.hackvana.com/store/",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1333892",
"... | 1,760,376,242.190588 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/04/06/vcf-east-petpix-streaming-images-to-a-commodore-pet/ | VCF East: PetPix, Streaming Images To A Commodore PET | Brian Benchoff | [
"classic hacks"
] | [
"Commodore PET",
"pet",
"PetPix",
"VCF East"
] | Thought the Vintage Computer Festival would just be really old computers with hundreds of people pecking 10 PRINT “HELLO” 20 GOTO 10? Yeah, there’s plenty of that, but also some very cool applications of new hardware. [Michael Hill]
created PetPix
, a video player for the Commodore PET and of course the C64.
PetPix takes any video file – or streaming video off a camera – and converts 8×8 pixel sections of each frame to PETSCII. All the processing is done on a Raspberry Pi and then sent over to the PET for surprisingly fluid video.
There is, of course, a video of PetPix available below. There are also a few more videos from [Michael] going over how PetPix works. | 12 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "1332077",
"author": "eric",
"timestamp": "2014-04-06T20:36:27",
"content": "I bet you can’t do it on an Osborne OCC1.Here’s where to get one:http://www.ebay.com/itm/161254934376?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1555.l2649",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies... | 1,760,376,242.464246 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/04/08/dirt-cheap-dirty-boards-offers-dirt-cheap-pcb-fab/ | Dirt Cheap Dirty Boards Offers Dirt Cheap PCB Fab | Eric Evenchick | [
"hardware"
] | [
"cheap",
"pcb",
"pcb fabrication",
"prototyping"
] | When your project is ready to build, it’s time to find a PCB manufacturer. There are tons of them out there, but for prototype purposes cheaper is usually better. [Ian] at Dangerous Prototypes has just announced
Dirt Cheap Dirty Boards
, a PCB fabrication service for times where quality doesn’t matter too much. [Ian] also
discussed the service
on the Dangerous Prototypes forum.
The boards are definitely cheap. $12 USD gets you ten 5 cm by 5 cm boards with 100% e-test and free worldwide shipping. You can even choose from a number of solder mask colors for no additional cost. [Ian] does warn the boards aren’t of the best quality, as you can tell in the Bus Pirate picture above. The silkscreen alignment has some issues, but for $1.2 a board, it’s hard to complain. After all, the site’s motto is “No bull, just crappy PCBs.”
The main downside of this service will be shipping time. While the Chinese fab house cranks out boards in two to four days, Hong Kong Post can take up to 30 days to deliver your boards. This isn’t ideal, but the price is right. | 50 | 18 | [
{
"comment_id": "1335180",
"author": "Montspy",
"timestamp": "2014-04-08T11:09:19",
"content": "I’d better continue to use Seeedstudio’s Fusion PCB service, but good initiative.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "2547358",
"author": "Joey... | 1,760,376,242.323242 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/04/08/vcf-east-old-computers-new-games/ | VCF East: Old Computers, New Games | Brian Benchoff | [
"classic hacks"
] | [
"CoCo",
"TI-99",
"trs-80",
"VCF",
"VCF East"
] | While the vintage computer festival in Wall, NJ had just about every vintage app you could imagine – multiple varities of *NIXes, pre-Zork Dungeon, BASIC interpreters of all capabilities, and just about every game ever released for 8-bit Commodore systems – there was, perhaps unsurprisingly, a distinct lack of modern programs written for these retro systems. Yes, despite there being people still curled up to keyboards and writing games for vintage systems, modern software was a strange oddity last weekend.
There were two wonderful exceptions
, however. The first was Fahrfall, a game for the TRS-80 Color Computer.
We’ve seen Fahrfall before
when [John Linville] wrote it for the 2012 RetroChallenge Winter Warmup. The game itself is a re-imagining of Downfall for the Atari Jaguar, with the graphics scaled down immensely. The basic idea of the game is to jump down, ledge to ledge, on a vertically scrolling screen. Hit the walls or the bottom, and you’re dead. It’s a great game that probably would have sold well had it been a contemporary release.
Next up is a rather impressive port of Flappy Bird for the TI-99. The video does not do this game justice, although part of that might just be the awesome Amiga monitor used for the display. This game was brought in by [Jeff Salzman] of
Vintage Volts
who isn’t the author of the game. Honestly, the video doesn’t do the graphics any justice. It really is a great looking port that’s just as addictive as the Android/iDevice original. | 2 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "1335305",
"author": "Hirudinea",
"timestamp": "2014-04-08T12:58:28",
"content": "Nice to see some love for the old 8-bit hardware. Brings a tear to my eye.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1335385",
"author": "12L14",
"ti... | 1,760,376,242.231714 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/04/07/piface-control-display-tear-down/ | PiFace Control & Display Tear Down | James Hobson | [
"Raspberry Pi"
] | [
"MCP23S17",
"PiFace",
"teardown"
] | [John’s] currently working on a rather fun PiNoir & Santa Catcher Challenge, and one of the main components is a PiFace Control and Display, which allows you to use a Raspberry Pi without a keyboard or mouse. Curious to see how this module worked, [John]
decided to do a tear down
and find out!
Using a de-soldering tool he removed the 16×2 LCD which obstructs most of the components on the panel, which revealed a 16 bit SPI port expander from Microchip MCP23S17. He continued to examine components and checked values using a multimeter to come up with the following circuit diagram:
Click to Zoom
It’s a nice exercise in reverse engineering, and it looks like [John] did a pretty good job. We’ve seen the PiFace used to
automatically decant wine bottles
, control Minecraft using a
physical Redstone
, and even take 3D imaging with
an array of 48 PiFaces, Pi’s and Cameras! | 6 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "1335227",
"author": "Scuffles",
"timestamp": "2014-04-08T11:46:27",
"content": "Well in fairness the GPIO pins on the Pi alone will let you use the Pi without a keyboard or mouse. Still I can see how having a portable interface with a display would be convenient. Things like the PiF... | 1,760,376,243.448936 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/04/07/vacuum-formed-portable-n64-is-the-real-deal/ | Vacuum Formed Portable N64 Is The Real Deal | James Hobson | [
"Nintendo Hacks"
] | [
"n64",
"portable N64"
] | This
portable N64
looks good enough to be sold in stores — that’s because [Bungle] vacuum formed the case!
He started by creating a wooden template of his controller, using bondo to add grips and features. Once satisfied with the overall look and feel of the controller, he threw it into his own vacuum former and created two shiny plastic halves.
He’s chosen a nice little 3.5″ LCD screen for the display, with a 7.4V 4400mAh battery pack that will last just over 4 hours of constant play — he’s included a battery indicator as well! An old N64 controller takes care of electronics, but [Bungle’s] gone and made custom buttons and is using a Gamecube style joystick as well. He’s included both the rumble pack and an internal memory card which can be changed with the flick of a switch. A tiny HMDX Go portable audio amp and speakers are also integrated directly into the controller.
This isn’t [Bungle’s] first rodeo either — in fact its his 4th portable N64 design, and his
past ones were pretty slick as well.
We’ve
seen
tons of
portable N64
consoles
over the years
, and it’s awesome because everyone takes a slightly different spin at it. | 16 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "1334421",
"author": "macona",
"timestamp": "2014-04-08T02:19:04",
"content": "Looks great but vacuum formed items tend to be pretty flimsy. Maybe mounting all the stuff in there stiffened it up?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": ... | 1,760,376,242.936135 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/04/07/recreating-the-thx-deep-note/ | Recreating The THX Deep Note | Adam Fabio | [
"Musical Hacks"
] | [
"1138",
"Deep Note",
"supercollider",
"THX"
] | Few sounds are as recognizable as the THX Deep Note. [Batuhan] did some research, and
set about recreating the sound
. The original
Deep Note
(mp3 link) was created in 1982 by [Dr. James A. Moorer]. [Dr. Moorer] used the Audio Signal Processor (ASP) (AKA
SoundDroid
) to create the sound. The ASP was a complex machine to program. The Deep Note took about 20,000 lines of C code to program. The C code was compiled to about 250,000 discrete statements to command the ASP.
Only one ASP was ever built, and LucasFilm owned it. Instead of recreating the hardware, [Batuhan] used
SuperCollider
to recreate the sound. Just like the ASP, SuperCollider is a tool for real-time audio synthesis. The difference is that SuperCollider is open source and runs on modern computers. [Batuhan] used his research and ears to perform an analysis of the Deep Note. He created two re-creations. The first is carefully constructed to replicate the sound. The second is a Twitter worthy 140 character version. Both versions are reasonable facsimiles of the original Deep Note, though they’re not quite perfect to our ears.
[Batuhan] isn’t the only person working on recreations. Deep Note in 1KB of JavaScript can be heard at
http://thx.onekb.net
/. We’d love to hear other versions created by Hackaday readers!
[Via
Reddit
] | 28 | 15 | [
{
"comment_id": "1334218",
"author": "ejonesss",
"timestamp": "2014-04-07T23:26:12",
"content": "knowing the way copyrights are going today i wouldnt be surprised if a c&d notice comes up somewhere because i am sure that note is copyrighted.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
... | 1,760,376,243.004872 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/04/07/the-raspberry-pi-compute-module/ | The Raspberry Pi Compute Module | Brian Benchoff | [
"Raspberry Pi"
] | [
"compute module",
"raspberry pi",
"Raspi"
] | Raspberry Pi cluster computers are old hat by now, and much to our dismay, we’ve even seen Raspberry Pis crop up as the brains of a few ill-conceived Kickstarter projects. The Pi was never meant for these applications, with the very strange port layout and a bunch of headers most people don’t need. The Raspberry Pi foundation has a solution for the odd layout of the normal, consumer Pi:
The Raspberry Pi compute module
, a Raspi and 4GB flash drive, sans connectors, on an industry standard DDR2 SODIMM module.
This isn’t something you can plug into your laptop (yet; that’s just a BIOS hack away, right?), but the new format does allow for some very interesting projects. All the normal Raspi I/O – CSI and DSI ports, USB, HDMI, JTAG – and a whole bunch more GPIO ports – are broken out onto an I/O board for development. The idea is that anyone can develop a product for the Raspberry Pi, create a custom board with a SODIMM connector, and use the compute module as the brains of their project.
The compute module should cost about $30/piece in quantity 100, available in June. No word yet on how much the I/O board will cost, but we expect a few open source expansion boards to crop up shortly so anyone can create a very cool cluster computer based on the compute module. | 43 | 18 | [
{
"comment_id": "1333968",
"author": "Galane",
"timestamp": "2014-04-07T20:13:40",
"content": "(yet; that’s just a BIOS hack away, right?)Not even close. RasPi on a Mini PCI board would be very useful and pluggable directly into millions of laptops, though those slots have mostly been axed in favor ... | 1,760,376,243.229262 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/04/06/reusable-vacuum-bag-saves-you-money/ | Reusable Vacuum Bag Saves You Money | James Hobson | [
"green hacks"
] | [
"vacuum bag"
] | Vacuum dust bags are annoying. They’re expensive, one time use, and if you have an older vacuum cleaner, good luck finding replacements! [Karl] got fed up so he decided to
make his own reusable dirt bag instead.
He’s using an old t-shirt as the new bag material but notes that you can use any other sufficiently drafty material as well — as long as it stops the dust but lets air through, you’re good! To seal the bag he’s using a piece of rubbery vinyl with a hole cut in it to seal against the intake pipe. This is sewn to the t-shirt with a piece of cardboard sandwiching the fabric. From there it’s just a matter of adding a zipper or Velcro, and you’re done!
He’s been using this filter for over a year and hasn’t had any problems with it yet — you can even wash it! While you’re at it, why not make a
wet-spill attachment
for your vacuum cleaner too? | 36 | 18 | [
{
"comment_id": "1331842",
"author": "madwelder",
"timestamp": "2014-04-06T17:34:49",
"content": "I would just empty the bag and not bother washing it so long as there was still good suction. Once the filter fabric gets loaded up with some dirt/dust fines, it does a better job at catching dust. I ... | 1,760,376,243.079729 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/04/06/vcf-east-the-swyft-card/ | VCF East: The Swyft Card | Brian Benchoff | [
"classic hacks"
] | [
"apple II",
"apple iie",
"Jef Raskin",
"Swyft card"
] | Ninety five percent of the population will say Apple computers is the brainchild of [Steve Jobs]. The other five percent will be right, but what nearly no one knows is that the Macintosh project was originally conceived by [Jef Raskin]. He holds the honor of turning the Mac into an, ‘information appliance’ and being one of the first people to seriously consider how millions of people would interact with computers.
The Mac wasn’t [Jef]’s first project at Apple, though. Before the Mac project he was working on something called Swyft – an easy to use
command line
system that was first implemented as a firmware card for the Apple IIe. [Mike Willegal] was kind enough to bring one of these Swyft cards to the Vintage Computer Fest this weekend, and did
a demo of it for us
.
The basic idea behind the Swyft card was to have an integrated word processor, calculator, and access to Applesoft Basic. Holding down a ‘leap’ key – in the case of the Apple IIe add-on, the open apple key – allowed the user to search for text and perform operations on any result. It’s odd, but it just makes sense in some strange way.
[Mike] is doing a build class at the VCF today where anyone attending can build their own Swyft card. He also has instructions for
building your own
, should you want to experiment with one of the ‘could have beens’ of user interface design. | 31 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "1331586",
"author": "Mike Szczys",
"timestamp": "2014-04-06T14:42:03",
"content": "That’s awesome. I remember learning to type in school on a IIe and the typing software had zero editing features. Your only option was to backspace to the point you wanted to make the fix. With that i... | 1,760,376,243.295439 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/04/06/cpld-tutorial-learn-programmable-logic-the-easy-way/ | CPLD Tutorial: Learn Programmable Logic The Easy Way | Adam Fabio | [
"FPGA",
"hardware"
] | [
"cpld",
"fpga",
"Schematic Capture",
"tutorial",
"verilog",
"vhdl"
] | The guys over at hackshed have been busy. [Carl] is making programmable logic design easy with
an 8 part CPLD tutorial
. (March 2018: Link dead. Try the
Wayback Machine
.) Programmable logic devices are one of the most versatile hardware building blocks available to hackers. They also can have a steep learning curve. Cheap
Field Programmable Gate Arrays
(FPGA) are plentiful, but can have intricate power requirements. Most modern programmable logic designs are created in a
Hardware Description Language
(HDL) such as
VHDL
or
Verilog
. Now you’ve got a new type of device, a new language, an entirely new programming paradigm, and a complex IDE to learn all at once. It’s no wonder FPGAs have sent more than one beginner running for the hills.
The tutorial cuts the learning curve down in several ways. [Carl] is using
Complex Programmable Logic Devices
(CPLD). At the 40,000 foot level, CPLDs and FPGAs do the same thing – they act as re-configurable logic. FPGAs generally do not store their configuration – it has to be loaded from an external FLASH, EEPROM, or connected processor. CPLDs do store their configuration, so they’re ready as soon as they power up. As a general rule, FPGAs contain more configurable logic than CPLDs. This allows for larger designs to be instantiated with FPGAs. Don’t knock CPLDs though. CPLDs have plenty of room for big designs, like
generating VGA signals
.
[Carl] also is designing with schematic capture in his tutorial. With the schematic capture method, digital logic schematics are drawn just as they would be in Eagle or KiCad. This is generally considered an “old school” method of design capture. A few lines of VHDL or Verilog code can replace some rather complex schematics. [Carl’s] simple designs don’t need that sort of power though. Going the schematic capture route eliminates the need to learn VHDL or Verilog.
[Carl’s] tutorial starts with installing Altera’s Quartus II software. He then takes the student through the “hardware hello world” – blinking an LED. By the time the tutorial is done, the user will learn how to create a 4 bit adder and a 4 bit subtractor. With all that under your belt, you’re ready to jump into big designs –
like building a retrocomputer
.
[Image via
Wikimedia Commons
] | 16 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "1331464",
"author": "Someone",
"timestamp": "2014-04-06T12:56:41",
"content": "Dude, What the heck ?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1331589",
"author": "jios",
"timestamp": "2014-04-06T14:45:43",
"content": "Bloody ... | 1,760,376,243.345502 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/04/06/creative-continuity-tester-made-for-a-few-bucks/ | Creative Continuity Tester Made For A Few Bucks | James Hobson | [
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"continuity tester"
] | No multi-meter? For troubleshooting most household things, a continuity tester is extremely handy. And as it turns out, you can
make your own from the dollar store for next to nothing.
[Carlyn] shows us how to make two different styles of continuity testers — a light up version using a bicycle light, or a buzzer version using one of those cheap window alarms. The leads are made of 1/8″ audio cables — and everything for both these testers cost less than $5 from their local dollar store. It’s a very simple build process that you can probably figure out just from this one photo, but [Carlyn] has also taken pictures of every step along the way.
Compared to building one of these out of components from Radio Shack, this method is much more MacGyver, and cheap! Hooray for taking advantage of mass produced consumer products!
Not functional enough? How about building a
talking multimeter
instead? No? Have you ever wanted two multi-meters in one? Say hello to the
Mooshimeter! | 13 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "1331195",
"author": "xeon",
"timestamp": "2014-04-06T09:02:05",
"content": "One of the oldest hacks known to electric and electronic engineers.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1331241",
"author": "jooorn",
"timestamp": "... | 1,760,376,243.398669 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/04/05/university-attempts-to-break-3d-printing-world-record/ | University Attempts To Break 3D Printing World Record | James Hobson | [
"3d Printer hacks"
] | [
"3d printing record",
"world record"
] | LeTourneau University
attempted to set a 3D printing Guinness World Record
yesterday. They had 50 3D printers print the same thing at the same time. Impressive? Kind of, but not really.
LulzBot — our favorite 3D printer company — saw this and thought “that’s cute — we run over 50 printers a day on a normal basis!”. So just for lulz, they decided to film a little counter-record video
featuring 109 LulzBot 3D printers running simultaneously.
To be honest, we kinda feel sorry for LeTourneau University — but it looks like LulzBot really takes the cake here. The university has a really cool policy for their engineering students though — all incoming freshmen students
are required
to build their own 3D printer for school. Whoa! To be honest it is a really cool way to force you to get out of your comfort zone and learn a bit about several different engineering disciplines.
To follow along the discussion and status of the record, a thread is going on over at
3Dprintboard.com
. Stick around to see the video of LulzBot’s drool worthy server racks filled with identical printers. | 83 | 21 | [
{
"comment_id": "1330898",
"author": "echodelta",
"timestamp": "2014-04-06T05:36:12",
"content": "Makes me think of an episode of Doctor Who or two.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1330917",
"author": "Ward",
"timestamp": "2014-04-06T05:... | 1,760,376,243.907284 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/04/05/super-mario-on-a-human-machine-interface/ | Super Mario On A Human-Machine-Interface! | James Hobson | [
"Misc Hacks",
"Nintendo Hacks"
] | [
"HMI",
"mario",
"super mario"
] | Getting Super Mario to work on your TI-83 calculator is almost a rite of passage for young geeks, so we really liked this project where [Chad Boughton] managed to
get it running on a PLC’s HMI screen instead!
He’s using a Danfoss DP600LX microcontroller with an HMI display along with a CAN bus joystick. This kind of equipment is typically used to control hydraulic systems, as well as display sensor data — [Chad] was curious to see if he could do animation with it as well — it looks like he’s succeeded! The funny thing is we’ve seen those “joysticks” before and it’s cool to see them used for something like this — like [Chad] said, they’re normally used for actuating hydraulic and pneumatic cylinders.
Stick around after the break to see Mario eat some mushrooms.
There’s almost too many Mario hacks to mention here, so we’ll just pick a few — Ever heard the
Mario theme song played on a laser cutter?
It’s as awesome as it sounds. And for a true Super Mario veteran…
can you play it backwards? | 3 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "1330672",
"author": "Jeremy Cook",
"timestamp": "2014-04-06T02:43:56",
"content": "Impressive!There was a situation where I worked (previous employer) were a person fed a machine (OK, that’s pretty common). I never implemented it, but it would have been cool to have a stacklight th... | 1,760,376,243.536647 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/04/05/gesture-recognition-using-ultrasound/ | Gesture Recognition Using Ultrasound | Will Sweatman | [
"Microcontrollers",
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"analog chip",
"Atmel",
"gesture recognition",
"ultrasonic transducer"
] | You’d be hard pressed to find a public restroom that wasn’t packed full of hands free technology these days. From the toilets to the sinks and paper towel dispensers, hands free tech is everywhere in modern public restrooms.
The idea is to cut down on the spread of germs. However, as we all know too well, this technology is not perfect. We’ve all gone from sink to sink in search of one that actually worked. Most of us have waved our hands wildly in the air to get a paper towel dispenser to dispense, creating new kung-fu moves in the process. IR simply has its limitations.
What if there was a better way? Check out [Ackerley] and [Lydia’s] work on
gesture recognition using ultrasound
. Such technology is cheap and could easily be implemented in countless applications where hands free control of our world is desired. Indeed, the free market has already been
developing
this
technology
for use in smart phones and tablets.
Where a video camera will use upwards of 1 watt of power to record video, an ultrasound device will use only micro watts. IR can still be used to detect gestures, as in this
gesture based security lock
, but lacks the resolution that can be obtained by ultrasound. So let us delve deep into the details of [Ackerley] and [Lydia’s] ultrasound version of a gesture recognizer, so that we might understand just how it all works, and you too can implement your own ultrasound gesture recognition system.
Most of us are aware of the Doppler Effect – the compressing and stretching of waveforms as the source moves toward or away from a point. Consider a device that consists of a tone generator above the 20kHz human ear threshold (ultrasound) and a microphone transducer that would react to reflections of the ultrasound waveform. If an object, such as a hand, were moving toward the device, the reflected waveform would experience a Doppler shift. Such a shift would be seen by the microphone. The same would happen if the object were moving away from the device. This frequency shift can be calculated by:
In order to determine if an object is moving toward or away from the device, you must compare the outgoing and incoming frequencies. [Ackerley] and [Lydia] decided to use the Fast Fourier Transform equation to do this – the same technique used by Microsoft’s Sound Wave, which inspired their project. Unfortunately their assigned processor, the Atmel 1284p, would not be able to handle the Fast Fourier Transform AND signal acquisition at the same time. It was just not fast enough. Stumped, their instructor suggested a clever idea. An idea that will open up gesture recognition via ultrasound to the world of the 8 bit micro controller. You see, instead of doing the frequency comparison on the resource limited digital side, do it on the analog side with an
AD633 Analog Multiplier IC
(pdf warning).
It turns out that if you multiply two sine waves, you will get two different products. One will be the difference and the other will be the sum of the two waveforms. There is beauty in this. Our paradigm has shifted. This single 8 pin IC can determine the difference in frequency between the incoming and outgoing signals. Consider an outgoing frequency of 24kHz. Now consider a hand moving toward the device creating a Doppler shifted frequency of 24.1kHz. The output of the AD633 would be 1kHz and 48.1kHz. The 48.1kHz is easily filtered away and you are left with the 100Hz, or the difference between the incoming/outgoing frequencies that an 8 bit micro controller can easily sample.
Now a keen eye will see that the Doppler shifted frequency only reveals magnitude, and not direction. [Ackerley] and [Lydia] solve this problem by observing subtle changes in amplitude of the difference frequency. Many more details of how this is done can be found in the linked article. The image below show’s their algorithm in the Atmel detecting a “pull” motion.
The genius of this project is that a viable gesture recognition system can be implemented with cheap components. The approach of doing a similar system with a PC or smart device would be different. We would like to see the microcontroller side pushed further. Imagine a system in an elevator where the passenger could “draw” the number to the floor he or she wanted to go to. Or a paper towel system that would dispense towels as we twirled our hand, and stop when we stopped twirling. Or a sink that could change water temperature with a simple gesture. Such systems, using the technology designed by [Ackerley] and [Lydia], should be possible. | 27 | 12 | [
{
"comment_id": "1330393",
"author": "James",
"timestamp": "2014-04-05T23:15:50",
"content": "> hands free tech is everywhere in modern public restrooms.Ummm, really? Apart from the the air hand dryer, I don’t recall anything ever being hands free in any toilets I’ve had reason to use, public or n... | 1,760,376,243.603804 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/04/05/open-source-power-line-communication/ | Open Source Power Line Communication | Eric Evenchick | [
"hardware",
"home hacks"
] | [
"active filter",
"ATmega168",
"filtering",
"FSK",
"power line communication"
] | Since we all have wires running throughout our houses to provide mains power, there’s a number of devices that piggyback on mains lines for communication. For his thesis project, [Haris Andrianakis]
developed his own power line communication system
.
The basic principle of the system is to inject a signal onto the power lines at a much higher frequency than the 50 or 60 Hz of the AC power itself. Using both active and passive filters, the signal can be separated from the AC power and decoded. This system uses
frequency-shift keying
to encode data. This part is done by a
ST7540
modem that’s designed for power line applications. The modem is controlled over SPI by an ATmega168 microcontroller.
[Haris]’ write up goes into detail about some of the challenges he faced, and how to protect the device from the high voltages present. The final result is a remote display for a weigh scale, which communicates over the power line. Schematics, PCB layout, and software are all available. | 40 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "1330166",
"author": "Truth",
"timestamp": "2014-04-05T20:33:16",
"content": "I hate this whole category of device, so much RF interference is generated by them. The commercial ones as well, I’m not picking on this project. I just hate the RF generated by what is in effect a high fre... | 1,760,376,243.784616 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/04/05/the-mobile-phone-pixelswall/ | The Mobile Phone PixelSWaLL | James Hobson | [
"Android Hacks"
] | [
"mobile screen wall",
"screen wall"
] | As much as we hate to admit it, smart phones have become somewhat of a disposable item in today’s society. People upgrade their phones constantly and simply chuck their old ones. Of course, there’s plenty of things you can do with slightly out of date phones… Here’s one we haven’t seen before —
a wireless multi-phone display!
It’s called the PixelSWaLL, and according to the author, his software can control up to
240
Android devices! To run this demo with just 9 phones, he’s using an old Apple Macbook running Windows 7 bootcamp, which sends the display info using an old Telmex router. Each phone or tablet runs the Android terminal application using Eclipse ADT which renders OpenGL in real-time. The server application was made with Delphi 7 and uses the DSPack library to read video files in order to send them over UDP via Indy 10. It’s a bit of a mouthful to explain, but the resulting display array is pretty cool!
Time to start collecting phones…
[Thanks Axel!] | 12 | 12 | [
{
"comment_id": "1329863",
"author": "strigoi8183",
"timestamp": "2014-04-05T17:13:08",
"content": "This is awesome, Finally a way to truly use all those old cellphones…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1329866",
"author": "strigoi8183",
... | 1,760,376,245.807449 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/04/05/bike-pedals-in-both-directions-gets-you-to-your-destination-and-back/ | Bike Pedals In Both Directions, Gets You To Your Destination AND Back | Rich Bremer | [
"Transportation Hacks"
] | [
"bike",
"bike hack",
"mechanical engineering",
"personaltransportation"
] | [punamenon2] has built an interesting
bike
that moves forward regardless if it is pedaled forward or backwards
! What? Yes, you read that correctly. Pedal forward or backwards and the bike goes forward. This project started off as any old cruiser with a free-wheeling rear hub. To pull off this mod a second free-wheel and sprocket had to be added to the current wheel assembly. One free-wheel and sprocket set is used when pedaling forward, the other set is used when pedaling in reverse. There is also a new chain tensioner that serves to not only keep the chain taut but also allows for the chain to change directions which ultimately allows this novel idea to work.
Confused? Here’s how it works:
When pedaling in the forward direction, the bike acts as a normal bike does where top of the Crank Sprocket pulls the chain and the chain then pulls on the top of the Large Wheel Sprocket. This turns the rear wheel in the forward direction. The portion of the chain that wraps around the Small Wheel Sprocket is traveling in the backward (CCW) direction which doesn’t cause a problem because it is a freewheel, just like how you can pedal backwards on a bike while coasting forward. Since there are two different sized Wheel Sprockets, pedaling in the forward direction is the higher of the two gears.
When pedaling backwards the chain moves in the opposite direction. The bottom of the Crank Sprocket pulls the chain forward which in-turn pulls on the top of the Small Wheel Sprocket. This also turns the rear wheel in the forward direction. The portion of the chain that wraps around the Large Wheel Sprocket is now traveling in the backward (CCW) direction, and again doesn’t cause a problem because it is freewheel.
Why did [punamenon2] decide to do this? Just for fun! And that is a good enough reason in our book.
[via
reddit
] | 48 | 19 | [
{
"comment_id": "1329598",
"author": "Ren",
"timestamp": "2014-04-05T14:09:04",
"content": "Ingenious, but when I reverse direction on the pedals, I am acting from the memory that says reversing will brake. And if the reverse pedaling is effortless, my next action is to use the handbrakes. In othe... | 1,760,376,246.430105 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/04/05/taking-pictures-with-a-dram-chip/ | Taking Pictures With A DRAM Chip | Eric Evenchick | [
"digital cameras hacks"
] | [
"CCD",
"dram",
"Imaging",
"turbo pascal"
] | This picture was taken by
using a DRAM chip as an image sensor
(
translated
). A decapped 64k DRAM chip was combined with optics that could focus an image onto the die. By reading data out of the DRAM, the image could be constructed.
DRAM
is the type of RAM you find on the RAM cards inserted into your motherboard. It consists of a massive array of capacitors and transistors. Each bit requires one transistor and one capacitor, which is quite efficient. The downside is that the memory needs to be refreshed periodically to prevent the capacitors from discharging.
Exposing the capacitor to light causes it to discharge faster. Once it has discharged past a certain threshold, the bit will flip from one to zero. To take a picture, ones are written to every bit in the DRAM array. By timing how long it takes a bit to flip from one to zero, the amount of light exposure can be determined. Since the DRAM is laid out in an array, each bit can be treated as a pixel to reconstruct the image.
Sure, modern CCDs are better, cheaper, and faster, but this hack is a neat way to totally re-purpose a chip. There’s even Turbo Pascal source if you’d like to recreate the project.
Thanks to [svofski] for the tip. | 65 | 23 | [
{
"comment_id": "1329391",
"author": "elwing",
"timestamp": "2014-04-05T11:27:25",
"content": "pretty neat hack",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1329422",
"author": "anonanimal",
"timestamp": "2014-04-05T11:43:35",
"content": "Nice, t... | 1,760,376,246.037954 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/04/05/web-interface-for-the-fram-launchpad/ | Web Interface For The FRAM LaunchPad | Nick Conn | [
"internet hacks"
] | [
"accelerometer",
"EXP430FR5739",
"FRAM",
"internet of things",
"launchpad",
"msp430",
"msp430 launchpad",
"MSP430FR5739",
"node.js",
"python",
"ubuntu",
"web interface"
] | The Internet of Things is here in full force. The first step when adding to the Internet of Things is obvious, adding a web interface to your project. [Jaspreet] wrote in to tell us about his project that adds a
web interface to his MSP430 based project
, making it easy to add any project to the internet of things.
Creating a web interface can be a bit overwhelming if you have never done it before. This project makes it easy by using a dedicated computer running Linux to handle all of the web related tasks. The LaunchPad simply interfaces with the computer using USB and Python, and the computer hosts the webpage and updates it in real time using
Node.js
. The result is a very professional looking interface with an impressively responsive display that can control the on-board LEDs, read analog values from the integrated ADC, and stream accelerometer data. Be sure to see it in action after the break!
We could see this project being expanded to run on the Raspberry Pi with a multitude of sensors. What will you add a web interface to next?
Home automation
? A
weather station
?
Let us know
! | 10 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "1329515",
"author": "opcode",
"timestamp": "2014-04-05T13:13:07",
"content": "Node.JS needs more love from HaD!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1329799",
"author": "Andrios",
"timestamp": "2014-04-05T16:34:18",
"cont... | 1,760,376,245.699766 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/04/04/robot-cage-fighting-is-still-a-thing/ | Robot Cage Fighting Is Still A Thing! | James Hobson | [
"Robots Hacks"
] | [
"battlebots",
"robot combat",
"robot fight"
] | Remember Battlebots? Turns out it is alive and well in Southern California at the
National Tooling and Machining Association (NTMA) Robotics League.
That’s right — high school students are getting to build remote controlled weaponized robots to battle to the death inside a poly-carbonate octagon arena.
Awesome.
[Bradley Hanstad] wrote to us today to inform us of the 2014 Regional Competition — happening
tomorrow at 10AM (PDT).
We can’t make it there ourselves, but there is a
live stream for everyone to see!
The league started just this fall which currently consists of 15 area high schools, community colleges, and technical schools. The goal of the league is to spark an interest in engineering and manufacturing in young students, while at the same-time providing hands-on education on the applied side of the sciences. It’s sometimes tricky to get students engaged in engineering competitions — but as soon as you say
fighting robots
you will have most peoples’ attention.
To see a teaser trailer for what is to come at these competitions, stick around after the break! | 25 | 14 | [
{
"comment_id": "1328857",
"author": "Bradley Warren Hanstad",
"timestamp": "2014-04-05T05:13:19",
"content": "We will have some tshirts and other little goodies given away during the stream as well!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1328858",
... | 1,760,376,245.874019 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/04/04/powering-a-rpi-with-hydrogen/ | Powering A RPi With Hydrogen | Eric Evenchick | [
"green hacks",
"Raspberry Pi"
] | [
"fuel cell",
"hydrogen",
"pem",
"raspberry pi"
] | Looking for a new way to power your Raspberry Pi? The
raspberryHy project
aims to develop a small fuel cell designed for powering the credit card sized computer. It adds a
proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cell
, a battery, and custom control electronics to the Pi.
The system takes hydrogen in from a compressed hydrogen cartridge and feeds it through a regulator. This passes the hydrogen into the PEM fuel cell at the correct pressure, and creates a potential. The control electronics boost that voltage up to the 5 V required on the Pi’s USB port. There’s also an electronically controlled purge valve which periodically exhausts the fuel cell.
There’s a few reasons you might want to run your Pi with hydrogen. Run time of the fuel cell is limited only by the amount of hydrogen you can store. In theory, you could connect a large cylinder for very long run times. Combined with a battery, this could be quite useful for running Pis in remote locations, or for long-term backup power. The raspberryHy will be presented at Hannover Fair 2014 this month. | 23 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "1328764",
"author": "Jax184",
"timestamp": "2014-04-05T04:14:23",
"content": "That’s a kinda neat idea. Hydrogen fuel cells are pretty cool.I was recently given a pair of units H-Power built in ~2000 to demo at a local science center. Ever since I’ve been trying to think of somethin... | 1,760,376,245.937534 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/04/04/building-an-inductive-loop-vehicle-detector/ | Building An Inductive Loop Vehicle Detector | Mathieu Stephan | [
"hardware",
"Transportation Hacks"
] | [
"car detection",
"colpitts",
"induction loop"
] | [Trax] was asked by a friend to build a device that could
detect the presence of a car
in front of his garage gate for it to open automatically. After searching the web for such a project and trying many of them, he decided to build his own detector based on an
induction loop
. As you may have guessed, this kind of detector works by detecting an inductance change in a wire loop (aka coil) buried in the road. Having a car pass several inches on top of it produces such an effect.
[Trax]’s write-up shows a very well thought and professional design. All the detector parameters can be adjusted using DIP switches and buttons: detection type (presence/pulse), signal filtering, main frequency and sensitivity. The wire loop is isolated from the main sensor electronics using a 1:1 isolation transformer and a
Colpitts oscillator
is used to drive the latter. Moreover, gas discharge tubes are also used for lightning protection.
The change in inductance translates to a change in resonant frequency which is later detected by the main microcontroller. The board is 24V AC powered and a diode bridge + LM2596 SMPS step-down converter are in charge of generating the required +5V in an efficient way.
As if this was not enough, [Trax] also made a PC-based tool that can change other platform settings using a serial connection. All the resources can be downloaded from his website and a few videos are embedded after the break. | 26 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "1328510",
"author": "Josh",
"timestamp": "2014-04-05T01:36:05",
"content": "While I applaud those who build their own circuits, it’s a lot easier (to build AND maintain) to pick up a surplus loop detector used for traffic signals. They’re usually built well, don’t need a lot of tuni... | 1,760,376,246.344708 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/04/04/sci-fi-contest-source-universe-roundup/ | Sci-Fi Contest: Source Universe Roundup | Mike Szczys | [
"contests"
] | [
"hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy",
"portal",
"sci-fi contest",
"stargate"
] | The Hackaday Sci-Fi contest has
36 entries so far
. Since there are fifteen prizes available, you stand an excellent chance of winning; but you can’t win if you don’t play. It’s pretty easy to be considered for the contest. You simply need to hack together something Sci-Fi related and show off your work.
Head over to the contest page
and check out the details. Ten of the prizes are popularity-based, so posting early is the best bet! For those that were put-off by the team requirement,
there’s a hack to get around that
.
Since this is a themed contest we thought we’d give you an update on where inspiration is coming from. Below is the break-down of each Sci-Fi universe that has been so-far adopted by the entrants. We’d like to point out that this isn’t limited to movies, as the bulk of inspiration is to be found in literature. Why don’t we get a comment thread going here to help brain-storm for people who want help locking onto an idea?
Oh, and if you’re wondering about the banner images. These were taken from three of the contest projects. The upper left is
a GLaDOS replica controlled by Google Glass
(complete with Nerf dart gun) inspired by
Portal
. Bottom left is
a pair of Peril-Sensitive sunglasses
inspired by
A Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.
And the bottom right is
a life-sign scanner
inpired by
Stargate Atlantis
.
Unknown (genre or misc themes) 9
A Hitchhicker’s Guide to the Galaxy 4
Back to the Future 3
Star Wars 3
2001 A Space Odyssey 2
Doctor Who 2
Stargate 2
Thor 2
Blade Runner 1
Demolition Man 1
ET: The Extra Terrestrial 1
Futurama 1
Harry Potter 1
Knight Rider 1
Portal 1
Prometheus 1
Start Trek 1 | 8 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "1328298",
"author": "supershwa",
"timestamp": "2014-04-04T23:11:18",
"content": "Aw nuts – someone else is doing the “ET phone”, too! At least I have the Speak & Spell. ;)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1328328",
"a... | 1,760,376,245.633816 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/04/04/tube-headphones-rock-out-while-keeping-the-family-peace/ | Tube Headphones Rock Out While Keeping The Family Peace | Adam Fabio | [
"Musical Hacks",
"News"
] | [
"diy",
"headphones",
"Tube Preamp"
] | It’s hard being a kid sometimes. [Young] likes his music, but his dad is an overnight trucker. With his dad sleeping during the day, [Young] has to keep the volume down to a reasonable level. He could have bought some commercial headphones, but he wanted something a bit more customized. Rather than give up on his tunes,
he built a pair of headphones with an internal tube preamp amplifier.
[German language link — Google translate doesn’t want to work with this one but Chrome’s translate feature works].
Two 1SH24B preamp tubes feed two LM386 amplifier chips, creating a hybrid amplifier. The 1SH24B tubes are designed to work on battery voltage, so a step up circuit wasn’t necessary. However, [Young] still needed to provide an 8 cell battery pack to run his amp. Speakers were a 3 way coaxial of [Young’s] own design. He built the headphone frame using candy tins and cups from commercial headphones. A final touch was a window so everyone can see all that vacuum state goodness. Considering that [Young] is only 16, we’re looking for some great things from him in the future.
If you don’t want to strap the tubes to your skull
there are other options
. But you have to admit it makes for a cool look. Starbucks here we come.
[Thanks Patrick] | 22 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "1328055",
"author": "peter",
"timestamp": "2014-04-04T20:35:11",
"content": "Awesomesauce!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1328064",
"author": "JRDM",
"timestamp": "2014-04-04T20:39:23",
"content": "I assume the next... | 1,760,376,246.099652 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/04/04/were-at-the-vintage-computer-festival-this-weekend/ | We’re At The Vintage Computer Festival This Weekend! | Brian Benchoff | [
"Featured",
"News"
] | [
"InfoAge",
"VCF",
"Vintage Computer Festival"
] | This weekend takes some of the Hackaday crew to the
Vintage Computer Festival East
in Wall, New Jersey. There’s going to be lots of cool stuff, some dork walking around handing out Hackaday t-shirts and stickers, and more awesome retro computation devices than you can shake several sticks of RAM at.
On the agenda for Friday are
a host of talks
that include bootstrapping CP/M, assembly programming, disk imaging, and a talk from our very own [Bil Herd] on how to not kill yourself with a CRT monitor.
Saturday is when things really heat up with exhibits including a PDP-8, a 1960s UNIVAC, Chromeco Dazzlers, VAXxen, and a whole slew of computers that weigh less than several hundred pounds. There’s even a real Apple I. Seriously. There are also workshops that include some
really obscure work
from the late, great [Jef Raskin], and more talks, including [Dave Haynie]’s recollections of Commodore’s circling the drain.
The VCF is hosted at
InfoAge
, an exceptionally cool vintage technology treasure trove that’s more than worth the visit, even if there weren’t a vintage computer festival going on this weekend. We
caught up with the InfoAge guys a while back
, and needless to say, if you come, you’ll have fun.
If you see somebody walking around with a Hackaday t-shirt on, be sure to tell them you’re a fan. If they don’t know what you’re talking about, ask them who they got the shirt from. Regular updates to follow, including a video of someone loading the
Hackaday Retro site
with an Intel 4004 microprocessor. I didn’t think that was possible either.
Oh, watch
our Twitter
or something. That’s a thing now. | 14 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "1327654",
"author": "Ren",
"timestamp": "2014-04-04T17:02:58",
"content": "In the spirit of Sturgis…Could you do a Vintage Computer Festival Westin Wall, SD too?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1327706",
"author": "Mik... | 1,760,376,245.756963 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/04/04/sql-injection-fools-speed-traps-and-clears-your-record/ | SQL Injection Fools Speed Traps And Clears Your Record | James Hobson | [
"computer hacks"
] | [
"speed cameras",
"speed trap",
"sql injection"
] | Typical speed camera traps have built-in OCR software that is used to recognize license plates. A clever hacker decided to see if he could defeat the system
by using SQL Injection…
The basic premise of this hack is that the hacker has created a simple SQL statement which will hopefully cause the database to delete any record of his license plate. Or so he (she?) hopes. Talk about getting off scot-free!
The reason this works (or could work?) is because while you would think a traffic camera is only taught to recognize the license plate characters, the developers of the third-party image recognition software simply digitize the entire thing — recognizing any and all of the characters present. While it’s certainly clever, we’re pretty sure you’ll still get pulled over and questioned — but at least it’s not as extreme
as building a flashbulb array to blind traffic cameras…
What do you guys think? Did it work? This image has been floating around the net for a few years now — if anyone knows the original story let us know! | 112 | 50 | [
{
"comment_id": "1327368",
"author": "Matt",
"timestamp": "2014-04-04T14:09:41",
"content": "ZUO666 = EVIL666. Greetings from Poland ;)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1327369",
"author": "Z",
"timestamp": "2014-04-04T14:10:56",
"con... | 1,760,376,246.739119 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/04/04/fixing-misaligned-pvc-with-kerf-bends/ | Fixing Misaligned PVC With Kerf Bends | Brian Benchoff | [
"Robots Hacks"
] | [
"kerf bending",
"mountainbeest",
"PVC",
"robot",
"strandbeest"
] | Our old pal [Jeremy Cook] is doing his own remix of [Theo Jansen]’s Strandbeest, and like the original, he’s using PVC pipe. Unlike the originals, he’s powering it with motors, not wind, and this has caused a few problems
in transmitting mechanical power through a piece of PVC
. Nothing is perfect, and in a few points in the legs movement the shaft shakes violently. One motor was lost and another nearly so before [Jeremy] came up with a flex coupler made from PVC.
The technique [Jeremy] is using has seen a lot of use
with people building laser cut enclosures
. It’s called kerf bending, and it works simply by cutting a few slits in a panel that allow it to bend slightly. This technique was replicated by [Jeremy] on a miter saw, cutting eight slots halfway through a one inch PVC pipe, with each successive cut offset 90 degrees.
The new design works well for transmitting power, and he’s not ruining motors any more. Check out the video below. | 18 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "1327165",
"author": "MrJohnsBlueEyedDevil",
"timestamp": "2014-04-04T11:37:46",
"content": "The guy must be a plumber !No other reason for punching holes in the middle of a load bearingwood joist. As an architect, I would fail the work and force the contractorto eat the costs of rep... | 1,760,376,247.023629 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/04/04/118883/ | Throwback Handheld Built With Modern Hobby Hardware | Mike Szczys | [
"Arduino Hacks",
"handhelds hacks"
] | [
"arduino pro mini",
"magpi",
"nokia 3310"
] | Remember all of those fantastically horrible handheld LCD games that hit the toy stores back in the ’90s. You know, the ones that had custom LCD screens to make for some fake animation. Here’s
an example of what those
should
have been
. It’s an LCD-based handheld with some soul.
The entire thing is roughly the size of a television remote, with a 3D printed case making it very presentable. But looking at the wiring which hides inside proves this is one-of-a-kind. The Arduino Pro Mini is probably the biggest difference in technology from back in the day compared to now. It has plenty of space for all of the different settings and games shown off in the clip below. The user interface itself is definitely a throw-back though. The Nokia 3310 screen boasts a whopping 84×48 pixel monochrome area. There are four buttons serving as a d-pad, and two as action buttons. Perhaps the greatest feature (besides the printed case we already mentioned) is the ability to recharge the internal battery via USB.
[Zippy314] built this with his son. What’s more fun: learning to program the games, or mastering them and discovering the bugs you missed along the way?
[via
Brad’s Projects
] | 23 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "1326860",
"author": "Eirinn",
"timestamp": "2014-04-04T08:50:31",
"content": "“with a 3D printed case making it very presentable” – I don’t mean to be a butt, but the quality of that print is… very low.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comme... | 1,760,376,247.377877 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/04/03/blinkenschild-the-rgb-led-display-for-every-occasion/ | Blinkenschild, The RGB LED Display For Every Occasion | Brian Benchoff | [
"LED Hacks"
] | [
"led",
"LED display",
"Teensy",
"ws2811"
] | One morning [overflo] decided to protest the European Parliament’s stance on equine rights of defecation, a cherished liberty dating back to the time of Charlemagne. The best way to do this is, of course,
blinking lights
. He calls his project Blinkenschild, and it’s one of the best portable LED displays we’ve seen.
The display
is based around fifteen RGB-123 LED panels, each containing an 8×8 matrix of WS2811 LEDs. That’s 960 pixels, all controlled with a Teensy 3.1. Power is supplied by fifteen LiPo cells wired together in parallel giving him 6 Ah of battery life. Clunky, yes, but it’s small enough to fit in a backpack and that’s what [overflo] had sitting around anyway.
The animations for the display are generated by
Glediator
, an unfortunately not open source control app for LED matrices. Glediator sends data out over a serial port but not over IP or directly into a file. Not wanting to carry a laptop around with him, [overflo] created a virtual serial port and dumped the output of Glediator into a file so it could be
played back
stored on an SD card and controlled with an Android app. Very clever, and just the thing to raise awareness of horse and Internet concerns.
Video below.
UPDATE:
Check out [overflo’s] clarification
in the comments below. | 33 | 12 | [
{
"comment_id": "1326534",
"author": "vonskippy",
"timestamp": "2014-04-04T05:18:04",
"content": "What a load of horse defecation,",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1331056",
"author": "triplethinker",
"timestamp": "2014-04-06T07... | 1,760,376,247.155204 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/04/03/raspberry-pi-ups-using-supercapacitors/ | Raspberry Pi UPS Using Supercapacitors | James Hobson | [
"Raspberry Pi"
] | [
"raspberry pi",
"raspberry pi ups",
"RPi",
"supercap",
"ups"
] | What happens when you want to integrate a Raspberry Pi into some kind of project that gets turned on and off with mains voltage? Do you power the Pi separately, or make a
UPS for it?
[Lutz Lisseck] decided he wanted to turn his ambient-lamp (Rundbuntplasma) on and off with only the main power switch in his Hackerpsace. He could build a traditional UPS using a battery pack (it’s only 5V after all!) but decided to take it a step further. He picked up a pair of 50F supercapacitors. This way his UPS would last longer than his Pi would! The caps store just enough power that when the main supply is cut, a GPIO notices, tells the Pi, and it begins a shutdown sequence lasting about 30 seconds.
While [Lutz] is using two 2.7V supercapacitors, he mentions it would be a lot cheaper to use a step-up converter instead of putting them in series — but he had the caps on hand so decided to use both.
If you need it to last a bit longer, you could
make one with rechargeable batteries… | 21 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "1326172",
"author": "Andrew Eliason",
"timestamp": "2014-04-04T02:21:01",
"content": "The big advantage of using supercaps is that you can recharge as fast as your components will allow. I made a little night light for my niece and had to put in a series resistance to keep it from ... | 1,760,376,247.308152 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/04/03/lightbyte-animated-shutters/ | LightByte: Animated Shutters | James Hobson | [
"Arduino Hacks"
] | [
"mit media lab",
"servos"
] | Here’s another interesting project to come out of the MIT Media Lab — it’s called
LightByte
, and it’s all about interacting with sunlight and shadows in a new, rather unorthodox way.
We suppose its technical name could be a massive interactive sun pixel facade, but that’s a bit too much of a mouthful. What you really want to know is how it works, and the answer is,
a lot
of servos
. We weren’t able to find an exact number but the hardware behind LightByte includes well over 100 servos, and a matrix of Arduinos to control them. While that is quite impressive by itself, it gets better — it’s actually completely interactive; recognizing gestures, responding to text messages and emails, and you can even draw pictures with the included “wand”.
We love anything mechanical like this — it’s just something about mechanical shutters that make them so awesome. Of course, reverse-engineered
flip dot displays are pretty cool too!
Or massive home-made
flip-dot displays like this one…
[Thanks Alexander!] | 28 | 16 | [
{
"comment_id": "1325792",
"author": "Bradley",
"timestamp": "2014-04-03T23:15:52",
"content": "i want to play tetris",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1325948",
"author": "Joee",
"timestamp": "2014-04-04T00:43:58",
"content": "A 10×10... | 1,760,376,246.966907 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/04/03/some-tips-about-tips/ | Some Tips About Tips | Marsh | [
"Featured",
"how-to"
] | [
"call for submissions",
"submissions",
"submit",
"tips"
] | Gather, boys and girls, while we take a moment to talk about submitting projects
via the Hackaday Tips Line
. Come across something really cool that you think deserves a mention on our page? Let us know about it! Did you yourself make something really cool? Tell us about that, too! It doesn’t matter if it’s a project that’s been sitting on some dark corner of the Internet for a few years. If we haven’t seen it yet, we want to.
Don’t think your project is good enough for Hackaday? You’re probably too self-critical. We’re after
hacks
: it’s the idea that counts. Not polished? No problem. The only thing that needs to be complete is your description of the hack.
Stick with us after the jump; we’ve got plenty of tips about tips to help you out.
So you wanna get on the front page?
The best project submissions answer these question:
What the heck is it?
What got you into this?
What’d you use?
Where’d you get that stuff?
How does it work?
What didn’t work? (Anything blow up?!)
What would you do differently?
We don’t expect submissions to be a how-to guide with step-by-step instructions—though those can and usually are great—but this is your chance to show off: why not dump out some photos, videos, and links! The toughest projects for us to feature are emailed essays with a few attached photos. If you need a place to host your write-up, get busy documenting it on
Hackaday Projects
Titling your emails:
Avoid vaguely titled emails and instead be clear about what you’re submitting.
Bad Title:
“I did this to my brother’s car…” Did you barf in it? C’mon, give us something attention-grabbing.
Good Title:
“Raspi Nav Unit for Car.” It’s clear, concise, and makes life easier for everyone.
If the tip concerns a specific Hackaday Column, put that at the front of the title.
Retrotechtacular
,
Fail of the Week
,
3D Printering
,
Droning On
,
Hacking and Philosophy
, and
Adventures in Hackerspacing
are all recurring columns that are on the lookout for your content submissions. Help us keep them thriving by sending us tips that specifically fit those topics! Titles such as “Retrotechtacular Tip: 50’s Video on Bicycle Making” makes sorting a breeze!
Tell us how to identify you if you have a preference:
We want to credit your project and your work appropriately, which—if it’s something you have a preference about—is easier if you give us a heads up in the email. If you’d rather we use your handle, let us know you prefer to be called [snipehuntr] and not Jim-Bob. If the associated pronouns aren’t obvious, let us know those too. It is also helpful when you tell us: “this isn’t my project, but I thought it belonged on Hackaday.”
If your project wasn’t chosen:
Let’s face it, some projects don’t make it to the main page. Sometimes we pass on things because it’s poorly presented, and sometimes it slips through the cracks. Sometimes it’s…a press release. Ugh. Don’t send us those.
If you’ve submitted in the past and didn’t get featured, we don’t want to discourage you from submitting again. See if you can spruce it up with some of the above advice then hit us up again. There’s no harm in resubmitting every once in awhile.
So. Now there’s no excuse. Click that
tips link and blow it up! | 15 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "1325695",
"author": "sparhawk817",
"timestamp": "2014-04-03T22:28:21",
"content": "i love the tipline and how fast and useful your replies are, but have you ever thought about having more than one, a dedicated email for hack tips, and then other stuff? like, sometimes i have ideas a... | 1,760,376,247.436814 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/04/03/turning-the-makerbot-into-a-tattoo-machine/ | Turning The Makerbot Into A Tattoo Machine | Brian Benchoff | [
"3d Printer hacks"
] | [
"tattoo",
"tattoo gun"
] | ENSCI les Ateliers, the famous design school in Paris, had a “Public Domain Remix” and hackathon recently, with teams splitting up to remix public domain and other free-to-use IP in projects. Most of the teams came up with similar ideas, but one team went above and beyond the call of duty; they
turned a 3D printer into a tattoo machine
, capable of inking a real, live human test subject.
The build began by plotting a circle with a pen onto a piece of paper. This evolved into printing a tool holder for a tattoo machine graciously provided by an amateur tattoo artist. Tests with “artificial skin” (any one care to hazard a guess at what that is?) were promising, and the team moved on to a human guinea pig.
The biggest problem the team faced is that humans aren’t flat. They tried a few tricks to tighten the skin around the area to be tattooed – metal rings, elastics, and finally the inner tube from a scooter. In the end, the team was able to tattoo a small circle on the forearm of the test subject.
It’s an extremely simple and small tattoo, and scaling this build up to a sleeve would be difficult. A better solution would be to
create a point cloud of an arm
before going for a much larger tattoo. | 24 | 17 | [
{
"comment_id": "1325436",
"author": "iomgas",
"timestamp": "2014-04-03T20:17:43",
"content": "But can it do goatse?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1325462",
"author": "Damen Nix",
"timestamp": "2014-04-03T20:28:46",
"content": "lol... | 1,760,376,247.498569 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/04/03/fail-of-the-week-cplds-that-release-blue-smoke/ | Fail Of The Week: CPLDs That Release Blue Smoke | Mike Szczys | [
"Fail of the Week",
"Hackaday Columns"
] | [
"cpld",
"emulator",
"fail of the week",
"floppy drive",
"macintosh",
"magic smoke"
] | The card you see above is a floppy drive emulator for Macintosh. [Steve Chamberlain] has been hand assembling these and selling them in small runs, but is troubled by about
a 4% burn-out rate for the CPLD
which has the red ‘X’ on it. He settled into figure out what exactly is leading to this and it’s a real head-scratcher.
He does a very good job of trouble-shooting, starting with a list of all the possible things he thinks could be causing this: defective part, bad PCB, bad uC firmware, damage during assembly, solder short, tolerance issues, over-voltage on the DB connector, or bad VHDL design. He methodically eliminates these, first by swapping out the part and observing the exact same failure (pretty much eliminates assembly, solder short, etc.), then by measuring and scoping around the card.
The fascinating read doesn’t stop with the article. Make sure you work your way through the comments thread. [Steve] thinks he’s eliminated the idea of bad microcontroller code causing damage. He considers putting in-line resistors on the DB connector but we wonder if clamping diodes wouldn’t be a better choice (at least for testing purposes)? This begs the question, why is he observing a higher voltage on those I/O lines during power-up? As always, we want to hear your constructive comments below.
Fail of the Week is a Hackaday column which runs every Wednesday. Help keep the fun rolling by writing about your past failures and
sending us a link to the story
— or sending in links to fail write ups you find in your Internet travels. | 17 | 13 | [
{
"comment_id": "1325051",
"author": "yum",
"timestamp": "2014-04-03T17:04:19",
"content": "Perhaps the ground connection is made later than most of the IO pins, and neither side uses an isolated supply.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1325059",... | 1,760,376,247.081629 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/04/03/peltier-mini-fridge-preserves-chip-quik-marriage/ | Peltier Mini-Fridge Preserves Chip Quik, Marriage | Kristina Panos | [
"home hacks",
"Lifehacks"
] | [
"chip quik",
"peltier cooler",
"things a fridge is for"
] | [Charles] uses Chip Quik to solder his SMD parts, and that stuff can keep for more than six months if it’s kept cool. His wife banned all non-food items from their refrigerator, so he had to think fast and came up with
this Peltier effect Chip Quik cooler
.
He first looked into that man cave essential, the mini-fridge, but they’re too expensive and use too much power. [Charles] got a nice wooden box from a hobby store and some reflective insulation from Lowe’s. He first tried using a couple of heat sinks but they weren’t going to cool things down enough. Once he got a Peltier cooling kit, he was in business. The temperature in his workshop averages 80°F, and he says the box gets down to 58°F. This is cold enough to keep his paste fresh.
[Charles] plans to use a PC power supply in the future rather than his bench supply. He estimates that his Peltier cooler uses 25-50% of the power that a mini-fridge would, and now his wife won’t overheat. Many great things can be accomplished with the Peltier effect from
air conditioning
to
sous-vide cooking
to
LED rings
. What have you used it for? | 48 | 19 | [
{
"comment_id": "1324671",
"author": "butterfly",
"timestamp": "2014-04-03T14:05:55",
"content": "$20 on craigslist is “too expensive”?Does every single post have to have such ridiculous hyperbole in an attempt to justify the hack?Yes, I realize this post is basically plagiarized directly from the b... | 1,760,376,247.245492 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/04/03/tearing-down-a-cheap-external-usb-battery/ | Tearing Down A Cheap External USB Battery | Mathieu Stephan | [
"hardware"
] | [
"battery",
"tear-down",
"usb"
] | [cpldcpu] recently received an external USB battery as a promotional gift and thought it would be a good idea
to tear it down to see its insides
. At first glance, he could see that the device included a USB micro-b socket used as a 5V input (for charging), a USB-A socket for 5V output, a blue LED to indicate active power out and a red one to indicate charging.
Opening the case revealed that most space was taken up by a 2600mAH ICR18650 Li-Ion battery, connected to a tiny PCB. A close inspection and a little googling allowed [cpldcpu] to identify the main components of the latter: a battery mangement IC, a 2A boost converter, a 3A Schottky diode, a few 2A N-Mosfets, a 300mA 2.5V LDO and an unknown 6-pin IC. It is very interesting to learn that every last one of these components seems to be sourced from China, which may explain why this USB battery is given for free. Do you think they designed it in-house and outsourced the manufacturing, or is this a product Digi-Key simply bought and put their name on?
Editorial Note: Digi-Key is an advertiser on Hackaday but this post is not part of that sponsorship. Hackaday does not post sponsored content.
Unrelated video of extremely similar hardware. [Thanks James from comments] | 55 | 24 | [
{
"comment_id": "1324356",
"author": "polossatik",
"timestamp": "2014-04-03T11:13:03",
"content": "bought and put their name on:http://www.ebay.com/itm/POWER-BANK-External-Portable-2600-mAh-USB-Battery-Charger-For-iPhone-Samsung-/161130444352",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [... | 1,760,376,247.774663 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/04/03/the-tiny-awesome-class-d-amp/ | The Tiny, Awesome Class D Amp | Brian Benchoff | [
"hardware"
] | [
"amplifier",
"class-d",
"MAX9768"
] | In one of [Hans Peter]’s many idle browsing sessions at a manufacturer’s website, he came across a very cool chip – a 10 Watt class D amplifier chip. After the sample order arrived, he quickly put this chip in a box and forgot about it. A year or so later, he was asked to construct a portable boom box kit for a festival. Time to
break out that chip and make a small amplifier
, it seems.
The chip in question – a Maxim MAX9768 – is a tiny chip, a 24-pin TQFP with 1mm pitch. Hard to solder freehand, but this chip does have a few cool features. It’s a filterless design, very easy to implement, and perfect for the mono boombox project he was working on. A simple, seven component circuit was laid out on a breadboard and [Hans] got this chip up and running.
For the festival, a breadboarded circuit wouldn’t do. He needed a better solution, something built on a PCB that would work well as a kit. The requirements included the MAX9768 chip, a guitar preamp, stereo to mono summing, and through-hole parts for easy soldering. The completed board ended up being extremely small – 33.6mm by 22.5mm – and works really great.
After the festival, [Hans] found a 20 Watt chip and designed an all-SMD version of the board. Just the thing if you ever want to stuff a tiny amplifier into a crevice of a project. | 21 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "1323993",
"author": "Phrewfuf",
"timestamp": "2014-04-03T08:04:15",
"content": "That looks like a QFN rather than a TQFP package.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1324021",
"author": "justice099",
"timestamp": "... | 1,760,376,247.977633 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/04/02/arduino-controlled-dahlander-motor-switch/ | Arduino Controlled Dahlander Motor Switch | Eric Evenchick | [
"Arduino Hacks",
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"arduino",
"dahlander",
"DIN rail",
"high voltage",
"motor",
"three-phase"
] | [Jean-Noel] is fixing a broken Lurem woodworking machine. This machine uses a three-phase Dahlander motor, which has three operation modes: stop, half speed, and full speed. The motor uses a special mechanical switch to select the operating mode. Unfortunately, the mechanical bits inside the switch were broken, and the motor couldn’t be turned on.
To solve the problem without sourcing a new switch, [Jean-Noel] built his own
Arduino based Dahlander switch
. This consists of three relays that select the wiring configuration for each speed mode. There’s also a button to toggle settings, and two lamps to show what mode the motor is currently in.
The Arduino runs a
finite-state machine
(FSM), ensuring that the device transitions through the modes in the correct order. This is quite important, since the motor could be damaged if certain restrictions aren’t followed. The state machine graph was generated using
Fizzim
, a free tool that generates not only FSM graphs, but also Verilog and VHDL code for the machines.
The final product is housed in a DIN rail case, which allows it to be securely mounted along with the rest of the wiring. The detailed write-up on this project explains all the details of the motor, and the challenges of building this replacement switch. | 15 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "1323790",
"author": "danieljlouw",
"timestamp": "2014-04-03T06:15:51",
"content": "I cannot find anything related to the Dahlander motor or it’s creator on Wikipedia. Therefore it does not exist.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id":... | 1,760,376,248.033525 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/04/02/happiness-is-just-a-flaming-oxy-fuel-torch-away/ | Happiness Is Just A Flaming Oxy-Fuel Torch Away | Kristina Panos | [
"cnc hacks",
"cooking hacks"
] | [
"flame-retardant",
"marshmallows",
"oxy-fuel",
"wingding"
] | The Egg-Bot is pretty awesome, we must say. But if you have one, you end up with lot of delicate, round things rolling around your abode and getting underfoot. Warmer weather is just around the corner, so segue from spring gaiety to hot fun in the summertime with
the MarshMallowMatic kit from [Evil Mad Scientist]
.
The MarshMallowMatic is a CNC oxy-fuel precision marshmallow toaster based on the Ostrich Egg-Bot design. Constructed from flame-retardant plywood, it is sure to add an element of delicious danger to children’s birthday parties and weekend wingdings alike. You don’t have to get too specific with those BYOM invitations because this bad boy will torch standard and jumbo marshmallows like a boss.
The kit includes a 5000°F oxy-fuel torch and a 20 ft³ oxygen tank, but the tank comes empty and you’ll have to supply your own propane, acetylene, or hydrogen. It comes with adapters to fit disposable propane and MAPP cylinders, which are also not included. However, you will receive a fine selection of sample marshmallows to get you started. Watch the MarshMallowMatic fire up some happiness after the break. You could toast a special message and load it into
this face-tracking confectionery cannon
to show how much you care.
[vimeo 90641299 w=500 h=281] | 13 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "1323304",
"author": "Hirudinea",
"timestamp": "2014-04-03T02:12:43",
"content": "MADNESS, SHEAR MADNESS!!! I’ll take two.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1323427",
"author": "Waterjet",
"timestamp": "2014-04-03T03:10:48"... | 1,760,376,247.826369 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/04/02/3d-printed-split-saves-babys-life/ | 3D Printed Splint Saves Baby’s Life | James Hobson | [
"3d Printer hacks",
"Medical Hacks"
] | [
"3d printed splint"
] | Here’s another heartwarming story about how 3D printers are continuing to make a real difference in the medical world. [Garrett] is just a baby whose bronchi collapse when breathing — he’s been on a ventilator for most of his life —
Until now.
[Scott Hollister] is a professor of Biomedical Engineering and Mechanical Engineering, as well as being an associate professor of surgery at the University of Michigan. Between him and [Doctor Glen Green], an associate professor of Pediatric Otolaryngology, they have created a bioresorbable device that could save little [Garrett’s] life.
By taking CT scans of [Garrett’s] bronchi and trachea, they were able to create a 3D model and design a “splint” to help support the bronchi from collapsing during normal breathing. If all goes well, within 3 years, the splint will dissolve in his body and he will be able to breath normally for good. The material in question is a biopolymer called polycaprolactone, which they were actually granted emergency clearance from the FDA to use for [Garrett]. They used an EOS SLS based 3D printer.
The surgery was successful, and [Garrett] is now on the road to recovery. Stick around for a few videos showing of the printing process and surgery.
And [Garrett’s] story:
[Thanks Paul!] | 31 | 12 | [
{
"comment_id": "1323018",
"author": "John Pfeiffer",
"timestamp": "2014-04-02T23:11:53",
"content": "Wow, first I’ve heard of polycaprolactone being used as a 3D printing medium. (But apparently it’s not uncommon outside the hobby 3D printing market…) I’ve got a jar of pellets on my workbench, the... | 1,760,376,248.105569 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/04/02/bunnie-launches-the-novena-open-laptop/ | [Bunnie] Launches The Novena Open Laptop | Eric Evenchick | [
"ARM",
"Crowd Funding",
"hardware"
] | [
"arm",
"bunnie",
"i.mx6q",
"Novena",
"open source",
"spartan-6"
] | Today [Bunnie] is announcing the launch of the
Novena Open Laptop
. When we first heard he was developing an open source laptop as a hobby project, we hoped we’d see the day where
we could have our own
. Starting today, you can help crowdfund the project by pre-ordering a Novena.
The Novena is based on the
i.MX6Q ARM processor
from Freescale, coupled to a
Xilinx Spartan 6 FPGA
. Combined with the open nature of the project, this creates a lot of possibilities for using the laptop as a hacking tool. It has dual ethernet, for routing or sniffing purposes. USB OTG support lets the laptop act as a USB device, for USB fuzzing and spoofing. There’s even a high speed expansion bus to interface with whatever peripheral you’d like to design.
You can pre-order the Novena in four models. The $500 “just the board” release has no case, but includes all the hardware needed to get up and running. The $1,195 “All-in-One Desktop” model adds a case and screen, and hinges open to reveal the board for easy hacking. Next up is the $1,995 “Laptop” which includes a battery control board and a battery pack. Finally, there’s the $5000 “Heirloom Laptop” featuring a wood and aluminum case and a Thinkpad keyboard.
The hardware design files are already available, so you can
drool over them
. It will be interesting to see what people start doing with this powerful, open computer once it ships. After the break, check out the launch video. | 60 | 24 | [
{
"comment_id": "1322923",
"author": "macona",
"timestamp": "2014-04-02T22:09:12",
"content": "“powerful”Compared to what?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1323165",
"author": "Mr.McMister",
"timestamp": "2014-04-03T00:57:04",
... | 1,760,376,248.320092 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/04/02/boxing-arduino-geometry-awesomeness/ | Boxing + Arduino + Geometry = Awesomeness | Will Sweatman | [
"Arduino Hacks",
"ARM",
"Robots Hacks"
] | [
"arduino",
"boxing",
"gumstix"
] | Imagine a machine that [Anderson Silva] could throw a punch at, that would locate his fist in real time and move a punching pad to meet his moving fist. How would you do it? Kinect? Super huge sensor array? Sticking charm? What if we told you it could be done with two electret microphones, an Arduino, and a Gumstix? Yeah, that’s right. You might want to turn your phone off and sit down for this one.
[Benjamin] and his fellow students developed this brilliant proof of concept design
that blocks incoming punches
for their final project. We’ve seen
boxing robots here before
, but this one takes the cake. The details are sparse, but we’ve dug into what was made available to us and have a relatively good idea on how they pulled off this awesome piece of electrical engineering.
Consider two microphones fixed to both ends of an axis. Then consider a tone generator that could move back and forth on the same axis. The amplitude of the waveform coming off of each microphone would be inversely proportional to the square of the distance between the microphones and the tone generator. Put more simply – the amplitudes would follow the inverse square law. These value’s, multiplied by a constant, can be used to represent the radius (r) of a circle, from which a circle equation (x
2
+ y
2
= r
2
) can be derived. Because there are two microphones, there are two circles. Or more specifically, two values of (r), which we will call (r1) and (r2).
[Benjamin’s] mission was to pinpoint the exact location of the tone generator source (which is attached to the punching glove) and move a target to intercept it. After amplification, the signals from each microphone are fed into an Arduino, where they are averaged. He then sends the peak data to a Gumstix via I2C. One could probably get a rough idea of where the tone generator was from this data alone. But [Benjamin] and his team wanted an exact location, and used what is known as the
Circle-Circle Intersection equation
that runs as a algorithm in the Gumstix. This gives him the precise location on the axis where the two circles meet, and thus the location of the tone generator source. From this point, it’s relatively simple to move the guard (part that blocks the punch) to the location. An IR sensor is used to determine the current location of the guard, and the Gumstix moves it to the punch location via PWM and an H bridge. Brilliant!
We’ve stepped through the math to demonstrate exactly how the Circle-Circle Intersection algorithm is solving the location. You can count the squares to represent data. The answer of 2.6 is the distance from the center of the smaller circle to the intersection point. You can get the distance from the larger circle to the intersection point simply by swapping (r) and (R) in the equation. Try it!
This technique of determining the location of a moving object along a single axis is bound to come in handy for other hacks. | 3 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "1322872",
"author": "Matthew",
"timestamp": "2014-04-02T21:15:34",
"content": "So… it can stop awfully slow punches, then?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1322920",
"author": "Mike Szczys",
"timestamp": "2014-0... | 1,760,376,248.149957 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/04/01/mc-escher-inspires-a-reptilian-floor/ | MC Escher Inspires A Reptilian Floor | Adam Fabio | [
"home hacks"
] | [
"floor",
"MC Escher",
"tesselation"
] | A simple room refinishing project lead [Kris] to his biggest hack yet, a
floor inspired by MC Escher’s
Reptiles
print
.
Maurits Cornelis Escher
is well known for his
reality defying
artwork. His lifelong passion was
tessellation
, large planes covered identical interlocking shapes. Triangles, squares, hexagons all
interlock naturally. Escher discovered that if he cut out part of a shape and replaced it on the opposite side, the new shape will still interlock. In
Reptiles
, Escher created a lizard shape by modifying a hexagon. One side flipped over to become the nose, 4 others to become the feet, and so on. If the cuts are all made perfectly, the final shape would still interlock.
[Kris] was inspired by a photo of a commercial flooring project using small wooden reptiles as the tiles. He wanted to go with larger wooden tiles for his room. He knew his shapes had to be perfect, so he wrote a computer program to split the hexagon perfectly. Armed with art in DXF format, he went looking for a flooring company to help him. The silence was deafening. Even with artwork ready to go, none of the local custom flooring shops would take his job. Undaunted, [Kris] bought an older CNC machine. The machine was designed to be driven from MS-DOS via the parallel port of a Pentium II era PC. [Kris] substituted an Arduino running
GRBL
. After some GCode generation, he was cutting tiles.
The real fun started when it was time to glue the tiles down. With all the interlocking parts, it’s impossible to just glue one tile and have it in the perfect position for the next. In [Kris’] own words, “You have to do it all in one go”. Thanks to some family support and muscle, the flooring project was a success. Great work, [Kris]! | 38 | 20 | [
{
"comment_id": "1320300",
"author": "Mohonri",
"timestamp": "2014-04-01T17:08:29",
"content": "Of course, if you dry fit everything first, then it’s not such a big deal when it comes to the gluing stage…I gotta say, I’m impressed with the idea–this would be awesome for a kid’s room.",
"parent_i... | 1,760,376,248.396977 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/04/01/editing-circuits-with-focused-ion-beams/ | Editing Circuits With Focused Ion Beams | Brian Benchoff | [
"hardware"
] | [
"cpld",
"decapsulating",
"FIB",
"focused ion beam",
"reverse engineering"
] | [Andrew] has been busy running a class on hardware reverse engineering this semester, and figured a great end for the class would be something extraordinarily challenging and amazingly powerful. To that end,
he’s editing CPLDs in circuit
, drilling down to metal layers of a CPLD and probing the signals inside. It’s the ground work for reverse engineering just about every piece of silicon ever made, and a great look into what major research labs and three-letter agencies can actually do.
The chip [Andrew] chose was a Xilinx XC2C32A, a cheap but still modern CPLD. The first step to probing the signals was decapsulating the chip from its plastic prison and finding some interesting signals on the die. After working out a reasonable functional diagram for the chip, he decided to burrow into one of the lines on the ZIA, the bus between the macrocells, GPIO pins, and function blocks.
Actually probing one of these signals
first involved milling through 900 nm of silicon nitride to get to a metal layer and one of the signal lines. This hole was then filled with platinum and a large 20 μm square was laid down for a probe needle. It took a few tries, but [Andrew] was able to write a simple ‘blink a LED’ code for the chip and view the s square wave from this test point. not much, but that’s the first step to reverse engineering the crypto on a custom ASIC, reading some undocumented configuration bits, and basically doing anything you want with silicon.
This isn’t the sort of thing anyone could ever do in their home lab. It’s much more than just having an electron microscope on hand; [Andrew] easily used a few million dollars worth of tools to probe the insides of this chip. Still, it’s a very cool look into what the big boys can do with the right equipment. | 38 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "1319961",
"author": "chango",
"timestamp": "2014-04-01T14:04:58",
"content": "FIBs are the blue wire of the chip industry. When I worked for $BIG_CPU_VENDOR it was not uncommon to have a handful of FIB’d parts made up to workaround design issues to validate a fix and keep developme... | 1,760,376,248.225486 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/04/01/e-waste-quadcopter-lifts-your-spirits-while-keeping-costs-down/ | E-Waste Quadcopter Lifts Your Spirits While Keeping Costs Down | Rich Bremer | [
"drone hacks"
] | [
"drone",
"quad copter"
] | The advancement of Quadcopters and their capabilities over the last few years has been amazing. Unfortunately, the price point to get into the sport with a decent size, non-toy, vehicle is still several hundred dollars. And what’s the fun with buying one when you can built it?!? Strapped for cash and feeling the same way, [Hans] over at the hackerspace Knackatory decided to build a
quadcopter from e-waste
.
The + shaped frame is made from lightweight plywood. It’s pretty obvious that the main rotors are PC Fans, 140mm in this case. Normally, these wouldn’t be able to create enough lift to get out of their own way except the on-board 24v Dewalt cordless tool battery bumps up the fan speed to 15,000 rpm. The one orange fan allows the operator to maintain a visual reference to which side of the ‘copter is forward.
An Arduino running
MultiWii
control software is the brains of this UAV. The MultiWii software uses the sensors from part of a Nintendo Wii remote to sense orientation and movement. While there is no hand held transmitter with this quadcopter per se, communication to the host computer is handled by a wireless router running
OpenWRT
. The router is the gateway that allows the Arduino and Ethernet Shield combination to communicate through the Hackerspace’s wifi network. Flight plans are pre-programmed. Admittedly, the real time control through computer keyboard commands needs a little work. The team plans on interfacing a regular USB game controller with the software.
Making stuff out of e-waste is a great way to recycle. Remember this
e-waste 3D Printer
? | 147 | 50 | [
{
"comment_id": "1319692",
"author": "Bracken",
"timestamp": "2014-04-01T11:09:35",
"content": "lol",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1319700",
"author": "polar",
"timestamp": "2014-04-01T11:10:44",
"content": "Fake",
"parent_id": ... | 1,760,376,248.551313 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/04/01/stretch-bike-hauls-all/ | Stretch Bike Hauls All | Will Sweatman | [
"Transportation Hacks"
] | [
"bicycle",
"bike",
"carbon fiber",
"cargo",
"cargo bike",
"frame",
"klapprad",
"welding"
] | Need to haul some stuff? Got nothing to haul it with? Then fashion yourself a
cargo bicycle
! We’ve seen
cargo bikes
before, but none quite like this one. Built from a German “klapprad”, [Morgan] and his father fashioned a well constructed cargo bicycle which is sure to come in handy for many years.
They started by cutting the bike in half and welding in a 1 meter long square tubing extension. The klapprad style bicycle is made from thick metal stock, making it sturdy and easy to weld. This process also make it a true “stretch” vehicle as opposed to
one that replaces the front end
in order to keep the handle bar assembly near the rider.
Along with some nicely done woodwork and carbon fiber, they used parts from an old mountain bike including a front fork, front bearing and handlebar, tubing from an old steel lamp, a kickstand from a postman motorcycle,
and a kitchen sink
to complete the build. It should handle well so long as the weight of the cargo is not heavier than the weight of the driver. | 43 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "1319390",
"author": "joiga",
"timestamp": "2014-04-01T08:13:14",
"content": "Fun fact: the nazis used polish bike.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1320294",
"author": "Ren",
"timestamp": "2014-04-01T17:06:03",
... | 1,760,376,248.721025 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/03/31/raspberry-pi-quake-iii-bounty-claimed/ | Raspberry Pi Quake III Bounty Claimed | Brian Benchoff | [
"Raspberry Pi"
] | [
"broadcom",
"quake",
"Video driver"
] | For the Raspberry Pi’s second birthday, the Raspi foundation gave us all a very cool gift. Broadcom released the full documentation for the graphics on one of their cellphone chips and offered up a $10k prize to the first person to port that code over to the graphics processor on the Pi and run Quake III.
The prize has been claimed
, forming the foundation for anyone wanting a completely documented video core on the Pi.
The person to claim this prize is one [Simon Hall], author of the DMA module that’s in the current Raspbian release. Even though Quake III already runs on the Pi, it does so with a closed source driver. [Simon]’s work opens up the VideoCore in the Pi to everyone, especially useful for anyone banging their heads against the limitations of the Pi platform.
You can get your hands on the new video drivers right now, simply by downloading and compiling all the sources. Be warned, though: recompiling everything takes around 12 hours. We’re expecting a Raspbian update soon. | 29 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "1319146",
"author": "RandyKC",
"timestamp": "2014-04-01T05:14:54",
"content": "This just shows the power of open source. I wish other companies could see the synergy that this can bring to their products.This little open source board’s capabilities just continue to grow the more tha... | 1,760,376,248.851999 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/03/31/the-coconut-cruiser-takes-relaxing-to-the-next-level/ | The Coconut Cruiser Takes Relaxing To The Next Level | James Hobson | [
"Transportation Hacks"
] | [
"wheelchair hacks"
] | While you might not be able to tell from the picture, that
outdoor love seat has wheels underneath it
. And that Coconut — yeah — It controls it.
We’re starting to like this [Rodger Cleye] fellow. First he brings us the awesome
[Marty Mcfly] quadcopter-hoverboard
— and now this. He had originally converted his old recliner into a
RC comfortable transportation chair
in attempt to sell it at a garage sale, and after that decided a one-seater was just too boring. It’s much more fun to lounge with a friend while cruising down the street in your love seat.
It runs off of a 24V DC system with two 15aH SLA batteries. This gets it going to about 5mph, and the battery lasts well over 2 hours. The coconut has a straw sticking out of it which is actually the joystick — a very discrete control unit!
Still not satisfied, he decided to throw on a 25W audio system as well, so they can play their Hawaiian music while weirding out the neighbors. Take a look after the break. | 9 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "1318898",
"author": "supershwa",
"timestamp": "2014-04-01T02:33:33",
"content": "What a great way to get pulled over!I love these things…while you can absolutely get a ticket for having an “unsafe vehicle” like this on the road (I know, he’s 50ft from the house), it’s a pretty fun, ... | 1,760,376,248.597372 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/03/31/frozen-pi-an-affordable-bullet-time-recorder/ | Frozen Pi — An Affordable Bullet Time Recorder | James Hobson | [
"Raspberry Pi"
] | [
"bullet time",
"PiFace"
] | What happens when you strap 48 Raspberry Pi cameras together with nearly half a kilometer of network cables? You get your own
bullet time capture rig.
Originally inspired by the unique film effect of the Matrix and an old BBC documentary called Supernatural: The Unseen Powers of Animals, the owner of
PiFace
decided to try re-creating the bullet time effect himself.
To create the rig they’ve taken 48 Raspberry Pis, each with a PiFace controller board and the standard camera. The controller board allows the Raspberry Pi to be used without a keyboard or mouse, so all the network cables have to do is send a simple code to each pi in order to take the pictures. A simple laser cut wood profile is used to snap them all together into a giant ring.
While 48 Raspberry Pis is a lot, they think this is a reasonable project for a classroom environment — besides, how cool would it be to go to school and film your own bullet time stunts?
Of course we have seen lots of bullet time rigs before, but it looks like this one will give a bit better of an effect. If you don’t have the cash for that many cameras — how about
a single GoPro and a ceiling fan?
Hackaday Alum [Caleb] even managed
to do one with a lazy susan!
[Via
Adafruit
] | 31 | 17 | [
{
"comment_id": "1318495",
"author": "Backwoods Engineer",
"timestamp": "2014-03-31T23:11:29",
"content": "When I read “bullet time”, I thought of this:http://www.shootingchrony.com/Then I said, “Oh. The Matrix. Wasn’t that a long time ago?”",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": ... | 1,760,376,249.022753 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/03/30/hackaday-links-march-31-2014/ | Hackaday Links: March 31, 2014 | Mike Szczys | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"Hackaday links"
] | [
"3ds",
"ece",
"fpga",
"iphone",
"lcd",
"Ouya"
] | Wanting to display his Google calendars [Chris Champion] decided to mount an old monitor on the wall. The hack is his installation method which
recesses both the bracket and the outlet
while still following electrical code (we think).
Since we’re already on the topic. Here’s a hack-tacular project which
hangs a laptop LCD as if it were a picture frame
. We do really enjoy seeing the wire, which connects to the top corners and hangs from a single hook a few inches above the screen bezel. There’s something very “whatever works” about it that pleases us.
[Jaspreet] build
a datalogger in an FPGA
. He put together a short video demo of the project but
you can find a bit more info from his repo
. He’s using a DE0-Nano board which is a relatively
low-cost dev board from Terasic
.
Want to see what’s under the hood in the processor running a Nintendo 3DS? Who wouldn’t? [Markus] didn’t just post the die images taken through his microscope. He documented
the entire disassembly and decapping process
. Maybe we should have given this one its own feature?
If you’re streaming on your Ouya you definitely want a clean WiFi signal. [Michael Thompson] managed to improve his reception by
adding an external antenna
.
We always like to hear about the free exchange of information, especially when it comes to high-quality educational material. [Capt Todd Branchflower] teaches at the United States Air Force Academy. He wrote in to say that his
ECE383 Embedded Systems II class
is now available online. All the info can also be found at
his Github repo
.
And finally, do you remember all the noise that was made about 3D printed guns a while back? Well [Mikeasaurus]
put together the .iStab
. It’s a 3D printed iPhone case with an integrated folding blade…. for personal protection? Who knows. We think it should be a multitasking solution that functions as a fold-down antenna. | 10 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "1316323",
"author": "Jabs",
"timestamp": "2014-03-31T00:11:37",
"content": "The only part of Champion’s build that may be questionable is how he mounted that receptacle box. Plus, he now has a huge hole in his wall that he’ll eventually have to cover up.",
"parent_id": null,
... | 1,760,376,248.77957 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/03/30/measuring-magnetic-fields-with-a-robotic-arm/ | Measuring Magnetic Fields With A Robotic Arm | Nick Conn | [
"Robots Hacks"
] | [
"atmega32u4",
"electromagneticfields",
"electromagnetism",
"FIELD",
"HMC5883L",
"lufa",
"magnet",
"magnetometer",
"matlab",
"robot",
"robotic arm"
] | Learning how magnets and magnetic fields work is one thing, but actually being able to measure and see a magnetic field is another thing entirely! [Stanley’s] latest project uses a
magnetometer attached to a robotic arm
with 3 degrees of freedom to measure magnetic fields.
Using servos and aluminium mounting hardware purchased from eBay, [Stanley] build a simple robot arm. He then hooked an
HMC5883L
magnetometer to the robotic arm. [Stanley] used an Atmega32u4 and the
LUFA
USB library to interface with this sensor since it has a high data rate. For those of you unfamiliar with LUFA, it is a Lightweight USB Framework for AVRs (formerly known as MyUSB). The results were plotted in MATLAB (
Octave
is free MATLAB alternative), a very powerful mathematical based scripting language. The plots almost perfectly match the field patterns learned in introductory classes on magnetism. Be sure to watching the robot arm take the measurements in the video after the break, it is very cool!
[Stanley] has graciously provided both the AVR code and the MATLAB script for his project at the end of his write-up. It would be very cool to see what other sensors could be used in this fashion! What other natural phenomena would be interesting to map in three dimensions? | 13 | 12 | [
{
"comment_id": "1315838",
"author": "flaminggoat",
"timestamp": "2014-03-30T20:06:42",
"content": "Wow, great application for this sort of robotic arm. It would be cool to see the fields around different types of magnets too.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"... | 1,760,376,249.122127 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/03/30/reflowing-with-a-hair-straightener/ | Reflowing With A Hair Straightener | Brian Benchoff | [
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"hair straightener",
"reflow",
"reflow oven"
] | Around here, reflow ovens usually mean a toaster oven, and if you’re exceptionally cool, a thermistor and PID controller. There are, of course, a thousand ways to turn solder paste into a solid connection and [Saar] might have found the cheapest way yet:
a hair straightener
with a street value of just £15.
We don’t expect the majority of the Hackaday demographic to know much about hair straighteners, but [Saar] has done all the work and came up with a list of what makes a good one. Floating plates are a must to keep the PCB in contact with the heating element at all times, and temperature control is essential. [Saar] ended up with a
Remington S3500 Ceramic Straight 230 Hair Straightener
, although a trip to any big box store should yield a straightener that would work just as well.
One modification [Saar] added was a strip of Kapton tape to one of the ceramic heating elements. It’s not a replacement for a toaster oven or real reflow oven, but for small boards it works just as well.
Video below. | 34 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "1315526",
"author": "0xfred",
"timestamp": "2014-03-30T17:13:46",
"content": "A nice hack, especially as toaster ovens aren’t that common here in the UK. Also, as a man who has a thing for women with curly hair, the more of these evil devices that are taken off the streets the bette... | 1,760,376,249.257385 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/03/30/lego-my-single-phase-induction-motor/ | LEGO® My Single-Phase Induction Motor | Kristina Panos | [
"how-to",
"Parts"
] | [
"Duplo",
"dynamo",
"f'n magnets; how do they produce electricity?",
"induction motor"
] | [Diato556] made a really cool single-phase induction motor with parts mounted on Duplo blocks. He has posted an Instructable where he uses these modular parts to
demonstrate the motor and the principles of induction
as described after the jump.
Alternator
[Diato556] starts with an AC generator, a tiny alternator made with the coil from a relay and the magnet from a bicycle dynamo. He rotates the magnet on a spit in front of the relay coil, producing an induced current that lights an LED connected to the relay.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_uND_gP9rE
Rotating magnetic field
Next up is a rotating magnetic field demonstration. Using the same rotisserie magnet, he induces a current in a rotor made from a small aluminium cylinder. The cylinder pivots against a nail and induced current causes the rotor to spin.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ufWR5si5p8w
Induction motor
The induction motor builds from previous experiment. Instead of the magnet, the two coils induce current in the rotor. One is fed directly from 12VAC, and the other coil’s power is delayed with a 4.7μF capacitor. The alternating magnetic field causes the rotor to spin.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z-sMw4Wm3V0™
This is a neat project on so many levels. The modular Duplo-entrenched parts are just plain cool. Give demonstrations at the office, or just keep it around as a fun desk toy or conversation piece. If you don’t have a desk and must carry your conversation pieces on your person, you can’t go wrong with
this induction flashlight
. | 5 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "1315291",
"author": "gertlexhk",
"timestamp": "2014-03-30T15:23:33",
"content": "I believe common law says drilling holes in LEGO is a horrific crime. I’ve never been clear if being a hacker/tinker makes such ok. ;)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
... | 1,760,376,249.071514 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/03/30/diy-bluetooth-boombox-can-take-a-beating/ | DIY Bluetooth Boombox Can Take A Beating! | James Hobson | [
"digital audio hacks"
] | [
"bluetooth boombox",
"boombox"
] | Looking for a nice portable audio solution that can take a beating outdoors? This
RaveBOX (v1.0)
might be what you’re looking for!
[Angelo] is a 15 year old high school student from the Philippines who loves making things — in fact, he has a collection over 40 Instructables that he’s written himself to share with the world. He wrote his first when he was only 10 years old.
He was inspired to build this boombox when he stumbled upon a Pelican-like rugged case at the mall, so he bought it and started planning the build around it. He’s using a pair of 2-channel audio amplifiers hooked up to a Bluetooth/FM/USB/SD card player module which has a nice face-plate for external mounting. It drives a 4″ woofer, and 4 full range speakers. To modify the case, he used a Dremel and pocket knife, and we must say, he did a great job! The 12V 2.2aH lithium polymer battery provides a surprising 18 hours of playback.
It’s a great beginner’s project to get into soldering — nothing too complex, but the resulting boombox is quite useful — and [Angelo’s] got a great guide to get you started!
If you’re looking for a bit more stylish boombox, why not
build one out of a briefcase? | 18 | 13 | [
{
"comment_id": "1314840",
"author": "Sven",
"timestamp": "2014-03-30T11:18:04",
"content": "How can this take a beating? If you drop it on an edge with the speakers down they’re ruined, and i wouldn’t think that cheap chinese MP3 player module protruding from the side is very sturdy.",
"parent_... | 1,760,376,249.185791 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/03/30/malware-in-a-mouse/ | Malware In A Mouse | Brian Benchoff | [
"Peripherals Hacks",
"Security Hacks"
] | [
"mouse",
"optical mouse",
"security"
] | Keyloggers, in both hardware and software forms, have been around for a long, long time. More devious keyloggers are smart enough to ‘type’ commands into a computer and install Trojans, back doors, and other really nasty stuff. What about mice, though? Surely there’s no way the humble USB mouse could become an avenue of attack for some crazy security shenanigans, right?
As it turns out, yes, breaking into a computer with nothing but a USB mouse is possible. The folks over at CT Magazine, the preeminent German computer rag,
have made the Trojan mouse
(German,
terrible Google translation
)
The only input a mouse receives are button presses, scroll wheel ticks, and the view from a tiny, crappy camera embedded in the base. The build reads this camera with an Arduino, and when a certain pattern of gray and grayer pixels appear, it triggers a command to download a file from the Internet. From there, and from a security standpoint, Bob’s your uncle.
Looking through the camera inside a mouse is nothing new;
it’s been done over the Internet
and turned into
the worst scanner ever made
. Still, being able to process that image data and do something with it is very cool. Just don’t accept mouse pads from strangers.
Danke [Ianmcmill] for the tip. | 36 | 23 | [
{
"comment_id": "1314350",
"author": "edonovan",
"timestamp": "2014-03-30T08:23:14",
"content": "I would like to know the keystrokes it uses to invisibly download and install malware.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1314377",
"author":... | 1,760,376,249.383366 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/03/29/3d-printed-instrument-roundup/ | 3D Printed Instrument Roundup | James Hobson | [
"3d Printer hacks",
"Musical Hacks"
] | [
"3d printed flute",
"3d printed musical instruments",
"3d printed violin"
] | We just stumbled upon a great repository of all musical things that are 3D printed. It’s
a wiki dedicated to sharing and recording these 3D printed instruments
to help encourage further ideas and projects.
The people maintaining the site find different projects and share them, adding descriptions which would go great into a database search. They explain the type of instrument, it’s history, a picture or video of it and the method of manufacture used to create, whether it be traditional 3D printing, laser cutting, or another process.
Some of our favorites include the
3D printed guitar bodies
, the strange looking multi-horn trumpet (that’s the weird one, bottom right) by the MIT Media Lab, and of course the humongous bass recorder (top right).
Stick around after the break for a few videos of these
different
unconventional, unorthodox instruments!
Or this ridiculously cool
minimalist 3D printed guitar… | 13 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "1314451",
"author": "agtrier",
"timestamp": "2014-03-30T08:51:56",
"content": "In an electric guitar, the body material has little to no influence on the sound (comes from strings & pickups). It has an influence on the comfort to carry it, though, as a completely hollow body has to ... | 1,760,376,249.311574 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/03/31/a-real-malware-in-a-mouse/ | A Real Malware In A Mouse | Brian Benchoff | [
"Arduino Hacks",
"Peripherals Hacks"
] | [
"mouse",
"security"
] | After reading an April Fools joke we fell for, [Mortimer]
decided to replicate this project
that turns the common USB mouse into a powerful tool that can bring down corporations and governments. Actually, he just gave himself one-click access to Hackaday, but that’s just as good.
The guts of this modified mouse are pretty simple; the left click, right click, and wheel click of the mouse are wired up to three pins on an Arduino Pro Micro. The USB port of the ‘duino is configured as a USB HID device and has the ability to send keyboard commands in response to any input on the mouse.
Right now, [Mortimer] has this mouse configured that when the left click button is pressed, it highlights the address bar of his browser and types in
http://www.hackaday.com
. Not quite as subversive as
reading extremely small codes printed on a mousepad
with the optical sensor, but enough to build upon this project and do some serious damage to a computer.
Video of [Mort]’s mouse below. | 27 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "1318262",
"author": "Jon",
"timestamp": "2014-03-31T20:15:05",
"content": "And now for malware in a real mouse:http://www.cdc.gov/rodents/diseases/direct.html",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1318283",
"author": "Eirinn... | 1,760,376,249.474424 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/03/31/droning-on-resources-and-first-steps/ | Droning On: Resources And First Steps | Adam Fabio | [
"Hackaday Columns"
] | [
"Droning On",
"quadcopter",
"Syma X1"
] | It’s been quiet these last few weeks in drone news. Some members of the commercial community are performing missions, while others are waiting on the results of the FAA’s appeal to the NTSB. There is no denying that drones are getting larger as an industry though. Even Facebook has jumped into the fray, not for drones to deliver real world pokes,
but to provide internet access in remote areas
.
One of the high points in the news was an octocopter operator’s
discovery of 2500 year old rock drawings
, or
petroglyphs
in the Utah desert. While exploring a known archeological site, Bill Clary of GotAerial LLC flew his octocopter up to a cliff face. The rock formation would have made rappelling down the face difficult at best. He found an amazing collection of petroglyphs
which he documented in this video
. While the authenticity of the petroglyphs hasn’t been proven yet, they appear to date back to the
Basketmaker people
who lived in the area from approximately 500 BC through 860AD.
Maybe you’re asking yourself how you can get in on some of these sweet drone adventures? Whether you’re considering your very first flight, or already own multiple aircraft, you’ll want to read our discussion of getting started (specifically: acquiring your first drone) and discovering drone-related communities. Hit that “read more” link to stay with us.
Drone, Drone of my own: Getting started
Getting started with drones SHOULD be easier than it is. As with any complex endeavor, there are some common pitfalls which often snag enthusiasts. The biggest one I see is a new pilot buying and building an expensive model – be it for sport, aerial photography, FPV, or fully autonomous – without learning how to fly first. This is a sure-fire recipe for disaster. Just about every autonomous model falls back to radio control when problems arise. FPV models can and do have video failures, so knowing how to fly line of sight is essential. Think of it as learning how to drive. You wouldn’t want to learn on Corvette or a Rolls-Royce. The same applies to drones. Don’t learn with an octocopter, or with $2000 USD of camera equipment hanging off your aerial photography rig.
Just choosing a first quad to learn with can be a daunting task. Back in the early 1990’s, I worked in a hobby shop. There were only a handful of large R/C manufacturers back then. Most of them were based in the US, Europe, and Japan. With the rise of China and the global economy, there are now hundreds of manufacturers and distributors of drones and RC models. This leads to the often seen “clone of a clone of a clone” situation we’ve come to recognize with the Arduino and any popular electronic device. But which models are of decent quality, and which are junk? The easiest way to get a good answer is to seek the advice of others.
From my own experience, I’ve found a specific quad to be pretty good for learning to fly. It doesn’t hurt that it’s also one of the cheapest out there.
The Syma X1
is a pretty darn good quad to learn with. The Syma appears to be a copy of the
Blade MQX
quadcopter – however Syma fixed a few flight issues the MQX suffered from. You can find the Syma at Amazon and other online retailers for around $30 USD. The X1 is a brushed quad, which means the motors use carbon brushes to transfer power to the coils. Most larger quads are brushless. Don’t let the older technology fool you. Brushed motors are just fine in this application. However, the one part of the X1 I don’t really like is the transmitter. While it does sport an LCD display, the sticks and overall action feel cheap. They had to save money somewhere. Even with that shortcoming, the Syma transmitter is fine to learn with. A real nicety is that the X1 can be paired with the very hackable
Turnigy 9x series transmitters
.
Don’t forget to check the mode of the transmitter when ordering. Mode 1/Mode 2 refers to the layout of the controls on the sticks. Asia and Europe tend to use Mode 1, with the throttle and aileron on the right stick. North America uses Mode 2, where throttle and rudder are on the left stick. Since throttle control doesn’t use a centering spring, this is a mechanical change, not just a software remap of functions. One mode isn’t any easier than the other to fly, but flying with friends is more fun when your radio has the same functions as theirs.
While I don’t plan to make Droning On a tutorial on learning to fly –
there are plenty of great quality tutorials out there
– I do want to help out with a few tips.
If you you’re about to crash, chop the throttle. The X1 is so light that impacts usually result in no damage. Ensuring the motors are off when that impact happens will save your propellers, gears and motors.
Try to fly over grass or dirt, not concrete. Some tutorials will tell you to skid the quad around on the ground while learning. The skidding is a throwback to R/C helicopter training. With small quads like the X1, it’s better to get a couple of feet off the ground and out of ground effect turbulence.
If you feel like you’re losing control, let the sticks go – the gyroscopes and accelerometers on the X1 will often bring it back to a level hover.
Keep the back of the drone facing you. In that orientation the drone will follow the movements of the stick. When you’re comfortable with that try out other orientations.
“Nose in” is the hardest orientation to master, as your left is the quadcopter’s right. The quadcopter will mirror your stick movements.
Have fun! Seriously – it’s easy to get frustrated and stressed out when learning . If that happens take a breather, and try to remember that even if it were to fly away, the X1 is only $30 to replace.
Drone Resources
One of my favorite aspects of the internet has always been the collaboration. Like ham radio operators, R/C and drone enthusiasts were early adopters of the internet. Where news and information would only come once a month through magazines, it’s now available instantly online.
Usenet
provided early access through the rec.models.rc newsgroup tree. As the web came of age, much of the conversation moved to forum based websites. Some of the oldest and richest resources are the R/C forums. The best example of this would be
RC Groups
. Created as part of the
Ezone
, an electric RC magazine dating back to 1995, RC Groups has sections for just about every aspect of the hobby. The
Multirotor
,
FPV
,
Aerial Photography
,
UAV
, and
DIY Electronics
sections will be of interest to Hackaday readers.
Here are a few other RC and drone oriented forums:
RC Universe
, general RC forum similar to RC Groups.
FPV Labs
covers first person video enthusiasts.
multirotorforums
covers all things multirotor – from tricopters to octos and beyond.
AP Landing
covers the aerial photography folks.
Note that this isn’t an exhaustive list. I tried to cover a few of the big sites. If you know of any that I’ve missed, please throw them into the comments.
The problem with most forums is finding information. Sure they have searches, but they usually leave quite a bit to be desired. As an example the main
Syma X1 thread
on RC groups is currently over 5200 posts spanning 348 pages. Topics meander, flame wars are waged, and post sizes get out of hand. If statistics are to be believed, RC Groups averages around 20,000 active users at any given time. It’s understandable how even an army of mods would have a hard time keeping up.
There are plenty of non-forum based drone information sites. 3D Robotics maintains a community site at
DiyDrones
which is chock full of forum and blog information.
Instructables
has a number of drone entries. The Drone section at
Hackaday.io
is still looking pretty lean – though we’re hoping you’ll help change that in the near future.
That about wraps it up for this edition of Droning On! | 20 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "1318020",
"author": "Rich Quackenbush",
"timestamp": "2014-03-31T17:14:02",
"content": "Wow – the X1 is indeed cheap. I just ordered one from Amazon!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1318034",
"author": "Mike Szczys",
... | 1,760,376,249.639289 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/03/31/dr-frankensteins-wireless-xbox-one-steering-wheel/ | Dr. Frankenstein’s Wireless Xbox One Steering Wheel | Kristina Panos | [
"Arduino Hacks",
"Xbox Hacks"
] | [
"Arduino Pro",
"simraceway SRW-S1",
"xbox one"
] | Buy an Xbox One controller and hack it immediately? That’s exactly what [tEEonE] did so he could
merge it with a Simraceway SRW-S1 steering wheel
. He loves racing games and was psyched to play Forza 5. He already had the steering wheel, but it’s strictly a PC peripheral. [tEEonE] wanted the wheel to control the steering, gas, and brakes and found both the XB1 controller and the SRW-S1 well-suited to the hack.
For steering, [tEEonE] substituted the SRW-S1’s accelerometer for the XB1’s left joystick pot. He connected the X and Y to analog pins on an Arduino Pro. Then he mapped the rotation angles to voltage levels using a DAC and wired that to the XB1 joystick output. The XB1 controller uses Hall effect sensors and magnets on the triggers to control the gas and brake. He removed these and wired the SRW-S1 paddles to their outputs and the XB1 controller is none the wiser.
He also rigged up a 3-point control system to control the sensitivity and calibrate the angles: a button to toggle through menu items and two touch modules to increment and decrement the value. These he wired up to a feedback interface made by reusing a 15-LED strip from the SRW-S1. Finally, he had space left inside the housing for the XB1’s big rumble motors and was able to attach the small motors to the gas and brake paddles with the help of some 3-D printed attachments. Check out this awesome hack in action after the break. | 4 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "1317811",
"author": "PR",
"timestamp": "2014-03-31T14:29:57",
"content": "It’s kinda ugly, but points for performance, looked like you were tearing up the track! :)Any plans on making a proper enclosure, etc.?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"... | 1,760,376,249.518313 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/03/31/sniffing-ph-sensor-rf-signals-for-feedback-re-your-esophagus/ | Sniffing PH Sensor RF Signals For Feedback Re: Your Esophagus | Mathieu Stephan | [
"Lifehacks",
"Medical Hacks",
"Radio Hacks",
"Wireless Hacks"
] | [
"ask",
"pH sensor",
"RTL-SDR"
] | For about a week [Justin] had a wireless acidity level sensor in his esophagus and a pager-looking RF receiver in his pocket. So he naturally decided to use an RTL-SDR dongle to
sniff the signals coming out of him
. As most of our Hackaday readers know, these cheap RTL2382U-based DVB-T receivers are very handy when it comes to listening to anything between 50MHz and 1800MHz. [Justin] actually did a great job at listing all the things these receivers can be used for (aircraft traffic monitoring, weather images download, electric meter reading, pacemaker monitoring…).
After some Googling he managed to find his Bravo pH sensor user’s guide and therefore discovered its main frequency and modulation scheme (433.92MHz / ASK). [Justin] then used
gqrx
and Audacity to manually decode the packets before writing a browser-based tool which uses an audio file. Finally, a few additional hours of thinking allowed him to extract his dear esophagus’ pH value. | 8 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "1317988",
"author": "mixadj",
"timestamp": "2014-03-31T16:44:14",
"content": "Slightly off topic. I have never heard of these sensors. How are they placed? Do they use surgical(incision) methods or some kind of wicked strong superglue?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"r... | 1,760,376,249.727653 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/03/31/magic-screwdriver-decides-if-you-watch-tv-or-not/ | Magic Screwdriver Decides If You Watch TV Or Not | Rich Bremer | [
"home entertainment hacks",
"home hacks",
"Video Hacks"
] | [
"movie projector",
"projection screen",
"video projector"
] | Video projectors are great. They can easily produce a very large image to watch. With that large image comes a large screen, and who wants to look at a large screen when not watching TV? Well, [Steve] didn’t either so he set out to make a
powered retractable screen
for his projector. The best part about this one is that it is done in true DIY/hacker fashion. The parts used are definitely not intended to be used as anything close to a projector screen and the overall cost is kept to an absolute minimum.
The business end of this project is an electric screwdriver. It is mounted to a shelf that’s sole intent is to support the contraption. The screen rolls around a standard cardboard tube. A screwdriver bit, wooden dowel, bronze bushing and water pipe fitting are responsible for connecting the drill to the cardboard tube. Holding the bronze bushing in place is a clip that is intended for broom handles and the like. The whole thing is covered up by a cornice to hide the hackery.
To raise and lower the screen, [Steve] has to reach up and manually push buttons on the screwdriver. In the future we’d like to see a wired or IR remote to control the screen so it can be raised and lowered from the comfort of the couch. | 8 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "1317240",
"author": "Bradley",
"timestamp": "2014-03-31T08:36:08",
"content": "ive done something similar, i hot glued a hex bit into a curtain rail. and used the rail holder.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1317350",
"autho... | 1,760,376,249.951095 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/03/30/using-a-door-handle-conductivity-to-detect-intruders/ | Using A Door Handle Conductivity To Detect Intruders | Mathieu Stephan | [
"Arduino Hacks"
] | [
"arduino",
"door sensor"
] | Sometimes the simplest projects can be quite interesting, provided they’re well documented. We hope that the Hackaday readers also think that the
door sensor that [Alexander] developed
falls into this category. Instead of using common methods such as a magnet + reed switch, he decided to use the strike plate and door conductivity to detect someone walking in. The setup he put together includes an Arduino, a PowerSwitch Tail (a power cord that switches 120vac with a dc control voltage of 3-12vdc), a battery pack made of 8 AA batteries and two crocodile clips for door connections.
Most new hobbyists would have stopped there, but [Alexander] checked his platform’s power consumption and continued his work to decrease it. He therefore put the microcontroller in power-down mode by default and uses an AVR external interrupt to wake it up. In case beginners can’t understand [Alexander]’s code, he actually put a nice flow diagram on his website. Embedded after the break is a video of the system working. | 26 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "1317208",
"author": "fraganator",
"timestamp": "2014-03-31T08:10:10",
"content": "Interesting idea.How loose is the door handle mechanism inside the strike plate I wonder? I can’t imagine using the continuity between the door’s strike plate and handle to be very reliable. A change i... | 1,760,376,249.898445 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/03/30/controlling-the-garmin-hud-with-bluetooth/ | Controlling The Garmin HUD With Bluetooth | Brian Benchoff | [
"Transportation Hacks"
] | [
"bluetooth",
"garmin",
"Garmin HUD",
"hud"
] | The Garmin HUD is a very neat device, putting all your navigational info, from ETA, what lane you should be in, and distance to your next turn right on your windscreen in a heads-up display. The only problem with the Garmin HUD is that it only works with the official Garmin app, despite being a Bluetooth device. Now, someone is finally
digging in to the Garmin HUD protocol
, allowing anyone to control this HUD from a cell phone, tablet, or computer.
Being completely unable to disassemble the Navigon app for the HUD, [gabonator] decided the only thing to do would be to open up the device and take a peek at some of the packets travelling between the microcontroller and bluetooth module.
[gabonator] expected human readable ASCII characters, but after looking at the nonsense decoded from his oscilloscope and decoding them manually, he tried simply looking at the display in operation to understand how the protocol worked. He
got it all decoded
, and managed to get a Sygic Navigation program working with this Garmin HUD. You can check out a video of that below.
Thanks [Kevin] for the tip. | 16 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "1316632",
"author": "RunnerPack",
"timestamp": "2014-03-31T02:52:33",
"content": "For less than $150, you could just build your own “windshield projector” out of an LCD and talk to it however you want… But, teaching stupid companies that it’s a waste of time to try to lock down thei... | 1,760,376,250.012092 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/04/02/msp430-based-ctf-hardware-hacking-challenge/ | MSP430-Based CTF Hardware Hacking Challenge | Eric Evenchick | [
"Security Hacks"
] | [
"buffer overflow",
"ctf",
"memcpy",
"msp430",
"reverse engineering"
] | Hacking conferences often feature a Capture the Flag, or CTF event. Typically, this is a software hacking challenge that involves breaking into targets which have been set up for the event, and capturing them. It’s good, legal, hacking fun.
However, some people are starting to build CTFs that involve hardware hacking as well. [Balda]’s
most recent hardware hacking challenge
was built for the
Insomni’hack
2014 CTF. It uses an MSP430 as the target device, and users are allowed to enter commands to the device over UART via a
Bus Pirate
. Pull off the exploit, and the wheel rotates to display a flag.
For the first challenge, contestants had to decompile the firmware and find an obfuscated password. The second challenge was a bit more complicated. The password check function used memcpy, which made it vulnerable to a buffer overflow attack. By overwriting the program counter, it was possible to take over control of the program and make the flag turn.
The risk of memcpy reminds us of this
set of posters
. Only abstaining from memcpy can 100% protect you from overflows and memory disclosures! | 6 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "1322696",
"author": "Dodo",
"timestamp": "2014-04-02T19:00:02",
"content": "How can you avoid using memcpy? Sometimes you simply have to copy binary-memory. I tend to almost always use it with a fixed length though.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{... | 1,760,376,250.124272 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/04/02/portable-smt-lab-for-hacker-on-the-go/ | Portable SMT Lab For Hacker On The Go | Adam Fabio | [
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"portable",
"toolbox",
"workbench"
] | We admit it, we’re suckers for workbenches and toolboxes. [Jon] must feel the same way, because he built this
portable surface mount electronics lab
. It’s a beast of a project, which might be why it’s project
#666 on Hackaday.io
. [Jon] spends a lot of time working off site, and keeps finding himself without proper surface mount soldering tools. Ever tried to stack an 0603 resistor with a 40 watt pistol grip iron? Take our word for it, the results are not pretty.
[Jon] started with two cheap aluminum cases from Harbor Freight. He loaded them up with the typical lab supplies: soldering iron, oscilloscope, multimeter, dual lab supplies, and a good assortment of hand tools. He then added a few choice SMT tools: A hot air tool, a good LED light, and a stereo magnifier. Many of the tools are mounted on DIN rail along the rear of the cases. All the low voltage equipment runs on a common 12V bus.
We really like what [Jon] did with the tops of the cases. Each lid contains a plywood sheet. When the cases are opened, the plywood becomes a work surface. As an added bonus, the wood really strengthens the originally flimsy tool cases. The only thing we would add is a good portable anti-static mat.
The final build is really slick. Once the cases are open, four bolts act as feet. The microscope swings out, and the hot air gun hangs on the right side. Plug in power and you’ve gone from zero to SMT hero in under 1 minute. | 31 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "1322294",
"author": "Ren",
"timestamp": "2014-04-02T14:17:05",
"content": "I’d like a better picture please, this is too dark to make out half of the contents of the cases.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1322425",
"au... | 1,760,376,250.299064 |
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