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https://hackaday.com/2013/10/26/laptop-trackpads-and-midi-controllers/ | Laptop Trackpads And MIDI Controllers | Brian Benchoff | [
"Musical Hacks",
"Peripherals Hacks"
] | [
"Akai MCP",
"kaoss pad",
"kaossilator",
"midi",
"mpc",
"TouchPad",
"trackpad"
] | A bunch of pads connected to a MIDI out port is as old an idea as the Akai MPC. creating a homebrew version is great, but
[Scott] took his version one step further
. He used old laptop trackpads to control note on and note off commands when the each pad is tapped, and also added MIDI CC values for the touch pressure and the x and y-axis position.
The trackpads were identical models, each having their own PS/2 output. A few ribbon cable to 8-pin header adapters were manufactured, and the entire ensemble encased in a wonderful maple and aluminum enclosure.
The electronics are based on an Arduino Mega with 16 clock and data points for each touchpad eating up 32 of the 54 available pins on the ‘duino. The PS/2 protocol is well documented, but running 16 separate PS/2 id most certainly not. [Scott] ended up writing his own asynchronous PS/2 communications library to get the latency of his midi device down to about 50ms.
It’s an amazing bit of kit and comparatively inexpensive, given that [Scott] now has a 16-channel Kaoss pad. Video of the device hooked up to a MicroKorg below. | 9 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "1084500",
"author": "Bigdeal",
"timestamp": "2013-10-27T09:46:45",
"content": "That’s a fantastic idea and realisation!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1084577",
"author": "Yarr",
"timestamp": "2013-10-27T12:11:09",
... | 1,760,376,422.631055 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/10/26/class-up-your-haunted-house-with-a-disney-mansion-prop/ | Class Up Your Haunted House With A Disney Mansion Prop | Marsh | [
"Holiday Hacks",
"Raspberry Pi"
] | [
"halloween",
"haunted house",
"haunted mansion",
"lcd monitor",
"portrait"
] | Die-hard Disney fan [Brandon Etto] must have one of the coolest houses in the block around this time of year, especially now that he’s
built his own Master Gracey changing portrait
. If you’re unfamiliar with the Disney Haunted Mansion attraction, there are a few
different versions
at theme parks around the world; the Orlando one features a portrait above the fireplace
that miraculously ages
into skeletal form.
[Brandon’s] recreation uses a Raspi loaded with a
Video Looper SD image
that cycles through a clip of the aging man image. He fabricated a box to hold a 19″ LCD monitor and mounted an
inexpensive IKEA frame
to the front. The magic is hidden with window film applied to turn the frame’s glass into a two-way mirror: a technique [Brandon] borrowed from
this Halloween Instructable
.
For a step-by-step tutorial, you’ll want to head over to [Brandon’s]
writeup on MAKE
, but stick around for a quick video demonstration after the break and check out another Haunted Mansion hack:
the Singing Heads
.
[via
Adafruit
and
Make
] | 2 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "1084376",
"author": "Stacy",
"timestamp": "2013-10-27T03:13:20",
"content": "Awesome! I did this a long time ago morphing the pictures and looping it into a video. Good job.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1084668",
"autho... | 1,760,376,423.131484 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/10/26/a-jeep-mounted-flir-camera/ | A Jeep-Mounted FLIR Camera | Phillip Ryals | [
"Transportation Hacks"
] | [
"camera",
"flir",
"Jeep"
] | [Eddie Zarick] is at it again, modding his Jeep Wrangler into something that makes us all properly jealous. This time, he
managed to acquire and mount the FLIR camera from an old Cadillac
. It truly is an FLIR thermal imaging camera, and not just a near-infrared hack. Cadillac used this technology with a HUD, but [Eddie] decided to connect it to his in-dash screen. He also didn’t settle for simply facing it forward, but mounted it to a
Golight
searchlight base. He mounted the joysticks under the screen, giving him directional control.
[Eddie] spent about $500 on the project, which seems like a lot, but not when you consider the cost of a new FLIR camera. We would love to know where he found such a great deal! Maybe he hit up a local salvage yard? If you know of a good source for parts like this, let us know in the comments!
Previously we covered [Eddie’s]
pressurized water tap
,
weatherproof keypad entry
, and
other assorted hacks
. We look forward to seeing what he adds to his Jeep next. | 40 | 14 | [
{
"comment_id": "1084282",
"author": "pedro",
"timestamp": "2013-10-26T23:54:51",
"content": "“We would love to know where he found such a great deal!”me2",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1084290",
"author": "Tom Nardi",
"timestamp": "201... | 1,760,376,422.763229 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/10/26/an-impressively-large-led-matrix/ | An Impressively Large LED Matrix | Brian Benchoff | [
"LED Hacks"
] | [
"led",
"LED display",
"led matrix"
] | One of the more impressive projects a home-bound tinkerer can pull off is some sort of display. Not only does the final project result in a lot of blinky, glowey things, but driving hundreds of LEDs is an achievement in itself. [Fabien] decided he wanted to build his own LED display and
ended up with something great
(French,
Google translation
).
Instead of going off the deep end and making his own boards for this giant LED display, [Fabien] found a very cheap
16×32 LED display board on DealExtreme
. Once these kits were pieced together, [Fabian] mounted them in a wooden frame and started connecting the displays together.
The original plan was to drive these with an Arduino, but with so many pixels he quickly ran out of RAM. Replacing the Arduino with a larger ATMega1284p, [Fabian] found the RAM he needed and started work on some interesting visualizations.
Of course, Conway’s Game of Life made a showing in the final build, but [Fabian] also managed to whip up a spectrograph using FFT. It’s a very nicely put together display that makes us want to buy a few of these displays ourselves. | 10 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "1084210",
"author": "skywodd",
"timestamp": "2013-10-26T20:53:59",
"content": "Here the link with latest demonstration videos (Game of life, FFT and video streaming) :http://skyduino.wordpress.com/2013/07/20/code-demo-matrices-de-leds-diytj/",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
... | 1,760,376,422.809663 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/10/26/hackerspacing-in-europe-revspace-in-den-haag/ | Hackerspacing In Europe: RevSpace In Den Haag | James Hobson | [
"Hackerspaces"
] | [
"hackerspace",
"hackerspacing in europe",
"rev space",
"revelation space",
"revspace"
] | Welcome to
RevSpace!
This was the Netherland’s largest hackerspace — Until Hack42 acquired a military base in Arnhem… More on that later though. RevSpace is a 24/7 hackerspace located in the basement of a large industrial building turned workshop/studio. They have lots of space, but could even use more as they continue to grow! The photo above is from the Tuesday night BBQ – a weekly event that has happened every Tuesday for almost 2 years straight! It’s the social night and it draws many people out to share in good food, good company, and good times.
Special thanks to [Mark] for picking us up from the train station! He’s the fellow in the bottom
right
of the photo, and also happens to be one of the board members of RevSpace!
After entering the basement a large 3-phase power switch controls the status of the club — members turn it on when they are present and this updates the website informing people the space is in fact open.
This and a few other systems are controlled by a small computer mounted above the big alarm bell.
Each paying member has their own key — the space decided to make their own programmer for them though!
Obligatory Club-Mate photo.
Did we mention this space has a great welding & fabrication shed?
One of a few vending machines the space possesses. Apparently you can pick up these vending machines for a couple hundred Euros, mostly because someone’s lost they key! Not a problem for a hackerspace though, just pick the lock! The two machines they purchased ended up having close to a hundred Euros still inside them!
A hacked Chinese laser engraver to improve performance…
A small PCB mill for electronics projects.
This was the chimney — unfortunately it was filled with dirt and had a brick wall in front of it… They rented a jack hammer and now have a fume hood and ventilation system!
Some of their 3D printers and the long line of work benches.
Ultraviolet lights everywhere! This hackerspace is very well equipped with almost any tool you could need!
Handy labels like these tell you whose project (or tool) it is, if you’re allowed to use it, etc.
The skull sees all — in 3D!
Component storage covers most walls — shelves everywhere!
This is a completely roll-able, scrollable, web programmable LED sign!
They even have stereo microscopes!
One room, but lots of space!
They had a problem with bugs eating their plants — it’s a bit hard to see but there are small Venus fly-traps now to protect them!
One of the dark storage rooms filled with all kinds of hardware, tools, and other random parts.
More creative uses of the IKEA LACK tables!
Small book library…
Possible expansion space into the rest of the basement!
Plasma cut hard-drive. Why? Why not!
And what’s a hackerspace without at least one arcade machine?
This is their official office that they pay actual rent for. They are on good terms with the company that owns the building, and they provide many services to the other resident companies (IT, etc), so it’s a pretty good situation financially speaking!
They found blueprints of street lamps in the building, which are quite fascinating to look at!
Here’s a close-up to see the detail — seeing things like this really gives you a certain respect for drafting before CAD was invented.
Outside is the welding, barbecuing, and fabrication shed.
The grenade-style barbecue feeds many people especially on Tuesday nights. Hard to see but there is a large fume hood above it!
Some random welding projects…
Club-Mate empties…
The Tool Locker! Filled with more heavy-duty power tools such as welders, compressors, grinders, plasma cutters etc.
They also have a rather large unused parking lot great for quad-copter testing, go-cart racing and whatever else they feel like. The space is on the outskirts of town, so noise complaints are never a problem!
They even have an inclined loading bay, which makes bringing projects into the space much easier.
Obligatory sever room picture.
Can you guess who this guy is?
The God of technology.
A unique indoor planting solution…
The all-seeing internet eye that monitors the network — a very nice combination of technology and art, all welded out back in the shed.
To be honest, we’re not sure what this is. But it looks pretty cool. Maybe RevSpace will shed some light on it in the comments.
This is definitely a hackerspace we could see ourselves fitting right into. Thanks for the tour RevSpace! | 17 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "1084137",
"author": "Paul",
"timestamp": "2013-10-26T17:40:34",
"content": "Neat hackerspace photos! Any details of the modifications made to the laser engraver?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1084172",
"author": "8."... | 1,760,376,423.209866 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/10/26/trinket-contest-update-2/ | Trinket Contest Update #2 | Mike Szczys | [
"contests"
] | [
"trinket contest"
] | Whoa nelly, the Trinket entries are really starting to rolling in fast now!
The last update
featured only five, but below you’ll find an even dozen, and there are more coming in as we write!
The contest
asks you slap the Hackaday logo onto something for a chance at winning one of 20
Trinket dev boards
donated by Adafruit for this contest.
[Adam] is showing a Skull and Wrenches struck with gigantism. He’s displaying this on
his Epoch Clock
which was
hacked for use as a POV display
.
Click to enlarge this image of a welding helmet. The third eye for [Robert] when melting metal to join two parts of a project surely needs to be the Hackaday logo.
We can’t fault [Mike] for sending in a project which we already featured a few years back. It’s
a pen plotter build from old computer parts
.
[Xeracy] is experimenting with panels that can be backlit to show a design. He
3D prints them and leaves the design portion thinner
to let more light through.
This offering is [Aston’s] take on
building soft circuits
. He printed the logo using conductive ink on cardstock.
Can we interest anyone in a spray paint stencil of our logo? [Carl] sized it in the Gimp, then printed it out and cut the stencil by hand.
[Matthew’s] entire blog
post about milling a logo
into a DSLR lens cap is worth reading no matter what shapes you’re trying to mill.
A little virtual work never hurt. This is [Jan-Hendrik’s] entry of
a SketchUp version
of the design.
[Steve] printed this on an inkjet. He admit’s it’s rather trivial but mentions he tweaked all the settings to get the best tiny print possible.
On track to be recognized for smallest entry is this logo etched on a key. [Kyle] pulled it off with an 8W YAG laser and needed a microscope to take a picture of the finished product.
This Arduino clone includes the logo on both sides. It was sent in by [Joel]
We though this was just another TV displaying the logo, but it turns out that [Kyle] has been
editing the spashscreen logo on hotel televisions
to show the logo whenever a guest turns on the TV. | 12 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "1084109",
"author": "Lou",
"timestamp": "2013-10-26T16:13:36",
"content": "Kyle’s key should take a prize for sure",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1084232",
"author": "Kyle",
"timestamp": "2013-10-26T21:38:12",... | 1,760,376,422.687507 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/10/26/a-twitter-connected-mechanical-calculator/ | A Twitter Connected Mechanical Calculator | Eric Evenchick | [
"classic hacks",
"Raspberry Pi"
] | [
"6502",
"7400",
"ALU",
"raspberry pi",
"twitter"
] | Two students at the University of Bristol wanted to create a computer to demonstrate how ALUs work. The result is the
TwitALU
, a Twitter connected mechanical calculator.
The device uses a custom 7400 series ALU based on the famous MOS 6502 processor. Instead of doing the calculations on a silicon die, the ALU drives mechanical relays. This produces a nice clicky-clacky sound as the calculation is computed.
To start a calculation, you tweet
@twittithmetic
with your input. A Raspberry Pi is used to load the instructions into the ALU. Once the computation is done, it’s tweeted back to you and displayed on the Nixie tube display. It’s not efficient, or fast, but it does the job of demonstrating the inner workings of the device while doing simple math.
The device’s schematics are all available on the website, and are helpful for understanding how a simple ALU works. After the break, check out a quick clip of the TwitALU in action.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ph6hNiPInx8 | 11 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "1084040",
"author": "Whatnot",
"timestamp": "2013-10-26T13:39:15",
"content": "Wow, I almost forgot about how twitter once was, nice and fringe instead of a political/media/facebook type of thing, where your expressed views must be mainstream or you are arrested.Sigh. It never ends ... | 1,760,376,422.581122 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/10/22/cracking-gsm-with-rtl-sdr-for-thirty-dollars/ | Cracking GSM With RTL-SDR For Thirty Dollars | Brian Benchoff | [
"Radio Hacks",
"Security Hacks",
"Wireless Hacks"
] | [
"gnu radio",
"RTL-SDR",
"sdr",
"software defined",
"software-defined radio"
] | Theoretically, GSM has been broken since 2003, but the limitations of hardware at the time meant cell phone calls and texts were secure from the prying ears of digital eavesdroppers and all but the most secret government agencies. Since then, the costs of hardware have gone down, two terabytes of rainbow tables have been published, and all the techniques and knowledge required to listen in on cell phone calls have been available. The only thing missing was the hardware. Now, with a super low-cost USB TV tuner come software defined radio,
[domi] has put together a tutorial
for cracking GSM with thirty dollars in hardware.
Previous endeavours to
listen in and decrypt GSM signals
used fairly expensive software defined radios – USRP systems that cost a few thousand dollars a piece. Since the advent of RTL-SDR, the price of software defined radios has come down to about $30 on eBay, giving anyone with a Paypal account the ability to listen in on GSM calls and sniff text messages.
The process of cracking GSM first involves getting the TMSI – Temporary Mobile Subscriber Identifier – a unique ID for each phone in a certain cell. This is done by sending a silent SMS that will send back and acknowledgement an SMS has been received on the victim’s phone, but won’t give the victim any indication of receiving a message.
From there, the attacker listens to the GSM signals in the cell, receiving bursts attached to a TMSI, and cracking the encrypted stream using 1.6 TB of rainbow tables.
[domi] put up a four-part tutorial series (part 1 above;
part 2
,
part 3
, and
part 4
) that goes over the theory and the actual procedure of cracking text messages and voice calls with a simple USB TV tuner. There are a few limitations; the attacker must be in the same cell as the victim, and it looks like real-time voice decoding isn’t yet possible. Cracking GSM for $30, though, that’s good enough for us. | 60 | 25 | [
{
"comment_id": "1080958",
"author": "Soviet",
"timestamp": "2013-10-22T11:25:51",
"content": "Holy shit",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1080962",
"author": "Tom",
"timestamp": "2013-10-22T11:37:18",
"content": "What th... | 1,760,376,422.900768 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/10/22/usb-implementers-forum-says-no-to-open-source/ | USB Implementers Forum Says No To Open Source | Brian Benchoff | [
"News"
] | [
"usb",
"USB Implementers Forum",
"USB PID",
"USB VID"
] | For the longest time. one of the major barriers to hobbyists and very small companies selling hardware with a USB port is the USB Implementers Forum. Each USB device sold requires a vendor ID (VID) and a product ID (PID) to be certified as USB compliant. Adafruit, Sparkfun, and the other big guys in the hobbyist market have all paid the USB Implementers Forum for a USB VID, but that doesn’t help the guy in his garage hoping to sell a few hundred homebrew USB devices.
Arachnid Labs had an interesting idea to solve this problem
. Since other USB device vendors such as Microchip and FTDI give away USB PIDs for free, a not for profit foundation could buy a VID, give PIDs away to foundation members making open source hardware, and we would all live in a magical world of homebrew devices that are certified as USB compliant.
This idea did not sit well with
VTM Group
, the people serving as the management, PR, legal, and membership and licensing department of the USB Implementers Forum. In a slightly disproportionate response, the VTM Group told Arachnid Labs to,
Please immediately cease and desist raising funds to purchase a unique USB VID for the purpose of transferring, reselling or sublicensing PIDs and delete all references to the USB-IF, VIDs and PIDs for transfer, resale or sublicense from your website and other marketing materials.
Interestingly, Arachnid Labs’ and scores of other requests for an open source USB VID haven’t hit the desk of
anyone at the USB Implementers Forum
, the people who are
actually
in charge of designating USB VIDs and PIDs. There are a number of ideas to get around VTM Group that include squatting on USB VID 0xF055, but we’re at a loss why there couldn’t be a foundation that gives out open source USB PIDs. Microchip, FTDI, and
Openmoko
do the same, so perhaps it’s time to email some key people at HP, Intel, and Microsoft | 116 | 43 | [
{
"comment_id": "1080828",
"author": "Raivis R.",
"timestamp": "2013-10-22T08:04:27",
"content": "Here’s my short and open letter to a few of large members of USB-IF, who have recently showed a lot of love and support to maker communityhttp://www.rrkb.lv/musings/?p=156",
"parent_id": null,
"... | 1,760,376,423.093356 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/10/21/turn-a-pc-on-with-a-knock-and-an-attiny/ | Turn A PC On With A Knock And An ATTiny | Marsh | [
"Arduino Hacks",
"computer hacks",
"Microcontrollers"
] | [
"attiny",
"attiny45",
"knock",
"piezoelectric"
] | Pressing the power button on your computer usually isn’t too much trouble, unless your computer is stored away somewhere hard to reach. [Joonas] has been hard at work on a solution that would also impress his friends,
building a knock sensor to turn on his PC
.
For around $10 in parts he put together an ATTiny45 that emulates a PS/2 device, which takes advantage of his computer’s ability to boot upon receiving PS/2 input. The build uses a Piezo buzzer and a 1M Ohm resistor as a knock sensor exactly as the
official Arduino tutorial
demonstrates, and one of those PS/2-to-USB adapters that are most likely lurking in the back corner of every drawer in your office.
[Joonas] used
AVRweb
to disable the 8X clock divider so there’d be enough clock cycles for PS/2 communication, then loaded some test code to make sure the vibrations were being detected correctly. You can check out his
Github for the final code here
, and stick around after the break for a quick video demo. Then check out a similar hack with [Mathieu’s]
home automation knock sensor
. | 14 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "1080730",
"author": "wolfy02",
"timestamp": "2013-10-22T04:03:13",
"content": "Did something similar on a tower i modified before. It was an old IBM that had a broken plastic button for the power. Decided to bondo over it and install a reed-relay. Any time i wanted to turn it on,... | 1,760,376,422.952399 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/10/21/can-hacking-introductions/ | CAN Hacking: Introductions | Eric Evenchick | [
"Featured",
"Network Hacks"
] | [
"automotive",
"CAN",
"CAN Hacking"
] | We’re introducing a new series on CAN and automotive hacking. First, we’ll introduce CAN and discuss how in-vehicle networks work.
In 1986, Bosch introduced the Controller Area Network protocol. It was designed specifically for in-vehicle networks between automotive controllers. CAN became a popular option for networking controllers in automotive, industrial, and robotics applications. Starting in 2008, all vehicles sold in the US must use CAN.
Modern vehicles are distributed control systems, with controllers designed to handle specific tasks. For example, a door control module would take care of locks and windows. CAN allows these controllers to communicate. It also allows for external systems to perform diagnostic tasks by connecting to the in-vehicle network.
Some examples of CAN communication in a vehicle include:
The engine control module sending the current engine speed to the instrument cluster, where it is displayed on a tachometer.
The driver’s door controller sending a message to another door controller to actuate the window.
A firmware upgrade for a controller, sent from a diagnostics tool.
CAN is usually used with little or no security, except for the obscurity of the communications. We can use CAN to USB interfaces to listen to the traffic, and then decode it. We can also use these tools to send forged messages, or to perform diagnostic actions. Unfortunately, most of the tools for dealing with CAN are proprietary, and very expensive. The diagnostics protocols are standards, but not open ones. They must be purchased from the International Organization for Standardization.
Next time, we’ll get into the structure of CAN frames, and how traffic is encoded on the bus.
[Image via
Wikipedia
]
CAN Hacking
Introductions
The In-vehicle Network
CAN Protocols
Building CAN Hardware | 57 | 22 | [
{
"comment_id": "1080613",
"author": "sqelch",
"timestamp": "2013-10-22T00:05:12",
"content": "Awesome",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1080614",
"author": "Nikola",
"timestamp": "2013-10-22T00:06:00",
"content": "FINALLY! I’m going t... | 1,760,376,423.704899 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/10/21/the-most-minimal-homebrew-computer/ | The Most Minimal Homebrew Computer | Brian Benchoff | [
"Microcontrollers"
] | [
"6502",
"atmega16",
"AVR",
"homebrew",
"homebrew computer",
"retrocomputer"
] | Perfection is achieved not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to fail. Going by that metric,
[Stian]’s three-chip 6502 homebrew computer
is the epitome of perfection. It’s a real, working, homebrew retrocomputer using only three chips: a CPU, some RAM, and a microcontroller to bootstrap the computer and provide a video output,
The key to this minimalist build is having the entire boot process controlled by an ATMega16 microcontroller, This interfaces to the 6502 through a dual-port SRAM,
a 1 kilobyte Cypress CY7C130
. This dual-port RAM allows the CPU and microcontroller to access the same bit of memory, making it easy to bootstrap a computer from a bit of AVR code.
Output is provided with [Stian]’s
ATMega video text generator
putting a 37×17 characters on any television with an RCA jack. While input isn’t handled yet, [Stian] says it should be possible with his
AVR PS/2 keyboard library
.
While other 6502 homebrew computers such as
[Quinn Dunki] Veronica
can reach unparalleled heights of complexity, there is a lot to be said about the minimalism of [Stian]’s three-chip computer. With some clever coding and a modified parts list, it may well be possible to put a retrocomputer in the hands of everyone with a bare minimum of cost and parts. | 31 | 16 | [
{
"comment_id": "1080594",
"author": "David Kuder",
"timestamp": "2013-10-21T23:27:35",
"content": "There are a few projects similar to this using normal SRAM chip, a 6502 or Z80, and a Propeller. The prop drives the clock for the 6502, and has “full” access to the bus. Sadly it leaves you with very... | 1,760,376,423.766858 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/10/21/introducing-the-shapeoko-2/ | Introducing The Shapeoko 2 | Brian Benchoff | [
"cnc hacks",
"News",
"Tool Hacks"
] | [] | For all the 3D printers that hit the Hackaday tip line, it’s surprising we don’t see more CNC routers. They’re arguably more useful tools, and with the ability to mill wood, plastic, and non-ferrous metals, open up the door to a whole bunch more potential builds. One of the most popular – and certainly one of the least expensive – CNC routers out there, the Shapeoko,
just received a huge update
that makes this minimal machine even more capable.
The new Shapeoko 2 keeps the same V wheel on an aluminium extrusion design with
Makerslide
, but fixes a few problems that limited the original Shapeoko. There’s a larger work area on this version, and the Y axes feature dual stepper motors. The biggest feature, we think, is the ability to handle materials larger than the machine itself thanks to its open front and back.
The Shapeoko 2 is available in two versions, a $300 mechanical kit that requires you to go out and get some motors, a power supply, and a
grblShield
, the full version, for $650, includes everything you’ll need to start routing wood metal and plastic at home. | 39 | 13 | [
{
"comment_id": "1080570",
"author": "Espen Klem",
"timestamp": "2013-10-21T22:44:00",
"content": "Hoahh! Great news! Saving money for this one =)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1080577",
"author": "lee",
"timestamp": "2013-10-21T22:57:... | 1,760,376,423.43807 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/10/21/pander-to-us-and-win-a-trinket/ | Slap Hackaday Logo On Something And Win A Trinket | Mike Szczys | [
"contests",
"Featured"
] | [
"adafruit",
"logo",
"pander",
"Trinket",
"trinket contest"
] | It’s no secret that we love to see project demos that pander to Hackaday. This often comes in the form of our page loaded on the screen in build photos, or creative use of our skull and wrenches logo. Now’s your chance to pander for a smidge of loot. [Phillip Torrone] offered up 20 of
Adafruit’s new 5v Trinket boards
as giveaways, and we can’t say no to getting free stuff in the hands of the readers.
So here’s the deal: Use the Hackaday logo on something. This can be just about anything. The images above show three examples made by Hackaday staff. There’s the logo built brick-by-brick on a Minecraft Survival server, a 3D version printed as a badge, and a somewhat squished version inside of a QR code. We will (seemingly arbitrarily) pick twenty winners from all of the submissions, but here’s a few guidelines to help you rise above:
Preference will be given to the largest (can you
put us on the side of a building
?) and smallest (
electron microscope anyone
?) submissions.
To make scaling easier here’s
a vector graphic of the Hackaday Logo
Entries that explain what you did and how you accomplished it are more likely to be chosen as winners
This contest is over, thanks to all who sent in their work!
Send your submission details to our tips line (don’t forget to say something like [Trinket Contest] in the title!)
. In order to receive a prize you must include your name, address, and email address (these will
only
be used by Adafruit to deliver the hardware and notify you when it has shipped). Get your entry in by Friday, November 1st in order to qualify. Obviously Hackaday, SupplyFrame, and Adafruit employees and their families aren’t eligible to win. | 20 | 14 | [
{
"comment_id": "1080505",
"author": "Josh Martin",
"timestamp": "2013-10-21T20:56:26",
"content": "Tiny HAD logo here I come.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1082559",
"author": "Polaczek",
"timestamp": "2013-10-24T16:14:45",
... | 1,760,376,423.607065 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/10/21/adventures-in-hackerspacing-freeside-atlanta-part-ii/ | Adventures In Hackerspacing: Freeside Atlanta, Part II | Marsh | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"Hackerspaces"
] | [
"adventures in hackerspacing",
"freeside",
"freeside atlanta"
] | This week on
Adventures in Hackerspacing
,
Freeside Atlanta Part II: Hacking the Hackerspace!
After
learning about the culture behind the space
, I was eager to ask hackerspace veterans [Alan] and [Steven] about nuts and bolts, about behind-the-scenes crucial decisions, and one question in particular: What’s the most important requirement for a hackerspace? [Alan] jumped in with this response:
Number one by and far is a willing landlord. I think if you have a willing landlord everything else is incidental. You make it hard on yourself if you are on the second story, but take the second story if you have a willing landlord.
That wasn’t the answer I was expecting, but when you look around Freeside, it starts to make sense…
Graffiti, street art, or some kind of mural covers nearly every wall, including a bowel-evacuatingly frightening Slenderman who lurks behind the bathroom door. I expected “size of the facility” to rank higher on their list—and at nearly 6,000 square feet, Freeside has heaps of leg room—but even a garage or a small office can function as a hackerspace for a handful of folks doing software or small electronics work.
Instead, [Alan] and [Steven] cast their vote for a place you can modify and improve. Freeside is located among the warehouses of the
Metropolitan Business and Art District
, which has a history of housing those who make creative use of the spaces. According to [Alan], Freeside is a conservative user of the property as compared to others in the same warehouse community. It’s also on the ground floor, because lugging heavy equipment up stairs is more trouble than it’s worth. There are exceptions. MASScollective, as [Alan] pointed out, is a three-story space with a freight elevator, so a space off the ground floor isn’t necessarily a deal-breaker. You just need to
be creative about getting equipment above the ground floor
.
[Alan] and [Steven] also took time to detail some of the legal issues that a hackerspace and its administrators may face. But first, the typical disclaimer:
I am not a lawyer, and the following information is not legal advice. [Alan] and [Steven] aren’t lawyers either, so be sure to consult an actual attorney before making any legal decisions about your hackerspace.
Freeside is officially a
Georgia Non-Profit
corporation, and they’ve applied for
federal 501(c)(3)
status, which comes with some tax breaks. Filing as a federal non-profit is quite the undertaking. [Alan] explained that the mountain of paperwork (around 80 pages) and increased responsibility for consistent and accurate record keeping can deter a space from applying. For Freeside, it’s worth the effort. Federal non-profit status looks good on grant applications, and [Steven] admits that they’ve been turned down for a few microgrants because Freeside’s still waiting to hear back on the 501(c)(3); their application is stuck in the backlog.
It’s also important to pick the correct
type of organization
for your space. Freeside chose 501(c)(3)—an educational and/or scientific organization—because they make an effort to educate the community and their members have
published scholarly articles in the medical field
. Some spaces go the route of the 501(c)(7)—social and recreational—because they can only claim to be a workshop organization.
They also pointed out the benefits of registering as a Limited Liability; if there’s a debt incurred by the organization, it’s founders are not liable for that debt. They can dissolve the corporation: assuming the organization has otherwise behaved responsibly. As [Steven] puts it, negligence trumps most legal safety nets, so it’s best to be above board on your paperwork and practices.
Then there’s the other kind of liability concern: safety.
Freeside has one hell of a workshop, and [Alan] was happy to give me a tour, but not before I strapped on the safety goggles that he handed me. No one expects members to walk in with an encyclopedic knowledge of how to operate every power tool. Whoever teaches you to use the big, loud equipment, however, is potentially liable for misuse by the trainee. If [Alan] taught you how to operate the table saw and you got hurt, whose fault is it? This was a problem that had Freeside members on edge. [Alan] explained how they approached the issue by carefully choosing the language that surrounds instruction, then securing a legal solution:
We don’t say ‘we certify’ you to use anything. There’s a welder guy we know who is able to actually certify people to weld, but if we’re doing a build-out of the space where we’re cutting 2×4’s, I’m going to assume that they’ll use the chop saw. If they use the table saw and hurt themselves, that’s where things get tricky. They volunteered, so they can’t hold Freeside responsible, but that doesn’t include me personally. So I took out an umbrella policy to protect me from things like that.
The
personal umbrella insurance
is less expensive than
directors and officers insurance
—which [Alan] only recommends if you plan to hire staff members (it covers equal opportunity, etc.) Now, as long as the Freeside guys aren’t creating a negligent environment, instruction is no longer a problem. You can check out
Freeside’s policy page
for more information and other guidelines. Many of these policies should be read as an “operations manual” rather than a strict rule book. Like most things at Freeside, their policies are empowered by fluidity.
Freeside has more stories to tell, but I’ll end the adventure here and instead suggest that you
check out their space yourself
. Swing by on Tuesday evenings for their open house, where you’re sure to meet plenty of friendly, knowledgeable folks, and can enjoy [Alan’s] bizarre taste in YouTube videos on the big screen.
A monumental thank you to both [Alan Fay] and [Steven Sutton] for tolerating over three hours of my questions and at least as many hours of lurking, and a much overdue thanks to my old friend [Brian Cribbs] for introducing me to the Freeside community.
Finally, I want to hear about your adventures.
Drop me a line
and tell me about your space’s politics, crazy mishaps, how you regulate safety, legal threats, the creepy guy who sat in his car outside your space while calling to ask if he can use it to put on a puppet show for children (You’ll have to ask [Steven] about that one), or anything you’d like to see in the next installment of
Adventures in Hackerspacing
. | 7 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "1080388",
"author": "jcwren",
"timestamp": "2013-10-21T17:03:48",
"content": "Another adventure would be if they answered emails when someone has a large number of SMT parts they’d like to donate.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id"... | 1,760,376,423.812542 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/10/21/piano-repurposed-as-a-resonant-synth-speaker/ | Piano Repurposed As A Resonant Synth Speaker | Adam Fabio | [
"Musical Hacks"
] | [
"Casio CZ synthesizers",
"guitar",
"music",
"piano",
"Pickups",
"synthesizer"
] | [Richard] recently rediscovered some files from a hack he did back in 2004. He was experimenting with
exciting piano strings via electromagnetic fields
. The idea shares some elements with
the self tuning piano we saw back in 2012
. Piano strings, much like guitar strings, are made of steel alloys. This means they create electricity when vibrated in a magnetic field. This is the basic principle upon which electric guitar pickups are built. The idea also works in reverse. The strings will vibrate in response to a modulated electromagnetic field. Anyone who has
seen an E-bow
knows how this can be applied to the guitar. What about the piano?
[Richard] started with the Casio CZ-101, a classic synth in its own right. The Casio’s output was run through a Peavy 100 watt amplifier. The amplified output was then used to drive custom coils mounted on a piano. The coils had to be custom wound to ensure they would be compatible with the 4 – 8 ohm impedance expected by the amplifier. [Richard] ended up winding the coils to 28 ohms. Six of these coils in parallel put him just over the 4 ohm mark. The coils effectively turned the piano into a giant speaker for the synth.
In [Richard’s] write-up
(word doc link) he mentions that the strings basically act as a giant comb filter, each resonating strongly in response to frequencies in its harmonic series.
The results are rather interesting. The slow attack of the magnetic fields coupled with the synth’s patch results in a surprising variety of sound. The three examples on [Richard’s] blog vary from sounding like a power chord on a guitar to something we’d expect to find in an early horror movie. We would love to see this idea expanded upon. More efficient coils, and more coils in general would add to the effect. The coils on various string groups could also be switched in and out of the system using MIDI control, allowing for even more flexibility. | 10 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "1080327",
"author": "John Honniball",
"timestamp": "2013-10-21T15:14:16",
"content": "Never mind the piano, isn’t that a Tektronix 575 curve tracer on the bench in the background of the photo?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "108... | 1,760,376,423.870597 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/10/21/pet-water-warden/ | Pet Water Warden | James Hobson | [
"Arduino Hacks",
"home hacks"
] | [
"arduino",
"pet bowl filling",
"water bowl"
] | This weekend’s Make project is a great one for pet owners —
an automatic water bowl refilling device!
It’s a fairly simple build, utilizing an old water jug, an Arduino, an aquarium pump, and some home-made water sensors. As always, MAKE has a very thorough guide, and the estimated build time is only an hour or two. They even threw in the ability to Tweet it’s status, including when the reservoir is empty.
But are we over-complicating this? A gravity based water feeder using the jug could work just as well. Sure, you wouldn’t get Twitter updates, but we hope you’re around your pets long enough to know when they’re thirsty.
A more refined version of this could include a solenoid water valve tapped into your house, eliminating the need of the reservoir and making this project a bit more useful. But even that might be a bit much, do we really need the Arduino? What about a spring-loaded water bowl that breaks a contact when the bowl is empty? Hook that up to a 5 second timer relay controlling the water valve, and you’ve simplified the project quite a bit!
After the break, check out the video to get some more ideas!
Once you’re done this one,
why not make a treat dispenser too?
[via
MAKE
] | 42 | 14 | [
{
"comment_id": "1080200",
"author": "Trui",
"timestamp": "2013-10-21T11:12:44",
"content": "And your pet will get a free source of metal ions too, as the wires corrode into the water.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1080223",
"author"... | 1,760,376,424.077569 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/10/21/walter-is-a-robot-head-built-from-scratch/ | Walter Is A Robot Head Built From Scratch. | Adam Fabio | [
"Robots Hacks"
] | [
"arduino",
"gcode",
"robot",
"stepper"
] | [Chris] has
put together a robot head
that is impressive at first sight. [Chris’] robot, Walter II, becomes even more impressive when you realize that [Chris] built every single part from scratch. Many of Walter’s parts were created using machines [Chris] built himself. Walter is a robot neck and head. His upper neck joint is based upon three bevel gears.Two steppers drive the side gears. When the steppers are driven in the same direction, Walter’s head nods. When they are driven in opposite directions, the head turns. The end result allows Walter’s head to be panned and tilted into almost any position.
A second pair of motors raise and lower Walter’s neck via a chain drive. What isn’t immediately visible is the fact that a system of gears and belts maintains the tilt on Walter’s head as his lower neck joint is actuated. For example, if Walter’s head is facing directly forward with his neck raised, one would expect him to be facing the ground when the neck is lowered. The gear/belt system ensures that Walter will still be facing forward when the neck joint reaches its lower limit. All this happens without any movement of the neck motors. [Chris] definitely put a lot of thought into the mechanical design of this system.
The mechanics help keep the electrical system simple. Two Arduino Nanos run
Reprap teacup firmware
. This means that Walter’s native language is actually G-code. One Arduino controls the bevel gear joint (X and Y in the G-code). A third Arduino controls the neck raise/lower (Z in G-code). A tower of stepper drivers complete the system. We think the head and neck would look great on top of a track drive system.
Number Five is Alive
!
[Thanks Jon] | 21 | 13 | [
{
"comment_id": "1080151",
"author": "hemalchevli",
"timestamp": "2013-10-21T08:44:19",
"content": "Great build, I especially like the neck mechanism.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1080154",
"author": "ch0mik",
"timestamp": "2013-10-21... | 1,760,376,424.004036 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/10/20/accurate-ish-pneumatic-cylinder-positioning/ | Accurate-ish Pneumatic Cylinder Positioning | James Hobson | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"adafruit flow meter",
"dangerous prototypes atx",
"launchpad",
"Pneumatic cylinder",
"pneumatic cylinder positioning",
"re-purposing a hydraulic cylinder"
] | Pneumatic cylinder positioning? If you have a technical background you should be scratching your head right now. Pneumatic cylinder positioning? That’s not really suppose to work! Well, [arduinoversusevil] has hacked together a system, that…
kind of does work
.
First a little background on [arduinoversusevil]. He’s building a hydraulic/pneumatic, bartending robot. Awesome.
Anyway, he recently picked up old hydraulic cylinder for next to nothing, and decided to try messing around with it. He purged the oil out of it and is now using it as a pneumatic cylinder. He also picked up a cheap $10 plastic Adafruit flow meter, and decided to try to make a positional pneumatic cylinder. Using a Launchpad development board, he controls the solenoid valves using a Dangerous Prototypes ATX breakout board. Surprisingly the cheap Adafruit flow meter was sufficiently accurate enough to measure the amount of air in the cylinder, which, depending on the load, can be used to position the cylinder, somewhat accurately.
He ran a test of about 360 cycles before the flow meter broke, and was able to achieve an accuracy of about 5mm! Not bad at all. Stick around after the break to see it in action — and to hear his colorful commentary.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gmt7iVCwDKY
[via
Dangerous Prototypes
] | 28 | 13 | [
{
"comment_id": "1080101",
"author": "Hack Man",
"timestamp": "2013-10-21T06:04:59",
"content": "How do you hold it in position? Hydraulic pistons tend to be all or nothing.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1080105",
"author": "Hack Man... | 1,760,376,423.946684 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/10/20/the-apple-iie-becomes-a-lisp-machine/ | The Apple IIe Becomes A Lisp Machine | Brian Benchoff | [
"classic hacks"
] | [
"apple II",
"apple iie",
"lisp",
"Lisp machine"
] | Way back in the late 1970s and early 1980s, a few very awesome people around MIT were working on Lisp machines. These computers were designed specifically to run Lisp as their main programming language. Around the same time, a few [Steves] in California were working on the Apple II, which would soon become one of the most popular computers of all time. The Apple II ran BASIC as its main programming language, fine for the time, but surely not as elegant as Lisp. It took more than 30 years, but [Alex] and [Martin] figured out a way to
turn the lowly Apple IIe into a Lisp machine
.
Developing Lisp for the Apple IIe was surprisingly easy for these guys – they simply wrote a Lisp interpreter in C and used a 6502 compiler to generate some machine code. The main problem of porting Lisp to an Apple II was simply
getting the code onto the Apple
. We’re assuming this would have been easier had the same project been attempted in the 80s.
To get their interpreter onto the Apple, they used the very awesome
ADTPro library
that allows data to be loaded onto an Apple II via the cassette port and a modern computer’s microphone and speaker jack. After a solid minute of loading analog data onto this digital dinosaur, [Alex] and [Martin] had a Lisp interpreter running on ancient yet elegant hardware.
The source for the 6502 Lisp interpreter can be
found on the GitHub
along with all the necessary tools to load it via a modern computer. That’ll give you all the ancient lambdas and parens you could ever want. One warning, though: backspace doesn’t exactly work, so be prepared for a lot of frustration.
You can check out the demo video below. | 36 | 16 | [
{
"comment_id": "1080009",
"author": "RNB",
"timestamp": "2013-10-21T02:22:05",
"content": "This is really cool. Lisp is an amazing language (especially modern dialects like Common Lisp)Many of the built in features are only now being ported to other languages.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": ... | 1,760,376,424.147134 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/10/20/hackaday-links-october-20-2013/ | Hackaday Links: October 20, 2013 | Mike Szczys | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"Hackaday links"
] | [
"ble",
"bookmark",
"gloves",
"mame",
"minecraft",
"xmos"
] | Winter is coming. We’ve see those gloves in stores made specifically to work with your smartphone. [hardsoftlucid] isn’t buying it. He
made his own version
using… well, you just have to see it.
Here’s
an eBookmark for a real book
. What? Well, you know how an eReader does a great job of keeping your place between reading sessions? This is an electronic bookmark for paper books which uses LEDs to show you where you last left off reading. [via
Adafruit
]
[Thomas Brittain] wrote in to share his
BLE Module
and
Pulse sensor
updates. Both were featured in
a recent Fail of the Week column
and the latest iteration takes them from fail to functioning!
You may be able to get
a free XMOS xCORE starter kit
. The company is giving away 2500 of them. [Thanks Tony]
After learning about
custom labels for microcontroller pinouts
from [John Meachum] we’re happy to get one more helpful tip: a breadboard trench is
a great place to hide axial decoupling capacitors
.
A bit of cutting, solder, and configuring lets you turn a simple gamepad into
a 4-controller interface for MAME
.
Many of the Hackaday Staff are into Minecraft (between Let’s Play videos, running servers, and building computers in-game it’s a wonder we get anything done around here). We restrained ourselves by not making this
video of a Restone circuit Blender animation on your desktop
into a full front page feature. [via
Reddit
] | 15 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "1079970",
"author": "Hirudinea",
"timestamp": "2013-10-21T00:09:21",
"content": "Winter is coming, Winter is coming, Winter is coming, who the hell is this Winter chick anyway? OK as for the glove, I’ve got an even better idea…http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glove#Fingerless_gloves",
... | 1,760,376,424.247588 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/10/20/polyphonic-arduino-sketches/ | Polyphonic Arduino Sketches | Brian Benchoff | [
"Arduino Hacks",
"Musical Hacks"
] | [
"arduino",
"midi",
"midiCSV"
] | Creating music for the Arduino is simple – just use the tone() library – but it truthfully doesn’t sound that great. That’s because this library is monophonic, making chords difficult or at the very least sound a little weird. [Connor]’s
miduino
aims to change that, turning raw MIDI files into polyphonic Arduino sketches.
To convert MIDI files into Arduino sketches, [Connor] whipped up a Python script based on
midiCSV
that reads the notes and channels of a MIDI file and converts it into the language of the Arduino. Unlike
the built-in tone() library
, miduino is polyphonic making the music produced from any Arduino sound great. It’s basically the difference between writing music for a PC speaker and a true keyboard; sure, you’re only getting square waves, but it sounds much better.
Oddly, [Connor] hasn’t put up his Python script as far as we can tell. All the MIDI songs are being converted on [Connor]’s own Raspberry Pi. This is supposed to be cheaper than a VPS, and makes for a very cool project to boot.
Edit:
Miduino isn’t polyphonic
yet,
but [Connor] says he should have that wrapped up in a week or two. | 21 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "1079880",
"author": "Eirinn",
"timestamp": "2013-10-20T20:11:08",
"content": "I think a demo would be a really nice addition to the article :) Here’s a youtube video linked from the miduino website:http://miduino.net/?page_id=941",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies... | 1,760,376,424.450077 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/10/20/3doodler-in-the-wild/ | 3Doodler In The Wild | James Hobson | [
"3d Printer hacks"
] | [
"3Doodler",
"kickstarter"
] | Remember the Kickstarter for the 3Doodler? Well they have just started shipping, and a hackerspace called Open Garage in Belgium just got theirs! Like any good hackerspace after playing with it
they took it apart and posted pictures.
This is great because in our
original coverage on the 3Doodler
, we wondered what it looked on the inside, and whether it could be adapted to use with a CNC machine to make a giant 3D printer. Garage Lab delivered on both.
Stick around after the break to see the innards, and the first test print using a CNC mill!
Nothing too surprising on the inside, but as [Anthony] notes on their blog, it comes with 3 external contacts that are not yet documented. Upon further investigation, one is a ground, and the other two control the fast and slow settings of the extrusion — but with a 3 second delay.
Satisfied with the tear down, they did the next most logical thing — they zip-tied it to their resident CNC mill and attempted 3D printing! They only made it one layer so far, but it’s a good start.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UnA73HvsnbI
The funny thing is, we’re in Germany right now and will be travelling to Belgium tomorrow, but unfortunately we won’t have time to check out the Garage Lab in person. For those of you wondering what we’re talking about, Hack a Day is midway through a tour of western Europe, visiting and profiling hackerspaces!
Read all about it here. | 19 | 12 | [
{
"comment_id": "1079810",
"author": "camerin",
"timestamp": "2013-10-20T17:18:01",
"content": "So let me get this straight , buy a pen based extruder, who’s purpose is scratch work in 3d space. Then mount it to a robot? Makes no sense. That being said i am quite curious about how it preforms as int... | 1,760,376,424.34822 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/10/20/hackerspacing-in-europe-the-garage-lab-in-dusseldorf/ | Hackerspacing In Europe: The Garage Lab In Düsseldorf | James Hobson | [
"Hackerspaces"
] | [
"garage lab",
"garagelab",
"hackerspace",
"hackerspacing in europe",
"the garage lab"
] | The Garage Lab
(
translated
) is a small hackerspace quite close to the Chaosdorf. As the name implies, it exists in a garage complex — each unit has a garage and an upstairs office. The Garage Lab shares their unit with a co-working space upstairs — basically, they get the garage at all the times, but only the upstairs on the weekend when it is empty.
It’s been around for about 2 years and has about 40 members (~20 of which are active). To be a member it is quite cheap, only €15/month or €10/month if you are a student. They mostly focus on 3D printing and electronics.
The space has several 3D printers, a large work area, and many hand tools. They run CAD classes quite often and are hoping to expand with 3D printing classes and other technical lectures. Our guide was a cool guy named [Axel] who works as a 3D designer at his own company, but loves spreading 3D printing knowledge with the world.
Check out the tour gallery!
This is the entrance to the lab – no real sign, but a friendly German directed us when we were looking rather lost.
Immediately inside is the main garage area are workbenches and hand tools that have mostly been donated by the members.
The next room is covered in shelves and lockers filled with projects.
It’s not that big of a space, but for the number of members it suits them quite well.
The resident RepRap printer!
A recent 3D printing project — home-made Oculus Rift goggles!
All in all it was a very cool space, with some very friendly hackers — If we lived in Dusseldorf it would definitely be a place to call home! They are hoping to expand but are having some difficulties getting funding and proper publicity — so if you have any advice, leave it here in the comments!
Next up, ACKspace in Heerlan, The Netherlands! | 6 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "1079799",
"author": "Robert",
"timestamp": "2013-10-20T16:43:58",
"content": "It was a great pleasure for us to meet you.Greetings from DuesseldorfRobert",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1079879",
"author": "Joker",
"time... | 1,760,376,424.394386 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/10/20/halloween-knock-box/ | Halloween Knock Box | James Hobson | [
"Holiday Hacks"
] | [
"halloween",
"halloween knock box",
"knock box",
"knocking box"
] | [Kyle] has been an avid reader of HaD for a long time. In fact, he was inspired by a Halloween knock box from 4 years ago! He saved the link and finally this year,
he went ahead and made his own.
So what is it anyway? Well, as the name implies, when you knock on it, it knocks back. And if you knock on it a special number of times, it’ll play a secret tune… It is a great little item to have at any Halloween event — and kids love it!
Design and function of the box is basically the same as
the original
, with a few modifications — most notably, swapping out the original PICAXE for an ATtiny85 microcontroller. [Kyle] even managed to find the lego skeleton and chains available on eBay. He’s put together a very thorough blog post on it and shared all the code and schematics — so if you’re looking for a last minute Halloween project, this might be it!
Stick around after the break to see the knocking in action!
Halloween is getting close! Don’t forget to send in your Halloween hacks to the tip-line! | 7 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "1079705",
"author": "masaleiro",
"timestamp": "2013-10-20T12:08:37",
"content": "Cool stuff! :)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1079712",
"author": "Hirudinea",
"timestamp": "2013-10-20T12:36:32",
"content": "Nice, j... | 1,760,376,424.495675 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/10/20/hackerspacing-in-europe-the-chaosdorf-in-dusseldorf/ | Hackerspacing In Europe: The Chaosdorf In Düsseldorf | James Hobson | [
"Hackerspaces"
] | [
"Chaos Computer Club",
"Düsseldorf",
"hackerspace",
"hackerspacing in europe"
] | Today we had the opportunity to visit our very first German Hackerspace — the
Chaosdorf
in Düsseldorf. They are a member of the much larger organization of the
Chaos Computer Club, which is Europe’s largest association of hackers.
Mostly focused on all things computer-based, they love tinkering around with Raspberry Pi’s and their very own Makerbot Replicator II.
After a long day of wandering around the trade show, we arrived on the doorstep of the Chaosdorf, and pressed the small green door buzzer…
We were welcomed into the large 180m2 hackerspace / computer lab by a friendly character by the name of [Robert]. He introduced us to some of the other members and began to give us the grand tour. What a cool space!
Immediately inside is a small room dedicated to storing and fixing bicycles for both members and guests. Continuing on we enter the main lounge area that features comfy couches, a big window onto the main streets, and a projector screen for movie nights and presentations.
There’s even a small area to sleep upstairs!
Further in is the main computer area, which features a nice messy bench of electronics, monitors, and spare parts!
They recently purchased a Makerbot Replicator II which sits in front of one of the bedazzeled pillars from the buildings origins as a nightclub (more on that later…)
The printer is run off this computer, conveniently housed in an old NES!
Deep in the back of the space is the electronics workshop — which also serves as a bottling room for their very own home brewed beer — which we can confirm, is actually quite good!
They recycle and clean all of their bottles — their favourite? Hermann Brause lemonade.
Sometimes they even make labels for it! The Chaosdorf is quite well known among the CCC for their beer brewing abilities — and they almost always bring some brew to the big conferences to sell.
They also have a full kitchen, and a discount deal with one of the other local restaurants — so if you’re ever hungry, there’s always something available.
Inside the old cold room from the buildings days as a club is their server room. Electricity is rather expensive in Germany so they have focused on reducing their footprint as much as possible. Almost all the lights are LEDs and everything is hooked up to a home automation system using several Raspberry Pi(e)s!
Here’s a fun intelligence test they like to give new members. It’s a 10lb sledgehammer with a USB plug sticking out of the end.
There are usually three typical outcomes:
They set the sledge hammer on a table to plug their notebook in, risking damage to the USB port.
They stand the sledge hammer on the floor, and balance their notebook precariously off the end of it.or the smart ones…
Go grab an USB extension cable from the closet.
But then nothing happens. So people try repairing the USB device, checking the drivers, etc… until they realize, it is quite literally, just a USB plug — with nothing attached.
They also have weekly talks and presentations — this one was about dentistry… or something… It was in German, so we weren’t quite sure.
Finally, here’s a running joke they have in one of the back rooms designated for smoking — electrical earth.
All in all, it was a very cool place, and a great hackerspace to visit first! But a lot of work went into it to get it to where it is today…
The building is nearly 100 years old, and its previous function was a rather sketchy nightclub. In fact — it was closed down due to violence. The place remained empty for almost 10 years, before the owners decided to try renting it out again. Chaosdorf found it and spent almost a year of renovating —
just check out the pictures on their site.
Next stop, the Garage Lab — Also in Düsseldorf! | 12 | 12 | [
{
"comment_id": "1079629",
"author": "Nitpicker Smartyass",
"timestamp": "2013-10-20T08:38:22",
"content": "The sub headline should read:“Willkommen im Chaosdorf in Düsseldorf”(a “dorf” – village – is neuter in German)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_... | 1,760,376,424.659011 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/10/19/pyrotechnic-star-machine/ | Pyrotechnic Star Machine | James Hobson | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"fireworks",
"pyrotechnic star",
"pyrotechnics"
] | [Robert McMullen] designed and built this
fascinating, fully automated, pyrotechnic star pump
(
Google cache
). It was made as a project requirement for his engineering program — The inspiration? He also happens to be a member of the Olin College Fire Arts club.
Let’s backtrack for a second. What is a pyrotechnic star any ways? They are the
pyrotechnic pellets
that make up the heart of all projectile type fireworks. Usually either a metal dust, compound or salt, they are what makes the pretty colours and “stars” of the fireworks. Only problem? If they aren’t made right they can be rather dangerous. Luckily, [Robert] chose one of the safest methods: pumping. The basic concept is that the star mixture is damp as it is pressed into a cylindrical shape, and then cut and dispensed, ready for use after a drying period.
The machine is a very slick mechanical contraption that is even a bit mesmerizing to watch. There’s lots of info on his blog, and even the technical drawings and Solidworks files are available! If this all seems rather familiar, [Robert] built a
similar machine that creates waterproof fuses
.
Stick around after the break to see it in action! Unfortunately we regret to inform you… blowing up of the stars is
not
included. | 15 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "1079587",
"author": "Galane",
"timestamp": "2013-10-20T05:47:46",
"content": "I bet all the big fireworks manufacturers have watched this video, or will be very soon.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1079817",
"author":... | 1,760,376,424.711353 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/10/19/diy-pneumatic-skeleton-and-air-horn-gag-to-scare-those-trick-or-treaters/ | DIY Pneumatic Skeleton And Air Horn Gag To Scare Those Trick-Or-Treaters | Todd Harrison | [
"how-to",
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"air horn",
"gag",
"halloween",
"pneumatic",
"scare"
] | [Rick Osgood] has been busy making more scaring gags for Halloween. This week he’s sharing great ideas for an
air horn
and
pneumatic jumping skeleton
, both actuated by 24 V sprinkler valves. These two new gags can easily be activated using [Rick’s]
cardboard floor plate switch
and three 9 V batteries cleverly snapped together in series for a 27 V supply (we can’t resist dropping in this link to
a 2196 V supply from 9 V batteries
just for fun).
The air horn construction is quite unique using a latex balloon strategically located as a reed valve for the air to vibrate over as it rushes out making a very loud honking sound. [Rick] then connected his manual bicycle pump to an air supply so that when an air valve is actuated the bicycle pump handle with a skeleton wired to it pops up. It then lowers back down via a bleed hole in the air line. Both the air horn and pneumatic pop-up skeleton seem simple to construct and his tests show them functioning perfectly.
Being the air storage chambers are small the re-trigger setup seems too repetitive to be practical for a continuous stream of Trick-Or-Treaters. Perhaps one could hide an air compressor with a long feed line to supply the gags? Plus, using an air compressor would come in handy for other scary blasts of air. Of course you would want to lower the compressor’s output regulator to safe levels so you don’t risk blowing apart your pop-up skeleton rig or any pipes.
Follow along after the break to see how to build these two great gags and get some tips from Mr. Safety.
Mr. Safety advice: Keep the pressure very low in PVC pipes because the pipes can shatter unexpectedly, more so in cold weather or as the pipes age or are exposed to sunlight. We have seen others wrap PVC air chambers in a roll or two of duct tape just in case the chamber fails. DO NOT apply pressure to any glued pipes until they have dried for at least 24 hours, the parts will come apart violently if you apply pressure before fully dry. Finally, when working with pressurized chambers you really have to know the safety limits of the materials you plan on putting under pressure. It is always best to use commercially constructed and welded air tanks with labeled pressure ratings. Metal chambers will be rated for much greater pressures even when constructed from metal threaded pipes. Don’t forget, in the US at least, you can get a cheap air regulator and 125 psi 11 gallon portable air tank at Harbor Freight for your scare gags. | 13 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "1079540",
"author": "Hack Man",
"timestamp": "2013-10-20T03:20:16",
"content": "Stop using PVC with compressed air and stop posting hacks that showcase them!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1079572",
"author": "Brett",... | 1,760,376,424.891697 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/10/19/game-of-life-clock/ | Game Of Life Clock | James Hobson | [
"clock hacks"
] | [
"conways game of life",
"game of life",
"game of life clock",
"GOL"
] | [Alex] wanted to make an LED clock. But simply making an LED array clock was far too easy — so he decided to make it
follow some interesting rules…
Ever heard of John Conway’s Game of Life? It’s quite simple — there are four rules.
Any live cell with fewer than two live neighbours dies, as if caused by under-population.
Any live cell with two or three live neighbours lives on to the next generation.
Any live cell with more than three live neighbours dies, as if by overcrowding.
Any dead cell with exactly three live neighbours becomes a live cell, as if by reproduction.
[from
Wikipedia
]
So [Alex] decided to make his clock LED matrix follow these rules, with lit pixels representing life. Every minute, on the minute, the time is displayed. But as soon as it is displayed, the rules take over, and the display disintegrates, following the rules of the Game of Life. It makes for an very interesting display that’s just
waiting to be scaled up to a larger size
!
He’s done a great job writing it up on his blog, and has included his code as well — so if you’re so inclined, take a look! If not, stick around after the break to see the clock in action. | 12 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "1079449",
"author": "mjrippe",
"timestamp": "2013-10-19T23:15:51",
"content": "GREAT idea and execution, horrible video. Handheld is NOT an option, and “Uh” between sentences is not punctuation. Skip to 0:30 to see the time disintegrate.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
... | 1,760,376,424.840164 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/10/19/solar-camping-on-steroids/ | Solar Camping On Steroids | James Hobson | [
"green hacks"
] | [
"solar powered battery",
"solar powered battery box"
] | [Rick] does
a lot
of camping, but he loves his electronics. So he’s now on his third iteration of his
solar-powered battery box
, and it packs quite the punch!
It’s a pretty simple build, but very effective. [Rick] is using a 200W solar panel, a 20 Amp MPPT solar charge controller, a large 100Ah Military Spec Deka 6TMF deep cycle battery, three 12 volt car accessory outlets, and to box it all up — an inexpensive plastic tote from Walmart to keep it dry in bad weather. The only problem we can see with this is that since the battery isn’t a sealed gel cell, it could out gas inside the tote which might cause him problems down the road. He’s aware of this though so the lid is only on when it needs to be.
This unit can power pretty much anything that runs on 12 volts, from USB devices, to camping light batteries, air pumps for air mattresses, C-PAP machines via the included A/C inverter, and it can even run an EdgeStar FP-430 portable fridge/freezer for 3+ days before even needing to plug in the solar panel for recharging! Total system cost is a bit high at around $1000 — but that includes the portable fridge, solar panels, and all accessories and miscellaneous hardware that went into assembling the system.
Stick around after the break to see the video demonstration. | 57 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "1079373",
"author": "Dax",
"timestamp": "2013-10-19T20:30:57",
"content": "The Edgestar FP430 fridge is specced to draw 65W and 5.4 amps at 12 volts, which would give it a run time of 18 hours, not three days. Even the video shows the fridge drawing 50 Watts according to the charge ... | 1,760,376,424.981117 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/10/19/circular-saw-to-table-saw-conversion/ | Circular Saw To Table Saw Conversion | James Hobson | [
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"Circular saw",
"matthias wandel",
"table saw",
"woodworking"
] | Corded circular saws are a dime-a-dozen at any old thrift store, yet table saws are a bit more of a costly investment — have you ever wondered if you could just make one out of a circular saw? [Matthias Wandel] did, and he just so happens to be very good at woodworking! He makes a lot of great woodworking videos to share on YouTube, and in his latest blog post, he shows us a rather elaborate way to
convert a plain old circular saw, into a functional table saw
.
While the concept seems simple, unless you do a lot of woodworking, you’ll probably marvel at how easily making things comes to [Matthias] — we know we did. By the end of the video he has a fully functional table saw that can raise and lower in height, and cut at different angles.
If you’re interested in making one yourself, he does a very thorough job explaining the process in his video — check it out after the break!
Does his voice sound familiar? This is the guy that brought us an
extremely loud wooden air raid siren
— remember that? In fact, we covered a lot of his projects, including
a fascinating interview with him!
[Thanks Ryoku!] | 90 | 26 | [
{
"comment_id": "1079271",
"author": "rtdtr",
"timestamp": "2013-10-19T17:14:22",
"content": "Yeah, who needs fingers anyway?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1079357",
"author": "voxnulla",
"timestamp": "2013-10-19T20:01:46",
... | 1,760,376,425.099056 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/10/19/build-a-sensorless-brushless-dc-motor-controller/ | Build A Sensorless Brushless DC Motor Controller | Todd Harrison | [
"how-to",
"Microcontrollers"
] | [
"atmega8",
"BLDC",
"brushless motor",
"library",
"sensorless"
] | [Davide Gironi] shows us how to implement a
sensorless brushless DC motor controller
(sensorless BLDC) using an ATmega8 microcontroller. In order to control a BLDC motor you need to know its rotational sequence position and speed so you can calculate and apply the correct current phase sequence to the motor windings at just the right time.
Simply said, sensorless BLDC means you’re not using a purpose built sensor to determine the motor’s position and speed, however, you are sensing the motor’s sequence position using the back EMF signal coming from one of motor’s coils that is not currently receiving power. When this back EMF signal crosses zero voltage a microcontroller can calculate the rotational speed and when to switch to the next power sequence. This technique is not good for position control motors but is great for continuous motors like computer fans and drives were the slightly reduced wiring costs make this type of BLDC control favored.
If you want to build a BLDC controller we recommend starting with [Davide’s] last project on
sensor controlled BLDC motors
. You can also checkout
these interactive demonstrations
for more understanding on the different BLDC configurations.
Follow along after the break to watch the video demonstration of [Davide’s] sensorless BLDC controller controlling a motor from CD-ROM drive. | 43 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "1079177",
"author": "scavanger",
"timestamp": "2013-10-19T14:06:42",
"content": "Repost?http://hackaday.com/2013/09/21/building-a-brushless-motor-controller-around-an-atmega-chip/And how is that a CD-ROM motor?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
... | 1,760,376,425.173349 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/10/19/alas-poor-yorick-i-tweeted-him/ | Alas, Poor Yorick! I Tweeted Him | Adam Fabio | [
"digital audio hacks",
"Holiday Hacks",
"Raspberry Pi"
] | [
"arduino",
"raspberry pi",
"speech synthesis",
"William Shakespeare",
"Yorick"
] | You know Halloween is coming around when the
tweet reading skulls start popping up
. [Marc] wanted to bring the Halloween spirit into his workplace, so he built “Yorick”. In case you’re worried, no humans were harmed (or farmed for parts) in the creation of this hack. Yorick started life as an anatomical skull model, the type one might find in a school biology lab. Yorick’s skull provided a perfect enclosure for not one but two brains.
A Raspberry Pi handles his higher brain function. The Pi uses the Twitter API to scan for tweets to @wedurick. Once a tweet is found, it is sent to Google’s translate server. A somewhat well-known method of performing text to speech with Google translate is the next step. The procedure is simple: sending “http://translate.google.com/translate_tts?tl=en&q=hackaday” will return an MP3 file of the audio. To get a British accent, simply change to google.co.uk.
The Pi pipes the audio to a speaker, and to the analog input pin of an Arduino, which handles Yorick’s lower brain functions. The Arduino polls the audio in a tight loop. An average of the last 3 samples is computed and mapped to a servo position. This results in an amazingly realistic and automatic mouth movement. We think this is the best part of the hack.
It wouldn’t’ be fair for [Marc] to keep the fruits of his labors to himself, so
Yorick now has his own Livestream channel
. Click past the break to hear Yorick’s opinion on the Hack A Day comments section! Have we mentioned that we love pandering? | 9 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "1079134",
"author": "aztraph",
"timestamp": "2013-10-19T12:03:53",
"content": "he’s no Alec Guinness, but it’s cool",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1079187",
"author": "0xfred",
"timestamp": "2013-10-19T14:27:46",
"c... | 1,760,376,425.224674 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/10/19/blender-cam-open-source-cam-software/ | Blender CAM – Open Source CAM Software | Phillip Ryals | [
"3d Printer hacks"
] | [
"3d printer",
"blender",
"cam"
] | [Vilem] sent in a tip about
a plugin he’s been working on
for Blender, called Blender CAM. It allows for exporting directly from Blender to a
G-code
file. He has been working on it for several months, and
releasing regular updates
with various tweaks and improvements. While the project isn’t complete, [Vilem] has made some very impressive progress. It currently supports 2D and 3D strategies, various cutter types, simulation of 3D operations, and even automatic bridges.
The image above was made using the plugin, and it shows the level of detail possible. We can’t wait to see the 4 and 5-axis support that he is planning on adding.
A basic tutorial video is embedded after the break. As with anything Blender-related, it isn’t incredibly automatic, but another free tool is definitely a good thing. It looks like [Vilem] is looking for some other developers who could help out. If you have the knowledge, you might consider contributing.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ax8u3g-hI_A | 13 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "1079051",
"author": "Josh Martin",
"timestamp": "2013-10-19T08:10:48",
"content": "I have used Blender for about 5 years (I used alpha builds a lot). I’ve owned a CNC machine for 2. BlenderCam crashes a lot and is really slow. It has promise but it’s not working for production. I ho... | 1,760,376,425.271859 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/10/18/woodcut-stamps-and-conductive-ink/ | Woodcut Stamps And Conductive Ink | Brian Benchoff | [
"hardware",
"Laser Hacks"
] | [
"circuit",
"laser cutter",
"pcb",
"smd"
] | Even though it’s been a while since the Rome Maker Faire, we’re still getting some tips from the trenches of Europe’s largest gathering of makers. One of these is a
30-minute experiment from [Luong]
. He wondered if it would be possible to create SMD circuit boards by using a 3D printer to fabricate a stamp for conductive ink.
[Luong] told this idea to a few folks around the faire, and the idea eventually wound up in the laps of the guys from
TechLab
. the Chieri, Italy hackerspace. They suggested cutting a wooden stamp using a laser cutter and within 30 minutes of the idea’s inception a completed stamp for an Atari Punk Console PCB was in [Luong]’s hands.
As an experiment, the idea was a tremendous success. As a tool, the stamp didn’t perform as well as hoped; the traces didn’t transfer properly, and there’s no way this wooden laser cut stamp could ever create usable PCBs.
That being said, we’re thinking [Luong] is on the right track here with printed PCBs. One of the holy grails of home fabrication is the creation of printed circuit boards, and even a partial success is too big to ignore.
This idea for CNC-created PCB stamps might work with a different material – linoleum or other rubber stamp material, or even a CNC milled aluminum plate. If you have any ideas on how to use this technique for PCB creation, leave a note in the comments, or better yet, try it out for yourself. | 43 | 23 | [
{
"comment_id": "1078972",
"author": "Khordas",
"timestamp": "2013-10-19T05:13:39",
"content": "Sound like what you’re looking for is a stencil. Could cut one with a laser cutter, squeegee the conductive ink through it.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comm... | 1,760,376,425.350903 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/10/18/quadruped-robot-thinks-its-a-puppy/ | Quadruped Robot Thinks It’s A Puppy | Adam Fabio | [
"Robots Hacks"
] | [
"Mobile robot",
"quadruped",
"radio control",
"robot",
"robot wars",
"robotics",
"servo"
] | Back at New York MakerFaire 2012, we noticed an amazing little steampunk quadruped robot walking around in the crowd outdoors. The robot was amazingly well executed, and had a unique ability to draw children over with it’s puppy like animations. It turns out this is
[Drew’s] Little Walking Robot (AKA Puppy Bot)
.
Puppy Bot has actually been around for quite a while. He was born from the spare parts [Drew] had left over after competing in Robot Wars and Battlebots. The robots in these competitions were often controlled by Radio Control plane or car transmitters. Most of these systems are sold as packs for an RC car or plane. In addition to the transmitter and receiver, the pack usually included a battery and 3 or 4 servos. Standard RC servos were much too weak for use in battle robots, so they remained in his parts box.
On what [Drew] calls a slow weekend, he started putting the servos together, and ended up with a basic robot that could crawl around the room. After that the robot took on a life of its own. [Drew] improved the battery system, and added a microcontroller to automate the various gaits and animations. He brought the robot along with him to one of his battlebot competitions, and it took home the “Coolest Robot” award – even though it wasn’t actually competing!
The robot’s first major public outing was at GenCon 2005, where the crowds loved it. In the years since, [Drew] has continued to iterate on puppy bot’s design. He has come up with several specific goals which he outlines in his blog. Among them are Crowd-friendliness, Ease of repair, and Simplicity. All these goals grew from experiences he had while repairing and upgrading Puppy Bot. We think these goals, and [Drew’s] entire blog are a great source of information to any aspiring robot builder. | 12 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "1078941",
"author": "Hirudinea",
"timestamp": "2013-10-19T03:56:19",
"content": "So does it leave little piles of batteries all over the house? Anyway better not let it out or DARPA will steal it.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": ... | 1,760,376,425.400992 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/10/18/rebuilding-a-1940s-tv/ | Rebuilding A 1940s TV | Brian Benchoff | [
"classic hacks"
] | [
"analog",
"motorola",
"rebuild",
"tubes",
"tv"
] | There’s a lot of cool stuff to be found under piles of trash in an antique store. [dijt] discovered this when he found a tiny 7″ Motorola television from the 1940s under a stack of trinkets from earlier eras. We can understand [dijt]’s impulse buy, and
the trials of rebuilding this ancient TV
more than qualifies it as a hack.
If you know where to look, there are hundreds of resources available for old televisions, Hi-Fis, and radio equipment from the dawn of the electrical era to the modern day. After consulting with a few forums, [dijt] got his hands on a schematic for his television set and began work on diagnosing what was wrong with it.
It turned out the original ballast tube in this set had long since given up the ghost. Luckily, this is a common problem in old TVs, and after consulting some forums [dijt] had a schematic to replace this ballast tube with some newer caps and resistors.
After constructing the circuit and testing it out, [dijt] mounted it in the old ballast tube to replicate the original look and feel of the 1949 television. Interestingly, this is the second time this TV had been restored; the 1960s-era caps and resistors told [djit] this TV had once went into a television repair shop. Let’s just hope [djit] remembered to glue the schematics to the inside of the chassis this time. | 30 | 14 | [
{
"comment_id": "1078833",
"author": "Alec Smecher",
"timestamp": "2013-10-18T23:33:43",
"content": "Small world! I’m just in the process of fixing a 1952 TV, and just documented some of that today:http://cassettepunk.com/blog/2013/10/18/television-repair-continued/I’ve been trolling around some of ... | 1,760,376,425.468396 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/10/18/flightdeck-a-touchless-midi-controller/ | FlightDeck: A “Touchless” MIDI Controller | Marsh | [
"Arduino Hacks",
"LED Hacks",
"Musical Hacks"
] | [
"arduino mega",
"infrared",
"max msp",
"midi",
"midi controller",
"RGB LED"
] | [Edward] wanted a different way to modulate notes on his MIDI controller, so he
decided to go touchless
. Inspired by the pressure-sensing modulation on his Edirol keyboard, [Edward] aligned eight sensors into a row of playable notes and used infrared to sense the distance of a player’s hand from the keys. He also included some function buttons to cycle through 10 octaves and RGB LEDs beneath the table that perform alongside the music.
He chose
SHARP GP2D120 sensors
(direct link to datasheet) for their low threshold, which allowed the board to detect distance close to the sensor. Each is mounted onto a sheet of frosted acrylic along with its own “hold note” button and an LED to indicate the key is playing. The lower panel houses an Arduino Mega that drives the system along with an RGB LED strip and its driver board. [Edward] used
Maxuino
and
OSC-Route
to interface the Mega to a Max/MSP patch which runs the show.
Learn more about the FlightDeck’s features in a video demonstration of the controller and the software after the break, then check out some other MIDI hacks like
this organ pedal
or the
Arduino-driven MIDI sequencer
. | 2 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "1078913",
"author": "bithead942",
"timestamp": "2013-10-19T02:23:17",
"content": "Nice job! I built a similar one a couple of years ago using an Arduino:http://bithead942.wordpress.com/2010/02/06/laser-harp/",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"c... | 1,760,376,425.51936 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/10/18/guest-rant-from-bits-to-atoms/ | Guest Rant: From Bits To Atoms | Quinn Dunki | [
"Featured",
"Rants"
] | [
"quinn dunki",
"veronica"
] | I’ve been a software developer for quite a while. When you spend long enough inside a particular world, it’s easy to wind up with an ever-narrowing perspective. You start seeing everything from a software point of view. As the saying goes, when your only tool is a hammer, you tend to treat every problem as NP-Complete. Or something. I forget how that goes.
Anyway, the point is, it’s always good to broaden one’s horizons, and solve as many different kinds of problems as possible. To that end, I started to get into hobby electronics recently. The journey has been very enlightening in a number of ways.
First of all, I learned that hardware is really not so different from software. The same principles of engineering design and debugging apply. When designing a complex hardware system, you use the same basic approach as a large software system. You break it down into increasingly smaller components until all the pieces are small enough to be implemented and verified in isolation. Then you start implementing the pieces, connecting them, and debugging issues that occur as a result of those interactions. Gradually you wind up with a complex entity that functions, but is too large to understand all at once.
Second, I learned that hardware people have cooler tools (like, with blinking lights and stuff). Some of them make noises. Some of them are hot or sharp.
Hardware arguably has more of what are thought of as “hard bugs” in production software engineering. These are bugs that are difficult to reproduce, or behaviours that are non-deterministic. These types of problems are common in very large systems, realtime systems, and multithreaded systems. An experienced software developer has encountered and solved many of these, often spending days or weeks on a single bug. Luckily, that knowledge maps very well to hardware debugging. This is not to say hardware development is more difficult than software development. I think they are about equal in this regard, but the challenges tend to lie in different areas.
Good software engineering is largely about minimizing the hard bugs. A well designed system will experience fewer memory leaks, fewer deadlocks, fewer race conditions, and so forth. Hardware is a world of AC noise, electromagnetic interference, static electricity, parasitic capacitance, and all kinds of other random phenomenon that can make debugging difficult. Similarly to software, much of good hardware design is down to minimizing these sorts of influences.
In the end, I’m learning that hardware can be immensely satisfying, because you end up with something you can hold in your hand when you’re done. Don’t get me wrong, I love writing software. However, it does suffer from the problem that everything you make is fleeting. I think back to all the hundreds of hours I spent on projects in grade school, for example. Those games and demos are all gone now, probably forever. The floppies are theoretically still in my mom’s basement, but they are most likely unreadable by now. Modern code still has the same problem, in a different form. Sure, with the internet and constant migration, the code itself can live forever. However, all the layers of languages, SDKs, libraries, and drivers that it depends on become obsolete if not constantly maintained. Backward compatibility has a window, which the code will slide out of if not kept up. At that moment, it ceases to function. Software is, and always will be, fleeting.
Perhaps the acceptance of the idea of hard work going into something fleeting is the difference between hardware and software people. Software people are used to thinking “virtually”, and long ago came to terms with the idea that when a project is done, it is pushed aside, perhaps forgotten, and all focus is put on the Next Thing.
This is a great time to explore both sides of the hardware/software divide. Microcontrollers and friendly development boards are blurring the lines between the ‘wares. The barrier to entry to the other side is getting lower all the time. So, if you’re a software person, try getting your hands dirty and sling a little flux. If you’re a hardware person, try your hand at a genetic algorithm, a pathfinder, or a quicksort. You might be surprised at how awesomely the other half lives.
* * *
About the author:
[Quinn Dunki] has been making games for 32 years, the last 17 of which have been professional. She was recently AI Architect at Pandemic Studios, on the dynamic open-world title “The Saboteur”. She now pursues consulting, independent development, mixed-media engineering projects, and writing. She has a mobile software company and consultancy called One Girl, One Laptop Productions, which makes games and other applications for iOS, Android, Mac, and PC. In her spare time she takes pictures,
races cars
,
hacks electronics
,
fabricates computers
, and berates her friends with sarcasm.
http://www.quinndunki.com
http://www.quinndunki.com/blondihacks | 83 | 26 | [
{
"comment_id": "1078620",
"author": "Bob",
"timestamp": "2013-10-18T17:13:49",
"content": "I’m in the exact same situation.I would add that, compared to software, learning material on the theory is quite harder to find for electronics (IMHO this is improving fast though).",
"parent_id": null,
... | 1,760,376,425.768786 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/10/18/hhh-cnc-storage-base-from-the-rabbit-hole/ | HHH: CNC Storage Base From The Rabbit Hole | Mike Szczys | [
"cnc hacks",
"Hackerspaces"
] | [
"hackaday hackerspace henchmen"
] | Remember when
we announced the Hackaday Hackerspace Henchmen program
and asked you to send in the best CNC hacks from your Hackerspace? Well so far this is the only entry, which puts [Mazz] in the top spot to take all the loot for himself. Send in your projects by 10/31/13 if you want a shot at stickers, shirts, and a parts vendor gift card.
What he sent in is
a storage cabinet base
built for his hackerspace —
The Rabbit Hole
in Rochester, Minnesota. The group managed to get their hands on a CarveWright CNC machine but didn’t have a spare bench to put it on. The thought of dropping a lot of cash into something wasn’t appealing to them. But as luck would have it, about the same time this arrived at the space one of the members spied a free filing cabinet curbside.
The cabinet was a vertical four-drawer unit. It was chopped in half, with the resulting two-drawer units bolted side-by-side to each other. From here a frame was built to support the cabinets, along with locking casters so that it’s easy to move around. The inaugural run with the new machine/cabinet combination was to mill a sign for the space: | 18 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "1078543",
"author": "matt",
"timestamp": "2013-10-18T15:04:13",
"content": "Is building a base from some 2x4s, a cabinet and plywood top really a hack? For a hackerspace setup to do woodwork I would at least demonstrate better carpentry skills than this.",
"parent_id": null,
... | 1,760,376,425.823187 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/10/18/making-a-diode-matrix-rom/ | Making A Diode Matrix ROM | Mathieu Stephan | [
"hardware",
"Microcontrollers"
] | [
"diode",
"Read-only memory",
"rom"
] | Here is a nice project that allows youngsters (but also adults!) to actually see the data stored in a Read Only Memory (ROM). The memory shown in the picture above is
made of diodes
. [Scott] made it as a part of his
Barcamp Fall 2013
presentation about visualizing ROMs. He starts his write-up by stating the obvious: this memory is not practical. Nonetheless, it still was a fun exercise to do. [Scott] then greatly described all the different kinds of read only memories that you can find out there, with a few words explaining how they work. In his diode ROM, bits are ‘programmed’ by adding (or not) a diode between a given data line (anode) and an address line (cathode). When pulling low a given address line, the corresponding data line will only be pulled low if a diode is present. [Scott] finally checked his circuit by using a very old device programmer which could only be run in DOS. | 34 | 17 | [
{
"comment_id": "1078429",
"author": "azog",
"timestamp": "2013-10-18T11:35:35",
"content": "He doesn’t mention that these types of diode arrays were actually used in some of the very old mainframes from the 60s and earlier, mostly for microcode. I only mention this because the lack of discussing it... | 1,760,376,425.940801 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/10/18/keyboard-spoofs-4-nes-controllers-for-chiptune-goodness/ | Keyboard Spoofs 4 NES Controllers For Chiptune Goodness | Mike Szczys | [
"Musical Hacks",
"Nintendo Hacks"
] | [
"controller",
"keyboard",
"nes",
"nesk-1",
"synthesizer"
] | This
toy keyboard is being used to play music on an NES
. As you probably already know, the
hardware inside those original controllers
was dead simple. They’re just a parallel to serial shift register that reads from all of the keys. To get this keyboard up and running [heavyw8bit] simply mounted eight chips inside the gutted toy, connecting two of them to the keyboard keys, and the rest to the array of push buttons he added to the right.
So what’s the point of using this as a quadruple game controller? Are you expecting to see what a full speed-run of Contra looks like using this as the controls? That’s not the point at all. This becomes a musician-friendly frontend for
the NES synthesizer ROM called NESK-1
. [heavyw8bit] wrote the game/program in order to allow you to use the original console hardware to play all of the sounds you know and love. Our favorite is the arpeggio example heard at about 2:35 into the clip after the break. | 7 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "1078409",
"author": "BiOzZ",
"timestamp": "2013-10-18T10:37:00",
"content": "I love me some chiptunes!nice little hack!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1078420",
"author": "potatoman412",
"timestamp": "2013-10-18T11:11:4... | 1,760,376,425.87169 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/10/17/unorthodox-home-made-cnc-machine/ | Unorthodox Home-made CNC Machine | James Hobson | [
"cnc hacks"
] | [
"cnc",
"homemade CNC machine",
"PVC CNC machine",
"TB6560",
"unorthodox CNC machine"
] | Here’s a rather
unorthodox home-made CNC machine
we haven’t seen before!
[ModHappy] recently accepted a challenge to design and build a CNC machine out of cheap and readily available components from a hardware store.
Wandering around the store he noticed the plumbing isle and he started playing around with PVC pipes on the floor, greatly confusing the store employees. He had a frame constructed, but still needed a way to achieve linear movement. His calls were answered in the electrical isle, where he made use of conduit wall-mounts! They only required a minor modification to go from gripping the pipe, to sliding along it. A few fasteners later, some stepper motors from a broken scanner, a CD-ROM drive for the z-axis, some hacked together couplers using set screws, and the mechanical build was complete.
On the controls end, he made use of a cheap Chinese TB6560 CNC driver board off eBay, which he modified slightly to increase reliability. The whole thing runs off
LinuxCNC
(which is free) on his old laptop — good to note, it can also be run live if you aren’t yet enlightened with a Linux OS.
Stick around after the break to see it in action, drawing out an awesome site’s logo!
If you’re looking for a DIY CNC machine that is a bit more robust, here’s a
bolt together version that uses metal tubing instead of PVC pipe. | 61 | 24 | [
{
"comment_id": "1077603",
"author": "Hack Man",
"timestamp": "2013-10-17T08:23:22",
"content": "Finally, a suitable use for PVC!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1077622",
"author": "h_2_o",
"timestamp": "2013-10-17T09:10:43",
"conte... | 1,760,376,426.029026 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/10/16/pov-airsoft-turret-on-a-rc-plane/ | POV Airsoft Turret On A RC Plane | James Hobson | [
"Toy Hacks"
] | [
"airsoft gun",
"airsoft plane",
"airsoft turret",
"rc airsoft"
] | To be honest, we’re surprised this hasn’t been tried before — then again, maybe it has! But what we do know is that the folks over at Flite Test have rigged up an electric Airsoft gun to a large RC airplane, aptly called
The Kracken.
The planes are a scaled up version of their own
FT Versa Wing
, which feature two props, giving them the ability of differential thrust. Not only were they able to strap a semi-automatic Airsoft pistol on top, they also have two GoPros filming the action and giving the gunner a POV for shooting down the enemy plane! Don’t worry though, the enemy plane features its own weapon — A permanent marker! This hardly seems fair though, as the closer the marker gets, the easier shooting down the plane will be!
Don’t take our word for it though, check out the awesome video for yourself, after the break.
Not impressive enough? Earlier this year, Flite Test also produced a
plane with a built in afterburner!
[Thanks Jon!] | 28 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "1077520",
"author": "Addidis",
"timestamp": "2013-10-17T05:11:02",
"content": "Has anyone built an object recognition / facial recognition turret?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1077546",
"author": "ANDK1987",
... | 1,760,376,426.0894 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/10/16/going-mobile-with-your-air-tools/ | Going Mobile With Your Air Tools | Phillip Ryals | [
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"air tank",
"air tools",
"nailer",
"paintball"
] | If you’ve ever worked with air tools outside of a shop setting, you know that lugging the air hose around can get more and more annoying the further away you are from the compressor. [headsplosive]
posted a video
(embedded after the break) showing how to go mobile with your air tools.
Air tanks made for paintball are high-pressure in a tiny space, and make a very convenient energy source. In this case, [headsplosive] used a 68 cubic inch, carbon fiber wrapped tank rated at 4500psi. The normal regulator only steps that pressure down to 800psi, so he added a second regulator to hit the 120-140psi that air tools need. He then attached a ‘remote line’, or a coiled high-pressure hose, and added a standard air tool coupler at the end.
The yield is pretty impressive. With a half-charge of the tank, he managed to drive 100 two-inch nails. [headsplosive] has a scuba tank handy, and uses that to recharge the paintball tank. He estimates a scuba tank will last you about 2000 shots from a nailer, and only costs about $7.50 to recharge. Not bad at all. We can’t help but wonder how long you’d get out of an air-powered cutoff wheel, or even a hammer drill. While the parts aren’t terribly cheap unless you buy them used, it will still pay for itself in convenience if you have the need. | 34 | 16 | [
{
"comment_id": "1077436",
"author": "ftkalcevic",
"timestamp": "2013-10-17T02:14:22",
"content": "Very cool. I’ve wanted to do something like this for a while for simple things like an air dust or simple sprayer.What kind of hardware do you need to be able to refill these at home?",
"parent_id... | 1,760,376,426.159255 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/10/16/monitor-github-activity-with-an-rgb-led-matrix/ | Monitor GitHub Activity With An RGB LED Matrix | Adam Fabio | [
"internet hacks",
"LED Hacks"
] | [
"arduino",
"Electric Imp",
"Git",
"github",
"light emitting diode",
"neopixel",
"ws2811"
] | Ever wonder who is forking your code? [Jack] did, so he built a
real time GitHub activity display for his company’s repositories
. The display is based a
Wyolum The Intelligent Matrix (TiM) board
. The TiM is an 8 x 16 matrix of the ubiquitous WS2811/Smart Pixel/NeoPixel RGB LEDs with built-in controller. We’re seeing more and more of these serial LEDs as they drop in price. Solder jumpers allow the TiM to be used as 8 parallel rows of LEDs (for higher refresh rates), or connected into one long serial chain.
[Jack] wasn’t worried about speed, so he configured his board into a single serial string of LEDs. An Arduino drives the entire matrix with a single pin. Rather than reinvent the wheel, [Jack] used
Adafruit’s NeoMatrix library
to drive his display. Since the TiM uses the same LEDs as the Adafruit NeoPixel Matrix, the library will work. Chalk up another victory for open source hardware and software!
An Electric Imp retrieves Github data via WiFi and passes it on to the Arduino. This is a good use of a microcontroller such as the AVR on the Arduino. [Jack’s] display has a scrolling username. Every step in the scroll animation requires all the pixel data be clocked out to the TiM board. The Arduino can handle this while the IMP takes care of higher level duties.
GitHub actions are represented by colored pixels forming the background of the display. The username of the last user to touch the repository is scrolled across the display. It’s a bit hard to translate the background matrix colors to activities without some sort of key. We’re guessing this would become second nature after the display is in use for a few days. We don’t know if [Jack’s] company does any automated build testing, but we would love to see his project merged with
this traffic light build monitor
. A big bright red LED matrix with a white scrolling user name would leave no question who broke the build – and who is going to be working late to fix it! | 2 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "1077368",
"author": "hfiennes2",
"timestamp": "2013-10-16T23:43:55",
"content": "The next sw release of the imp has better fast SPI support which allows you to drive neopixels direct from the imp, so no need for two CPUs :)(I’m from electric imp)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth"... | 1,760,376,426.251914 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/10/16/ben-krasnow-discusses-the-heat-treatment-of-steel/ | [Ben Krasnow] Discusses The Heat Treatment Of Steel | Brian Benchoff | [
"chemistry hacks"
] | [
"heat treating",
"heat treatment",
"steel",
"tempering"
] | For home metallurgy, there are two sources of information for the heat treatment and tempering of steel. The first source is academic publications that include theoretical information, while the second includes the home-spun wisdom of blacksmiths who learn through trial and error. [Ben Krasnow] put up a great video
that tries to bridge that gap
with some great background information with empirical observations to back up his claims.
For investigating the hardness of steel, a few definitions are in order. The first is stiffness, or the ability of a material to ‘spring back’ after being flexed. The second is strength, specifically yield strength, which is the amount of strain a material can withstand before being permanently deformed.
[Ben] did all these experiments with a 1/8″ W1 steel drill rod. As it came from McMaster, this rod could handle a bit of force before becoming permanently bent, and in terms of stiffness was much better than a piece of coat hanger wire [Ben] had lying around. After taking a piece of this drill rod, heating it up to a cherry red and quenching it in water, [Ben] successfully heat treated this steel to a full hardness. After putting it on his testing jig, this full hardness steel didn’t deform at all, it simply broke.
Full hardness steel is basically useless as a structural material, so [Ben] tried his hand at tempering pieces of his drill rod. By putting a few pieces in a kiln at the requisite temperature, [Ben] was able to temper his drill rods to be stronger than the stock material, but not as terribly brittle as a full hard rod. | 18 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "1077258",
"author": "Sparhawk817",
"timestamp": "2013-10-16T20:18:16",
"content": "stiffness is also known as “toughness” for those that are confused. don’t know why you would be, but people call things different things all the time.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"rep... | 1,760,376,426.214019 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/10/16/3d-printering-pastestruders/ | 3D Printering: Pastestruders | Brian Benchoff | [
"3d Printer hacks",
"Hackaday Columns"
] | [
"3D Printering",
"extruders",
"paste",
"paste extruders"
] | While bits of plastic are the usual material for 3D printers, there are hundreds of other materials that are equally well suited for 3D printing. One of the most famous is chocolate, a material so popular and easy to manipulate inside an extruder
there are even Kickstarters for 3D printed chocolate bars
.
There are many more materials deserving of being 3D printed, though: wax for lost wax castings, other foodstuffs for improbably shaped edibles, and ceramics so I can finally print a life-sized, functional version of the
Utah Teapot
.
Unfortunately, for all the progress of plastic extrusion, little has been done about extruding pastes, foods, and clay with a 3D printer. The
RepRap paste extrusion working group
is fairly close to being dead, so let this volume of 3D Printering explore what has been done in the world of paste printing.
Hey, remember when MakerBot was innovative?
One of the first instances where paste extrusion was demonstrated to the world was – remarkably – with the MakerBot Frostruder. While the Frostruder MK1 was never made available for sale,
The Frostruder MK2
was available for a short period of time. The mechanics behind this extruder meant for frosting cupcakes – both the cake and the machine – are actually pretty clever. A syringe is filled up with some sort of paste, and an air compressor to supply pressure. One solenoid valve opens to dispense frosting, and another serves as a relief valve to stop the extruder from oozing. It’s a brilliant solution to a problem, an ingenious device, and not for sale on the MakerBot store anymore.
Interestingly, Makerbot’s Frostruder MK1 used a stepper motor/plunger setup. This was an inherently flawed design, as a syringe plunger will have massive start and stop times. Whether through ignorance or animus, some parts of the 3D printing community have ignored the success of a Makerbot product, and some work has continued on
a stepper driven plunger design
.
So plungers are out, what’s in?
The name of game in paste extruders now is a pressure-based system. A very clever design is the
SupportExtruder
, an odd design that looks more like someone having fun with water rockets than an actual machine.
The SupportExtruder basically consists of two parts – a pressure vessel, basically a water bottle and a balloon, and a solenoid to let pressurized air into the bottle. When the solenoid activates, a bit of compressed air is allowed into the bottle. This compresses the balloon containing any sort of paste which travels down to the nozzle and onto the build platform. A clever device that’s actually been used successfully. In fact, with a little ingenuity, this water bottle could serve as a hot water bath for molten edibles such as chocolate.
The problem with pressure
With both piston and pressure-based extruders, there is one drawback: it’s impossible to have a true continuous feed system. Eventually, after decorating a whole lot of cakes or extruding a whole lot of chocolate, you’ll have to tear down your extruder and refill it.
One solution to this is using pumps.
Peristaltic pumps
– basically a flexible tube with a set of rollers pushing a fluid along – could be used for thinner liquids, but for clay and ceramics this method
has been met with failure
. A much more interesting way of feeding thick liquids onto a build platform is a
progressive cavity pump
.
The progressive cavity pump looks something like an Archimedean screw that fell into the hands of Dali. Designed by Rene Moineau in the 1930s, it consists of a helical rotor (the spinny bit) and stator (the part that contains the spinny bit). The rotor and stator (as seen to the right) have slight gaps between them that can pump a fluid from one place to another. In fact, this sort of pump is often used in the manufacture of food, sewage pumping and even
pumping cement.
Sounds a lot like what a true ceramic extruder should do, huh?
Surprisingly, there hasn’t been much progress in the development of a progressive cavity or Moineau pump for 3D printers. A shame, because these are the perfect pumps for dispensing thick liquids but commercial offerings are
both huge and expensive
. Nevertheless, a few people over on Thingiverse
have made their own Moineau extruders
with varying degrees of success.
What happens next with these Moineau extruders is anyone’s guess, but with the availability of flexible PLA and harder, slippery materials such as nylon, the possibilities of continuous extrusion of paste are expanding every week.
One final note:
Last week
I put out a call for more topics for this column
. I thank all of you that sent in your thoughts, and I’ll get some stickers out to you shortly.
A number of you said you hated the name “3D Printering”. I’ll admit I hate it too, so I guess it’s time to change it. Two of the best suggestions IMHO are, “Printicles” and “Printerest”. Printerest is an absurdly clever name for a 3D printing column, but I’ll defer to your judgement in the comments. | 41 | 28 | [
{
"comment_id": "1077179",
"author": "justsaying",
"timestamp": "2013-10-16T17:28:51",
"content": "printerest? one letter added is the definition of derivative. AM-News, additive manufacturing news.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1077183",
... | 1,760,376,426.331107 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/10/16/tour-of-chicago-hackerspace-pumping-station-one/ | Tour Of Chicago Hackerspace: Pumping Station One | Todd Harrison | [
"Hackerspaces"
] | [
"chicago",
"hackerspace",
"Pumping",
"pumping station: one",
"Station"
] | As you may know I was on vacation in Chicago last week. I got a chance to jump on the blue line train from Chicago’s downtown loop for a short trip out to the Addison stop where I caught a quick bus ride over to one of Chicago’s hackerspaces:
Pumping Station One
. I was given a tour by some camera-shy members that were there when I popped in. The space had a large welding area with lots of equipment, metal lathes, metal brake and woodworking equipment. You name the shop tool, I think it was there. I even think I spotted a functioning scanning electron microscope! WOW!
The lower workspace was quite extensive. Yes, there’s a second-floor having sewing machines, vinyl cutters, 3-D printers and an entire room dedicated to electronics and robotics. Also, they are in the process of expanding to make the space even larger. If you’re in Chicago I recommend you check them out, it’s an amazing space and an easy commute from downtown.
I hope my iPhone video is good enough to show off their splendid space.
Follow along after the break to learn more and get a glimpse inside Pumping Station One.
The main entrance sported a gathering center with a full bar where members hangout, chat, have meetings and play instruments. During my tour a couple of members were wheeling in a fresh keg of beer so there’ll be plenty reason for singing later. | 20 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "1077071",
"author": "Ren",
"timestamp": "2013-10-16T14:19:54",
"content": "NERP, Not Exclusively Raspberry PiA new term for my vocab",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1077074",
"author": "raster",
"timestamp": "2013-10-16T... | 1,760,376,426.408335 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/10/17/laptop-keyboard-el-panel-backlight/ | Laptop Keyboard EL Panel Backlight | Mike Szczys | [
"laptops hacks"
] | [
"backlight",
"backlit",
"EL panel",
"electroluminescent",
"keyboard"
] | [nullpointr] wanted a backlit keyboard for his Asus Transformer Prime so that it would be a bit easier to use in low-light situations. He considered a few different options and ended up
adding electroluminescent panels behind the keys
.
Those paying close attention might wonder why we called this a laptop in the title. Well, it’s a tablet with a keyboard dock and that’s a mouthful. This actually really helps to simplify the modifications because the motherboard and other bits are all in the screen portion of the device. EL panels are also a nice choice because you can cut them to size and they still function. With a bit of case work, three panels were made to fit side-by-side.
The part that just isn’t going to make it in the original enclosure is the inverter that drives the panels. It’s the black box to the left. [nullpointr] added a USB-form-factor jack to the side of the case that allows the inverter to be disconnected quite easily. This way the Transformer Prime can still go with him on the road, it just won’t light up unless he also hauls around that add-on.
Way way back we saw someone do this with
fiber optics and an LED
. Unfortunately that project link seems to be dead so we figure it’s about time someone revisited the concept. | 26 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "1078275",
"author": "James Hobson",
"timestamp": "2013-10-18T06:02:26",
"content": "I just saw this in person on my visit to the Chaosdorf Hackerspace!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1078306",
"author": "password",
"tim... | 1,760,376,426.472144 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/10/17/tips-and-tricks-for-the-c-pre-processor/ | Tips And Tricks For The C Pre-processor | Eric Evenchick | [
"Software Development"
] | [
"#define",
"C preprocessor",
"c++",
"macros"
] | The C pre-processor can help you write more concise, easy to follow code. It can also let you create a tangled ball of macros and #defines. [s1axter]
wrote up a guide
on how to use the pre-processor and keep your sanity.
We’ve seen some neat hacks with the C pre-processor, such as a
full adder implementation
, but this focuses on more practical usages. First, [s1axter] explains what the pre-processor does with your code by writing simple macros. Next up is arguments, and usage of ‘##’ directive for metaprogramming. Finally, we get a good explanation of why you need to worry about scope when using macros, and how to safe code by using ‘do {} while()’ statements.
If you’re into embedded programming, this guide will help you understand some of the more complex pre-processor techniques out there. It’s helpful for making your code clearer, and abstracting away hardware dependencies in a few lines of code. | 54 | 12 | [
{
"comment_id": "1078149",
"author": "cptfalcon",
"timestamp": "2013-10-18T02:17:45",
"content": "I’ll be that old fart: the C preprocessor should be avoided as much as possible. It is legacy; the value it provides is relatively weak as far as generating code goes. For common uses, there are typesaf... | 1,760,376,428.384581 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/10/17/making-use-of-the-trancend-wifi-sd-card/ | Making Use Of The Trancend WiFi SD Card | Brian Benchoff | [
"Wireless Hacks"
] | [
"sd",
"Trancend",
"Trancend WiFi SD",
"wifi"
] | [CNLohr] spends most of his time on the Internet, but sometimes real life drags him away from his keyboard. These “vacations”, as he calls them, don’t have a good Internet connection and forces him to rely on flaky cell phone connections that go up and down at the drop of a hat. Figuring this would be a great opportunity for some hardware hacking, [CNLohr]
came up with an ‘Internet-o-mometer’
– a device powered by a Trancend WiFi SD card that uses an 8×8 LED display to show the current status of his phone’s Internet connection.
This build uses the
Trancend WiFi SD card motherboard
we’ve seen before. When the card boots, it tries to connect to his phone’s WiFi connection. When it connects, a green smiley face is displayed on the LED matrix. When a whole lot of files are downloaded or, more specifically, the ping to google.com is more than 4 seconds, a red frowny face indicates the Internet connection is down.
In other Trancend WiFi SD card news, a whole lot of people including [Dan Krause] (thanks for the tip)
have been working on a complete replacement OS
for these neat little cards. Right now the OS is in very rough shape, but there is
a pre-built system available
should anyone want to experiment. [CNLohr] is also working on a compact, double-sided version of his SD card motherboard and we’ll be happy to feature a link to his Tindie store when he sends that in. | 14 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "1078066",
"author": "willrandship",
"timestamp": "2013-10-17T23:32:54",
"content": "Any particular reason the article cuts off in the second paragraph?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1078067",
"author": "Gdogg",
... | 1,760,376,428.295941 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/10/17/artificial-leg-comes-with-a-normal-gait/ | Artificial Leg Comes With A Normal Gait! | James Hobson | [
"Medical Hacks"
] | [
"Amputation",
"amputee",
"Evandro Ficanha",
"Mayo Clinic",
"Mo Rastgaar",
"Prosthesis",
"prosthetic foot"
] | Did you know over 50% of amputees take at least one fall per year due to limited prosthetic mobility? That compares to only about a third of all elderly people over the age of 65!
[Professor Mo Rastgaar] and his PhD student [Evandro Ficanha] set out to fix that problem, and they have come up with a microprocessor controlled
prosthetic foot
capable of well, to put it bluntly, walking normally.
Working with a scientist from the
Mayo Clinic
, the pair have created a prosthesis that uses sensors to actively adjust the ankle to create a normal stride. Commercially available prosthetics can do this as well, but can only adjust the foot in an up-down motion, which is fine — if you only plan on walking in a straight line. In addition to having an ankle that can also roll side-to-side and front-to-back based on sensor feedback, they have also moved the control mechanism up the leg using a cable-driven system, which lightens the foot making it easier to use.
We find the test apparatus almost as interesting as the prosthesis itself. The researchers had to come up with a way to measure the performance of the prosthesis when used to walk in an arc. The solution was the turn-table treadmill seen above.
If you have time, check out the video demonstration on the main article’s page which covers the leg and the treadmill build.
[via
Reddit
] | 10 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "1077947",
"author": "macona (@macona)",
"timestamp": "2013-10-17T20:25:07",
"content": "There is something afoot!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1077976",
"author": "mpegandy",
"timestamp": "2013-10-17T21:10:3... | 1,760,376,428.433109 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/10/17/fail-of-the-week-calebs-phosphorescent-cd-player/ | Fail Of The Week: [Caleb’s] Phosphorescent CD Player | Mike Szczys | [
"Fail of the Week",
"Hackaday Columns"
] | [
"caleb kraft",
"cd player",
"fail of the week",
"phosphorescent",
"POV"
] | When [Caleb Kraft] was in full production for Hackaday he pumped a pile of awesome videos. But not every project worked out. He’s been a fan of the Fail of the Week posts, and sent in his own recollection of a project gone wrong. Above you can see his phosphorescent CD player. He prototyped the project in May of last year but technical issues and looming deadlines meant it never saw the light of day. We’ll fill you in on his fail after the jump.
Editor’s note:
We need more tips about your own failure! There are a handful of submissions left in our reserves, but to keep this topic as a weekly column we need help tracking down more failed projects. Please document your past failures and
send us a link to the write-up
. If you don’t have a blog to post it on you may do what [Caleb] has done and email us directly. Remember to include any images and links to video which you may have.
The gist of the project is that [Caleb] wanted to use an LED to charge up some glo-in-the-dark paint. The easiest mechanical setup he could think of was to use an optical drive, with the disc itself as a moving display, and the lens sled as a way to move the light source. [Caleb’s] own words tell of the successes and failure he encountered:
Hey Mike and gang, let me start out by saying that I really love the new direction of the site. You guys are kicking some serious butt in my opinion. One of the new things I really love are the Fails. I thought I would share a fail from my time there at hackaday, a project that didn’t get very far, but I think has some really cool potential.
As many already know, I’m a little obsessed with glowy things. I was really inspired by
the Ghost Matrix
and immediately started thinking of things I could do along similar lines.
What I came up with, code named Enceladus for no apparent reason, was going to be a Compact Disk sized glowing visualization.
In the beginning, things were looking good. I grabbed the clear protective CD off the top of a stack, scuffed it up, and sprayed it down with glow in the dark spray paint. It cracked a little, but I didn’t care since this was going to be a proof of concept. I ripped the carriage out of a CD player and replaced the laser with an LED. At first I
used a white one
, then I ran to the store and bought some UV LEDs
I thought it looked good enough to continue. So I did! I fixed the LED spacing issues so it wouldn’t rub. Then I added controls for moving the LED as well as controlling PWM on the spindle motor.
At this point I found that the poor motor couldn’t handle low speed at all. It was fast or nothing. I had intended to rip it out and put a stepper motor in there for much better control, but got distracted by
my almost coast to coast hackerspace tour
that summer.
I’m pretty sure I tossed the hardware a long time ago, but this is a project I wouldn’t mind revisiting in a more refined manner in the future.
thanks,
Caleb Kraft
www.calebkraft.com
www.thecontrollerproject.com
The failure here is actually quite similar to the one that we featured last week. The issue is that the CD needs to move slowly enough for the UV LED to “charge” up the phosphors. It also needs to be accurate enough to achieve some type of meaningful resolution. We’d like to know your thoughts on this project. Is a stepper motor replacement the best way to go, or could this be driven reliably with the right
brushless motor controller
? Even if the motor control was sorted out do you think the single light source will be able to charge the phosphors fast enough for a message to be read before the glow material fades back to normal?
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. | 35 | 15 | [
{
"comment_id": "1077850",
"author": "Caleb Kraft",
"timestamp": "2013-10-17T17:11:57",
"content": "Hey! I made it on hackaday!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1077910",
"author": "Mike",
"timestamp": "2013-10-17T18:59:56",
... | 1,760,376,428.172083 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/10/17/interactive-boozeshelf-is-its-own-dance-party/ | Interactive Boozeshelf Is Its Own Dance Party | Marsh | [
"Arduino Hacks",
"LED Hacks"
] | [
"alcohol",
"arduino mega",
"eeprom",
"infrared",
"mosfet",
"rgb",
"RGB LED"
] | [Jeremy] refused to settle on your typical alcohol storage options, and
instead created the Boozeshelf.
Like most furniture hacks, the Boozeshelf began as a basic IKEA product, which [Jeremy] modified by cutting strips of wood to serve as wine glass holders and affixing the front end of a wine rack at the base to store bottles.
In its standard operating mode the Boozeshelf lies dark and dormant. Approaching it triggers a cleverly recessed ultrasonic sensor that gently illuminates some LEDs, revealing the shelf’s contents. When you walk away, then lights fade out. An Arduino Mega running [Jeremy’s] custom
LEDFader library
drives the RGB LED strips, which he wired with some power MOSFETS to handle current demands.
[Jeremy] didn’t stop there, however, adding an additional IR receiver that allows him to select from three different RGB LED color modes: simple crossfading, individual shelf colors (saved to the on-board EEPROM), or the festive favorite: “Dance Party Mode.” Stick around after the break to see [Jeremy] in full aficionado attire demonstrating his Boozeshelf in a couple of videos. Considering blackouts are a likely result of enjoying this hack, we recommend
these LED ice cubes
for your safety. | 9 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "1077770",
"author": "electgpl",
"timestamp": "2013-10-17T14:26:26",
"content": "Hi the project is interesting, but in the circuit which shows the 3 mosfet with LEDs, the LEDs are in reverse.Greetings!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment... | 1,760,376,428.665193 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/10/17/sparkfun-ponders-women-in-stem-fields/ | SparkFun Ponders Women In STEM Fields | Mike Szczys | [
"Featured"
] | [
"Ada Lovelace",
"sparkfun",
"stem"
] | Tuesday was [Ada Lovelace] day and to recognize it SparkFun posted
an article about women in their workforce and the STEM initiative
. [Ada Lovelace] is credited with
forging a path for women in mathematics and computing
. The STEM acronym represents a movement to get more of America’s students into Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics fields in order to keep up with the rest of the developed world. But part of the issue includes drastically increasing the interest of young women in these fields and their access to it. The thing is, I feel the same way about the community at Hackaday.
Obviously some of the biggest names in the hobby electronics and engineering enthusiast industry are women. The name that seems to top lists is always [Limor Fried] who you may know better as [Lady Ada]. She founded Adafruit industries. But there are couple of other notables that stick out in our minds. [Jeri Ellsworth] has been huge name around here forever. Just this week Hackaday was
celebrating the Kickstarter for her latest project
. [Becky Stern] has had a ton of awesome project featured, mostly in conjunction with her work at Adafruit but
her knitting machine hack
when she was with MAKE has always stuck out in our minds. And of course, there’s [Quinn Dunki] who has long been
building her own 6502 computer
from the ground up (Incidentally we’re running a Guest Rant from her at midday on Friday).
What I’m missing is the grass-roots hacks from women. I know they’re out there because I see them at monthly meetings at the local hackerspace. We featured [Caroline’s]
bathymetric book
, and [Robin]’s collaboration that produced
solar powered supercap jewelry
. Both are members of
Sector67
.
So I call for all Hackaday readers to make this a friendly environment for anyone who wants to participate. If you’re a female reader who has been lurking around rather than sending in links to your gnarly hacks please
take the plunge and send us a tip
! If your female friends have awesome projects, offer to help them document it for a feature. You may not have thought of it, but sharing your projects makes you a role model for young readers.
By trade I’m an orchestra musician — a field that was completely closed off to women until well into the last century. While gender equality hasn’t been reached in all orchestras, the Regional Orchestras I have and do play with, show equal representation of gender throughout. Let’s make the same thing happen with STEM! | 86 | 21 | [
{
"comment_id": "1077669",
"author": "Derek Peavey",
"timestamp": "2013-10-17T11:19:47",
"content": "A major practical problem I’ve seen in STEM fields is the attractiveness factor. Smart guys generally like smart girls and fall all over themselves trying to pair up with them. These women can end ... | 1,760,376,428.554847 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/10/16/teach-an-old-lcd-new-tricks/ | Teach An Old LCD New Tricks | Adam Fabio | [
"Microcontrollers"
] | [
"hitachi",
"lcd",
"Liquid crystal display",
"microchip"
] | [Art] has done
some amazing work with character LCDs
. He started with a classic character LCD. These LCDs are typically controlled by Hitachi HD447XXX compatible controllers. Hitachi’s controllers allow several custom characters to be defined. We’ve used those characters in the past for applications like spinners and bar graphs. [Art] took things to a whole new level. He created a double buffered LCD graphics library which allows these old LCDs to perform tricks usually reserved for graphical LCDs. Even more impressive is the fact the whole thing runs on a Microchip PIC16F628A programmed mostly in PICBASIC.
According to
[Art’s] thread on the PICBASIC forum
, he is using the custom character memory as a framebuffer. The LCD is set to display all 8 custom characters. Each frame is then in the PIC’s RAM. The completed frames are then pushed to the custom character memory of the Hitachi LCD controller. The result is a very smooth update rate on the LCD. [Art] wrapped the whole example up in a video reminiscent of the C64 demoscene.
There are some limitations to the library. The pixels between characters still can’t be displayed, and the library doesn’t check all bounds conditions. Even so, this is a great effort at pushing classic hardware to new heights. We’d love to see a version of this library ported over to C in Microchip’s own MPLAB/XC8 tools.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1xq8xJqbkNA | 43 | 22 | [
{
"comment_id": "1076928",
"author": "Stoiko Georgiev",
"timestamp": "2013-10-16T11:05:19",
"content": "Greath !",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1076933",
"author": "lja",
"timestamp": "2013-10-16T11:12:03",
"content": "How do people... | 1,760,376,428.810682 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/10/16/vt100-gets-beagleboned/ | VT100 Gets BeagleBoned | Adam Fabio | [
"computer hacks"
] | [
"beaglebone black",
"DEC",
"linux",
"Terminal emulator",
"vt100"
] | How do you make a great terminal even better? The answer is simple:
add a BeagleBone Black to it!
[Brendan] got his hands on one of the staples of classic computing, the
DEC VT100 terminal.
The VT100 was produced from 1978 to 1983. The terminal was so widely used that it became the standard for other terminals to emulate. Open any terminal program today and chances are you’ll find a setting for VT100 emulation.
[Brendan] originally hooked his terminal up to a laptop running Linux. The terminal, cables, and the laptop itself became quite a bit to manage on a small desk. To combat this he decided to add a BeagleBone Black inside the terminal case. It turns out the VT100 actually lends itself to this with its
Standard Terminal Port (STP) connector
. The STP was designed to add a “paddle board” in-line with the serial stream of the terminal. DEC and third party manufacturers used this port to add everything from disk drives to entire CPM computers to the VT100.
[Brendan] began by designing a board to interface between the VT100 and the BeagleBone. The board level shifts serial lines from the BeagleBone to the VT100. The STP also allows the terminal to provide power to the BeagleBone Black. He did notice some power glitches as the supply of the VT100 came up. This was solved with a standard TI TL77xx voltage supervisor chip. The hardest part of the entire design was the card edge connector for the STP. [Brendan] nailed the dimensions on the first try. In the end [Brendan] was rewarded with a very clean installation that didn’t require any modification to a classic piece of hardware.
We should note that most PCB houses use Electroless Nickel Immersion Gold (ENIG) as their standard coating. This will work for a card edge connector that will be plugged in and removed a few times. Cards that will be inserted and removed often (such as classic console cartridges) will quickly scrape the ENIG coating off. Electroplated Gold over Nickel is the classically accepted material for card edge connectors, however the process most likely is not going to come cheap in hobbyist quantities. | 19 | 14 | [
{
"comment_id": "1076860",
"author": "Hirudinea",
"timestamp": "2013-10-16T08:22:51",
"content": "This is really sweet,I can hardly wait till he gets WiFi running in it.And who else thinks this is what a computer is supposed to look like (even though it it just a terminal.)",
"parent_id": null,
... | 1,760,376,428.23761 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/10/15/a-gpu-for-an-arduino/ | A GPU For An Arduino | Brian Benchoff | [
"Arduino Hacks",
"Crowd Funding"
] | [
"FT800",
"FTDI EVE",
"graphics",
"lcd"
] | As the creator of the Gameduino, a shield that adds a VGA port and graphics capability to any Arduino, [James] knows a little something about generating high quality video with a microcontroller. His latest project, the
Gameduino 2
, blows his previous projects out of the water. He’s created an Arduino shield with a built-in touchscreen that has the same graphics performance as the Quake box you had in the late 1990s.
The power behind this shield comes from a single-chip graphics solution called the
FTDI EVE
. This isn’t
the first time we’ve heard about the FTDI EVE
, but this is the first instance of a project or product using this very cool embedded graphics engine. The Gameduino 2 uses an FT800 graphics chip over an SPI connection to give a 480×272 TFT touch panel the same graphical capabilities as a Voodoo 2 graphics card. From the video, [James] is able to put thousands of sprites on a screen, as well as simple 3D animation, and extremely impressive 2D animations using only an Arduino.
While the Gameduino 2 is designed to be a game console you program yourself, we’re thinking this would be even more useful as a display for standalone projects. | 27 | 12 | [
{
"comment_id": "1076775",
"author": "Yarr",
"timestamp": "2013-10-16T05:26:30",
"content": "“The same graphical capabilities as a Voodoo 2”? O RLY? What exactly are you guys smoking, and can I have some?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "107678... | 1,760,376,428.733162 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/10/15/building-a-rail-gun/ | Building A Rail Gun | Mathieu Stephan | [
"Weapons Hacks"
] | [
"capacitor",
"hot rail",
"rail gun"
] | [Valentin] tipped us about his latest project: a
homemade railgun
. For the few that may not know already, a railgun is an electrically powered electromagnetic projectile launcher. It is comprised of a pair of parallel conducting rails, along which a sliding armature is accelerated by the electromagnetic effects of a current that flows down one rail, into the armature and then back along the other rail. [Valentin]’s writeup starts with a detailed explanation of this principle, then a simple proof of concept is shown where a metal stick with two small round magnets on each end is accelerated along two alumium strips powered by a 9V battery.
The final build shown above is powered by a capacitor bank consisting of three 400V 2200uF capacitors in parallel. [Valentin] opted for a hot rail design, where the power is always present on the rails. The projectile is inserted into the assembly by a spring-loaded lever. A video is embedded after the break. If you found this interesting, you’re going to love
the fully-automatic Gauss gun
. | 37 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "1076743",
"author": "ScottishCaptain",
"timestamp": "2013-10-16T03:14:37",
"content": "Yeah.This is the kind of story that makes me cringe. Crappy build made from junk parts? Check. Extremely high voltages? Check. Article that makes it seem “fun” and “easy” to build your own without... | 1,760,376,428.62142 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/10/15/breadboarding-with-a-arm-microcontroller/ | Breadboarding With A ARM Microcontroller | Brian Benchoff | [
"ARM",
"Microcontrollers"
] | [
"arm",
"dip",
"LPC",
"lpc1114"
] | NXP’s LPC1114 ARM microcontroller is in a class all of it’s own. ARM microcontrollers are a dime a dozen, but this fabulous chip is the only one that’s housed in a hacker and breadboard friendly PDIP package. However, breadboard setups usually won’t have the luxuries of a true development platform such as flashing the part, single stepping through the code, and examining memory. [Steve]
found an interesting solution to this problem
that involves a Dremel and hacking up even more hardware.
[Steve] found a few
LPC1769 dev boards
that include a debugger and a way to program these chips. Simply by hacking off the programmer and debugger portion of this dev board with a Dremel tool, [Steve] had an easy to use interface for his breadboardable ARM.
After connecting the power rails to his breadboarded chip, [Steve] connected his programmer up and set up
a gcc toolchain
. For about $25, he has a breadboard friendly ARM microcontroller with full debugging capabilities.
This isn’t the first time we’ve seen a few people play with this DIP28 ARM chip; someone even
milled this 600 mil chip down to 300 mils
for even easier prototyping. Still, this is the best and cheapest way we’ve seen yet to turn this ARM into a proper prototyping platform. | 89 | 19 | [
{
"comment_id": "1076623",
"author": "Bob",
"timestamp": "2013-10-15T23:39:02",
"content": "At the risk of starting a religious war, I switched from ARM to Microchip’s PIC32 because it has several different chips in 28 pin DIPs. NXP only has 2.Some of the PIC32 DIPs even support USB OTG.The PICkit 3... | 1,760,376,428.931459 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/10/15/retrotechtacular-miniseries-on-the-wright-brothers/ | Retrotechtacular: Miniseries On The Wright Brothers | Mike Szczys | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"Retrotechtacular"
] | [
"retrotechtacular",
"Wright brothers"
] | Admittedly we prefer our Retrotechtacular videos to be campy, but sometimes the content is just so cool we have to give up that goal. So is the case with
this series on the Wright Brothers’ first manned, powered flight
.
Now there is some argument on who actually flew for the first time on earth. And that issue is touched upon right away by sharing the benchmarks used to substantiate the claim:
The machine was heavier than air
Carried a man
Rose from the ground under its own power
Flew under control without losing speed
Landed safely at an altitude no lower than it took off
The two-part series clocks in at almost two hours. But the combination of images, video footage, and first-hand accounts makes for something incredibly interesting. The original flight happened 110 years ago this December. That doesn’t seem so long ago and it’s incredible to think that air-travel is now common in the developed world and we’re even seeing
progress toward human powered flight
that itself is doing the same kind of trailblazing the Wright Brothers did.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9-9GKUXd9gg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8x–j0CMy80
[Thanks Dave]
Retrotechtacular is a weekly column featuring hacks, technology, and kitsch from ages of yore. Help keep it fresh by
sending in your ideas for future installments
. | 16 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "1076554",
"author": "John Smith",
"timestamp": "2013-10-15T20:50:25",
"content": "While there’s all kinds of awesome historical stuff here…My first reaction was to note that men’s suits haven’t changed much for quite a long time.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies... | 1,760,376,429.0948 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/10/15/castar-goes-live-on-kickstarter/ | CastAR Goes Live On Kickstarter | Adam Fabio | [
"Crowd Funding",
"News",
"Virtual Reality"
] | [
"augmented reality",
"jeri ellsworth",
"rfid",
"RIck Johnson",
"Technical Illusions",
"virtual reality"
] | [
Jeri, Rick and the Technical Illusions crew] have taken the castAR to Kickstarter.
We’ve
covered castAR
a couple of
times in the past
, but the Kickstarter includes a few new features just ripe for the hacking. First, castAR is no longer confined to a retro-reflective surface. In fact, it’s no longer confined to augmented reality. An optional clip on adapter converts castAR into a “free” augmented reality or a full virtual reality system.
[Jeri] has also
posted a video on her YouTube channel
detailing the entire saga of castAR’s development (embedded after the jump). The video has a real “heart to heart” feel to it, and is definitely worth watching. The story starts with the early days (and late nights) [Rick] and [Jeri] spent at Valve. She goes through the split with Valve and how the two set up a lab in [Rick’s] living room. [Jeri] also outlines some of the technical aspects of the system. She explains how the optics have been reduced from several pounds of projectors to the mere ounces we see today.
Another surprise addition is the lower level tier rewards of the campaign. The castAR tracking system is offered. The campaign page says the tracking system can be mounted to anything from robots to other VR headsets. The possibilities for hacking are almost endless. We’re curious about setting up our own
swarm of quadcopters similar to the UPENN Grasp Lab
. The RFID tracking grid is also offered as a separate option. In the gaming system this will be used for tracking tabletop game pieces. Based upon the Kickstarter page, it sounds as if the grid will not only use RFID, but a camera based tracking system. We’re definitely curious what possibilities this will hold.
As of this writing, the castAR Kickstarter campaign is already well past the halfway mark on its way to a $400,000 USD goal.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cc2NQVQK69A | 53 | 20 | [
{
"comment_id": "1076457",
"author": "Chris Kraft (@cwkraft)",
"timestamp": "2013-10-15T17:17:47",
"content": "I went in on the tracking package in addition to the other level I picked. I am looking forward to hacking with the it to see what I can get it to do. Hopefully after it is all over they se... | 1,760,376,429.835208 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/10/15/creating-irregular-board-outlines-in-kicad/ | Creating Irregular Board Outlines In KiCad | Mike Szczys | [
"Software Hacks"
] | [
"KiCAD",
"pcb"
] | One of the benefits of plain text file format is that you can go in and edit them by hand. This is part of
the KiCad board outline hack
which [Clint] wrote about in a recent post. He wanted a unique board outline, which is something that KiCad isn’t necessarily well suited for. His solution was to create the outline as an image, then import it. If you’re wondering what custom shape is called for this type of work we’d like to point you to the (kind of)
bottle opening HaDuino
. That PCB layout was done on Eagle, which has a bit more leeway with special shapes.
Before getting to the code editing step seen above [Clint] used the built-in feature for KiCad that will turn an image into a component. He exported that code and altered it using a text editor in order to change the layer setting for the shape to that of the board outline. This took him from a plain old image, to a module which can be selected and dropped into the board editing program. It’s a snap to do this sort of thing for the copper layers too if you’re interested in using your mad graphics editing skills to
layout an art piece on copper clad
. | 14 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "1076357",
"author": "Alex",
"timestamp": "2013-10-15T14:21:52",
"content": "Well to be snarky, this isn’t so much “in kicad” as “outside of kicad” or “despite kicad.”Hopefully this feature will be supported for real some day.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [... | 1,760,376,429.380978 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/10/15/running-custom-code-on-cheap-one-time-password-tokens/ | Running Custom Code On Cheap One-time Password Tokens | Mathieu Stephan | [
"Microcontrollers",
"Security Hacks"
] | [
"16f913",
"authentication",
"One-time password",
"OTP",
"pic",
"security"
] | One-time passwords (OTP) are often used in America but not so much in Europe. For our unfamiliar readers, OTP tokens like the one shown above generate passwords that are only valid for one login session or transaction, making them invulnerable to replay attacks. [Dmitry] disassembled one eToken (Aladin PASS) he had lying around and
managed to reprogram it
for his own needs.
Obviously, these kind of devices don’t come with their schematics and layout files so [Dmitry] had to do some reverse engineering. He discovered six holes in a 3×2 arrangement on the PCB so he figured that they must be used to reprogram the device. However, [Dmitry] also had to find which microcontroller was present on the board as its only marking were “HA4450” with a Microchip logo. By cross-referencing the number of pins, package and peripherals on Microchip parametric search tool he deduced it was a PIC16F913. From there, it was just a matter of time until he could display what he wanted on the LCD.
We love seeing tiny consumer hardware hacked like this. Most recently we’ve been enthralled by
the Trandscend Wi-Fi SD card hacking
which was also one of [Dmitry’s] hacks. | 41 | 19 | [
{
"comment_id": "1076219",
"author": "sneakypoo",
"timestamp": "2013-10-15T11:20:56",
"content": "I’m from Sweden and all the major banks use something similar. My bank’s little box includes a credit/bank card reader as well. It can be used to log in to the bank, sign for online payments, log in to ... | 1,760,376,429.748754 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/10/15/fine-furniture-kegerator-serves-a-lot-of-beer-smokes-a-lot-of-cigars/ | Fine Furniture Kegerator Serves A Lot Of Beer; Smokes A Lot Of Cigars | Mike Szczys | [
"Beer Hacks"
] | [
"cigar",
"kegerator",
"oak",
"resin"
] | This kegerator looks like a piece of fine furniture but
closer examination of the build
shows that it is at least partially hacked together. As with most of the multi-keg variants on the idea this starts with a chest freezer, but it doesn’t
utilize a custom collar
as is often the case.
After cutting the holes in the lid of the freezer for these beer towers [Lorglath] began building a wooden frame around it using pocket hole screws. Despite his efforts to keep things plumb and square, there was some… creative… shimming done when it came time to wrap it in oak veneer boards and add the trim pieces. But knowing where to hide the flaws got him through this part of the project and onto the surface finish. Look closely at the image above, all of those scraps are cigar rings. That represents a lot of smoke!
The rings were laid down in layers, with thin resin pours between each. To achieve a smooth and clear finish a heat gun was used to level the surface and pop any bubbles that made their way into the goo. The finished version has room to store eight kegs which are connected to the octet of taps above. That’s a lot of beer to brew, and a lot to drink! | 9 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "1076254",
"author": "Wolfy",
"timestamp": "2013-10-15T12:09:36",
"content": "beer makes your stomach fat, and cigars stink.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1076335",
"author": "Leithoa",
"timestamp": "2013-10-1... | 1,760,376,429.502034 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/10/14/more-drive-bays-cooling-and-power-for-a-diy-raid-box/ | More Drive Bays, Cooling, And Power For A DIY Raid Box | Mike Szczys | [
"computer hacks",
"Network Hacks"
] | [
"nas",
"raid",
"readyboost"
] | We’ve actually been on the look-out for a Network Attached Storage solution for home use. We want an embedded option just for power saving, but have you seen what a commercially available embedded RAID systems costs? It might be better to find an energy friendly PSU and use it in
a PC case RAID conversion
like this one that [Samimy] pulled off. He started with an old computer case and modded it to house more hard drives.
The image above shows his mounting scheme. Most of us have defunct optical drives in the junk bin. Many times they end up as
a way to play with CNC
, but in this case [Samimy] got rid of the guts and used a couple of angle brackets to mount a hard disk inside of the enclosure. Now that he can bolt more drives to the case he needed to power them, as the PSU didn’t have enough SATA power connectors. He clipped off a daisy-chain of connectors from a broken supply and spliced it into this one. Finally he cut a hole in the top of the case to add a bit more cooling to the system.
He’s using Windows 7 to power a RAID0 and RAID1 array using four drives. To help increase performance of the system he also used USB thumb drives as cache. This is something we’re not familiar with and we’re glad he provided
a link to ReadyBoost
, the software which makes it possible. | 37 | 16 | [
{
"comment_id": "1076039",
"author": "Tony",
"timestamp": "2013-10-15T05:16:49",
"content": "Huh, seems odd not to be familiar with Readyboost, it was trumpeted as a game changing feature in vista but never seemed to make much difference.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
... | 1,760,376,429.453494 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/10/14/galaga-mini-cabinet-using-a-nintendo-ds/ | Galaga Mini-Cabinet Using A Nintendo DS | Mike Szczys | [
"Nintendo DS Hacks"
] | [
"arcade cabinet",
"galaga"
] | We’re not showing you the finished version of
this tiny Galaga arcade cabinet
because it doesn’t really testify to the awesome that was packet into this hack. In regards to the features the build is just nuts!. The user controls were customized to look like the real thing, and the attention to detail would make craftsmen from the gilded age of dollhouses proud.
Update:
[eLRIC] left a link to
an even better forum thread build log
as a comment. Among other thing it fully details the joystick modifications.
The machine is driven by a Nintendo DS, which donates its upper screen as the cabinet display. In the image to the right you can see that the lower display is still accessible through an opening in the back of the cabinet. The joystick is a small multi-directional switch which was altered by adding the red ball. It was also housed in a custom metal bracket that includes a washer to limit the movement of the stick. Also shown on the right are the lights for the marquee as well as the two coin-slots.
Check out the video after the break to see the game play. Despite its size it still seems really playable, but if you need something larger you could
model your own build off of this project
.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sz6ya-eJldk
[via
Reddit
via
TheGrue
] | 16 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "1075931",
"author": "~Felicia~",
"timestamp": "2013-10-15T02:06:28",
"content": "Oh my!!! That’s awesome!!!!~~Felicia",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1076063",
"author": "eLR!C",
"timestamp": "2013-10-15T06:02:21",
"... | 1,760,376,429.559602 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/10/14/blenderdefender-automating-pavlovian-conditioning/ | BlenderDefender: Automating Pavlovian Conditioning | Marsh | [
"digital cameras hacks",
"home hacks",
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"blender",
"blender defender",
"dcs900",
"home automation",
"strobe light",
"x10",
"x10 firecracker"
] | This isn’t your typical home automation project; who turns a blender on remotely? [Brian Gaut] did, when he
rigged his blender and a strobe light
to scare his cat off the kitchen counter. To be fair, we’ve linked to this project before on Hackaday—twice actually—but neither the
article about relays
or the related
cat waterwall article
actually talk about the BlenderDefender, and that’s a shame, because it’s pretty clever.
[Brian] began by installing a
DCS-900
network camera on the wall near his kitchen sink. The camera monitors any motion on the counter, and once it detects something, a networked computer starts recording individual frames. This security camera setup isn’t looking for criminals: [Brian] needed to keep his cat away from a particularly tasty plant. The motion detection signals an
X10 Firecracker
module to turn on both a nearby blender and a strobe light, provoking some hilarious reactions from the cat, all of which are captured by the camera.
Check out some
other ways to work with the X10 firecracker
, and feel free to jump into the
home automation discussion
from last week.
[Thanks Joy] | 29 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "1075830",
"author": "Vonskippy",
"timestamp": "2013-10-14T23:10:22",
"content": "Reason number 17,284 to hate indoor cats.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1075889",
"author": "Gdogg",
"timestamp": "2013-10-15T0... | 1,760,376,429.674702 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/10/14/6-axis-3d-printer/ | 6-axis 3D Printer | James Hobson | [
"3d Printer hacks"
] | [
"6-axis 3d printer",
"Six degrees of freedom",
"Yong Chen"
] | We just stumbled upon this video by Professor [Yong Chen] and his students [Xuan Song] and [Yayue Pan] on a
6-axis 3D printer.
The group is from the University of Southern California and their project is called the “Development of a Low-cost Parallel Kinematic Machine for Multi-direction Additive Manufacturing”.
That’s right. 6-axes of 3D printing. It uses six linear actuators to move the tool head in almost any direction. The whole thing is powered by a KFLOP board by
Dynomotion
, a company dedicated to premium motion control for CNC manufacturing and robotics and automation.
In the video they give examples of printing on angled surfaces and cylindrical surfaces — but that’s just the tip of the iceberg. With 6-axes, parts could be designed with completely different characteristics, you could build up the base of a part, and then build off of it in different angles, no more horizontal layers throughout!
Unfortunately we haven’t been able to find any published information on their research, only this video — so stick around after the break and watch it in awe! | 18 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "1075756",
"author": "gannon",
"timestamp": "2013-10-14T20:55:23",
"content": "With their choice of bearings for the platform they limit movement a bit. Lots of more recent delta printers are using magnets instead of bearings, and they could be used here too.I’ve though of using a st... | 1,760,376,429.609308 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/10/14/adventures-in-hackerspacing-freeside-atlanta-part-i/ | Adventures In Hackerspacing: Freeside Atlanta, Part I | Marsh | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"Hackerspaces"
] | [
"adventures in hackerspacing",
"freeside",
"freeside atlanta"
] | The internet is littered with how-to step-by-step guides for starting and maintaining your very own hackerspace. Don’t worry, we’re not adding to the pile. If you want a checklist,
Eric Michaud’s got that covered
.
Adventures in Hackerspacing
is different: epic re-tellings, anecdotes, and behind-the-scene stories that fill in the gaps for those fragmented, laundry-list requirements. Here you’ll find nightmare scenarios come to life, clever legal loopholes to save the day, and overhauls that helped a space “click”.
Adventures in Hackerspacing
has plenty of advice to share, but like every good adventure, it’s about the journey, not the destination.
First up,
Freeside Atlanta
Part I: Philosophy and Culture.
I sat down with directors [Alan Fay] and [Steven Sutton] on a quiet summer evening to discuss how the space found redemption and success with its philosophy of promoting diversity and embracing humility.
In 1999 when I was a freshman in high school and Flash animations screamed “This website is professional!
Just look at those shape tweens!,
” my friend [Brian] introduced me to the wonder that is
Zombo.com
. If you’ve never visited, you should. It’s as hilarious now as it was in 1999. Now, fourteen years later, [Brian] is a member at Freeside. He also introduced me to [Alan], who admits that he completely reappropriated the hackerspace’s unofficial motto directly from Zombocom:
The only limit is yourself.
[Alan] explains that Freeside used to be disorganized, divided into individual workspaces that excluded new members from participating and prevented existing members from collaborating. Hackers are, despite their creativity and resourcefulness, typically introverted and reluctant to participate in such a space. Freeside needed an overhaul.
[Steven] and [Alan] spent nearly a year cultivating what they call a “culture of humility,” rallying members to embrace the philosophy above all else. It’s a model that promotes diversity—particularly diversity of skill sets—where each unique talent has value and members are encouraged to barter their skills.
[Alan] eliminated all claims to territories and replaced them with zones dedicated to a function rather than an individual. There’s a 3D printing area, a woodworking shop, and electronics stations. The zones exist based on member interest, and underused zones, like the former “video blogging” station, are killed off when interest wanes.
You might expect the Freeside directors to run the show, guiding members down different paths and making day-to-day decisions. You’d be wrong. As [Steven] puts it, the service at Freeside is terrible. He and [Alan] have transitioned to a custodial role, where they spend a lot of time taking out the trash. It’s their way of leading by example, and it allows them to inspire rather than enforce. This brings us back to the philosophy of Zombocom. If you asked [Alan] whether Freeside can have a biohacking zone, you’d get this response:
I’m in the business of saying ‘yes.’ I tell a member yes, but then I qualify it: it’s up to you…The way I describe the space is that it’s a bottom-up environment. It’s created by the people who build it. Most things in your life are top-down. Your office is designed by an employer for you. Your home, unless you are awesome rich, is designed by another person and you pretty much live with it. Those are kind of the only things you can hack: your home, to some extent that you don’t bother the homeowner’s association, and Freeside, where everything is possible.
And everything is, as long as you’re willing to do it yourself. Each new project is an experiment. The leadership’s goal is to empower members and to give them the tools to succeed while still allowing failure. Directors try not to interfere with projects or classes and work primarily to prevent confusing rather than to enforce limits.
Even the substructure of the leadership is its own experiment. As Freeside’s membership grows, different responsibilities are delegated to officers and teams. It’s a strategy aimed at distributing power to prevent a handful of individuals from having too much control while retaining a sense of hierarchy and responsibility.
It’s an experiment that seems to be working.
Join
Adventures in Hackerspacing
next week for Freeside Part II: Hacking the Hackerspace, where I’ll cover some of the space’s more interesting nuts and bolts and share some tips from directors [Alan] and [Steven]. | 12 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "1075633",
"author": "lee",
"timestamp": "2013-10-14T17:44:36",
"content": "I visited Freeside a few times, within about year of when it was established. Although I don’t live in Atlanta anymore, I’d be curious to see what it’s like now.“Freeside used to be disorganized, divided into... | 1,760,376,429.978765 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/10/14/build-a-diy-plate-reverb/ | Build A DIY Plate Reverb | Adam Fabio | [
"Musical Hacks"
] | [
"plate reverb",
"reverb",
"Reverberation"
] | [Telegraphy] needed a reverb for his recording studio. There are hundreds of computer-based and standalone digital reverb systems out there, but he decided to
build his own plate reverb
.
Reverb is an effect
used in many professional audio and music recordings.
Reverb adds thousands of echos to an audio signal
. These echos decrease in amplitude over time. When used correctly, the effect is generally very pleasing to the ear.
A plate reverb uses a plate of sheet metal to generate the reverb. An audio driver is placed in contact with the metal plate. Audio is fed into the driver, which vibrates the plate. The vibrations travel along the surface of the plate, bouncing off the edges and reflecting back. These reflections are captured by a pickup, which then converts them to a voltage signal. The final reverb effect is actually created in the sound engineer’s mixing board when the “dry” source signal is mixed with the signal returned by the plate.
[Telegraphy’s] plate reverb was built almost entirely from found, Radio Shack, and hardware store parts. The plate and frame are from Lowes. The audio driver is a cut up speaker from an old car stereo. The pickup is a modified piezo transducer from Radio Shack. As [Telegraphy] states several times, there are a lot of differing opinions on exactly how and where to mount the various parts of the reverb. Any placement will generate some reverb. The question is where and how to mount things for the best effect. Much like beauty and the eye of the beholder, the answer to that question is in the ear of the listener.
Jump past the break for a tour of a slightly more involved plate reverb at
Gallery Acoustics Studio
. | 20 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "1075528",
"author": "gmcurrie",
"timestamp": "2013-10-14T14:50:11",
"content": "“After wiring up the driver into an audio source and running the pickups into a low noise pre-amp”Would that be a ‘Low-Z’ pre-amp e.g. typical ‘mic’ input?Piezos need to go into a *very* high-Z / (high i... | 1,760,376,429.901707 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/10/14/reverse-engineering-a-d-link-backdoor/ | Reverse Engineering A D-Link Backdoor | Mathieu Stephan | [
"Network Hacks",
"Security Hacks"
] | [
"Alphanetworks",
"d-link",
"firmware",
"SquashFS"
] | Here’s one
true hack
(
Google cache link
) for our dear Hackaday readers. On a Saturday night, as [Craig] didn’t have anything else to do, he decided to download the firmware of an old D-Link DIR-100 router (because who wouldn’t?). His goal was to see what interesting things he could find in it. He fired up
binwalk
to extract the SquashFS file system, then opened the router webserver on the multi-processor disassembler/debugger
IDA
. [Craig] discovered that the webserver is actually a modified version of thttpd, providing the administrative interface for the router. As you can see in the picture above, it seems Alphanetworks (a spin-off of D-Link) performed the modifications.
Luckily for [Craig], the guys at Alphanetworks were kind enough to prepend many of their custom function names with the string “alpha”. Looking at the disassembly of the http identification functions revealed that a backdoor is implemented on the firmware. If one malicious user has the string “xmlset_
roodkcab
leoj28840ybtide” as his browser user agent, no authentication is required to gain access to the router. One of the comments on
the reddit thread
points out that reading that string backwords results in: “edit by (04882) joel backdoor”. | 47 | 18 | [
{
"comment_id": "1075394",
"author": "Lloyd",
"timestamp": "2013-10-14T11:04:48",
"content": "Very interesting, surprised such a backdoor was added to it.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1075396",
"author": "lloydjatkinson",
"timestamp":... | 1,760,376,430.0606 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/10/14/paccam-interactive-2d-part-packing/ | PACCAM: Interactive 2D Part Packing | James Hobson | [
"cnc hacks",
"Laser Hacks"
] | [
"2d part packing",
"CNC router",
"Laser cutting",
"PACCAM",
"part packing"
] | Do you have a laser cutter or CNC router? How much material do you waste from project to project due to inefficient part packing? Enter
PACCAM
, a software interface designed by [Daniel Saakes] to aid in efficient 2D part packing.
Using a cheap webcam, it is possible to capture the outline of used material, exactly where it is located in the CNC machine. The software then can limit your workspace to the material available in the machine. New parts can then be dragged into place, automatically avoiding interferences — certain algorithms also exist to utilize the remaining material most efficiently.
Looking to engrave custom items? The software can do that too by showing you the material (or in this case, object), you can simply drag your design onto the material available, without having to worry about aligning your object inside the CNC machine!
In the video after the break, [Daniel] shows just how powerful and useful the software is by putting a crooked, cookie-cutter riddled piece of material in the machine, and then using the software to cut new parts out of what would be scrap material in any other shop.
We spoke with [Daniel] and the plan is to release the software for free and opensource — as soon as all the bugs are ironed out! | 12 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "1075319",
"author": "B2",
"timestamp": "2013-10-14T09:23:53",
"content": "This is what I can findehttp://saakes.net/projects/paccam/",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1075584",
"author": "Hack Man",
"timestamp": ... | 1,760,376,430.124255 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/10/13/turbot-is-a-beampicaxe-hybrid/ | Turbot Is A Beam/Picaxe Hybrid | Adam Fabio | [
"Robots Hacks"
] | [
"beam",
"beam robotics",
"microcontroller",
"PICAXE",
"robot",
"Turing machine"
] | [James] wanted to build a BEAM turbot. He ran into some problems with the BEAM circuitry though, and
ended up with a BEAM/Picaxe hybrid
.
Beam robotics
are the brainchild of
Mark Tilden
. The acronym stands for Biology, Electronics, Aesthetics, and Mechanics.
BEAM based bots
were very popular with hobbyists in the 90’s and early 2000’s, but popularity has since died down. BEAM robots tend not to use microcontrollers, instead attempting to simplify things down to the lowest number of elements.
[James’] turbot uses a
miller solar engine
. The original design used the engine to drive a
Solar Turbot Latch
. [James’] problem was that the photodiode “eyes” of the robot were not properly enabling the 74AC245 to pass current to the motor. Since the robot was built in a tiny space, debugging the circuit was extremely hard. After struggling with the ‘245 for some time, [James] decided to swich out the BEAM circuit for a Picaxe microcontroller.
The Picaxe can only sink or source about 20ma per pin, which is slightly less than the no load current of [James’] motors. To make up for this, he ganged up four pins per motor. There was some risk in the motors blowing up the Picaxe. However between the lightly loaded gearmotors and low current solar panels it seems to be working just fine. Overall the bot is a very clean, compact build. Jump past the break to check out its really smooth crablike walking action. | 18 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "1075211",
"author": "Galane",
"timestamp": "2013-10-14T05:27:43",
"content": "Doesn’t much resemble a Scophthalmus maximus.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1075236",
"author": "Sven",
"timestamp": "2013-10-14T06:28:30",
... | 1,760,376,430.178085 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/10/13/how-do-you-build-a-relay-cpu/ | How Do You Build A Relay CPU? | Brian Benchoff | [
"Ask Hackaday"
] | [
"computer",
"cpu",
"homebrew",
"relay"
] | The Hackaday tips line is always full of the coolest completed projects, but only rarely do we see people reaching out for help on their latest build. We’ll help when we can, but [Tim]’s
relay-based CPU has us stumped
.
[Tim] already has the design of his relay CPU completed with a 12-bit program counter, sequencer, ALU, and a transistor-based ROM. The problem he’s having deals with the mechanics and layout of his homebuilt CPU. Right now, all the relays (PC pin, we guess) are glued top-down to a piece of cardboard. This allows him to easily solder the wires up and change out the inevitable mistakes. This comes with a drawback, though: he’s dealing with a lot of ‘cable salad’ and it’s not exactly the prettiest project ever.
The ideal solution, [Tim] says, would be a PCB with through-hole plating, but this isn’t easy or cheap for the home fab lab. We’d suggest some sort of
wire wrap
setup, but proper wire wrap sockets and protoboards are for some reason unreasonably expensive.
If you have an idea on how to do the mechanical layout and connections of a relay-based computer, drop a note in the comments. [Tim] has a very cool project here, and it would be a shame if he were to give up on it due to a lack of tools.
Video below, and if you’re having a problem with a project, feel free
to send it in
.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HDJVj2OaHqI | 48 | 21 | [
{
"comment_id": "1075124",
"author": "Ws",
"timestamp": "2013-10-14T02:22:21",
"content": "Perfboard?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1075129",
"author": "Harvie.CZ",
"timestamp": "2013-10-14T02:34:21",
"content": "Too ... | 1,760,376,430.351532 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/10/13/hackaday-links-october-13-2013/ | Hackaday Links: October 13, 2013 | Mike Szczys | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"Hackaday links"
] | [
"apollo",
"button",
"fitbit",
"folding chair",
"hard drive platter clock",
"word clock"
] | This week’s
post on core rope ROM
was pretty popular. [Joey] wrote in with a book recommendation for those that found the project interesting.
Digital Apollo
discusses the technology which NASA built into the guidance computer. That was also
the subject of a recent Retrotechtacular
.
A few members of the Vancouver Hack Space came up with
their own take on the Word Clock
. It uses an old monitor, a laser-cut bezel, and Javascript to light up the correct characters.
When we last looked in on [Vincent’s] plywood stool project he had
branched out into plywood folding chairs
as well. Here’s
two updates
on
his progress
.
This one’s just silly. To keep up with his wife on exercise goals,
this guy cheated using a reciprocating saw
to spoof his exercise. Tape the FitBit to the saw blade, clamp the saw to the workbench, and then let her rip! [via
Reddit
]
[Harrison] wrote into share
the Arduino button library
he developed. It is designed to allow detection of multiple types of button events without blocking other operations. He came up with the project to use with
his motorcycle hacking
.
It looks like [Bertho] has
kitted up his Executive Decision Maker
. We first saw this as
a perfboard project
a couple of years ago.
And finally, [Bob Alexander] makes your hard drive clock look puny. His
uses the platter from a 40-year-old mainframe
hard drive. | 5 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "1075023",
"author": "Hirudinea",
"timestamp": "2013-10-13T23:27:23",
"content": "Fitbit on a Reciprocating Saw – You magnificent, lazy bastard, I salute you!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1075244",
"author": "Chris C... | 1,760,376,430.449484 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/10/13/the-greenest-wall-powered-clock/ | The Greenest Wall-Powered Clock | Brian Benchoff | [
"clock hacks"
] | [
"clock",
"neopixel",
"Teensy",
"teensy 3"
] | Some of the most inefficient appliances in the home are AC mains-powered clocks. You can’t exactly turn them off and they use a whole lot of energy considering how often they’re looked at. [t3andy] came up with a great
low power AC Mains clock
that is only on 3% of the time. As a neat bonus, it also looks really, really cool.
[t3andy] is using a Teensy 3 as the brains of this clock, and the serial interface on the board provides a relatively easy means of setting the time without having to use buttons or tact switches. The clock face consists of 13
neopixels
, with two red pixels showing the hour and a single green pixel showing the minutes. The time is measured with a DS3232 I2C real time clock with a battery backup.
The design is remarkably efficient since the LEDs are off 97% of the time, only being lit at the top of the minute. There are provisions for IR control and a PIR sensor to display the time whenever it’s needed, but that would obviously mean a hit to the energy efficiency. | 51 | 24 | [
{
"comment_id": "1074929",
"author": "Julspower",
"timestamp": "2013-10-13T21:00:33",
"content": "Its great but nothing much newpopulating the PIR would be great.Yay I have to watch that clock for at 1 min maximum to know the time…good start tho :D",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"repli... | 1,760,376,430.592168 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/10/13/perfect-jump-shots-with-opencv-and-processing/ | Perfect Jump Shots With OpenCV And Processing | Adam Fabio | [
"digital cameras hacks"
] | [
"instructables",
"opencv",
"photography",
"processing",
"webcam"
] | [ElectricSlim] likes taking “Jump Shots” – photographs where the subject is captured in midair. He’s created a novel method to
catch the perfect moment with OpenCV and Processing.
Anyone who has tried jump shot photography can tell you how frustrating it is. Even with an experienced photographer at the shutter, shots are as likely to miss that perfect moment as they are to catch it. This is even harder when you’re trying to take jump shots solo. Wireless shutter releases can work, but unless you have a DSLR, shutter lag can cause you to miss the mark.
[ElectricSlim] decided to put his programming skills to work on the problem. He wrote a Processing sketch using the OpenCV library. The sketch has a relatively simple logic path: “IF a face is detected within a bounding box AND the face is dropping in height THEN snap a picture” The system isn’t perfect, A person must be looking directly at the camera for the photo the face to be detected. However, it’s good enough to take some great shots. The software is also repeatable enough to make animations of various jump shots, as seen in [ElectricSlim’s] video.
We think this would be a great starting point for a trigger system. Use a webcam to determine when to shoot a picture. When the conditions pass, a trigger could be sent to a DSLR, resulting in a much higher quality frame than what most webcams can produce.
[via Instructables] | 15 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "1074834",
"author": "soopergooman",
"timestamp": "2013-10-13T17:37:28",
"content": "I think I might have to jump on this.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1074836",
"author": "mojojoe",
"timestamp": "2013-10-13T17:40:08",... | 1,760,376,430.405489 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/10/13/raspi-z-wave-automation-is-automated/ | Raspi Z-Wave Automation Is Automated | Marsh | [
"home hacks",
"Raspberry Pi"
] | [
"automation",
"home automation",
"keyless entry",
"z-wave"
] | Home automation keeps popping up here at Hackaday, so [Cristian Zatonyl] decided to share his
Raspberry Pi-based system
with us. This build takes a firm stance on the “automated” side of the
automation vs. control debate
we had last week: no user input necessary. Instead, [Cristian] relies on
geofencing
to detect whether he has driven outside the set radius and automatically turns off the lights and locks his door.
The build takes advantage of
Z-Wave
products, which are your typical wireless remote-control gadgets, but tacks on a third-party “
RaZberry
” board to a Raspi to give it control over off-the-shelf Z-wave devices. The final step is the integration of a custom iOS app that keeps tabs on the geofence boundaries and signals the Pi to control the lights and the front door lock.
[Cristian’s] tutorial covers the basics and admits that it’s a proof of concept without any security features. Judging by his other YouTube videos, however, we’re sure more developments are underway. Check out the video below for a demonstration of the system, then feel free to speculate on security concerns in the comments. Our
article on Z-wave security from a few years ago
might be a good starting point. | 22 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "1074790",
"author": "santeri",
"timestamp": "2013-10-13T16:43:49",
"content": "I wish someone would make a sam kind of geofencing app for android. My skils aren’t enough..",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1074877",
"aut... | 1,760,376,430.505138 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/10/13/3d-printer-made-from-e-waste-in-africa/ | 3D Printer Made From E-waste In Africa | James Hobson | [
"3d Printer hacks"
] | [
"3d printer out of e-waste",
"e-waste printer",
"Electronic waste",
"Kodjo Afate Gnikou",
"Ulule",
"WoeLab"
] | We throw away millions of tons of e-waste every year and barely manage to recycle more than 15-20%. [Kodjo Afate Gnikou] is a 33-year old African who has just finished off a 3D printer built
almost entirely out of e-waste.
He started the project months ago on
Ulule
, a European crowdfunding site, and had raised more than €4,000 to develop the idea. It was designed and built in
WoeLab
, which is the first hackerspace in western Africa. The printer is based on the classic Prusa Mendel, which they had available in the hackerspace.
The goal of the project was to create a 3D printer that is very easy to reproduce using a majority of recycled components. In the end, they succeeded and it only cost $100 to manufacture — while it doesn’t say what the purchased components are, it’s safe to assume they would have to be the main driver boards — everything else could have been made from scraps.
His vision in the future is to send e-waste to Mars to create homes for future inhabitants — far fetched? Maybe. But he did get into the
NASA International Space Apps Challenge!
See it all explained in the video after the break.
[via
3ders.org
] | 37 | 21 | [
{
"comment_id": "1074609",
"author": "kenny",
"timestamp": "2013-10-13T11:12:59",
"content": "This is really awesome!.The more I read about 3D printers the more I want to build one myself :). is this (http://reprapbook.appspot.com/) a good site to start with or are there better sites?",
"parent_... | 1,760,376,430.666416 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/10/13/raspberry-pi-garage-door-automation/ | Raspberry Pi Garage Door Automation | James Hobson | [
"home hacks"
] | [
"garage door opener",
"home automation",
"raspberry pi home automation"
] | Like many of us, [Felix] sometimes wonders if he actually closed the garage door. I know I’m always double-checking my car locks! So, he decided to
automate his garage door to give him some peace of mind!
He’s been working on a pretty big
Raspberry Pi home automation series
, and in this final segment he shows off his new GarageMote board which, as you can guess, lets him wirelessly control the door. It’s a very simple board complete with a small relay, a diode, and 2 resistors. The 8 pin header provides connection to two hall effect sensors that detect the status of the garage door, and the original door opener. He then connects this to an open-source wireless Arduino clone of his own design, dubbed the
Moteino
. A pair of these communicate to the Raspberry Pi which acts as his secure home automation gateway server.
The whole project is extremely slick, and very well documented – so if you’re looking at automating your home, [Felix] has a wealth of knowledge to share — well at least if you want to use is Raspberry Pi!
Stick around after the break to see the web-server controlled garage door in action. | 11 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "1074655",
"author": "Eric",
"timestamp": "2013-10-13T12:14:18",
"content": "I want to do this myself but I always felt an arduino (or clone as in this one) was a $30 solution to a $10 problem. It only requires 3 IO pins and means of communication. The Pi makes a good low power serve... | 1,760,376,430.718293 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/10/12/hack-a-solar-garden-light-into-a-flashlight/ | Hack A Solar Garden Light Into A Flashlight | Marsh | [
"LED Hacks",
"Misc Hacks",
"Solar Hacks"
] | [
"aa battery",
"battery",
"flashlight",
"rechargable",
"solar"
] | While browsing through his local dollar store, [Taylor] came across a suspicious looking rock that, upon closer inspection, turned out to be a solar garden light. He scooped it up, took it home and cracked it open,
modding it to function as a handheld solar flashlight.
Inside was a pathetically small 40mAh rechargeable battery, which he upgraded to a more standard rechargeable AA. The garden rock came pre-built with its own boost converter to kick up the voltage for the LED, but it was fairly dim. We’re guessing [Taylor] didn’t bother reverse engineering the converter and instead simply did some trial and error, but he managed to increase the LED’s brightness by slapping on a different value inductor.
As fun as it may be to have a rock for a flashlight, [Taylor] decided to cobble together a custom case out of a spare USB charger, making a battery holder and adding a pushbutton. The result is a handy solar flashlight that takes around five hours to charge. Check out some other custom lights:
a lithium-powered PVC flashlight
or one with a
snazzier aluminum body and interchangeable heads
. | 4 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "1074740",
"author": "Ken Quast",
"timestamp": "2013-10-13T15:24:00",
"content": "I bought a couple of these solar rocks and made an ultraviolet neon note board. I also looked at the joule thief circuit with interest. Video and writeup at:http://www.observationsblog.com/4/post/2012/0... | 1,760,376,430.761577 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/10/12/reprap-wally-can-print-larger-versions-of-itself/ | RepRap Wally Can Print Larger Versions Of Itself | James Hobson | [
"3d Printer hacks"
] | [
"3d printing",
"RepRap Project",
"reprap wally",
"scara"
] | SCARA based 3D printers seem to be all the rage these days, and with good reason. This
RepRap Wally
doesn’t use any linear rods or timing belts — in fact, it can even print
larger
versions of itself with each iteration! Well, minus the electronics of course.
It was first spotted out in the wild at the
NYC Makerfaire,
and looks to be a pretty slick design. Using fully 3D printed limbs, the steppers move the arms using a fishing line. To reduce the load on the joints, a bowden extruder is also used. The really cool part of this is the z-axis, it uses a 4-bar linkage to stay level, but because of this, it also moves along an arc in the y-axis as it raises or lowers. This is accounted for in the firmware — otherwise you’d have some rather interesting curved prints!
Stick around after the break to see it in action, it’s a nice change to watch from the standard gantry style printers.
Looking for more SCARA based printers? We recently shared
a giant industrial SCARA robot that has been converted to a 3D printer!
[via
Reddit
] | 10 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "1074433",
"author": "Galane",
"timestamp": "2013-10-13T04:30:29",
"content": "Instead of compensating for the curved motion of the 4 bar linkage for the z axis, they could’ve used a Peaucellier-Lipkin linkage.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
... | 1,760,376,430.802467 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/10/12/a-simple-forth-development-board/ | A Simple Forth Development Board | Brian Benchoff | [
"Microcontrollers"
] | [
"atmega328",
"dev board",
"forth",
"RPN",
"stack"
] | Forth is a very interesting programming language. It’s very flexible and is extremely efficient on low powered hardware, but unfortunately not very popular simply due to the fact that it’s not very popular. There were a few Forth-based microcomputers built in the 1980s, but these were largely unsuccessful.
[Leon] is a Forth aficionado and came up with
his own Forth development board
in the hopes of Forth making a comeback. It’s a very small and cheap board – only about $12 in parts – but it’s still extremely powerful and a fun platform for investigating Forth.
Compared to other programming languages found in 80s microcomputers, Forth is just
weird.
It’s a stack-based language, so instead of adding two numbers like 3 + 4, Forth uses postfix notation (or
Reverse Polish Notation
) so the same statement is expressed as 3 4 +. It’s a much more efficient way for computers to handle data, and some claim it’s more efficient for humans as well.
[Leon] created his own board able to be programmed in Forth, shown above, that uses an ATMega328 microcontroller. He’s using
AmForth
to put Forth on his system, but also extended the base AmForth install
with his own floating point version.
making this version of Forth at least as powerful as any 80s microcomputer or ATMega development board is today.
[Leon] put together a great demo of the capabilities of Forth and his dev board. You can check that out below. | 74 | 26 | [
{
"comment_id": "1074296",
"author": "Chris",
"timestamp": "2013-10-12T23:43:21",
"content": "Cool. The FIgnition is also a nice Forth small DIY computer.https://sites.google.com/site/libby8dev/fignition",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1074299... | 1,760,376,431.141114 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/10/12/ge-garage-and-chicago-ideas-week/ | GE Garage And Chicago Ideas Week | Todd Harrison | [
"Hackerspaces",
"News"
] | [
"chicago",
"garage",
"ge",
"Idea Week"
] | I’ve been on vacation and managed to get a day to play at the GE Garage mobile fab lab currently setup in downtown Chicago. GE has partnered with Chicago Ideas Week to bring the future of fabrication technologies to a space where the community can walk in off the street and work with some amazing hardware like CNC mills, laser cutters and 3D printers. The group is also giving classes at select times on using the equipment and general electrics. Unfortunately I was in town near the end of this event which will be Oct 20th. If you are in the area I do recommend jumping on the excellent transportation you’ll find in Chicago and have some fun at the space. Here are more
details on location, classes and times
.
I didn’t expect to squeeze any work into my vacation but I did take a guided tour of the fab space with my iPhone 5s. You can join me after the break to watch the tour, which is a bit rough but still covers a lot of fun topics. Get at look at their line-up or Replicator 2 3D printers. See some fantastic prints from metal made on industrial scale printers. Learn more about the up-scaled CNC seen above that was cutting out skateboard decks. And finish up with an injection molding machine. | 4 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "1074753",
"author": "Jelle",
"timestamp": "2013-10-13T15:41:05",
"content": "Psst: it is called a ‘fablab’, you know one word not two. Not fab space either..A fablab has (at the least) a lasercutter, vinyl cutter a CNC mill and a video conferencing system. We add a lot of 3D printer... | 1,760,376,430.939138 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/10/12/european-hackerspace-tour/ | European Hackerspace Tour | James Hobson | [
"Hackerspaces"
] | [
"hackerspace",
"hackerspace tours",
"hackerspacing in europe"
] | Wow! What a response we received on our
Calling European Hackerspaces
post! First off, thank you for such a warm welcoming to your hackerspaces. It looks like HaD is going to have to be way more active in touring and profiling hackerspaces!
Now unfortunately we’re just not going to have time to visit all of the ones suggested, but we’ve outlined a few of the ones we definitely want to check out!
We created a
Google spreadsheet
to help do this, so if your hackerspace has been mentioned, OR if it happens to be very close to the others and you really want us to come, please fill out some contact info on the spreadsheet so we can setup a time to visit! If you don’t want to put contact info in a shared document, send an email to the tips line instead with the subject [European Hackerspace Tour]. Because its unlikely our trip will coincide with any open nights, we’d love (need) to have someone to show us the space at potentially odd hours!
I will be writing an individual post for each hackerspace tour with lots of photos and details on all the juicy projects you guys are working on. And if we have time, we might even film the tour!
Once again, thank you for the amazing response and we can’t wait to meet all of you in person! | 48 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "1074199",
"author": "Whatnot",
"timestamp": "2013-10-12T17:18:59",
"content": "Word to the wise: Watch out for thieves when in europe, keep an eye on your stuff and leave nothing of value in the car.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_... | 1,760,376,431.419819 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/10/12/build-an-fpga-microbee-in-three-not-so-easy-steps/ | Build An FPGA Microbee In Three (Not So) Easy Steps | Adam Fabio | [
"computer hacks",
"FPGA"
] | [
"Applied Technology",
"Australia",
"Field-programmable gate array",
"fpga",
"Microbee",
"vhdl"
] | [Brad Robinson] was feeling a bit nostalgic for his Microbee, so
he rebuilt it in an FPGA
. Not once, but three times. For the uninitiated, the
Applied Technology Microbee
was a Z80 based computer 1980’s. Designed in Australia, the Microbee did not see much popularity outside its home continent. Even so, the introduction to home computers many Australians was on a Microbee. [Brad] actually wrote several programs for the Microbee, including some games sold by Applied Technology themselves.
Fast forward to 2012, [Brad] is learning FPGAs, and wants to build a Microbee in VHDL. The FPGAbee was born. The first iteration of the FPGAbee began with the CPU, which came from the
T80 open source VHDL Z80 core.
Around this core [Brad] added the video controller, keyboard, and sound. When he started adding disk functionality, [Brad] ran into some problems. He wanted to use a FAT formatted SD card for cassette and hard disk emulation.
The relative complexities of the FAT format meant he would have to use some custom software to make this work. [Brad] decided to run this software on a second Z80 core. Both cores would need access to memory, and this is where [Brad] learned what he calls “a hard lesson in cross domain clocks” on FPGAs. Multiple clock nets can cause major propagation delay issues. [Brad] was able to work through the problems, but it caused him to step back and re-evaluate the entire design. This was the start of FPGABee2.
Brad eliminated the dual processor setup, and redesigned a few other parts of the system. This second iteration of the design proceeded smoothly to completion. At the end of the project, [Brad] had a Microbee emulated in a Xilinx Spartan6 on a
Digilent Nexys-3 board
. While great for prototyping, the Nexys-3 is not very practical as a final system. [Brad] wasn’t about to roll a BGA based PCB himself, so he tried out a
Xess Xula2 board
. The Xula2 did require some porting work, but [Brad] was able to get the system up and running. A custom through hole PCB carrier board resulted in a slick finished project, the XulaBee.
[Thanks Dave!] | 13 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "1074151",
"author": "Patrik Bengtsson",
"timestamp": "2013-10-12T15:20:46",
"content": "..the memories..The Microbee was actually quite popular as a school-computer in Sweden. I remember as a student changing the BASIC code of “Worm” to get more score. It was actually running in som... | 1,760,376,431.246799 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/10/12/testing-dram-from-a-commodore-64/ | Testing DRAM From A Commodore 64 | Brian Benchoff | [
"Microcontrollers"
] | [
"commodore 64",
"dram",
"MEGA8U2",
"ram"
] | A few months ago, [Josh] was given an old Commodore 64. He needed to make an AV cable and find a new power supply, and even after testing these new parts out, [Josh] found it still wouldn’t boot. Not one to look a gift horse in the mouth — or perhaps he enjoys the challenge —
he set out on restoring a thirty year old circuit board
.
He replaced a few chips and the caps, but found he had no way to test the DRAM chips. Compared to SRAM or Static RAM used by other computers of the era, DRAM is a bit harder to interface, requiring a capacitor in each memory cell to be refreshed a few dozen times every second. With a bit of help from his good friend [CNLohr], [Josh] figured out a circuit to read and write to his chips and build a small board based on the ATmega8U2 microcontroller for testing purposes. | 11 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "1074066",
"author": "cpldcpu",
"timestamp": "2013-10-12T11:26:40",
"content": "Interesting. But how about about probing the signals in the machine? Usually that’s how you find broken parts.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1074... | 1,760,376,431.19542 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/10/12/cnc-software-toolchain-using-only-open-source-software-2/ | CNC Software Toolchain Using Only Open Source Software | Mathieu Stephan | [
"cnc hacks"
] | [
"cnc",
"Computer-aided design",
"Computer-aided manufacturing",
"Printed Circuit Board"
] | For hobbyists, there are two types of machines that can make parts at home. The first type is matter-adding machines (3D printers) and the other is matter-subtracting machines (like CNC milling machines). [Mario] recently tipped us about
an article he made
detailing which free software can be used to design and produce parts on CNC machines.
The first step of the process is obviously designing the part you want to make using a Computer-Aided Design (CAD) application. [Mario] suggests
Heeks
or
Freecad
for which you can find plenty of tutorials on YouTube. The next step consists in converting the part you just designed to machine tool paths using a Computer-Aided Manufacturing (CAM) application. Fortunately, Heeks can do both so it may be the best option for beginners. [Mario] also mentions the
pcb2gcode
application, which allows you to manufacture printed circuit boards at home for the prototypes you may want to produce. Finally, the well known
LinuxCNC
(previously Linux EMC2) software is used to control the CNC machine using the GCode that the CAM software produced.
At Hackaday, we’d really like knowing what our readers currently use for their CNCs so don’t hesitate to leave us a comment below. | 53 | 34 | [
{
"comment_id": "1073964",
"author": "Anool",
"timestamp": "2013-10-12T08:13:58",
"content": "I use pretty much the same tool chain that Mario uses, for my ShapeOko CNC. Except, instead of Linux EMC2, I use GRBL (using a Raspberry-Pi + AlaMode + GRBLShield).G-Code viewer from here is pretty useful t... | 1,760,376,431.596542 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/10/11/diy-hho-mini-torch/ | DIY HHO Mini Torch | James Hobson | [
"how-to"
] | [
"hardware store",
"hho",
"HHO generator",
"HHO mini torch",
"HHO torch"
] | Fascinated by hydrolysis apparatuses? Me too. Here’s a cool how-to that might convince you to make one! It’s a very simple and easy to build
HHO torch using plumbing parts from the hardware store.
The entire build uses almost all standard readily available parts — except for the nozzle assembly. It’s an easy modification though, under the copper pipe endcap is a brass M6 nut that has been soldered in place – this allows you to switch out the MIG welding tips at any time.
[Peter] also shows off another useful tip that allows you to reduce the orifice size of the MIG welding tip – simply hammer a ball bearing into it. Seriously, check out the Instructable and see for yourself! This allows him to reduce the orifice size down to non-standard sizes which in turn allows him to increase the intensity of his HHO flame.
Now all you need is a source of HHO — but don’t worry,
we’ve covered that before too!
[via
Reddit
] | 52 | 17 | [
{
"comment_id": "1073887",
"author": "Maxzillian",
"timestamp": "2013-10-12T05:28:28",
"content": "I’ll have to remember that trick about the ball bearing! I had a job where I did some torch welding, but the tip was too large so I just peened the circumference of the nozzle to reduce the diameter, b... | 1,760,376,431.506393 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/10/11/an-open-source-gpu/ | An Open Source GPU | Brian Benchoff | [
"Crowd Funding",
"hardware"
] | [
"fpga",
"gpu",
"graphics",
"kickstarter",
"open source"
] | Unless you’re bit-banging a CRT interface or using a bunch of resistors to connect a VGA monitor to your project, odds are you’re using proprietary hardware as a graphics engine. The GPU on the Raspberry Pi is locked up under an NDA, and the dream of an open source graphics processor has yet to be realized. [Frank Bruno] at Silicon Spectrum thinks he has the solution to that:
a completely open source GPU
implemented on an FPGA.
Right now, [Frank] has a very lightweight 2D and 3D engine well-suited for everything from servers to embedded devices. If their Kickstarter meets its goal, they’ll release their project to the world, giving every developer and hardware hacker out there a complete, fully functional, open source GPU.
Given the difficulties [Bunnie] had
finding a GPU that doesn’t require an NDA to develop for
, we’re thinking this is an awesome project that gets away from the closed-source binary blobs found on the Raspberry Pi and other ARM dev boards. | 34 | 14 | [
{
"comment_id": "1073766",
"author": "Michael",
"timestamp": "2013-10-12T02:14:43",
"content": "Is it ok to use kickstarter to release existing work? I’ve thought about doing this myself with some projects to provide a bit of a retroactive paycheck as well as motivate cleaning it up for public relea... | 1,760,376,431.665116 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/10/11/a-48cc-v8-with-injection-and-opensource-ecu/ | An Homemade 48cc V8 Engine With Injection | Mathieu Stephan | [
"Engine Hacks"
] | [
"ecu",
"engine",
"Fuel injection",
"V8 engine"
] | A few months ago we mentioned [Keith]’s first project in the works, a 1/4 scale V8 engine. Today, we are amazed to see that
his engine is finished
and running really smoothly. What is even more impressive is that the entire project has been completed on manual mills and lathes. The thread on the Home Model Engine Machinist forum contains his build log in which he details how all the different parts were made. The engine has an electric starter, uses a fuel injection system and [Keith] even made his own injection molds for several plastic parts. The ECU is based on the Megasquirt-II, we guess it must have taken [Keith] many tries before correctly setting its parameters. A video of the engine in action can be viewed after the break.
You can find our previous coverage of this project as well as other miniature engines on this
feature from last April
. | 36 | 19 | [
{
"comment_id": "1073664",
"author": "Steven",
"timestamp": "2013-10-11T23:12:43",
"content": "Very cool. Gotta love a mini engine.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1073671",
"author": "Guy Gustavson",
"timestamp": "2013-10-11T23:24:24",
... | 1,760,376,431.735617 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/10/11/light-up-earrings/ | Light Up Earrings | James Hobson | [
"Holiday Hacks",
"LED Hacks"
] | [
"Earring"
] | Unfortunately [ch00f’s] been too busy to write for Hack a Day lately, but he has finished off an awesome little project —
Christmas LED earrings
!
As with all
his projects
, there is a brilliant write up that covers everything — even for the stuff that didn’t work. But what we really have to admire about this project in particular is the scale at which he was working. The tiny battery squished in between the two boards? A mere 19mAh. Which is actually enough to power the earrings for a few hours, but is only the size and thickness of a few microSD cards!
The second thing that really popped out at us was the boards themselves, there’s just no room for a programming header! To work around this [ch00f] actually made the PCBs in 3 segments, programmed it, and then cut off the programming header section! If that’s not enough ingenuity, how about this – He also included hall effect sensors on-board to turn them off while charging! Not to mention an intricate wood box to charge them in…
Stick around after the break to see the great demo video, it even has some classy music from the 1930’s which really sets the mood. | 14 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "1073578",
"author": "Horny",
"timestamp": "2013-10-11T20:32:56",
"content": "Määh,Youtube content not available in germany due to the 1930s music…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1073672",
"author": "igjioga",
... | 1,760,376,431.880499 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/10/11/haduino-open-your-beer-using-arduino/ | HaDuino: Open Your Beer Using Arduino | Mike Szczys | [
"Arduino Hacks",
"Beer Hacks",
"Featured"
] | [
"ATmega168",
"bottle opener",
"fail",
"HaDuino",
"osh park"
] | Frankly we’re tired of Arduino having a bad name here at Hackaday. So [Brian Benchoff] came up with a way to make it useful to a wider audience. His creation, which we call the HaDuino, lets you use the Arduino clone to open a tasty bottle of beer.
This is an absolutely beautiful board. Click on the image to the left for a high-res view. [Brian] did a fantastic job with the pixellated logo on the back of the board. The top includes some of his snarky comments to help you with populating the components. Beware of the decoupling capacitors on either side of the chip. We think it’s probably a bad idea to use 1k resistors as indicated in those footprints.
(Brian’s edit: I screwed up the labels. They’re fixed in the current version)
This isn’t the only thing wrong with the design so make sure you keep reading.
Your eyes have probably already picked out the Open Hardware logo. We like to hold open source as a core concept and have
made the design files available
at our GitHub repository. Hardware is weird to track with Git, but if you are planning to monkey with the board we’d love it if you forked just so other readers (us included) can see the cool stuff you come up with.
This is a farce
As much as we love the idea, the PCB broke after opening just one bottle of beer. The image above shows the broken populated board next to a pristine copy. But since we thought the idea was hilarious we kept going with the video. All three of the demonstration bottles had the caps “loosened” before filming. In fact you can see the key chain with a bottle opener on it in some of the shots. While we’re spilling the beans, these bottles didn’t even have beer in them. We simply filled empties with water and capped them with a black capper which you can also see in some of the shots. We did this because we’re not in the habit of drinking in the middle of the day. To top that off, this isn’t even an Arduino clone, as we made the lights flash by programming bare metal on the ATmega168.
But enough blabbering. The concept of a PCB shape that can reliably open a bottle of beer isn’t all that far-fetched. We think part of the problem is lack of an appropriately place fulcrum. Also, a more robust protrusion needs to be designed to latch on the underside of the cap. Because the design files are available, this is just screaming for someone to hack up a better version. What are you waiting for? | 58 | 29 | [
{
"comment_id": "1073440",
"author": "LouLou",
"timestamp": "2013-10-11T17:09:13",
"content": "Is this some kind of sick joke?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1073447",
"author": "Eirinn",
"timestamp": "2013-10-11T17:13:11",
... | 1,760,376,431.828449 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/10/11/circuit-bent-toy-keyboard-is-midi-controlled/ | Circuit Bent Toy Keyboard Is MIDI Controlled | Adam Fabio | [
"Musical Hacks"
] | [
"midi",
"MIDI keyboard",
"Parallax Propeller",
"tymkrs",
"Vogon"
] | The [Tymkrs] crew has come up with a pretty neat
circuit bent toy keyboard hack
. It’s been a while since we’ve seen a good
circuit bending hack.
This project started as a way to demo the [Tymkrs] “MIDI In Me” kit. A cheap toy keyboard was sacrificed for its sound generator board. Like many cheap mass-produced toys, this board is based upon a COB (chip on board) package. The silicon die of the main ASIC is placed directly on the PCB and bonded out to pads. A round epoxy blob keeps everything protected.
The [Tymkrs] found a number of the chip’s pads were unused in their keyboard. The inputs appeared to trigger drums, possibly for use in a different toy. These inputs, coupled with the ‘demo song’ buttons turned out to be the basis of this hack. MIDI input is sent to a
Parallax Propeller
. The prop runs a program that will set its I/O pins based upon MIDI Note On/Off commands. The I/O pins then drive transistors which inject signals into the button inputs of the keyboard.
The [Tymkrs] even went so far as to use a voltage divider on the main clock circuit of the keyboard. Changing the main clock causes a sort of pitch bend effect often heard with circuit bent toys. As with the buttons, a MIDI signal commands the prop to enable or disable oscillator signal injection. A potentiometer is used to tweak the oscillator frequency.
The beauty of all this is that the entire hack can be controlled with a MIDI sequencer running on a PC. Sending fast note on/off commands results in some interesting effects.
The second half of the video is a jam session of the results. While it isn’t something we’d keep on our mp3 player, it’s definitely better than most of the Vogon poetry we’ve been listening to lately.
[Thanks Randy!] | 5 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "1073386",
"author": "Jon McPhalen",
"timestamp": "2013-10-11T15:27:22",
"content": "Cool! I’m working a Propeller-powered MIDI-to-DMX project for a friend at the moment. It will let some lights in his show respond directly to how he plays. The Propeller makes it really straightforwa... | 1,760,376,431.922503 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/10/11/sdram-controller-for-low-end-fpgas/ | SDRAM Controller For Low-end FPGAs | Mathieu Stephan | [
"FPGA"
] | [
"Field-programmable gate array",
"fpga",
"Synchronous dynamic random-access memory",
"xilinx"
] | There are very few ‘recent’ FPGAs out there that can be easily soldered. Due to their important number of IOs, they usually come in Ball Grid Array (BGA) packages. The Xilinx Spartan 6 LX9, a TQFP144 FPGA (having pins with a 0.5mm pitch) is one of the few exceptions that can be used to make low end development boards. However, it doesn’t have a lot of logic and memory resources or an on-chip Memory Control Block implemented in the silicon. Therefore, [Michael] designed an
SDRAM controller with a small footprint
for it.
Writing an SDRAM controller from scratch isn’t for the fainthearted – first of all you really have to know how SDRAM works (RAS, CAS, precharges, refresh cycles), and because of the high speed and accurate timing required you also have to learn some of the finer points of FPGA off-chip interfacing. In addition, most publicly available open cores are very complex – for example just the RTL core of the sdr_ctrl controller on opencores.org adds up to over 2,700 lines of Verilog. Even if it is not an accurate comparison metric, [Michael]’s controller is only 500 lines long. | 25 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "1073260",
"author": "Arlet",
"timestamp": "2013-10-11T11:48:59",
"content": "Here’s mine:http://ladybug.xs4all.nl/arlet/fpga/source/sdram.vImplements read/write bursts, keeps multiple rows open as long as possible, and can delay refresh if RAM is busy transferring data.",
"paren... | 1,760,376,432.034739 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/10/11/machine-metabolism-structure-reconfiguring-robots/ | Machine Metabolism: Structure-Reconfiguring Robots | James Hobson | [
"Robots Hacks"
] | [
"jeremy blum",
"metabolic machine research",
"structure-reconfiguring robots"
] | It might be difficult to tell from the picture, but you’re looking at a robot that is capable of building and disassembling simple truss structures. We’ll let that sink in for a moment.
[Jeremy Blum] finished his
metabolic machine research
back in 2011, but just this month has had his journal paper published in the IEEE Robotics and Automation Magazine on
Structure-Reconfiguring Robots
.
The concept behind this robot is biological metabolism – the ability to break down nutrients into building blocks, and then to use them to build new things. What if we could build a robot to emulate this most basic aspect of biology? Well, they have. Take a moment to imagine the implications in space: a fully automated deployment (or repair) of large structures. Or back on earth, large radio towers that are automatically assembled, welded, and even repaired if need be. The possibilities are amazing.
To see the Structure-Reconfiguring Robot in action and to learn a bit more about how it works, check out the video after the break. | 18 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "1073171",
"author": "scompo",
"timestamp": "2013-10-11T09:18:02",
"content": "unstopable killing machines? :)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1073199",
"author": "markLlinux br",
"timestamp": "2013-10-11T10:15:39",
"... | 1,760,376,432.17476 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/10/10/hovercraft-plane/ | Hovercraft Plane? | James Hobson | [
"Transportation Hacks"
] | [
"flying hovercraft",
"hovercraft",
"hoverwing",
"universal hovercraft"
] | [Rudy Heeman] has been working in his garage on what we may consider a new class of vehicle. It’s a
hovercraft — but it also has wings
.
That’s right, you drive it on ground, water, and you can even take flight with it! However, it’s far from a new idea. After doing some digging it appears the first type of this vehicle was actually tested back in 1996 by
Universal Hovercraft
— a quick peruse of their site reveals you can even buy your own kits to make one! Regardless of where it came from, or who made one first, it’s a brilliantly fun concept, and would be a blast to fly. Oh and you don’t even need a pilot’s license, it’s considered a boat and follows the same rules and regulations for boating.
Stick around after the break to see one in action! Now all we need to do is figure out how to combine one of these with a
Delorean Hovercraft!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ih_KBru6Co
If you’re wondering how much one of these will cost you, [Rudy] has plans to sell his for around $13,000USD, which we have to admit, doesn’t sound half bad! It certainly beats shelling out
~$100,000 for a water jet pack
!
[via
Hacked Gadgets
] | 50 | 26 | [
{
"comment_id": "1073027",
"author": "Sjoerd",
"timestamp": "2013-10-11T05:27:23",
"content": "DeLorean hovercraft plane, flies at 70km/h, timetravels at 88mph",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1073028",
"author": "Soviet",
"timestamp": "2... | 1,760,376,432.116962 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/10/10/led-blinds-turn-windows-into-displays/ | LED Blinds Turn Windows Into Displays | James Hobson | [
"LED Hacks"
] | [
"evil mad scientist",
"LED blinds",
"LED window blinds",
"light emitting diode",
"Window blind"
] | [Dinofizz] is almost done with his
vertical LED blinds
. The build makes use of 768 diffused white LEDs (10mm size), at a resolution of 48×16, and it only requires one 16-channel LED driver (a MBI5026), which makes use of 3x 4-to-16 demultiplexers. Did we mention it has 16 shades of grayscale too?
At the heart of the many piles of painstakingly soldered wires is an ATmega644A microcontroller which takes care of interpreting the data for the display. He didn’t write the firmware himself though, that credit goes to [
Jay Clegg
] who does some pretty cool work with
Evil Mad Science’s
Peggy 2.0 LED driver.
What we really have to admire is the amount of effort he put into this project. He used custom PCBs to daisy chain the blinds together, 300 feet of 16-way ribbon cable, and approximately 4000 individual solder joints! You’d think there would have been an easier way!
Making use of his high rise windows, he now has the ability to broadcast messages for the world to see. After the break check out the video of them in action! | 20 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "1072921",
"author": "Jeremy Cook",
"timestamp": "2013-10-11T02:08:56",
"content": "Neat hack. Hopefully he will come out with a better video to show it off!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1075165",
"author": "dinofiz... | 1,760,376,432.234201 |
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