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https://hackaday.com/2013/11/16/ft230x-brings-usb-charging-detection-to-the-serial-ic-game/ | FT230X Brings USB Charging Detection To The Serial IC Game | Mike Szczys | [
"Parts"
] | [
"charger",
"charging",
"ft230x",
"ftdi",
"usb"
] | Here’s a new chip from FTDI which brings a nice little feature to the USB-to-serial converter family: charging detection. That means that it is capable of detecting when a battery charger is connected. What does that actually mean? The top of the datasheet gives you the short version, but let’s look at the investigation [Baoshi] undertook to
test the full extent of this particular feature
. We agree with him that the listed capability leaves those in the know with a lot of questions:
USB Battery Charger Detection. Allows for USB peripheral devices to detect the presence of a higher power source to enable improved charging.
Obviously the chip will be able to tell when a charger is connected, alerting the device when it’s time to start lapping up the extra milliamps. But what type of chargers will actually trigger the detection circuit? After rigging up the test circuit shown above he ran through several scenarios: connected directly to the PC USB port, via externally powered and non-powered USB hubs, and with multiple wall wart chargers. Full results of the tests are included in the post linked above.
[via
Dangerous Prototypes
] | 4 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "1103240",
"author": "tekkieneet",
"timestamp": "2013-11-16T15:17:41",
"content": "For enumeration for USB 2.0, your device would have a 1.5K pull upresistor on one of the data lines.Dumb charger: D+ & D- shorted, so D+ and D- lines are logic level highbecause of the 1.5K pullupApple... | 1,760,376,398.40219 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/11/15/20-android-tablets-form-an-interactive-photo-collage/ | 20 Android Tablets Form An Interactive Photo Collage | Marsh | [
"Android Hacks",
"home hacks"
] | [
"android",
"digital frame",
"digital photo frame",
"digital picture frame"
] | You might not have a small army of unused tablets lying around, but if you did, you should try turning them into what Minn calls a
“Giant Interactive Photo Array Display:”
A Giant IPAD. Har har.
[Minn’s] first step was to hit eBay, hoping to find a score of low-priced, broken-yet-easily-repairable tablets. The only ones available (and for cheap), however, were resistive touch screens with narrow viewing angles. After waiting patiently for nearly half a year, [Minn] hit the capacitive touch jackpot: snagging a pile of 10″ and 7″ Android tablets. The frame is custom made to provide a solid surface for mounting and enough depth for the tablets to fit correctly. Rather than form his own brackets to hold each device, [Minn] re-purposed some IKEA cupboard handles, screwing them into the MDF backboard and clamping the tablets to them with bolts that press against the case. An adhesive rubber bumper stuck to the top of the bolts prevents any damage.
Providing power to the diverse collection required another custom solution; two 5V 10A supplies and one 9V 16A supply fit into an accompany box safely deliver the needed juice. [Minn] chose an app that will grab photos from cloud storage so he can update the collection without having to dig around inside the frame. See the result in a video below! Want to try this project but only have one tablet to spare? The
in-wall tablet mount
might help. | 20 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "1102974",
"author": "notabena",
"timestamp": "2013-11-16T06:10:40",
"content": "Beyond cool…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1103041",
"author": "bobfeg",
"timestamp": "2013-11-16T08:56:07",
"content": ... | 1,760,376,398.45473 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/11/15/automated-aquarium-is-kitchen-sinky/ | Automated Aquarium Is Kitchen-Sinky | Marsh | [
"Arduino Hacks",
"home hacks",
"Microcontrollers",
"Raspberry Pi"
] | [
"aquarium",
"arduino mega",
"fish",
"g5",
"jquery",
"php",
"Raspi",
"servo"
] | People have been converting their old Power Macs and Mac G5s into fish tanks for a few years now, but
[Hayden’s] Internet-enabled tank
is probably the most awesome ever crammed into an aquarium along with the water and the fish—and we’ve seen some
fascinating builds this summer
. After gutting the G5 and covering the basic acrylic work, [Hayden] started piling on the electronics: a webcam, timed LED lighting, an LCD for status readouts, filter and bubble control via a servo, an ultrasonic sensor to measure water levels, thermometer, scrolling matrix display, an automatic feeding mechanism, and more. He even snuck in the G5’s old mainboard solely for a cool backdrop.
The build uses both a Raspberry Pi and an Arduino Mega, which sit underneath the tank at the base. The Pi provides a web interface written in PHP and jQuery, which presents you with the tank’s status and allows changes to some settings. Nearly every component received some form of modification. [Hayden] stripped the webcam of its case and replaced the enclosure with a piece of acrylic and a mountain of silicone, making it both waterproof and slim enough to fit in the appropriate spot. Though he decided to stick with an Amazon-bought Eheim fish feeder, he disabled the unit’s autofeed timer and tapped in to the manual “feed” button to integrate it into his own system.
It’d take half of the front page to explain the rest of this thing. We’ve decided to let the aquarium tell you the rest of its features in the video below. Yeah…it can talk. | 16 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "1102853",
"author": "Will Lyon",
"timestamp": "2013-11-16T03:05:00",
"content": "He used a perfectly good Bitfenix Prodigy for an aquarium? Oh wait…nope…it’s just a mac. Carry on.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1102868",
"a... | 1,760,376,398.504641 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/11/15/producing-ozone-at-3500-rpm/ | Producing Ozone At 3500 RPM | Brian Benchoff | [
"Engine Hacks"
] | [
"electrostatic",
"electrostatic turbine",
"high voltage",
"motor"
] | Motors are fun, and high voltage even more so. We’re guessing that’s what went through [brazilero2008]’s mind when he put together
an electrostatic motor
using upcycled parts he found lying around.
The electrostatic rotor works by connecting a very high voltage, low current power supply – in this case an industrial air ionizer – to a set or rotors surrounding a plastic rotor. The hot electrodes spray electrons onto the rotor, which are picked up by the ground electrodes. If the system doesn’t arc too much, you have yourself a plastic rotor that spins very, very fast.
[brazilero]’s device is made out of an aluminum turkey pan, a few acrylic tubes, and a few cardboard disks; all stuff you can find in a well-stocked trash can. After completing the device,
it was taken apart and finished
and screwed onto a beautiful painted jewelry box. Very cool for something you can make out of trash, and dangerous enough to be very interesting.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/87819267@N03/10427274846/ | 16 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "1102771",
"author": "Caleb",
"timestamp": "2013-11-16T01:07:59",
"content": "This is an awesome project. It seems like just the thing to build with the kids to get them interested in engineering.I also like the use of the word’upcycled instead of recycled.",
"parent_id": null,
... | 1,760,376,399.050594 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/11/13/inform-the-morphing-table-gets-even-more-interactive/ | InFORM The Morphing Table Gets Even More Interactive | James Hobson | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"inFORm",
"mit",
"mit media lab",
"morphing table",
"Tangible user interface"
] | Remember last week’s post on the inFORM,
MIT’s morphing table?
Well they just released a new video showing off what it can do, and
it’s pretty impressive.
The new setup features two separate interfaces, and they’ve added a display so you can see the person who is manipulating the surface. This springs to life a whole new realm of possibilities for the tactile digital experience. The inFORM also has a projector shining on the surface, which allows the objects shown from the other side to be both visually and physically seen — they use an example of opening a book and displaying its pages on the surface. To track the hand movements they use a plain old Microsoft Kinect, which works extremely well. They also show off the table as a standalone unit, an interactive table — Now all they need to do is make the pixels smaller…
Stick around after the break to see some more awesome examples of the possibilities of this new tactile-digital interface. There are also some great clips near the end of the video showing off the complex linkage system that makes it all work.
[via
Gizmodo
] | 21 | 12 | [
{
"comment_id": "1100979",
"author": "Adam",
"timestamp": "2013-11-14T00:07:07",
"content": "This is really awesome, I want my table to pulse when I get a call.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1100984",
"author": "Parmin",
"timestamp": "... | 1,760,376,398.56151 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/11/13/flying-rc-toaster/ | Flying RC Toaster | James Hobson | [
"cooking hacks",
"Toy Hacks"
] | [
"flite test",
"flying toaster",
"rc plane hack"
] | Do you remember that screen saver from the 80’s of flying toasters? Well the guys over at Flite Test just made
a real flying toaster.
The first challenge was converting a toaster to run off batteries, which [David] accomplished by splitting the elements in the 110V toaster into 4 segments, and running them off of 6-cell LiPo — when the toaster is on, it draws almost 700W. The next question was — how much of an effect does air flow have on a toaster’s ability to toast? As it turns out, not that much! They tested the system by driving down the street holding a toaster out of the passenger window of the car, and while they got some strange looks, they also successfully toasted the bread.
The next step was making a plane capable of carrying the extra batteries, and a bulky, not-so-aerodynamic toaster. This was probably the easiest part, as they have made
a flying 20kg cinder block before.
Needless to say, making a toaster capable of flight was not much of a challenge.
Our favorite part of the video is the test flight, where [Josh] wears a POV visor system to, wait for it… watch the bread toasting. Check it out after the break!
These guys are great — you might remember our past coverage on their
RC plane with an afterburner
, or their
POV airsoft turret plane
!
[Thanks Ryan!] | 30 | 19 | [
{
"comment_id": "1100800",
"author": "Diego Spinola",
"timestamp": "2013-11-13T21:05:47",
"content": "After Dark FTW",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1100803",
"author": "Mike Szczys",
"timestamp": "2013-11-13T21:08:27",
... | 1,760,376,398.626106 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/11/13/3d-printering-a-makerbot-in-every-school/ | 3D Printering: A Makerbot In Every School Follows The Oregon Trail | Brian Benchoff | [
"Hackaday Columns"
] | [
"3D Printering",
"makerbot"
] | Gather ’round, children and I’ll tell you a tale of how everyone from the ages of 16 to 40 has played
Oregon Trail.
Back when Apple was just starting out, [The Steves] thought it would be a good idea to get the Apple II into the hands of schoolchildren across the United States. They did this with educational pricing, getting Apple IIs into newly created ‘computer labs’ in schools across the country. These new computers – from my experience, anyway – were used as a replacement for the old Selectric typewriters, and on rare occasions a machine that played the
MECC
classics like
Oregon Trail
.
Fortunately, a few students were bright enough and had teachers who were brave enough to allow BASIC programming, PEEKs and POKEs. This was the start of a computer revolution, a time when grade schoolers would learn a computer wasn’t just a glorified word processor or dysentery machine, but something that would do what you told it to do. For those kids, and I’m sure a few of them are reading this, it was a life changing experience.
Now it appears we’re in the midst of a new revolution. If this horribly named column isn’t enough of a clue, I’m talking about 3D printing. Yesterday,
Makerbot announced they were going to fill in for Apple
in this physical revolution by trying to get a Makerbot into every school in the country.
You actually think we’re going to say this is a bad thing? Really?
Here’s the skinny on the press conference Makerbot held yesterday: public school teachers (K-12) can
register for a Makerbot Academy 3D printing bundle
. This starts a project on
DonorsChoose.org
where anyone can donate to get a Makerbot into a classroom. If the project is funded, that classroom gets a Makerbot Replicator 2, three spools of PLA, and a year’s worth of MakerCare.
If, however, you teach in Brooklyn, NY, you’re in luck. [Bre Pettis], the big cheese at Makerbot, put up
a freaking ton of money for this project.
Enough that every public school in Brooklyn will get a printer with the addition of $100 in a Donor’s Choose project. Check out the Makerbot
‘Almost Home’ project
on Donors Choose, where your classroom can get a Makerbot, filament, and MakerCare for about $100 in donations. That’s awesome anyway you look at it.
On the Internet, you only need to read half of [Hegel]’s
Phenomenology.
Just as in the 80s, a whole bunch of kids are going to get their hands on new technology that will change the world in a few years. Awesome. Thesis.
This can’t be good, though. I mean, look at what all those Apple IIe’s were used for. Word processing, Appleworks, and
Oregon Trail
. Yes, it’s fun, but using a computer only as a glorified typewriter does both the student and the computer a disservice. Are we to expect the Makerbots in every classroom will be used for novel and interesting applications? Will students around the country be printing out the stuff they created in art and shop class? Will teachers even know how to use the printer, how to calibrate and operate it? Is this printer just going to sit in a closet somewhere, off-limits to the curious student, going unused simply because 3D printers aren’t at the, ‘push a button, get a plastic part’ level of functionality yet? Obviously the idea of putting 3D printers in every school was thought up by a fool. Antithesis.
Since I’ve already done two-thirds of your thinking for you, I might as well finish the job.
This isn’t going to work without you.
A few years from now, the middle school in your town is going to have a 3D printer. Whether that 3D printer is
used
is up to you.
How many teachers in 1980 knew about all the intricacies of the Apple II? How many could program? From the stories I’ve read about the early frontier of the digital revolution, not many. The common trope goes something like, “my school had a computer, no one knew how to use it, so I started my IT career at the age of 10.” This isn’t to demean the efforts of educators 30 years ago; back then, a personal computer was a novelty.
Right now, 3D printers are where personal computers were circa 1979. Back then, computers had no ‘killer app’ – VisiCalc wouldn’t be released until later that year. Other than flicking switches and the magic of having a machine that would
do numbers and sometimes letters
for you, there was no reason for the common person to own a computer. Now, with 3D printers, we have the same situation. We’re pretty sure they’re going to change the world, but no one has figured out exactly how quite yet.
What we can do, though, is create an environment for the killer app to be created. Like the user groups of yore, the 3D printing nerds among us will need to venture forth and find those printers that aren’t used. Do you know a shop teacher? Awesome. Show them the Makerbot announcement and tell them you’ll get them up to speed. Do you know the modern equivalent of that kid who
didn’t
want to play
Oregon Trail
after their typing lesson? You should take them to a hackerspace. No hackerspace in your area? Start a 3D printing club. Meet in someone’s garage.
Getting a whole bunch of 3D printers into every community across the country is a great idea no matter how you look at it. Of course a lot of those printers will only be used to spit out
Minecraft
buildings and plastic Octopodes, but that’s not the point. A few of those teachers, and possibly more of those kids, are going to take 3D printing to where it hasn’t gone before. Who knows, maybe some of those kids will ask Santa for a RepRap kit. It worked with Apple, and it’s going to work again with Makerbot. | 53 | 13 | [
{
"comment_id": "1100583",
"author": "Ben Delarre",
"timestamp": "2013-11-13T18:12:30",
"content": "Excellent points Brian. We all do need to step up and help this actually happen.My biggest concern with 3d printers in schools is that some HR or Health and Safety busybody decides these things have h... | 1,760,376,398.714419 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/11/13/bitx-a-return-to-hackers-paradise/ | BITX, A Return To Hackers’ Paradise | Adam Fabio | [
"Radio Hacks"
] | [
"amateur",
"BITX",
"ham radio",
"india",
"radio"
] | [Bill Meara] has
finished up his radio
. It both looks and sounds great. It was only a few weeks ago that [Bill] posted a
guest rant here on Hackaday
. The Radio he mentioned building in the rant is now complete.
The transceiver itself is a BITX
, a 14MHz Single Sideband (SSB) radio designed by
Ashhar Farhan VU2ESE
. Ashhar designed the BITX as a cheap to build, and easy to tune up transceiver for radio amateurs in India.
By utilizing parts easily sourced from scrapped TV sets, the BITX can be built for less than 300 Indian Rupee – or about $4.70 USD. In [Bill]’s own words, “Five bucks and some sweat equity gets you a device capable of worldwide communication.” He’s not kidding either. [Bill’s] first QSO was with a ham in the Azores Islands of Portugal.
[Bill] built his radio using the “Manhattan” building style, which we’ve seen before. Manhattan style uses rectangular pads glued down onto a copper ground plane. It makes for a more flexible design than regular old dead bug style building. Looking at all those components may be a bit daunting at first, but plenty of support is available. [Bill] has an
18 part build log on the soldersmoke website
. There also is an
active yahoo group dedicated to the BITX. | 50 | 12 | [
{
"comment_id": "1100406",
"author": "pcf11",
"timestamp": "2013-11-13T15:29:31",
"content": "It has always amazed me how little interest I’ve had for radio when I’ve always been such a huge fan of electronics. The board does look like a nice homebrewed circuit though. Too bad it isn’t just an audio... | 1,760,376,398.995453 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/11/13/ask-hackaday-can-you-hack-an-appliance-into-a-spy-device/ | Ask Hackaday: Can You Hack An Appliance Into A Spy Device? | Marsh | [
"Ask Hackaday",
"home hacks"
] | [
"appliance",
"microphone",
"wifi"
] | A story surfaced a few days before Halloween on Russian news site
Rosbalt
(yep, that’s in Russian), claiming Russian authorities intercepted Chinese-made electric irons and kettles: each equipped with microphones and WiFi. You can read a summary in English
on the BBC’s website
. The “threat” imposed by these “spy appliances” is likely the result of gross exaggeration if not downright fear mongering against Chinese-made products. It’s not worth our (or your) effort to speculate on what’s really happening here, but the situation does present a fun exercise.
Say you wanted to spice up your pen testing by altering a small home appliance: how easily could you build it? Let us know in the comments which appliance would serve as the best “host” for the modifications and what features you would include. Could you manage all the components listed in the article–a microphone, WiFi (any chance of cracking unsecured networks?), plus some vague indication that it “spreads viruses?” There’s a video below with a few glimpses of the electronics in question, but unless you speak Russian it probably won’t offer much insight.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hkiqenPy8zY
[Thanks Johannes] | 96 | 38 | [
{
"comment_id": "1100281",
"author": "harrstein",
"timestamp": "2013-11-13T13:16:41",
"content": "The Coffee maker ofcourse, as everyone uses that. just ad a small cam and mic. hardest part is gonna be to heat/steam proof it",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"co... | 1,760,376,398.9122 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/11/13/107558/ | Examining Vintage Printer Server Hardware For Apple II | Mike Szczys | [
"Peripherals Hacks"
] | [
"apple",
"iieasy print",
"pacemark",
"printer"
] | Need to share a printer between several Apple II computers? Of course you don’t, but back in the day this would have been a really awesome piece of hardware to own. It’s a Pacemark iiEasy Print (we’re not sure on the capitalization of the name so talk amongst yourselves). It is an automatic buffer and switch that you can have now-a-days for just a couple of Hamiltons. [David] doesn’t mention where he “acquired” his specimen, but all
the details about his adventures reverse engineering the card
are shared in detail.
First off, we have to mention his unorthodox bench tools. To the untrained eye it would appear that he has attached the iiEasy Print to a Commodore 64; and that eye would be right. [David] says he uses the C64 something like an Arduino (if that’s even possible). The green card is plugged into the C64 memory bus, connecting to the DIP socket breakout board on the left and the chip select pins for most of the other IC’s on the original board. The gist of this setup is that it’s simple to use the “passthrough” DIP socket to monitor what the 6502-like processor is doing, while mapping the memory with the help of the chip select signals.
What did he learn from all this? Quite a lot but you might as well click that link above and hear it from his own mouth. | 19 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "1100240",
"author": "Analog",
"timestamp": "2013-11-13T12:04:58",
"content": "might be missing the article title >_>;",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1100278",
"author": "Eirinn",
"timestamp": "2013-11-13T13:13... | 1,760,376,398.786206 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/11/13/39-raspberry-pi-3d-scanner/ | 39 Raspberry Pi 3D Scanner | James Hobson | [
"digital cameras hacks",
"Raspberry Pi"
] | [
"3d scanner",
"raspberry pi 3d scanner"
] | [Richard] just posted an
Instructable on his ridiculously cool 39 Pi 3D Scanner!
That’s right. 39 individual Raspberry Pies with camera modules.
But why? Well, [Richard] loves 3D printing, Arduinos, Raspberry pies, and his kids. He wanted to make some 3D models of his kids (because pictures are so last century), so he started looking into 3D scanners. Unfortunately almost all designs he found require the subject to sit still for a while — something his 2-year old is not a fan of. So he started pondering a way to take all the pictures in one go, to give him the ability to generate 3D models on the fly — without the wait.
He originally looked at buying 39 cheap digital cameras, but didn’t want to have all the images on separate SD cards, as it would be rather tedious to extract all the images. Using the Raspberries on the other hand, he can grab them all off a network. So he set off to build a very awesome (and somewhat expensive) life-size 3D scanning booth. Full details are available on his blog at
www.pi3dscan.com
Stick around after the break to see it in action at Maker Faire Groningen 2013! | 30 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "1100107",
"author": "arachnidster",
"timestamp": "2013-11-13T09:15:44",
"content": "Why not 1 Raspberry Pi, 39 USB cameras, and a couple of hubs?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1100119",
"author": "B2",
"times... | 1,760,376,399.113852 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/11/15/charles-tears-into-a-ford-fusion-battery/ | [Charles] Tears Into A Ford Fusion Battery | Adam Fabio | [
"Transportation Hacks"
] | [
"batteries",
"Battery (electricity)",
"Ford Motor Company",
"Hybrid vehicle",
"Nickel–metal hydride battery"
] | Any time we hear from [Charles Z. Guan], we know it’s going to be a good feature. When he’s linking us to a
blog post with phrases like “If you touch the wrong spots, you will commit suicide instantly”
, we know it will be a really good feature. [Charles] is no stranger to Hackaday – we’ve featured his
GoKarts
,
Quadcopters
, and
scooters
before. He was even generous enough to let a couple of Hackaday writers test drive
ChibiKart
around Maker Faire New York last year.
This time around, [Charles] is working on a power system for
chibi-Mikuvan
, his proposed entry of the
Power Racing Series
. He’s decided to go with a used battery from a hybrid vehicle. As these vehicles get older, the batteries are finally becoming available on the used market. [Charles] was able to pick up a 2010 Ford Fusion NiMh battery for only $300. These are not small batteries. At 20” wide by 48” long, and weighing in at 150 pounds, you’ll need 2 or 3 people to move one. They also pack quite a punch: 2.1kWh at 275V. It can’t be understated, taking apart batteries such as these gives access to un-fused lethal voltages. Electrocution, arcs, vaporized metal, fire, and worse are all possibilities. If you do decide to work with an EV or hybrid battery, don’t say we (and [Charles]) didn’t warn you.
As [Charles] began taking apart the battery, he found it was one of the most well thought out designs he’d ever seen. From the battery management computers to the hydrogen filled contactors, to the cooling fan controller, everything was easy to work on. The trick to
disassembly
was to pull the last module out first. Since all the modules are wired in series, removing the last module effectively splits the pack in half, making it much safer to work on. The battery itself is comprised of 28 modules. Each module contains two 4.8V strings of “D” cell sized NiMh batteries. The battery’s capacity rating is 8000 mAh, and [Charles] found they still took a full charge. Since he doesn’t need the pack just yet, [Charles] removed the final bus bars, rendering it relatively safe.
Now that he has a power source, we’re waiting to see [Charles’] next stop on the road to chibi-Mikuvan. | 44 | 19 | [
{
"comment_id": "1102664",
"author": "Felinius",
"timestamp": "2013-11-15T21:07:16",
"content": "I know this is a relatively useless comment, but hey, couldn’t help but notice. These are the very batteries we build at my plant!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
... | 1,760,376,399.339766 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/11/15/unbricking-a-router-with-a-raspi/ | Unbricking A Router With A Raspi | Brian Benchoff | [
"Raspberry Pi"
] | [
"gpio",
"jtag",
"raspberry pi",
"Raspi",
"wrt54g"
] | About a decade ago, [Mansour] learned of the Linksys WRT54G, a wireless router that’s been shoved into just about every project under the sun. After learning of this device’s power, he decided a firmware upgrade was in order. Unfortunately, he accidentally bricked this router and left it sitting on a shelf for a few years.
Idle devices are the devil’s playthings, and when [Mansour] discovered a Samsung hard drive with a an SDRAM that was compatible with the WRT54G, he decided he would have a go at repairing this ancient router. There was only one problem: the most popular utility for programming the router through the JTAG header required a PC parallel port.
No problem, then
, as [Mansour] had a Raspberry Pi on hand. The parallel port utility bit-banged the new firmware over to the router, something the GPIO port on the Pi could do in spades. By
adding Pi support
to the debricking utility, [Mansour] had a functional WRT54G with just a little bit of patience and a few wires connecting the GPIO and JTAG header. | 18 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "1102555",
"author": "BotherSaidPooh",
"timestamp": "2013-11-15T18:18:47",
"content": "Got two here, both bricked by previous owners.Plus if I can find it a Netgear DG834GV4 with a similar problem which just needs a single chip replacing (ADSL preamp)Will be trying this ASAP :-)",
... | 1,760,376,399.164791 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/11/15/arduino-astronomic-clock-automates-lights/ | Arduino Astronomic Clock Automates Lights | Marsh | [
"Arduino Hacks",
"clock hacks",
"home hacks",
"Microcontrollers"
] | [
"astronomic",
"automation",
"garden",
"relay",
"rtc"
] | [Paulo’s] garden lights are probably a bit more accurately automated than anyone else’s on the block, because they
use latitude and longitude clock to decide when to flip the switch
. [Ed Note from the far future: this page no longer exists,
but you can still read it on the Wayback Machine
. The TimeLord library has also been superceded, so you’ll have some porting to do.]
Most commercial options (and hobbiest creations) rely on mechanical on/off timers that click on an off every day at the same time, or they use a photosensitive element to decide it’s dark enough. Neither is very accurate. One misplaced leaf obscuring your light-dependent resistor can turn things on unnecessarily, and considering the actual time of sunset fluctuates over the year, mechanical switches require constant adjustment.
[Paulo’s] solution addresses all of these problems by instead relying on an algorithm to calculate both sunrise and sunset times,
explained here
, combined with
swiftek’s Timelord library
for the Arduino. The build features 4 7-segment displays that cycle through indicating the current time, time of sunset and of sunrise. Inside is a RTC (real time clock) with battery backup for timekeeping along with an Omron 5V relay to drive the garden lamps themselves. This particular relay comes with a switch that can force the lights on, just in case.
Check out [Paulo’s] project blog for the full write-up, links to code and more details, then take a look at some other home automation projects, like the
SMS-based heater controller
or
occupancy-controlled room lighting
. | 32 | 21 | [
{
"comment_id": "1102450",
"author": "Selden Vos VIII",
"timestamp": "2013-11-15T15:02:51",
"content": "Informative thank you!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1102451",
"author": "Hack Man",
"timestamp": "2013-11-15T15:04:44",
"conte... | 1,760,376,399.40703 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/11/15/recreate-a-pcb-with-a-scanner-and-inkscape/ | Recreate A PCB With A Scanner And Inkscape | Adam Fabio | [
"how-to",
"Transportation Hacks"
] | [
"design",
"gerber",
"Gerber format",
"Lucas Industries",
"Printed Circuit Board"
] | [John] has managed to
replace a broken turn signal PCB
by scanning it and converting to Gerber format. [John] purchased a
Triumph Spitfire
with toggle switch wired up for turn signal control. The “official” replacement part worked better than the toggle switch, but it didn’t cancel after turning. He was able to get the original switch, only to find it had a hole completely burned through the phenolic board. This isn’t completely surprising, as Triumph used a
Lucas Industries
electrical system. As anyone who has owned a car with a Lucas “prince of darkness” electrical system will tell you, Lucas systems were not known for quality. A quick Google search brings up
plenty of pages attesting to this
.
Phenolic resin/paper was a common early PCB material. The FR-4 fiberglass boards most commonly used today could be considered descendants of FR-1 and FR-2 phenolic. (The FR in this case stands for Fiber Reinforced). The standardization worked in [John’s] favor, as his burned board was 31 mils thick, which is still a standard PCB thickness. Re-creating an odd sized board such as this isn’t a hard job. It would however mean spending quite a bit of time with a ruler and a
caliper
. Rather than spend all that time measuring and re-drawing, [John] scanned his PCB on a flatbed scanner. He used graph paper as a background to verify the image wasn’t being stretched or skewed.
[John] brought his scan into
inkscape
, and traced both the outline and copper areas. The outline and copper had to be exported as two separate files, so he added corner marks outside the board outline as fiducials. He then used
pstoedit
to convert inkscape’s eps output files to
gEDA pcb
format. The two files were rejoined in gEDA. From there [John] exported a Gerber, and ran it on his home PCB milling machine. The results look good. [John] plans to make another revision of the board from a professional PCB house with vias to hold the copper to the substrate. | 28 | 12 | [
{
"comment_id": "1102360",
"author": "Dax",
"timestamp": "2013-11-15T12:36:42",
"content": "Many times when I’ve needed a breakout board for some chip, I’ve simply googled it, took the picture of the printed board and scaled it to the right size in photoshop, then printed the board by toner transfer... | 1,760,376,399.741818 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/11/15/collective-pitch-thrust-vectoring-on-a-rc-plane/ | Collective Pitch Thrust Vectoring On A RC Plane | James Hobson | [
"Toy Hacks"
] | [
"collective pitch",
"rc plane hacks",
"Swashplate",
"Thrust vectoring"
] | The RC plane shown above is hovering in that position. And that’s about the
least
impressive thing it can do. This is the power of
Collective Pitch Thrust Vectoring… on a plane.
So what exactly is Collective Pitch Thrust Vectoring anyway? Put simply, it’s like strapping a helicopter rotor to the front of a plane. We think the basic mechanism behind this is called a
Swashplate
(as found on a helicopter rotor), which allows for thrust vectoring, meaning the propeller blades can actually change their pitch cyclically, while still spinning at high speeds! This is what allows helicopters to do crazy tricks like barrel rolls.
A normal RC plane can only increase or decrease thrust with the speed of the engine. But with this, the thrust can be changed cyclically as the blades spin allowing for thrust vectoring (advanced steering). Couple that with some huge control surfaces and wing stabilizers and that means some seriously crazy aerodynamic feats.
Watch the video after the break, it’s amazing. | 59 | 26 | [
{
"comment_id": "1102260",
"author": "Mike",
"timestamp": "2013-11-15T09:16:48",
"content": "this looks really really good, kudos! love the idea.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1102264",
"author": "rotceh_dnih",
"timestamp": "2013-11-15... | 1,760,376,400.022295 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/11/14/cloning-the-trinket-for-a-usb-volume-knob/ | Cloning The Trinket For A USB Volume Knob | Brian Benchoff | [
"ATtiny Hacks"
] | [
"attiny85",
"Trinket",
"V-USB",
"Volume knob"
] | A while back, [Rupert] wrote a blog post on using V-USB with the very small, 8-pin ATtiny85. Since then, the space of dev boards for 8-pin micros with USB has exploded, the most recent being Adafruit’s Trinket. [Rupert] liked what he saw with the Trinket bootloader and decided to clone the circuit into a useful package. Thus was born
an awesome looking USB volume knob
complete with a heavy aluminum knob, rotary encoder, and RGB LED strip.
[Rupert] got his V-USB/ATtiny85/rotary encoder circuit working, and at the expense of a ‘mute’ control, also added an awesome looking RGB LED ring powered by Adafruit’s Neopixels. The PCB [Rupert] fabbed is pretty well suited for being manufactured one-sided. If you’ve ever wanted an awesome volume knob for your computer, all the files are available form [Rupert]’s blog.
Just as an aside, [Rupert] has been working on getting the Trinket bootloader working on the ATtiny84, a very similar microcontroller to the ’85, but with eight analog pins. It’s a neat device that I’ve made a small V-USB breakout board for, but like [Rupert], I’m stuck on porting the bootloader. If anyone has the Trinket/Gemma firmware running on an ATtiny84, send that in. We’ll put it up. | 16 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "1102176",
"author": "Gravis",
"timestamp": "2013-11-15T06:42:53",
"content": "SHUT UP AND TAKE MY MONEY!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1102180",
"author": "cpldcpu",
"timestamp": "2013-11-15T06:48:03",
"content": "... | 1,760,376,399.622313 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/11/14/long-distance-high-frequency-aprs-tracking-using-the-freetrak63/ | Long-distance High Frequency APRS Tracking Using The FreeTrak63 | Todd Harrison | [
"Radio Hacks"
] | [
"APRS",
"gps",
"ham",
"ham radio",
"HF",
"PSK",
"PSK-63",
"PSK63",
"tracking"
] | If you dabble in the ham radio hobby we’re sure you’ve heard of GPS position monitoring or tracking using APRS packet data commonly transmitting over the VHF ham band and FM modulated. One of the issues you’ll face using this common method is range limitations of VHF. [Mike Berg] a.k.a [N0QBH ] tipped us off to his latest project to greatly increase the range of a
standalone APRS system utilizing the HF bands on single-sideband (SSB)
.
There are some unique challenges transmitting packet data using SSB over HF bands. High Frequency APRS has been around for decades utilizing FSK AX.25 packet transmissions at 300 baud, but it was quite susceptible to noise and propagation aberrations. More recently PSK-31 at the slower 31 baud speed helped alleviate many of these issues. [Mike] utilized the somewhat updated
APRS with PSK-63
and the “
APRS Messenger
” program to overcome these challenges. [Mike’s] hardware solution consists of a PIC 16F690 micro which is coded to receive data from a GPS receiver, convert it into PSK-63 and then transmit on 30 meters over an attached HF radio. A second receiving station or stations at great distances can pick up and decode the transmission using the “APRS Messenger” program connected to the receiving radio over the computer’s soundcard. The program can then forward the tracking information, if good, to tracking websites like
FindU.com
and
APRS.FI
.
You can build your own FreeTrak63 by downloading [Mike’s] parts list, assembly code, HEX file, manual and schematic. The
PCB is available on OSH Park
if you don’t want to make your own or wire point-to-point. Let’s not forget to mention how hackable this hardware is, being really just an eight bit DAC, micro, serial in and radio out. One could reprogram this hardware to do other modulation schemes like AX.25 packet or MFSK16, the sky’s the limit. If short-distance on VHF with existing Internet linked receiver networks using an Arduino compatible platform is more to your taste, then checkout the
Trackuino open source APRS Tracker
. | 21 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "1102067",
"author": "ds18s20",
"timestamp": "2013-11-15T03:29:53",
"content": "Excellent work, those overpriced tnc boxes used to cost hundreds of dollars back in the 80s for a retarded simple piece of equipment. Love the solution.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"repli... | 1,760,376,399.801062 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/11/14/commodore-64-power-glove-is-so-bad/ | Commodore 64 Power Glove Is So Bad | Brian Benchoff | [
"Arduino Hacks",
"classic hacks"
] | [
"commodore 64",
"power glove"
] | The Nintendo Power Glove was terrible. Really, really terrible. Thanks to modern components, though, it’s possible to recreate the Power Glove experience in a way that doesn’t suck so much. That’s what [Leif] did with his
motion sensing glove for the Commodore 64
.
Instead of rolling his own IMU and putting it in a glove, [Leif] is using SonicWear SoMo, a glove originally designed to generate MIDI data for performance pieces. Inside this glove is a 9 DOF gyro/accelerometer/magnetometer, uC, battery, and XBee that can be easily reprogrammed to do something a little more (or less) useful than simply sending MIDI notes and commands.
[Leif] reprogrammed the XBees to use I/O line passing instead of sending serial data, and connected the recieving XBee to the C64 joystick port through a very simple circuit with a hex inverter.
All the code to turn a SonicWear glove into a C64 controller is
available on the Github
, and there’s
a neat demo video
of [Leif] demoing his glove at the VCF Midwest late last month. | 11 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "1101963",
"author": "icanhazadd",
"timestamp": "2013-11-15T00:05:19",
"content": "“All the code to turn a SonicWear glove into a C64 is available on the Github”Brian, did you mean a C64 controller?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id... | 1,760,376,399.673323 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/11/14/human-powered-hydrofoil-the-wingbike/ | Human Powered Hydrofoil, The Wingbike! | James Hobson | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"human powered hydrofoil",
"hydrofoil",
"wingbike"
] | [Steven] has been working for the past year on a very cool pedal powered hydrofoil, which he calls the
Wingbike.
We’ve seen plenty of
trampofoils
before, which are hydrofoils that can convert a human bouncing up and down… to horizontal movement. There have even been some pedal powered versions before, but its a rather tricky mechanism to get just right.
[Steven] has built his Wingbike almost entirely out of carbon fiber, and it only weighs 10kg.The biggest problem is balance, as you’re about 1.5M above the foils. If you lean too much,
you fall
. If you slow down too much,
you sink
. The current model he is working on has fairly large foils, which does help a bit with the balance, but that also increases the amount of energy required to propel it. He plans on creating new designs with much smaller and faster foils in the future.
Unfortunately, the water is getting quite cold in the Netherlands, so he’s going to spend the rest of the winter months optimizing the bike from a design perspective. Stick around after the break to see his latest successful test video! | 22 | 12 | [
{
"comment_id": "1101855",
"author": "dioxide",
"timestamp": "2013-11-14T21:11:33",
"content": "this thing desperately needs a power adder, specifically to confuse the shit out of everyone on the shore watching him ride this thing.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
... | 1,760,376,399.854079 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/11/14/fail-of-the-week-automatic-baby-rocker/ | Fail Of The Week: Automatic Baby Rocker | Mike Szczys | [
"Fail of the Week",
"Hackaday Columns",
"home hacks"
] | [
"baby",
"bouncer",
"fail of the week",
"rocker"
] | The art of hacking requires you to straddle many different types of engineering. In this case, it looks like [Dan] could use a little bit of brain-storming on how to get this doubly-failed project back on track. Do go easy on him as he wasn’t the one that submitted the write-up for this week’s Fail.
He
set out to build an automatic baby rocker
which he refers to as a baby bouncer. The idea is simple, but execution becomes a bit more difficult to manage. His first attempt is shown on the right. It’s a fairly powerful servo motor, connected to a rocker arm that terminates in a wheel. He used
Delrin
machined by hand (well, you know what we mean) to fabricate the connecting parts. There’s plenty of torque as this had no problem shearing off the set screw. But the mechanical advantage just isn’t there.
The second iteration is on the left. You can see he got as far as installing it on the rocker, but it’s basically a no-go. The white frame was designed in OpenSCAD and printed by Shapeways. It transitions to a stepper motor with a threaded rod to transfer force to the wheeled-arm. Check out the video below to see how too much resistance causes the mechanism to slip.
There are two things that we think need to be added to this design: mechanical advantage, and jamming relief. Please contribute your constructive comments on how this rocker can be brought up to snuff. This might be a great time to break out your diagram creation skills.
[Thanks Matt]
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. | 40 | 22 | [
{
"comment_id": "1101701",
"author": "Addidis",
"timestamp": "2013-11-14T18:04:53",
"content": "Inverted pendulum and resonance. :D",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1101710",
"author": "Karl",
"timestamp": "2013-11-14T18:15:29",
"cont... | 1,760,376,399.928916 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/11/14/a-diy-nfc-tag/ | A DIY NFC Tag | Eric Evenchick | [
"Wireless Hacks"
] | [
"attiny84",
"iso14443",
"NFC",
"radio"
] | [Nicholas] built a
simple NFC tag
using an ATtiny84 microcontroller, four resistors, three capacitors, a diode, and an antenna. It implements ISO 14443-3, a standard for identification cards, and can communicate with the NFC chip sets found in most new smartphones.
This standard uses
on-off keying
for communication, which makes the hardware slightly more complex than the
AVR RFID tag
that we saw a few years back. The antenna and a variable capacitor form an LC circuit tuned at 13.56 MHz, which is the carrier frequency for the protocol. The diode acts as an
envelope detector
, letting the microcontroller recover the signal.
It may not be fully compliant with the standard, but [Nicolas] successfully tested out the device with his Lumia 620 phone. The firmware is available on
Google Code
so you can program your own tag data into main.c, build the firmware, and send some NFC packets. You can also check out a demo of the device after the break. | 10 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "1101595",
"author": "ssshake",
"timestamp": "2013-11-14T15:05:23",
"content": "This should probably be called DIY NFC reader. NFC tags are passive. Where as this is more like what you’d find in a smart phone itself. Either way it’s pretty cool, I think I’ll build one and i’d like to... | 1,760,376,400.276281 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/11/14/ask-hackaday-how-should-we-control-kickstarter-campaigns/ | Ask Hackaday: (How) Should We Control Kickstarter Campaigns? | Mathieu Stephan | [
"Ask Hackaday"
] | [
"community",
"fraud",
"funding",
"kickstarter",
"scams"
] | Kickstarter campaigns helped bring new and innovative products to the market during these last years. However there often are failures that can happen at several stages. We’d like to hear your opinion about them and discover what you think could be done to foresee/prevent these kinds of bad experiences that damage the trust between individuals and funding platforms.
Post-funding failures
There are a few project teams that give up a few months after receiving the funds, like the people behind the
iControlPad 2
recently (disclaimer: we’re not backers). Even if [Craig] stated that he would document the entire production process on film and be open about all the project life steps, that didn’t prevent the project from being dropped (oddly enough) exactly one year after they received the funds. The more the project was headed towards failure, less was the frequency of updates regarding the project’s current state. The official reasons for this decision were difficulties that arose with the chosen LEDs, we’ll let you make your own opinion by having a look at the
updates section
. Thanks [Nikropht] for the tipping us about it.
Pre-funding failures
What is happening even more often on kickstarter is (usually successful) campaigns being canceled by the website itself after a few people rang the alarm bell. This may be due to an unfeasible project idea, a fake demonstration video/photos or even an attempt to resell an existing item under a new name.
The best examples for the first category undeniably are free energy generators. Here is an
indiegogo campaign
which actually succeeded. The creators announced one month ago that the project is running a bit behind schedule (aha), that the machine will cost around $5000 and that they’ll “need the funds before they make the units”. What can be done to educate the public that such energy is not created out of thin air?
The second category includes the recently canceled
LUCI advanced lucid dream inducer
(thanks
[Michael]
for the tip), which ended 2 days before the deadline. Technical guys got skeptical when they saw that the electrode signals were amplified several feet from the brain with an audio amplifier. At first glance, this was the only sign that this project may have been a scam (let’s give them the benefit of the doubt). Further research indicated that GXP (the company behind the campaign) didn’t exist, and most of their pictures were photoshopped. Here is a link to a quick
summary of the situation
and if you want to be entertained we advise you to make some pop-corn and head to the
comments section of the project
. What’s terrible here is that
backers started to turn against each other,
as the company always had a ‘good’ explanation for all the backers’ questions.
At last, there are some persons that just make funding campaigns with already existing products. This is the case of the
eye3 flying robot
and the
vybe vibrating bracelet
(don’t order!). Note that all of them were successfully funded. The eye3 was created by the same persons that made LumenLab, a company that created the microcnc. You’ll find
more details here
. The vibrating bracelet was just
this one
, which would be made in different colors. We just discovered
this website
that covered both project in greater lengths as well as many others.
Kickstarter fraudsters
Scams can also happen on the backers’ side. Recently, a Kickstarter backer named “Encik Farhan”
attempted to rip off many Kickstarter projects
. A ‘credit card chargeback’ technique was used, were the backer would contribute to the campaign, receive his perk and later cancel his credit card transaction using diverse reasons. The money would later be taken from the campaign funding by the payment processor.
What can be done?
The examples cited in this article set precedents which may turn people away from crowdfunding. In your opinion, what could be done to prevent this? Another reason we ask is because
Hackaday may launch a sponsored product soon,
thanks to the new overlords. This hypothetical product would be designed with the Hackaday community in a completely transparent process.
In the meantime, if you find any perpetual motion machines on kicstarter or indiegogo, be sure to send them in. You may also want to checkout this website
predicting the success probability
of a given kickstarter campaign. | 112 | 40 | [
{
"comment_id": "1101488",
"author": "Necromant",
"timestamp": "2013-11-14T12:44:12",
"content": "> Hackaday may launch a sponsored product soon, thanks to the new overlords.One question: Noselight?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1101564",
... | 1,760,376,400.190748 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/11/14/raspberry-pi-driven-128x32-led-sign/ | Raspberry Pi Driven 128×32 LED Sign | James Hobson | [
"LED Hacks",
"Raspberry Pi"
] | [
"128x32",
"LED display",
"raspberry pi LED display"
] | Looks like a commercial LED display sign… right? Not even close. This is a project of [Jon’s] from over a year ago, and it is a very impressive
128×32 LED display board, driven using a single Raspberry Pi.
It’s made of eight “P10” 32×16 LED panels that he bought off of eBay, housed in a wooden frame he built himself. The display runs off of a single Raspberry Pi and can receive a video signal from anything with an Ethernet port. The individual boards are daisy-chained in a rather odd arrangement to minimize cable length, which [Jon] says helps with clocking the data fast — he’s able to parse 2 bits per pixel to refresh the display at an impressive 400+ frames per second.
To power the display, he’s using a single ATX power supply with the Pi connected to the standby 5V power line. This is to avoid a voltage drop which might cause the Pi to crash — when all LEDs are on the display can draw a healthy 32A of juice. The P10’s use shift registers to serially load the pixel data. At any time, the 4096 pixel display can have 1024 pixels on, which means a fairly fast clock is required to update the display.
[Jon] has shared all the source code on his blog, and has a fairly in-depth explanation of all the systems used. Check it out for yourself, and don’t forget to stick around after the break to see the display in action! | 12 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "1101376",
"author": "Zbyšek Voda (@ZbysekVoda)",
"timestamp": "2013-11-14T09:21:00",
"content": "It looks like there is a bug in link:) (132 instead of 32)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1101381",
"author": "cahbtexhuk",
... | 1,760,376,400.235103 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/11/13/view-master-video-player/ | View-Master Video Player! | James Hobson | [
"Raspberry Pi",
"Toy Hacks"
] | [
"3d display",
"3d viewer",
"view-master",
"view-master hack"
] | [Alec] just sent us this great project he’s been working on. Converting an antique View-Master from the early 50’s into a
modern 3D video player
, capable of reading Mini-CDs.
Most View-Masters don’t have much space for tinkering, let alone adding a Raspberry Pi, two displays and a CD drive, so [Alec] really lucked out when he found this model — complete with light and D-cell battery pack. Tons of space! He originally looked into getting some cheap digital photo frame LCDs from China, but soon realized the effort involved with making those work just wouldn’t be worth it, so instead he picked up some 0.9″ OLED displays from Adafruit. He still forgot to check if they had drivers for the Raspberry Pi though, and ended up on another detour of
modifying FBTFT drivers
to make it all work.
After that headache he got to the fun part — cramming all the hardware inside. He picked up a cheap laptop CD drive off of eBay, and discovered that using the 80MM Mini-CD standard, the discs would just fit inside of the View-Master, sticking out just a little bit, kind of like the original photo wheels!
Quite a bit of fiddling later, he managed to assemble the entire thing in layers, without damaging the external shell of the View-Master. Since it is an antique, it was important for him that his hack be reversible — and for the most part, it is! Stick around after the break to see a short video explanation! | 18 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "1101126",
"author": "Howard",
"timestamp": "2013-11-14T03:14:43",
"content": "This is easily one of the best hacks I’ve seen on HackADay in quite a while. I’d tip my hat to you if I were wearing one.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id... | 1,760,376,400.449016 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/11/12/peltier-joule-thief-power-supply/ | Peltier Joule Thief Power Supply | Todd Harrison | [
"green hacks",
"how-to",
"LED Hacks"
] | [
"joule thief",
"led",
"peltier",
"power supply",
"thermoelectric",
"thermoelectric effect"
] | [Steven] manages to
power an LED for 15 minutes using hot and cold water
as a battery. He does this using the thermoelectric effect also known as the Seebeck effect, Peltier effect or Thomson effect. This isn’t particularly new; in fact there are commercial products that you can use to charge a cell phone using a small campfire or internal burner that works on the same principle.
What is interesting about [Steven’s] device is that he uses a salvaged Peltier device not meant for generating electricity, coupled with a home built joule thief circuit. In the video he describes how the joule thief functions and powers the LED using the small voltage generated by the Peltier device. The energy for the thermoelectric effect is conducted from a hot water bath through aluminum plates, through the positive and negative sides of the Peltier device, through more aluminum plates and finally into a cold water bath. As the heat energy transfers through the Peltier device a small electric current is generated and flows in two small wires coming out the side of the device. The energy generated by the Peltier device is stored in the joule thief and periodically dumped at a voltage high enough to forward bias the LED “on” for a brief moment. Technically the LED is flashing but at a frequency too high for our eyes to see. As the hot water bath cools, the LED goes from very bright, to dim, to off in about 15 minutes.
Not a very practical power supply but still quite the parlor trick. He wraps up the tutorial specifying that a TEG thermoelectric generator would be a much better choice for generating power and can handle much higher temperatures. You can watch the video after the break. | 20 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "1100021",
"author": "Galane",
"timestamp": "2013-11-13T07:27:20",
"content": "Stack three or four of them and use Arctic Silver between them.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1100052",
"author": "Alward Sciröck",
"timesta... | 1,760,376,400.50167 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/11/12/sailing-with-an-autopilot/ | Sailing With An Autopilot | Brian Benchoff | [
"Robots Hacks"
] | [
"Autopilot",
"gps",
"magnetic compass",
"sailboat",
"sailing"
] | After seeing an autopilot for a kayak a few days ago, [Mike] thought he should send in
his version of a water-borne autopilot.
Compared to something that fits in a one-man kayak, [Mike]’s creation is a monstrous device, able to keep a largeish sailboat on a constant heading.
To keep track of the ship’s bearing, [Mike] is using a very cool digital compass that uses LEDs to keep a steady heading. Also included is an amazingly professional and very expensive 6 axis IMU. To actually steer the ship, [Mike] is using a linear actuator attached to the tiller powered by a huge 60 Amp motor controller. The actuator only draws about 750 mA, but if [Mike] ever needs an autopilot for a container ship or super tanker, the power is right there.
For control, [Mike] ended up using an Arduino, 16-button keypad, and an LCD display. With this, he can put his autopilot into idle, calibration, and run modes, as well as changing the ship’s heading by 1, 10, and 100 degrees port or starboard.
From a day of sailing, [Mike] can safely say his autopilot works very well. It’s able to keep a constant heading going downwind, and even has enough smarts to tack upwind.
Videos below. | 11 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "1100046",
"author": "James B. Zatopa",
"timestamp": "2013-11-13T07:47:02",
"content": "Could this auto tack upwind? It could even have a little jibe warning before it jibes. It would be amazing if something like this could pilot you through any wind direction",
"parent_id": nu... | 1,760,376,400.546919 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/11/12/a-simple-servo-hack-for-an-iron-man-helmet/ | A Simple Servo Hack For An Iron Man Helmet | James Hobson | [
"Microcontrollers",
"Toy Hacks"
] | [
"iron man",
"iron man helmet",
"motor braking",
"picaxe-08",
"servo plugging"
] | [James] makes some
seriously
awesome Iron Man props. In one of his latest helmet builds, he came across a handy hack to
lock the faceplate servo in place.
You see, as awesome as it is walking around like Iron Man all day, you’re going to want to keep your faceplate up for extended periods of time. Simply holding the servo in place electronically is a waste of power, and results in the annoying sound of a servo under strain. On the other hand, cutting power to it will keep it in place momentarily — but it will also start to close under the force of gravity.
The solution is actually quite simple, by reprogramming the Picaxe-08M microcontroller, the board now shorts the motor terminals to hold it in place. This is called magnetic motor braking, and it works by creating a closed loop that makes it much harder to induce a current under load. We once added this feature to a motorized push-scooter — it’d stop on a dime, although you wouldn’t…
Stick around after the break to see an extremely in depth video on how he setup the entire system. | 12 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "1099766",
"author": "cde",
"timestamp": "2013-11-13T00:51:29",
"content": "So in short, he wires the motor terminals together with the NC part of the relay, and the power to the motor on the NO part of the relay. To move the servo, the relay is activated first.",
"parent_id": nu... | 1,760,376,400.855173 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/11/12/printing-printed-circuit-boards/ | Printing Printed Circuit Boards | Brian Benchoff | [
"Crowd Funding",
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"circuit boards",
"EX¹",
"kickstarter",
"pcb"
] | We really respect the old timers out there and their amazing ways of crafting PCBs; they used black tape on clear acetate sheets to create single layers of PCBs with a photoetching process. Now creating a PCB is a simple matter of opening up a CAD package, but like the old timers we’re still dealing with nasty chemicals or long shipping times from China.
The EX¹,
a new robot on Kickstarter
– hopes to change that. They’ve created a PCB fabrication process that’s as simple as printing something with an inkjet printer. Just put in a piece of substrate – anything from Kapton to acrylic to fabric – and in a few minutes you have a single-sided PCB in your hands.
The printer dispenses two chemicals, silver nitrate and ascorbic acid, that react and produce traces and pads for the circuit. Right now, the EX¹ is limited to single-side boards, but experiments on creating multi layer boards are ongoing.
In any event, we’re really impressed with how simple the EX¹ setup actually is. Inkjet is a mature, well understood technology with more than enough resolution for simple homebrew circuits, and the AgNO3 + Vitamin C formula could easily be adapted to an inkjet printer modification. | 65 | 26 | [
{
"comment_id": "1099671",
"author": "cpldcpu",
"timestamp": "2013-11-12T22:17:13",
"content": "First of all, let me say this is a really cool idea.But I think people may easily overestimate the capabilities of this method. I see some caveats that are not adressed on the kickstarter:– Silver is exp... | 1,760,376,400.741103 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/11/12/building-a-better-serial-camera/ | Building A Better Serial Camera | Brian Benchoff | [
"digital cameras hacks",
"hardware"
] | [
"color tracking",
"OpenMV",
"serial camera"
] | If your next project does anything with cameras or machine vision, you’ll probably be looking at something like a USB webcam attached to an ARM board or a netbook. Sometimes, though, that setup blows will blow your budget – power or otherwise – out of the water. For small projects, you’re limited to small, serial-accessible cameras, and in that domain you really don’t have a lot of choices.
[Ibrahim] realized the cheapest serial cameras are about $35, and with basic image processing that cost skyrockets up to about $100. He set out to
build his own alternative
, and ended up with an awesome serial camera module that should only cost about $15 in quantity.
The module is built around an STM32F4 microcontroller running at 168 MHz. This micro has a DCMI port to which a OV9650 camera is attached. The resolution ends up being 1280×1024, far better than other serial cameras.
Already [Ibrahim] has the hardware working and a few demo apps. He has a real time color tracking demo (video below) up and running and a machine vision repo for his tiny camera. Now if we could only get a few of these boards on Tindie. | 22 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "1099609",
"author": "Kerimil",
"timestamp": "2013-11-12T20:28:15",
"content": "Somewhat related question…. How much more resource consuming is face tracking based on haar cascades when compared to simple colour tracking?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
... | 1,760,376,400.635688 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/11/12/retrotechtacular-upgrading-train-signaling-before-the-information-age/ | Retrotechtacular: Upgrading Train Signaling Before The Information Age | Mike Szczys | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"Retrotechtacular"
] | [
"railroad",
"retrotechtacular",
"safety",
"signal",
"train"
] | What’s surprising about the subject of this week’s Retrotechtacular is that the subject is not from that long ago. But looking at the way in which the work was done makes it feel so far in the past. In 1974 the British Railways Board set out to
modernize and interconnect the signaling system
. What you see above is one of hundreds of old signal control houses slated to be replaced by an interconnected system.
These days we take this sort of thing for granted. But from the start of the project it’s clear how the technology available at the time limited the efficiency of the development process. We’re not talking about all of the electro-mechanical parts shown during the manufacturing part of the video. Nope, right off the bat the volumes of large-format paper schematics and logic diagrams seem daunting. Rooms full of engineers with stacks of bound planning documents feel alien to us since these days even having to print out a boarding pass seems antiquated.
With fantastic half-hour videos like this one available who needs television? We’d recommend adding this to your watch list so you can properly enjoy it. They show off
everything
; manufacturing the cables, stringing them between the signal towers, assembling the control panels, testing, and much more.
[Thanks Stefan]
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
. | 25 | 16 | [
{
"comment_id": "1099517",
"author": "TehMeh",
"timestamp": "2013-11-12T18:08:01",
"content": "I love RT, one of my favorite HAD features! Thanks Brian :)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1099518",
"author": "TehMeh",
"timestamp": "2013-1... | 1,760,376,400.802929 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/11/12/upstagram-a-flying-raspberry-pi/ | Upstagram: A Flying Raspberry Pi | Eric Evenchick | [
"Raspberry Pi"
] | [
"balloon",
"instagram",
"raspberry pi"
] | This tiny paper house, modeled after the one in Disney’s UP, contains a Raspberry Pi, battery pack, camera, and 3G stick. The
Upstagram
, built by the folks at HackerLoop, took to the skies of Paris to snap and share photos on Instagram.
We’ve seen
Raspberry Pis in flight
before, but this build pulls it off using simple party balloons. It took around 80 balloons to get the house to a height of 300 feet. A kite string was used to tether the device and control its flight.
This hack also required some reverse engineering of Instagram. Since the photo sharing service only allows the official Android and iOS apps to upload, they had to use a
reverse engineered Instagram clien
t. This allows the unsupported Raspberry Pi to interact with the service, snapping pictures periodically and sharing them on the device’s stream.
After the break, check out a quick video overview of the project.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZB_JnVoFraM#t=0 | 5 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "1099459",
"author": "jhalek90",
"timestamp": "2013-11-12T16:22:05",
"content": "could this be… a pi in the sky?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1099460",
"author": "Abhi",
"timestamp": "2013-11-12T16:25:47",
"content... | 1,760,376,400.897525 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/11/12/wireless-keurig-hack/ | Wireless Keurig Hack! | James Hobson | [
"cooking hacks"
] | [
"coffee maker hack",
"keurig",
"keurig hack",
"moteino",
"wireless keurig"
] | [Kolumkilli] loves his Keurig coffee maker, as it makes him an excellent cup of coffee, but he doesn’t like waiting for it to brew. So he set out to make it
wirelessly controlled
via his computer… with the press of a button, he can have his coffee ready and waiting for him when he gets up.
After carefully dismantling his Keurig, he set to locating the main buttons on the PCB, and proceeded to wire in relays in parallel to the ones he wanted to control. Throw in a
Moteino
and add the notification LEDs as inputs as well and now he can control and monitor almost all the coffee maker’s functions via a web browser at his desk. Now if only he could remember to put a new coffee cup in…
There’s a great writeup on the forum post, so if you want to see a more detailed build log, check it out! And if you’re looking to add even more functionality to your Keurig,
why not run a waterline to it?
[Thanks Felix!] | 15 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "1099402",
"author": "Hack Man",
"timestamp": "2013-11-12T15:04:04",
"content": "Somebody should tell him it only takes about 10 seconds to “brew”.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1099689",
"author": "kaidenshi",
... | 1,760,376,400.949313 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/11/12/keep-your-sd-cards-data-safe-with-the-sd-locker/ | Keep Your SD Cards Data Safe With The SD Locker | Adam Fabio | [
"Security Hacks"
] | [
"Memory card",
"Secure Digital",
"security",
"Write protection"
] | [Karl Lunt] has come up with a
simple circuit for protecting data you have stored on SD cards
. As is relatively well-known, the little lock switch on the side of most SD cards really doesn’t do anything more than the switch on floppies or the tabs on VHS or cassette decks. It’s up to the reader/writer to check the status of the tab and decide if it should write to the card or not. Not a very safe system. However, it’s not the only write protection system built into SD and SDHC cards. As part of the standard, cards have three protection methods: A TMP_WRITE_PROTECT bit, a PERM_WRITE_PROTECT bit, and a PWD register.
The PERM_WRITE_PROTECT bit permanently write protects the card. The bit can not be reset, so you should be really sure you want to keep the data on the card forever. The PWD register is a password register. The card will not allow any access (read or write) unless a password is provided. The TMP_WRITE_PROTECT bit is a temporary write protect. This is the bit that [Karl] is working with. When TMP_WRITE_PROTECT is set, the card can be read but not written. Note that there is no true protection here, as anyone can modify the bit. However, this should stop grandma from accidentally deleting your wedding pictures.
[Karl’s] device is very simple. A card is inserted into an Altoids tin enclosure. One button locks the card, another unlocks it. Three LEDs return status – power, card locked, and card unlocked. Under the hood, he’s using an Atmel ATmega328 to set and clear the TMP_WRITE_PROTECT bits. Power is provided by two AA batteries, and regulated with a Pololu 3.3v boost regulator. [Karl] has also included a serial port for control and debug information. We think this is a great hack, however one thing we’re not sure of is how or if these features are implemented in all cards. We’re relatively sure the name brand cards stick to the SD/SDHC spec sheet, but what about all the knockoff and no name brands from overseas? | 41 | 15 | [
{
"comment_id": "1099285",
"author": "w",
"timestamp": "2013-11-12T12:05:59",
"content": "One should seek annulment immediately upon learning that one’s spouse intends to keep one’s special wedding day memories “safe” on an SD card. :)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
... | 1,760,376,401.262763 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/11/12/reverse-engineering-the-sony-ericsson-vivaz-high-resolution-640-x-360-cellphone-lcd/ | Reverse Engineering The Sony Ericsson Vivaz High Resolution 640 X 360 Cellphone LCD | Mathieu Stephan | [
"hardware"
] | [
"display",
"graphics",
"lcd",
"reverse engineering"
] | In our opinion, reverse engineering may be one of the best ways to tease your brain. [Andy] just did that by
reverse engineering the Sony Ericsson Vivaz high resolution LCD
(cached copy
here
). In his (very) nicely written article, [Andy] explains all the steps that led him to the result shown in the picture above. He started by finding the repair manual of the Vivaz, to discover that the display could be interfaced with 8080 type parallel signals. That meant that he could use a standard microcontroller without high speed buses to interface with it, in this case the STM32F4. Next in his adventure, [Andy] ordered the appropriate connector and took a more educated guess for the onboard microcontroller. A long Google search brought up the R61523 from Renesas. So he designed his breakout board, got it produced and a few hours later a nice picture was being shown on the LCD. He even took the time to compare the original display with the clone he found on the webs, and modified his
graphics library
to support this display. | 35 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "1099183",
"author": "ino",
"timestamp": "2013-11-12T09:32:58",
"content": "Nice work. I really enjoy his write-ups",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1099193",
"author": "Mikes electric stuff",
"timestamp": "2013-11-12T09:5... | 1,760,376,401.093264 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/11/11/hackprinceton-piano-stairs/ | HackPrinceton: Piano Stairs! | James Hobson | [
"Arduino Hacks",
"Musical Hacks"
] | [
"hackprinceton",
"piano hack",
"piano stairs",
"princeton",
"stair piano"
] | It was Hack.Princeton this weekend and [Bonnie] and [Erica] threw together this
great interactive portable piano!
The setup is very simple using six LED flashlights, and six photoresistors. An Arduino Uno reads in the values from the photoresistors and parses them to a nearby Raspberry Pi which then creates the sounds. The system even automatically calibrates itself when turned on, adjusting to the ambient light conditions. They made the project for the
Hackathon
and after a short scare of having to move it to another staircase for the demo, they took home 2nd place in the hardware category!
Stick around after the break to see it in action — this would make a great school project to get kids interested in hacking!
Looking for more piano hacks? How about a
Banana Piano?
No? What about a pair of gloves with
no physical piano?
Or maybe one
written down on paper with a pencil? | 13 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "1099074",
"author": "Freddy",
"timestamp": "2013-11-12T06:09:31",
"content": "Really really cool, but it’s a lawsuit waiting to happen.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1099168",
"author": "Hirudinea",
"timestam... | 1,760,376,401.146549 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/11/11/reverse-engineering-the-z80s-16-bit-incrementdecrement-circuit/ | Reverse Engineering The Z80’s 16-bit Increment/Decrement Circuit | Adam Fabio | [
"classic hacks"
] | [
"Adder (electronics)",
"Osborne 1",
"Processor register",
"Ripple Carry Adder",
"Zilog Z80"
] | Increment and decrement. They sound like simple functions. But even the simplest functions can get quite complex in a microprocessor design. Ken Shirriff has written up a
great blog post about his reverse engineering of the Z80’s 16-bit increment/decrement circuit
. The Zilog Z80 was one of the most popular microprocessors of the 70’s and 80’s. It was used in many classic computers such as
the Osborne 1
. These machines would often use the Z80 to run the popular
CP/M operating system
.
The increment/decrement circuit is responsible for updating the program counter register during normal (non branch) operations. The increment/decrement circuit also handles the stack pointer register during stack operations, as well as several other functions. One might wonder why a separate adder would be used when the microprocessor has a big ALU available to it. The answer is twofold. First the ALU is already in use handling user math operations. Secondly the increment/decrement circuit has to be fast. A generic ALU just won’t be fast enough.
One classic adding circuit is a
Ripple Carry Adder
. Ripple Carry Adders get the job done, but they are slow. Note slow is measured in nanoseconds here – there are no clocks involved in the circuit. The whole thing becomes a classic combinational logic optimization problem. Each layer of logic adds a gate delay to the circuit. As the carry has to ripple through all 16 bits, there are 16 gate delays before the final result is available at the outputs. Delays like these are what limits the maximum clock speed for a given circuit.
The Z80 uses some tricks in its increment/decrement circuit. The first is
Carry-lookahead
. A carry-lookahead circuit will calculate the carry values directly from the inputs. This reduces the gate delays significantly, but it requires more real estate on the die. A second trick is the
carry-skip circuit
. Carry-skip calculates the result for groups of bits rather than each bit individually. Again, it will reduce gate delays, at the cost of real estate.
The actual Z80 implementation uses a mix of both circuits. Several other “helper” circuits are also used.
Surprisingly
the Z80 has specific logic just to check for 1 (0x0001) on the internal address bus. This circuit is used during memory move loops to inform other parts of the chip that a loop is about to complete. | 1 | 1 | [
{
"comment_id": "1100781",
"author": "Hardware Mike",
"timestamp": "2013-11-13T20:51:52",
"content": "Really cool to analyse this in such depth and well explained. I love the die photo/circuit overlap picture too.It would be interesting to write up the Verilog or VHDL equivalent to this logic, then... | 1,760,376,401.186447 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/11/11/diagnose-and-repair-a-yaesu-ft-7800-ham-radio/ | Diagnose And Repair A Yaesu FT-7800 Ham Radio | Todd Harrison | [
"how-to",
"Radio Hacks",
"Repair Hacks"
] | [
"FT-7800",
"ham",
"ham radio",
"radio",
"radio repair",
"repair",
"troubleshooting"
] | [Alan Wolke] aka [w2aew] was challenged to
repair a friends Yaesu FT-7800 ham radio
. This radio operates on two ham bands, 2 m VHF and 70 cm UHF. The complaint was that the 2 m side was not working but the 70 cm was transmitting fine. Alan started by verifying the complaint using a Bird watt meter with a 50 watt slug and terminating the signal into a 50 W dummy load. [Allen’s] bird meter is the type that has an RF sampler that can be connected to an oscilloscope for added signal viewing and validation.
After verifying that the radio was not working as described, Alan starts by glancing over the circuit board to look for any obvious damage. He then walks us through a block diagram as well as a circuit diagram of the FT-7800 radio before stepping us through the troubleshooting and diagnostics of radio repair. Even when he realizes he might have found the problem he still steps us through the remainder of his diagnostics. The skills and knowledge that Alan shares is extremely valuable to anybody looking to repair radios.
Spoiler alert. At the end of the first video he determines that the pin diodes near the final VHF output were bad. In the
second video
he reveals that he could no longer source these bad components. Through some clever evaluation of a more current Yaesu radio, [Allen] was able to find suitable replacement components. Lesson two ends with some surface mount solder rework tips as well as testing that the repair was successful.
And just in case you don’t know what a pin diode is, or is used for, Alan shares a
third video
covering just what this component is and does in a radio. You can follow the jump to watch all three videos. | 26 | 14 | [
{
"comment_id": "1098896",
"author": "nbtmm",
"timestamp": "2013-11-12T00:09:40",
"content": "Really? I follow Alan on youtube and i like his electronics vids but this is not a hack.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1099145",
"author": ... | 1,760,376,401.361839 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/11/11/build-your-own-desoldering-station-on-the-cheap/ | Build Your Own Desoldering Station On The Cheap | Todd Harrison | [
"how-to",
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"desolder",
"desoldering station",
"Station",
"tool"
] | [Sable Wolf] tipped us off to his
DYI desoldering station for under $70
. We know we have seen this conversion before, but it hasn’t been featured on Hack a Day. [Sable Wolf’s] hack is unique and has added features that make building, cleaning and the overall longevity sounder. However, some kind of sound deadening housing would have to be built around the pump as it seemed uncomfortably loud in the video.
Some Chinese made desoldering stations are getting quite cheap so maybe it’s not worth the effort unless you can salvage more components for the build. Thanks to [Sable Wolf’s] detailed blog you can browse through his BOM and scrounge up the majority of these items from your salvage bins. A cheap but reliable desoldering station would be an extremely handy tool to have on your bench.
This is much safer than
desoldering with a candle
or
using fire
as featured in the past, and is kind of a flip around on the
SMD hot air pencil
hack.
Follow long after the break to watch the video of the desoldering station in action. | 34 | 12 | [
{
"comment_id": "1098824",
"author": "qwerty",
"timestamp": "2013-11-11T22:29:31",
"content": "I’m a bit skeptical about the power of that small pump and was interested to see it working, too bad the video is almost useless.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"... | 1,760,376,401.825584 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/11/10/kicad-video-series-from-concept-to-manufacture/ | KiCad Video Series: From Concept To Manufacture | Mathieu Stephan | [
"how-to"
] | [
"eagle",
"KiCAD",
"layout",
"schematics",
"tutorial"
] | Many of our readers took the habit of using Eagle to design their PCBs. Even if you’ll find plenty of support for this software as well as a lot of parts libraries, the software comes with limitations. The useable board area is limited to 4×3.2 inches, only two signal layers can be used and more importantly the schematics editor can only create one sheet. On the other side, some of you may already know KiCad, a free open source and
unrestricted
schematics and layout software. [Chris] just tipped us of
a video series
he made, showing people how to design and build their very first PCB using this software. It’s a simple 555 circuit, but goes through all the steps necessary to design a PCB that costs only $5 through OSHpark… and will blink by the end. All the videos are also embedded after the break. | 37 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "1097826",
"author": "Quentin Margis",
"timestamp": "2013-11-10T21:34:20",
"content": "Thanks, I was searching to do a bigger board than what’s allowed with Eagle, that is exactly what I needed, in the right time, great!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},... | 1,760,376,401.624792 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/11/10/one-night-no-budget-cnc-machine/ | One-night No Budget CNC Machine | James Hobson | [
"cnc hacks",
"Hackerspaces"
] | [
"diy CNC machine",
"homemade CNC"
] | The Hackerspace Kraków in Poland hosts a weekly event on Fridays called
NightHack
. The idea is simple. It’s late Friday night, all the stores are closed — something needs to be hacked.
Just this past Friday night, they decided to try making a CNC machine using only what they had in the space. And gosh darn it, did they ever succeed! The build makes use of an Arduino Mega, broken Playstation 3 drives, a few spare L293D ICs, some hot glue, and wood. The resulting CNC machine is an awesome example of what can be done in a night with the right group of people working together.
It might not be powerful enough to do milling, but works quite well as a small CNC drawing plotter with its massive 5x5cm work area, with a resolution of 0.16mm. Next week they hope to modify it to allow for PCB drilling, which at the right feed rates, might just be possible!
We think the concept of this meetup is awesome — every hackerspace has oodles of old junk piled up, perhaps never to be used. This is a great way to force projects to be completed and old components to be used up. Let us know in the comments if you plan to start scheduling a similar meetup — we love to share these kinds of projects!
[Thanks Jakub!] | 44 | 17 | [
{
"comment_id": "1097740",
"author": "Mime",
"timestamp": "2013-11-10T19:31:23",
"content": "Awesome! I like the idea of setting out to build something with limited resources. For something that was thrown together in one night, it does not look bad at all!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
... | 1,760,376,401.755057 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/11/10/brute-forcing-an-android-phone/ | Brute Forcing An Android Phone | James Hobson | [
"Android Hacks",
"Microcontrollers"
] | [
"brute force",
"Password cracking",
"STM32F4Discovery"
] | [Brett’s] girlfriend is very concerned about cell phone security — So much so that she used a PIN so secure, even
she couldn’t remember it.
Beyond forgetting the PIN, the phone also had encryption enabled, the bootloader locked, and zero permissions for the Android Device Manager to change the PIN. Lucky for her, [Brett] had purchased an STM32F4Discovery Development Board a few months ago, and was itching for a suitable project for it.
Now unfortunately, Android allows you to pick a PIN of anywhere between 4 and 8 digits, which as you can guess, results in a massive number of possible permutations. She was pretty sure it was only 6 digits, and that she didn’t use a 1, 2, or 3… and she thought it started with a 4 or a 7… and she didn’t think any of the digits were repeated… This helped narrow it down a bit, from 1 million possibilities to about 5,000 — assuming all of the boundary conditions she remembers are in fact correct.
[Brett] started by writing a C library to generate permutations of the PIN, testing the board on his own phone to make sure it works with a known PIN, and boom, they were in business.
28,250 PIN attempts later, they decided they were
not.
Did we mention you can only enter 5 PINs in every 30 seconds?
Head on over to
his blog
for the whole project, as its well worth the read!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WTVO7_Sai9w
We
‘ve covered lots of brute force hacking methods over the years, from the simplest solution of using a
Teensy
, to our favorite,
an elaborate robotic finger
that used servos and a DVD drive sled! | 67 | 33 | [
{
"comment_id": "1097555",
"author": "Robert The Bruce",
"timestamp": "2013-11-10T15:17:47",
"content": "Weak, it’d only take about 21 years to brute force all the 7 and 8 digit codes.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1097556",
"author": "you... | 1,760,376,401.977826 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/11/10/morph-adaptive-spaceframe/ | Morph: Adaptive Spaceframe | James Hobson | [
"Robots Hacks"
] | [
"morph",
"William Bondin"
] | [William Bondin] is working on a rather interesting project, a tetrahedron morphing robot called
Morphs (Mobile Reconfigurable Polyhedra).
It is able to move by the extension of each of its telescopic edges, and as it morphs, the centre of gravity shifts, allowing it to
roll over
. It is far from an efficient way to move, but it is quite entertaining to watch!
The custom two-directional linear actuators were designed to ensure the weight is symmetrically distributed on each axis, and they were able get the current draw down to about 200mA during actuation, which means with a few strategically placed battery cells, it’ll be able to go wireless too. The prototype unit is controlled by a single Arduino, which sends the commands to each motor-encoder couple.
[William] is hoping to develop it into a full scale architectural prototype, and by 2015 hopes to have these interactive robotic structures rolling around public parks. The architectural end goal is to allow for buildings to respond to environmental inputs, like daylight and temperature.
Confused? Check out the video after the break.
[via
Wired
] | 17 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "1097443",
"author": "ss",
"timestamp": "2013-11-10T12:43:31",
"content": "by 2015 hopes to have these interactive robotic structures rolling around public parks.try to present a less useful use for your creations next time",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
... | 1,760,376,401.680893 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/11/10/make-any-shape-board-in-eagle/ | Make Any Shape Board In Eagle | Brian Benchoff | [
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"dxf",
"eagle",
"pcb"
] | [Bryan] has been working on a very nice analog LED clock circuit, but when it came time to lay out the parts in Eagle, he was somewhat miffed by the inability to create designs in his Eagle boards. Eagle is a fine tool for laying out circuits, but when it comes to making strangely shaped PCBs, Eagle just isn’t the right tool.
The solution to this problem was to
create the board outline in OpenSCAD
. The desired shape of [Bryan]’s clock was easily designed, but importing the shape into an Eagle layer was another matter entirely.
OpenSCAD, though, can output 2D shapes to the DXF format. Getting the DXF board into Eagle required [Bryan] to write a script that outputs Eagle WIRE commands. Pasting these commands into the command line gave [Bryan] a perfectly shaped PCB.
Since DXF is supported by every drawing package on the planet, [Bryan]’s
20 line script
could also be used for much more intricate designs. If you have an incredibly complex Illustrator drawing that deserves to be a PCB, it doesn’t get much easier than tossing it through a script. | 21 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "1097312",
"author": "Andrew",
"timestamp": "2013-11-10T09:44:42",
"content": "Or he could have done it with KiCAD:http://andygoetz.org/2012-9-13-complex-shapes-in-KiCad.html",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1097324",
"a... | 1,760,376,402.032135 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/11/09/the-rabbits-hole-creative-reuse-and-stop-motion-animation/ | The Rabbit’s Hole: Creative Reuse And Stop Motion Animation | Adam Fabio | [
"Hackerspaces"
] | [
"animation",
"Arts",
"hackerspace",
"Rabbit Hole",
"Rabbit Hole Hackerspace",
"stop motion"
] | The folks down at The Rabbit Hole Hackerspace have been busy lately. They’ve created an amazing
stop motion animation short titled “The Rabbit’s Hole”
. The three-minute film documents the journey of a white rabbit through several strange lands, including the court of a “hormonally imbalanced queen”, the sewers, a PCB wasteland, and a banana jazz concert. The rest of the video is a behind the scenes view, showing the incredible amount of teamwork that went into the film’s creation.
From set building to final photography, the entire film was shot in one day. The set was split into 8 pieces. Each piece represented a scene the rabbit would journey through in the final movie. Members of The Rabbit Hole were able to work in parallel, each designing their own section of the set. Once the photography was done, [Whisker] took over for the process of editing and sound design. Just like in Hollywood, post production took much longer than the actual shoot.
The amazing part of the video is that most of the characters and set pieces are created from
The Rabbit Hole’s
junkbox. Even the star of the show, a 3D printed Rabbit wasn’t immune. Many rabbits were printed for the stop motion animation process. As can be expected, there were a few failed prints. Those prints became Rabbit footed Lamps, Tables, and a rather macabre rabbit’s hand in a tray. Even the camera dolly was welded up from some scrap metal and old roller blade wheels.
We like the way the entire hackerspace was able to come together to create something greater than any one of them could have done alone. This sort of project should be a template for other hackerspaces to follow. | 3 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "1097612",
"author": "mazzmn (@mazzmn)",
"timestamp": "2013-11-10T16:23:19",
"content": "More details on the work behind creating this Stop-action videohttp://www.instructables.com/id/Stop-frame-animation-movie-from-junkbox-parts/",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies... | 1,760,376,401.86608 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/11/09/vfd-display-becomes-an-amplifier/ | VFD Display Becomes An Amplifier | Brian Benchoff | [
"classic hacks"
] | [
"triode",
"tube",
"vfd"
] | Born well into the transistor era of the late 80s, [Fernando] missed out on all the fun you can have with high voltage and vacuum tubes. He wanted to experience this very cool tech, but since you won’t find a tube checker down at the five and dime anymore, where exactly do you get a vacuum tube to play around with? [Fernando]’s solution was to
rip apart the vacuum fluorescent display from an old radio
(Google
Translate
) and use that as a triode.
Inside every VFD is a filament, grid, and cathode – three simple elements also found in the
triodes
of just about every tube amp ever made. By applying a small voltage to the filament, a larger voltage to the cathode, and sending an audio signal to the grid, this triode amplifies the electrical signal coming from a stereo or guitar.
[Fernando] built his circuit on a breadboard, and with a little tweaking managed to get a fairly respectable amount of gain from parts salvaged from a radio. While using VFDs as amplifiers is nothing new –
we’ve seen it
a few times before
, tube builds are always great to see, and bodged up electronics even more so. | 15 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "1096920",
"author": "Kevin Ward",
"timestamp": "2013-11-10T03:08:36",
"content": "The filament is just the heating element, or heater. The three things a triode has are an anode (plate), cathode, and grid. Everything except gas-discharge tubes have a heater.",
"parent_id": null,... | 1,760,376,402.141675 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/11/11/hacking-and-philosophy-hacker-crackdown-part-i/ | Hacking And Philosophy: Hacker Crackdown Part I | Marsh | [
"Hackaday Columns"
] | [
"hacking and philosophy",
"philosophy"
] | This week’s installment of Hacking & Philosophy hits the books with [Bruce Sterling’s]
Hacker Crackdown
. If you’re joining us for the first time, you should check out last week’s conversation over
The Mentor’s “Hacker Manifesto.”
Don’t stop with the article, though, or you’ll miss out on the best part!
The contributions from our community are phenomenal, and it’s worth the effort to work through the comments. There are even a few
replies from [The Mentor] himself
.
Unfortunately, I can’t feature all of the excellent responses for lack of room, but I will recommend a handful that I feel are uniquely important after the break. Onward for more!
But first, a request that we adhere to one rule:
be respectful
. Be respectful not only of each other’s opinions but also of the author whose work is the subject of discussion any given week. If you’ve never encountered the concept of “
Intentional Fallacy
,” this is the perfect time to give it a quick read. Hacking & Philosophy is an open discussion, but the conversation is much more valuable and interesting if we avoid reactionary talking points.
There’s no need to discuss this further in this week’s comments, either, as that too would distract from the content at hand.
Email me directly
if you’d like to talk about the direction or format of this column. As always, I value your input. Thanks!
0. My Picks from Last Week’s Discussion:
[Quin]
and
[dan]
were the only commenters to discuss the
digital divide
at length, which was an issue I raised toward the end of my response last week. Few had the opportunity to escape to the comfort and challenge provided by computers in the 80’s and 90’s, and even today there are entire communities where computers and the Internet barely exist, or are non-existent.
Considering the focus of “Manifesto,” it’s no surprise that a debate concerning education erupted.
[Analog] lamented
what he feels is the decline of a fascination with learning in the hacker community, but notes that the maker movement seems to have rekindled that passion, and
[Talon] offers his perspective as a teacher
.
There are several contributions and responses worthy of a mention. I encourage you to peruse the
rest of the comments
.
I. Why did I choose this week’s reading:
The Hacker Crackdown
?
The Hacker Crackdown
provides an excellent snapshot of hacker culture in the early 90’s, particularly as it concerns early cybercrime. In the first installment of Hacking & Philosophy, many of you replied that you’d rather discuss hacking in terms of creating and innovating rather than hacking-as-illegal activity, but we should be well-read in the latter area for a few reasons. First, I believe the hacker-as-maker and hacker-as-criminal connection is impossible to sever. It’s important to know which events led news coverage and popular culture to affix these negative connotations. Second, you’ll be better equipped to define “hacking” by contrasting your understanding of the term to the events in
Hacker Crackdown
. Also, I believe this was one of the first books to be offered by its author for free online.
II. Who is the Author?
If you picked up a physical copy of
The Hacker Crackdown
, you’ve probably noticed that it’s missing something: references. There’s no bibliography, works cited, or even footnotes. That doesn’t mean it isn’t worth reading. I suspect most if not all of it is quite accurate. It’s been freely available online for 19 years and I haven’t encountered any criticism.
You should be aware that
the author [Bruce Sterling]
is a science fiction writer, and
The Hacker Crackdown
is largely aimed at general audiences. Scholars aren’t the only ones who write important books. [Sterling] is primarily a storyteller so you should expect plenty of exposition in
Hacker Crackdown
as he recounts important hacking events of the 80’s and 90’s. That’s his style, and that’s okay.
III. What’s important?
Keep in mind that this book was published in 1992, when the World Wide Web had just emerged, and the commercialization of the Internet had yet to happen. [Sterling] calls the
Electronic Frontier Foundation
“a new and very odd interest group,” without further clarification in the introduction, perhaps indicating how bizarre the idea of “digital rights” may have been to an early 90’s audience.
[1]
These days (and perhaps especially considering the [Snowden] leaks) the
EFF frequents not only tech news headlines but pops up almost everywhere
.
The first chapter, “Crashing the System,” is primarily a brief history lesson to catch everyone up on some terminology and inner-workings of telecommunication systems. During the Graham Bell section, [Sterling] presents four stages of “the technological life cycle:”
The Question Mark, or Golden Vaporware
The Goofy Prototype
The Cash Cow
The “Dog” or Death
The stages seem to parallel the
“Technology life cycle” Wikipedia entry
, which has no real references to explain who developed this description. [Sterling’s] appears to be his own invention, and provides a basic framework that’s accessible to non-technical readers. Maybe someone can explain the origin of or provide some context for these life cycles.
I do, however, question the extent of “death” that occurs in the [Sterling’s] final life cycle phase. There’s no real discussion of other “deaths” or what causes them, and his use of the term “technology” is quite broad. A few years after
Hacker Crackdown
, [Sterling] started “
The Dead Media Project
” to chronicle outdated technologies, and composed a companion piece: the “
Dead Media Manifesto.
” Here he calls for the documentation of outdated technology and even “hideous media mistakes.” The result is an impressive list of around 600 different obsolete “technologies.” (It’s probably worth a chuckle to learn that the list of obsolete tech was built and circulated via a mailing list: which, according to Wikipedia, lost momentum and died in 2001, thus ending the project).
In
Convergence Culture
, [Henry Jenkins] challenges [Sterling’s] concepts of death in technology, drawing a distinction between “delivery systems” and “media/mediums:”
The 8-track, the Beta tape. These are what media scholars call
delivery technologies.
Most of what Sterling’s project lists falls under this category. Delivery technologies become obsolete and get replaced; media, on the other hand, evolve. Recorded sound is the medium. CDs, MP3 files, and 8-track cassettes are delivery technologies. [2]
The key difference is that mediums retain flexibility and resist expiration:
A medium’s content may shift, (as occurred when television displaced radio as a storytelling medium, freeing radio to become the primary showcase for rock and roll), its audience may change (as occurs when comics move from a mainstream medium in the 1950s to a niche medium today), and its social status may rise or fall (as occurs when theater moves from a popular form to an elite one), but once a medium establishes itself as satisfying some core human demand, it continues to function within the larger system of communication options. [3]
[Sterling] claims “the telephone has so far avoided this fate [of death],” but I’m not sure it was ever at risk. Is the telephone a medium or a technology? Considering the developments and adaptations from simple phone calls to the implementation of the Internet that [Sterling] chronicles, it would appear that he’s describing a form of media. (There’s also the added confusion that he’s set up these stages as a life
cycle,
which would imply some form of rebirth.)
My final criticism is that [Sterling] doesn’t quite do an adequate job explaining the shifting public opinion toward Ma Bell. We’re told that the “public service” image deteriorates, but without any real context aside from “Vail’s industrial socialism had become hopelessly out of fashion politically.”
[4]
Though [Sterling] had previously mentioned Ma Bell’s public demonstrations of burning the property of rebellious, illegal phone companies, he is not clear whether this or other actions contribute to tarnishing the corporate giant’s image.
IV. Questions for this week
What parallels, if any, did you see between the reading for this week and last week’s “Manifesto?” [The Mentor] is writing during this era that [Sterling] describes. Does the content of “Manifesto” correspond to [Sterling’s] depiction of “clever teenage boys?”
[5]
[Sterling] notes that “community” and “communication” have the same Latin root as way to explain telecommunications turf wars.
[6]
Communication networks lead to the formation of communities, and removal of those networks harms the community, causing backlash. Are there any important contemporary examples of threatened networks and do they respond in the same way?
Early in the introduction [Sterling] attempts to map out the distinction between “real,” “cyberspace,” and “place.” His presentation is adequate, explaining that cyberspace is “the place between the phones,” but further down on the same page he claims “people live in it now.”
[7]
How are we living “between?” I’m not looking for a casual response, but one that seriously considers what spaces are occupied, and how we are engaged there. Do we “exist” in two places? Is it just our brains firing in response to stimuli? Even so, how do we make sense of non-actual places?
I suspect one of our readers worked for AT&T in the 80’s during the events [Sterling] discusses. Anyone have an insider’s perspective on the outages?
As a side note to question 3: We shouldn’t expect [Sterling] to invoke [Deleuze] in his discussion of cyberspace, but I wanted to. For hours I agonized over composing one paragraph to succinctly explain
[Deleuze’s notion of virtuality]
. I’ve instead decided to put a pin in it: virtuality deserves an entire article (and probably at least one article on immanence). If, however, you’re comfortable with [Deleuze’s] notion of “the real”, “the actual” and “the virtual” and you’re eager for a conversation about cyberspace and Deleuzian virtuality, please do so in the comments. Otherwise, we’ll make time for it soon.
NEXT WEEK:
Continue reading
[Sterling’s]
Hacker Crackdown
:
Part 2: The Digital Underground.
NOTES:
[1] Bruce Sterling, The Hacker Crackdown, (New York: Bantam Books, 1992), xiv.
[2] Henry Jenkins,
Convergence Culture,
(New York: New York University Press, 2006), 13.
[3] Ibid, 14.
[4] Sterling, 19.
[5] Ibid, 19.
[6] Ibid, 15-16.
[7] Ibid, xii.
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 | 6 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "1098686",
"author": "thoriumbr",
"timestamp": "2013-11-11T19:09:30",
"content": "It’s a very good book, I’ve read it in the nineties. Explains a lot of things, and tries to look at both sides of the history. I think I am going to read it again.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": ... | 1,760,376,402.087889 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/11/11/diy-cnc-rotary-4th-axis/ | DIY CNC Rotary 4th Axis | James Hobson | [
"cnc hacks"
] | [
"CNC rotary axis",
"DIY 4th axis",
"rotary axis"
] | Here’s a great CNC hack that adds a ton of functionality,
a DIY rotary 4th axis!
[Jim] had started this project over a year ago when he originally ordered the gearhead off eBay, but like many good intentions, sometimes projects just get pushed to the back burner until necessity forces action. That necessity was entering our
Trinket Contest
, and he decided to finish it off just so he could put a HaD logo on a piece of PVC for us!
Unfortunately it took him a bit too long, and he only finished it last week — but luckily he had a fallback plan, and submitted his CNC Etch a Sketch project instead, which
won him a Trinket anyway!
The 4th axis uses a 276oz-in stepper motor which is directly coupled to a Harmonic Drive Systems 11:1 planetary gearhead. It’s extremely accurate, has minimal backlash, and by using a 10 microstepping Gecko stepper drive, [Jim] is getting about 61 steps per degree of rotation. Not bad for a home-made setup!
Check out his blog for a great write up on the project, and s
tick around after the break to see the 4th axis in action. | 31 | 13 | [
{
"comment_id": "1098505",
"author": "medix",
"timestamp": "2013-11-11T15:12:47",
"content": "Nice build, but definitely *not* a planetary gear head as described. This looks to be a harmonic drive:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harmonic_drive",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
... | 1,760,376,402.205753 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/11/11/robotic-sloth-haunts-your-dreams/ | Robotic Sloth Haunts Your Dreams | James Hobson | [
"Toy Hacks"
] | [
"lego",
"mindstorms",
"robotic sloth"
] | Have you ever seen a wet sloth? They’re pretty scary. If that’s not bad enough, how do you feel about a
robotic one?
Named the X-4 “Sloth”, this is one of [222Doc’s] hardest projects to date — a highly experimental quadra-ped that can climb up and across ladders. It makes use of a Lego Mindstorms NXT controller, 8 servo motors for the joints, 4 Power Function Motors for the hands, and a whole lot of Lego. Due to the number of motors, he also had to multiplex the Power Function servos to make it all work!
Sure, it’s Lego, but it was far from an easy project, as [222Doc] estimates he spent well over a hundred hours on it, and it still isn’t complete. He says he’ll never say to himself “this will be easy…” ever again.
Stick around after the break to see it scale this ladder — we wish they sped up the video though, it appears the movement speed is modeled after a real sloth…
[Via
Make
] | 52 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "1098387",
"author": "kommune78",
"timestamp": "2013-11-11T12:27:28",
"content": "Again, uses stolen Music, cannot be watched in Germany. When will people learn not to steal and use CC Music?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "109... | 1,760,376,402.32955 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/11/11/bluetooth-audio-adapter-hacked-to-switch-off-amplified-speakers/ | Bluetooth Audio Adapter Hacked To Switch Off Amplified Speakers | Mike Szczys | [
"digital audio hacks"
] | [
"amp",
"bluetooth",
"mosfet",
"speakers"
] | This Bluetooth Audio Adapter is meant to connect a Bluetooth audio source (like a smartphone or tablet) to a speaker system with a plain old line-in connection. It has the ability to automatically connection when the Bluetooth device comes into range. Sounds convenient until [Andreas Pösch] points out that he still has to switch the speakers on and off manually. This hack
automates the entire thing
using a bit of additional hardware.
If you look closely you’ll see that the black cables have barrel jacks. This is a power pass-through rig that he whipped up. The protoboard includes a 7805 linear regulator which feeds power to the green circuit board in lieu of it’s original power adapter. A MOSFET switches outbound power headed for the speakers. All of it fits inside of the original enclosure, and he only had to add one port for the AC adapter.
This would be absolutely
perfect for an antique radio retrofit
. One of these adapters can be had for just over thirty bucks! | 21 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "1098331",
"author": "kommune78",
"timestamp": "2013-11-11T11:06:27",
"content": "30 Bucks? Mine in a USB Stick shape was 5 Bucks and works like a charm both with Apple and Android Devices.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "10984... | 1,760,376,402.396539 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/11/10/self-balancing-robot-keeps-getting-more-features/ | Self-Balancing Robot Keeps Getting More Features | Mike Szczys | [
"Raspberry Pi",
"Robots Hacks"
] | [
"opencv",
"RPi",
"Self Balancing Robot"
] | It’s a lot of fun to see a self-balancing robot project. Rarely do they go much further than being able to keep themselves upright while being piloted remotely and annoyingly shoved by their creator as proof of their ability to remain standing on two wheels. This little anthropomorphic guy
is the exception to the rule
. It’s the product of [Samuel Matos] who says he didn’t have a specific purpose in mind, but just kept adding features as they came to him.
Starting with a couple of carbon fiber plates [Samuel] cut the design by hand, using stand-offs to mount the NEMA 17 stepper motors and to connect the two halves of the chassis. It looks like he used some leftover material to make a nice little stand which is nice when coding at his desk as seen above. There’s also a carbon-fiber mask which makes up the face atop an articulated neck. It has two ultrasonic range-finding sensors as eyes, and the Raspberry Pi camera module as the nose. The RPi board powerful enough to run OpenCV which has kept [Samuel] busy. He set up a course in his living room containing tags directing where the little guy should go. It can also follow a tennis ball as it rolls around the room. What we found most impressive in the clip after the break is its ability to locate the next tag after making a turn.
[via
Adafruit
] | 18 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "1098190",
"author": "Victor Frost",
"timestamp": "2013-11-11T07:29:05",
"content": "Awwww, it’s downright adorable.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1098228",
"author": "tofuwurst",
"timestamp": "2013-11-11T08:19:20",
... | 1,760,376,404.557173 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/11/10/rfid-door-access-robot/ | RFID Door Access Robot | James Hobson | [
"Hackerspaces",
"hardware"
] | [
"door robot",
"hackerspace",
"lansing maker network",
"Radio-frequency identification"
] | We love hackerspaces. Some of the most innovative solutions come from them thanks to having like-minded people all hanging out in the same place. Just take a look at this awesome
RFID door system
from the Lansing Makers Network that doesn’t require any modification of the door.
The majority of the mechanism was previously a model draw bridge that the space purchased from a surplus store — it just needed a bit of hacking. Almost all members of the space had some part in the project, whenever the build hit a snag, another member always had the right solution. It works by using a windshield motor that tightens a seatbelt around the push-bar latch of the door — the beauty of the system is it is completely non-damaging to the door, and the door works exactly the same as before. The whole system is controlled by RFID tags, which the members have as keys to the space.
It’s an awesome project and [Brian] has written a really great write-up on it, which also happens to segue nicely into the topic of hackerspaces. He describes hackerspaces as
the Wikipedia of real life, and everything else here [tools, equipment, resources] is just the lure that pulls us all together.
Stick around after the break to see the mechanism in action!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=blJulmDmmYE | 6 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "1098041",
"author": "vonskippy",
"timestamp": "2013-11-11T03:36:06",
"content": "And their website wilts at the first hint of traffic. How can something hosted on a MI State Uni network die so fast? Maybe the Arduino that controls their front door also hosts their website?",
"... | 1,760,376,404.598276 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/11/10/hackaday-links-november-10-2013/ | Hackaday Links: November 10, 2013 | Brian Benchoff | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"Hackaday links"
] | [
"altoids",
"HP",
"msp430",
"multimeter",
"pcb",
"ps4",
"ps4 camera",
"teardown",
"troll physics"
] | [Henryk Gasperowicz], the wizard of electrons who makes LEDs glow for no apparent reason, has put up
another one of his troll physics circuits
. We have no idea how he does it (he does say he’s using wireless energy transmission)
so a few solution videos would be cool, [Henryk].
Altoids tins make great electronic enclosures, but how about
designing your PCBs to fit mint and gum containers
? Here’s a Trident USBASP, a tiny Tic Tac ISP thingy, and a Mentos USB to JTAG interface.
By the end of this week, the PS4 will be out, along with the new PS4 camera. It’s a great camera – 1280×800 at 60Hz – but unless someone develops a driver for it, it shall forever remain tethered to a PS4. Luckily,
there’s a project to develop a PS4 camera driver
, so if you have some USB 3.0 experience, give it a shot.
Multimeter teardowns?
[David]’s got multimeter teardowns
. It’s an HP 3455A, a huge bench top unit from the 80s. This is, or was, pro equipment and strange esoteric components definitely make a showing. ±0.01% resistors? Yep.
Part two
has some pics of the guts and a whole ton of logic.
The US Air Force Academy just moved their embedded systems course over to the MSP430. Course director [Capt Todd Branchflower]
just put all the course materials online
, with the notes, datasheets, and labs
available on Github. | 18 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "1097989",
"author": "qwerty",
"timestamp": "2013-11-11T01:33:45",
"content": "Spam meat cans are among the best enclosures for radio frequency and other projects, just the right size and shape for a lot of stuff. Who knew spam had some useful purposes?:)The way the guy does solder j... | 1,760,376,404.344927 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/11/09/detect-disguises-with-a-raspberry-pi/ | Detect Disguises With A Raspberry Pi | Adam Fabio | [
"Security Hacks"
] | [
"Face detection",
"Melexis",
"opencv",
"raspberry pi"
] | Computer vision based face detection systems are getting better every day. Authorities have been using face detection and criminal databases for several years now. But what if a person being detected is wearing a mask? High quality masks have been making their way out of Hollywood and into the mainstream. It isn’t too far-fetched to expect someone to try to avoid detection using such a mask. To combat this,
[Neil] has created a system which detects face masks
.
The idea is actually rather simple. The human face has a well-defined heat signature. A mask will not have the same signature. Even when worn for hours, a mask still won’t mimic the infrared signature of the human face. The best tool for this sort of job would be a
high resolution thermal imaging camera
. These cameras are still relatively expensive, so [Neil] used a
Melexis MLX90620
64×8
16×4 array sensor. The Melexis sensor is interfaced to an Arduino nano which then connects to a Raspberry Pi via serial.
The Raspberry Pi uses a Pi camera to acquire an image. OpenCV’s face detection is then used to search for faces. If a face is detected, the data from the Melexis sensor is then brought into play. In [Neil’s] proof of concept system, a temperature variance over ambient is all that is needed to detect a real face vs a fake one. As can be seen in the video after the break, the system works rather well. Considering the current climate of government surveillance, we’re both excited and a bit apprehensive to see where this technology will see real world use. | 17 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "1096761",
"author": "Truth",
"timestamp": "2013-11-10T00:41:50",
"content": "MLX90620 is 16×4. Where did you get 64×8 I can’t see that he is using 8 sensors which would explain your 64×8 ? It is late where I am may I’m missing something.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
... | 1,760,376,404.065971 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/11/09/transmitting-data-with-a-pi-and-rtl-sdr/ | Transmitting Data With A Pi And RTL-SDR | Brian Benchoff | [
"Radio Hacks"
] | [
"radio",
"raspberry pi",
"RTL-SDR",
"RTLSDR"
] | Sometimes the best builds aren’t anything new, but rather combining two well-developed hacks. [Marc] was familiar with RTL-SDR, the $30 USB TV tuner come software defined radio, but was surprised no one had yet combined this cheap radio dongle with the ability to transmit radio from a Raspberry Pi.
[Marc] combined these two builds
and came up with the cheapest portable radio modem for the Raspberry Pi.
Turning the Raspi into a transmitter
isn’t really that hard
; it only requires a 20cm wire inserted into a GPIO pin, then toggling this pin at about 100 MHz. This resulting signal can be picked up fifty meters away, and through walls, even.
[Marc] combined this radio transmitter with
minimodem
, a program that generates audio modem tones at the required baud rate. Data is encoded in this audio stream, sent over the air, and decoded again with an RTL-SDR dongle.
It’s nothing new, per se, but if you’re looking for a short-range, low-bandwidth wireless connection between a computer and a Raspberry Pi, this is most certainly the easiest and cheapest method. | 31 | 16 | [
{
"comment_id": "1096584",
"author": "Mansour",
"timestamp": "2013-11-09T21:53:14",
"content": "Interesting hack, especially the transmitter which I hadn’t seen before.However, easiest and cheapest? How about nRF24L01+? Sells for $3 a pair on eBay and can transmit and receive on both ends at up to 2... | 1,760,376,404.502947 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/11/09/hhh-delta-cnc-mill/ | HHH: Delta CNC Mill | Mike Szczys | [
"cnc hacks"
] | [
"delta bot",
"hackaday hackerspace henchmen",
"investment casting"
] | [Dan] wrote in to show off
the delta-bot CNC mill which he and some buddies got up and running
over the course of about two weeks. The team from Mad Fellows — a hackerspace in Prescott, Arizona — put their heads together and managed to build the thing from mostly parts-on-hand. Would you believe they’re only out-of-pocket about $100 in new materials?
After a bit of modeling work they started scavenging for parts, recovering most of the acrylic stock from dead LCD monitors. But there are many parts like the stepper motors, precision rods, bearings, belts, and pulleys that can’t or shouldn’t be salvaged in order to end up with a reasonably solid machine tool. We like [Dan’s] tip that the parts should be screwed together as gluing them would be problematic when it comes time to replace broken components.
You may be wondering about the strength of a delta-bot for milling. The purpose of the build is to make molds for investment casting. The lost-material (we don’t know if it’s wax or something else) is quite easy to machine and you can see in the clip after the jump that the mill does a great job. But they also did some tests on aluminum and apparently it’s not a problem.
The
CNC version of HHH
is over, so why are we posting this now? We messed up. [Dan] sent in a qualifying entry before the deadline and somehow we let it slip through the cracks. Sorry [Dan]! Better late than never — we’ll get a T-shirt in the mail right away. | 3 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "1096383",
"author": "David S",
"timestamp": "2013-11-09T18:22:00",
"content": "Any info on the spindle or mounting of the spindle?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1096677",
"author": "Dan",
"timestamp": "2013-1... | 1,760,376,404.440593 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/11/09/robots-of-barbot-2013/ | Robots Of BarBot 2013 | James Hobson | [
"cooking hacks"
] | [
"barbot",
"barbot 2013",
"bartender",
"evilmadscientist",
"robot"
] | Here’s an amazing conference we really wish we could have been at —
Barbot 2013
: a celebration of booze serving robotic masterpieces.
Lucky for us though, the folks over at Evil Mad Scientist did have the opportunity to attend — and they took lots of pictures. There is just so much awesome it is hard to pick our favorite barbot, but the one shown above is definitely a contender. It’s the Schrödinger’s Martini. While the box is closed, the amount of vermouth poured is indeterminate until observed. Classic.
Another one that popped out at us was the 500SW, which became more affectionately known as
Dance Dance Intoxication
, which apparently judged you based on your dancing skills and then poured you a drink — appropriate to your moves.
Click through and see for yourself, but here’s a couple other related posts from our past, remember the
Cooler Master Advanced Beer Delivery System?
How about the amazing conveyor belt driven, alcohol dispensing
Inebriator?
There are just so many ways to have fun with the concept it’s hard
not
to try your hand at building one at home. | 5 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "1096258",
"author": "Blake",
"timestamp": "2013-11-09T15:52:14",
"content": "Looks cool. Is this really a “cooking hack”, though?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1096456",
"author": "echodelta",
"timestamp": "2013-11-09T... | 1,760,376,404.645726 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/11/09/constructable-interactive-laser-cutting/ | Constructable: Interactive Laser Cutting | James Hobson | [
"Laser Hacks"
] | [
"constructable",
"Hasso Plattner Institute",
"interactive laser cutting",
"laser cutter",
"Laser cutting",
"laserorigami"
] | Do you miss the old days of making things by hand, without the aid of a computer? Do you remember actually drafting drawings by hand? Well, the folks over at the Human-Computer Interaction group from the Hasso Plattner Institute have come up with a rather novel idea, combining manual input via laser pointers,
to cut designs with a laser cutter.
Sound familiar? A few days ago we shared another cool project on
Laser Origami
from the same people.
So what exactly is it? It’s an interactive drafting table which can produce very precise physical outputs from a rather imprecise input method. By using specific laser pointers, the user can instruct the laser cutter to cut, trace, or etch designs into the workpiece. A camera picks up the laser pointer and then the software cleans it up, by straightening lines, connecting the dots, etc. While only so much can be determined by the included video, it’s pretty impressive to see what the software comes up with while cutting the design… We can’t really imagine the programming behind it!
Between this and
PACCAM: Interactive 2D Part Packing
, it looks like laser cutting is going to get a whole lot more user friendly! Stick around after the break to see it in action, the results are quite impressive! | 7 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "1096125",
"author": "K!P",
"timestamp": "2013-11-09T12:31:55",
"content": "cool tech, however it seems over complicated. CAD exits for a reason? How does one make accurate measurements.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1096183"... | 1,760,376,404.280989 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/11/09/full-size-mri-machine-replica/ | Full-size MRI Machine Replica | James Hobson | [
"cnc hacks",
"Hackerspaces"
] | [
"CNC router",
"Magnetic resonance imaging",
"replica mri machine",
"university of washington"
] | It’s been a bit dusty lately in Seattle’s Metrix Create:Space. That’s because they’ve taken on their biggest project yet —
a full scale replica of an MRI machine for university research.
[Tom Grabowski], a professor of Radiology & Neurology at the University of Washington, needed a replica MRI machine. This is because time on real MRI machines is very expensive, and when performing research on Autism, it is important to get the test subjects used to the process before using the real deal. He originally turned to the Center for Human Development and Disability, also at the University of Washington, but the project was just simply too big for their facilities. He did however get to meet a fellow researcher named [Fritz] who then contacted Metrix to see if it was possible, and like any good hackers, the members of the space were more than up for the challenge.
The replica MRI machine is made out 2″ thick, 4′ by 8′ foam insulation sheets, which is the maximum size their router can handle. Not having made use of the 3D z-cutting capabilities before, they had a bit of learning to do, but as you can see from the pictures, it worked out quite well. Over a few weeks they were able to construct the general shape of the MRI machine, and finish the surface nicely — it’s far from complete though, as they might even be adding lights and other features to make it one heck of a replica. It’s a great project, and those who have helped are happy to do so as the replica will benefit not only [Tom] but many other researchers at UW — for science, yeah! | 15 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "1095922",
"author": "Joost",
"timestamp": "2013-11-09T09:21:01",
"content": "Wouldn’t the original MRI supplier be kind enough to supply only the plastic shell part for a decent price?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1095926",
... | 1,760,376,404.401533 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/11/08/3d-printed-velcro/ | 3D Printed Velcro | Brian Benchoff | [
"3d Printer hacks"
] | [
"FlexPLA",
"hook and loop",
"PLA",
"velcro"
] | With new materials comes new possibilities in fabrication, and with 3D printers, this observation is no different. In the past year or so, there have been a few very interesting new filaments that have come into mainstream use – a printable sandstone, high impact polystyrene, and a flexible PLA. When [Rich] saw a bike light that had an integrated hook-and-loop fastener – think Velcro – built in to its enclosure, he thought to himself, ‘
I could do that too
.’
[Rich]’s “ElastoStraps” are printed with Makergeek’s
Flexible PLA
, and the entire device works surprisingly similar to other hook and loop fasteners with a registered trademark. The design is
up on Thingiverse
, and since the object was designed with OpenSCAD, the 3D printed Velcro can also be
opened up in the Customizer
for hook-and-loop straps that perfectly suit your needs. | 2 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "1096358",
"author": "Eirinn",
"timestamp": "2013-11-09T17:54:25",
"content": "Doesn’t require new materials. This one has been out for ages :)http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:12798",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1096371",
"... | 1,760,376,404.233718 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/11/08/freesides-infinity-portal/ | Freeside’s Infinity Portal | Marsh | [
"Arduino Hacks",
"Hackerspaces",
"Laser Hacks",
"LED Hacks",
"Microcontrollers"
] | [
"freeside atlanta",
"infinity mirror",
"RGB LED",
"Teensy 3.0"
] | If infinity mirrors aren’t cool enough, the
10-foot-tall infinity
portal
should blow you away. Strictly speaking, the mirror itself is only 7’x4′, but you’ll still find yourself engulfed in the archway. The portal began as a simple prototype that
we covered earlier this summer
, which was just a frame of 2×4’s, some acrylic and LED strips. It works by putting lights between a two-way mirror and another mirror, reflecting most light internally and creating the illusion of depth.
The giant archway also began as a small-scale prototype, its shape and engravings carved out by a laser cutter. Once they were satisfied with its design, it was time to scale things up. The full-sized portal needed a a tremendous amount of stability, so the guys at Freeside built the base from wooden palettes. They needed the portal to travel to a few different venues, so the rest of the frame breaks down into components, including a removable wooden frame from which the acrylic hangs. A Teensy 3.0 runs all the WS2812 LED strips, which were chosen because each of their LEDs is individually addressable.
Check out the video below for an extremely detailed build log, which should give you a better idea of how massive and impressive this portal really is! | 11 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "1095655",
"author": "Ryan Voots",
"timestamp": "2013-11-09T03:22:03",
"content": "This gave me an idea that I think could be cool. Use the infinity mirror idea and set it up so there’s two sets of leds, one blue one orange that manage to only show up alternatingly. I think it coul... | 1,760,376,404.700226 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/11/08/rc-tractor-build/ | RC Tractor Build | James Hobson | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"rc tractor",
"robot tractor"
] | [Rémi] is an engineer in France who runs his own little plasma cutting shop where he designs and manufactures custom projects for people. His latest project is this very slick
remote controlled tractor.
It makes use of two 350W motors running at 24V, powered off of two 12V lead acid gel cells. The entire frame was designed in 3D CAD and then cut to shape using a plasma cutter. It was designed to tow small farm equipment around, or to turn mowing the lawn into a fun game that can be performed from the comforts of your lounge chair, while sipping a cold drink.
The reason we’re sharing this is because [Rémi] made an excellent video of fabrication and build of this project — So stick around after the break and enjoy! But be warned, watching the video may induce certain desires for owning a personal plasma cutter. Oh the possibilities! | 18 | 14 | [
{
"comment_id": "1095489",
"author": "tjb1",
"timestamp": "2013-11-09T00:18:36",
"content": "Yeah, super good video….Maybe for someone into editing techniques and other crap.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1095494",
"author": "Matt",
"t... | 1,760,376,405.518662 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/11/08/trinket-contest-winners/ | Trinket Contest Winners | Mike Szczys | [
"contests",
"Featured"
] | [
"trinket contest"
] | Originally Adafruit
offered us 20 boards to give away
. But when we had so many interesting submissions they were kind enough to throw in some more. We took them up on it, eventually choosing 41 winners… and believe us when we say it was difficult to whittle it down to that number! Thank you to all who took the time and made the effort to send something in.
Organizationally it’s been a challenge keeping all of the submissions straight. That’s why the presentation of the top entries is listed as a set of galleries. More info on each is available on their associated update posts. Congratulations to all! We want to do more giveaways in this same spirit (with different prize hardware and submission themes each time). If you’re interested in that please let us leave your words of encouragement in the comments.
From Update #1
From Update #2
From Update #3
From Update #4
From Update #5
From Update #6
From Update #7 | 29 | 19 | [
{
"comment_id": "1095415",
"author": "zuul",
"timestamp": "2013-11-08T23:17:12",
"content": "wow 41 winners, thanks hackaday and adafruit",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1095548",
"author": "Josh Martin",
"timestamp": "2013-11-... | 1,760,376,405.833305 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/11/08/tricking-a-usb-power-supply/ | Tricking A USB Power Supply | James Hobson | [
"Microcontrollers"
] | [
"battery pack load",
"usb power supply"
] | [Paul] recently purchased an inexpensive USB power pack, hoping to use it for powering small electronics projects. Unfortunately it has been designed to only stay on when a device is drawing a lot of power (like charging a cell phone),
so he set out to fix it.
He started by experimenting to see just how much current is required to keep the battery pack on, and for how long. Testing a few resistors he discovered that a 22 ohm one will keep the power supply on indefinitely. If there’s no load, it only remains powered on for about 13 seconds. Now you can’t just hook up the 22 ohm resistor to a 5V power supply for the sake of keeping it on — that would draw 1.1watts and get very hot!
His next step was to determine how long the load needs to be on for, and at what interval in order to keep the power supply active. He created a test circuit using a Teensy microcontroller and determined that a 20ms pulse every 1.4 seconds was enough to keep it on — any less and it would switch off after a few minutes. The
final transistor based circuit
draws about 222mA — but at a 1.6% duty cycle, resulting in only a 3.5mA draw! [Paul] suspects the switching power supply inside battery pack probably draws more than that! He can’t take all the credit though, he learned of the idea from a
forum post
— but he certainly has made a very nice write up for people to follow in his footsteps!
Now that’s a good old fashioned product hack! | 31 | 12 | [
{
"comment_id": "1095253",
"author": "ejonesss",
"timestamp": "2013-11-08T21:20:38",
"content": "couldnt you just crack it open and connect wires directly to the internal battery?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1095269",
"author": "rj... | 1,760,376,405.744665 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/11/08/a-new-old-lathe-for-your-hackerspace-or-garage/ | A New Old Lathe For Your Hackerspace Or Garage | Jeremy Cook | [
"classic hacks",
"cnc hacks",
"Featured"
] | [
"lathe",
"Machine tool",
"wood"
] | 3D printers, or even small CNC routers may seem like relatively easy
machine tools to obtain for your hackerspace or garage. They are both very useful, but at some point you may want to start working with round parts (or convert square-ish items into round parts). For this, there is no better tool than a lathe. You can buy a small and relatively cheap lathe off of any number of distributors, but what if you were to get a good deal on a larger lathe? Where would you even start?
In my case, I was offered a lathe by a shop that no longer had a use for it. Weighing in at 800 pounds and using 3 phase power, this South Bend Lathe might have been obtained economically, but getting it running in my garage seemed like it would be a real challenge. It definitely was, but there are a few mistakes that I’ve made that hopefully you can avoid.
The first challenge that one might think about is how exactly to get it to your “place of hack.” Where I picked it up was happy to load it onto my 2006 Toyota Tacoma with a forklift. Fortunately, they had a truck scale there, so I was able to make sure I wasn’t over weight capacity. The truck was certainly loaded down, but made the nearly 600 mile journey without incident, ratcheted securely to my truck bed.
The lathe almost ready for transport
I live on top of a hill, and my driveway is quite steep, so that seemed like it would be a challenge in itself. Following a suggestion, I called a local tow truck company, who picked it off the bed with their winch and moved it into the garage. I had no idea, but apparently they do this kind of thing on a semi-regular basis.
The second big challenge was getting a motor to fit and
run my lathe off of 120 Volts AC.
I’m not an expert in motor sizing, but fortunately the fit is somewhat standardized. The motor that came with it was sized as “56C.” What this means is that any other 56C motor should reasonably fit the same mounting pattern and size as another of this type. I suppose there are many sources of motors like this (Ebay, etc), but I bought one from
AutomationDirect.com
, as I had experience with them, and their prices are relatively cheap. Additionally, the head guy there has (or had as of 5 years ago) a full-sized mold of Han Solo in carbonite in his office, so that can’t be a bad thing…
When the motor arrived, the AD model had a slightly larger footprint
than the Leeson model I was taking out. This would normally not have been a problem, but there was a dowel pin interfering with the larger plate. After some work with a Dremel tool, I finally got everything to fit. Wiring everything in to get it to run wasn’t that hard, but one definitely needs to consult the manual that comes with the motor to get things correct. That has been good enough for my needs so far, but setting it up to reverse is low on my projects list. If you want to do this, there’s a great discussion about wiring a lathe
on this practical machinist thread
.
Not really functional…
Link belt – much better!
Besides getting the motor to run, to get this lathe working even a little, I needed a functional belt.
As seen above, what it came with was broken. I originally tried using a serpentine belt via several methods of attachment. These included superglue, fishing line, and knots, but I eventually gave up on joining the “order of the serpentine.” Instead, I ordered something called a “link belt” Which is literally a bunch of links fashioned into a belt. There’s some more information on
my trial-and-error process here
. After nearly a year of use, it looks like this was a good choice.
Tree + lathe and stain/urethane = napkin holders
I’ve done some really cool projects with this lathe, including some
bike handlebar grips
and
napkin holders
made from small trees that I chopped down. It really feels awesome to subjugate nature to your will like that. Below is a time-lapse of one of my first cuts with my lathe, and a stop-motion video I made with an
LED enabled natural edge mushroom
that I turned.
The lathe is a great tool, but
there are still some things that I could do to it to make it even better. The slides could use some work, and generally aligning everything would certainly make it perform more accurately. Obviously, the wiring could use some attention as well. Not being a professional electrician, I couldn’t vouch for my work, even if I wanted to, so please do your research if attempting this. Finally, stripping and giving it a new coat of paint would make it look much better.
If you do decide to get your own lathe, please be safe with it. A dust mask or respirator is needed for woodworking so you don’t inhale wood particles. Additionally, safety glasses should be used, and long hair tied up. Finally, don’t wear rings or gloves while using this tool. Like long hair, they can get caught up in the spindle.
There is a good chance I’ve missed something
, safety-wise, setup, or otherwise. This is a hobby of mine, but I don’t claim to be an expert. Please use your own good judgment and/or consult an actual expert if you’d like to attempt this! This wasn’t an easy project, but it is definitely something that can be done with a little planning and work.
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
. | 51 | 24 | [
{
"comment_id": "1095058",
"author": "BrantH",
"timestamp": "2013-11-08T18:21:05",
"content": "Great article! We’ve had similar challenges and successes at Milwaukee Makerspace with our South Bend lathe, but we use it for metal. The hope is to dedicate one to the wood shop soon. The link belt see... | 1,760,376,405.353203 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/11/08/wireless-encryption-between-galileo-and-a-msp430/ | Wireless Encryption Between Galileo And A MSP430 | Mathieu Stephan | [
"hardware",
"Microcontrollers"
] | [
"aes",
"encryption",
"intel galileo",
"msp430",
"nRF24L01+",
"python"
] | [Mark] recently finished his latest project, where he
encrypts wireless communications
between the
new Intel Galileo
and a Texas Instruments MSP430. The wireless interfaces used are the very common nRF24L01+ 2.4GHz transceivers, that had a direct line of sight 15 feet range during [Mark]’s tests. In his demonstration, the MSP430 sends an encrypted block of data representing the state of six of its pins configured as inputs. This message is then received by a sketch running on the Galileo and stored in shared memory. A python script then wakes up and is in charge of decrypting the message. The encryption is done using AES-128bits in
Electronic Codebook mode
(ECB) and
semaphores
are used to prevent simultaneous accesses to the received data. As it is the first project using an Intel Galileo we received, don’t hesitate to
send us a tip
if you found other ones. | 11 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "1094838",
"author": "strider_mt2k",
"timestamp": "2013-11-08T15:07:53",
"content": "Fear not the depredations of those within 15 get of where you are communicating!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1094968",
"author": "lgrune... | 1,760,376,405.46495 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/11/08/why-you-shouldnt-care-about-the-all-metal-3d-printed-gun/ | Why You Shouldn’t Care About The All-Metal 3D Printed Gun | Brian Benchoff | [
"3d Printer hacks",
"Weapons Hacks"
] | [
"3d printed gun",
"gun",
"M1911",
"weapon"
] | Solid Concepts, one of the world’s largest rapid prototyping outfits,
just printed a gun
. Unlike previous 3D printed guns like the
Liberator
, this 3D printed version of an M1911 is made out of metal. It’s a real gun, with rifling in the barrel – something the Liberator doesn’t have – and has the look and feel of what the US military has been using as a service pistol for decades.
The Solid Concepts 1911 was made using the selective laser sintering process, using a combination of stainless steel and nickel-chromium alloys. Every single part of the gun, save for the spring, was 3D printed without any machining. It’s an impressive feat of rapid manufacturing – firing .45 ACP rounds, this gun will see 20,000 psi every time the gun is fired. It’s already chewed through a few magazines so far, and it apparently shoots pretty well, to boot.
Here’s why you shouldn’t care.
Solid Concepts business is to make things using rapid prototyping. They make everything from plastic baubles, tooling for injection molds, architectural models, and stuff that doesn’t get past the prototype stage. This 3D printed 1911 is simply a demonstration of Solid Concept’s capabilities, nothing more.
The printer used to manufacture this printer is an
EOS SLS printer
that costs many tens of thousands of dollars. Our limited research can’t pin the price of the printer down more than that, but let’s just say you could buy a very, very nice sports car for the same price, and we’re not talking about that awesome ‘vette down at the Chevy dealership.
This is just a neat little advertisement, that’s it. Someone at Solid Concepts realized if they made a gun using 3D printed parts, it would be picked up by blogs and wire services. They were right. It’s an excellent demo of what Solid Concepts’ capabilities are, but that’s just about it. You’re still not able to manufacture an M1911 on a desktop 3D printer, and even if you could, you could set up a machine shop in your garage and end up with a similar product for less money.
As an aside, and this is just me throwing an idea out there, can we
please
stop using guns as an example of what 3D printing can do? I respect your right to manufacture, own, and operate a gun, but as I write this paragraph, I’m cringing at the thought of all the pro and anti-gun comments this post will see.
If you’re looking for a way to demonstrate your 3D printing prowess, how about something like an engine? Given the right design, they’re more complicated than a gun, and a really small Wankel engine would be really cool.
Video of the Solid Concepts 1911 available below.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u7ZYKMBDm4M | 155 | 50 | [
{
"comment_id": "1094635",
"author": "XOIIO",
"timestamp": "2013-11-08T12:06:58",
"content": "3D printed metal gun? Better start banning makerbots!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1094647",
"author": "Drew",
"timestamp": "2013-... | 1,760,376,406.004299 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/11/08/linux-on-a-leapster-for-classic-video-game-emulation/ | Linux On A Leapster For Classic Video Game Emulation | Brian Benchoff | [
"Linux Hacks"
] | [
"emulator",
"emulators",
"Leapfrog",
"LeapsterGS",
"linux"
] | Christmas is coming, and if you have nieces, nephews, or ankle biters of your own roaming your house, you’re probably wondering how you’ll be subsidizing Santa this year. it looks like Toys R Us will be selling the Leapfrog LeapsterGS for $30 on Black Friday this year. It’s a Linux device running on a 550 MHz ARM 9, with 128 MB of RAM and 2 GB of Flash. Overpowered for a children’s toy, but perfect for when the kids forget about it in a month, because now you can
replace the firmware with a proper Linux install and run classic emulators
.
Putting Linux on these cheap handhelds made for children isn’t anything new; we’ve seen it done with the
Leapfrog DIDJ
and the
Leapfrog Explorer
. Those consoles, however, had rather anemic CPUs and not a whole lot of RAM. Moore’s Law finally kicked in for stocking stuffers, it seems, and the Leapster GS is powerful enough to play all those Nintendo, Game Boy and even MAME games.
All that’s needed to flash the new firmware is soldering a few wires onto the LeapsterGS’ board for a serial connection. The new LeapsterGS firmware even has an MP3 and movie player, so even if the recipient of one of these machines grows tired of it in a week, there’s still a lot of life left in it.
Video of the LeapsterGS playing the greatest arcade game below. | 20 | 14 | [
{
"comment_id": "1094437",
"author": "mixadj",
"timestamp": "2013-11-08T09:13:04",
"content": "You too can relive all those memories of being one of the few with an N-Gage. Just spray paint it black…..",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1094656",... | 1,760,376,406.054064 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/11/07/3d-printing-with-metal-at-home/ | 3D Printing With Metal… At Home! | James Hobson | [
"3d Printer hacks"
] | [
"3d printing metal",
"3d printing solder",
"lulzbot"
] | [Bam] from the
LulzBot forums has
successfully printed metal
using his 3D printer and a Budaschnozzle 1.1 hot end. Well, solder to be specific — but it’s still pretty awesome!
He’s making use of 3mm solder purchased from McMaster (76805a61), which has a blend of 95.8% tin, 4% copper and 0.2% silver. It took quite a few tries to get it extruding properly, and even now it seems to only be able to print about 15mm before jamming up — a more specific hot end with a larger thermal mass might help. He plans on trying a thinner filament (1.75mm) as it might help to keep it at the proper extrusion temperature, which in this case is around 235C.
During our research we found another user from the RepRap blog who has also been experimenting with printing low-melt point alloys — and he’s even successfully created an
Arduino compatible Sanguino board using the printer!
If you want to try this yourself, you’ll need a nozzle you don’t care about, bored out to about 1mm — any smaller and it won’t extrude at all. Be warned though, the solder will corrode brass and aluminum, and [Bam] notes that after going through 1lb of solder, the nozzle was closer to 2mm in diameter when he was done! Oh and for the love of hacking — use ventilation!
Stick around after the break to watch a video on a professional version of this system — which is essentially a repurposed welding robot, using electron beam direct manufacturing. These technologies can’t make nicely finished parts, but they excel when considering they can make near net-weight parts, requiring only a small amount of machining to finish.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A10XEZvkgbY
[via
LulzBot
] | 29 | 16 | [
{
"comment_id": "1094282",
"author": "Strahlex",
"timestamp": "2013-11-08T06:32:07",
"content": "I also tried this a year ago. (you can find it somewhere in the Austrian RepRap forums) The problem with this is the high surface tension. The tin always creates small drops. I used 99% tin 3mm solder wi... | 1,760,376,405.253155 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/11/07/gameboy-color-costume/ | GameBoy Color Costume | James Hobson | [
"Holiday Hacks",
"Toy Hacks"
] | [
"gameboy color costume",
"gameboy costume",
"Teensy"
] | Okay, okay. We know it’s November now, but when [John] sent this project in, we just had to share it. He made a fully functional
Gameboy Color costume!
The costume makes use of a Raspberry Pi (located on his back), running
RetroPie
, which is an open source project dedicated to creating a universal console emulator. To create the controllers he used two Teensy microcontrollers in his gloves, setup to emulate two USB keyboards on the Pi. Since he’s using Teensy 3.0, it supports capacitive touch sensing, so all he had to do was wire pieces of aluminum to the input pins to create touch-sensitive metal buttons on the gloves. He then slapped a cheap 10″ LCD from Adafruit onto his chest, stuffed a few 12V LiPo batteries in his pockets, and was ready to be the hit of any party he went to.
The costume was a great success, although a pesky pair of Mario and Luigi kept holding his hands all night… Stick around after the break to see a demonstration video! | 7 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "1094362",
"author": "Error_user_unknown",
"timestamp": "2013-11-08T07:55:30",
"content": "Why do I find this disturbing for some reason … ?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1094491",
"author": "Eirinn",
"timesta... | 1,760,376,405.405165 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/11/07/remote-control-fpv-cockpit/ | Remote Control FPV Cockpit | Brian Benchoff | [
"Misc Hacks",
"Toy Hacks"
] | [
"first person view",
"FPV",
"quadcopter",
"rc",
"remote control",
"simulator"
] | FPV flying, for how awesome it actually is, still consists of fiddling around with a remote control transmitter and either wearing video goggles or squinting into a screen. Awesome, yes, but not as cool as
[Brett Hays]’s enclosed cockpit ground station
. It’s a trailerable flight sim that allows you to have the same experience of flying an aircraft over your local terrain without actually leaving the ground.
The centerpiece for this build is a 42 inch flat screen TV that was picked up for $160. This was placed at the front of a large plywood and 2×2 box along with a computer joystick, throttle, and rudder controls.
The pots inside the controls needed to be switched out to match the resistance of the ones inside an old Futaba transmitter. From there, completing the the cockpit was just a matter of fabricating a few panels for a video switcher, gear retract lever, flaps. and RC radio settings.
It’s a truly amazing build and when placed on a trailer towed by [Brett]’s jeep, has the potential to be the closest thing to flying a manned aircraft you can get without a pilot’s license.
Videos of the cockpit in action below. | 24 | 15 | [
{
"comment_id": "1094033",
"author": "Addidis",
"timestamp": "2013-11-08T00:07:24",
"content": "That looks surprisingly like the cockpit of a stealth fighter. Nice work. Im jelly.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1094043",
"author": "Hack",
... | 1,760,376,405.579538 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/11/07/the-tiniest-video-game/ | The Tiniest Video Game | Brian Benchoff | [
"classic hacks",
"Video Hacks"
] | [
"atari",
"camcorder",
"crt",
"handicam",
"video game"
] | As we read [Adam]’s writeup for
an extremely tiny video game system
through coke bottle glasses, we’re reminded of the countless times we were told that sitting, ‘too close to the Nintendo’ would ruin our eyes. We’ll happily dismiss any article from a medical journal that says there was any truth to that statement, but [Adam]’s tiny video game system will most certainly hurt your eyes.
A few years ago, Atari sold keychain-sized joysticks that contained classics such as
Pong
,
Breakout
,
Centipede
, and
Asteroids
. [Adam] apparently ran into a cache of these cool classic baubles and immediately thought of turning them into a stand-alone video game system.
For the display, [Adam] used a CRT module from an old Sony Handicam. These modules had the right connections – power, ground, and composite video input – to connect directly to the Atari keychain games. The result is a video game that’s even smaller than a postage stamp. The picture above shows the tiny CRT next to a 25mm postage stamp; it’s small by any measure. | 13 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "1093908",
"author": "Karl",
"timestamp": "2013-11-07T21:11:17",
"content": "Well, if you want to go just for how small the viewable display area is, you could couple them with a CRT display I saw at the IEEE show in the mid 60’s – it was so small, you had to look at it under a micro... | 1,760,376,406.102572 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/11/07/fail-of-the-week-can-bus-attached-hud-for-ford-mustang/ | Fail Of The Week: CAN-Bus Attached HUD For Ford Mustang | Mike Szczys | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"Transportation Hacks"
] | [
"anti-theft",
"arduino mega",
"CAN",
"heads up display",
"mutang",
"pats",
"stn1110"
] | This edition of Fail of the Week is nothing short of remarkable, and your help could really get the failed project back on track. [Snipor Bob] wanted to
replace all of the dashboard readouts on his Mustang
and got the idea of making the hacked hardware into a Heads-Up Display. What you see above is simply the early hardware proof of concept for tapping into the vehicle’s data system. But there’s also an interesting test rig for getting the windshield glass working as a reflector for the readout.
The jenky looking rig duct taped to the side of the dashboard is actually the kind of stuff we enjoy seeing most. But the idea is to use the character display (mounted elsewhere) as the light source for projecting an instrument cluster on the windshield. [Bobby] is using an STN1110 multiprotocol CAN chip to patch into the bus, pulling the data and driving the display using an Arduino Mega. You might be thinking that this is where he failed since we know from our CAN Hacking series that
reverse engineering the databases to make sense of the data
is a pain. Luckily he found a chart with all of the codes in it from some dark corner of the Internet. The fail presented itslef when it came time to actually implement the HUD.
The clip below shows his HUD reflection test using a fresnel lens and a pane of glass to stand-in for the windshield. The problem is that to make room for the appropriate focal length he needs to completely remove the instrument cluster from the dashboard. Physically this is not a problem, but it turns out
the Passive Anti-Theft System
(PATS) monitors the instrument cluster and is triggered if it is removed — preventing the car from starting. Disabling PATS is a no-go for obvious reasons but we’d bet that doing so could invalidate your insurance policy (depending on your underwriter and where you live).
So, give a hacker some advice on this. How can [Bobby] spoof the instrument cluster so that it can be removed without triggering the PATS lockdown?
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. | 68 | 29 | [
{
"comment_id": "1093804",
"author": "Trui",
"timestamp": "2013-11-07T18:36:57",
"content": "I didn’t know there was an automotive version of the Arduino.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1093816",
"author": "h_2_o",
"timestamp": "2013-11... | 1,760,376,406.203621 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/11/07/inform-mits-morphing-table/ | InFORM: MIT’s Morphing Table | James Hobson | [
"Misc Hacks",
"Multitouch Hacks"
] | [
"mit",
"mit media lab",
"Tangible user interface",
"touch table"
] | Have you ever wished your dinner table could pass the salt? Advancements at MIT may soon make this a reality — although it might spill the salt everywhere. Enter the
inFORM: Dynamic Physical Affordances and Constraints through Shape and Object Actuation.
While the
MIT paper
doesn’t go into much detail of the hardware itself, there are a few juicy tidbits that explain how it works. There are 900 individually actuated white polystyrene pins that make up the surface, in an array of 30 x 30 pixels. An overhead projector provides visual guidance of the system. Each pin can actuate 100mm, exerting a force of up to 1.08
Newtons
each. To achieve the actuation, push-pull rods are utilized to maximize the dense pin arrangement as seen, making the display independent of the size of the actuators. The actuation is achieved by motorized slide potentiometers grouped in sets of 6 using custom PCBs that are driven by ATMega2560s — this allows for an excellent method of PID feedback right off the actuators themselves. There is an excellent image of the entire system on page 8 of the paper that shows both the scale and complexity of the build. Sadly it does not look like something that could be easily built at home, but hey, we’d love for someone to prove us wrong!
Stick around after the break to see this fascinating piece of technology in action. The video has been posted by a random Russian YouTube account, and we couldn’t find the original source for it — so if you can, let us know in the comments!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UFd6WsObOu4
[Thanks Frederik!] | 25 | 20 | [
{
"comment_id": "1093624",
"author": "XOIIO",
"timestamp": "2013-11-07T15:16:23",
"content": "that is awesome",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1093660",
"author": "netbeard",
"timestamp": "2013-11-07T15:34:42",
"content": "I want one!... | 1,760,376,406.260546 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/11/06/the-raspberry-pi-becomes-a-form-factor/ | The Raspberry Pi Becomes A Form Factor | Brian Benchoff | [
"ARM",
"Raspberry Pi"
] | [
"arm",
"raspberry pi"
] | Despite the cries for updated hardware, the Raspberry Pi foundation has been playing it cool. They’re committed to getting the most out of their engineering investment, and the current board design for the Raspi doesn’t support more than 512Mb of memory, anyway.
What you see above isn’t a Raspberry Pi, though. It’s
the Carrier-one from SolidRun
. All loaded out, it has a system-on-module with a quad core ARM Cortex-A9, 2GB of RAM, 1000 Mbps Ethernet, USB host ports, eSATA, and LVDS display connector, a real time clock, and everything else you get with a Raspberry Pi, header pins included. It’s all the awesomesauce of the newer ARM boards that will still work with all your Raspberry Pi hardware.
If you’re thinking this is a product announcement, though, think again. The folks at SolidRun are merely using this Raspberry Pi form factor board as a prototyping and development platform for
their CuBox-i device
, In its lowest configuration, the CuBox-i1 is still no slouch and would be more than able to keep up with the most demanding Raspberry Pi applications.
Still, though, a hugely powerful board with lots of I/O is something we’d all love, and if SolidRun gets enough
complaints
praise, it seems like they might be willing to release the Carrier-one as an actual product. | 61 | 16 | [
{
"comment_id": "1092735",
"author": "Nick Johnson",
"timestamp": "2013-11-06T15:03:22",
"content": "It’s a shame, because the RPi is a terrible form factor, with connectors on 3 of 4 sides, many protruding parts requiring a complex shape for expansion boards, and poor physical support for those exp... | 1,760,376,406.408069 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/11/06/hackerspacing-in-europe-conclusion/ | Hackerspacing In Europe: Conclusion | James Hobson | [
"Hackerspaces"
] | [
"hackerspacing in europe"
] | Wow! What a trip. In just over one week we travelled nearly 2000 km and visited 13 hackerspaces in 10 different cities in Germany, Belgium and The Netherlands. However that was only the tip of the iceberg — there were dozens more hackerspaces in the area, and we wish we had the time to visit them all! The hospitality of the hackerspaces was amazing. Thank you so much to all the spaces we visited! If you missed some of tours, you can see the
them all here.
Chaosdorf
(Dusseldorf, Germany)
Garage Lab
(Dusseldorf, Germany)
ACKspace
(Heerlen, The Netherlands)
HSBXL
(Brussels, Belgium)
Whitespace
(Gent, Belgium)
Void Warranties
(Antwerp, Belgium)
Open Garage
(Antwerp, Belgium)
MadSpace
(Eindhoven, The Netherlands)
De Ontdekfabriek
(Eindhoven, The Netherlands)
Revelation Space
(The Hague, The Netherlands)
Technologia Incognita
(Amsterdam, The Netherlands)
Hack42
(Arnhem, The Netherlands)
Stratum0
(Brunswick, Germany)
Did you enjoy these tours? Is there anything you’d like to see more of? The style of the tour? Other things to focus on? Let us know in the comments! | 22 | 12 | [
{
"comment_id": "1092633",
"author": "Eirinn",
"timestamp": "2013-11-06T12:15:52",
"content": "Great articles – it could be cool if a comparison could be drawn between American and European hackerspaces. Well, if there is a difference at all :)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies":... | 1,760,376,406.317585 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/11/06/writing-a-fuse-filesystem-in-python/ | Writing A FUSE Filesystem In Python | Phillip Ryals | [
"Software Development"
] | [
"filesystem",
"fuse",
"python"
] | Have you ever thought a particular project could be better if you could just control the file access directly? [Stavros Korokithakis] did, specifically for a backup program he was working on. What followed was the realization that
writing a FUSE filesystem
, particularly in Python, isn’t as complicated as it may seem. Really, through the power of open source, the heavy lifting has already been done for us. If you’d like to try it yourself, you’ll need to
install fusepy
. From that point, you simply need to define the filesystem methods you will be using.
Python isn’t going to win any speed contests in the filesystem space, but that isn’t really the point. Using this technology opens up a huge opportunity for new ways of accessing data. If you let your mind wander, you can conceive of encrypted filesystems, seamless remote data access, new key-value storage designs, etc. Perhaps even more interesting is the idea of using Python to communicate with a physical device… maybe a proc filesystem to keep track of your robot telemetry? We’d love to hear your ideas in the comments.
We had success using [Stavros’] example script on Linux and OSX. (Fair warning if you’re on a Mac, the pip version of fusepy seems to be linked against
fuse4x
rather than OSXFUSE, but once you’ve got the prerequisites installed, you’re golden.) We didn’t have a Windows machine to test. Can anyone confirm if the same is possible there? | 21 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "1092530",
"author": "Kenneth O'Brien (@ken_obrien)",
"timestamp": "2013-11-06T09:06:08",
"content": "Interesting article. One question. What is the editor and colorscheme in the image?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1092711",... | 1,760,376,406.474977 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/11/05/the-rabbit-hole-hackerspace-sports-a-new-logo/ | The Rabbit Hole Hackerspace Sports A New Logo | Todd Harrison | [
"Hackerspaces"
] | [
"hackerspace",
"logo",
"Rabbit Hole",
"toy makers",
"tymkrs"
] | [Toymakers] shared another episode of The Rabbit Hole. In this episode they spend most of the time pawing through boxes of donated electronic goodness. What really sparked our interest in episode 044 starting at the 12:46 mark was their amazing
new logo proposal
for The Rabbit Hole Hackerspace. The logo looks a bit familiar and is indeed based partly on the Hack a Day logo, but this unique and awesome logo also sports the open source hardware gear as well as an evil looking punisher style rabbit.
Sure we might like it a bit more because of its resemblance to our logo; nonetheless this is a great-looking logo and perfect for their hackerspace. We hope they go with it, who doesn’t love evil rabbits? The background to the logo is also a barcode which when scanned takes you to
The Rabbit Hole
website. [Whiskers] also re-renders the logo to port over to their
CarveWright
CNC wood router to make up a 3D logo plaque, SWEET! You might remember we did get a glimpse of their table-top CNC router as
a Hackaday Hackerspace Henchmen entry
.
You can watch all of episode 044 after the break and don’t forget to comment below to let us know if you like their new proposed logo, we do. Maybe we will be reporting on a future “T-shirt campaign” :) | 16 | 13 | [
{
"comment_id": "1092534",
"author": "Eirinn",
"timestamp": "2013-11-06T09:12:31",
"content": "Great design!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1092574",
"author": "Tobias",
"timestamp": "2013-11-06T10:23:52",
"content": "Before reading... | 1,760,376,406.844568 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/11/05/furbies-sing-queen-at-freshers-faire/ | Furbies Sing Queen At Fresher’s Faire | Adam Fabio | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"arduino",
"atmega328",
"Bohemian Rhapsody",
"furby",
"hasbro",
"queen",
"University of Kent"
] | The University of Kent has their own hacker space, called [Maker Society]. Every year the school holds an orientation for new students called the Fresher’s Faire. The [Maker Society] display at this year’s Fresher’s Faire included a group of partially clothed
Furbies singing the classic Bohemian Rhapsody
by Queen. This isn’t our first run in with
Bohemian Rhapsody and hacked hardware
.
The [Maker Society] started by doing some internet research and reverse engineering a first generation Furby. The Furby itself is a marvel of cost reduction. All the doll’s functions run from a single motor and a cam system. A limit switch tells the on-board microcontroller when the cam is at the zero position. An optical encoder keeps track of the cam as it moves. The [Society] replaced Furby’s internal microcontroller with an Atmel ATMega328. This allowed them to use the Arduino programming environment.
Many classic Animatronic systems use an audio recording for motion. Typically a stereo recorder would perform double duty. The first track would contain the audio for the animation. A second track would contain audio tones corresponding to movement of each of the degrees of freedom of the doll being animated. Because the two tracks were on the same strip of magnetic tape, the audio and movement would always be in sync. Multitrack tape record and playback systems added even more flexibility to this type of system.
The [Maker Society] used a computerized twist on this classic system for their Furbies. A set of positions and times were stored in Comma Separated Variable (CSV) format. A java program would play the song and read the file, dispatching the movement commands to the Furbies at their appointed times. The result is quite nice. Unfortunately the Faire was so loud that we can’t hear too much of the Furbies’ singing. | 10 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "1092615",
"author": "Tom",
"timestamp": "2013-11-06T11:38:16",
"content": "The society is called TinkerSoc (http://www.tinkersoc.org/) not Maker Society.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1092798",
"author": "asm-wolf",
"t... | 1,760,376,406.892423 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/11/05/finding-shiny-pokemon-automatically/ | Finding Shiny Pokemon Automatically | Brian Benchoff | [
"Nintendo DS Hacks",
"Nintendo Game Boy Hacks",
"Nintendo Hacks"
] | [
"3ds",
"Nindendo",
"pokemon",
"Shiny Pokemon"
] | In case you’re not up to speed with the world of Pokemon, nearly every species of this game’s titular creatures have a ‘shiny’ variety – a differently colored sprite for each pokemon. As far as gameplay goes, they’re exactly the same as their non-shiny brethren, but the shiny varieties are so impossibly rare not many players have seen them. [dekuNukem] over on Youtube
has come up with a great way to find these shiny Pokemon
automatically with the Hackaday reader’s favorite tools – an Arduino and a few parts from Sparkfun.
The build hinges on the fact that all shiny pokemon have a short animation whenever the player encounters them in the wild. This setup uses a fishing rod, so an Arduino Micro first presses the Y button to cast the rod, while the ‘duinos ADC listens to the audio signal until a bite is indicated.
A light sensor taped to the bottom screen of the 3DS then measures the amount of time the screen is blacked out. The extra animation for every shiny pokemon means this blackout period is about half a second longer. If the Arduino doesn’t see a shiny, it ‘runs away’, but if a shiny is detected a buzzer sounds to tell the extremely lazy pokemon trainer they have a shiny on their line.
From the video, it took about 36 minutes to find a single shiny pokemon, and about 8 shinies in the three hours of testing this rig has under its belt. | 18 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "1092251",
"author": "Gdogg",
"timestamp": "2013-11-06T00:18:45",
"content": "Well done, and very simple hack!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1092271",
"author": "mark g",
"timestamp": "2013-11-06T00:56:40",
"content... | 1,760,376,406.791699 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/11/05/retrotechtacular-worlds-first-color-movie/ | Retrotechtacular: World’s First Color Movie | Mike Szczys | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"Retrotechtacular",
"Video Hacks"
] | [
"color",
"film",
"retrotechtacular"
] | It’s surprising how often a brilliant idea is missed out on until years after the fact. In this case the concept was seen publicly within ten years, but the brilliance of the inventor has been appreciated once again after 110 years. It’s a color movie which was filmed around 1901 or 1902 but it sounds like the reel wasn’t shown in its full color grandeur until 2012 when the National Media Museum in the UK started looking into the history of one particular film.
The story is
well told by the curators in this video
which is also embedded after the break. The reel has been in their collection for years. It’s black and white film that’s labeled as color. It just needed a clever and curious team to put three frames together with the help of color filters. It seems that [Edward Turner] patented a process in 1899 which used red, green, and blue filters to capture consecutive frames of film. The patent description helped researchers put image those frames — also using filters — to produce full color images like the one seen above.
The press release on the project
shares a bit more information, like how they determined the age of the film using genealogical research and the fact that [Turner] himself died in 1904. The process didn’t die with him, but actual evolved and was exhibited publicly in 1909. This, however, is the oldest known color movie ever found.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1V0Vc5iRoLY
[Thanks Tony via
NY Daily News
] | 21 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "1092141",
"author": "RB",
"timestamp": "2013-11-05T21:28:24",
"content": "Well I guess It depends on the definition of color, I suggest watching this a good insighthttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lRheZ_MUYiY",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"c... | 1,760,376,406.743146 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/11/04/hacking-and-philosophy-the-mentors-manifesto/ | Hacking And Philosophy: The Mentor’s Manifesto | Marsh | [
"Hackaday Columns"
] | [
"hacking and philosophy",
"philosophy"
] | Welcome back to Hacking & Philosophy! I’ve done my best to keep up with the comments from
last week’s article
, and your responses and suggestions have been invaluable. Most readers expressed concern over how this column would define “hacker” or “hacking,” and whether the texts focused more on hacking-as-illegal or the hacker/maker culture. Rest assured that all interpretations are welcome, but I have no intention of dwelling on the sensationalized, criminal hacker stereotype, either. Others asked whether we’d be holding our conversation somewhere a bit more user-friendly: a solution is in the works. For now, we will stick to the comments.
Last week, I asked you to read an early document in hacking history:
The Mentor’s “A Hacker Manifesto,”
also called “The Conscience of a Hacker.” What follows is my analysis of the essay. I invite you to join me in a discussion in the comments: post your responses to the piece, your questions, your objections, anything! Now, lets take a trip back to the 80’s…
I. Why Did I Choose This Essay?
It’s one of the earliest documents that attempts to encapsulate and explain the hacker mentality. The specifics surrounding its origins are a bit hazy: Douglas Thomas cites its publication as 1985, but every other reference to the work (including [The Mentor] himself) identifies it as 1986.
[1]
The circumstances surrounding its writing concern [The Mentor’s] arrest, but limited information exists on what the charges were or the result of that situation. These uncertainties are, however, largely unimportant, because “Manifesto” gained significant traction; it was widely distributed online and subsequently adopted by readers identifying with its message.
II. Who is the Author?
[The Mentor] is [
Loyd Blankenship
], who belonged to the “‘2nd generation’ of LOD [Legion of Doom].”
[2]
He was arrested in 1986 when he “got caught inside a computer he should not have been caught in” and wrote the essay out of frustration; as [Blankenship] explains it, he
didn’t hurt anything, I was just in a computer I shouldn’t have been. And [had] a great deal of empathy for my friends around the nation that were also in the same situation. This was post-
WarGames,
the movie, so pretty much the only public perception of hackers at that time was ‘hey, we’re going to start a nuclear war, or play tic-tac-toe, one of the two,’ and so I decided I would try to write what I really felt was the essence of what we were doing and why we were doing it.
[3]
If you have some time, listen to his
talk from H2K2 in 2002
(direct YouTube), where this quotation comes from.
III. What’s Important?
A few
of the
comments
last week saw the word “arrested” in the first line of this essay and/or the title of some suggested texts to cover, which seemed to indicate a discussion of “hacking-as-illegal” rather than “hacking-as-making” or another less-criminal interpretation. That’s not to say these commenters were incorrect to jump to those thoughts. The problem, as outlined here by [Blankenship], is authority figures’ severe misinterpretation of hackers’ intentions. Even in this early essay—which
is
concerned with issues of legality—there’s an attempt to reclaim “hacking” as a worthy intellectual activity. “Manifesto” is more interested in the hacker’s relationship to technology than with the technology itself, and with justifying a mindset where exploration is promoted rather than condemned.
[Blankenship] spells out his personal motivations as a hacker in each paragraph and follows them with a refrain of some authority’s negative response, such as “Damn underachiever,” “Probably copied it,” “All he does is play games,” and “Tying up the phone line again.” As I
mentioned last time
, the illegal side of hacker culture is inseparable from a larger discussion of hacking: not only have crimes been committed (and malicious ones, not simply misinterpretation) but positions of authority—governments, news organizations, films & television—have constructed hackers as shady inhabitants of a technounderworld.
I’m going to steal a phrase my friend [Andy McNamara]: hacking and hackers have become a “counter-culture caricature,” where tech-savvy criminals do whatever they please, despite what damage it may cause.
[4]
In almost direct contrast, however, [Blankenship] seems specifically concerned with taking responsibility for his actions with his discussion of programming:
It [the computer] does what I want it to. If it makes a mistake, it’s because I screwed it up. Not because it doesn’t like me…Or feels threatened by me…Or thinks I’m a smart ass…Or doesn’t like teaching and shouldn’t be here…
Although technology offers [Blankenship] an alternative to a lackluster education, it’s also the source of the legal troubles he’s experiencing at the time of the Manifesto’s writing. Technology is a pharmakon, a term discussed extensively by [Stiegler] (whose work I hope we will read).
[5]
Pharmakons are
simultaneously poisons and remedies, problems and solutions
. This is one of the more interesting (to me) topics here, and I’d like to hear different perspectives on this situation of technology-as-pharmakon. [Blankenship’s] situation illustrates a few examples:
Technology as liberator
: “a door opened to a world…”
vs.
Technology as oppressor
: he’s arrested for hacking / technology was certainly used to identify and capture him.
Technology as a form of personal expression
: “This is our world now… / the beauty of the baud.”
vs.
Technology as restricted, institutionalized
: authority figures dictate what can and cannot be done with computers
Technology as impartial
: “We exist without skin color, without nationality, without religious bias…”
vs.
Technology as Concealed Prejudice
I want to briefly discuss the third example, because most texts skip over what I see as a glaring misconception: that the Internet is the great equalizer, eliminating all traces of race, religion, socioeconomic status, etc. with its veil of anonymity. It isn’t. The early years of the Internet were filled with an optimism for leveling cultural playing fields; most of the positive sentiments were popularized by the Grateful Dead’s [John Barlow] as a means to both eliminate privilege and promote larger, universal goals of exploration and education—goals that [Blankenship] would certainly agree with.
[6]
The problem with this interpretation, however, is limited access and pervasive colorblindness. [Blankenship’s] discussion of his childhood reveals the privileges he experienced early in his life. When asked about his first encounter with computers, he responded:
We moved from Austin right before the summer between my 5th and 6th grade years of school (early 1976). When I got to San Marcos, I didn’t know anyone, and started hanging out at the Southwest Texas State U. computer lab in the college library. It was populated with Pet-10’s, CompuColors and some early Apple II machines. I mostly played games on them (Artillery, etc.). The place my mom worked had a giant PDP mainframe, and I got to meet some of the sysops. They showed me a game called
Star Trek
on it that I loved. I got them to print out the BASIC source code for it, and taught myself BASIC by porting it over to the Compucolors. The first computer I actually owned as an Apple IIe that I got in either 1979 or 1980.
This account seems to place him in an upper-middle-class demographic: he has access not only to university computer equipment but machines at his mother’s job. Further, he
owned his own computer at age 14-15
.
[7]
Think globally. How many people had access to a computer in the 70’s and 80’s? Here’s a better question: How many people had access to
electricity and running water
in the 70’s? Today? The championing of racial and cultural equality breaks down when you consider most computer users in this time period are white males living in developed nations. We should add [Nakamura’s]
Digitizing Race
to our list. Here’s the relevant quotation:
When we look to the post-2000 graphical popular Internet, this utopian story of the Internet’s beginnings in popular culture can be told with a different spin, one that instead tracks its continuing discourse of colorblindness in terms of access, user experience, and content that is reflected in the scholarship as well as in the nineties neoliberalism’s emphasis on ‘moderate redistribution and cultural universalism.’ [8]
I won’t delve into a discussion of Whiteness and Colorblindness here, other than to say claims of equality that dismiss the role of race or culture (as “Manifesto” does here) typically obscure a larger truth, perpetuating an insidious problem. This is a subject that needs its own post.
IV. Questions
These are genuine questions, not merely a “these should keep ’em busy!” talking points list, so I’m eager to hear your replies:
Does [Blankenship’s] “Manifesto” resonate with you today, or does it seem outdated? Does it speak to your interpretation of hacker culture?
Computers seem to swoop in and rescue [Blankenship] from the frustrations he expresses throughout the essay: he’s too bored with school because it doesn’t present a challenge, but computers do. Is this era the first to
need
an advanced challenge beyond public education? That may seem like a silly question, but who are [Blankeship’s] precursors—individuals fed up with a disconnected education system? What challenges do they seek out?
Have schools made any strides toward accommodating the needs of students like [Blankenship]? If you listen to his talk from H2K2, he seems specifically concerned with the shortcomings of public education. At one point he explains that the solution to the problem is a larger financial investment in schools and educators, but that any attempt to ask for more money usually kills the conversation with officials. Is the situation really that dire?
NEXT WEEK:
Read
[Bruce Sterling’s]
The Hacker Crackdown
: Introduction & Part I: Crashing the System
I’ve decided the best route is to press forward chronologically (in terms of publication date), and [Sterling’s] work is available for free online at a few locations. See the
“External Links” section on Wikipedia
. See you then!
NOTES:
[1]
Douglas Thomas,
Hacker Culture
(Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2002), 245.
[2]
“Elf Qrin Interviews The Mentor,”
http://www.elfqrin.com/docs/hakref/interviews/eq-i-mentor.html
[3]
Loyd Blankenship, “The Conscience of a Hacker,” Panel at H2K2 (Hackers on Planet Earth) New York, NY, July 13, 2002.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0tEnnvZbYek
[4]
Andy
used the phrase counterculture caricature to describe the misrepresentation of gamers and game violence in the media, and how these portrayals often insist on a causal link between game violence and real-world violence by the player, despite numerous studies proving the opposite. See
Anderson
,
Ferguson
(direct PDF link), and/or
Kutner and Olson
.
[5]
Bernard Stiegler,
For a New Critique of Political Economy,
trans. Daniel Ross (Cambridge: Polity Press, 2010), 29.
[6]
Fred Turner,
From Countoerculture to Cyberculture
, (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2006), 14
[7]
The quotation is a direct claim of ownership: “The first computer I actually owned…” but I realize this description could refer to a family-owned computer that was not solely his. Regardless, few families owned a computer in the late 70’s early 80’s.
[8]
Lisa Nakamura,
Digitizing Race
, (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2008), 4-5.
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 | 118 | 24 | [
{
"comment_id": "1091220",
"author": "I remember reading this as a kid.",
"timestamp": "2013-11-04T19:49:50",
"content": "Yeah it about mirrors what I would have wrote. Anything I wanted to learn came with some bogus reason I couldn’t. It was too dangerous , I was too young , it was too expensive, ... | 1,760,376,407.367648 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/11/04/hhh-cnc-winners/ | HHH: CNC Winners | Mike Szczys | [
"cnc hacks",
"Featured"
] | [
"hackaday hackerspace henchmen"
] | Congratulations to the winners of the first Hackaday Hackerspace Henchmen series. We asked hackerspace members to send us stories about CNC hacks. Here’s a roundup of the three winners:
[Rich] from the Connecticut Hackerspace gets the top spot having sent in the story of
their desktop CNC mill hacks
. He gets a $50 gift card to the parts vendor of his choosing.
[Barnaby] is also a winner for sharing the story of how they hacked
a script to translate G-Code into the proprietary format
accepted by the desktop CNC mill at rlab.
And [Tim’s] submission showed how
a movable storage base was built
for the CNC carving machine at The Rabbit Hole.
We had hoped for more entries and planned to send out stickers to all and shirts to the top five. We’ll be sending both shirts and stickers to the three winners. We’re undecided as to whether we should continue
the HHH program
with a new theme. We’d love to hear what you think about it in the comments section. | 18 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "1091130",
"author": "Josh Martin",
"timestamp": "2013-11-04T18:39:48",
"content": "Hehehe that PCB mill is neat. I’d be all for it if I ha the chance to go to some industrial surplus places on the mainland. I wonder how TSA would deal with carry on ball screws, linear rails, and so ... | 1,760,376,406.996057 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/11/04/asap-3-the-almost-simple-as-possible-computer/ | ASAP 3 – The Almost Simple As Possible Computer | Adam Fabio | [
"computer hacks"
] | [
"Central processing unit",
"Digital Computer Electronics",
"pong",
"Read-only memory",
"rom",
"simulation"
] | [Pong] has joined an elite club of people who have designed and built their own computer – including a CPU created from discrete 7400 series logic. His computer is the
Almost Simple As Possible Computer 3 (ASAP-3)
. ASAP-3 is not a completely new design. The architecture is based upon the SAP series of computers from
Albert Malvino’s book, Digital Computer Electronics
. [Pong] looked at quite a few of the “modern retro” computers such as
Magic-1
,
Big Mess o’ Wires 1
, and
the Duo
. These computers were beyond his skill levels back then, so he began to build his own system. His primary design goal was to be able to run a 4 function calculator program.
One thing that can’t be stressed enough is the fact that [Pong] made his design work much easier by using lots of simulation. His tool of choice was Proteus Design Suite. While simulation can’t solve every problem, it can often help in verifying that a given design is sound. The ASAP-3’s instruction set is
microcode
, based upon the 8085 series instruction set. The microcode itself is stored on Flash ROMS. Using microcode makes ASAP-3 very flexible. Don’t have a machine instruction you need? No problem – just write one up. When all was said and done, [Pong] had over 100 instructions spread over 3 Flash ROM chips.
The hardware was only half the battle – [Pong] found writing the software just as challenging. He wrote all the software by hand in his own machine code. This is where the simulation mentioned above really saved him some time. Even with simulation he still ran into some problems. The ASAP-1 is limited to a clock speed of around 500kHz. Above that, glitches from the ROM chips start triggering the asynchronous inputs in some of the registers. [Pong] doesn’t have a logic analyzer on hand, so he wasn’t able to track this one down further. He also found a (
update
simulation only) issue with the carry bit on the
74LS181 bit slice ALU
. In certain circumstances the carry bit would not propagate correctly. [Pong] corrected this by using a ROM as a look up table replacement for certain ‘181 functions. Even with these limitations, this is still a great hack!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qy-nnUGPgHM | 12 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "1090970",
"author": "Bob Weiss",
"timestamp": "2013-11-04T15:37:01",
"content": "Very cool…. I did the same thing when I was alot younger back in the 80’s but only got as far as wire wrapping it up and have never really did much else with it. Good learning experience for sure. Well... | 1,760,376,406.940646 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/11/04/hacking-a-flip-dot-display/ | Hacking A Flip Dot Display | Mathieu Stephan | [
"hardware"
] | [
"flip dot display",
"Flip-disc display",
"reverse engineering",
"solenoid"
] | While casually lurking on a famous auction website, [TeddyDesTodes] found the gem shown in the above picture and
reverse engineered it
. This is a
flip dot display
, the Brose Vollmatrix compact to be precise. It consists of a grid of small metal discs that are black on one side and yellow on the other, set into a black background. With power applied, the disc flips to show the other side. The disc is attached to an axle which also carries a small permanent magnet. Positioned close to the magnet is a solenoid. By pulsing the solenoid coil with the appropriate electrical polarity, the magnet will align itself with the magnetic field, also turning the disc.
After carrying the 25kg display from his post office to home, [TeddyDesTodes] opened it and discovered that the main control board was using two RS422 transceivers. So he fired up his bus pirate, started to sniff the traffic and noticed that several commands were repeatedly sent. [TeddyDesTodes] stopped the transmission, sent these particular commands and had the good surprise to see some dots flipped. From there, displaying something was a piece of cake.
If this is familiar to you it may be because it was shared in
one of the Trinket Contest Updates
. But the background details were just so much fun we think this deserves a full feature of it’s own. Do you agree? | 19 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "1090855",
"author": "David",
"timestamp": "2013-11-04T13:07:55",
"content": "Here’s a similar hack making a bus flipdot display work as a twitter feedhttp://www.behance.net/gallery/tweetDots/9206947",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id"... | 1,760,376,407.11784 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/11/04/bass-bump-headphone-amp/ | Bass Bump Headphone Amp | Eric Evenchick | [
"Portable Audio Hacks"
] | [
"headphone amp",
"lm386",
"make"
] | Headphone amplifiers make for simple, practical electronics projects. The
Bass Bump Headphone Amp
is no exception, since it’s made out of easy to source parts, and can be built on a proto-board.
We’ve seen many variants of the classic cMoy amplifier, including
this pretty one
. The Bass Bump differs by providing control over bass frequencies. It does this by putting a filter in front of the amplifier, with a potentiometer to select the mix of frequencies. This goes into a LM386 audio amplifier. At the output is a
Zobel network
to keep the impedance low at high frequencies. The amplifier can be powered from either a 9V rechargeable battery, or a USB port.
It’s a simple build, but definitely a good one to try on a rainy day. The write up explains how the analog circuitry works, and gives you full instructions on how to build it. After the break, check out a video overview of the project. | 19 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "1090724",
"author": "Bogdan",
"timestamp": "2013-11-04T10:12:23",
"content": "But LM386 is not that “hi-fi” … It’s easy to make a much higher quality with a better opamp + 2 transistors.I get that it is educational…but why should it be bad?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
... | 1,760,376,407.055937 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/11/03/fire-bell-wakes-you-for-work-by-shaving-years-off-your-life/ | Fire Bell Wakes You For Work By Shaving Years Off Your Life | Mike Szczys | [
"clock hacks"
] | [
"alarm clock",
"bell",
"fire bell"
] | If you suck at getting up in the morning [Jake Lee] has a solution that will make sure you don’t get fired from your job. Unfortunately it’s going to scare the life out of you — but maybe we’re just not hard enough sleepers to appreciate the value in
an alarm clock that’s so horribly loud
.
At first we wondered where he got the bell but it looks like you can buy one for about fifteen bucks. We’re not saying you should hide one of these under your best friend’s bed, but the cost of the bell does put it firmly in the worth-it-as-a-prank price range. [Jake] used rigid and flexible conduit to connect the bell to a power source, and the control panel shown on the left. He uses the LED backlight of the bedside alarm clock to drive the base of a transistor, switching a relay to trigger the bell. The big button on the grey box makes the wailing stop (seriously, cut your volume before you hit 0:30 in the clip below).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P91WX58Lmy0 | 39 | 23 | [
{
"comment_id": "1090573",
"author": "Hirudinea",
"timestamp": "2013-11-04T06:19:43",
"content": "Better wear diapers or else you’ll piss your bed every morning!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1090576",
"author": "soundman98",
"timestam... | 1,760,376,407.198934 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/11/03/the-trials-of-printing-mil-spec-connectors/ | The Trials Of Printing Mil-Spec Connectors | Brian Benchoff | [
"3d Printer hacks"
] | [
"connector",
"MIL-SPEC"
] | [Chris] over at the 23B hackerspace had a bit of a problem – a project required the use of a very old rotary encoder with a mil-spec connector. While it might be possible to simply buy one of these mating connectors on Digikey or Mouser, that’s not [Chris]’ usual MO. He has a nice 3D printer, and this connector is basically a cylinder with some holes.
How hard could printing out one of these connectors be?
The dimensions for [Chris]’ first attempt at creating a mating connector came from Solidworks’ “Sketch Picture” command where an image can be superimposed over a model and the 3D features created from that guide. If it worked, it would be far too easy, and the printed model didn’t fit at all.
This failure led [Chris] to page through MIL-STD-1651, a portly tome of 200+ pages covering every circular connector possible. After 20 minutes of scanning the specs, [Chris] found what he was looking for: the correct specification showing him where all the pins and holes should go.
After some fine modeling in Solidworks, [Chris] had his very own custom printed Mil-Spec connector. Sure, he ate up more time than it was worth for one connector, but now that he has the STL file, he can print out as many as he needs. | 33 | 12 | [
{
"comment_id": "1090497",
"author": "xwhatsit",
"timestamp": "2013-11-04T03:27:46",
"content": "The SICK DGS25 isn’t an old encoder, they’re a current production item I believe. I normally use the DFS60B, but the DGS series is more robust.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
... | 1,760,376,407.435061 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/11/05/can-hacking-the-hardware/ | CAN Hacking: The Hardware | Eric Evenchick | [
"Featured",
"Network Hacks"
] | [
"Arduino DUE",
"automotive",
"CAN",
"can bus triple",
"CAN Hacking",
"chipkit",
"GoodFET",
"goodthopter",
"saleae logic"
] | So far we have discussed the
basics of CAN
,
in-vehicle networks
, and
protocols used over CAN
. We’re going to wrap up with a discussion of CAN tools, and parts to build your own CAN hardware.
Wiring
Unfortunately, there’s no set standard for CAN connections. The most common connector for high-speed CAN is a DE-9, with CAN high on pin 7 and CAN low on pin 2. However cables will differ, and many are incompatible.
CAN needs to be terminated, preferably by a 120 ohm resistance on either end of the bus. In practice, you can stick a single 120 ohm resistor across the bus to deal with termination.
Tools
A good CAN tool will let you transmit and receive CAN messages, interpret live data using CAN databases, and talk CAN protocols. The tools with this feature set are proprietary and expensive, but some hacker friendly options exist.
GoodThopter
Based on [Travis Goodspeed’s] GoodFET, the
GoodThopter
by [Q] uses the
Microchip MCP2515
CAN to SPI controller to access the bus. The open hardware tool lets you send and receive messages using Python scripts.
CAN Bus Triple
The
CAN Bus Triple
device provides an interface to three CAN buses, and can be programmed in an environment similar to Arduino. The open source code provided lets you muck with the second generation Mazda 3. Unfortunately, the hardware does not appear to be open source.
Saleae Logic
It’s not open source, but the
Saleae Logic
is a very handy and cheap tool for looking at CAN buses. It can capture, decode, and display CAN traffic. This is most useful when you’re building your own CAN hardware.
DIY
The Parts
If you want to design your own hardware for CAN, you’ll need two things: a CAN controller, and a CAN transceiver.
The CAN controller generates and interprets CAN messages. There’s many microcontrollers on the market with built-in CAN controllers, such as the
Atmel ATmega32M1
,
Freescale S08D
, and the
TI Tiva C Series
. When using a built-in CAN controller, you’ll have to use an external oscillator, internal oscillators are not sufficiently accurate for high-speed CAN. If you want to add CAN to an existing microcontroller, the MCP2515 is an option. It’s a standalone CAN controller that communicates over SPI.
The transceiver translates signals from the controller to the bus, and from the bus to the transceiver. Different transceivers are needed for high-speed and low-speed CAN networks. The
NXP TJA1050
works with high-speed buses, and the
ON Semi NCV7356
works with low-speed, single wire buses.
Dev Boards
There’s a ton of development boards out there featuring microcontrollers with a CAN controller. The
Arduino Due
‘s SAM3 processor has a controller, but there’s no transceiver on the board. You can pick up a CAN bus shield, and the
Due CAN Library
to get started.
The
ChipKIT Max32
is similar to the Due. It has two CAN controllers, but you’ll need to provide external transceivers to actually get on a bus. Fortunately there’s a shield for that. The ChipKIT is officially supported by Ford’s
OpenXC Platform
, so you can
grab their firmware
.
That concludes our discussion of CAN Hacking. Hopefully you’re now ready to go out and experiment with the protocol. If you have questions,
send them along to our tip line
with “CAN Hacking” in the subject, and we’ll compile some answers. If you liked this series and want to suggest a topic for the next set of posts we’d love to hear that as well!
CAN Hacking
Introductions
The In-vehicle Network
CAN Protocols
Building CAN Hardware | 35 | 18 | [
{
"comment_id": "1092023",
"author": "Anybodysguess",
"timestamp": "2013-11-05T18:13:06",
"content": "DUDE! You got to start using breaks!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1092082",
"author": "FrankTheCat",
"timestamp": "2013-11... | 1,760,376,407.910531 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/11/05/fork-o-drumbot-a-midi-drummer/ | Fork-o-Drumbot: A MIDI Drummer! | James Hobson | [
"Musical Hacks"
] | [
"arduino drummer",
"drumming bot",
"midi drumbot"
] | We just got word of a great project by [Vito] —
A MIDI Drumbot made from an Arduino and scraps from around the house!
After learning some basics of programming microcontrollers way back in high school, [Vito] was excited to start using the Arduino platform. His first thought was to build a desktop milling machine for engraving his own PCBs. But after a bit of research, he soon concluded it might be a bit too ambitious for a first project, so he opted for something a bit simpler — A robot drummer.
Using some cardboard, a few elastics, a plastic fork, a 12V solenoid, an Arduino and a MIDI interface he had created the original Fork-o-Drumbot,
able to tap a simple beat, using one note.
After this initial success he grew excited to continue along the same vein of recycling things to characterize his entire project. Fast forward a few weeks of
blog posts
and he now has a fully functional MIDI drummer which even has a cymbal! They were even featured in the local newspaper after performing a duet with a local singer during an art exhibit called the Singing Balconies of Friedrichshain.
Stick around after the break for an extremely catchy rendition of Superstitious by Stevie Wonder, as played by the Fork-o-Drumbot! | 5 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "1091967",
"author": "owar",
"timestamp": "2013-11-05T17:05:33",
"content": "Great build and even better music! :)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1092553",
"author": "vitomakes",
"timestamp": "2013-11-06T09:55... | 1,760,376,407.564312 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/11/05/can-an-8-node-raspberry-pi-cluster-web-server-survive-hackaday/ | Can An 8 Node Raspberry Pi Cluster Web Server Survive Hackaday? | Adam Fabio | [
"internet hacks",
"Raspberry Pi"
] | [
"Central processing unit",
"Computer cluster",
"linux",
"Load Balancing",
"raspberry pi",
"servers",
"web server"
] | Plenty of folks have used their Raspberry Pi as a web server. [Steve] however is the first
8 node load balanced pi cluster
server we’ve run into.
While we have seen pi clusters before
, they’ve never been pressed into service as a public facing web server. [Steve] has created a really nice informative website about the Raspberry Pi, and Linux in general. As his page views have increased,
he’s had to add nodes to the server
. Currently [Steve] sees about 45,000 page views per month.
At first glance it would seem that the load balance system would be the weak link in the chain. However, [Steve] did realize that he needed more than an Pi to handle this task. He built the load balancer using an old PC with 512MB of RAM and a 2.7GHz x86 CPU. The most important thing about the balancer is dual network interfaces, one side facing the internet, the other facing the Pi cluster. The balancer isn’t a router though. Only HTTP requests are forwarded. The Pi nodes themselves live on their own sub net. Steve has run some basic testing with siege, however nothing beats a real world test. We figured a couple of links in from Hackaday would be enough to acid test the system. | 50 | 25 | [
{
"comment_id": "1091725",
"author": "Evan",
"timestamp": "2013-11-05T12:12:37",
"content": "Serves up pages quickly for me!Nice build, Steve, and thanks for all the info. I’ve bookmarked it for reading later.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "109... | 1,760,376,407.519353 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/11/05/do-it-yourself-nuclear-fusion/ | Do It Yourself Nuclear Fusion | Brian Benchoff | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"farnsworth fusor",
"fusor",
"high voltage"
] | By far the coolest projects we see are those dealing with high voltages and deep vacuums. Vacuum tubes of all types fall into this category, as do the electron microscopes we see from time to time. The king of all vacuum and electron hacks is the Farnsworth Fusor, a machine that will both transmute the elements and bathe you in neutrons. Fun stuff, and [Daniel]
has a great tutorial for building your own
.
[Dan]’s fusor is surprisingly simple to make. Obviously, the most important part is the vacuum chamber which in this build is based around a glass oil cup cylinder. With just a few roughly machined parts – the only tool needed to make the metal plates is a drill press – it can hold a low enough vacuum to contain a star in a jar.
For reasons of safety and sanity, [Dan] isn’t running his fusor at a high enough voltage to actually fuse deuterium into helium. This is really just a beautiful, glowey demonstration of what can be done with enough knowledge, the skills, and a handful of parts. | 63 | 17 | [
{
"comment_id": "1091628",
"author": "Josh Martin",
"timestamp": "2013-11-05T08:15:51",
"content": "I just threw a fridge compressor out recently that I used as a vacuum pump.Now I’m tempted to find another one :)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id"... | 1,760,376,407.774367 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/11/04/open-source-telescope-control/ | Open Source Telescope Control | Brian Benchoff | [
"cnc hacks",
"digital cameras hacks"
] | [
"astronomy",
"astrophotography",
"openDrive",
"telescope"
] | Telescope mounts connected to computers and stepper motors have been available to the amateur astronomer for a long time, and for good reason, too. With just the press of a button, any telescope can pan over to the outer planets, nebula, or comets. Even if a goto command isn’t your thing, a simple clock drive is a wonderful thing to have. As with any piece of professional equipment, hackers will want to make their own version, and thus
the openDrive project was born
. It’s a project to make an open source telescope controller.
Right now, the project is modular, with power supply boards, a display board, motor driver, an IO board (for dew heaters and the like), and a hand-held controller. There’s
an openDrive forum
that’s fairly active covering both hardware and software. If you’re looking for a project to help you peer into the heavens, this is the one for you. If telescope upgrades aren’t enough to quench your astronomical thirst you could go full out with
a backyard observatory build
.
Danke [Håken] for the tip. | 17 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "1091442",
"author": "Mystick",
"timestamp": "2013-11-05T00:57:23",
"content": "I suppose this could also be adapted for solar panel tracking(and solar panel banks) provided you had ephemeris for the sun and geolocation data… and if the panels had an equatorial mount.",
"parent_i... | 1,760,376,407.826628 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/11/04/trinket-contest-update-7/ | Trinket Contest Update #7 | Mike Szczys | [
"contests"
] | [
"trinket contest"
] | This is the last update for the Trinket Contest. We hope to announce the winners at the end of the week (there’s a lot to dig through!). If you didn’t see yours on one of the updates, either we didn’t get it, it wasn’t a complete entry, or you missed the deadline.
After the break you can see that final eight entries.
[Aaron’s] showing some love with his Jack-o-Lantern this year.
This badge is an example [Carlos] used in
his brass etching guide
.
[Christopher Mitchel] sent in a bitmap on his graphic calculator which isn’t surprising since we’ve seen
his work on this hardware
several times before. Learn about the hacks performed on the calculator pictured from
his recent post
.
Yo Dawg… [Andrew] put our logo on a Trinket in order to win a Trinket. He fessed up to having used TheGimp rather than actually etching the case of the uC.
This one is from an un-named submitter. He says he doesn’t have nice tools like everyone else but wanted to do something cool. He hand-etched the logo in a computer mouse using a 200mW laser. We think that’s pretty awesome!
This one’s actually a hack. [Michael] has been meaning to turn his RepRapPro Huxley into a pen plotter. He didn’t have time to do it properly so he just zip-tied a pen to the extruder and
printed a slice of the logo
.
This is a motivational mirror at this unknown submitter’s work.
[Sebastian] had the embossing pen in his CNC router for making his wedding invitations so he made a special run for the contest. | 12 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "1091359",
"author": "six677",
"timestamp": "2013-11-04T23:06:32",
"content": "ooh, I dont know which one is my favourite here",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1091463",
"author": "patrick",
"timestamp": "2013-11... | 1,760,376,407.967754 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/11/04/manufacturer-crippled-flir-e4-thermal-camera-hacked-to-perform-as-high-end-model/ | Manufacturer-Crippled Flir E4 Thermal Camera Hacked To Perform As High-End Model | Brian Benchoff | [
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"flir",
"FLIR E4",
"thermal imaging",
"thermal imaging camera"
] | Last month, [Mike] took a look at the Flir E4 thermal imaging camera. It’s a great tool for those occasions when you need the vision of a Predator,
but what he found inside
was substantially cooler: it seems the engineers behind the Flir E4 made their lives easier by making the circuits inside the $1000 E4 the same as the $6000 Flir E8.
This only means one thing, and
[Mike] has delivered
. He’s upgraded the firmware in the Flir E4 to the E8, giving it a vastly increased resolution – 80×40 for the E4 to 320×240 for the E8.
The hack itself is as easy as putting the serial number of the E4 in a config file, zipping a few files up, and installing it with the Flir tools. An amazingly simple mod (with an awesome teardown video) that turns a $1000 thermal imaging camera into the high-end $6000 model. | 136 | 35 | [
{
"comment_id": "1091256",
"author": "Gdogg",
"timestamp": "2013-11-04T21:03:33",
"content": "in before “This is bullshit that someone would cripple their hw/sw like this”If they didn’t do this, they’d ALL be $6000",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id... | 1,760,376,408.173782 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/11/03/hackaday-links-november-3-2013/ | Hackaday Links: November 3, 2013 | Mike Szczys | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"Hackaday links"
] | [
"diesel",
"lipo",
"mame",
"Rasperry Pi",
"tablet",
"walker"
] | [Michael] just missed the deadline for the Trinket Contest but we still think his tablet is pretty cool. He says it predates the iPad and uses a custom aluminum case, a SoC he ripped from a Gecko Edubook, powered by eight NiMH batteries. Check out
the front
, the
guts
, and the
sides
.
Speaking of portable power sources, After doing
a teardown of a 12V 6800 mAh Li-Po battery
[Howard] strapped some prototyping equipment to either side of it and now he’s got a prototyping power supply that’s easy to take with him.
Blinky goodness doesn’t have to look hacked together (even if it is). This Raspberry Pi logo
looks like a professional sign
! It was cut from foam and plastic, primed and painted, then stuffed with addressable LED strips.
While we’re on the topic of refined RPi projects, check out
this Raspberry Pi MAME cabinet
. It’s a bit bigger than
the Galaga cabinet
we saw recently but still small enough to keep around the house without getting in the way.
If you’re a fan of automotive hacks you should check out
this effort to build an Electronic Diesel Control
.
We’ve been saving the gnarliest link for last. [Matthew] laments that his missed Halloween to show off this project. But we don’t think an almost-entirely
wooden spider-like walker
needs to be paired with a holiday. It’s very cool and somewhat operational, but still needs help working out all of the kinks. Our favorite moment in the video is when [Matthew] exclaims “It wants to live!”. | 3 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "1090953",
"author": "daid303",
"timestamp": "2013-11-04T15:15:58",
"content": "The wooden spider is awesome, got more info on it? Can only find the youtube video, which is a shame!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1091207",
"... | 1,760,376,408.010328 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/11/03/duo-basic-an-all-logic-chip-educational-computer/ | Duo Basic: An All-Logic Chip Educational Computer | Brian Benchoff | [
"hardware"
] | [
"7400",
"logic chip",
"microcomputer",
"microcomputer trainer"
] | Way back before the days of microcomputers, a few very lucky students first got their hands wet with microcomputer trainers. These simple devices used common logic chips, lights, and switches to perform calculations; basically, a very small and simple computer. [Jack] has just released his
DUO Basic 8-bit educational computer
, a computer designed entirely around logic chips just as was done in the olden days.
The entire computer except for a single EEPROM giving the computer 256 bytes of ROM, three registers, and two instructions (condition jmp and add). This allows for simple programs to be written just by flipping switches and hitting buttons – it doesn’t get much more ‘bare metal’ than that.
[Jack] has an
online assembler and emulator
for the DUO Basic along with a few example assembly programs. Of course, all the schematics and block diagrams are available on his site, along with a nice introductory video, shown below. | 16 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "1090352",
"author": "Bill",
"timestamp": "2013-11-03T21:43:14",
"content": "That’s really a nice build. I ordered one. I do, however, wish it had mounting holes!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1090361",
"author": "L... | 1,760,376,408.228364 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/11/03/diy-doggy-doorbell/ | DIY Doggy Doorbell | James Hobson | [
"home hacks",
"how-to"
] | [
"dog doorbell",
"doggy doorbell",
"pet doorbell",
"pet hacks"
] | Is your dog the strong silent type? Ever wish he or she could tell you when it is time to go do their business? This Reddit r/DIY user found a simple solution —
a doggy doorbell!
The dog in question isn’t very vocal, so his owner sought a simple solution, similar to Pavlov’s bells — the only problem? He needed some range on it, as you can’t always hear a few bells throughout the entire house. The solution? A wireless doorbell that he repackaged into a dog friendly button!
Compared to our last post on an
automatic pet watering system,
this one is a very simple hack that requires absolutely no electrical experience. It could be improved upon quite easily though, by wiring a second switch in parallel so the dog can ring the doorbell from the outside of the house too!
According to the owner, it only took a few treats to get the pooch trained well enough to use it whenever he needs to go out!
[Via
Reddit
] | 16 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "1090232",
"author": "sneakypoo",
"timestamp": "2013-11-03T18:06:31",
"content": "Could a dog person explain in more detail how you get the dog to understand that it needs to push the button when it needs to do its business? I’ve never quite understood how something like that is done... | 1,760,376,408.278884 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/11/03/professor-kill-a-volt-shocks-pumpkins-with-his-tesla-coil/ | “Professor Kill A. Volt” Shocks Pumpkins With His Tesla Coil | Adam Fabio | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"high voltage",
"MOT",
"tesla",
"tesla coil",
"transformer"
] | [JJ Dasher] is back again this year,
shocking some pumpkins!
(Volume warning). We featured [JJ] two years ago
for his Halloween candy shocking Tesla coil.
He apparently has been busy in his mad scientist laboratory doing some upgrades. This year his coil is producing 5 foot long streaming arcs!
[JJ’s] Tesla coil is a uses two microwave oven transformers as a power supply. He also uses an Asynchronous Rotary Spark Gap (ASRG). As the name implies, a rotary spark gap uses a motor to turn a rotor. At certain points in the rotation, the rotor creates a small enough gap that a high voltage spark can jump across, energizing the primary coil. This idea is similar to an automotive ignition system distributor. [Pete] gives a great
example of an ASRG in this video.
Most ASRG based Tesla coils use the small motor to spin up the spark gap. Varying the speed of the motor creates the characteristic “motor revving” noise heard in the final arcs of the Tesla Coil.
[JJ] made things a bit more interesting by installing a couple of fluorescent bulbs inside a pumpkin near the coil. The coil lights them easily, and they glow even brighter when the pumpkin is struck. Still not satisfied, he also donned his grounded chainmail gloves and drew the arc to himself. We always love seeing people safely taking hits from massive Tesla coils, but this definitely falls under the “don’t try this at home” banner. | 23 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "1090140",
"author": "andres",
"timestamp": "2013-11-03T15:17:38",
"content": "i don’t think automotive distributors make direct contact. you may be confusing them with the contacts that operated the ignition coils.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
... | 1,760,376,408.343159 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/11/03/rfid-reader-snoops-cards-from-3-feet-away/ | RFID Reader Snoops Cards From 3 Feet Away | Marsh | [
"Arduino Hacks",
"Wireless Hacks"
] | [
"arduino nano",
"lcd",
"penetration testing",
"pentest",
"portable",
"rfid",
"rfid hacks",
"rfid reader"
] | Security researcher [Fran Brown] sent us this tip about his
Tastic RFID Thief
, which can stealthily snag the information off an RFID card at long range. If you’ve worked with passive RFID before, you know that most readers only work within inches of the card. In
[Fran’s] DEFCON talk this summer
he calls it the “ass-grabbing method” of trying to get a hidden antenna close enough to a target’s wallet.
His solution takes an off-the-shelf high-powered reader, (such as the
HID MaxiProx 5375
), and makes it amazingly portable by embedding 12 AA batteries and a custom PCB using an Arduino Nano to interpret the reader’s output. When the reader sees a nearby card, the information is parsed through the Nano and the data is both sent to an LCD screen and stored to a .txt file on a removable microSD card for later retrieval.
There are two short videos after the break: a demonstration of the Tastic RFID Thief and a quick look at its guts. If you’re considering reproducing this tool and you’re picking your jaw off the floor over the price of the reader, you can always
try building your own… | 60 | 16 | [
{
"comment_id": "1090045",
"author": "Juan",
"timestamp": "2013-11-03T12:08:27",
"content": "A followup article on a presentation that was a followup using the exact same reader over a year prior.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1090066",
"a... | 1,760,376,408.43397 |
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