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https://hackaday.com/2014/04/02/dispensing-solder-paste-with-a-3d-printer/ | Dispensing Solder Paste With A 3D Printer | Brian Benchoff | [
"3d Printer hacks"
] | [
"3d printer",
"solder paste"
] | There’s a strange middle ground in PCB production when it comes to making a few boards. Dispensing solder paste onto one board is easy enough with a syringe or toothpick, but when pasting up even a handful of boards, this method gets tiresome. Solder paste stencils speed up the process when you’re doing dozens or hundreds of boards, but making a stencil for just a few boards is a waste. The solution for this strange middle ground is, of course, to
retrofit a 3D printer to dispense solder paste
.
This project was a collaboration between [Jake] and [hzeller] to transform KiCAD files to G Code for dispensing solder paste directly onto a board. The machine they used was a
Type A Machines printer
with a solder paste dispenser in place of an extruder. The dispenser is hooked up to the fan output of the controller board, and from the looks of the video, they’re getting pretty good results for something that’s still very experimental.
All the code to turn KiCAD files into G Code are up on
[hzeller]’s github
. If you’re wondering, the board they’re pasting up is
a stepper driver board for the BeagleBone
named Bumps.
Videos below. | 37 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "1322047",
"author": "StinkySteve",
"timestamp": "2014-04-02T11:29:15",
"content": "Seems to work well, cool :)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1322058",
"author": "Torque",
"timestamp": "2014-04-02T11:33:48",
"conten... | 1,760,376,252.708362 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/04/02/reverse-engineering-programmable-logic/ | Reverse Engineering Programmable Logic | Brian Benchoff | [
"classic hacks"
] | [
"Dick Smith VZ300",
"GAL",
"programmable logic",
"VZ300"
] | Despite what the cool kids are doing over on Hackaday Projects, the vast majority of vintage computers used some form of programmable logic for memory control, address decoding, and all that other stuff that can be done with just a few logic chips. It’s a great way to design a product for production, but what happens when the programmable chips go bad after 30 years?
[Clockmeister] got his hands on a Dick Smith VZ300 computer (a clone of the VTech Laser 310) with two broken 40-pin custom chips. After going through the schematics and theory of operation for this compy,
he recreated the custom chips in 74 series logic
.
The Dick Smith VZ300 is a fairly standard piece of equipment from 1985 – a Z80 CPU, 16k RAM, upgradable to 64k, a tape drive, and 32×16 character, 8 color display. Inside this computer are two 40-pin chips that are responsable for video buffering and VRAM control, keyboard and cassette I/O, video timing, and the monophonic speaker decoding. Both of these chips failed, and spares are unavailable, apart from scavenging them from another working unit.
After careful study, [Clockmeister] recreated the circuits inside these chip with 74 series logic chips. The new circuit was built on a board that plugs directly into the empty 40-pin sockets. Everything in this rehabbed computer works, so we’re just chalking this up as another reason why designing new retrocomputers with programmable logic is a dumb idea. Great for a product, but not for a one-off.
Image source | 34 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "1322069",
"author": "Tony",
"timestamp": "2014-04-02T11:41:06",
"content": "Unless you’re Australian (or Kiwi), you’ve probably no idea what a ‘Dick Smith’ is.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1322081",
"author": "Ren",... | 1,760,376,252.366334 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/04/01/unlocking-your-computer-with-a-leonardo-and-an-nfc-shield/ | Unlocking Your Computer With A Leonardo And An NFC Shield | Mathieu Stephan | [
"Arduino Hacks",
"Radio Hacks"
] | [
"Arduino Leonardo",
"NFC"
] | Manually typing your login password every time you need to login on your computer can get annoying, especially if it is long and complex. To tackle this problem [Lewis] assembled an
NFC computer unlocker
by using an Arduino Leonardo together with an NFC shield. As the latter doesn’t come with its headers soldered, a little bit of handy work was required.
A custom enclosure was printed in order to house the two boards together and discretely mount them under a desk for easy use. Luckily enough very few code was needed as [Lewis] used the Adafruit NFC library. The main program basically scans for nearby NFC cards, compares their (big-endianned) UIDs against a memory stored-one and enters a stored password upon match. We think it is a nice first project for the new generation of hobbyists out there. This is along the same lines as
the project we saw in September
.
(You’ll notice I made this post without mentioning the you-know-what project!) | 21 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "1321420",
"author": "Phreaknik",
"timestamp": "2014-04-02T05:09:38",
"content": "Look at Mathieu, turning down an opportunity to promote mooltipass! Thats how you really know its April fools day ;)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id... | 1,760,376,252.434825 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/04/01/awd-motorcycle-drives-over-anything-fits-into-dufflebag/ | AWD Motorcycle Drives Over Anything, Fits Into Dufflebag | James Hobson | [
"Transportation Hacks"
] | [
"awd motorcycle"
] | This has got to be one of the strangest motorcycles we’ve ever seen. It has huge tires, both wheels are chain driven, and it only weighs 100lbs or so — did we mention it also comes apart and
fits into a dufflebag?
It’s what appears to be a home-made Russian bike of some sort, in fact, the YouTube title when translated is “ATV Suitcase” and they aren’t wrong… Anyway, it appears to be designed off of the
American-made Rokon Trailbreaker
, which is another AWD motorcycle with giant tires, huge ground clearance and extremely versatile — except this one Russian one is either really light, or the rider is ridiculously strong the way he throws the bike around.
In the following video the owner shows off the bike’s prowess climbing stairs, mountains, floating in water, and even uses it as a ladder to climb up a rock face — and then drags the bike up after him.
Plus he can disassemble it in a matter of minutes and fit it in a car smaller than a Fiat.
We’ve actually seen a dirt bike variant of the Rokon Trailbreaker as well,
which is quite formidable with its AWD.
[via
Jalopnik
] | 47 | 22 | [
{
"comment_id": "1321176",
"author": "Cheryl Griffin",
"timestamp": "2014-04-02T02:46:55",
"content": "actually it fits into 2 duffle bags in the video",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1322498",
"author": "Michael Lashinsky",
"t... | 1,760,376,252.211891 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/04/01/low-cost-solar-panels-are-easy-to-make-and-reconfigure/ | Low-cost Solar Panels Are Easy To Make And Reconfigure | James Hobson | [
"Solar Hacks"
] | [
"low-cost solar cells"
] | What’s the size of a deck of playing cards and can pump out enough power to charge your cellphone? These awesome little
home-made magnetic solar panels!
[Christian Pedersen] has just published a guide on how to make these handy little solar panels, and they only cost about $1.25 each! They are capable of providing between 0 – 0.5V at 400-1000mA depending on the light available and load being driven.
All you need to make them is some multicrystalline solar cells, copper tape, Ethylene-Vinyl Acetate (EVA — a film used to protect solar panels) and Polycarbonate sheet for the external hard case. You can then assemble them in a matter of minutes, and laminate for a permanently sealed panel. He’s also added thin neodymium magnets so the panels stick together when you arrange them in a line! Perhaps a future version could have the copper strips going in both directions to allow for larger arrays to be made.
He also has a
complete BOM on his GitHub
, and if you happen to be at the
Maker Faire in San Mateo in May
, he’ll be showing you how — in person!
[via
Instructables
] | 18 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "1320848",
"author": "ASDF",
"timestamp": "2014-04-01T23:23:19",
"content": "Low-cost Solar Panels Are Easy to Make. All you need to make them is some multicrystalline solar cells",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1321232",
... | 1,760,376,252.865509 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/03/28/a-mini-op-amp-based-line-following-robot/ | A Mini Op-Amp Based Line Following Robot | Nick Conn | [
"Robots Hacks"
] | [
"analog circuitry",
"ir",
"line follower",
"mini robot",
"opa",
"opamp",
"phototransistor",
"robot"
] | There’s no denying it. Super small robots are just cool. [Pinomelean] has posted an Instructable on how to create a
mini line following robot
using only analog circuitry. This would make a great demo project to show your friends and family what you’ve been up to.
Analog circuitry
can be used instead of a microcontroller for many different applications, and this is one of them. The circuit consists of two op-amps that amplify the output of two phototransistors, which control each motor. This circuit is super simple yet very effective. The mechanical system is also quite cool and well thought out. To keep things simple, the motors drive the wheel treads, rather than directly through an axle. After the build was completed, the device needed to be calibrated by turning potentiometers that control the gain of each op-amp. Once everything is balanced, the robot runs great! See it in action after the break.
While not the
smallest line follower
we have seen, this robot is quite easy to reproduce. What little robots have you build lately?
Send us a tip
and let us know!
[via
Embedded Lab
]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=slTLZbeCpo4 | 10 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "1309289",
"author": "George Graves",
"timestamp": "2014-03-28T11:11:25",
"content": "You sir…deserve the slow clap….https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QhTiJEYqqY8",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1309520",
"author": "k",
"ti... | 1,760,376,252.814812 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/03/28/an-etch-a-sketch-to-fetch-the-time/ | An Etch-A-Sketch To Fetch The Time | Kristina Panos | [
"Arduino Hacks",
"clock hacks"
] | [
"aluminium powder everywhere",
"clock",
"DS1307 RTC",
"etch a sketch",
"stepper motors"
] | For someone who has never used stepper motors, real-time clocks, or built anything from scratch, [Dodgey99] has done a great job of bending them to his will while building his
Etch-A-Sketch clock
.
He used two 5V stepper motors with ULN2003 drivers. These motors are mounted on the back and rotate the knobs via pulleys. They are kind of slow; it takes about 2 1/2 minutes to draw the time, but the point of the hack is to watch the Etch-A-Sketch. [Dodgey99] is working to replace these steppers with Nema 17 motors which are much faster. [Dodgey99] used an EasyDriver for Arduino to drive them. He’s got an Arduino chip kit in this clock to save on the BOM, but you could use a regular Arduino. He left out the 5V regulator because the EasyDriver has one.
[Dodgey99] has published three sketches for the clock: one to set up the RTC so that the correct time is displayed once the Etch-A-Sketch is finished, some code to test the hardware and sample the look of the digits, and the main code to replace the test code.
The icing on this timekeeping cake is the acrylic base and mounting he’s fashioned. During his mounting trials, he learned a valuable lesson about drilling holes into an Etch-A-Sketch. You can’t shake an Etch-A-Sketch programmatically, so he rotates it with a Nema 17. Check it out after the jump.
If you’re paying attention, you’ll realize we just saw the exact opposite of this project a few hours ago:
a CNC tool (laser cutter) controlled by turning Etch-A-Sketch knobs
. | 18 | 13 | [
{
"comment_id": "1308906",
"author": "Shakipu",
"timestamp": "2014-03-28T08:43:51",
"content": "Isn’t there a turbo button on this thing ?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1308934",
"author": "Trui",
"timestamp": "2014-03-28T08:52:26",
... | 1,760,376,252.763224 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/03/27/riotnas-mobile-storage-for-street-photography/ | RiotNAS: Mobile Storage For Street Photography | Marsh | [
"digital cameras hacks",
"Network Hacks"
] | [
"nas",
"openwrt",
"protest",
"riot"
] | You’re likely aware of the protests and demonstrations happening throughout Venezuela over the past few months, and as it has with similar public outcries in recent memory, technology can provide unique affordances to those out on the streets. [Alfredo] sent us this tip to let us know about riotNAS:
a portable storage device for photos and videos taken by protesters
(
translated
).
The premise is straightforward: social media is an ally for protesters on the ground in these situations, but phones and cameras are easily recognized and confiscated. riotNAS serves up portable backup storage via a router running OpenWRT and Samba. [Alfredo] then connected some USB memory for external storage and a battery that gives around 4 hours of operating time.
For now he’s put the equipment inside a soft, makeup-looking bag, which keeps it inconspicuous and doesn’t affect the signal. Check out his website for future design plans—including stashing the device inside a hollowed out book—and some sample photos stored on the riotNAS system. If you’re curious what’s going on in Venezuela,
hit up the Wikipedia page
or visit some of the resources at the bottom of [Alfredo’s] site. | 15 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "1308593",
"author": "DarwinSurvivor",
"timestamp": "2014-03-28T06:07:16",
"content": "I hope there is eithre authentication or a “create only” flag set on that NAS. If not, nobody will need to confiscate it, just have a phone app that connects and runs “rm -rf”.",
"parent_id": n... | 1,760,376,252.054266 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/03/27/laser-cutter-becomes-an-etch-a-sketch/ | Laser Cutter Becomes An Etch A Sketch | Brian Benchoff | [
"Laser Hacks"
] | [
"etch a sketch",
"laser",
"laser cutter"
] | The mirror in a laser cutter moves along an X Y axis. An Etch A Sketch moves its stylus along an X Y axis. Honestly,
this laser cutter with Etch A Sketch controls
is so obvious, we’re shocked we haven’t seen it before.
The Etch A Sketch interface is extremely simple – just two rotary encoders attached to laser cut knobs set inside a small, laser cut frame. The lines from the encoders are connected to an Arduino Pro Mini that interfaces with the controller unit on the laser cutter, moving the steppers and turning on the laser only when the head is moving. There’s an additional safety that only turns on the laser when the lid is closed and the water pump is running.
The circuit is extremely simple, and with just a few connections, it’s possible to retrofit the Etch A Sketch controller to the laser cutter in just a few minutes. Just the thing for a weekend hackerspace project. | 30 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "1308068",
"author": "macona",
"timestamp": "2014-03-28T02:13:17",
"content": "Here is how to do it even cheaper and simpler than an arduino. Use a LS7184 quadrature to counter chip, it outputs step and direction pulses from an encoder. $3.20 eachhttp://www.usdigital.com/products/int... | 1,760,376,252.129847 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/03/27/developed-on-hackaday-need-card-art-who-likes-to-draw/ | Developed On Hackaday: Need Card Art — Who Likes To Draw? | Mathieu Stephan | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"hardware"
] | [
"design",
"developed on hackaday",
"mooltipass",
"smart card"
] | Our offline password keeper project (aka
Mooltipass
) is quite lucky to have very active (and very competent) contributors. [Harlequin-tech] recently finished our OLED screen low level
graphics library
which (among others) supports
RLE
decompression, variable-width fonts and multiple bit depths for fonts & bitmaps. To make things easy, he also published a
nice python script
to automatically generate c header files from bitmap pictures and
another one
to export fonts.
[Miguel] finished the AES encryption/decryption schemes (using
AES in CTR mode
) and wrote an
awesome readme
which explains how everything works and how someone may check his code using several standardized tests. We highly encourage readers to make sure that we didn’t make any mistake, as it was one of you that suggested we migrate to CTR mode (thanks [mate]!).
On the hardware side, we launched into production the top & bottom PCBs for Olivier’s design. We’re also currently looking for someone that has
many Arduino shields
to make sure that they can be connected to the Mooltipass. A few days ago we successfully put the Arduino bootloader inside our microcontroller and made the official Arduino Ethernet shield work with it.
Finally, as you may have guessed from the picture above our dear smart card re-sellers can pretty much print anything on them (these are samples). If one of you is motivated to draw something, please contact me at mathieu[at]hackaday.com!
On a (way) more childish note, don’t hesitate to give a skull to the
mooltipass on HaD projects
so it may reclaim its rightful spot as “
most skulled
“. | 32 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "1307612",
"author": "Thumper",
"timestamp": "2014-03-27T22:44:39",
"content": "No doubt there’s tons of awesome artistic talent throughout the readership, but my vote is to keep the card design nice and simple… all black with the HaD logo right in the middle. :)",
"parent_id": n... | 1,760,376,252.288766 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/03/27/designing-a-wakeup-light/ | Designing A WakeUp Light | Mathieu Stephan | [
"ARM",
"hardware",
"Lifehacks"
] | [
"arduino",
"launchpad",
"wakeup light"
] | [Akhil] and his wife recently finished
their WakeUp Light project
. As the name suggests, this kind of morning alarm uses light to wake you up in the morning. The main constraints when starting this relationship-strengthening adventure were cost, ability to work with any table lamp, and having a simple but effective control interface, all while keeping all the design open. The created platform (put in the wooden box shown above) is built around a Stellaris Launchpad (ARM Cortex M4 based) and uses an AC dimmer circuit found in
this instructable
. For our readers interested in those, [Akhil] mentions two very interesting articles about their theory of operation
here
and
here
.
An Android application has been made to set up all the alarm parameters, which uses the phone’s Bluetooth to communicate with the (well-known) HC-05 Bluetooth transceiver connected to the Launchpad. For safety, the current design also includes an LM4876 based audio amplifier connected to the microcontroller’s PWM output. The next revision will integrate a Digital to Analog Converter and an SD-Card slot for better quality and music diversity. A presentation video is embedded after the break and you can find the
official repository at GitHub
. | 24 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "1307271",
"author": "sal0m0n",
"timestamp": "2014-03-27T20:08:32",
"content": "Add a truck horn just in case!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1307336",
"author": "agega",
"timestamp": "2014-03-27T20:36:53",
"content"... | 1,760,376,253.021793 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/03/27/fail-of-the-week-secret-agent-style-book-hideaway/ | Fail Of The Week: Secret Agent-Style Book Hideaway | Mike Szczys | [
"Fail of the Week",
"Hackaday Columns",
"Laser Hacks"
] | [
"book",
"fail of the week",
"handgun",
"laser cutter",
"spy"
] | Ah, the movies are an inspiration for so many projects. How many times have you seen a spy movie where a cutout in the pages of a book are hiding something? This was the inspiration which led [Paul] and his crew to try using
a laser cutter to remove a handgun-shaped cutout from the pages
. The fail began before the project even got started. The sacrificial book they had chosen was too thick to cut directly so they tore it in thirds for the cutting process.
The hijinks are portrayed well in the clip after the break. The infectious giggling as this first trace of the laser cuts the outline makes the video worth watching. As they try to go deeper, the success falls off rapidly. This makes for a great Fail of the Week discussion: Why can’t you cut through multiple layers of a book with a laser cutter? Is this merely a focal length issue that would be solved with a higher-end cutter or is there something else at play here. Let us know what you think by leaving a comment below.
[Thanks Bob]
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. | 90 | 30 | [
{
"comment_id": "1306889",
"author": "hackliptik",
"timestamp": "2014-03-27T17:07:03",
"content": "…and that’s why I made my own book cut-out secret thing with an x-acto knife.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1307338",
"author": "AsaJ"... | 1,760,376,253.778646 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/03/28/successful-3d-printed-cranium-implant/ | Successful 3D Printed Cranium Implant | James Hobson | [
"3d Printer hacks"
] | [
"3d printed cranium",
"3d printed skull"
] | What an age we live in. If the image above looks like the entire top of a skull — it’s because it is. Surgeons successfully
replaced a 22 year old woman’s cranium with this plastic copy.
We’ve seen small 3D printed transplants before, but nothing as big as this. A 22 year old woman suffered from a very rare disorder in which her skull never stopped growing. While normal skulls are about 1.5cm thick, hers was almost 5cm thick by the time of the surgery. If they left it any longer, the continued bone growth would have eventually killed her.
Until now this surgery has required a hand-made concrete-like implant to replace the removed bone. As you can imagine, it’s hardly an ideal solution. Thanks to continually advancing 3D printing technology, surgeons at the
University of Utrecht UMC
were able to create an exact copy in a durable and lightweight clear plastic, which also has a better rate of brain function recovery than the old way of doing it.
The 23 hour surgery took place last December and was a huge success with the patient making a full recovery — if you’re not too squeamish around exposed brains, check out the following video. Wow.
[Thanks Kyle!] | 43 | 15 | [
{
"comment_id": "1311421",
"author": "matt",
"timestamp": "2014-03-29T05:19:20",
"content": "I wonder what the purpose of all the holes or dimples on it are? Anyone know what this disease is called?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1312263",
... | 1,760,376,253.255523 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/03/28/the-amazing-ping-pong-robot-was-fake/ | The Amazing Ping-Pong Robot Was Fake | James Hobson | [
"Robots Hacks"
] | [
"ping pong",
"ping pong robot",
"table tennis",
"table tennis robot"
] | Well — you guys were right. As it turns out, it was actually a pair of animators
who fooled the internet.
Not sure what we’re talking about? Last month, the [Kuka Robot Group] put out a highly polished video showing an
industrial robot playing table tennis against the apparent world champion of the sport
— it was extremely well done and entertaining to watch, but unfortunately… also fake. Weeks after the first [Kuka] video came out, someone named [Ulf Hoffmann] released another video, a small table tennis playing robot that
looked
almost
feasible.
As some of
our readers pointed out
:
The movements seemed unnatural for the size of the servos and arm structure. ~ James
CGI. As others have pointed out, the shadow of the arm disappears when the robot is show from the side, even though they were added in the other shots. ~ Brandon
My cgi tip off was the cable under the table. It stretches instead of sliding around. ~ Aj
Notice it’s running Outlook Express and Internet Explorer – no self respecting hacker/maker would run those apps – lol. ~ vonskippy
And a
GIF showing a CGI hiccup
… how disappointing! Anyway — the truth has come out as reported by [Philip Steffan] of c’t Hacks. As it turns out, not even [Ulf Hoffman] is real. The elaborate fake was concocted by a pair of animators, [Tobias Becker] and [Steffen Tron] — And you know what, we’re pretty impressed.
The pair is planning to start up an agency this year for making viral ad campaigns — [Ulf] was an experiment to see how they could do. To make it as realistic as possible, they created the maker and even started documenting the project last year to add some realism to it. Unfortunately, when the [Kuka] robot video came out they had to hurry up and publish something to ride the coat tails of success.
And for those of you wondering how they actually did it, well, you were all right — completely CGI. [Steffan] was standing behind the table hitting the ball — they just erased him and animated in a robot. As for the off-putting “servo” noises? They were actually made by turning a Märklin model train engine by hand.
[Thanks Philip!] | 44 | 17 | [
{
"comment_id": "1310968",
"author": "rue_mohr",
"timestamp": "2014-03-29T02:09:37",
"content": "I kinda wondered about what servo system could respond like that….",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1311361",
"author": "lastchancename",
... | 1,760,376,252.961386 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/03/28/rock-out-with-your-ribbon-controller-bass/ | Rock Out With Your Ribbon Controller Bass | Adam Fabio | [
"Musical Hacks"
] | [
"bass",
"guitar",
"midi",
"Ribbon Controller"
] | [Brendan Byrne] stripped this instrument down to basics and built himself a ribbon controller bass guitar. Details are still a bit sparse
on his website
, but there are plenty of detailed pictures
on his flickr stream
. [Brendan] built his bass as part the
Future of Guitar Design Course
at Parsons the New School for Design. His goal was to create an experience in which playing the instrument and altering parameters of effects are triggered by the same gestures. He’s definitely succeeded in that effort.
Basically, the bass is a four channel ribbon controller. The frets were removed to make way for four graphite strips. [Brendan] followed [Iain’s]
excellent tutorial
to create his own graphite strips using soft artist’s pencils. The ribbons essentially become potentiometers, which are then read by a teensy. [Brendan] expanded the instrument’s sonic palette by adding several buttons and potentiometers mapped to MIDI control codes. He even included a triple axis accelerometer so every movement of the bass can be mapped. The MIDI data is sent to a PC running commercial music software. Analog sound comes from a piezo pickup placed under the bridge of the bass.
The results are pretty awesome. While we can’t say [Brendan’s] demo was music to our ears, we definitely see the musical possibilities of this kind of instrument.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tJALDEuah-A
[Thanks JohnS_AZ!] | 10 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "1310574",
"author": "Rusty Shackleford",
"timestamp": "2014-03-28T23:37:24",
"content": "Are there any videos of music actually being played?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1310588",
"author": "Petiepooo",
"timestamp": ... | 1,760,376,253.307998 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/03/28/sci-fi-contest-prize-aquisition-issues-oh-noes/ | Sci-Fi Contest Prize Acquisition Issues — Oh Noes! | Mike Szczys | [
"contests"
] | [
"beaglebone black",
"open hardware",
"Spark Core"
] | We spent quite a bit of time picking out prizes for the Sci-Fi contest. But wouldn’t you know it, literally the day after
announcing the contest
we cued up The Amp Hour and
heard about a worldwide stock shortage
(34:00) of BeagleBone Black boards. About a week later
Adafruit ran an explanation of the issues
. It became clear why we were having issues sources a quintet of boards so that we could deliver on our prize offer.
To further compound problems we a somewhat smaller issue sourcing Spark Core boards. We put in an order for a quintet of them when we posted the contest; at the time they were supposed to be shipping in late March, but now
shipping estimates have been delayed to mid-April
. Assuming no more delays these should be available by the time
the contest ends at the end of April
so keep your fingers crossed.
We have a good relationship with the folks over at Spark Core and can probably ask them to help us out if we do get in a bind. But we don’t think anyone is going to be able to deliver the BeagleBone Black boards (which we have on backorder) in time for the end of the contest. So here’s the deal: if you win and really want these exact boards in the prize package you select, we’re going to do what needs to be done to get it for you, eventually. If you don’t want to wait and there is a suitable alternative we’ll make that happen.
We wondered what people are doing if they don’t want to wait out these shortages. Are there any other open-hardware projects that are similar in price and functionality? Our gut says no (that’s why they’re in such high demand). But we’d love to hear about some alternatives. Let us know by leaving a comment below. | 35 | 15 | [
{
"comment_id": "1310336",
"author": "TezlaCoil",
"timestamp": "2014-03-28T21:36:30",
"content": "Adafruit seems to have stock; I guess that doesn’t help you order a quintet, given their 1-per-person policy, but 1 is better than none?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{... | 1,760,376,253.38115 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/03/28/high-tech-convertible-desk-takes-it-up-a-notch/ | High Tech Convertible Desk Takes It Up A Notch | James Hobson | [
"home hacks"
] | [
"convertible desk",
"standing desk"
] | Standing desks seem to be all the rage today — but do you really want to commit fully to always standing? [Jeff Minton] didn’t, and when he found out how much convertible standing desks cost…
he decided to make his own.
While brainstorming ways of accomplishing this he started browsing around eBay and found 18″ linear actuators for sale. They were $45 each, ran at 24V and could lift 600lbs each. Bingo. Actually, that’s kinda overkill…
He picked up a 24V power supply, an Arduino, and a 8-channel relay board. The actuators are attached to the desk’s original legs using U-bolts which keep the legs straight and take the load of the desk. The untreated wood supports are there to reinforce the original desk, because they weren’t that sturdy in the first place.
It takes about a minute to fully actuate the legs, so while it’s not the prettiest nor the quickest solution — it does the trick and allows you to easily switch between standing and sitting.
Maybe he should try over-powering the actuators since the load is so small — could make it go a bit faster! And if you’re looking for a cheaper and more permanent solution,
extended PVC legs do the trick too. | 17 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "1310210",
"author": "jiogaij",
"timestamp": "2014-03-28T20:18:37",
"content": "He should’ve used that time to 3D print a full-size working toilet seat.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1310260",
"author": "Taylorian",
"ti... | 1,760,376,253.434454 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/03/28/hackadays-guide-to-shanghai/ | Hackaday’s Guide To Shanghai | Aleksandar Bradic | [
"Featured"
] | [
"china",
"electronica",
"guide",
"shanghai",
"taobao",
"tour",
"xin che jian"
] | We happened to be in Shanghai for Electronica trade fair this year and had a great time exploring heavy industrial gear and fantasizing about all the things we could do with it. However, we simply couldn’t ignore the fact that there was a whole city out there that we’re completely missing out on. So after less than a day of being surrounded by businesspeople and Miss Universe-dressed promoters, we decided to pack our bags and hit the streets.
The question was, where should we go? Finding interesting things in a city that keeps shapeshifting (the whole Shanghai skyline did not exist 20 years ago) can be a challenge. Fortunately, our friend [
David Li
] gave us a list:
Xin Che Jian
Jiu Xing market
Beijing Lu electronic market
Qiujiang Lu CNC/lasercut market
DFRobot.com
…and off we were.
The Country’s First Hackerspace
Xin Che Jian
is China’s first hackerspace, founded in 2010 by [David Li] and is currently based in Downtown Shanghai, Xuhui district. [David] is being modest in saying that the reason behind founding Xin Che Jian was not changing the world, but rather a simple fact that his wife wanted to throw out all the hardware junk he’s been piling up in the apartment and he needed a place for it. The reality is that this place has completely transformed the ‘Maker’ scene in China (term “Hacker” is rarely used on the other side of the Great Firewall). Inspired by this example, people have started opening up spaces in different cities and the whole thing is starting to reach scary proportions with government stepping in, creating “makerspaces” in schools and providing TV coverage.
We happened to be there on a rainy Wednesday night, and the whole place had an irresistible Bladerunner feel to it. Walls of cardboard boxes, hydroponics tent, tons of electronics and all sorts of people ranging from local makers to expat “new media” artists. The night we visited was “open night” and we got to hear a lot of interesting and diverse talks. Talk topics had a very wide range. One discussed using Max/MSP to generate sound corresponding to the time lapse camera recordings of the space. Another slightly bizarre demonstration outlined the importance of insulation when dealing with high voltages, which among other things, included “spark frying” of something that moves.
Shopping for Electronics
Next stop was Beijing Lu electronics market. This one is a dream — a five-floor superstore exclusively selling electronics components. It’s a farmer’s market for silicon. We have learned that a lot of these shops are actually brick-and-mortar fronts for stores on
TaoBao
, but here you can buy things first hand, with a personal touch from “your guy”. If you happen to live in Shanghai, you can get components delivered the same day, pizza-style: by carrier on scooter.
Surrounding streets are even better. It’s where you can buy metal, plastic, get stuff cut, folded, CNC’d or spot-welded right on the curbside. Big blocks of steel, iron, aluminum all cut to order by artisans with decades of experience. For makers, artists and hackers this is where a lot of the real jewels lie. For an extra dystopian flavor, you can enjoy the fact that, among rows of such shops, you can find things like food stands, cleaners and grocery stores. You can get your aluminum cut in one shop and get your nails done nextdoor.
And now for something completely different..
Small Business Catering to Makers
DFRobot
is something you would not ordinary expect in China. It’s offices look & feel like a proper Silicon Valley startup; it’s engineers are young, passionate and big on Open Hardware. They have great ideas and build beautifully designed products targeting the DIY community, educators and researchers. Their goal is “bringing back the joy of thinkering to daily life” – still a radical concept in China. If I were Adafruit or Sparkfun, I would watch out for these guys.
We got to hang around their office and saw a lot of great projects, but the experience we enjoyed most was in the 3D Printer room. We came into this room only to find a couple of dozen 3D printers, all printing bones! Some professor ordered a couple of hundred human bones for him to use in some kind of kinetic art installation. Weird.
For more in-depth look on Maker culture and it’s intersection with industry development in China, check out our attempt at serious investigative journalism in an interview with the fantastic [
Silvia Lindtner
], researcher at Fudan University. | 4 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "1310148",
"author": "failsafe",
"timestamp": "2014-03-28T19:33:17",
"content": "Can I get more information on the Qiujiang Lu CNC/lasercut market?Where exactly is it located? Do you have any pictures of it?Thanks for the help.-failsafe",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"r... | 1,760,376,253.829735 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/03/28/the-auto-parking-mecanum-robot/ | The Auto Parking Mecanum Robot | Brian Benchoff | [
"Robots Hacks"
] | [
"cnc",
"mecanum",
"mecanum wheels"
] | A while back,
Hackaday visited the Clark Magnet School
in Glendale, California to sneak a peek on their STEM-focused curriculum, FIRST robotics club, awesome A/V classroom, and a shop that puts most hackerspaces to shame. We saw a few builds while we were there, but [Jack]’s auto parking mecanum robot was in a class by itself. It deserves its own Hackaday post, and now that [Jack] is on Hackaday Projects,
he’s sharing all the details
.
The most impressive aspect of [Jack]’s build is the mecanum wheels; the side plates for the wheels were designed by [Jack] himself and machined on his school’s Haas mill. When the plates came out of the mill they were flat, and each of the fifteen little tabs on the plates needed to be bent at a 45 degree angle. With a CNC jig and a lot of time on his hands, [Jack] bent the tabs for all eight plates.
In addition to the plates,
the rollers were custom
made from non-expandable polyurethane poured into a CNC milled mold. That’s a one-part mold; [Jack] needed to make sixty of these little parts, one at a time.
The electronics are built around an Arduino Mega communicating with a joystick via an XBee. [Jack] found the relays in the off-the-shelf motor board couldn’t handle the current, so he replaced them with much, much larger ones in a hack job we’d be proud to call our own handiwork. There’s also a little bit of code that allows this motorized cart to pull off the best parallel parking job anyone could ever wish for. You can see that and a few videos of the construction below. | 9 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "1309669",
"author": "Ren",
"timestamp": "2014-03-28T14:09:06",
"content": "Wasn’t this posted a few days ago?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1309839",
"author": "Mike Szczys",
"timestamp": "2014-03-28T15:59:33... | 1,760,376,254.165059 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/03/29/frankenstein-the-open-source-engine-control-unit/ | Frankenstein, The Open Source Engine Control Unit | Brian Benchoff | [
"Engine Hacks",
"Transportation Hacks"
] | [
"ecu",
"stm32",
"STM32F4"
] | The Engine Control Unit is a vital part of every car made in the last 40 years or so, but unlike just about every other electronic device, open source solutions just don’t exist. [Andrey] is trying to change that with
rusEfi
, a project that hopes to bring together hardware, software, and engines in one easy to use package. He’s even designed
Frankenstein
, a full ECU ‘shield’ for the STM32F4 Discovery dev board.
This isn’t the first time we’ve seen [Andrey]’s adventures in building an ECU.
An earlier board
was also powered by the STM32F4 Discovery, and he actually drove his 96 Ford Aspire around using this homebrew ECU. It was only firing on two cylinders, but that was only a loose solder connection.
Of course building an ECU from scratch is worthless without the proper firmware that balances and engine’s fuel economy and performance. This sort of testing must be done empirically and [Andrey]
has a Kickstarter going
for the development of this firmware and some dyno time. No rewards, but it’s worth chipping in a buck or two. I did.
Videos below. | 47 | 17 | [
{
"comment_id": "1313787",
"author": "nik",
"timestamp": "2014-03-30T02:15:45",
"content": "Readers may also be interested in Megasquirt ECU which has been around for 15 years now and has quite a following in some areas.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comm... | 1,760,376,253.520642 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/03/29/2-axis-solar-tracker-always-gets-a-tan/ | 2-Axis Solar Tracker Always Gets A Tan | James Hobson | [
"Solar Hacks"
] | [
"solar tracker",
"SOLARbot"
] | Let’s face it — solar panels still aren’t that efficient. So why not pump as much juice out of them as possible? Building a
2-axis solar tracking unit
can increase daily power output by around 30%!
[Jay Doscher] had his power go out back in 2011, and even though it was only for 12 hours, they realized how ill-prepared they were to deal with a power outage. Food was spoiled, flashlights were dead, candles were sparse… they needed to be prepared better for the next time this happened. This spawned one of [Jay’s] longest running projects on his blog
Polyideas
.
His goal was to build a fully automated solar tracking unit that could be setup anywhere, and automatically track the sun to ensure optimum ray catching. It makes use of a 12V gear reduced motor to provide panning, and a linear actuator with positional tracking to control the tilt. To track the sun he’s got a digital compass and an Adafruit Ultimate GPS breakout board. To control it all he’s using is an Arduino UNO, but he has been through multiple iterations including his first with a BeagleBone. It’s a very slick and well engineered system and [Jay’s] hoping to spread it around the world — the entire thing is open source. What a guy!
It’s not quite complete yet, but he’s got
an amazing build log
and a
GitHub repository
filled with info — plus the following video showing it off in its current state!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wIDUBpB8a5U
For a cheaper solar tracker you can build for fun, check out this
baby-sized solar tracker
that also uses an Arduino! Or how about this
one built out of parts from the hardware store? | 21 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "1313486",
"author": "Alan",
"timestamp": "2014-03-29T23:15:04",
"content": "Lots of great building, but it seems it might be easier to sense brightest part of the sky directly, and point at that.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "... | 1,760,376,253.575485 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/03/29/hacking-a-laser-tape-measure-in-3-easy-steps/ | Hacking A Laser Tape Measure In 3 Easy Steps | Adam Fabio | [
"Laser Hacks",
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"Laser Distance Meter",
"Laser Measuring Tape",
"Laser meter",
"Uni-T UT390B"
] | [Andrew] got a little help from his friends to
hack a laser distance meter
. Using laser distance meters as sensors is one of the great quests of hackers – with good reason. Accurate distance readings are invaluable for applications including robots, printers, and manufacturing. We’ve seen people
try and fail to hack similar units before
, while others
built their own from scratch
. [Andrew] started experimenting with the UNI-T 390B, a relatively cheap ($60 USD) device from China. He found the 390B has a serial port accessible through its battery compartment. Even better, the serial port is still enabled and outputs distance data. While data could be read, [Andrew] couldn’t command the 390B to start a measurement. The only option seemed to be using the Arduino to simulate button presses on the 390B’s front panel.
In an
update to his original blog
, he described an Arduino sketch which would decode the distance measurements. That’s when [speleomaniac] jumped in with the discovery that the Uni-T would respond to commands in the form “*xxxxx#”. Armed with this information, [Andrew]
posted a second update
with a basic command breakdown. Command *00004# will take a single measurement and output the data via serial. Command *00002# will take 3 measurements, outputting them in a C style array format. There are several other commands which output debug information and what appear to be stored measurement dumps. Although he didn’t explore every nuance of the data output, [Andrew] now has enough information to initiate a measurement and read the result. Nice work!
[Thanks James!] | 7 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "1313292",
"author": "Indyaner",
"timestamp": "2014-03-29T21:12:19",
"content": "I wished there were a cheap and precise Lidar-System with a nice Data-Interface. Its so essential for Robotic that I’m wondering why there is not a kickstarter for it every second week for something like... | 1,760,376,253.654243 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/03/29/arduino-day-is-today/ | Arduino Day Is Today | Mike Szczys | [
"Arduino Hacks"
] | [
"arduino day",
"breakout"
] | Did you know
today is Arduino day
? A day to pull that little teal board out of the bin and blink some LEDs or dive deeper to challenge your skills. There’s a map of local events, but unless you’re near Italy (the birthplace of the movement) events are a bit hard to find.
There can be a lot of hate for Arduino around here, but we consider it the gateway drug to learning hardware design so why not support wide-adoption of the platform? We’ve even seen Hackaday-associated projects adopting compatibility. Both
the Mooltipass
and
the FPGA shield
projects have the platform in mind. Break down the assumption that electronics require mythical-levels-of-wizardry to toy with and we’ll be on our way to a world filled with hardware hackers. If you do want to get some really cheap boards to hand out
Sparkfun has Pro Mini’s for $3 today
, as well as some other deals [Thanks Jeff].
Are you still unconvinced and ready to rage in the comments? Before you do head on over to
our Arduino anger management site
to exercise some of that aggression. | 67 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "1312821",
"author": "whitequark",
"timestamp": "2014-03-29T17:21:23",
"content": "I never understood people hating Arduino platform itself. I mean, it self-identifies as being “intended for artists, designers, hobbyists and anyone interested in creating interactive objects or enviro... | 1,760,376,254.272794 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/03/29/cheap-tire-sale-sparks-creative-contraption/ | Cheap Tire Sale Sparks Creative Contraption | James Hobson | [
"Toy Hacks"
] | [
"pvc gokart"
] | [Greg] and his kids were killing time at their (his?) favorite store — Harbor Freight. They noticed a sale on 10″ rubber tires for only $5/each…
and it was all down hill from there.
He started sketching up a general idea for a three-wheeled go-kart. Once he had a reasonable idea of what it would look like, he went down to the hardware store and picked up a whole lot of 1″ PVC pipe, tees, elbows, crosses, epoxy and fasteners.
It’s a simple cart featuring a bit of a roll cage. Currently it’s just designed for being pushed around or riding down hills. It still looks like a lot of fun for the kids. We can’t help but wonder when he’s going to strap some electric motors on it to make it
really fun
for the kids. Maybe build a second, put some pool noodles around the frame, and bam, you’ve got a set of bumper-cars! If he needs any inspiration for the electronics, [Greg] could check out this
Wireless Wii-Cart
, or this
over-powered-built-in-a-day-cart
.
[Thanks Andrew] | 28 | 17 | [
{
"comment_id": "1312470",
"author": "Ren",
"timestamp": "2014-03-29T14:03:15",
"content": "Queue PVC safety comments… 3… 2… 1…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1312588",
"author": "Waterjet",
"timestamp": "2014-03-29T14:58:47... | 1,760,376,254.110683 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/03/29/recycling-plastic-with-liquid-nitrogen/ | Recycling Plastic With Liquid Nitrogen | Brian Benchoff | [
"3d Printer hacks"
] | [
"3d printer filament",
"filament",
"liquid nitrogen",
"PLA",
"plastic"
] | Recycling 3D printer filament isn’t a new idea, and in fact there are quite a few devices out there that will take chunks ABS, PLA, or just about any other thermoplastic and turn them into printer filament. The problem comes when someone mentions recycling plastic parts and turning them into filament ready to be used again. Plastics can only be recycled so many times, and there’s also the problem of grinding up your octopodes and companion cubes into something a filament extruder will accept.
The solution, it appears,
is to freeze the plastic parts
to be recycled before grinding them up. Chopping up plastic parts at room temperature imparts a lot of energy into the plastic before breaking. Freezing the parts to below their brittle transition temperature means the resulting chips will have clean cuts, something much more amenable to the mechanics of filament extruders.
The setup for this experiment consisted of cooling PLA plastic with liquid nitrogen and putting the frozen parts in a cheap,
As Seen On TV
blender. The resulting chips were smaller than the plastic pellets found in injection molding manufacturing plants, but will feed into the extruder well enough.
Liquid nitrogen might be overkill in this case; the goal is to cool the plastic down below its brittle transition temperature, which for most plastics is about -40° (420° R). Dry ice will do the job just as well, and is also available at most Walmarts. | 26 | 12 | [
{
"comment_id": "1312144",
"author": "carbohydrates",
"timestamp": "2014-03-29T11:04:17",
"content": "Please don’t shop at Walmart.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1312186",
"author": "Dorl",
"timestamp": "2014-03-29T11:26:18",... | 1,760,376,254.447169 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/03/29/energy-saving-fireplace-thermostat/ | Energy-Saving Fireplace Thermostat | Kristina Panos | [
"green hacks",
"home hacks"
] | [
"ATmega168",
"Boiler",
"radiator",
"thermostat"
] | [Andrian] has a boiler stove that heats water and sends it to a radiator. As the fireplace heats the water in a boiler a temperature sensor opens the a valve to send the warm water to the radiator. The radiator sends its cool water back to the boiler to be reheated. The valve is slow, so before the boiler can send all the water to the radiator, it’s getting cool water back causing the valve to close while the heat is built back up. To prevent the valve from working so hard and wasting energy, [Andrian]
designed a better thermostat to control the valve operation
.
The thermostat uses one LM85 temperature sensor to check the water in the boiler and another one for the ambient temperature. Once the boiler water reaches the desired temperature, the valve is opened via relay. The system waits for half an hour and then checks the boiler temperature again. The brains of this operation is an ATMega168 with a 32.768kHz crystal as the RTC. Code and PCB files are available in
his repo
.
We love to see these types of hacks that challenge the status quo and increase the efficiency of appliances. We applaud you, [Andrian], for turning your dissatisfaction into a positive plan of action and for sharing your experience with the rest of us!
If you want to up the eco-friendliness of heating water a bit, you could
heat the water with a compost heap
. | 6 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "1311830",
"author": "tekkieneet",
"timestamp": "2014-03-29T08:32:33",
"content": "Everything looks top notch in this project from schematic, PCB, soldering, case, rotary encoder and even proper connectors. There are no lazy short cuts like using an external RTC chip that I have seen... | 1,760,376,254.671104 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/03/27/telepresence-robot-proves-its-a-small-world-after-all/ | Telepresence Robot Proves It’s A Small World After All | Adam Fabio | [
"News"
] | [
"robot",
"telepresence"
] | [Chris] works as part of a small team of developers in Cambridge, Massachusetts in the US. [Timo], one of their core members, works remotely from Heidelberg, Germany. In order to make [Timo] feel closer to the rest of the group,
they built him a telepresence robot
.
It was a link to
DoubleRobotics
that got the creative juices flowing. [Chris] and his team wanted to bring [Timo] into the room, but they didn’t have a spare $2499 USD in their budget. Instead they mated a standard
motorized pan/tilt camera base
with an
RFduino
Bluetooth kit. An application running on [Timo’s] phone sends gyroscope status through the internet to the iPad on the robot. The robot’s iPad then sends that data via Bluetooth to the RFduino. The RFduino commands pan and tilt movements corresponding with those sensed by the gyroscope. A video chat application runs on top of all this, allowing [Timo] to look around the room and converse with his coworkers.
All the source code is
available via GitHub
. The design didn’t work perfectly at first. [Chris] mentions the RFduino’s Bluetooth API is rather flaky when it comes to pairing operations. In the end the team was able to complete the robot and present it to [Timo] as a Valentine’s Day gift. For [Chris’] sake we hope [Timo] doesn’t spend too much of his time doing what his homepage URL would suggest:
“screamingatmyscreen.com”
[Thanks Parker] | 18 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "1306620",
"author": "mjrippe",
"timestamp": "2014-03-27T14:45:03",
"content": "Please don’t use animated GIFs on the main page, it is really annoying!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1307198",
"author": "supershwa",
... | 1,760,376,254.624123 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/03/27/hackaday-68k-so-you-want-a-kit/ | Hackaday 68k: So You Want A Kit? | Brian Benchoff | [
"Hackaday Columns"
] | [
"68000",
"Hackaday-68k",
"hackaday-projects",
"retro"
] | It’s yet another update to the
Hackaday 68k
, the wire-wrapped backplane computer that will eventually be serving up
our retro site
.
This is also a demo of
Hackaday Projects
, our new, fancy online documentation tool for all your adventures in making and tinkering. Did you know
we’re having a contest
on Hackaday Projects? Make something sci-fi, and you’re in the running for some really good prizes. There’s soldering stations, o-scopes, and a lot of other prizes being thrown at the winners. It’s awesome. First one to build a working Mr. Fusion wins.
In this update, I’m going to go over the beginnings of the video board, why Hammond enclosures are awesome and terrible at the same time, and some thoughts on turning this into a kit or product of some type. Click that, ‘Read more…’ link.
The Video Board
Like I’ve said before, I’m using the Yamaha V9938 video display processor as the graphics chip on this computer. It’s the easiest way I can get an 80×24 text mode – perfect for that *NIX goodness – and should be able to pull off some cool demoscene stuff. It’s pin compatible with the V9958, so I have that option, and it’s also fairly simple to interface to the rest of the computer:
That’s from the
V9938 Technical Data Book
. Big PDF warning there. On the right side of that graphic is the DRAM interface for the video memory and the pins for video output. There are a few different configurations ranging from 16k of VRAM to 128k of VRAM. Of course I’m going with the 128k option, using a quartet of TMS4464 DRAM chips I picked up from Jameco. Here’s the schematic of the VRAM interface:
I don’t want to wire wrap that. It’s a lot of fiddly, short bits of wire. It’s also extremely simple and won’t be seeing any changes in its design. The solution to my laziness is, of course, to make a PCB.
Because the connections to the V9938 are just an 8-bit data bus and a few control signals, and the output is dead simple for composite output, this
greatly
minimizes the amount of wirewrapping I’ll need to do. Even if I tried wrapping a V9938, I’d run into a problem: the pin pitch isn’t 0.1″, rendering all my wirewrap adapters useless.
If you’re wondering about the physical size of the board, it’s just a wee bit larger than an Arduino. Yes, I know what you’re thinking, but a 128kB V99X8 will not fit on a standard Arduino shield. 16kB, maybe. In any event, when I get these boards back, I’ll have a go at driving it with an Arduino. Just because.
Mechanical Considerations
Yeah! Fancy Video!
I’ve never had any luck with Hammond enclosures. The die-cast aluminum guitar pedals? I’ve ruined dozens of them drilling holes for pots, switches, and jacks. The enclosure for the 68k is no different. It’s a beautiful case, no doubt about that, but I am cursed with a mystical ability to always mess up the drilling, painting, or some random thing when it comes to Hammond enclosures.
The original plan for this backplane + enclosure combo was to have a small extension board on the front (hence, “frontplane”) that broke out the power and reset lines so this computer would at least look the part of an early 80s homebrew computer. Also, having a power and reset switch on the
outside
of the case is a good idea anyway.
Because of the complete failure of my ‘frontplane’ plan with the stock front panel, I’m going for something much, much cooler: a custom CNC’d aluminum panel. Right now I have holes for a power switch, a reset button, and a 5mm LED for power indication.
The basic circuit for this frontplane is very simple: The lines on the backplane are broken out on a huge 2×32 pin header. There’s also a small three-pin header for the PS_ON and POWER_OK lines for the ATX power supply. Ground the PS_ON line with the switch, and the power… uh, turns on. The PS_ON line provides +5V when the power is on. Attach the LED to that.
The reset circuit is the same from the CPU board: a Maxim DS1812 supervisory and reset circuit in a single TO-92 package.
Creating the milled front panel and new, improved frontplane was an interesting exercise in mechanical design. First, I created the front panel as a 3D model, exported the top view as a DXF, and imported that into Eagle. Then, I took the board file for the backplane and overlaid the holes. Then it’s just a simple matter of removing the parts and traces from the backplane I don’t need – everything except the pin headers – and making a board.
Apparently the Dimension layer in Eagle has a keepout. This board is far too simple for me to care about doing it properly.
So there you go. Fun adventures in mixing mechanical design with circuit board creation. This, like just about everything else relating to the 68k project,
is up on the github
.
Oh yeah, a kit
For some reason I can’t comprehend, a
lot
of people have asked if I’m going to make the 68k into a product, or at the very least a kit. I don’t quite understand the demand; the fun of homebrew computers is designing and building them.
That doesn’t mean I won’t entertain the idea. In its current form, though, a 68k kit would be absurdly expensive, take hours and hours to assemble – the RAM card alone would be three or four hours – and would have an extremely high number of unsatisfied buyers. It only takes one misplaced wire to screw the entire thing up, you know.
So, an improved, single-PCB kit is the only option. This is months and months in the future, but here’s what I’m thinking:
Uses the currently-in-production 68SEC000
Already assembled.
A MiniITX or MicroATX motherboard form factor.
Uses 30 or 72-pin SIMMs for the RAM.
Some sort of expansion port.
User-updatable ROM.
That last bullet is the sticking point. I’ve been turning this around in my head for a while, and I can’t come up with a good way of doing it. The problem is I need a small amount (~64kB) of EEPROM or Flash that can be accessed on a parallel bus. That means 15 address lines, 16 data lines, and control signals. I need a way of reprogramming this, in system, with few additional parts,
cheaply.
The obvious solution is to throw a big FPGA in the system for address decoding, an SPI bus, and in-system reprogramming of the ROM. That may end up being the eventual solution to this problem, but I’m thinking there’s an even more clever and cheaper way of doing things.
I’ve toyed around with doing the whole ‘in system ROM reprogramming’ thing in a 6502-based retrocomputer, and it is possible by using a microcontroller and a bunch of shift registers to program the ROM. This takes up a lot of board space and is extremely kludgy.
Another solution would be something like
this amazing retrocomputer
that actually
should
be a product. It uses a 40-pin PIC microcontroller as the RAM, ROM, and ACIA. It is, without question, the most innovative project in the retrocomputing world for the past few years and presents an interesting solution to the problem of in-system ROM programming: just put the ROM on a big microcontroller.
Are any of these ideas the right solution? I don’t know, because I’m not designing this computer as a product right now. This problem has been bothering me for a while, and I’d love to hear some more ideas. In any event, there’s plenty of space on my ROM board to prototype some in-system reprogramming. Come up with a good idea and I might put it in.
That’s it for now. You can continue to follow the progress of the Hackaday 68k
over on Hackaday Projects
. Be sure to comment and give a skull to the project. Seriously, give the project a skull. I’m losing to
[Mathieu]’s Mooltipass project
in the skull department. I need more skulls. | 67 | 31 | [
{
"comment_id": "1306253",
"author": "Hene",
"timestamp": "2014-03-27T11:10:37",
"content": "OMG KIT!I want.Could you emulate to rom and run it from SD?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1306273",
"author": "Brian Benchoff",
"tim... | 1,760,376,254.559 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/03/27/3-dof-open-source-robot-arm-is-just-the-beginning/ | 3 DOF Open Source Robot Arm Is Just The Beginning | James Hobson | [
"Arduino Hacks",
"Robots Hacks"
] | [
"3 DOF robot arm",
"robot",
"robotarm"
] | [Dan Royer] of Marginally Clever had a dream. A dream to build an open-source 6 DOF robot that anyone can make! To do so, he’s been learning robotics for the past two years, and has just finished the first step — he’s designed and built
an open source 3 DOF palletizing robot!
He’s based this little guy off of the commercial
ABB 460 palletizing robot
, which is a tried and true industrial robot. It features all laser cut parts, a few nuts and bolts, some stepper motors and an Arduino UNO for the brain. He’s released all of the
design files on Thingiverse
and the firmware on
GitHub
— yet another project we’d like to build if only we had a laser cutter!
And don’t worry, the Arduino UNO is only being used for this first prototype — he’s already started writing code for the RUMBA (Reprap Universal Mega Board with Allegro-driver) controller for revision 2.
Stick around to see it write its first greeting with a marker — Hello World!
It’s an exciting project and we can’t wait to see further development! Keep up the good work [Dan]!
Maybe we can
teach it manually
in the future too! | 11 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "1306243",
"author": "ftkalcevic",
"timestamp": "2014-03-27T11:04:39",
"content": "Nice. I do like the use of linkages in the design. I’m doing something similar. It makes it easier to redistribute the weight of the motors and balance the arm.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth":... | 1,760,376,254.721674 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/03/26/building-a-network-controllable-rgb-led-lamp-from-an-old-scanner/ | Building A Network Controllable RGB LED Lamp From An Old Scanner | Nick Conn | [
"Network Hacks"
] | [
"arduino",
"color",
"epson",
"ethernet",
"javascript",
"lamp",
"led",
"led bar",
"led strip",
"light",
"network",
"RBG",
"scanner"
] | Being able to use one of your old projects to make a new one better can be quite satisfying. [Steve] from Hackshed did just this: he integrated an Arduino based webserver into a new
network controllable RGB lamp
.
What makes this lamp unique is that the RGB LED bar comes from an old Epson scanner. Recycling leftover parts from old projects or derelict electronics is truly the hacker way. After determining the pinout and correct voltage to run the LEDs at, the fun began. With the LED bar working correctly, the next step was to integrate an
Arduino based webserver
. Using an SD card to host the website and an Ethernet Arduino shield, the LEDs become network controllable. Without missing a beat, [Steve] integrated a
Javascript based color picker
that supports multiple web browsers. This allows the interface to look quite professional. Be sure to watch the lamp in action after the break!
The overall result is an amazing color changing lamp that works perfectly. All that is left to do is create a case for it, or integrate it into an existing lamp. This is a great way to use an LED strip that would have otherwise gone to waste. If you can’t find a scanner with a color wand like this one, you can always
start with an RGB strip
. | 13 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "1305679",
"author": "Richard Öhling",
"timestamp": "2014-03-27T06:27:21",
"content": "Actually, it was a Canon scanner not an Epson.Anyway, is this a common thing?? That scanners have rgb-ledbars in them??I have one of those multi printer/scanner/etc in my basement and I was about t... | 1,760,376,254.829346 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/03/26/electric-scooter-mk-1-tundra-upgrade/ | Electric Scooter MK 1 — Tundra Upgrade! | James Hobson | [
"Transportation Hacks"
] | [
"ice scooter",
"offroad scooter"
] | After discovering his all-terrain snow scooter was terrible on ice — [Dane] decided he needed to do
some upgrades.
In case you don’t remember, we first shared
[Dane’s] project back in December
, where he zipped around city streets covered in snow. The scooter used a big knobby tire and a front ski to slide around on. To make it suitable for ice, he had to redesign it a bit to handle slippery surfaces; he needed to give it skates.
He had originally hoped to find figure skates at a thrift store (where he originally found the classic scooter), but had no luck — so he made his own. Some 1/2″ x 1/4″ steel bar later, a bit of welding, and he had a rather rugged front skate to work with!
After he was content with his upgraded front-end, he started adding studs to the back tire. He’s using plain old 3/8″ self tapping screws, and a whole lot of epoxy to make sure they stay in.
So does it work? Oh yeah. | 10 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "1304787",
"author": "Jim Turner",
"timestamp": "2014-03-27T02:09:54",
"content": "whats the band in the first video?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1305526",
"author": "HIdden Squid",
"timestamp": "2014-03-27T... | 1,760,376,254.774868 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/03/26/piezos-for-haptic-feedback/ | Piezos For Haptic Feedback | Brian Benchoff | [
"hardware"
] | [
"haptic",
"haptic feedback",
"piezo"
] | The most common way to put some sort of haptic feedback in an interface hasn’t changed much since the plug-in rumble pack for the Nintendo 64 controller – just put a pager motor in there and set it spinning when the user needs to feel something. This method takes a relatively long time to spin up, and even the very cool Steam controller with voice coiled directional pads can’t ‘stick’, or stay high or low to notify the user of something.
[Tim]’s day job is working with very fancy piezoelectric actuators, and when an opportunity came up to visit the Haptics symposium, he jumped at the chance to
turn these actuators into some sort of interface
. He ended up creating two devices: a two-piezo cellphone-sized device, and a mouse with a left click button that raises and lowers in response to the color of the mousepad.
The cellphone device contains two piezo actuators with a 10 gram weight epoxied on. A small microcontroller and
piezo driver
give this pseudo phone the smoothest vibrations functions you can imagine. The much more innovative color-sensing mouse has a single actuator glued to the left button, and a photosensor in the base. When the mouse rolls over a dark square on a piece of paper, the button raises. Rolling over a lighter area, the button lowers. It’s all very, very cool tech and something we’ll probably see from Apple, Microsoft, or Sony in a few years.
Videos of both devices below. | 4 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "1304325",
"author": "Ian",
"timestamp": "2014-03-26T23:25:02",
"content": "Go here and scroll down until you see “RealityLink”:https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1306431579/sinister-immerse-yourself-in-the-pc-experience",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
... | 1,760,376,254.967801 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/03/26/ws2812b-ambilight-clone-for-the-raspi/ | WS2812b Ambilight Clone For The Raspi | Brian Benchoff | [
"LED Hacks",
"Raspberry Pi"
] | [
"ambilight",
"raspberry pi",
"Raspi",
"ws2812b"
] | For how often the Raspberry Pi is used as a media server, and how easy it is to connect a bunch of LEDs to the GPIO pins on the Pi, we’re surprised we haven’t seen
something like Hyperion
before. It uses the extremely common WS2812b individually controllable RGB LEDs to surround the wall behind your TV with the colors on the edges of the screen.
One of the big features of Hyperion is the huge number of LEDs it’s able to control; a 50 LED strip only eats up about 1.5% of the Pi’s CPU. It does this with a “Mini UART” implemented on the Pi running at 2MHz.
There’s only one additional component needed to run a gigantic strip of RGB LEDs with a Pi – an inverter of some sort made with an HCT-series logic chip. After that, you’ll only need to connect the power and enjoy a blinding display behind your TV or monitor.
Thanks [emuboy] for sending this one in. | 28 | 12 | [
{
"comment_id": "1304037",
"author": "Stefan_Z",
"timestamp": "2014-03-26T21:01:43",
"content": "It’s not new (search for BOBLIGHT for example), BUT it seems, that this time they use the Rasp to analyze the image – making it a true Ambilight-clone. Or it’s just better code… :-)I for one suspect that... | 1,760,376,255.569936 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/03/26/3d-printering-custom-rc-camera-mount-takes-to-the-sky/ | 3D Printering: Custom RC Camera Mount Takes To The Sky | Rich Bremer | [
"3d Printer hacks",
"Hackaday Columns"
] | [
"3D Printering",
"airplane",
"camera mount"
] | 3D Printers are only good for printing
trinkets and doodads
, right? Not really. Although, I do print the occasional useless object, most of my prints are used for projects I’m working on or to meet a need that I have. These needs are the project’s design requirements and I’d like to share the process and techniques I use when creating a functional 3D object.
My pal [Toshi] has RC Airplanes and flies often. I have an Action Camera that I never use. Why not combine the two and have some fun? The only thing standing in our way was a method to mount the camera to the airplane. 3D printing makes it easy. If you have a popular vehicle or application, there may be something already available on a 3D model repository like
Thingiverse
. Our situation was fairly unique I decided to design and print my own mount.
Let’s start with the camera placement. Looking at the plane, there are two pretty obvious spots that would be good places to mount the camera; on the wing strut or the cross-bar between the pontoons. Certainly mounting the camera to the rectangular pontoon cross-bar would have been far easier than on the angled airfoil-shaped wing strut, but after giving it some thought, mounting on the strut would give a better view of the aircraft. I wanted part of the plane in the field of view.
Now we have an idea of where this thing is going to mount we have to take some measurements and make some notes. As you can see below my notes are super crude (and may have some extra doodles on there) but have the necessary information I need to design the camera mount. If you look hard you can even see I have a couple of brainstormed mount ideas, including a hinged design I determined would be unnecessarily complicated.
The wing strut is soft foam-filled plastic and is in the shape of a teardrop. To prevent damage to the strut when the camera is mounted, the shape of the mating portion of the clamp should be similar in shape. To do this, I just measured the length of the strut profile and both the thickness of the leading and trailing edges. These dimensions were used when creating the profile of the cutout in the clamp. Notice, I also added some chamfers at the leading and trailing sides of the cutout to prevent any potential pinching.
Keep It Simple, Stupid. Sometimes low-tech is the best way to go. The wing strut is at some angle, an angle I don’t know. I want the camera to be square to the ground, not angled like the strut. I used a method similar to a
storey
pole to record the struts angle and emulate it in my modelling software. With the plane on the floor a piece of paper was held with one edge also square to the floor. The angle of the strut was traced on the paper. At this point it is possible to measure the angle with a protractor but I just held it up to my computer screen and adjusted the angle of the mount until it matched my trace. Low-tech but effective.
It is pretty standard for cameras to have a 1/4″-20 female thread on the bottom for mounting to a stand. My camera was no different. The main mount is going to have a through-hole in it for the attachment screw to pass. Having a 1/4″ hole and a 1/4″ screw is going to cause some assembly difficulty, specifically the screw not easily going through the hole, able to turn freely or causing misalignment. There are industry standards for this exact situation, Google “clearances hole sizes” to find out what is appropriate for your screw size, there are a lot of
charts
available out there. The projects I work on require me to reference this type of information quite often so I downloaded a great app called ‘
Nuts & Bolts
‘. Notice on the bottom right of the screen it shows the clearance hole sizes. I’ll be using the free fitting recommendation, 0.2660 inch diameter.
I could have just had a hole in the main camera mount and screwed a bolt in to secure it but a design requirement was that no tools would be required for installation or removal. A 3D printed knob would do just fine. I had some 1 inch long 1/4″-20 bolts kicking around so that is what I decided to use. Since the bolt was so long, it would bottom out in the camera before it secured the camera to the mount. That extra length will have to be compensated for when designing the knob.
The depth of the female threaded hole on the bottom of the camera measured to be 0.200 inches. Since the intent is to NOT bottom out the screw before the camera was secure I backed off this measurement to 0.150 inches for use in the calculation:
BoltLength - ExposedThread - MountThickness = KnobThickness
1.0 - 0.150 - 0.300 = 0.550 inches
0.550 inches is how long the spacer portion of the knob will be.
There are two knobs and 3mm x 25mm screws that are used to secure the camera mount to the strut. I made knobs for the screws the same way I did for the main camera screw. The main difference is that these screws didn’t have a hex head to transmit torque and prevent the knobs from spinning on the screws. The holes in the knobs were made to have no clearance at 3mm in diameter and the screws were glued into the knobs for a permanent installation.
These 3mm screws engage captive nuts in the main clamp body. I used ‘Nuts & Bolts’ again to find out both the clearance hole size for the 3mm screws and the hex size of the 3mm nuts. The main clamp body has hexagonal recesses a little larger than the nuts, the nuts of which are glued in place.
Overall, I’m extremely happy with the final result. Installation to the aircraft takes only a few moments and is very secure. The mount location turned out to be in the perfect spot showing just a touch of the engine cowl. And the best part is it didn’t drop the camera! Check out the video of the maiden joy-ride below.
3D Printering is a weekly column that digs deep into all things related to 3D Printing. If you have questions or ideas for future installments please
sending us your thoughts
. | 4 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "1303652",
"author": "repables (@repables)",
"timestamp": "2014-03-26T17:48:05",
"content": "Like a 3d model repository like thingiverse or Repables.com ;DI really really like the tracing the strut on paper and then holding it up to the monitor technique. It’s the perfect mix of ghet... | 1,760,376,255.764895 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/03/26/the-mostly-3d-printed-violin/ | The Mostly 3D Printed Violin | Brian Benchoff | [
"3d Printer hacks",
"Musical Hacks"
] | [
"Musical",
"musical instrument",
"violin"
] | While Thingiverse is filled with Ocarinas, there’s little in the way of printable instruments for more serious musicians. [David Perry] hopes to change this
with the F-F-Fiddle
, the mostly 3D printed full-size electric violin.
The F-F-Fiddle is an entry for the
LulzBot March 3D Printing Challenge
to make a functional, 3D printed musical instrument. Already there are a few very, very interesting submissions
like this trombone
, but [David]’s project is by far the most mechanically complex; unlike the other wind and percussion instruments found in the contest, there are a log of stresses found in a violin, and printing a smooth, curved fingerboard is quite the challenge.
While there are a few non-printed parts, namely the strings, a drill rod used as a truss rod, some
awesome looking tuners
, and of course the piezo pickups – the majority of this violin, including the bridge, is 3D printed. It’s an amazing piece of work, and after listening to the video (below), sounds pretty good too.
You can grab all the files on
Thingiverse
and read up on the build at
Openfab PDX
. | 12 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "1303249",
"author": "Mike Szczys",
"timestamp": "2014-03-26T14:30:28",
"content": "Wow, that does sound good… Both instrument and player. Fantastic job through and through.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1303440",
"author":... | 1,760,376,256.206959 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/03/26/shapeoko-2-mods-dust-mitigation-and-limit-switches/ | Shapeoko 2 Mods: Dust Mitigation And Limit Switches | Rich Bremer | [
"cnc hacks",
"how-to"
] | [
"CNC router",
"dust collection",
"limit switch"
] | Not long ago the
Shapeoko 2
came out. In case you missed it, the Shapeoko 2 is the 2nd generation bench-top CNC Router of the namesake. All axes roll on Makerslide and v-wheels. The X and Y axes are belt driven, power is transmitted to the Z axis by lead screw.
As with most products, there will be people who must hack, mod or upgrade their as-received item. If you are a regular Hackaday reader, you are probably one of those people. And as one of those people, you would expect there have been a few individuals that have not left this machine alone.
CNC Machines are dumb, they do what you tell them. Sometimes us humans ask them to do things that result in the machine trying to travel past its physical limits. To protect his machine from human error, [Zorlack] decided to make
limit switch brackets
for his Shapeoko. They are 3D printed, accept standard limit switches and bolt directly onto the Makerslide rails of the machine. These types of switches are used as travel limits, where if triggered, the machine stops moving in that direction. If you’d like a set, they are available for download at the above link.
We’ve discussed recently how much
dust a CNC Router creates
and how to manage that dust on the cheap. [Jason] blew away the ‘on the cheap’ record with this
Dust Shoe
for his Shapeoko. It is made only from an old tennis ball can. The lid is removed and a hole is cut in it just a bit smaller than the outer diameter of the router. The lid is then press-fit onto the router. Next, the plastic portion of the can is trimmed to length and slits are cut into the plastic to create flaps similar to brush bristles. These flaps were straight when cut but [Jason] used some heat to create a permanent outward curve. The newly created skirt snaps into the lid previously installed on the router and can be removed easily for tool bit changes. We’d like to see the next version have an outlet for a vacuum to collect the contained dust. | 17 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "1303078",
"author": "Drake",
"timestamp": "2014-03-26T13:06:54",
"content": "Sweet. I was going to buy one as soon as I sell my rust bucket",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1303099",
"author": "whitequark",
"timestamp": "... | 1,760,376,255.411312 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/03/26/copper-oxide-thermoelectric-generator-can-light-an-led/ | Copper Oxide Thermoelectric Generator Can Light An LED | Mathieu Stephan | [
"chemistry hacks"
] | [
"Copper Oxide",
"junction",
"thermocouple"
] | On Hackaday, we usually end up featuring projects using building blocks (components, platforms…) that can be bought on the market. We however don’t show many hacks that rely on basic physics principles like the
one shown in the picture above
.
In the video embedded below, [nylesteiner] explains that copper oxide can be formed when heating a copper wire using a propane flame. When two oxidized wires are placed in contact with each other, an electrical current is produced when one wire is heated much hotter than the other. The trade-off is that the created thermocouple generates a small voltage but a ‘high’ current. However, when you cascade 16 junctions in series you can generate enough voltage to light up an LED. Even though the complete system isn’t particularly efficient at converting heat into electricity, the overall result is still quite impressive in our opinion. We advise our readers to give a look at [nylesteiner]’s article and blog to discover his interesting adventures. | 54 | 18 | [
{
"comment_id": "1302482",
"author": "SparkyGSX",
"timestamp": "2014-03-26T08:37:24",
"content": "It’s a duplicate, even using the exact same photo…http://hackaday.com/2011/08/01/light-leds-with-fire/Still rather cool though, even more so because it seems extremely simple to replicate. I do wonder h... | 1,760,376,255.505326 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/03/25/facebook-to-buy-oculus-vr/ | Facebook To Buy Oculus VR | Adam Fabio | [
"News",
"Virtual Reality"
] | [
"Buyout",
"castAR",
"Oculus",
"oculus rift",
"virtual reality"
] | Facebook has
agreed to purchase Oculus VR
. The press values the deal at about
$2 Billion USD in cash and stock.
This is great news for Oculus’ investors. The rest of the world has a decidedly different opinion. [Notch], the outspoken creator of Minecraft, was quick to tweet that a possible rift port has now been canceled, as
Facebook creeps him out.
He followed this up with a
blog post
.
I did not chip in ten grand to seed a first investment round to build value for a Facebook acquisition.
Here at Hackaday, we’ve been waiting a long time for affordable virtual reality.
We’ve followed Oculus since the early days
, all the way up through the recent
open source hardware release of their latency tester
. Our early opinion on the buyout is not very positive. Facebook isn’t exactly known for contributions to open source software or hardware, nor are they held in high regard for standardization in their games API. Only time will tell what this deal really means for the Rift.
The news isn’t all dark though. While Oculus VR has been a major catalyst for virtual reality displays, there are other players. We’ve got our eggs in the
castAR
basket. [Jeri, Rick] and the rest of the Technical Illusions crew have been
producing some great demos while preparing CastAR for manufacture
. Sony is also preparing
Project Morpheus
. The VR ball is rolling. We just hope it keeps on rolling – right into our living rooms. | 103 | 37 | [
{
"comment_id": "1302039",
"author": "ssshaker",
"timestamp": "2014-03-26T05:12:16",
"content": "I’m a little confused by the claims in this article. First off people may not like facebook as a service but facebook IS friendly in the open source community. Cassandra is used by a lot of companies, to... | 1,760,376,255.716543 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/03/25/dead-computer-tower-why-not-make-a-tool-box/ | Dead Computer Tower? Why Not Make A Tool Box? | James Hobson | [
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"computer tool case"
] | [Michael Gohjs] acquired a bunch of old business computers — the Dell Optiplex GX400, to be precise — and after salvaging any of the useful components out of them he was left with the cases. Not wanting to toss them for recycling, he decided to try
upcycling one into a portable tool box.
The cool thing with using a computer tower for a tool box is most of it is already setup for modular storage spaces. [Michael] removed the bracket that holds the power supply in place, and using some cardboard from a calendar stand formed a box attached to it — instant storage space. Even better? The 5.25″ drive bays have sliding rails for easy removal! Again, all [Michael] had to do was build a box in between the slot rails and he had a cleverly utilized drawer.
The rest of the case was built in a similar manner, making use of pre-existing features, and making new cubbies. If you wanted to get fancy, you could use sheet metal to do this to make an even more rugged toolbox.
While you’re at it, why don’t you
make an electronics lab in the box
to go with your tool box? Or one like
this!
Or
this one… | 30 | 17 | [
{
"comment_id": "1301593",
"author": "pcf11",
"timestamp": "2014-03-26T02:09:32",
"content": "Why not make another computer? Why ask why? I still haven’t done my magnum opus when it comes to toolboxes yet. When I do it won’t be out of a dead PC case either I can assure you that. Well, I did make a p... | 1,760,376,256.026835 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/03/25/now-youre-washing-with-gas/ | Now You’re Washing With Gas | Kristina Panos | [
"green hacks"
] | [
"power savings",
"solid state relay",
"washing machine"
] | [Michiel] likes to wash his clothes in warm water. Like a lot of machines, his draws from the cold water line and heats it electrically. Gas is much cheaper than electricity in the Netherlands, so he wanted to be able to heat the water with gas instead. Hot-fill machines already exist, but few models are available and they’re all too expensive. [Michiel] rolled up his sleeves and
hacked his brand new washer into a hot-fill machine
.
He started out thinking that he’d just connect the hot water line instead, but that proved to be too hot. He found out it needs to be about 35°C (95°F), so he decided to mix input from the hot and cold lines. Since it’s a shiny new machine, [Michiel] wanted an externally mounted system to keep from voiding the warranty. He got two solenoid valves from the electronic bay and used a PIC16F to make them dance. He wired up a light switch on a two-panel face and used the blank plate for power and status LEDs.
[Michiel]’s design works like a charm. The machine used to draw 2000W to heat the water, and peak usage now is as low as 200W. He noticed that the washer drew a lot of power in standby mode so he added a solid state relay and a bit more code. Now the electricity to the machine is cut after two hours and [Michiel] saves about €97 per year. | 64 | 20 | [
{
"comment_id": "1301112",
"author": "Rob",
"timestamp": "2014-03-25T23:09:56",
"content": "I’ve yet to see a washing machine that doesn’t have hot & cold inputs with internal mixing depending on cycle selection (got my current one off Craigslist for $75, in fact…), they’re neither rare nor pricey. ... | 1,760,376,255.958192 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/03/25/who-wouldnt-want-3d-printed-candles-of-yourself-on-your-70th-birthday/ | Who Wouldn’t Want 3D Printed Candles Of Yourself On Your 70th Birthday? | James Hobson | [
"3d Printer hacks"
] | [
"3d printed candles"
] | [Christian Lölkes] needed a unique gift for their CEO’s 70th birthday — We mean really, what do you get someone who probably has everything? Well… you 3D scan him and
make candles in his likeness of course!
Since they have both a 3D scanner and 3D printer at work, this was the obvious choice. Instead of printing the mold out, they opted to print a high resolution figurine of their CEO, and then make a reusable silicone mold instead. When you’re designing a figurine for candle casting, it’s important to make a nice wide base, as this will make pouring the hot wax into the mold much easier.
There are lots of different ways to make molds, but to make theirs they decided to use a toilet paper roll for convenience. After taping up the mold with the figurine inside, it’s time to fill it with silicone. Unfortunately bubbles form in silicone so you need a way to force the bubbles to rise to the top and pop — vibrating the mold is a good solution, and setting it on top of a washing machine is an easy way to accomplish it.
Once the silicone is cast, you have to cut the mold in half carefully as to not damage your figurine. Then it’s just a matter of zip-tying the mold back together, inserting a wick and pouring wax in! Cool. | 21 | 12 | [
{
"comment_id": "1300555",
"author": "Tom the Brat",
"timestamp": "2014-03-25T20:03:49",
"content": "But didn’t he get suspicious when you scanned him?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1300685",
"author": "Christian Lölkes",
"ti... | 1,760,376,256.083509 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/03/25/retrotechtacular-the-magic-of-making-cars-in-the-30s/ | Retrotechtacular: The Magic Of Making Cars In The ’30s | Mike Szczys | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"Retrotechtacular",
"Transportation Hacks"
] | [
"assembly",
"casting",
"chevrolet",
"industrial",
"mold"
] | We usually shy away from calling things ‘magic’ in our features because, you know…
science
. But in the case of
this Chevrolet manufacturing reel from 1936
the presentation is nothing short of an industrialized version of
The Sorcerer’s Apprentice
. Well, not in the sense of mischief, but in that there is almost no explanation and the way the footage is laced together you get the strong feeling that, at the time, this type of industrialization was magic; a modern marvel. The techniques and skills of each worked passed down from a master to an apprentice but virtually unknown to the general public.
The clip, which is also embedded below, starts off in the machine shop where mold makers are getting ready to go into assembly line production. From there it’s off to the foundry for part casting and then into the stamping plant where white-hot (perhaps red-hot, but black and white film) metal is shaped by man-mangling presses. The image above follows the cast, stamped, and machined parts onto the assembly line. We like seeing a room full of pistons being QA checked by hand using a width gauge and micrometer. The film continues through to the finished vehicle and we think you’ll agree there’s more than enough voyeuristic video here to overcome that lack of narration.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VvAH-Yskyio
[Thanks Pretenda]
Retrotechtacular is a weekly column featuring hacks, technology, and kitsch from ages of yore. Help keep it fresh by
sending in your ideas for future installments
. | 29 | 18 | [
{
"comment_id": "1300037",
"author": "mjrippe",
"timestamp": "2014-03-25T17:05:54",
"content": "See Clarke’s Third Law: Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1300075",
"author":... | 1,760,376,256.1522 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/03/25/vending-machine-is-now-cyborg-friendly/ | Vending Machine Is Now Cyborg Friendly | James Hobson | [
"Arduino Hacks",
"Microcontrollers"
] | [
"embedded nfc",
"familab",
"NFC",
"NFC tag"
] | Don’t you hate having to pull out your wallet or cellphone in order to pay for something? What if you could just wave your hand and transfer money that way? Well [David] did, so he decided to do something about it. He made the vending machine in his hackerspace, FamiLAB,
cyborg friendly.
The problem was, the vending machine wasn’t technically his to play around with… so he had to do this hack without actually modifying the machine itself — which we admit, actually makes it quite a bit more interesting!
But first, why is [David] even doing this? Is he a cyborg or something? Well, not quite, but he’s quite enthusiastic about bio-tech (is that what we call it now?) — anyway, he has
NFC implants
in his hand, and
magnets in his fingertips
to give him a sixth “electro-sense”. Wanting to take the most advantage of these augmented abilities, he put together this clever NFC credit card emulator.
To read his hand, he’s using an Adafruit RFID/NFC Shield stuck on the front of the machine, with an Arduino Mega 2560 to control it. To get around messing with the credit card unit, he’s placed a solenoid next to it, which is close enough that when energized with his information… the credit card machine reads it. Whether or not you like the cyborg action itself, what [David’s] put together is pretty incredible. He has detailed instructions and material on GitHub if you’re interested in knowing more.
Alternatively you could just get
an NFC ring…
or for the electro-sense,
a neodymium ring magnet. | 34 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "1299813",
"author": "fartface",
"timestamp": "2014-03-25T15:33:18",
"content": "The card reader already supports NFC. For those not wanting to stick random things under their skin, a simple gauntlet would hold a lot more sensors and capabilities to work with normal objects. Goog... | 1,760,376,256.282357 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/03/25/open-source-humanoid-robot-is-awesom-o/ | Open Source Humanoid Robot Is Awesom-o | Brian Benchoff | [
"Robots Hacks"
] | [
"android",
"humanoid robot",
"Poppy",
"robot"
] | Coming from a lab in France is
The Poppy Project
, an open source humanoid robot that’s at least as cool as ASIMO.
Poppy was designed as an affordable bipedal robot for use in education and art. It’s a small robot at just over 80 cm in height, but it can walk, move its arms, rotate its torso, and interact with bags-of-meat humans with two cameras and an LCD face.
Although Poppy is open source, that doesn’t mean it’s exactly cheap; the current design includes twenty-one Robotis Dynamixels MX-28 robotic actuators, actually servos with magnetic encoders, temperature sensor, and an ARM microcontroller. These actuators sell for about $200, meaning Poppy contains $4000 in motors alone. The estimated cost of the entire robot is €7500-8000, or about $10,000 to $11,000 USD.
Still, there’s
an incredible software platform
that comes along with Poppy, and being open source any enterprising engineer can take up the project and attempt to bring the costs down. We’d love to take one out for a walk. Just get rid of the hands. That’s too far down the uncanny valley for us. Video below. | 34 | 15 | [
{
"comment_id": "1299256",
"author": "Zee",
"timestamp": "2014-03-25T11:18:42",
"content": "If it’s open source where are the files? I can’t find them on their website.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1299268",
"author": "James Hobson"... | 1,760,376,256.572347 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/03/25/3d-printed-measuring-tape/ | 3D Printed… Measuring Tape? | James Hobson | [
"3d Printer hacks"
] | [
"measuring tape"
] | Here’s a new one to push the envelope… How about a
3D printed measuring tape?
This unique 3D printed tool was designed and printed in a single job. [Angry Monk] has been challenging himself lately with these intricate designs, having recently finished a completely
3D printed set of dial calipers
, which is impressive in its own right.
Looking for his latest challenge he pondered what it would take to make this 3D printed tape measure. As he continued to think about it he realized how complex it would actually be to pull off. After designing and printing a few of the basic parts to help him solidify his ideas, he set to work. This tape measure has
114 individual parts.
It includes 52″ of tape links with 1″ divisions and markings down to the 1/8th of an inch. It even features a hand crank (sorry no spring return) to roll up the tape.
Now as you can imagine, a complex assembly like this is a bit out of the realm of possibility for regular hobby 3D printers — a UV resin printer might be able to do it, but [Angry Monk] used a commercial Objet Eden 3D printer. Still though — it’s an impressive display of design, check out the following video and see for yourself.
[Thanks for the tip, Tony!] | 41 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "1298848",
"author": "James",
"timestamp": "2014-03-25T08:28:49",
"content": "I nominate for fail of the week. Why? Inches. That’s why.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1298892",
"author": "Matt",
"timestamp":... | 1,760,376,256.498354 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/03/24/first-stab-at-motion-sensor-to-disconnect-a-car-charger/ | First Stab At Motion Sensor To Disconnect A Car Charger | Mike Szczys | [
"Transportation Hacks"
] | [
"12v",
"7805",
"ADXL362",
"arduino mini",
"charger",
"motion sensor"
] | [Pixel] just sent in this automotive hack which
disconnects his car charger
when the vehicle stops moving for at least 10 minutes. Why would you need such a thing? The 12V outlet in his vehicle isn’t disconnected when the ignition is turned off. If he leaves a charger plugged in when parking the car, he often returns to a drained battery.
The fritzing diagram tells the story of this hack. He’s using a 7805 to power the Arduino mini. This monitors an ADXL362 accelerometer, starting the countdown when motion is no longer sensed by that chip. At the 10-minute mark the N-channel MOSFET kills the ground side of the outlet. Good for [Pixel] for including a resetable fuse on the hot side. But it was the diode all the way to the left that caught our eye. Turns out this is part of
a filtering circuit recommended in a forum post
. It’s a Zener that serves as
a Transient-Voltage-Suppression diode
.
Another comment on that thread brings up the issue we also noticed. The 7805 linear regulator is constantly powered. Do you think putting the uC into sleep and leaving the linear regulator connected is an adequate solution? If not, what would you do differently? | 108 | 39 | [
{
"comment_id": "1298484",
"author": "Telek",
"timestamp": "2014-03-25T05:07:32",
"content": "I’m all for a good hack, and I applaud his work, but this seems like over-complicating something really simple. Why not simply use a relay triggered by the ignition line?If you wanted to make it a little m... | 1,760,376,257.13314 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/03/24/bookworm-playing-bot-tests-programmers-ocr-skills/ | Bookworm Playing Bot Tests Programmer’s OCR Skills | Mike Szczys | [
"Video Hacks"
] | [
"bookworm",
"bot",
"ocr",
"screen capture"
] | Check out this brainy bot with [Jari] whipped up to
dominate the Bookworm Deluxe scoreboard
. The bot runs on top of a win32 machine, pulling screenshots to see the game board and simulating mouse clicks to play. The video after the jump shows that it plays like a champ, but it took some doing to get this far and [Jari] took the time to share all of the development details.
The hardest part of writing these types of bots is recognizing the game pieces. Check out all of the animation that’s going on in the still shot above… a lot of the tiles are obscured, there are different colors, and the tiles themselves shift as the bot spells and submits each word.
After some trial and error [Jari] settled on an image pre-processor which multiplies pixel values by themselves four times, then looks at each pixel with a 1/6 threshold to produce a black and white face for each tile. From there a bit of Optical Character Recognition compares each tile to a set of known examples. This works remarkably well, leading into the logic and dictionary part of the programming challenge.
Do you think this was easier or harder than
the Bejeweled Blitz bot
. That one was looking for specific pixel regions, this one is basically a focused roll-your-own OCR script. | 9 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "1298194",
"author": "Shanee",
"timestamp": "2014-03-25T02:04:56",
"content": "I would thinking it would be easier just to match the image of a letter than using true OCR. A single letter should look exactly the same each time in this game.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
... | 1,760,376,256.677218 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/03/22/hackaday-at-makedc/ | Hackaday At MakeDC | Brian Benchoff | [
"Featured"
] | [
"dc",
"MakeDC",
"NoVA",
"Washington DC"
] | Last Wednesday, our Hackaday travels took us to the Washington, DC area for a visit to
NOVA Labs
near Dulles and a yet-to-be opened Metro stop. Also on our itinerary was
a visit to MakeDC
, an informal get together for people around the nation’s capitol to show off their latest projects and builds.
The highlight of the evening was a pair of talks from [Julian] and [Taylor] on a project they did for work: a social cooler, or a locked box holding cool drinks that will only open when enough people send a text to a certain number. We’ve got
[Julian]’s talk on video
, but despite our fancy new camera gear for this sorta thing, [Taylor]’s demo of what an Electric Imp can do was lost to the digital wastes.
Aside from [Julian]’s talk on APIs and [Taylor]’s talk on the Electric Imp, there were a few impromptu presentations from the attendees. One of the most thorough was the duo from
Shiny & Jackal Cosplay
, crafters of EVA foam and LEDs. Truth be told, Hackaday doesn’t see many of these ‘softer’, cosplay and prop making builds in the tip line, and that’s a shame; the amount of skill that goes into these costumes is at least as equal as a woodsmith that can build fine furniture using only hand tools.
Perhaps a little premature, but
TechShop
is opening a new location in Arlington, VA at the end of the month. The GM [Addam Hall] was there scoping out the hacks and letting the attendees know there’s going to be a huge, awesome shop that’s down town in Crystal City. Close enough to public transportation, anyway, because anyone who drives in DC is certifiable.
The last item of note isn’t a build
yet
, but it’s shaping up to be pretty cool. It’s
BRWRY
– pronounced, ‘brewery’ – and will be a semi-automated beer making machine. Robots and beer, what can’t you love?
We’d like to thank [Zach], [Julian], [Taylor], and all the other guys from iStrategyLabs for putting together a nice evening of hanging out, drinking beer, eating pizza, and talking about what you’ve built. We had a great time, and we’re looking forward to the next one, as well as any other similar get together in other cities. | 3 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "1292797",
"author": "slavoj",
"timestamp": "2014-03-23T05:29:24",
"content": "DC is a terrible place for anyone into hobby electronics. At least if you live inside the beltway – there is literally nowhere in this city to buy components. Glad to see that a hacker scene exists anyway ... | 1,760,376,256.884376 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/03/22/home-made-resin-based-3d-printer-is-incredible/ | Home Made Resin Based 3D Printer Is Incredible | James Hobson | [
"3d Printer hacks"
] | [
"DLP printer",
"resin printer"
] | Resin based 3D printers (SLA) are the next big thing, and while they may seem daunting at first, in some ways they are actually simpler than FDM machines with less moving parts! Loosely following an Instructable, [Dan Beaven] has just finished putting together his own
home-made 3D DLP Printer
, and it’s bloody brilliant.
He owes a lot of thanks to [Tristram Budel] and his incredibly detailed
Instructables guide on building a 3D DLP printer
, but [Dan] has also added quite a bit of his own flair to the build. Most notably is his method of separating layers from the vat of resin — most designs tilt the bed slightly to counter the suction forces, but his slides the vat back and forth along the Y-axis, which seems to work extremely well.
The printer is built out of 1″ T-slot aluminum and has a NEMA 17 motor that provides the Y-axis movement along two linear rods for the vat. The Z-axis stage uses a NEMA 23 motor and has a whopping 14″ of travel. Combined with a 104mm x 204mm build plate, this thing can print some decently sized parts!
To cure the resin, he’s using a 1080p DLP projector with no modifications. To conserve space, it is mounted at a 90 degree angle, and uses a small mirror to reflect the image onto the build plate inside of the vat. To pump the resin in and out of the vat, he’s using an industrial peristaltic pump he bought off eBay — a word to the wise, it needs to be flushed with isopropyl alcohol after each use! He learned the hard way…
For more info on printing in resin, don’t forget to check out our column on
3D Printering: You Want UV Resin? | 18 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "1292713",
"author": "fdsa",
"timestamp": "2014-03-23T04:54:15",
"content": "Super cool!! Now I know what my next printer will be!But, I have no time or money :/I’m a student xD",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1293150",
... | 1,760,376,257.457671 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/03/22/bitbanging-usb-on-low-power-arms/ | Bitbanging USB On Low Power ARMs | Brian Benchoff | [
"ARM",
"Microcontrollers"
] | [
"arm",
"arm cortex",
"arm cortex m0",
"EFM32ZG",
"usb"
] | With the Adafruit Trinket, the Digispark, and some very clever work with the smallest microcontroller Atmel offers, it looks like the ‘in’ thing to do for embedded software developers is to bitbang the USB protocol on hardware that shouldn’t support it. There are a lot of very small ARM chips out there without USB support, so it was only a matter of time before someone was able
to bitbang USB on the ARM Cortex M0+
.
The board above is based on an Energy Micro EFM32ZG, a very small 24-pin QFN device with up to 32 kB of Flash and 17 GPIOs. As with all the bitbanged USB hacks, the differential data lines are attached directly to the microcontroller. A 24 MHz crystal is needed, but the team behind the project is working on using the internal RC oscillator instead.
The code is portable with minimal changes between other manufacturer’s Cortex M0+ chips, and with a little work, this could become a very, very cheap USB-programmable ARM dev board, something the community could certainly use. | 18 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "1292099",
"author": "Thomas Shaddack",
"timestamp": "2014-03-23T00:26:49",
"content": "Nitpick: it is EFM32ZG, you got the F and M swapped. You (and the original author on his page) may like to change it due to keyword-based searching.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"r... | 1,760,376,256.820593 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/03/22/drilling-into-a-laptop-extreme-hinge-repair/ | Drilling Into A Laptop: Extreme Hinge Repair | James Hobson | [
"laptops hacks"
] | [
"asus ux32vd",
"hinge fix",
"laptop hinge"
] | What is it with laptop companies spending millions on design and aesthetics… and then using a cheap hinge design that is almost guaranteed to break? After [Peter Zotov] spent hours trying to find a replacement online, he decided to take matters into his own hands with this
slightly unorthodox hinge repair
.
The problems lies in the design of the hinge mounting to the lid. First, they’re using a non-standard screw sizes, slightly larger than an M2. Second, it’s threaded into cast aluminum — and to make matters worse, it doesn’t even look like there is sufficient thread engagement! A good rule of thumb is about 2 times thread diameter for aluminum — 1-1.5 times for steel. And it’s not just ASUS doing this, we’ve seen numerous laptops of different brands where the hinge goes after a year or two — what happened to cyclic stress tests?
Anyway, [Peter] decided to drill out the existing threads to allow for larger bolts. He threw his precious laptop up onto his CNC mill (a drill press would do just fine), and popped larger holes straight through the lid. This allowed him to put three standard M2 screws in place with a nut and washer. We admit it’s not the most elegant solution, but it’s saved him from getting a new laptop just because of planned corporate obsolescence. | 57 | 30 | [
{
"comment_id": "1291373",
"author": "disnew",
"timestamp": "2014-03-22T20:05:42",
"content": "“the hinge goes after a year or two”That is within spec. Why do you think so many contracts around electronic devices are one or two years? What is really surprising is that the car companies have not caug... | 1,760,376,260.165645 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/03/22/build-your-own-radio-clock-transmitter/ | Build Your Own Radio Clock Transmitter | Brian Benchoff | [
"ATtiny Hacks",
"clock hacks",
"Radio Hacks"
] | [
"attiny",
"attiny45",
"clock",
"radio",
"wwvb"
] | Deep in the Colorado foothills, there are two radio transmitters that control the time on millions of clocks all across North America. It’s WWVB, the NIST time signal radio station that sends the time from several atomic clocks over the airwaves to radio controlled clocks across the continent. You might think replicating a 70 kW, multi-million dollar radio transmitter to set your own clock might be out of reach, but
with a single ATtiny45, just about everything is possible
.
Even though WWVB has enough power to set clocks in LA, New York, and the far reaches of Canada, even a pitifully underpowered transmitter – such as a microcontroller with a long wire attached to a pin PWMing at 60kHz – will be more than enough to overpower the official signal and set a custom time on a WWVB-controlled clock. This signal must be modulated, of course, and the most common radio controlled clocks use an extremely simple amplitude modulation that can be easily replicated by changing the duty cycle of the carrier. After that, it’s a simple matter of encoding the time signal.
The end result of this build is an extremely small one-chip device that can change the time of any remote-controlled clock. We can guess this would be useful if your radio controlled clock isn’t receiving a signal for some reason, but the fact that April 1st is just a few days away gives us a much, much better idea. | 75 | 19 | [
{
"comment_id": "1290961",
"author": "Mike",
"timestamp": "2014-03-22T17:09:27",
"content": "How many people are going to be late for work this April Fools Day because of this?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1291153",
"author": "sneak... | 1,760,376,259.391811 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/03/22/hackerspace-tour-xerocraft-in-tucson-arizona/ | Hackerspace Tour: Xerocraft In Tucson, Arizona | Brian Benchoff | [
"Hackerspaces"
] | [
"hackerspace tour",
"hackerspace tours",
"hackerspaces",
"xerocraft"
] | While we try to get out to as many hackerspaces as possible, we can’t be everywhere. Not wanting to wait for a Hackaday compatriot to roll through their dusty town, the folks over at Xerocraft in Tucson, Arizona sent in
their own video tour of their space
.
We’ve seen
the Xerocraft space before
when [Caleb] rolled through town on his south-west tour a few years ago. Since then, a lot has changed; they have a new, larger, and cleaner space a few miles north of the old one. There’s also a huge increase in the number of tools. While the old space had all the usual metalworking tools, the new space has a much improved wood shop and more 3D printers than anyone can shake a stick at.
From the video, it looks like a great space, and
from their blog
it looks like they’ve got some really cool projects under their belt. If you’re a member of a hackerspace, we’re always looking for some tour videos. Be sure to
send them in
so you can share your space with the rest of the Hackaday readership. | 1 | 1 | [
{
"comment_id": "3656485",
"author": "ELLEN CONROY",
"timestamp": "2017-06-06T05:40:27",
"content": "Got to check this out.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
}
] | 1,760,376,259.432073 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/03/22/its-not-2015-yet-but-marty-and-his-hoverboard-are-already-here/ | It’s Not 2015 Yet But Marty And His Hoverboard Are Already Here! | James Hobson | [
"drone hacks"
] | [
"back to the future",
"hover board",
"hoverboard"
] | Okay now this is seriously awesome. [Rodger Cleye] has made
a
real
working Hoverboard.
You guys might remember the recent [Tony Hawk] and [Christopher Lloyd] viral
Hoverboard hoax video…
Well, this isn’t that. Nope, not even close. It’s real.
The Hoverboard is a quadrotor on steroids — it features four 1200W brushless motors driving 12″ props, a massive 13.4Ah 5S Li-Po battery, and a [Marty McFly] mannequin wearing the classic red vest. He’s counter-balanced [Marty] and the battery around the rotors which makes for a surprisingly smooth flight. It even has a run-time of over 5 minutes, thanks to a whopping 83% efficiency using the 12″ props.
[Rodger] designed and simulated the entire system in
eCalc
before construction — He had first attempted a bi-copter design, but opted for the tried and true quad-rotor instead.
The frame is made of 1/2″ PVC pipe to conserve the mass budget, but altogether it still weighs an unbelievable 20lbs! How close are we to being able to give toddlers the ability to fly?
Just take a look at the following video — we’re seriously impressed.
This has gotta be one of the biggest home-made quads we’ve seen so far. Mind you the Spruce Goose of quadrotors
is still a bit bigger… | 22 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "1290395",
"author": "Joe",
"timestamp": "2014-03-22T11:11:35",
"content": "You may want to mute the audio, unless if you like listening to the equivalent of a few thousand angry bees",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1290420",
... | 1,760,376,259.280021 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/03/22/crafternoon-forget-potatoes-were-making-stamps-with-lasers/ | Crafternoon: Forget Potatoes, We’re Making Stamps With Lasers | Kristina Panos | [
"Laser Hacks"
] | [
"EVA foam",
"eye protection",
"friggin laser beams"
] | No, that’s not Heisenberg without his hat. It’s [Jens], and
he laser-cut a stamp of his face
out of EVA foam. He made the laser cutter himself, which
we covered a couple of months ago
.
Let’s take a brief interlude to discuss your beautiful eyeballs. Keep them safe, okay? If you’re going to play with lasers, be smart and
protect yourself
according to the wattage and wavelength. Alright, back to business.
[Jens] started by making a stencil from a photo using
this tutorial
. He added a frame and supports around his face to keep everything where it should be. [Jens] then turned to Inkscape to generate the g-code using the laser plugin and then proceeded to cut his countenance into
EVA foam
.
After gluing the foam to a wood backing, he cut off the supports. Now it’s ready to stamp. You could use a
brayer
if you have one or maybe your wife’s rolling pin to apply whatever ink or paint you want to use. [Jens] loaded up his stamp with a sponge. | 18 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "1290104",
"author": "cooperised",
"timestamp": "2014-03-22T08:17:13",
"content": "My wife’s rolling pin? How about my rolling pin? Pretty sure rolling-pin ownership is not restricted to one gender.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_... | 1,760,376,259.786025 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/03/21/open-source-switchmote-promises-easy-home-automation/ | Open Source SwitchMote Promises Easy Home Automation | James Hobson | [
"Arduino Hacks",
"home hacks"
] | [
"home automation",
"moteino"
] | [Felix Rusu] is fast becoming a big name in home automation with his clever Moteino systems. His latest is called the
SwitchMote
which is a super easy way to upgrade your light switches for home automation, and he’s
just released the source!
The SwitchMote is a drop in wireless light switch which lets you control a standard AC load, limited to 100W at this time. It uses a solid state relay (SSR) to perform the switching, but like any project involving mains electricity…
MAKE SURE YOU KNOW WHAT YOU’RE DOING!
It makes use of a Moteino (duh) which is a wireless Arduino clone that operates over RF. We’ve seen it used before
to control a Keurig coffee maker
, operate a garage door
over the internet
, and
even text you when your sump pump fails
and your basement is about to flood!
Excited? Take a look at his
GitHub repository
, and check out how it works in the following video.
Did we mention you can program it wirelessly as well? | 30 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "1289866",
"author": "static",
"timestamp": "2014-03-22T05:45:51",
"content": "Perhaps it’s only a stupid phobia I have. In my opinion it’s not good business to pay for home insurance home brew equipment or not UL listed as this.for switching line current/voltage. Even if such a devi... | 1,760,376,259.946558 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/03/21/need-to-reference-the-us-constitution-fast-hows-6-seconds-sound/ | Need To Reference The US Constitution Fast? How’s 6 Seconds Sound? | James Hobson | [
"Arduino Hacks",
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"hacked receipt printer",
"receipt printer"
] | Well, unless you know exactly what you’re referencing it’s going to take you a lot longer, but this
clever serial receipt printer hack
will let you print the whole darn thing in just 6 seconds!
Commissioned by [Jeff Goldenson] for his
LABRARY.bike
(quite literally a pop-up library on a bike), it was actually shown off at SXSW Interactive — did anyone see it in person? The artist-hacker who created it is [Thibault Brevet], the guy who brought us the
DRM chair
that only works 8 times before it falls to pieces.
Anyway, this cool and rather suspicious looking tube with a serial cord hanging out contains an Arduino, a max232 chip and a small Li-Po battery. The Arduino communicates with the printer through the max232 chip by converting the TTL signal to RS-232. It has a single button on top, which when it is connected to the printer will send out the US Constitution over the serial interface via ESC/p language.
Did we mention how fast it is?
Receipt printers are a lot of fun once you figure out
how to communicate with them
. After that you’ll be wasting receipt paper like no tomorrow with this extremely wasteful (but awesome)
printer based video game!
[Thanks Itay!] | 34 | 19 | [
{
"comment_id": "1289570",
"author": "ScottishCaptain",
"timestamp": "2014-03-22T02:09:38",
"content": "I heard this thing was fast, but just how fast is it?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1289576",
"author": "James Hobson",
"... | 1,760,376,259.565695 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/03/21/stealth-bluetooth-stereo-its-a-jeep-thing/ | Stealth Bluetooth Stereo: It’s A Jeep Thing | Adam Fabio | [
"Transportation Hacks"
] | [
"bluetooth",
"Jeep",
"stereo"
] | [Feueru] wanted to update the sound system in his 1998 Jeep Wrangler. The problem is that soft top Jeeps are notorious for radio theft. His solution was to
build his own stealth bluetooth stereo
. The music comes from his Nexus 5 via bluetooth. A Fusion MS-BT 100 waterproof bluetooth receiver picks up the tunes. From there the signal is passed through the one external control, a line level volume knob. A “BMWx-43 300 Watt” amplifier provides the power to drive the Jeep’s speakers. We’re a bit dubious about the 300 Watt rating, as well as the “Only from the mind of a German” catch phrase. Hey, at least
the real BMW
didn’t have the amplifiers
destroyed at the US port due to trademark issues.
[Feueru] used a standard DIN radio install kit for his Jeep. In place of a headunit, he glued an ABS plastic sheet. The ABS provided a good place to mount his volume control. That volume knob was a bit lonely, so [Feueru] added “Plan B”, his winch controls. The final result looks… well, it looks like a single knob, which is exactly what [Feueru] was going for. Any would-be car radio thief would pass this right by. The only thing missing is an actual FM receiver. Sure, there is a bit of loss when using a bluetooth audio path. However, this is a soft top Jeep with stock speakers, so it’s really not noticeable to [Feueru].
[via
reddit
] | 18 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "1289181",
"author": "Per Jensen",
"timestamp": "2014-03-21T23:08:51",
"content": "Hey, i got one of those amplifiers kicking around somewhere. It contains a TDA20xx-something, so it’s 2×7 Watts or thereabouts. Total JUNK! Most headunits have better/more powerfull outputs…",
"par... | 1,760,376,259.491439 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/03/21/hackaday-visits-nova-labs-and-small-batch-assembly/ | Hackaday Visits NOVA Labs And Small Batch Assembly | Brian Benchoff | [
"Hackerspaces"
] | [
"hackerspace",
"hackerspaces",
"NOVA Labs"
] | A few days ago Hackaday visited
NOVA Labs
, one of the premier hackerspaces around Washington, DC.
In our video tour
, co-founder [Justin Leto] shows off the space, going through all the awesome tools, workspaces, and projects his space has put together over the years.
One of the most impressive parts of NOVA Labs is the incredible amount of woodworking equipment. Everything from a Blacktoe CNC router, table and bandsaws, jointers, planers, real woodworking benches, and enough clamps to hold anything together are from a NOVA member that is co-locating his equipment for the rest of the hackerspace to share.
Apart from the woodworking tools, NOVA also has a few laser cutters and enough 3D printers for all the octopodes and Yoda heads you could ever imagine. A few of the members put together 3D build classes, and the machines being constructed are very, very cool. They’re using a Raspi with
OctoPrint
in their latest builds, attaching a camera to the frame and using a tablet for the interface. It’s just about the smoothest and cleanest 3D printer interface possible without using a computer.
There’s a lot of cool stuff happening at NOVA; the DC Area Drone User Group is the area’s largest group of unmanned aerial vehicles not housed in a five-sided building, and have
done some aerial mapping for the metro station
that will soon displace the hackerspace. NOVA also
hosted a mini maker faire
last weekend with over four thousand attendees. Impressive, to say the least.
Also at NOVA Labs is a small business the guys are incubating headed up by [Bob Coggeshall], also known as
one of the guys who wrote sudo
. It’s
Small Batch Assembly
, a very cool service that takes panelized PCBs and reels of components and assembles them. While we were there, [Bob] was assembling a few dozen boards stuffed with WS2812 LEDs for the
R2D2 Builders Club
.
[Bob] is using a very cool and very expensive Manncorp pick and place machine for placing all the components, squeegeeing the solder paste through Kapton film he laser cut on the NOVA Labs machines. It’s only a small-scale operation, but when it comes to placing thousands of SMD components for a few dozen boards, there probably isn’t a better way.
You can check out the video of NOVA, Small Batch Assembly, and a whole bunch of pics below. | 10 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "1288630",
"author": "Hirudinea",
"timestamp": "2014-03-21T20:10:36",
"content": "Is that a solenoid robot on the right of the top picture?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1296596",
"author": "Bob Coggeshall",
"... | 1,760,376,260.017231 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/03/21/hackaday-video-safe-area-operation-for-components-and-helicopters/ | Hackaday Video: Safe Area Operation For Components (and Helicopters) | Bil Herd | [
"Featured",
"how-to"
] | [
"mosfet",
"power",
"power dissipation",
"safe area operation",
"sao"
] | We’re back and this time talking about Safe Operating Area also called Safe Area Operation (SAO) which is short for the combination of things that can conspire to ruin your design. We also talk about helicopters.
Why take all of this time to discuss SAO you might ask, and what is that business about helicopters? Depending on the design there may be quite a bit of tedious math involved and sometimes there is just no avoiding it. Alternatively if you can get a feel for when math is and is not critical (based on design choices), it should be easier to get your next project up and running while still obeying the rules of the road.
Safe Area Operation Diagram
Components, especially those that generate heat like the Power MOSFET shown above, come with a fairly well-defined set of operational specifications. Those specs make up the SAO; they’re the circumstances under which you can ensure consistent operation while maintaining the reliability of the part . So while there is a time for detail there is also the conceptual phase where one might hold up ideas to the problem and check the fit while using some placeholder type values.
So unbeknownst to the gentle viewers at home, we have a plan; No we are not interested in world domination, we tried that with the Z80 and failed. What we ARE interested in is helping up and coming designers, including even a few of us burnt-out types, to get an intuitive feel for different ways to solve some common problems.
Safe Area Operation discussed.
An example design where SAO may be involved could have several facets: Should we use switched instead of linear operation? Do we need to be careful picking the right part or will any one of several works? Will it get hot?
If you don’t know what we’re talking about, the video at the top includes an excellent example at about 3:40 when the rheostat for a decades-old motorized tank is shown. The crude motor controller was in the wrong position for too long creating so much heat that it melted a hole in the plastic case. While this is a simple example we can view it as an example of trading off resistance, current and voltage while hopefully keeping it cool.
Deadman’s Curve and SAO
This brings us back full circle; why involve the venerable helicopter and is that just a cheap stunt to try to get interest? The answer is yes, it’s a stunt — but helicopters do have an SAO, or Deadman’s Curve, that is graphed between height and forward velocity. The Deadman’s Curve simply means that there is a huge area where the craft can operate properly without worrying about the math, and then there is an area where it’s all about the math.
Safe Area Operation vs Time
Still with us after the tanks and helicopters? Great, time for the actual math. At the 5:30 mark you’ll get the meat and potatoes of how to read and understand an SAO graph like the one seen to the right.
We can also trade off time for heat and short pulses can consequently handle higher current as shown by the dashed lines. This can be useful in other devices such as LED’s where the human eye registers the peak output during the short pulses and yet, thanks to a phenomenon known as
persistence of vision
, doesn’t record the fact that the LED spends a portion of time turned off and cooling.
Near the end of the video we discuss why the “ON resistance” — often shown as RDS(on) — of a MOSFET has a huge effect on power dissipation for that part. This is due to the fact that with a restive load the power dissipation goes up with the square of the current times the resistance of the load (P = I
2
R). A very small change in the on resistance will have a very large effect on the power dissipation. For an understanding of the creation and effects of temperature check the last
Hackaday Video regarding heat
.
At the end of the day all of this means that if you are on the wrong side of the SAO equation your design can get overheated or otherwise stressed and suffer from a variety of issues that should be avoided. SAO isn’t used to prove something is impossible, more often it is one of the tools for finding out what
is
possible and what the trade-offs are. Sometimes the answer is the designer needs to start over or look for other approaches to a problem if the SAO determines that “you can’t get there from here”, or in the words of the
WOPR
“The only winning move is not to play”. Often this means go switched or go home. The good news is that there are some real kick-ass switching outputs available these days. | 14 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "1288142",
"author": "XOIIO",
"timestamp": "2014-03-21T16:41:10",
"content": "Haven’t watched the video, all I know is I want that model (presumably R/C) of that E-75",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "3149406",
"author": ... | 1,760,376,260.073361 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/03/21/dont-just-go-sticking-that-anywhere-protect-the-precious-with-a-usb-wrapper/ | Don’t Just Go Sticking That Anywhere: Protect The Precious With A USB Wrapper | Kristina Panos | [
"Android Hacks",
"Cellphone Hacks",
"iphone hacks"
] | [
"phone charger",
"the precious",
"usb"
] | Oooh, look, a public charging station. Should you trust it? You might get juice jacked. Oh wait, you’ve got a
USB Wrapper designed by [Scasagrande]
to deny access to your datas.
This project was inspired by the USB Condom, but the problem with those is that they completely cut out the data lines and limit the charge rate to USB 2.0 (500mA). The data lines are used to communicate information about the charger’s power sourcing capabilities to the device. Many manufacturers short D+ and D- together, but
Apple applies specific voltages
to those lines.
[Scasagrande]’s USB Wrapper gives you options. You can set it to Dedicated Charging Port, Sony, Open Circuit, or Apple. The super-cool part of this hack is for you Apple fanboys. The bottom slider lets you emulate any Apple charger and use any USB cube (
including one you may have made
) as long as you have that funny cable in your messenger bag. The hardware is open source and available at
[Scasagrande]’s repo
.
Make the jump to see [Scasagrande]’s nicely detailed video about the project.
[via
Dangerous Prototypes
] | 60 | 20 | [
{
"comment_id": "1287877",
"author": "Ren",
"timestamp": "2014-03-21T14:12:19",
"content": "Like!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1288019",
"author": "Steven Casagrande",
"timestamp": "2014-03-21T15:42:49",
"content": "... | 1,760,376,260.4349 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/03/23/humble-beginnings-of-a-pick-and-place-machine/ | Humble Beginnings Of A Pick And Place Machine | James Hobson | [
"cnc hacks"
] | [
"pick and place",
"shapeoko"
] | [Pete’s] invented a product called an AIR Patch Cable designed to interface with an airplane’s intercom, and is looking to manufacture and assemble them himself — unfortunately, the circuit boards are tiny, and SMD components aren’t exactly the easiest to install. So he decided to build a
pick and place machine to do it for him!
It’s not finished yet, but [Pete] has reached a major milestone — he’s finished the base CNC machine aspect of it. He opted for a kit build for the major mechanical components, the Shapeoko 2 — its a solid design and if you decided to make something from scratch it’d probably cost much more and take a lot longer.
From there he began selecting his electronics individually. He’s chosen the Big Easy Driver by Sparkfun to control his stepper motors, which supports a maximum size of NEMA 17 steppers, so he bought five of those too. To control it all, he’s using
LinuxCNC
which is an excellent choice — and if you’re not crazy about Linux, you can actually download
Ubuntu 10.04 with LinuxCNC pre-installed
for you to make it super easy — you’ll just need an old dedicated PC to use.
Once everything was setup, he wrote a quick program to control his future pick and place machine — he strapped a pen onto the Z-axis and it scratched out its first word: “Gangsta”. Cause you know, G-Code. Right? Yeah. Anyway, we’re quite
excited to see how this progresses.
To see a pick & place machine that’s already functioning, check out this
beautiful piece of work! | 10 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "1295032",
"author": "mh",
"timestamp": "2014-03-24T02:07:23",
"content": "The next step will obviously be to manufacture and assemble his new line of hobbyist pick-n-place machines himself…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1295... | 1,760,376,260.217507 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/03/23/hackaday-links-march-23-2014/ | Hackaday Links: March 23, 2014 | Mike Szczys | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"Hackaday links"
] | [
"automaton",
"ballast",
"breakout board",
"gashapon",
"storage",
"wire",
"xbmc"
] | [Jack] sent us a link to a Metropolitan Museum of Art video showing off
a mechanized desk that plays music and has a ton of hidden compartments
. Furniture makers of yore built hidden compartments in furniture all the time. After all, there weren’t credit cards back in the day and you had to keep important documents, cash, and everything else on hand. What strikes us is that this mates woodworking of the highest caliber with precision mechanics.
Before you get rid of that old box spring, ask yourself if you need to store dimensional goods. If you rip off the outer fabric,
the network of wire inside makes a reasonable lumber rack
.
And since we’re talking trash, we enjoyed seeing this
water bottle wire spool minder
which [Daniel] sent our way.
You know those portable DVD players you can hang from a headrest to entertain the kids on long trips? Well [John’s] broke, and like chasing the dragon, once you’re hooked on watching videos during car trips there’s no going back. Luckily he was able to throw a Raspberry Pi at the problem. He now has
a portable OpenElec XBMC device
controlled via a smartphone.
[Jaromir] posted
some breakout board footprints
that you can use. It’s not the footprints that impress us, but the idea of using them to fill up board space when spinning a new PCB. [Thanks Sarah]
LEGO Gachapon
. Need we say more? Okay, truth be told we had to look it up too; Wikipedia says it’s spelled
Gashapon
. These are coin-operated machines that dispense toys inside of plastic capsules. This one’s made of LEGO
and it’s awesome
.
[Mikhail] actually
built his own ballast resistors
for some HeNe laser tubes. This is a bit easier than it might sound at first, as they are much lower power than the tubes used in cutters. But none-the-less an interesting, and successful, experiment. | 9 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "1294807",
"author": "ARM",
"timestamp": "2014-03-24T00:06:41",
"content": "I was not aware of the fact that transformers existed in 1778.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1294830",
"author": "mh",
"timestamp": "... | 1,760,376,260.48388 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/03/23/this-machine-sucks-balls/ | This Machine Sucks Balls | Brian Benchoff | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"ball pit",
"vacuum"
] | The best career choice anyone could ever make – aside from the richest astronaut to ever win the Super Bowl – is the designer of the kinetic art installations found in science centers that roll billiard balls along tracks, around loops, and through conveyors in a perpetual display of physics and mechanics. [Niklas Roy] isn’t quite at that level yet,
but he has come up with a new twist on an old idea
: a machine that literally sucks balls from a ball pit into transparent tubes, sending them whizzing around the installation space.
The installation consists of eighty meters of plastic tubing suspended in the staircase of Potocki Palace in Kraków. Electronically, the installation is extremely simple; a PIR sensor turns on a vacuum cleaner whenever someone is in the ball pit. This sucks balls up through a hose, around the space, and into a bin suspended over the pit. Pull a lever, and the balls stored in the bin are dispensed onto the person vacuuming up thousands of balls below.
Image source
, with video below. | 31 | 14 | [
{
"comment_id": "1294478",
"author": "supershwa",
"timestamp": "2014-03-23T20:57:58",
"content": "Uhm…facepalm?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1294496",
"author": "Biomed",
"timestamp": "2014-03-23T21:08:57",
"content"... | 1,760,376,260.548459 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/03/23/say-watt-a-talking-multimeter/ | Say Watt? A Talking Multimeter? | Marsh | [
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"digital multimeter",
"disability",
"disabled",
"dmm",
"sd card",
"talking"
] | After a request from one of his friends, [Mastro Gippo] managed to put together a
talking multimeter
to be used by blind persons working in electronics. He wanted a feature-rich meter that had serial output, and recalling
this Hackaday article
from a few years back led him to find a DT-4000ZC on eBay, which has serial output on a 3.5mm jack. (Though, he actually recommends
this knockoff version
which comes with excellent documentation).
It turns out there aren’t many talking meter options available other than
this
expensive one and a couple of discontinued alternatives. [Mastro Gippo] needed to start from scratch with the voice synthesizer, which proved to be as easy as recording a bunch of numbers and packing them onto an SD card to be read by an Arduino running the
SimpleSDAudio library.
He found a small, battery-powered external speaker used for rocking out with music on cell phones and hooked it up to the build, stuffing all the electronics into an aluminum case. Stick around after the jump for a quick video of the finished product! | 41 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "1294107",
"author": "andrewjhull",
"timestamp": "2014-03-23T17:16:15",
"content": "Shhh… dont tell anybody, but that multimeter looks to be yellow and black }:¬) …(also available in “customs friendly” blue or red…http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_trksid=m570.l3201&_nkw=TP4000ZC&_saca... | 1,760,376,260.68311 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/03/23/a-hexacopter-with-fpv/ | A Hexacopter With FPV | Marsh | [
"Toy Hacks"
] | [
"cinemizer",
"first person view",
"FPV",
"hexacopter",
"quadcopter"
] | [Robert’s] been hard at work becoming a hexacopter expert over the past two years, and he’s offered up
a retrospective of his multi rotor build experience
since he first clicked the “buy” button on Hobbyking. He’s come a long way from his first build, which used inexpensive carbon rods and 3D-printed parts for a frame, supported by scrap wood and hot glue. It met its end in his car; exposed to direct sunlight, the 3D-printed components melted.
The latest iteration—seen above on the right—is a complete redesign, with a laser-cut frame that dramatically reduced the overall weight and new “Donkey” motors off Hobbyking. It’s strong enough to lift a 1.6kg (3.5lbs) stuffed animal suspended from a rope! Most recently [Robert] has worked out streaming first-person video after fitting a camera to the hexacopter via a 3D-printed attachment and pairing the experience with
Zeiss Cinemizer 3D glasses
. He still has some bugs to work out, namely screws loosening from vibrations and adding a HUD to the display so he’ll know when the battery levels are low. You can see the poor teddy bear getting hanged along with some other videos, including the first-person video flight, after the break. | 5 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "1294015",
"author": "Dezsocks",
"timestamp": "2014-03-23T16:29:11",
"content": "What i rip it was the sunlight that got him.Usually its the confusion of orientation.For a HUD or OSD he could use a remzibi or minim osd,they display details such as heading wind gps co-ordinates etc.Or... | 1,760,376,260.596877 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/03/23/diy-cnc-dust-collection-really-sucks/ | DIY CNC Dust Collection Really Sucks! | Rich Bremer | [
"cnc hacks",
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"cnc",
"cnc vacuum",
"dust collection",
"dust collector"
] | CNC Routers are great. If you’ve ever used one you know this but you also know that they will cover the machine and everything around it with a layer of dust. It is certainly possible to use a shop vac to suck up the dust coming from the router, however, the only problem with that is the shop vac’s filter will clog with dust and lose suction, defeating the intent of your vac system.
[Mike Douglas] was ready to step up his CNC game and decided to make his own
dust
separator
. This design is extremely simple and only uses a couple 5 gallon buckets, a few PVC fittings and pieces of wood. To keep the cost down and the style up, the accompanying ‘shop-vac’ is also made from 5 gallon bucket with a
vacuum lid
. The project is well documented so head over to his site and check out the build process.
A dust separator does exactly what its name implies, it separates the dust and debris from the air before entering the vacuum. The following diagram shows how it works: First, a vacuum creates low-pressure inside the dust separator. That low-pressure draws the dust-filled air into the dust separator. The inlet tube directs the incoming air tangent to the circular chamber. Large debris falls quickly down past the baffle and into the collection chamber. The dust enters and is thrown against the walls of the separator as it spins around. While the dust is traveling around the circumference of the separator, gravity pulls it down into the collection chamber. The now much-cleaner air then travels up through the outlet to the vacuum.
Now that we have a dust separator doing its job, would you want to stand beside your CNC machine holding the vacuum hose collecting the newly created dust? Probably not. Neither did [Gerg], and that is why he made a
dust shoe
for his ShopBot. It is made from scrap polycarbonate that was kicking around the shop. There are two main components of the design, the top part that attaches to the router and the bottom part that has the skirt. The bottom piece attaches to the top with magnets which allows the skirt to be removed quickly so that the tool bit can be changed easily. And in case you want to make your own dust shoe, [Gerg] has made the dxf files available. | 23 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "1293688",
"author": "Chris Muncy",
"timestamp": "2014-03-23T13:43:33",
"content": "His dust separator is really crude but the dust shoe is impressive. For a dust separator I found this on YouTube and it seems to get really good reviews plus is inexpensive: From Amazon –http://goo.gl... | 1,760,376,260.749805 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/03/23/learning-assembly-with-a-web-based-assembler/ | Learning Assembly With A Web Based Assembler | Nick Conn | [
"Microcontrollers"
] | [
"assembler",
"assembly",
"debugger",
"microcontroller",
"online debugger",
"web based"
] | Very few people know assembly. [Luto] seeks to make learning assembly just a little bit easier with his “fully functional
web-based assembler
development environment, including a real assembler, emulator and debugger.”
These days, you can be a microcontroller expert without knowing a thing about assembly. While you don’t NEED to know assembly, it actually can help you understand quite a bit about embedded programming and how your C code actually works. Writing a small part of your code in assembly can reduce code size and speed things up quite a bit. It also can result in some very cool projects, such as using
Java to program microcontrollers
.
With high quality example code, it is very easy to get started learning assembly.
T
he emulator consists of a microcontroller with 32 registers, hooked up to three LEDs, two buttons, and a potentiometer. This is way better than painfully learning assembly on real hardware. Be sure to check out the
online demo
! Being able to step through each line of code and clearly see the result help make assembly easier to use and understand.
It would be great to see this kind of tool widely adopted in engineering programs.
Have you used assembly in any of your projects? Let us know how it went and why you choose to use assembly | 47 | 14 | [
{
"comment_id": "1293147",
"author": "Telimektar",
"timestamp": "2014-03-23T08:46:24",
"content": "Nice, in these days asembly still make sense. On time critical and precious tasks its not replaceable.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1293166",... | 1,760,376,260.939489 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/03/19/ask-hackaday-auto-bed-leveling-and-high-temperature-force-sensitive-resistors/ | Ask Hackaday: Auto Bed Leveling And High Temperature Force Sensitive Resistors | Brian Benchoff | [
"3d Printer hacks",
"Ask Hackaday"
] | [
"3d printer",
"automated bed leveling",
"delta printer",
"Force Sensitive Resistors",
"reprap"
] | [Johann] over on the RepRap wiki
has
an ingenious solution
for making sure a borosilicate glass bed is completely level before printing anything on his Kossel printer: take three force sensitive resistors, put them under the build platform, and wire them in parallel, and connect them to a thermistor input on an electronics board. The calibration is simply a bit of code in the Marlin firmware that touches the nozzle to the bed until the thermistor input maxes out. When it does, the firmware knows the print head has zeroed out and can calculate the precise position and tilt of the bed.
Great, huh? A solution to bed leveling that doesn’t require a Z-probe, uses minimal (and cheap) hardware, and can be retrofitted into just about any existing printer. There’s a problem, though: these force sensitive resistors are only good to 70° C, making the whole setup unusable for anything with a heated bed. Your challenge: figure out a way to use this trick with a heated bed.
The force sensitive resistors used –
here’s a link
provided by [Johann] – have a maximum operating temperature of 70° C, while the bed temperature when printing with ABS is around 130° C. The FSRs are sensitive to temperature, as well, making this a very interesting problem.
Anyone with any ideas is welcome to comment here, on the RepRap forums, the IRC, or anywhere else. One idea
includes putting an FSR in the x carriage
, but we’re thinking some sort of specialized heat sink underneath the bed and on top of the FSRs would be a better solution.
Video of the auto bed leveling trick in action below. | 39 | 25 | [
{
"comment_id": "1282705",
"author": "Thopter",
"timestamp": "2014-03-19T23:19:18",
"content": "Perhaps put a small chunk of aerogel in between the bed and the FSR?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1285449",
"author": "Alex",
"t... | 1,760,376,261.820325 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/03/19/massive-led-display-makes-use-of-reused-soda-bottles/ | Massive LED Display Makes Use Of Reused Soda Bottles | James Hobson | [
"LED Hacks"
] | [
"club mate",
"LED array",
"WS2801"
] | What better way to make a giant LED display than out of old empties and bottle crates? This is the
Mate Light
(pronounced Mah-Tay).
We were first introduced to the ever popular Club-Mate soda at one of the
first hackerspaces
we visited during our
Hackerspacing in Europe Tour.
It’s a soft drink produced in Germany, which seems to be the exclusive non-alcoholic drink of choice for almost all hackerspaces in Western Europe. The spaces in the Netherlands and Belgium would even make road trips to Germany just to load up a van with the drink to bring back home. Personally we didn’t really understand what was so special about it, but maybe we just didn’t drink enough!
Anyway, this impressive display makes use of 640 empties arranged in 4 rows of 8 crates for a decent 16 x 40 resolution. Each bottle is wrapped in aluminum foil and contains one RGB LED with a WS2801 driver. Each row of crates is connected to a TI Stellaris Launchpad, which has four hardware SPI interfaces — conveniently the number of rows of crates used! From there, an ancient ThinkPad T22 laptop runs the control program over USB to the microcontroller board. Their first software implementation used a Python script which was painfully slow — they’re now putting the finishing touches on using a C script instead.
Stick around to see the display in all of its awesomeness.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DIAmsq1D7eI
Or how about playing a giant game of Snake?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gs3FFawl3Nk
And if there’s any Bronies in the crowd…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xy4i5JZ1jVs
[Thanks Stu] | 15 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "1282075",
"author": "aleksclark",
"timestamp": "2014-03-19T20:12:00",
"content": "The xanthine mix in mate is different from other caffeine sources, that might explain some of it although it’s probably mostly a flavor thing. For a buzz that will keep you going all night, try a yerba... | 1,760,376,260.854802 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/03/19/etching-designs-into-denim-with-a-laser-cutter/ | Etching Designs Into Denim With A Laser Cutter | Nick Conn | [
"Laser Hacks"
] | [
"denim",
"engrave",
"epilog",
"jeans",
"laser",
"laser cutter",
"laser engrave"
] | Finding new uses for your tools and equipment can be very exciting. [Foamy] wrote in to tell us about a blog post by [qbotics] that demonstrates
etching designs into denim
with a laser cutter. What a cool unexpected use for a laser cutter!
According to the
Epilog
laser cutter’s website, “we have engraved everything from denim to acrylic with fantastic results”. This inspired the author of “Science with denim” to try engraving jeans. After some experimentation, [qbotics] found that setting the 75W laser cutter to 15% power at 100% speed worked best. The results are quite impressive; the engraved pattern looks like naturally faded jeans. Amazing.
In the past, we have seen lasers engrave everything from
calculators
to
wood
. We would be curious to see if some of the
DIY laser cutters
could engrave denim as well. Give it a try and
tell us about it
! | 49 | 20 | [
{
"comment_id": "1281609",
"author": "wretch",
"timestamp": "2014-03-19T17:15:50",
"content": "Now you’ve done it. Next thing someone will try to etch her/his own skin. (c:This looks much better, IMHO, that those glittery things. They just look like kindergarten projects to me, but yet people wou... | 1,760,376,261.23361 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/03/19/mug-music-is-good-to-the-last-drop/ | Mug Music Is Good To The Last Drop | Kristina Panos | [
"Arduino Hacks",
"Musical Hacks"
] | [
"arduino",
"capacitive touch",
"ChucK",
"disney touche",
"mug"
] | [Bonnie] is majoring in CS at Princeton and minoring in Awesome. She is taking an electronic music class and had to produce a digital instrument for her midterm project. She and her friend [Harvest] came up with
Mug Music
, which turns a ceramic mug of water into an instrument.
The circuit is very easy to replicate with an Arduino, a coil, and a few resistors and capacitors. [Bonnie] wanted to experiment with
Disney Research Lab’s Touché
method of touch detection, and Mug Music is based on
this Touché for Arduino Instructable
. The inputs are turned into MIDI notes with
ChucK
, a real-time sound synthesis language developed at Princeton.
As you may have guessed and will see in the demonstration video after the jump, you aren’t limited to touching the water. The entire mug will produce sounds as well. [Bonnie] says you can trigger a thunderclap if you touch the water and a grounded surface simultaneously.
This would be a great project to explore with kids, especially as a music therapy vehicle for kids on the autism spectrum. It isn’t as physical as
these portable musical stairs
, but it may draw less attention from lawyers. | 6 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "1281255",
"author": "dan",
"timestamp": "2014-03-19T14:08:47",
"content": "Awesome!!!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1281309",
"author": "Eirinn",
"timestamp": "2014-03-19T14:38:09",
"content": "For once a makeshift... | 1,760,376,262.26177 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/03/19/gevcu-an-open-generalized-electric-vehicle-control-unit/ | GEVCU – An Open Generalized Electric Vehicle Control Unit | Mathieu Stephan | [
"Arduino Hacks",
"ARM",
"hardware"
] | [
"Arduino DUE",
"can-bus",
"ecu"
] | At Hackaday we’re very happy to see the increasing number of open hardware devices that appear everyday on the internet, and we’re also quite thrilled about open-source electric cars. Pictured above is the
GEVCU
, an open source electric
vehicle control unit
(or ECU). It is in charge of processing different inputs (throttle position, brake pressure, vehicle sensors) then send the appropriate control commands to electric motor controllers (aka inverters) via CAN bus messages or digital / PWM signals.
The project started back in December 2012 and was originally based on an Arduino Due. Since then, the GEVCU went through several revisions and ultimately a complete custom board was produced, while still keeping the Cortex M3 ATSAM3X8E from the Due. As you may have guessed, the board also includes a Wifi transceiver so users may adjust the ECU parameters via a web based platform. All resources may be downloaded from the official
GitHub
. | 32 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "1280974",
"author": "di0de",
"timestamp": "2014-03-19T11:10:42",
"content": "Now I want to see an open source ecu for gasoline and diesel engines.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1280998",
"author": "dave",
"ti... | 1,760,376,261.142589 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/03/19/3d-printers-can-only-make-trinkets-what-about-kayaks/ | 3D Printers Can Only Make Trinkets — What About Kayaks? | James Hobson | [
"3d Printer hacks",
"Transportation Hacks"
] | [
"3d printed car",
"3d printed kayak",
"large 3d prints"
] | Wow. [Jim Smith] of Grass Roots Engineering has just put the finishing touches on his entirely
3D printed kayak.
And it floats.
The individual parts were printed on [Jim’s]
massive home-made 3D printer
, which is loosely based off a RepRap — except that its maximum build volume is a whopping 403 x 403 x 322.7mm.
The kayak itself is made of 28 printed sections, and to hold it all together, he has installed brass threaded thermoplastic inserts, which then allow the pieces to be bolted together. Silicone caulking is applied before assembly to ensure a watertight seal.
It was originally based off of a Siskiwit Bay kayak by [Bryan Hansel] but [Jim] has heavily modified it to suit 3D printing. It was printed at a layer height of 0.65mm to reduce print time, which still ended up being over 1000 hours! He even optimized the design to improve performance based on his own height and weight.
The hull is 6mm thick, with a custom rib structure to increase strength — you can also see the method of fastening the sections together in the following image:
In total it weighs around 65lbs, with 58lbs of that being ABS plastic — it used 7lbs of screws and brass inserts — wow! Oh and since the whole thing was 3D printed, [Jim] also added some handy features like camera mounts on the bow and stern. Talk about a big project!
Have you seen anything else this big printed on a hobby 3D printer? Our first thought is the Replica DB4 project by [Ivan Sentch] — He’s building an Aston Martin DB4 using a donor car… and
a lot of 3D printed parts. | 66 | 22 | [
{
"comment_id": "1280693",
"author": "Chris",
"timestamp": "2014-03-19T08:09:03",
"content": "Google tell me that 65lbs = 29,4835041 kg. Wow. Worlds first 3D-printed AND worlds heaviest Kajak at the same time! Extraordinary expensive too! And with built-in leaks!Seriously, I am not sure if this act... | 1,760,376,261.522709 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/03/18/prophet-600-a-classic-synthesizer-gets-processor-upgrade/ | Prophet 600: A Classic Synthesizer Gets Processor Upgrade | Adam Fabio | [
"Musical Hacks"
] | [
"analog synthesizer",
"Prophet 600",
"Teensy",
"z80",
"Zilog Z80"
] | We love classic synthesizers here at Hackaday. So does [gligli], but he didn’t like the processor limitations of the Prophet 600. That’s why
he’s given it a new brain in the form of a Teensy++
. The
Sequential Circuits Prophet 600
was a big deal when it was released back in 1982/1983. The 600 was the first commercially available synthesizer to include a
MIDI
interface. The original design of the 600 could be called a hybrid. A Zilog Z80 microprocessor controlled modular analog voice chips. The Z80 was a bit stressed in this configuration though, and a few limitations were evident. An 8 bit processor just wasn’t quite enough for software driven envelopes and a Low Frequency Oscillator (LFO) control. This was further exacerbated by the fact that everything was driven through a 14 bit DAC.
[gligli] discovered most of the limitations in the 600 were due to the processor. By beefing up the processing power he could really unlock the potential within 600. Since he didn’t actually have a Prophet 600, he started with the schematic. [gligli] created a PC based emulator for the digital circuits, learning the whole system as he worked. With that phase complete, [gligli] bought a used Prophet and started hacking. The Teensy++ required a few hardware mods to fill the Z80’s shoes, including cutting off a pin and adding a few jumper wires. We really like the fact that no changes to the Prophet 600 itself are required. Pull out the Teensy++, drop in the Z80, and you’re ready to party like it’s 1982 again.
The new processor interfaces directly with the Z80’s 8 bit bus. Since the AVR on the Teensy has built-in RAM and ROM, it simply ignores the ROM and RAM address spaces of the original system. Interfacing a fast micro with older parts like an 8253 timer and a 68B50 UART does have its pitfalls though. The system bus had to run slow enough to not violate timing requirements of the various peripheral chips. To handle this, [gligli] added a number of wait statements in his firmware. Once the system was working, [gligli] was free to start adding new features. He began by smoothing out the stepped envelope and filter generators, as well as adding new exponential modes. From there he added new keyboard polyphony modes as well as pitch and mod wheel changes. The full lineup of new features are listed in the
instruction manual
(PDF link). Since this is an open source project, adding a feature is as simple as cracking open your favorite editor and writing it up.
[Thanks Kiss] | 20 | 12 | [
{
"comment_id": "1280426",
"author": "JIm B",
"timestamp": "2014-03-19T05:16:58",
"content": "Standing ovation!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1280439",
"author": "Brendan Robert",
"timestamp": "2014-03-19T05:25:22",
"content": "Bra... | 1,760,376,261.412205 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/03/20/mrrf-roundtable-and-roundup/ | MRRF: Roundtable And Roundup | Brian Benchoff | [
"3d Printer hacks",
"Hackaday Columns"
] | [
"3D Printering",
"Midwest RepRap Festival",
"MRRF",
"MRRF 14"
] | Last weekend Hackaday made a trip out to
the Midwest RepRap Festival
in Goshen, Indiana. We met a ton of interesting people, saw a lot of cool stuff, and managed to avoid the Amish horse and buggies plying the roads around Goshen.
We’ve already posted a few things from MRRF, including [Jordan Miller] and co.’s
adventures in bioprinting
, a very cool
printable object repo that’s backed by a nonprofit LLC
, some
stuff from Lulzbot
that included a new extruder, stretchy filament, and news of a 3D scanner that’s in development,
ARM-based CNC controllers
including the Smoothieboard and capes for the Beaglebone,
3D printed resin molds
, the newest
project from [Nicholas Seward]
, creator or the RepRap Wally, Simpson, and Lisa, and
3D printed waffles
. It really was an amazing event and also
the largest DIY 3D printer convention on the planet
. How this happened in Goshen, Indiana is anyone’s guess, but we’d like to give a shout out to
SeeMeCNC
for organizing this event.
With so many famous RepRappers in one place, it only made sense to put together a round table discussion on the state of RepRap, 3D printers, and microfabrication. We have a 40-minute long video of that, which you can check out after the break.
The video above is a Q&A session with [Johnny Russell] of
Ultimachine
, developer for the
RAMPS
and
RAMBo
electronics boards, [Prusa] of
Prusa Mendel
and
i3
fame, [Mike] a.k.a [Maxbots] of
Maker’s Tool Works
and developer of the
MendelMax 2
, and [Aeva], robot psychologist at
Lulzbot
(seriously, that’s what her card says). It’s not a lie to say these guys have had a hand in the stuff that has gone into 90% of all the RepRaps out there.
We highly suggest getting a cup of coffee and opening that video up in a new tab. There are some great comments between the four of them, and some very insightful questions from the audience. Here’s a list of the questions asked:
What are the economics of open source and cheap clones?
Where is the RepRap community going this year?
How should companies incentivize less glamorous projects?
When do we get functional mechanical parts in 3D printing?
What are some recommendations for subtractive manufacturing toolchains?
Where is RepRap popular around the world?
What will happen with SLS patents expiring?
How did you get started and how can someone new contribute?
Can RepRap indefinitely fend off DRM?
What are some recommendations for open source 3D modelling programs?
Also at the MRRF was mUVe 3D,
makers of a very cool resin printer
, and the only people in the RepRap community that have seen the light of coroplast for making non-structural panels on their machines. We also grabbed a video of them:
Once again, we’d like to thank everyone who came out, SeeMeCNC for putting this event together, Makers Tool Works for 3D printed waffle irons, and everybody else who headed out to Goshen for the largest convention dedicated to RepRaps in the world.
If you didn’t make it out, here’s some aerial footage courtesy of [Phil Briski] and his tiny quadcopter. Be sure to check out the 5 foot by 8 foot Jolly Wrencher flag, something we’re now considering putting in a Hackaday store. Hope to see you there next year!
This man was on the cover of Forbes magazine
A vertical H-bot
Custom waffles.
Rules for the venue. No beer kegs *on the carpet*. | 9 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "1285303",
"author": "RyanE",
"timestamp": "2014-03-20T17:19:31",
"content": "Video is private… Duh.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1285396",
"author": "JRDM",
"timestamp": "2014-03-20T17:59:59",
"cont... | 1,760,376,261.884006 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/03/20/piezoelectric-crystal-speaker-for-clock-radio-is-alarmingly-easy-to-make/ | Piezoelectric Crystal Speaker For Clock Radio Is Alarmingly Easy To Make | Kristina Panos | [
"how-to"
] | [
"alarm clock",
"crystal",
"piezoelecricity",
"rochelle salt",
"vikings"
] | Let’s face it: most of us have trouble getting out of bed. Many times it’s because the alarm isn’t loud enough to rouse us from our viking dreams. [RimstarOrg]’s homeowner’s association won’t let him keep a rooster in the backyard, so
he fashioned a piezoelectric crystal speaker
to pump up the volume.
[RimstarOrg]’s speaker uses a
Rochelle salt
crystal strapped to a bean can diaphragm. In his demonstration, he begins by connecting an old clock radio directly to the crystal. This isn’t very loud at all, so he adds a doorbell transformer in reverse. This is louder, but it still won’t get [RimstarOrg] out of bed.
Enter the microwave oven transformer. Now it’s sufficiently loud, though it’s no
fire bell alarm
. He also demonstrates the speaker using a piezo igniter from one of those long barbecue lighters and a crystal radio earpiece. As always, the video is after the jump. [RimstarOrg] has a lot of relevant linkage in the summary so you can learn how to grow your own Rochelle crystals.
[via
Dangerous Prototypes
and
Hacked Gadgets
] | 33 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "1284875",
"author": "Ren",
"timestamp": "2014-03-20T14:28:32",
"content": "I have a clock radio like that somewhere out in the garage…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1284953",
"author": "Peter",
"timestamp": "... | 1,760,376,261.742195 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/03/20/you-are-fined-1-credit-for-a-violation-of-the-verbal-morality-statute/ | You Are Fined 1 Credit For A Violation Of The Verbal Morality Statute | Mike Szczys | [
"contests"
] | [
"demolition man",
"hackaday-projects",
"sci-fi",
"swearing",
"swears",
"voice recognition"
] | Some citizens can control their language and others cannot. What is a civilized society to do? In a dystopian future you can count on electronic monitoring. But wait, the future is now… or it will be in a few weeks. [Tdicola]
is building the verbal morality monitor from Demolition Man
as his entry in
Hackaday’s ongoing Sci-Fi Contest
.
Currently the project is in the early planning phase, but holy cow this is a fantastic idea! For those that didn’t see the glorious 1993 feature film, the young [Stallone] pictured above is accepting a ticket (as in: he must pay for his violation) from the tattle-tale wall-mounted computer. Everything about this device is completely feasible using today’s tech. It needs voice recognition and a list of naughty words, a way to play a pre-recorded message, and a printer to spit out the tickets. The build log for the project outlines all of this, as well as possible cost and sources for each.
We’ve been wondering who it was that
injected an Artificial Intelligence into our project hosting system
. We see both [tdicola] and [colabot] are on the team for this build. The names are too conveniently similar to be a coincidence, don’t you think? | 55 | 15 | [
{
"comment_id": "1284276",
"author": "Mystick",
"timestamp": "2014-03-20T11:07:13",
"content": "Now all we need is the “Three Seashells” for that new semiautomatic toilet I keep seeing on TV.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1284369",
"author... | 1,760,376,262.055629 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/03/20/kamermaker-begins-printing-a-house/ | KamerMaker Begins Printing A House | James Hobson | [
"3d Printer hacks"
] | [
"3d printed home",
"kamermaker"
] | The KamerMaker is the world’s largest portable 3D printing pavilion built out of a shipping container — it has started printing an entire
house out of plastic
.
We first shared the KamerMaker (literally “Room Maker” in Dutch) a few years ago when it was first designed and built as a
collaboration project between Utilimaker and Architectburo DUS
. Their intention was the ability to print 1:1 architectural designs, and now it has begun its biggest project yet — an entire house along the canal in Amsterdam.
So far the KamerMaker has printed one corner of the Canal House, which features part of a staircase. It weighs about 400lbs and took a week to print. To increase the strength of these 3D printed parts, the company uses a honeycomb infill and before assembly will fill the gaps inside the piece with a type of foam that becomes as hard as concrete.
The project is estimated to take three years for completion, and until then you can visit it at
Tolhuisweg 7, 1031 CL in North Amsterdam
, where it is open to the public for a small fee of €2.50 — this is a tourist city after all! When completed it will be a design museum, although the team at DUS hope it will be only the first of many 3D printed buildings.
To learn more about the project, stick around for the following video.
[via
CNET
] | 35 | 12 | [
{
"comment_id": "1283917",
"author": "StinkySteve",
"timestamp": "2014-03-20T08:12:09",
"content": "I think this is kinda cool but not cool enough to warrant the huge waste of money and plastic.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1284004",
... | 1,760,376,261.965437 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/03/19/heated-build-chambers-dont-have-to-be-that-complex/ | Heated Build Chambers Don’t Have To Be That Complex | James Hobson | [
"3d Printer hacks"
] | [
"HBC",
"heated build chamber",
"reprap"
] | Looking to improve the quality of your 3D prints? Worried about peeling, warping, and de-laminating layers? All you need is to do is make a
heated build chamber!
The heated build chamber is
one of the patents
that the big 3D printer company owns (we won’t point any fingers), and that’s why you don’t see it as a feature on any of the “consumer” grade 3D printers. But that won’t stop people from making their own!
[Repkid] just finished a wiki page on this topic, and it’s a great way to build a heated chamber — if you have the space for it! He’s built a large wooden enclosure for his RepRap out of MDF sheets. Double-ply cardboard is used as thin insulation, although we imagine if you’re building something this large you might as well use some commercial insulation.
The chamber is heated by a blow dryer which is mounted off the back of the box, and the heat is controlled by changing the speed setting of the dryer. A laser cut vent allows for further adjustment. If you want to get really fancy, it would be very easy to install a thermostat PID controller that could regulate the temperature more accurately. To prevent overheating the electronics, all the control boards are also outside of the box.
[Repkid’s] RepRap does not have a heated bed, but with the heated build chamber he can print ABS without any warping — just take a look!
The white piece is with the HBC, and the red, without. Not bad!
Do you have a heated build chamber for your 3D printer? If so, we’d love to see it! | 46 | 20 | [
{
"comment_id": "1283630",
"author": "Z00111111",
"timestamp": "2014-03-20T05:14:54",
"content": "The red/white comparison objects don’t make for a convincing argument… I’d like to see the red object reprinted with the chamber active.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{... | 1,760,376,262.139902 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/03/19/meet-lynx-a-costly-offline-password-keeper/ | Meet Lynx, A (costly) Offline Password Keeper | Mathieu Stephan | [
"Arduino Hacks",
"hardware"
] | [
"mooltipass",
"offline password keeper"
] | Maybe because he didn’t want to wait for the Mooltipass to be produced, [davidhend] built himself his
own offline password keeper
, named Lynx.
It is based around an Arduino Pro 328, a 2.8″ TFT touch screen, an RFID card reader, an FTDI basic breakout and finally a li-ion battery. Lynx is therefore self-powered and uses an RFID card to later read the XOR-encrypted passwords located in a SD card. A USB serial connection is used to send the passwords to the computer, which also charges the battery. The current BoM cost is around $220 but we’re quite sure it can be made for much cheaper when not using pre-made boards. Looking at the
official GitHub repository
tells us that the XOR key is stored inside the microcontroller and that Lynx checks the RFID card code to allow encryption/decryption.
On a side note, we recently published a FAQ on the official
Mooltipass GitHub
. You’re welcome to let us know what questions we may have forgotten. | 28 | 12 | [
{
"comment_id": "1283285",
"author": "fred",
"timestamp": "2014-03-20T02:33:25",
"content": "neat project, but should probably replace the XOR encryption with something a bit more secure",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1283325",
"autho... | 1,760,376,262.217503 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/03/19/multimeters-without-a-country-flukes-broad-trademark-bans-yellow-multimeter-imports/ | Multimeters Without A Country: Fluke’s Broad Trademark Bans Yellow Multimeter Imports | Mike Szczys | [
"News",
"Rants"
] | [
"digital multimeter",
"dmm",
"fluke",
"free trade",
"import",
"multimeter",
"trademark"
] | Check out this SparkFun Digital Multimeter. Does it make your blood boil to see them ripping off Fluke by
using the color
yellow
? From SparkFun’s side of the story that’s exactly what’s happened here. They have a shipment of
2000 of these things stuck in customs
. The trademark being infringed upon can be found in their article. Fluke owns the trademark on multimeters with a dark face and yellow border. Great. This seems like a wonderful idea, right up there with Apple owning tablets that are shaped like a piece of paper.
Okay, so if you’re not crying big fat tears for Fluke being taken advantage of in this way let’s talk about more immediate issues than fixing trademark, patent, copyright, and all of the other screw-the-little-guy type of laws (not that SparkFun is necessarily the little guy but you know what we mean). The DMMs sitting in a warehouse are costing SparkFun $150
per day
. We believe they have no option of choosing a warehouse with a lower cost as we must be talking a pallet or two, right? The only two options they do have are shipping them back to China where they were manufactured, or having them destroyed. The former will cost more in re-import tariffs than the cost of the product, and the latter comes with a $150/hour disposal fee and no metric on which to judge how long it would actually take. We hate seeing this kind of waste, but sure enough 2000 DMMs are headed for the shredder in a couple of days.
We know you already have your flaming sword in hand, but simmer down for just a second. Fluke makes great products, ask anyone. And companies the world over defend their trademarks. Hopefully there will soon be a positive response from Fluke on this one. If you would like to politely encourage them to do the right thing we found
Fluke’s Facebook page URL
in the SparkFun comments thread. Both are worth browsing.
[Thanks Chris via
Reddit
] | 249 | 50 | [
{
"comment_id": "1282952",
"author": "Steven",
"timestamp": "2014-03-20T00:38:30",
"content": "Because, Yellow.Seriously Fluke? You don’t see Simpson trademarking Black.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1283069",
"author": "flamebait",... | 1,760,376,262.494873 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/03/21/authentic-blue-blueprints/ | Authentic Blue Blueprints | Brian Benchoff | [
"chemistry hacks",
"classic hacks"
] | [
"Blueprints",
"design",
"Prussian Blue"
] | At one point in history, blueprints were actually blue. Now, if you even see a dead tree version of plans or assemblages, they’re probably printed off with a plotter or large format printer. You can, however,
make your own blueprints at home
, as [Tyler] shows us in his Hackaday Project.
Back in the olden days, master drawings were traced onto large sheets of transparent film. These master prints were then laid over paper prepared with Potassium Ferricyanide and Ferric Ammonium Citrate to create an insoluble
Prussian Blue
background for the prints. Developing is easy – just expose the transparent positive and undeveloped paper to UV light, in the form of fluorescent bulbs or the sun.
[Tyler] began his blueprint creation process by getting a few design sketches of the
RSI Aurora
and
Nautilus
, editing them on a computer, and printing them out on transparency sheets. A solution of equal parts Potassium Ferricyanide and Ferric Ammonium Citrate were painted onto a piece of paper and allowed to dry. Exposing was a simple matter of laying the transparency over the undeveloped paper and setting it out in the sun for 20 minutes or so. After that, it’s a simple matter of washing off the unexposed chemicals and letting the newly created blueprint dry.
It’s a simple technique, but also very, very cool. Not exactly practical, given a plotter can spit out an architectural or assembly drawing of any building, vehicle, or device in a few minutes, but just the ticket for art pieces or extremely odd engineers.
Thanks [Sarah] for sending this in. | 31 | 15 | [
{
"comment_id": "1287566",
"author": "kjoehass",
"timestamp": "2014-03-21T11:22:44",
"content": "I’m old enough to remember making blueprints in my drafting class in high school, and the prints did not have a blue background with light lines. Real blueprints have a very light blue background and dar... | 1,760,376,262.562697 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/03/21/talking-bacon-plushie-greets-you-at-the-door/ | Talking Bacon Plushie Greets You At The Door | James Hobson | [
"Toy Hacks"
] | [
"bacon",
"my first bacon",
"talking bacon"
] | The folks over at [gTar] decided to create a
motion activated talking bacon plush toy
to greet visitors to their office.
They started with a toy called My First Bacon, available from ThinkGeek — it’s a plush toy that exclaims “I’m Bacon!” when you squeeze it. But then they cut him open. We can’t imagine what must have been going through this poor self-aware Bacon’s mind!
The hack itself is quite simple. They are basically replacing the “squeeze” circuit with an IR motion sensor — a PIR sensor from SparkFun to be precise. In addition to that they needed a small inverter IC. This is because the standard talking bacon module requires a positive leading edge signal in order to trigger the audio output, and their PIR sensor drives an output pin low — slap on an inverter IC (they had an old schmitt trigger lying around) and you’re ready to go!
In order to reduce the sensing area of the motion sensor they have recessed it slightly inside [Bacon] using a paper towel roll. A carefully placed hole was made in the [Bacon’s] tummy, and a familiar white globe sticks out slightly, providing a narrow beam of motion sensing capabilities — just right for catching people coming into the office. | 8 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "1287141",
"author": "andrewjhull",
"timestamp": "2014-03-21T08:08:18",
"content": "I suspect HAD Ddos strikes again :¬( .. I’m getting a database error page on the link above. I think we broke it.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id":... | 1,760,376,262.75212 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/03/20/modular-arduino-based-infrared-thermometer/ | Modular Arduino Based Infrared Thermometer | Nick Conn | [
"Microcontrollers"
] | [
"arduino",
"infrared",
"ir",
"IR temperature sensor",
"IR thermometer",
"temperature sensor",
"thermometer"
] | [Brian] started out with a clear and concise goal, “allow a regular human to associate an audible tone with a temperature from an infrared contactless thermometer.” With his latest project, the
ESPeri.IRBud
, he has achieved this goal.
One of our favorite parts of [Brian’s] post is his BOM. Being able to easily see that the IR temperature sensor costs $26 at
DigiKey
is unbelievably helpful to readers. This specific sensor was chosen because others have
successfully interfaced it with the Arduino
. Not having to reinvent the wheel is good thing! For the build, [Brian] decided to hook up the IR temperature sensor to a re-purposed flexible iPhone headset wire. Having used headphone sockets to connect to the sensor and speakers, the actual device is quite modular. Hearing this thing in action is quite cool, it almost sounds like old-school GameBoy music! Check it out after the break.
Have you used an IR temperature sensor in one of your projects?
Let us know. | 2 | 1 | [
{
"comment_id": "1287357",
"author": "echodelta",
"timestamp": "2014-03-21T09:27:59",
"content": "NO sound. Even after I turned of the radio, a faint tone at one point.If using a phone or camcorder use a headphone on the audio out of the experiment and place one pad on the mic of the video device. I... | 1,760,376,262.804373 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/03/20/usb-on-the-attiny10/ | USB On The ATtiny10 | Brian Benchoff | [
"ATtiny Hacks",
"Microcontrollers"
] | [
"attiny",
"attiny10",
"usb",
"V-USB"
] | Atmel’s ATtiny10 is their smallest microcontroller in terms of physical size – it’s an SOT-23-6 package, or about the same size as surface mount transistors. The hardware inside this extremely bare-bones; three I/O lines, 1kB of Flash, 32
bytes
of RAM, and a reduced AVR core with 16 registers instead of 32. With such a minimal feature set, you would think the only thing this micro would be good for is blinking a LED. You’d be right, but [cpldcpu]
can blink a LED with the ‘tiny10 over USB.
The V-USB interface usually requires about 1.5kB of Flash in its most minimal implementation, and uses 50 bytes of RAM. This just wouldn’t do for the ‘tiny10, and although [cpldcpu] is working on
a smaller, interrupt-free V-USB
, there were still some hurdles to overcome.
The biggest issue with putting code on the ‘tiny10 is its reduced AVR core – on the ‘big’ 32-register core, direct memory access is two words. On the ’10, it’s only one word. AVR-GCC doesn’t know this, and no one at Atmel seems to care. [cpldcpu] worked around this problem using defines, and further reduced the code size by completely gutting V-USB and putting it in the main loop.
It’s not much, but now [cpldcpu] can blink an LED with a ‘tiny10 over USB. If you’re wondering, 96.4% of the Flash and 93.8% of the SRAM was used for this project. | 26 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "1286560",
"author": "notabena4us",
"timestamp": "2014-03-21T02:33:37",
"content": "Cool, very cool… +1",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1286659",
"author": "efahrenholz",
"timestamp": "2014-03-21T03:36:31",
"content":... | 1,760,376,262.87073 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/03/20/magnetic-propeller-balancer-takes-away-the-shakes/ | Magnetic Propeller Balancer Takes Away The Shakes | Adam Fabio | [
"drone hacks"
] | [
"Balancer",
"Prop Balancer",
"propeller",
"Static Balance"
] | [Danijel0frk’s] friends may call him unbalanced, but his propellers are always spot on. His well-balanced props are thanks to this
magnetic balancer he built from scrap PC parts and pilfered office supplies
. Propeller balance has always been important for radio controlled models. Flying for hours with a poorly balanced prop can wreak havoc on an air frame and the radio equipment within. With today’s drones and R/C vehicles carrying cameras, accelerometers, and gyros, propeller balance has become even more important. A vibrating propeller can ruin a picture at best. At worst it can throw gyroscope and accelerometer readings off and cause a crash.
[Danijel0frk’s] balancer is based upon several commercial designs. A steel shaft from a CD-ROM drive is cut and the ends ground to points. A propeller to be balanced is mounted to the shaft. Propellers don’t all have the same hole size so two pen tips are pressed into service as self centering mounts. [Danijel0frk’s] picture shows one tip pointing toward the prop hub while the other points away. The balancer will work better if both tips point inward, ensuring the shaft sits directly in the center of the propeller hub’s hole. Hard drive magnets suspend the prop and shaft from a drive rail and wood frame. We should note that this type of balancer will only perform a
static balance
. Dynamic balance would require the propeller to be spinning on a motor with force sensors on the shaft. To perform a static balance, material is added to or removed from the propeller until it balances in any orientation. Click past the break for a good tutorial video on balancing.
[via
Instructables
] | 14 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "1286215",
"author": "NsN",
"timestamp": "2014-03-20T23:35:18",
"content": "This post gave me a great idea for a free-floating propeller based deskfan for the summer months.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1286337",
"au... | 1,760,376,263.195207 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/03/20/fluke-issues-statement-regarding-sparkfuns-impounded-multimeters/ | Fluke Issues Statement Regarding Sparkfun’s Impounded Multimeters | Mike Szczys | [
"News",
"Rants"
] | [
"digital multimeter",
"dmm",
"fluke",
"multimeter",
"sparkfun",
"trademark"
] | Fluke just issued
a response to the impounding of multimeters
headed for market in the United States. Yesterday SparkFun posted their story about
US Customs officials seizing a shipment of 2000 multimeters because of trademark
issues. The gist of the response is that this situation sucks and they want to do what they can to lessen the pain for those involved. Fluke is providing SparkFun with a shipment of genuine Fluke DMMs which they can sell to recoup their losses, or to donate. Of course SparkFun is planning to donate the meters to the maker community.
Anyone with a clue will have already noticed the problem with this solution. The impounded shipment of 2k meters will still be destroyed… eh. The waste is visceral. But good for Fluke for trying to do something positive.
Before we sign off let’s touch on the trademark issue for just a moment. We can’t really blame Fluke too much for this. The legal crux of the matter is you either defend your trademark in
every
case, or you don’t defend it at all. In this case it was the border agents defending the filing, but for ease of understanding we’ll not go into that. On the other hand, speaking in general business terms, the way things are set up it is advantageous to acquire a trademark specification that is as broad as possible because it helps to discourage competitors from coming to market. So trademark is good when it keep hucksters from trying to rip off consumers. But it is bad if applied too broadly as a way of defending a company’s market share.
Where does Fluke come down in all of this? Who knows. There is literally no right answer and that’s why the discussion around yesterday’s post was full of emphatic arguments. A Fluke meter is a cream-of-the-crop device and they have the right (and obligation) to ensure that reputation is not sullied. SparkFun serves a market that probably can’t afford a Fluke at this time but may some day in the future. And this is the reason we can feel okay about this outcome.
[via
Twitter
] | 164 | 50 | [
{
"comment_id": "1285858",
"author": "DainBramage1991",
"timestamp": "2014-03-20T21:34:19",
"content": "Fluke, you’ve surprised me, pleasantly.Well done, you’ve restored my faith in your company.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1285904",
... | 1,760,376,263.38661 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/03/20/fail-of-the-week-the-demise-of-lil-screwy/ | Fail Of The Week: The Demise Of Lil’ Screwy | Mike Szczys | [
"Fail of the Week",
"Hackaday Columns"
] | [
"fail of the week",
"press"
] | The subject of this Fail of the Week installment is entertaining if nothing else. [Chris] decided to see what kind of forces his home-built 100 ton press could stand up to. Turns out
the press failed at punching a 1.5″ hole through 1/2″ plate
steel.
If you didn’t see it back in February make sure you take a gander at
the premier of Lil’ Screwy
. The diminutive press packed quite a bit of punch, using four hand-cranked screws to knock out holes in metal. [Chris] decided to tie-one-on and take his lathe for a spin to machine the larger 1.5″ punch set.
He probably should have known when he switched from a 4-foot ratchet to a crescent wrench with a 12-foot pipe for leverage that this was going to be more than the press could handle. The bottom plate seen in the image above is beginning to cup, which in turn jams up the screws in the off-kilter threads.
We fell a bit guilty in admitting we love to see equipment pushed to the point of failure like this. But perhaps that’s part of what this column is all about. Our favorite is still
the PCB shear failure
, but this comes in at a close second. Check out the video presentation after the break; just be warned that there’s a bit of rough language as part of the narrative.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ND-iB_eX-fU
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. | 24 | 15 | [
{
"comment_id": "1285697",
"author": "Hirudinea",
"timestamp": "2014-03-20T20:35:34",
"content": "Stiff as a wedding prick!? Do you have any actual numbers on how stiff that is?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1286358",
"author": "ican... | 1,760,376,263.049411 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/03/24/rebuilding-a-50000-volt-power-supply/ | Rebuilding A 50,000 Volt Power Supply | Brian Benchoff | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"high voltage",
"transformer"
] | The theory behind building power supplies is relatively easy, but putting it into practice and building a multi-kilovolt supply is
hard
. A big transformer in air will simply spark to itself, turning what could be something very cool into something you just don’t want to be around. [glasslinger] over on YouTube is an expert at this sort of thing, as shown in
his 50,000 Volt power supply build
. That’s a 55 minute long video, and trust us: it’s worth every minute of your time.
[glasslinger] began his build by taking an old 15,000 Volt neon sign transformer and repurposing the coils and cores for his gigantic 50,000 volt transformer. There was a small problem with this little bit of recycling: the neon sign transformer was potted with tar that needed to be removed.
To de-pot the transformer, [glasslinger] made a small oven from a helium tank, melting all the goo out with an old school gasoline torch. From there, hours and hours of cleaning ensued.
The transformer cores were cleaned up and cut down, and a new primary wound.
A small-scale test
(shown above) using the old secondaries resulted in a proof of concept with some very large sparks. The next step was putting the entire transformer in a box and filling it with transformer oil.
The money shot for this build
comes when [glasslinger] assembles his transformer, rectifier, and all the other electronics into a single, surprisingly compact unit and turns standard wall power into a 50,000 Volt spark. You can literally smell the ozone from the video. | 43 | 16 | [
{
"comment_id": "1297711",
"author": "Rob",
"timestamp": "2014-03-24T23:09:21",
"content": "Dang.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1297712",
"author": "macona (@macona)",
"timestamp": "2014-03-24T23:09:26",
"content": "A good source o... | 1,760,376,263.1373 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/03/24/soft-robotics-silicone-rubber-and-amazing-castings/ | Soft Robotics, Silicone Rubber, And Amazing Castings | Brian Benchoff | [
"3d Printer hacks",
"Robots Hacks"
] | [
"casting",
"silicone rubber",
"soft robotics"
] | Most of the robotics projects we see around here are heavy, metallic machines that move with exacting precision with steppers, servos, motors, and electronics. [Matthew] is another breed of roboticist, and created
a quadruped robot with no hard moving parts
.
[Matthew] calls his creation the Glaucus, after the blue sea slug
Glaucus atlanticus
. Inside this silicone rubber blob are a series of voids, allowing compressed air to expand the legs, gently inching Glaucus across a table under manual or automatic control.
Even though no one seems to do it, making a few molds for casting on a 3D printer
is actually pretty easy
. [Matthew] is taking this technique to an extreme, though: First, a mold for the interior pressure bladders are printed, then a positive of this print made in silicone rubber. These silicone molds – four of them, for the left, right, top and bottom – are then filled with wax, and the wax parts reassembled inside the final ‘body’ mold. It’s an amazing amount of work to make just one of these soft robots, but once the molds and masters are made, [Matthew] can pop out a soft robot every few hours or so.
There’s a lot more info on Glaucus
over on the official site for the build
, and a somewhat simpler
‘compressed air and silicone rubber’ tentacle
[Matthew] built showing off the mechanics. Video below. | 13 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "1297398",
"author": "Hirudinea",
"timestamp": "2014-03-24T21:01:37",
"content": "Cool, just like Kif Kroker (or a penis I suppose). It seems to me if this was printed larger you could make it autonomous by installing an air pump and controller to operate it.",
"parent_id": null,... | 1,760,376,262.980609 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/03/24/the-gathering-shanghais-hackaday-community/ | The Gathering: Shanghai’s Hackaday Community | Aleksandar Bradic | [
"Featured"
] | [
"china",
"meetup",
"shanghai",
"the gathering"
] | It happened! The Gathering crossed the Pacific and landed in Shanghai on Thursday, March 20th. It took place at the venue ironically called ‘Abbey Road’ (it’s the only one we could find on such a short notice) and more than 150 people showed up. The whole scene had a huge Chatsubo feel too it – an eclectic mix of local and expat hackers and engineers, professors, students and all sorts of industry mercenaries from around the world. And everyone with skull-and-wrenches t-shirt or a sticker on.
I can only imagine what Chinese police would think if they happened to drop by. Not to mention if they asked how in the world did all these ‘anarchist’ t-shirts enter the country.
But that’s another story…
We met a lot of exciting people and heard all sorts of weird tales, such as the (off-the-record) one about the real reasons behind certain well-known laptop manufacturer’s batteries bursting into flames. We also got a lot of great advice on smuggling electronic components out of China and other everyday tips & tricks.
My favorite conversation was with
[Alexander Klink]
on his research in Denial of Service attacks using algorithmic complexity of collision resolution in (a priori known) hash functions. Though the original
paper
is more than two years old, its takeaways can still have a huge impact on all sorts of software and hardware devices out there.
The general theme of the night was how exciting it is to live in a place like Shanghai, where rapid urban growth and access to manufacturing resources meets a blossoming technology and art scene. It is even more so thanks to places like
Xin Che Jian
, which make being a “hacker” a socially acceptable thing on the other side of the Great Firewall.
That said, reading all of Hackaday content still requires a proxy. | 10 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "1297263",
"author": "targetdrone",
"timestamp": "2014-03-24T20:18:11",
"content": "Looks like it was a blast!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1297384",
"author": "Joe Pitz",
"timestamp": "2014-03-24T20:56:41",
"conte... | 1,760,376,264.222675 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/03/24/3-cheap-hoodhatchbacktopper-mods-to-save-your-noggin/ | 3 Cheap Hood/Hatchback/Topper Mods To Save Your Noggin | Todd Harrison | [
"how-to",
"Repair Hacks"
] | [
"gas strut",
"hatchback",
"hitch pin",
"hood",
"repair"
] | This is a mod more than a hack but any time you can alter original equipment to maintain its usability is a win-win scenario for you and the environment. Everyone has or knows somebody that has a vehicle and most vehicles nowadays have some type of hatchback or hood where the support solution is gas filled struts. Inevitably these gas filled struts fail with age and the failure is accelerated in hotter or colder climates. If you ever had to replace these items you know they can cost a minimum of $20 to as much as $60 a piece. Most vehicles require two, four or even eight of these costly little devices.
[Brian] from Briansmobile1 YouTube channel documented three simple and low cost solutions. We all probably know of the
vice clamp solution
but that is cumbersome and still an expensive solution which is not always very handy or fast. Another solution is to
cut a piece of rubber hose in a kind of special way
so it is easy to put on and take off the shaft and dangles from a string so it’s always available. The
best solution was to use a hitch pin
also connected to a string or wire. To make the hitch pin work you have to grind a couple of notches on either side of the lift shaft at just the right spot so the pin can be snapped on and prevent the shaft from retracting at your selected height.
We are sure these solutions will come in handy at some time in most everyone’s driving career. Just after the break we will link to all three of [Brian’s] handy videos on gas strut fix solutions. And if you do your own automotive repair we can definitely recommend
[Brian’s] channel of over 600 vehicle repair and maintenance videos
which normally come with a dose of philosophy and humor.
Hitch Pin
Hose
Vise Grip | 32 | 21 | [
{
"comment_id": "1296552",
"author": "Dan E.",
"timestamp": "2014-03-24T14:54:15",
"content": "I’m not so sure about that clip pin. It could get dislodged; there’s a reason these usually have a through-hole, not just a groove.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
... | 1,760,376,263.458054 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/03/24/embeded-sieve-of-eratosthenes-hunting-primes-on-arm/ | Embeded Sieve Of Eratosthenes: Hunting Primes On ARM | Mike Szczys | [
"ARM"
] | [
"alias",
"bit banding",
"prime number",
"sieve of eratosthenes"
] | I ended up with just enough time over the weekend to pull together a quick project. I implemented
the Sieve-of-Eratosthenes on an ARM chip
.
If you haven’t heard of the
Sieve of Eratosthenes
then you really need to work your way through
Project Euler
. That’s where I first learned about this method of finding prime numbers. You begin with a list of all numbers, find a prime, then remove all multiples of that prime from the list. The real trick with doing it on a microcontroller is to figure out how to store a large list of numbers in a limited space. The gist of my method was to use a boolean array (I call it a bit-packed array but that may be the wrong way of saying it). The details are found in my project linked at the top.
‘Why?’ is almost always the wrong question to ask around here. But in this case, I did this because I wanted to try out the Bit Banding functionality of the ARM core. These chips have alias addresses that map to a single bit in the SRAM and also some of the peripheral registers. This allows read or write access for a single bit using a single instruction. Turns out that one side effect of 32-bit architecture is having addresses to burn. | 16 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "1296379",
"author": "qbert",
"timestamp": "2014-03-24T12:48:00",
"content": "Hack???? still looking under the carpet for it…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1296385",
"author": "GStarRae",
"timestamp": "2014-03-24T12:52:... | 1,760,376,263.548013 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/03/24/mechanical-iris-will-make-you-want-a-laser-cutter-even-more/ | Mechanical Iris Will Make You Want A Laser Cutter Even More | James Hobson | [
"cnc hacks",
"Laser Hacks"
] | [
"iris",
"mechanical iris"
] | Mechanical irises are very intricately designed mechanisms that are mesmerizing to see in action — and if you have a laser cutter, you could make one
in less than 10 minutes.
Our “Teacher of Science”, Instructables’ user [NTT] has revised a previous Instructables design on a
mechanical iris
to improve it. The original design used three layers of components and dowel pins for every joint. What [NTT] has done is reduced this to two layers, and eliminated half of the pins required by designing clever circular cutouts. The result is a very slick mechanical iris that is very easy and quick to build — provided you have the tools.
Stick around to see the original iris open and close — unfortunately there’s no video of the new design — but we think you can imagine the differences.
Or alternatively you could 3D print a version of it!
No laser cutter, or 3D printer? We feel your pain. Luckily there is also a cardboard version of it
you can make without any fancy tools! | 35 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "1295795",
"author": "Nick",
"timestamp": "2014-03-24T08:13:25",
"content": "I want a giant one as a door. One day I shall make onereminds me of this papercraft from 2011http://billybob884.deviantart.com/art/Mechanical-Iris-Still-Shots-216878210",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": ... | 1,760,376,264.070449 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/03/23/monitoring-your-gas-consumption-with-a-jeenode-and-a-nrf24l01/ | Monitoring Your Gas Consumption With A JeeNode And A NRF24L01+ | Mathieu Stephan | [
"hardware",
"Raspberry Pi"
] | [
"gas meter",
"jeenode",
"nRF24L01+",
"wireless"
] | [Sven337] just blogged about a
gas consumption monitoring setup
he finished not long ago. As his gas meter was located outside his apartment and nowhere near any electrical outlet, a battery-powered platform that could wirelessly send the current consumption data to his Raspberry Pi was required. His final solution therefore consists of a
JeeNode
coupled with the well known nRF24L01+ wireless transmitter, powered by 3 supposedly dead alkaline batteries.
[Sven337] carefully looked at the different techniques available to read the data from his meter. At first he had thought of using a reflective sensor to detect the number 6 which (in France at least) is designed to reflect light very well. He then finally settled for a magnetic based solution, as the Actaris G4 gas meter has a small depression intended for magnetic sensors. The PCB you see in the picture above therefore has a reed sensor and a debug LED. The four wires go to a plastic enclosure containing the JeeNode, a couple of LEDs and a reset switch. Using another nRF24L01, the Raspberry Pi finally receives the pulse count and reports it to an eeePC which takes care of the storage and graphing. | 15 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "1295416",
"author": "BeatJunkie",
"timestamp": "2014-03-24T05:30:49",
"content": "Great. And now make a deal with your local utillitites company that you send them your data daily or better more frequently so they can make a better prognosis while you save some money.",
"parent_... | 1,760,376,263.609545 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/03/18/homemade-ball-mill-tumbles-along-like-a-champ/ | Homemade Ball Mill Tumbles Along Like A Champ | Kristina Panos | [
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"ball mill",
"balls to the wall",
"glass",
"grinder",
"rock tumbler",
"steel ball"
] | [Mike] enjoys doing all kinds of things with glass. He likes to melt it and fuse it into new things, so it’s perfectly understandable that he wanted to make his own glass. Doing so requires finely ground chemicals, so [Mike] put together
this awesome homemade ball mill
.
The design is wonderfully simple. The mill is powered by a robust 12VDC motor from a printer that he’s running from a variable power supply in order to fine tune the speed. [Mike] built a scrap wood platform and attached four casters for the drum to spin against. The drum is rotated by a round belt he had lying around from various other projects. [Mike] already had a couple of those blue containers, which formerly held abrasive grit for use in vibratory tumblers.
[Mike] had some trouble with the drum walking off the casters so he attached scrap piece of aluminum to form an end stop. All he had to buy for this project were the 5/8″ steel balls and the casters. The mill can also be used as a rock tumbler, though the bottle isn’t quite water tight as-is. He does not recommend this type of setup for milling gunpowder or other explosives, and neither do we.
Make the jump to see the mill in action and get the grand tour. If you need more tumbling power,
use a dryer motor
! | 24 | 14 | [
{
"comment_id": "1280159",
"author": "Jay",
"timestamp": "2014-03-19T02:38:39",
"content": "Steak tenderizer? :)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1280236",
"author": "Kiah",
"timestamp": "2014-03-19T03:20:11",
"content"... | 1,760,376,263.832818 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/03/18/we-asked-for-it-an-arduino-bowel-gauge/ | We Asked For It — An Arduino Bowel Gauge | James Hobson | [
"home hacks"
] | [
"toilet hack"
] | Well, we asked for it, and [TV Miller] delivered this hilarious and surprisingly accurate
bowel gauge
.
Between our recent
Wiping Your Bum with an Arduino
feature and how to
Measure Poop for a Better Sanitation Service
, we guess we should have seen this coming. And you know what? It’s pretty awesome.
He’s using an Arduino Uno with a home-made resistance sensor to “hack our bowels”. After all, how can you have a proper diet without knowing exactly what is coming out of you? Two copper or aluminum strips make up the resistance sensor with a few known resistors, a capacitor and a potentiometer for adjustment. He’s even included an LCD display as well so you can see the volume of your excrement in real-time! Classy.
To see it in action (don’t worry, not
that
kind of action) stick around for the following video:
We particularly enjoy the use of our logo:
HackADay “Skull and Wrenches” logo used with(out) permission by HackADay.com
We’ll let it slide… this time. He’s also included the code, you know, if you’re serious about this kind of thing. | 50 | 31 | [
{
"comment_id": "1279773",
"author": "voxnulla",
"timestamp": "2014-03-18T23:09:22",
"content": "That code is crap…..",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1279796",
"author": "karl [k-ww]",
"timestamp": "2014-03-18T23:21:12",
"content": "... | 1,760,376,264.159676 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/03/18/hackaday-in-shanghai-electronica-and-a-gathering/ | Hackaday In Shanghai: Electronica And A Gathering | Mike Szczys | [
"News"
] | [
"electronica",
"meet-up",
"shanghai",
"the gathering"
] | Whether you live in Shanghai, are at Electronics China representing your company, or by dumb luck just happen to be in town this week you can meet some of the Hackaday crew and score yourself some sweet swag.
Anyone in town on Thursday night will want to
get a ticket to Hackaday: The Gathering
. Right now it’s all sold out, but we hope anyone with a ticket who is unable to use it will cancel so that another may take your place. Free food, drink, t-shirts, stickers, and other swag await… no wonder the tickets are already gone!
The Electronica China conference
started Tuesday at Shanghai New International Expo Centre, but it runs through Wednesday and Thursday as well. We’re attending, but we don’t actually have a dedicated booth. Hackaday is piggybacking with EEFocus, the Chinese contingent of our parent company. Both [Matt] and [Alek] will be hanging around the EEFocus booth (#W3.3686) shucking out hackaday T-shirts if you ask for one. Before he left, [Matt] mentioned that he’s excited to attend lectures on connected medical devices, the Automotive and EV boards, as well as the embedded systems forum. | 4 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "1279739",
"author": "Figureitout",
"timestamp": "2014-03-18T22:49:10",
"content": "You should stop in Singapore and hit up Xobs and get one of his laptops and feature it on hackaday.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1281314",
... | 1,760,376,264.000061 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/03/18/mrff-3d-bioprinting/ | MRRF: 3D Bioprinting | Brian Benchoff | [
"3d Printer hacks",
"Medical Hacks"
] | [
"bioprinting",
"Midwest RepRap Festival",
"MRRF",
"MRRF14"
] | There were a few keynotes at this year’s Midwest RepRap festival, and somewhat surprisingly most of the talks weren’t given by the people responsible for designing your favorite printer. One of the most interesting talks was given by [Jordan Miller], [Andy Ta], and [Steve Kelly] about
the use of RepRap and other 3D printing technologies in biotechnology and tissue engineering.
Yep, in 50 years when you need a vital organ printed, this is where it’ll come from.
[Jordan] got his start with tissue engineering and 3D printing with his work in
printing three-dimensional sugar lattices
that could be embedded in a culture medium and then dissolved. The holes left over from the sugar became the vasculature and capillaries that feed a cell culture. The astonishing success of his project and the maker culture prompted him and others to start the
Advanced Manufacturing Research Institute
to bring young makers into the scientific community. It’s
a program hosted by Rice University
and has seen an amazing amount of success in both research and getting makers into scientific pursuits.
One of these young makers is [Andy Ta]. An economics major, [Andy] first heard of the maker and RepRap community a few years ago and bought a MakerBot Cupcake. This was a terrible printer, but it did get him involved in the community, hosting build workshops, and looking into 3D printing build around DLP-cured UV resin. At AMRI, [Andy] started looking at the properties of UV-cured resin, figuring out the right type of light, resin, and exposure to create a cured resin with the right properties for printing cell colonies. You can check out [Andy]’s latest work
on his webzone
.
[Steve Kelly] has also done some work at AMRI, but instead of the usual RepRap or DLP projector-based printers, he did work with shooting cell cultures out of an ink jet print head. His initial experiments involved simply refilling an ink jet cartridge with a bacterial colony and discovering the cells actually survived the process of being heated and shot out of a nozzle at high speed. Most ink jets printers don’t actually lay out different colors on a precise grid, making it unusable for growing cell cultures. [Steve] solved this problem with an inkjet controller shield attached to a RepRap. All of [Steve]’s work is documented
on his Github
.
It’s all awesome work, and the beginnings of both bioengineering based on 3D printers, and an amazing example of what amateur scientists and professional makers can do when they put their heads together. Video link below. | 4 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "1280009",
"author": "dave",
"timestamp": "2014-03-19T01:17:18",
"content": "Um, MRRF, not MRFF. In the tags too.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1280809",
"author": "GrayScuttle",
"timestamp": "2014-03-19T09:19:48",
... | 1,760,376,264.266187 |
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