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https://hackaday.com/2013/09/16/modified-e-zpass-detects-reads-far-from-toll-booths/ | Modified E-ZPass Detects Reads Far From Toll Booths | Adam Fabio | [
"Misc Hacks",
"Security Hacks",
"Wireless Hacks"
] | [
"E-ZPass",
"Electronic toll collection",
"Radio-frequency identification",
"wardriving"
] | Def Con speaker [pukingmonkey] has spent quite a bit of time studying methods government and law enforcement use to track private citizens’ vehicles on the roads. One of the major tracking methods is E-ZPass, an electronic toll collection system used in several states around the country. [pukingmonkey] cracked open his E-ZPass tag to find a relatively basic circuit. In
his DEF CON presentation
(PDF), he notes you shouldn’t do this to your own tag, as tags are legally not the property of the user.
The tag uses a 3.6 volt long life battery to operate. When idle, the tag only draws 8 microamps. During reads, current draw jumps to 0.3 mA. Armed with this information, it was relatively simple to add a current detecting circuit that outputs a pulse on tag reads. Pulses are then fed into a toy cow, which lights up and “Moos” on each read.
With the circuit complete, it was time for some wardriving around New York City. In [
pukingmonkey’s
] rather harrowing drive between Times Square and Madison Square Garden, (a route with no tolls) the cow was milked 6 separate times. New York Department of Transportation has long stated that these reads are used only to track traffic congestion. Even so, we’d suggest putting your tag away in an anti-static bag (Faraday cage) when not approaching a toll.
[via
Boing Boing
] | 54 | 16 | [
{
"comment_id": "1059348",
"author": "JC",
"timestamp": "2013-09-16T14:06:03",
"content": "It would be more fun to know where the readers are, and implemented a geolocation based lock-out. Open the Faraday lid while near the reader, close it when not.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"re... | 1,760,376,457.943902 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/09/15/smart-brake-lights-and-more-with-openxc/ | Smart Brake Lights And More With OpenXC | Marsh | [
"Android Hacks",
"LED Hacks",
"Transportation Hacks"
] | [
"api",
"ford",
"OBD",
"obd-ii",
"OpenXC"
] | At a recent hack-a-thon event, [Al Linke] tapped into a vehicle’s OBD port with an OpenXC vehicle interface and
hacked an LED screen in the rear window
to display data based on events. If you haven’t heard of
OpenXC
, you can expect to read more about it here at Hackaday in the near future. For now, all you need to know is that OpenXC is Ford’s open source API for real-time data from your vehicle: specifically 2010 and newer model Ford vehicles (for now).
[Al] connected the OpenXC interface to his Android phone over Bluetooth, transmitting data from the OBD port to the phone in real time. From here, the Android can do some really cool stuff. It can use text to speech to announce how much your lead foot cost you, add sound effects for different car events, and even interact with additional devices. Although he managed all of those features, [Al’s] primary goal was to add an LED screen that displayed messages on the vehicle’s back window.
When the phone detected a braking event from the car, it directed the LEDs to light up with a “braking” image, adding some flavor to the process of stopping. He could also change the image to a “Thank You” sign with a waving hand, or—for less courteous drivers—an “F U” image with a slightly different hand gesture. You’ll want to check your local and/or national laws before attempting to strap any additional lighting to your vehicle, but you can watch [Al’s] car light up in the video below. For a more detailed look under the hood, he’s also provided an
Instructables page
. If OpenXC catches on, the number of vehicle hacks such as the
Remote Controlled Car
may skyrocket.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dgYkMbLB8YM | 23 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "1058828",
"author": "Haku",
"timestamp": "2013-09-15T17:27:18",
"content": "I admire someone for hacking/creating new things but there are already enough distractions for drivers, we don’t need to add more confusion into the mix.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies... | 1,760,376,457.312742 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/09/15/cloning-an-infrared-disarming-remote-of-a-8-home-security-system/ | Cloning An Infrared Disarming Remote Of A $8 Home Security System | Mathieu Stephan | [
"hardware",
"Security Hacks"
] | [
"alarm",
"infrared",
"remote control"
] | [Sylvio] decided to buy one of the cheap alarm systems you can find on the internet to
have a look at its insides
. The kit he bought was composed of one main motion sensor and two remote controls to arm/disarm it.
Communication between the remotes and the sensor is done by using infrared, requiring a direct line of sight for a signal to be received. Modern alarm systems typically use RF remotes with a typical frequency of 434MHz or 868MHz. In his write-up, [Sylvio] first tries to replicate the IR signal with one of his ‘learning remote controls’ without success and then proceed to reverse engineering the remote circuit shown in the above picture. Hackaday readers may figure out just by looking at it that it is a simple astable multivibrator (read ‘oscillator’). Its main frequency is 38.5kHz, which is typical for IR applications. Therefore, if one of your neighbours had this ‘security system’ one could just disarm it with any of the same remotes…
[Sylvio] then explains different ways to replicate the simple IR signal, first with an Arduino then with a frequency generator and finally using the USB Infrared Toy from Dangerous Prototypes. We agree with his conclusion: “you get what you pay for”. | 4 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "1059061",
"author": "I_win",
"timestamp": "2013-09-16T02:55:45",
"content": "Cloning the first post…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1059316",
"author": "Midnight",
"timestamp": "2013-09-16T12:23:32",
"content": "Fun... | 1,760,376,457.6742 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/09/15/a-sublime-pvc-cannon/ | A Sublime PVC Cannon | Brian Benchoff | [
"Weapons Hacks"
] | [
"cannon",
"dry ice",
"PVC"
] | Not to be outdone with hair spray powered PVC cannons, [William] created an even cooler device:
a cannon powered by dry ice
.
Once dry ice is loaded into the pressure vessel, a burst disk is placed in the breech and the barrel is screwed on. The trigger isn’t very precise – the entire gun is powered by dry ice turning from a solid into a gas – but the resulting cloudy booms more than make up for any imperfections.
Despite building a cannon and using PVC as a pressure vessel, [Bill]’s project is actually quite safe. The ‘trigger’ is a burst valve made out of a disc of aluminum foil held between two sections of PVC. When the pressure rises, the aluminum foil inevitably tears, shooting whatever is in the barrel out and hopefully not into an eye. The ‘safety’ on the gun is a ball valve connected directly to the pressure vessel, and with a pressure gauge and a release valve. We’re more than confident in saying this is pretty darn safe as far as PVC cannons are concerned. | 24 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "1058762",
"author": "DainBramage1991",
"timestamp": "2013-09-15T13:08:12",
"content": "Wow, I expected all of the anti-PVC nazis to come out of the woodwork and post 50 dozen “you can’t do that!” warnings…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"co... | 1,760,376,457.45133 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/09/14/a-touch-screen-geiger-counter-without-a-geiger-tube/ | A Touch Screen Geiger Counter Without A Geiger Tube | Brian Benchoff | [
"Arduino Hacks",
"chemistry hacks"
] | [
"gamma ray",
"gamma ray detector",
"geiger counter",
"radiation detector"
] | We’re assuming [Toumal] was desperately bored one day, because in the depths of the Internet he found some really cool components to
build a solid state Geiger counter
.
The Arduino and touchscreen are rather standard fare [Toumal] picked up on eBay for about $30. What really sets this project apart from all the other geiger counter builds we’ve seen is
the solid state geiger counter
[Toumal] used. This device uses a
specially-made photodiode
made by First Sensor to detect gamma emissions from 5 to 1000 keV.
[Toumal] put all the software for his Arduino touch screen radiation detector
up on github
. To be honest, we’re really impressed with the rad sensor [Toumal] used for this project, so if you ever decide to pick one of those up, he’s got your back with
an Arduino library
for it. | 33 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "1058483",
"author": "f4grx",
"timestamp": "2013-09-14T21:06:47",
"content": "ok, so he basically implemented what is displayed on the main sensor product page.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1058524",
"author": "Touma... | 1,760,376,457.741391 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/09/14/using-google-authenticator-with-an-arduino/ | Using Google Authenticator With An Arduino | Eric Evenchick | [
"Arduino Hacks",
"Security Hacks"
] | [
"arduino",
"google authenticator",
"hmac",
"lego",
"totp"
] | Google Authenticator is an app that generates one time passwords (OTPs). These passwords are often used as a second factor of authentication, along with your normal password. OTPs work by having a shared secret and a synchronized clock on two devices. When you generate the password, a hash based on the secret and timestamp is created. This proves that you have access to the secret, and can only be used once.
To secure his Lego mini-figures, [Luca] built an
authentication system using Google Authenticator and Arduino
. A web app is used to generate a secret that can be configured into the Arduino using an array, and into Google Authenticator using a QR code. The Arduino is using
a library
that implements Time-based One Time Password authentication (TOTP).
There are some challenges, including keeping a good clock source on the Arduino, but this look like an interesting way to do authentication. After the break, watch a quick video overview of the project (for English captions, hit the CC button). | 5 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "1058462",
"author": "Jacob Allred",
"timestamp": "2013-09-14T19:23:02",
"content": "I’ve been wanting to do a setup like this for my garage door, but haven’t been able to find a cheap outdoor keypad. Would be trivial to add/revoke access, program in when people are allowed access, e... | 1,760,376,457.632332 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/09/14/snesoip-its-exactly-what-it-sounds-like/ | SNESoIP: It’s Exactly What It Sounds Like | James Hobson | [
"Network Hacks",
"Nintendo Hacks"
] | [
"ethernet",
"games",
"hackerspace",
"Network interface controller",
"snes",
"SNESoIP",
"Stuttgart",
"super nintendo"
] | Here’s a cool hack for those of you wishing to
play some retro multiplayer SNES games online!
[Michael Fitzmayer] is a resident hacker at shackspace;
der hackerspace in Stuttgart
.
He’s come up with this clever little ethernet adapter network-bridge that can share local controller-inputs over the internet. The entire project is open-source, and readily available on github. It’s still in the early stage of development, but it is already fully functional. The firmware is small and will fit on an ATmega8, and
by the looks of the component list
it’s a fairly easy build.
He’s even integrated a switch mode (hold B and Y during boot), which avoids trying to figure out which controller will be player one! After all, don’t you remember untangling the controller cords, trying to figure out which one is which?
We know you had a favorite controller and would give the other “crappy” one to your guest.
Example video is after the break.
[Thanks Hadez] | 16 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "1058431",
"author": "Rodrigo",
"timestamp": "2013-09-14T18:08:51",
"content": "OMG, my childhood is back! *.*",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1058454",
"author": "dxprog",
"timestamp": "2013-09-14T19:04:15",
"content... | 1,760,376,457.546919 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/09/14/usb-ableton-foot-controller-reuses-old-keyboard/ | USB Ableton Foot Controller Reuses Old Keyboard | Adam Fabio | [
"Musical Hacks",
"Peripherals Hacks"
] | [
"ableton",
"foot pedal",
"guitar",
"keyboard",
"looper",
"usb"
] | No, Hackaday hasn’t started advertising shoes, this is [Matlek’s]
foot controller
for Ableton Live.
Matlek plays guitar and needed an easy way to control Ableton Live, which he uses as a looper. Ableton normally expects keyboard input, so that’s exactly what he gave it.
An old dell keyboard was gutted down to its controller board. This exposes the leads the keyboard uses to scan the key matrix. From there it is simply trial and error connecting different pins together and seeing which keys are printed on the PC screen (A text editor works well for this). Only 8 characters are needed to control the looper, so [Matlek] chose digits 1-8.
Since some of the wires are going to be sharing pins, a small piece of stripboard comes in handy between the buttons and the keyboard controller. [Maltek] used basic momentary push buttons for his mini key matrix, though we think that box looks sturdy enough to support some larger stomp box style buttons.
Everything comes together inside a sturdy shoebox, which also serves to insulate the exposed keyboard PCB from shorting out.
The only major downside to the project is that the box is light enough that it slides easily on the floor when recording or triggering loops. Adding some heavy items (or dare we say, some shoes) would solve this problem. Self adhesive rubber feet on the bottom of the box would help too. | 5 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "1058528",
"author": "bobfeg",
"timestamp": "2013-09-14T23:02:16",
"content": "That’s cool.I would have used a tiny85 running VUSB to mimic a keyboard.It’s easy to hook 8 buttons to a tiny even though only 6 IO pinsare available.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies"... | 1,760,376,457.49373 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/09/16/hackaday-is-going-to-the-nyc-maker-faire/ | Hackaday Is Going To The NYC Maker Faire! | Brian Benchoff | [
"Featured"
] | [
"maker faire",
"NYC Maker Faire",
"World Maker Faire"
] | In just a few short days, the greatest hackers and makers from all around the globe will
descend on the Hall of Science in New York City
to show off their wares. Our new guy [Adam] and myself will also be there, giving these makers our unending support, putting up a few posts about what they built, and giving out some Hackaday swag.
You may remember last year Hackaday got a free ride to Maker Faire thanks to
the Red Bull Creation Contest
. We put up a lot of posts and attempted to make some videos of all these great projects. I’d call those efforts a success, but the videos were
pretty much inaudible
thanks to how freakin’ loud Maker Faire is (and yes, we had a good shotgun mic). This time around we’ll drop the videos and go with a more traditional format. Expect a whole lot of Maker Faire posts on Hackaday Sept. 21 & 22.
If you’re going to the NYC Maker Faire and you see someone in a Hackaday T-shirt, say hi and we’ll give out some stickers. If you’re really cool (and we haven’t run out of them), we’ll throw in a T-shirt.
Since I’ll be around the NYC area that weekend, it’s also possible to do a few
Hackerspace Tours
for makerlabs in the tri-state area. If you’re part of a Hackerspace somewhere around NYC,
send me an email
and I’ll figure out how make that work. Bonus points to anyone who invites me to a
Breaking Bad
party, | 9 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "1059318",
"author": "StevenD",
"timestamp": "2013-09-16T12:29:49",
"content": "Loud is right! Even with our small Ottawa Maker Faire with just 50 makers, I could record only at the few booths that were open before the fair started each day. That loudness is all good though, like a h... | 1,760,376,457.594051 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/09/16/disarm-turning-guns-into-a-mechanised-musical-orchestra/ | Disarm: Turning Guns Into A Mechanised Musical Orchestra | James Hobson | [
"Weapons Hacks"
] | [
"Disarm",
"musical instrument",
"non-lethal weapon",
"Pedro Reyes"
] | [Pedro Reyes] is a visual artist who lives in Mexico City. His most recent project was called
‘Disarm’ – a unique exhibit that combined dismantled weapons with sculpture and technology
.
The army in Mexico seizes firearms on a regular basis and they are typically either buried or destroyed. But this time a friend working for the National Crime Prevention Commission thought to ask [Pedro] if he could use them for something. A few hundred non-functional guns later, and [Pedro] has a fully automated mechanical orchestra. The articles don’t go into much information about how it works, but it looks like solenoids are mostly utilized to actuate the various instruments. The entire setup is then controlled by a computer, but there’s not much information on the interface design.
When asked about the project, [Pedro] explained his reasoning: “The beautiful thing about ‘Disarm’ as a project is that it combines music, with sculpture, and at the same time, with technology. This is the redemption of metal that could have taken your life or mine. So they are better as musical instruments.”
Watch the 8 minute documentary on ‘Disarm’ by the Creators Project after the break. The weapon-based orchestra sounds pretty good!
This isn’t the first time he’s made something different out of firearms. Culiacán is a city in western Mexico that has one of the highest rates of gun related deaths in the country. So in 2008 he ran a project called
Palas por Pistolas (Shovels for Guns)
, where they collected over 1500 firearms from the people of Culiacán and melted them down and then forged them into shovels to help a botanical initiative. The people trading guns in received vouchers that they could use to buy electronics or household appliances.
[via
adafruit
] | 45 | 13 | [
{
"comment_id": "1059211",
"author": "Eirinn",
"timestamp": "2013-09-16T08:30:40",
"content": "Very well done – the music is all right too. Especially since it’s a robotic orchestra. I like the message too. Violence is bad in Mexico, glad to see a happy highlight. Also o fully expect this thread to ... | 1,760,376,457.391752 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/09/15/hackaday-links-september-15-2013/ | Hackaday Links: September 15, 2013 | Mike Szczys | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"Hackaday links"
] | [
"beer",
"coffee table",
"Crowd Funding",
"decors",
"DS1052E",
"led matrix",
"msp430",
"peephole",
"scale"
] | First a quick announcement. We changed our “Kickstarter” category to “
Crowd Funding
“. We get a huge number of tips about crowd funding projects. We’re always interested in details. If you’re trying to get your crowd funding campaign on our front page make sure you’ve shared as many gritty project details (development process, problems/successes along the way, etc.) as possible . We usually prefer if this is done in a separate blog post from the campaign page itself.
Here’s
a peephole hack
that purportedly cost four grand. It uses a full on DSLR for the peephole hardware. Add a motion sensor and maybe you’ll be able to learn the faces of the neighbors who live on your floor. [via
Gizmodo
]
[Matthias] tells us that support for Rigol DS1052E oscilloscopes has been included in the 3.11 version of the Linux Kernel. Prior to this, getting the hardware to
work on Linux was a hack
, and
a buggy one
at that. For what it’s worth, here’s
confirmation that support was added
.
A post about
reverse engineering the FitBit Aria Wi-Fi scale
was sent in by [Christopher]. This makes us wonder if you could
patch into a digital scale
, using your own electronics to spoof the FitBit version?
We always keep our paperboard six-pack carriers so that we have a way to transport our homebrew beer. But rolling into a party with
this laser-cut beer caddy
which [Daniel] designed looks a lot cooler.
Texas Instruments has an
MSP430 Selection Guide
(PDF) which we found interesting. The first nine pages or so are pretty much just marketing, but several pages of parametric tables found after that make for a great collection of data on the hardware families. [via
Dangerous Prototypes
]
[Antoine] spared no expense building
a coffee table that showcases his old motherboards
. The illuminated glass and wood art piece rang in at around $400 in materials. We’re a little more minimalist with our home decor. We still want something along the lines of
this LED matrix version
.
Speaking of LED matrices, [Mario] dropped off a link to
his LED Space Invaders game
in the comments of last week’s
Game of Light post
. What we can’t figure out is why so many people hesitate to
send in a tip
about their awesome projects? | 10 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "1058939",
"author": "Chris C.",
"timestamp": "2013-09-15T23:15:01",
"content": "From the peephole hack:“One thing to think about is if you live outside this may not work for you.”Technically, if you live outside, you don’t have a front door.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
... | 1,760,376,457.990885 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/09/15/turning-a-raspi-into-adblock/ | Turning A Raspi Into AdBlock | Brian Benchoff | [
"Raspberry Pi"
] | [
"adblock",
"raspberry pi"
] | There’s nothing quite as annoying as seeing bandwidth wasted on unimpressive flash animations, irrelevant ads, and animated GIFs. The bad news is these ads are the sole source of income for a lot of your favorite websites – Hackaday included. The good news is
you can turn these ads off
with a Raspberry Pi, a WiFi adapter, and a little bit of fun in the terminal.
This build creates a wireless access point with a WiFi adapter plugged in to a Raspberry Pi. With an Ethernet cable plugged in, this effectively turns the Raspi into a wireless router.
To configure the software to block ads, it’s a simple matter of installing dnsmasq from the command line and making sure all the ads on your favorite webpages time out. This means a fairly big hit on the performance of your new DIY router, but with the installation of
Pixelserv
you can host a 1-pixel transparent GIF image that replaces all the ads and renders them invisible.
It’s a great project if you don’t like watching ads on your PS3, XBox, tablet, or other non-PC Internetting device. If people stealing your wireless connection is a problem, it shouldn’t be hard to
make every image upside down or blurry
for those rogue WiFi pirates. | 42 | 17 | [
{
"comment_id": "1058896",
"author": "jwrm22",
"timestamp": "2013-09-15T21:24:26",
"content": "For my browser (FF) I’ts still best to use an addon. For any other non-PC devices its a great hack. Also nice to read about the different block possibilities.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"... | 1,760,376,458.766708 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/09/15/the-easy-or-hard-way-to-build-a-pwm-dimmer/ | The Easy Or Hard Way To Build A PWM Dimmer | Brian Benchoff | [
"classic hacks"
] | [
"555",
"dimmer",
"mosfet",
"pwm"
] | From what you would gather from Hackaday’s immense library of builds and projects over several years, the only way to do PWM is with a microcontroller, some code, a full-blown IDE, or even a real-time operating system. To some readers, we’re sure, this comes naturally and with an awesome toolchain it can be as easy as screwing in a light bulb. There is, of course,
an easier way
.
[Jestin] needed to vary the current on a small 12 Volt load. Instead of digging out an in system programmer, he turned to the classic 555 chip. With a single pot, it’s easy to vary the duty cycle of the 555 and connect that to a MOSFET. Put a load in there, and you have a very easy circuit that’s a fully functioning PWM dimmer.
If all you have are a few scraps in your part drawers, this is a very, very easy way to set up a dimmer switch. We’re also loving [Jestin]’s improv aluminum tube enclosure, as seen in the video below.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JJ-Kus7d57A&w=580] | 38 | 19 | [
{
"comment_id": "1058879",
"author": "hipcatcoolcap",
"timestamp": "2013-09-15T20:20:28",
"content": "Its easy to overlook analogue parts in today’s world of microcontrollers. But learning about timers, op amps, and regulators, you can really extend the possibilities of your uC. IMHO of course.",
... | 1,760,376,458.49731 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/09/15/tiny-chess-playing-computer/ | Tiny Chess Playing Computer | James Hobson | [
"Microcontrollers"
] | [
"chess",
"computer chess",
"creative commons",
"Mark Owen",
"microcontroller chess"
] | We have covered many chess computers in the past, but we think this might just be the smallest. Enter the PIC Blitz:
A tiny low-cost low-power computer that can play lightning chess.
It’s based on a PIC16F628A microcontroller, which only has 3.5kbytes of flash and a mere 224 bytes of RAM. For comparison,
Boris (one of the first consumer chess computers)
, utilized an 8-bit microprocessor with 2.5 kbytes of ROM and 256 bytes of RAM.
PIC Blitz has a full fledged chess library: it knows all the moves, all the basic openings and even changes its evaluation function weights as the game progresses to keep the game interesting. The creator [Mark Owen] quips about some of the additional techniques he utilized to make up for the limited processing power; including “pondering time”, a difficult and slow user interface, and of course, a barely-comprehensible LCD.
If you’re interested he has released the files under Creative Commons, and has a link to the PCB layout on the project page – we won’t link it directly though, since it goes straight to a download.
[Thanks Martin!] | 8 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "1058857",
"author": "Nico Verduin",
"timestamp": "2013-09-15T19:07:51",
"content": "Sounds much like the chess program I used to have on my KIM-1 in 1977",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1058887",
"author": "Chuck Peddle",
... | 1,760,376,458.426932 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/09/15/3d-printed-injection-molds/ | 3D Printed Injection Molds | James Hobson | [
"3d Printer hacks"
] | [
"3d printed injection mold",
"3dprinting",
"Budapest University",
"injection molding",
"stratasys"
] | A team at Budapest University has successfully created a functional
injection mold for prototyping by using a Stratasys 3D printer
.
Prototype injection molds are expensive. They are typically machined out of steel or aluminum which is both costly and time consuming, due to the complex geometries of most molds. [Dr. Jozsef Gabor Kovacs] works in the Department of Polymer Engineering at Budapest University, which is where he came up with the innovative approach of using 3D printing to produce a prototype mold.
The mold was printed in Digital ABS PolyJet Photopolymer plastic using a Objet Connex 3D printer. The injection material used was polyacetal; which has a fairly low melting point of 175°C. By using this method they were able to go from a prototype mold to a test part in less than 24 hours. We don’t even want to think about how expensive that would be to expedite from a machine shop.
After the break you can watch the entire production process from printing to molding.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=weiVuCcXbzk
[via
adafruit
] | 28 | 12 | [
{
"comment_id": "1058844",
"author": "robogreg",
"timestamp": "2013-09-15T18:14:42",
"content": "This is great, as long as you have the $250,000 3D printer they used and the injection molding machine. Also the material used to print the mold is ~$1200 per 3.3 kg container.Yes it is a great developme... | 1,760,376,458.558034 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/09/14/repurposing-a-ceiling-fan-into-a-pottery-wheel/ | Repurposing A Ceiling Fan Into A Pottery Wheel | Todd Harrison | [
"how-to"
] | [
"ceiling fan",
"clay",
"fan",
"fan motor",
"pottery",
"pottery wheel"
] | The wheel goes round and round as does [Lou Wozniak]. He’s come back to us, this time hacking together a pottery wheel from a cheap ceiling fan. This is a great use for a discarded or inexpensive fan and the build should cost less than $50. As you watch the video you learn that
repurposing the ceiling fan was no simple feat
. Lucky for us [Lou] spins through detailed construction procedures and doesn’t fail to cover every tip and trick. He really does think outside the box or should we say inside the bucket and peanut butter jar. The fan gets dismantled as well as rewired inside a 5 gallon bucket which is used as the pottery wheel housing and stand. A plastic peanut butter jar was used as a makeshift electrical junction box inside the bucket. He remounted the motor’s string operated speed switch on the side of the jar and routed the pull string out the side of the bucket. The fan motor should have three or four switch speed settings which might be enough control. If continuous variable speed control is desired he could add in a controller similar to [Ben Krasnow’s]
AC controller using one pin on a microcontroller
.
UPDATE:
[AKA the A] tells us in a comment below that this controller won’t work with a ceiling fan, but we still really like [Ben’s] project so we’re leaving this link here.
Most potters use significant amounts of water to wet the clay while they throw, so we have reservations about having the high voltages and open motor design directly under the wheel with no shielding. We know [Lou] could easily hack in a splash pan and of course always plug into a ground fault protected receptacle when using electrical appliances around water.
We do get to see the wheel in operation at the end of the video, which you can watch after the break. However, [Lou] makes no claims at being a pottery artisan.
Discarded ceiling fans have sparked more than one hacker’s imagination when a custom drive platform is needed. Check out how [Jeremiah] used a GoPro and a ceiling fan to create Matrix movie style footage in “
Bullet time with a ceiling fan
” | 29 | 12 | [
{
"comment_id": "1058393",
"author": "AKA the A",
"timestamp": "2013-09-14T16:21:55",
"content": "The “AC controller” from the link uses a triac, which will control jack shit with an induction motor the fan uses, this would only work for a series wound (also known as universal, since they don’t care... | 1,760,376,458.387878 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/09/14/organizing-transistors/ | Organizing Transistors | Brian Benchoff | [
"hardware",
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"TraID",
"transistor"
] | Late last year, [matseng] set up an interesting challenge for himself: design a new PCB every week, send it off to a fab house, and build a new project. It’s a grueling endeavor, but some of these projects are actually very useful and cool. One of the best so far
is the TraId
– a board that identifies a transistor type and pinout with a nice LED interface.
This build was partly inspired by Dangerous Prototypes’
Part Ninja
, a board that determines the pinouts and values of transistors, resistors, caps, and diodes. The TraId is a much more cut down version usable only for transistors, displaying the orientation of the pins and type of transistor on a set of 8 LEDs.
Although the design is very sparse, we could imagine something like this being very useful in a hackerspace, lab, or anywhere else the gremlins of chaos come to reorganize parts drawers. If you’d like to build your own, all the required files
are up on the gits
. | 10 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "1058391",
"author": "RicoElectrico",
"timestamp": "2013-09-14T16:05:42",
"content": "This could be modified for testing SMD transistors. These suckers don’t even have a full part number marked on them! I’d rather use a strong magnifying glass than hope the on line catalogs happen to... | 1,760,376,458.308634 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/09/13/a-23-feet-tall-pyramid-with-0-31-mile-of-led-strips/ | A 23 Feet Tall Pyramid With 0.31 Mile Of LED Strips | Mathieu Stephan | [
"LED Hacks"
] | [
"beaglebone",
"burning man",
"Disorient Camp",
"LED display",
"Teensy"
] | This year the Disorient Camp at Burning Man built a
7m tall pyramid
with over half a kilometer of LED strips. For this special occasion several artists had developed patterns for this massive LED display, animating the parties happening every night in front of this build.
To handle the dusty environment, a Toughbook was running the pyramid’s main code, which was rendering the animation frames to 24-bit bitmaps and sending them over UDP to the network. For each face of the pyramid, a $45 BeagleBone Black running a
dedicated program
was slicing the images into the individual panels. Finally, each panel composed of eight WS281x LED strips was driven by a Teensy 3.0 microcontroller, receiving the piece to display by USB from the BeagleBone. To power the pyramid, 5V 40A power supplies were used for the tall panels, 5V 30A power supplies for the smaller ones.
Unsurprisingly, many of the power supplies failed due to the heat and dust. The adhesive holding the LED strips also failed, and some screw terminals rattled loose from the 25KW sound system, requiring constant maintenance. Nevertheless, the sixteen thousand LEDs sure made quite an impression.
If anyone attending Burning Man managed to capture video of this thing in action we’d love to see it. Leave a link in the comments. | 23 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "1057892",
"author": "hue",
"timestamp": "2013-09-13T21:14:04",
"content": "OP did in fact have two videos of this in action…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1057933",
"author": "the old rang",
"timestamp": "201... | 1,760,376,458.61878 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/09/13/students-build-a-3d-printed-plane/ | Students Build A 3D Printed Plane | James Hobson | [
"3d Printer hacks"
] | [
"3d printed plane",
"3d printed rc plane",
"3d printing",
"makerbot",
"rc plane",
"Wright brothers",
"wright brothers institute"
] | A student team has successfully designed, built, and flown a
3D printed RC plane
using only $16 of plastic with a consumer-grade 3D printer (Makerbot), plus the necessary electronics and motor.
The folks over at the Wright Brothers Institute (WBI) have a great program called the
AFRL Discovery Lab
which brings teams of students, businesses, researchers, and government together to work on a specific challenge or opportunity.
One of the programs this year was the
Disposable Miniature Air Vehicle, or DMAV for short
. The student interns [Nathan, Ben, and Brian] spent the first 5 weeks at
Tec^Edge
designing the plane. The team went through 5 revisions before they settled on a design they believed could fly. The final plane weighed 1.5 pounds, and on its first flight… plummeted into the ground. Good thing they printed a second copy! After some more practice [Stephen] got the hang of it and was able to fly and land the plane successfully.
According to the WBI, this is the first functional aircraft that has been fully 3D printed (sans electronics) using FDM technology, and the first low wing 3D printed plane to be flown. Hate to burst their bubble, but 3D printed quadcopters have been around for quite a while!
Test flight video is after the break.
[Thanks Geeks Anonymouse] | 33 | 12 | [
{
"comment_id": "1057812",
"author": "Bob Nichie",
"timestamp": "2013-09-13T19:20:35",
"content": "http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:86982this was posted to thingiverse may 2013.DMAV first flight is dated July 2013. Looks like the ‘first printed plane’ claim might be inaccurate.",
"parent_id": n... | 1,760,376,458.690683 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/09/13/a-bitcoin-vending-machine/ | A Bitcoin Vending Machine | Marsh | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"bitcoin",
"github",
"hackerspace",
"vending machine"
] | Accessibility is one of the biggest hurdles facing the Bitcoin revolution, so [Mathias] found a way to give BTCs some market penetration by
converting an old condom vending machine
. The machine was 30 years old and required some clean up. [Mathias] also worked in a plywood adapter that attaches to the mount on the back so it can install on a wider variety of surfaces. This is an electricity-free alternative to selling coins: the machine is purely mechanical and it vends custom-made vouchers rather than the coins themselves, which you then redeem on
the Kondocoin website
.
The transaction isn’t as instant or snazzy as
the Bitcoin briefcase converter
from Defcon this year, but it still provides the advantage of an up-to-date exchange rate, as the vouchers themselves are valued at amount of Euros spent rather than a set amount of coins. The exchange rate is consulted later, when you punch in your voucher key. [Mathias] wants to share the wealth, too, and offers up
the server software on github
along with a detailed explanation of the process. | 21 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "1057741",
"author": "Yarr",
"timestamp": "2013-09-13T18:02:42",
"content": "I call shenanigans, this machine doesn’t make houses catch on fire or give people heatstroke…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1057759",
"author": "e... | 1,760,376,458.823865 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/09/13/ask-hackaday-can-we-do-better-than-phonebloks/ | Ask Hackaday: Can We Do Better Than Phonebloks? | Marsh | [
"Ask Hackaday",
"Cellphone Hacks"
] | [
"CellPhones",
"design",
"design ideas",
"phonebloks"
] | Our tips line is on
fire
with suggestions for us to cover the
modular cell phone concept named Phonebloks
. The phone’s designer states the problem as follows:
A phone only lasts a couple of years before it breaks or becomes obsolete. Although it’s often just one part which killed it we throw everything away since it’s almost impossible to repair or upgrade.
His solution is the above pictured phone, with modular components for each feature: wifi, camera, battery, etc. Rather than upgrade your entire phone, upgrade just the parts you need. A wave of followers have thrown their support behind this concept, and perhaps their hearts are in the right place hoping to reduce waste and cost. Behind the scenes here at Hackaday, however, the response has been a unanimous facepalm. The primary objection (other than design implausibilities) should be obvious: dividing the phone into exchangeable bits does not inherently reduce waste. Those bits have to go somewhere.
Now, don’t rush to the comments section to identify additional problems; there’s a
juicy Reddit thread
for that. Instead, we want to take the high road: Can we do better? Can we make a phone for the future that is less wasteful to produce, more easily recycled, and possibly upgradable? What would be included in its features, and how would we do it? Check out a video of the concept phone and tell us your alternatives after the break. | 221 | 50 | [
{
"comment_id": "1057630",
"author": "Greg",
"timestamp": "2013-09-13T16:08:28",
"content": "The solution is simple if you don’t understand the problem. Phonebloks was obviously designed by a group of people that don’t understand the real challenges in creating a phone.",
"parent_id": null,
... | 1,760,376,459.157376 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/09/13/adding-a-display-to-a-usb-digital-scale/ | Adding A Display To A USB Digital Scale | Phillip Ryals | [
"Arduino Hacks"
] | [
"arduino",
"hd44780",
"scale"
] | [Oleg] found himself in possession of a Stamps.com Model 510 5lb digital scale. It’s a great scale, but only works as a USB HID device. In other words, it’s a digital scale without a digital display. He decided he wanted it to be more standalone, so he added a Toshiba HD44780 (compatible) display. An Arduino UNO and USB Host shield
were used to make it happen
. His sketch simply polls the scale and outputs the weight on the display.
In this case, he used the USB Host Shield from Circuits at Home, but a brief look shows they use the same MAX3421 controller chip as Sparkfun and other versions of the board. You might also be able to pull off the same functionality with an AVR running
V-USB
, though admittedly it wouldn’t be so easy.
We haven’t found a great way to add USB host mode to projects other than shields like the one [Oleg] used. If you know of a better way, share your ideas in the comments.
Of course, if this isn’t hardcore enough for you, forget using a consumer scale –
make your own from scratch
! | 16 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "1057601",
"author": "Mike Szczys",
"timestamp": "2013-09-13T15:06:14",
"content": "Phillip, welcome to the team! Nice job with your first post.I think LUFA might also support USB host mode but I’ve never tried it. I do agree that it would be more difficult (for me anyway) to get tha... | 1,760,376,459.21033 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/09/13/designspark-mechanical-the-gift-of-invention/ | DesignSpark Mechanical – The Gift Of Invention | James Hobson | [
"3d Printer hacks"
] | [
"3d modeling",
"cad",
"Computer-aided design",
"DesignSpark",
"designspark mechanical",
"free CAD",
"RS Components"
] | Ever heard of DesignSpark? They are releasing a
powerful CAD package on September 16th — for free!
The company is owned by
RS Components
, a distributor of electronics and maintenance products. They offer a large library of 3D models of parts that they sell, dubbed the
ModelSource
. So if you are wondering how they are giving out software for free, that’s how. They also have free
PCB designing software
, and something called
DesignShare
which hosts open-source project collaboration, sharing and discussions.
By the looks of the demo video, DesignSpark Mechanical is a well laid out CAD package that is rich in features. The software allows for the import and export of several file types, and it looks like ECAD, OBJ, Sketchup, STEP, DXF and STL are all there, as well as the native file types. While it looks like you can import any files, we are willing to bet adding ModelSource files are by far the easiest and most convenient because of the integrated ModelSource library. But we think that’s a small price to pay for an alternative to SketchUp. After all, the component models will be useful for assemblies, even if you don’t order through them. Oh, and it’s perfect for making free models for 3D printing as it includes the ability to export STL files.
Watch the software demo after the break.
What do you think? Will you try it, or do you want us to do a review once it is released? | 58 | 14 | [
{
"comment_id": "1057561",
"author": "Sallinen",
"timestamp": "2013-09-13T14:07:28",
"content": "Autodesk 123D sadly gets too little love in the free modelling software world :(",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1057594",
"author": "cptw... | 1,760,376,459.434562 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/09/13/motobrain-a-bluetooth-controlled-pdu/ | Motobrain: A Bluetooth Controlled PDU | Marsh | [
"Crowd Funding",
"Microcontrollers",
"Transportation Hacks"
] | [
"bluetooth",
"cars",
"motorcycle",
"pwm"
] | If you’ve ever considered modding your vehicle’s electrical system, [Josh Oster-Morris’s]
Motobrain PDU
(power distribution unit) might make life easier by providing precision control and protection for auxiliary 12V outputs in your car, bike, boat, etc. Once the Motobrain is paired to a phone over Bluetooth, a companion app displays real-time telemetry and lets you program up to 8 output channels.
Each of these 8 outputs can be directly controlled in the app, but the real power lies in the 4 programmable inputs. Here you can tie systems together and dictate exactly how one should respond to the other, e.g. detecting high-beams and disabling the auxiliary light bar you added. There’s even a “delayed on” option. Programming also has PWM capabilities, so flipping a switch could raise the brightness of some lights over 4 levels of intensity. If those lights are LEDs, the Motobrain can also provide constant current to specification. Each circuit can supposedly handle 15A continuous current and has a programmable circuit breaker, which would make fuses optional.
You can watch an overview video after the break to get a better idea of how it all works, but
stop by [Josh’s] project blog
to see all the features explained across multiple videos and blog posts as they are developed and tested. | 22 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "1057542",
"author": "imnotyourbro",
"timestamp": "2013-09-13T13:31:28",
"content": "Now this is much more relevant than the previous controlled power supply, namely, th Hydra. It costs roughly the same, but offers a lot more.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [... | 1,760,376,459.571744 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/09/13/tooth-fairy-goes-pneumatic/ | Tooth Fairy Goes Pneumatic | Marsh | [
"home hacks",
"Raspberry Pi"
] | [
"pneumatic",
"Pneumatics",
"tooth fairy"
] | Kids’ fantasy figures are long overdue for some tech upgrades, so MAKE’s [Jeff Highsmith] carved a few holes in the walls and
built a pneumatic transport system
for his children to deliver their teeth to the Tooth Fairy. The project uses a system of 1.5″ PVC pipe with a central vacuum in the attic and two endpoint stations, one in each child’s room. Alternating which station has the closed valve and open door dictates the airflow path and shuttles a small plastic travel bottle from one station to the next.
Each station has its own iPhone interface that sends data to a Raspberry Pi and relays information, including a simulated map indicating the travel path taken by the tooth. Apart from controlling the vacuum via one of the Pi’s GPIO, the phone serves primarily as a visual distraction for the children while one parent sneaks off into the other room and replaces the tooth with some pocket change. [Jeff] made sure to add a locking door on each station to limit access and hopefully keep the mystery alive.
Watch his son’s face light up with sheer glee at the whole event in the video below, and regret that your childhood happened before the maker revolution. Then celebrate your adulthood with a
beer fetching robot
. | 33 | 21 | [
{
"comment_id": "1057480",
"author": "J",
"timestamp": "2013-09-13T11:21:43",
"content": "That’s really cool.Kind of overkill with the ‘old iPhones’ though, those would still be worth quite a lot – someone might like to use it, or you can sell them to buy new materials from.",
"parent_id": null,... | 1,760,376,459.646801 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/09/12/digital-camera-becomes-video-transmitter/ | Digital Camera Becomes Video Transmitter | Brian Benchoff | [
"digital cameras hacks",
"Radio Hacks"
] | [
"chdk",
"radio",
"slow scan",
"SSDV"
] | In the arena of high altitude balloons, Canon’s PowerShot series of digicams are the camera du jour for sending high into the stratosphere. There’s a particular reason for this: these cameras can run the very capable CHDK firmware that turns a $100 digicam into a camera with a built-in intervalometer along with a whole bunch of really cool features. It appears this CHDK firmware is much more powerful than we imagined, because [Chris]
is now transmitting pictures taken from a Canon a530 to the ground
, using only the CHDK firmware and a cheap radio module.
These PowerShot cameras have an ARM processor inside that runs VxWorks, a minimal but very capable OS for embedded devices and Mars rovers. By tying in to the Tx and Rx lines of the camera, [Chris] can issue commands to the OS, change settings, and even install his own code.
With the help of [Phil Heron]’s SSDV encoder written in C, [Chris] was able to get the camera to transmit images
with a small radio transmitter
that fits in the battery compartment. Right now, [Chris] has only built the CHDK + SSDV for the Canon a530, but with how useful this build is, we expect to see an improved version very shortly. | 21 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "1057176",
"author": "Jeremy Cook",
"timestamp": "2013-09-13T01:07:00",
"content": "That is really cool. I don’t know why cameras don’t include intervalometer functions to begin with. I guess it’s a matter of price or simplicity.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replie... | 1,760,376,459.504404 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/09/12/the-arduino-yun-yun-means-cloud/ | The Arduino YUN. YUN Means Cloud. | Brian Benchoff | [
"Arduino Hacks",
"News"
] | [
"arduino",
"Arduino Yun",
"wifi"
] | For the longest time, the creators of the Arduino have been looking at how to bring the Arduino platform into the cloud. Ethernet and WiFi shields technically work, but if you’re processing data scraped from a web page, a lowly microcontroller really isn’t the best option. Enter the
Arduino YUN
. At its core, it’s a regular old Arduino Leonardo. Underneath that metal plate on the board? That’s an SoC running Linux.
Basically, the Linux side of the Yun is pretty similar to a WiFi router running OpenWRT. There’s a USB port for plugging in peripherals, native WiFi support (802.11n, even!), an Ethernet connector, and enough RAM to do all the interesting stuff a small computer connected to the Internet can do.
To make all this web programming easier for Arduino neophytes, the YUN also includes a ‘bridge’ library that automates HTTP transactions between the Linux and microcontroller sides of the YUN. There’s also support for
Temboo
, an SDK for dozens of APIs that interact with Facebook, Dropbox, FedEx, and hundreds of other web services.
Below you can check out [Massimo] and [David] showing off their wares and going over how the YUN connects to the Internet and interacts with the microcontroller over the ‘bridge’. It’s an interesting device, and something we’ll surely check out at the World Maker Faire. | 95 | 23 | [
{
"comment_id": "1057022",
"author": "lloyd",
"timestamp": "2013-09-12T21:11:42",
"content": "Seems like either complete overkill, or a massive waste of computing time/power.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1057074",
"author": "F",
... | 1,760,376,459.337889 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/09/12/fail-of-the-week-laser-cutter-that-makes-jagged-edges/ | Fail Of The Week: Laser Cutter That Makes Jagged Edges | Mike Szczys | [
"cnc hacks",
"Fail of the Week",
"Hackaday Columns"
] | [
"cnc",
"dvd drive",
"fail of the week",
"laser",
"laser cutter",
"optical drive",
"stepper motor"
] | This Fail of the Week is really only a failure because of the standards to which [eLabz] holds himself. The rig pictured above is a laser cutter built out of DVD drive parts. It goes above and beyond most of the optical drive CNC projects we see around here — it actually makes cuts! But [eLabz] looks on it as a failure because
the steps of the driver motors are visible as jagged edges in those cuts
. We see this more as a pausing point in the development process before the next refinement is made.
First off, look really closely at the assembly to the left. This is responsible for the X-axis and a very keen eye will have noticed there are two sets of DVD lens sleds stacked on top of one another. This design allows the laser to travel twice as far (a whopping three inches in this particular case). Here’s a rendered video that was made to help visualize how this would work before building it:
You have to admit this is pretty sweet! But renders are nothing, it actually exists too. The double x-axis and the single y-axis are both used to move the laser diode, meaning the work piece is stationary. [eLabz] mentions he thinks this presents a problem because there is some play in the system. In addition to that the test piece he ran clearly shows the point at which each step of the motor was taking. The line is jagged, but with stepper motors it should be possible to have much better resolution. Right?
So where do think he went wrong? In looking back he figures he should not have used DVD parts as the tolerances just aren’t where he needs them. But he’s come so far we want to know how you’d take it the extra mile to achieve the smoothest cuts possible. Join the discussion by leaving a comment below.
But first, check out a close-up video of the tandem x-axis sleds running:
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. | 45 | 20 | [
{
"comment_id": "1056954",
"author": "Garrett Galloway",
"timestamp": "2013-09-12T19:04:57",
"content": "I can’t agree with this being a fail. It is a work in progress, even stated in the write up. This does not constitute failure. This write up is the only failure here.",
"parent_id": null,
... | 1,760,376,459.737905 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/09/12/diy-heatsinking-pcbs/ | DIY Heatsinking PCBs | James Hobson | [
"how-to"
] | [
"diy electronics",
"diy pcb",
"Do it yourself",
"etchedpcb",
"Printed Circuit Board",
"silicone",
"toner transfer"
] | We have covered many do it yourself PCBs before, but
this video guide
adds an easy way to sink heat from high power devices, which we think you might find handy.
It is a very simple process that [CNLohr] uses to keep his small RGB LED projects from overheating. It starts by using a readily available silicone thermal sheet as the substrate by applying it to copper foil. He then applies a toner-transfer circuit pattern to the copper by running the pair through a
modified laminator
a few times. He makes note that you have to apply the plastic backing side of the silicone sheet to the copper foil to prevent the laminator from chewing it up.
After the typical ferric chloride etching process is complete, he then uses 220 grit sandpaper to remove the toner pattern. Often steel wool is used, but because of the sensitive nature of the silicone, sandpaper works better to avoid peeling up traces.
We have
featured [CNLohr] before
, as he does some top-notch tutorials in his workshop — which makes for both a fascinating and distracting backdrop for the videos. This one is a bit long (~20 minutes), but is very thorough and goes through the entire process from start to finish. Check it out after the break.
[Thanks Benji] | 6 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "1056908",
"author": "Rob",
"timestamp": "2013-09-12T18:07:59",
"content": "that’s remarkably clever.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1057288",
"author": "rue_mohr",
"timestamp": "2013-09-13T05:15:28",
"content": "how... | 1,760,376,459.83126 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/09/12/four-meter-light-paintings/ | Four Meter Light Paintings | Brian Benchoff | [
"digital cameras hacks",
"LED Hacks"
] | [
"carambola",
"led",
"light painting",
"RGB LED"
] | We’ve seen some light painting before – waving a microcontroller and LED strip in front of a camera is a very interesting project after all.
[Saulius]’ light painting stick
is unlike anything we’ve seen before, though. It’s huge – four meters high, and is also very flexible in the field, drawing images served up from a smart phone.
To get his pictures onto his light painting stick, [Saulius] used the very cool
Carambola
, an exceedingly small board that also runs Python. The images were converted to a 128xWhatever .BMP file served to the Carambola over WiFi with a smart phone, Since the Carambola runs Linux, sometimes a kernel interrupt would mistakenly restart the drawing process. [Saulius] found a way around that by writing the drawing code in C and wrapping that in a Python module. The speed of C and the flexibility of Python, who could ask for more.
On the project page, you can see [Saulius] pulling off some very cool light paintings. Even though the Hackaday logo is the best way to get on the front page here,
this pic
is probably the most impressive | 7 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "1056898",
"author": "Dainius Instandenious Narsutis",
"timestamp": "2013-09-12T17:52:06",
"content": "Very glad to see stuff like this comming from Lithuania, awesome idea. Well done guys!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "10571... | 1,760,376,459.787012 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/09/12/fully-automated-watering-robot-takes-a-big-leap-forward-toward-greenhouse-automation/ | Fully Automated Watering Robot Takes A Big Leap Forward Toward Greenhouse Automation | Todd Harrison | [
"green hacks",
"Robots Hacks"
] | [
"automation",
"garden",
"gardening",
"greenhouse",
"moisture",
"robot",
"sensor",
"soil",
"watering"
] | Greenhouse owners might find [David Dorhout]’s latest invention a groundbreaking green revolution! [David]’s
Aquarius robot
automates the laborious process of precision watering 90,000 square feet of potted plants. Imagine a recliner sized Roomba with a 30 gallon water tank autonomously roaming around your greenhouse performing 24×7 watering chores with absolute perfection. The Aquarius robot can do it all with three easy setups; add lines up and down the aisles on the floor for the robot to follow, set its dial to the size of your pots and maybe add a few soil moisture sensors if you want the perfect amount of water dispensed in each pot. The options include adding soil moisture sensors only between different sized plants letting Aquarius repeat the dispensing level required by the first plant’s moisture sensor for a given series.
After also
digging through
a pair of
forum posts
we learned that the bot is controlled by two Parallax propeller chips and has enough autonomous coding to open and close doors, find charging stations, fill its 30 gal water tank when low, and remember exactly where it left off between pit stops. We think dialing in the pot size could easily be eliminated using RFID pot identification tags similar in fashion to the
Science Fair Sorting Project
. Adjusting for plant and pot size as well as location might easily be automated using a vision system such as the featured
Pixy
a few weeks back. Finally, here are some featured hardware hacks for soil moisture sensing that could be incorporated into Aquarius to help remotely monitor and attend to just the plants that need attention: [Andy’s]
Garden sensors
, [Clover’s]
Moisture control for a DIY greenhouse
, [Ken_S’s]
GardenMon(itoring project)
[David Dorhout] has 14 years experience in the agriculture and biotech industry. He has a unique talent applying his mad scientist technology to save the future of mankind as seen with his earlier
Prospero robot farmer
. You can learn more about Aquarius’s features on Dorhout R&D
website
or watch the video embedded below.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZC77oN252g&w=580&h=435] | 44 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "1056801",
"author": "tgkag",
"timestamp": "2013-09-12T16:12:46",
"content": "or you could lay some pipes and control them with simple solenoid valves and PLC.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1056823",
"author": "dALE",... | 1,760,376,459.99144 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/09/12/3-sweep-turning-2d-images-into-3d-models/ | 3-Sweep: Turning 2D Images Into 3D Models | James Hobson | [
"3d Printer hacks",
"Software Development"
] | [
"3d capture",
"3d modeling",
"image processing",
"Kinect",
"siggraph"
] | As 3D printing continues to grow, people are developing more and more ways to get 3D models. From the hardware based scanners like the Microsoft Kinect to software based like 123D Catch there are a lot of ways to create a 3D model from a series of images. But what if you could make a 3D model out of a
single
image? Sound crazy? Maybe not. A team of researchers have created 3-Sweep, an interactive
technique for turning objects in 2D images into 3D models
that can be manipulated.
To be clear, the recognition of 3D components within a single image is a bit out of reach for computer algorithms alone. But by combining the cognitive abilities of a person with the computational accuracy of a computer they have been able to create a very simple tool for extracting 3D models. This is done by outlining the shape similar to how one might model in a CAD package — once the outline is complete, the algorithm takes over and creates a model.
The software was debuted at
Siggraph Asia 2013
and has caused quite a stir on the internet. Watch the fascinating video that demonstrates the software process after the break!
[via
Reddit
] | 34 | 19 | [
{
"comment_id": "1056720",
"author": "F",
"timestamp": "2013-09-12T15:15:07",
"content": "BKP Horn outlined the techniques for “shape from shading” in the seminal book “Robot Vision” published in 1986.Cognex Corp. in the mid 1980s had systems (PDP-11 based!) that were recovering object shapes from s... | 1,760,376,459.903691 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/09/12/diy-electricity-and-internet-for-burning-man/ | DIY Electricity And Internet For Burning Man | Marsh | [
"cons",
"Solar Hacks",
"Wireless Hacks"
] | [
"batteries",
"burning man",
"usb",
"wifi"
] | Despite this being [Kenneth Finnegan’s] first Burning Man, the guy came prepared and stayed connected by
setting up a beefy electricity supply and a faint yet functional internet connection
. If you saw
[Kenneth’s] Burning Man slideshow
, you know that the desert is but a mild deterrent against power, water, and even temporary runways.
He borrowed a 20V 100W solar panel from Cal Poly and picked up a bargain-price TSMT-20A solar charge controller off eBay. The controller babysits the batteries by preventing both overcharging and over-discharging. The batteries—two Trojan-105 220Ah 6V behemoths—came limping out of a scissor lift on their last legs of life: a high internal resistance ruled out large current draws. Fortunately, the power demands were low, as the majority of devices were 12VDC or USB. [Kenneth] also had conveniently
built this USB power strip
earlier in the year, which he brought along to step down to 5VDC for USB charging.
Internet in the desert, however, was less reliable. A small team provides a microwave link from civilization every summer, which is shared via open access points in 3 different camps. [Kenneth] pointed his
Ubiquiti NanoStation
at the nearest one, which provided a host of inconvenient quirks and top speeds of 2-20kBps: enough, at least, to check emails. | 19 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "1056689",
"author": "Indyaner",
"timestamp": "2013-09-12T14:22:09",
"content": "Sparkfun lately also published a video where someone talks about power supply by a solar power charger for Burning Man:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SMcMzwOOjeU",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
... | 1,760,376,460.407927 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/09/12/accelerometer-poi/ | Accelerometer Poi | Marsh | [
"LED Hacks",
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"accelerometer",
"boost converter",
"opamp",
"poi"
] | Even if you’ve never attended a rave, you have probably seen one portrayed on film or television. Those glowing spheres-on-a-string being swung around are called poi, and [Matt Keeter] has designed
a pair with an accelerometer upgrade
. Poi have a
long history
and were originally made from plants, but contemporary examples usually feature some kind of light, whether it’s fire, LEDs, or even glowsticks tied to shoelaces.
This build required double-sided PCBs and [Matt] had to custom make the protective covering that slips over the board. The poi are powered by 2 AA batteries fed into a 5V boost regulator. But wait, no microcontroller and no PWM? Actually, we think it’s quite clever that [Matt] took the output from the accelerometer and fed into an inverting amplifier. This keeps the voltage constant while allowing the accelerometer to vary the current. Had he used PWM, the fast motion of the swinging poi would instead produce a blinking effect.
An additional trimmer potentiometer accounts for variability in the accelerometers’ output by adjusting the default brightness. If the recent recap of
Burning Man
has you excitedly planning to attend next summer, you’d probably find plenty of opportunities to use these in the desert. | 15 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "1056604",
"author": "pff",
"timestamp": "2013-09-12T11:30:21",
"content": "How fast do you have to spin before the blinking is noticable for PWM control, has anyone tried it?I would have thought that the microcontroller would give your arm a run for its money.I do prefer the op-amp ... | 1,760,376,460.351501 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/09/11/nes-nixie-entertainment-system/ | NES: Nixie Entertainment System | Marsh | [
"Arduino Hacks",
"Nintendo Hacks",
"Raspberry Pi"
] | [
"console",
"emulators",
"nixie",
"nixie clock"
] | [Bradley W. Lewis] is no stranger to Nixie clock builds, and he felt his latest commission was missing something. Instead of merely mounting the Nixie clock into a case resembling an NES console, he
goes full tilt and makes it into an NES console emulator.
After some work on the milling machine, a wooden box has room to squeeze in a few new components. [Bradley] originally planned to mount only an Arduino with an ArduNIX shield to handle the Nixie clock, but the emulator demands some space saving. Flipping the Arduino on its side freed up plenty of room and the shield still easily connects to the adjacent Nixie tube board.
A Raspberry Pi serves as the console emulator and was mounted close to the side of the case to allow access to its HDMI port. The other ports from both the Arduino and RasPi stick out of the back, including an extension to the Pi’s RCA video out and buttons to set both the hour and minutes of the clock. The two surplus NES buttons on the front of the case control power to the RasPi and provide a reset function for the Nixie clock.
If that isn’t enough Nixie to satisfy you, check out the
WiFi Nixie counter
. | 10 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "1056216",
"author": "Hirudinea",
"timestamp": "2013-09-11T21:41:02",
"content": "Mom: “Do you how long you’ve been playing that blankety-blank Nintendo?”Kid: “Yes MOTHER, exactly!”Nice job, just the nixie clock would have been enough of a hack for more people but then Nintendo emula... | 1,760,376,460.603888 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/09/11/3d-printering-key-patents/ | 3D Printering: Key Patents | Brian Benchoff | [
"Hackaday Columns"
] | [
"3D Printering",
"patents"
] | Here’s a little tip about tech blogs, and journalism in general: absolutely everything you read is one hundred percent true, except in the cases where you – the reader – know anything about the story being discussed. Those stores on Wired and CNet where a device using an ARM Cortex-M3 is described as having, “the same CPU as a modern-day smart phone?” Totally legit, unless you know that running Android on such a chip is a virtual impossibility.
Such is the case with ‘key 3D printing patents set to expire in 2014’ –
a phrase
bandied
about
tech blogs
with the fervency
of news
the seventh seal
has been
broken
. If you believe everything you read on the Internet, we’re looking at a world of 3D printed lollipops, unicorns, and rainbows in just a few short months. Following the logic of journalistic veracity above, this obviously isn’t the case. What does the expiration of these patents actually mean, then?
Let’s Back Up A Bit Here
The current crop of 3D printers use fused deposition modelling, FDM, or the ‘squirting melted plastic’ method. This technique
was patented in 1989
by [Scott Crump], co-founder of Stratasys, one of the largest manufacturers of 3D printers. This patent expired in 2009, and there’s no coincidence 3D printing really started to pick up around that time with
the development of the Reprap Mendel
and the founding of what was previously the Open Hardware community’s golden child,
Makerbot
.
If past results are any indication of future performance, the expiration of these key 3D printing patents will result in yet another boom in the field of one-off manufacturing, rapid prototyping, and some really cool projects coming out of hackerspaces in the next year or two.
And Here Are The Patents
The ‘
key patents
‘ (just search for
[Carl R. Deckard]
as the inventor if you want more) referenced by hundreds of articles spread out all over the Internet involve selective laser sintering. What is SLS, you ask?
It’s actually pretty simple
: take some powder, shoot it with a laser, let the powder melt, and put a dusting of new powder over the mess you just created. You can use a wide range of plastics with SLS compared to the FDM Repraps and Makerbots we have today; you can even print in metal and
make yourself a rocket engine
. If
NASA is doing it
, it has to be awesome, right?
So What Makes SLS So Great?
Even though the current lineup of ‘squirting plastic’ printers is fairly capable and can do a lot in the right hands, there’s some stuff an FDM machine such as a RepRap or Makerbot can’t do. Overhangs are
possible
, but for very intricate shapes – a one foot tall scale model of the Eiffel Tower, perhaps – you’re looking at a world of hurt. The only way an FDM machine could print something like that is with two filaments, using one material as a support and later dissolving it away.
The same goes with printing parts inside parts like the popular
‘ball in a cage’ carving project
. No squirting plastic 3D printer can do this without supports, but an SLS machine makes it very, very easy.
SLS also allows for many, many different materials. While most FDM machines will not see a filament besides ABS and PLA, laser sintering machines can print in just about any powder that melts. Everything from nylon to polycarbonate to metals are possible with laser sintering.
Finally. lasers allow for much higher accuracy than the most common 3D printers. While very accurate FDM machines can print with an accuracy equal to that of a human hair, this isn’t the case for the majority of RepRappers out there. SLS simply doesn’t have the problems of oozing and misaligned layers so common in home-built printers.
Why You Won’t Have an SLS Printer in Your Garage
Oversimplifying everything a great deal, these printers are basically made of two parts: a laser cutter on top, and a plunger and roller system to build up parts layer by layer below. Simple enough, right? Let’s just do some back-of-the envelope calculations on how much it would cost to build our own SLS printer.
First things first. We’re going to need something that moves a laser beam around on an XY plane. Here’s
a fantastic Open Source laser cutter
that does just that. The BOM lists the component costs (minus a laser tube) at about $850. Throw in an eBay CO2 laser tube from China, and you’re looking at a fully functioning laser cutter for just about $1100. That’s awesome, even though it’s right about in line with the cheap, smaller-capacity Chinese-made laser cutters you can get via the usual channels for about the same price.
That’s half of our build right there. Now all we need is some sort of roller to dispense the powder and a plunger mechanism to build a part layer by layer. This is where things get a little more difficult. You’re probably going to need some sort of sheet metal build tank to hold all that powder, and the plunger will need to work at some fairly tight tolerances. The roller is simple, but you’ll also need some way to (somewhat) evenly spread the powder in front of the roller. In the end, you’ll probably looking at around $2000-$3000 for a low-end, home built SLS printer.
The electron gun of the MetallicaRap project
Here’s the problem, though: we’re around the price point of a Makerbot or Ultimaker – both proven machines – and an SLS machine is not going to be that much better. You’re still basically only working with plastics, and while you don’t have to deal with support structures on our DIY laser 3D printer, you’re not doing anything that can’t already be done with a stereolithography printer like the resin-based
Form 1 printer
for the same price.
As for printing in metals, that’s a pipe dream for any machine cheaper than a car. Sintering metal with a laser requires a vacuum chamber, diffusion pumps, and some very hard core equipment to do it right. Not to mention you won’t be able to melt any appreciable amount of metal with a 40 Watt laser. While there has been some progress with a similar project called
MetallicaRap
, the MetallicaRap team estimates their final kit will cost about €10,000, out of the range of just about every hobbyist or hackerspace.
By the way, the MetallicaRap project is really awesome and you should
think about a small donation
to the project.
Basically, if you don’t know how to build an electron microscope or fusion reactor in your basement, you don’t have the skill set to design a machine that can print a usable metal part.
If not homebrew, then what?
The reason everyone is so excited by the expiration of ‘key patents’ is the fact that other large companies besides 3D systems – Stratasys and Zcorp, for example – will be able to manufacture their own SLS printers. That’s great and all, but even 3D systems, the maker of these SLS printers
only use them for their professional range
. The bulk of professional printers produced by these companies use a method similar to SLS – using an inkjet to spray binder onto powder – but this isn’t covered by the SLS patents.
If anything, the expiration of these key patents will mean a reduction in cost for the very,
very
high end printers. The stuff NASA uses. Of course a few large companies will be using this tech for custom, one-off parts, but don’t expect to see any laser sintered parts show up in your car’s engine any time soon. Remember, 3D printing and rapid manufacturing is only ideal when you need to make a handful of parts. Anything more, and you’re better off with traditional manufacturing methods.
In Closing…
Will the expiration of key 3D printing patents in 2014 change anything in the arena of 3D printing? Well, large, already established 3D printer manufacturers will be putting out cheaper printers that can print in metal. You’ll be able to buy
a 3D printed rocket engine
for a few hundred dollars instead of a few thousand. Once Shapeways gets their hands on one of these machines, you’ll probably see a few
extremely tiny internal combustion engines
built by hobbyists. There will probably be a flood of combination 3D printer / laser cutter machines on Kickstarter. Other than that? It’s going to be cool, but patent expirations aren’t going to change the world overnight. | 60 | 31 | [
{
"comment_id": "1056179",
"author": "isama",
"timestamp": "2013-09-11T20:02:43",
"content": "Thanks for the great writeup :)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1056181",
"author": "Liam Jackson",
"timestamp": "2013-09-11T20:09:08",
"co... | 1,760,376,460.558954 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/09/11/game-of-light/ | Game Of Light | Marsh | [
"Arduino Hacks",
"LED Hacks"
] | [
"arduino",
"games",
"led matrix"
] | Hyperrealistic graphics may be the standard for gaming, but
Game of Light
(Warning: Loud video volume) is a welcomed detour into vivid, low-res delight. Built for a course at the University of Oslo by [Abdimaalik], [Martin], [Andre], [Eivind], and [Stian], Game of Light has a handful game options, some of which allow up to four players. The build uses eight DE-DP14211 LED dot matrix boards, each with 32×16 bi-color LEDs and a built-in HT1632C display controller to handle the multiplexing. They are mounted together to form the 64×64 resolution display.
The box was custom-made out of what we suspect is acrylic, and uses some 3D printed pieces to offset the top from the bottom and to hold components in place. SNES controllers send data to the Arduino, which also runs the games and feeds the display controllers. Buried in the mix are two fans to keep the components cool. Everything is open source, so race to
Github for source code and the games
.
For another LED matrix project with a lot of gaming potential, check out [Brad’s]
PS2 mouse interface
that lets him interactively draw in real-time.
[via
Brad’s Projects
and
NudaTech
] | 15 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "1056132",
"author": "zosh",
"timestamp": "2013-09-11T18:10:05",
"content": "Warning: Turn down the volume before starting the video. They have a firm grip on the visuals, on the audio levels … not so much.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"co... | 1,760,376,460.459441 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/09/11/123d-circuits-autodesks-free-design-tool/ | 123D Circuits: Autodesk’s Free Design Tool | Marsh | [
"Arduino Hacks"
] | [
"arduino",
"autodesk",
"circuits",
"circuits.io",
"fritzing"
] | Arduino fanatics rejoice: Autodesk and Circuits.io have jointly released a new electronics design tool with some unique features:
123D Circuits
. Anyone familiar with Autodesk knows they have a
bit of a habit of taking over the world
, but you can relax knowing this is a (pretty much) free product that’s filed under their
Free 3D tools
—though we’re not quite sure what is “3D” about a circuits layout program.
123D is web-based software, and using it requires
account creation on the circuits.io website
. Anything you design sits on the cloud: you can collaborate with others and even embed your circuit (with functioning simulation) straight into a webpage. Unfortunately, your work is public and therefore accessible by anyone unless you fork over $12 or $25 monthly: the former only gives you 5 private circuits. Dollar signs pop up again when you hit “finish circuit;” they offer to sell you PCBs in multiples of three.
Some features of the free account, however, may tempt the Arduino veteran away from a go-to program like
Fritzing
. Plopping in a virtual Arduino lets you edit its code on the fly in another window, which you can then simulate. If you’re new to circuit design or want some guidance for using 123D Circuits, they have provided an
extensive list of applicable Instructables
. Check out their promotional video below. | 45 | 12 | [
{
"comment_id": "1056073",
"author": "Yarr",
"timestamp": "2013-09-11T16:14:05",
"content": "Glad to see the company I work for doing something like this! ADSK employees represent!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1056078",
"author": "Hack Ma... | 1,760,376,460.683028 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/09/11/completely-analog-electronic-music-box/ | Completely Analog Electronic Music Box | Michael Ciuffo | [
"Musical Hacks"
] | [
"555 timer",
"music"
] | For the Ottawa Mini-Maker Faire this year, [Steven Dufresne] created an
electronic take on the classic mechanical music box
.
A typical music box uses a sequence of bumps on a rotating drum to pluck the tuned teeth (called lamellae) of a metal comb. Steven ditched the drum and comb and replaced them with a strip of paper and a single 555 timer. The timer is configured as an astable oscillator with a fixed capacitor and charging resistor. The discharge resistor is selected via a series of 13 shaped wires that drag along the strip of paper. When a wire drags over a hole, it is connected to a copper pad below that is soldered to a specific resistor. This completes the circuit and generates a tone specific to the resistor selected.
While the electrical aspects of the project are fairly simple (not even requiring a circuit board), the mechanical parts are much more sophisticated. Steven had problems getting the dragging wires to make good contact and keeping the paper roll pulled tight. He outlines all of these challenges and how he solved them in his very thorough video summary (embedded after the break). With all of his incremental improvements to the design, the finished music box stood up to a whole 14 hours of abuse at the Faire. | 20 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "1056045",
"author": "Jw",
"timestamp": "2013-09-11T15:17:26",
"content": "It sounds like a Crumhorn, awesome.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1056048",
"author": "lloyd",
"timestamp": "2013-09-11T15:20:49",
... | 1,760,376,460.734402 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/09/11/rubicon-gives-makerbot-digitizer-a-run-for-its-money/ | Rubicon Gives The Makerbot Digitizer A Run For Its Money | James Hobson | [
"3d Printer hacks",
"Crowd Funding"
] | [
"3d laser scanning",
"3d printing",
"3dscanner",
"indiegogo",
"laser scanner",
"makerbot digitizer",
"rubicon"
] | Look out MakerBot, there’s a new 3D scanner on the block and it’s about 10% of the cost of the Digitizer. Enter the
Rubicon 3D Scanner which just hit Indiegogo
, a device much closer to being worth its price $199.
Just like the pricey
Makerbot Digitizer
it’s a very simple design made up of a webcam, two laser lines, and a stepper motor controlled turn table. Still very easy to make yourself, but at $199, it’s not a bad price for an all-in-one kit,
especially
compared to the Digitizer. The newcomer claims a much faster scan time (3 minutes versus 12), and the same stepper rotation (800 steps or 0.45 degrees per step). There are no details about making the design open source, but
after some digging in the RepRap forums
we found some discussion on that topic from designer [Robert].
It scans objects up to 160mm in diameter and 250mm tall, however it has the ability to scan marginally larger objects if the camera is moved farther back. The funding for the Indiegogo campaign will go towards a custom arduino-esq PCB with a motor driver built in – personally we would be interested in just getting the PCB and 3D printing the rest of the scanner ourselves!
More information is found in the video after the break.
As interesting as it is, this technology is nothing new!
Here’s a post back from 2006
reporting on the first sighting of the David Laser Scanner software – one of the other options for making your own homebrew 3D scanner.
What do you think? Is $199 a reasonable price point? | 35 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "1055981",
"author": "pff",
"timestamp": "2013-09-11T13:18:12",
"content": "what are you talking about making the design open source?its two lasers a camera and a turntable – you said it yourself, very easy to make.Its amazing the variety on here, there have been more than a few low ... | 1,760,376,460.805687 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/09/11/switching-leds-with-motors-on-a-led-strip/ | Swapping LEDs With Motors On A LED Strip | Mathieu Stephan | [
"hardware"
] | [
"arduino",
"flexible PCB",
"haptic feedback",
"RGB LED",
"WS2801"
] | Hackaday alum [Caleb Kraft] tipped us about a nice hack he got to see at the Open Hardware Summit this year. It is a
flexible haptic strip
made from a LED strip.
Cheap flexible printed circuit boards aren’t easy to find, so [Jacob] basically switched all the RGB LEDs of his strip with shaftless vibratory motors. The LEDs were addressed using WS2801 LED drivers so the hack also consisted in shorting the current feedback resistors. As a result, the motors will use as much current as the driver can give and [Jacob] can individually drive each motor. Luckily for him there already was an Arduino library called fastSPI to drive the strip, so he managed to make a nice haptic device in no time. In case you were wondering, the maximum number of motors you could drive is 32.
Our own [Eric Evenchick] also saw
a lot of great project demos
during his time at the OHS.
[via
EE Times
] | 44 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "1055955",
"author": "Grey Loki",
"timestamp": "2013-09-11T12:26:28",
"content": "This seems like it would be a really good way of easily creating one of those ‘North is this way’ belts.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1056116"... | 1,760,376,460.969337 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/09/10/pcb-agitator-from-a-broken-cd-rom-drive/ | PCB Agitator From A Broken CD-ROM Drive | Mike Szczys | [
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"agitator",
"cdrom",
"etch",
"etchant",
"msp430g2231",
"pcb"
] | Etching PCBs goes a lot better if you agitate the solution in order to carry away the dissolved copper and get fresh etchant to the area. With that in mind [Rohit Gupta] designed a mechanism in Sketch Up before realizing he was going about it the hard way. He ended up
basing his agitator on a broken CD-ROM drive
instead of starting from scratch.
He uses the CD sled from the drive, ditching the lens and its support structure. To get direct access to the motor that drives the tray he uses an L293D H-bridge chip. This is controlled by an MSP430G2231 microcontroller. The driver board seen in the upper right includes a voltage regulator, three status LEDs, and one user input switch. Once triggered, the sled will move back and forth, contacting an old mouse microswitch which acts as the limiting switch. We find it entertaining that [Rohit] prototyped the circuit on a breadboard, then used that success to etch the final circuit board (shown in the video below).
If you’ve been following the hacker creed and never getting rid of any junk you’ll have no problem finding a donor drive to make one of your own. But just in case you can’t get a hold of this hardware
a similar agitator can be built using a hobby servo
. | 49 | 13 | [
{
"comment_id": "1055590",
"author": "Rodrigo",
"timestamp": "2013-09-10T21:14:25",
"content": "Very interesting this solutions using old computer parts, i’m building a CNC from 2 cdroms and this will be my next project, both, to do PCBs",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
... | 1,760,376,460.889501 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/09/10/retrotechtacular-the-apollo-guidance-computer/ | Retrotechtacular: The Apollo Guidance Computer | Mike Szczys | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"Retrotechtacular"
] | [
"apollo",
"computer",
"IMU",
"nasa",
"sextant"
] | There is so much amazing technology that came out of the space race. For this week’s Retrotechtacular we’re looking at
the guidance computer used in the Apollo program
undertaken by NASA in the 1960’s.
One of the main components of this system is the Inertial Measurement Unit or IMU. That’s a familiar term for hackers who build quadcopters or other devices for which spacial awareness is paramount. In this case the IMU provided critical information about the motion and orientation of the capsule during it’s trip from the Earth to the Moon and back. But it wasn’t just high tech electronics along for the flight. To determine actual position a sextant was used for triangulating position. Yes, this is the same type of measuring device used for centuries. The method of using the sextant is displayed above. The spacecraft was turned until the sextant pointed at a landmark on Earth. The instrument was the adjusted to line up a star as a landmark, then the computer calculated position based on time and the angles of the two points being sighted. There’s a lot more shown in this thirty-minute film including in-depth assembly and testing of the computer components.
Before we point you to a few related articles we’d like to mention that our stash of really cool Retrotechtacular tips is running low. So if you know of some old footage that’s awesome to watch please
send us a tip
about it.
Now if you can’t get enough about NASA electronics you should
check out the LVDC board
which [Fran] got her hands on. Also, it’s worth checking out the
unbelievable soldering techniques specified in the NASA manual
. There’s a pretty good discussion about that going on
in the Reddit thread
.
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
. | 33 | 13 | [
{
"comment_id": "1055554",
"author": "Stalin",
"timestamp": "2013-09-10T19:33:16",
"content": "Just like Magellan!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1055556",
"author": "Truth",
"timestamp": "2013-09-10T19:39:35",
"content": "That NASA... | 1,760,376,461.035883 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/09/10/the-melloman-mk-ii/ | The Melloman, Mk. II | Brian Benchoff | [
"Musical Hacks"
] | [
"Melloman",
"Mellotron",
"Musical",
"Walkman"
] | Way back in the 60s, strange electronic instruments were all the rage. The most famous of these made before the era of the synthesizer was the embodiment of musique concrète, the Mellotron. This instrument had an incredibly complex arrangement of magnetic tape that allowed a performer to play a keyboard and have the sound of any instrument come out of a speaker. This system was prone to failure, and there has been a lot of technological improvements in tape over the last fifty years, leading [Mike Walters] to build
a new version of his famous Walkman-based Mellotron
, the Melloman.
This build is an upgrade over
the previous Melloman made in 2009
. Like the original, this build uses 14 portable tape players, each loaded up with a continuous tape for each note. The tapes contain two octaves of the same note, one each on each channel, which are routed to the output whenever a key is pressed.
There are a few improvements over the old Melloman. Instead of transistors, [Mike] is using optocouplers to send the recorded sounds to the output. This build is also a whole lot cleaner, with the wiring looking very professional. As for a sound demo, you can check out the video below.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gx-TE_aapDQ&w=580] | 16 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "1055491",
"author": "kubik",
"timestamp": "2013-09-10T17:31:56",
"content": "This is certainly the most exciting “Useless machine” ever built! The idea itself is insane, and the result is amazing. You’ve got to love it.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},... | 1,760,376,461.094095 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/09/10/building-a-small-keypad-for-strategy-games/ | Building A Small Keypad For Strategy Games | Mathieu Stephan | [
"Peripherals Hacks"
] | [
"games",
"hid",
"keyboard",
"keypad",
"lufa",
"starcraft",
"usb"
] | A month ago [Andreas] started playing Starcraft 2 again. As he was not comfortable with the default hotkeys on a normal keyboard, [Andreas] decided to
build his own
.
He started by salvaging keys from an old keyboard he had lying around, then 3D printed the case you see in the picture above to fit them. The keyboard electrical design is a simple matrix and it appears that he etched the PCB himself. To provide the required USB connectivity, the Atmega8U2 was chosen. It comes with a pre-programmed USB bootloader that [Andreas] chose to activate when the left key is pressed at the system startup. The HID class was implemented using the LUFA-USB Framework and the final product is definitely good looking.
All the files required to duplicate his design can be found
here
. You can also checkout
another starcraft keyboard
and
an ergonomic keyboard
that we previously featured. | 18 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "1055442",
"author": "mnlgarbe",
"timestamp": "2013-09-10T16:04:57",
"content": "Strategy games or CAD software ;)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1055631",
"author": "Johan G",
"timestamp": "2013-09-10T22:37:20... | 1,760,376,461.495016 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/09/10/arduguitar-an-arduino-controllable-guitar/ | ArduGuitar, An Arduino Controllable Guitar | Eric Evenchick | [
"Arduino Hacks",
"Musical Hacks"
] | [
"android",
"bluetooth",
"guitar",
"resistive optio-isolator"
] | Electric guitars have several switches and potentiometers for controlling volume, tone, and which pickups are enabled. Rather than fiddling with these by hand, [Bob] built the
ArduGuitar
. It uses an Arduino to control the parameters over Bluetooth. This allows for musicians to configure presets, then recall them as needed, providing the exact same sound every time. It’s similar to the
Guitarduino
, but adds wireless control.
The internals of the ArduGuitar consist of the
Arduino Micro
, a
BlueSMiRF
from Sparkfun, and resistive opto-isolators. The resistive opto-isolators allow the Arduino to adjust resistance through an electrically isolated barrier. This prevents the Arduino from interfering with the guitar’s sound.
Some of the first Vactrols were used to create a tremolo effect in guitar amplifiers. These pulsed a incandescent lamp onto a photoresistor. Fortunately, there are now integrated solutions. PerkinElmer makes these, and they have a nice application note [
PDF
] on audio applications.
The final part of the design is an Android app, which provides remote control over Bluetooth. The source for everything is available on
Github
, and the detailed build log is available
here
. | 18 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "1055430",
"author": "F",
"timestamp": "2013-09-10T15:29:03",
"content": "Some would say that this article should be taken down because guitars can be used illegally to play copyrighted music.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "10... | 1,760,376,461.438214 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/09/10/an-improved-bubble-display-with-rbg-leds/ | An Improved Bubble Display With RGB LEDs | Marsh | [
"hardware",
"LED Hacks",
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"bubble",
"bubble display",
"RGB LED"
] | Making a bubble display is quite an undertaking, but [Jay] takes advantage of iterative design to construct
this impressive (and at 60 tubes, massive) bubble display
. The display functions by dispensing bubbles to serve as illuminated pixels in each tube as they rise through the fluid. His build log steps through the display’s construction with a keen attention to detail and above all, patience.
Rather than diving right in and slapping some tubes together, [Jay] took the time to research other bubble display projects, including
one we featured a few years back
that grew out of
yet another HackaDay article
. His prototypes started off small to test potential features: whether to use water or glycerin, timing for the air pumps and bubble size, and several others. [Jay] even filled the log with videos of every test, so you can watch the problems and solutions unfold at each step.
The finished display boasts sixty 30″ tall tubes, making it 64″ wide. [Jay] also installed RGB LEDs at every edge where the tubes meet to better distribute the light. You can watch one of the many videos of the display at work below. | 14 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "1055353",
"author": "ColdTurkey",
"timestamp": "2013-09-10T13:21:26",
"content": "This is pretty sweet, I remember the previous ones here from years ago. Filling it with glycerine seems to give a *lot* more control over the positioning of the bubble. RGB LEDs are always a welcome to... | 1,760,376,461.296595 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/09/10/e-cigarettes-powered-by-an-nes-controller/ | E-cigarettes, Powered By An NES Controller | Brian Benchoff | [
"Nintendo Hacks"
] | [
"cigarette",
"e-cigarette",
"vaporizer"
] | Electronic cigarettes are all the rage these days, and as with any new electronic bauble, someone is eventually going to stuff it in some old NES hardware. The NES controller e-cig has been done before, but
[mastblast09]’s controller mod
is one of the best ones around.
A bit of background before we dig into this: e-cigarettes are just any other *cough cough cough* vaporizer you might find, but instead of turning a solid into a vapor, these guys turn a nicotine-infused liquid into a vapor. As e-cigarettes are a bit more legal than some other magic boxes, there is, of course, an amazing amount of options out there for those that partake.
[Mastblast09] is using an off-the-shelf e-cig controller and charger board carefully placed them in a hollowed out NES controller. With the help of a few tact switches he made the B button on the controller light up the coil and the up and down switches change the wattage.
The real treat in this build is the addition of a very small LED voltmeter. With this, [mastblast09] can check out the voltage of his NES e-cigarette under load, a big help if you’re trying to perfect the perfect vape while the battery is under load. | 59 | 14 | [
{
"comment_id": "1055309",
"author": "voxnulla",
"timestamp": "2013-09-10T11:34:31",
"content": "Let the politically correct douch-baggery continue with complaints how smoke related hacks are not appropriate for HaD. I suspect breaking warranty void stickers is pretty much unbearable for these spine... | 1,760,376,461.956958 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/09/09/graffiti-briefcase-for-stealth-tagging/ | Graffiti Briefcase For Stealth Tagging | Marsh | [
"hardware",
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"battery",
"briefcase",
"graffiti",
"solenoid",
"stencil"
] | We’re floored by painter and engineer [Bob Partington’s]
graffiti briefcase
, which proves how well art and tech can complement one another. Fear not, Arduino haters, [Bob]’s case is an analog dream: no microcontrollers here.
The guts consist of 2 components: a linear drive system and a trigger assembly. The former takes advantage of a small RC motor with a chain drive which slides the can’s mounting unit along two stainless steel rods. The latter includes a custom wound solenoid plugged into a 24V cordless drill battery, which slams down 5 pounds of force onto the can’s nozzle to fire the paint.
This all fits into an otherwise inconspicuous looking briefcase to provide some urban camouflage. The final component is a stencil, which slides into a rectangular hole on the bottom of the case. The paint can sprays downward through the stencil and tags the ground at the touch of a brass button located near the handle. [Bob] has
plenty of other cool inventions
you should check out that are less illegal. Or, stick it to the man by automating your tagging with
Time Writer
.
Thanks [David] | 251 | 50 | [
{
"comment_id": "1054811",
"author": "sneakypoo",
"timestamp": "2013-09-09T21:11:46",
"content": "Yay, make it easier for assholes to paint their stupid fucking “tags” on other peoples property.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1054818",
... | 1,760,376,461.870926 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/09/09/how-findchips-started-as-a-nasa-engineers-hack/ | How FindChips Started As A NASA Engineer’s Hack | Mike Szczys | [
"Featured"
] | [
"find chips",
"randy sargent",
"supplyframe"
] | A couple of weeks ago I was visiting SupplyFrame to meet the new owners of Hackaday. The CEO, [Steve Flagg] asked me how we can introduce FindChips to the readers. I’m used to people trying to get things on our front page so I had the question ready for him: where’s the hack? Much to my surprise he was ready for me. “What if I tell you that it started as a hack by a NASA Engineer?”
It turns out he was right. He put me in contact with [Randy Sargent], the founder of
FindChips.com
. If you’ve ever hacked together a script to make your life easier you’ll want to listen to what Randy had to say. You never know when it’ll turn into a full-blown start-up.
Beginnings
It turns out that [Randy] wasn’t a NASA engineer when he founded FindChips, but he is now. For those that aren’t familiar with it, the site offers a unified search for electronic components that will give you data from worldwide vendors on their stock count and price breakdown. This sort of service simply didn’t exist in the 1990’s and [Randy] was getting really frustrating with the time he was spending visiting every possible vendor site to search for components going into his designs. So he did what any good hacker did, he wrote a script to do it for him.
The script and how it spread
What he came up with was a Perl script which used web scraping to do the searching for him. [Randy] recalls that there were no parsing libraries (eg: Beautiful Soup) available at the time so he wrote everything to grab the data and made sense of it with regular expressions. The software was fragile in that small changes on one vendor’s site could break the scraper so he wrote libraries that would search for general landmarks. For instance, they looked for any table and matched two column headers to identify it. This way if other columns were added or removed, or if the order of the tables was changed, the script would still run.
At some point in 1998 the first version was up and running from his home DSL connection. He found it invaluable in his own work, and for that reason he made a presentation at the monthly
Seattle Robotics Society
meeting. The group of about 30-40 people spent most of their free time making robots; this was perfect for them. And so it’s no surprise that traffic quickly outgrew his home connection. He moved on up by physically transplanting the box running the site to
a colocation facility
.
Vendors started to notice so [Randy] hacked on their search algorithms
The thing about web scraping is, if you start to use a lot of traffic the server owners are going to notice. [Randy] recalls that vendors generally approached him in two different ways. Some either asked him to stop scraping their site, or blocked him directly. But others had the opposite reaction. They told him that his site was the largest single source of traffic for them. That sounds great at first, but since he was using the web search interface it had the side effect of slowing down the vendor site search for actual human users. The solution was to set up a system where a copy of the vendor’s stock database would be uploaded to FindChips once a day.
This wasn’t an API, it was direct access to their data which had [Randy] back in the coding chair once again reworking his script to query server side rather than web scraping. He told me that he modified the grep command to help with this search process and ended up with a faster return from the db query than the vendors themselves were able to offer. Seeing this success it wasn’t long before more vendors jumped aboard.
Where we are now
[Randy] sold the site to SupplyFrame in 2010. Sure, it’s not a company the size of Apple. But the stories are along the same lines. He developed it to fix his own problem, showed it off to a hobby organization that is surely a predecessor of today’s Hackerspaces, and then turned it into a sizable web start-up. That’s not only impressive, it’s inspiring. Maybe the projects we screw around with will someday be useful to a wide audience?
These days, in addition to being a Computer Scientist for NASA’s Ames Research Center, [Randy Sargent] is a Visiting Scientist for Google and a Senior Systems Scientist for Carnegie Mellon University. One of the projects he’s most excited about right now is
the GigaPan Time Machine
. It captures and makes available time-lapse photography on the scale of billions of pixels.
[
Image Source
for Randy’s headshot] | 58 | 27 | [
{
"comment_id": "1054761",
"author": "Beherith",
"timestamp": "2013-09-09T19:13:19",
"content": "This is still not a hack. This is PR fluff.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1054776",
"author": "Chris C.",
"timestamp": "2013-09-... | 1,760,376,461.604344 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/09/09/stripping-kindle-drm-with-lego/ | Stripping Kindle DRM With Lego | Brian Benchoff | [
"Security Hacks"
] | [
"drm",
"kindle",
"lego"
] | Consider a book sitting on a shelf. You can lend it out to a friend, you don’t need a special device to read it, and if you are so inclined, you can photocopy it. This isn’t true with Kindle eBooks that place severe restrictions on what you can do with a book via DRM. Although it is possible to strip eBook DRM with a few programs on your computer, [Peter] came up with a fool-proof way that’s an amateur engineering marvel. He’s
turning Kindle eBooks into plain text using Lego.
[Peter] is using a few bits of a Lego NTX system to press the, ‘next page’ button on his Kindle, then smash the space bar on his Mac to take a picture. These pictures are then sent to a cloud-based text recognition service. After a few hours of listening to plastic gears grinding, [Peter] has a copy of his eBook in plain text format sitting in his computer.
As impractical as it looks, using a robot, camera, and OCR is actually a really, really good way to turn eBooks plagued with DRM into a text file. Even if Amazon updates their DRM to make the current software cracking methods break, [Peter] will always have his Lego robot ready to scan a few hundred pages of text at a time. | 75 | 22 | [
{
"comment_id": "1054710",
"author": "voxnulla",
"timestamp": "2013-09-09T17:43:42",
"content": "Ah yes, using NXT to hammer a key on a keyboard, I did use this method as well. It took a surprising long time before I got the more elegant solution to work as reliably.",
"parent_id": null,
"de... | 1,760,376,464.067926 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/09/09/jeep-dashboard-display-turned-into-a-desk-clock/ | Jeep Dashboard Display Turned Into A Desk Clock | Mike Szczys | [
"clock hacks"
] | [
"dashboard",
"Jeep"
] | This display is easily recognizable by the buttons and the outline of a vehicle to the left. It’s a Vehicle Information Center (VIC) from a Jeep Grand Cherokee. [Florlayamp] discovered a row of the vehicles in a junkyard, all with the displays still intact. He grabbed one and
turned the VIC into a desk clock
. What would you pay for such a fine piece of used electronic hardware? How about six bucks? Yeah!
Getting it running couldn’t be simpler. It’s all set up to be programmed and run on it’s own. A bit of searching around turned up a schematic to figure out which wires are for power. It took some time to figure it out, but the thing draws about 2A so finding a worthy wall wart was a must.
Now that he was sure it would work [Florlayamp] started on the case build. It’s poplar with quarter round to frame the display. On the back you’ll find a single rocker switch.
Usually we see the opposite of this,
adding displays to the dashboard
instead of salvaging them. | 16 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "1054685",
"author": "robtomorrow",
"timestamp": "2013-09-09T16:37:16",
"content": "2A?? How can it possibly be drawing so much power? Isn’t it just an LED display?I’m no expert in car electronics, but at that rate I’d expect it to burn through the battery very fast if you let the en... | 1,760,376,463.676267 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/09/09/an-rtl-sdr-spectrum-analyzer/ | An RTL-SDR Spectrum Analyzer | Brian Benchoff | [
"ARM",
"Radio Hacks"
] | [
"beaglebone",
"RTLSDR",
"sdr",
"spectrum analyzer"
] | With the combination of small, powerful, and pocketable computers and cheap, off-the-shelf software defined radio receivers, it was only a matter of time before someone built
a homebrew spectrum analyzer
with these ingredients. This great build is the project of [Stephen Ong] and he’s even released all the softwares for you to build this on your own.
The two main components of this build are a BeagleBone Black and its
7″ Touchscreen cape
. The BeagleBone is running
Angstrom Linux
, a blazingly fast Linux distro for small embedded devices. The radio hardware consists of only a USB TV tuner supported by
RTL-SDR
. In his
demo video
, [Stephen] shows off his project and by all accounts it is remarkable, with a UI better than most desktop-oriented SDR software suites.
You can grab the BeagleBone image [Stephen] is using over on his blog, but for more enterprising reader, he’s also put up the source of his ViewRF software
up on GitHub
. | 15 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "1054676",
"author": "Rakyth",
"timestamp": "2013-09-09T15:58:42",
"content": "Huh, has HaD featured the BeagleBones much? I believe this is the first time I’ve actually seen it feature so prominently.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment... | 1,760,376,463.723697 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/09/09/handmade-stainless-steel-chainmail/ | Handmade Stainless Steel Chainmail | Mike Szczys | [
"Wearable Hacks"
] | [
"armor",
"chain mail",
"hauberk"
] | We know that armor making is an art form. We know it. Still… it’s really easy to let yourself think that
making a chain mail shirt
is easy after seeing the skills [KdogCrusader] throws down in this build. His hauberk isn’t quite finished yet, though we don’t blame him from wanting to show off the work having put so much into it.
The process starts with fifty pounds of stainless steel wire. That’s the coil suspended on a rod in the upper left. It’s fed into his hacked together coiling jig where it is wound into coils that set the diameter of the rings (think long springs that aren’t springy). Coils are cut along one side resulting in that mountain of individual rings. From there it’s a matter of interlinking all of the rings. He cut apart an old T-shirt to use as a pattern during the assembly. So far the front and the back are only connected at the shoulders as he has yet to add sleeves and finish the sides.
[via
Reddit
] | 57 | 19 | [
{
"comment_id": "1054614",
"author": "Jason Dubrow",
"timestamp": "2013-09-09T13:35:52",
"content": "Nothing really new here…I was doing this 15 years ago. Pretty much same exact method except I didn’t have a good source for the large of a spool of wire.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
... | 1,760,376,464.258298 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/09/09/3d-printed-prosthetic-hand/ | 3D Printed Prosthetic Hand | Brian Benchoff | [
"3d Printer hacks"
] | [
"3d printer",
"hands",
"prosthetic hands"
] | 3D printing – with the promise of low-scale manufacturing and custom parts – is ideal for the prosthetic industry, but so far prosthetic hands have been a very, very hard nut to crack. [Joel] has been working on the
Open Hands Project
, a project that aims to make robotic prosthetics accessible to makers, researchers, and amputees alike.
Even though the mechanisms inside the hand are fairly simple – DC gear motors retracting steel cable ‘tendons’ – [Joel] was able to pack all this equipment into a very small volume that isn’t much bigger than real, meat-based hands. To actuate the mechanical muscles in the hand, the user simply flexes a few muscles in their forearm. These electrical signals are picked up by a suite of custom electronics and tell the Open Hand what to do
In [Joel]’s
Indiegogo video
, he goes over what makes his robohands work with a little help from [Liam Corbett], hand amputee. Aesthetically, the Open Hand is a big improvement over [Liam]’s two-pronged hook, and with the dexterity demonstrated in the video, possibly a lot more capable.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6dI-dNE2yQ0&w=580] | 17 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "1054567",
"author": "ioag",
"timestamp": "2013-09-09T11:07:37",
"content": "Those things are heavily patented, lawsuits coming in 3…2…1…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1054960",
"author": "F",
"timestamp": "20... | 1,760,376,463.622904 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/09/08/hackaday-links-september-8-2013/ | Hackaday Links: September 8, 2013 | Mike Szczys | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"Hackaday links"
] | [
"coffee",
"hal 9000",
"home networking",
"pic",
"raspberry pi",
"touchscreen",
"z80"
] | “I’m sorry Dave, I’m afraid I can’t open the dorm room door.” Does your dorm room have a peephole? Take [pjensen’s] lead and turn it into
a mini HAL 9000 using a red LED
.
Mix a little work in with your hobby skills. [Vittore] needed to build a video looper to drive some TV screens for a Hotel contract job. He grabbed a Raspberry Pi and got to work.
The final product
(
translated
) even uses a shared folder on the hotel’s network as the source slides.
We’re not sure if anyone noticed last Monday (it was Labor Day in the U.S.). We had a little fun with coffee themed posts. [Tom] wrote in to remind us about the HTCPCP:
Hyper Text Coffee Pot Control Protocol
. If you don’t have time to read it all, he suggests you don’t miss his favorite, error code 418.
Maybe funny reading isn’t your thing right now, but we have some more helpful stuff to offer. Check out [John Chandler’s]
Commandments for using PIC microcontrollers
from a few years back.
[Andy] has some old smart phones which he is using in his projects. His beef with the touchscreens is that there’s no tactile feedback. Since these are going to be dedicated displays he’s
outlining the touch controls with tape
to let your finger know what it’s doing.
If you’re living in your first home in America there’s a really good chance it’s a 1950’s ranch house considering how many of them were built after World War II. Bring its infrastructure into the information age with a cable retrofit. [Andrew Rossignol] just did so and
posted a lot of pictures of the process
.
If you liked [Ken Shirriff’s] post about
the Sinclair Scientific Calculator
we think you’ll love
his continuation of a Z80 reverse engineering series
. | 16 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "1054317",
"author": "Paul Stoffregen",
"timestamp": "2013-09-08T23:28:45",
"content": "I always thought the first commandment of PIC programming was: “Thou Shalt Use Windows”.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1054527",
... | 1,760,376,463.776197 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/09/08/use-your-new-timey-printer-to-make-an-old-timey-camera/ | Use Your New-timey Printer To Make An Old-timey Camera | Mike Szczys | [
"3d Printer hacks",
"digital cameras hacks"
] | [
"pinhole camera"
] | Here’s something to show people who don’t realize the power of 3D printing. This
pinhole camera has one moving part
which reveals the pinhole, letting in light to expose the 4×5 film inside.
It’s a near perfect roundup of all the qualities a 3D printer has to offer. The build centers around a 4×5 film holder which can be acquired used or as surplus. This drives home the concept of having the power to replace parts (in this case the entire camera) that fit with existing pieces (the film holder). The picture above is big enough that you can see the layers on the pyramid shape, but the structural pieces around the frame also let the uninitiated see that you can print more than just solid blocks. And finally, since it’s up for download on Thingiverse its a good example of how the printing community shares and builds on each others’ work.
Does it take quality photos? We have no idea. So far we didn’t see any example pictures. But really, if you’re looking for top quality you might want to build your own digital camera. Here’s
one that uses a 14 megapixel sensor
. | 6 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "1054288",
"author": "oodain",
"timestamp": "2013-09-08T21:15:33",
"content": "i have made a few pinhole cameras, great fun and if done correctly they take decent photos.very cool to see a 3d printed version.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"... | 1,760,376,463.564342 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/09/08/were-hiring/ | We’re Hiring | Mike Szczys | [
"Featured"
] | [
"hiring",
"jobs",
"writers"
] | The title says it all. We need more writers to keep the fresh hacks coming, now’s your chance to apply for the job.
UPDATE:
Thank you for all of the applications. I have made the first round of offers to a select few. Narrowing it down to a handful was difficult as so many highly qualified, avid readers sent in applications. You are still welcome to submit an application which we’ll keep on file, but I don’t anticipate making any more offers at this time.
Contributors are hired as private contractors and paid for each post. Writers should have the technical expertise to understand the projects they are writing about, and a passion for the wide range of topics we feature. If you’re interested,
please email our jobs line
and include:
Details about your background (education, employment, etc.) that make you a valuable addition to the team
Links to your blog/project posts/etc. which have been published on the Internet
One example post written in the voice of Hack a Day. Include a banner image, 150 words, the link to the project, and any in-links to related and relevant Hack a Day features.
Words of encouragement
First off, we won’t be discussing compensation publicly. Want to know what we pay? Send in a successful application and we’ll talk about it.
Secondly, don’t pass up this opportunity. I watched one of these posts go by and waited another year before I saw the next one and applied. Now I’m running the place. Our team is made up of avid readers. If you’re passionate about the stuff here and you have a few hours each week to do some writing you
need
to apply now!
Why are we hiring more writers?
Our tagline says it all. We want fresh hacks featured every day at a consistent rate. Right now we’re hitting that goal. But as we add more original content, like the fantastic
3D Printering series
[Brian] started, or
the conference coverage
[Eric] has been doing, we need help making sure we don’t slip on the awesome projects we feature. As new writers find their stride with the daily features they are given the opportunity to write their own original content if they wish.
So what are you waiting for? Ladies and Gentlemen, start your applications! | 50 | 19 | [
{
"comment_id": "1054277",
"author": "Orion",
"timestamp": "2013-09-08T20:23:27",
"content": "Could you possibly make it first come first served? :D",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1054291",
"author": "Bill",
"timestamp": "2013... | 1,760,376,463.960883 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/09/08/brewster-fetches-your-beer-automatically/ | BREWSTER Fetches Your Beer Automatically | Mike Szczys | [
"Beer Hacks",
"Robots Hacks"
] | [] | Afraid that if you leave the room you’ll miss the best play of the game? Now you don’t need to move your rear end in order to grab the next brewski. BREWSTER was developed to
fetch cold beers from the fridge and deliver them
to you automatically.
The robot started as a roomba but has been heavily repurposed with the addition of a mechanical arm on top of the chassis. This not only lets BREWSTER grip a can of beer, but it can first open the mini fridge and reach far enough inside to get one from the back. This requires no modification to the refrigerator, but the low clearance of the roomba does call for a mini-fridge sitting at floor level. Check out a demo run in the video after the break. We think the current version is running on a pre-coded route; this project is just waiting for a spin-off that has mapping and machine vision.
The alternative to this single can delivery would be to
make the entire icebox into a robot
.
[Thanks DJ] | 18 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "1054218",
"author": "Hirudinea",
"timestamp": "2013-09-08T16:15:15",
"content": "I like the “eyes” above the claw, gives the thing sort of a face, cute. So now I have my tv remote and my beer bot, now all I need is a fleshlight on a robot arm and I’ll never have to leave my chair!",... | 1,760,376,464.121138 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/09/08/web-connectivity-and-other-addons-for-an-automatic-schnauzer-feeder/ | Web Connectivity And Other Addons For An Automatic Schnauzer Feeder | Mike Szczys | [
"home hacks",
"Raspberry Pi"
] | [
"dog",
"feeder",
"Gmail",
"home automation",
"RPi"
] | [Ben Miller] and his dad combined forces to create
this automatic dog feeder
. It not only keeps their two schnauzers happy, but gives them peace of mind as they can double-check that he feeding happened by pulling up an image on the Internet. Make sure you make it through all three posts of the build to get the entire picture.
The project started with some research which turned up a project that used a commercially available automatic feeder. That one used Arduino, but because of the cost the board plus a WiFi shield is a bit high, [Ben] went with a Raspberry Pi and a USB WiFi dongle instead. The Pi is much more powerful and adds the functionality for capturing images via a webcam.
After a convoluted process of connecting the Pi to the existing button traces on the automatic feeder it was time to start coding. The system runs from a Perl script which monitors a Gmail account for remote commands (in addition to a regular feeding schedule). The final touch is a bit of mechanical engineering which splits the output into two bowls so the dogs each have their own serving.
We still use
the Autodine we built several years back
but its single-serving limitation has always kept a second version on our project list. Hopefully seeing a well-executed system like this will motivate us to get building! | 9 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "1054173",
"author": "Jimbo",
"timestamp": "2013-09-08T13:44:17",
"content": "I loved the title to this post. “Automatic Schnauzer Feeder” just sounds funny to me. Perhaps it’s because I used to have a little Schnauzer and they have a ton of personality (not always the nicest either)... | 1,760,376,464.164837 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/09/08/the-nibbler-a-4-bit-cpu-built-with-7400-logic/ | The Nibbler: A 4-bit CPU Built With 7400 Logic | Mike Szczys | [
"classic hacks",
"computer hacks"
] | [
"7400",
"cpu",
"nibbler",
"simulator"
] | Maybe we shouldn’t say “built” since [Steve Chamberlin] hasn’t actually heated up his iron yet. From the finished schematic above that is puzzling at first, until you realize the scope of the project. His
Nibbler implements a 4-bit CPU
using 7400 logic chips. Because he’s come up with the architecture himself he’s taking a lot of steps to check all of his work before committing to a PCB.
We linked to his category for the project which is still in progress. Most recently he wrote a program to prove that it’ll run on the hardware. That’s a feat considering this is still just a design idea. It was made possible because he wrote a simulator based on the design. The C++ tool simulates data and control buses and features a full set of debugging tools.
Careful testing of the design before the build is the best possible way to go. The simulator and debugging tools will be useful for software development even after the hardware is built. And testing before wiring is a must as
these things get out of control quickly
in terms of soldering complexity.
[via
Dangerous Prototypes
] | 23 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "1054132",
"author": "jpgjpo",
"timestamp": "2013-09-08T11:25:19",
"content": "1. buy a cheap fpga board2. test your design3. ???4. PROFIT!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1054156",
"author": "Fotis",
"timestamp": "2013-0... | 1,760,376,464.321354 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/09/07/make-your-treadmill-more-entertaining-for-0/ | Make Your Treadmill More Entertaining For $0 | Eric Evenchick | [
"computer hacks"
] | [
"exercise",
"fitness",
"laptop stand"
] | Treadmills can often be found on the side of the road, after someone gave up on their running regimen and found that the machine was taking up too much space in their basement. This is great for hackers, since they have some useful parts in them.
However, if you’d like to actually use a treadmill for running, some entertainment would certainly help. [KingJackOff] decided to roll his own
treadmill entertainment system
out of things he had lying around, bringing the total cost to $0.
He took an old laptop and mounted it in a piece of rigid foam using a gratuitous amount of duct tape. With the screen and keyboard mounted, he added speakers and a slot for the DVD drive. Then a printed graphic was taped to the front, with a nice motivational message.
Lots of people have old laptops lying around with mechanical issues. Broken hinges and frames make them unusable, even though the electronics are fine. Some foam and paper could be all you need to bring one back to life.
[via
Reddit
] | 20 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "1053896",
"author": "The Teaspiller",
"timestamp": "2013-09-07T22:16:27",
"content": "Why run on some conveyor belt when you can go outside?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1053904",
"author": "Eirinn",
"timest... | 1,760,376,465.053646 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/09/07/hidden-rfid-reader-locks-workstation-unless-keys-are-present/ | Hidden RFID Reader Locks Workstation Unless Keys Are Present | Mike Szczys | [
"Linux Hacks",
"Security Hacks"
] | [
"password",
"rfid",
"xdotool",
"xscreensaver"
] | We don’t know how [Kristoffer Marshall] found himself with free time at work, but he used it to beef up his computer security. Above is the finished project. There is literally nothing to see here. He’s rigged up
a hidden RFID reader which locks and unlocks his workstation
.
The security of the system depends on xscreensaver, which has a password protected lock feature already built into it. When the tag is removed from the reader’s field it fires up the screensaver using a Perl script.
But waking up from the screensaver is a bit more tricky. The package doesn’t allow you to wake it from the command line — most likely for security. He found the
xdotool
to be of great use here. It is a command line tool which simulates keyboard and mouse entry. His script detects when the xscreensaver password prompt is on the screen and uses the xdotool to fill in [Kristoffer’s] password. Since the script knows what has focus it won’t give away your password by accident.
See the complete setup in the clip after the break. | 39 | 19 | [
{
"comment_id": "1053845",
"author": "mike",
"timestamp": "2013-09-07T19:55:55",
"content": "ive had to do it before, ctrl+alt+f1, login as root, killall xscreensaverits ugly, but you can unlock the screensaver by force if you can -9 the screensaver",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"repl... | 1,760,376,464.828162 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/09/07/open-hardware-summit-2013-part-1-demos/ | Open Hardware Summit 2013 – Part 1: Demos | Eric Evenchick | [
"cons",
"Featured"
] | [
"midi controller",
"ohsummit",
"open hardware",
"plants",
"robots"
] | The
2013 Open Hardware Summit
took place on September 6th at MIT. There was a wide array of demos and talks covering Open Hardware methodologies and projects. After the break I’ll be covering the demo area of the conference, and sharing some of my favorite demos.
The demo area was an open area outside of the theatre where sponsors and makers showed off their works. The area was open all day, and filled up during the social hours, with 500 attendees mingling over food and drink.
Hapkit is a 1 DOF haptic feedback system
The
Hapkit
team came in from the Bay Area to show a one degree of freedom haptic feedback kit. The Arduino based kit uses a motor and H-bridge to drive the pendulum, and a magnetoresistive sensor for sensing the position. This allows the software to make the pendulum act as a spring, click wheel, or have it react based on an arbitrary function. The kit would be great as a game controller, or to teach control systems. Hapkit will be available in about a month, but their website provides all the detailed needed to
build your own
.
The NeoLucida is an open source Camera Lucida
The
NeoLucida
is a modern day and open hardware
Camera Lucida
drawing aid. [Pablo] wanted to give his students access to this 200 year old technology, but Camera Lucidas are collectibles and cost over $300. He solved the problem with a prism on a gooseneck. After a unexpectedly successful Kickstarter campaign, he was able to source the prisms in volume and build the devices. It’s also very open: STL files for the parts will be available to download and 3D print, and [Pablo] will sell you just the prism. [Pablo] admitted that it’s really just “a prism on a stick,” but the project has created a strong community and introduced many people to the drawing aid.
Illucia is a patchable interface for video games
[Chris Novello] showed off
Illucia
: a physical patch bay for connecting software. Inspired by the retro patch bay synthesizers, this controller lets you interface with software using banana jacks. His demo controlled several games, including an emulator running Mario Bros., using the interface. This made for some interesting visuals and 8-bit sounds. The controller speaks
OSC
for interfacing with existing software, and is “free and open source everything.” Check out this video that demonstrates one of his interfaces.
Fuzzy Wobble’s project lets you design your own MIDI controller
[Fuzzy Wobble]’s thesis project is an open source platform for
designing MIDI controllers
. The system covers laying out the buttons and switches, fabricating the enclosure, buying the parts, the electronics, and the software. A web app is used to design the controller, and spits out the information required to build all the components. The build quality was very high, with solid walnut and a laser cut top panel. We’ve seen his work
in the past
, I’m looking forward to seeing the full system in the wild.
The Photosynq measures and logs photosynthesis
The
Photosynq
is a tool for measuring plant health to better understand photosynthesis. It works by emitting light and recording what was absorbed by the plant. It also records temperature, CO2 concentration, and humidity. This open research project hopes to crowd source the collection of plant data by building a simple, low cost device for taking measurements. Their demo showed the device taking measurements, then transferring data to a phone over Bluetooth. Data is tagged with a GPS location, then uploaded to their database. They are currently looking for beta testers, and you can
apply here
.
4 of 1000 Kilobots
The Harvard Self-organizing Systems Research Group deals with swarms of robots.
Kilobot
is a swarm robot that communicates with its neighbors over an IR beam sent down at the surface under each robot. Using this signal, the robots can be configured to avoid each other, and navigate based on the positions of other robots. A master controller allows for programming of the entire swarm. The name Kilobot comes from the thousand robot swarm they are creating. We’ve actually featured the
Kilobot on Hackaday
before, but here’s a quick video introduction.
Thanks to all the demoers who took the time to show me their projects. Stay tuned to Hackaday for upcoming coverage of the Open Hardware Summit talks. | 2 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "1054031",
"author": "static",
"timestamp": "2013-09-08T03:18:44",
"content": "Personally I’m more interested to see what redefinition if any of what “open hardware” is or isn’t that will come out of the summit. Not that I expect is possible to even satisfy even a simple majority.",... | 1,760,376,464.922465 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/09/06/cheap-guitar-amp-repaired-by-replacing-the-distortion-circuit/ | Cheap Guitar Amp Repaired By Replacing The Distortion Circuit | Mike Szczys | [
"Musical Hacks"
] | [
"amp",
"amplifier",
"distortion",
"guitar"
] | It’s an understatement that [Troy] is not impressed with the distortion circuitry built into this guitar amp. He picked it up for $40 on Kijiji (basically local classified ads run by eBay) so he wasn’t afraid to get elbow deep in its inner workings to see what was going on. It only took him a few minutes to
solder together the distortion circuitry that fixed it
. Figuring out what needed fixing is another story.
[Troy] uses some colorful language and metaphors to illustrate his disdain for the sound of the overdrive option. He hooked it up to an oscilloscope and his trained eye immediately tells him that it’s not working as it should. After studying the PCB and working out a schematic he reworked the circuit with this pair of diodes and a resistor. It still uses a bit of filtering on the board, but does away with all of the other cruft. What remains is a cheap amp, but one that actually functions. | 7 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "1053291",
"author": "pmurch",
"timestamp": "2013-09-06T16:22:11",
"content": "Is kijiji not a thing elsewhere in the world?I’m in Canada, and noone uses Craigslist here, It’s all Kijiji.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1053351... | 1,760,376,464.759145 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/09/06/machining-an-orrery/ | Machining An Orrery | Mike Szczys | [
"cnc hacks"
] | [
"dark crystal",
"gears",
"machining",
"orrery"
] | What in the heck is an Orrery? If you’re looking at the image above we’re sure you’ve already figured it out (kudos to the big brains that knew the word). For those that don’t get it, an Orrery is a mechanical device that represents the movements of planets and moons. We never thought of building one ourselves. After seeing
the machining process for what’s shown above
we’re not sure if we’re excited, or scared off by all the work that went into it.
You might want to bust out the Chromecast and hit the sofa for this one. There are dozens of YouTube videos showing the build. From cutting sheet stock into round slugs, to making teeth, teeth, teeth, and more teeth it’s not just the gears that go into this one. You’re also going to needs the orbs themselves.
We have fond (perhaps scary) memories of the first time we saw an Orrery as a
part of the set in
The Dark Crystal
.
Build Time-Lapse
Finished Piece:
[Via
CNC Cookbook
via
Make
] | 26 | 13 | [
{
"comment_id": "1053259",
"author": "Mithrandir",
"timestamp": "2013-09-06T15:14:45",
"content": "I LOVE these things, wish I’d have one of those…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1053263",
"author": "mark g",
"timestamp": "2013-09-06T15... | 1,760,376,465.277918 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/09/06/homemade-led-helmet/ | Homemade LED Helmet | Marsh | [
"LED Hacks",
"Microcontrollers",
"Wearable Hacks"
] | [
"dot matrix",
"helmet",
"LED driver",
"pic controller"
] | We’ve all seen Daft Punk helmet builds, but [George’s] project is a
homemade LED helmet
that takes no shortcuts and packs the visor full of hundreds of individual lights. He started with a prototype that uses a PIC 18F4580 microcontroller connected to a MAX7221 LED driver, which gave him control over some dot matrix displays to test the wiring and sample script. He then used this prototype setup to develop a scrolling text function.
With testing complete, [George] wired hundreds of LEDs into 8×8 block sections, using a cardboard jig to keep everything straight. He could have stopped there, but [George] took the build further, adding an LCD display and a 7-segment clock module to the inside of the helmet, in view of the wearer. The clock displays the helmet’s current beats per minute rate, while the LCD shows the content being displayed (pattern, text / Pacman, stripes). It’s possible to see out between the bottom of the display and the chin of the helmet. If you need better visibility we’d recommend
a bike helmet matrix that isn’t as dense
.
You can watch a video of the helmet running different patterns below. (Warning: music). When you’re done with that, why not LED all the things: from
Infinity Mirrors
to
LED Sneakers
. | 11 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "1053230",
"author": "FutureCyberdyneEngineer",
"timestamp": "2013-09-06T13:29:57",
"content": "Great editing on the vid. Like to see more of the helmet in action, but maybe it’s still work in progress…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment... | 1,760,376,464.879691 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/09/06/antares-one-bare-metal-build-system-to-rule-all-micocontrollers/ | Antares: One Bare Metal Build System To Rule All Microcontrollers | Mike Szczys | [
"Microcontrollers"
] | [
"antares",
"bare metal",
"kconfig"
] | [Andrew Andrianov] has the same itch we do when it comes to the variety of inexpensive dev boards out there. They put hardware in your hands but when it comes to the IDE it tends to be a very mixed bag. Some offer hobbled copies of proprietary software, but in most cases you’re on your own for any kind of open source development environment support. He and a couple of friends are working to change that. What they’ve come up with is
Antares: a single build system which can compile code for multiple microcontrollers
.
The idea is to make the coding environment agnostic from the compile/burn process. This serves a few purposes; it lets you use the IDE you’re most comfortable with, be it Eclipse or emacs. It also seeks to ease the pain of writing libraries that will work with multiple different chips. So far the package supports several of the usual suspects: AVR, msp430, STM32 ARM chips, as well as AT89,and STC variants of 8051. Other chips can be added as more hands make light work (in other words, roll up your sleeves and help these guys out!). Right now development targets Linux dev platforms but OS X has been shown to work with some patches.
The link above is a rather daunting readme from the Github repo. If you need a better overview before diving in hit up
the RC1 announcement
on [Andrew’s] blog. | 22 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "1053186",
"author": "Drosophilia",
"timestamp": "2013-09-06T11:13:07",
"content": "and what about debugging?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1053191",
"author": "Andrew",
"timestamp": "2013-09-06T11:30:10",
"content"... | 1,760,376,465.110961 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/09/05/kenneth-finnegans-epic-burning-man-slideshow/ | [Kenneth Finnegan’s] EPIC Burning Man Slideshow | Mike Szczys | [
"cons"
] | [
"burning man",
"show and tell",
"slideshow"
] | Whether or not you manged to attend this year’s Burning Man festival we’re dead certain you’ll enjoy reading
[Kenneth Finnegan’s] show and tell about the event
. This was his first time attending. Aside from his noobish excitement (which is really the only way to approach writing something like this) we’d never know he wasn’t a seasoned veteran. From what he and friend [Marcel] packed along with them, to the attractions he visited, he did Burning Man right!
The two snapped a selfie in the truck on their way to Black Rock City, the community that sprouts up in the Nevada desert every year for
Burning Man
. Bumper-to-bumper traffic is a surprise in the middle of nowhere, but when you find out that BRC boasted about 68,000 residents this year it’s no wonder. [Kenneth] spends some time talking about the camp they set up, including more than enough solar power, and an amateur radio setup that came in handy in lieu of phone service. This flows into his collection of cool art he came across, most of it massive in scale. There’s even an airport, which is how he was able to snap the aerial photo above.
We think the coolest part of his recollection is the view of ‘city life’. There are night clubs, bowling alleys, radios stations broadcasting live interviews and hosting talk shows, cafés, and much more. Hanging out in the desert at the end of August may not sound like your thing, but reading about [Kenneth’s] odyssey makes us think Burning Man is like Disneyland for Hackers. | 31 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "1052987",
"author": "Kevin Keith",
"timestamp": "2013-09-05T22:50:43",
"content": "Wait wait, what on earth does an art festival have to do with hackers? I have honestly never seen the appeal of things like this, nor will I ever.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies... | 1,760,376,464.990904 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/09/05/fail-of-the-week-gps-module-design/ | Fail Of The Week: GPS Module Design | Mike Szczys | [
"Fail of the Week",
"gps hacks",
"Hackaday Columns"
] | [
"634flpx",
"fail of the week",
"gps",
"venus"
] | GPS is really fun to play with in your projects. But when [Trax] decided to build a GPS chip into his design the fun ended abruptly. Above you can see the section of the board devoted to the hardware. Unfortunately this PCB fails to provide any GPS location data whatsoever.
His design uses a Low-Noise Amplifier between the Venus634FLPx GPS receiver and the antenna. After populating the board he was getting no satellite fix. He tried replacing the antenna, and also two different antennas connected without the use of the LNA. He could get NMEA data, but still no fix. After checking and rechecking he finally went to the chip manufacturer for advice. They came back with some helpful suggestions, but he’s bogged down in trying to figure out if there may be problems with his antennas, and with the need to spin another PCB to test some of the proposed fixes.
Take a look at his write-up
and leave a comment if you see something that he might have missed.
Even working with develpment-board-GPS hardware has its ups and downs. [Jeremy Blum] tried to track his possessions as they were moved across the country in a PODS container. As a Fail-of-the-Week extra, check out
how his hastily assembled tracking hardware failed
to work past the first few hours of transit.
Fail of the Week is a Hackaday column which runs every Wednesday. Help keep the fun rolling by writing about your past failures and
sending us a link to the story
— or sending in links to fail write ups you find in your Internet travels. | 68 | 17 | [
{
"comment_id": "1052869",
"author": "alex",
"timestamp": "2013-09-05T19:09:00",
"content": "Wow, so now somebody’s failure in designing a board is worth an audience of thousands of people?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1052872",
"au... | 1,760,376,465.400269 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/09/05/a-really-really-tiny-microcontroller-board/ | A Really, Really Tiny Microcontroller Board | Brian Benchoff | [
"ATtiny Hacks",
"Microcontrollers"
] | [
"adafruit",
"Adafruit trinket",
"attiny85",
"Trinket"
] | Here’s something very cool from the wonderful world of Adafruit:
The Trinket
, an Arduino compatible microcontroller platform that’s not only small enough to fit in your pocket, it’s small enough to
lose
in your pocket.
Like the similarly specced
Digispark
, the Trinket features an ATTiny85 microcontroller with 5 IO pins. Unlike the Digispark, the Trinket is a bit more substantial, featuring 3.3 and 5 Volt regulators along with a real USB port and mounting holes. As this is based on the ‘tiny85, it’s possible to connect this up to I2C and SPI sensors and peripherals
One thing to note about the Trinket is the fact that it’s so cheap. Either version of the Trinket goes for about $8, inexpensive enough to simply leave in a project when you’re done with it. Given the cool stuff we’ve already seen created with the Digispark, including a
homebrew stepper motor
and an
Internet meme and lame pun assessment tool
, we can’t wait to see what’s made with the Trinket, | 36 | 16 | [
{
"comment_id": "1052811",
"author": "TBO",
"timestamp": "2013-09-05T17:13:36",
"content": "Too bad they don’t use a four-connection standard USB plug on the PCB directly, instead of using the mini USB plug. That would be cool to be able to plug the board in directly, no cables needed. They could ... | 1,760,376,465.471004 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/09/07/extruded-rail-and-3d-printed-connectors-form-a-proper-laser-engraver/ | Extruded Rail And 3D Printed Connectors Form A Proper Laser Engraver | Mike Szczys | [
"cnc hacks",
"Laser Hacks"
] | [
"3d printed",
"gantry",
"laser engraver"
] | Fast and accurate is a good description of this laser engraver built by [Ragnar] and [Gunnar]. The’re planning to show it off at the Trondheim Maker Faire after the new year but they took it out in the wild for the PSTEREO Mini Maker Faire (also in Trondheim) this past August. The video below gives an overview of the build process and the engraver at work. But we also enjoyed reading the post about
a few missteps in the early prototyping process
. We call this one a proper laser engraver because it was purpose built from the ground-up. We still like seeing
the engravers hacked from optical drives
, but this really is a horse of a different color in comparison.
From the start they’re using familiar parts when it comes to CNC builds. The outer frame is made of extruded aluminum rail, with precision rod for the gantry to slide upon. Movement is facilitated with stepper motors and toothed belts, with all of the connecting and mounting parts fabricated on a 3D printer. The mistake made with an early (and unfortunately mostly assembled) prototype was that the Y axis was only driven on one side when it really needed to be driven on both. But filament is relatively cheap so a few tweaks to the design were able to fix this and get the production back on track. | 30 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "1053768",
"author": "Tony",
"timestamp": "2013-09-07T16:20:37",
"content": "There’s really no point making something that size when you can buy one cheaper off eBay – and as a bonus it’ll have a real laser tube in it (40W), a far cry from the like toy 2W they have. (Although if the... | 1,760,376,465.541405 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/09/07/potassium-chlorate-from-household-products/ | Potassium Chlorate From Household Products | Mike Szczys | [
"chemistry hacks"
] | [
"bleach",
"potassium chlorate",
"potassium chloride",
"sodium hypochlorite"
] | To the upper right we have very pure potassium chlorate, so much so that it bursts into flames when mixed with sugar and catalyzed with some sulfuric acid. [Mr. Home Scientist]
produced the KClO3 using household chemicals
and some rudimentary equipment sourced on eBay.
The experiment started off with concentrated bleach containing 8.25% sodium hypochlorite. He needed sodium chlorate so a hot plate was used to boil the bleach until crystals started to form. A more efficient way to achieve this reaction would be using electrolysis (check out
the HHO generator we saw recently
for a homemade rig). The next step is to add potassium chloride, which is sourced from the grocery store as a sodium-free salt alternative. After mixing with the filtered remains of the bleach reaction the two are combined. There is no precipitate from this — an indication that not everything is as it should be. But an overnight stay in the refrigerator results in the potassium chlorate crystals seen above.
Fiery testing (seen below) lets him know the experiment worked. From here the product can be
used for things like making solid rocket engines
.
[Thanks Bill] | 37 | 13 | [
{
"comment_id": "1053727",
"author": "w1z13",
"timestamp": "2013-09-07T13:19:26",
"content": "Damn, that HHO link again, whats wrong with hackaday guys?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1053736",
"author": "Krzysztof Wrześniak (@MikrySoft)",
... | 1,760,376,465.654373 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/09/07/pair-of-midi-dongles-to-inspire-some-weekend-music-hacking/ | Pair Of MIDI Dongles To Inspire Some Weekend Music Hacking | Mike Szczys | [
"Musical Hacks"
] | [
"atmega328",
"dongle",
"drum machine",
"midi",
"midivampire",
"synthesizer"
] | This pair of dongles is a fun way to get your feet wet working with MIDI hardware. They’re called
MIDIvampire-I
and
MIDIvampire-II
. Just plug one end into your MIDI-ready instrument and the other into a pair of speakers and you’re off and running. Mark I is a polyphonic synth, and Mark II is a drum machine, but both use basically the same hardware which you may already have on hand.
The single chip on each board is an ATmega328 often found anchoring Arduino boards. The other silicon component is an S1112B30MC voltage regulator. The rest of the components are passives, with MIDI and headphone jacks for connectivity. They’re selling these if you want the easy way out, but we thought we’d bring them to your attention in case you needed a breadboarding project this weekend. The firmware, BOM, schematic, and board artwork are all available on the Wiki pages linked in the articles above. After the break you can see a couple of demo videos which walk through all of the features. | 9 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "1053741",
"author": "Majapuf",
"timestamp": "2013-09-07T14:28:55",
"content": "This one is exactly what I have been putting up to later for a few years.I’ll try to adapt it ASAP, opening the computer can be a drag when trying just to play a bit with the keyboard. After that, adding ... | 1,760,376,465.585923 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/09/06/putting-every-game-console-in-the-palm-of-your-hand/ | Putting Every Game Console In The Palm Of Your Hand | Brian Benchoff | [
"Crowd Funding"
] | [
"casemod",
"Chris Downing",
"Cross Plane",
"hdmi",
"video game",
"wireless video interface"
] | Casemodders extraordinaire [Downing] and [Hailrazer] are known for their fabulous builds that put just about every gaming console into a portable hand-held format. Everything from a Game Cube to N64s and a Sega Genesis have been conquered by the two, and for the last year they’ve been putting their heads together to make the best solution to portabalizing console gaming forever.
It’s called the Cross Plane
, and puts just about everything with an HDMI connection in the palm of your hand.
The build began as one of [Downing]’s more ambitious projects. He imagined a system that could play nearly every retro game on a small handheld device. After finishing this build, he set up a Kickstarter and called up his friend [Hailrazer] to get some feedback. Just hours before the Kickstarter launched, [Hailrazer] suggested making a device for modern consoles. [Downing]’s pride and joy was scrapped, but out of its ashes arose the Cross Plane.
Inside the Cross Plane is a wireless HDMI receiver and a 7″ 720p display. This, along with a few buttons and analog controls, allow the Cross Plane to serve as a remote display and controller for an XBox 360, Playstation 3, and even a PC, for all that retro emulator goodness.
It’s a really, really cool project, and since
the dream of an open Wii U controller
seem to have died, we’re thinking this could be a great controller for an FPV quadcopter or other remotely operated vehicle. | 22 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "1053436",
"author": "Jeremy Cook",
"timestamp": "2013-09-06T21:04:56",
"content": "Really clever idea to “outsource” the processing of your portable gaming like that. Different service, but it would be interesting if bandwidth ever got to the point where you could just VPN into a r... | 1,760,376,465.716914 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/09/06/3d-printering-electronics-boards/ | 3D Printering: Electronics Boards | Brian Benchoff | [
"3d Printer hacks",
"Hackaday Columns"
] | [
"3d printer",
"3D Printering",
"RAMBo",
"RAMPS",
"reprap",
"reprap electronics",
"RUMBA",
"Sanguinololu"
] | If you’re gearing up to build a 3D printer, one of the first things you’ll need to look at is your options for electronics boards. Whether you decide to optimize for cost or capability, the choices you make during the planning stages of your build will drastically affect what the final project will look like and how it will behave.
There are a ton of electronics boards out there, so for this installation of 3D Printering, we’re going to take a look at what’s available. Hit the link below to
give Hackaday more pageviews
read the rest.
RAMPS, RUMBA, and RAMBo
RAMPS, the RepRap Arduino Mega Pololu Shield, is the OG RepRap electronics board. The board itself is fairly basic – a few sockets for
Pololu stepper motor drivers
, a few MOSFETs for heaters and fans, and a few screw terminals to connect a power supply.
Since this is a shield, all the intelligence for this board comes via an Arduino Mega. While the stock setup is quite minimal compared to other electronics boards, RAMPS can be extended with an
SD card add-on
or
a control panel
that allows you to operate your 3D printer sans computer
RAMBo
is a derivative of RAMPS, the key difference being everything – including the microcontroller – is on one board. This has the advantage of being a simpler solution, but there’s also the problem of having soldered-on stepper drivers. If those chips burn out… well, you better be good with a solder wick.
RUMBA
gets away from the problem of integrated stepper drivers, but still keeps with the ‘everything on one board’ ideology of RAMBo. Like RAMBo, it features five motor drivers for X, Y, Z, and two extruders and can handle SD cards and a control panel.
The Sanguinololu and derivatives
This barely-pronounceable board does away with the Arduino Mega + Shield paradigm of RAMPS by putting everything on a single board. Based on the
Sanguino
, an ATMega644P based Arduino clone, the Sanguinololu is a
little
underpowered in terms of Flash memory and RAM compared to the Arduino Mega + RAMPS combo, but the current 1.3b revision of the Sanguinololu with an ATMega1284P gives it enough space to run just about any firmware you could need.
As with RAMPS and most other electronics, the Sanguinololu uses
Pololu stepper motor drivers
that are easily replaceable in the event of one burning out. Despite the rather limited microcontroller, a Sanguinololu with an ATMega1284P is able to make use of
an SD card adapter
and
an LCD control panel
.
The popularity of the Sanguinololu has spawned a few derivatives. One of these is the
Teensylu
, based on an Atmel AT90USB1286 chip to get rid of the FTDI serial chip found on the Sanguinololu. Other than that, the two boards are relatively comparable.
As all things in open hardware, there’s always a better solution. When the Printrbot team was looking for an electronics board for their outrageously popular printer, they turned to the Teensylu as the inspiration for their
Printrboard
.
Like the Teensylu, the Printrboard doesn’t need an FTDI chip thanks to its AT90USB1286 microcontroller, It also includes an integrated SD card slot unlike the Teensylu and
can work with the Panelolu control panel
. Despite what a few people say about the Printrbot, the Printrboard is a
really
nice piece of kit, with the only (possibly imaginary) downside being the soldered-on stepper drivers.
How about a DIY solution?
The RepRap project was initially created to design a self-replicating machine. Due to fears of a gray goo scenario and the economic realities of selling a truly ubiquitous device in a post-scarcity society on Kickstarter, this idea has slowly faded away. Great strides have been made in electronics that are able to be fabricated at home on cartesian-bot platforms, though, the latest advancement being
[Traumflug]’s Gen 7 electronics board
The Gen 7 board is the ultimate in DIY electronics boards. In terms of capabilities, it’s pretty close to the Sanguinololu – not the best, but more than capable of driving a 3D printer. This board truly is a work of art, and if someone at your hackerspace is really good with fabbing PCBs, you might want to ask them to do a workshop featuring the Gen 7 electronics.
Other Boards
The above boards use AVR microcontrollers. While they work for what they’re intended to do, there are a few limitations. Arcs and circles are a little weird to program, and using these boards for something other than a cartesian 3D printer – a CNC machine, or a laser cutter, for example – is a bit out of the ordinary.
The Smoothie board
is the solution to these problems.
The Smoothie is powered by an ARM Cortex M3, giving it a lot more computational power than even the fairly powerful boards above. This is a boon for non-traditional 3D printers such as SCARA arms, Delta bot printers, and
an H-bot printer we’ve seen before
.
If that’s not enough, the Smoothie also has freakin’ Ethernet. There’s
a control panel in the works
as well, but
finding a supplier
is a bit more trouble than it should be.
The Takeaway
All of these boards have their plusses and minuses, but despite a lot of variation, they’re all fairly comparable and cost
about
the same. The major firmwares have been ported to most of these boards, and extended capabilities, such as an SD card slot and a control board, are available on just about all of them.
I’m not in any position to tell you which board is the best, but I will say I’ll probably be retiring the Sanguinololu on my Mendel for a Printrboard for my upcoming Prusa i3 build (if someone can find me a US supplier for the aluminum plates…) Take that for what it’s worth if you’re planning your first 3D printer build.
If you’re looking for an electronics board for a fairly complex printer, you might want to consider a RAMPS or RAMBo board. That has dual extruder drivers, should you ever want to experiment with multicolor or multimaterial prints. That, and it’s more or less the de facto standard among homebuilt 3D printers. | 35 | 20 | [
{
"comment_id": "1053366",
"author": "BubbleRep",
"timestamp": "2013-09-06T19:09:02",
"content": "Hi,you missed something you can use the RUMBA with a single driver for two Z motors as well, so you would even be able to build a three extruder machine ;)Best Regards",
"parent_id": null,
"dept... | 1,760,376,465.790504 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/09/06/a-pc-rig-that-belongs-on-the-wall-of-an-art-museum-2/ | A PC Rig That Belongs On The Wall Of An Art Museum | Michael Ciuffo | [
"computer hacks",
"LED Hacks"
] | [
"pc",
"water cooling"
] | When Overclock.net user [Show4Pro] decided to upgrade his “old dusty rig”, he eschewed the conventional PC form factor and instead built
an incredibly sexy custom wall-mounted case.
The six sticks of RAM, quad HDD/SSDs, and dual Radeon HD7970s are enough to make all but the most hard core gamer blush, but that was only the beginning here. Using a Dremel tool, Show4Pro cut the frame from a piece of hardboard and coated it with a mock-carbon fiber vinyl sheet. This backdrop acts to both hide the (many) cables and provide structural support to the components. Custom light guides cut from an acrylic sheet are back lit with LEDs and serve as a border for each of the components.
Laying all of the boards flat on the frame required the use of PCIe risers to move the video cards away from the mother board. Long PCIe connectors are very susceptible to EMI though, and Show4Pro ran into a few stability problems that he eventually had to resolve with some high-end shielded risers.
Besides that one minor hiccough, the project went off without a hitch and it looks like his 100+ hours of work have really paid off.
Via
Reddit
. | 63 | 20 | [
{
"comment_id": "1053342",
"author": "andres",
"timestamp": "2013-09-06T18:20:17",
"content": "pci-e uses differential signalling. Shouldn’t the pci-e rises be using twisted pair cables?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1053343",
"autho... | 1,760,376,465.88709 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/09/06/my-first-brainfck/ | My First Brainf*ck | Brian Benchoff | [
"Arduino Hacks"
] | [
"arduino",
"brainfuck"
] | There was a time – not too long ago – that a ‘my first computer’ required the use of machine code and an understanding of binary. While an introduction to computers is now just how to put a Raspberry Pi image on an SD card, a few people are keeping the dream of memorizing opcodes alive. One such person is [Johan von Konow], creator of
My First Brainfuck
, an ultra small, low-cost programmable computer.
My First Brainfuck is an Arduino shield designed to have all the features of a normal computer, but without all those messy mnemonics that make assembly programming so easy. This computer is programmed in
Brainfuck
, a purposely obtuse programming language that, while being incredibly esoteric and difficult to program in, can be very, very rewarding.
[Johan]
has a short tutorial
showing how his computer works and how the Brainfuck language operates. There are only eight commands in Brainfuck, perfect for such a minimal user interface, but with enough patience, nearly anything can be written in this difficult language.
Right now there are a few examples showing how to play a scale on the on-board buzzer, displaying a Larson scanner on the LEDs, and a few more programs will be published in the future. | 36 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "1053311",
"author": "Ross Hershberger",
"timestamp": "2013-09-06T17:09:51",
"content": "I learned programming in 6502 machine language on a KIM-1 microcomputer in the mid ’70s. Not Asembler, actual machine language. Then learned high level languages and spent 13 years as a mainframe... | 1,760,376,465.957338 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/09/04/modifying-the-hc-05-bluetooth-module-defaults-using-at-commands/ | Modifying The HC-05 Bluetooth Module Defaults Using AT Commands | Mathieu Stephan | [
"Arduino Hacks",
"hardware"
] | [
"arduino",
"AT commands",
"bluetooth"
] | The HC-05, a Bluetooth to serial bridge, can be found for around $5 on the internet and therefore may be the cheapest way to add Bluetooth connectivity to your project.
However, its default settings may need to be changed depending on your application. [Hazim] explains a way to
enter the HC-05 AT command mode
to benefit from the rich set of features that the device can provide. The process is fairly simple as it only consists of maintaining the key pin of the HC-05 high while powering on. The device then boots in AT command mode with a default 38400bits/s speed and listens for all of the
AT command set
(PDF). As an example [Hazim] provides a sketch allowing you to write the AT commands directly in your favorite terminal.
With the basics out of your way you may want to further research the hardware, especially if you will be using modules from different sources. They
don’t always come with the same firmware
. | 50 | 22 | [
{
"comment_id": "1052332",
"author": "dmitry grinberg",
"timestamp": "2013-09-04T17:03:16",
"content": "The…hack…here is to take *one* pin HIGH…?(that is what it takes to get the module into command mode)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "105234... | 1,760,376,466.195514 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/09/04/laptop-to-all-in-one-pc-conversion/ | Laptop To All-in-one PC Conversion | Marsh | [
"hardware",
"laptops hacks"
] | [
"all-in-one",
"laptop"
] | You probably have an old laptop shoved into a far, dark corner of your closet, gathering dust as it sits there alone and unwanted. Show it some love like [Oakkar7] and
hack it into a desktop all-in-one PC
. He had his work cut out for him, though: dead motherboard, busted case, worthless battery. [Oakkar7] starts by taking the case apart and removing the LCD screen. He removes the motherboard to discover two toasted capacitors in need of replacement. A short solder job later and the computer springs to life.
[Oakkar7] needs the LCD to face outwards while sitting against the rest of the laptop. The connecting cable doesn’t reach, so he carefully removes it, and flips it around to get the extra length needed. The final step is to fashion some aluminum support bars that attach to the bottom of the case, which mount onto another aluminum stand holding everything upright. At this point [Oakkar7] has tossed the battery, the keyboard, both the CD and floppy drive (yes it’s that old), and moved the speakers into the battery’s former home. For the finishing touch, a USB hub provides connections for the new keyboard, mouse and a Wifi dongle.
[Oakkar7] shared his project with us after reading [Elad’s]
ground control station laptop conversion
. Maybe these two projects can convince you to save a neglected laptop. | 10 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "1052300",
"author": "indiantinker",
"timestamp": "2013-09-04T15:04:31",
"content": "Wow! Thats pretty Cool and Clean! :D",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1052304",
"author": "kurisu",
"timestamp": "2013-09-04T15:15:32",
... | 1,760,376,466.009634 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/09/04/rgb-infinity-mirror/ | RGB Infinity Mirror | Marsh | [
"LED Hacks"
] | [
"arduino",
"infinity mirror",
"mirror",
"RGB LED"
] | If you’ve been waiting for a more detailed guide before you set off to work on your own Infinity Mirror,
[Ben]’s write-up is perhaps the most approachable one you will find
. This build uses a set of four potentiometers to control an analog RGB LED strip (these lights are not individually addressable: but that makes coding simpler). [Ben] powers everything from a 12V 5A DC adapter, which is more than enough to run the 12V RGB strip along with the Arduino.
The mirror has two different ‘modes:’ individual channel color control and color-fade. In the first mode, three pots drive the RGB channels respectively. The color-fade mode has a mind of its own, sliding between all possible colors; you can spin the fourth potentiometer to control the speed of the transition.
The video below better illustrates the different modes. We definitely recommend [Ben’s] excellent guide as an ideal first project for anyone who has yet to take the plunge beyond simple microcontroller exercises. Check out
Freeside Atlanta’s Infinity Mirror prototype
for more inspiration. | 13 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "1052265",
"author": "Frank",
"timestamp": "2013-09-04T13:11:57",
"content": "If you got a digital LED strip you could program a mode where you would get really crazy. You could create a sort of knightrider light, where the led strip lights up at the begin, and moves on to the end. I... | 1,760,376,466.240744 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/09/04/screaming-fast-rc-hovercraft/ | Screaming Fast RC Hovercraft | Marsh | [
"Toy Hacks"
] | [
"hoverc",
"hovercraft",
"rc",
"remote control"
] | Of all the homemade RC Hovercraft floating around out there,
this build is not only one of the better looking: it’s also unexpectedly quick
. [ScratchBuiltAircraft] sourced foam board from the local dollar store to construct the hovercraft’s body and a heavy-duty garbage bag with a hole cut in the center for the skirt. Air reaches the skirt area from the hovercraft’s EDF (Electric Duct Fan — the big one on the back) which pumps the air through a rectangular hole in the base.
A servo mounted behind the fan controls the rudders, while the rest of the electronics and the battery are cleanly tucked away beneath foam body pieces. We’re not sure what kind of top speed the Turnigy motor provides, but it’s probably impressive assuming it can keep from flipping over. Watch it blast off with a bit too much lift in the video below.
For something a bit slower, there’s always the
solar powered hovercraft
from earlier this summer.
[via
Hacked Gadgets
] | 19 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "1052220",
"author": "Drake",
"timestamp": "2013-09-04T11:22:42",
"content": "it would probably help to balance the weight and then attach an inverted airfoil to keep it from taking off at speed",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "10... | 1,760,376,466.483209 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/09/03/another-arduino-clone-is-the-last-thing-the-world-needs/ | Another Arduino Clone Is The Last Thing The World Needs | Brian Benchoff | [
"Arduino Hacks"
] | [
"arduino",
"clone"
] | One might think the last thing the world needs is for The Great Old Ones to rise from their near-death sleep deep in the Pacific ocean, and begin again their reign over Earth. Actually, the last thing the world needs is another Arduino clone.
Here’s this one
. Fittingly, it’s called the Ktuluino.
Actually, this isn’t yet another attempt to build an Arduino clone that adds nothing to existing designs; it’s just [Jeff]’s attempt at PCB design. He needed something to practice on, so why not something that ends in -uino?
The board is just about as simple as Arduinos come – an ATMega328P is the brains of the outfit and also the most expensive component, closely followed by either the power jack or the header pins. As an exercise in PCB design, we’ll give this a thumbs up, but this could also be used for an ‘introduction to soldering’ workshop at a hackerspace, or alternatively a coaster. | 77 | 21 | [
{
"comment_id": "1051914",
"author": "mjrippe",
"timestamp": "2013-09-03T21:05:30",
"content": "Sure he did a good job designing a board, but you’re really baiting the trolls here!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1052588",
"author": "J... | 1,760,376,466.434762 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/09/03/retrotechtacular-6ch-industrial-robot/ | Retrotechtacular: 6CH Industrial Robot | Mike Szczys | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"Retrotechtacular"
] | [
"6ch",
"factory",
"robot arm"
] | With
this robotic arm demo video from 1975
the future really is now. Think about it, there are entire factories full of the descendants of this technology where the human workers simply feed the beast and fix it when it breaks.
We’re pretty impressed by what’s shown off below. Not because we see something we didn’t know was possible, but because the technology was so advanced nearly forty years ago. Here the arm is laying out a wiring harness on a jig. We wonder if using a single color of wire is going to make it a major pain when they add the connectors?
Obviously the mechanics were solid. Time has brought further advances in precision, reduced costs that make robots available for even small factories (often palletizing products is done by
a machine similar to this
), and improvements in how tasks are programmed. After all, the ability to print a hard copy of the program as a punch tape isn’t quite cutting edge for this decade.
What does that mean for you? If you look hard enough you might be able to find
an older generation robot arm to hack on
.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wLJLDIMNjzA
[Thanks Amos via
EE Times
]
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
. | 23 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "1051895",
"author": "Andy",
"timestamp": "2013-09-03T19:26:07",
"content": "Hi, this guy “Christian S.” has toyed with a Manutec R15 (machineweight 320kg / 15kg lifting / 6 axis)http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wslOMT6_e6kAmazing isn’t it ?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
... | 1,760,376,466.315964 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/09/03/the-javascript-of-things/ | The JavaScript Of Things | Brian Benchoff | [
"ARM",
"Crowd Funding",
"Microcontrollers"
] | [
"arm",
"Espruino",
"javascript",
"node.js"
] | There are a ton of people out there that can program in JavaScript, but give them an embedded device, and they’re up the creek without a paddle. Not anymore, that is, thanks to [Gordon]’s wonderful
Espruino
, a JavaScript interpreter for ARM microcontrollers. Oh, it’s also a very capable dev board that has more than enough power to turn just about any project you can imagine into reality.
On board the Espruino is an ARM Cortex M3 in the form of an STM32 chip, 256kB Flash, 48kB of RAM, and a ton of PWM and ADC pins to go along with 2 SPI ports, 2 I2C ports, and 2 DACs. It’s a very capable piece of hardware, and if you’re looking to build anything, it would be hard to pick a better general purpose dev board.
[Gordon] has put
his board up on Kickstarter
, and since it’s already been successfully funded, he’ll be releasing the hardware and software sources under an Open Source license. If you’ve ever wanted to run JavaScript on an ARM board, it looks like Espruino is just the ticket. | 57 | 16 | [
{
"comment_id": "1051830",
"author": "lloyd",
"timestamp": "2013-09-03T17:10:34",
"content": "*There are a ton of people out there that can program badly in JavaScript",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1051848",
"author": "ajoakim",
... | 1,760,376,466.685767 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/09/03/a-weekend-trip-to-verify-general-relativity/ | A Weekend Trip To Verify General Relativity | Mathieu Stephan | [
"clock hacks",
"hardware"
] | [
"atomic clock",
"einstein",
"relativity"
] | 8 years ago, for the 100th anniversary of the theory of relativity [Tom] decided to
test the general theory of relativity
.
As he was going to Mt Rainier (5400ft high) with his children for the weekend, he brought in his van 3 cesium clocks while leaving other atomic clocks at his home for comparison. The theory behind the test is that if you’re are at higher altitudes, then your speed (in a galactic coordinate system) is higher than the one you’d have at sea level and therefore time would go “slower” than at lower altitudes.
[Tom] brought 400 pounds of batteries, 200 pounds of clocks and left his car turned on during his 2 days stay in the ‘Paradise Lodge’. He used 120V DC to AC converters and chose to bring 3 cesium clocks to have a triple redundant setup. When he came back home, he had the good surprise of finding a time difference of
23ns
. This is a great application for
those rubidium sources you’ve been scavenging
.
[Thanks Indyaner via
Reddit
] | 77 | 32 | [
{
"comment_id": "1051796",
"author": "Hirudinea",
"timestamp": "2013-09-03T16:12:59",
"content": "What’ he couldn’t just use a digital watch? Anyway this is really cool, but where did he put the wife and kids? Seriously, this thing should have been built into a trailer and have its own gas generator... | 1,760,376,466.593065 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/09/03/finally-a-practical-use-for-the-leap/ | Finally, A Practical Use For The Leap | Brian Benchoff | [
"Robots Hacks"
] | [
"leap",
"Leap motion",
"robot",
"surgery"
] | Robots used in laparoscopic surgery are fairly commonplace, but controlling them is far from simple. The usual setup is something akin to a Waldo-style manipulator, allowing a surgeon to cut, cauterise, and stitch from across a room. There is another way to go about this thanks to some new hardware, as [Sriranjan]
shows us with his Leap-controlled surgery bot
.
[Sriranjan] isn’t using a real laparoscopic surgery robot for his experiments. Instead, he’s using the Le-Sur simulator that puts two virtual robot arms in front of a surgeon in training. Each of these robotic arms have seven degrees of freedom, and by using two Leap controllers (one each in a VM), [Sriranjan] was able to control both of them using his hands.
We’ve seen a lot of creative applications for the Leap sensor, like
controlling quadcopters
,
controlling hexapod robots
, and
controlling more quadcopters
, but this is the first time we’ve seen the Leap do something no other controller can – emulating the delicate touch of a surgeon’s hand
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JLqLmvL75B0&w=580] | 15 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "1051776",
"author": "Indyaner",
"timestamp": "2013-09-03T15:04:07",
"content": "> Yet another mildly practical use for the LeapFTFY",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1051777",
"author": "polytechnick",
"timestamp": "2013-0... | 1,760,376,466.735439 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/09/03/couch-to-5k-with-1k-to-spare/ | Couch To 5K With 1K To Spare | Michael Ciuffo | [
"ATtiny Hacks",
"Medical Hacks"
] | [
"AVR",
"running"
] | In a market full of Fitbits, Misfits, and Fuelbands, it’s easy to get carried away with sophisticated personal fitness tracking technology. That’s why [André] took a totally different approach with his super simple run tracking device, the
C25K machine
.
C25K stands for “
Couch to 5k
” which is a slimmed down exercise schedule designed to gradually bring people who have otherwise no exercise routine up to a level of fitness where they can run a 5k in just 9 weeks. To keep participants from wearing themselves out too early, the routine specifies a sequence of running and walking periods to be completed in series on specific days. Though simpler than most fitness plans, it’s still a lot to keep track of especially when you’re sweating so hard you can barely see your stopwatch.
André found a solution using a bare-bones circuit based on the ATTiny2313. After loading the C25k calendar into its firmware (which takes up less than half of its 2K of flash), he needs only to toggle the dipswitch to select the appropriate day of the program, and the little device (scarcely larger than a key fob) will beep to let him know to switch from running to walking or back again.
Definitely a great project for any hobbyist looking for a geeky way to get in shape. | 9 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "1051747",
"author": "bobfeg",
"timestamp": "2013-09-03T13:32:04",
"content": "“they can run a 5k in just 9 weeks”That’s mighty slow :-)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1051752",
"author": "Phillip",
"timestamp": "2013-09... | 1,760,376,466.779928 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/09/03/a-pick-and-place-tool-from-medical-equipment/ | A Pick And Place Tool From Medical Equipment | Brian Benchoff | [
"Medical Hacks",
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"diaphragm pump",
"nebulizer",
"smd",
"vacuum",
"vacuum pump"
] | A vacuum tool is an invaluable tool if you’re working with tiny SMD parts, and even with tweezers you might have a hard time placing these nearly invisible components on their pads for soldering. One tool that’s really great for these parts is a vacuum pen, usually made from an old aquarium air pump. [Jon] may have found
a much more suitable piece of equipment to scavenge for a vacuum pen build
– a nebulizer.
Nebulizers provide asthmatics with low pressure, low volume air to atomize medication for inhalation. Inside the nebulizer is a small diaphragm pump, just like the small aquarium pump teardowns we’ve seen. In just five minutes, [Jon] tore his thrift store nebulizer apart and reversed the flow of air, turning something that blows into something that sucks.
After the suction part of the build was finished, [Jon] needed a way to pick up small components. He did this by blunting a large hypodermic needle and fastening it to the end of a Bic pen with heat shrink tubing. After drilling a small hole in the pen body, he had a very nice looking SMD vacuum pump. | 41 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "1051699",
"author": "Johan",
"timestamp": "2013-09-03T11:32:50",
"content": "Yes, but can it pick n place coffee beans? … ;)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1051723",
"author": "SlainVeteran",
"timestamp": "201... | 1,760,376,467.152823 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/09/02/grow-your-own-coffee-beans/ | Grow Your Own Coffee Beans | Brian Benchoff | [
"cooking hacks"
] | [
"coffee"
] | Unlike T-shirts, sneakers, cell phones, children’s toys, software, appliances, virtually everything made of plastic, and food, people
really
seem to care about who makes their coffee. Instead of buying
guilt-free
free trade coffee, [spikec] over on Instructables decided to actually do something to uproot the evils of consumerism.
He’s making his own coffee
, at home, with a real coffee plant.
[spikec] bought a coffee plant a few years ago off eBay. Coffee plants are actually trees, and with careful pruning they can be maintained to a reasonable size. But what about the weather? Well, for [spikec], who lives in the 7a USDA hardiness zone – a strip that runs from southern New Jersey to the Texas panhandle – he just brings the plant inside when it’s cold.
Once the coffee fruit turns ripe, [spikec] picks the beans, husks the fruit, and puts the beans in a dehydrator. From there, it’s a trip through a small coffee roaster and into a french press.
[spikec] only harvested about a half pound of beans. That’s still very impressive for growing a bonsai coffee tree a thousand miles outside its native range. | 47 | 20 | [
{
"comment_id": "1051488",
"author": "soundman98",
"timestamp": "2013-09-02T21:24:16",
"content": "apparently it’s officially cofé day today? why does this suddenly matter when official bacon day was skipped right over with blatant disregard?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": ... | 1,760,376,466.924294 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/09/02/monitoring-a-coffee-pot-with-an-arduino/ | Monitoring A Coffee Pot With An Arduino | Brian Benchoff | [
"cooking hacks"
] | [
"coffee"
] | Coffee has always been an important part of the internet; the first webcam ever was in the Trojan Room of the Cambridge University Computer Laboratory to monitor the contents of a coffee pot. Now, instead of webcams, we have Arduinos and a bathroom scale. Not particularly similar to a webcam, but more than enough to keep track of
how much coffee is currently available at DoES Liverpool
.
Being a techy workshop/studio, coffee is always in short supply at DoES Liverpool. Instead of getting up and checking the pot, [Patrick] thought it would be a good idea to monitor the contents of a coffee pot online. He’s doing this with a bathroom scale underneath the coffee machine connected to an Arduino Ethernet module. By measuring the weight of the coffee pot and subtracting the known empty weight, [Patrick] can get a pretty good idea of how much coffee is left in the pot, and how long the coffee has been sitting there.
The data from the Arduino is fed to an Xively feed that displays the current status of the coffee machine on any computer with an Internet connection. Far more sophisticated than the first webcam ever, and a very useful tool for everyone at DoES Liverpool. | 25 | 15 | [
{
"comment_id": "1051434",
"author": "Sprite_tm",
"timestamp": "2013-09-02T19:16:48",
"content": "You can actually do this without the scale, up to a certain extent. The coffee in an ordinary pot usually is heated with a heating plate underneat it. This heat plate usually is controlled by a bang-ban... | 1,760,376,466.841953 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/09/02/give-yourself-to-the-dark-roast-side/ | Give Yourself To The Dark Roast Side | Brian Benchoff | [
"cooking hacks"
] | [
"coffee"
] | A normal coffee maker won’t cut it for dinner parties or any time you need a lot of coffee really fast. At this point, you have two options: you could buy an industrial coffee maker, or you could
buy an industrial coffee maker and make it look like R2D2
. Guess which option we think is cooler?
The R2D2 coffee pot was designed for large dinner parties where waiting five minutes for a pot of coffee to brew is just an inefficient use of time. Instead of a Mr. Coffee, [iminthebathroom] used an industrial BUNN coffee maker as R2’s body. This coffee maker has two water reservoirs, one that pours into the coffee filter and another that keeps a pot of coffee’s worth of water piping hot.
As for the cosmetic modifications to the coffee maker, [iminthebathroom] found a wonderful dome for R2’s head in a junk yard. It was formerly a giant ball valve, and a little work with a saw cut it down to a proper R2 skull shape. R2’s voice – as heard in the video below – come from a greeting card programmed with the bleeps and boops of the actual hero of the Star Wars saga.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R4YfltE83-I&w=580] | 9 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "1051425",
"author": "Q",
"timestamp": "2013-09-02T18:24:06",
"content": "jesus enough with the coffie. yes you like it, we get that.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1051431",
"author": "C-3PO",
"timestamp": "20... | 1,760,376,466.970458 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/09/05/jack-the-dvd-ripping-robot/ | Jack The DVD Ripping Robot | Brian Benchoff | [
"digital cameras hacks",
"Robots Hacks"
] | [
"dvd",
"DVD ripping",
"ripping"
] | [Andy] had a fairly large problem on his hands. For the last 15 years, he’s been collecting DVDs, and since he began, he’s run out of space on his shelves for these miraculous plastic discs. Everything’s going to the cloud now, so he decided to build a media server, replete with rips of all his DVDs. As anyone who has ever tried to rip a movie knows, this can be a very long and tedious process. His solution to this should be something near and dear to all of us –
he decided to build a robot to rip all his DVDs
automatically.
With a brand new 3D printer, [Andy] set to work on
designing Jack the Ripper Bot
. The design has two trays mounted to a standard computer DVD drive, an ‘in’ tray and an ‘out’ tray. The frame of the machine bolts directly to the drive, and the entire contraption is driven by only three standard hobby servos.
The robot is driven by a Raspberry Pi, but the ripping actually takes place on an old laptop. [Andy] says it takes about an hour and a quarter to rip a DVD, so a full ‘in’ tray of 24 discs means about 28 hours of ripping time. Feeding the machine once a day is a lot better than returning to the computer every hour or so, we think.
All the STLs for the printed parts and the software for the Raspi and computer are
up on [Andy]’s github
, should anyone want to upgrade this to a Blu Ray ripper.
Thanks [Stephen] for sending this one in.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mmHycIOtYHA&w=620] | 56 | 25 | [
{
"comment_id": "1052777",
"author": "Ian",
"timestamp": "2013-09-05T16:19:44",
"content": "Great stuff!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1052914",
"author": "Mike Szczys",
"timestamp": "2013-09-05T20:29:13",
"content": ... | 1,760,376,467.246971 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/09/05/making-asteroids-miniature/ | Making Asteroids Miniature | Brian Benchoff | [
"classic hacks"
] | [
"arcade",
"arcade cabinet",
"Asteroids",
"video game"
] | Mini arcade cabinet builds are fairly common, but we’ve never seen anything like [Jurgen]’s
mini vector Asteroids cabinet
that takes an original Asteroids circuit board and a true vector monitor and shrinks it down to table top size.
Unlike the raster monitors of a later generation’s arcade games, the original Asteroids cabinet used a vector monitor just like one would find in an oscilloscope. [Jurgen] found the perfect CRT in, of all places, a broken Vectrex console. The video circuitry in the Vectrex was rather primitive and the beam deflection was far too slow for the video signals generated by the Asteroids PCB. To get around this, [Jurgen] added a custom XY driver board. While the Asteroids game – and other vector Atari games – were designed for a screen with 1 MHz of bandwidth, [Jurgen] found that 300 kHz was ‘good enough’ to display proper Asteroids graphics.
While the cabinet isn’t a miniaturized version of any proper cabinet, [Jurgen] did manage to build a rather nice looking case for his luggable version of Asteroids. The exposed PCB on the back is a great touch, and an awesome project for any ancient video game aficionado. | 20 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "1052749",
"author": "HomelyPoet",
"timestamp": "2013-09-05T15:15:06",
"content": "300 kHz bandwidth, not 300 MHz, was deemed ‘good enough’.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1052752",
"author": "Geebles",
"timestamp": "201... | 1,760,376,467.311223 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/09/05/custom-car-keypad-entry/ | Custom Car Keypad Entry | Marsh | [
"Microcontrollers",
"Transportation Hacks"
] | [
"arduino",
"keyless",
"keyless entry",
"keypad"
] | [EdsJunk] loves the outdoors and using his Jeep Wrangler to get him there, but hiding a key just to go for a swim makes him nervous. After a friend showed him how convenient it was to have keypad entry to his vehicle, [EdsJunk]
decided it was time he built his own
.
The build uses a spare waterproof keypad attached to an Arduino Micro. [EdsJunk] simplified things by cannibalizing his extra keyless entry keyfob; if the ‘duino receives the right code from the keypad, it presses the unlock button on the keyfob to grant access. [EdsJunk] admits that the Wrangler’s soft top is easy enough to get into, but explains that the goal of this project is to keep the alarm activated, which would presumably go off if someone tried to break in through the soft top. You can watch a video demo of the keypad access below. This is another great addition to
the multitude of hacks he’s performed on one vehicle
.
We do, however, hope that there’s some kind of lockout built into the code to prevent brute forcing: it should be easy enough to activate the car’s panic button after a set number of failed attempts. Car hacks are popular this summer: check out the
Real Car Remote Control
if you missed it. | 63 | 18 | [
{
"comment_id": "1052703",
"author": "SparkyGSX",
"timestamp": "2013-09-05T13:20:46",
"content": "Why do you always have to be DAMN NEGATIVE? I CONSTANTLY see descriptions that come down to “see, this is a pretty cool project, but whoever did it was an idiot an I am the superior hacker because he di... | 1,760,376,467.419337 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/09/05/conus-mixes-media-math-and-mollusks/ | ‘conus’ Mixes Media, Math And Mollusks | Marsh | [
"hardware",
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"art",
"art installation",
"cellular automata"
] | We love art installations that use technology in ways probably never before considered, and Moscow media artist [Dimitry Morozov] has done just that with ‘
conus’, which reads the surface of mollusk shells
and translates the data into real-time audio and video. These shells are unique; their pigmentation generates natural
cellular automata
. (If you’ve never heard of cellular automata,
Conway’s Game of Life
is a good example, where a rule set determines whether a cell lives, dies, or regenerates.
[Dimitry’s] installation uses homemade digital microscopes to scan the naturally-created cellular automata of several shells, each rotating on its own disc. As the shell spins, the scans from the microscopes are fed into an algorithm which transforms the signals into data for multiple audio channels and three video monitors. You can watch the mathematical translation of the biologically-formed patterns in a video after the break.
Check out the
MSP430 game of life shield
for another example of cellular automata. | 14 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "1052661",
"author": "DarkAnt",
"timestamp": "2013-09-05T11:25:52",
"content": "It’s a little more frightening when you realize what those shells are. Also, did anyone catch how the cellular automata are translated into audio?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [... | 1,760,376,467.481418 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/09/04/diesel-bike-build-round-2/ | Diesel Bike Build: Round 2 | Marsh | [
"Engine Hacks",
"Transportation Hacks"
] | [
"diesel",
"motorcycle"
] | [Alex] has been hard at work on his
second vegetable-oil-powered diesel bike build
. The last time we checked in, he was finishing off work on
his Honda CB400
. Unfortunately, he felt it wasn’t quite big enough to ride comfortably, and as most first builds go, it was burdened with its share of problems. Now he’s snagged a Yamaha XJ600 off eBay, cleaned it up and started the modifications. [Alex] extended the frame to accommodate a new engine, rebuilt the gearbox, and perhaps most daunting: turned down the pulleys with a vintage 1950’s lathe.
Now that [Alex’s] bike has passed the
MOT inspections
, he can enjoy cruising around while doing his part to save the environment. His build log details the process, and is packed with enough pictures to keep you busy for a few hours while it walks you through each step. You can watch the bike’s test-run video below. For you off-road types, check out the
all-wheel drive motorcycle
from last month. | 32 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "1052487",
"author": "ehrichweiss",
"timestamp": "2013-09-05T00:52:29",
"content": "I’m thrilled. I’ve been thinking about doing something similar to my Goldwing. I’ll be checking out the build log ASAP.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment... | 1,760,376,467.603349 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/09/04/solar-power-for-your-bike/ | Solar Power For Your Bike | Marsh | [
"Solar Hacks",
"Transportation Hacks"
] | [
"bicycle",
"lights",
"MintyBoost",
"solar power",
"usb"
] | After the headlight on his bike died, [Patrick] decided this was the best time to
hack the remains and solve a few problems
: namely a constantly drained battery from accidentally forgetting to turn the light off. He opted for a solar solution, as he already had both an
Adafruit solar lithium charger
and a
Seeed Li-po Rider
. [Patrick] picks the Adafruit board for its extra safety features like temperature sensing to prevent the cell from overheating.
The build uses 9 eBay-sourced 2V mini solar panels attached neatly on the bike’s mudflaps. Three groups of 3 panels in series provide the needed 6V into the Adafruit lithium board which safely charges a spare 900mAh Nokia phone battery from the junk drawer. [Patrick] admits this solar setup may be overkill. He decided to include a USB jack to keep his phone charged for some Google maps navigation. The Adafruit board does not step up to 5V, however, so [Patrick] tacks on a
Mintyboost
kit to kick the Lipo’s output up high enough to charge the phone.
Solar’s not the only alternative way to power your bike’s lights. Check out the
RattleGen
from earlier this year if you missed it. | 5 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "1052439",
"author": "Przemek Klosowski",
"timestamp": "2013-09-04T21:37:20",
"content": "I would add a vibration-sensing circuit that turns the whole thing on and off (after a minute or so of steadiness). The ambitious version could use a microcontroller and accelerometer, but a tin... | 1,760,376,467.524511 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/09/04/git-with-eagle-add-meaning-to-diff/ | Git With Eagle: Add Meaning to Diff | Mike Szczys | [
"cnc hacks",
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"cadsoft",
"diff",
"eagle",
"Git",
"scripting",
"version control"
] | We love Git. We know everyone has their favorite version tracking tools. But even those that don’t care for Git should see the value of
getting meaningful Diff data from tracking Eagle layout files
.
Was that last sentence just gibberish to you? Let’s take a step back. A few years ago it was impossible to use version control with Eagle at all because the schematic and PCB layout software used to save its files as binaries. But then
Cadsoft transitioned to saving Eagle files as XML
. This opened the door for things like
scripting to rename parts en masse
and to track the files under version control. One problem with the latter has been that performing a Diff on two different versions of a file results in XML changes that are probably not human readable. [Patrick Franken] wrote this script to add at least a glimmer of meaning.
We’d love to see some kind of side-by-side highlighting on the schematic or board renderings themselves. But that’s quite a ways off if we ever actually see it. For now his script will take the Diff and print out the tables seen above denoting which types of changes were made from one version to the next. It’s a start, and we hope it inspires even more work in this area. | 11 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "1052385",
"author": "J.M. Browning",
"timestamp": "2013-09-04T19:19:33",
"content": "Saving Eagle files in a character-based, non-proprietary format is indeed a huge step forward. One nit to pick, however, version control software has been able to deal with binary files for over a ... | 1,760,376,467.662258 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/09/02/precise-temperature-control-of-a-coffee-urn/ | Precise Temperature Control Of A Coffee Urn | Mike Szczys | [
"cooking hacks"
] | [
"coffee",
"temperature controller",
"TRIAC",
"urn"
] | Hackaday Alum [Nick Schulze] decided to help out a friend who needed a controller to hold water at a precise temperature. Coffee guzzling hackers of the world should rejoice, as [Nick] targeted a coffee urn as the vessel for the project. What he came up with was
a couple of custom boards and a roll-your-own temperature probe
which does a fantastic job of regulating the temperature of the liquid.
Needing to switch the mains going to the heating element he immediately thought of an AC chopper circuit based on a Triac. What didn’t come to mind immediately was the need to detect the zero crossing. In the image above you can see nearest the urn his high voltage board. Below that is the zero crossing detector circuit. For feedback he created his own temperature probe using a TC1047 temperature sensor. After soldering on a filtering cap and the leads he dipped it in JB Weld to make it water tight. If you’re using this for coffee may we recommend seeking out a food safe probe.
After successful testing he added a user interface and buttoned it up in the enclosure seen in the video below.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CbBa9eyjocI | 13 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "1051405",
"author": "Tom Hargrave",
"timestamp": "2013-09-02T17:06:33",
"content": "Why go through all of this when PID temperature controllers already work great?http://www.kegkits.com/MYPIN%20TA4%20Programming.htm",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
... | 1,760,376,467.72224 |
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