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https://hackaday.com/2013/11/28/breadboard-friendly-arm-board-based-on-stm32f4/ | Breadboard Friendly ARM Board Based On STM32F4 | Mike Szczys | [
"ARM"
] | [
"bootloader",
"breadboard",
"stm32",
"STM32F4"
] | Umm yeah… this is more like it.
The STM32F4Stamp
is a project which [Frank Zhao] put together to make his ARM prototyping process more like is was back when everything came in a DIP format. As you can see, it’s just narrow enough to leave one row open on the breadboard for jumper wires.
Don’t get us wrong,
we do really like STM’s own Discovery Boards
for the hardware they deliver at a very low price. But the dual-row pin headers on the larger versions (all except the F0 variant) make it tricky to connect your peripherals. This is pushed to the point that a large percentage of
hacks we’ve seen with the Discovery boards
are actually just to
make connecting external hardware easier
.
You may be thinking that there’s a lot missing from this board, but we disagree. Obviously there’s still a USB port which can be used to power the board via a 3.3V regulator. But since the STM32 chips have a built-in bootloader the USB connection can also be used to flash firmware to the processor. Nice! It’s open hardware if you want roll your own. For your convenience we’ve embedded the schematic after the break, along with [Frank’s] demo video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dJDpkEFYyiw
[via
Dangerous Prototypes
] | 31 | 13 | [
{
"comment_id": "1115064",
"author": "SavannahLion",
"timestamp": "2013-11-29T03:07:42",
"content": "Nice…. I want one",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1115095",
"author": "dekuNukem",
"timestamp": "2013-11-29T03:58:02",
"content": ".... | 1,760,376,386.956538 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/11/28/maglite-18650-battery-conversion/ | Maglite 18650 Battery Conversion | James Hobson | [
"LED Hacks"
] | [
"maglite",
"maglite 18650 conversion",
"maglite battery hack"
] | Maglite’s used(?) to be the king of flashlights, but replacing those pesky D-cell batteries is kind of ridiculous in this day and age. So [Travis] decided to
upgrade it
to make use of the ever-so-common, 18650 lithium-ion battery.
Not looking to purchase any components [Travis] performed this hack using simple recycled household parts. You could solder tabs on the 18650’s so they better mimic a typical alkaline battery cell, but [Travis] notes that because most solder tarnishes the electrical conductivity isn’t always the greatest. So instead, he used aluminum foil. It doesn’t look professional, but it does the job and keeps all the components unmodified so the lithium cells can be used elsewhere if needed. To center the batteries inside the Maglite he used a few strips of cardboard from a case of beer — again, this is just making use of what was available. That being said however, if you wanted to do a professional job on it, nothing is stopping you! A 3D printed 18650 to D-cell adapter would look quite nice… Finally, in order to make the battery spring contact the smaller surface area of the lithium cells, all you have to do is flip it around backwards and slightly bend the inner spring out. That’s about it.
It’s a pretty simple hack we admit, but definitely super handy. In a past project [Travis] also replaced the halogen bulb with a high power LED, making this flashlight even more powerful — and because the LED driver accepts a broader range of voltages it lasts longer too. If you need more inspiration for retrofitting flashlights with LEDs check out
this switch-mode driver board hack
.
Unfortunately this hack does reduce the Maglite’s thief-head-bashing-ability with such light batteries. | 30 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "1114941",
"author": "Joshua Blomberg (@HDCase)",
"timestamp": "2013-11-29T00:27:41",
"content": "Even without wanting the option of using the Maglite as a weapon (which I definitely /do/ want), there’s something satisfying about the sheer heft of a 4-cell Maglite. I guess you could... | 1,760,376,387.43687 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/11/28/scaremail-tries-to-disrupt-nsa-email-surveillance/ | ScareMail Tries To Disrupt NSA Email Surveillance | James Hobson | [
"Security Hacks"
] | [
"Benjamin Grosser",
"National Security Agency",
"natural language processing",
"NLP",
"nsa",
"ScareMail"
] | Are you on the NSA’s email watchlist? Do you want to be? This project is called
ScareMail
and it’s designed to mess with the NSA’s email surveillance programs.
[Benjamin Grosser] has written it as a
plugin for many popular web browsers
, and it uses an algorithm to generate a clever but ultimately useless narrative in the signature of your email using as many probable NSA search terms as possible. The idea behind this is if enough people use it, it will overload the NSA’s search results, ultimately making their email keyword tracking useless.
So how does it work? The algorithm starts with natural language processing (NLP) and an original source of text — he picked Ray Bradbury’s
Fahrenheit 451.
Using the processor it identifies all nouns and verbs in the original text and replaces them with properly formatted and conjugated “scary” words that he’s indexed from a list of hypothetical NSA key words. To ensure each signature is unique, he makes use of a
Markov chain
to generate new texts that are completely different each time. The result is a somewhat coherent paragraph that doesn’t make any real sense.
But wait! Surveillance like this is bad, but hypothetically it could work! Well,
maybe.
But the point is:
ScareMail reveals one of the primary flaws of the NSA’s surveillance efforts: words do not equal intent
.
Stick around after the break to see a proper video explanation of ScareMail by [Ben] himself.
Like this project? He’s also made an amusing
Facebook Demetricator
which removes the social value facade from everyone’s favorite website. | 105 | 32 | [
{
"comment_id": "1114795",
"author": "DA",
"timestamp": "2013-11-28T21:16:28",
"content": "ScareMail adds a small signature (like ‘generated by scaremail’). A lot of people have been saying the NSA can just look for this signature to see the text is fake and ignore it.But the funny thing is that thi... | 1,760,376,387.212457 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/11/28/fail-of-the-week-how-a-cheap-usb-ac-adapter-might-indirectly-burn-your-house-down/ | Fail Of The Week: How A Cheap USB AC Adapter Might Indirectly Burn Your House Down | Mathieu Stephan | [
"Fail of the Week",
"Hackaday Columns",
"home hacks"
] | [
"adapter",
"burn",
"fail",
"fail of the week",
"fire",
"power supply"
] | This Fail of the Week will remind our readers that every project they make, no matter how small they might be, may have big consequences if something goes wrong. Shown in the picture above is an oven that [Kevin] tweaked to perform reflow soldering. The story is he had just moved into a new place a few weeks ago and needed to make a new batch of boards. As he had cycled this oven many times, he was confident enough to leave the room to answer a few emails. A few minutes later, he had the unfortunate experience of smelling something burning as well as discovering white smoke invading his place.
The oven control board [Kevin] designed is powered by USB and uses simple ON/OFF temperature control. The temperature inside the oven is measured using a MAX6675 K-type thermocouple amplifier. After having thrown the oven outside to contain the risk and let it cool down, [Kevin] started to
investigate what may have been the cause of the incident
. He discovered that his temperature reading was not correct, and that swapping the USB AC adapter with another resolved the problem. The chip reading the thermocouple needs a solid 5V reference for accurate readings. The mains adapter he was using is non-branded and he guesses that the 5V rail is super dirty. We’d love to see an oscilloscope screenshot… perhaps encouragement in the comments section will convince him to publish a follow-up?
He plans to implement a simple over-temperature detector on a completely separate circuit using a mechanical relay to cut mains if things heat up too much.
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. | 41 | 18 | [
{
"comment_id": "1114715",
"author": "cde",
"timestamp": "2013-11-28T18:18:35",
"content": "The fail isn’t the cheap adapter, its actually assuming it’s clean, and failing to test it for critical applications like this. At the very least, he should have thrown some filtering caps on the input. And s... | 1,760,376,386.841824 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/11/28/persistence-of-vision-planetary-map/ | Persistence Of Vision Planetary Map | James Hobson | [
"hardware"
] | [
"cortex m0",
"EagleCad",
"LPCXpresso",
"persistence of vision",
"POV planetary map"
] | Looking at the looping GIF above you’re probably thinking, oh, another hard drive POV setup… Well…
Not quite.
This is one of [Dev’s] latest projects, and it is a planetary map that shows the angular positions of all 8 of the major celestial bodies from any given date between 1800 and 2050. It’s also capable of showing analogue clock hands, the phases of the moon, and other simple graphics.
The main unit is a hard disk, but [Dev] milled off many of the features on it to give it a more exposed, purpose-built look. He designed the LED bearing PCB from scratch using EagleCAD, which sits on the back of the drive, with the spindle poking through. It has 8 rings of 5 surface mounted LEDs, which shine through opaque plastic diffuser rings that he printed using Shapeways — they feature small recesses to fit snugly on the board over the LEDs. On the top level is a 1mm thick black disc of some unknown material that [Dev] had sitting around, which now has 8 holes machined into it in the exact position of the LEDs.
A Cortex-M0 drives the LEDs using an LPCXpresso board which allows the LEDs to sit across only one byte of a hardware I/O port. On the software end, each rotation of the disk is segmented into three hundred and sixty 1 degree slices. This system allows him to achieve a circular resolution of 8×360 pixels at 25 frames per second. Not bad for a persistence of vision device!
Stick around after the break to see the rather entertaining demo video of the device. | 13 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "1114665",
"author": "J Jinglehiemer",
"timestamp": "2013-11-28T16:41:05",
"content": "Most. Unhelpful. Video. Evar.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1114712",
"author": "David Kuder",
"timestamp": "2013-11-28T18... | 1,760,376,386.889264 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/11/28/the-game-of-nim/ | The Game Of NIM | James Hobson | [
"Arduino Hacks"
] | [
"game of NIM",
"NIM AI",
"Visual Basic"
] | [Greg] has been fascinated with the Game of NIM ever since he was a freshman in highschool. Recently he remembered it and decided to try his hand at making an
AI version to play
, written using Visual Basic.
If you’re not familiar with the game,
it’s fairly simple
. Each row of lights represents a certain type of object. The players make take as many objects from any one row, per turn. The player with the last object loses.
Now, as you can imagine, writing an AI into a game can be a rather challenging ordeal. [Greg’s] first attempt was to use a memory structure that captures every possible move. There’s only 15 moves, and 1 to 7 lights, and the options decrease as the game goes on so… That can’t be too bad, right? Upon running his freshly written code he got an out-of-memory error. Not just any out-of-memory error either, over an Exabyte of memory was needed! Whoops.
He eventually figured the proper code out, and what resulted in game play was a very interesting experience. You see, the computer learns from each game played. At first, it’s like playing a young child — easy to trick and beat. But as the games progressed, the computer picked up his patterns and never made the same mistake again. He simply lost track of the number of games he played with it, but it just kept getting better at better. Must be pretty satisfying to make something that learns from you — kind of like parenthood…
Anyway, [Greg] has an awesome writeup available on his blog, so you should definitely check it out — we can only summarize so much! Stick around after the break to see a video of the game in action. | 8 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "1114622",
"author": "Mats Engstrom (@matseng)",
"timestamp": "2013-11-28T15:49:18",
"content": "Ah… It looks really good – both the backlit buttons and the other metallic buttons. And the leds against the black background. Nice. But the wooden box around it makes it look a bit ta... | 1,760,376,386.764371 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/11/28/something-wifi-this-way-comes-from-wicked-device/ | Something WiFi This Way Comes; Wicked Device Unveils Wildfire | Adam Fabio | [
"Arduino Hacks"
] | [
"arduino",
"Secure Digital",
"Wicked Device"
] | Wicked Device has
released the WildFire board to the world
. WildFire is a an Arduino compatible processor board with a
Texas instruments CC3000
. WildFire adds a few interesting features to the typical ‘Duino clone. Instead of the ATMega328 used in the Arduino Uno, the WildFire uses an ATMega1284p, which gives 16K of SRAM and 128K of Flash ROM (as compared to 2K RAM and 32K Flash in an Uno). A micro SD card slot is also on-board for data logging functions.
In the name of full disclosure, we should mention that [Adam] has known [Victor and Ken] over at Wicked Device for a few years now, and got his hands on a pre-release version of the board to play with.
As with any non-standard Arduino board, the WildFire does require some modification to the Arduino IDE. This took a bit of time with the pre-release board. Wicked Device has streamlined the process since then. Everything is contained in a
zip file on their product page
. Once the IDE is up and running, its easy to get the WildFire’s CC3000 connected to your local access point. From there the internet is your playground. For those of you already asking “So, Hack?”, watch this space – Adam is working on a hack using the WildFire board which will show up in a few days. | 17 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "1114577",
"author": "Addidis",
"timestamp": "2013-11-28T14:41:44",
"content": "They should leverage the changes made by the Chipkit team to ArduinoIDE to allow for multiple platform selection, and input their hw and just post a modified IDE for users. It seems unreasonable to ask us... | 1,760,376,387.496209 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/11/27/repairing-dead-usb-flash-drives/ | Repairing Dead USB Flash Drives | Brian Benchoff | [
"Repair Hacks"
] | [
"crystal",
"flash",
"flash drive",
"oscillator",
"repair",
"usb"
] | Over the last few years, [Tobias] has repaired a number of USB Flash drives. This strikes us as a little odd, given small capacity Flash drives are effectively free in the form of conference handouts and swag, but we’re guessing [Tobias] has had a few too many friends lose their thesis to a broken Flash drive.
In all his repairs, [Tobias]
found one thing in common
The crystal responsible for communicating with the USB controller is
always
broken. In a way, this makes a lot of sense; everything else on a Flash drive is silicon encased in an epoxy package, where the crystal is a somewhat fragile piece of quartz. Breaking even a small part of this crystal will drastically change the frequency it resonates at making the USB controller throw a fit.
[Tobias]’ solution for all his Flash drive repairs is to desolder and change out the crystal, bringing the drive back to life. Some of the USB Flash drives even have multiple pads for different crystal packages, making it easy to kludge together a solution should you need to repair a Flash drive five minutes ago. | 28 | 25 | [
{
"comment_id": "1114587",
"author": "petrlik.ondrej@gmail.com",
"timestamp": "2013-11-28T14:54:01",
"content": "That´s reason why i have small bag with 12MHz xtal´s in my workbench…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1114597",
"author": "rue_m... | 1,760,376,387.366823 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/11/27/turning-a-storefront-into-a-video-game/ | Turning A Storefront Into A Video Game | Brian Benchoff | [
"Arduino Hacks"
] | [
"arcade",
"Arduino DUE",
"neopixel"
] | [Kris]’ house/office has a huge store window, and instead of covering it up with newspapers, decided to do something cool. He’s had projections and other art pieces on display for his neighbors, but his new
storefront arcade game
very likely beats all of those.
Every video game needs a display, and this one is no slouch. The display is a 16*90 matrix of WS2812 LEDs with inset into a laser cut grid and put behind a layer of plexiglass. With this grid, the display has a great raster effect that’s great for the pixeley aesthetic [Kris] was going for. In front of the window is an MDF and steel arcade box powered by an Arduino Due.
The game is driven by the Adafruit neopixel library, with a few modifications to support alpha blending. There’s no external memory for this game – everything is running on a second Arduino Due inside the window.
It’s a great looking game, and if you’re ever in [Kris]’ area – behind the zoo in Antwerp – you’re free to walk up and give this game a spin.
Video demo below. | 17 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "1113948",
"author": "Philip",
"timestamp": "2013-11-28T03:44:31",
"content": "Wow. I’m loving that display–the use is absolutely ideal–and it’s controlled by *only* one Arduino to boot.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1114452"... | 1,760,376,387.012662 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/11/27/indio-picaro-doll-mixes-drinks/ | Indio Picaro Doll Mixes Drinks… | James Hobson | [
"cooking hacks"
] | [
"barbot",
"Indio Pícaro",
"pissco",
"santiago maker fair",
"Santiago Mini Maker Faire"
] | Ever heard of the Indio Picaro doll? They are those kinda weird phallic statues, and they also happen to be a national joke in Chile. So hackers [Nathan] and [Pablo] decided to make use of its popularity for
a hilarious drink serving robot
(
Translated
) at this past weekends
Santiago Mini Maker Faire
.
Dubbed the PissCO, the bartending robot(s?) make use of eight
Bartendro
drink pumps, which is a system that was successfully
funded on Kickstarter
at the beginning of the year. Add some servos to make the little statues
dance and swing around their…
Anyway the whole system is probably one of the most unique cocktail mixing robots we’ve seen yet.
After all, who doesn’t want a drink served from a stainless steel basin that looks
vaguely
like a urinal?
Stick around after the break to uh, see it in action.
http://vt.tumblr.com/tumblr_mv38fwRO511skzdq9.mp4
We think our favorite barbot is still the
Inebriator
though…
[via
Makezine
] | 11 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "1113855",
"author": "Kennedy Bushnell",
"timestamp": "2013-11-28T00:43:08",
"content": "Guy walks into bar and says to the bartender, “Have them piss me a drink.”",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1113857",
"author": "kennedyb... | 1,760,376,387.069711 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/11/27/the-atari-jaguar-that-should-have-been/ | The Atari Jaguar That Should Have Been | Brian Benchoff | [
"classic hacks"
] | [
"atari",
"Atari Jaguar",
"jaguar"
] | Released in 1993, the Atari Jaguar suffered from a number of problems – it was difficult to program, had hardware idiosyncrasies, and with the CD drive was vastly overpriced compared to the Sega Saturn and Sony Playstation released one year later. Nevertheless, the Jaguar still has a rabid fanbase that counts [10p6] among them, and
he’s created what Atari should have released
20 years ago.
In a few forum threads at
jaguarsector
(login required) and
nexgam.de
(no login, German), [10p6] goes over his changes to the classic Jaguar + CD combo. He’s stuffed everything inside a new case, cutting down on the amount of plastic from the old enclosure. A proper integrated power supply has been added, replacing the two power supplies used in the original. It’s also overclocked to 32 MHz, compared to the 26 MHz of the stock unit, making this a very powerful system that could have easily competed with the Saturn and Playstation.
[10p6] has an amazing piece of hardware on his hands here, and should he ever want to make a few molds of his new Jaguar, he could put together some sort of kit to replicate this build. He’s still working on finding a model maker and perfecting his case design, but a new, improved version of the Jaguar is something we’d love to see in a limited production. | 36 | 12 | [
{
"comment_id": "1113742",
"author": "Jock Murphy",
"timestamp": "2013-11-27T21:38:45",
"content": "Very cool, mind you the Jaguar was notoriously difficult to program. The 68K was there for game logic, and then you had a number of co-processors/DSPs that could only hold about 4K). I am going into... | 1,760,376,387.576604 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/11/27/interview-with-damien-george-creator-of-the-micro-python-project/ | Interview With [Damien George], Creator Of The Micro Python Project | Mathieu Stephan | [
"ARM",
"Crowd Funding",
"Interviews",
"Software Hacks"
] | [
"arm",
"compiler",
"lexer",
"micro python",
"python",
"virtual machine"
] | [Damien George] just created
Micro Python
(Kickstarter alert!), a lean and fast implementation of the Python scripting language that is optimized to run on a microcontroller. It includes a complete parser, compiler, virtual machine, runtime system, garbage collector and
was written from scratch
. Micro Python currently supports 32-bit ARM processors like the STM32F405 (168MHz Cortex-M4, 1MB flash, 192KB ram) shown in the picture above and will be open source once the already successful campaign finishes. Running your python program is as simple as copying your file to the platform (detected as a mass storage device) and rebooting it. The official micro python board includes a micro SD card slot, 4 LEDs, a switch, a real-time clock, an accelerometer and has plenty of I/O pins to interface many peripherals. A nice video can be found on the campaign page and an interview with the project creator is embedded after the break.
[Mathieu]
Hi Damien, thanks for taking the time to answer our questions. After only a few
days, your Kickstarter campaign was already successful. With 17 days to go, we
look forward to seeing how many people will receive your boards once the campaign
finishes.
[Damien]
Thanks Mathieu/Hack-a-day for the opportunity to talk about Micro Python. I’m really excited about this project and it’s awesome to see such a positive response in the first few days of the campaign. I’ve tried to combine functionality with minimalism in the Micro Python board and I’m really looking forward to sending them out to all my backers.
[Mathieu]
Our feeling at HaD is that many people might underestimate the work you put in to rewrite the Python scripting language from scratch. How many hours did it take you? Can you describe your process?
[Damien]
Yes, it took some time, and lots of programming tricks, to get Micro Python to fit on a microcontroller. Let me say though that it’s not 100% Python: it has exactly the same grammar as Python 3.x, and can emit the same byte code, but the libraries (which make Python what it is) are not all there, yet. Using Micro Python definitely feels the same as using Python (it has
REPL
running on the board), and I’m trying to get as many libraries working as possible.
I’ve been working on Micro Python for just over six months, in my spare time. Probably clocked up over 700 hours by now. It’s been a lot of fun, selecting components, designing the PCB, soldering parts by hand (mostly with a hot-air gun — they are so awesome!), and writing the Python implementation itself.
The Micro Python software was initially running just on my PC, and I started from the beginning with a simple hand-written lexical analyser. The next part, the parser, was tricky to write because I wanted it to be as small as possible (in code) and use as little RAM as I could get away with. I ended up encoding the grammar in a static data structure (using some C preprocessor magic) and writing a single 320-line non-recursive function to interpret this table on the fly and parse the Python source. The output of the parser is a parse tree, which is fed into the compiler.
For the compiler, I wanted to be able to emit native machine code, so that Python would run as fast as possible on the micro. I needed to learn how to encode Thumb machine instructions for this bit, and then turn the stack-machine style code that comes out of the compiler into register-machine style, to take full advantage of the RISC CPU. I also implemented a byte code emitter and virtual machine, so that Micro Python can easily run on other hardware.
Eventually Micro Python was running on my PC, and then I ported it across to the microcontroller. This went surprisingly well and I had it running in a couple of days. Initially I did not have a memory manager, so it would quickly run out of memory on the micro, but then I implemented a simple mark-sweep garbage collector and that works really well.
[Mathieu]
Did you write the complete bootloader related code yourself? Did you use any library and if so which ones?
[Damien]
The bootloader is built in to the micro that I use: it’s DFU (device firmware upgrade) which means you just hold a few pins at certain logic levels and reset the chip, and then you can flash it over a USB connection. This also makes it easy for users to upgrade the Micro Python image without any special hardware, and means that you can never brick the device.
For the peripherals on the board (like GPIO pins and SD card controller) I used the standard STM libraries, and interfaced them to Micro Python. I also used the awesome FatFs library by [ChaN] to provide filesystem functionality.
[Mathieu]
Did you already know everything that you needed to do when starting this project? Did you learn many things along the way?
[Damien]
I can’t even begin to tell you how much I learned doing this project. I have in the past written a few programming languages, including ones that compile to machine code (x86), and I’ve had experience with many different microcontrollers. But putting everything together, from the hardware right up to the high-level software, exposes you to a whole new set of problems that you’ve got to learn to solve. For example, learning how to write USB device descriptors, learning how to layout a compact PCB, and even learning new ways of doing things in C!
[Mathieu]
Could you point our readers to a few good reads on how to create a lexer, parser, compiler, garbage collector and virtual machine like you did?
[Damien]
My knowledge came from so many different places: books, university courses, the internet, and just mucking about. I think implementing a language is one of the most satisfying programming tasks you could ever do, and it doesn’t have to be difficult. If you want to read a book, go for “Compilers: Principles, Techniques, and Tools” by [Aho], [Lam] and [Sethi], also known as the “Dragon Book”. If you just want to start hacking, set yourself the task of implementing a “stack machine”, as that will give you the basic understanding of most of the pieces.
[Mathieu]
A few people on IRC told us that you were accustomed to lengthy projects, could you tell us a bit more about other things you’ve done?
[Damien]
My day job is as a theoretical physicist, and in this field you have projects like the LHC (Large Hadron Collider) that take more than 30 years. Of course, my personal physics projects don’t last this long, but it can still take years to go from the initial idea to finally writing up the research paper. My longest hardware project was undoubtedly building my CNC machine (which features at the end of the Kickstarter video). For this I designed my own stepper motor control boards, wrote firmware for an Atmel micro to do the high-level control (not G-code, but similar), designed and built the actual machine (that took over a year…) and wrote all the PC-side software. I even wrote a 3D modelling program to design the machine. Probably overkill.
I also spent the last year and a half building, with a friend, the website
paperscape.org
, which maps the scientific landscape of research papers. The longest part of this project was implementing (in Python) a LaTeX/TeX parser which could automatically extract bibliographic information to work out how papers are connected.
I think Micro Python has been the most fun and most challenging project that I have worked on so far. And there’s still heaps more to do. One thing I like about this project is the feedback I’m getting from people, and all their suggestion on how to improve Micro Python. I look forward to building up a community around this and having Micro Python running on all kinds of hardware, and doing all kinds of amazing things. | 55 | 15 | [
{
"comment_id": "1113619",
"author": "pyismorebetterthanperl",
"timestamp": "2013-11-27T18:29:32",
"content": "As a python developer, I don’t understand.“It includes a complete parser, compiler, virtual machine, runtime system, garbage collector”To interpret Python, you need a parser, it isn’t compi... | 1,760,376,387.670493 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/11/27/a-modular-game-boy-synthesizer/ | A Modular Game Boy Synthesizer | Brian Benchoff | [
"Musical Hacks",
"Nintendo Game Boy Hacks"
] | [
"game boy",
"little sound dj",
"lsdj",
"rackmount",
"synth"
] | Synth heads and electronic music aficionados the world over love a good rackmount synth. These days, though, synthesis tends more toward small, digital, and ‘retro’ rather than the monstrous hulking behemoths of the 60s and 70s. [gieskes] might be ahead of the curve, here, as he’s built
a Game Boy module for his eurorack synthesizer
.
The software running on [gieskes]’s Game Boy is the venerable
Little Sound DJ
(LSDJ), the last word in creating chiptunes on everyone’s favorite 8-bit handheld. As with any proper Game Boy used in chiptunes, there are a few modifications to the 1980s era hardware. [gieskes] tapped into the cartridge connector with a ‘repeat’ signal that provides slowed down, noisy signals for LSDJ. There’s also pitch control via CV, and the audio output is brought up to 10Vpp
In the video below, you can see [gieskes]’ euroboy in action with a few Doepfer synth modules. There’s also a very cool pulse generator made from an old hard drive in there, so it’s certainly worth the watch. | 10 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "1113495",
"author": "DanielG",
"timestamp": "2013-11-27T15:12:38",
"content": "My ears didn’t agree to the statement “so it’s certainly worth the watch.”",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1113522",
"author": "rasz",
"times... | 1,760,376,387.772905 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/11/27/update-sd-card-locker-now-supports-password-protect/ | Update: SD Card Locker Now Supports Password Protect | Adam Fabio | [
"Security Hacks"
] | [
"Karl Lunt",
"Password Protection",
"Secure Digital",
"security"
] | [Karl Lunt] has
updated his Secure Digital Card locker to support password based locking
. [Karl’s]
original design
only supported write locking via the TMP_WRITE_PROTECT bit. The new design gives the user an option: TMP_WRITE_PROTECT, or password protection. [Karl] goes into further detail this time around about the bit fields used with CMD42, and how they are set. The passwords in this case are up to 16 bytes. The bytes don’t necessarily have to be printable characters – any binary value can be used. Unfortunately, [Karl’s] locker doesn’t utilize a user interface beyond the buttons, so any password must be “baked in” to the SD Card locker firmware. We would love to see the option of even a basic serial interface for entering a password (most likely in hex).
[Karl] tried his device out with several different cards, and several computers. While not an exhaustive test, he did find that the computers always behaved the same: A locked SD card would not show up. In the case of windows, no beep, no drive, nothing. He goes into the security possibilities of using password locking: Financial data could be stored and physically transferred via SD or microSD, with the password sent separately (say in an email or SMS). Any unenlightened data thief attempting to use the card would think they have a broken device on their hands.
We don’t know how secure the password lock feature is – brute forcing a variable length 16 byte binary password would take some time. It all comes down to how quickly each password attempt takes. Some cursory web searching didn’t bring up any information about successful SD card password cracking. Sounds like a challenge for our readers! | 19 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "1113406",
"author": "ejonesss",
"timestamp": "2013-11-27T13:06:12",
"content": "“Unfortunately, [Karl’s] locker doesn’t utilize a user interface beyond the buttons, so any password must be “baked in” to the SD Card locker firmware”if there is enough room in the can you may be able t... | 1,760,376,387.727939 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/11/27/windows-ce-on-a-raspberry-pi/ | Windows CE On A Raspberry Pi | Brian Benchoff | [
"ARM",
"Raspberry Pi"
] | [
"raspberry pi",
"WinCE",
"WindowsCE"
] | From all the BSDs and Linuxes to extraordinarily odd operating systems, it seems just about every OS has been ported to the Raspberry Pi. All except Windows, that is, but
a few people are working on it
.
This build comes to us from [ideeman] who wanted to show off his Raspi running Windows Compact Embedded. It technically works, but there are still a few problems. In his own words:
Unfortunately, as it is now, I can’t really control it through anything else than via the kernel transport layer (through serial, directly to visual studio, and I still get lots of checksum errors, must me from the cheapo USB<==>TTL 3.3V adapter I’m using). The original developer (dboling) is still struggling with native USB drivers, but as you can see, he already got a (unaccelerated) running display driver.
If you’re interested, I can send you the compiled kernel image, but I don’t think you’ll do really much without the serial debugging provided through Visual Studio 2008 (+Platform builder 7.0)… I’m not sure it can be legally released to the public though.
While running Windows Compact Embedded isn’t as cool as running Windows RT on a Raspi, the latter will never happen. Windows RT requires 1 GB of RAM and a 1 GHz ARM v7 processor, neither of which the Pi has. Still, it’s a very impressive hack and with a few more devs on board, [dboling] and [ideeman] might end up with a truly functional system.
Below are pics of [ideeman]’s Raspi running WinCE. For [ideeman], feel free to link to a torrent in the comments. | 55 | 26 | [
{
"comment_id": "1113240",
"author": "Galane",
"timestamp": "2013-11-27T09:19:35",
"content": "Can the x86 version of this run normal Windows programs?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1113255",
"author": "six677",
"timestamp": ... | 1,760,376,387.865265 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/11/26/robot-painter-works-like-a-photobooth/ | Robot Painter Works Like A Photobooth | Mike Szczys | [
"Robots Hacks"
] | [
"art",
"painting",
"photo booth",
"plotter"
] | [Ben], [David], [Drew], [Kayla], and [Peter] built a robotic artist as their senior design project. This mashes up a bunch of different project ideas, but the thing we like the most about it is that it works much like
a photo booth that produces a painting
. A Raspberry Pi uses a webcam to snap the picture, converts the image to three colors (plus the white background of the canvas) and sets the robot in motion. The team laments that initial testing of the completed project (seen in the clip below) worked out quite well but took hours to produce the painting. What do they expect? It’s art!
This is quite a bit different from the WaterColorBot (
whose manufacturing process
we just looked in on yesterday). WaterColorBot uses a flat canvas and a gantry system. This offering, which is called PICASSAU, uses an upright canvas with the paintbrush mounted in much the same way as
a plotter robot
. The biggest difference is that there is the ability to pivot the paint brush in order to pick up more paint, and for cleaning in between color changes. | 6 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "1113207",
"author": "Eirinn",
"timestamp": "2013-11-27T08:22:47",
"content": "Haha fancy little thing, looks like it’s humping the cup every time it refills the paint. I’m amazed at how “accurate” it is while wobbling away, brushing, on a fishing line. At times the friction is enoug... | 1,760,376,388.107075 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/11/26/diy-home-control-using-a-ssrelay/ | DIY Home Control Using A SSRelay | James Hobson | [
"Arduino Hacks",
"home hacks"
] | [
"Arduino Uno",
"home automation",
"power-line",
"solid state relay"
] | [Ben Jones] just started a new site called Maker-Guide, where he makes some very informative and well produced DIY videos on anything from homemade photography hacks, to
controlling an outlet using a solid-state relay.
It’s not the first time we’ve seen
a relay controlled outlet
, or
this one…
but it’s certainly one of the cleanest jobs we’ve seen. In his video guide, [Ben] shows us exactly how to fit a standard solid state relay into a regular outlet box, and easily control it with an Arduino Uno.
It even looks like there might be enough space inside the box for a small wireless setup — maybe using a Trinket even? What about using Power-Line networking to control each box via LAN? Could be the easiest home automation implementation yet! Well, a
side from certain NEC (national electrical code) concerns of running high and low voltage in the same box…
Anyway if that wet your whistle, check out the great video guides after the break!
Curious about home automation? Last month one of our writers, [Josh Marsh], wrote a great feature asking
what is “Home Automation”? | 37 | 13 | [
{
"comment_id": "1112994",
"author": "Andrew",
"timestamp": "2013-11-27T03:12:15",
"content": "I know this gets hashed over every time one of these get’s posted, but for my sake: if the code says you can’t have high and low voltage in the same box, just where exactly are you supposed to use one to s... | 1,760,376,388.321989 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/11/26/simple-dremel-triac-hack-repair/ | Simple Dremel TRIAC Hack Repair | Todd Harrison | [
"Repair Hacks",
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"dremel",
"repair",
"TRIAC"
] | It’s a wonderful thing to see a clever hack repair instead of disposing of a product. The best repair approach is finding exact replacement components, but sometimes exact components can’t be sourced or cross-referenced. Other times the product isn’t worth the shipping cost for replacement parts or you just don’t have time to wait for parts. That’s when you need to really know how something works electronically so you can source suitable replacement components from your junk bin to complete the repair. This is exactly what [Daniel Jose Viana] did when his
110 volt Dremel tool popped its TRIAC
after he plugged it into a 220 volt outlet.
[Daniel] knew how the TRIAC functioned in the circuit and also knew that a standard TRIAC of sufficient specifications could be used as a replacement even if it didn’t have the correct form factor to fit the PCB layout. For [Daniel’s] tool repair he had to think outside the box enough to realize he could use some jumper wires and snuggle a larger TIC206E TRIAC that wasn’t meant for the device but still applicable into the housing where there was enough free space. A little shrink-wrap and all was good again. Sure the fix was simple, but let’s not trivialize the knowledge he needed for this repair.
And if you’re wondering if it worked, he notes that he’s been using this tool for three years since the repair. We thank [Daniel] for sharing this tip and allowing us to add this to our tool belt of
Dremel repair tricks
. | 31 | 13 | [
{
"comment_id": "1112859",
"author": "Paul Casucci",
"timestamp": "2013-11-27T00:30:45",
"content": "Here’s the English language version:http://translate.google.com/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&js=n&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&u=http%3A%2F%2Fdanjovic.blogspot.com.br%2F2013%2F11%2Freparando-o-controlador-da-dr... | 1,760,376,388.176777 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/11/26/raspberry-pi-emulates-an-amiga-500-floppy-drive/ | Raspberry Pi Emulates An Amiga 500 Floppy Drive | Adam Fabio | [
"Raspberry Pi"
] | [
"amiga",
"Amiga 500",
"emulator",
"floppy disk",
"raspberry pi"
] | [Maurizio] loves using his Amiga 500. His classic piece of hardware has been serving him well for years, except for the floppy drive, which recently gave out on him. No problem for [Maurizio], he just cracked his case open and added a
Raspberry Pi as a real-time floppy emulator
. [Maurizio] didn’t want to make any permanent changes to his A500 case, and more importantly he wanted to use the Amiga’s original floppy drive interface. The latter placed some rather stringent timing requirements on his design.
The interface hardware is relatively simple. Most of the circuit is dedicated to level shifting from the 5v Amiga 500 to the 3.3V Raspberry Pi. A 74LS06 Hex inverter converts the signals to the open collector outputs the A500 requires. [Maurizio] powered his Raspberry Pi from the floppy power connector of the Amiga. His model A Raspberry Pi works fine, but a model B would pull a bit more power (700ma) than the Amiga floppy power supply is capable of providing (550ma). The user interface side of the equation is simple: Two buttons, one used to switch disks, and one to “Write to SD”. Live disk images are stored in the Raspberry Pi’s ram, so the user needs to hit the “Write to SD” button to store any changes to disk before swapping floppies.
The software is perhaps the most interesting portion of this build. [Maurizio] is emulating a floppy drive in real-time – this means emulating
MFM encoding
in real time. Calls have to be made with a timing accuracy of 2 microseconds. The Pi’s stock Linux Operating system was just not going to cut it. [Maurizio] coded his drive emulator
“bare metal”
, directly accessing the Arm Processor on the Raspberry Pi. This gave him access to the entire processor, and allowed him to meet the hard timing requirements of the floppy interface. | 58 | 15 | [
{
"comment_id": "1112657",
"author": "bartformosus",
"timestamp": "2013-11-26T21:17:34",
"content": "wow. this is amazing. I whould love to have the skill to do this for my c64. great job!now that I think about it, the c64 might be easyer. it communicates over a serial protocol, and relies on anothe... | 1,760,376,388.574291 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/11/26/retrotechtacular-wwii-paraset-spy-radio-used-by-french-resistance/ | Retrotechtacular: WWII Paraset Spy Radio Used By French Resistance | Todd Harrison | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"Radio Hacks",
"Retrotechtacular"
] | [
"ham radio",
"paraset",
"wwii"
] | [Robert Sumption] a.k.a [W9RAS] takes on the daunting challenge of building a WWII spy radio called the Paraset as the topic of this week’s Retrotechtacular. It was originally a tube based CW (Morse code) transmitter/receiver used by the French underground to communicate with the Allies. Many of these radios were dropped behind enemy lines and could run on European AC or 6 V DC with the added advantage of being able to use most anything for an antenna, including fence wire. These small, low power and highly mobile radios tuned in the 3 to 8 MHz range were instrumental in the resistance. But they still make for a really fun scratch-built radio project.
Hobby groups still build this brilliant little radio and use it regularly to make contacts at great distances using the 40 and 80 meter ham bands. This may not be a weekend project for everyone because you need to work with vacuum tubes and build a 400 V power supply to operate this type of radio. Plus, sourcing some of the old components in working order is sometimes near impossible. [Bob] circumvents some of the problems by altering the design to marry up with his surplus supply of radio bits and bobs such as tubes (a.k.a. valves) and FT243 crystals he had on hand. And don’t forget, just as [Bob] says in his 5 part build video seen after the break; “Every day is a Hamfest on eBay”. So getting some of these parts, if not a partial-intact original Pareset radio, is always possible.
If you search on the Internet for “PARASET RADIO” you will find other home-built examples with circuit diagrams and plenty of advice such as found on
W7OIL.com
and
SHAW.ca
.
part 1
part 2
part 3
part 4
part 5
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
. | 16 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "1112544",
"author": "Ilkka",
"timestamp": "2013-11-26T19:22:07",
"content": "Awsome stuff – keep this coming!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1112565",
"author": "Simonious",
"timestamp": "2013-11-26T19:54:47",... | 1,760,376,388.480226 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/11/25/hacking-and-philosophy-crackdown-part-iii/ | Hacking And Philosophy: Crackdown Part III | Marsh | [
"Hackaday Columns"
] | [
"barnaby jack",
"Gail Thackeray",
"hacking and philosophy",
"philosophy",
"raid",
"raiding"
] | “Law and Order” may be my favorite chapter of
Hacker Crackdown:
it covers the perspective of the early 90’s seizures and arrests from the perspective of law enforcement. While the chapter has its flaws, I highly recommend it; [Sterling] treats both sides with patience and understanding, revealing how similarly adrift everyone was (and to some extent, remains) in the uncertainty of cyberspace. I also recommend the [Gail Thackeray] / [Dead Addict]
joint talk from DEFCON 20
as an accompanying piece to this chapter, as it bridges the twenty-year gap between
Crackdown
‘s
publication and today—and [Thackeray] herself is the focus of this chapter.
As always, everyone is welcome in our weekly discussion, even if you haven’t been keeping up with our progress through
Hacker Crackdown
. You can download it for free as an
audiobook, too!
Onward for more!
0. From Last Week’s Discussion:
RE: Q1 (Has the legal system’s definition of digital theft changed?)
[dynamodan]
pointed to
Streamripper
as a unique example of something that’s protected by law.
Wikipedia suggests
that the recording of internet radio may be covered under both
fair use
and the
Audio Home Recording Act of 1992
. He also noted that some companies have abandoned rigid copyright enforcement in favor of intelligent marketing strategies that encourage consumers to purchase rather than pirate.
It’s not all progress, however. [dan] offered a
more critical perspective
, emphasizing that those who break the rules in the digital world often receive disproportionately severe punishments. I think this is the result of both the disconnect between the technology and those making (and enforcing) the laws, and that “digital theft” is still a relatively recent concept. As we’ll see in this week’s chapter, no one quite knows how to deal with law
or
order.
RE: Q2 (Should sensitive documents such as E911 have been open source?)
[Deeply Shrouded & Quiet]
lamented the spirit and mentality of the 80-90’s hacking era
, and reiterated that most acted out of curiosity rather than malice. [dynamodan]
challenged the innocence
[Sterling] ascribes to hackers like [Jobs] and [Woz], explaining that the author blurs the line between malice and curiosity. It would take a wealth of ignorance to absolve them of responsibility for their actions.
[dan]
suggested all products
of the federal government should be open source for the public, considering tax dollars funded them. I suspect there’s more discussion to be heard about this topic. I encourage people to keep responding!
RE: Q3 (What’s happened to hackers and “bragging” over the years?)
[dynamodan] considered
that bragging may be the result of the hackers’ inability to realize how “real” cyberspace was; they bragged because they saw no consequences from this new frontier. Perhaps the issue is more closely related to the age group of the hackers involved, as
[dan] observed the bragging continues even today
, though he’s probably also right that the hackers from
Crackdown
are tracked down by old-fashioned police work rather than coming across some hapless braggart.
I. What’s important for this week’s discussion?
This week I’m keeping my response short.
If you forget everything else about this chapter, remember this paragraph:
…American society is currently in a state approaching permanent technological revolution. In the world of computers particularly, it is practically impossible to ever stop being a ‘pioneer,’ unless you either drop dead or deliberately jump off the bus. The scene has never slowed down enough to become well institutionalized. And after twenty, thirty, forty years, the ‘computer revolution’ continues to spread, to permeate new corners of society. Anything that really works is already obsolete. [1]
We’ve seen staggering changes in our world over the past half-century, and
Moore’s Law
keeps on truckin—for now. [Sterling] explains that this ever-changing landscape can only be addressed by dynamic groups like the FCIC, (does it even exist anymore?) which lack traditional hierarchies in favor of “ad-hocracy.” We’ve certainly seen other shifts to ad-hoc, such as any example of crowdsourcing. Kickstarter is basically ad-hoc R&D funding.
Perhaps not as important an excerpt (but just as interesting) is [Sterling’s] advice to young readers:
In my opinion, any teenager enthralled by computers, fascinated by the ins and outs of computer security, and attracted by the lure of specialized forms of knowledge and power, would do well to forget all about hacking and set his (or her) sights on becoming a fed. Feds can trump hackers at almost every single thing hackers do, including gathering intelligence, undercover disguise, trashing, phone-tapping, building dossiers, networking, and infiltrating computer systems—
criminal
computer systems. Secret Service agents know more about phreaking, coding, and carding than most phreaks can find out in years, and when it comes to viruses, break-ins, software bombs, and Trojan horses, feds have direct access to red-hot confidential information that is only vague rumor in the underground.[2]
Here I feel [Sterling] is doing a great disservice to the concept of hacking: a concept he seemed intent on defending in this book’s introduction. Embracing hacking as a concept shouldn’t necessitate performing illegal activities, and [Sterling] should know better. Instead, I find this section an attempt to appeal to a teenager’s desire for power and forbidden knowledge by suggesting a career in law enforcement. While I encourage computer-literate, intelligent minds to seek jobs in law enforcement, [Sterling’s] missing his audience here and simultaneously dissociating himself from the hacker community. Though he says throughout this chapter he isn’t a hacker, he’s been so careful to represent them respectfully until now that these comments come across as a “dad knows best”-infused warning: exactly the assertion of authority hackers want to react against.
II. Questions for this week
1. Check out page 160: “A typical hacker raid goes something like this…” Have any of our readers been raided? No need to fill us in on specifics, but I’m curious if anyone was the victim of “gray-area” legal trouble, where the letter of the law was severely outdated given the circumstances, etc. Was the Fed’s perspective from this chapter what you would have expected?
2. What’s your take on [Sterling’s] advice to young readers? Clearly he did not anticipate the thriving alternative business model of pentesting, but is his advice still sound? Are my criticisms too harsh?
3. Earlier in the chapter [Sterling] quotes [Thackeray’s] anticipation that hackers will soon be responsible for killing people.[3]
[Barnaby Jack] demonstrated the possibility
with pacemakers last year, leading many to speculate about his death prior to Black Hat. By no means is
this Wikipedia timeline
an exhaustive list of all hacks, but are there
any
instances of hacking directly leading to death?
NEXT WEEK:
Read the final chapter of
Hacker Crackdown,
“The Civil Libertarians”
NOTES:
[1] Bruce Sterling, The Hacker Crackdown, (New York: Bantam Books, 1992), 193.
[2] Ibid, 217.
[3] Ibid, 185.
Hacking & Philosophy is an ongoing column with several sections:
October 28th: Hacking & Philosophy: An Introduction
November 4th: The Mentor’s Manifesto
November 11th: Sterling’s Hacker Crackdown: Intro & Part I
November 18th: Sterling’s Hacker Crackdown: Part II
November 25th:
Sterling’s Hacker Crackdown: Part III
December 2nd: Sterling’s Hacker Crackdown: Part IV | 21 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "1111485",
"author": "KleenexCommando",
"timestamp": "2013-11-25T19:27:17",
"content": "HaD Staff… Notice ^^^^^^^^ and vvvvvvvv… See how there are no comments? I don’t think anyone is reading this and/or no one cares about philosophy. MORE HACKS PLEASE.Thank you.",
"parent_id": ... | 1,760,376,388.241096 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/11/25/circuit-stickers/ | Circuit Stickers | James Hobson | [
"Crowd Funding"
] | [
"circuit sticker",
"circuit stickers",
"flexible circuits",
"mit media lab"
] | One of our tipsters just sent an interesting crowd funding project our way. They’re called
Circuit Stickers
and are a very creative way to get basic electronics into children’s hands through arts and crafts.
The project is the brainchild of [
Bunnie
] and [
Jie Qi
]. [Bunnie] is a hacker, and a Director of
Studio Kosagi
, a small manufacturing outfit in Singapore. [Jie] on the other hand is a PhD student at the MIT Media Lab, who focuses her research on combining electronics and programming with arts and crafts. They came up with this idea to bridge the gap that exists between electronics and the arts, and the stickers are a great start. They allow anyone to learn basic electronics in a very easy and friendly way, using skills we all learned as children, drawing and sticking stickers on everything.
The current offering includes LED stickers, effects stickers (to control the LEDs), sensors, microcontrollers, and even breakout boards. They are all in sticker form, and can be connected together using conductive fabric, thread, carbon-based paint, copper tape, pencil graphite, and really, anything conductive. They have already manufactured thousands of the stickers and everything is working as designed, so the crowdfunding campaign isn’t to raise funds to continue research, or even to start their company. It’s more of getting it out there, and getting these stickers into children’s hands to raise the next generation of hackers from a young age.
The video after the break gives a great overview of the project, and if anything we think it’ll give you some great ideas on children’s electronics projects.
[Thanks Valentin!] | 30 | 14 | [
{
"comment_id": "1111255",
"author": "Thoquz",
"timestamp": "2013-11-25T15:37:14",
"content": "Wow, 2,396,800% funded.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1111423",
"author": "XOIIO",
"timestamp": "2013-11-25T18:11:23",
"co... | 1,760,376,388.817536 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/11/25/emudroid-4-an-android-gaming-controller/ | EmuDroid 4: An Android Gaming Controller | James Hobson | [
"3d Printer hacks",
"Android Hacks"
] | [
"3d printed controller",
"android gaming control",
"emudroid 4"
] | [Carnivore] over at Droid Build is working on a very awesome
Android Gaming Controller called the EmuDroid 4.
It’s a work in progress at the moment, but so far it looks utterly fantastic. He is combining an android tablet with a USB SNES controller, an OTG adapter, and an inductive charging unit. He’s cramming them all into a custom designed, 3D printed controller body, which is semi-reminiscent of an Xbox 360 controller — minus the joysticks.
The forum posts go over his current progress and outline the ups and downs of 3D printing a project as precise as this. There is everything from designing it in segments to suit the small build volume of his UP 3D printer, to dealing with issues like delamination from the print bed, and seamlessly bonding the parts together. It’s a great learning experience, and we love to see projects in progress like this. Best of all, he’s planning on giving it away for FREE when it’s complete!
We’ve seen lots of
modified controllers used with Android before
, but we think this integrated solution really takes the cake, at least for now anyway!
[Thanks Tony!] | 10 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "1111416",
"author": "Anthony M (@CallDaCopsIDGAF)",
"timestamp": "2013-11-25T18:04:06",
"content": "Why oh why did you mess up the button color scheme :(",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1111430",
"author": "SavannahLion",
... | 1,760,376,388.625494 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/11/25/mini-supergun-pcb/ | Mini Supergun PCB | Brian Benchoff | [
"classic hacks",
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"arcade",
"arcade machine",
"jamma"
] | A few decades ago, Japanese manufacturers of arcade games realized they should make a connector for all their boards that provides the power, controller, video, and audio I/O. This became the JAMMA standard and it make arcade owner’s lives awesome. Because you can buy arcade boards off the Internet, arcade enthusiasts figured out they could build their own console with an ATX power supply, AV connectors, and a few controllers. These ‘superguns’ as they’re called are big devices with wires all over the place. [Charlie] wanted to condense the size of his supergun and ended up creating a
single PCB solution
(link dead, try
the Internet Archive version
).
The JAMMA compatable boards require a few power connections; +5 V, +12 V, and -5 V. Of all the boards [Charlie] has collected so far, he realized only one used the negative supply. This, along with a big 12V laptop power supply, means the only power connection for this mini supergun is a single barrel connector.
For the controls and A/V, DSub and SCART connectors are commonplace. Laying these parts out in Eagle resulted in a single-sided board that is easily fabbed by etching with a toner transfer at home.
There are a few problems with the build, as [Charlie] admits. Some of the pins on the JAMMA connector aren’t on the board. These are only ground pins on the pinout, and so far everything works okay. It’s still a great project, though, that turns old arcade boards into a playable device with a minimal amount of hardware. | 18 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "1110921",
"author": "Adam Karonika (@DanAdamKOF)",
"timestamp": "2013-11-25T09:11:18",
"content": "Nice board! I’ve build a few Superguns in my day. In my experience those grounds on the end are just to neaten up cabinet wiring, ie not having to run a ground directly from the PSU ... | 1,760,376,388.680137 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/11/24/mathematica-and-wolfram-on-the-raspberry-pi/ | Mathematica And Wolfram On The Raspberry Pi | Brian Benchoff | [
"Raspberry Pi",
"Software Hacks"
] | [
"mathematica",
"raspberry pi",
"Wolfram"
] | [Stephen Wolfram], possibly the only person on Earth who wants a second element named after him,
is giving away Mathematica for the Raspberry Pi
.
For those of you unfamiliar with Mathematica, it’s a piece of software that allows you to compute
anything.
Combined with the educational pedigree of the Raspberry Pi, [Wolfram] and the Pi foundation believe the use of computer-based math will change the way students are taught math.
Besides bringing a free version of Mathematica to the Raspberry Pi, [Wolfram] also announced the
Wolfram language
. It’s a programming language that keeps most of its libraries – for everything from audio processing, high level math, strings, graphs, networks, and even linguistic data – on the Internet. It sounds absurdly cool, and you can check out a preliminary version of the language over on the
official site
.
While a free version of Mathematica is awesome, we’re really excited about the new Wolfram language. If it were only an interactive version of
Wolfram Alpha
, we’d be interested, but the ability to use this tool as a real programming language shows a lot of promise for some interesting applications. | 27 | 16 | [
{
"comment_id": "1110793",
"author": "bobfeg",
"timestamp": "2013-11-25T06:55:04",
"content": "This is frakin awesome!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1110807",
"author": "castle-bravo",
"timestamp": "2013-11-25T07:05:44",
"content":... | 1,760,376,388.745055 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/11/24/pedaling-at-128kmh/ | Pedaling At 128km/h | James Hobson | [
"Misc Hacks",
"Transportation Hacks"
] | [
"bike hack",
"Fred Rompelberg",
"Land speed record",
"Road bicycle"
] | [Donhou] had a dream. To create a
road bike capable of reaching
100mph
(160km/h).
He damn well near did it too. The goal of this project wasn’t to set a land speed record, but more of an experiment in design, and building a really fast bike that still looks like a bicycle. In case you’re wondering though, the land speed record is currently set at 167mph by [Fred Rompelberg] who was drafting behind a dragster on the Salt Flats of Bonneville.
The bike features custom everything; a welded lightweight frame using Columbus Max tubing (to help with speed wobbles), super low handlebars for aerodynamics, and a massive 104 tooth chainring which almost scrapes the ground as you pedal. Even the rims and tires are unique — regular bicycle wheels just aren’t designed to go that fast.
We aren’t even bike nuts, but we thoroughly enjoyed the awesome 9-minute documentary on this project. Check it out after the break. | 43 | 19 | [
{
"comment_id": "1110618",
"author": "Wretch",
"timestamp": "2013-11-25T03:43:30",
"content": "Can a Zephyr go 100mph? (c:He could get Sir Chris Hoy to ride the bike. I’d bet he can go 100mph without drafting a dragster. (c;Anyhow, awesome project.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"re... | 1,760,376,388.891794 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/11/24/hackaday-links-november-24-2013/ | Hackaday Links: November 24, 2013 | Mike Szczys | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"Hackaday links"
] | [
"attiny85",
"bluetooth",
"delta bot",
"pearls",
"smithsonian",
"tiva"
] | We love home theater hacks and this one especially since it is also part of a larger home automation project. [Falldeaf] use Z-Wave wireless home automation and includes mains switching for his television. The only problem being that when power is switch back on the TV remains in the standby state. His solution was to use an ATtiny85 to detect power, then push the IR code to
turn the TV on after a short delay
.
[Pjkim] wanted to prototype using the Tiva Launchpad on his Mac. He managed to get a toolchain up and running that includes the TivaWare libraries. He put together a guide that shows
how to set up Eclipse and Energia
for the Tiva family. If you haven’t heard of Energia
check out the Github Readme
.
Most folks have a smartphone and you can bet that the handsets are Bluetooth enabled. But we think there is still a low percentage who are connecting their smartphone audio to wireless speakers. [Anton Veretenenko] shows how you can use some cheap KRC-86B modules from Ali Express to
make your own wireless speakers
. He’s even powering his hack with a single 18650 Li-Ion cell.
Taking a turn away from electronics we got a chuckle out of [CADFood’s] plan to make pearls with his bicycle. He used
DesignSpark Mechanical
to model what amounts to a bicycle powered ball mill. It attaches to his spokes and after taking a hammer to some oyster shells he loads them up and goes for a ride. Well actually he needs to go for a bunch of rides. The idea is that about
six months of bicycling will yield a cache of pearls
. [Thanks Holger]
We enjoyed this article on
how designing powered scooters is changing engineering education
. We’re happy to see that hacking is starting to be widely accepted as a functional and effective way to gain and pass on knowledge.
If you have access to a 3D printer you can own some of the relics from the Smithsonian. They’ve been 3D scanning some pieces in their collection and
you can download the models
.
And finally, [GravityRoad] is working on building a delta-bot arm to use as part of a performance art project. Check
out one of the most recent development videos
and if that gets you interested
there’s much more on the website
. [Thanks Charles] | 4 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "1110565",
"author": "gako",
"timestamp": "2013-11-25T02:01:23",
"content": "Nice scooters. Meanwhile in Poland our mechanical engineering courses have 3.5 years of theory and zero practice. Staff treats machines like it’s some holy shrine. God, I hate my ex-soviet country.",
"pa... | 1,760,376,389.09893 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/11/26/quadcopters-go-inverted-by-reversing-their-motors/ | Quadcopters Go Inverted By Reversing Their Motors | Adam Fabio | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"Electric motor",
"Helicopter flight controls",
"Propellers",
"quadrotor"
] | Inverted Quadcopter? That generally means a crash is soon to follow. Not so for a new crop of quadcopter fliers. These new quadcopters are capable of
sustained inverted flight
. We’ve seen
inverted quadcopters
before here on hackaday. However, previous inverted quadcopters always used
collective pitch
to control the thrust produced by the blades. Collective pitch on a quadcopter is much simpler than it is on the main rotor of a traditional helicopter. R/C and full-scale helicopters mix collective and cyclic pitch to articulate the main rotor blades. A quadcopter only needs the collective portion, which is similar to a traditional helicopters tail rotor mechanism, or a variable pitch prop on an airplane.
These new quadcopters are using a much simpler method of flying inverted: Spin the motors backwards. Quadcopters control their flight by quickly varying the speed of rotation of each motor. Why not completely reverse the motor then? Today’s brushless outrunner motors have more than enough power to quickly reverse direction. The problem becomes one of propellers. Standard propellers are designed to create thrust in one direction only. Every quadcopter uses two clockwise rotation and two counterclockwise rotation propellers. Propellers will generate reverse thrust if they are spun backwards, however they will not be as efficient as they would when spinning the direction they were designed for. The quad fliers have found a partial solution to this problem: Remove the curve from the blade. R/C propeller blades are sold by diameter and
blade pitch
. The pitch is a measure of the angle of attack of the blades. R/C blades also have an airfoil style curve molded into them. Removing this curve (but not changing the pitch) has helped the problem.
This final problem is control systems. Since quadcopters already are relying on computer control for basic flight, it’s simply a matter of loading
custom firmware
onto your flight board to support motor rotation reversal. Speed controls also have to be capable of reverse rotation, which means
new firmware as well
. We’re curious to see how the quadcopter community settles on the control systems for inverted flight. The R/C helicopter community went through several iterations of control systems over the years. At one point they were using “Invert switches” which reversed controls as well as handled the collective pitch changes. As time went on, these switches fell out of favor and are now known as “Crash switches” due to the result of accidentally hitting one while flying, or before engine start.
[Thanks Marc] | 17 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "1112366",
"author": "Drake",
"timestamp": "2013-11-26T15:29:04",
"content": "I wanted to build a quad with CCPM (System used by more advanced heli’s) but would be unable to pilot such a contraption",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id... | 1,760,376,389.055904 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/11/26/amateur-radio-transmits-1000-miles-on-voice-power/ | Amateur Radio Transmits 1000 Miles On Voice Power | Adam Fabio | [
"classic hacks",
"Radio Hacks"
] | [
"amateur",
"ham radio",
"morse code",
"QRP operation",
"transmitter"
] | Many of us tried the old “Two tin cans connected by a string” experiment as kids. [Michael Rainey, AA1TJ] never quite forgot it. Back in 2009, he built
“El Silbo”, a ham radio transmitter powered entirely by his voice
. El Silbo is a
Double Side Band (DSB) transmitter
for 75 meters. While voice is used to excite the transmitter, it doesn’t actually transmit voice. El Silbo is a CW affair, so you should bone up on your Morse Code a bit before building one. Like many
QRP transmitters
El Silbo’s circuit is rather simple. A junk box loudspeaker is installed at the bottom of the can to convert voice power to electrical power. The signal is passed through a step up transformer, and used to excite a 75m crystal. Two NPN transistors (in this case MPS6521) pass the signal on through a second transformer. The signal is then routed through an LC network to the antenna.
Back in 2009,
[Michael] brought El Silbo to the Maine coast
in an attempt to make a transatlantic contact. This isn’t as far-fetched as it sounds – [Michael] has “crossed the pond” on less power. While the attempt wasn’t successful, [Michael] has made connections as far as 1486km, or 923 miles. That’s quite a distance for simply yelling into a tin can! One of [Michael’s] favorite El Silbo stories is a 109KM conversation (QSO) he had with W1PID. [Michael] found that the signal was so good, he didn’t have to yell at all. He reduced power by dropping to his normal speaking voice for the “dits and dahs”. The two were able to converse for 17 minutes with [Michael] only using his speaking voice for power. We think this is an amazing achievement, and once more proof that you don’t need a multi-thousand dollar shack to make contacts as a ham.
[Thanks Bill!] | 50 | 20 | [
{
"comment_id": "1112266",
"author": "Geebles",
"timestamp": "2013-11-26T13:33:16",
"content": "Impressive :)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6688610",
"author": "Ron",
"timestamp": "2023-10-03T05:26:40",
"content": "Th... | 1,760,376,389.187084 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/11/26/laser-wire-stripping/ | Laser Wire Stripping | James Hobson | [
"Laser Hacks"
] | [
"laser stripping",
"ribbon cable stripping",
"wire stripping"
] | Do you find yourself needing to strip many ribbon cables? Isn’t it frustrating? Well, if you happen to own a laser engraver, this
cool guide
one of our tipsters sent us might just be up your alley.
The typical way to strip these is one by one, with a lot of swearing. Or, if you do it often, you might actually have the proper tool to strip them in one go. There is actually a third solution, and as it turns out, it’s one of the commercial ways it is done for accuracy, and it’s quite impressive. Here’s an
entire imgur gallery
of what some of the fancy stripping lasers are capable of — we particularly like number 3.
Anyway, if you do happen to have a laser cutter, it’s as simple as engraving a few lines, and setting up a jig to hold your ribbon. Take a pass on each side, and pull it off! There’s a video after the break, but it’s pretty self-explanatory. We can see this being super handy if you happen to be mass producing anything that requires ribbon cables!
[Thanks Matt!] | 35 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "1112058",
"author": "zaprodk",
"timestamp": "2013-11-26T09:06:13",
"content": "Ahh, PVC in a Laser cutter, always warms my heart :D",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1112296",
"author": "Hack Man",
"timestamp": "... | 1,760,376,389.258958 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/11/25/how-hacker-news-page-rankings-really-work/ | How Hacker News Page Rankings Really Work | Mike Szczys | [
"internet hacks"
] | [
"aggregate",
"beautiful soup",
"hacker news",
"ken shirriff",
"python"
] | Page rankings are the secret sauce of websites that automatically aggregate user submissions. The basic formula used by Hacker News was published a few years back. But there are several pieces of the puzzle that are missing from that specification. [Ken Shirriff] recently published an analysis that digs deeper to
expose the article penalization system used by Hacker News’ ranking engine
.
One might assume that the user up and down votes are what determine a page’s lifespan on the front page. But it turns out that a complex penalization system makes a huge difference. It takes into account keywords, and domain names but also weighs controversy. It’s a bit amusing to note that this article on the topic was itself penalized, knocking it off of the front page.
You can get the full details of the system from his post, but we found his investigation methods to be equally interesting. He scraped two pages of the news feed every minute using Python and the Beautiful Soup package (
a pretty common scraping practice
). This data set allowed him to compare the known algorithm with actual results. What was left were a set of anomalies that contained enough sense for him to reverse engineer the unpublished formulas being used. | 6 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "1111972",
"author": "rnj",
"timestamp": "2013-11-26T07:02:45",
"content": "did the same, but with 9gag. the curves over there look quite different, and that’s why i think they are not user generated:http://i.imgur.com/FF7i3.pngyou see nearly no impact of the frontpage, and the posit... | 1,760,376,389.696425 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/11/25/the-making-of-the-watercolorbot/ | The Making Of The WaterColorBot | James Hobson | [
"cnc hacks"
] | [
"evilmadscientist",
"superawesomesylvia",
"WaterColorBot"
] | Remember the WaterColorBot? Ever wonder what goes into manufacturing a kit like it? Well the folks over at Evil Mad Scientist
just spilled the beans.
It’s a great insight on how these kits are typically made in a manufacturing environment, especially if you happen to be the founders of a rather successful Kickstarter project like the
WaterColorBot
by [SuperAwesomeSylvia]. The article goes into great detail on minimizing material waste during CNC routing, mass producing laser engravings using a jig, hardware assembly, and finicky assembly of some of the more complex components. Not to mention boxing, storing, and packaging the finished products!
We’re happy to hear the WaterColorBot is officially shipping now, and available for purchase — Seems like they were only off by a month or so for their kickstarter delivery goals. Remember our recent post about one of these WaterColorBots out in the wild?
One was used to create art using inputs from driving a real car! | 1 | 1 | [
{
"comment_id": "1112139",
"author": "Vercantare",
"timestamp": "2013-11-26T11:09:37",
"content": "LOL :-D",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
}
] | 1,760,376,389.374464 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/11/25/running-a-laundromat-with-an-arduino/ | Running A Laundromat With An Arduino | Marsh | [
"Android Hacks",
"Arduino Hacks"
] | [
"android",
"arduino mega",
"coin",
"laundromat",
"tablet",
"upgrade"
] | [Hubert] sent us a tip about a friend’s project to rescue a laundromat from its failing electronics. We’re not entirely sure what went wrong with the old control center, but considering a replacement would have cost nearly 25,000 EUR, we think [Stefan] found the perfect solution: he gave it
an Arduino and Android overhaul
(
translated
).
Although [Stefan] explains that the boards were defective, perhaps one of our German readers can help us out with a more specific translation. More clear, however, are the steps taken to upgrade the system. The situation at the laundromat was a bit of an emergency: there was no way for customers to pay for use of the machines. As a result, [Stefan] had free reign to overhaul things as he saw fit. He decided to remove the complex button setup in favor of a touchscreen Android tablet, which provided users with a simple interface to make selections. The tablet serves only as an input device. The heavy lifting is handled by an Arduino Mega 2560, which hooks up to what remains of the original system and controls the 27 machines in the laundromat.
[Stefan] admits that he isn’t a particular fan of the Arduino, but that for the price, it’s a tough solution to beat. He’s not the only one overhauling with Arduinos. Check out some other examples of upgraded machines, like the
Arduino-enhanced PopCARD vending machine.
UPDATE: [Andreas] sent in a better translation of the project page which we’ve included below. He worries his written English isn’t the best, but we think it is a lot easier to understand than the machine translation. Thank you for you work [Andreas!]
What went wrong, are the two main boards.
A new costumer called him “nothing is working! need help now!” the control center wasn’t working anymore. After opening the door, one can see some combined matrix circuits for the switches and LEDs. Shared column drivers aren’t that difficult in general, but the debugging is a little bit harder, especially in such a shared setup.
Both of those matrix boards had a malfunction, but because of the mostly easy principles it was easy enough to repair them. After some more research on the board, additional errors were found. Low glowing LEDs, LEDs without any lights, but electrically fully working, some at high resistance and others with a pure short circuit. Quite irritating because the owner affirmed that all the switches were working perfectly the other day.
After piggybacking some transistors the matrix circuit was working as expected with a simulated input, so the next step was the main board with the processor. To mention as a side note, that there was another similar main board. First one simply checks the coin-acceptor unit, serves / operates the switching matrix and operates the four identical relay cards.
Those are quite basic. Just some optoelectronic coupler driven by a clocked shifting register, mainly to switch the washing machines but also to get the finish status of the machines.
Those were kept completely unmodified in the later setup.
The next photos are about the washing machine and some boards for the washing powder dispenser.
Because he couldn’t reach some parts while being assembled, he had to dismantle the whole control center all night long, only to be sure, that the mainboards were completely broken. They have had undefined logic levels, floating signals, noting to fix here.
Instead of buying a new one for about 25.000 EUR he took a Arduino Mega2560 R3, which he doesn’t really like, but Arduinos are damn cheap, so whatever. So he added a self-made simple relay shield on a prototype board to it and was almost done.
Quite funny, but replacing all the switches and LEDs with an Android Tablet was much easier, than to keep it and connect it to the Arduino, which would have had enough ports, so he would have needed to add another one for port extension and so on. But he tried to keep it simple and replacable. In first the prototype board shied hadn’t had any semiconductors on it, but he had to add them, to get rid of some additional old boards, so he could only keep the relay cards and the two mains supply circuits. | 16 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "1111738",
"author": "Leo",
"timestamp": "2013-11-26T00:37:44",
"content": "I’m not that much of an electronics pro like he is (thats why i use Arduino :), but it seems like in this machine the drivers (Type ULN and UDN) for the LED/Switch Matrizes were broken.Also, the Main Control ... | 1,760,376,389.757653 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/11/25/sniffing-data-from-radio-controlled-bus-stop-displays/ | Sniffing Data From Radio-Controlled Bus Stop Displays | Mathieu Stephan | [
"Radio Hacks"
] | [
"bus stop display",
"FSK",
"l-msk",
"perl",
"sniffing"
] | A few weeks ago in Finland [Oona] discovered a
radio data stream centered around 76KHz in a FM broadcast
and she
recently managed to decode it
. This 16,000bps stream uses level-controlled minimum-shift keying (
L-MSK
) which detection can be quite tricky to implement. She therefore decoded the stream by treating the received signal as non-coherent binary FSK, which as a side effect increased the bit error probability. [Oona] then understood that the stream she was getting was the data broadcast by Helsinky buses to the nearby bus stop timetable displays. She even got lucky when she observed a display stuck in the middle of its bootup sequence, displaying a version string. This revealed that the system is called IBus and made by the Swedish company Axentia. However their website didn’t provide the specs for their proprietary protocol. After many hours of sniffing and coding, [Oona] successfully implemented the five layer protocol stack in Perl and can now read the arrival times of the nearby buses from her apartment. | 63 | 26 | [
{
"comment_id": "1111566",
"author": "vpoko",
"timestamp": "2013-11-25T21:11:20",
"content": "I’m surprised it operates at such a low frequency; 76KHz is longwave. I wonder why it’s like that. Also, I wonder how hard it would be to spoof the signal to display wrong times (or zombie warnings). Not th... | 1,760,376,389.656565 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/11/24/measuring-the-lifespan-of-nixie-tubes/ | Measuring The Lifespan Of Nixie Tubes | Brian Benchoff | [
"hardware"
] | [
"experiment",
"IN-13",
"neon",
"nixie",
"tube"
] | Nixie tubes have two things going for them: they’re awesome, and they’re out of production. If you’re building a clock – by far the most popular Nixie application, you’re probably wondering what the lifespan of these tubes are. Datasheets from the manufacturers sometimes claim a lifetime as low as 1000 hours, or a month and a half if you’re using a tube for a clock. Obviously some experimentation is in order to determine the true lifetime of these tubes.
Finding an empirical value for the lifetime of Nixies means setting up an experiment and waiting a very, very long time. Luckily, the folks over at SALTechips
already have a year’s worth of data
.
Their experimental setup consists of an IN-13 bargraph display driven with a constant current sink. The light given off by this Nixie goes to a precision photometer to log the visual output. Logging takes place once a week, and the experiment has been running for 57 weeks so far.
All the data from this experiment is available on the project page, along with a video stream of the time elapsed and current voltage. So far, there’s nothing to report yet, but we suppose that’s a good thing. | 28 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "1110414",
"author": "mjrippe",
"timestamp": "2013-11-24T22:03:51",
"content": "Although the folks at SALTechips have done a great job, the IN-13 is not a Nixie tube. First of all, Nixie is a trademark of Burroughs. Second, a “nixie type” tube displays the digits 0-9. Third, the l... | 1,760,376,389.450859 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/11/24/an-arm-powered-business-card-part-two/ | An ARM Powered Business Card, Part Two | Brian Benchoff | [
"ARM",
"Microcontrollers"
] | [
"arm",
"business card"
] | While most microcontroller powered business cards opt for something small and cheap, [Brian] is going in an entirely different direction.
His business card
features an ARM processor, some Flash storage, a USB connection, and enough peripherals to do some really cool stuff.
This is the second iteration of [Brian]’s business card. We saw
the first version
, but this new version makes up for a few mistakes in the previous version. The biggest improvement is the replacement of the Molex USB plug with bare traces on the board. [Brian] couldn’t find a board house that could fab a board with the proper thickness for a USB plug, but a few strips of masking tape did enough to beef up the thickness and make his plug nice and snug. Also, the earlier version had a few pins sticking out of the board for programming purposes. This wasn’t an idea solution for a business card where it would be carried around in a pocket, so these pins were replaced with a
connectorless programming adapter
. Just a few exposed pads gives [Brian] all the programming abilities of the last version, without all those prickly pins to catch on clothing.
With his new business card, [Brian] has an excellent display of his engineering prowess and a very cool toy; he has a project that will turn this card into a keyboard emulator, randomly activating the Caps Lock button for a few seconds every few minutes. A great prank, and a great board to give to future employers. | 39 | 12 | [
{
"comment_id": "1110292",
"author": "Trui",
"timestamp": "2013-11-24T18:13:42",
"content": "“While most microcontroller powered business cards opt for something small and cheap…”ARM microcontrollers are also available in small and cheap versions.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replie... | 1,760,376,389.840357 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/11/24/hack-a-day-logo-laser-light-show/ | Hack-a-Day Logo Laser Light Show | Todd Harrison | [
"Arduino Hacks",
"Laser Hacks",
"Software Hacks"
] | [
"laser",
"logo",
"processing",
"scanning",
"servo"
] | The Hack-a-Day logo challenge keeps on bearing fruit. This tip comes from [Enrico Lamperti] from Argentina who posted his follies as well as success creating a
Hack-a-Day logo using a home built scanning laser projector
.
The build consists of a couple small servos, a hacked up pen laser and an Arduino with some stored coordinates to draw out the image. As usual the first challenge is powering your external peripheral devices like servos. [Enrico] tackled this problem using 6 Ni-MH batteries and an LM2956 simple switcher power converter. The servos and Arduino get power directly from the battery pack and the Arduino controls the PWM signals to the servos as they trace out the stored coordinate data. The laser is connected to the servo assembly and is engaged and powered by an Arduino pin via an NPN transistor. He also incorporated a potentiometer to adjust the servo calibration point.
His first imported coordinate data generated from some Python script was not very successful. But later he used processing with an SVG file to process a click-made path the Arduino could use as map data to draw the Hack-a-Day logo. It requires a long exposure time to photograph the completed drawing in a dark room but the results are impressive.
It’s an excellent project where [Enrico] shares what he learned about using Servo.writeMicroseconds() instead of Servo.write() for performance along with several other tweaks. He also shared the BOM, Fritzing diagram, Processing Creator and Simulator tools and serial commands
on GitHub
. He wraps up with some options that he thinks would improve his device, and he requests any help others may want to provide for better performance. And if you want you could step it up a notch and create a
laser video projector
with an ATMega16 AVR microcontroller and some clever spinning tilted mirrors. | 0 | 0 | [] | 1,760,376,389.884816 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/11/24/pimp-my-keyboard-automatic-lift-kit-and-more/ | Pimp My Keyboard: Automatic Lift Kit And More | Mike Szczys | [
"Peripherals Hacks"
] | [
"atmega32u4",
"capacitive sensor",
"Cherry keyboard",
"rfid",
"USB hub"
] | Wondering what the heck a lift kit is? You know those low-riding cars that bounce? That’s the idea with this hack. [Justblair] added
automatic height adjustment to his Cherry G80
, and hid a few other extras while he was at it. Since there’s a fair amount of room inside the case of this model he was able to hide everything and keep just a single cord to run it all.
Certainly what catches your eye is the keyboard’s ability to rise to a typing height automatically. This is accomplished with a few servo motors and some 3D printed replacement feet. There were some hiccups along the way with under-powered servos, but bulking up to some HXT 900 9G models provide more power than is currently necessary. The automatic feature is thanks to a capacitive sensor built with a wire that loops the perimeter of the keyboard.
Of course to monitor the sensor and drive the servos you need some kind of brain. For that [Justblair] went with an ATmega32U4 breakout board. Since he had to patch into USB for power anyway he added a USB hub and routed one of the ports out the left side of the keyboard as a convenient way to connect other peripherals. There was even room to include an RFID reader which he uses to unlock his sessions (similar to
the desk install
from earlier this year). There’s still a lot of potential left in that hardware. To make future improvements easier the hack includes an IDC socket as an auxiliary port.
[Justblair] did a great job of sharing his work. His post links to a Github repo for the code and a Thingiverse project for the 3D printed legs. And it wouldn’t be complete without the demo video which is found below. | 41 | 13 | [
{
"comment_id": "1110113",
"author": "Tony",
"timestamp": "2013-11-24T12:21:40",
"content": "Err, why?(Yeah yeah, why not etc etc)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1110206",
"author": "elghigno",
"timestamp": "2013-11-24T14:51:4... | 1,760,376,390.55192 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/11/24/building-an-led-source-for-a-fiber-optic-ring-light/ | Building An LED Source For A Fiber Optic Ring Light | Adam Fabio | [
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"fiber optic",
"Halogen lamp",
"light emitting diode",
"microscope",
"Optical fiber"
] | [Peter] has finished up his
fiber optic microscope light source
. When we last visited [Peter] he created a
dimmer circuit for a 10 watt LED.
That LED driver has now found its final home in [Peter’s] “Franken-ebay scope”, a stereo microscope built from parts he acquired over several years. Stereo microscopes scopes like these are invaluable for working on surface mount parts, or inspecting PCB problems. [Peter] had the fiber optic ring and whip, but no light source. The original source would have been a 150W Halogen lamp. The 10 watt led and driver circuit was a great replacement, but he needed way to interface the LED to the fiber whip. Keeping the entire system cool would be a good idea too.
This was no problem for [Peter], as he has access to a milling machine. He used an old CPU heat sink from his junk box as the base of the light source. The heat sink was drilled and tapped for the LED. The next problem was the actual fiber whip interface. For this, [Peter] milled a custom block from aluminum bar stock. The finished assembly holds the LED, driver, and the fiber whip. A sheet metal bracket allows the entire assembly to be mounted on the microscope’s post. We have to admit, if we were in [Peter’s] place, we would have gone with a
cheap LED ring light
. However, the end result is a very clean setup that throws a ton of light onto whatever [Peter] needs magnified. | 2 | 1 | [
{
"comment_id": "1110069",
"author": "Whatnot",
"timestamp": "2013-11-24T10:45:56",
"content": "There is good hope that that discovery about LED that enables less loss will soon become commonplace in manufacturing, then heatsinking should be much easier.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
... | 1,760,376,389.922855 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/11/23/atmega16-hard-disk-clock/ | ATMega16 Hard Disk Clock | James Hobson | [
"clock hacks"
] | [
"atmega16",
"hard disk clock"
] | [Martin Stromer] made this great looking Hard Disk Clock about 12 years ago, and finally decided to
share it with the world.
It’s been “ticking” ever since.
It’s a beautiful clock, and if you think the drive might look a bit odd, that’s probably because its well over 20 years old! We’re not too sure the capacity, but it couldn’t have been more than a few dozen megabytes.
To read the time, the platter rotates 30 degrees at once, per hour. The read-write head inches across the disc to display the minutes. Each of the black lines represents a quarter hour. The whole thing is controlled by an ATMega16, which maintains almost all of the original hardware. The blog post has a great write-up on how it all works.
Did we mention it’s also easy to set the time? Simply rotate the disc by hand and slide the read-write head into place, then press the reset button. Check out the c
lock in action after the break.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tSaW8k3-mBI
Have an extra hard disk lying around? This is just one great example of a way to repurpose it into something useful! We’ve also seen
hard disk grinders
before,
hard disk DJ scratch pads
, and even a
cotton candy spinner
.
[via
HackedGadgets
] | 14 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "1109985",
"author": "FastEddy",
"timestamp": "2013-11-24T07:29:02",
"content": "Wow… it’s just good to see an old disc drive with a linear actuator!I hope it’s a reversible hack – that’s an antique.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_i... | 1,760,376,389.979752 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/11/23/wireless-midi-floor-piano/ | Wireless MIDI Floor Piano! | James Hobson | [
"Musical Hacks"
] | [
"floor piano",
"midi piano",
"wireless piano"
] | [Jianan Li] just finished documenting one of his most recent projects,
a wireless MIDI floor piano
that he and a small group made for
Duke University’s Hackathon!
He was inspired to do this project after reading our recent coverage on a
DIY Pressure Plate
. Having only 24 hours to compete in the Hackathon, they had to choose something that was fairly easy to build out of cheap materials, and quick to assemble. This was just the ticket.
The piano features 25 of the aluminum foil pressure plates, whose state are read by the Arduino Mega. This is then transmitted by an XBee radio to an Arduino Uno, which acts as the receiver for the laptop that processes the signals. They even added a remote control using an ATtiny85 to allow for octave and instrument changes — it also uses an XBee to communicate back to the Uno. For a 24 hour build, the quality is quite impressive, and it doesn’t sound half bad either — Take a listen after the break!
You might remember [Jianan Li] from one of his other projects we featured a few months ago — his beautifully wired
Breadboard Tetris
game. | 2 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "1109934",
"author": "George Graves",
"timestamp": "2013-11-24T05:23:47",
"content": "Very cool – just like from the movie “Big!” Live demo here:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2R4UUJl51GcStarts at 6:30",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_... | 1,760,376,390.118928 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/11/21/a-low-cost-modular-high-altitude-balloon-tracker-with-mesh-networked-sensors/ | A Low-Cost Modular High Altitude Balloon Tracker With Mesh Networked Sensors | Mathieu Stephan | [
"gps hacks",
"hardware",
"Wireless Hacks"
] | [
"afsk",
"APRS",
"balloon tracker",
"gps",
"xbee"
] | [Ethan] just tipped us about a project he and a few colleagues worked on last year for their senior design project. It’s a low-cost open hardware/software
high altitude balloon tracker
with sensors that form a mesh network with a master node. The latter (shown above) includes an ATmega644, an onboard GPS module (NEO-6M), a micro SD card slot, a 300mW
APRS
(144.39MHz) transmitter and finally headers to plug an XBee radio. This platform is therefore in charge of getting wireless data from the slave platforms, storing it in the uSD card while transmitting the balloon position via APRS along with other data. It’s interesting to note that to keep the design low-cost, they chose a relatively cheap analog radio module ($~40) and hacked together AFSK modulation of their output signal with hardware PWM outputs and a sine-wave lookup table.
The slave nodes are composed of ‘slave motherboards’ on which can be plugged several daughter-boards: geiger counters, atmospheric sensors, camera control/accelerometer boards. If you want to build your own system, be sure to check out
this page
which includes all the necessary instructions and resources. | 2 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "1107917",
"author": "dALE",
"timestamp": "2013-11-22T08:12:09",
"content": "Let’s start spying on the Government.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "3191693",
"author": "shootanyangle",
"timestamp": "2016-09-10T18:53:01",
... | 1,760,376,390.267583 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/11/21/making-the-worst-linux-pc-useful/ | Making The Worst Linux PC Useful | Brian Benchoff | [
"ARM",
"Linux Hacks"
] | [
"ATmega1284p",
"AVR",
"emulator",
"i2c",
"linux"
] | After seeing [Dimitry] build the most minimal Linux computer ever, [Kyle] decided he needed one for himself. In true hacker fashion, he decided to take this build for the worst Linux PC one step further:
he would add I2C to his version
, making it somewhat useful, considering the number of I2C peripherals out there.
This build is based on [Dmitry]’s
ARM Linux computer
emulated on an 8-bit AVR. It’s a full-blown Linux computer with 16 MB of RAM courtesy of a 30-pin SIMM, a lot of storage provided by an SD card, all running on an emulated ARM processor inside a lowly ATMega1284p. [Kyle] built this clone over the course of a few months, but from the outset decided he wanted to implement an I2C protocol on this terribly under specced computer.
After booting his computer, [Kyle] eventually got an I2C module loaded by the kernel. With an I2C module and a few spare GPIO pins, he set out to create something to attach to this terribly slow computer – an ancient LED dot matrix display. With a real-time clock, this display became a clock with the help of a homebrew program written in C. Considering the speed of the emulated processor, the program takes nearly three seconds to read the RTC and display the current time to the display. We’re thinking it was a wise choice to only implement hours and minutes in this clock.
If having a useful computer running at about 10
kilo
hertz isn’t enough, [Kyle] also compiled the classic text-based adventure
Zork.
It actually runs, proving you don’t need Megahertz of power to do something useful and fun. | 16 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "1107790",
"author": "Kyle Brinkerhoff",
"timestamp": "2013-11-22T04:35:49",
"content": "ooohhh the blistering power!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1107798",
"author": "Galane",
"timestamp": "2013-11-22T04:44:37",
"... | 1,760,376,390.36725 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/11/21/a-pair-of-toaster-reflow-oven-builds/ | A Pair Of Toaster Reflow Oven Builds | Brian Benchoff | [
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"pid",
"reflow oven",
"thermistor",
"thermocouple",
"toaster oven"
] | For some reason or another, the Hackaday tip line sometimes sees a short burst of submissions for the same project. The latest one of these was for toaster oven reflow stations. They’re both great builds and different approaches to making a useful tool out of home appliances.
First up is
[Richard]’s build
. he ended up with a fairly high-end build using a
Rocket Scream Reflow Oven Controller Arduino shield
. This shield accepts a normal K-type thermocouple and controls an external solid state relay with the Arduino’s PID library. [Richard]’s build has a few neat additions – a properly dremeled enclosure, computer fan, and a welding blanket for insulation. Now that we think about it, it’s odd we’ve rarely seen any sort of insulation in these reflow oven builds.
Next up is
[Ray]’s version of a Black & Decker reflow oven
. While not as fancy as [Richard]’s build, this one does have a few features that make it very interesting. Instead of messing around with thermocouples, [Ray] simply took a digital kitchen thermometer – a neat tool that already a thermistor in a compact metal probe – and read the analog value with an Arduino. To control the power, [Ray] is using a cheap 433 MHz radio transmitter to control a few remotely operated power sockets. It’s a very clever and inexpensive replacement for a SSR, especially since [Ray] had these power sockets just lying around.
So there you go. The same tool, built two different ways. A great demonstration of how you can not only build anything, but you can build anything any way you want. | 13 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "1107679",
"author": "notabena",
"timestamp": "2013-11-22T00:54:09",
"content": "Cool…How do you like your Hot Dog’s?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1108307",
"author": "Rob",
"timestamp": "2013-11-22T17:34:03"... | 1,760,376,390.315174 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/11/21/a-six-part-cnc-machine/ | A Six Part CNC Machine | Brian Benchoff | [
"3d Printer hacks",
"cnc hacks"
] | [
"cnc",
"plotter",
"servos"
] | CNC machines are impressive pieces of kit. We’re all for seeing the big, burly, impressive machines, but there’s something to be said about seeing how small they can get. [Jay] has
what is probably the most minimal CNC plotter we’ve ever seen
, built from only six 3D printed parts.
[Jay]’s plotter is based on the
Piccolo
, an exceedingly small-scale CNC platform that can be built for $70 with laser-cut parts. This version, though, uses only six parts that can be
downloaded from Thingiverse
. Powered by an Arduino and two micro servos, this CNC plotter would be a great introduction to CNC for any robotics club or hackerspace tutorial series.
[Jay] has been doing some awesome work with CNC plotters; we saw his
large format Plotterbot
earlier this month, and his giant plotted
HaD logo with HaD infill poster
was a great submission to our Trinket contest.
Video of [Jay]’s plotter in action available after the break. | 49 | 17 | [
{
"comment_id": "1107535",
"author": "LouLou",
"timestamp": "2013-11-21T21:02:45",
"content": "“Pieces of kit.”Why does that bother me so much?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1107577",
"author": "frankenkit",
"timestamp": "201... | 1,760,376,390.727627 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/11/21/fail-of-the-week-commute-shortening-electric-scooter/ | Fail Of The Week: Commute-Shortening Electric Scooter | Mike Szczys | [
"Fail of the Week",
"Hackaday Columns"
] | [
"electric vehicle",
"fail",
"fail of the week",
"nicad",
"scooter"
] | Please don’t judge [Alan] on his choice of vests. This project is from 1999 when it was common to see people rockin’ these threads. Anyone who has ever spent time on the University of Minnesota campus in Minneapolis, Minnesota will know that parking is at a premium. [Alan] had a 12-15 minute walk from his parking garage to his office and was considering a cheaper parking location that would balloon that to 20-25 minutes. But engineers don’t see problems, they see project ideas. He started work on a tiny electric scooter that could slim down his commute. Obviously he did find some success, but it was interspersed with failures that
make his scooter the Fail of the Week
.
After doing some research on existing electric scooters [Alan] headed to Ax-Man Surplus, a hacker’s paradise of engineering supplies spanning the electronic, mechanical, and chemistry disciplines. He picked up a 130V DC motor which draws 1A with a 1/8 HP rating. He built a rectifying DC power supply to test it and was laying down rubber in the basement of his building. But you can’t get very far running on an extension cord so the natural progression of the project moved to prototyping a battery for the unit; a dozen 10.8V 1700 mAh NiCad batteries. He figured it would be good to add in a fuse. His “testing” of a 20A fuse was done by shorting the connections which is how he discovered that the cells themselves have an over-temp cutoff built-in. We’d call that fail number 1.
The next issue resulted in all the cells in the battery going dead. There’s a great description of this that culminates in [Alan] realizing he probably charged them with reverse polarity. He swapped out for another pack and took the finished scooter for a rather scary test drive. He hit the accelerator and the thing took off.. with no way to stop it. Flipping the switch did nothing as it heated up and began to melt. And he only had the front brake installed which was no match for that powerful motor. We start shaking our heads when [Alan] kept repeating the same mistake, moving to a mains light switch with the same results, then adding a flyback diode also with the same results. So what’s going on with this fail? Why were the switches unable to cut power even after he moved them to the off position? Let us know what you think by leaving a comment.
We love the idea of building your own electric transportation. But electric scooters are getting to be a bit too common. We’d recommend
a commuting tricycle
. You might think that you’ll be made fun of, but not with the way this thing tears up the track!
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. | 38 | 17 | [
{
"comment_id": "1107412",
"author": "Mike",
"timestamp": "2013-11-21T18:15:12",
"content": "The switches didn’t work because he was using AC switches for inductive DC loads. He said he only measured a maximum of 4 amp load, but I bet when you switch that sucker for the first time with a person stan... | 1,760,376,390.636361 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/11/21/beautiful-touch-sensitive-furniture/ | Beautiful Touch-Sensitive Furniture | Brian Benchoff | [
"Arduino Hacks"
] | [
"capsense",
"furniture",
"nightstand",
"wood working"
] | It’s taken over a year, but [tinkering techie] has finally completed
his touch sensitive nightstand
. At first glance, it looks like any normal piece of furniture. With the addition of an Arduino, some copper clad board, and a few LEDs, he’s turned it into a very elegant, electronic home furnishing.
The nightstand is built out of a few very nice pieces of mahogany. Underneath the top of the nightstand, three Kapton-covered copper clad boards are inset along the front and side edges. These capacitive sensing boards are connected to an Arduino Fio that reads the capacitance of these sensors and turns on a small LED under the drawer or the mains powered lamp.
The electronics are powered by a small USB charger with a battery backup all hidden underneath the top of the nightstand. Inside the drawer, a magnetic reed switch turns on an RGB LED whenever the drawer is opened.
While the nightstand itself is a wonderful piece of woodworking, we need to tip our hat for a remarkably seamless integration of fine furniture and electronics. The electronic furniture modifications we usually see are Ikea cruft, but this wonderful homemade nightstand should last decades or centuries.
Video of [techie] going over his build below | 15 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "1107297",
"author": "LouLou",
"timestamp": "2013-11-21T15:37:02",
"content": "I have many leather-bound books and my apartment smells of rich mahogany",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1107763",
"author": "Dave Davidson"... | 1,760,376,390.783651 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/11/21/7-segment-display-matrix-visualizes-more-than-numbers/ | 7-Segment Display Matrix Visualizes More Than Numbers | Mike Szczys | [
"Video Hacks"
] | [
"arduino",
"mirror",
"openframeworks",
"raspberry pi",
"seven segment"
] | You can pretty much tell that this is an outstretched hand
shown on a large grid of 7-segment displays
. But the only reason you have to look twice is because it is a still photo. When you see the video below it’s more than obvious what you’re looking at… partly because the device is being used as an electronic mirror.
In total there are 192 digits in the display. To make things easier, four-digit modules were used, although we still couldn’t resist showing you the well-organized nightmare that is the wiring scheme. Each module is driven by its own discrete Arduino (driving 28 LEDs as they’re apparently not connecting the decimal point). All 48 Arduino boards receive commands from a Raspberry Pi which is running openFrameworks to generate the animations.
Now of course the project was well under way before [Peter] discovered
a similar display from more than a year ago
. But we’re glad that didn’t stop them from forging ahead and even building on the idea. They added a camera to the display’s frame which lets it mirror back whatever is in front of it.
What popped into our minds was
one of the recent entries for the Trinket contest
.
[Thanks Eren] | 40 | 14 | [
{
"comment_id": "1107166",
"author": "Hirudinea",
"timestamp": "2013-11-21T12:28:52",
"content": "Just one word, BIGGER!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1107174",
"author": "Zac",
"timestamp": "2013-11-21T12:44:47",
"content": "Cool.... | 1,760,376,390.95007 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/11/22/diy-filament-the-filabot-wee/ | DIY Filament: The Filabot Wee | Marsh | [
"3d Printer hacks"
] | [
"3d print",
"extruder",
"extrusion",
"filabot",
"filament"
] | Now there’s yet another option for making your own 3D printer filament:
the Filabot Wee.
It looks like their once
open source model
that they pulled from Thinigiverse earlier this year has received a significant makeover, though we aren’t sure what parts may have changed. (
EDIT:
Filabot says the Wee is still open source, and that once they’ve updated the files they will be available again.
)
As you would expect, the Wee has a PID temperature controller and is capable of extruding both ABS and PLA pellets into either 1.75mm or 3mm-diameter filament. Speed varies depending on materials and thickness, but can reach 5 to 20 inches per minute of filament extrusion. Though the Filabot gang is selling the extruder as a kit, you can probably save a few bucks if you have access to a laser cutter and some other basic materials.
You should expect to spend more for Filabot parts ($649) than you would for
the original Lyman extruder
, though perhaps a more fair comparison would be the new
third version of the Lyman extruder
, whose bill of materials approaches $900. Considering Lyman’s recent comments that indicate an extrusion rate of 40-50 inches per minute, the extra bucks may be worth it. You can check out a demonstration video of the Filabot Wee after the break.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=712nrXmdkIg | 24 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "1108736",
"author": "Jay",
"timestamp": "2013-11-23T03:35:53",
"content": "Life is too short… couldn’t get past the “set the temperature” portion. :D Just kidding.The more at-home filament makers, the better.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
... | 1,760,376,391.010942 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/11/22/hack-your-stove-in-the-name-of-homebrewing/ | Hack Your Stove In The Name Of Homebrewing | Adam Fabio | [
"home hacks"
] | [
"homebrew",
"PID controller",
"solid state relay",
"stove",
"temperature",
"temperature-control"
] | [Tim] is a homebrewer. Temperature profiling during the mashing process is apparently even more critical than the temperature curve of a solder reflow oven. His stove just wasn’t giving him the level of control he needed, so
[Tim] added a PID temperature controller to his stove
. Electric stoves generally use an
“infinite switch”
to control their burners. Infinite switches are little more than a resistor and a bimetallic strip in a single package. Not very good for accurate temperature control. The tricky part of this hack was to make it reversible and to have little visual impact on the stove. A stove top with wires hanging out would not only be dangerous electrically, it would also create a hazardous situation between [Tim] and his wife.
[Tim’s] brewpot only fit on the stove’s largest burner, so that was the only one that needed PID control. To keep things simple, he kept the commercial PID controller outside the stove’s enclosure. Inside the stove, [Tim] added a solid state relay. The relay is mounted to a metal plate, which screws to the back of the stove. The relay control lines run to an audio jack on the left side of the stove. Everything can be bypassed with a switch hidden on the right side of the stove. In normal operation, the switch is in “bypass” mode, and the stove works as it always has. When
mashing time comes along,
[Tim] flips the switch and plugs the jack into his PID controller. The temperature sensor goes into the brewpot itself, so no stove modification was needed there.
The end result is a very clean install that both [Tim] and his wife can enjoy. Save a few bottles for us, [Tim]! | 10 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "1108593",
"author": "knyghtryda",
"timestamp": "2013-11-23T00:18:50",
"content": "I’ve hooked my PID box into whole bunch of things for controlling liquid temperature (in my case, for sous vide). My current setup, which btw would work quite well for mash, is a deep fryer with an ex... | 1,760,376,391.057815 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/11/22/if-you-own-a-camera-you-need-to-try-light-graffiti/ | If You Own A Camera You Need To Try Light Graffiti | Jeremy Cook | [
"digital cameras hacks",
"Featured"
] | [
"camera",
"dslr",
"light graffiti",
"light painting"
] | Do you have a camera that’s capable of controlling how long of an exposure it takes? With this and any small light source, you can make a really awesome illuminated image like the one featured above. Combine this with the hacking skills that you’ve hopefully learned from reading Hackaday, and the visual possibilities are endless.
Let’s look at the background of this entertaining light hacking technique, and how you can make images like this yourself!
What is Light Graffiti?
Possibly the world’s first “LG” photograph
You may have seen images of streaks or simple shapes, or even complicated drawings embedded in a photograph of a dark environment. If it wasn’t just a poor photo, there’s a good chance that what you saw is light graffiti.
Although you might think that this is a relatively new art form, it’s been around since at least the late 1800’s, when [Marey] and [Demeny] demonstrated the
first known light graffiti photograph
(or light painting as it’s also known). Although technology has changed, the basic concept is the same.
A photograph records the light that hits the sensor or film on a camera, but has no concept of time per se. Because of this light (or anything visible) moving in front of the camera appears to be in all the points where it moved in the resulting photograph. If you take a long exposure photograph of a dark area, and move an illuminated object in front of it, this can be controlled to make whatever shape you want.
Over 100 years later, and now we’ve advanced
to a [HAD] logo
automatically created with a laser.
What equipment is needed/what I use
To make your own light graffiti art, you’ll need a camera capable of varying the exposure time (most likely a DSLR), a light source, and a dark environment. I use a Canon T2i with a remote triggering device to shoot with. If this camera is set on “bulb,” one can signal the camera to start then stop whenever you’re done with your shape. Alternatively, it can be triggered for a set amount of time. During this exposure, you can manipulate the light in front of the camera to create a light graffiti (LG) effect.
Besides the exposure time, one has to also set up the ISO (digital film sensitivity) correctly so as not to capture too much or too little light. Additionally, focusing can be a problem in the dark. To help with this, you can shine a light near where you’re going to be doing your graffiti, then focus on this point. Be sure to set the autofocus off when actually shooting to avoid any problems.
Traditional light graffiti
A really easy quick experiment to see what this art form is all about would be to set your camera up for a long exposure and trigger it while looking at a light. Move it around, and you’ll see a streak on your digital film. Taking this concept farther, you can go out at night with a tripod and move a light in front of the lens. LEDs would be the obvious first choice for a light source. On the other hand, anything that is on fire, especially something emitting sparks can look really great for light graffiti. Caution should be used if you go in this direction to make sure you don’t burn yourself or start another fire.
Although fun by themselves, when attached to a string, LEDs can be used to create a
vortex effect
, or even an orb as seen in this post’s first image, and in other
excellent photos on this page
. When you’re twirling your light source around, dark clothing is helpful to keep yourself from appearing in the picture too much.
Using a laser pointer,
as seen here
, works well for drawing or writing on whatever your target object is. Just open the shutter and treat the laser just like you would a normal pen.
“Hacker” Light graffiti
When you’re ready to move beyond “traditional” light graffiti tools, some of the hacking skills featured here on Hackaday can be quite helpful. Light bars, like
this simple LED arrangement
that I made, or this
color light bar
using a programmable LED strip are excellent “hacker” choices. An
LED-enabled CNC machine
is another option, and I’ve even experimented with
using a quadcopter for LG
. Given a better (automatic) control scheme, this could be really stunning.
If you’re still wondering what LG is all about, check out the video below for some people from Boston University creating some really great “traditional” light graffiti photos:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5NKe6MJUpiU&w=470&h=315]
Final Word
Although cameras capable of this kind of shooting aren’t generally cheap, if you have one, I would highly recommend trying this technique out. I’ve enjoyed my experiments, but if you have any tips to share about getting a great LG shot, be sure to let us know in the comments! Like many other photographic techniques, LG is easy to get into, but takes a lot of effort to truly master.
Jeremy Cook is a Mechanical Engineer
with a degree from Clemson University, and works in manufacturing and process automation. Additionally, Jeremy is an avid maker and former Hackaday staff writer. When he’s not at work or in the garage, you can find him on
Twitter @JeremySCook
, his projects blog
JCoPro.net
, or on his photography-related blog
DIYTripods.com
. | 24 | 14 | [
{
"comment_id": "1108479",
"author": "ImonFyre",
"timestamp": "2013-11-22T21:12:55",
"content": "Ill Just leave this right herehttp://froknowsphoto.com/the-pixelstick-is-one-of-the-coolest-photography-gadgets-ever/",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id":... | 1,760,376,393.030297 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/11/22/learn-engineering-and-draw-narwhals/ | Learn Engineering And Draw Narwhals | Brian Benchoff | [
"Crowd Funding",
"Robots Hacks"
] | [
"NarwhalEDU",
"online course",
"scara"
] | Using LEGO robots and other ‘intro to robotics’ platforms is a great introduction to kinematics and programming, but if you’re teaching a classroom of people who don’t know what a 1/4-20 screw is, perhaps it’s not the right introduction to engineering. That’s the thinking behind
NarwhalEdu’s
upcoming, Kickstarted online course: give kids a bunch of servos, bolts, and a microcontroller, and they’ll be able to build anything, and not just what the instructions for a Mindstorm’s robot says.
Robots, Drawing, and Engineering is an online course built around a simple SCARA arm robot. It’s made out of laser cut hardboard and powered by three servos and an Arduino Nano with an extension shield. After building this robot in the first hour of the online class, students then learn a little programming and get their robot drawing everything from narwhals to nyan cats and faces.
In the second part of the course, students then tear apart their robot kit and start making other, cooler interesting devices. There’s a contest for the coolest project that will hopefully go a long way to show how creative engineering can be.
Two videos below of the NarwhalEdu SCARA arm in action. | 23 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "1108355",
"author": "gabriel",
"timestamp": "2013-11-22T18:38:19",
"content": "“give kids a bunch of servos, bolts, and a microcontroller, and they’ll be able to build anything”Correct if I’m wrong but, ain’t that what LEGO is all about?And charging +U$150 for that kit is quite expe... | 1,760,376,393.372344 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/11/22/building-a-crystal-clear-whiteboard/ | Building A Crystal Clear Whiteboard | Mike Szczys | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"glass",
"whiteboard"
] | [Michael Peshkin] teaches mechanical engineering at Northwestern University. He likes to use diagrams to illustrate his point, but he also likes to face his students when doing so.
His solution was to develop this clear whiteboard
which ends up unlocking a lot more than just some hand-drawn schematics.
It’s a bit hard to see what he’s written on the board in the image above but squint and see if you can figure out what’s wrong with this style of teaching? Everything he’s writing is backwards. That’s not actually a problem in this case as [Michael] uses
flip teaching
. He records and posts all of his lectures online. Classroom time is then used for question and answer on the lecture subjects. In order to get the text to read the correct way he just bounces the camera off of a mirror.
The board itself is a huge sheet of tempered glass attached to the metal frame using bolts through holes in the pane. This leave the edges free. He added extruded rail to the top and bottom to embed strips of LEDs. They light the inside of the glass, and excite the fluorescent dry erase marker ink making it much more visible. [Michael] didn’t stop with the board, he also rigged up a lighting system that gives him a lot of options, and uses a monitor for dealing with digital overlays. He can put up a diagram on the computer, watching the monitor to see where his marker is making annotations. All this happens in real-time which means no post production! See a demo of these features after the break.
This
could all be done without the glass at all
, but that would make it quite a bit more difficult for the person doing the writing.
[Thanks Kevin] | 76 | 26 | [
{
"comment_id": "1108209",
"author": "Wandererereree",
"timestamp": "2013-11-22T15:08:39",
"content": "So, he likes to face his audience in a video? Rite. That’s important, I guess.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1108225",
"author": "... | 1,760,376,392.945037 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/11/22/using-dma-to-drive-ws2812-led-pixels/ | Using DMA To Drive WS2812 LED Pixels | Mike Szczys | [
"LED Hacks",
"Microcontrollers"
] | [
"discovery board",
"dma",
"stm32",
"ws2812"
] | It’s pretty well known by now that the LED pixel hardware which is starting to be commonplace, both WS2811 and WS2812, needs pretty strict timing in order to address them. There are libraries out there which mean almost no work on your part, but that’s no fun. [Elia] started looking into what it takes to drive the hardware, trying out a few 8-bit micros before moving to 32-bit with the help of an STM32VL Discovery Board. The move to a beefier processor brings a lot of speed, but why bit bang everything? He came up with a way to
use the PWM and DMA features of the chip to drive the LEDs
.
DMA is the Direct Memory Access unit that allows you to change the values being sent to the pixel without interrupting the processor. This is done by pre-loading the data at a memory location. This buffer is automatically read by the DMA unit — its values are used to set the PWM timer compare trigger in order to send out logic values show in the diagram above.
If you do want to delve further into this topic here’s a collection of
techniques for driving the WS2811
.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EZa9yF68Im8 | 17 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "1108091",
"author": "Paul Stoffregen",
"timestamp": "2013-11-22T12:13:53",
"content": "Hmmm… no mention of my OctoWS2811 library, which has been doing this DMA-based approach for quite some time. In fact, most of the large-scale LED projects that have appeared here on Hack-A-Day ov... | 1,760,376,392.637116 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/11/22/tricky-repair-of-power-driver-for-cnc-machine/ | Tricky Repair Of Power Driver For CNC Machine | Mike Szczys | [
"Repair Hacks"
] | [
"chip on board",
"desoldering",
"hybrid power module",
"mosfet"
] | Designing and building something from scratch is one thing. But repairing fried electronics is a much different type of dark art. This video from [Mike’s Electric Stuff] is from more than a year ago, but we didn’t think you’d mind since what he accomplishes in it is so impressive. He’s got a burnt out pick and place
hybrid power module which isn’t going to fix itself
.
The power module construction includes a part that has chip-on-board-style MOSFETs and the circuitry that goes with them enclosed in a black plastic housing. It’s kind of like a submodule was encapsulated using the same plastic as integrated circuits. After cracking it open it appears the bonding wire has burnt away. [Mike] connects a jumper wire to one of the board traces in order to use an external MOSFET. This is much easier said than done since the module substrate is ceramic designed to dissipate heat. We’re amused by his technique of melting the jumper into the plastic housing to protect it from the heat sink that goes over the package. In the end he gets his CNC running again. This may not be the best long-term fix but he just needed to continue running until a proper replacement part arrives.
Oh, one more thing: the Metcal vacuum desolderer he uses in the video… do want!
[Thanks Buddy via
Reddit
] | 24 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "1107975",
"author": "Whatnot",
"timestamp": "2013-11-22T09:35:15",
"content": "I always though ceramics were good at NOT conducting heat.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1108073",
"author": "yetihehe",
"timesta... | 1,760,376,392.809862 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/11/23/update-semi-automatic-pick-and-place-goes-fully-automatic/ | Update: Semi-automatic Pick And Place Goes Fully-Automatic | Mike Szczys | [
"cnc hacks"
] | [
"opencv",
"pick and place",
"xbox"
] | Way back in April we looked at
an impressive Pick and Place machine project
which wasn’t actually up and running yet. Well it looks like [Brian Dorey] has really put the pedal to the metal with this fall,
posting nine project updates since September
.
The previous system was working just fine but required quite a bit of user intervention to do the actual placing. So the first modifications toward the new goal centered around motorizing the gantry. There’s a lot of information on this, as well as the vacuum tweezer heads that were designed for the system. But for us it was exciting to read about
the vibrating chip feeder
. This uses the vibrating motor from an Xbox controller to jiggle the ICs from their tube packaging to a staging jig off the side of the build table. You can see a video of this after the break along with a demo of the entire machine at work.
[Brian] seems to favor the Xbox parts as he also used an Xbox live camera along with OpenCV to detect the parts and ensure they are lined up correctly. For the best results possible the parts need to be illuminated properly which is why
he also built a rather interesting light ring
using 144 red LEDs.
Vibrating parts feeder:
Board populating:
[via
Hacked Gadgets
] | 15 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "1109763",
"author": "Rikus",
"timestamp": "2013-11-24T00:21:39",
"content": "How does it grab the components? Suction?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1110066",
"author": "briandorey",
"timestamp": "2013-11-24T... | 1,760,376,393.424673 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/11/23/video-gaming-to-fix-eye-ailments/ | Video Gaming To Fix Eye Ailments | Mike Szczys | [
"Medical Hacks",
"Virtual Reality"
] | [
"crossed-eye",
"Leap motion",
"oculus rift",
"strabismus"
] | Let’s face it, most of the time we’re hacking for no other reason than sheer enjoyment. So we love to see hacks come about that can really make a difference in people’s lives. This time around it’s
a video game designed to exercise your eyes
. [James Blaha] has an eye condition called
Strabismus
which is commonly known as crossed-eye. The issue is that the muscles for each eye don’t coordinate with each other in the way they need to in order to produce three-dimensional vision.
Recent research (linked in the reference section of [James’] post) suggests that special exercises may be able to train the eyes to work correctly. He’s been working on developing a video game to promote this type of training. As you can see above, the user (patient?) wears an Oculus Rift headset which makes it possible to show each eye slightly different images, while using a Leap Motion controller for VR interaction. If designed correctly, and paired with the addictive qualities of games, this my be just what the doctor ordered. You know what they say, practice makes perfect!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W5tVBfBJr-s | 3 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "1109937",
"author": "Tekgno",
"timestamp": "2013-11-24T05:28:04",
"content": "Also known as lazy-eye.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1110002",
"author": "tachyon1",
"timestamp": "2013-11-24T08:11:22",
"content": "Wh... | 1,760,376,392.70693 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/11/23/sniffing-out-lg-smart-tv-tracking-protocol/ | Sniffing Out LG Smart TV Tracking Protocol | Mike Szczys | [
"home entertainment hacks",
"Security Hacks"
] | [
"advertising",
"LG",
"smart tv hack"
] | [DoctorBeet] noticed the advertisements on the landing screen of his new LG smart television and started wondering about tracking. His curiosity got the better of him when he came across a promotional video aimed at advertisers that boasts about the information gathered from people who use these TVs. He decided to sniff the web traffic. If what he discovered is accurate, there is
an invasive amount of data being collect by this hardware
. To make matters worse, his testing showed that even if the user switches the “Collection of watching info” menu item to off it doesn’t stop the data from being phoned home.
The findings start off rather innocuous, with the channel name and a unique ID being transmitted every time you change the station. Based on when the server receives the packets a description of your schedule and preferred content can be put together. This appears to be sent as plain data without any type of encryption or obfuscation.
Things get a lot more interesting when he discovers that filenames from a USB drive connected to the television are being broadcast as well. The server address they’re being sent to is a dead link — which makes us think this is some type of debugging step that was left in the production firmware — but it is still a rather sizable blunder when it comes to personal privacy. If you have one of these televisions [DoctorBeet] has a preliminary list of URLs to block with your router in order to help safeguard your privacy.
[Thanks Radcom] | 68 | 21 | [
{
"comment_id": "1109488",
"author": "six677",
"timestamp": "2013-11-23T18:04:55",
"content": "Been all over the news, surprised its taken so long to be reported on here",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1109490",
"author": "six677",
... | 1,760,376,393.161245 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/11/23/hacking-a-mac-magsafe-jack-into-a-pc-ultrabook/ | Hacking A Mac Magsafe Jack Into A PC Ultrabook | Marsh | [
"computer hacks",
"laptops hacks",
"Netbook Hacks",
"Repair Hacks"
] | [
"charging",
"laptop",
"magsafe",
"power adapter",
"ultrabook"
] | Something’s fishy about the above-pictured ultrabook: it’s an Asus Zenbook that [WarriorRocker]
hacked to use a MagSafe power connector
typically found on
Macbooks
. Most of us probably consider it standard procedure to poke around inside our desktop’s tower, but it takes some guts to radically alter such a shiny new ultrabook. It seems, however, that the Zenbook’s tiny power plug causes serious frustrations, and [WarriorRocker] was tired of dealing with them.
Using information he found from
an article we featured
earlier this summer on a MagSafe teardown, [WarriorRocker] hit up the parts drawer for some connectors and got to work. He had to modify the MagSafe’s housing to fit his Zenbook while still holding on to the magnets, but he managed to avoid modifying the ultrabook’s case—the connector is approximately the same size as a USB port. Deciding he could live with just one USB connection, [WarriorRocker] took to the board with a pair of side cutters and neatly carved out space for the MagSafe next to the audio jack. He then soldered it in place and ran wires from the VCC and Ground pins along a the channel where the WiFi antenna is routed, connecting them to the original power jack’s input pins.
[WarriorRocker] regrets that he fell short of his original goal of getting the MagSafe’s protocol working: he instead had to hack on his own adapter. We’re still rather impressed with how well his hack turned out, and it did manage to solve the charging problems. Hit us up in the comments if you can provide some insight into the MagSafe’s otherwise obscure innerworkings. | 34 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "1109382",
"author": "dext0rb",
"timestamp": "2013-11-23T15:21:58",
"content": "Nice hardware hack for sure. How come you didn’t do anything with the 1-wire protocol though? It seems like that’s what’s needed for the adapter to give you the “full juice”.",
"parent_id": null,
... | 1,760,376,393.308679 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/11/23/oscar-updates-your-grocery-list-from-the-trash/ | Oscar Updates Your Grocery List From The Trash | Adam Fabio | [
"home hacks"
] | [
"barcode",
"Barcode reader",
"raspberry pi",
"Trello"
] | [Dan] has come up with a novel solution to the age old problem of
keeping your grocery list up to date
. He’s added a bar code scanner and a Raspberry Pi under a kitchen cabinet. He calls the system “Oscar”, though we don’t see any grouchiness in his trash can. When [Dan] runs out of a product, he simply throws it away. Just above his garbage and recycling bin is a low cost barcode scanner. [Dan] holds the item until the scanner reads, then sends it on it’s way to recycling or the landfill. The decoded bar code is processed by a Raspberry Pi also hiding under the cabinet. The Raspberry Pi sends the data to
Trello.com
using the Trello api.
If a product isn’t recognized by Trello’s database, trello dispatches a text message to [Dan’s] phone. He can then add the product information via a web interface. We think the user interface is what’s great here. Once products are in the database, the only thing that has to be done day to day is pause for a moment before throwing a package away. [Dan] has all his
code up on github
, and has also created a
reddit thread
for Oscar.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9_MNOOgFDg4
[via reddit.com] | 26 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "1109208",
"author": "dx",
"timestamp": "2013-11-23T12:32:01",
"content": "Ha, really – instead of controlling all your not used stuff, you can just automatically read barcodes of used packs. Very good idea.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"c... | 1,760,376,393.235862 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/11/23/raspi-mini-laser-engraver/ | Raspi Mini Laser Engraver | Marsh | [
"Laser Hacks",
"Raspberry Pi"
] | [
"cnc",
"dvd drive",
"laser",
"laser engraver",
"python",
"raspberry pi",
"stepper motor"
] | If you’ve got a lot of spare parts lying around, you may be able to
cobble together your own laser engraver
without too much trouble. We’ve already seen
small engraver builds that use an Arduino
, but [Jeremy] tipped us off to [Xiang Zhai’s] version, which provides an in-depth guide to building one with a Raspberry Pi.
[Xiang] began by opening up two spare DVD writeable drives, salvaging not only their laser diodes but the stepper motors and their accompanying hardware, as well as a handful of small magnets near each diode. To assemble the laser, he sourced an inexpensive laser diode module from eBay and used a vise to push the diode into the head of the housing. With the laser snugly in place and the appropriate connecting wires soldered on, [Xiang] whipped up a laser driver circuit, which the Raspi will later control. [Xiang] worked out the stepper motors’ configuration by following [Groover’s] engraver build-(we
featured it a few years back
)-attaching the plate that holds the material to be engraved onto one axis and the laser assembly to the other.
Check out [Xiang’s] project blog for details explaining the h-bridge circuits as well as the Python code for the Raspi. As always, if you’re attempting any build involving a laser, please use all necessary precautions! And if you need more information on using DVD burners for their diodes, check out
this hack from earlier in the summer | 9 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "1109274",
"author": "Mgingerich",
"timestamp": "2013-11-23T13:34:36",
"content": "This is the best CNC tutorial I’ve ever seen on the web, and it’s going to help me enormously. Thanks :)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1109279",... | 1,760,376,393.577134 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/11/22/solder-sucker-meets-industrial-vacuum-pump/ | Solder Sucker Meets Industrial Vacuum Pump | Brian Benchoff | [
"Repair Hacks",
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"desolder",
"solder sucker",
"vacuum",
"vacuum pump"
] | [borgartank] is starting a hackerspace with a few guys, and being the resident electronics guru, the task of setting up a half-decent electronics lab fell on his shoulders. They already have a few soldering stations, but [borgar] is addicted to the awesome vacuum desolderers he has at his job. Luckily, [bogar]’s employer is keen to donate one of these vacuum desolderers, a very old model that has been sitting in a junk pile since before he arrived.
The pump was shot, but no matter
; it’s nothing a few modifications can’t fix.
The vacuum pump in the old desoldering station was completely broken, and word around the workplace is the old unit didn’t work quite well when it was new. After finding a 350 Watt vacuum pump – again, in the company junk pile – [bogar] hooked it up to the old soldering station. Everything worked like a charm.
After bolting the new and outrageously large pump to the back of the desoldering station, [bogar] wired up a relay to turn on the pump with the station’s 24V line. Everything worked as planned, netting the new hackerspace a 18 kg soldering station. | 19 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "1108874",
"author": "Eric Parker",
"timestamp": "2013-11-23T06:17:47",
"content": "As a hack, this one really sucks.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1108889",
"author": "Hemmi",
"timestamp": "2013-11-23T06:35:0... | 1,760,376,393.627086 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/11/21/hacking-helps-bring-educational-robot-projects-in-for-a-few-dollars/ | Hacking Helps Bring Educational Robot Projects In For A Few Dollars | Mike Szczys | [
"Robots Hacks"
] | [
"DualShock",
"Joystick",
"lollybot",
"suckerbot",
"tedx"
] | Meet [Dr. Thomas Tilley] and his robot Suckerbot which looks very much like a clear-plastic six-axis controller.
His presentation at this year’s TEDxChiangMai
is made of the stuff that makes us feel warm inside.
[Thomas] has been using joystick hacks to bring smiles to faces of kids in his part of Thailand. The video below covers some that he has done over the years. These include racing cockpits made out of PVC or bamboo which patch into a cheap joystick to control the action on a traditional gaming console. He’s also spun a different take on multiplayer Guitar Hero by splitting up the fret and strum actuators between several different kids.
But the main topic of his presentation is Lollybot, which is an Americanized version of its original moniker: Suckerbot. This was his entry into a 2012 contest which tasked hackers to build a robot that would cost under $10 to replicate in the classroom. That’s quite a challenge
but he actually did it
with enough to spare for a snack afterwards. Suckerbot is so named because he added a couple of candy suckers to the analog joysticks of a knock-off PlayStation controller. They act as inverted pendulums; when the robot runs into something the suckers shake which can be read by the computer controlling the robot. Food container lids wrapped with rubber act as wheels which are spun by the vibration motors from the joystick. And there’s even a set of line-following sensors built from photoresistors and some LEDs. His calculated cost? Just $8.96!
The hope is that robot projects stemming from this contest will help produce the next generation of
hackers in Africa
. If this stuff gets you excited you can take part.
This year’s challenge deadline
has been extended. | 10 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "1107161",
"author": "Gert",
"timestamp": "2013-11-21T12:23:29",
"content": "I just saw the “hackers in Africa” link and being from Africa myself I thought I should take a look at what other hackers are saying about William Kamkwamba’s wind generator. To those who left positive comme... | 1,760,376,393.677914 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/11/20/primer-tutorials-for-arduino-ir-remote-cloning-and-keyboard-simulation/ | Primer Tutorials For Arduino IR Remote Cloning And Keyboard Simulation | Todd Harrison | [
"Arduino Hacks",
"computer hacks",
"home entertainment hacks"
] | [
"arduino",
"clone",
"cloning",
"heat control",
"ir",
"keyboard simulation",
"remote control",
"space heater",
"teensyduino"
] | We’ve featured loads of IR Arduino projects and they are all exciting and unique. The projects spring from a specific need or problem where a custom infrared remote control is the solution. [Rick’s] double feature we’re sharing in this article is no exception, but what is interesting and different about [Rick’s] projects is his careful and deliberate tutorial delivery on how to copy infrared remote codes, store the codes with a flavor of Arduino and then either transmit or receive the codes to control devices.
In the case of his space heater an
Arduino was used to record and later retransmit the “power on” IR code
to the heater before he awakes on a cold morning. This way his room is toasty warm before he has to climb out from under the covers, which has the added benefit of saving the cost of running the heater all night. Brilliant idea if you don’t have a programmable heating system. Maybe he will add a temperature sensor someday so it doesn’t have to run on strictly time.
A more complicated problem was
controlling DVD playback software on his computer remotely
. [Rick] says he sits at a distance when watching DVDs on his computer but his computer doesn’t have a remote control like a normal TV. Arduino to the rescue again! But this time he pulls out a Teensyduino because of its added feature of being able to emulate a keyboard and of course the computer DVD playback software accepts keyboard commands. Once again he used the “IRremote.h” library to record certain button codes from an old remote control before adding the retrieved codes to a Teensyduino setup and programmed to receive and decode the remote’s IR signals. The Teensyduino then maps the IR codes to known keyboard shortcuts and transmits the simulated keyboard shortcut commands to the computer via its USB cable where the DVD playback software recognizes the key commands.
As always [Rick] shares all his libraries and sketches on his blog so follow the above links to download the files. You will not miss a single step if you follow his excellent videos below. Plus, here are some other ways and other tools for
using an IR remote with your Arduino
and
cloning an infrared remote
. | 5 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "1107176",
"author": "Michel Doffagne",
"timestamp": "2013-11-21T12:46:12",
"content": "This make me think at the FreeM (http://thingm.com/products/freem.html).",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1107193",
"author": "fartface",
... | 1,760,376,393.720265 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/11/20/raspis-and-arduinos-for-fm-broadcast-streaming/ | Raspis And Arduinos For FM Broadcast Streaming | Brian Benchoff | [
"Arduino Hacks",
"Radio Hacks",
"Raspberry Pi"
] | [
"arduino",
"rackmount",
"raspberry pi",
"web stream"
] | The biggest Internet provider in Portugal needed a system to turn FM broadcast stations in Angola, Cabo Verde, and Mozambique into a web stream. Like every good project,
the people in charge of the engineering turned to Hackaday staples
– Raspberry Pis, Arduinos, and TP-Link routers, all stuffed into an awesome modular rackmount cabinet
Each module in this gigantic rackmount system includes an Arduino, a Raspberry Pi, a
Silicon Labs Si4705
FM receiver chip, and a TI USB audio capture chip that allows the Pi to turn the audio out from the radio receiver into an audio stream. All the Pis are connected to a 24 port Ethernet switch and to a separate master Raspi that converts data received from each module into an icecast stream.
The engineering behind each module is pretty impressive – they’re all hot swappable, have remote shutdown capability, and have voltage divider on the backplane to detect where in the rack it’s placed. It’s a very cool piece of engineering and a very cool example of using off-the-shelf hardware to do something that could be much, much harder. | 74 | 15 | [
{
"comment_id": "1106856",
"author": "dfgsddfiojoifj",
"timestamp": "2013-11-21T03:33:55",
"content": "….why not just…get…one….SBC…that…doesn’t…suck…I wish people would use proper SBC’s that don’t have major architectural problems (like horrible USB performance), instead of just “fixing” it by getti... | 1,760,376,393.838004 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/11/20/home-theater-for-one-shakes-souls-removes-fillings/ | Home Theater For One Shakes Souls, Removes Fillings | Adam Fabio | [
"home entertainment hacks"
] | [
"audio",
"home cinema",
"Loudspeaker enclosure",
"surround sound"
] | Sometimes an earth-shaking home theater setup just won’t do. A speaker enclosure can only fill the average sized room with so much sound. [Kevin Bastyr] has figured out a way around this. Do away with the room, and
build the home theater INSIDE the speaker enclosure!
[Kevin’s] creation is called Humorously Maniacal Milwaukee Makerspace Multimedia Machine, (or HMMMMMM for short). As the name implies, HMMMMMM was created at the Milwaukee Makerspace. The HMMMMMM reminds us a bit of the
sensory deprivation chambers
which were so popular in the 70’s. HMMMMMM’s purpose in life however, is anything but deprivation. The user (victim?) climbs through a 27” hatch and settles into a reclining position. An LCD display is mounted a comfortable distance away from the users eyes. Then movie (or brainwashing program) begins.
The sound system is what sets the HMMMMMM apart. The HMMMMMM utilises a 5.16 surround sound system. That’s 5 speakers and 16 10″ high efficiency subwoofers. We’re not sure if it would be better to call it a sound system, or a full-out frontal assault on the senses. We’re not kidding when we say senses as well. Bass this loud can be felt as much as it is heard. The HMMMMMM is has been measured at 148.6dB at 40Hz. That’s well into the hearing damage range. To be safe, HMMMMMM users must wear double hearing protection: foam earplugs and earmuffs.
[Kevin’s] graphs aren’t all smoke and mirrors either – he’s an audio engineer by trade, and made his measurements with a laboratory grade 1/2″ Bruel and Kjaer microphone. Sound pressure level testing isn’t without its dangers. During testing the 2050 watt amplifier powering HMMMMMM encountered a fan failure. The amp’s circuit board ended up scorched black with delaminated traces. The HMMMMMM however was none the worse for wear. Future plans for the HMMMMMM include RGB LEDs that flash to the beat, and a smoke machine to create that extra atmosphere when the escape hatch is opened. | 19 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "1106743",
"author": "Addidis",
"timestamp": "2013-11-21T00:07:41",
"content": "Drinking game…Re-read this post and have a drink every time they say “HMMMMMM”",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1106760",
"author": "den",
... | 1,760,376,393.944056 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/11/20/making-logic-with-inductors/ | Making Logic With Inductors | Brian Benchoff | [
"hardware"
] | [
"Ferrite core",
"inductor",
"logic",
"magnetic core",
"nand",
"nor"
] | We’ve seen NAND and NOR logic gates – the building blocks of everything digital – made out of everything from marbles to
Minecraft
redstone. [kos] has outdone himself this time with a logic circuit we’ve never seen before.
It’s based on magnets and induction
, making a NOR gate out of nothing but a ferrite core, some wire, and a diode.
The theory of operations for this magnetic NOR gate goes as follows: If two of the input windings around the core have current passing in different directions, the fields cancel out. This could either be done by positive or negative voltages, or by simply changing the phase of the winding. To keep things simple, [kos] chose the latter. The truth table for a simple two-input, one-output gate gets pretty complicated (or exceedingly cool if you’d like to build a trinary computer), so to get absolute values of 1 and 0, a separate ‘clock’ winding was also added to the core.
One thing to note about [kos]’ gate is its innovation on techniques described in the relevant literature. Previously, these kinds of magnetic gates were built with square ferrites, while this version can work with any magnetic core.
While this isn’t a very practical approach towards building anything more complex than a memory cell, it is an exercise of what could have been in an alternate universe where tube technology and the transistor just didn’t happen. | 47 | 13 | [
{
"comment_id": "1106643",
"author": "Greenaum",
"timestamp": "2013-11-20T21:06:55",
"content": "Are you sure this is a NOR? Sounds more like an AND as far as I can tell from the description here.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1106651",
... | 1,760,376,394.092282 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/11/20/3d-printering-wherein-abs-is-dangerous/ | 3D Printering: Wherein ABS Is Dangerous | Brian Benchoff | [
"3d Printer hacks",
"Hackaday Columns"
] | [
"3D Printering",
"abs"
] | A lot of the ‘prosumer’ – for as much as I hate that word – 3D printers out there like the Makerbot Replicator and countless other Kickstarter projects only officially support PLA filament. This has a few advantages from a product development standpoint, namely not necessitating the use of a heated build plate. There are other reasons for not supporting ABS and other filaments, as one of the
Kickstarter updates for the Buccaneer printer
elucidates (update available to backers only,
here’s a mirror
from somebody on reddit).
The main crux of the Buccaneer team’s decision not to support ABS is as follows:
We spoke to our legal counsel about it and they told us that if we officially support a certain “material” type then our printer has to go through massive certification to prove that it is totally safe to use or we will/can get sued badly.
Despite the Buccaneer team’s best efforts, we’re sure, their lawyers were actually able to find some studies that showed ABS could affect a person’s health. The issue isn’t with the ABS itself – LEGO are made of ABS and kids chew on blocks all the time. The issue comes from the decomposition of ABS when it is heated.
Oh wow actual studies.
There are a few studies referenced by the Buccaneer team’s update, so we’re going to go over these one by one. A few of them are behind a pay wall, so “don’t post a link to them in the comments.” See those quotes? Yeah. If you’re able to download them, “Don’t” host them and post a link in the comments.
Olfactory loss in poly (acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene) plastic injection-moulding workers
This study looked at 140 male subjects at ABS processing plants in Taiwan. Subjects were placed into two groups, those dealing with the big, heavy molding machines, and those who did not work in the same area of these machines. Subjects were tested for olfactory (sense of smell) function using three tests before and after clocking in for one day of work. The results showed a significant (but small) decrease in olfactory function in the exposed group. The TL;DR for this study is, “Being around molten ABS decreases your sense of smell”
Effects of single and repeated exposures to thermo-oxidative degradation products of poly(acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene) (ABS) on rat lung, liver, kidney, and brain.
This study put rats in a cage and exposed them to heated ABS for six hours a night for several nights. Even the shortest exposures for all groups displayed a decrease in
an antioxidant
(that’s bad) in the rats’ liver and kidney and an increase in
0-deethylation
(also bad) in the lung and kidney. These effects disappeared after two weeks. TL;DR for this study is, “ABS will do things to your lungs, liver, and kidney, but it’s not permanent.” The good news about this study is they have some information on what decomposing ABS actually produces. They saw, “styrene, various nitriles, aldehydes, and acids” coming from hot ABS.
Ultrafine particle emissions from desktop 3D printers
Oh cool, something actually applicable to 3D printers. These researchers went into an “office space belonging to a company who specializes in 3D printer education, training, and sales.” We’re betting someone from this company is reading this right now, so drop a note in the comments. Our curiosity is killing us.
After getting a baseline measurement of nanoparticles with
this very expensive piece of kit
, the researchers printed small PLA baubles on two printers for 20 minutes. After again measuring the amount of nanoparticles in the room, the researchers used 2 printers for PLA and three for ABS to print a plastic frog for 20 minutes. The room was measured again. After that, they used measured nanoparticle concentrations for 40 minutes to get an idea of the decay time.
There are a ton of data points in this study, but here’s the crappy ‘journalist reading a journal’ interpretation: With the printers off, there were about 2000 particles per unit measured. With PLA printers, there were about 7000 particles per unit measured. With ABS, there were about 25000 particles per unit measured.
Note the ABS condition used five printers (three printing ABS, two PLA), while the PLA condition only used two printers). We would question the researcher’s methodology here, but they only had about two hours to design and construct this experiment.
The TL;DR for this study is ABS produces a lot more ultrafine particles than PLA.
There might not be an engineering solution to this
For RepRappers concerned about these ultrafine particle emissions, the obvious solution would be to simply put a printer in a plastic box and run an exhaust vent outside. That’s the cheapest and easiest means of effectively ridding your workspace of ultrafine particles, but for any commercial printer it’s a non-starter. Would you
really
buy a normal, 2D inkjet printer that required you to run an exhaust line outdoors?
The other obvious solution to this problem of ultrafine particles would be to simply put an air filter on a printer. The
Ultimaker 2
already has a door (and the Makerbot works best with a full enclosure). All you would need to do is slap a fan onto the chassis, get some negative pressure in the build volume, and put a HEPA filter somewhere in there. Right?
Well, no. In
one of the studies
investigating the ultrafine particle emissions of 3D printers, the researchers found squirting ABS generates a whole lot of these particles down to about 15 nanometers. That’s tiny. To put that in perspective, the human HIV virus is about 90 nanometers.
HEPA filters
are only guaranteed to filter out particles larger than 0.3
micro
meters, or 300 nanometers. It’s like shooting a bullet through a chain-link fence.
I wouldn’t worry too much about this
Concerning the olfactory study, the careful reader must note this was not the experimental group’s first encounter with molten ABS. They worked on ABS injection molding machines every day, and when comparing the pre-exposure conditions between the experimental and control groups there was not a significant difference. If you’re around smelly stuff all day, you lose a little bit of your sense of smell. Interesting, huh?
As for the ultrafine particles produced by 3D printers, the authors are very careful to put their results into context. The closest these researchers get to making a proper comparison between exposure, particle size, and other factors, is a study measuring the ultrafine particle emissions of cooking. Comparing the two, printing with a PLA-based printer is similar to cooking with an electric frying pan, and printing with ABS is similar to grilling with a gas or electric stove.
Finally, considering the biological effects of printing with ABS, there simply isn’t enough data. Biology and OChem is
hard
, yo, and I’m not going to make the mistake of claiming knowledge when I have none.
So there you go
At least one 3D printer manufacturer isn’t supporting out-of-the-box ABS printing because of some studies. If you’re just a home-bound tinkerer, you probably shouldn’t worry about printing with ABS until some more studies are done and rats are decapitated. If you’re a lawyer providing council for a bunch of people starting a 3D printing business, tell them not to support ABS printing. It’s just a CYA maneuver so you don’t get sued. | 84 | 30 | [
{
"comment_id": "1106554",
"author": "sparhawk817",
"timestamp": "2013-11-20T18:19:34",
"content": "melting plastic is bad for you? WHO KNEW!?! Someone’s gotta go find out about RADIATION now, is that bad too? seriously though… just use common sense guys. if you’re coughing, or see smoke, leave. and... | 1,760,376,394.212027 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/11/20/simple-10-watt-led-driver-is-hot-stuff/ | Simple 10 Watt LED Driver Is Hot Stuff | Adam Fabio | [
"LED Hacks"
] | [
"constant current",
"led",
"light emitting diode",
"pic",
"PIC microcontroller",
"pulse-width modulation"
] | [Peter] needed to drive a high power LED for his microscope. Rather than pick up a commercial LED driver,
he built a simple constant current LED driver and fan control
. We’ve featured
[Peter’s] pumpkin candle LED
work here on Hackaday in the past. Today he’s moving on to higher power LEDs. A 10 watt LED would be a good replacement light source for an old halogen/fiber optic ring light setup. [Peter] started with his old standby – an 8 pin Microchip PIC. In this case, a PIC12F1501. A PIC alone won’t handle a 10 watt LED, so he utilized a
CAT4101 constant current LED driver
from ON Semi. The PIC performs three tasks in this circuit. It handles user input from two buttons, generates a PWM signal to the LED driver, and generates a PWM signal for a cooling fan.
Control is simple: Press both buttons and the LED comes on full bright. Press the “up” button, and the LED can be stepped up from 10% to 100% in 10 steps. The “down” button drops the LED power back down. [Peter] even had a spare pin. He’s currently using it as an LED on/off confirmation, though we’d probably use it with a 1wire temperature sensor as a backup to thermal protection built into the CAT4101. It may be overkill, but we’d also move the buttons away from that 7805 linear regulator. Being that this circuit will be used with a microscope, it may eventually be operated by touch alone. It would be a bit surprising to try to press a button and end up with a burnt fingertip! | 23 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "1106395",
"author": "Sprite_tm",
"timestamp": "2013-11-20T15:17:21",
"content": "Why not use a switched mode current regulator? Now he’s emitting 6W of power in heat. With a switched mode power supply, the fan may even not be needed anymore.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
... | 1,760,376,394.006651 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/11/20/pong-playing-t-shirt/ | Pong Playing T-Shirt | James Hobson | [
"Arduino Hacks"
] | [
"pong shirt",
"tshirt screen"
] | One of our younger hackers just finished off this awesome Instructable on his
flexible 14 x 15 pixel, pong playing t-shirt!
[GenAap] has been working on this on and off for the past year, and finally debuted it at a few Halloween parties last month — it was a hit. He’s made the screen out of RGB LED strips, cleverly soldered together into a large flexible panel of 14 by 15 full colour pixels.
An Arduino Mega takes care of the logic to run the game, which [GenAap] wrote all himself! There’s also a cleverly designed controller using a slide-potentiometer and single button. To play back, the computer AI uses about 15 lines of code, which for pong, is more than enough. He’s also made the whole thing removable so you can still wash the shirt. Finally, the batteries and the “Magic Box” go into a pocket for simplicity’s sake.
If you’re interested in making your own, he also has a
Github repository of everything you need
.
Stick around after the break to see a demonstration of the shirt by [GenAap] himself!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0KuRdNdW7DE
For other wearable gaming costumes, did you catch the
Gameboy Color Costume? | 8 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "1106303",
"author": "Hirudinea",
"timestamp": "2013-11-20T12:10:24",
"content": "Nicely done, and great for picking up the ladies, “Oh, Pong, how do I play?”, “Just grab my knob baby.”",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1106310",
... | 1,760,376,394.255277 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/11/20/raspberry-pi-smart-tv/ | Raspberry Pi Smart TV | James Hobson | [
"home entertainment hacks",
"Raspberry Pi"
] | [
"Hisense Smart LED TV",
"raspberry pi",
"raspberry pi tv",
"smart tv hack"
] | [Tony] decided his “smart” LED TV wasn’t quite smart enough. So he
stuffed a Raspberry Pi in it.
Upon opening the case of his 40″ Hisense Smart LED TV, he discovered that the logic board actually had two unused USB pads — what luck! He tapped off of them to get 5V @ 500mA to power the Pi… Later on he realized this wasn’t the ideal solution — when the TV turned off, it cut the Pi’s power too. So he pulled out his multimeter and probed the board, this time finding a 5V source that remained on while the unit was plugged in.
Next up was the placement of the Raspberry Pi. The included speakers on this particular TV weren’t that good, and since [Tony] uses a surround sound system anyway, he decided to make use of their space better. Cutting out the grill and removing the whole assembly left him with more than enough room to store the Pi and mount a 3D printed LAN and USB port cover!
He’s running Raspbmc which lends the TV tons of functionality. If you don’t mind voiding your warranty, this is a great hack! | 25 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "1106174",
"author": "okowsc",
"timestamp": "2013-11-20T09:09:08",
"content": "i want to do that with my dad’s Lg tv,its not smart but got tons of space inside the shell.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1106197",
"author": "K... | 1,760,376,394.313871 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/11/19/diy-coolsculptor-freezes-fat-with-cryolipolysis/ | DIY Coolsculptor Freezes Fat With Cryolipolysis | Marsh | [
"Arduino Hacks",
"Medical Hacks"
] | [
"coolsculpting",
"cryolipolysis",
"peltier",
"weight loss"
] | You’re probably wondering why [Eddy], pictured above, decided to
clamp two CPU cooling blocks to his torso
. We were a bit concerned ourselves. As it turns out, [Eddy] has managed to construct his own
Cryolipolysis device
, capable of delivering targeted sub-zero temperatures to different parts of the body using a technique more popularly known as “Coolsculpting.”
Cryolipolysis is a non-surgical method of controlled cooling that exposes fat cells to cold temperatures while also creating a vacuum to limit blood flow to the treated area. [Eddy’s] challenge was to discover exactly how cold to make the treatment surfaces—a secret close-guarded by the original inventors. After digging through
the original patent
and deciding on a range between -3C and 0C, [Eddy] began cobbling together this medical masterpiece and designing a system capable of controlling it.
His finished build consists of a simple three-button interface and accompanying LCD screen, both wired to an Arduino, allowing the user to adjust temperatures and keep tabs on a session’s time. Unfortunately, results can take several months to appear, so [Eddy] has no idea whether his creation works (despite having suffered a brush with frostbite and some skin discolorations, yikes!) You can pick through a gigantic collection of photos and detailed information over at [Eddy’s] project blog, then stick around for a video from an Australian news program that explains the Coolsculpting process. Need some additional encouragement to experiment on yourself? You can always
strap some electrodes to your head
and run current through them. You know, for science.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oKoPhYk3qXI | 59 | 24 | [
{
"comment_id": "1106061",
"author": "Gdogg",
"timestamp": "2013-11-20T06:15:09",
"content": "Sounds retarded. Cryolipolysis is a trademark and I’m skeptical how well it would work… and that’s ignoring the apparent risks you’re taking. I’d rather just exercise…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": ... | 1,760,376,394.669702 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/11/19/da-vincis-viola-organista/ | Da Vinci’s Viola Organista | James Hobson | [
"Musical Hacks"
] | [
"Codex Atlanticus",
"da vinci",
"hurdy gurdy",
"leonardo da vinci",
"Slawomir Zubrzycki",
"viola organista"
] | Leonardo Da Vinci had many unfinished projects, not unlike many hackers here. Lucky for us though, he was a bit better at writing down his ideas than we are. This is his
Viola Organista
, as recreated by [Slawomir Zubrzycki] — a mechanical work of art, that sounds good too!
If you’re familiar with a
Hurdy gurdy
, this is basically the same thing — but on a much bigger scale. It is the combination of an organ, a harp, and a viola. Instead of a hammer hitting the 61 steel-strings, spinning wheels of horse-hair (similar to a bow) caress each string via input from the keyboard and the pedal powered crankshaft. The result is a very unique sound, which is reminiscent to each of the instruments it combines.
The designs for the instrument were found in Da Vinci’s Codex Atlanticus, a 12-volume collection of many of his manuscripts and designs, documenting everything from his flying machines to weaponry. [Slawomir] spent three years and over 5000 hours perfecting his version of it.
Stick around after the break to hear it in action! Don’t forget to turn on the subtitles though, unless you’re fluent in Polish!
[via
Reddit
] | 34 | 13 | [
{
"comment_id": "1105974",
"author": "cliff",
"timestamp": "2013-11-20T03:04:27",
"content": "This title sounds extremely weird if you speak spanish.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1117621",
"author": "Roger Wilco",
"timestamp... | 1,760,376,394.560844 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/11/19/retrotechtacular-zoltan-bays-moon-bounce-coulometer-signal-amplifier/ | Retrotechtacular: [Zoltán Bay’s] Moon Bounce Coulometer Signal Amplifier | Todd Harrison | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"Radio Hacks",
"Retrotechtacular"
] | [
"coulometer",
"cumulation",
"moon bounce",
"signal amplifier"
] | In the years before World War II it was theorized that shortwave radio waves could propagate through the ionosphere relatively undisturbed and allow for a signal to be bounced off the moon and returned. [Zoltán Bay] calculated that the return signal would be too faint to be detected above background noise with the radio receiving equipment of the day. To overcome this receiver dilemma he devised a
new receiving element consisting of 10 coulometers
sharing a common tank of a water solution
. Each of the coulometers had a separate electrical connector and when current flowed through the electrode, hydrogen bubbles would form in an attached glass capillary column. By periodically sweeping through all 10 coulometers using a rotating switch attached to the radar receiver, any radar echo as well as random background noise would be readable by the amount of bubbles in the capillary columns. A single radar echo would be indistinguishable from random background noise in the columns of bubbles, but if the sweep is continued for 30 minutes any periodic radar echo would show as an increased accumulation of bubbles in a respective column. By reading these coulometers and knowing the switching period you could determine that you were receiving a true radar echo from the moon.
What an amazing apparatus to amplify a periodic signal above background noise! Nowadays we would call this a long-time integrator or persistence measurement and it’s a relatively simple task. You can download and read [Zoltán Bay’s] paper on “
Reflection of Microwaves From the Moon
” dated 1946 in PDF form. His integrator apparatus details start on page 17.
It took some years but in 1946 [Zoltán Bay’s] receiving apparatus was tested and did confirm reception from moon bounce. However, U.S. Army Signal Corps with better crystal frequency stabilized equipment was able to perform the same task earlier as seen in the below video without the use of an integrator. Even though the U.S. Army equipment was superior for this task [Zoltán Bay’s] apparatus enjoyed years of service in the field of planetary radar observation where such a high sensitivity scheme was still necessary.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uAiC6J89Tr0
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
. | 15 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "1105763",
"author": "oodain",
"timestamp": "2013-11-19T21:43:06",
"content": "this is a great find, thanks for bringing it to my attention.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1105804",
"author": "Tom the Brat",
"timestamp":... | 1,760,376,394.371214 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/11/19/inverview-mill-cpu-for-humans-parts-3-and-4/ | Interview: Mill CPU For Humans Parts 3 And 4 | Mike Szczys | [
"computer hacks",
"Featured"
] | [
"ivan godard",
"mill",
"mill cpu",
"out-of-the-box computing"
] | Welcome back to the conclusion of our interview on Mill CPU architecture with [Ivan Godard]. If you missed yesterday’s offering you can watch
the preview video
or go back and
read the original article
. Above is the third part, with the final installment found after the break.
We’d like to address some concerns from the comments of yesterday’s post. Several readers noted that Mill is only in the simulation phase. [Ivan] is very up-front about that… there is no silicon. But that doesn’t mean we should disregard a company that looks to build on successes from the current generation of processors while avoiding their drawbacks. It is incredibly costly to design silicon from scratch. This is why we don’t see new architectures sprouting up on a monthly basis.
We simply think it’s exciting to see what kinds of changes may be coming and how designers plan to accomplish advances in processing power while reducing power consumption at the same time. | 7 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "1105726",
"author": "kjkrum",
"timestamp": "2013-11-19T20:46:35",
"content": "Wasn’t this mill CPU thing pretty thoroughly debunked when it came up on Slashdot about a year ago?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1105824",
... | 1,760,376,394.718321 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/11/19/posterior-posture-videogame-controller/ | Posterior Posture Videogame Controller | Todd Harrison | [
"Peripherals Hacks",
"Virtual Reality",
"Xbox Hacks"
] | [
"bathroom scale",
"controller",
"game controller",
"scale",
"xbox"
] | Normally we see some crazy mad science projects coming from [Ben Krasnow’s] laboratory. This week [Ben] changes gears a bit and
hacks his Xbox controller to interface with his bathroom scale
and function as a posture controlled input device. You may want to take a moment for that to tumble around in your noggin before we trying to explain. What this means is you sit catawampus on a bathroom scale and when you lean forward your game character moves forward, lean back your character backs up and lean side to side for strafe left and right.
A modern digital bathroom scale has four pressure point transducers — one in each corner — which are read by the central controller and summed to generate the weight of the object setting on the scale. To use the scale as a controller input [Ben] removed the central scale controller and created two amplified Wheatstone bridge differential circuits, one for each diagonal axis between load cells. After adding an offset potentiometer to fix the resting point at 0.8 volts, the amplified differential voltage signals are fed directly into an Xbox controller’s thumb stick input for game control.
Additionally, to add rotation to his new game controller he hacked a an old ball type mouse and added a bit of rubber tubing that contacted and tracked the base of a Lazy Susan platter. The scale sits on the Lazy Susan and allows for the partial rotation of your torso to controlled game rotation. However, [Ben] still needed a regular mouse interfaced with the game for full 360° rotation control.
There is more after the break, plus the build and demonstration video.
The reason [Ben] went through so much effort was to have a hands-free game control device that may be useful for future virtual reality gaming. And we can also see the usage of such a device as an aid for some physical disabilities. If [Ben] wants to go one step further and add
voice control to his Xbox controller
we have a reference project ready perusal. | 6 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "1105508",
"author": "chango",
"timestamp": "2013-11-19T15:16:01",
"content": "Certainly it’s more about the journey than the destination, but the Wii Fit board does exactly this and can be repurposed in the same way as the wiimote. People practically give these away on Craigslist a... | 1,760,376,394.76806 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/11/19/hacking-a-cheap-toy-quadcopter-to-work-with-arduino/ | Hacking A Cheap Toy Quadcopter To Work With Arduino | Marsh | [
"Arduino Hacks",
"Toy Hacks"
] | [
"arduino",
"quadcopter"
] | Building your own quadcopter is an expensive and delicate ordeal. Only after you navigate a slew of different project builds do you feel confident enough to start buying parts, and the investment may not be worth your effort if your goal is to jump right into some hacking. Fortunately, [Dzl] has a shortcut for us;
he reverse engineered the communication protocol for a cheap toy quadcopter to work with an Arduino.
The cheap toy in question is
this one from Hobbyking
, which you can see flying around in
their product demonstration video
. [Dzl] cracked open the accompanying control handset to discover which transceiver it used, then found the relevant datasheet and worked out all the pin configuration involved in the SPI communication. Flying data is transmitted as 8 byte packets sent every 20 mS, controlling the throttle, yaw, pitch and roll.
[Dzl] took the build a step further,
writing an Arduino library
(direct Dropbox download link) that should catch you up to speed and allow you to skip straight to the fun part: hacking and experimenting! See his quick video after the break, then convince yourself you need a quadcopter by
watching this one
save its creator, [Paul], the trouble of walking his son to the bus stop. | 11 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "1105438",
"author": "Miro",
"timestamp": "2013-11-19T13:16:01",
"content": "The RF modules used are quite similar to Nordic Semiconductor’s NRF24L01 RF modules and there are already a lot of readily available Arduino libraries for them.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"... | 1,760,376,394.821183 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/11/19/wireless-snes-controller-for-logitech-receiver/ | Wireless SNES Controller For Logitech Receiver | Brian Benchoff | [
"Nintendo Hacks",
"Peripherals Hacks"
] | [
"logitech",
"snes",
"super nintendo"
] | A while back, Logitech introduced their version of a wireless interface for keyboards, mice, and other human-oriented peripherals. Yes, they could have used Bluetooth, but that’s neither here nor there. What we do know, though, is that it’s now possible to
stuff one of these Logitech transmitters into a Super Nintendo controller
, allowing it to operate with your fancy-schmancy wireless keyboards and mice.
[Warrior_Rocker] wanted to retain as much of the stock appearance of the original controller as possible. To do this, he salvaged the Logitech transmitter from an old handheld Logitech keyboard/touchpad combo. The membrane of the keyboard connected directly to the transmitter, meaning tracing out the connections of the membrane to each pin was required to get a button mapping that made sense.
Once the lines of the SNES controller were wired up to the transmitter, [Warrior] needed a way to power his new wireless controller. The old keyboard used a pair of AA cells wired in parallel. With two AA cells, the keyboard had about a year of battery life, so with a single AAA cell, [Warrior]’s SNES controller should last a few months or more.
Except for a switch and a missing cable, [Warrior]’s wireless controller looks exactly like a stock controller. Pretty impressive, given this build is the product of stuff he just had lying around. | 17 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "1105335",
"author": "CSS Error?",
"timestamp": "2013-11-19T09:56:43",
"content": "This article has some implied judgement of Logitech’s decision not to use Bluetooth. I have found that in 3+ years of owning various Logitech devices that use their own 2.4GHz receivers that they have ... | 1,760,376,394.943795 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/11/18/a-truly-wireless-motion-sensor/ | An Awesome Wireless Motion Sensor | Brian Benchoff | [
"Security Hacks",
"Wireless Hacks"
] | [
"moteino",
"PIR sensor",
"rfm12b",
"RFM69",
"sensor module",
"wireless"
] | Wireless sensor networks are nothing new to Hackaday, but [Felix]’s
wireless PIR sensor node
is something else entirely. Rarely do we see something so well put together that’s also so well designed for mass production.
For his sensor, [Felix] is using a
Moteino
, a very tiny Arduino compatible board with solder pads for an RFM12B and RFM69 radio transceivers. These very inexpensive radios – about $4 each – are able to transmit about half a kilometer at 38.4 kbps, an impressive amount of bandwidth and an exceptional range for a very inexpensive system.
The important bit on this wireless sensor, the PIR sensor, connects with three pins – power, ground, and out. When the PIR sensor sees something it transmits a code the base station where the ‘motion’ alert message is displayed.
The entire device is powered by a 9V battery and stuffed inside a beautiful acrylic case. With everything, each sensor node should cost about $15; very cheap for something that if built by a proper security system company would cost much, much more. | 39 | 16 | [
{
"comment_id": "1105258",
"author": "rj",
"timestamp": "2013-11-19T06:51:13",
"content": "9V batteries are kinda famed for their terrible energy density, especially ‘cuz they’re almost always coupled with linear regulators. But he does say he’s going to try using LiPoly batteries later on.I’d be i... | 1,760,376,394.893559 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/11/18/a-simple-overkill-electric-car/ | A Simple, Overkill, Electric Car | Brian Benchoff | [
"Transportation Hacks"
] | [
"car",
"electric",
"electric car",
"ev"
] | If you’re building an electric car nowadays, you’re probably looking at taking a normal, gas-powered car and replacing the engine and transmission with an electric motor and batteries. [Gahaar] thought this is a rather dumb idea; all the excesses of an internal combustion-powered car, such as exhaust, cooling, differential, and fuel storage is completely unnecessary. Building a
new
electric car from the frame up is a vastly more efficient means of having your own electric car.
So that’s what he did
.
[Gahaar] build his new chassis around a single box made of 3mm aluminum sheet. Attached to this box are two AC induction motors at the rear of the car, negating the need for a differential, with 45 lithium cells stuffed into the middle of the box. There’s no gearbox here, greatly reducing the complexity of the build, and with the batteries providing 145V and 100Ah, this simple car has more than enough power for a lot of fun.
The suspension and steering were taken from a wrecked car, in this case a Mazda MX5, or Miata for those of us in North America. The Miata suspension easily unbolts from the frame of the wrecked car, and with just a little bit of welding can easily be attached to the new electric chassis.
Even though [Gahaar]’s car is basically just a bit of aluminum, motors, suspension, and batteries, he’s getting some awesome performance out of it; he estimates a top speed of 100mph with about 60 miles per charge. It’s an awesome way to get around the farm, and with a custom fiberglass body, we can easily see this being one of the coolest electric vehicles ever made. | 47 | 16 | [
{
"comment_id": "1105141",
"author": "JB",
"timestamp": "2013-11-19T03:11:09",
"content": "Very nice build. I would go for more range rather than speed though.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1105142",
"author": "Reuben Richards-Jeffery",
... | 1,760,376,395.094175 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/11/18/salvaging-gold-from-old-electronics/ | Salvaging Gold From Old Electronics | Brian Benchoff | [
"chemistry hacks"
] | [
"gold",
"gold recovery",
"precious metal",
"silver"
] | If you’re hoarding old electronics like us, there’s a good probability you have a decent amount of gold sitting around in cardboard boxes and storage containers. Everything from old PCI cards, IC pins, and even printers have a non-negligible amount of precious metals in them, but how do you actually process those parts and recover that gold? [Josehf] has a
great tutorial for gold recovery up on Instructables
for the process that netted him an ounce of gold for three months’ work.
After cutting up a few circuit boards to remove the precious gold-bearing parts, [Josehf] threw these parts into a mixture of muriatic acid and hydrogen peroxide. After a week, the acid darkened and the gold slowly flaked off into dust. This gold dust was separated from the acid by passing it through a coffee filter and readied for melting into a single nugget.
Gold melts at 1064 ˚C, much hotter than what can be obtained by a simple propane torch. This melting point can be reduced by the addition of borax, allowing the simplest tools – a propane torch and a terra cotta crucible – to produce a small gold nugget.
For three months of collecting, stripping, and dissolving electronic parts, [Josehf] netted 576.5 grains of gold, or at current prices, about $1500 worth of the best conductor available. Not too bad, but not something we’d use as a retirement plan.
Thanks [Matthias] for sending this in. | 79 | 28 | [
{
"comment_id": "1105023",
"author": "rogier21",
"timestamp": "2013-11-19T00:03:49",
"content": "Well 1500 bucks for just dissolving some components is not a bad deal!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1105025",
"author": "Will Lyon",
... | 1,760,376,395.259781 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/11/18/hacking-and-philosophy-crackdown-part-ii/ | Hacking And Philosophy: Crackdown Part II | Marsh | [
"Hackaday Columns"
] | [
"hacking and philosophy",
"philosophy"
] | This week we’re back with
Hacker Crackdown: Part II!
The caliber of last week’s comments was exceptional, but the level of participation planed off, and I’ll risk a guess: The Mentor’s Manifesto was more likely encountered as part of any given reader’s childhood—or, if not, easily skimmed at just over one page long—and therefore drew more interest.
Crackdown
, however, is perhaps less familiar. You also needed to read over 50 pages for last week (100 for this week). I list these things not as an apology or a rationalization, but as an attempt to better serve the community by providing accessible content. If you can’t commit to a lengthy reading, that shouldn’t exclude your participation.
This week,
I’m adjusting the format to focus on key quotations from the text. Never even heard of
Hacker Crackdown?
No problem!
Stick with us after the break where you’ll find all the relevant issues in a brief outline, then join us in our discussion!
0. From Last Week’s Discussion:
As usual, I’ll begin by addressing some of the comments from last week.
[Dan]
raised a useful question
about what I contribute to the column. Rather than list my immediate personal opinions on [Sterling’s] work, I referenced [Jenkins’s] response (concerning death of media vs. death of delivery systems). I do feel that my role should include drawing on other important and relevant works, and [Jenkins’s] critique of the Dead Media Project helps illustrate the shortcomings of [Sterling’s] perspective. If I veer too far into a digression, however, I apologize. Please continue to keep me in check in this regard, and I’ll try to keep this week’s response free from too many outside authors.
RE: Q1 (Parallels to Mentor’s Manifesto?)
Most agree that teenagers are prone to mischief, but both
[dan]
and
[Dynamo Dan]
explain these instances should be considered in context. We will actually encounter “Manifesto” in this chapter of
Crackdown,
as well as several references to the [Mentor] and his involvement in LoD. (Legion of Doom)
RE: Q2 (Contemporary threatened communities reacting violently?)
[Quin]
brought up the fall of GeoCities
, explaining that a number of important resources (relating to the 3D program POVRay) vanished with its dissolution. A lack of clear licensing meant limited online reproduction of the material, and several FAQs found themselves gutted, without functioning hypertext links. As she remembers it, however, there was little resistance from the community; they instead saw the event as inevitable and carefully addressed the problem. Perhaps the drawn-out closure (such as the decline of MySpace and others, as [Quin] mentions) offsets the harsher reactions, whereas immediate loss of—or even threat against—a community produces a more volatile response, (such as [Dynamo Dan’s]
mention of recent NSA concerns
).
RE: Q3 & Q4
I’ll shelve my comments for the third question until we can get to [Deleuze] (though your comments are certainly worth discussing). The fourth question was directed at anyone who may have directly experienced the events of the chapter, perhaps working in the telco field. Unfortunately, they kept their silence this time!
I. What’s important for this week’s discussion?
As I mentioned earlier, this week’s format is different. I’ve divided the response into three topics:
Digital Theft:
A recurring challenge for [Sterling] is navigating online rights and, in particular the boundaries of what defines “theft.” Early in the chapter he identifies the
Youth International Party
(or, Yippie Movement) of the 60’s and the 70’s, as predecessor of the hacker underground. Their distaste of authority culminates in [Abbie Hoffman’s] novel
Steal this Book
, which advocates an unconventional dismissal of the establishment. Whenever [Sterling] mentions the copying of digital files, he tends to indicate that the law is rather vague and complicates typical notions of theft.
Defining Terms:
Earlier in this series I suggested the negative connotations associated with illegal hacking activity are inseparable from the positive connotations we prefer to champion. [Sterling] agrees, explaining even he is complicit:
Naturally and understandably, they [traditionally defined hackers] deeply resent the attack on their values implicit in using the word ‘hacker’ as a synonym for computer criminal. This book, sadly but in my opinion unavoidably, rather adds to the degradation of the term. It concerns itself mostly with hacking in its commonest latter-day definition, that is, intruding into computer systems by stealth and without permission. [1]
I think his most important observation, however, comes just after this comment:
‘hacker’ is what computer intruders choose to call
themselves
. Nobody who hacks into systems willingly describes himself (rarely, herself) as a ‘computer intruder,’ ‘computer trespasser,’ ‘cracker, ‘wormer,’ ‘darkside hacker,’ or ‘high-tech street gangster.’ [2]
This distinction is perhaps the key explanation behind why the term maintains its negative connotation. Further, [Sterling’s] discussion is aware (both here and elsewhere) of the
digital divide
and that white teenage boys dominate the hacker demographic.
Elsewhere Sterling will contrast “hackers” and “phreakers,” explaining that the latter category of phone users do not necessarily possess any particular skills (he does not explicitly invoke the comparison of “script kiddies,” but his comparison is similar). In this sense I feel Sterling begins to blur his terminology a bit too far, especially considering later discussions of other phreakers.
Information as Commodity:
A few other terms pop up to define the hacker, including “elite,” which carries with it a connotation of exclusion: the hacker has toiled to gain knowledge that he withholds from the uninitiated. By the 90’s, information has evolved not only to a position of power but to a position of access (again, relatively speaking; don’t forget the
digital divide
). Forbidden knowledge is of particular value:
Hackers are
very
serious about forbidden knowledge. They are possessed not merely by curiosity but by a positive
lust to know.
The desire to know what others don’t is scarcely new, but the
intensity
of this desire, as manifested by these young technophilic denizens of the Information Age, may in fact
be
new and may represent some basic shift in social values-a harbinger of what the world may come to, as society lays more and more value of possession, assimilation, and retailing of
information
as a basic commodity of daily life.[3]
I find this the most clarifying. It not only helps define “hacker” in terms of the shift in access to information and a zealous desire for it, but this passage directly reflects the musings of [The Mentor]. The mere offer of that knowledge is intoxicating, and comes through a single portal right in one’s home. I’ve been thinking about what prescribes value to any given set of knowledge and how that applies here; I suspect many of the documents mentioned in
Crackdown
remain freely available and now lack the legal ramifications attached to them in the 90’s. They aren’t relevant to the infrastructure anymore, so who cares? The ravenous desire for information applies when that information is volatile.
Sharing of information is equally crucial to [Sterling’s] idea of a hacker:
The way to win a solid reputation in the underground is by telling other hackers things that could have been learned only by exceptional cunning and stealth. Forbidden knowledge, therefore, is the basic currency of the digital underground, like seashells among Trobriand Islanders. Hackers hoard this knowledge, and dwell upon it obsessively, and refine it, and bargain with it, and talk and talk about it. [4]
To some extent, Hackaday resembles that trend: perhaps not as volatile nor as forbidden, our community thrives on sharing (and, to some extent, on bragging). Our entries certainly amount to a hoard of information, but the “commodity” tinge may have lost some of its bite. Instead the community has turned toward an Open Source model, which favors sharing over selling and preserving (or collecting and maintaining) over hoarding.
II. Questions for this week
1. How far has our legal system come in better defining digital theft? I ask primarily because I haven’t looked into the issue recently. I know many laws are outdated (yet still invoked). Has the situation become any more clear, and whom does it favor?
2. [Sterling] explains the E911 document’s pivotal role in the authorities’ crackdown of 1990 by carefully framing the perspectives of those hackers involved: they were curious, not malicious. Aside from better securing the document itself, what’s the alternative to addressing critical systems information like the E911 file? Our community often criticizes obfuscation as a weak means of security, but should the entire 911 infrastructure be open source? How do we maintain barriers to entry? (I suspect there’s an argument to be made in favor of the idea behind the “extreme specialization” [Sterling] mentions on page 96).
3. Hackers of the 90’s were notorious braggers, it seems, to the point of getting themselves caught. How much has the culture of bragging shifted over the past 20 years? Obviously Anonymous and AnonOps has reshaped the “face” of activism in a unique way, but anonymity tends to break down and eventually lead to some kind of legal action. Or does it?
NEXT WEEK:
Let’s keep pushing through this book: read Chapter III of
The Hacker Crackdown,
“Law and Order.”
NOTES:
[1] Bruce Sterling, The Hacker Crackdown, (New York: Bantam Books, 1992), 55.
[2] Ibid, 56.
[3] Ibid, 81.
[4] Ibid, 59.
Hacking & Philosophy is an ongoing column with several sections:
October 28th: Hacking & Philosophy: An Introduction
November 4th: The Mentor’s Manifesto
November 11th: Sterling’s Hacker Crackdown: Intro & Part I
November 18th: Sterling’s Hacker Crackdown: Part II
November 25th:
Sterling’s Hacker Crackdown: Part III
December 2nd: Sterling’s Hacker Crackdown: Part IV | 13 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "1105009",
"author": "defaultex",
"timestamp": "2013-11-18T23:22:02",
"content": "On the subject of reading. Any hacker that scoffs at reading a lot should really work out what is keeping them from doing so. That’s most of what we and any other form of engineer does, read through mou... | 1,760,376,395.001767 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/11/18/interview-new-mill-cpu-architecture-explanation-for-humans/ | Interview: New Mill CPU Architecture Explanation For Humans | Mike Szczys | [
"computer hacks",
"Featured"
] | [
"ivan godard",
"mill",
"mill cpu",
"out-of-the-box computing"
] | Hackaday had an amazing opportunity to sit down with [Ivan Godard] who discussed the Mill CPU development which his company —
Out of the Box Computing
— has been working on for about a decade. The driving force behind Mill development is that optimizations to existing architectures can only get you so far. At some point you need to come up with a new processor that builds on success and failure of its predecessors.
Ivan’s team has put out several lecture videos linked from their site that dig really deep into the inner workings that give Mill an advantage over currently available chips. We
covered one of them recently
which prompted [Ivan] to reach out to us. But what if you aren’t working on your advanced degree in semiconductor design? Our interview certainly isn’t for the laymen, but any engineering enthusiast should find this a refreshing and delightful conversation. After the jump you can see the first two installments of the four part interview.
If you don’t want to take the plunge on watching the whole thing, start with
this greatest hits clip from the interview
. It’s around eight minutes and covers three questions. The first is a discussion on how Mill uses and budgets power in a way that mimics DSP chips but still offers the versatility of a traditional processor. The next snippet is a discussion of the usefulness of Mill for things like cryptanalysis. [Ivan] explains that when the crypo algorithm is known, an
ASIC
will outperform Mill. When tasked with testing to discover patterns which may be used for cracking crypto, though, Mill performs remarkably well. And the final segment of the “greatest hits” reel covers a discussion of the automated build tools the team developed which will dynamically add operations to the Mill. Within about twenty minutes you can see that operation in action via the simulator.
Don’t stop with this tasty teaser or you’ll miss an epic discussion. In fact, the second clip of the four-part interview (don’t worry, they’re all pretty short) includes one of the greatest quotes we’ve heard. [Ivan] is discussing the difference between a software startup and a company that is designing a new processor architecture. He jokes that software companies can be founded with a couple of “hot” guys and a wad of cash, but: “Heavy semi doesn’t work like that. Heavy semi is like steel mills and railroads.” Classic!
Work your way through these interviews today. We’ll be posting a follow-up with the other two parts tomorrow. | 48 | 24 | [
{
"comment_id": "1104774",
"author": "Will",
"timestamp": "2013-11-18T18:17:16",
"content": "An explanation for humans? Well, that might just work. The explanation for Aardvarks was a complete bust.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1104779",
... | 1,760,376,395.417308 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/11/18/a-pov-spinner-display-with-arduino/ | A POV Spinner Display With Arduino | Adam Fabio | [
"LED Hacks"
] | [
"arduino",
"atmel avr",
"light emitting diode"
] | [Martin2250] has been working on a
spinning disc style POV display
. He’s
posted his progress up on reddit
. This hack is a great example of using what you have at your disposal. [Martin2250] is using an IR LED and photodiode to determine the rotational speed of the disc. He tried using the Arduino micros() function to delay between the photodiode pulse and turning on his LEDs. As [Martin2250] found out, micros() isn’t quite accurate enough for this purpose. He’s since switched over to using the AVR’s native timers, and is getting much better results.
The disc in this build is actually a CD. [Martin2250] sanded away the label, then masked out his digits. He “painted” the CD with a black marker. Peeling off the tape revealed his stylized digits. Cardboard, hot glue, and visible LEDs were used to create four light boxes for the digits. The disc can display any four digits at once – perfect for a POV clock. We love the use of on-hand materials in this hack – bits of hard and balsa wood, liberal use of hot glue, and of course cardboard. The only thing missing in our eyes is some duct tape! | 3 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "1104661",
"author": "pcf11",
"timestamp": "2013-11-18T15:26:38",
"content": "I have one of those red project blocks. I think it is called a Logix block actually. Or something like that. I haven’t seen mine in a while but I’m sure it is still kicking around somewhere. I think Radio S... | 1,760,376,395.302132 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/11/18/how-to-fix-low-speaker-volume-on-the-nexus-5/ | How To Fix Low Speaker Volume On The Nexus 5 | James Hobson | [
"Android Hacks",
"Cellphone Hacks"
] | [
"adam outler",
"LG Nexus 5",
"nexus",
"nexus 5 speaker fix",
"XDA Developers"
] | The much-anticipated Nexus 5 starting shipping out a few weeks ago, and like many new products, some people have received phones with manufacturer defects. This is always unfortunate, but [Adam Outler] over at the XDA Developer forums thinks he’s found a solution to one of the ailments —
a low speaker volume fix!
[Adam] noticed that his phone wasn’t quite as loud as he was used to, so he decided to take it apart and see if there was something causing the muffled sound quality. He assumes glue seeped into part of the speaker where it’s not suppose to during assembly, and what he discovered was, you can increase the audio output by opening up the speaker chamber. He found you can easily port the speaker chamber by popping a few holes in it using a hot needle, which helps increase the volume of the phone. It’s not exactly a confirmed hack, but he will be featuring it on XDA-TV in a few weeks, and hopefully a few more cases pop up in order to evaluate the effectiveness of the hack — it might even help users whose phone isn’t unusually quiet!
Now, most people will just return the phone under warranty, which makes sense. But this is Hackaday and XDA we’re talking about. It’s probably less effort to just suck it up, and fix it ourselves. Who cares about warranties?
[via
XDA Developers
] | 13 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "1104546",
"author": "Blue Footed Booby",
"timestamp": "2013-11-18T12:46:28",
"content": "Interesting. I wonder why the speaker didn’t come already ported. There has to be a reason, just a question of whether it’s a good one or something more like “somebody forgot” or “it added a fem... | 1,760,376,396.030483 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/11/18/heirloom-chemistry-set/ | Heirloom Chemistry Set | James Hobson | [
"chemistry hacks",
"Crowd Funding"
] | [
"Chemistry set",
"gilbert chemistry set",
"HMS Beagle",
"kickstarter"
] | We try not to share too many crowd funding projects, but when a tipster sent us to this
Heirloom Chemistry Set
we knew some would-be chemistry hackers might just want to see it!
[John Farrell Kuhns] runs a small science store with his wife in Kansas City called the
H.M.S. Beagle
, where young scientists (and adults!) can buy professional lab supplies, equipment, and the resources to study all things from chemistry to physics!
It all started when [John] was a child in the 1950’s and he received the classic
Gilbert Chemistry Set
as a Christmas present, which help set him on the course of becoming a professional research chemist. Now, wanting to share his love of chemistry with his children, he realized there just isn’t the same kind of chemistry sets available commercially!
Since the opening of his store he has made many custom chemistry sets very similar to the originals, but these were almost all one-off’s and very time consuming to make. So recently he decided to try making a set that he can produce in fair numbers to meet the demand, and so he started this Kickstarter to help it get off the ground. It’s already surpassed its goal by two times!
We wish we had one when we were growing up!
[Thanks Jeremy!] | 57 | 18 | [
{
"comment_id": "1104417",
"author": "Adam Munich",
"timestamp": "2013-11-18T09:34:39",
"content": "I give this project my whole-hearted approval.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1104429",
"author": "garym53",
"timestamp": "2013-11-18T10... | 1,760,376,395.514401 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/11/17/diy-bluetooth-home-automation/ | DIY Bluetooth Home Automation | James Hobson | [
"Arduino Hacks",
"home hacks"
] | [
"atmega328",
"home automation"
] | Interested in a bit of home automation? Don’t know where to start? We just found a great Instructable on making your own
bluetooth controlled relay module!
[Kyle’s] been working on this for a while, and finally at his 5th iteration he’s ready to share it with the public. It’s a project you can make from scratch, and each unit will cost approximately ~$25 in components — which can control up to two outputs. He’s included an inkscape PCB layout which you can easily etch on your own using the
toner transfer method.
The heart of the build is an Atmega328, which helps keep the costs down — after all, it is only controlling two outputs!
Then it’s just a matter of adding the components, a bit of soldering, and uploading the firmware!
The entire design is open source, and [Kyle] would love some feedback to continue improving upon it. The write-up is quite thorough, so if you’re interested, take a look and leave him a comment! | 20 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "1104297",
"author": "BotherSaidPoohAsHeWasAbductedByAliens",
"timestamp": "2013-11-18T06:03:58",
"content": "I have a bag of defunct BT headsets here, are they any use?Some work, some don’t but they need batteries.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
... | 1,760,376,395.673892 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/11/17/building-a-more-nyan-planet/ | Building A More Nyan Planet | Brian Benchoff | [
"Video Hacks"
] | [
"ibm",
"Video-in-Print"
] | In an effort to give salespeople something impressive to hand out, IBM recently had a bunch of very cool promotional materials printed up. It’s basically a greeting card-sized cardboard folder with a bit of text, an LCD screen, buttons, battery and display controller. This video in print device is meant to display how IBM is building a smarter planet, but [Cookie] and [Stitch] over at the Hack42 hackerspace in The Netherlands
decided Nyan Cat would be a much better use
of this free, portable video player. (Google
translation
)
UPDATE:
Site has gone down. Here’s
the Google Cache
but you’ll need a browser like Chrome that can do the translation for you (we can’t figure out how to link a translation of cache).
This video card uses tech licensed from Americhip, a company that has been putting video in magazines
for a few years now
. By connecting the USB charging port up to his computer, the guys were able to switch the device over to USB mode where the actual video files could be read and rewritten.
By encoding a few videos to match the format of what was on the card – including some
old IBM promotional material by [Jim Henson]
– the team were able to get videos playing on a hackable flyer. Very cool, and if you can get your hands on some sales brochures, a free source of tiny displays. | 11 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "1104213",
"author": "jnesselr",
"timestamp": "2013-11-18T03:26:20",
"content": "For anyone who’s curious of what the left video is, it’s from mirai nikki.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1104226",
"author": "Matt Zba",
"... | 1,760,376,395.723455 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/11/17/hackaday-links-november-17-2013/ | Hackaday Links: November 17, 2013 | Mike Szczys | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"Hackaday links"
] | [
"bottle opener",
"CNC mill",
"disney",
"fm transmitter",
"g-code",
"speakers",
"xbmc"
] | If you purchased a knock-off FM transmitter and were unhappy with its broadcast range [Thiagohersan] shows how to
double the range with a simple transistor amplifier
circuit. He also hacked it for used without the 12V car socket.
[Patrick Herd] had a project that required him to strip about twenty Mindstorm batteries from their plastic enclosures. It’s not too tough getting into them but it does require drilling out the plastic rivets. He
made a jig and used a CNC mill
to automate the process.
Speaking of CNC, [Bertho] added some abstraction to distance himself from what he calls the “50+ years archaic syntax and grammar that G-code programs have”. The project is
a meta-compiler for G-Code
.
If you need a cold one and don’t have
a HaDuino
on hand you’ll thank yourself for hacking together this
five-cent workbench bottle opener
.
Just make sure you do all the
lathe work for a custom speaker enclosure
before you start pounding back those brewskis. Not only does [Shaun’s] creation look modern and stylish, but it boasts more than enough power to bump some tunes.
Here’s a project that
adds LED feedback to your XBMC
installation. It uses a Raspberry Pi to run the media center software, and a script to monitor it and actuate the lights on an Adafruit add-on board. At first glance you may not think much of it, but this is all the logic control you need to automate your viewing room. Who doesn’t want a home theater that automatically dims once you’ve made your viewing selection?
And finally, [08milluz] snagged some reactive electronics in the form of Disney’s Mickey Mouse ears. Apparently they glow different colors at live shows and based on where they are worn within the park. He did
a complete teardown to show off the hardware within
. It turns out to be controlled by an MSP430 which are known for their low power consumption. [Thanks Spikeo55] | 5 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "1104177",
"author": "tekkieneet",
"timestamp": "2013-11-18T01:48:11",
"content": "The FM RF amplifier circuit has a mistake in it. There is a 10nF capconnected to ground from the collector node to the antenna. A 10nF caphas an impedance of 0.159 ohms at 100MHz.More than likely the 2... | 1,760,376,395.764677 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/11/17/retropie-gaming-table/ | Retropie Gaming Table | James Hobson | [
"Raspberry Pi"
] | [
"gaming table",
"raspberry pi",
"retropie"
] | [Jody] just finished the write up on this awesome coffee table he’s been working on. It’s an
all-in-one gaming table
that makes use of Retropie.
When they finally got rid of the kids’ train-play-set table, they needed something to replace it. Eager to use his new collection of tools (including a 3D printer and a laser cutter!), [Jody] decided to build this thing from scratch. He admits he isn’t a very skilled woodworker, but we think he did an excellent job!
The screen is an old laptop LCD that [Jody] took apart and refitted into the nice wood frame you see above. He’s added speakers with 3D printed grills, and the whole thing turns on and off when the screen is lifted, all thanks to a pantry door switch he installed. In the side compartments he has wireless keyboards, mice, and xBox 360 controllers to play the games with. He and his son have already put many hours into the classic Cave Story, first released back in 2004.
There’s a great build log on his site, so if you’re interested in making your own, check it out! | 4 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "1104628",
"author": "mixadj",
"timestamp": "2013-11-18T14:46:15",
"content": "Good god its so clean. Great project. I would look to cover that screen with something though to prevent an oops from occurring during its use as a table.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"repl... | 1,760,376,395.810148 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/11/17/arduino-based-power-failure-alert-system/ | Arduino-Based Power Failure Alert System | Marsh | [
"Arduino Hacks",
"home hacks",
"Microcontrollers"
] | [
"Arduino micro",
"battery",
"battery backup",
"FBus",
"nokia",
"nokia 3310",
"power loss",
"sms"
] | When the power went out at his parents’ shop and ruined the contents of their fridge, [Lauters Mehdi] got to work building
a custom power failure alert system
to prevent future disasters. Although some commercial products address this problem, [Lauters] decided that he could build his own for the same cost while integrating a specific alert feature: one that fires off an SMS to predefined contacts upon mains power failure.
The first step was to enable communication between an Arduino Micro and a Nokia cell phone. His Nokia 3310 uses
FBus protocol
, but [Lauters] couldn’t find an Arduino library to make the job easier. Instead, he prototyped basic communication by running an Arduino Uno as a simple serial repeater to issue commands from the computer directly to the phone, and eventually worked out how to send an SMS from the ‘duino. [Lauters] then took the phone apart and tapped into the power button to control on/off states. He also disconnected the phone’s battery and plugged it into an attached PCB. The system operates off mains power but swaps to a 1000mAH 9V backup battery during a power outage, logging the time and sending out the SMS alerts. A second message informs the contacts when power has been restored.
Head over to [Lauters’s] project blog for schematics and photos, then see
his GitHub for the source code
. If you want to see other SMS hacking projects, check out the similar build that
keeps a remote-location cabin warm
, or the
portable power strip activated by SMS
. | 23 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "1103973",
"author": "pff",
"timestamp": "2013-11-17T18:32:33",
"content": "“The system operates off mains power but swaps to a 1000mAH 9V backup battery during a power outage”…Then what is its power source when there is no power outage?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"... | 1,760,376,395.872127 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/11/17/google-glass-how-about-this-home-brew-solution/ | Google Glass? How About This Home-brew Solution? | James Hobson | [
"3d Printer hacks",
"Raspberry Pi"
] | [
"google glass",
"Project Glass",
"raspberry pi",
"Wearable computer"
] | [Codeninja] has been sending us some great hacks over the years, and we’ve just learned that his attention has been on building wearable computers lately! He’s currently on his
third iteration of a Google Glass-like prototype
, which features a motorized element which allows for the retraction of the screen.
There’s not too much info on his blog about them, but we do know he’s using a Raspberry Pi, a few small servos, and a pico LCD screen. Most of the frame is 3D printed, and it also features a hidden camera, accelerometers, and a few environmental sensors.
He’s uploaded an animated gif of the mechanism that moves the display away from his eye, and it looks straight out of some science fiction movie — check it out after break!
His first foray into wearable computers was back in 2005, when he made
a real-life Tron game
. We’re surprised we haven’t covered it before!
We’re excited to see his next prototype which he plans on making much smaller, sleeker, and sexier. We believe him too — after all, he did bring us the
RFID Terminator Gun
years ago! | 22 | 13 | [
{
"comment_id": "1103918",
"author": "noname",
"timestamp": "2013-11-17T16:00:46",
"content": "We are the Borg. Lower your shields and surrender your ships. We will add your biological and technological distinctiveness to our own. Your culture will adapt to service us. Resistance is futile.",
"p... | 1,760,376,395.929766 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/11/17/battery-backup-for-raspi-keeps-your-data-safe/ | Battery Backup For RasPi Keeps Your Data Safe | Marsh | [
"computer hacks",
"Microcontrollers",
"Raspberry Pi"
] | [
"9v",
"backup",
"mosfet",
"opto-isolated",
"raspberry pi"
] | We’ve all raised a clench fist in anger over lost data, and it’s usually the result of unjustified optimism and lack of planning. [George] shared his solution that prepares for the worst:
a circuit that provides backup power to a RasPi and its hard drives
. [George’s] Pi setup runs as both an Apple Time Machine server and a website backup server, and a power outage could corrupt the data stored on the Pi’s attached hard drives.
Rather than turn to commercial solutions, however, [George] wanted to take advantage of the Pi’s low power consumption and create an inexpensive custom circuit that would safely and automatically power down the devices upon loss of power. To detect a power failure, the build connects one of the Pi’s GPIOs to an opto-isolator, which—through a zener diode—connects to the 12V wall adapter: though [George] welcomes suggestions for alternative methods of safely identifying a mains power loss. The rest of the circuit serves as a trickle charger for the two attached 9V batteries and as a regulator to supply the correct voltage to the RasPi. Power MOSFETs connected to a GPIO handle the delayed power off.
You can view (and edit!)
the circuit online here
and find the relevant source code on [George’s] website. If you want to build your own RasPi file server, try
cramming all the parts into an old optical drive enclosure
. | 17 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "1103813",
"author": "CRJEEA",
"timestamp": "2013-11-17T12:36:24",
"content": "Maybe you could use a relatively large capacitor. Enough to cope with the time it takes to switch over from mains to battery power. Then you could measure the voltage across it. When it begins to dip you k... | 1,760,376,395.981568 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/11/17/getting-a-shell-on-any-android-device/ | Getting A Shell On Any Android Device | Brian Benchoff | [
"Android Hacks",
"Security Hacks"
] | [
"adb",
"android",
"android debug bridge",
"security",
"shell"
] | If you’re an Evil Customs Agent or other nefarious Three Letter Agency Person, you’re probably very interesting in getting data off people’s phones. Even if the screen is locked, there’s a way around this problem: just use the Android Debug Bridge (ADB), a handy way to get a shell on any Android device with just a USB cable. The ADB can be turned off, though, so what is the Stasi to do if they can’t access your phone over ADB? [Michael Ossmann] and [Kyle Osborn]
have the answer
that involves a little-known property of USB devices.
USB mini and micro plugs have five pins – power, ground, D+, D-, and an oft-overlooked ID pin. With a particular resistance between this ID pin and ground, the USB multiplexor inside your phone can allow anyone with the proper hardware to access the state of the charger, get an audio signal, mess around with the MP3s on your device, or even get a shell.
To test their theory, [Michael] and [Kyle] rigged up a simple USB plug to UART adapter (seen above) that included a specific value of resistor to enable a shell on their test phone. Amazingly, it worked and the thought of having a secure phone was never had again.
The guys went farther with some proprietary Samsung hardware that could, if they had the service manual, unlock any samsung phone made in the last 15 years. They’re working on building a device that will automagically get a shell on any phone and have built some rather interesting hardware. If you’re interested in helping them out with their project,
they have a project site up
with all the information to get up to speed on this very ingenious hack. | 29 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "1103770",
"author": "matt",
"timestamp": "2013-11-17T10:34:42",
"content": "The article title is definitely misleading, and it seems as if Brian didnt read the paper at all. This isnt applicable to ANY android device, only those which use multiplexers ICs on the USB port, and only i... | 1,760,376,396.178506 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/11/16/real-life-raspi-controlled-redstone-lamp/ | Real-Life Raspi-Controlled Redstone Lamp | Marsh | [
"computer hacks",
"Laser Hacks",
"Microcontrollers",
"Raspberry Pi"
] | [
"lamp",
"minecraft",
"pyCraft",
"redstone"
] | Minecraft fanatics keep finding impressive ways to bring 8-bit components into the real world, and [Chris Tompson’s]
Redstone Lamp Replica is no exception
. [Chris] wanted to extend his connection to the game world by not only replicating this block, but also by controlling its light-up effect when an in-game cube is lit.
The lamp is a product of the gang at
Hive76
, who worked together to develop a quick prototype using the Minecraft Python client
pyCraft
, an Arduino, a transistor and a temporary papercraft lamp mockup. Hive76 member [Kyle] pitched in to write the plugin for pyCraft, which listens for an on/off message and sets one of the RasPi’s GPIO pins accordingly. The hardware for the actual lamp was designed to smooth out the 8-bit quality into something a bit more precise. The result are laser-cut pieces of MDF with a zebra wood veneer laminated on top. The interior was finished off with amber cathedral glass and then the cube’s sides were glued together. The RasPi, PCB and LEDs fit inside, all snugly affixed together.
Swing over to the Hive76 project page for more details and links to the plugin, and see the video demonstration below. For another Minecraft-inspired real-life project, check out
[Bill’s] take on the BatBox
. | 2 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "1103733",
"author": "Yarr",
"timestamp": "2013-11-17T09:04:44",
"content": "I love Lamp!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1104208",
"author": "william foster",
"timestamp": "2013-11-18T03:05:38",
"content": "i might p... | 1,760,376,396.461625 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/11/16/opentilt-tag-youre-out/ | Opentilt: Tag, You’re Out! | James Hobson | [
"Arduino Hacks",
"Toy Hacks"
] | [
"Johann Sebastian Joust",
"joust",
"opentilt"
] | Have you ever heard of the game Johann Sebastian Joust? We haven’t either, but [Juerd] has come up with an open source version of it called
Opentilt
, and we have to admit — it looks like a lot of fun!
Johann Sebastian Joust
uses motion controllers for a game that can be played indoors or out, without a screen. Everyone gets a motion controller, and the object of the game is to make everyone else move their controller too fast. It even has a music mode that lets you move your controller relative to the speed of the music! Anyway, it had an extremely successful kickstarter, and it has been debuted at many events around the world — but it’s simply not available to the general public just yet. [Juerd] couldn’t wait that long so he decided to make a similar open source version of it, with cheap off-the-shelf parts. The biggest difference is this one doesn’t have the music.
The build is quite simple and inexpensive. You’re looking at some PVC pipe, an Arduino Nano, a RGB LED, a 2.4GHz radio module, an accelerometer, a pingpong ball, a battery pack, and various other resistors and wire. Nothing to it really! All the source code, and instructions are available off of
[Juerd’s] site
, and he’s done a great job explaining everything, down to fixing a common problem that some people have on Arduino Nanos!
Stick around after the break to see how the original Johann Sebastian Joust game works! | 35 | 14 | [
{
"comment_id": "1103532",
"author": "William G",
"timestamp": "2013-11-17T00:23:36",
"content": "So …. these are light up tampons?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1103552",
"author": "qwe",
"timestamp": "2013-11-17T01:22:46",
"conte... | 1,760,376,396.422838 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/11/16/13-homemade-rc-blimp/ | $13 Homemade RC Blimp | James Hobson | [
"Toy Hacks"
] | [
"mini rc car",
"R/C car",
"rc blimp"
] | Here’s a great little RC hack you can do with the kids this weekend —
make your very own RC Blimp!
First you’ll have to hack apart one of those little 1/64 scale RC cars you can get for a few dollars, and then all you need are a few household supplies, and a helium filled balloon. [
Masynmachien
] says the total cost of this project can be as little as $13 — depending on where you get your supplies.
So how does it work? Well, an 11″ helium filled party balloon can lift about 10g quite easily — if you strip away the body and chassis of one those RC cars you’ll be well under that weight. The RC cars typically have one small DC motor and a steering actuator, but [Masynmachien] found you can actually connect a second DC motor to the leads for the actuator and it works just fine. Doing this you can create a main prop to drive the blimp, and a secondary tail rotor to steer it. The Instructable uses mostly recycled components, but we’re sure if you had more time you could design and build an even nicer one. When the blimp is properly trimmed it sinks slowly in the air, so the main prop is responsible for keeping it at a certain altitude — this takes a bit of getting used to but it’s an easy way to get around steering in all directions.
Looking for a more advanced project using these little cars? How about
building a RC plane with them!
Or if you’re feeling ambitious, you can also
control them using your computer
!
Stick around after the break to see it in action! | 16 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "1103438",
"author": "Quads",
"timestamp": "2013-11-16T21:15:19",
"content": "I could waste hours playing with this.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1103850",
"author": "Whatnot",
"timestamp": "2013-11-17T13:52:... | 1,760,376,396.7073 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/11/16/nearspace-environmental-chamber/ | Nearspace Environmental Chamber | Brian Benchoff | [
"hardware"
] | [
"dry ice",
"environmental chamer",
"high altitude balloon",
"vacuum chamber"
] | If you’re going to send some hardware up to 100,000 feet, where atmospheric pressure is 1% of what we enjoy on the surface and temperatures swing down to where Fahrenheit and Celsius don’t matter anymore, you might want to do a bit of testing to make sure everything works before launch. With a few bits of PVC, though,
that’s a piece of cake
.
There were several environmental conditions to take into consideration; the near vacuum experienced by high altitude balloons would be replicated by a refrigerator compressor, the increased solar flux is simulated by a light bulb, and the cold temperatures provided by a chunk of dry ice.
For a proper high altitude, low temperature environmental chamber the test payload should be cooled down via radiation with tubes filled with liquid nitrogen embedded in the walls. This is the NASA way of doing things, but for the budget of $200, [arko]’s chamber simulates a high altitude environment just fine. | 30 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "1103372",
"author": "Dax",
"timestamp": "2013-11-16T19:16:31",
"content": "Stop promoting pressure vessels made out of PVC.A tubular vacuum vessel is at a high danger of failing because it’s structurally unstable against the outside air pressure, and when you cool it down with dry i... | 1,760,376,396.573755 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/11/16/should-all-quadrotors-look-like-this/ | Should All Quadrotors Look Like This? | James Hobson | [
"Toy Hacks"
] | [
"helicopter",
"quadcopter",
"quadrotor",
"University of Queensland",
"Y4"
] | In recent years, quadrotors have exploded in popularity. They’ve become cheap, durable, and can do some really impressive things, but are they the most efficient design?
The University of Queensland doesn’t think so
.
Helicopters are still much more efficient and powerful due to their one big rotor, and with the swashplate mechanism, perhaps even more maneuverable — after all did you see our recent post on
collective pitch thrust vectoring
? And that was a plane! A few quick searches of
helicopter tricks
and we think you’ll agree.
The new design, which is tentatively called the Y4, or maybe a “Triquad” is still a quadrotor, but it’s been jumbled up a bit, taking the best of both worlds. It has a main prop with a swashplate mechanism, and three smaller rotors fixed at 45 degree angles, that provide the counter torque — It’s kind of like a helicopter with three tails.
Regarding efficiency, the researchers expect this design could achieve an overall increase of about 25% in performance, compared to that of a standard quadrotor. So, they decided to test it and built a quad and a Y4 as similar as possible — the same size, mass, batteries, arms, and controller board. The results? The Y4 had an increased run time of 15%! They think the design could very well make the 25% mark, because in this test study, the Y4 was designed to meet the specifications of the quad, whereas a more refined Y4 without those limitations could perhaps perform even better.
Unfortunately there’s no video we can find, but if you stick around after the break we have a great diagram of how (and why) this design works!
[via
IEEE Automation
] | 53 | 20 | [
{
"comment_id": "1103236",
"author": "Moritz Ulrich",
"timestamp": "2013-11-16T15:11:37",
"content": "The big benefit of a Quadcopter is the simple build. You have no moving parts except motors. Not even a servo. That enables you to build very sturdy frames with ease.Tricopters suffer very badly fro... | 1,760,376,396.660756 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/11/16/original-nes-advantage-controller-stuffed-with-clone-nes/ | Original NES Advantage Controller Stuffed With Clone NES | Mike Szczys | [
"Nintendo Hacks"
] | [
"nes",
"nes advantage",
"nintendo"
] | Like all good hackers [Osgeld] makes regular appearances at the thrift store to scavenge for raw materials. This summer he was lucky enough to come across a couple of NES clone games. These are controllers that emulate the original Nintendo Entertainment System by connecting to a television using composite video. The mechanics of the controllers were pretty much shot, but he knew he could do something with the boards inside. It was a small gamble at a dollar apiece anyway.
As you can see above,
he upgraded a vintage NES Advantage controller
by stuffing it full of the emulator hardware. To start he disassembled the arcade-like peripheral and gave everything a thorough cleaning. Since he was going to be soldering onto the PCBs anyway he upgraded the controller by swapping out the original switches for a different set of tactile switches. The large base provided plenty of room for [Osgeld] to fit the emulator (with included ROMs) and now he’s
Playing with Power.
The NES Advantage is a very nostalgic controller. Even
the Ghostbusters hacked on it
! | 4 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "1103165",
"author": "strider_mt2k",
"timestamp": "2013-11-16T12:14:35",
"content": "I adore projects like this.Clever useful, and folks can have some fun when they’re finished having all that fun!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": ... | 1,760,376,396.504084 |
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