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https://hackaday.com/2013/08/05/no-computer-ambilight-clone-uses-a-computer/ | No Computer Ambilight Clone Uses A Computer | Mike Szczys | [
"home entertainment hacks"
] | [
"ambilight",
"composite video",
"hdmi",
"RPi"
] | It may seem confusing that you’re looking at a Raspberry Pi when this hack is about
an Ambilight clone system that doesn’t need a computer
. The point here is that this system works no matter what your video source is, where many projects in the past have required the video to be playing from a computer.
This hack follows in the same path of
the ARM based custom job
we was almost a month ago. Just like that project you use an HDMI splitter to gain access to the feed going to your television. The split signal is fed into an HDMI to composite video adapter. The composite signal is captured by a USB video encoder. The GPIO header drives a strip of addressable RGB LEDs. The whole thing is powered as one using a bit of cable hacking.
It’s slightly convoluted. But all of the components are easy to source and relatively cheap. The one caveat is that it works best if you are already using a hardware HDMI source selector instead of the one build into your TV. That way there is just one HDMI cable going to the television, and this can siphon off of that feed. | 37 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "1036102",
"author": "Taylor Cox",
"timestamp": "2013-08-05T16:43:32",
"content": "So I have 5 meters of the 60LED/m WS2811 led strip, which has the 2811 IC chip built into the LED housing itself. Would that strip work with this? Or would the code driving the strip have to be differe... | 1,760,376,493.359074 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/08/05/overclocking-your-bitcoin-miner/ | Overclocking Your Bitcoin Miner | Brian Benchoff | [
"hardware"
] | [
"bitcoin",
"bitcoin mining",
"Block Erupter"
] | The name of the game in mining Bitcoins isn’t CPUs, GPUs, or even FPGAs. Now, hardcore miners are moving on to custom ASIC chips like the Block Erupter, For around $100 USD, you too can mine Bitcoins at 300 MH/s with 2.5 Watts of power and a single USB port. This speed isn’t enough for some people, like [Jeremy] who
overclocked his Block Erupter to nearly twice the speed
.
[Jeremy] begins his tutorial with a teardown of the Block Erupter hardware. Inside, he found a custom ASIC chip, an ATTIny2313, a USB UART converter, and a voltage regulator for the ASIC. By changing out the 12 MHz crystal connected to the ASIC and fiddling with the voltage with a trim pot, [Jeremy] was able to overclock the ASIC core from 336 MHz to 560 MHz. Effectively, he’s running two Block Eruptors for the price of one with the potential to actually make back the purchase price of his hardware.
It must be noted the 560 MHz figure comes from replacing the 12 MHz crystal with a 20 MHz one, and this mod only lasted about 20 minutes on [Jeremy]’s bench until the magic blue smoke was released. He recommends a 14 or 16 MHz crystal, netting a new speed of either 392 MHz or 448 MHz for a stable mod. | 38 | 15 | [
{
"comment_id": "1036077",
"author": "d",
"timestamp": "2013-08-05T15:56:20",
"content": "all we need now are the extreme cooling mods",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1036081",
"author": "Anonymous",
"timestamp": "2013-08-05T16:18:30",
... | 1,760,376,493.275891 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/08/02/the-mill-cpu-architecture/ | The Mill CPU Architecture | Brian Benchoff | [
"hardware"
] | [
"cpu",
"CPU architecture",
"The Mill"
] | There are basically two ways to compute data. The first is with a DSP, a chip that performs very specialized functions on a limited set of data. These are very cheap, have amazing performance per watt, but can’t do general computation at all. If you’d like to build a general-purpose computer, you’ll have to go with a superscalar processor – an x86, PowerPC, or any one of the other really beefy CPU architectures out there. Superscalars are great for general purpose computing, but their performance per watt dollar is abysmal in comparison to a DSP.
A lot of people have looked into this problem and have come up with nothing. This may change, though, if [Ivan Godard]
of Out-of-the-Box computing
is able to produce The Mill – a ground-up rethink of current CPU architectures.
Unlike DSPs, superscalar processors you’d find in your desktop have an enormous amount of registers, and most of these are rename registers, or places where the CPU stores a value temporarily. Combine this with the fact that connecting hundreds of these temporary registers to places where they’ll eventually be used eats up about half the power budget in a CPU, and you’ll see why DSPs are so much more efficient than the x86 sitting in your laptop.
[Ivan]’s solution to this problem is replacing the registers in a CPU with something called a ‘belt’ – basically a weird combination of a stack and a shift register. The CPU can take data from any position on the belt, perform an operation, and places the result at the front of the belt. Any data that isn’t used simply falls off the belt; this isn’t a problem, as most data used in a CPU is used only once.
On paper, it’s a vastly more efficient means of general purpose computation. Unfortunately, [Ivan] doesn’t quite have all the patents in for The Mill, so his talks (two available below) are a little compartmentalized. Still, it’s one of the coolest advances in computer architecture in recent memory and something we’d love to see become a real product.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LgLNyMAi-0I&w=580]
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QGw-cy0ylCc&w=580] | 55 | 25 | [
{
"comment_id": "1034978",
"author": "BartGrantham",
"timestamp": "2013-08-02T19:20:01",
"content": "Wow. This writeup… wow.First off, there’s either many ways to compute data if you want to talk architecture, or just one: a turing machine. How many ways to compute is a matter of what level of det... | 1,760,376,493.052439 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/08/02/sprite_tm-ohm2013-talk-hacking-hard-drive-controller-chips/ | [Sprite_TM] OHM2013 Talk: Hacking Hard Drive Controller Chips | Mike Szczys | [
"ARM",
"classic hacks",
"Security Hacks"
] | [
"controller",
"hard drive",
"jtag",
"observe-hack-make",
"sprite_tm"
] | Even if he hadn’t done any firmware hacking on this hard drive [Sprite_TM’s]
digital exploration of the controller
is fascinating. He gave a talk at
this year’s Observe, Hack, Make
(OHM2013) — a non-commercial community run event in the Netherlands and we can’t wait for the video. But all the information on how he hacked into the three-core controller chip is included in his write up.
[Sprite_TM] mentions that you’re not going to find datasheets for the controllers on these drives. He got his foot in the door after finding a JTAG pinout mentioned on a forum post. The image above shows his JTAG hardware which he’s controlling with OpenOCD. This led him to discover that there are three cores inside the controller, each used for a different purpose. The difference between [Sprite_TM’s] work and that of mere mortals is that he has a knack for drawing surprisingly accurate conclusions from meager clues. To see what we mean check out the memory map for the second core which he posted on page 3 of his article.
Using JTAG he was able to inject a jump into the code (along with a filler word to keep the checksum valid) and run his own code. To begin the firmware hacking portion of the project he pulled the flash ROM off of the board and installed it on that little board sticking out on the left. This made it easy for him to backup and reflash the chip. Eventually this let him pull off the same proof of concept as a firmware-only hack (no JTAG necessary). He goes onto detail how an attacker who has root access could flash hacked firmware which compromises data without any indication to they system admin or user. But we also like his suggestion that you should try this out on your broken hard drives to see if you can reuse the controllers for embedded projects. That idea is a ton a fun!
When we were poking around the OHM2013 website (linked above) we noticed that the tickets are sold out; good for them! But if you were still able to buy them they take Bitcoin as one payment option. Are there any other conferences that allow Bitcoin for registration? | 16 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "1034937",
"author": "reggie",
"timestamp": "2013-08-02T17:32:54",
"content": "Another superb hack from Sprite_tm, you should be able to find the writeup for this on his website, it is a joy to read.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id"... | 1,760,376,492.744371 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/08/02/building-a-hard-drive-scratch-controller/ | Building A Hard Drive Scratch Controller | Mike Szczys | [
"Peripherals Hacks"
] | [
"arduino",
"controller",
"hard drive",
"midi",
"optical mouse",
"scratch",
"turntable"
] | If you’re reading this blog then chances are you have a dead hard drive hanging out somewhere in your house. Here’s a weekend project that will put it back into use. [Andreas] took on the popular project which combines
a hard drive and optical mouse to build a scratch controller
.
The gist of the build is that you use an optical mouse sensor to track the movement of the platter. But [Andreas] made things harder on himself by not using the USB capability of the mouse and mapping it in software for his needs. Instead he plucked the sensor from the mouse, reading it using an Arduino. After much trial and error with the best way to coat the underside of the platter to play nicely with the sensor he managed to get it up and running. The controller issues commands using the MIDI protocol, forming a strong foundation for future upgrades which could lead to
a full-blown DJ console hack
. | 12 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "1034882",
"author": "pcf11",
"timestamp": "2013-08-02T16:12:32",
"content": "Ever since I stopped running Windows hard drives have mysteriously stopped dying on me. Coincidence? I think not!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "103... | 1,760,376,493.123214 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/08/02/printing-an-aston-martin-db4/ | Printing An Aston Martin DB4 | Brian Benchoff | [
"3d Printer hacks"
] | [
"3d printing",
"car",
"Soliddoodle",
"solidworks"
] | With 3D printers finding their way into the workshops of makers the world over, it was bound to happen sooner or later. [Ivan Sentch] is
making an Aston Martin DB4 with a 3D printer
.
Before we board the hype train, let’s go over what this is project is
not
: [Ivan] isn’t making any metal parts with his 3D printer, and the chassis and engine will be taken from a donor car. Also, the printed plastic parts won’t actually make their way into the final build; the 3D printed body panels will be used to pull the final panels in fiberglass. That being said, it’s still an impressive undertaking that’s going to cost [Ivan] $2250 NZD in plastic alone.
[Ivan]’s body panels are made by taking a DB4 model in Solidworks, slicing it up into 105mm squares, giving each square extruded sides, and finally securing them to the wooden form after the parts are printed. There’s still an awful lot of work to be done once the 3D printed parts are all glued together, but it’s still an amazingly impressive – and cheap – way to create a replica of a very famous automobile. | 27 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "1034848",
"author": "camerin",
"timestamp": "2013-08-02T15:08:10",
"content": "lol his site was having problems yesterday… I think we may kill it.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1034851",
"author": "Starbuc... | 1,760,376,492.587518 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/08/02/beaglebone-sensorcape-lets-you-measure-just-about-anything/ | BeagleBone SensorCape Lets You Measure Just About Anything | Mike Szczys | [
"ARM"
] | [
"beaglebone",
"cape",
"sensors"
] | Here’s another entry in the 2013 Intern Design Challenge which motivates summer Interns at Texas Instruments to build something cool for one of a handful of embedded platforms. This entry, developed by [Michael Leonard] is a cape for the BeagleBone Black which
has footprints for a bunch of different sensors
.
Use it to turn your BeagleBone into a weather station by populating the temperature, pressure, and humidity sensors. Or perhaps you’d prefer an IMU for your next quadcopter by populating the MPU-9150 chip on the pad labeled ‘9-Axis’. This part is an accelerometer, gyroscope, and digital compass all in one. There’s also room for a light sensor and an IR remote control receiver, with the large square pads on the right servung as breakouts for input buttons. If you want all the nitty-gritty on the sensors he designed for [Michael’s] done a great job of compiling
a reference manual for the board
.
[Michael] didn’t send us a link until he saw
the retro-gaming cape
we featured on Tuesday. Come on people! Don’t hide in the basement and build stuff unless you’re going to
tell us about it
. | 24 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "1034816",
"author": "Adam",
"timestamp": "2013-08-02T13:06:20",
"content": "With the 9 axis sensor (assuming 3 gyros, accs, and compasses) plus the barometer you could fly a multirotor with a beaglebone… assuming you had at least 8 level converters…",
"parent_id": null,
"dep... | 1,760,376,493.189669 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/08/01/hackaday-at-def-con-21/ | Hackaday At DEF CON 21 | Eric Evenchick | [
"cons",
"Featured"
] | [
"badge",
"crypto",
"defcon"
] | I’ve arrived at the Rio Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada for
DEF CON 21
. Over the next couple of days, I’ll be talking about what I get up to here.
The main event today is registration, which means getting a neat badge. This year’s badge was designed by [
Ryan Clarke
]. According to the DEF CON booklet, they are “non-electronic-electronic” badges this year, and DEF CON will be alternating between electronic badges every other year.
The playing card design is printed on a PCB, and uses the silkscreen, solder mask, and copper layers to provide three colors for the artwork. The badge is a crypto challenge, featuring some cryptic characters, numbers, and an XOR gate. I don’t have any ideas about it yet, but some people are already working hard on cracking the code.
Tomorrow, I’ll be heading to a few talks including one on hacking cars that we
discussed earlier
, and one on decapping chips. I’ll also be checking out some of the villages. The Tamper Evident Village is premiering this year, and they’ll be showing off a variety of tamper proofing tech. I’ll also try to get to the Beverage Cooling Contraption Contest, where competitors build devices to cool beverages (ie, beer) as quickly as possible.
If you have any DEF CON tips, let me know in the comments. | 30 | 19 | [
{
"comment_id": "1034617",
"author": "DualDFlipFlop",
"timestamp": "2013-08-02T02:40:16",
"content": "Don’t forget to check out the contest area! So many shenanigans.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1034621",
"author": "Chris Muncy",
"t... | 1,760,376,492.827143 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/08/01/how-to-use-coide-with-lpcxpresso-board/ | How To Use CoIDE With LPCXpresso Board | Mike Szczys | [
"ARM"
] | [
"CoIDE",
"coocox",
"eclipse",
"LPCXpresso",
"open source"
] | [James Lynch] picked up an LPCXpresso board because he wanted play around with ARM processors. The board, which is shown on the right, provides everything you need to get started. It even ships with a free IDE. But unfortunately the free version of that Code Red IDE is size limited. If he wanted to remove the restriction he would have to pony up $999 for a licensed version. A company might not think twice about this payment, but in the hobby realm that’s simply out of the question. Instead, [James] figured out
how to use the CooCox programmer with the LPCXpresso hardware
. To get at his 59-page guide on the process follow that link and hit the “Download Zip” button in the lower right for a copy of the PDF file.
The hack comes in two parts. First you need to alter the LPCXpresso board. There is a center line that separates the dev board form the debugger/programmer. These are connected with solder bridges between rows of a dual pin-header. [James] removed the bridges and added said pin header. This allows him to jumper the connections and use it as normal, or attach it to his CooCox programmer as seen above. The second part of the project walks through the process of getting the free CoIDE (also based on Eclipse) to compile and program code for the LPCXpresso.
We’ve seen this dev board here and there, notably
in an oscilloscope build
. | 13 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "1034533",
"author": "Indyaner",
"timestamp": "2013-08-01T21:10:32",
"content": "Wow, he documented it really well. Stunning.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1034670",
"author": "Max",
"timestamp": "2013-08-02T06:28:09",
... | 1,760,376,492.889493 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/08/04/diy-prescription-swimming-goggles/ | DIY Prescription Swimming Goggles | Mike Szczys | [
"Wearable Hacks"
] | [
"glasses",
"goggles",
"lens",
"lenses",
"presciption",
"Sugru"
] | We can’t see much without our glasses (which is why our habit of shaving in the shower often ends badly). Our glasses cost a bundle, but we wear them every waking moment so it’s worth it. But only recently did we break down and spring for prescription sunglasses. However, when it comes to sports we don’t pony up the dough for dedicated specs. Here’s a hack that will change that. If you’ve still got your last set of glasses on hand
hack up the lenses for swimming goggles
or other applications.
In this case [Dashlb’s] lenses were already small enough to fit in the goggles. He simply added a bead of Sugru around the edges to hold the lenses in place. But if you do need to cut them to size aligning the lenses with your eyes is important, so we suggest the following: have a buddy stand in front of you and mark the center of your pupil on the glasses, as well as the goggles. If you need to cut down the lenses (which are probably a type of polycarbonate) just make sure the marks match up before doing any cutting.
We might give this a try with some wrap-around sunglasses to make an inexpensive pair of prescription cycling shades. | 12 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "1035642",
"author": "Hephaix",
"timestamp": "2013-08-04T15:14:51",
"content": "He didn’t took care of the Pupillary distance.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pupillary_distanceIt’s an important parameter of glasses",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
... | 1,760,376,492.951476 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/08/03/current-limiter-for-a-mot-welder/ | Current Limiter For A MOT Welder | Mike Szczys | [
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"current",
"microwave",
"MOT",
"welder"
] | [Mike Worth] wanted the option to run his Microwave Oven Transformer welding rig at less that full power. After being inspired by some of the other MOT hacks we’ve featured he figured there must be a lot of ways to do this. But his searches on the topic didn’t turn up anything. So he just designed and built
his own adjustable current limiter for the welder
.
At the beginning of his write-up he details what we would call a bootstrap procedure for the welder. Go back and check out
his original build post
to see that he had been holding the framework for the cores together using clamps. To make the setup more robust he needed to weld them, but this is the only welder he has access to. So he taped some wood shielding over the coils and fired it up.
The current limiter itself is built from a third MOT. Adjustment is made to the cores by changing out the E and I shaped pieces. This allows for current limiting without altering the windings. [Mike] holds it all in place with a couple of bicycle wheel quick connect skewers.
It just goes to show that you should never get rid of a microwave without pulling the transformer. Even if you don’t need a welder wouldn’t you love
a high-voltage bug zapper
? | 14 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "1035378",
"author": "Tyler",
"timestamp": "2013-08-03T21:14:24",
"content": "Just think — if he put a DC winding on one of them and put it in series, he could limit the current electronically like a traditional mag-amp welder!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": ... | 1,760,376,493.418227 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/08/03/biodiesel-equipment-hacks/ | Biodiesel Equipment Hacks | Mike Szczys | [
"green hacks"
] | [
"biodiesel",
"fuel",
"grease",
"vacuum"
] | [Oldman] took on a biodiesel project for some friends a few years ago. A fully operational processing rig was never achieved, but he did document
some of the successful hacks
he came up during the project.
The idea is to reclaim the waste oil from restaurants and burn it in
your modified racing motorcycle
or other mode of transportation. That makes it sound easy, but have you ever seen what happens to bacon fat after it cools? Granted, we’re talking oil from vegetable sources but the same type of coagulation presents itself. Pumping it through a processing rig becomes especially tough in the winter, and that’s why [Oldman] came up with the heated pump head on the right. It’s got three connections; two are part of a loop of copper tubing, allowing 150 degree water to be circulated to liquefy the grease. The third connection sucks up the melted oil. You also need to regulate the water content of the fuel. The inset images of a salad dressing jar are his test runs with applying vacuum to dehydrate the fuel. He learned that it needs to be heated slightly to reduce foaming. He had planned to scale up this concept to apply vacuum to fuel stored in propane tanks. | 18 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "1035351",
"author": "stevebb",
"timestamp": "2013-08-03T19:27:09",
"content": "copper ions play havock with veg oil, and cause it to degrade pretty quickly.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1035452",
"author": "Dan McRa... | 1,760,376,493.477256 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/08/03/dead-drop-concept-inspired-by-ender-wiggin-family/ | Dead Drop Concept Inspired By [Ender Wiggin] Family | Mike Szczys | [
"Security Hacks"
] | [
"dead drop",
"encrypted",
"ender's game",
"python",
"RPi"
] | [Tyler Spilker’s] DDD project is
a Digital Dead Drop system
based on Python and a Raspberry Pi as a server. It’s pretty rough around the edges at this point — which he freely admits. But we like the concept and figure it might spark an interesting conversation in the comments section.
Now by far our favorite dead drop concept is
this USB drive
lewdly sticking out of a brick wall. But you actually need to be on-site where this drive is mortared into the wall in order to access it. [Tyler] instead developed a webpage that gives him a text box to enter his messages. These are encrypted using key pairs and
pushed to his remote RPi server
. This way he can write down his thoughts knowing they’re stored securely and never in danger of being accessed from a lost or stolen cellphone.
If free thought isn’t what you’re trying to transfer from one place to another you probably want something like
a Pirate Box
. | 9 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "1035310",
"author": "The NSA",
"timestamp": "2013-08-03T16:17:06",
"content": "Well? We’re waiting…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1035487",
"author": "NOT the NSA",
"timestamp": "2013-08-04T02:16:27",
"content": "... | 1,760,376,493.577998 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/08/03/protoboard-line-following-robot/ | Protoboard Line Following Robot | Mike Szczys | [
"Robots Hacks"
] | [
"dsPic",
"dspic33",
"line follower"
] | We love
a good line-following robot project
and this really hits the spot. It’s got sharp edges, gobs of solder bridging, and look at all those jumper wires! Despite its appearance it puts in a performance that won’t disappoint.
It uses a dsPIC33 to read from half a dozen analog sensors on the bottom of the board. We’re not all that familiar with the chip’s features, but [Exapod] says it’s got an auto-scan feature he uses to read the sensors. This allows him to sample with 12-bit resolution from all six of them at about 30 kHz. No wonder the thing is so responsive in the demo video embedded below. The track he’s using is just some white printer paper with a fat circuit of black electrical tape placed in a somewhat squiggly pattern.
This is also a fun challenge with toys. Here’s one that
hacks a hexapod to follow the lines
.
[via
Dangerous Prototypes
] | 11 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "1035256",
"author": "Behzat C.",
"timestamp": "2013-08-03T13:06:08",
"content": "Best line following robot on protoboard:http://elm-chan.org/works/ltc/report.html",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1035263",
"author": "nyos",
... | 1,760,376,493.527284 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/08/02/def-con-hacking-hardware-and-cars/ | DEF CON: Hacking Hardware And Cars | Eric Evenchick | [
"cons",
"Featured"
] | [
"3d printing",
"automotive",
"DEF CON",
"eff",
"hardware hacking"
] | The first full day of DEF CON was packed with hacking hardware and cars. I got to learn about why your car is less secure than you might think, pick some locks, and found out that there are electronic DEF CON badges after all. Keep reading for all the detail.
theSummit
Thursday night ended with theSummit: a party fundraiser for the EFF. Beers were drank, EFF donations were made, and good times were had. The folks from
Codame
demoed interactive art installations, and
Dual Core
provided some great nerdcore entertainment.
The EFF ran a DC Dialer phone booth that encouraged attendees to call their representatives and request that they support Aaron’s Law. If you’re in the US, you should read more about Aaron’s Law and how to contact your representative. The EFF has a good overview
here
.
The CFAA DC Dialer let attendees make free calls to their representatives.
Hardware Hacking Village
The hardware hacking village was packed today, with many kits being sold and built. The
DEF CON Darknet Project
badge was one kit that made its debut here. Inspired by [
Daniel Suarez
]’s book, Daemon, this project encourages conference participants to meet people and learn skills by completing quests. [
Smitty
] gave me an overview of the board, which uses an ATTiny85 and communicates over IR with other badges.
The Darknet Badge PCB
Pairing badges lets you keep track of people you’ve met. There are also skill quests using the badge. Two of these are for assembling the badge itself, one for the through-hole section and one for the optional surface mount section. A lock picking installation called The Rook kept track of what locks you had picked, and transferred the data to your badge. Data from the badge can be synced up with the Darknet website to receive experience points. The firmware is almost finalized, and the entire project will be released as open source hardware shortly.
The Rook is an interactive lockpicking challenge that interfaces with the Darknet Badge
DLP 3D Printing
[PacManFan] showed me his
Creation Workshop
3D printing software. This software is designed to print using UV sensitive ink and a DLP projector. The advantages of this process include high resolution printing and a fixed print time per layer. His software does slicing compatible with G-code, but adds special markers for displaying images on the DLP projector. This allows you to use currently available hardware, such as the
RAMPS
platform, along with the UV cured resin. The software is written in C#, open source, and available on
Github
.
Automotive Hacking
[Charlie Miller] and [Chris Valasek] gave a great talk about hacking cars. They focused on Toyota and Ford vehicles, and managed to pull of some impressive and dangerous exploits on both (which we
previewed a few days back
). The hacks assumed that the attacker has access to the Controller Area Network bus (CAN bus) inside the car. CAN is used for communication between automotive controllers, and by faking CAN signals you can trick these controllers. From a laptop, they were able to actuate steering, braking, the horn, and disable the brakes.
By reverse engineering the diagnostic tools for these manufacturer’s vehicles, they were able to obtain the Unified Diagnostics Services security access keys. Using these allows you to perform actions that are related to security and safety, including re-flashing the vehicles controllers with modified firmware. Ford is currently working with them to fix the problems, but Toyota claims they are only concerned with remote attacks, and that these exploits are not a problem.
DEF CON: The Documentary
The DEF CON documentary premiered yesterday, and is now available as a torrent. You can grab it
here
.
Tomorrow I’ll be covering more villages, the contests area, and a talk or two. | 18 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "1035142",
"author": "John England",
"timestamp": "2013-08-03T04:37:05",
"content": "Totally want to get my hands on a video of the car talk (see what I did there?)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1035374",
"author": "F... | 1,760,376,494.204799 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/08/02/leapcast-emulates-chromecast-in-your-chrome-browser/ | Leapcast Emulates Chromecast In Your Chrome Browser | Mike Szczys | [
"home entertainment hacks",
"Software Hacks"
] | [
"chromecast",
"leapcast",
"python",
"websockets"
] | Our Chrome browser thinks it’s a Chromecast dongle. Here’s a screenshot of it playing a YouTube video. Note the tile banner and onscreen controls which are just like the ones you’d see on the actual hardware. Give it a try yourself by downloading
the Leapcast Python package
which [dz0ny] programmed.
After cloning the GitHub repo we had a few problems compiling the package. Turns out we needed to install python-dev and that took care of it. Starting the daemon is a simple command, we specified our Chrome binary path as well as added a few flags
leapcast --name HAD --chrome /usr/bin/google-chrome --fullscreen
Once that was running the Android YouTube app automatically detected Leapcast as a Chromecast device. It gave us a tutorial overlay mentioning the new share icon on the interface. Pressing that icon during playback launched an Incognito window which played the video. [dz0ny] links to a device config JSON file in the README. If you check it out you’ll notice that Netflix is listed as “external” while the others are not. This is because the Chromecast protocol uses a binary for Netflix. The others do it with local websockets or a cloud proxy so they work just fine with this setup. | 17 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "1035053",
"author": "chad",
"timestamp": "2013-08-02T21:47:33",
"content": "From what I’ve read so far, there are a handful of DIAL protocol apps on the device (YouTube, Netflix, GoogleMusic in addition to the basic ChromeCast one that it looks like LeapCast is able to handle), like... | 1,760,376,494.055176 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/08/01/blackhat-ios-device-charger-exploit-installs-and-activates-malware/ | Blackhat: IOS Device Charger Exploit Installs And Activates Malware | Mike Szczys | [
"cons",
"iphone hacks",
"Security Hacks"
] | [
"beaglebone",
"blackhat",
"charger",
"exploit",
"ios",
"malware"
] | A team of researchers from Georgia Tech unveiled their findings yesterday at the Blackhat conference. Their topic is
a power charger exploit that installs malware on iOS devices
. Who would have thought that there’d be a security hole associated with the charging port on a device? Oh wait, after seeing
hotel room locks exploited through their power jack
this is an avenue that should be examined with all device security.
The demonstration used a charger and an BeagleBoard. Plugging in the charger is not enough to trigger the exploit, the user must unlock the screen while charging for it to go into action. But once that’s done the game is over. Their demo removes the Facebook app and replaces it with an infected impostor while leaving the icon in the same place on your home screen. They notified Apple of their findings and a patch will roll out with iOS7. So when would you plug your device into an untrusted charger? Their research includes a photo from an airport where an iPad is connected to the USB port of a public charging station.
The summary on the Blackhat site
has download icons for the white paper and presentation slides. At the time of writing we had a hard time getting them to download but succeeded after several tries. | 31 | 12 | [
{
"comment_id": "1034492",
"author": "DD",
"timestamp": "2013-08-01T19:04:27",
"content": "Actually, this was fixed BEFORE in iOS 7 Beta 2. It already wouldn’t work. And because iOS isn’t like Android, 95% of people will be running iOS 7 shortly after launch anyways.",
"parent_id": null,
"... | 1,760,376,494.468694 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/08/01/laser-cigarette-lighter-makes-smoking-even-more-dangerous/ | Laser Cigarette Lighter Makes Smoking Even More Dangerous | Mike Szczys | [
"Laser Hacks"
] | [
"cigarette lighter",
"lighter",
"zippo"
] | Dangers involved with using
this laser cigarette lighter
to start off your smoking session include shooting your eyes out and giving yourself a mean
Harry Potter
style forehead scar. This thing boasts a two Watt laser diode which has no problem burning everything that comes in contact with it.
[Masterjoa3000] shows you how it was built in the video after the break. You need to acquire the diode and support hardware which acts as a heat sink. These are press-fit together before wires are attached to the positive and negative leads. The housing is just a bit too wide for the wind shield on the lighter, but that is fixed by cutting a ‘V’ out of the center of that shielding. Next comes a minuscule driver board which is soldered to the diode and to a momentary push switch. The switch takes the place of the flint so that pressing down on the striking wheel activates the laser. The whole thing still fits in the unaltered outer case.
Here’s
another take on the same idea
with the laser pointing in a different direction. | 64 | 24 | [
{
"comment_id": "1034408",
"author": "Max",
"timestamp": "2013-08-01T16:25:45",
"content": "Or you could use a knife or normal lighter and not have to put up with the really annoying dubstep.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1034526",
"... | 1,760,376,494.369304 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/08/01/making-a-real-instrument-out-of-a-kaoss-pad-and-ribbon-controllers/ | Making A Real Instrument Out Of A Kaoss Pad And Ribbon Controllers | Brian Benchoff | [
"Musical Hacks"
] | [
"guitar",
"guitar synth",
"midi",
"synth",
"synthesizer"
] | MIDI guitars have been around since the 80s, and nearly without exception they are designed as direct, one-to-one copies of their acoustic and electric brethren. [Michael] has been working on turning this convention on its head with the Misa Tri-Bass, a MIDI guitar designed to be
the perfect guitar-shaped synthesizer interface
.
The tri-bass doesn’t produce any sound itself; instead, it’s a polyphonic MIDI controller with three channels controlled by three ribbon controllers on the neck. The body contains a huge touch screen divided into four MIDI channels, essentially turning this guitar into an instrument designed for electronic music first, and not an acoustic instrument kludged into filling an electronic role.
Unlike a whole lot of other digital guitar-shaped MIDI controllers, the tri-bass is actually made out of wood. Yes, the neck is made out of maple (inlaid with the three ribbon controllers, of course), and the body comes directly from a tree, with the styling inspired by
a forgotten retro-modern design
. It’s an impressive piece of kit, and we can’t wait to see [Michael]’s handiwork in the hands of digital guitarists the world over.
You can check out a video of [Michael] rockin out below.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rKJeT5wYoME&w=580] | 6 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "1034376",
"author": "Red Five",
"timestamp": "2013-08-01T15:12:31",
"content": "Shut up and take my money!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1034740",
"author": "MarkS",
"timestamp": "2013-08-02T10:15:39",
... | 1,760,376,494.003569 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/08/01/vaporizer-rebuild/ | Vaporizer Rebuild | Mike Szczys | [
"Repair Hacks"
] | [
"psu",
"vaporizer"
] | Wait! Don’t click away yet. Yes, this is a vaporizer project, but it has the distinction of being the most electronics engineering oriented post on the subject we’ve ever featured. [Mm Nn’s] vaporizer broke so he decided to fix it. After poking around inside it became clear that pretty much everything was trashed. So this ended up being
a complete rebuild of all the support circuitry
, with the heating element being the only electrical component he could salvage.
He started looking around for a power supply capable of driving the element from the Arizer V-tower vaporizer. He hoped that he could use a computer PSU but ended up having to buy one to suit; a Mean Well rs-100-24. He drives the system with a microcontroller (programmed in assembly) using PWM to adjust the element. Speaking of, there is a sensor built into the heating element that [Mm] isn’t using because he couldn’t figure out how to read from it. If you’ve got some ideas let us know in the comments. | 36 | 14 | [
{
"comment_id": "1034321",
"author": "cHRIS",
"timestamp": "2013-08-01T13:28:56",
"content": "I’ve heard quite a few people call them baby vapourizers, which i always thought sounded evil, and a bit like the weapons used in war of the worlds… They’re even labelled as such in the local walmart and s... | 1,760,376,494.274846 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/08/01/hackrf-or-playing-from-30-mhz-to-6-ghz/ | HackRF, Or Playing From 30 MHz To 6 GHz | Brian Benchoff | [
"Crowd Funding",
"Radio Hacks"
] | [
"HackRF",
"sdr",
"software defined",
"software-defined radio"
] | Up on Kickstarter, [Michael Ossmann]
is launching the HackRF
, an inordinately cheap, exceedingly capable software defined radio tool that’s small enough to lose in your laptop bag.
The HackRF was the subject of a lot of interest
last time it was on Hackaday
– the ability to receive up to 6GHz allows the HackRF to do a
lot
of very interesting things, including listening in on Bluetooth, WiFi, and 4G networks. Also, the ability to transmit on these frequencies means a lot of very interesting, and quite possibly slightly evil applications are open to anyone with a HackRF. Like the RTL-SDR dongles, the HackRF works with GNU Radio out of the box, meaning all those cool SDR hacks we’ve seen so far will work with this new, more powerful board.
Compared to the USB TV tuner cards that were so popular a year ago, the HackRF has 10 times the bandwidth, is able to receive up to 6GHz, and is also able to transmit. It’s only half-duplex, so to receive and transmit simultaneously you’ll need two HackRFs, or maybe wait for a hardware revision that will hopefully come sooner rather than later.
Below you can check out [Michael]’s presentation at Toorcon where the HackRF was unleashed to the world.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g070WBv1ly0&w=580] | 49 | 23 | [
{
"comment_id": "1034285",
"author": "Isaac",
"timestamp": "2013-08-01T12:15:00",
"content": "Interesting…. Anyone know an estimate for BOM cost for the PCB only option?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1034291",
"author": "max",
... | 1,760,376,494.564544 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/07/31/arm-dev-board-with-usb-uploading/ | ARM Dev Board With USB Uploading | Brian Benchoff | [
"ARM",
"Crowd Funding"
] | [
"arm",
"usb"
] | [George and Bogdan] wrote in to tell us about a cool Kickstarter they’ve been working on.
It’s called the MatchboxARM
, and like other tiny-yet-powerful ARM dev boards floating around, this one features a very fast and capable processor and more than enough pins for just about any project. One interesting feature of this board, however, makes it stand out from the pack: it has a USB mass storage-based bootloader, meaning uploading new code is as easy as a drag and drop.
This isn’t the first dev board we’ve seen to sport this feature: the Stellaris Launchpad
has had this for a while
and even
the lowly ATtiny85
, in the form of a Digispark has a mass storage-based bootloader. The MatchboxARM, though, brings this together with a very powerful ARM microcontroller with enough I/Os, ADCs, PWM pins, and I2C and SPI ports for the most complicated projects. | 42 | 27 | [
{
"comment_id": "1033981",
"author": "Kuy",
"timestamp": "2013-07-31T23:04:56",
"content": "The Digispark does not have a Mass Storage Device-based bootloader.See:https://github.com/Bluebie/micronucleus-t85/blob/master/firmware/usbconfig.h",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
... | 1,760,376,494.652366 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/07/31/pair-of-aquarium-builds-are-masterpieces-inside-and-out/ | Pair Of Aquarium Builds Are Masterpieces Inside And Out | Mike Szczys | [
"home hacks"
] | [
"aquarium",
"steam punk"
] | As you start to take in
all that was involved with building these two aquariums
it boggles the mind. At the time of writing the forum thread is 56 pages long and it’s not just filled up with the adoration of [Big Mr Tong’s] fans. He did so much work that every page is packed with progress pictures that cover the range of topics: plumbing, electrical, mechanical, artistic…. wow!
The
curse
project was sparked by a friend giving him a couple of huge acrylic cylinders which were a perfect size for custom aquariums. [Tong] even had a couple of ideas in mind for underwater artwork to fill them with. One is a replica of statue ruins that give you the feeling that the tank is a piece of Atlantis capture for your own entertainment. The other is a fascinating replica of a plumbing stack. You know, the large cast-iron pipes that carry away waste? But these are actually PVC parts with modeling clay accents. They were broken, cut, melted, sanded, and who knows what else, to arrive at this look. The different aquariums feature different lighting techniques. There’s custom-made filter baffles. We could go on and on but we won’t so check out the link at the top for all the details.
In the end he went beyond the original cylinders and built his own square tank for the pipe design. It’s a steam-punk piece so there’s even analog dials to display the vital signs of the habitat.
Just looking to maintain a tank you already own? How about
building an automatic chemical dispenser
. | 9 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "1033925",
"author": "Jeremy Cook",
"timestamp": "2013-07-31T21:18:27",
"content": "Really nice, especially the “cast iron” tank.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1033949",
"author": "polytechnick",
"timestamp": "2013-07-3... | 1,760,376,494.707835 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/07/30/any-size-sil-connector-kit/ | Any-size SIL Connector Kit | Mike Szczys | [
"Parts"
] | [
"connector",
"crimp",
"dangerous prototypes",
"ian lesnet",
"ribbon cable"
] | Etching and populating a board is childs play compared to finding connectors which link several components. But Hackaday alum [Ian Lesnet] and his crew over at Dangerous Prototypes have come up with a solution that makes us wonder why we haven’t seen this long ago?
They’re prepping an any-size ribbon cable kit
.
So lets say you do find the type of connector you want. You need to cut the ribbon cable to length, crimp on the connectors, then seat those connectors in the housing. We’ve done this many times, and being cheapskates we use needle-nose pliers instead of buying a proper crimper. This solution does away with that grunt work. The kit will ship several different lengths of ribbon wire with the connectors already placed by machine. This way you peel off the number of connectors you need, select the proper house size and plunk it in place. Also in the kit are several lengths of male, female, and male/female jumper cables you can peel off in the same way.
Now what are we going to do with the rest of the spool of ribbon cable sitting in the workshop? | 12 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "1033362",
"author": "pablo",
"timestamp": "2013-07-30T20:03:20",
"content": "Use the remaining ribbon cable with DIL IDC connectors?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1033384",
"author": "Bill Stewart",
"timestam... | 1,760,376,494.764823 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/07/30/touch-control-for-every-key-on-the-keyboard/ | Touch Control For Every Key On The Keyboard | Brian Benchoff | [
"Musical Hacks"
] | [
"keyboard",
"midi",
"piano"
] | Of all the musical instruments out there, the keyboard is among the worst for changing the pitch and timbre of individual notes. Wind and stringed instruments can do this easily in the hands of a skilled player, but outside the wheel and joystick controls of a few electronic keyboards, tickling the ivories means the only thing you can really change about how something sounds is the volume.
TouchKeys
wants to put an end to this severe lack of dynamics
available on keyboard instruments. Basically, it turns every single key on a keyboard into a multi-touch sensor, allowing any keyboardist to change the pitch, filter, timbre, or any other parameter of their instrument simply by moving their finger around on a key.
TouchKeys works by overlaying all the keys on a keyboard with circuit boards that plug into a module hidden under the hood. These boards are studded with capacitive sensing points, allowing a computer to recognize where the player is touching each key, and modifying filters or volume for each key independently.
The TouchKeys Kickstarter is offering a kit to equip a 25-key keyboard with these sensors for about $550. A hefty price tag, but hopefully we’ll see this tech in real production keyboards in the future. | 22 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "1033311",
"author": "Caleb Kraft",
"timestamp": "2013-07-30T18:10:02",
"content": "Many many professional keyboards have what is called “aftertouch” which allows you to control things by how you press your finger on the key. This can be connected to pitch, volume, vibrato, etc.I sup... | 1,760,376,494.82779 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/07/30/breakout-board-for-11-lcd-module-with-strange-pitch/ | Breakout Board For $11 LCD Module With Small Pitch | Mike Szczys | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"breakout board",
"lcd"
] | [Ibrahim] picked this little LCD module out because of its price point and resolution. In single units you can grab one of the 128×32 pixel displays for just $11. The only problem is that the pinout is too small to use with a breadboard. He whipped up
a breakout board for it that throws in some extras
.
First off, we like it that the board doesn’t add much to the part’s outline. What it does add is a Low-DropOut voltage regulator and a level converter. The upper range of the LCD’s input voltage is 3.3V, and these added parts make it possible to drive the device using 5V hardware like the Arduino Uno pictured above. While he was adding in parts he included a MOSFET to switch the backlight. This way he can use PWM for dimming as well.
We usually hit eBay when looking for LCD screens. A search for the NHD-C12832 part number didn’t turn it up. We tried out
FindChips
for the first time (owned by Supply Frame who just bought Hackaday) and it works just as well as
Octopart
which we’re more familiar with since
we’ve seen some hacking of that site before
. | 8 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "1033278",
"author": "Caleb",
"timestamp": "2013-07-30T16:21:10",
"content": "I don’t like change but since Supply Frame was cool enough to buy HAD I will give their Octopart alternative website a try.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_i... | 1,760,376,494.882714 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/07/30/beaglebone-black-becomes-a-handheld-classic-gaming-console/ | BeagleBone Black Becomes A Handheld Classic Gaming Console | Brian Benchoff | [
"classic hacks"
] | [
"beaglebone",
"emulator",
"handheld"
] | Over at TI, the
2013 Intern Design Challenge
is underway, an opportunity for the interns of TI to flex their engineering muscle for a few prizes and a chance to have their designs turned into actual products. We’re thinking [Max] might just pull this one out with his
BeagleBone Gaming Cape
, an add-on to the BeagleBone Black that turns this ARM-powered Linux board into a retro gaming system.
The build was inspired by [Max]’s earlier
MSP430 Launchpad GamingPack
, an add-on board for the Launchpad that put two NES controllers, a VGA out, and an FPGA to create a custom gaming console that’s up there with the brightest and best consoles of the 16-bit era. For the new BeagleBone-based build, [Max] eschewed off-board processing, but did manage to include a magnetometer/accelerometer and an audio codec IC to provide the best gaming experience for all those NES, Game Gear. Gameboy, GBA and Doom .wad games.
In addition to a fabulous piece of hardware, [Max] also has the case design down to a tee. He first printed out a dozen or so layers of his case, sandwiching the BeagleBone, his cape, battery holders, and LCD display. Once he knew the dimensions would work, he sent his files off to be laser cut out of a matte black delrin. The finished piece is a work of art, and considering how well everything goes together, we wouldn’t mind giving this new retro-gaming console a spin ourselves. | 13 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "1033270",
"author": "Chris",
"timestamp": "2013-07-30T15:55:47",
"content": "Woof! Really nice.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1033292",
"author": "Trevor Michael Tomesh",
"timestamp": "2013-07-30T17:12:51",
"conten... | 1,760,376,495.139036 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/07/30/tools-and-talent-for-custom-platinum-jewelry/ | Tools And Talent For Custom Platinum Jewelry | Mike Szczys | [
"Tool Hacks",
"Wearable Hacks"
] | [
"diamond",
"jewelry",
"platinum"
] | The diamond engagement ring is arguably the most universally adopted of all jewelry. It’s artwork that even the most common men and women appreciate, and it’s creation calls for skills that go back centuries. [Jerome Kelty] crafts custom jewelry from platinum. Here’s
an in-depth look at his process
.
The first step of his Instructable post is so long you might be fooled into thinking it’s the whole post. He shows off the equipment that he used in taking this ring from design to reality — we thought the use of beeswax to pick up small stones is an interesting technique.
Click through the steps to see that he starts with a cad drawing. This model is sent offsite for casting and arrives back as an oversized blank which he then begins to clean up. A range of differend files bring it to its finished shape. He preps the areas where stones will be set. A trip to the buffing wheel gives it the shine it needs before the diamonds are put in place.
Regular Hackaday readers may recognize his name. When [Jerome] isn’t making jewelry he’s building animatronics,
like
Predator
or
Stargate
replicas
. | 0 | 0 | [] | 1,760,376,495.179828 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/07/30/self-contained-time-lapse-rig-braves-elements-from-thirty-feet/ | Self-contained Time-lapse Rig Braves Elements From Thirty Feet | Mike Szczys | [
"digital cameras hacks",
"Raspberry Pi"
] | [
"d7100",
"nikon",
"RPi",
"time-lapse"
] | Perspective is a bit hard to grasp in this image, but all of this hardware is mounted thirty feet above the ground. This time-lapse photography box
makes use of the sun and a Raspberry Pi
to document the goings on. The rig is one of three that were built by [Patty Chuck] to record progress on a seventy acre construction site over the course of eighteen months. The gallery linked above shows off the project well, but a much more
in-depth text description is found in his Reddit thread
.
What’s not shown in the image is a solar array which powers the box. When they were installed there were no utilities on site. To guard against power-loss there’s a hardware RTC that keeps ticking. The Raspberry Pi uses GPIO pins to switch the Nikon D7100 camera on once every five minutes during the work day. It snaps a photo before powering it down again. It also monitors a temperature sensor and actuates circulation fans if necessary.
He’s planning to post the videos once the project’s done in 18 months. If you see them and remember this post,
send us the link
and we’ll post the update. | 28 | 13 | [
{
"comment_id": "1033212",
"author": "Georg",
"timestamp": "2013-07-30T13:16:44",
"content": "Very nice machine, but please adjust the horizon.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1033328",
"author": "robot",
"timestamp": "2013-07-... | 1,760,376,495.040717 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/07/30/racing-telemetry-on-a-cockpit-view/ | Racing Telemetry On A Cockpit View | Brian Benchoff | [
"Transportation Hacks"
] | [
"camera module",
"Lotus Elise",
"OBD",
"obd-ii",
"racing",
"Raspberry pi camera",
"telemetry"
] | [Martin] has a Lotus Elise and access to a track. Sounds like fun, huh? The only problem is that the dashcam videos he makes are a little bit boring. Sure, they show him flying around the track, but without some sort of data it’s really hard to improve his driving skills. After thinking about it for a while, [Martin] decided he could
use his Raspberry Pi and camera module to record videos from the dashboard of his car
, and overlay engine data such as RPM, throttle, and speed right on top of the video.
Capturing video is the easy part of this build – [Martin] just connected his Raspi camera module and used the standard raspivid capture utility. Overlaying data on this captured video was a bit harder, though.
[Martin] had previously written about using the Raspi to read OBD-II data into his Raspi. Combine this with a Python script to write subtitles for his movies, and he’s off to the races, with a video and data replay of every move on the track.
The resulting movie and subtitle files can be reencoded to an HD movie. Reencoding a 13 minute HD video took 9 hours on the Raspi. We’d suggest doing this with a more powerful compy, but at least [Martin] has a great solution to fix his slightly uninformative track videos. | 10 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "1033191",
"author": "Ben",
"timestamp": "2013-07-30T12:05:55",
"content": "The Pi has hardware-accelerated h.264 encoding (which is how it saves the movies in realtime in the first place). RaspiVid leverages Broadcom’s “MMAL” pipeline-based multimedia processing API for this, basica... | 1,760,376,495.090243 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/07/31/osh-park-adds-board-sharing-feature/ | OSH Park Adds Board Sharing Feature | Mike Szczys | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"osh park",
"pcb",
"shared projects",
"sharing"
] | OSH Park continues to get better and better. We think
the recent addition of Project Sharing
is a huge feature! Obviously this lets you order up the open source goodness posted by others with a minimum amount of effort. But to us there are a couple of other things that make this valuable.
First off, the ability to browse through the projects can be a huge inspiration for your own work. Secondly, the board files themselves are available for download, and it looks like you can post links to your repository if you so choose when sharing your project. This makes OSH Park something of a Thingiverse for PCBs. Browse through what’s offered then download the files to etch yourself or just to use as reference to see how others do things when laying out the traces. And of course the rock bottom prices offered make this a no-brainer for shared breakout board designs.
The
Twitter post
calls this the “early stages” of the feature. We can’t wait to see what they come up with as it matures. | 8 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "1033890",
"author": "RandyKC",
"timestamp": "2013-07-31T19:19:13",
"content": "My fav was the animated GIF of the guitar tummy.On the other hand, most of the freebies don’t have enough info to use them.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comme... | 1,760,376,495.318046 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/07/31/a-macbook-air-and-a-thunderbolt-gpu/ | A Macbook Air And A Thunderbolt GPU | Brian Benchoff | [
"Mac Hacks"
] | [
"gpu",
"macbook",
"macbook air",
"Thunderbolt"
] | When Intel and Apple released Thunderbolt, hallelujahs from the Apple choir were heard. Since very little in any of Apple’s hardware lineup is upgradeable, an external video card is the best of all possible world. Unfortunately, Intel doesn’t seem to be taking kindly to the idea of external GPUs. That hasn’t stopped a few creative people like [Larry Gadea]
from figuring it out on their own
. Right now he’s running a GTX 570 through the Thunderbolt port of his MacBook Air, and displaying everything on the internal LCD. A dream come true.
[Larry] is doing this with a few fairly specialized bits of hardware. The first is a
Thunderbolt to ExpressCard/34 adapter
, after that an
ExpressCard to PCI-E adapter
. Couple that with a power supply, GPU, and a whole lot of software configuration, and [Larry] had a real Thunderbolt GPU on his hands.
There are, of course, a few downsides to running a GPU through a Thunderbolt port. The current Thunderbolt spec is equivalent to a PCI-E 4X slot, a quarter of what is needed to get all the horsepower out of high-end GPUs. That being said, it is an elegant-yet-kludgy way for better graphics performance on the MBA,
Demo video below.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZZdwkICE3M&w=580] | 73 | 24 | [
{
"comment_id": "1033848",
"author": "Stephen",
"timestamp": "2013-07-31T17:33:37",
"content": "I’d be interested to see this with USB 3.0….using Thunderbolt seems useless for like 99% of the universe.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1033895",... | 1,760,376,495.612947 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/07/31/how-to-play-a-game-boy-emulator-on-chromecast/ | How To Play A Game Boy Emulator On Chromecast | Mike Szczys | [
"home entertainment hacks"
] | [
"chromecast",
"controller",
"emulator",
"game boy",
"xbox 360"
] | It’s small, it’s blurry, but it’s working. Here’s a proof of concept for
playing emulators on a Chromecast
which uses the original Game Boy as an example.
Notice that there are two screens shown in the demo. Out of focus in the background is the television with the Chromecast displaying the game play. In the foreground is a computer with a browser open which lists off the control setup. These are the button mappings for an Xbox 360 controller. The emulator is
a JavaScript Game Boy emulator
. This is loaded on the Chromecast through a simple html file (called the receiver in the repo). The sender — also a simple html file — loads another JavaScript package on the computer which translates the controller’s button presses to keyboard inputs and sends them out to the receiver.
This puts stars in our eyes about emulator hacks. We’d love to see this boiled down to smartphone and Chromecast as the two pieces of hardware, with the touchscreen as the gaming input.
[via
Reddit
] | 9 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "1033817",
"author": "r3",
"timestamp": "2013-07-31T16:25:25",
"content": "no fullscreen seems important issue to me though",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1033826",
"author": "DavidB",
"timestamp": "2013-07-31T... | 1,760,376,495.370602 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/07/31/flamenco-guitar/ | FLAMEnco Guitar | Brian Benchoff | [
"Musical Hacks"
] | [
"flamethrower",
"guitar"
] | [John] says, “I noticed an unfortunate lack of many flamethrower guitars on the web so I filled the need. ”
That’s just awesome by us
.
This series of guitar-mounted flamethrowers started with a small build, able to shoot a six-foot flame for about 40 seconds. Yes, very theatrical, but not something you’d want to change out after every song. From there the builds progressed to systems with more barrels, more fuel tanks, and a huge system that shoots 18-foot long flames colored with standard pyrotechnic supplies.
It should go without saying that this stuff probably isn’t something you should try at home. That being said, you really have to admire the craftsmanship and tenacity to make a guitar mounted flamethrower. Just don’t bring it to an indoor gig.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xKmR5on5rXI&w=580] | 11 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "1033796",
"author": "DennisC",
"timestamp": "2013-07-31T15:12:32",
"content": "Idea: make it so the sound of the guitar modifies the flame, a la Ruben’s tube.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rubens'_tubeOr even better: mount a Ruben’s tube on the guitar neck and wear a fire-proof suit w... | 1,760,376,495.419659 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/07/31/bitcoins-are-a-trust-hack/ | Trust Hacking: How The Bitcoin System Works | Mike Szczys | [
"Security Hacks"
] | [
"bitcoin",
"currency",
"encryption",
"fiat currency",
"trust"
] | [Scott Driscoll] sent us a link to his Bitcoin explanation a couple of weeks ago. We glanced at it but moved on rather quickly. It’s been popping up here and there and we finally gave it the time it deserved. This video is interesting in that it doesn’t just focus on what the Bitcoin actually is, but
how the Bitcoin system works
when it comes time for money to change hands.
Quite early on in the explanation he mentions that “The Bitcoin system is amazingly designed so that no trust is needed”. That’s a powerful statement. For instance, if you sell your car, one of your friends will probably tell you not to take a check. That’s because a check means you’re trusting that the buyer actually has a balance in their account to cover the transaction. With Bitcoin the transaction carries its own proof that the currency is available by including information about the past transactions through which those Bitcoins were acquired.
If you have some idea of what public/private key pairs are you’re already equipped to understand [Scott’s] lecture. After you make it through the 22 minute video maybe you should get down to work
doing some Bitcoin mining at home
. | 38 | 15 | [
{
"comment_id": "1033754",
"author": "Yarr",
"timestamp": "2013-07-31T14:27:58",
"content": "“The Bitcoin system is amazingly designed”HAHAHAHAHAHAHA",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1033772",
"author": "Anonymous",
"timestamp":... | 1,760,376,495.503073 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/07/31/an-introduction-to-inertial-navigation-systems/ | An Introduction To Inertial Navigation Systems | Brian Benchoff | [
"Arduino Hacks"
] | [
"inertial",
"inertial navigation system",
"navigation"
] | Long before ships relied on GPS to determine their location – and even before radio navigation systems such as LORAN, vessels relied on a still impressively sophisticated means of determining their position: inertial navigation. The theory is simple: if you keep a few very accurate gyroscopes and accelerometers on board, you’ll be able to calculate where you are relative to your previous position. Since electronic gyros and accelerometers are all over the place, [Sebastian] thought he would have a go at creating his own
inertial navigation system.
The difficulty in using this method is that every gyroscope invariably has some error. Since the measurements from the gyros and accelerometers are integrated together, the error is also integrated, resulting in an increasing positioning error as time goes on. With a few clever algorithms and very good sensors, it’s possible to minimize this error.
[Sebastian] doesn’t have really great hardware – he’s only working with a
accelerometer/gyro breakout board
that’s good enough for experimental purposes. After reading the accelerometer data with an Arduino, he’s able to capture all the sensor data and read it into a Python script.
The next steps are to figure out a decent algorithm to integrate all the sensor data, and possibly add a barometer and magnetic compass for better compensation for errors. The project is still in the early phases, but seeing as how an inertial navigation system is one of the engineering triumphs of the early 20th century, we’re eagerly awaiting any progress updates. | 53 | 18 | [
{
"comment_id": "1033668",
"author": "Reg",
"timestamp": "2013-07-31T11:56:49",
"content": "“Long before ships relied on GPS to determine their location – and even before radio navigation systems such as LORAN, vessels relied on a still impressively sophisticated means of determining their position:... | 1,760,376,495.700363 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/07/30/xbox-360-light-right-and-rf-module-connected-to-raspberry-pi/ | Xbox 360 Light Right And RF Module Connected To Raspberry Pi | Mike Szczys | [
"Raspberry Pi",
"Xbox Hacks"
] | [
"controllers",
"RF",
"RPi",
"spi",
"wireless"
] | If you want to mess around with your Xbox 360 controllers on a computer Microsoft would be happy to sell you a USB dongle to do so. But [Tino] went a different route. The board that drives the Xbox 360’s status light ring also includes the RF module that wirelessly connects the controllers.
He wired this up to his Raspberry Pi
using the GPIO header.
The module connects via an internal cable and is treated much like a USB device by the Xbox motherboard. The problem is that it won’t actually handle the 5V rail found on a USB connector; it wants 3.3V. But this is no problem for the RPi’s pin header. Once a few connections have been made the lights are controlled via
SPI
I2C and [Tino] posted some example code up on Github to work with the RF module. He plans to post a follow-up that interfaces the module with a simple microcontroller rather than an RPi board. If you can’t wait for that we’re sure you can figure out the details you need by digging through his example code. | 22 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "1033381",
"author": "whitelabel",
"timestamp": "2013-07-30T21:08:45",
"content": "Already done, long time ago:http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=kCz2UY2oit4",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1033406",
"auth... | 1,760,376,495.761653 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/07/29/2013-open-hardware-summit-badge-includes-epaper-display/ | 2013 Open Hardware Summit Badge Includes EPaper Display | Mike Szczys | [
"Arduino Hacks",
"cons"
] | [
"badge",
"epaper"
] | Take a look at this sexy piece for open hardware. It’s what you’ll be
wearing around your neck
at the Open Hardware Summit this year. WyoLum teamed up with Repaper for the display and Seeed Studios for the boards.
It’s called the BADGEr and it’s both an Arduino
and
and Arduino shield. There are several different power options; coin-cell, microUSB, unpopulated barrel jack, or the lanyard terminals if you want to wear the power supply around your neck. You can see the five momentary push buttons see above, but on the back you’ll find the microSD card slot along with a power switch for preserving the coin cell.
Check out the video below for a quick look. In addition to acting as your credentials the conference schedule comes preloaded. And of course, this is an Open Source design so you can dig through schematic, board artwork, and code at the page linked above. Oh, and the first hack has already been pulled off. Here’s
the badge reading
Crime and Punishment
.
Speaking of conference badges, DEF CON starts this week. Hackaday writer [Eric Evenchick]
will be there
and we hope he has a chance to look in on some of the badge hacking at the event. | 23 | 15 | [
{
"comment_id": "1032811",
"author": "Kuy",
"timestamp": "2013-07-29T21:11:15",
"content": "That’s just nuts. I love it!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1032839",
"author": "DainBramage1991",
"timestamp": "2013-07-29T22:57:40",
"cont... | 1,760,376,495.859458 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/07/29/headless-tethering-between-raspberry-pi-and-iphone/ | Headless Tethering Between Raspberry Pi And IPhone | Mike Szczys | [
"iphone hacks",
"Raspberry Pi"
] | [
"command line",
"ifuse",
"RPi",
"tethering"
] | This hack doesn’t necessarily have a target application. But there’s a lot of potential. It’s a
headless setup for tethering
your Raspberry Pi to an iPhone. Building sensor arrays that upload to the Internet (live or just to dump its logs) immediately comes to mind. But we’re sure there are a ton of other applications just waiting to be thought of.
Tethering is pretty simple with the Raspberry Pi. Just install a few packages that are available in the repositories and make a quick configuration file tweak to allow hot-plugging. But this is dependent on the iPhone being mounted and that task is normally only automatic if the GUI is running. To get by without the X desktop [Dave Controy] walks through the ifuse setup to mount the phone from command line. The result is that your RPi will establish a network connect whenever the iPhone is plugged into it, without any intervention from you.
[Thanks Michael] | 1 | 1 | [
{
"comment_id": "1033369",
"author": "BotherSaidPooh",
"timestamp": "2013-07-30T20:20:22",
"content": "Nice idea, now someone needs to code a control for an Arduino using the Pi.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
}
] | 1,760,376,495.801605 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/07/29/chromecast-bootloader-exploit-it-runs-android/ | Chromecast Bootloader Exploit | Mike Szczys | [
"Android Hacks"
] | [
"chromecast",
"exploit",
"root"
] | Well that didn’t take long. The team over at GTVHacker have
worked their magic on Chromecast
. The HDMI dongle announced by Google last week was so popular they had to cancel their 3-free-months of Netflix perk. We think the thing is worth $35 without it, especially if we end up seeing some awesome hacks from the community.
So far this is just getting your foot in the door by rooting the device. In addition to walking through the exploit the
wiki instructions
give us a lot more pictures of the internals than we saw from the teardown in
yesterday’s links post
. There’s an unpopulated pad with seventeen connections on the PCB. You can patch into the serial connections this way, running at a 115200 8n1. But you won’t have terminal access out of the box. The exploit uses a vulnerability in the bootloader to flash a hacked system folder which provides root. After wiping the cache it reboots like normal but now you can access a root shell on port 23. | 29 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "1032750",
"author": "zigzagjoe",
"timestamp": "2013-07-29T17:11:31",
"content": "No, it doesn’t run android – It runs a modified google tv build, without dalvik. What do we call android without dalvik? Linux. Reading comprehension, how does it work?",
"parent_id": null,
"dep... | 1,760,376,495.926337 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/07/29/update-home-security-monitoring-prototype/ | Update: Home Security Monitoring Prototype | Mike Szczys | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"altium",
"psu"
] | This project is about home security monitoring, but the update is crack for electronics designers. [Simon Ludborzs] continues to work on his prototype and he’s fantastic about
sharing his success and failure in a conversational manner
.
In April we saw his initial design which
combined a SIM900 GSM modem with his own board
to let him monitor his home security system without hiring a monthly service. Above you can see a snap of his latest prototype. It’s not fully populated as he’s testing the power supply… which in this state puts out 0V. Obviously that’s not up to his design specification so he started hunting around for the issue. He tells a tale of woe which is near to our hearts. He removed Q6, which is BC807 transistor, in order to test the FET used on the board. This brought it to life and had him looking into the datasheet of the part and its footprint in Altium. The footprint is right, the schematic symbol is wrong. There’s a lucky fix though. Above you can see the original design. The fix was just to rotate the part. This is illustrated as a change in the layout, but it worked with the original pad location. They’re not square to the transistor’s legs but they do still fit the outline.
He goes on to stress test the PSU output and then discuss whether it’s enough for the rest of the project. All in all a fascinating read! | 8 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "1032768",
"author": "Anon",
"timestamp": "2013-07-29T18:37:11",
"content": "As a mechanical engineering, this is wizardry.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1034607",
"author": "gabe",
"timestamp": "2013-08-02T01... | 1,760,376,495.971855 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/07/29/pcbs-with-powder-coat/ | PCBs With Powder Coat | Brian Benchoff | [
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"pcb",
"powder coat",
"toner"
] | The toner transfer method of PCB production should be a staple in every maker’s bag of tricks. That being said, it’s a far from ideal solution with a lot of things that can go wrong, ruining hours of work. [Ryan] thinks he has a better solution up his sleeve, still using heat activated toner, but
replacing the laser printer with a powder coating gun and a laser engraver
.
[Ryan] is using a powder coating gun he picked up from Amazon for about $100. The theory behind it is simple: particles of toner coming out of the gun are statically charged, and bonded to the grounded copper clad board. In real powder coat shops, this coating is baked, resulting in a perfectly hard, mirror-like finish. [Ryan] skipped the baking step and instead through the powder coated board into a laser engraver where the PCB design is melted onto the copper. After that, wash the board off, etch it, and Bob’s your uncle.
What’s really interesting about this method of PCB production is that it doesn’t require a very high power laser. [Ryan] was actually having a problem with the toner burning with his laser engraver, so it might be possible to fab PCBs with a high power handheld laser, or even a Blu Ray laser diode. | 48 | 15 | [
{
"comment_id": "1032703",
"author": "nebulous",
"timestamp": "2013-07-29T15:06:45",
"content": "Spraying actual toner around and then pointing a bright laser at the powder-coated piece of shiny metal?This sounds like a great way to get both lung cancer AND blind. :)Seems a bit involved, but then, s... | 1,760,376,496.102644 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/07/29/disney-prototype-adds-haptic-feedback-to-gestural-interface/ | Disney Prototype Adds Haptic Feedback To Gestural Interface | Mike Szczys | [
"Peripherals Hacks"
] | [
"air",
"disney",
"gesture",
"haptic feedback",
"haptics"
] | This little device is about the size of a webcam, and it perches on top of your computer monitor in much the same way. It’s Disney’s solution to
haptic feedback for gestural input
. That is to say, wave your hands in the air to control a computer, and this will give you some sense of actually touching the virtual objects.
The thing shoots toroids of air at the user. We thought the best example of how this is used is the soccer ball demo in the video. A game is being played where virtual soccer balls are launched toward the user. The rig shoots out a puff of air to go along with each ball. When you get your hand in the right place you’ll feel the vortex of air and know you’ve made contact with the virtual object.
On the hardware side this is just begging to be recreated in your basement. What we have here is a 3D printed enclosure that has six sides. Five of them have speaker elements that create pressure waves when given an electrical signal. When coordinated they cause a perfect ring vortex (think cigar smoke ring) to shoot out the flexible nozzle which can be aimed thanks to a gimbal setup. Of course the element that makes it interactive is a 3D camera, which could be
a Kinect
or
Leap Motion
when built in the home workshop.
[Thanks Moe] | 11 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "1032674",
"author": "Moritz U. (@the_kenny)",
"timestamp": "2013-07-29T13:07:52",
"content": "The voice and the animations in the video reminded me of the Aperture Science computer-aided Enrichment Center",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comme... | 1,760,376,496.018975 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/07/29/finally-a-firewall-for-all-the-porn-on-the-internet/ | Finally, A Firewall For All The Porn On The Internet | Brian Benchoff | [
"internet hacks"
] | [
"firewall",
"Larry Flynt has done more to protect your freedoms than any other living person",
"porn",
"porn firewall"
] | The current UK government is proposing an Internet porn firewall. Unlike other countries with Internet firewalls, such as North Korea, China, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Syria, the citizens of the UK are so especially helpful
some of them decided to help code the new porn filter
. The idea behind the Great Firewall of Porn is simple: if a user wants to visit a NSFW website, let them. If, the user wants to visit the other 19% of the Internet, block it, and forward them to a page with hand drawn cockswains a baubles as the background.
The way the firewall works is actually pretty clever – it checks each request against the OpenDNS FamilyShield filter. If the request is denied, load the page, and if the OpenDNS request is allowed, block the page.
The genius behind this filter, [sicksad], provided all the tools required to get your own porn filter up and running
over on his git
. There’s also a great setup tutorial video available below, with a little social commentary thrown in for free.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xJfyNwM6Lw8&w=580] | 34 | 17 | [
{
"comment_id": "1032650",
"author": "XOIIO",
"timestamp": "2013-07-29T11:12:31",
"content": "LOL The music makes this even better, this is like redirecting traffic in backtrack using a MITM, I like it.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1032659",
... | 1,760,376,496.4207 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/07/27/hackaday-is-going-to-def-con/ | Hackaday Is Going To DEF CON! | Mike Szczys | [
"cons",
"Featured"
] | [
"defcon",
"defcon 2013"
] | This is Hackaday writer [Eric Evenchick]. He’s headed off to DEF CON,
the annual hacking conference
held every year at this time in Las Vegas. He’s hoping to see some cool stuff and make some networking connections that lead to a real job. If you’re not attending the conference here’s your chance to live vicariously. He’ll be writing on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday of next week (August 1-3) about all the stuff he encounters at the event.
If you
are
attending, keep your eyes open for him. We’re sorry that we didn’t manage to get any swag to him for handing out to loyal readers (not his fault, we’ve been
a bit preoccupied
). If you know of something he just shouldn’t miss email him: eric at hackaday.com. This includes invites to any awesome parties you’ve got planned.
Oh, and don’t be shy about making him pose with you for pictures…. just make sure to Tweet it to
@hackaday
if you do. | 7 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "1032181",
"author": "dreamer",
"timestamp": "2013-07-27T23:54:40",
"content": "Should’ve gone to OHM2013 instead ;)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1032281",
"author": "Apex1302",
"timestamp": "2013-07-28T06:31... | 1,760,376,496.347166 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/07/27/resole-shoes-with-old-tire-tread/ | Resole Shoes With Old Tire Tread | Mike Szczys | [
"green hacks"
] | [
"hoes",
"resole",
"soles",
"tire",
"treads"
] | These shoes are heavier than normal, they don’t grip as well as store-bought, and it’s a heck of a lot of work to make a pair for yourself. But if you do pull this one off you’ll have a great time showing everyone your
custom tire tread shoe hack
.
Two things motivated [Martin Melchior] to give this a try. The first is that tire tread is virtually indestructible when only supporting the weight of a person. Secondly, this reuses otherwise worn-out tires, making it a recycling project.
Pretty much all of the work has to do with getting the tread ready for use. Cutting off the sidewalls and sawing the ring of tread in half is rather easy. But then you have to split the tread off of the steel belts, which is not. [Martin] recommends using vice-grip pliers to grab the outer lay and pull it away from the tread, slicing along the belts with a utility knife as you go. Once you do have a flat strip just glue it to your shoes and cut away the excess.
We’re more into a
different type of retread
that actually takes you places. | 40 | 25 | [
{
"comment_id": "1032098",
"author": "Dave",
"timestamp": "2013-07-27T19:19:13",
"content": "My folks were in chile years ago and people were not just resoling but even using tire pieces for the straps and heavy duty staples.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
... | 1,760,376,496.499973 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/07/27/i-keep-my-tunes-in-an-ammo-can/ | I Keep My Tunes In An Ammo Can | Mike Szczys | [
"digital audio hacks"
] | [
"ammo box",
"amplifier",
"battery",
"boom box",
"charger",
"speakers"
] | Calling this a boom box is at least slightly ironic. Instead of high explosives it now carries high decibels in its new life as
a self-contained sound system
.
Despite the conspicuous power cord a peek inside reveals a big enough battery to keep the tunes playing for hours on end. [King Rootintootin] kept the cost on the build down since he was given the used speakers and amp by his girlfriend’s dad. The amp kicks out about 25 Watts with the battery rated at 7.2 Ah. He added a charger and routed the controls to the side of the ammo box so that it can be charged without removal. The only external component is the audio jack which connects it to the music source.
One of the suggested improvements from the Reddit thread is to add baffles inside of the enclosure so that sound from the two stereo channels doesn’t interfere with each other. | 18 | 14 | [
{
"comment_id": "1032070",
"author": "David Henderson",
"timestamp": "2013-07-27T18:07:20",
"content": "Better be very careful or the bomb squad will freak out and mistake it for a IED and blow you portable amp to bits.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comme... | 1,760,376,496.603625 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/07/27/hacklet-adds-linux-control-for-the-modlet-smart-outlet/ | Hacklet Adds Linux Control For The Modlet Smart Outlet | Mike Szczys | [
"home hacks",
"Linux Hacks"
] | [
"outlet",
"usb",
"wireless"
] | Linux users now have a simple option for controlling the Modlet smart outlet. Hacklet is a Ruby script that can
switch and read status information from Modlet
.
This is the first we remember hearing about
Modlet
. It’s another take on controlling your appliances remotely. Unlike
WeMo
, which puts control of one outlet on WiFi, the Modlet uses a USB dongle to control two outlets wirelessly. It has the additional benefit of reading how much current is being used by each plug. This does mean that you need a running computer with the USB dongle to control it. But cheap embedded systems like the Raspberry Pi make this less of an issue both in up-front cost, and the price to keep it running all the time.
[Matt Colyer’s] demo video includes an unboxing of the $60 starter kit. The screen seen above shows his script pairing with the outlet. It goes on to demonstrate commands to switch it, and to pull the data from the device. He even provides an example of
how to use IFTTT with the script
. | 8 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "1032069",
"author": "Greenaum",
"timestamp": "2013-07-27T18:05:43",
"content": "I have round my house a number of units branded “Status”, but made by who knows in Shenzhen somewhere. I bought them from Asda in the UK, which is now owned by Walmart. Anyway they’re mains-switching, re... | 1,760,376,496.547817 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/07/27/heart-shaped-heart-simulator/ | Heart-shaped Heart Simulator | Brian Benchoff | [
"Medical Hacks"
] | [
"cardiac",
"heart",
"propeller",
"pulse"
] | A few years ago, [Addie] over at Tymkrs put together a spooky little Halloween project:
a small Propeller board
that emulates the electrical signals in a heart. As a cardiac nurse, she thought her project could use a little improvement, and after two years
she’s finally done
. It’s a heart-shaped board that simulates electrical signals moving through the heart.
There are several key areas that conduct electrical signals through the heart – the sinoatrial node, atrioventricular node, and bundle branches all work like players in an orchestra to keep a heart beating like it should. If something goes wrong with one of these, the heart goes into tachycardia or fibrillation – not good, by any measure. [Addie]’s board simulates all the different ways a heart can go wrong with LEDs standing in for the electrical signals in a real heart. The name of the game here is to look at the LEDs and tell what state the heart is in.
The PCB heart is just one part of [Addie]’s heart simulator. The simulated heart can also plug into a neat little heart-shaped project box wired up with a solenoid, LCD display, headphone jack, and other electronics to turn this electronic heart into a complete study tool for heart rhythms. The nurses in [Addie]’s unit love the thing, and it looks like [Addie] might have a real cardiac training tool on here hands here.
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VLxsLt2oI4A&w=580] | 12 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "1032032",
"author": "Alex Rossie",
"timestamp": "2013-07-27T15:48:51",
"content": "This is really cool, very neat and great to see how far along it’s come since the first edition.However, unfortunately not useful for doctors, we can’t get past the need to be able to read an ECG. And... | 1,760,376,496.653787 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/07/27/10-drive-microserver-is-the-clown-car-of-the-computer-case-world/ | 10-drive Microserver Is The Clown Car Of The Computer Case World | Mike Szczys | [
"computer hacks"
] | [
"3d printed",
"bracket",
"sata",
"server"
] | [Coke Effekt] wanted to push his server’s storage limits to a higher level by combining ten 3 TB drives. But he’s not interested in transitioning to a larger case in order to facilitate the extra hardware. It only took a bit of hacking to
fit all the storage in a mini-ITX case
.
His first step was to make a digital model of his custom drive mount. This uses two 3D printed cages which will each hold five drives mounted vertically. To keep things cool the two cages are bolted to a 140mm fan. The connections to the motherboard also present some issues. He uses a two-port SATA card which plays nicely with port multipliers. Those multiplier boards can be seen on the bottom of the image above. The boards are mounted using another 3D printed bracket. Each breaks out one of the SATA ports into five connections for the drives.
[Thanks Pat] | 55 | 21 | [
{
"comment_id": "1031981",
"author": "Isaac",
"timestamp": "2013-07-27T13:46:04",
"content": "Let’s not also forget he wrote his own high level redundancy solution (in php). One of the many awesome hacks on good ole OCAU.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"com... | 1,760,376,496.832707 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/07/26/retrotechtacular-a-tour-of-wlw-a-500000-kw-radio-transmitter/ | Retrotechtacular: A Tour Of WLW, A 500,000 Watt Radio Transmitter | Mike Szczys | [
"Radio Hacks"
] | [
"radio",
"retrotechtacular",
"transmitter",
"water cooled",
"wlw"
] | This is an overview of a 500,000 Watt radio transmitter site. It’s one of the slides shared in
a guided video tour of the transmitter’s hardware
. The radio station — whose call sign was
WLW
— called itself the Nation’s Station because of its ability to reach so much of the country.
It operated at the 500 kW level starting back in the 1930’s. The technology at the time meant that there were a lot of challenges involved with transmitting at this level of power. It took 750 kW input to achieve the 500 kW output. To reach that the station had a set of AC motors in the basement generating the 4500 Amps at 33 Volts DC
needed to power the transmitter
to heat each filament. Obviously there was a lot of heat generated at the same time. The system was water-cooled. An elaborate network of Pyrex pipes carried distilled water to and from the tubes to handle the heat dissipation.
The video tour lasts about thirty minutes. It’s just packed with interesting tidbits from the experts leading the tour so add it to your watch list for some geeky entertainment over the weekend.
[Thanks Jesse] | 61 | 22 | [
{
"comment_id": "1031609",
"author": "Jacob",
"timestamp": "2013-07-26T21:12:46",
"content": "500,000kW != 500,000W. Seriously, what does it take to glance over the post before you hit “post”?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1031617",
... | 1,760,376,499.027196 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/07/26/cnc-router-built-with-8020-rail/ | CNC Router Built With 80/20 Rail | Mike Szczys | [
"cnc hacks"
] | [
"8020",
"ball screw",
"extruded rail",
"mill"
] | There’s still quite a bit of machining that goes into a CNC mill build of this size. But using 80/20 brand extruded rail optimizes most of the build process into tasks manageable by the average basement hacker. That’s not to say that we think [Jim] is average. He took this mill from
start to finish in just two weeks
.
He picked up the set of three ball screws on eBay for $180. Two of them drive the X axis with the third moving the cutter assembly along the Y axis. The X axis travels along a set of precision rails instead of precision rods. He machined his own mounting plates to which those are attached. For now he’s not running the motors at full speed because the vibration starts to make the table shake. He may end up bolting the base to the floor once all is said and done.
We see this extruded rail used all over the place. We could highlight some other mill builds or 3d printers, but instead we think you’ll enjoy
an extruded rail robotic bass guitar
.
Oh, one last thing. We’re not against a bit of pandering. Below you can see the mill cutting out the Hackaday logo: | 32 | 13 | [
{
"comment_id": "1031557",
"author": "James Scott (@TooJawsome)",
"timestamp": "2013-07-26T19:12:35",
"content": "A bristled door sweep – available at most home improvement stores- would probably work better than the duct tape flaps. One sweep would probably cover the entire perimeter when cut into ... | 1,760,376,498.808868 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/07/26/building-an-internal-combustion-engine-from-hardware-store-parts/ | Building An Internal Combustion Engine From Hardware Store Parts | Mike Szczys | [
"Engine Hacks"
] | [
"gasoline",
"hardware store",
"propane"
] | [MacGyver]
[Lou Wozniak] is on a mission to build
an internal combustion engine using only hardware store parts
. What you see above is his third attempt at it. Depending on your hardware store this may have ventured outside of what they sell because [Lou] switched over to using gasoline. But the first two attempts were
powered by a propane torch fuel canister
.
Unfortunately it still isn’t running. But the demo below makes us think that he’s really close. Timing is always touchy and that seems to be what is causing the problems. He makes use of a lot of plumbing fixtures. At the right you can see the parts (including a peanut butter jar) which make his carburetor with a valve pointing straight up as the choke. The fuel and air mixture moves down through the pipe to the cylinder and valve assembly where it is ignited by the black grill igniter module. His custom cut plywood gear moves with the fly-wheel. It triggers his improvised spark plug by using a bit of wire to pull on the leaf switch.
We feel like he’s so close to getting this up and running. If you have any advice on where he might be going wrong [Lou] welcomes your input. | 69 | 44 | [
{
"comment_id": "1031530",
"author": "saiboogu",
"timestamp": "2013-07-26T18:13:38",
"content": "I’m not real confident that he’s getting a combustible fuel-air mixture from that bubbler. Seems to me there needs to be some sort of atomization happening.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"... | 1,760,376,498.624343 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/07/26/geometry-class-just-got-augmented/ | Geometry Class Just Got Augmented | Brian Benchoff | [
"hardware",
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"ruler",
"TOLED",
"transparent display"
] | Just about every engineer needs to take a drawing class, but until now we surprisingly haven’t seen electronics thrown into rulers, t-squares, and lead holders. [Anirudh]
decided to change that
with Glassified. It’s a transparent display embedded in a ruler that is able to capture hand drawn lines. These physical lines can be interacted with or measured, turning a ruler into a bridge between a paper drawing and a digital environment.
For the display, [Anirudh] mounted a transparent TOLED display with a digitizer input into a ruler. The digitizer captures the pen strokes underneath the ruler, and is able to interact with the physical lines, either to calculate the length and angle of lines, or just to bounce a digital ball inside a hand-drawn polygon.
There’s no word on how this display is being driven, or what kind of code is running on it. [Anirudh] said he will have some schematics and code available
up on his website
soon (it’s a 404 right now). | 26 | 13 | [
{
"comment_id": "1031505",
"author": "Ryan",
"timestamp": "2013-07-26T17:19:12",
"content": "So cool!Anyone know where to get these transparent OLED displays?!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1031603",
"author": "face",
"timest... | 1,760,376,498.471459 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/07/26/defcon-presenters-preview-hack-that-takes-prius-out-of-drivers-control/ | Defcon Presenters Preview Hack That Takes Prius Out Of Driver’s Control | Mike Szczys | [
"Transportation Hacks"
] | [
"can-bus",
"defcon",
"prius"
] | This one’s a treasure trove of CAN bus hacks that will scare the crap out of an unsuspecting driver — or worse. [Charlie Miller] and [Chris Valasek] are getting ready to present their findings, which were underwritten by DARPA, at this year’s Defcon.
They gave a Forbes reporter a turn in the driver’s
seat in order to show off.
You’ve got to see the video on this one. We haven’t had this much fun looking at potentially deadly car hacking
since Waterloo Labs decided to go surfing on an Olds
. The hacks shown off start as seemingly innocent data tweaks, like misrepresenting your fuel level or displaying 199 mph on the speedometer while the car is standing still. But things start to get interesting when they take that speed readout from 199 down to zero instantly, which has the effect of telling the car you’ve been in a crash (don’t worry, the airbags don’t fire). Other devilish tricks include yanking the steering wheel to one side by issuing a command telling the car to park itself when driving down the road. Worst of all is the ability to disable the brakes while the vehicle is in motion. Oh the pedal still moves, but the brake calipers don’t respond.
The purpose of the work is to highlight areas where auto manufacturers need to tighten up security. It certainly gives us an idea of what we’ll see in the next Bond film.
[Thanks Matt] | 66 | 23 | [
{
"comment_id": "1031446",
"author": "Fritoeata",
"timestamp": "2013-07-26T16:12:10",
"content": "So you’re actually telling me that the “all manual” features of my 1.0L/3cyl Metro that gets 45mpg may actually be safer? I mean I know my all cable/linkage/hydraulic/etc. is far better for failure, but... | 1,760,376,499.372122 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/07/26/this-bear-can-pass-a-turing-test/ | This Bear Can Pass A Turing Test | Brian Benchoff | [
"Toy Hacks"
] | [
"ai",
"chatbot",
"Teddy Bear"
] | Some thought the first artificial intelligence would come about as an accident, others as a war machine that decides the only way to protect humans is to kill them all. It turns out both these ideas were wrong.
The first AI is apparently a teddy bear
, available on Kickstarter for $60.
The Supertoy Kickstarter is selling a mechatronic teddy bear with motors, speakers, and enough electronics to connect to a cell phone. After plugging your cell phone and stuffing it in Teddy’s thorax, the bear comes alive with an intelligence all his own and a voice seemingly lifted from [Peter Griffin].
Needless to say, we’re just a
bit
skeptical that Teddy here can perform as demonstrated in the Kickstarter video. While the team behind Teddy has
developed a successful talking chatbot
before, the video makes this tech seem
too good.
Even the voice sounds like a real person with a microphone, and not like a clunky GPS personality.
Feel free to speculate in the comments on how good this tech can possibly be. | 59 | 29 | [
{
"comment_id": "1031396",
"author": "Animockery",
"timestamp": "2013-07-26T15:12:06",
"content": "Next stop after this is child robots, aliens and Steven Spielberg…No really though, despite the small level of creepiness that comes with an interactive teddy this is pretty cool.",
"parent_id": nu... | 1,760,376,499.555954 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/07/26/drive-bay-form-factor-dual-dekatron-readouts-for-ram-and-cpu-usage/ | Drive Bay Form Factor Dual Dekatron Readouts For RAM And CPU Usage | Mike Szczys | [
"computer hacks"
] | [
"cpu",
"dekatron",
"ram"
] | The two circular displays seen above are
Dekatrons built into an optical drive enclosure
. [Matt Sylvester] picked up a couple of different types of these tubes on eBay. He etched his own driver, and was able to control them with an Arduino. After a few months went by he decided to revisit the project to see if it would work as a CPU and RAM usage meter.
These tubes need high voltage to get the neon display glowing brightly. This raised some concerns about having those voltage levels inside of his PC, as well as the noise which may be introduced by the supply. To deal with those issues [Matt] gutted an old optical drive, using its case to physically isolate the circuitry, and some optoisolators to protect the logic connections. His driver board uses an ATmega328 running the Arduino bootloader. It connects to the PC using an FTDI USB to Serial cable. This makes it a snap to push the performance data to the display. It also has the side benefit of allowing him to reprogram the chip without opening the case.
If you can’t find one of these tubes for your own project consider
faking it
. | 3 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "1031353",
"author": "beakmyn",
"timestamp": "2013-07-26T13:27:26",
"content": "I love dekatron tubes. I’ve been wanting to get some and do a project for quite a while. Nice job. I’ve got a couple cat’s eyes waiting for a similar project. Will the code be made available? I didn’t see... | 1,760,376,498.516137 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/07/25/making-a-dropbox-with-a-chumby-and-bittorrent/ | Making A Dropbox With A Chumby And Bittorrent | Brian Benchoff | [
"downloads hacks"
] | [
"bitsync",
"bittorrent",
"chumby",
"dropbox"
] | Since the Chumby servers went offline earlier this year, [Huan] found himself with a few of these tiny, extremely hackable internet devices lying around. He’s also getting tired of his NAS and wanted a way to sync folders between all his computers. Combine the two desires, and you can
make a personal cloud with a Chumby
, thanks to some help from the people at BitTorrent Labs.
[Huan] is using
BitTorrent Sync
for his Dropbox-like server. After creating a webkit interface for BitTorrent Sync, [Huan] loaded up his Chumby with new firmware, set up a few folders to be synced, and let the Chumby do all the work.
It’s not exactly fast, given the Chumby’s wireless connection and USB 1.1 for an external disk drive, but it’s more than enough to keep your personal project folders synced across multiple computers. As a bonus, it’s also very,
very
secure, getting around most of the security problems cloud solutions entail. | 24 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "1031083",
"author": "notdave",
"timestamp": "2013-07-25T23:19:01",
"content": "He’s also getting tired of his NAS and wanted a way to sync folders between all his computers.someone help me make a sliver of sense out of this statement.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"re... | 1,760,376,498.693987 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/07/25/hello-from-supplyframe/ | Hello From SupplyFrame – Your New Evil Overlords ! | Aleksandar Bradic | [
"Featured",
"News"
] | [
"news",
"supplyframe"
] | A couple of weeks ago one of our engineers woke up and read that HackADay was going up for sale. His first reaction was much the same as most regular readers of HackADay, he was worried and concerned that a site that he has read daily for years was going to be sold to someone who would promptly carve it up and ruin it. So he bumped it up the chain here at
SupplyFrame
and we decided that HaD would be a good fit for us and so we made an offer and here we are!
Who the hell are SupplyFrame?
We’re a technology company on a mission to improve all aspects of the engineering and electronics industry. You’ve probably not heard of us directly, but if you’ve ever used
FindChips
then you’ve used one of our sites. If you do a little digging you’ll soon find that we provide an advertising network to the electronics industry. While technically this might make us ‘the evil’ in many peoples eyes, we’re more than yet another media company. Our platform and products are used by millions of engineers every month, and we’re building new tools to make designing and manufacturing electronics even easier.
What do you want with HaD?
We build tools for engineers, it only makes sense that we build a closer relationship with the community here. A few of our staff are regular readers, one has even had one of his hacks featured on HaD. We want to do more of that. While we’re mostly Computer Science nerds, we are aspiring makers and hackers – we have a hacklab in our office and a couple of projects under way (check out the
blog over here
). We try to eat our own dogfood and to generally have a good time building cool stuff. Hopefully soon we’ll have some hacks of our own to post up.
Obviously we have to get some return on our investment, we make most of our money from our advertising network so we’ll probably change out the ads on the site, but that’s the only major change we want to make to the site at this point. Rest assured we won’t be filtering or shaping the content based on our advertisers whims and our main focus will always be on the community and finding ways we can help to make it better.
Where do we go from here?
Well, we’ll keep HaD running mostly as it has been, the adverts will be more relevant (which many of you might actually find refreshing), but other than that not much will change. We’ll try and bring in a few more writers and to help polish up things that have been left unattended. Many of the plans that were proposed in Brian’s presentation align nicely with our thoughts so hopefully we’ll see some of those happen.
In the longer term we’re going to see if we can help out with our contacts, our software development expertise and whatever else we can think of. We’ve got a good relationship with lots of companies in the electronics industry, we hope we can leverage some of those relationships to make good stuff happen here.
Really we’re open to ideas, so let us know your thoughts on how to improve HaD and we’ll see what we can help with. One thing you can be sure of, we’re not here to do evil, we’re here to hack stuff and have fun doing it !
Aleksandar Bradic
CTO
SupplyFrame | 234 | 50 | [
{
"comment_id": "1031033",
"author": "Caleb Kraft",
"timestamp": "2013-07-25T22:19:33",
"content": "After several very long talks with these guys I am very pleased with this. This move is going to be MASSIVELY positive for hackaday!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
... | 1,760,376,499.266368 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/07/25/electric-imp-as-an-internet-to-rf-gateway/ | Electric Imp As An Internet To RF Gateway | Mike Szczys | [
"Microcontrollers",
"Wireless Hacks"
] | [
"Electric Imp",
"home automation",
"nRF24L01+",
"RF"
] | This project is a study in connecting several different families of hobby electronic hardware. The image above shows the Electric Imp side of things. It
bridges its Internet connection with the RF connections
of the rest of the project.
The Imp is a peculiar (intriguing?) piece of hardware. Take a look at [Brian Benchoff’s]
hand’s on experience
with the SD form factor hardware which is not an SD card at all. It’s an embedded system which uses light programming and a cloud-based software setup to bring wireless Internet to your projects.
In this case [Stanley Seow] started wondering if he needed multiple Imps to connect different parts of his setup. A bit of head scratching led him to the use of nRF24L01 modules which are cheap and easy to use Radio Frequency transceiver boards. He took a partially finished driver project and brought it home to play nicely with the Imp. Now he can use the system to communicate with other components which will eventually be used for home automation. Right now his proof of concept issues wireless commands to an Arduino driving a strip of LEDs. | 7 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "1031035",
"author": "Max",
"timestamp": "2013-07-25T22:21:14",
"content": "In the lights of the recent events this seems like a really bad idea.The imp relies on data located on remote servers and most of the controll-functions are relayed through those servers, too. And considering... | 1,760,376,498.7409 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/07/25/hackit-researchers-wait-69-years-to-see-tar-move/ | Hackit: Researchers Wait 69-years To See Tar Move | Mike Szczys | [
"chemistry hacks",
"HackIt"
] | [
"experiment",
"tar"
] | This experiment was
started at Trinity College Dublin way back in 1944
. Its purpose is to prove that tar flows, and indeed it does let go of a drop about every ten years. The thing is that nobody has ever seen that happen, bringing up the “
if a tree falls in the forest
” scenario.
The
Nature
article
on this event even mentions another experiment whose last drop was missed because the camera monitoring it was offline. This time around they did get some footage of the (un)momentous event which you can see below.
So here’s the challenge for clever hackers: What’s the easiest rig you can think of that won’t just continuously film the experiment but can also ensure that you get the goods on tape when a drop does fall? We see all kinds of high-speed shutter triggers —
here’s one of the latest
. But we don’t remember seeing an extremely slow version of the same. Let us know your idea by leaving a comment.
[Thanks Ferdinand via
Endandit
] | 43 | 21 | [
{
"comment_id": "1030998",
"author": "Horny",
"timestamp": "2013-07-25T20:12:51",
"content": "This one is only a copy… They are watching tar in Queensland since 1927:http://smp.uq.edu.au/content/pitch-drop-experiment",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_... | 1,760,376,499.459343 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/07/25/build-your-own-metal-detector/ | Build Your Own Metal Detector | Mike Szczys | [
"Arduino Hacks"
] | [
"ikea",
"metal detector",
"oscillator"
] | [Dzl] and his rather serious looking son are metal detector enthusiasts. But when they couldn’t find their store-bought metal detector earlier this summer they just went ahead and built their own. [Dzl] starts his write up with an explanation of how most oscillator based metal detectors work. This one differs by
using an Arduino to read from the metal detecting coil
.
The circuit starts with an oscillator that produces a signal of about 160 kHz which is constantly measured by the Arduino. When metal enters the coil it alters the frequency, which is immediately picked up the Arduino. Instead of that characteristic rising tone this rig uses a Piezo buzzer, issuing the type of clicks you’d normally associate with a Geiger counter.
The last part of the build was to find the best coil orientation. They settled on thirty turns around a metal bucket. An old Ikea lamp is the perfect form factor to host their hardware which seems to work like a charm. | 35 | 20 | [
{
"comment_id": "1030975",
"author": "Scuffles",
"timestamp": "2013-07-25T19:25:52",
"content": "Cool beans actually makes a project I’m working on that much easier :)Actually two projects didn’t think I would ever get around to the second but now I just might assuming its not too hard to adapt it t... | 1,760,376,499.724238 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/07/25/android-stick-mutates-into-a-home-server/ | Android Stick Mutates Into A Home Server | Mike Szczys | [
"Android Hacks",
"Linux Hacks"
] | [
"android stick",
"mk802",
"nas",
"server",
"streaming",
"ubuntu"
] | Kiss that energy hungry PC you’ve been using as a home server goodbye. [Vince Loschiavo] shows us how he squeezed a remarkable amount of functionality out of
an inexpensive Android stick which manages his home’s digital empire
.
He started off just wanting some network attached storage. For this he grabbed an MK802 Android Stick which you can get for a song if you find the right deal. To bend it to his will he said goodbye to the Android OS, installing Ubuntu for ARM instead. The stick (which is missing its case in the image above) connects to a USB hub in host mode, but does actually draw all of its power from the hub itself. This made it possible to attach a USB to Ethernet adapter to boost the speed which would have been limited by the WiFi connection. There’s a 320 gig USB hard drive for the storage. With that much space on hand it makes sense to add streaming media service as well which is simple since it’s running Linux. The last part of his work actually turns it into an Asterisk server by way of Google Voice and a SIP phone. An impressive outcome at a bargain price to be sure! | 27 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "1030924",
"author": "Dax",
"timestamp": "2013-07-25T16:39:46",
"content": "The USB is limiting the bandwidth more than the wifi, with all the devices connected to the same USB host.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1030927",
... | 1,760,376,499.955813 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/07/25/proposing-with-a-contra-rom-hack/ | Proposing With A Contra ROM Hack | Brian Benchoff | [
"Nintendo Hacks"
] | [
"contra",
"nes",
"rom"
] | We’ve seen marriage proposals via modified Nintendo games before, but most of these put the proposal just after the first level. It’s one thing to have the old man in Zelda present your SO with a ring, but it’s another thing entirely to beat the game before getting on one knee. That’s what [Quinn] forced [Amy] to do when he proposed by
modifying the ROM for Contra
to display a proposal right before the end credits.
By tearing open a few cartridges, [Quinn] found himself with a bunch of EPROMs and NES cartridge PCBs. After grabbing the Contra ROM off the Internet, [Quinn] edited the game’s end screen to his proposal. This was then burned onto a 1 Megabit EPROM, soldered onto a cartridge, and put into the NES for his now-fiance to play. Once [Amy] and [Quinn] finished the game (without cheating, by the way), [Amy] saw her proposal and [Quinn] pulled out the ring. | 13 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "1030911",
"author": "nevermind13",
"timestamp": "2013-07-25T15:16:24",
"content": "Did she say “yes”?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1030912",
"author": "jl",
"timestamp": "2013-07-25T15:31:58",
"content": "They did... | 1,760,376,499.607767 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/07/25/monitoring-a-sick-bird-using-the-raspberry-pi/ | Monitoring A Sick Bird Using The Raspberry Pi | Mike Szczys | [
"home hacks",
"Raspberry Pi"
] | [
"bird",
"linux",
"monitor",
"motion",
"RPi",
"temperature",
"water",
"webcam"
] | [Jorge Rancé] was nursing a sick bird back to health. He found it on the street with a broken leg, which required a mini plaster cast for it to heal correctly. But felt bad when leaving the house for long periods. He grabbed some simple hardware and put his mind at easy by building
an Internet connected bird monitoring system
. It’s really just an excuse to play around with his Raspberry Pi, but who can blame him?
A webcam adds video monitoring using the Linux software called “motion” to stream the video. This is the same package we use with our cats when we travel; it provides a continuous live stream but can also save recordings whenever motion is detected. He added a USB temperature sensor and attached a water level sensor to the GPIO header. These are automatically harvested — along with a still image from the webcam — and tweeted once per hour using a bash script. He just needs to work out automatic food and water dispensing and he never needs to return home! Bird seed shouldn’t be any harder to dish out than
fish food
, right? | 6 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "1030892",
"author": "Italo Loureiro",
"timestamp": "2013-07-25T14:49:42",
"content": "Maybe a mike+bandpass filter to check how many ~tweets~ a day?[went to check on howto do that]Man, there’re no adcs on rpi! Didn’t know that.. Forget it.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
... | 1,760,376,499.775471 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/07/28/hackaday-links-sunday-july-28th-2013/ | Hackaday Links: Sunday, July 28th, 2013 | Mike Szczys | [
"Hackaday links"
] | [
"Chris Gammell",
"chromecast",
"flame",
"lens",
"processing",
"Sanguino"
] | [Chris Gammell] tipped us off that he’s building an online training program for learning electronics. The ten session course will cost money to take but you can get the goods for free
if you’re one of the beta testers
. We love to listen to
The Amp Hour
podcast which is just one of [Chris’] many endeavors.
Did you buy a
Chromecast
this week? We did, but we don’t have it in hand yet (ordered through Amazon). You can still get a look inside from
the iFixit teardown
.
Practice your Processing skills by
using it to code a game of Pong
.
A bit of lighter fluid and a hacked insert will get you
a flaming wallet
. We guess this is a different type of
an anti-pickpocket device
. [Thanks Stephen]
[Brain] used a $1.50 magnifying lens to help his
Raspberry Pi camera module read QR codes
better.
We really like [Aaron Christophel’s]
LED matrix clock
(
translated
). He started from a marquee that must be at least a decade old. He stripped it down and figured out how to drive it using a Sanguino as a controller. | 9 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "1032471",
"author": "Th3BadWolf",
"timestamp": "2013-07-28T21:27:52",
"content": "Is it just me or is the fact that someone is selling knowledge is kind of irrelevant to HaD? I mean, I’m all in to pay for a good education and everything but this ain’t in the true spirit of “sharing”... | 1,760,376,499.654773 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/07/28/grbl-compatible-arduino-cnc-shield/ | GRBL Compatible Arduino CNC Shield | Mike Szczys | [
"Arduino Hacks",
"cnc hacks"
] | [
"g-code",
"grbl",
"motor driver",
"pololu",
"shield"
] | By the time you get to the point in a home CNC build where you’re adding control electronics you may be ready for the simplest means to an end possible. In that case, grab your Arduino and heat up that etching solution to
make your own GRBL compatible shield
.
This familiar footprint manages to contain everything you need for a three-axis machine. The purple boards slotted into the pairs of SIL headers are Pololu Stepper motor drivers. Going this route makes replacing a burnt out chip as easy as plugging in a new module. The terminal block in the center feeds the higher voltage rail necessary for driving the motors. The DIL header on the right breaks out all of the connections to the limiting switches (two for each axis), spindle and coolant control, as well as three buttons for pause, resume, and abort. There’s even a header for SPI making it easier to add custom hardware if necessary.
This is a dual-layer board which may not be ideal for your own fabrication process. [Bert Kruger] posted his Gerber files for download if you want to put in a small run with OSH Park or a similar service. | 33 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "1032416",
"author": "Kevin",
"timestamp": "2013-07-28T19:11:46",
"content": "Want! The designer should commercialize this.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1032418",
"author": "polytechnick",
"timestamp": "2013-07-28T19:... | 1,760,376,500.139224 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/07/28/rekindling-forth-with-a-propeller-jupiter-ace/ | Rekindling Forth With A Propeller Jupiter Ace | Brian Benchoff | [
"classic hacks",
"Microcontrollers"
] | [
"forth",
"Jupiter Ace",
"Parallax Propeller",
"propeller"
] | The Jupiter Ace was a small membrane keyboard, cassette tape drive computer akin to the ZX Spectrum released in 1982. Priced at £90, it was a little more expensive than its home computer contemporaries, but had a very interesting feature: instead of BASIC, the Ace ran Forth. This interpreted stack-based language is far more capable than the BASIC variants found on home computers of the day, but unfortunately the Ace failed simply because Forth was so foreign to most consumers.
Not wanting to let a good idea die, [prof_braino] is bringing Forth back into the modern age. He’s using a Parallax Propeller
to emulate a simple home computer running Forth
. Instead of a book-sized computer, the new Propeller version runs on a single chip, with 8 CPU cores running 24 times faster than the original, with 32 times more RAM and an SD card for basically unlimited storage. | 26 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "1032405",
"author": "Greenaum",
"timestamp": "2013-07-28T18:16:00",
"content": "It was more of a ZX81 than a Spectrum. Black and white, no hi-res graphics, no sound, crappy non-moving membrane keyboard. These are much more to blame than the traditional scapegoat for the Jupiter Ace,... | 1,760,376,500.067751 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/07/28/electric-skillet-reflow-soldering-guide/ | Electric Skillet Reflow Soldering Guide | Mike Szczys | [
"how-to"
] | [
"reflow",
"skillet",
"smd",
"sodler paste",
"solder",
"surface mount"
] | It’s no secret that we’re bizarrely drawn to macro videos showing solder paste during the reflow process.
This electric skillet reflow guide
provides the fix we’ve been jonesin’ for while including some helpful tips for first-timers and veterans alike. Not sure what we’re talking about? Look at the grey paste at the top of this image. As it heats up it’s drawn under each component as seen in the lower half of the image.
This particular guide is aimed at one-off assembly so a solder paste stencil is not used (we learned
a lot about those
earlier in the month). It instead uses
the painstaking toothpick application technique
. It takes time but the upside is that once you get the hang of it you’ll apply the perfect amount of solder each time. After placing all of the components [Count Spicy] carefully transfers the board to an electric skillet, covers it with the glass lid (so he can see what’s going on), and sets the temperature just above the solder’s specified melting point.
Since the skillet is cheap and easy to find you really just have to order the solder paste to get into this type of assembly. Our only gripe is that you can’t really follow a temperature profile with this rig. For that you need to move up to some
PID controlled hardware
. | 5 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "1032380",
"author": "polytechnick",
"timestamp": "2013-07-28T16:30:40",
"content": "It’s no secret that we’re bizarrely drawn to macro videos showing solder paste during the reflow processSure, and who can blame you for that!? It is very similar to “watching the paint dry” but is mu... | 1,760,376,500.000012 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/07/28/turning-kerbal-space-program-into-a-proper-space-simulator/ | Turning Kerbal Space Program Into A Proper Space Simulator | Brian Benchoff | [
"Arduino Hacks"
] | [
"arduino",
"flight simulator",
"kerbal space program"
] | Kerbal Space Program – the game of freakin’ space Lego and incompetent little green men – has seen a lot of popularity since it was on the Steam Summer sale. Now, in a bid to out do the flight sim aficionados who build 737 cockpits in their garage, a few enterprising Kerbalnauts are building custom controllers for this wonderful introduction to [Tsiolkovsky], [Goddard], and [Evel Kinevel].
[vladoportos]
thought KSP could use custom gaming controllers
to provide switches for staging, attitude hold, and reaction control system commands. In the game, these are toggled by keyboard input, but this unfortunately destroys the immersion of being a rocket-powered angel of death for your Kerbal volunteers. He rigged up an Arduino Leonardo to send USB HID commands to his computer whenever he pressed one of the buttons connected to his breadboard controller. It’s a work in progress, but [vladoportos] has some big plans that include a physical nav ball to show his ship’s orientation in space.
USB input is one thing, but that’s only half the problem. If you want to build a real Kerbal ship simulator, you’ll need to get data
out
of the game, and into your glass or analog displays. [voneiden] over on the KSP subreddit
has the solution for you
. He’s been working on a ‘mission control’ app that runs in Python, connects to a Kerbal Space Program plugin over TCP, and displays flight information such as speed, altitude, longitude, latitude, apoapsis, and periapsis. The code is
up on his git
, ready for some individual to bring this over to a Raspi and a character LCD display. | 6 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "1032385",
"author": "Hack Man",
"timestamp": "2013-07-28T17:01:35",
"content": "http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/moonbase-alpha-text-to-speech",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1032387",
"author": "Hack Man",
"times... | 1,760,376,500.537577 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/07/28/propane-forge-built-from-a-soup-can/ | Propane Forge Built From A Soup Can | Mike Szczys | [
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"blacksmith",
"forge",
"propane",
"soup",
"torch"
] | It doesn’t look like much, but this
easy to build propane forge
is just what you need to try your hand at blacksmithing. [Code Cowboy] took on the build after
watching this how-to video
which shows the fabrication of a small knife after completing the forge build.
The first step is to eat all of the soup (or beans if you prefer). With an empty can in hand the stand — made of two angle brackets — and inlet are attached. Next comes the heat proofing for the walls of the forge. At first glance we thought that cat litter was one of the ingredients, but that’s just an empty container used to haul playground sand. The sand is mixed with equal parts of plaster of paris before adding water to achieve a clay-like consistency. This is packed into the can, with a small opening to receive the metal to be heated.
The torch itself can be used to cure the heat shield. After letting the mixture harden a 30 minute burn will force the rest of the water out of the heat proofing.
[via
Reddit
] | 19 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "1032341",
"author": "steve",
"timestamp": "2013-07-28T13:18:56",
"content": "While this may work for a few times. If you want something that can be used for a long time you need to make the lining out of refractory cement mix.http://refwest.com/castable.aspxbeen doing this for years... | 1,760,376,500.652559 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/07/27/make-your-own-fume-extracting-glove-box/ | Make Your Own Fume-extracting Glove Box | Mike Szczys | [
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"fume extractor",
"glove box"
] | Here’s an easy to follow guide for
building your own glove box
. It’s a lab tool that contains the project you’re working on to keep things in or out. For instance, we could have used this a few years back when we tried to add an acrylic window to a hard drive. Instead, we ended up putting several hours of work into a cool-looking paperweight. But it will also come in handy for chemistry experiments that generate harmful or dangerous byproducts.
The picture above tells most of the story, but [Jason Poel Smith] does include several good tips about the construction in his video. He uses weather stripping along the edges of the clear container to ensure a seal. The hose is used to provide negative pressure so that no fumes leak out. We figure adding a smaller hole on the opposite side with a charcoal filter will help air pass into the chamber to serve as a fume extractor.
We’ve already seen
a similar setup for a reflow oven
. Perhaps this is the perfect solution to protect yourself from 3D printing fumes. We’re sure you saw the headlines about
3D printing being as bad as smoking cigarettes
. | 25 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "1032167",
"author": "oodain",
"timestamp": "2013-07-27T22:56:17",
"content": "the charcoal filter is a neat idea, use a HEPA filter instead and you have the start of a sterile enviroment, real issue is getting something inside the box while keeping it sterile.i used to have a simila... | 1,760,376,500.925014 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/07/25/a-variable-capacitor-made-from-junk/ | A Variable Capacitor Made From Junk | Brian Benchoff | [
"hardware"
] | [
"air capacitor",
"capacitor",
"crystal radio",
"variable capacitor"
] | [Jezan] decided to introduce his son to electronics by building a small crystal radio. These crystal sets have been around for a long time, and make for a great beginner electronics project, but some of the required parts are a little hard to come by. The most difficult to source part for these radios is a variable capacitor, and not finding one in his parts bin, [Jezan]
decided to make his own
.
This variable capacitor comes directly from a piece of 1.5 mm thick aluminum sheet. Instead of fancy CNC machines, power tools, or even a pair of tin snips, [Jezan] cut the rotors and stators for his variable capacitors with a pair of scissors. The center hole was punched out with a piece of sharpened pipe, and all the pieces were filed down and sanded for a perfect finish.
Considering the variable caps you can get your hands on are either rare or very old, this looks like a great afternoon project for the budding electronics wizard or radio enthusiast. [Jezan]’s craftsmanship is incredible as well and the finished part looks like it came off an assembly line. | 28 | 22 | [
{
"comment_id": "1030832",
"author": "svofski",
"timestamp": "2013-07-25T11:47:20",
"content": "Very cool and truъ! I also thought about HDD platters, those might have come in handy.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1030842",
"author": "DainB... | 1,760,376,500.792778 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/07/25/building-a-bike-for-100-miles-per-hour/ | Building A Bike For 100 Miles Per Hour | Brian Benchoff | [
"Transportation Hacks"
] | [
"bicycle",
"metal",
"speed record"
] | As a kid, [Tom] followed all the automotive land speed record attempts on the Bonneville Salt Flats. The cars used in these attempts were all built by guys in their garages, and as a bicycle frame builder, [Tom] is keenly aware of the land speed record for bikes. One thought leads to another, and [Tom] decided he would see
how fast one of his frames could go
.
Aside from a gigantic gear for his custom bike, [Tom] also needed a little help from a friend. The current land speed record on a bicycle was done by drafting behind a drag racer. [Tom] doesn’t have a drag racer, or a wide expanse of flat open ground in his native England, so he did the next best thing: drafting behind a Ford Zephyr on an abandoned WWII airstrip.
On the runway, [Tom] was able to get his bike up to 80 miles an hour. Wanting to see how fast he could go in ideal conditions, the bike was taken to the garage, put on a pair of rollers, and measured as it was brought up to speed. With a lot of effort, [Tom] was able to get up to 102 miles per hour, incredibly fast for something powered by human muscle. | 11 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "1038304",
"author": "smee",
"timestamp": "2013-07-25T17:59:43",
"content": "Wha??? This truly is a hack, as in HAXX!!!Using the vacuum of a vehicle’s draft imposes force as surely as being towed behind it. Another way: I can easily break the sound barrier by changing the medium!",
... | 1,760,376,500.587908 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/07/24/cyclone-pcb-factory-3d-printable-circuit-board-mill/ | Cyclone PCB Factory: 3d Printable Circuit Board Mill | Mike Szczys | [
"3d Printer hacks",
"cnc hacks"
] | [
"copper clad",
"mill",
"pcb"
] | If you can 3D print most of the parts for another 3D printer, why not also for a PCB mill? That’s the question answered by
the Cyclone PCB Factory
. It will help you kiss those toner transfer or photo resist days goodbye.
Homemade circuit boards tend to be rather small, which really helps keep the cost and scope of this project down. Most of the mounting parts, as well as the gears, are 3D printed. Of course there’s the usual machine tool items which you pretty much have to purchase: the ball screws, precision rod, stepper motors, and a motor to spin the routing tool.
Check out the video below to see where the project is right now. One of the crucial aspects of PCB milling is to have a level build table. The cutter head tends to be ‘V’ shaped so cutting just a bit too deep can blow out the traces you’re trying to isolate. The demo shows that this can automatically calibrate the software to account for any variances in the height of the copper clad.
We remember seeing
a snap-together PCB mill
. But we’re pretty sure that that one used parts milled from HDPE rather than 3D printed components.
[via
RepRap
] | 27 | 12 | [
{
"comment_id": "1030531",
"author": "Kris Lee",
"timestamp": "2013-07-24T22:07:53",
"content": "When I see something like this then I’m always worried about glass fiber dust. What do you think, how serious is my concern?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"com... | 1,760,376,500.722249 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/07/24/home-audio-and-lighting-taken-over-by-the-raspberry-pi/ | Home Audio And Lighting Taken Over By The Raspberry Pi | Mike Szczys | [
"home hacks",
"Raspberry Pi"
] | [
"home automation",
"mopidy",
"RPi",
"soundcloud",
"spotify",
"x10"
] | We’re beginning to see a lot of momentum building for using Raspberry Pi boards as the basis of your home automation. This latest offering from [Iain Hamilton] combines
lighting and audio control through a single web interface
. His frontend is run as a web page from the RPi board. It even includes separate layouts for mobile devices and computers in order to maximize use of the screen real estate.
Three buttons at the top of the interface allow him to configure the settings and switch between lighting and audio controls. This audio control screen issues commands to the Spotify client running on the Pi. The Mopidy package takes care of almost everything (as we’ve seen with
other single-board computer Spotify servers
). Future iterations will offer other streaming services like SoundCloud. [Iain’s] home lighting system uses X10 modules for control. He’s using a USB dongle to facilitate control of that system. | 20 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "1030507",
"author": "Liam Jackson",
"timestamp": "2013-07-24T20:16:31",
"content": "Boostrap would’ve made that Web UI look great! It’s got the benefit of being mobile responsive too.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1030893",
... | 1,760,376,500.857617 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/07/24/using-30-year-old-microcontrollers/ | Using 30 Year Old Microcontrollers | Brian Benchoff | [
"classic hacks",
"Microcontrollers"
] | [
"27256",
"8035",
"Intel MCS-48",
"MCS-48",
"microcontroller"
] | Like a lot of electronic tinkerers, [Andrew] has a lot of ancient components floating around his parts bin. His latest rediscovery in his cornucopia of components are a few
Intel MCS-48 microcontrollers
, dating back to 1977. Along with a few old EPROMs, [Andrew] decided it was worth getting these chips running again, if only for a historical curiosity.
[Andrew]’s had a few Intel 8035L microcontrollers on his hands, but this particular model of MCS-48 micros lacks any way to store code. This is where the EPROMs come in. With a modern EPROM programmer, [Andrew] was able to write some code to the extremely common for their vintage 27256 EPROMs. Erasing them, though, does require a UV lamp.
With the ROM programmed and the chips connected, [Andrew] was able to make a simple blinking LED circuit. Sure, it’s the simplest thing you can do with a microcontroller, but [Andrew]’s off to a great start in his explorations of older hardware. | 29 | 16 | [
{
"comment_id": "1030437",
"author": "Frank Buss",
"timestamp": "2013-07-24T17:42:25",
"content": "There are many modern microcontrollers with sometimes even more than 64 kB RAM, e.g. PIC24FJ128, STR710, ATSAM4 etc. A Digikey search finds 798 chips.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"rep... | 1,760,376,500.995539 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/07/24/predator-suit-for-monsterpalooza-includes-over-engineered-shoulder-cannon/ | Predator Suit For Monsterpalooza Includes Over-engineered Shoulder Cannon | Mike Szczys | [
"Arduino Hacks",
"cnc hacks",
"Wearable Hacks"
] | [
"animatronics",
"predator",
"replica"
] | This
Predator
suit was premiered at this year’s Monsterpalooza conference. It’s nothing short of incredible. But the shoulder cannon is really what caught our attention. The thing is
fully motorized and includes sound and light
firing effects.
We saw a glimpse of what [Jerome Kelty] is capable of about two years ago. He was showing off
an Arduino-based animatronics platform
he put together for a Predator shoulder cannon that tracked based on where the predator’s helmet was pointing. But other than a video demonstration there wasn’t much info on the that actual build. This post makes up for that and then some.
A replica of this quality is rarely the work of just one person. A team of fans joined in to make it happen. After getting the molded parts for the backpack and canon from another team member [Jerome] set out to fit the support structure, motors, and control electronics into the space available. That meant a ton of milling, cutting, and shaping parts like the support arm seen above which integrates a servo motor into its rectangular outline. All of the controls fit in the backpack, with cables running to the helmet, as well as the cannon. | 11 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "1030416",
"author": "Matt Bennett",
"timestamp": "2013-07-24T16:09:29",
"content": "This is just awesome..",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1030494",
"author": "Vonskippy",
"timestamp": "2013-07-24T19:24:41",
"content... | 1,760,376,501.051668 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/07/24/a-keygen-for-the-rigol-2000-series-scopes/ | A Keygen For The Rigol 2000-series Scopes | Brian Benchoff | [
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"DS2000",
"oscilliscope",
"rigol"
] | A few weeks ago it came to our attention that Rigol’s DS2000-series oscilloscopes were
easily unlocked with a few USB commands
. We had expected a small microcontroller device would be developed to send these bits to a scope automatically, and we never imagined the final version of this tool hack would be so elegant. Now it’s possible to
unlock a DS2072 o’scope using just a serial number
and a great encryption hack.
The engineers over a Rigol (bless their hearts) used the same hardware for the $800, 70MHz DS2072 and the $1600, 200MHz DS2202. The only difference between the two are a few bits in the scope’s memory that are easily unlocked if you have the right key. A few folks over on the EEV Blog forum figured out the private key for the scope’s encryption and the user
[cybernet] wrote a keygen
.
The upgrade process is extremely simple: get the serial number of your DS2072, put it in the keygen, and enter the resulting key into the scope. Reboot, and you have a $1600 scope you bought for half price. | 111 | 26 | [
{
"comment_id": "1030377",
"author": "ds18s20",
"timestamp": "2013-07-24T15:09:04",
"content": "This is one badass hack! Good work!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1030379",
"author": "Jason Sewell",
"timestamp": "2013-07-24T15:10:53",
... | 1,760,376,501.355964 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/07/24/easy-lcd-control-for-arduino-mega/ | Easy LCD Control For Arduino Mega | Mike Szczys | [
"Arduino Hacks",
"Video Hacks"
] | [
"arduino mega",
"latch",
"lcd",
"level converter",
"tft"
] | [Andy Brown] wrote in to show off the TFT LCD adapter he’s been working on for
connecting inexpensive displays to an Arduino Mega
.
These TFT LCD screens can be picked up on eBay for a few dollars. But they’re more suited for 16-bit microcontrollers which operate at 3.3V levels. His adapter board, which plugs directly into the Mega’s dual-row pin header, makes it easier to control these with an 8-bit chip that is running at 5V.
There’s a couple of things that make this happen. First off, he’s included level converter chips to managed the 3.3V/5V issues. Second, he uses latch chips to translate eight pins on the Arduino Mega to sixteen pins on the display. Those chips have a latch pin which holds the output values in memory while the input pins are changed. He manages to drive the latch on just one of the chips using the chip select (CS) line called for by the LCD protocol. This means you don’t lose any extra pins.
Another way to uses the displays with Arduino is to use
a smart controller for TFT screens
. | 10 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "1030351",
"author": "Hack Man",
"timestamp": "2013-07-24T13:11:02",
"content": "http://hackaday.com/2012/06/20/driving-a-nokia-qvga-screen-with-arduino-or-any-uc/Similar.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1030358",
"auth... | 1,760,376,501.419188 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/07/23/a-video-game-with-custom-lcd-characters/ | A Video Game With Custom LCD Characters | Brian Benchoff | [
"hardware"
] | [
"arduino",
"display",
"hd44780",
"lcd",
"video game"
] | [Nakul] wanted to build a video game, and with a few projects worth of Arduino experience decided he could finally attain his goal. He
used a character LCD display
to make his game, and instead of a text-based adventure, he went with a graphical side scroller.
The display for this space-based side scroller isn’t a graphical display like a CRT or a graphic LCD. Instead, [Nakul] is using the ubiquitous Hitachi HD44780 character LCD display. Normally these are used to display text, but they all have the ability to display custom 5 by 8 pixel characters. The code puts these custom characters – a spaceship, missile, and barrier – into the display’s memory and uses them as the sprites for the video game.
You can grab [Nakul]’s code over on
his git
or check out the action videos below.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JgQqy9P-3mE&w=580]
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xqOkMi2o0E0&w=580]
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c8C7xiSPxM0&w=580] | 12 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "1030211",
"author": "d",
"timestamp": "2013-07-23T23:26:47",
"content": "Did the same thing as a kid with a Vic 20. Memories….",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1030320",
"author": "tiger up",
"timestamp": "201... | 1,760,376,501.631743 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/07/23/travis-goodspeed-starts-a-space-agency-in-southern-appalachia/ | [Travis Goodspeed] Starts A Space Agency In Southern Appalachia | Mike Szczys | [
"Radio Hacks"
] | [
"beaglebone",
"satellite",
"sdr",
"tracking",
"travis goodspeed"
] | His space agency hardware might be in Southern Appalachia, but he can control it from anywhere in the world. That’s right, [Travis Goodspeed] started his own space agency — well kinda. The first piece of hardware operated by the organization is
this dish for tracking moving targets in near space
.
The main part of the build is a Felcom 82B dish which was designed to be a satellite link for naval vessels. The image showing the back side of it exposes all of the extras he built into the system. Don’t worry though, a dome goes over the top to keep the weather out without encumbering its operation.He uses an SDR dongle to handle the radio communications. That connects to a BeagleBone which pipes the data to his handheld over the Internet.
It’s amazing to see this type of hobby project. It wasn’t that long ago that you needed
an entire room of hardware to communicate with satellites
. | 14 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "1030169",
"author": "xorpunk",
"timestamp": "2013-07-23T21:09:40",
"content": "In the early 90s you could use a RF modem+dish+200Mhz pentium laptop and uplink to any AX.25 satcom out there.. It’s not hard to do, it’s the scheduling and licensing that makes it useless, given most of ... | 1,760,376,501.489784 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/07/23/wooden-flatbed-truck-conversion/ | Wooden Flatbed Truck Conversion | Mike Szczys | [
"Transportation Hacks"
] | [
"cedar",
"flatbed",
"ipe",
"pickup truck",
"truck"
] | This
pickup truck to flatbed conversion
is very impressive. [Caswell_Etheredge] says he was channeling his inner redneck. That must mean rednecks in his area are craftsmen of the highest caliber.
He wanted a bit more flexibility on the size and shape of the cargo he was able to haul. Just six lag bolts held the original stamped steel bed on the truck. A bit of work with a pipe and a breaker bar did the trick. A mess of packed on mud and grime was there to greet him. After chipping, vacuuming, and power washing the underbody he gave it a fresh paint job using an undercoating product.
From there the wood flatbed build starts, and he’s not messing around with scrap wood. What you can see of the bed is fashioned from cedar and ipe. The underpinnings which fasten to the frame with those same six lag bolts are pressure treated 2×4 boards. The 4×6 bumper includes the license plate and lights for it. Brake and turn signals are built into the bed along with cleats for easy fastening of a tarp or to secure the cargo.
[via
Reddit
] | 55 | 22 | [
{
"comment_id": "1030131",
"author": "Louis Charles Bruckner",
"timestamp": "2013-07-23T19:05:21",
"content": "Looks like a handmade item.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1030138",
"author": "Rob",
"timestamp": "2013-07-23T19:2... | 1,760,376,501.789956 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/07/23/beating-the-heat-with-geothermal-cooling/ | Beating The Heat With Geothermal Cooling | Brian Benchoff | [
"green hacks",
"home hacks"
] | [
"cooling",
"geothermal",
"heating",
"hvac"
] | A while back, [Erich]’s oil heating system was due for a few repairs. Given the increasing price of fuel oil, and a few incentives from his Swiss government, he decided to go with a more green heating solution – geothermal heating. The system works well in the winter, but it’s basically useless in the summer. [Erich] decided to put his 180 meter investment to work for the summer heat, and made his geothermal heating system
into a cooling system
with a fairly low investment and minimal cost.
The stock system works by pumping cold liquid from [Erich]’s under floor heating into the Earth. In winter, the surface is always colder than the ground, thus heating [Erich]’s home. In the summer, the situation is reversed, with the cool earth insulated by the baked surface. All that was required to reverse the heating system was a few slight modifications to the heating controller.
Stock, [Erich]’s heat pump controller doesn’t have the capability to run the system in reverse, so he turned to a
Freescale board
to turn the compressor off and the pump on. With the additions, [Erich] is using 50 Watts to pump 1.5 kW of heat directly into the Earth below, a fairly efficient cooling system that’s basically free if you already have a geothermal setup. | 25 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "1030117",
"author": "Charles",
"timestamp": "2013-07-23T18:17:22",
"content": "I wonder how they will handle the condensation. Wet floors all summer long?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1030120",
"author": "Charles",... | 1,760,376,501.57804 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/07/23/polishing-optics-milled-from-acrylic/ | Polishing Optics Milled From Acrylic | Mike Szczys | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"acrylic",
"ben krasnow"
] | [Ben Krasnow] milled some lenses out of cast acrylic and needed a way to get an optical finish on the tool-marked surface.
He tested several acrylic finishing methods
to achieve a crystal clear finish. The tests were done using flat chunks. A regiment of sandpaper, from coarse to fine, was used as the first stage of the operation. From there [Ben] sought out the best finishing step, starting with hand polishing tests, flame polishing, and methylene chloride vapor polishing (which is something along the lines of
acetone vapor polishing
for 3D printed ABS parts).
Flame polishing and vapor polishing are not really exact sciences… at least in the tests he performed. It was difficult to know exactly how long to expose the acrylic. Too short or too long resulted in poor clarity. Watch his video to get a look at all results. We’d say the the easiest way to make milled acrylic clear
without
achieving an optical finish is to flame polish it as it doesn’t really require that you sand it ahead of time. But [Ben’s] tests prove that you can’t beat hand polishing with 600 then 2000 grit sandpaper before finishing up with a liquid plastic polish.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bduno3eafcc | 11 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "1030105",
"author": "Rob M",
"timestamp": "2013-07-23T17:28:01",
"content": "I’ve done acrylic prisms with sandpaper, then after my highest grit wet sanding, I polish with toothpaste and a soft rag. Works great for optical clarity. Also I’ve tried jewlers rouge on a buffing wheel, w... | 1,760,376,501.850427 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/07/23/popup-book-includes-a-playable-piano-keyboard/ | Popup Book Includes A Playable Piano Keyboard | Mike Szczys | [
"Musical Hacks"
] | [
"arduino",
"book",
"keyboard",
"papercraft",
"popup"
] | This popup book contains several interactive electronic elements. It’s the creation of [Antonella Nonnis] using mostly scrap materials she had on hand. Of course there are some familiar players behind the scenes that take care of the electronic elements.
Her
photo album of the build process
sheds light on how she pulled everything together. Instead of adding switches for interactivity she built capacitive touch sensors on the backs of the pages. Strips of copper foil serve as flexibly traces, moving the connections past the binding and allowing them to be jumpered to the pair of Arduino boards which control the show. That’s right, there’s two of them. One is dedicated to running
the pop-up piano keyboard
seen above. The other deals with Art, Math, and Science elements on other pages.
This continues some of the multimedia work we saw
popping up in popups
a few years back. | 4 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "1030096",
"author": "zuul",
"timestamp": "2013-07-23T16:34:10",
"content": "cool…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1030115",
"author": "HackJack",
"timestamp": "2013-07-23T18:04:50",
"content": "Very cool and practica... | 1,760,376,501.687851 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/07/23/anachronistic-hard-drive-for-the-apple-ii/ | Anachronistic Hard Drive For The Apple II | Brian Benchoff | [
"classic hacks"
] | [
"apple",
"apple II",
"hard drive"
] | Not wanting too many disks lying around his Apple II battlestation, [NeXT] started looking into hard drive solutions. There is the old-time solution – a ProFile hard drive initially designed for the Apple /// and Lisa, but those are rare as hen’s teeth, and just as expensive as newer Compact Flash adapters. [NeXT] had another option – SCSI, with an adapter card, but most of the SCSI devices of the era didn’t fit in with the cool ‘stackable’ aesthetic of AII peripherals.
With a bit of Bondo and some paint, [NeXT] modded an old dual disk drive
into a retro-looking hard drive
perfect for storing and running hundreds of old games.
[NeXT] began his build by taking an old Apple DuoDisk (the two-disk drive seen above) and Bondoing over the holes in the front. A drive activity light was added above the Apple logo, and the old drives saved for another day. Inside the new enclosure, an old 40MB hard drive, tested on a Macintosh SE/30, was installed along with a small power supply for the drive. With a few custom SCSI cables, the drive will be ready for it’s grand debut. We think it looks awesome just sitting there, and is sure to be the pride of [NeXT]’s collection. | 12 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "1030079",
"author": "lwatcdr",
"timestamp": "2013-07-23T15:11:55",
"content": "Really nice looking but why not the CF adapter? Was it the desire to keep with the tech of the day more or less?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "10... | 1,760,376,501.941271 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/07/23/building-a-blinky-infinity-mirror/ | Building A Blinky Infinity Mirror | Mike Szczys | [
"LED Hacks"
] | [
"alchemy festival",
"infinity mirror"
] | This
infinity mirror prototype
is small enough to test out the theory before committing to the full project. And the full project that [Kevin] and [Edward] have in mind is a huge infinity portal that they will showcase at this year’s Alchemy festival.
It’s called an infinity mirror because it has the illusion of being much deeper than the physical enclosure. The trick is accomplished by placing two mirrors parallel to each other with a light source in between. One of the mirrors is two-way, letting a portion of the light pass through to the viewer rather than reflecting it.
The video demo of the prototype shows that it’s just a 2×4 wooden frame which holds both mirrors. In between is an LED string. The nice thing about the prototype is that adding a bit of tempered glass on top will
make it an infinity bar top
for the Hackerspace.
Another mirror trick you might incorporate in your own projects is
adding an LED display behind the glass
. | 13 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "1030022",
"author": "Phil",
"timestamp": "2013-07-23T14:05:05",
"content": "Really cool. I feel like this would make a mega-rad coffee table, as well.Also, I hear Bonobo! The best work music ever.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id"... | 1,760,376,501.988776 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/07/22/diy-pick-and-place-just-getting-under-way/ | DIY Pick And Place Just Getting Under Way | Mike Szczys | [
"cnc hacks"
] | [
"anodized",
"computer vision",
"gerber",
"mill",
"pick and place"
] | It’s not totally fair to say that this project is just getting under way. But the truth is it neither picks nor places so there’s a long road still to travel. But we’re impressed with the demonstrations of what [Daniel Amesberger] has achieved thus far. Using the simplest of CNC mills he’s
finished the frame and gantry
for the device. You can see some of the parts on the left after going though an anodizing process that leaves them with that slick black finish.
The demo video shows off the device by driving it with a joystick. It’s fast, which gives us hope that this will rival some of the low-end commercial pick and place machines. He’s already been working on the software, which runs on a mini ITX form factor computer. This includes a gerber file interpreter and some computer vision for a visual check on part placement. He hasn’t gotten around to building the parts feeders but we’ll keep you updated as we hear back from him. | 14 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "1029685",
"author": "jacques",
"timestamp": "2013-07-22T23:21:00",
"content": "Impressive, not a toy.And if he does not pick or place, it can always 3d print",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1029692",
"author": "Konstantin",... | 1,760,376,502.050131 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/07/22/scratch-built-camera-tripod/ | Scratch Built Camera Tripod | Mike Szczys | [
"digital cameras hacks"
] | [
"tripod",
"welding"
] | We’re used to seeing hacked camera mounts but [CroBuilder] mentioned to us that nobody is really making plain old tripods themselves. He loves to work in his shop so he spent about ten hours
building this tripod for himself
.
We’d say it’s built to last, but that comes at the cost of weighing a lot. He used square tubing for the legs, which are tripled up in order to allow them to telescope. Each leg has two pipes mounted to the central hub that he fabricated out of hexagonal pipe. A bolt and wing nut acts as hinge and clamp. On the bottom section of the leg there’s a tab spanning the two pieces and another clamping mechanism to hold the adjustable bottom portion of the leg in position.
He finished up the project with black paint on many of the pieces, with the legs themselves polished until shiny. Will rust be a problem if he doesn’t use a clear coat?
The nice thing about a quality tripod is that you can use them for more than just cameras. For instance, add some components to
make your own laser level
. | 13 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "1029600",
"author": "Rob",
"timestamp": "2013-07-22T21:10:37",
"content": "rust will eventually become a problem, yes. It’s when, not if. There are a variety of options though, including clear coating it, or tool preservation coatings such as Kano Labs (www.kanolabs.com) Prevox or W... | 1,760,376,502.259539 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/07/22/multiple-raspberry-pi-boards-used-to-create-video-wall/ | Multiple Raspberry Pi Boards Used To Create Video Wall | Mike Szczys | [
"Raspberry Pi",
"Video Hacks"
] | [
"RPi",
"video wall"
] | Five Rasberry Pi’s are used to drive
this four-display video wall
. This screenshot shows the system playing back some BBC documentaries. The sync, alignment, and video quality all seem to be spot on which makes it quite easy for your eye to assemble the images into one picture.
Each screen has its own Raspberry Pi which generates the HDMI video shown on the screen. These are fed from one central RPi board which acts as the controller. Video is pushed between the boards using the Real Time Streaming Protocol (
RTSP
) available through the Linux GStreamer package. Synchronization between the different video boards is taken care of using network time. [Samer] mentions that this system is scalable — each additional screen simply requires one more RPi to drive it.
The team also did some experiments with live video. They added a sixth RPi board with the camera module in order to
display a live feed
. | 51 | 15 | [
{
"comment_id": "1029556",
"author": "Jeroen",
"timestamp": "2013-07-22T19:24:00",
"content": "Nice.I wonder where do they do the video processing. On the controller PI, or on the slave PI’s? Cutting out a piece of an MPEG stream and then resizing it to fit the resolution of the monitor is a non-tri... | 1,760,376,502.350024 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/07/22/leather-wallet-making-involves-more-than-you-think-2/ | Leather Wallet Making Involves More Than You Think | Mike Szczys | [
"Wearable Hacks"
] | [
"wallet"
] | It’s not rocket science, but ending up with
a beautifully crafted leather wallet
like this one takes quite a bit more than you might think.
The project starts off with already tanned leather, so that definitely saves on time. The pieces are marked out on the stock before being cut with a hobby knife. There’s still a long way to go before you can start stitching though. The thickness of the edges is trimmed down and then burnished with a rotary tool. A channel is cut just inside the edges to receive the thickness of the thread. Holes are marked with a special tool, then bored using an awl. Once stitched together the edges are sanded perfectly flush before being burnished.
Just from the look of it we’d guess it’ll hold up years longer than anything you can buy at an ordinary big box retailer.
[via
Reddit
] | 2 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "1038302",
"author": "Tom the Brat",
"timestamp": "2013-07-23T16:45:50",
"content": "So, didn’t any of you go to camp and make things out of leather?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1038303",
"author": "echodelta",
"times... | 1,760,376,502.194215 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/07/22/mac-malware-uses-right-to-left-character-exploit/ | Mac Malware Uses Right To Left Character Exploit | Mike Szczys | [
"Mac Hacks",
"Security Hacks"
] | [
"backwards",
"mac",
"malware",
"right to left",
"rlo"
] | Check out this jumbled confirmation window. At first glance the message appears to contain a bunch of gibberish, but it can actually be read if you start at the right side and read each character moving left. The text displays like this because it is prefixed by a special Right-to-Left override Unicode character. The technique is
being used in malware to obscure the actual extension of the file
being launched. Notice that when written backwards your eye can still pick out the string “pdf” which may be enough to trick the uninitiated into approving the launch of the file.
This confirmation screen is launched when clicking on a piece of malware found in the wild a little over a week ago. If you do choose to run it, a decoy PDF file is opened in order not to arouse suspicion. But at the same time the program — which is signed with an Apple Developer ID — is installing itself in the home directory and making a cron job to launch at each boot. Sneaky! | 50 | 15 | [
{
"comment_id": "1029476",
"author": "junkbox",
"timestamp": "2013-07-22T15:31:28",
"content": "And everyone told me OSX didn’t have viruses.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1029490",
"author": "boracho",
"timestamp": "2013-07-... | 1,760,376,502.706288 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/07/20/arduino-cellphone/ | Arduino Cellphone | Mike Szczys | [
"Arduino Hacks",
"Cellphone Hacks"
] | [
"cellphone",
"GPRS",
"shield",
"tft"
] | The fact that you can
build a cellphone around an Arduino
is pretty neat. But we’re drawn to this project more as a testament to the advancement of hobby electronics. An [Average Joe] can build this thing with a minimum or background knowledge and without breaking the bank. Wow.
Of course this isn’t the first DIY cellphone we’ve come across. One of our favorites is
this one
which resides on a home etched PCB. There was even
another Arduino offering
with similar components back in September. But the one seen above really pulls it all together into a package that is usable for everyday life. The components include and Arduino Uno, GPRS shield from Seeed Studios, a TFT touch screen, Lithium battery and charging circuit, and a few other bobbles. All of it is mounted inside of a 3D printed case.
A simple phone calls for a simple UI and that’s included as well. The main menu has two buttons, one for placing a call, the other for sending a text. From there you get the virtual keypad seen above for typing out the phone number or composing a message.
[Thanks Victorzie] | 27 | 13 | [
{
"comment_id": "1028804",
"author": "tjb1",
"timestamp": "2013-07-21T00:02:25",
"content": "Arduino hate incoming, batter down the hatches!Cool project!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1028820",
"author": "netop1984",
"timestamp": "2013... | 1,760,376,502.77556 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/07/20/reverse-engineer-a-psu-to-change-its-output-voltage/ | Reverse Engineer A PSU To Change Its Output Voltage | Mike Szczys | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"atx",
"psu",
"reference voltage",
"regulator"
] | [Semicolo] has a bunch of old PSUs on hand which he pulled out of some Lexmark dot matrix printers. In their stock form they put out 40V, which is close to the 35V max he needs to run the stepper motors on a 3D printer he’s been building. So
he reverse engineered the PSU to change its output
.
On the left you can see the top of the PCB. [Semicolo] flipped it over and snapped a picture of the traces on the bottom of the board. With a bit of work in The Gimp (FOSS image editing software) he was able to convert the traces to black and white. Overlaying the picture of the top with a 50% transparency of the traces made it rather easy see the connections and generate a schematic for the hardware. That’s a really cool trick!
Figuring out how it’s supposed to work is a big step in achieving his goal. The next step was to see if he could bend the circuit to his will. He had previously run across ATX PSU hacks which changed the reference voltage in order to alter the output. He grabbed a datasheet for the HA17431 variable shunt regulator. It lays out how to tune the output based on values of a few external components. He dropped in one resistor and the output measured 31V, well within his target range. | 33 | 13 | [
{
"comment_id": "1028771",
"author": "steaky",
"timestamp": "2013-07-20T21:19:44",
"content": "Now this IS a hack. Awesome idea with the transparency",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1028775",
"author": "pcf11",
"timestamp": "2013-07-20T2... | 1,760,376,502.604063 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/07/20/led-module-used-to-display-load-traffic-and-status-data-for-your-pc/ | LED Module Used To Display Load, Traffic, And Status Data For Your PC | Mike Szczys | [
"computer hacks",
"Peripherals Hacks"
] | [
"cpu",
"led",
"module",
"monitor",
"rgb",
"usb"
] | You’re going to like [Ivan’s] write-up for
this LED computer status monitor
. Of course he didn’t just show-and-tell the final product — if he had you’d be reading this in a Links post. But he also didn’t just detail how he put the thing together. Nope, he shared pictures and details of every iteration that got him here.
It started off with a tachometer. Yeah, that analog display you put on the dashboard of your car which reads out RPM. He wanted to make it into a USB device which would read out his CPU load. But that’s an awful lot of work when it can only display one thing at a time. So he decided to add an 8×8 LED module which would display the load for each individual core of his CPU. It looks great next to the illuminated tachometer. From there he added resolution by transitioning to an RGB module, which ended up sucking him into a coding project to extend the data pushed to his embedded hardware. In the end his ReCoMonB (Real Computer Monitoring Block) displays CPU load, RAM usage, several aspects of HDD activity, as well as the network up and down traffic.
We think he’s probably squeezed all that he can from this little display. Time to
upgrade to a TFT LCD
. | 7 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "1028790",
"author": "vonskippy",
"timestamp": "2013-07-20T22:44:15",
"content": "From his website: “I find the CPU/Memory/HDD/Net stats as something I regularly take a look at. But these stats live a virtual live. If they are a desktop gadget they are pushed in the background by oth... | 1,760,376,502.404806 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/07/20/water-cooled-raspberry-pi/ | Water Cooled Raspberry Pi | Mike Szczys | [
"cnc hacks",
"Raspberry Pi"
] | [
"water cooled"
] | If your Raspberry Pi is running a bit hot you can add a few hunks of salvaged heat sink, or you can go all out and
machine your own water cooling system
.
Remember when everyone had a giant desktop computer which was a perfect receptacle for cool lighting effects and
somewhat ridiculous cooling systems
? Relive that experience with [Phame’s] multi-page forum post that serves as the build log. With the exception of the tiny pump itself, this one’s a fully custom job.
The image on the left shows the machined parts being tried on for side. There is a slug which contacts the ICs on the RPi board, conducting the heat to the chambers inside through which the liquid will flow. The upright rectangular enclosure serves as the reservoir which dissipates the collected heat as the water flows through it. The image on the right shows the finished project. It uses the power pins on the GPIO header to drive the pump.
[Thanks PL via
Bit-Tech
] | 25 | 19 | [
{
"comment_id": "1028693",
"author": "Abdul Rauf Mujahid",
"timestamp": "2013-07-20T15:09:49",
"content": "cool",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1028694",
"author": "Zapro",
"timestamp": "2013-07-20T15:12:17",
"content": "Probably the... | 1,760,376,502.905994 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/07/20/energy-harvesting-to-build-a-carbon-monoxide-detector-with-no-battery/ | Energy Harvesting To Build A Carbon Monoxide Detector With No Battery | Mike Szczys | [
"green hacks"
] | [
"carbon monoxide",
"energy harvesting",
"peltier"
] | There are a few devices that work tirelessly to protect our lives. We’re talking about smoke detectors and carbon monoxide detectors. Increasingly these either need to be hardwired into the home, or have a sealed battery which is good for ten years (in the case of smoke detectors). [Gelmi] recently had to change the battery in his Carbon Monoxide detector — which happens very rarely — and he it got him to thinking. If the batteries need to be changed so rarely, how hard would it be to
harvest energy to power the device
?
Our first thought was that he’d use inductance like those
spy birds which perch on power lines
. But instead he went for the heat lost from using the hot water spigot. Above you can see his test rig which attached a Peltier device to the faucet in his bathroom. Whenever you turn on the hot water the faucet also heats up. The differential between faucet temperature and ambient room temperature generates a small amount of power. This is a suitable source, but only if he could also cut the amount of power needed by the detector. This adventure takes him down the rabbit hole, learning about how the sensors work and designing for reliability at the lowest consumption level possible.
The faucet application might seem peculiar. But if you use a natural gas water heater you want a carbon monoxide detector near it. Attach the Peltier to the outflow and every time any hot water tap in the house is opened your system will get a bit of a recharge. | 23 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "1028672",
"author": "chango",
"timestamp": "2013-07-20T13:38:15",
"content": "This is yak shaving at its finest.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1028682",
"author": "Sovereign",
"timestamp": "2013-07-20T14:19:54",
"c... | 1,760,376,502.839223 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/07/19/building-an-aquarium-into-your-walls/ | Building An Aquarium Into Your Walls | Mike Szczys | [
"home hacks"
] | [
"aquarium",
"basement",
"fish tank"
] | We looked through
the build log for this in-wall aquarium
and were a bit horrified by the before pictures. You look at the original basement photo and there’s wood paneling, an incredibly rusty plumbing stack, and good god what is that wire jumble hanging from the ceiling? But the project’s not about building codes, it’s about the infrastructure that supports this fish tank.
This corner of the basement has a window and the electrical panel in it. It needs to be this big in order to enclose that window, but that offered the opportunity to add in the aquarium while still allowing easy access for feeding and cleaning. Hot and cold water pipes were run over to the location for easy filling. There’s even a drain line running to a utility sink in a different part of the basement for easy cleaning.
This seems like a bit of an upgrade when compared to
the coffee pot fish bowl
.
[via
Reddit
] | 16 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "1028551",
"author": "ftkalcevic",
"timestamp": "2013-07-20T00:05:35",
"content": "Picture 15/20.Love that Nitrous Oxide boost!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1028661",
"author": "thrownaway21",
"timestamp": "2... | 1,760,376,502.970197 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/07/19/interviews-with-the-hand-makers/ | Interviews With The Hand-Makers | Mike Szczys | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"interview",
"Makers"
] | Want some inspiration to launch your own Handmade adventure? [Anne Hollowday] wrote in to share a series of short films she’s been posting called
Makers of Things
.
So far there are just four episodes but we hope she makes many more. Above you can see the latest, entitled
Woodworker
. It’s a monologue-style interview with masters of their crafts. The first installment looks at an engineering club called SMEE that builds a wide range of intricately engineered things like clocks. There’s another maker who builds miniature models of machines. And of course,
The Problem Solver
whose high-tech endeavors parallel the subjects of interest found on
our main site
. | 2 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "1038300",
"author": "wretch",
"timestamp": "2013-07-22T21:07:02",
"content": "I think episode 5 should be “The Makers of Things: The Filmmaker”. This is an inspiring series, beautifully shot and very nicely executed.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
... | 1,760,376,503.00643 |
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