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https://hackaday.com/2013/10/10/ben-krasnow-explains-kilowatt-hour-meters/ | [Ben Krasnow] Explains Kilowatt Hour Meters | Adam Fabio | [
"Teardown"
] | [
"ben krasnow",
"Electricity meter",
"Kilowatt hour",
"utilities",
"Watt"
] | [Ben Krasnow] is back, and this time he’s
tearing down a kilowatt hour meter (kWh)
. While not as exciting as
making aerogel at home
, or a
DIY scanning electron microscope
, [Ben’s] usual understated style of explaining things makes a complex topic simple to digest.
These old mechanical meters have been a staple on the sides of houses and businesses since the dawn of commercial power. We always thought the meters were a basic electric motor. Based upon [Ben’s] explanation though, these meters are a complex dance of electromagnetic fields. Three coils create magnetic fields near an aluminum disk. This creates eddy currents in the disk resulting in a net torque. The disk spins, turning a clockwork and advancing the dials.
Why three coils? One is a high turn high gauge voltage coil, and the other two are low turn low gauge current coils. The voltage coil has to be phase shifted 90 degrees to create the proper torque on the disk. Confused yet? Watch the video! [Ben] does a much better job explaining the field interactions than we could ever do in text.
One interesting point is the fact that the disk is so tightly balanced that a small “anti-creep hole” is used to disrupt the eddy currents ever so slightly. This hole keeps the disk from slowly turning when no load is being placed on the meter.
[Ben] doesn’t mention the old tales of stopping electric meters. We all remember those ads in the back of PopSci and other magazines. While impractical, apparently some of the meter stopping techniques do work. It should be noted though that power companies will notice changes in a given customer’s electric consumption, so we can’t recommend trying that one at home. | 27 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "1072842",
"author": "ChopSueyAR",
"timestamp": "2013-10-10T23:42:26",
"content": "Where can I get a bench clamp like in the video? What is the name of it?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1073219",
"author": "Khordas",... | 1,760,376,434.292281 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/10/10/cuba-a-diy-society/ | Cuba: A DIY Society? | James Hobson | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"ANIR",
"Cuba",
"cuba maker society",
"diy culture",
"maker society",
"National Association of Innovators"
] | After the U.S. left Cuba back in the 60’s, most of the engineers went with them, so [Fidel Castro] told the citizens to learn how to make stuff themselves. They were called the National Association of Innovators and Rationalizers (ANIR), and that’s exactly what they did. This was the beginning of Cuba’s backyard innovation.
Fastforward a few decades and the 90’s were a very difficult time for Cuba. With the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, a severe economic downturn almost crippled the country, and as a result a Cuban DIY culture began to flourish even more — out of absolute necessity. No money, no imports, only what they already had. Making and fixing things became a part of life, you couldn’t just go out and buy a solution to your problem, you had to do it yourself. This might be one of the greatest examples of what a full-flung maker/DIY society would be like — well, maybe minus the communist part.
The excellent video
after the break is a short story about the designer [Ernesto Oroza], who started collecting examples of this DIY culture under his art project aptly called, Technological Disobedience. It’s worth the watch, so take a look.
[Thanks Nige!] | 55 | 21 | [
{
"comment_id": "1072733",
"author": "dALE",
"timestamp": "2013-10-10T20:33:38",
"content": "In Soviet Cuba, Society hacks YOU!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1072734",
"author": "Brian Benchoff",
"timestamp": "2013-10-10T20:3... | 1,760,376,434.224227 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/10/10/fail-of-the-week-photography-turntable/ | Fail Of The Week: Photography Turntable | Mike Szczys | [
"digital cameras hacks",
"Fail of the Week",
"Hackaday Columns"
] | [
"brushless motor",
"fail of the week",
"stm32",
"turntable"
] | Turntable photography has seen a rise in popularity driven by online shopping. If you can’t hold it in your hand at least you can see what it looks like from all angles. From the still image, [Petteri Aimonen’s]
roll-your-own turntable looks great
. It’s completely enclosed and has a very nice paint job. But when you see it in action it appears to suffer from a stutter.
He isn’t just using this to capture continuously rotating video, but planned to have it rotate a set amount and then pause while an image is snapped. He used an STM32 microcontroller to drive a brushless motor which he pulled from a hard drive. It totally works, but the nature of the hard drive motor thwarted his original plan. It’s meant to run at very high speeds with low friction. But the thing was never designed to stop on a dime. So when it is directed to turn thirty degrees, it overshoots and oscillates back and forth as shown in the video.
This oscillation would go on for more than ten seconds. But [Petteri] was able to dampen it by adding some friction to the disc. He also had to tweak the original driver design, adding flyback diodes he had forgotten to include, and dealing with some issues caused when feeding a PWM signal to the coils. There are other small defeats which also ate away at him. The paint color doesn’t match the light box he’s using, there were some issues with the battery, and at one point he broke the programming header right off of his PCB. Despite these frustrating issues we still bet it was a lot of fun to work on the project.
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. | 28 | 16 | [
{
"comment_id": "1072618",
"author": "hans",
"timestamp": "2013-10-10T17:20:34",
"content": "You can make a break for an electric motor by shorting out the leads. It’s a cool experiment too, just short out the motor and you can feel the torque increase.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"... | 1,760,376,434.418441 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/10/10/extremely-precise-positional-tracking/ | Extremely Precise Positional Tracking | Brian Benchoff | [
"LED Hacks",
"Microcontrollers"
] | [
"motion tracking",
"structured light"
] | A few folks over at Carnegie Mellon have come up with a very simple way to do
high-speed motion tracking
(PDF) with little more than a flashlight. It’s called Lumitrack, and while it looks like a Wiimote on the surface, it is in reality much more accurate and precise.
The system works by projecting structured light onto two linear optical sensors. The pattern of the light is an m-sequence – basically a barcode where every subset of the m-sequence is unique. By shining this light onto a linear sensor, Lumitrack can calculate where the light is coming from, and thus the position of whatever is holding the light.
Even though the entire system consists of only an ARM microcontroller (in the form of a Maple Mini board), two linear optical sensors, and a flashlight with an m-sequence gel, it’s very accurate and very, very fast. The team is able to read the position at over 1000 frames/second, nearly the limit of what can be done with the Maple’s serial connection.
Already there are some interesting applications for this system – game controllers, including swords, flight yokes, and toy cars, and also more artistic endeavors such as a virtual can of spray paint. It’s an interesting piece of tech, and with the right parts, something any of us can build at home.
You can see the Lumitrack demo video below. | 19 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "1072493",
"author": "hugowesseling",
"timestamp": "2013-10-10T14:19:26",
"content": "Always good to see novel tracking mechanisms. If the linear sensor + processing chip can be made cheap enough, you could plaster at least 4 on an object and have full 6 dof absolute tracking in a li... | 1,760,376,434.540517 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/10/10/arduino-based-sieve-of-eratosthenes/ | Arduino-based Sieve Of Eratosthenes | Phillip Ryals | [
"Arduino Hacks"
] | [
"3d printed",
"arduino",
"Eratosthenes",
"led matrix"
] | [Darkmoonsinger’s] sister is finishing her graduate degree in mathematics, and [Darkmoonsinger] wanted to give her a gift that fit with her achievement. Naturally,
building a Sieve of Eratosthenes
using an LED matrix and an Arduino made perfect sense. If you’re unfamiliar, a
Sieve of Eratosthenes
is a simple, but very efficient, technique for finding prime numbers. Starting with a group of numbers, you step through each one in order. If it’s prime, you eliminate any multiples from the list. After a few iterations, the numbers remaining are all primes. After getting the LED matrix and sieve algorithm running, [Darkmoonsinger] designed an enclosure for the project. She made a couple of mistakes with this part, and happily included them for everyone’s benefit.
It only figures primes up to 64, and she lights the LED for 1 because it ‘makes the array look prettier’. Also, we couldn’t help but think that mounting the components a bit differently would have made a cleaner install (here’s a prime number
generator with a backlit faceplate
). However, that probably doesn’t matter to his sister. As they say, it’s the thought that counts, and we never get tired of seeing people build rather than buy! | 25 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "1072406",
"author": "emuboy",
"timestamp": "2013-10-10T11:24:11",
"content": "“Happy birthday, Furball!”XD",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1072456",
"author": "Matt Armstrong",
"timestamp": "2013-10-10T13:09:02... | 1,760,376,434.02186 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/10/10/eidos-audiovisual-sensory-augmentation/ | Eidos: Audio/Visual Sensory Augmentation | James Hobson | [
"Virtual Reality"
] | [
"augmented reality",
"eidos",
"google glass",
"superman hearing"
] | One of our tipsters led us onto a very cool project by a British university team — It’s called Eidos, and it’s
a real-time audio and visual augmentation system
.
The creators embarked on this design journey after wondering if there was a way they could control and tune their senses. Imagine Superman and his ability to pick out one voice out of thousand — with this technology, it could be possible.
The clunky white goggles shown in the image above is the concept behind the visual augmentation. It’s akin to long-exposure photography, except that it is in real-time and is fluid video. We’re not sure how this could help anyone, but we have to admit it would be pretty cool to play around with. Maybe if Google Glass ever came out someone could write an app for it to mimic this!
The second device can target your hearing to a specific person in a noisy environment, zoning out all the unnecessary distractions. This could be very helpful for people suffering from attention deficit disorders, although we must imagine it would be very strange to get used to. Can you imagine blocking out
everything
and only looking at a person’s face and listening to their voice?
Unfortunately there is not much information about the actual tech or software behind these devices or if they even in fact work, but the concept was so interesting we just had to share it. Stick around after the break to see a video explanation and demonstration of the proposed technology.
If you’re interested in learning more, we also managed to find
this presentation by the team at a university
.
[Thanks Christopher!] | 24 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "1072334",
"author": "trandi",
"timestamp": "2013-10-10T08:34:28",
"content": "That’s probably the wrong approach… if we want to enhance our senses we should actually genetically modify ourselves… I can’t wait that day… :)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
... | 1,760,376,434.477413 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/10/09/stl-fun-converting-images-to-stl-geometry/ | STL Fun: Converting Images To STL Geometry | James Hobson | [
"3d Printer hacks"
] | [
"javascript",
"Leap motion",
"python",
"stl",
"stl_tools"
] | There’s been some good .STL manipulation tips in this week.
The first one is called
stl_tools
, and it’s a Python library to convert images or text to 3D-printable STL files. The examples shown are quite impressive, and it even does a top notch job of taking a 2D company logo into 3D! We can see this being quite handy if you need some quick 3D text, and either don’t use CAD, or really just need a one click solution. Now if only .STLs were easier to edit afterwards…
The second one is a Javascript based
Leap Motion Controller STL manipulator
, which lets you pick STLs and manipulate them individually with your fingers. If you happen to have a Leap, this could be a great way to show off 3D parts at a presentation or hackerspace talk, especially if you want to add a [Tony Stark] vibe to your presentation! Stick around after the break to see it in action — Now all we need are some good hologram generators… | 9 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "1072292",
"author": "birdmun",
"timestamp": "2013-10-10T05:53:41",
"content": "A page I found while trying to convert a 2d image to 3d washttps://thelab.o2.com/2013/08/3d-printing-the-labs-logo/I found it because I couldn’t quite get png23d to work for me. After reading their page I... | 1,760,376,434.073058 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/10/09/create-a-full-adder-using-the-c-preprocessor/ | Create A Full Adder Using The C Preprocessor | Adam Fabio | [
"computer hacks"
] | [
"Adder (electronics)",
"C preprocessor",
"Concatenation",
"Truth table",
"xor"
] | [Phillip] wanted to play with the C preprocessor. He decided to do that by
creating a 4 bit full adder
. We know this is pretty useless in everyday life, but it was a great learning experience. The beauty of this adder is right at the start. [Phillip] defines truth tables for XOR and AND. He’s able to then create strings that reference these truth tables.
For example: the first line of [Phillip’s] AND table is #define AND_00 0. If the preprocessor concatenates strings that equal “AND_00” they will then be converted to 0. This is the groundwork for the half adder .
The next step is the operational logic, which of course falls upon macros:
/* Full adder macros */
/* Out = (A ^ B) ^ cin */
#define FULL_ADD_OUT( a, b, cin ) \
XOR( XOR( a, b ), cin )
/* Carry_out = (A & B) ^ (Carry_in & (A ^ B)) */
/* The standard adder uses OR for the last 'gate' - this
can safely be changed to XOR, which has been done here
to avoid defining an OR operator */
#define FULL_ADD_CARRY( a, b, cin ) \
XOR( AND( XOR( a, b ), cin ), AND( a, b ) )
This preprocessor code above defines
the traditional full adder logic
in terms of AND and XOR. That’s really all there is to the logic of the adder itself. The next step is to chain the adders together for four bits. More bits are possible, but the code would get rather messy.
The last bit of magic [Phillip] performed was to convert decimal numbers to binary. He used the same concatenation trick as he did with XOR and AND to make this happen. The end result is a program that can take two numbers as preprocessor options, and compile a binary that will always add those same two numbers when it is run. Like we said – not very useful itself, but a great way to learn some tricks with the C preprocessor that definitely will come in handy down the road. | 26 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "1072211",
"author": "Lucas Bracher",
"timestamp": "2013-10-10T02:13:04",
"content": "Someone did a similar thing on a previous International Obfuscated C Code Contest:http://www.ioccc.org/2004/vik2.hint",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment... | 1,760,376,434.134988 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/10/09/making-a-core-rope-read-only-memory/ | Making A Core Rope Read-only Memory | Mathieu Stephan | [
"hardware"
] | [
"Core rope memory",
"Ferrite core",
"Magnetic-core memory",
"Transformers and Inductors"
] | [Kos] tipped us about an article he made presenting his experiences in designing and implementing a
core rope memory
. This magnetic read-only memory (ROM), contrary to ordinary coincident-current magnetic core memories (used for RAM), uses the ferrite cores as transformers. If you look at the picture above, you’ll count 7 of them. This sets the memory word size (7bits). A new word is added to the memory by passing (or not) a wire through the ferrite holes. If you then pass an alternating current through this wire, a current will be induced (or not) in the other wire turned 30 times around the ferrite (alias transformer secondary).
In [Kos]’s setup, an input pulse of 5V generates output pulses of 15V. For demonstration purposes, he “wrote” a simple program that lights up digits in a seven segment display. Therefore, different numbers will light up depending on which wire he uses to pass the AC current.
These days core memory hacks are few and far between. But looking at this one, and
the one we saw in August
, makes want more. If you know of any others don’t hesitate to
send us a tip
. | 30 | 12 | [
{
"comment_id": "1072133",
"author": "Hamster",
"timestamp": "2013-10-09T23:09:30",
"content": "I wonder if Kos was inspired by the video in thehttp://hackaday.com/2013/09/10/retrotechtacular-the-apollo-guidance-computer, where the ‘girls’ are handwiring the ROM/?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth... | 1,760,376,433.963905 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/10/09/scara-arm-becomes-enormous-3d-printer/ | SCARA Arm Becomes Enormous 3D Printer | Brian Benchoff | [
"3d Printer hacks"
] | [
"3d printer",
"scara"
] | When you find an old, disused 80s-era SCARA arm in a lab, there’s really not much more you can do than
make a giant 3D printer with it.
The last time we saw [Dane]’s
salvaged SCARA arm
, he had reconstructed the electronics by building his own servo motor controllers and feedback sensors. There were a few initial test prints, but the new upgrades to this printer make it much more useful, make it look even more kludged together, and made the prints even more accurate.
The largest upgrade to the new machine is an updated heated build plate. The previous plate used six 30W resistors. Good enough, but with two additional 245W membrane heaters, [Dane] can now keep his build plate at a constant 65 degrees C. Keeping such a large area warm requires a heated build chamber, so [Dane] came up with a
giant semi-hexagonal box of warm
made from aluminum extrusion, laser-cut parts, and acrylic frames.
Compared to earlier prints, the SCARA arm is printing
some very nice parts
including a battery holder for 40 LiFePO4 cells, and a beautiful propeller for a 3D printed boat. It’s an impressive build, made even more so by the fact this robotic arm was found during a lab cleanup. | 17 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "1072056",
"author": "vale0077",
"timestamp": "2013-10-09T20:17:37",
"content": "already posted",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1072507",
"author": "andrew",
"timestamp": "2013-10-10T14:48:00",
"content"... | 1,760,376,434.347622 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/10/09/3d-printering-you-want-uv-resin/ | 3D Printering: You Want UV Resin? | Brian Benchoff | [
"Hackaday Columns"
] | [
"3D Printering",
"resin",
"stereolithography"
] | Just a few short months ago, 3D printing with stereolithography was an uncommon and very expensive proposition. Consumer-oriented SLA machines such as the
Form1
and the
B9Creator
are as expensive as the upper echelons of squirting plastic printers and the community behind these machines isn’t even as diverse as the forums for the fly-by-night printers featured on Kickstarter every week.
This may be about to change with last month’s reveal of the
Peachy Printer
, a remarkably clever stereolithography printer that requires no special equipment, hardly any electronics, and costs $100. Even if the folks behind Peachy never ship a single unit, their clever engineering ensures that stereolithography will be a staple in the makers toolbox in the near future.
There is, of course, the problem of material. While plastic filament can be bought just about everywhere, UV curing resin is a little harder to come by and much more expensive per kilogram or liter. Where then does the stereolithography experimenter get their hands on some of this magical material from the future?
Before we get to the article…
I’ve been writing a
3D Printing column
once a week for a few months now, and I’m running out of ideas. If you have something in the 3D printer world you’d like to see covered in a little more depth than the standard Hackaday post,
send in a tip
. I’ll send you a few Hackaday stickers if it’s a good idea.
This stuff is really complicated
Needless to say, the market for SLA resin is a bit complicated. Some printers use DLP projectors, others use lasers. Some printers require a low viscosity resin while in others it doesn’t matter as much. This has a direct effect on what types of resins can be used with which printers. The market is so convoluted there’s no standardized unit of how to sell resin; some sell it by volume, others sell it by mass. For better or worse, the makers behind these SLA printers have stepped in and are selling their own resin.
It’s like printer ink!
The most expensive resin printer, and by some accounts the best,
is the Form 1
. While the printer itself is not shipping yet – a result of a few legal problems with a major 3D printer manufacturer – they are selling liters of clear and grey resin for $149. Another printer manufacturer,
B9Creator
sells their cheapest
kilogram
of resin for $107.
Or go straight to the manufacturers
Just because your new Form 1 or B9 came with a specific resin doesn’t mean you can’t experiment with other resins. There are a few light-curing resin manufacturers out there that will sell to any joe off the street.
Bucktown Polymers
is a name frequently dropped around the RepRap forums, and for good reason: they have UV, visible light, and IR curing resins available in a huge array of colors.
Judging from
a little research
, Bucktown resins are available for about $50 a
quart
, although for a while earlier this year
it seems they were selling
it at $220 a
gallon
(or $55 / quart).
Another notable vendor of UV resin is
3D Ink
, purveyors of an orange and clear resin priced at about $75 a
liter
. If versatility in materials is what you’re after (or you simply live in Europe),
Spot-A Materials
in Spain sells flexible, hard, and elastic resins for between €68 and €78 ($92 to $105 USD) per
kilogram
. Spot-A also sells dyes for their resins, giving the SLA experimenter a more diverse palette.
Judging from price alone, it appears the most innovative resin manufacturer is
MakerJuice
who offers two resins of varying viscosity and shrink for $40 and $45 per
liter
. Not only do they also offer pigments, they’ll also pre-mix colors and sell you a quantity smaller than the kilogram/quart/liter other suppliers offer. 500 ml comes to around $25 from MakerJuice, a pittance compared to what UV resins were selling for a few years ago.
Now compare this to plastic filament
A few weeks ago,
we took a look at suppliers for the cheapest PLA filament
, with mean price for 1kg of PLA filament being $43.93. If you compare that to the cheapest UV resin above,
it’s actually cheaper to print with UV resin than plastic filament.
Let that sink in for a bit. Only a few years ago, printing a plastic octopus or Yoda head on an SLA printer would have cost far more than the actual value of the object. Now, we’re looking at a world of disposable plastic trinkets with unparalleled accuracy printed for just pennies.
As the price of resin comes down, be on the lookout for cheaper resin printers. As the technology improves, we should be looking for proper SLA printers – either cheaper Form 1s and B9s or upscaled Peachys – that approach the $1000 price barrier. | 56 | 25 | [
{
"comment_id": "1071964",
"author": "JustMe",
"timestamp": "2013-10-09T17:36:01",
"content": "But I think the environmental impact of resin would be higher. Anyone know?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1072142",
"author": "vinito",
... | 1,760,376,434.770067 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/10/09/a-motherboard-for-a-wifi-enabled-sd-card/ | A Motherboard For A WiFi Enabled SD Card | Brian Benchoff | [
"hardware",
"Linux Hacks",
"Wireless Hacks"
] | [
"linux",
"sd card",
"Transcend",
"transcend WiFi",
"wifi"
] | Over the last few months, a few very capable hackers have had a hand in cracking open a Transcend WiFi-enable SD card that just happens to be running a small Linux system inside. The possibilities for a wireless Linux device you can lose in your pocket are immense, but so far no one has gotten any IO enabled on this neat piece of hardware. [CNLohr] just did us all a favor with
his motherboard for these Transcend WiFi SD cards
, allowing the small Linux systems to communicate with I2C devices.
This build is based upon
[Dmitry]’s custom kernel
for the Transcend WiFiSD card. [CNLohr] did some poking around with this system and found he could use an AVR to speak to the card in its custom 4-bit protocol.
The ‘motherboard’ consists of some sort of ATMega, an AVR programming header, a power supply, and a breakout for the I2C bus. [Lohr] wired up a LED array to the I2C bus and used it to display some configuration settings for the WiFi card before connecting to the card over WiFi and issuing commands directly to the Linux system on the card. The end result was, obviously, a bunch of blinking LEDs.
While this is by far the most complex and overwrought way to blink a LED we’ve ever seen, this is a great proof of concept that makes the Transcend cards
extremely
interesting for a variety of hardware projects. If you want your own Transcend motherboard, [CNLohr]
put all the files up
for anyone who wants to etch their own board. | 14 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "1071895",
"author": "Hephaix",
"timestamp": "2013-10-09T15:13:04",
"content": "CNLohr is, again, doing crazy cool hack.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1071944",
"author": "Dmitry Grinberg",
"timestamp": "2013-10-09T16:4... | 1,760,376,435.797205 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/10/08/retrotechtacular-discovering-electronic-music/ | Retrotechtacular: Discovering Electronic Music | Mike Szczys | [
"digital audio hacks",
"Hackaday Columns",
"Retrotechtacular"
] | [
"retrotechtacular",
"synthesizer"
] | We take it for granted today that a lot of the music we hear includes synthesized instruments and sounds. But looking all the way back to 1983 for this Discovering Electronic Music video series provides a glimpse of the humble beginnings of the technology. The first five minutes of
part one
may annoy your aurally, but it’s worth it as that’s the point at which we get into sound generation using equipment like that seen above. All three parts in the series are embedded below; about twenty minutes of video in total.
Mixer boards and other control interfaces used today still have a large area of real estate devoted to knobs and adjustments. But they also include a ton of software processing options which weren’t available until computers became both affordable and ubiquitous. What’s shown in the video is a set of hardware interfaces that process signals from oscillators or alter recorded sound. We’ve spent a lot of time
marveling about software defined radio
and how it’s making RF hacking accessible to the masses. But who here hasn’t done at least a bit of tinkering in electronic music using any of the myriad of audio software? Would you have done that if you needed to build your own envelope and filter circuitry?
[Thanks David] | 20 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "1071318",
"author": "Simon",
"timestamp": "2013-10-08T17:36:20",
"content": "also a very cool documentary: “The alchemists of sound” about the BBC radiophonic workshop:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DFznOcOOSec",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
... | 1,760,376,435.547865 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/10/08/atlas-survives-the-wrecking-ball/ | Atlas Survives The Wrecking Ball | Adam Fabio | [
"Robots Hacks"
] | [
"atlas",
"boston dynamics",
"cheetah",
"darpa",
"robot",
"robotics"
] | [Boston Dynamics] has been just full of videos over the last few days.
They’ve dropped updates on Atlas
and LS3 in addition to the
WildCat update we already featured
.
This video shows updates to the Atlas robot. This is to be a simplified version of the atlas, as compared to the robots sent off to competitors in the DARPA robotics challenge. Arms have been replaced with weights. It appears that this update focuses on Atlas’ balancing and handling on rough terrain. Atlas walks gingerly, over some crushed cinder blocks –
possibly the same ones we saw BigDog throwing around recently
. There are a few tense moments, but Atlas manages to get through unscathed.
The real scary part (for us) is watching Atlas get hit with a weighted ball. We’re assuming the 20 on the ball indicates pounds. Imagine getting hit from the side with a 20lb swinging weight. Would you be able to stand up? Did we mention Atlas did this all while standing on one foot? Atlas takes it in stride though – waving its arms to maintain balance in a very human manner. Notable is the balance system. Atlas never lifts its foot off the ground. This is slightly different from the bouncing/hopping system of balance we’ve come to know and love in [Boston Dynamics’] other robots. | 84 | 24 | [
{
"comment_id": "1071192",
"author": "jim",
"timestamp": "2013-10-08T14:09:09",
"content": "Very bad ass. I am somewhat creeped out at the “horse/dog” version of this. I think it was called “big dog” ? Anyways, I’m not sure exactly why they give that creepy feeling but I think it’s in the movement o... | 1,760,376,435.186681 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/10/08/led-guided-piano-instruction/ | LED-Guided Piano Instruction | Marsh | [
"Android Hacks",
"LED Hacks",
"Musical Hacks"
] | [
"android",
"ioio",
"java",
"leds",
"midi",
"piano",
"usb otg"
] | [Kay Choe] can’t play the piano. Rather, he couldn’t, until he converted his keyboard to
include LED-guided instruction
. [Kay] is a microbial engineering graduate student, and the last thing a grad student can afford is private music lessons. With $70 in components and a cell phone, however, he may have found a temporary alternative.
The build works like a slimmed-down, real-world Guitar Hero, lighting up each note in turn. We’ve seen
a project like this before
, with the LEDs mounted above the keys. [Kay]’s design, however, is much easier to interpret. He embedded the LEDs directly into the keys, including ones above each black key to indicate the sharps/flats. An Android app takes a MIDI file of your choice and parses the data, sending the resulting bits into an
IOIO board
via USB OTG. A collection of shift registers then drives the LEDs.
For a complete novice, [Kay] seems to benefit from these lights. We are unsure whether the LEDs give any indication of which note to anticipate, however, as it seems he is pressing the keys after each one lights up. Take a look at his video demonstration below and help us speculate as to what the red lights signify. If you’re an electronics savant who wants to make music without practicing a day in your life, we recommend that you check out
[Vladimir’s] Robot Guitar
. | 29 | 16 | [
{
"comment_id": "1071126",
"author": "Benjamin",
"timestamp": "2013-10-08T11:19:00",
"content": "I have a piano keyboard at home with this functionality built in. But honestly: After buying a scorebook with “simple tones”, ie: the songs being set in a easy-to-play-along way, I have found that the li... | 1,760,376,435.378755 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/10/08/halloween-doorknocker-decoration-hack/ | Halloween Doorknocker Decoration Hack | Marsh | [
"Arduino Hacks",
"Holiday Hacks",
"LED Hacks"
] | [
"Digispark",
"door",
"halloween",
"Halloween hacks",
"servo"
] | If you’re new to hacking, Halloween is a great excuse to get started, and [Chuck] has put together an inexpensive
animated Halloween decoration
that you can show off on your front door. After scoring a $5 plastic Halloween doorknocker from Wal-Mart, [Chuck] gathered together a small pile of components and then set about breathing some life (death?) into its scary but motionless face.
Though he opted to use a
Digispark
, you should be able to use any Arduino that is small enough to stuff inside the plastic head. [Chuck] cut some holes in the eyeballs and glued in two RGB LEDs, then cobbled together a quick-and-dirty mount in the mouth area to hold a small servo. The lights and the servo are wired to the Digispark, which turns the lights on and instructs the servo to slam the ring against the door. It’s is battery powered and currently has only two settings: on or off. This should be good enough to scare the kids for this year, but [Chuck] has plans to add a much-needed motion sensor and sound via a Bluetooth connection.
As simple as this build is, it could be just the thing to get you in the holiday spirit, or to introduce the young hacker in your home to the world of electronics and coding. Check out the short video of the doorknocker after the break, then swing by [Chuck’s] website for detailed build instructions and his
Github for the source code
. If you’re having trouble finding this doorknocker at Wal-Mart, [Chuck]
recommends a similar one on Amazon
. Don’t stop now! Make some
Flickering Pumpkins
too, or if you want a challenge, hack together your very own
Pepper’s Ghost illusion
.
View this post on Instagram
More progress on the DIY Halloween Decoration
A post shared by
Chuck
(@wolfchucker) on
Oct 5, 2013 at 12:44pm PDT | 8 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "1071114",
"author": "Gary",
"timestamp": "2013-10-08T11:01:37",
"content": "Off topic, but are those kitten adverts from Supplyframe still in rotation?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1071143",
"author": "Eirinn",
"times... | 1,760,376,435.491449 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/10/07/custom-htpc-and-home-media-server/ | Custom HTPC And Home Media Server | Marsh | [
"hardware",
"home entertainment hacks"
] | [
"dvr",
"htpc",
"media center",
"OpenElec",
"PVR",
"tv tuner",
"xbmc"
] | [Benoit Frigon]’s builds are a tribute to tidiness: both
his HTPC
and
media server
are elegant creations packed full of features. He has quite the knack for clean builds in this form factor;
his PBX server
was met with high praise earlier this summer.
For the HTPC, [Benoit] gutted and cleaned an old DVR case and modified it to house a Mini-ITX board. He added standoff mounts to support the motherboard, then sketched up a template for the IO shield as a guide for cutting the back panel. The front of the DVR case originally had a 4-digit 7-segment display and a few simple buttons. Though he kept the original button layout, [Benoit] chose to replace the segment displays with a 20×2 character LCD. The new display is controlled via a python script on the HTPC, which runs an OpenElec Linux distro with XBMC 12.0.
The HTPC’s hard drive bay is a bit lighter these days, because [Benoit] decided to migrate his media storage to a separate server. Inside the new home media server is yet another Mini-ITX motherboard with an embedded Atom N2800 that runs Ubuntu Server. Live television streams via a
WinTV HVR-2550 TV tuner
and
TVHeadend software
. The case originally suspended the tuner from the IO bracket on the back (and nowhere else), which left the rest of the card dangerously unsupported inside. [Benoit] solved the problem by building an additional aluminum bracket that firmly holds both the PCIe riser and the tuner. Check out both builds’ pages for downloadable templates, software details and bill of materials. | 21 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "1070999",
"author": "rogier21",
"timestamp": "2013-10-08T05:43:54",
"content": "I made something like this years ago but now I am throwing it all out for a Raspberry pi XBMC + NAS, much easier and no messing around anymore with crappy hardware.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": ... | 1,760,376,435.438827 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/10/07/temp-sensitive-automatic-blinds/ | Temp-Sensitive Automatic Blinds | Marsh | [
"Arduino Hacks",
"home hacks"
] | [
"blinds",
"home automation",
"RGB LED",
"servo",
"temperature",
"temperature sensor",
"temperature-control",
"window blinds"
] | Any opportunity to shave a few bucks off your power bill is probably worth considering, especially if it’s a device like [Steve Hoefer’s]
Mini Blind Minder.
This little guy staves off (or welcomes) the sun by monitoring the room with a temperature sensor and checking against a setpoint. If the room is too warm or too cool, the top-mounted servo will spin the wand and close or open the blinds, respectively.
[Steve] started by building a homemade Arduino shield from some perfboard to which he added a handful of discrete components: some current-limiting resistors for the RGB LED indicator light and a 10k trim pot for fine-tuning the temp sensor. Although this build forgoes an LCD readout to display precise information, it does provide feedback by stepping the RGB LED’s color through a spectrum of blue to red to indicate how the current room temperature compares to your setpoint. The two momentary pushbuttons beneath the light allow the user to adjust the setpoint up or down.
See the video below for a detailed guide to building your own, and take a look at a similar
automatic blinds build
from earlier this year that opens and closes in response to ambient light. | 5 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "1071132",
"author": "Blue Footed Booby",
"timestamp": "2013-10-08T11:24:41",
"content": "The single light Roy G Biv display is a neat idea.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1071142",
"author": "aztraph",
"timestamp": "201... | 1,760,376,435.073189 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/10/07/arduino-based-enigma-replica-is-fully-functional/ | Arduino-based Enigma Replica Is Fully Functional | Marsh | [
"Arduino Hacks",
"LED Hacks"
] | [
"arduino mega",
"charlieplexing",
"enigma",
"enigma machine"
] | This
open-source Enigma replica
by the folks at [ST-Geotronics] is simply stunning. They drew their inspiration from a
hilarious build we saw a few years ago
that hacked a children’s toy into an Enigma machine. Their project is instead modeled on the original
Enigma M4 cipher machine
, and aside from a bit of artistic license, we think they nailed the visual style. As for functionality, the guide claims everything works, right down to the plugboard.
Rather than try to immediately cram everything into the final enclosure, the [ST-Geotronics] gang painstakingly worked out a prototype to be sure the four 16-segment LED displays had been wired correctly and functioned properly. The next step was laying out a swarm of buttons and resistors on a 6″x8″ perfboard. They used
charlieplexing
to handle the 16-segment displays (which actually have 17 LEDs each), and deceptively disguised each display as a nixie tube by mounting them vertically and encasing them in a transparent dome. The case follows the M4’s original dimensions and consists of a plywood box with scrap steel for the top plate.
Swing by their Instructables page for more details. There you can find several Arduino sketches to test functionality and the code for five different M4 operation modes. | 22 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "1070826",
"author": "macona",
"timestamp": "2013-10-07T23:12:15",
"content": "All that work and he sticks it in a box made from generic hardware store plywood. C’mon man!, it deserves better! At least baltic birch plywood.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
... | 1,760,376,435.649246 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/10/07/how-the-game-genie-works/ | How The Game Genie Works | Brian Benchoff | [
"classic hacks",
"Nintendo Hacks"
] | [
"game boy",
"Game Genie",
"nes",
"sega",
"snes"
] | Those of us old enough to remember blowing into cartridges will probably remember the Game Genie – a device that plugs in to an NES, SNES, Sega Genesis, or Game Boy that gives the player extra lives, items, changes the difficulty, or otherwise modifies the gameplay. To someone who doesn’t yet know where the 1-up is in the first level of Super Mario Bros., the Game Genie seems magical. There is, of course, a rhyme and reason behind the Genie and [The Mighty Mike Master] put together a great walkthrough of
how the Game Genie works
.
There are two varieties of Game Genie codes – 6-character codes and 8-character codes. Both these types of codes translate into a 15-bit address in the game ROM (from 0x8000 to 0xFFFF for the 6502-based NES) and a data byte. For the 6-character codes, whenever the address referenced by the Game Genie code is accessed, a specific data byte is returned. Thus, infinite lives become a reality with just a 6-character code.
Some games, especially ones made in the late years of their respective systems, use memory mapping to increase the code and data provided on the cartridges. Since areas of data are constantly being taken in and out of the CPU’s address space, merely returning a set value whenever a specific address is accessed would be disastrous. For this bank-switching setup, the Game Genie uses an 8-bit code; it’s just like the 6-bit code, only with the addition of a ‘compare’ byte. Using an 8-bit code, the Game Genie returns a specific byte if the compare bytes are equal. Otherwise, the Genie lets hands off the original data to the CPU.
Of course, all this information could be gleaned from the
original patent
for the Game Genie. As for the circuitry inside the Game Genie, there’s really not much aside from an un-Googleable
GAL
(general array logic) and a tiny epoxied microcontroller. It’s an amazingly simple device for all the amazement it imbued in our young impressionable minds.
[via
Reddit
] | 39 | 16 | [
{
"comment_id": "1070773",
"author": "Jordan",
"timestamp": "2013-10-07T20:12:54",
"content": "There have been many modern iterations of this—the one I’m most familiar with is the Action Replay, by Datel. It did the same thing but for the Nintendo DS systems, and was my introduction to programming, ... | 1,760,376,435.743449 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/10/07/hackaday-hackerspace-henchmen-equals-free-stuff-for-you/ | Hackaday Hackerspace Henchmen == Free Stuff For You | Mike Szczys | [
"Featured"
] | [
"cnc",
"hackaday hackerspace henchmen",
"machine tools"
] | Are you a member of your local Hackerspace? Do you want some free stuff? Then you need to become one of the Hackaday Hackerspace Henchmen.
Hackerspaces are amazing places full of smart people pulling off delightful hacks. But often the outside world doesn’t hear about them. When a member completes a project they show it to the other members, quenching the need to share the awesomeness and ridding them of the drive which normally prompts someone to publish a post about it. We want to see what you’ve been up to at your Hackerspace, and making it public will help in sharing ideas between Hackerspaces. Send us the details and we’ll thank you with some swag in return, and with a few special rewards for the most exception hacks. Keep reading for prize details and how this is all going to work.
First, the prizes: We’re planning to send Hackaday stickers to every qualifying entry. We’ll pick up to five exceptional entries who will receive Hackaday T-Shirts for sharing their hacks. And there will be one top dog who will get a $50 gift card to the parts supplier of their choice.
Each time we call for Hackaday Hackerspace Henchmen submission we’ll announce a theme. You need to put together a few pictures, and a description of the hack (its inception, build process, and what did and did not work). We’ll use these to feature the better entries on our front page. If you’ve already written extensively about the project that’s just fine. We still want you to tell us your story narrated like you were standing around at the hackerspace talking with your friends. The experience is what we think is the most interesting. If you want to make a video, great — please post it to your favorite hosting service (YouTube, etc.) and send us the link along with any other reference links you may have.
Who will win? The editors and writers at Hackaday will make the final decision on who gets T-shirts and who gets the gift card. We’ll make the decision based on the hack itself, the quality of the information you send our way, and the popularity of the features posted on our front page. Pandering is highly encouraged ;-)
The Current Theme and Entry Deadlines
The theme is Most Radical Machine Tool hack. One of the biggest draws for hackerspaces is the machine shop. Did you have a mill so large you had to blow out a wall to get it in the building? What about a CNC retrofit/replacement? Any hack that is machine tool related is game.
You have until October 31st to get your submission to us. They will be judged on completeness (did you tell the whole story and send us some pictures about it?), ingenuity/effort of the hack itself, and popularity of the posts with the Hackaday readers. The top entries will be announced on November 11th.
It should go without saying that Hackaday writers/editors, SupplyFrame employees, and their relatives are not eligible for prizes. | 24 | 14 | [
{
"comment_id": "1070723",
"author": "Wireb",
"timestamp": "2013-10-07T17:10:13",
"content": "Do you submit entries for this contest via the normal tip line or is there a special process for this?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1070787",
... | 1,760,376,435.862774 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/10/07/custom-arcade-control-panel/ | Custom Arcade Control Panel | Marsh | [
"home entertainment hacks"
] | [
"arcade",
"arcade controller",
"arcade game",
"coin",
"coin slot",
"video games"
] | Anybody can fire up an emulator and play arcade games of yesteryear, but if you want to capture more of the nostalgia, you should build a
custom arcade control panel
. [Quinn] started her build by narrowing down which games she was most interested in playing, and decided on a straightforward 2-player setup. The biggest challenge was finding joysticks that would allow for switchable 4-way or 8-way control: some games such as Ms. Pac Man were made for 4-way joystick input, and the added positions on a 8-way can lead to confused inputs and frustrated players.
[Quinn] found the solution with a pair of
Ultimarc Servo Stik
joysticks, which use a servo motor to swap between 4 and 8-way mode. The output from both the joysticks and the buttons feed into an
iPac encoder
, which converts the signal to emulate a USB keyboard. The panel was first mocked up on butcher paper, with dimensions borrowed from various games: the panel itself resembles
Mortal Kombat 2
, while the buttons are spaced to match
X-Men vs Street Fighter 2.
[Quinn] chose some spare melamine—plywood with a plastic coating—to construct the panel, drilled some holes and used a router to carve out space for the joysticks. A USB hub was added to power the servos and to make room for future additions, which [Quinn] will have no difficulty implementing considering that her electrical layout is enviably clean. To cap it all off, she fit two “coin slot” buttons: a quarter placed into a slot serves as a start button when pressed.
Be sure to see the videos after the break that demonstrate the coin buttons and the servos, then check out a different
retro joystick hack for a tripod controller
, or look to the future with the
Steam Controller
. | 12 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "1070720",
"author": "Tom",
"timestamp": "2013-10-07T17:05:02",
"content": "Best toggle switch video of 2013 so far!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1070734",
"author": "Spork",
"timestamp": "2013-10-07T17:38:47",
"co... | 1,760,376,435.924489 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/10/07/handheld-console-build-off/ | Handheld Console Build-off | Brian Benchoff | [
"classic hacks",
"Nintendo Hacks",
"PSP Hacks"
] | [
"console",
"console mod",
"gamecube",
"hand held",
"n64",
"ps2"
] | The above pic isn’t a new Wii U controller from Nintendo – it’s the product of the 2013 Portable Build-Off Challenge over at the
Made By Bacteria forums
. Every year the Bacman forums hold a contest to build the best portabalized console, and like every year this year’s entries are top-notch.
One of the more interesting projects this year is a
handheld PlayStation 2
put together by [Gman]. It uses a PS2 Slim motherboard and a dualshock 2 controller along with a 4-inch screen to stuff an entire PS2 into a convenient handheld gaming device. [Gman] ditched the CD drive and opted to play games off the USB drive, a clever substitution that really reduces the size and power consumption.
In our humble opinion, the best looking console mod is
the one shown above
by [Bungle]. It’s a portable GameCube stuffed inside a handmade case with a
WiiKey Fusion
that allows games to be played off an SD card. It’s an amazing build, and we can only hope [Bungle] will make a few molds of his case.
The entire contest has an incredible display of console modding expertise, and is
well worth a look
. | 7 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "1070635",
"author": "randomcoderdude",
"timestamp": "2013-10-07T12:16:01",
"content": "Yikes, those builds look great!Does anyone know some good place where i could learn more about making such smooth plastic enclosures?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
... | 1,760,376,435.998955 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/10/07/computer-controlled-water-show/ | Computer Controlled Water Show | James Hobson | [
"home hacks",
"Raspberry Pi"
] | [
"Solenoid valve",
"sound controlled water fountain",
"water fountain"
] | After seeing our recent post on Laminar Flow Nozzles, [Richard] decided to share with us his family’s summer project —
a computer controlled water show
(
translated
)!
The setup uses a Raspberry Pi at its core and a set of USB relay boards to turn the valves and lights on and off to the music. They wrote the program in Python and have posted it on their website to share.
They used common household solenoid valves because they are easy to control by relay, but unfortunately they are on/off only, so variable flow is not possible. A challenge they encountered was equalizing the water pressure — one to make sure the pump didn’t over heat when the fountains were off, and two, to equalize the height of each fountain stream. To solve this they used a pressure regulator for the pump, and organized the plumbing in such a way with additional control valves that the pressure differences were minimal.
The setup doesn’t sound like it cost that much, and now the family has their own music activated water fountain in their garden — how awesome is that! Stick around after the break to see it in action.
Here’s
the link to the recent laminar nozzle project
we mentioned above. Maybe as a future upgrade they could take some ideas from these laminar flow jets
to make the streams behave more like fiber optics! | 4 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "1070690",
"author": "LXDickman",
"timestamp": "2013-10-07T15:39:47",
"content": "Does anybody here remember Bullwinkle’s in Santa Clara?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1070748",
"author": "supershwa",
"timestamp": "2013... | 1,760,376,436.160736 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/10/06/remote-servo-controlled-lightswitch/ | Remote Servo-controlled Lightswitch | Marsh | [
"Arduino Hacks",
"home hacks",
"Microcontrollers"
] | [
"home automation",
"light switch",
"lights",
"servo"
] | We frequently get home automation tips, many of which have simple circuit-based on/off control for lights. [Paulo Borges] has created something quite different, however, with his in-the-wall
servo-controlled light switch
. This build forgoes the need of any relay to switch mains power, and because it’s physically flipping your switch, provides a distinct advantage over other builds that require a phone or tablet interface: you can use your switches as you normally would.
[Paulo] picked up a rocker-type switch at the local hardware store and carefully pried off the large, flat switch plate to notch out a small hole at its fulcrum. He then carefully shaped a piece of 12 gauge wire to provide a pivot point for the servo. His choice to use wire here seems to be entirely to provide a sturdy yet bendable component that functions mechanically rather than electrically. A small 9G servo fits to the back of the switch’s housing, and the servo’s arm connects up to the previously attached 12 gauge wire. He pieced together the remote control feature with an
RF link kit
with an inexpensive
433mhz Code duplicator from eBay
.
[Paulo] explains that his Instructable is simply an overview rather than a step-by-step guide, so if you’re eager to reproduce this hack you’ll have to work out the code and the remote control portion yourself. He also acknowledges the biggest remaining hurdle: finding space in the wall to shove all the microcontroller guts. Check out a couple of videos of the switch after the break, and remember, there’s always the option of
doing away with all light switches
. | 73 | 27 | [
{
"comment_id": "1070468",
"author": "Eric Sanchez Curti",
"timestamp": "2013-10-07T02:16:45",
"content": "am i the only one who thinks he will eventually break that servo?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1070492",
"author": "macona",
... | 1,760,376,436.673895 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/10/06/hackaday-links-october-6-2013/ | Hackaday Links: October 6, 2013 | Mike Szczys | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"Hackaday links"
] | [
"ereader",
"ibeacon",
"organization",
"pizza box",
"stem",
"thecontrollerproject",
"xbee"
] | The iBeacon has been all over the interwebs lately. Here’s a riff on
the Arduino Pro MIni that adds a BLE module
. It can be used to make an iBeacon clone. You can also
hack a VTag keyfinder
to operate in much the same way.
Remember that post about
pulling a QR Code generator into Google Docs
? One could argue that the best use of this functionality is to
add labels to your parts storage
that lead back to the product page for the component. [Thanks Nicholas]
[Michael] wrote in to share his crowd funding campaign. He is a school teacher and wants to publish
a detective story that gets kids excited about STEM
.
Our own [James Hobson] made the first cut to be [Adam Savage’s] new assistant. He’s the [TheHacksmith] (read
our staff page
if you don’t believe us) and is the third entry
featured in this vignette
. Apparently they’ve got something against Canadians because they say he’s ineligible due to his nationality!?
If you’ve ever been confused about
the features of different Xbee modules
this comparison chart may be of assistance.
A couple of weeks ago we learned about
a contest put on by TheControllerProject
. [TouchStone936] gets credit for quick, easy, and functional. His solution to making shoulder buttons more accessible includes
hot-glue, a golf tee, and a binder clip
. Pretty clever!
Wanting a better color of backlight for his eReader, [Vivek Gani]
cracked it open and applied Kapton Tape as a gel
to soften the hue.
And finally something very silly. If you put a strong enough prop on the front, you can get just about anything to fly. This instance involves
a flying pizza box
which to us looks particularly un-flight-worthy. [via
Gizmodo
] | 8 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "1070451",
"author": "JD",
"timestamp": "2013-10-07T00:44:22",
"content": "How and when did that kapton tape turn into a gel?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1070510",
"author": "Greenaum",
"timestamp": "2013-10... | 1,760,376,436.318963 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/10/09/ask-hackaday-what-is-home-automation/ | Ask Hackaday: What Is “Home Automation”? | Marsh | [
"Ask Hackaday",
"home entertainment hacks",
"home hacks"
] | [
"automation",
"home automation"
] | We’re not entirely sure what’s become of the term “home automation.” The definition seems to have settled for any user interface in the home—via tablets, phones, handheld remote controls, etc. Some of these devices lack any form of automation and instead require manual input.
Even Wikipedia’s home automation article
suggests a move toward this trend, offering the following definition (emphasis ours):
It is automation of the home, housework or household activity.
Home automation may include centralized control
of lighting, HVAC (heating, ventilation and air conditioning), appliances, security locks of gates and doors and other systems,
to provide improved convenience, comfort, energy efficiency and security.
Though “automation” is clearly included in the first sentence, one could interpret the bolded potion as meaning either:
Truly automated systems may
also
include centralized control (as a feature).
The category of home automation also includes systems that merely provide centralized controls.
So, are automated components optional? Judging by the phrasing of projects submitted to our tips line: yes sir. Truly automated systems exist, but if you browse through any home improvement store’s “home automation” section, you’ll be pummeled by a string of remote-controlled light dimmers and outlets. How many of these are designed to interact with sensors as feedback systems or otherwise function unattended?
Our articles often favor an “automation-optional” categorization. Should we, however, reserve the “automation” label for projects like the
light switch based on room occupancy
and deny other builds, like the
voice-activated lights/outlets system
or the
RasPi lighting and audio control via web interface
? Hit up the comments and help shed some light on how to properly use the terminology. | 48 | 23 | [
{
"comment_id": "1071795",
"author": "Matt Rasmussen",
"timestamp": "2013-10-09T11:30:52",
"content": "I see it as foolishly shortsighted to claim that digital bridge/remote control interfaces don’t classify as relevant to “home automation”. I’d absolutely agree that they, themselves, aren’t shortsi... | 1,760,376,436.903302 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/10/09/troll-physics-3-leds-powered-by-hand/ | Troll Physics: 3 LEDs Powered By Hand | Mathieu Stephan | [
"hardware"
] | [
"led",
"parallel",
"series",
"troll physics"
] | [Henryk] just sent us his
latest episode
of simple LED circuit puzzles. In front of the camera he solders one pin of each of the 3 LEDs to a different switch. He then puts the three assemblies in his hand and flips each switch to make the corresponding LED come on. We look forward to your explanations in the comments.
You may remember two other videos that [Henryk] made (also embedded after the break). The first video was a simple circuit with a resistor, three switches, and three LEDs in series. When a battery was connected, the LEDs were somehow switched on one at a time.The second video featured the same resistor/switches/LEDs, this time in a parallel circuit. Turning on the first switch made the first LED light up, and the second switch made the second LED light up.
Here are the few other troll physics projects we featured: the
original LED circuits post
, the
super deluxe edition
and the
amazing solution
to the trickery. | 54 | 31 | [
{
"comment_id": "1071682",
"author": "mal",
"timestamp": "2013-10-09T08:22:18",
"content": "I hate to be a naysayer, but do we really have to have this sort of post? This isn’t a hack, and this site isn’t sleight-of-hand or troll a-day.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
... | 1,760,376,436.403481 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/10/08/electric-bicycle-hack-is-hilariously-simple/ | Electric Bicycle Hack Is Hilariously Simple | Marsh | [
"Tool Hacks",
"Transportation Hacks"
] | [
"bicycle",
"drill",
"electric bicycle",
"electric vehicle",
"zip ties"
] | Necessity may be the mother of invention, but limited resources give birth to some of the best hacks. [joejoeboom’s]
5-minute electric bike conversion
probably can’t drive you into the next town, but it can scoot you around your neighborhood.
[jojoeboom] found a cordless drill at a local hardware store for $15, which he simply zip-tied to the bicycle’s frame. He positioned the drill so the chuck pressed firmly against the side of the bicycle’s rear wheel, creating a simple friction drive system. To create a throttle, [joejoeboom] strapped a spare hand brake to the handlebar and wrapped the brake’s cable around the drill’s trigger. Several carefully placed zip ties hold everything in place and allow the cable to tug at the trigger when the hand brake is squeezed.
Watch the bike poking around in a video below, and for some extreme contrast check out
the 102-mph bicycle build
from earlier this summer. | 40 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "1071612",
"author": "garym53",
"timestamp": "2013-10-09T05:08:13",
"content": "Wait’ll his dad realises his only drill is missing…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1071615",
"author": "garym53",
"timestamp": "2013-10-09T0... | 1,760,376,436.475618 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/10/08/pokewithastick-an-arduino-programmable-web-loggerserver/ | Pokewithastick, An Arduino Programmable Web-logger/server | Mathieu Stephan | [
"Arduino Hacks",
"hardware"
] | [
"arduino",
"data logging",
"ethernet",
"real time clock"
] | [Stewart] tipped us about his very nice project:
pokewithastick
. It is an Arduino compatible board (hardware, not footprint) based on the ATMEGA1284P which can be programmed to collect and post data to internet logging sites such as Thingspeak or Xively.
As you can see in the picture above, it has a small 50x37mm footprint (roughly 2″x1.5″). The pokewithastick is composed of an Wiz820 Ethernet module, a micro-SD card slot, 2 serial ports, one battery backed Real Time Clock (RTC), one radio connector (for the usual nRF24L01 2.4GHz radio), one power & user LED and finally a reset button. There are two power rails on the board which can be split (5v + 3.3V) or combined (3.3v only) which may allow you to connect Arduino shields to it. You can program the board using the standard 6-pin header or via a serial programmer if an appropriate (Arduino) bootloader is installed.
The project is open hardware, has been designed using
Kicad
and all the files can be downloaded
as a zip file
. | 7 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "1071598",
"author": "tekkieneet",
"timestamp": "2013-10-09T03:48:41",
"content": "Having the wires next to the tall regulators might get the regulatorspins bent in the long run if this PCB is to be handled without a box.Also sometime you could get stray of strands of the two wires t... | 1,760,376,436.718871 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/10/08/custom-wireless-headphone-charging-station/ | Custom Wireless Headphone Charging Station | Marsh | [
"digital audio hacks",
"Laser Hacks",
"Wireless Hacks"
] | [
"headphones",
"induction charger",
"inductive",
"laser cutter",
"wireless charging"
] | We’ve come to expect quite a lot of convenience from our technology, to the point where repeatedly plugging in a device for recharging can seem tedious. Hackaday regular [Valentin Ameres] decided to ditch the plugs and built his own
wireless headphone charger
. We’ve seen [Valentin’s] work before, and one thing’s for certain: this guy loves his laser cutter. And he should, considering it’s churned out key components for a
gorgeous Arc Reactor replica
and his
Airsoft Turret
. [Valentin] fired it up yet again to carve the charging stand out of acrylic, then used a small torch and the edge of a table to bend the stand into shape.
He sourced the
needed coils online
and soldered the receiving coil to a spare miniUSB plug. These components are glued onto a laser-cut acrylic attachment, which fits against the side of the headphone and is held in place by plugging directly into the earpiece’s miniUSB jack. The headphones rest on the laser-cut charging stand, which has an extrusion of acrylic on one side that holds the emitter coil in position against the receiver coil. [Valentin] also added a simple momentary switch at the top of the stand to activate both the emitter coil and a status LED when pressed by the headphones.
Stick around for a video of the build below, and check out some other headphone hacks, like
adding a Bluetooth upgrade
or making a
custom pair out of construction earmuffs
. | 2 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "1071526",
"author": "Tim",
"timestamp": "2013-10-09T00:12:11",
"content": "Great job, very clean and I love inductive charging especially for something like this.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1071556",
"author": "Andrew",... | 1,760,376,436.943312 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/10/08/hackaday-is-broken/ | Hackaday Is Broken | Mike Szczys | [
"News"
] | [] | We’re sorry for the page styling problems. This seems to be caused by a server-side upgrade issue — our incomplete stylesheet depended on another that just changed and broke everything. We’re trying to do a roll-back which will give us time to fix our theme. Thanks for your understanding. Feel free to unleash your rage in the comments below ;-)
Pro Tip (or should that be a website fail tip?): Hit CTRL-A (select all) in order to read the white text on white background comments below.
Update:
Things look mostly back to normal again. Sorry again for the troubles…. but I’m actually having some fun reading the comments on this one! | 53 | 21 | [
{
"comment_id": "1071426",
"author": "Gdogg",
"timestamp": "2013-10-08T21:08:42",
"content": "first",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1071428",
"author": "Gdogg",
"timestamp": "2013-10-08T21:09:02",
"content": "to complai... | 1,760,376,436.80942 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/10/08/reverse-engineering-an-lg-cell-phone-display/ | Reverse Engineering An LG Cell Phone Display | Adam Fabio | [
"Cellphone Hacks"
] | [
"arduino",
"CellPhones",
"LGKF700",
"Liquid crystal display",
"stm32"
] | [Andy] has done a great job
reverse engineering the LG KF700 cell phone display
. LG’s KF700 is a 2008 era cell phone — that’s about 300 years old in cell phone years. The phone was somewhat novel in that it used a 3” diagonal 2:1 480×240 widescreen format. While the phone itself may be a memory, its screen lives on through the magic of Ebay.
Obtaining the LCD is the easy part – the hard part is figuring out how to interface to it. LG is very helpful in that regard by publishing detailed service manuals and schematics on their cell phones. We’re not sure if these manuals are supposed to be public domain, but Google is your friend here. With the help of the service manual, [Andy] was able to determine the LCD has an on board controller (Himax HX8352), making it much easier to interface to. He was also able to find out information about the LCD connector pin out, and even a connector part number.
Connectors in hand, [Andy] set about building a board. His software of choice is Protel, former name of the software we now know as Atlium designer. Knowing that most people aren’t running the same software he is, [Andy] gives plenty of information on creating a footprint for the tiny LCD connector.
The last part of this hack was the software. [Andy] is fond of the STM32 series, so he started with drivers for those processors. The final product is quite impressive. [Andy] also ported his driver to the Arduino Mega, however a 5 volt to 3.3 volt adapter must be used between the Arduino and the LCD.
Software for both drivers are available on [Andy’s] github
. | 27 | 14 | [
{
"comment_id": "1071390",
"author": "M Lange (@errorad)",
"timestamp": "2013-10-08T20:09:03",
"content": "Did somebody accidentally the CSS? I’m getting white backgrounds on the articles and the comments in Firefox.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_... | 1,760,376,437.011502 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/10/06/school-bus-keyless-door-lock-conversion/ | School Bus Keyless Door Lock Conversion | Marsh | [
"Transportation Hacks"
] | [
"bus",
"deadbolt",
"keyless entry",
"school bus"
] | When a school bus has finished its life ferrying children around, it often ends up as someone’s pet project. Most buses in the US, however, have annoying back doors that lock only from the inside, which isn’t very convenient if you’re loading/unloading gear. Drawing inspiration from another project that fit a simple deadbolt upgrade, [Leonard] took the build one step further and hacked together his own
keyless entry deadbolt
system.
He started by removing the white safety bar that normally covers the long red handle and attached a slide bolt to the door. The slide bolt serves only as an extension for the deadbolt, which would otherwise get whacked by the red handle. [Leonard] made a few modifications to the slide bolt so it can sit flush against the bus’s lock bar, then went to work attaching the keyless deadbolt. At 2.5″, the bus’s door is actually thicker than standard doors, not to mention this build needs the deadbolt to move along the door’s surface to push the slide bolt fitted to the door. [Leonard] decided to throw in a chunk of wood as a kind of “simulated door,” which mounts next to the slide bolt and houses the deadbolt’s guts.
Check out the video after the break to make sense of the door’s operation and
swing by [Leonard’s] blog
to see what else he’s done to the bus. If you’re in the mood for more transportation hacks, make sure you see the
Raspberry Pi CarPC
. | 4 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "1070445",
"author": "Merlin",
"timestamp": "2013-10-07T00:10:44",
"content": "Clever idea, smooth implementation. Personally I’d go for searching a junkyard for some of those automotive keypads and patching those through the bus computer (mine will have a central computer) to some f... | 1,760,376,437.053365 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/10/06/led-costumes-and-clothing/ | LED Costumes And Clothing | Marsh | [
"Arduino Hacks",
"LED Hacks",
"Microcontrollers",
"Wearable Hacks"
] | [
"atmega32u4",
"bluetooth",
"costume",
"RGB LED"
] | Our tips line recently received an influx of wearable LED projects, both for casual and professional wear. [Elizabeth] and [Luis] have created the
Lüme wearable collection
, aimed at accessorizing by adding adjustable accent colors to jackets, t-shirts and dresses. The electronics are custom-made, built around an ATMega32u4, and each is Bluetooth enabled to interact with a user’s cell phone. From the phone, you can change colors, sequences, set up events, and even take advantage of an “inkdropper-style” feature that matches the color of the LEDs to any object you point your camera at.
[Michal’s] project is an entire
suit for a dance and laser show entitled “Tron Dance”
, which uses several RGB LED strips placed on key points of the wearer’s costume. It looks like [Michal] has intentionally avoided the joint areas to prevent any problems with breaks or bends, but still manages to place enough to cover the entire body. We aren’t sure what controls everything, but you can watch it go through various sequences and survive an onstage performance after the break.
Finally, in yet another kind of performance, magician [Kiki Tay] has built a
jacket that’s overflowing with RGB LEDs
. [Kiki] wanted wearable LED control that could be used in various situations without having to re-invent the wheel each time, so he developed his own board —
the LED Magician
: an Arduino-compatible solution. The board has 12 outputs channels, drives 50+ LEDs per channel and features 12 on-board LEDs that display a preview of the output. To make interactions user-friendly, [Kiki] has provided 32 built-in sequences and adjustable speeds that the user can program via 4 buttons on the board. If that isn’t enough control, there are some options for external control as well. The jacket itself runs off a hobby LiPo battery and is blindingly bright: stick around after the break for a video.
The Lüme Collection:
Tron Dance:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VJsTTjdFYjI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aqH6q5SP_hs
Kiki Tay’s Jacket: | 22 | 12 | [
{
"comment_id": "1070323",
"author": "supershwa",
"timestamp": "2013-10-06T17:18:12",
"content": "I’ve seen some of these before, but this is the first time I’ve seen the Lume. I think I like it best because it’s conservative, yet stylish, and I think diffused light is best for clothing (LEDs can g... | 1,760,376,437.114492 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/10/06/humidity-activated-bathroom-fan/ | Humidity Activated Bathroom Fan | James Hobson | [
"home hacks"
] | [
"atmega328",
"bathroom fan",
"humidity"
] | [Andrea] recently moved into an apartment with a few of his friends. Unfortunately the bathroom lacks one of the most important things — A fan. Or at least a window!
Using the case of an air freshener, a simple DHT11 Humidity/Temperature sensor, an LCD, a 12V fan, and ATmel328 microcontroller,
he created this handy gadget
.
When the humidity in the bathroom passes the 50% threshold, an LED flashes to prompt the user to open the door. After a short delay, one of the transistors flips causing the moist air to circulate out of the room.
We’re surprised the little 12V fan is powerful enough to clear the room, but apparently it helps a lot and can clear the room in less than 20 minutes.
To see it in action, stick around after the break.
This isn’t the first smart bathroom sensor though! We covered a
project last year that uses a very similar setup
. | 35 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "1070268",
"author": "Darius",
"timestamp": "2013-10-06T14:16:41",
"content": "No fan or window in the bathroom is against building code. The mold in that place must be atrocious.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1070408",
... | 1,760,376,437.241679 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/10/06/sstv-beacon-based-on-a-raspberry-pi/ | SSTV Beacon Based On A Raspberry Pi | Mathieu Stephan | [
"Hackerspaces",
"Radio Hacks"
] | [
"amateur radio",
"raspberry pi",
"Slow-scan television",
"SSTV"
] | The Budapest hackerspace did some joint work with a local ham radio club and created an
SSTV beacon
housed inside a CCTV case that takes an image of its environment and transmits it using
slow-scan television
over ham bands.
As the title says, the build uses a Raspberry Pi to process the image taken from its camera and then transmits it over the air using a Ricofunk UHF transceiver with a main frequency of 433.425MHz. On the software side,
PySSTV
is used to convert images to frequency/time tuples, UNIXSSTV then creates the actual audio file and finally
sox
plays it. To avoid screwing up the Raspberry SD card, every part of the filsystem is either mounted in read-only mode (things like /home and /usr) or uses a ramdisk (things like /tmp and logs).
The plans, schematics and source code are available, so they hope that other hackerspaces will join the ranks! | 17 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "1070237",
"author": "fartface",
"timestamp": "2013-10-06T12:35:07",
"content": "Not really a new idea. SSTV beacons have been running on linux for over a decade.It’s just showing that the rasPi is still king for tinkering.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
... | 1,760,376,437.168129 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/10/06/peppers-ghost-halloween-ghosting/ | Pepper’s Ghost – Halloween Ghosting | James Hobson | [
"Holiday Hacks"
] | [
"ghost pepper",
"Haunted Attractions",
"holograms",
"Holography"
] | Peppers Ghost is a classic technique for making ghosts appear in pictures, video, and even in front of live audiences. In this week’s Halloween themed Instructable,
learn how to recreate the effect at home.
It’s really quite simple. By positioning a clear piece of lexan at a 45 degree angle to your “ghost” object, and having the audience (or camera) looking at the lexan at the opposite 45 degree angle, you can produce a very simple ghost effect. This is a great trick for producing some scary ghosts in your haunted house.
But wait. Isn’t this a bit too simple? This is Hack a Day isn’t it? How about making a real moving hologram, isn’t that a bit more of our speed?
Well, this is the exact same technique that is used to make real holograms — just replace that object with a projected image or video! We’ve covered it a couple of times before, explaining the
Tupac hologram
, and showing off a
cool leap motion controlled globe hologram
.
Our challenge to you is to make a moving hologram Halloween decoration. After all, you can get pico projectors for less than $100 these days, so why not give it a try? There’s a few more ideas and techniques for positioning the lexan in the video after the break. | 17 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "1070214",
"author": "notgrumpy",
"timestamp": "2013-10-06T11:03:13",
"content": "Grumpy cat is not satisfied with his ghost image in the window.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1070641",
"author": "Hirudinea",
... | 1,760,376,437.339431 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/10/05/diy-cd-autoloader/ | DIY CD Autoloader | James Hobson | [
"3d Printer hacks",
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"autoloader",
"cd autoloader",
"disc autoloader"
] | From the German Hackerspace Ffm comes this
extremely robust DIY disc autoloader
(
translated
)! We hope your German isn’t too rusty…
[David] was tired of copying his CD collection by hand, so he set out to make an open source DIY disc autoloader. His first prototype
was this one
, which we have to admit gets style points (it made use of a gaming PC tower as the enclosure).
One of his goals for the project was simplicity, and with that in mind he created a driverless solution, using mechanical actuators to do everything — all you have to do is plug in your computer to the drive. It makes use of a gripper taken from a notebook optical drive and a series of counterweights to pick up and deposit the disks. The frame is made of aluminum extrusion and the major functional brackets are all 3D printed.
To see it in action, stick around after the break. We personally like the use of the counterweight pulley in the back!
If you happen to have a CD collection big enough to justify this, he’s released all the files on the wiki (first link). | 9 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "1070117",
"author": "eepoh2Th",
"timestamp": "2013-10-06T02:24:41",
"content": "Lol, google translator really wasn’t build for informal texts or people ignoring proper spelling. Vorfürmodell should be Vorführmodell, gibts → gibt es, Funktiosprinzip → Funktionsprinzip, Viedeo → Video... | 1,760,376,437.289596 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/10/05/a-laminar-flow-nozzle/ | A Laminar Flow Nozzle | Mathieu Stephan | [
"hardware"
] | [
"drinking straw",
"laminar flow",
"Nozzle"
] | A few years ago Hackaday featured a laminar project which recently inspired [Kurt] to
create his own
. His goal is to create a computer controlled night time light show synchronized with music.
The laminar nozzle shown in the picture above is built with 800 drinking straws all placed in parallel inside a 4″ PVC pipe. The water input is a 3/4″ garden hose adapter, perpendicular to the flow of the output nozzle. The built therefore consists of cleaning sponges placed near the water inlet, followed by the straws and an inch gap to the exit nozzle. To get a nice flow, the edge of the exit nozzle must be as sharp as possible. [Kurt] purchased a brass pipe end cap, drilled a hole in it and sanded it to create a sharp inner edge. For the lights, he used 2 high power LEDs mounted with 3mm fiber optic cables, driven at around 5 Watts.
The link to the article that inspired Kurt can be found
here
. | 10 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "1070088",
"author": "sneakypoo",
"timestamp": "2013-10-05T23:46:46",
"content": "I like the simplicity of this one. I’ve been meaning to make one of these myself for a long time but when reading up on it the projects I’ve seen before seemed a bit convoluted. Looks like you can get a... | 1,760,376,437.571958 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/10/05/self-stabilizing-spoon-for-people-with-parkinsons/ | Self-stabilizing Spoon For People With Parkinson’s | James Hobson | [
"Medical Hacks"
] | [
"Liftware",
"Parkinson",
"Parkinson's disease",
"self balancing spoon",
"Tremor",
"tremors"
] | Here’s a really cool story we just picked up —
a gyroscopic steady-spoon
, designed for people with Parkinson’s disease or other tremor inducing ailments.
The creator [Anupam Pathak] is close to people who suffer from tremors, and seeing the problem up close and personal, he set out to create a solution. He started the company called
Liftware
, and has so far released the Lift spoon. It features an embedded microchip, sensors and a few small motors. It’s capable of stabilizing tremors of up to 2 inches, which in several medical studies resulted in approximately a 70% tremor cancellation rate!
If you haven’t seen the effects of Parkinson’s on anyone, watch the video after the break. You’ll have your heart strings pulled a bit seeing how difficult eating can be, but then amazed at the ingenuity and effectiveness of the Lift Spoon. We can only imagine the paradigm shift this will be for people suffering from tremors.
The technology to help these people is here — could it be possible to go even further and build a low-profile arm or hand steadying exoskeleton that could be hidden under a shirt sleeve?
[via
Reddit
] | 61 | 26 | [
{
"comment_id": "1070005",
"author": "Chris C.",
"timestamp": "2013-10-05T20:14:36",
"content": "That’s pure genius.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1070010",
"author": "rue_mohr",
"timestamp": "2013-10-05T20:22:03",
"content": "cool... | 1,760,376,437.762715 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/10/05/jj-dasher-the-tinkerer-documentary/ | JJ Dasher: The Tinkerer (Documentary) | James Hobson | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"documentary",
"doom",
"hacker documentary",
"tinkerer"
] | This isn’t our usual faire, it’s a really cool documentary on a hacker. [JJ Dasher] is a tinkerer from Taylorsville, Utah —
and this is his story.
Like many mechanical hackers, he got his start taking apart engines with his dad who owned a motorcycle repair shop at the time. The cover photo above is of his micro-bike project, which can get him going quite fast! He’s also built quite a few tesla coils, and loves picking up things from thrift stores to hack. He’s got a kid now which takes up a lot of his time, but he jokes that his son is just his next big project waiting to be finished.
We’ve actually featured [JJ’s] projects quite a few times before. He brought us the
Doombox
(handheld Doom-only computer),
the awesome brute force GPS PIN cracker
, and in the spirit of halloween one of our favorites:
a tesla coil that delivers shocking candy!
Stick around after the break to watch the well-filmed documentary — don’t worry, it’s only 8 minutes long! | 12 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "1069936",
"author": "Robert",
"timestamp": "2013-10-05T17:19:23",
"content": "That micro-bike is insane. Also, do you know where that mine is in Utah?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1070080",
"author": "JJ",
"... | 1,760,376,437.812736 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/10/05/boston-dynamics-takes-wildcat-outside/ | Boston Dynamics Takes WildCat Outside | Adam Fabio | [
"News",
"Robots Hacks"
] | [
"bigdog",
"boston dynamics",
"cheetah",
"darpa",
"robot",
"WildCat"
] | [
Boston Dynamics] has released a video of their latest robot
, which means it’s time to go hide in bed before this thing comes to get us. The new video features WildCat, which is apparently the evolution of the
Cheetah robot we saw last year
. Cheetah was an indoor cat, tethered by power, data, and hydraulic lines while running on a treadmill. WildCat has been released to
terrorize people
explore the great outdoors
Reminiscent of the early videos of
BigDog
, WildCat is currently powered by an internal combustion engine. The engine drives a hydraulic system, which then actuates the robot’s legs and front/rear pods. The beauty of a system like this is that switching to an electric motor is simple – just replace the IC engine. While we’re sure this would make a much more stealthy cat, weight and run time could be issues. Moving the power system onboard has also slowed down WildCat a bit. Cheetah was able to reach 28 MPH while WildCat can only muster 16 MPH.
WildCat is part of DARPA’s maximum mobility and manipulation program. The research appears to be focused on improving the gaits the robot uses to move at various speeds. The video highlights both bounding and galloping. Slo-mo sections show all four of WildCat’s legs leaving the ground, which is the suspension phase of a
classic gallop gait
. Control isn’t perfect yet, as WildCat tumbles at one point in the video. It gets right back up though – ready for more. | 62 | 26 | [
{
"comment_id": "1069843",
"author": "dALE",
"timestamp": "2013-10-05T14:05:34",
"content": "That 2 stroke engine sounds like it takes a beating.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1069845",
"author": "Jabs",
"timestamp": "2013-10... | 1,760,376,438.042927 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/10/05/please-dont-build-a-jet-engine-from-a-toilet-paper-holder/ | (Please Don’t) Build A Jet Engine From A Toilet Paper Holder | Adam Fabio | [
"Engine Hacks"
] | [
"Gas turbine",
"jet engine",
"turbo charger",
"youtube"
] | Turbo charger Jet Engines have long been considered one of the holy grails of backyard engineering. This is with good reason – they’re hard to build, and even harder to run. Many a turbo has met an untimely end from a hot start or oil starvation.
[Colin Furze] however, makes it look easy
. [Colin] is a proponent of crazy hacks – we’ve featured him before for his
land speed record holding baby carriage
, and
his pulse jet powered tea kettle
.
In his latest video set, [Colin] takes a toilet brush holder, a toilet paper roll holder, a few plumbing fittings, and of course a small turbocharger from the scrap yard. Somehow he converts all of this into a working jet engine. The notable thing here is that there is no welding. Some of the joints are held together with nothing more than duct tape.
Calling this a working jet engine is not really an overstatement. As every backyard jet jockey knows, the first goal of DIY jets (aside from not hurting yourself) is self-sustaining. Turbines are spun up with air hoses, vacuums, or leaf blowers. The trick is to turn the fuel on, remove the air source, and have the turbine continue spinning under its own power. Once this happens, your engine is performing the same “Suck, Squeeze, Bang, Blow” combustion process an F-18 or a 747 uses.
All this doesn’t mean the engine can do anything useful beyond keep itself running. This is where the second goal of backyard jet engines come in – thrust. You need a usable amount of thrust before you can strap that engine to a go-cart and go cruising around the neighborhood.
[Colin’s] jet is built and tested over a two video set.
the first outlines how to build it
, and
the second shows the jet running
. As a safety note, [Colin] has hinted in the YouTube comments that there will be a third video in the series showing how he had an incident with a gas leak, and it led to him being put “out of action for a week”. Needless to say – don’t try this particular engine build at home.
[Thanks James!] | 49 | 19 | [
{
"comment_id": "1069769",
"author": "Gladys",
"timestamp": "2013-10-05T11:12:54",
"content": "That was fun! But the lack of protective gear is scary. :)What fuel did he use?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1069821",
"author": "James S... | 1,760,376,437.942888 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/10/05/homebuilt-ultra-wideband-impulse-radar/ | Homebuilt Ultra Wideband Impulse Radar | Todd Harrison | [
"Radio Hacks",
"Tech Hacks"
] | [
"radar",
"wideband impulse radar"
] | [Dr. Gregory Charvat] tipped us off to a video demonstration of his
ultra-wideband impulse radar
he built using some of his existing radar gear and a few bits purchased off eBay. The homebuilt radar system worked well in his backyard but not much is covered about the build. [Greg] is promising a new book on practical approaches to developing and using small radar devices titled “
Small and Short Range Radar Systems
“. He told us that the draft is finished and covers radar systems like doppler, linear FM, synthetic aperture, phase array and also UWB impulse radar. It sounds like an interesting book,
which can be pre-ordered on Amazon
, and will include schematics and bill of materials so you too could build a UWB impulse radar or other small radar systems. Some of the advantages of a UWB impulse radar system are that it produces sub-nanosecond pulses good for tracking moving objects as well as imaging stationery objects. Such radar technology can even image buried objects like metallic and nonmetallic landmines.
Join us after the break for a little background on [Dr. Gregory Charvat] and to watch his demonstration video.
[Greg] has his PhD in Electrical Engineering from Michigan State University. As a technical staff member at MIT Lincoln laboratory he
taught radar courses
and developed the top ranking MIT professional education course in 2011 titled “
Build a Small Radar Sensor
” which is included under
MIT OpenCourseWare (OCW)
, you might recall this as the
coffee can radar
. You can also catch [Greg] on the famous Amp Hour radio show recorded back on
October 1, 2012
. | 7 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "1069730",
"author": "Phil",
"timestamp": "2013-10-05T08:13:29",
"content": "Ok, why are these hacks so ambiguous? What is the point? Maybe Greg is selling his book on radar induced belly fat.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1069... | 1,760,376,438.088456 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/10/04/home-made-cnc-reuses-printer-parts/ | Home Made CNC Reuses Printer Parts | Adam Fabio | [
"cnc hacks"
] | [
"cnc",
"diy",
"Numerical control"
] | Do it yourself CNC machines can be never ending projects. Once you get one machine done, you want another. [Mario] found this out when he started work on
his second CNC machine, TheMaker2
. As its name implies, TheMaker2 is the successor to
TheMaker1
. It seems that [Mario] was trying to walk the fine line of precision at minimal cost. He wanted a rigid frame, so he chose to go with a moving table, rather than the moving gantry of TheMaker1. The frame is made up of galvanized steel stock, which makes it much stronger than many DIY CNCs out there. [Mario] had a friend weld the steel up for him, we hope he took the
proper precautions when welding galvanized material
.
Standard threaded rod was used as lead screws, with some very well made anti backlash nuts. Acme thread would have been a better choice here, however [Mario] doesn’t say if acme stock was available to him. Most of the mounts and small parts are made from easily worked PVC sheet stock. Precision rails were scavenged from old Ricoh copiers. Epson printers provided the tubing which became motor couplers.
One negative in this build are the stepper motors. [Mario] used NMB PM55L-048 motors he had pulled from HP printers. These motors have both a wide step angle (7.5 degrees) and a rather anemic torque. Thankfully [Mario] mentions upgrading NEMA 23 motors in the comments of
TheMaker2’s instructables page
. | 13 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "1069684",
"author": "macona",
"timestamp": "2013-10-05T06:05:42",
"content": "I am 90% sure that is not galvanized tubing. Looks like generic cold rolled square.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1069687",
"author": "Kevin",
... | 1,760,376,437.858934 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/10/04/have-a-router-build-a-skeeball-machine/ | Have A Router? Build A Skeeball Machine | Brian Benchoff | [
"Toy Hacks"
] | [
"arcade",
"cnc",
"skee",
"skeeball"
] | There are a lot of hackerspaces and maker labs all around the world that have amazing capabilities for manufacturing. Mills, lathes, drill presses, laser cutters, and CNC routers are no stranger to the any maker’s arsenal of tools. Do you know what isn’t?
A DIY Skeeball machine
.
This, ‘should be a project for every hackerspace’ project is the brainchild of [fungus amungus] over on Instructables. Despite what you might think about the complexities of building a Skeeball machine, [fungus’] build is actually rather simple, and also easily transportable.
The main material used in the build is seven sheets of 3/4″ plywood. These sheets were cut out on a ShopBot CNC router, and held together with screws in a tab-and-slot construction scheme. The playfield is covered with cork for what we assume is a proper Skeeball experience, and all the electronics controlled by an Arduino and Laptop.
The electronics for this build are very simple – just a few IR distance sensors mounted under the holes. The laptop is running a Processing sketch to display the score on a TV above the cage, allowing for some improvements in the gameplay and scoring system of the original Skeeball machines.
It’s a really fantastic project, and something that we’re sure will be the center of attention wherever [fungus] brings it. | 17 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "1069634",
"author": "adcurtin",
"timestamp": "2013-10-05T03:11:03",
"content": "| Mills, lathes, drill presses, laser cutters, and CNC routers are no| stranger to the any maker’s arsenal of tools. Do you know what| isn’t? A DIY Skeeball machine.It took me way too long to figure out ... | 1,760,376,438.253519 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/10/03/making-a-bathymetric-book-by-hand-and-searching-for-an-easier-way/ | Making A Bathymetric Book By Hand And Searching For An Easier Way | Mike Szczys | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"bathymetric",
"book binding",
"books",
"crater lake",
"depth",
"usgs"
] | We first saw this Bathymetric Book at our local hackerspace, Sector67, quite some time ago. [Caroline Rose] gave a seven minute presentation on the project as part of the monthly meeting which is open to the public. You can get a pretty good feel for the book that includes a to-scale depth representation of Crater Lake in
the introductory post which she recently published
. Each page makes up one topographical ring of the lake. Put them all together and you’ve got a really amazing way to explore the watery depths of
the deepest lake in the United States
.
The book you see above is hand made. She downloaded the depth data from the US Geological Survey, then put it through some processing in order to print one elevation level on each page. That’s when the work really began. She cut out every page by hand! The four-plus hour task was grueling. And just for a bit of added punishment she even made a second book. But at Tuesday night’s follow-up presentation she said never again.
[Caroline] developed a much faster and still accurate technique for producing the bound-book depth maps. She is using a laser cutter and a different binding technique. By using folded packets of paper, rather than individual pages, she is able to cut out three double-sheets at once — including holes for the binding thread and the outline of the finished pages themselves. This cuts the process down to about four minutes of laser cutter time.
For now you’ll have to settle for a time-lapse video of the hand-cutting process (embedded below). But we hope to post an update when she makes more information about the laser-cut version available. | 15 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "1068797",
"author": "Eirinn",
"timestamp": "2013-10-03T11:25:02",
"content": "Awesome project, and well suited for the site too. I would have guessed that the laser would cause the paper to catch fire or at least leave some nasty edges, but seemed to work fine. Flash heat wtf? :)",
... | 1,760,376,438.197345 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/10/03/rubber-band-blaster-shoots-10-rounds-a-second/ | Rubber Band Blaster Shoots 10 Rounds A Second | James Hobson | [
"Toy Hacks"
] | [
"office warfare",
"rubber band blaster",
"rubber band gun"
] | Office warfare has just been stepped up a notch and it’s time to hide in your cubicles! Enter the
Rubber Band Blaster-32
, a fully automatic rubber band handgun with switchable barrels for quick reloading.
It features a unique trigger release design that we haven’t seen before. By using a pull string release, [Dave] the inventor was able to load multiple rubber bands per barrel for individual firing, one by one. Hold down the trigger and as the firing wheel spins up, you can start shooting up to 10 rounds a second!
According to [Dave], reload time is around a minute per barrel, but the barrels can be stored loaded and ready to go, so pack a few mags and hang out behind the water cooler. That’s the last time [Bill] from accounting steals my stapler!
To see this puppy in action, sit tight after the break!
If that’s not enough to give you an upper hand in your cubicle wars, we don’t know what is! Mind you throwing in an
automated Nerf sentry turret always helps… | 18 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "1068747",
"author": "MishMash",
"timestamp": "2013-10-03T09:02:46",
"content": "Shut up and take my money!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1068821",
"author": "BlueFlame364",
"timestamp": "2013-10-03T13:25:46",... | 1,760,376,438.148027 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/10/02/diy-pressure-plate-switch-for-your-haunted-house/ | DIY Pressure Plate Switch For Your Haunted House | Todd Harrison | [
"Holiday Hacks"
] | [
"halloween",
"pressure plate",
"pressure switch",
"switch"
] | Yes, its Halloween time again and the hacks are going to be crawling out of the woodwork for the rest of the month. [Rich Osgood] is off to a good start promising one hack every week until Halloween. Judging from this first project, a
DIY pressure plate switch
, we think there’s going to be a common theme to follow. [Rich] constructs his pressure plate for almost no cost using cardboard, tinfoil and duct tape. It couldn’t be easier, so make lots of these if your haunting project requires pressure plate triggers to activate any spooks. Judging by the cardboard construction it’s likely they will fail after multiple uses, but you can switch one out quickly requiring only two hookup wires and a bit of tape.
Hopefully we aren’t stealing [Rich’s] thunder by recommending using
Xbee wireless remote sensors
to covertly monitor guests or trigger spooktacular scares.
We will be keeping an eye out for [Rich’s] follow-up Halloween hacks. Join us after the break to watch the tutorial video on making homemade pressure plates. | 17 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "1068688",
"author": "canid",
"timestamp": "2013-10-03T05:30:23",
"content": "IEDiy.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1068818",
"author": "CPL Krusty",
"timestamp": "2013-10-03T12:47:18",
"content": "+1",... | 1,760,376,438.310076 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/10/02/pocketqubes-even-smaller-than-a-cubesat/ | PocketQubes: Even Smaller Than A CubeSat | Brian Benchoff | [
"Crowd Funding",
"hardware"
] | [
"cubesat",
"PocketQube",
"satellite"
] | Over one hundred CubeSats have been launched by hundreds of organizations and universities from around the globe. These have proven very useful in technology demonstration, Earth imaging, and other applications. There is, however, one large downside to the CubeSat platform. Even though it is designed to hitch a ride on launches of larger satellites, they’re still very expensive to develop and launch – somewhere between $60,000 and $125,000.
PocketQubes
are a new design of satellite that bring the cost of personal satellites down to what Universities and amateur radio enthusiasts can actually afford. Instead of spending $125k on a 10cm cube CubeSat, the PocketQube, a 5cm cube, can be launched to a 700 km orbit for about $20,000.
Already, four PocketQubes are scheduled for launch in November to a 700km solar synchronous orbit, including
$50SAT
, a small radio transceiver put together by some ham guys, and
The WREN
a very impressive PocketQube with 3-axis reaction wheels and plasma thrusters.
Right now, the PocketQube kickstarter is only for aluminum structures that will become the skeleton of a small, 5cm cube satellite. There’s also the
PocketQube Shop
that provides a little more background on the project. | 24 | 13 | [
{
"comment_id": "1068640",
"author": "Jeremy Cook",
"timestamp": "2013-10-03T02:03:19",
"content": "Hackaday satellite anyone?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1068841",
"author": "Brian Benchoff",
"timestamp": "2013-10-03T14:24... | 1,760,376,440.261604 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/10/02/jtagulator-finds-debug-interfaces/ | JTAGulator Finds Debug Interfaces | Adam Fabio | [
"Security Hacks",
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"ICSD",
"jtag",
"JTAGulator",
"On Chip Debug",
"parallax",
"propeller",
"serial",
"uart"
] | [Joe Grand] has come up with a tool which we think will be useful to anyone trying to hack a physical device:
The JTAGulator
. We
touched on the JTAGulator
briefly during our DEF CON coverage, but it really deserves a more in-depth feature. The JTAGulator is a way to discover On Chip Debug (OCD) interfaces on unfamiliar hardware.
Open any cell phone, router, or just about any moderately complex device today, and you’ll find test points. Quite often at least a few of these test points are the common JTAG / IEEE 1149.1 interface.
JTAG interfaces have 5 basic pins: TDI (Test Data In), TDO (Test Data Out), TCK (Test Clock), and TMS (Test Mode Select), /TRST (Test Reset) (optional).
If you’re looking at a PCB with many test points, which ones are the JTAG pins? Also which test points are which signals? Sometimes the PCB manufacturer will give clues on the silk screen. Other times you’re on your own. [Joe] designed the JTAGulator to help find these pins.
The idea is simple: Connect the JTAGulator to the test points on the PCB under test, issue a few commands via a serial terminal, and let the JTAGulator do the rest. It performs a brute force approach on every permutation of pins, issuing basic JTAG commands – either IDCODE or BYPASS, and looking for a response. If any valid responses are received, the JTAGulator displays the found interface’s pinout.
[Joe] used a Parallax Propeller as the core of his design. He added input protection, selectable voltage (1.2V to 3.3V) and bus pirate compatible headers. The JTAGulator can also identify and test serial UART pinouts to determine if any serial ports exist. If JTAG and serial aren’t enough, the JTAGulator is completely open source, released under the CC BY 3.0 US license. You can add any interface you want. Though [Joe] has plans to add more of the common interfaces in the future. | 25 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "1068595",
"author": "Lucas van Beneden",
"timestamp": "2013-10-02T23:25:17",
"content": "Where did they make those adorable pink pcb’s. Anyone know an etching service that does that?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1068751",
... | 1,760,376,440.094082 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/10/02/a-retro-not-steampunk-media-center/ | A Retro, Not Steampunk, Media Center | Brian Benchoff | [
"classic hacks",
"Raspberry Pi"
] | [
"crt",
"phonograph",
"raspberry pi",
"stereo"
] | [toddfx] wanted to put his Raspberry Pi to work and set about creating
one of the best stereos we’ve ever seen
: It’s called the Audio Infuser 4700, and turns a conglomeration of old disused stereo equipment into a functional piece of art.
[toddfx] used a Raspberry Pi to stream music over WiFi, but also wanted to play some classic vinyl. He took apart an old Yamaha YP-D4 turntable. stripped it to the bone, and created a fantastic oak enclosure around it. To this, he added a seven-band graphic EQ, aux jacks (both in and out), and a tiny 5″ CRT from an old portable TV.
Where this build really gets great is the fabrication. The front panels have all their graphics and lettering engraved via a toner-transfer like method using copper sulphate and salt. [todd] got the idea
from this thread
and we have to say the results are unbelievable.
Even though this awesome device only used for music, [toddfx] used the tiny color CRT to its fullest. Flick one switch, and it’s an oscilloscope-like display. Flick another switch, and it’s the output of the Raspberry Pi loaded up with a few MAME games including Pacman, Asteroids, and Space Invaders.
[toddfx] put up
a build page
for his Audio Infuser and an awesome video for his project, available below. | 26 | 20 | [
{
"comment_id": "1068558",
"author": "ChalkBored",
"timestamp": "2013-10-02T20:54:09",
"content": "Wow, that looks nice.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1068561",
"author": "Hephaix",
"timestamp": "2013-10-02T21:03:09",
"content": "T... | 1,760,376,440.367753 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/10/02/3d-printering-the-problem-of-thingiverse/ | 3D Printering: The Problem Of Thingiverse | Brian Benchoff | [
"Ask Hackaday",
"Hackaday Columns"
] | [
"3D Printering",
"CubeHero",
"DEFCAD",
"github",
"thingiverse",
"YouMagine"
] | Most makers, I’m sure, enter into the 3D printing world with a goal in mind. Whether that’s printing enclosures for projects, Warhammer figurines, robot chassis, or even a
mechanical computer
, there is usually some obvious utility in having a 3D printer at home. 3D printers are a machine tool, though, and any time it’s not being used means it’s an investment with a lower return, or at the very least a really cool toy gathering dust.
Where then do you find new stuff to print that you don’t design yourself?
For the longest time now,
Thingiverse
has been the largest repository to share, browse, and download object other people have made. Even I have
some very stupid stuff
up on Thingiverse and have made use of a few random objects I found on there. This does not mean the 3D printer community particularly likes Thingiverse, however: Last year, Makerbot, the people behind Thingiverse,
changed the terms of use
so (allegedly) Thingiverse owns everything uploaded to their service. Couple this with
completely unsubstantiated rumors
of things being removed from Thingiverse that compete with Makerbot products, and you have a perfect storm of people unsatisfied with an online repository of 3D objects.
There is a huge market for an online repository of user-submitted 3D objects that isn’t controlled by Makerbot, and many have attempted to enter the fray.
Defense Distributed
, the guys behind the 3D printed AR lowers and all-plastic handguns launched
DEFCAD
, a Thingiverse clone, made an attempt by mirroring thousands of Thingiverse objects, removing the attribution in violation of these object’s licenses. Shady, yes, but at least it’s an option. There are other repos such as
Cubehero
and the newly launched
YouMagine
, a repo developed by Ultimaker. the Luke Skywalker to Makerbot’s Darth Vader.
But here is the problem with Thingiverse: even if you would like to get away from using this Makerbot service, it’s still the largest collection of 3D printed objects on the Internet. It has the most users, and is growing more each day than any of its competitors. Putting your objects anywhere else only means fewer people will see them, and fewer still will incorporate your designs into their new designs.
There are a few tools for you to ‘roll your own’ object repository. Github has a great new tool for
viewing diffs between different versions of objects
. There’s even a lot of work in making the Github landing page
more like a Thingiverse page
. This doesn’t address the core value of Thingiverse – if all the objects aren’t catalogued in one database, searchable by anyone, it’s just not as useful a site as Thingiverse.
I’m simply not smart enough to offer up a solution to this problem. Therefore, I’m turning it on to you: how should the 3D printer community retain the great value Thingiverse offers while still making something as usable as the now-malagined site? Should any new site mirror objects already on Thingiverse a la DEFCAD, only with proper attribution? Who should control the portal to all the objects, if anyone?
If you have any ideas on how to solve the problem of Thingiverse, drop a note in the comments. | 75 | 40 | [
{
"comment_id": "1068475",
"author": "Gary Kramlich",
"timestamp": "2013-10-02T18:09:57",
"content": "yeggi.com correlates a bunch of 3D object databases making the searching simple. While this isn’t the best solution, it’s definitely better than just using thingiverse by itself since you can find ... | 1,760,376,440.711481 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/10/04/why-kickstarter-projects-are-always-delayed/ | Why Kickstarter Projects Are Always Delayed | Mathieu Stephan | [
"Crowd Funding"
] | [
"arduino",
"kickstarter",
"Spark Core",
"wi-fi"
] | Most Hackaday readers may remember the Spark Core, an Arduino-compatible, Wi-Fi enabled, cloud-powered development platform. Its Kickstarter campaign funding goal was 10k, but it ended up getting more than half a million. The founder and CEO of Spark [Zach Supalla] recently published an article explaining why
Kickstarter projects are always delayed
as the Spark core project currently is 7 weeks behind schedule.
[Zach] starts off by mentioning that most founders are optimistic, making them want to embark in this kind of adventure in the first place. In most presentation videos the prototypes shown are usually rougher than they appear, allowing the presenters to skip over the unfinished bits. Moreover, the transition from prototype to “manufacturable product ” also adds unexpected delays. For example, if a product has a plastic casing it is very easy to 3D print the prototype but much harder to setup a plastic injection system. Last, sourcing the components may get tricky as in the case of Spark core the quantities were quite important. Oddly enough, it was very hard for them to get the sparkcore CC3000 Wifi module. | 45 | 17 | [
{
"comment_id": "1069565",
"author": "Dann",
"timestamp": "2013-10-04T23:21:22",
"content": "Reminds me of the iControlPad 2. 10 months delayed and still no ETA.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1069601",
"author": "gahcoh0Seihoo6vi",
... | 1,760,376,440.600338 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/10/04/electrooculograph-eog-from-a-video-stream/ | Electrooculograph (EOG) From A Video Stream | James Hobson | [
"Medical Hacks",
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"eeg",
"eog",
"Halovision",
"lucid dream",
"lucid dreaming",
"lucid scribe",
"Rapid eye movement sleep"
] | [Michael] from Lucidcode is at it again, this time with an
Android app called Halovision
.
In case you don’t remember, this is the guy who has been working on the Lucid Scribe Project, with the end goal of
communicating from inside your dreams!
Here’s the basic gist of it. If we can use a sensor to detect REM (rapid eye movement) or body movement during sleep, we can tell if we’re dreaming — then it’s just a matter of using an audible cue to inform the sleeper of the dream, so they can take control and become lucid.
The first way they did this was by using commercial EEG headsets to detect REM. We covered a hack on
modifying one so it would be more comfortable to wear at night
, but what is really exciting is [Michael’s] new app, Halovision — No EEG required
It’s an Android app that uses the camera to detect movement during sleep, and it is only the first plugin planned for Lucid Scribe. The algorithm is still in its experimental stages, but it is at least somewhat functional at this time. They note it’ll only work for day-time naps or with a bright night light, but this could be easily solved with an IR webcam and a few IR LEDs.
It will be interesting to see where this all goes, has anyone else been following or participating in Lucid Scribe? | 9 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "1069557",
"author": "DKay (@Futuneral)",
"timestamp": "2013-10-04T22:54:47",
"content": "Strap a phone to your hand and gather data from gyro sensor.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1069558",
"author": "DKay (@Futunera... | 1,760,376,439.956808 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/10/04/a-diy-solution-for-controlling-robots-and-quadcopters/ | A DIY Solution For Controlling Robots And Quadcopters | Brian Benchoff | [
"Robots Hacks",
"Wireless Hacks"
] | [
"rc",
"remote control",
"transmitter",
"XRF"
] | RC transmitters used for controlling robots, quadcopters, airplanes, and cars really aren’t that complex. There are a few switches, pots, a screen and a radio transmitter. The maker toolbox already has all these components, so it only makes sense someone would try to
build their own RC transmitter
.
[Oscar]’s project started by gathering a bunch of toggle switches, 2-axis joysticks, pots, tact switches, an Arduino, LCD, and a Ciseco XRF wireless module. These were attached to a front panel made of polystyrene and
work on the communications protocol began
.
It should be noted that microcontroller-powered RC transmitters with XBees is nothing new. There
was a Kickstarter for one last year
, but the final product turned out to be bit janky and full of fail wiring, We’re really glad to see [Oscar]’s attempt at a DIY RC transmitter, and hopefully we’ll see this project taken up and improved by others. | 7 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "1069420",
"author": "supershwa",
"timestamp": "2013-10-04T17:38:20",
"content": "Very cool – bookmarked! I’m going to try this out soon…I have everything except the RF module and lacking 1 joystick breakout…I guess I’m doing some shopping today!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth"... | 1,760,376,440.306098 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/10/04/new-ads-please-whitelist-hackaday-on-adblock/ | New Ads – Please Whitelist Hackaday On Adblock | Mike Szczys | [
"Featured"
] | [
"adblock",
"advertising"
] | If you’ve been watching very closely you may have noticed that our ads have changed. If you didn’t know we run ads, I’m asking you to consider whitelisting Hackaday.com in your advertisement blocking browser plugin.
The plan to transition to advertisements which are more targeted for our interests was mentioned back in July,
when Hackaday was purchased by SupplyFrame
, I say ‘our’ interests because the companies who have signed up so far are ones with which I have personally done business when hacking my own projects. These include the manufacturers: Atmel, Microchip, NXP, and Texas Instruments as well as distributors: Arrow Electronics, Element 14, Mouser, and RS Components. The ads are in the exact same places as they have always been, at the same size, with the core belief that on-page advertising should be entirely unobtrusive. If you find the ads to be otherwise, please do
let us know about it
(screenshots are helpful!).
Hackaday highlights a steady stream of project features every single day. These are the best engineering-oriented hacks the web has to offer. There is some cost involved in do this, which we cover by including advertisements on our pages. Please don’t block the ads. If you haven’t been blocking, thank you! If you do use an Ad blocker, I certainly understand that you want to get away from ads that automatically play audio, flash annoying colors, or include inappropriate content. Our ads don’t do this. Please throw us a bone by adding our domain to your “whitelist”. This is very simple, and after the break I’ve included the instructions for doing so with Adblock Plus.
If you are using Adblock Plus for Chrome there will be a red octagon with ABP on it to the right side of the address line on your browser. Right-click that and choose options. The image above shows the options page. Click the “Whitelisted domains” tab, type “hackaday.com” in the box, and click on “Add domain”. Make sure to pat yourself on the back as this small act helps to support Hackaday. Thank you! | 163 | 50 | [
{
"comment_id": "1069346",
"author": "Earlz",
"timestamp": "2013-10-04T15:34:44",
"content": "Isn’t there a “friendly ad” whitelist or something? Something you can subscribe to with adblock that unblocks all ads that are considered polite and unobtrusive such as those on Stackoverflow.Seems like you... | 1,760,376,440.519268 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/10/04/tre-when-arduino-meets-beagle-bone/ | Tre: When Arduino Meets Beagle Bone | Brian Benchoff | [
"Arduino Hacks",
"News"
] | [
"arduino",
"Arduino TRE",
"beagleboard",
"beaglebone"
] | Although yesterday saw the announcement of
an x86-based Arduino
powered by an Intel chip. This may have not been the big story to come from [Massimo] at Maker Faire Rome. Announced along with the x86 Arduino Galileo
was the Arduino TRE,
a collaboration between Arduino and the BeagleBoard foundation.
The TRE is really two Arduinos in one: in the center is basically an Arduino Leonardo with the standard Arduino headers and an ATmega32u4. Elsewhere on the board is a TI Sitara ARM Cortex A-8 processor running at 1GHz with 512 MB of RAM, 10/100 Ethernet, HDMI out, USB host and device ports, and a bunch of connectors intended for an LCD and a ZigBee.
There is, of course, the obvious comparison between the TRE and Raspberry Pi. Hardware-wise, the TRE is very close to the
BeagleBone Black
, a bit more powerful than the Raspberry Pi, and able to do some very cool stuff (i.e. OpenCV) the Pi just can’t handle.
There is – I think – no official price for the Arduino TRE quite yet. It will be available in spring, 2014, though. You can check out all the press release photos in the gallery below. | 35 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "1069312",
"author": "cantido",
"timestamp": "2013-10-04T14:12:40",
"content": "This is a lot more sensible than the Intel thing. Would have been nice to drop the AVR and do its stuff in the PRUs instead though.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
... | 1,760,376,440.032265 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/10/04/make-the-world-takes-on-crowdsourcing-prosthetics/ | Make The World Takes On Crowdsourcing Prosthetics | Mike Szczys | [
"News"
] | [
"adafruit",
"google hangout",
"prosthetics"
] | Tonight marks the launch of a new program from Adafruit focused on improving the availability of prosthetic designs. The program will be
highlighted in four Google+ Hangouts over the coming month
. Mark your calendars for 8pm Eastern Time to join in on the one-hour launch.
We’ve seen a fair number of prosthetic hacks over the years, and every time one is featured we try to drive home the importance of sharing information in order to build upon the advances of others. The power of this is clear, shown in
a $150 3D printed hand for a child
, hackers that are
replacing their own limbs or digits
, and the sharing of diy fabrication techniques to
help bring prostheses to the developing world
. So get excited, get involved, and get hacking! | 0 | 0 | [] | 1,760,376,439.914097 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/10/04/how-this-power-racing-series-car-on-a-plane-to-wmf/ | How This Power Racing Series Car Got On A Plane To WMF | Mike Szczys | [
"Hackerspaces"
] | [
"luggage",
"power racing series",
"TSA",
"World Maker Faire"
] | You really should check out the monthly meetings at your local hackerspace. It’s an excellent opportunity to hear the most interesting stories. Like the tale of how the guys from Sector67 got this electric vehicle on the plane with them. Not only did it go up in the air, but they did zero planning ahead of time on how they would actually pull it off.
[Bob Baddeley] posted an album of
the PRC experience at World Maker Faire
. There are captions that somewhat tell the tale, but we’ll fill you in as best we can on the rest of the story behind this second car from the hackerspace — lovingly known as the Lamebourghini.
The “packing” of the vehicle didn’t start until after the time the
Sector67
team planned to leave for the airport. Their main vehicle had been shipped ahead of time, but when that was boxed up this was a still a gleam in the eye of the team members. It was stripped down in a manner that would impress a big-city chop shop. The majority of the body and parts were shoved in a large suitcase by standing on the lid to get the zipper to close all the way.
The remainder of the parts were carried on and sound like an airport security nightmare. You can’t check lithium batteries, but apparently you may carry on as many as you wish with no restriction whatsoever. In addition to the batteries the team carried on the motor, the nose cone of the plastic body, and two jagged chunks of angle iron that just didn’t make it into the luggage.
Assembly was a bit of a challenge — this one is truly hacked together. Realizing it couldn’t be entered without proper brakes a bicycle was purchased in NYC off of Craig’s List as a cheap donor to satisfy the requirement. In the end it was raced alongside the Fauxrarri which let the time three-peat as champions.
If you look closely you’ll spot our own [Brian Benchoff] test driving the winning vehicle. | 9 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "1069274",
"author": "Blue Footed Booby",
"timestamp": "2013-10-04T12:10:29",
"content": "That’s hilarious. I can just imagine the conversation before the flight. “Ok guys, ready to g-oh fuck the TSA is totally going to ream us aren’t they.”",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
... | 1,760,376,440.757925 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/10/04/interactive-office-conference-table-tableduino/ | Interactive Office Conference Table (Tableduino) | James Hobson | [
"home hacks",
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"LED office table",
"One Mighty Roar",
"tableduino"
] | The folks over at One Mighty Roar have been hacking their office lately, and there have been some pretty creative results! The latest development is this
interactive office conference table
.
The table itself is made of fine American walnut and is quite appealing, but they wanted it to be a bit flashier than that.
The center square of the table features the company logo lit up by RGB LED’s, and the whole thing lifts out of the table using a small hydraulic actuator. This reveals some power outlets and ethernet jacks, but unfortunately the current system doesn’t have any safety precautions to make sure it doesn’t close on cables…
If that wasn’t enough, they wanted to automate the whole thing too, so there are also ultrasonic range sensors underneath which can detect when people are present — the end goal is to have the LEDs change color depending on how many people attend a meeting. This is all controlled by an Arduino Uno — but we have to wonder, isn’t there a better way for detecting if people are sitting down? The project is far from done though, so there will be many more features to come.
One of their other cool office hacks includes their
interactive office sign that is controlled both by SMS or web app
. | 8 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "1069224",
"author": "Adobe/Flash hater",
"timestamp": "2013-10-04T08:43:25",
"content": "The bottom view sort of has this… ceiling cat=table Wall-Eis ready to do some up “up-skirting” …look to it.and has a special attachment ??",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies"... | 1,760,376,440.815739 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/10/03/making-a-9ghz-doppler-radar/ | Making A 9GHz Doppler Radar | Mathieu Stephan | [
"hardware"
] | [
"antennas",
"Continuous-wave radar",
"Doppler effect",
"radar"
] | [Kalle] is currently building an FMCW radar, but as he doesn’t have all the parts finished he decided to build a
9GHZ doppler radar
in the mean time. The
H-plane horn antennas
were made from brass sheet and soldered together. [Kalle] checked the matching between the emitter and the antenna by inserting a
directional coupler
between the two and measuring the intensity of the reflected signal (approximated return loss). At 9Ghz, the Doppler shift for a 1 meter per second speed is about 30Hz so he connected the radar’s output signal to his soundcard.
A quick explanation of the Doppler effect that a radar uses: if you send an RF signal at a given frequency to a moving target, the reflected signal’s frequency will be shifted. It is commonly heard when a vehicle sounding a siren or horn approaches, passes, and recedes from an observer. The received frequency is higher (compared to the emitted frequency) during the approach, it is identical at the instant of passing by, and it is lower during the recession. Hackaday featured plenty of projects using this effect: a
small doppler motion sensor
,
gesture control using doppler shift
,
hacking an old radar gun | 29 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "1069179",
"author": "KR0SIV",
"timestamp": "2013-10-04T05:32:53",
"content": "Any possibility of using this for weather radar?I’ve been drying to see Amateur Radio Weather Radar",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1069190",
... | 1,760,376,440.891269 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/10/03/step-into-the-box/ | Step Into The Box | Adam Fabio | [
"Robots Hacks",
"Video Hacks"
] | [
"Arthur C. Clarke",
"castAR",
"Disarm",
"Industrial robot",
"johnny chung lee",
"robot",
"robotics",
"The Box",
"Video mapping"
] | Take three industrial robots, two 4’ x 8’ canvases, and several powerful video projectors. Depending on who is doing the robot programming you may end up with a lot of broken glass and splinters,
or you may end up with The Box
. The latest video released by the creators project, The Box features industrial robots and projection mapping. We recently featured
Disarm from the same channel
.
The Box is one of those cases of taking multiple existing technologies and putting them together with breathtaking results. We can’t help but think of the possibilities of
systems such as CastAR
while watching the video. The robots move two large canvases while projectors display a series of 3D images on them. A third robot moves the camera.
In the
behind the scenes video
, the creators revealed that the robots are programmed using a Maya plugin. The plugin allowed them to synchronize the robot’s movements along with the animation. The entire video is a complex choreographed dance – even the position of the actor was pre-programmed into Maya.
The actor and robots describe several of the principles of magic: transformation, levitation, intersection, teleportation, and escape. All build up to the famous [Arthur C Clark] Quote: “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic”
While we loved the video, we can’t help but think of some changes. What if we didn’t have such repeatable robots – or robots at all? [Johnny Chung Lee] was showing off his
foldable displays tracked live by Wiimote
back in early 2007. Using [Johnny’s] system, even humans would be accurate enough to handle the canvases.
[Thanks Doug and Mark!] | 16 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "1069134",
"author": "Josh Martin",
"timestamp": "2013-10-04T02:25:39",
"content": "That’s sweet. I wish I had the job of a graphics designer that paid well and would enable me to do some interesting things from time to time.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []... | 1,760,376,441.041471 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/10/03/vu-meter-prom-dress/ | VU Meter Prom Dress | James Hobson | [
"Wearable Hacks"
] | [
"arduino",
"led prom dress",
"VU meter",
"vu meter prom dress"
] | [Kyle] has just put the finishing touches on this
VU Meter Prom dress
, and it looks great!
The dress makes use of 70 feet of aquamarine EL wire, a 2600mAh li-on battery, a repurposed DB9 cable, an Arduino knock off, an Adafruit microphone pre-amp, and features eight addressable triac channels through an
EL Escudo Dos by Sparkfun
. Each loop of EL wire was sewn into the dress using clear thread. The separate segments were then daisy chained together near the zipper in the back using ribbon cables. To top it all off, [Kyle] has
a cheap thermoforming setup
utilizing a toaster oven which he used to make an acrylic case for the electronics.
The dress is for his lucky friend [Diane] and we think it will make for quite a memorable prom! To see this awesome VU Meter in action, stick around after the break for the video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s0ct4J3zfaQ
Looking for a more manly article of LED clothing to wear? Here’s another project we covered
about a full suit of addressable LED’s! | 11 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "1069097",
"author": "Smonson",
"timestamp": "2013-10-03T23:26:14",
"content": "Cool. I guess he got the idea from Venus Hum’s Blue Man Group dress!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1069105",
"author": "Kyle Lammie",
... | 1,760,376,440.943213 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/10/03/raspberry-pi-media-center-on-an-apple-tv/ | Raspberry Pi Media Center On An Apple TV | Phillip Ryals | [
"home entertainment hacks",
"Software Hacks"
] | [
"apple tv",
"raspberry pi"
] | You may tend to think of the AppleTV as a sort of walled garden, and you would mostly be right. Apple keeps tight control over what runs on their devices. That said, [David] decided to
look closer at how the various ‘applications’ work
. It turns out, the applications are nothing more than glorified web plugins. Using XML and Javascript, the apps simply define library function calls, giving them a consistent interface. So using fairly simply methods, the options really open up. Unfortunately, the method for adding new sites isn’t enabled by default.
Using a jailbroken AppleTV, [David] was able to do a fair bit of detective work and found a way to enable the ‘Add Site’ option, which allowed him to use his Raspberry Pi as a media server. The good news: you don’t need to jailbreak if you’re running 5.2 or 5.3… you should be able to recreate his success fairly easily. The bad news: things seem to have changed in 6.0. [David] isn’t sure if this was Apple intentionally closing a hole, or just not dotting all of their i’s.
[David]
put all of his research up on Github
, including the rough code. If you haven’t updated your AppleTV yet, and you have a Raspberry Pi to use as a media server, give it a try and let us know how it goes in the comments. | 8 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "1069037",
"author": "squeeks",
"timestamp": "2013-10-03T20:34:57",
"content": "The comments seem to indicate Apple have already closed the loop hole.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1069048",
"author": "cheeseslices",
"t... | 1,760,376,440.987035 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/10/03/fail-of-the-week-eprom-reading-and-erasing/ | Fail Of The Week: EPROM Reading And Erasing | Mike Szczys | [
"Fail of the Week",
"Hackaday Columns"
] | [
"arduino",
"eprom",
"fail of the week",
"shift register"
] | It may be a failure but it sure does look cool. [Scott Lawrence] had a fair number of EPROM chips on hand and decided to get rid of the traditional eraser and programmer in order to play around with the concepts using his own hardware. He was met with disappointment at several steps in the process. No worries though, each of these upsets sent him back to the drawing board and he learned way more than he ever would have if it had actually worked. It’s fair to say this failure was highly successful.
You’ll want to check out both posts revolving around this hardware. The initial idea came when looking through the transparent crystal on the top of the EPROM chips. The die inside looks like a tennis court to [Scott] and he started wondering what the bits themselves look like as they are reset by ultraviolet light.
He conceived of an Arduino add-on board
that could both read and erase the chips. The I/O demands of this design led him to actually fabricate a daughter board to use with the MUX shield for Arduino. This is fail number one as the workings of that shield didn’t fit the needs of the project. The redesign also had him scratching his head, but eventually he ended up settling on the use of some shift registers to expand his pin count.
With that design idea he forged ahead,
building the Arduino shield seen above
. Those part numbers aren’t the shift registers you’d expect. He ended up going a bit different route by salvaging these 74LS393 chips from an old Amiga add-on board. This worked like a charm. The dual UV LEDs for erasing the chip didn’t work even a little bit. His dreams of visualizing bits as they are erased have been dashed, but he does look on the bright side that he now has a way to read EPROM using an Arduino.
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. | 49 | 21 | [
{
"comment_id": "1068949",
"author": "David Kuder",
"timestamp": "2013-10-03T17:08:49",
"content": "Needs moar cowbell, er brightness.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1068952",
"author": "Ich Auch",
"timestamp": "2013-10-03T17:... | 1,760,376,441.395082 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/10/03/the-intel-powered-arduino/ | The Intel-powered Arduino | Brian Benchoff | [
"Arduino Hacks",
"hardware"
] | [
"arduino",
"Galileo",
"intel",
"x86"
] | Dev boards based on microcontrollers and ARM System on Chips are everywhere, but finding a small pocketable computer based on an Intel processor has been difficult to find. [Massimo] of Arduino just unveiled a new Intel architecture Arduino-compatible board at the Rome Maker Faire.
It’s called the Galileo
, and it has everything you’d expect from a juiced-up Arduino running x86.
The main chip is an Intel Quark SoC running at 400MHz with 256 MB of DRAM. On board is a Mini-PCIe slot, 100Mb Ethernet port, Micro SD slot, RS-232, and USB host and client ports.
Here’s the datasheet
for the Galileo with all the applicable information.
The Galileo can be programmed with the standard Arduino IDE, but from the
getting started guide
, it looks like this board is running Yocto, a stripped down Linux for embedded environments.
Realistically, what we have here is a board with
about
the same processing power as a Raspberry Pi, but with Arduino compatibility, and a Mini PCIe port for some really fun stuff. It will be interesting to see what can be made with this board, but if you have any ideas on what to do with a Galileo before it’s released in two months, drop a note in the comments. | 149 | 39 | [
{
"comment_id": "1068830",
"author": "Eric",
"timestamp": "2013-10-03T14:06:13",
"content": "Say whaaaaaaaattt",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1068833",
"author": "paulst646391643",
"timestamp": "2013-10-03T14:11:15",
"content": "CPU... | 1,760,376,441.614853 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/10/01/retrotechtacular-building-bart/ | Retrotechtacular: Building BART | Mike Szczys | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"Retrotechtacular"
] | [
"bart",
"engineering",
"mass transit",
"retrotechtacular",
"san francisco",
"subway"
] | Sometimes it’s fun to take a step back from the normal electronics themes and feature a marvelous engineering project. This week’s Retrotechtacular looks at a pair of videos reporting on the progress of the Bay Area Rapid Transit system. Anyone who’s visited San Francisco will be familiar with the BART system of trains that serve the region. Let’s take a look at what went into building the system almost half a century ago.
Ah, the folk music that opens this first video made us crack a smile immediately. A bit of Folk is what public works videos of today are truly missing.
Learn about how the BART lines were routed to preserve the beauty of the landscape and as an alternative to the “extravagance” of cement roadways transporting one passenger in one car. Don’t get us wrong, we’re all in favor of mass transit and use it ourselves quite often. About four minutes in we begin to learn some of the engineering problems of building the system, such as a water table just 20 feet below street level. The answer is a pressurized work environment, special equipment, and cement. Lots and lots of cement. The other challenge is the section of submarine line that traverses the bay. These are not tunnels, but steel tubes that were lowered into a shallowly dredged channel.
That one was fun but you get a bit better view of the actual construction work (including the steel fabrication work) in this film published the year before:
[via
Laughing Squid
and
Oaklandish
]
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
. | 27 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "1067969",
"author": "Rob",
"timestamp": "2013-10-01T18:56:30",
"content": "Fascinating!!! Thanks for posting this!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1067981",
"author": "Tim",
"timestamp": "2013-10-01T19:53:24",
"conte... | 1,760,376,441.675087 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/10/01/5-digit-security-code-activated-relay-using-mostly-discrete-circuitry/ | 5 Digit Security Code Activated Relay Using Mostly Discrete Circuitry | Todd Harrison | [
"classic hacks",
"Phone Hacks"
] | [
"access",
"access control",
"access keypad",
"alarm",
"alarm keypad",
"keypad"
] | Let’s rollback the hobby electronics calendar a few decades with [myvideoisonutube’s]
alarm activation control circuit using a matrix style phone keypad
. The circuit is quite old using CMOS 4081 with 4 ‘AND’ gates to hardwire the access code. [myvideoisonutube] references [Ron’s] “
Enhanced 5-Digit Alarm Keypad
” schematic for this build changing the recommend keypad with a more common matrix style keypad found in touch pad phones. These types of matrix keypads wouldn’t work outright for the input so he cut some traces and added hookup wires to transform it into a keypad with common terminals and separately connected keys. We love seeing such hacked donor hardware even when it requires extensive modifications. [Ron’s]
source circuit
included a simple enough to build tactical button keypad if you can’t find a suitable donor phone.
Learning how to use mostly discrete components
instead of a microcontroller
would be the core objective to build this circuit outside of needing a key-code access point or other secure 12 V relay activated device. Such a device would be quite secure requiring a 4 digit “on” code and 5 digits for “off”. You couldn’t just pull off the keypad and hotwire or short something to gain access either. The 4 digit on “feature” does knock the security down quite a lot. However, all keys not in the access code are connected to the same point so you could increase your security by using a pad with more keys.
On [Ron’s] site you will find a
detailed construction guide
including top and bottom view for placement of all the components on veroboard. Join us after the break to watch [myvideoisonutube] demo his version. | 8 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "1067917",
"author": "Dodo",
"timestamp": "2013-10-01T16:22:33",
"content": "It is nice, but he says you cannot activate the relay with access to the wires without access to the PCB or knowing the code.This is untrue, several wires will have zero ohm resistance between them, these wi... | 1,760,376,441.441265 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/10/01/android-controlled-rgb-lights/ | Android Controlled RGB Lights | James Hobson | [
"LED Hacks"
] | [
"app inventor",
"arduino",
"rgb controller"
] | Here’s a handy hack for an
Android controlled, Arduino driven, RGB light setup
.
[Kerimil] recently wrote up this project on the Arduino.cc, and is sharing all of the source code and plans. While many of our seasoned Arduino-lovers can easily throw together the code for an RGB LED circuit in their sleep, [Kerimil] also threw in the Android app, and the source file to be modified in
App Inventor
, an Android app development program originally released by Google, but now maintained by MIT.
We’ve seen many commercial versions of this product, but it’s nice to see one that can be easily hacked to our liking. Next up is writing an app to use the phone’s camera to identify colors and reproduce them with the LED! While you’re at it, why not mix it with an
easy to build infinity mirror
!
To see the board and app in action, check out the video after the break.
If you’re interested, [Kerimil] has stored all the source files in
Google Drive
, so head on over to start your Android RGB project today!
[Thanks Intel!] | 5 | 1 | [
{
"comment_id": "1067791",
"author": "trandi",
"timestamp": "2013-10-01T11:08:57",
"content": "same thing but with an IKEA lamp and attiny rather than an Arduino…http://trandi.wordpress.com/2012/01/13/spoka-night-light-controlled-from-and-android-phone/",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"... | 1,760,376,441.717211 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/10/01/flickering-pumpkin-lanterns/ | Flickering Pumpkin Lanterns | James Hobson | [
"Holiday Hacks"
] | [
"flickering candle hack",
"halloween",
"jack o lantern",
"pumpkin"
] | Halloween is coming and [Paulo] decided to
make some flickering jack-o-lanterns
by hijacking the flickering circuit of a cheap LED tea light to drive a much more powerful light!
He has tons of old 12V incandescent bulbs collecting dust, so he decided to make use of them for some holiday fun. He wondered if he could steal the circuit from the flickering LED tea lights and use them to drive the incandescents. Upon taking the LED tea candle apart, he discovered there was no circuit, as it was in fact embedded in the LED itself! Not to worry though, he simply integrated the flickering LED into his circuit! Coupling a capacitor with the LED, he used a transistor amplifier to take the signal, and then finally boosted it using a MOSFET to drive the light bulbs. He then powered the entire thing using an old laptop power brick. Nice one [Paulo]!
Do you have any cool Halloween hacks? Don’t forget to
send them in to the tip line
! For other pumpkin fun, check out last year’s
Pumpkin Tetris
! | 19 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "1067744",
"author": "Eirinn",
"timestamp": "2013-10-01T08:17:05",
"content": "Not all tea light LEDs have embedded flickering. The ones i have and use have a chip on the side. I like swapping the warm LEDs for a cold blue ones for that creepy magical feel.",
"parent_id": null,
... | 1,760,376,441.77846 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/09/30/gurubrews-15-minute-windows-8-survival-guide/ | GuruBrew’s 15 Minute Windows 8 Survival Guide | Todd Harrison | [
"how-to",
"Reviews"
] | [
"how-to",
"navigate",
"touch screen navigation",
"tutorial",
"WIndows 8"
] | One thing very common to all of us is our reliance on operating systems in our hobby life. If that OS is Windows then you could be in for quite a shakeup with Windows 8. Many readers are Linux or Apple users and couldn’t care less if Microsoft is releasing an entire paradigm shift in desktop navigation. However, you just might find yourself facing this new OS and you’ll look like you’re on training wheels if you don’t get acquainted now, and considering the number of computers being released with Windows 8 its inevitable that day will come soon.
So if you haven’t been behind the wheel of Windows 8 then checkout [Steve’s]
Windows 8 Survival Guide
from the Guru Brew Tech Show. This is an excellent overview of the new touch screen navigation methods you’ll find in the Windows 8 desktop including hotspots, charms and tiles to name just a few. You’ll also learn tips to get around with a mouse and keyboard. It’s not a complete tutorial on using Windows 8 but you’ll at least know how to navigate, search for apps, work with multiple apps and find tools like task manager, control panel, file explorer as well as your familiar desktop.
Follow the break to watch the short survival guide video. | 132 | 33 | [
{
"comment_id": "1067671",
"author": "ffdsafsad",
"timestamp": "2013-10-01T05:15:51",
"content": "Oh god. its windows 8. Spare me!! :@",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1068309",
"author": "meh",
"timestamp": "2013-10-02T10:53:12... | 1,760,376,441.999659 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/09/30/an-atmega328-based-radioteletype-xy-scope-display/ | An Atmega328-based Radioteletype XY Scope Display | Mathieu Stephan | [
"hardware",
"Radio Hacks"
] | [
"atmega328",
"Frequency-shift keying",
"FSK",
"Operational amplifier"
] | [Jack] tipped us about a Crossed Bananas Display (CBD)
he just designed
. A CBD is a tuning aid for
frequency-shift keyed
(FSK) modes and is basically an oscilloscope in
X-Y mode
. At one time,
radioteletype
operators used binary FSK to transmit text over radio waves. In this scheme, the “1” is called the mark frequency and the “0” is called the space frequency. If both frequencies were perfectly tuned (correct phase) the resulting display would look like the one shown above, explaining the origin of the “crossed banana” name.
The build is based on an ATmega328 and a 1.8″ ST7735R display which has a 128×160 resolution. The MC33204PG operational amplifier is used in conjunction with a potentiometer to scale the input in the microcontroller ADC’s range. Another potentiometer sets the refresh rate of the graph. The whole project is enclosed in a painted cast-aluminium bud box and all the sources for this project can be found
here
. | 5 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "1067639",
"author": "Ron Sharp",
"timestamp": "2013-10-01T02:42:49",
"content": "Nice, although I was hoping for a modern redo of the 1974 Scopewriter that would display alphanumerics. (For nostalgia, rather than any practical use.)http://www.classiccmp.org/cini/pdf/pe/70-74/PE1974-... | 1,760,376,441.822156 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/09/30/diy-soda-can-battery/ | DIY Soda Can Battery | Marsh | [
"chemistry hacks",
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"battery",
"electrodes",
"electrolyte",
"soda",
"soda can"
] | It may not be particularly useful to create some
makeshift batteries out of soda and soda cans
, but it’s a good introduction to electrodes and electrolytes as well as a welcomed break from lemons and potatoes. The gang at [Go-Repairs] lopped off the can’s lid and temporarily set the soda aside, then took steel wool to the interior of the can to remove the protective plastic coating. The process can be accelerated by grabbing your drill and cramming the steel wool onto the end of a spade bit, although pressing too hard might rip through the can.
With the soda poured back in, you can eek out some voltage by clipping one lead to the can and another to a copper coin that’s dunked into the soda. Stringing along additional cans in series can scale up the juice, but you’ll need a whole six pack before you can get an LED working—and only just. The instructions suggest swapping out the soda for a different electrolyte: drain cleaner, which can pump out an impressive 12 volts from a six pack series. You’ll want to be careful, however, as it’s likely to eat through the can and is
one lid away from being dangerous
.
Stick around for a quick video after the break, and if you prefer the Instructables format, the [Go-Repairs] folks have kindly
reproduced the instructions there
. | 18 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "1067602",
"author": "Jamie Ian Macgregor",
"timestamp": "2013-09-30T23:36:20",
"content": "Caustic Soda (drain cleaner) produces hydrogen when combined with aluminium, be careful of explosions",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "106... | 1,760,376,442.053518 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/10/02/restoring-an-industrial-tractor/ | Restoring An Industrial Tractor | Phillip Ryals | [
"Engine Hacks"
] | [
"engine",
"hydaulic",
"restore",
"tractor"
] | [Nickolas] dropped us a tip about a Youtube channel where [stevewatr]
documents the restoration of an Oliver 770 tractor
through no less than 133 videos. These videos span the last year, starting with finding the tractor in fairly dense undergrowth. He spends quite a bit of time troubleshooting the engine, explaining his thought process, and showing all of the steps he takes to get the tractor running reliably again. He also delves into fixes for the electrical and hydraulic systems.
In his tip, [Nickolas] said he just couldn’t stop watching, and we agree, this is really a fascinating series. One of the things we love about these videos is that [stevewatr] doesn’t filter out his mistakes. That means we get to see his failures and successes… Everything from how jump starting wasn’t possible with a small jumper wire, to getting the engine to start cold without a primer. That’s the beauty of our
fail-of-the-week
posts. Absorb it all, and you’ll be prepared when you run into related problems yourself.
[stevewatr’s] last video doesn’t show a completed tractor, so we look forward to seeing what happens as the project progresses. Even if you aren’t interested in having a tractor of your own, you can certainly use some of this information while building your own personal mech. Give it a try! | 12 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "1068393",
"author": "Ren",
"timestamp": "2013-10-02T14:17:21",
"content": "http://www.yesterdaystractors.com",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1068435",
"author": "sonick909",
"timestamp": "2013-10-02T15:34:40",
... | 1,760,376,442.102945 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/10/02/electrified-yard-equipment-hauls-grass/ | Electrified Yard Equipment Hauls Grass | Adam Fabio | [
"Engine Hacks",
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"Cub Cadet",
"lawn",
"lawn mower",
"mower",
"power tools",
"Zero-turn mower"
] | [AmpEater] spent the summer
converting yard equipment from internal combustion to electric power
. The conversions run from a relatively tame Wheel Horse, to an insane Cub Cadet. The Wheel Horse lost its Kohler engine in favor of a hydraulic pump motor from a crown forklift. 48 volt power is supplied by MK lead acid gel cells. An Alltrax 300 amp controller keeps this horse reigned in.
On his Reddit thread
, [AmpEater] says he is especially proud of his Cub Cadet zero turn ride on mower. For those who aren’t up on lawn implement terminology, a “zero turn” means a mower with zero turning radius. Zero turn mowers use two large wheels and tank style steering to turn within their own radius. We bet this style mower would also make a pretty good
robot conversion
, however [AmpEater’s] zero turn is still setup for cutting the grass.
After pulling the V-twin motor the 48 volt Motenergy ME-1004 was put in place. Batteries are 3 x Enerdel 48V 33 amp hour lithium ion packs. The packs are wired in series to provide 144V nominal. Right about here is where our brain started to melt. A 48V motor on 144V has to mean magic smoke, right? This is where the motor controller magic comes in.
[AmpEater] used Evnetics soliton-jr motor controller. The controller appears to be operating as a DC to DC converter, dropping the 144v down to a safe 48v for the motor, as well as providing a host of other features. Even with a switcher dropping the voltage down, there is quite a bit of heat generated in the controller. The Soliton has liquid cooling capability, and [AmpEater] is experimenting with a Koolace PMP-450 system. We’re a bit worried about a PC cooling system standing up to the vibration and abuse a 50” lawn mower can dish out though.
In case you’re wondering, this is not a cheap conversion. The motor retails for over $500 USD, and the Controller for around $2100 USD, and the batteries are around $4500 USD per pack. That’s more than double original price of the Cub Cadet. Understandably, these conversions would be outside the realm of the average homeowner, but they may be worthwhile for a commercial gardener. Even with the recent push toward 4 stroke motors, small engines are still major polluters. We wish we could say an electric mower is quieter than a gas-powered one, however as the video shows, much of the noise lawn mowers create is the blades themselves. | 45 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "1068354",
"author": "confused",
"timestamp": "2013-10-02T12:45:02",
"content": "Yea, throw money at an idea. Heat=loss, commercial no way, solar panel would take way way too long to charge that battery pack. check outhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=qgKfvNkJj... | 1,760,376,442.185964 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/10/02/calling-european-hackerspaces/ | Calling European Hackerspaces! | James Hobson | [
"Hackerspaces"
] | [
"hackerspace",
"hackerspace intro",
"hackerspace tour",
"hackerspacing in europe"
] | In a few weeks time, I will be in Düsseldorf on business for the world’s largest plastics and rubber industry trade show,
the K-Show
. That’s not very interesting for you, but afterwards a coworker and I will be traveling for a week in Europe, and being the geeks we are, we would rather visit you instead of the typical tourist attractions (mind you I have lived in Germany for half a year).
The majority of our Hackerspace Intro pieces thus far have been limited to North America, so we would love to visit your Hackerspace in Europe! Take pictures, ask a few questions, get a tour, and share it all here!
If you are part of, or know of a cool hackerspace in approximately the geographical doodle shown on Google Maps above, let us know in the comments! We will be traveling around October 19th to the 24th. | 108 | 50 | [
{
"comment_id": "1068219",
"author": "Daniel",
"timestamp": "2013-10-02T08:09:10",
"content": "Hi,We’d love to welcome you in our space, the chaosdorf in Düsseldorf :) just send me a short email when you’ll be visiting to make sure somebody is there to show you arround.",
"parent_id": null,
... | 1,760,376,442.725215 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/10/01/x-winder-carbon-fiber-wrapping/ | X-Winder: Carbon Fiber Wrapping | James Hobson | [
"Crowd Funding"
] | [
"carbon fiber wrapping",
"Carbon-fiber-reinforced polymer",
"kickstarter",
"x-winder"
] | One of our readers just sent us a tip about this interesting kickstarter project. [Turner Hunt] is bringing
carbon fiber manufacture into the hands of makers
— at considerable cost savings!
So how does it work? The machine wraps the filament around the workpiece, not unlike a CNC lathe in reverse. Actually it’s kind of a new breed of 3D printer! As the machine feeds the filament, it dips it through a bath of epoxy resin before being wrapped around the workpiece. A finishing step wraps heat shrink tape around the finished project using a heat gun, which then provides a glossy surface finish very similar to commercial carbon fiber products.
By purchasing carbon fiber filament and epoxy resin and using this machine, you can create structural carbon fiber tubes for about 80% less than they would cost commercially. The system comes with its own software that controls the machine via g-code, and you can also specify different wrapping patterns for different applications. While tube-shapes work best, you can also wrap other shapes including flat bars, wing skins, turbine blades and more — anything that is wrappable and under 6″ in total diameter. Is anyone else thinking about
custom wrapped quadcopter frames
?
[Thanks Alannah!] | 41 | 24 | [
{
"comment_id": "1068164",
"author": "F",
"timestamp": "2013-10-02T05:13:14",
"content": "I’m thinking about a really sweet cross frame with big tire clearances and fender mounts",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1068492",
"author": "Rob... | 1,760,376,442.585815 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/10/01/diy-250-lb-thrust-liquid-oxygenkerosene-rocket/ | DIY 250 Lb Thrust Liquid Oxygen/Kerosene Rocket | James Hobson | [
"Engine Hacks",
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"liquid fuel",
"liquid fuel rocket",
"Liquid oxygen",
"rocket engine",
"rocket project"
] | Robert’s Rocket Project
has been going on for a long time. It has been around so long that you can go all the way back to posts from 2001, where he talks about getting his first digital camera! The site is dedicated to his pursuit of liquid fueled rocket engine building. It’s a great project log and he has finally come to the point where he will be testing his first flight vehicle soon.
His latest project is a 250lbf regeneratively cooled engine. It uses kerosene as the fuel, and liquid oxygen as the oxidizer. The neat thing is he utilizes the temperature change of the liquid oxygen expanding to cool the chamber and nozzle before being burned. This allows for a very efficient and powerful combustion of the fuel. He has some
videos of testing it on his site
, we just wonder why he doesn’t host them on YouTube or something…
Anyhow, there’s more than enough info on his site to try and recreate some of his experiments, but perhaps you should start here instead:
How to Design, Build and Test Small Liquid-Fuel Rocket Engines
.
[Thanks Ray!] | 28 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "1068130",
"author": "jay",
"timestamp": "2013-10-02T03:07:27",
"content": "very nice unistrut construction",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1068134",
"author": "cb88",
"timestamp": "2013-10-02T03:24:32",
"content": "t... | 1,760,376,442.849032 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/10/01/leds-turn-the-heat-up-on-flameless-pumpkin-lights/ | LEDs Turn The Heat Up On Flameless Pumpkin Lights | Adam Fabio | [
"Holiday Hacks",
"LED Hacks"
] | [
"candle",
"halloween",
"jack o lantern",
"light emitting diode",
"pumpkin",
"Rabbit Hole"
] | When tea lights just won’t do, why not move up to a
5 channel LED candle simulato
r
?
Halloween is fast approaching.
Peter’s local hackerspace, The Rabbit Hole
had a meeting to carve pumpkins and talk Halloween hacks. After seeing how poorly a tea light illuminated a medium size pumpkin, this hack was born. We’ve seen
LED jack-o’-lantern hacks
before, but this one was worth a second look.
In true hackerspace style, [Peter] used what was available to him. A PIC12F508 is the heart of the project. The 12X508/9 series has been around for at many years, and is still a great chip to work with. We remember using the ‘C’ version of this chip to bypass region locks on original PlayStation systems. [Peter] created a simple circuit with two basic modes. In “value mode” the 508 drives LED’s directly from its I/O pins. This limits the total output to 60mA. In “premium mode”, some 2N3904 NPN transistors are brought in to handle the current. This allows the PIC to drive up to 5 LEDs.
Candles can be tricky to simulate with LEDs. [Peter] used 5 independent 16 bit
linear feedback shift registers
to generate
pseudo random bit streams
. The effect is quite impressive. A “wind simulation” completes the illusion of a real flame.
One pin of the micro is used to switch between value and premium mode. One mod we’d love to see is taking back that I/O pin and hooking it up to a wind sensor – possibly a microphone, or airflow sensor. Use the sensor to trigger wind mode for an even more realistic candle simulation. | 19 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "1068106",
"author": "somun",
"timestamp": "2013-10-02T01:13:23",
"content": "Neat, First time I’ve heard about linear feedback registers.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1068114",
"author": "Tinkerer",
"timestamp": "2013... | 1,760,376,442.786252 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/10/01/steam-controller-open-and-hackable/ | Steam Controller: Open And Hackable? | James Hobson | [
"computer hacks"
] | [
"steam",
"Valve Corporation"
] | The folks over at Valve Corporation have been busy. Just this week they have made three announcements regarding the future of their company; SteamOS, a linux-based operating system, Steam Machines (for running SteamOS), and the one we’re most interested in, the
Steam Controller
, an
open
controller. Not to worry though, the controller is not exclusive to the Steam Machines!
This is why we’re intrigued:
The Steam Controller was designed from the ground up to be hackable … We plan to make tools available that will enable users to participate in all aspects of the experience, from industrial design to electrical engineering.
We’re curious to see what that exactly means, but it definitely sounds promising! We know that Valve already takes in tons of customer feedback through their Steam Community and Workshop contributors, but how open is this controller really going to be? To read more about it as the information unfolds, check out the topics in the
Steam Universe forum
.
If you’re interested in joining the hardware beta, head on over
here
, but space is very limited.
[Thanks Adam!] | 50 | 18 | [
{
"comment_id": "1067989",
"author": "Nick",
"timestamp": "2013-10-01T20:06:27",
"content": "My only beef with it is that it doesn’t have buttons like on a playstation or xbox controller, otherwise, its a pretty cool concept",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"... | 1,760,376,442.508477 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/09/27/mechanical-typewriter-types-your-tweets/ | Mechanical Typewriter Types Your Tweets! | James Hobson | [
"Misc Hacks",
"Peripherals Hacks"
] | [
"electronic typewriter",
"Michael Schwanzer",
"typewriter",
"typewriter printer"
] | While we weren’t able to visit the Toronto Maker Faire this past weekend, a friend let us know about this great hack. A mechanized typewriter that types out tweets directed at the maker, @mschwanzer!
[Michael Schwanzer] has
a few blog posts
outlining the build, but the first part of this
news article and accompanying video
explain it quite nicely. The printer-typewriter features an array of solenoids that are controlled by an Arduino using shift registers. A Raspberry Pi collects the information from Twitter and then parses the data to the Arduino for typing. A simple concept, but a complex and relatively expensive build.
During the fair, people could have their
own tweets printed and streamed on this site
. You can still see it in action though, just check out the video after the break!
We have covered a similar
typewriter like this before
, but the added Raspberry Pi steps it up a notch and it made for a very cool interactive exhibit
at the Toronto Maker Faire
.
[Thanks Jacob!] | 17 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "1066428",
"author": "vonskippy",
"timestamp": "2013-09-28T05:22:43",
"content": "Maybe next they could make it laser etch into stainless steel, since ya know, all those tweets are priceless and should be made into hard copy for all of history to study and enjoy.Twitter, inane beyond... | 1,760,376,443.025861 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/09/27/an-oscilloscope-on-your-wrist/ | An Oscilloscope On Your Wrist | Adam Fabio | [
"Crowd Funding",
"Tool Hacks",
"Wearable Hacks"
] | [
"Gabotronics",
"kickstarter",
"oscilloscope",
"Oscilloscope Watch"
] | Calculator watches were the Geek cred of the 80’s. Today everyone is getting smart watches. How can the hip Geek stay ahead? [Gabriel Anzziani] to the rescue with his
Oscilloscope Watch!
[Gabriel] has made a cottage industry with his micro test tools. We’ve featured his
Xprotolab
and
Xminilab
on here on Hack a Day
more than once
. The Oscilloscope Watch basically takes all the features of the Xprotolab and squeezes them down into a wrist watch.
The Oscilloscope Watch includes an oscilloscope, a logic analyzer, an arbitrary waveform generator, and of course it tells time. The Oscilloscope Watch’s processor is the AVR XMega128. [Gabriel] has even included a
link to the schematics
(PDF) on his Kickstarter page. We really like that 3D printed case, and hope [Gabriel] opens up his CAD designs for us to work with.
Like its predecessors, the Oscilloscope watch won’t be replacing your Tektronix scope, or even your Rigol. Much like a Swiss army knife or Leatherman tool, the Oscilloscope Watch packs a bunch of tools into a small package. None of them are as good as a full-sized tool, but in a pinch they will get the job done. If you are wondering where the probes connect. [Gabriel] states on the Kickstarter page that he will design a custom 9 pin .100 connector to BNC adapter to allow the use of standard probes.
The screen is the same series of Sharp Memory LCD’s used in the Pebble watch. [Gabriel] chose to go with the FPC version of the Sharp LCD rather than the zebra connector. We’ve learned the hard way that those flex circuits snap at the LCD glass after only a few flexes. Hopefully this won’t impact the hackability of the watch. | 36 | 18 | [
{
"comment_id": "1066388",
"author": "Jeremy Cook",
"timestamp": "2013-09-28T02:08:51",
"content": "Wow, do want. Yeah, was wondering about the probes!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1066389",
"author": "Nate B",
"timestamp": "2013-09-... | 1,760,376,443.100101 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/09/27/a-simple-nixie-clock-with-logic-gates/ | A Simple Nixie Clock With Logic Gates | Mathieu Stephan | [
"clock hacks"
] | [
"logic gate",
"nixie tube"
] | Here is a very nice project that [Znaxque] finished a few months ago: a
simple nixie clock
made with logic gates only. In this build, the mains 50Hz is used as a time base instead of a 32KHz crystal that most readers here may use. In the
very
long term, this clock may actually be more precise than a crystal-based one as power companies in Europe adjust the mains frequency. However, at a given moment the difference between this clock and a reference may be as big as
60 seconds
.
The design was sketched on a
simple piece of paper
and later made using salvaged ICs. [Znaxque] only bought the six IN-14 nixies for $45 and the veroboard shown in the picture above. The BCD to Decimal decoders are 74141s and three buttons are present on the board to set minutes, hours, as well as resetting all the counters. | 11 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "1066359",
"author": "Barrett Routon",
"timestamp": "2013-09-28T00:34:48",
"content": "In the long term true, but keep in mind the mains frequency changes pretty sporadically as the load changes. This guy has some cool info on the subject:http://wwwhome.cs.utwente.nl/~ptdeboer/misc/... | 1,760,376,442.968134 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/09/27/learn-to-translate-ir-codes-and-retransmit-using-arduino/ | Learn To Translate IR Codes And Retransmit Using Arduino | Todd Harrison | [
"home entertainment hacks",
"Wireless Hacks"
] | [
"38 KHz carrier",
"arduino",
"infrared",
"ir",
"japanese",
"NEC",
"pulse length encoding",
"remote control",
"saleae logic",
"transmitter"
] | [Dave Jones] from EEVBlog.com takes “Arduino fan boys” off the garden path getting down and dirty with different methods to
capture, evaluate and retransmit IR remote control codes
. Capturing and reproducing IR remote control codes is nothing new, however, [Dave] carves his own roads and steers us around some “traps for young players” along the way.
[Dave] needed a countdown timer that could remotely start and stop recording on his Cannon video camera, which he did with simplicity
in a previous EEVBlog post
using a commercial learning remote control unit. The fans demanded better so he delivered with this excellent tutorial capturing IR codes on his oscilloscope from an IR decoder (yellow trace) as well as using an IR photo transistor (blue trace) which showed the code inclusive of 38 KHz carrier frequency. Either capture method could easily be used to examine the transmitted code. The second lesson learned from the captured waveforms was the type of code modulation being used. [Dave’s] remote transmitted NEC (Japanese) pulse length encoding — which can be assertaind by referencing the
Infrared Remote Control Techniques
(PDF). Knowing the encoding methodology it was trivial to manually translate the bits for later use in an Arduino transmitter sketch. We find it amazing how simple [Dave] makes the process seem, even choosing to write his own sketch to reproduce and transmit the IR codes and carrier instead of taking the easy road looking for existing libraries.
A real gem of knowledge in the video was when it didn’t work! We get to follow along as [Dave] stumbles before using a
Saleae Logic analyzer
to see that his transmitter was off frequency even though the math in his sketch seemed correct. Realizing the digital write routine was causing a slowdown he fudged his math to make the needed frequency correction. Sure, he could have removed the performance glitch by writing some custom port control but logic dictates using the fastest and simplest solution when hacking a one-off solution.
[Dave’s] video and links to source code after the break.
Dave’s
Arduino sketch | 27 | 12 | [
{
"comment_id": "1066298",
"author": "pixelou",
"timestamp": "2013-09-27T21:17:30",
"content": "I recently did tests with the IR sensor of a broken dvd player. The frenquencies of the signals are below 44kHz, wich means you can use the microphone input of your computer and audacity to record the inp... | 1,760,376,442.912626 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/09/27/how-much-can-you-cram-into-a-wristwatch/ | How Much Can You Cram Into A Wristwatch | Brian Benchoff | [
"clock hacks",
"Wearable Hacks"
] | [
"DIY wrist watch",
"watch",
"wrist watch"
] | Creating wearable electronics that are functional and not overly bulky is very, very hard. [Zak], though, makes it look easy. He started
his DIY digital wrist watch
to see how much he could cram into a watch-sized device. The finished product is really incredible, and one of the most amazing DIY watches we’ve ever seen.
The electronics for the watch include an ATMega328p, a DS3231M Real Time Clock, a Microchip battery charger, and a few resistors and caps. The display is an OLED, 1.3″ wide and only 1.5 mm thick, contributing to the crazy 10mm overall thickness of the watch.
The software is where this watch really shines. Along with the standard time and date functions, [Zak] included everything and more a wrist watch should have. There is an interface to set up to ten alarms on different days of the week, a Breakout and ‘Car Dodge’ game, a flashlight with integrated ‘rave’ mode, and a stopwatch. On top of this, [Zak] included some great animations very similar to the CRT-like animations found in Android.
It’s a fabulous piece of kit, and if any project were deserving of being made into an actual product, this is it.
You can check out [Zak]’s demo of all the functions of his watch below. | 45 | 25 | [
{
"comment_id": "1066199",
"author": "aztraph",
"timestamp": "2013-09-27T17:12:46",
"content": "nice build!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1066200",
"author": "Addidis",
"timestamp": "2013-09-27T17:15:14",
"content": "Kinda had the ... | 1,760,376,443.179032 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/09/27/utf-8-the-most-elegant-hack/ | UTF-8 – “The Most Elegant Hack” | Phillip Ryals | [
"computer hacks"
] | [
"computers",
"history",
"programming",
"unicode"
] | While it may not look like much, the image above is a piece of the original email where [Ken Thompson] described what would become the implementation of UTF-8. At the dawn of the computer age in America, when we were still using teletype machines, encoding the English language was all we worried about. Programmers standardized on the ASCII character set, but there was no room for all of the characters used in other languages. To enable real-time worldwide communication, we needed something better. There were many proposals, but the one submitted by [Ken Thompson] and [Rob ‘Commander’ Pike] was the one accepted, quite possibly because of what a beautiful hack it is.
[Tom Scott] did an
excellent job of describing the UTF-8
. Why he chose to explain it in the middle of a busy cafe is beyond us, but his enthusiasm was definitely up to the task. In the video (which is embedded after the break) he quickly shows the simplicity and genius of ASCII. He then explains the challenge of supporting so many character sets, and why UTF-8 made so much sense.
We considered making this a Retrotechtacular, but the consensus is that understanding how UTF-8 came about is useful for modern hackers and coders. If you’re interested in learning more, there are tons of links in
this Reddit post
, including a link to
the original email
. | 33 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "1066129",
"author": "Trui",
"timestamp": "2013-09-27T14:19:56",
"content": "I was expecting something amazingly clever, but this seems rather straightforward.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1066173",
"author": "Wretch... | 1,760,376,443.246203 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/09/27/an-improvised-attiny2313-logic-analyzer/ | An Improvised ATtiny2313 Logic Analyzer | Brian Benchoff | [
"ATtiny Hacks",
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"attiny2313",
"logic analyzer"
] | After banging his head against a wall trying to get a PS/2 interface to work, [Joonas] decided he needed a dedicated logic analyzer. He didn’t need anything fancy; writing bits to a serial port would do. He came up with a very, very simple
ATtiny2313-based logic analyzer
that can capture at 50+ kHz, more than enough for a PS/2 port.
The hardware for [Joonas’] build is
a simple ATtiny2313 breadboard adapter
, an
FTDI Friend
, and not much else. The 2313 has eight input ports on one side of the chip, making attaching the right logic line to the right port a cinch.
The highs and lows on each logic line are sent to a computer over the FTDI chip, converted into OLS format, and piped into
Open Sniffer
to make some fancy graphs.
[Joonas] was able to capture PS/2 signals with his logic sniffer, so we’ll call this project a success. However, there were a few problems that made this project a little more trouble than it was worth: there is no easy way to turn a serial dump into a binary file, Putty didn’t allow suppressing output to the terminal, and Mac serial ports twinkling above 115.2 kbps don’t work natively. Still, the project did its job, and we couldn’t ask for anything more.
[via
Dangerous Prototypes
] | 13 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "1066152",
"author": "bthy",
"timestamp": "2013-09-27T14:58:53",
"content": "50 kHz .. some logic analyzer =\\",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1066175",
"author": "Tom",
"timestamp": "2013-09-27T15:48:25",
"content": ... | 1,760,376,443.294146 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/09/28/headphone-hack-makes-wireless-an-option/ | Headphone Hack Makes Wireless An Option | Mike Szczys | [
"digital audio hacks",
"Wireless Hacks"
] | [
"bluetooth",
"headphone"
] | If you have a favorite pair of over-the-ear headphones you may want to consider
upgrading them with a wireless option
. The key word here is “option” because these still retain their functionality as a wired headphone. This is nice if you only want to deal with battery life when you’re actually roaming around.
Of course the thing that makes
this type of hack
work is the extra room inside the body of the earpieces. [Tony] cracked them open and decided there was just enough room to fit the internals of a Bluetooth audio adapter. It has it’s own Li-ion battery (boasting 12 hours of use) which is why there is an added charging port. To fit the board he had to remove some of the aluminum body from the enclosed part of the headphones. He also wired up a tactile switch to act as the power button for the Bluetooth module.
Details are scarce on how the speakers are wired between the module and the jack. But we think he simply wired them in parallel rather than using a switched jack. You can see a quick demo after the break but it really doesn’t augment the build details at all.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=00ue3hjWAfQ | 15 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "1066796",
"author": "Tony Hoang (@TonyPHoang)",
"timestamp": "2013-09-29T02:17:38",
"content": "Sorry for not writing how the module was wired in the thread. The bluetooth module is wired in parallel to the original 3.5mm input wire. -Tony",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
... | 1,760,376,443.5681 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/09/28/touring-component-markets-in-shenzhen/ | Touring Component Markets In Shenzhen | Mike Szczys | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"china",
"components",
"market",
"shenzhen",
"tour"
] | [Al] recently returned from a trip to China. While there
he toured some of the component markets in Shenzhen
, the electronics assembly epicenter of the world. While he doesn’t focus too closely on what is actually being sold there, we found his description of the markets themselves and other notable attractions around the area quite interesting.
Shenzhen is different from some of the other component wonderlands we’ve heard about ([Ian Lesnet’s]
tour of Akihabara in Japan
comes to mind). First of all it may be a bit more difficult to get there. US Citizens need a Visa to enter China, and must fly to Hong Kong and take a ferry to the mainland. [Al] reports that the traffic is horrendous and rush-hour can turn a ten mile ride that usually takes ninety minutes into a three hour tour…
a three hour tour!
The side affect of the market being out of the way is that the prices aren’t as inflated as they may be in more geek-tourist-friendly locations. That being said it also sounds like the vendors are interested in selling you a few thousand units rather than a single component. Follow the link at the top for the market tour, a stop at Seeed Studios (who will apparently sell you a map of the best markets to visit), and the rest of the attractions that [Al] encountered. | 34 | 16 | [
{
"comment_id": "1066770",
"author": "Louis Charles Bruckner",
"timestamp": "2013-09-29T00:45:44",
"content": "Strange I took a highspeed train from HK to China back in 2004.When I visited the Liteon’s manufacturing plant in Dongguang.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
... | 1,760,376,443.641961 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/09/28/breadboard-tetris-is-wire-artwork/ | Breadboard Tetris Is Wire Artwork | Mike Szczys | [
"Arduino Hacks"
] | [
"breadboard",
"led module",
"rgb",
"tetris"
] | Look closely at the colored pixels on this pair of 8×8 RGB LED modules and you’ll be able to pick out some of the familiar shapes of Tetris pieces. It’s impressive that [Jianan Li]
built his own color Tetris including the theme music
, but look at this breadboard! The layout of his circuit is as equally impressive as the code he wrote to get the game up and running. It takes a fair amount of planning to get a circuit of this complexity to fit in the space he used, right?
There are two microcontrollers at work, each running the Arduino bootloader. The main chip is an ATmega328 which is responsible for monitoring the buttons and controlling game play. The other is an ATmega85. The eight pin chip listens to it’s bigger brother, playing the theme song when the game starts, and pausing or resuming to match the user input So is the next stop for this project
playing Tetris on the side of a building
?
Don’t miss the demo video after the break. We’ve also rolled in a video of his Arduino-based piano. It’s built on a breadboard that’s nearly as impressive as this. But what delights us is his skill at playing Pokemon themes on the two-octave tactile switch keyboard. Obviously those piano lessons his parents shelled out for really paid off! | 13 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "1066692",
"author": "Marv",
"timestamp": "2013-09-28T20:14:38",
"content": "Cool project and definitely a piece of art ;)The µC for the sound is an ATtiny85 not an ATmega btw^^",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1067364",
... | 1,760,376,443.693258 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/09/28/custom-e-cruiser-has-features-for-disabled-rider/ | Custom E-Cruiser Has Features For Disabled Rider | Marsh | [
"Transportation Hacks"
] | [
"bicycle",
"bike",
"e-bike",
"electric vehicle"
] | As [AussieJester] noted in the first page of his build log, most people’s idea of a “custom-made” electric bicycle involves strapping some electronics and a hub motor onto any off-the-shelf bike. He needed a bigger challenge, so he fabricated his own frame to build
a stylish electric cruiser
. This bike has a 2-speed transmission and a massive Turnigy 80-100 brushless outrunner motor, which pushes out a top speed of 45mph.
You may have noticed what look like training wheels in the picture above, and you’d be half-correct. [AussieJester] is a paraplegic, and needed to guarantee some stability both when transferring from his wheelchair and when coming to a stop. The best feature of this bike, however, is that these small wheels are retractable. A linear actuator lowers them for slower speeds and for mounting/dismounting, but picks them back off the ground once you are up to speed, maintaining a true 2-wheeled experience.
Stick around for a couple of videos after the break: a first-person POV showing just how quick this bike can move, and a demonstration of the actuators. Then check out another
EV pioneer in the world of skateboarding
.
[via
shelbyelectro
and
electricbike.com
]
[Thanks Ezra] | 16 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "1066629",
"author": "i can see the future",
"timestamp": "2013-09-28T17:11:36",
"content": "??? I could swear I already saw this…on this very site…with videos and everything. Yet now I cannot find it elsewhere.…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
... | 1,760,376,443.743694 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/09/28/cd-rom-pov-clock/ | CD-ROM POV Clock | James Hobson | [
"clock hacks"
] | [
"Compact Disc",
"persistence of vision",
"pov cd clock",
"pov cd-rom clock",
"pov clock"
] | [Kyle] wanted to try something new. A
Persistence of Vision Clock using a CD-ROM drive
.
We have covered lots of
POV Clocks that make use of hard drives
, but we think this is the first time we have seen a CD-ROM drive used instead. [Kyle] points out that CD-ROM drives are typically much quieter than hard drives, which is the main reason he chose the CD-ROM route.
At the heart of this project is a good old ATMEGA168 and an RGB LED strip for the lights. To measure and maintain the rotational speed of the clock [Kyle] used an IR photodiode that detects a reference mark on the disc. An elegant build of a classic POV Clock, with a new twist!
The cool thing about this project is he did not actually use the CD-ROM drive like you think he would — he chucked the spindle motor and instead is spinning the disk using the tray ejection motor! He did this so he could control the motor by PWM straight off the microcontroller, whereas the spindle motor would require an IC and a varying control signal with specific voltage amplitudes.
He also experimented with different backgrounds and background lighting, which you can see in the video after the break! | 12 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "1066572",
"author": "Steveo",
"timestamp": "2013-09-28T14:04:58",
"content": "great job! Why didn’t anyone else realize this was better than an HDD, which are so loud.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1066722",
"author... | 1,760,376,443.966457 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/09/28/diy-metal-detector/ | DIY Metal Detector | James Hobson | [
"handhelds hacks"
] | [
"diy metal detector",
"instructables",
"Metal Detecting",
"metal detector"
] | Looking for a light project to teach young hackers some very basic electronics? Here’s a quick and easy weekend project,
a simple metal detector
!
We all know 555 timers are very useful and pop up in a wide range of projects, but did you know a metal detector is one of them? [vonPongrac] stumbled upon this handy guide, a free eBook on
50 555 Circuits
, which contains many cool project ideas, including a simple metal detector circuit. It’s a very basic concept that uses a coil of copper wire as a home-made
choke
— when metal or a magnet comes near the coil, it varies the output frequency, and the 555 timer in turn, varies the output sound, alerting you of the presence of something metal nearby.
After the break there’s a video of it during its testing phases. If you don’t have a 555 on hand (tisk tisk) but still want to have some treasure hunting fun you can also
build one based on an Arduino
.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6N_q96QeF2Y
A cool project, but we don’t think it’ll be powerful enough to find hidden treasure on a beach! | 15 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "1066551",
"author": "Tom the Brat",
"timestamp": "2013-09-28T12:36:17",
"content": "Oh, I was wondering where the arduino went! :D",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1066561",
"author": "boot",
"timestamp": "2013-09-28T13:2... | 1,760,376,443.873931 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/09/28/making-qr-codes-in-google-docs/ | Making QR Codes In Google Docs | James Hobson | [
"google hacks"
] | [
"google docs",
"google docs qr codes",
"qr code",
"QR codes",
"VCard"
] | [Jordi] sent us this great tip on
how to generate QR codes inside Google Docs
. This can be super handy if you ever need to make a lot of them at one time, plus they update on the fly!
In his example he set up the code to create vCards so he could transfer contacts to his phone quickly and easily. The code pulls in a Google API QR generator and provides you with a QR code as an image! The following is his code, which can be easily modified to suit your needs:
=image("https://chart.googleapis.com/chart?chs=200x200&cht=qr&chl=BEGIN:VCARD%0AN:" & A2 & "%20" & B2 & "%0ATEL;CELL:" & C2 & "%0AEMAIL:" & D2 & "%0AEND:VCARD")
Or if you just want the bare bones:
=image("https://chart.googleapis.com/chart?chs=200x200&cht=qr&chl=<strong>YOUR CELL</strong>")
And if you need a full walkthrough, there is a video after the break. Those wanting to tinker around with more QR code hijinks will enjoy
forming images from QR codes
and
milling QR codes into your copper layers
.
[Thanks Jordi!] | 6 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "1066487",
"author": "hemalchevli",
"timestamp": "2013-09-28T08:27:47",
"content": "neat trick, I use Qreator to make QR codes.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1066541",
"author": "James S. (@StripeyType)",
"timestamp": "... | 1,760,376,443.918485 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/09/30/using-a-raspberry-pi-to-give-your-car-more-features/ | Using A Raspberry Pi To Give Your Car More Features | Marsh | [
"gps hacks",
"Raspberry Pi",
"Transportation Hacks"
] | [
"car pc",
"gps",
"navit",
"openstreetmap",
"Raspbian",
"xbmc"
] | [Andrei] is cruising in style thanks to his
Raspi-powered CarPC project
, which is a steal at $200 considering all the functionality it provides. This is an update to
the work we saw from him back in March
. Rather than completely replace his car’s head unit, [Andrei] simply relocated it to the trunk, permanently set it to the “aux input” source, and connected the Raspberry Pi’s audio output. The Pi runs a Raspbian Wheezy distro with XBMC and is mounted in the storage area beneath the middle armrest. [Andrei] filled the hole left by the old stereo with a 7-inch touchscreen display, which connects to the Pi through both HDMI and USB. If you throw the car into reverse, the Pi automatically selects the touchscreen’s AV input to display the car’s backup camera, then flips back when put in drive.
The unit also provides navigation via the open-source
Navit software
using
OpenStreetMap
data. An
ST22 SkyTraq GPS receiver
grabs coordinates and feeds them into the Raspi, which updates the on-screen map once per second. You’ll want to watch the video after the break (Audio Warning: Tupac) to see for yourself just how well the CarPC came together,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0GrIyGGTRj4 | 45 | 20 | [
{
"comment_id": "1067517",
"author": "Someone",
"timestamp": "2013-09-30T20:14:23",
"content": "nice one, but response time sucks",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1067518",
"author": "wretch",
"timestamp": "2013-09-30T20:14:38",
"cont... | 1,760,376,443.82552 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/09/30/smoothieboard-the-be-all-end-all-cnc-controller/ | Smoothieboard, The Be-all, End-all CNC Controller | Brian Benchoff | [
"3d Printer hacks",
"cnc hacks",
"Crowd Funding"
] | [
"a4982",
"kickstarter",
"smoothieboard"
] | A while back
we took a look at electronics boards for 3D printers
, going over the cost and benefits of the most common electronics boards for printers, laser cutters, and mills. One of the most impressive boards was the Smoothieboard, but finding a supplier back then was a little difficult. Now, the
Smoothieboard is up on Kickstarter
, giving everyone the opportunity to get their hands on this very cool CNC control board.
While most RepRap and 3D printer controller boards use an ATMega or other 8-bit microcontroller, the Smoothie uses a 32-bit ARM chip in the form of an NXP LPC Cortex-M3 chip. Not only does this allow the Smoothie to do some very cool things with your machine – native arcs and circles, for example, but this better hardware also allows for Ethernet, drag-and-drop firmware, and exposing the USB port as both a serial port or mass storage device.
The Smoothie comes in three flavors, with either 3, 4, or 5 stepper motor drivers. These Allegro A4982 drivers are good enough for any 3D printer, laser cutter, or small mill, but the broken out pins allow for stepper drivers supplying more than 2A of current.
Everything on the Smoothieboard is modular, meaning this board is equally capable of powering a RepRap, mill, laser cutter, or plotter. There’s even a
planned control panel
called the Smoothiepanel, making this a great choice for your next CNC build. | 74 | 16 | [
{
"comment_id": "1067448",
"author": "Christopher Michael George",
"timestamp": "2013-09-30T17:18:22",
"content": "Just want to say, I have a hacked-together Smoothie on a protoboard, and I freakin’ love it. Drag-and-drop flashing and uploading of Gcode files is really handy, the simple terminal she... | 1,760,376,444.254082 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/09/30/time-lapse-synthesizer-build-will-blow-your-mind/ | Time-lapse Synthesizer Build Will Blow Your Mind | Adam Fabio | [
"Musical Hacks"
] | [
"electronic",
"Modular synthesizer",
"music",
"Patch cable",
"synth",
"synthesizer",
"Time-lapse photography"
] | [themonkeybars] recently uploaded a time-lapse video of
his DIY synthesizer build
. First off the video itself is a pretty neat hack. An iPhone time-lapse app was used to capture one frame every 5 seconds. By the time the build was complete, approximately 46,000 frames had been snapped. This boiled down to over 43 minutes of youtube footage. [themonkeybars] didn’t work full time on the project, so the video covers about a year’s worth of work which we think makes it even cooler. The synth is also featured in much of the video’s soundtrack.
The synthesizer itself would be classified as an analog modular synth, a type
we’ve seen before
.
Modular synthesizers
are one of the earlier forms of electronic music. The synthesizer is composed of discrete modules such as oscillators, modulators, and filters. The modules may be housed in the same box, but they are not internally connected. All connections are made via front panel patch cables. This is where the term “Patch” came from.
As you can probably imagine, all these cables, switches, and dials make for quite a bit of metal work in the building of the synthesizer front panel, and even more wiring. [themonkeybars] takes us through every step of that journey, from the bare metal front panel to the finished instrument. Much of the internals are based upon
Music From Outer Space
kits, with the
Sound Lab ULTIMATE
kit forming the heart of the project.
We really enjoyed his novel tilt mount for the printed circuit boards. The tilt mount allows both sides of the PCB and nearly all of the front panel to be accessed for modifications or repairs. Some of the other interesting features include a lucite window on the bottom of the case, and red LED strip on the inside. The red LEDs create a dull glow that can be seen through the patch connectors, yet doesn’t overpower the panel mounted indicators. All in all this is a beautiful build!
[Thanks JohnS_AZ] | 35 | 12 | [
{
"comment_id": "1067397",
"author": "Jeff",
"timestamp": "2013-09-30T14:24:55",
"content": "Did telephone operators patching through calls predate the invention of synthesizers? Perhaps no one thought to call it patching at the time.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{... | 1,760,376,444.038386 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/09/30/game-controller-repurposed-for-flea-market-find/ | Game Controller Repurposed For Flea Market Find | Marsh | [
"digital cameras hacks"
] | [
"camera",
"controller",
"remote control"
] | A jarring pan with your tripod can ruin a shot in your film, and tilting up or down usually requires some loosening and tightening kung fu to keep gravity from taking over. The “Power Panner” is a remote-controlled device that fits between the tripod and the camera, handling pans and tilts with ease. When [NeXT] found one at the Capitol Flea Market for $5, he didn’t care about the missing remote. He bought the Panner, dragged it home, and
hacked together his own remote
with a Sega Master Pad.
After researching similar devices online, [NeXT] had determined the original remote’s pinout: essentially a D-pad with adjustable speed control. He decided to ignore the speed pins and to instead search for a suitable replacement controller. A Sega Master Pad offered the most straightforward solution, so [NeXT] went to work separating out the wires and soldering them to a DIN connector. He couldn’t find the right plug to fit the Panner’s DIN-7 jack, so he substituted a DIN-8 with the extra pin snapped off.
Rather than use the remaining two buttons for speed control, [NeXT] chose to feed them directly into his camera to drive the focus and shutter, but the Master Pad’s wiring posed a problem: the camera would have to share the Power Panner’s ground, and the Panner plugs into the wall via a 6V adapter. Fingers crossed, he decided to push ahead and was relieved that everything worked. We suspect the shared ground won’t be a problem as long as one device uses a
floating power supply
, which the Panner can provide either through the proper wall wart or by using its 4 AA battery option.
If you’re in the mood for more camera hacks, check out the
sound-dampening and waterproofing build
from last week. | 2 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "1067381",
"author": "Steve",
"timestamp": "2013-09-30T13:06:25",
"content": "Really the floating power supply has nothing to do with this. He is just relying on an internal pull up resistor. While it is neat that he was able to re-purpose the controller, it really isn’t anything mor... | 1,760,376,444.151354 |
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