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https://hackaday.com/2013/06/20/we-should-build-mandolins-and-violas/ | We Should Build Mandolins And Violas | Brian Benchoff | [
"Musical Hacks"
] | [] | Lutherie is the art of turning strips of maple and spruce into beautiful stringed instruments like the violin, cello, viola, as well as guitars, mandolins, and banjos. Just about anyone can make an electric guitar on a bandsaw, but the skill and precision of building acoustic instruments is something to stand in awe of.
[Helen Michetschläger]
builds violins, violas, and cellos
in her hometown of Manchester, each one a work of art. Hardly any of her tools would seem out of place in the workshop of [Stradivarius]; everything is made by hand. The scroll on the neck is carved by hand, the inlaid purfling on the edges of the top and back are cut with a knife, not a router, and even the finish – one of [Helen]’s specialties – is applied with a light touch.
Violins are fine, but for the dulcet tones we enjoy, you’ll need the most beautiful instrument ever created, the mandolin. [Tom Ellis]
has been making mandolins for over 40 years
. After working in the shop of another
accomplished luthier
, he struck out on his own to build mandolins.
[Tom] does the tuning and setup on all his mandolins, but there is a bit more machinery involved in the creation of his pieces; quite a bit of the routine stuff (bridges, for example) are milled on a CNC, but each instrument still has a hand-built touch.
There’s much more to the luthier’s art than can be presented in a pair of 6-minute videos, so if you have something else that showcases some of the larger, more difficult instruments such as an archtop guitar or a double bass,
send them in
. We’ll put them up. | 6 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "1038256",
"author": "keith rowell",
"timestamp": "2013-06-20T15:32:05",
"content": "Photos of a mandolin I’m making.http://redwingmusic.blogspot.com/2013/02/mandolin-making.htmlAnd a description of the process.http://redwingmusic.blogspot.com/2012/12/violin-modifications-by-rowell-s... | 1,760,376,527.444451 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/06/19/using-an-angle-grinder-as-a-bench-grinder/ | Using An Angle Grinder As A Bench Grinder | Mike Szczys | [
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"angle grinder",
"bench grinder",
"bench motor",
"welding"
] | [Saeid Momtahan] made a couple of attachments that let him
use his angle grinder as a bench grinder
. It may be better to refer to it as a bench motor, as he uses both a grinding wheel and a wire brush while showing off his project.
The attachments come in two parts. The first is a piece of square tube that runs parallel to the body of the grinder on the side opposite the handle. This doubles as a larger gripping area when using it as an angle grinder, as well as giving him something to clamp in his bench vise. The second attachment serves as a rest for the work piece. Above you can see him brushing some rusty stock clean with the wire attachment.
It’s nice to have the option of doubling up a tool’s tasks rather than buying yet another item that may not get used all that much. We also love the idea of building your own tools. If you don’t have a welding rig to fabricate these add-ons here’s
a li-ion battery based system
to get you thinking.
[Thanks Rob] | 56 | 20 | [
{
"comment_id": "1017630",
"author": "Atomhax",
"timestamp": "2013-06-19T21:06:09",
"content": "Are you supposed to wear gloves with power tools? It was my understanding if the cloth gets caught your hand gets mangled, while if it hits skin you get cut but you don’t get pulled in.",
"parent_id":... | 1,760,376,527.660321 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/06/19/black-ash-basket-weaving-from-scratch/ | Black Ash Basket Weaving From Scratch | Caleb Kraft | [
"cooking hacks"
] | [
"basket",
"weaving"
] | I don’t think I’ve ever seen basket weaving done from the point of harvesting the strips from a log. I mean, I knew the bits had to come from somewhere, but usually I see things like leaves or vines. Obviously I just hadn’t really thought about it this way. It is quite interesting. | 1 | 1 | [
{
"comment_id": "1038255",
"author": "josh",
"timestamp": "2013-06-20T05:17:04",
"content": "I’m really enjoying these posts, thank you!!!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
}
] | 1,760,376,527.406476 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/06/18/redbull-creation-2013-final-thoughts-and-recap/ | RedBull Creation 2013: Final Thoughts And Recap | Caleb Kraft | [
"contests"
] | [
"redbull"
] | I have arrived home safely, and I’ll spare you the long and boring story of how horribly my airline experiences were, both directions. The contest was delightful. Not only did I get to watch the teams compete, I got to meet people that I’ve wanted to meet for a long time. The judges and shop monitors were a delight to talk with and work with. There are some
great daily recap videos
on the creation website, but I can’t embed them.
You’re probably wondering who won. Well, that was announced after I left. The public hadn’t even begun to vote on people’s choice (we weren’t even finished building the sign with the voting buttons!).
The judges were from all different areas of expertise. We had a form to fill out for each project that had several different values. There was functionality, aesthetics, resourcefulness, and some other stuff I can’t remember right now. [Greg] put together the criteria and I think he did a fantastic job at making the judging fair and balanced.
Judges Choice
: MB Labs
They made a cool podium that had a marble style sequencer that was extremely intuitive. This sequencer drove some drums that were being played by actuators ripped from car door locks. It was really cool.
Peoples Choice:
1.21 Jigawatts
This was the vote that came from the crowd. They could walk up and push a button for their choice.
The instrument would work like this:
1. you would spray paint on the white paper (which is on a roll).
2. the machine would pull the paper through it and read it optically.
3. the machine would hit chimes corresponding to the color and position of the paint on the paper.
the instrument
behind the scenes
spaghetti
Teams Choice:
I3 Detroit
This was the vote that came from the other teams. This vote took into account things like “how helpful was that team” and “were they pleasant”.
Their instrument simply twirled those tubes that make noise. It didn’t work well for the judging display, but they got some better sound afterwords with a little adjusting. They were a delight to hang out with though, and their idea was really original (no midi!).
I already shared the Pissbot,
which you can see in action here
, and the Voting sign, which you will see more of once RedBull puts out more images.
There was another side project going on during the event as well. Some custom belt buckles were going to be awarded to someone, but I don’t remember who. Maybe it was for team choice. Here’s a picture of one of those as it was being finished.
And, here is a gallery of random images from the last day. Enjoy.
Here are some official pictures of the event! | 3 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "1017179",
"author": "Exit151",
"timestamp": "2013-06-18T18:56:25",
"content": "Wondering if there was significance to the first digit having a partial segment that appeared to be “burnt out”?? (IE the far-most left zero wasn’t a complete zero).. Red Bull Fail? Perhaps those pesky... | 1,760,376,528.16724 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/06/18/pager-message-sniffing-with-rpi-and-sdr/ | Pager Message Sniffing With RPi And SDR | Mike Szczys | [
"Radio Hacks",
"Raspberry Pi"
] | [
"decoder",
"pager",
"RPi",
"sdr"
] | The 1990’s called, they want you to use modern technology to listen in on your friends’ pager messages. Seriously, how many people are still using pagers these days? We guess you can find out by building your own
Software-Define Radio pager message decoder
.
[Sonny_Jim] bought an RTL2832 based USB dongle to listen in on
ADS-B
airplane communications only to find out the hardware wasn’t capable of communicating in that bandwidth range. So he set out to find a project the hardware was suited for and ended up exploring
the POCSAG protocol
used by paging devices. It turns out it’s not just used for person-to-person communications. There are still many automated systems that use the technology.
Setting things up is not all that hard. Reading the comments on the project log show some folks are having dependency issues, but these sound rather banal and will be a good chance for you to brush up on your Linux-fu. Once all the packages are installed you’re simply working with text which can be displayed in a myriad of ways. [Sonny] set up a text files on the Pi’s webserver so that he can check out the latest captures from a smartphone.
[
Image Source
] | 34 | 18 | [
{
"comment_id": "1017074",
"author": "ameyring",
"timestamp": "2013-06-18T13:14:15",
"content": "Even when smartphones were coming on the scene, my boss (laboratory supervisor) still used a pager (not sure who typically paged him). I believe many doctors still use them for priority pages from their ... | 1,760,376,527.570944 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/06/18/frank-builds-a-chair-from-a-sequoia/ | [Frank] Builds A Chair From A Sequoia | Brian Benchoff | [
"home hacks"
] | [
"chair",
"sequoia",
"wood",
"woodworking"
] | [Frank Howarth] is a very competent woodworker known on the YouTubes for his wonderful stop-motion videos of
turned wood bowls
. Lately, though, he’s put some effort into building furniture, this time
a beautiful lawn chair
made from a gigantic sequoia log.
A few years ago, [Frank] and a friend acquired a gigantic sequoia log and milled it themselves with a chainsaw. After two summers, the huge boards were finally dry enough to be used and [Frank] decided a lawn chair would be a fine project.
The sides of the chair are a single monolithic piece of wood. Of course [Frank] needed to cut the sides in half and join them together again for the decorative holes, but it’s still an impressively solid piece of woodworking. The back and seat of the chair are also made out of the same sequoia board, cut into slats held together with three very large dowel rods.
This project probably wouldn’t be possible if it weren’t for the awesome equipment and tools [Frank] has in his shop. He has a great tour of his shop
available for your viewing
. We should all be so lucky. | 1 | 1 | [
{
"comment_id": "1038254",
"author": "t-bone",
"timestamp": "2013-06-19T15:30:51",
"content": "Awesome doesn’t begin to describe that video. What an incredible shop, project, and filmmaking skills.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
}
] | 1,760,376,527.485512 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/06/17/causing-trouble-at-redbull-creation-2013/ | Causing Trouble At RedBull Creation 2013 | Caleb Kraft | [
"contests"
] | [
"feedback",
"redbull",
"trouble"
] | Skullduggery systems (a first time participant) came up with an extremely ambitious idea for their instrument. It was to be a jug, that would have a changing pitch based on water being pumped in and out. Ultimately, they ran into a few issues that meant that the effect wasn’t quite what they were looking for. They shouldn’t feel too bad, a bunch of teams didn’t succeed in making things the first year they participated.
What their instrument did do, however, I found simply delightful. The jug sounded just like feedback from the sound system. The contest was happening during a big music festival called
the NorthSide festival
. There was a stage and a huge crowd most of the time. They were testing their jug and we noticed that the band on stage (with a full crowd at the time), had stopped playing and was checking all their equipment. The sound guys were running around like crazy. They thought they were getting feedback.
We held off for a while and decided we would wait till sound checks to mess with them. While we wanted to cause trouble, we didn’t want to ruin the show for an entire crowd. As you can see in the video, the sound is very much like feedback. They would begin to play, then stop to track down this mysterious feedback. We even tricked [Tyler] the announcer that was talking over our local sound system in the Redbull tent (by accident, I assure you). | 26 | 13 | [
{
"comment_id": "1016868",
"author": "Addidis",
"timestamp": "2013-06-17T21:05:56",
"content": "lol",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1016871",
"author": "Leave a Reply",
"timestamp": "2013-06-17T21:14:40",
"content": "That’s so evil m... | 1,760,376,527.841392 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/06/17/modifying-a-crt-television-for-use-as-an-arcade-monitor/ | Modifying A CRT Television For Use As An Arcade Monitor | Mike Szczys | [
"Video Hacks"
] | [
"arcade monitor",
"crt",
"pac-man",
"television"
] | Finding himself in need of an arcade monitor [Eric Wright] turned to this ancient CRT television. The problem is that arcade monitors and televisions didn’t operate in the same way, differing in both resolution and refresh rate. [Eric]
modified the television to work like an arcade monitor
, but only with limited success. He’s hoping a few more alterations will lead him to a complete solution.
The image above shows him testing a Pac-Man machine on the altered Sharp television. Those familiar with the game will immediately notice that there is something wrong. We see most of the tracks upon which Pac-Man and the ghosts travel, but he maze itself is completely missing. To get to this point [Eric] consulted the television and arcade schematics to figure out how to connect the composite sync and three color channels directly to the arcade machine. This way the CRT timing is forced to conform to the game standard. The problem is that there is no way to adjust the drive and cutoff of the individual color channels. This is something [Eric] hopes to fix in the next iteration of his experiments.
If you already have a working arcade monitor but no gaming cabinet
why not use a Raspberry Pi
? | 29 | 19 | [
{
"comment_id": "1016889",
"author": "dan tan",
"timestamp": "2013-06-17T22:01:00",
"content": "He Should be using a mutisync PC monitor or an LCD, 320×240 or 640×480 resolution. He can also use a scan converter as well.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comm... | 1,760,376,527.722515 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/06/17/coopering-wine-barrels/ | Coopering Wine Barrels | Caleb Kraft | [
"cooking hacks"
] | [
"barrel",
"cask",
"cooper"
] | The process of making a high quality wine barrel is still done very much by hand. Each piece of wood is hand selected, even from the point of purchasing specific logs at auctions. In this video he is using many power tools and modern techniques, but still performing everything himself. I couldn’t find any videos of coopers using only hand tools, let me know if you find one.
This video is rather poor quality, but many more hand tools are used in the process.
Just in case you’re curious, here’s what the factory style production of these things is more like. | 0 | 0 | [] | 1,760,376,527.878651 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/06/17/raspberry-pi-replaces-a-volvo-nav-system/ | Raspberry Pi Replaces A Volvo Nav System | Mike Szczys | [
"gps hacks",
"Raspberry Pi",
"Transportation Hacks"
] | [
"can-bus",
"navigation",
"obd-ii",
"RPi",
"volvo"
] | [Reinis] has a Volvo S80. One of the dashboard features it includes is a 6.5″ LCD screen which periscopes up to use as a navigation system. The problem is that Volvo stopped making maps for it around five years ago and there are no maps at all for Latvia where he lives. So it’s worthless… to you’re average driver. But [Reinis] is fixing it on his own by
replacing the system with a Raspberry Pi
.
That link leads to his project overview page. But he’s already posted follow-ups on
hardware design
and
initial testing
. He’s basing the design around a Raspberry Pi board, but that doesn’t have all the hardware it needs to communicate with the car’s systems. For this he designed his own shield that uses an ATmega328 along with a CAN controller and CAN transceiver. The latter two chips patch into the CAN bus on the car’s On Board Diagnostic system. We didn’t see much about the wiring, but the overview post mentions that the screen takes RGB or Composite inputs so he must be running a composite video cable from the trunk to the dashboard. | 24 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "1016847",
"author": "rgdfohuvngr",
"timestamp": "2013-06-17T19:18:38",
"content": "I wonder if someone will figure out the DVD formats – the screen and wheel controls are brilliant. It’d be awesome if newer DVDs could be made using OSM data, as millions of cars with the system would... | 1,760,376,527.781594 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/06/19/pbx-blade-for-multiple-extension-home-telephony/ | PBX Blade For Multiple Extension Home Telephony | Mike Szczys | [
"home hacks"
] | [
"18f2520",
"pbx",
"pic",
"rack mount",
"telephone"
] | It looks like a consumer good, but
this PBX server blade
was built by [Benoit Frigon] over the last couple of years. It brings multiple telephone extensions to his home service.
The device runs Asterisk open source PBX software. Because it will be on all the time he wanted something that doesn’t draw a lot of power. The 500 Mhz system seen on the left has just a half a gig of ram. It’s enough to do the job and at 10 Watts it’s not going to break the bank when it comes to paying the electric bills. The board in the middle is used to interface the analog handsets with the land line. From the look of it he’s got it rigged for two extensions.
That’s all somewhat par for the course with PBX rigs, but the enclosure is where he really shines. [Benoit] used 22 gauge aluminum sheet to fabricate the enclosure which is designed to blend in with the rest of his home’s rack mount hardware. To provide control at the rack he added his own LCD and touch-sensitive button interface to the front of the case based on a PIC 18F2520. The system can also be accessed via the web thanks to a custom interface he coded. | 18 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "1017585",
"author": "Misc",
"timestamp": "2013-06-19T19:09:31",
"content": "That’s a great looking build",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1017595",
"author": "Rob",
"timestamp": "2013-06-19T19:33:29",
"content": "look... | 1,760,376,527.933619 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/06/19/long-distance-ps3-controller/ | Long Distance PS3 Controller | Brian Benchoff | [
"Radio Hacks"
] | [
"DualShock",
"ps3",
"xbee"
] | Sony’s DualShock 3 controller can be seen in a number of projects here on Hackaday. There’s a reason for this: it’s easy to sniff the Bluetooth signals coming out of this controller and make any electronics project do your remote control bidding. Bluetooth has a fairly limited range, though, so what happens if you’d like to use this very comfortable and very functional controller over a mile or so? Just
replace the mainboard of the controller
with a new design using an Xbee radio. It’s a great project from the workbench of [Marcel] and looks to be just the solution for an awesome Xbee remote control.
The Sony DualShock 3 controller is designed around a single main board for the bulk of the electronics and analog sticks with three daughterboards used for every other button on the controller. [Marcel] took the main board out of his controller and stated to reverse engineer the thing, keeping the USB charging, PC communication, force feedback and LED indicators. Instead of Bluetooth as in the original circuit, [Marcel] used a 60mW XBee radio, allowing him to control just anything connected to another XBee radio with a range of up to a mile.
[Marcel]’s new main board is a direct drop in replacement for the original DualShock 3 mainboard, and the only modification to the controller is drilling a small hole for the new antenna. It’s a great piece of kit for RC vehicles of any kind, and it’s fully programmable for whatever robotics project you might have in mind.
Thanks {Roel] for sending this one in. | 15 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "1017551",
"author": "Jordan",
"timestamp": "2013-06-19T17:14:40",
"content": "Aside from the Start and Select buttons, all the other buttons and triggers are pressure sensitive. I wonder if he kept that functionality when he re-did all the boards….?",
"parent_id": null,
"dep... | 1,760,376,528.239306 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/06/19/adding-wireless-charging-to-any-phone/ | Adding Wireless Charging To Any Phone | Brian Benchoff | [
"Cellphone Hacks",
"Phone Hacks"
] | [
"CellPhones",
"inductive charging",
"touchstone",
"wireless charging"
] | The wireless charging options available on flagship phones is a great feature, but most of us aren’t rocking the latest and greatest cellphone. [Daniel] came up with a great mod that
adds wireless charging to just about every cellphone ever
, at a very low price and a few bits and bobs ordered off eBay.
[Daniel] used a Palm Touchstone inductive charger – available for a few bucks on eBay – along with an inductive charging circuit from
a Palm Pixi
. This charging circuit was designed to complement the Touchstone charger, and is simple enough to wire up; all [Dan] needed to do was put the coil and charging circuit near the charge, and it output 5 Volts to charge any phone.
To get the power from the charging circuit into his phone’s battery, [Daniel] simply wired the output of the coil’s circuit to the USB in on the phone. The space inside his S2 was pretty tight but he was able to come up with two ways to install the charging circuit, for use with either the stock back cover or a third-party case.
For anyone with a soldering iron, it’s a quick bit of work to add wireless charging to any phone. We’re loving [Dan]’s solution, as the Palm gear he used is so readily available on eBay and junk drawers the world over. | 49 | 19 | [
{
"comment_id": "1017492",
"author": "Jordan / Stryker",
"timestamp": "2013-06-19T15:04:14",
"content": "Now this is interesting because I am currently in the process of doing the same thing but for some tablets… However I purchased the palm Pre battery covers, which you can get with the touchstone ... | 1,760,376,528.319145 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/06/19/crystal-oven-temperature-sensor-reads-0-01f-resolution/ | Crystal Oven Temperature Sensor Reads 0.01F Resolution | Mike Szczys | [
"Radio Hacks"
] | [
"analog",
"crystal oven",
"lm335",
"opamp",
"temperature sensor"
] | [Scott Harden] continues his work on a high precision crystal oven. Being able to set a precise temperature depends on the ability to measure temperature with precision as well. That’s where this circuit comes in. It’s based around an LM335 linear temperature sensor. He’s designed support circuitry that can
read temperature with hundredth-of-a-degree resolution
.
Reading the sensor directly with an AVR microcontroller’s Analog-to-Digital Converter (ADC) will only yield about 1-2 degrees of range. He approached the problem by amplifying the output of the sensor to target a specific range. For the demonstration he adjusts the swing from 0-5V to correspond to a room temperature to body temperature range.
Of course he’s using analog circuitry to make this happen. But before our digital-only readers click away you should view his video explanation. This exhibits the base functionality of OpAmps. And we think [Scott] did a great job of presenting the concepts by providing a clear and readable schematic and explaining each part slowly and completely.
So what’s this crystal oven we mentioned? It’s
a radio project
that goes back several years. | 17 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "1017458",
"author": "Mike",
"timestamp": "2013-06-19T13:15:48",
"content": "But how much drift is there on the actual sensor and how is he calibrating it?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1017462",
"author": "Scott Hard... | 1,760,376,528.600985 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/06/19/r2d2-cake-plays-leias-distress-message/ | R2D2 Cake Plays Leia’s Distress Message | Brian Benchoff | [
"Portable Video Hacks"
] | [
"cake",
"projector",
"r2d2",
"raspberry pi",
"star wars"
] | As all 6-year-olds should, [Marc]’s son is a huge fan of Star Wars. For his birthday party, he wanted a Star Wars themed cake, and making one in the shape of R2D2 seemed to be right up [Marc]’s alley. Of course any clone of everyone’s favorite R2 unit should also display Leia’s distress message to Ben Kenobi, and [Marc]
figured out a way to do just that
.
Because of R2’s strange and decidedly non-cake shape, [Marc] first constructed a stand out of wood, cardboard, and a PVC pipe to hold the cake into place. The cylindrical droid body is of course made of cake and frosting, with R2’s dome made out of fondant.
The PVC pipe running up the center of the droid provided [Marc] with the ability to run a power and video connector up R2’s spine. These are connected to a small projector receiving video from a netbook placed out of the way.
You can check out a video of the R2 cake playing Leia’s holographic distress message below. At the end of the video, there’s a 6-year-old birthday party guest saying, “what is that?” It might be time to dig out the VHS player and the non-remastered trilogy, [Marc]. | 15 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "1017429",
"author": "creekree",
"timestamp": "2013-06-19T11:59:02",
"content": "It always amazes me to see what americans think a cake is.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1017442",
"author": "Eirinn",
"timestam... | 1,760,376,528.423677 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/06/18/brushless-gimbal-3d-printed-and-bolted-to-quadcopter/ | Brushless Gimbal 3D Printed And Bolted To Quadcopter | Mike Szczys | [
"News"
] | [
"gimbal",
"quadcopter",
"tbs discovery"
] | A handful of 3D printed parts, some brushless motors, and a bit of control hardware
add a flair of cinematography to this quadcopter
.
[Sean] sent in a tip about his work after seeing
yesterday’s feature of a brushless gimbal
being used to improve image stability with a shoulder mounted camera. That rig was designed to be used with a quadcopter, and this hacks shows why. It’s obvious from the demo footage that the gimbal — which is mounted directly to the frame of the TBS Discovery quadcopter — does a great job of keeping the image steady. The panning and tilting in directions contrary to the physics of flight make for a much more interesting video experience. Watch the inset video which is a live feed from the aircraft to the pilot. As the quadcopter makes very sharp banking turns you wouldn’t even be able to tell the pitch or roll have changed in the HQ version.
You can see a pair of images detailing the 3D printed parts and the assembled gimbal below. | 37 | 17 | [
{
"comment_id": "1017217",
"author": "jan",
"timestamp": "2013-06-18T21:08:59",
"content": "not available in germany cause of gema.f#*%$§!!!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1017228",
"author": "kendall14",
"timestamp": "2013-06... | 1,760,376,528.501181 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/06/18/best-robot-demos-from-icra-2013/ | Best Robot Demos From ICRA 2013 | Mike Szczys | [
"cons",
"Robots Hacks",
"Roundup"
] | [
"icra",
"ieee",
"quadcopter",
"self balancing",
"snake",
"worm"
] | The 2013 IEEE International Conference of Robotics and Automation was held early in May. Here’s
a video montage
of several robots shown off at the event. Looks like it would have been a blast to attend, but at least you can draw some inspiration from such a wide range of examples.
We grabbed a half-dozen screenshots that caught our eye. Moving from the top left in clockwise fashion we have a segmented worm bot that uses rollers for locomotion. There’s an interesting game of catch going on in the lobby with this sphere-footed self balancer. Who would have thought about using wire beaters as wheels? Probably the team that developed the tripod in the upper right. Just below there’s one of the many flying entries, a robot with what looks like a pair of propellers at its center. The rover in the middle is showing off the 3D topography map it creates to find its way. And finally, someone set up a pool of water for this snake to swim around in.
[Thanks Michael] | 17 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "1017193",
"author": "Jcerecke",
"timestamp": "2013-06-18T19:49:05",
"content": "The end is nigh.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1017208",
"author": "Crow",
"timestamp": "2013-06-18T20:52:50",
"content": "My friends ... | 1,760,376,528.375455 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/06/17/adding-wifi-to-a-kids-tablet/ | Adding WiFi To A Kid’s Tablet | Brian Benchoff | [
"Toy Hacks"
] | [
"Innotab",
"tablet",
"usb"
] | [Mick] has been playing around with the VTech Innotab – a $70 tablet computer aimed at kids – for a while now. He’s successfully turned this tablet soon to be found at yard sales the world over
into a Linux tablet
and can play everything from those magical LucasArts SCUMM adventure games to Angry Birds. What his tablet is missing, though, is any sort of Internet connection. He recently fixed this by
soldering a USB WiFi adapter directly to the CPU of his InnoTab
.
In all fairness, there’s not a terrible amount of software hackery going on here.
VTech’s InnoTab 2s
uses the same chipset as the cheaper InnoTab 2 but has an additional board soldered directly to the mainboard. This additional board provides a WiFi connection with an RT5370 chipset; soldering a WiFi dongle onto the InnoTab 2’s CPU D+ and D- USB lines effectively turns it into the WiFi enabled InnoTab 2s.
It’s an impressive piece of work for a low-power tablet that one can safely assume is both bullet and childproof. [Mick] was also able to mount a USB thumb drive on his upgraded kid’s tablet, so if you’re looking for a cheap tablet that doesn’t need much horsepower, you might want to check out your local Toys ‘R Us. | 6 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "1016820",
"author": "fartface",
"timestamp": "2013-06-17T18:05:26",
"content": "What is needed with these is the intended use, but real education. Like , “little johnny learns geometry” ” Physics of Jack and Jill”, and “Little Sally’s Astrophysics primmer” Honestly, why do we tre... | 1,760,376,528.542249 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/06/17/letting-bluetooth-take-the-wires-out-of-your-headphones/ | Letting Bluetooth Take The Wires Out Of Your Headphones | Mike Szczys | [
"digital audio hacks",
"Wireless Hacks"
] | [
"a2dp",
"bluetooth",
"headphone"
] | This picture shows the gist of [Alan’s] hack to transition his wired headphone to
internalize a Bluetooth audio receiver
(
translated
).
He starts with a pair of wired “ear muff” style headphones and an aftermarket Bluetooth audio adapter that he’s been using with them. But if you’re not going to plug them into the audio source why have six feet of extra wire hanging about? [Alan] ditched the plastic case surrounding the Bluetooth hardware and cracked open the earpieces to find room for it. It’s a tight fit but there was just enough room.
It is unfortunate that the headphone design doesn’t already have a wired crossover hidden in the arc connecting the earpieces. Alan strung some of that red wire himself to connect the two speakers. The board is mounted so that the USB port is located where the wires used to enter the plastic body. This makes it a snap to plug them in when they need a recharge.
You can play a little “Where’s Waldo” with this one by trying to spot the Raspberry Pi in his build log. | 11 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "1016738",
"author": "Sven",
"timestamp": "2013-06-17T13:35:43",
"content": "Funny, i see lots of wires :P",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1016741",
"author": "nah!",
"timestamp": "2013-06-17T13:42:40",
"content": "di... | 1,760,376,528.650678 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/06/17/giving-the-virtualboy-a-vga-out/ | Giving The VirtualBoy A VGA Out | Brian Benchoff | [
"FPGA",
"Nintendo Hacks"
] | [
"fpga",
"vga",
"virtualboy"
] | Nintendo’s VirtualBoy – the odd console-inside-a-pair-of-goggles and arguable ancestor of Nintendo’s 3DS – was a marvelous piece of technology for its time. In a small tabletop unit, you were able to play true 3D video games at an impressive 384 x 224 pixel resolution. Of course the VirtualBoy was a complete failure, but that doesn’t mean hardware tinkerers are leaving this wonderful system to video game collectors. [furrtek] has been playing around with his VirtualBoy and
managed to add VGA out
.
As a 3D system with two displays, any sort of video out was rightfully ignored by the VirtualBoy system designers. Still, [furrtek] wanted some sort of video out on his system, so he began poking around with a small FPGA board to generate some VGA signals.
The two displays inside the VirtualBoy aren’t your normal LCD display – as seen in
this iFixit teardown
. they’re really two linear LED arrays that generate a single line of 244 pixels, with mirrors scanning the line in the in the Y axis. These LED arrays are controlled by the VirtualBoy CPU through a series of shift registers, and by carefully tapping the lines of each LED array, [furrtek] was able to copy all the image data into the RAM of an FPGA.
After stuffing an
XESS XULA-200
FPGA board inside the case of his VirtualBoy, [furrtek] wired up a few resistors for a DAC and installed a VGA out port on the underside of his console. Everything worked the first time he powered it up, and he began playing his VirtualBoy on his big screen TV.
Because [furrtek] is only reading one of the VirtualBoy’s displays, all the 3D data – and the main feature of the VirtualBoy – is lost when it’s displayed on a TV. 3D TVs do exist, though, and we’d love to see an improved version of this that captures data from both of the VirtualBoy displays.
You can see [furrtek]’s video of his mod in action below.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?&v=CCqky6sZ_R0&w=520] | 19 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "1016713",
"author": "Blue Footed Booby",
"timestamp": "2013-06-17T11:40:19",
"content": "Soooo does the virtual boy have any good games?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1016719",
"author": "fartface",
"timestam... | 1,760,376,528.703546 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/06/16/hackaday-links-sunday-june-16th-2013/ | Hackaday Links: Sunday, June 16th, 2013 | Mike Szczys | [
"Hackaday links"
] | [] | Summertime means mowing the grass and now [Everst X] can do so in 7.1 channel delight thanks to his
wireless headphone antenna hack
which extends the range.
[Kevin] is trying to build a better reverse geocache box. It’s not the GPS that he’s improving, it’s the latching mechanism. He’s got
four linear latches actuated by a single servo
.
What’s a links post without some blinky lights? This week we take a look at [Daniel’s] hack which
connects the Ikea Dioder to a router
.
It’s a pretty early prototype but we like where [Shae] is going with
his spouse-friendly silent alarm
. It’s a wristband you wear to bed that wakes with vibration rather than sound.
[Leland] wrote in to share
his multi-console emulator
. It’s built using a Raspberry Pi and he plans to fit everything inside an original Game Boy case.
Fans of the game Candy Crush may want to take a look at
this hack for the iPhone version
. It attacks the game by accessing the file system of a jailbroken device. | 9 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "1016582",
"author": "ben",
"timestamp": "2013-06-16T21:57:24",
"content": "you can also edit Candy crush for android by editing the APK file levels are stored at \\assets\\res\\levels and then you edit just like iphone but then replace the original apk",
"parent_id": null,
"... | 1,760,376,529.589661 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/06/16/water-tank-level-meter-prevents-overflow/ | Water Tank Level Meter Prevents Overflow | Mike Szczys | [
"green hacks"
] | [
"alarm",
"led",
"level",
"meter",
"transistor",
"water"
] | Most of the homes in the area where [Raikut] lives have tanks on the roof to hold water. Each is filled from a well using a pump, with gravity serving as a way to pressurize the home’s water supply. The system isn’t automatic and requires the home owner to manually switch the pump on and off. [Raikut] made this process a lot easier by designing
an LED bar indicator to monitor the water level
.
The sensor is very simple. Each LED is basically its own circuit controlled by a transistor and a few resistors. A 5V signal is fed from 7805 linear regulator into the tank. The base of each transitor is connected to an insulated wire, each extending different depths in the tank. As the water rises it completes the circuit, illuminating the LED.
[Raikut] is conservation minded and built a buzzer circuit which is activated by the LED indicating the highest water level. If someone walks away from the pump switch while it’s filling the alarm will sound as it gets to the top and they can turn it off before it wastes water.
[via
Reddit
] | 34 | 19 | [
{
"comment_id": "1016555",
"author": "awfk",
"timestamp": "2013-06-16T19:18:16",
"content": "why bother when all you need is a simple PID controller?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1016559",
"author": "morbidpete",
"timestamp": "2013-06... | 1,760,376,528.968736 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/06/16/autonomous-rc-car-navigates-by-waypoints/ | Autonomous RC Car Navigates By Waypoints | Mike Szczys | [
"gps hacks"
] | [
"autonomous",
"gyroscope",
"rc",
"rotary encoder",
"vehicle"
] | Check out this
autonomous RC car
which [Jason] built for the chipKIT design challenge. It’s been able to successfully navigate a planned route taking just a few waypoints as inputs.
Obviously this uses a chipKIT as the controller, the max32 to be specific. [Jason’s] write-up shows off all of the components of the design, but you’ll have to head over to his recently posted update to hear about
the custom board he had spun
to host them all. It starts with a GPS module, but that’s only accurate enough to give the rover the big picture. To handle getting from one waypoint to the next successfully he also included a gyroscope which provides very accurate orientation data, as well as optical encoders on the wheels for on-board distance traveled information.
We hope he’ll keep refining the design and make a trip to next year’s
Autonomous Vehicle Competition
. | 8 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "1016517",
"author": "Ahmed",
"timestamp": "2013-06-16T15:00:28",
"content": "Interesting. How does it circumvent obstacles?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1016598",
"author": "Coligny",
"timestamp": "2013-06-16T23:46:02... | 1,760,376,528.899928 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/06/15/custom-driver-board-for-paintball-gun/ | Custom Driver Board For Paintball Gun | Mike Szczys | [
"Weapons Hacks"
] | [
"automatic",
"Femtoduino",
"paintball",
"rapid fire"
] | [Gabe’s] been wanting to do some embedded development for years, and his other hobby of playing paintball recently provided him with a test project. He’s been working on
a custom driver board for his paintball gun
. Don’t be confused by the name, GCode is a mash-up of his name and the fact that he wrote the code for the project. It has nothing to do with the
G Code CNC language
.
At first this might seem like a trivial hack, but this Viking paintball gun has some serious velocity and throughput so he needs a reliable control that won’t just start shooting randomly. Another thing that [Gabe] took into consideration was monitoring the loading process to make sure the paintball is full seated before firing. All of this is handled by that tiny little Femtoduino board. it interfaces with the guns hardware using the connector board mounted above it.
There are several videos sprinkled throughout the build log. But we found the officially sanctioned 12.5 balls per second mode and the ridiculously fast auto-fire clips the most interesting. It should come in handy when on the run from
paintball shotgun
wielding opponents. | 10 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "1016283",
"author": "Json",
"timestamp": "2013-06-15T21:30:23",
"content": "Some of %{#{#{Love it!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1016311",
"author": "Joel",
"timestamp": "2013-06-15T23:34:26",
"content": "Nice. I h... | 1,760,376,529.014852 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/06/14/guitarduino-show-and-tell/ | Guitarduino Show And Tell | Mike Szczys | [
"Arduino Hacks",
"Musical Hacks"
] | [
"guitar",
"maxmsp"
] | [Igor Stolarsky] plays in a band called 3’s & Sevens. We’d say he is the Guitarist but since he’s playing this hacked axe we probably should call him the band’s Guitarduinist. Scroll down and listen to the quick demo clip of what he can do with the hardware add-ons, then check out
his video explanation of the hardware
.
There are several added inputs attached to the guitar itself. The most obvious is the set of colored buttons which are a shield riding on the Arduino board itself. This attaches to his computer via a USB cable where it is controlling his MaxMSP patches. They’re out of the way and act as something of a sample looper which he can then play along with. But look at the guitar body under his strumming hand and you’ll also see a few grey patches. These, along with one long strip on the back of the neck, are pressure sensors which he actuates while playing. The result is a level of seamless integration we don’t remember seeing before. Now he just needs to move the prototype to a wireless system and he’ll be set.
If you don’t have the skills to shred like [Igor] perhaps
an automatic chording device
will give you a leg up.
[via
GeekBoy
] | 13 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "1015877",
"author": "James",
"timestamp": "2013-06-14T13:28:31",
"content": "Really cool- it reminds me of Curtis Bahn’s eSitar that uses accelerometers, film potentiometers, etc to trigger or modify resonance with max/msp.http://www.arts.rpi.edu/~bahnc2/esitar/sitar1_small.movThe p... | 1,760,376,529.065095 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/06/14/the-making-of-a-katana-hand-guard/ | The Making Of A Katana Hand Guard | Brian Benchoff | [
"Weapons Hacks"
] | [
"inlay",
"japanese",
"katana",
"metal",
"sword"
] | Even though the handmade portion of Hackaday is still in its infancy, we expected to put up a post on traditional japanese sword making by now. What [Kelvin] sent in to the tip line far surpases the artistry of forging a katana by hand. It’s a tsuba, the hand guard for a katana, and over the course of two videos (
one
and
two
), you can see this masterpiece of traditional metalworking techniques take shape.
Tsubas usually come in a matched set, one for the katana, or long sword, and another for the
wakizashi, a slightly shorter sword. [Ford Hallam] was asked to construct the tsuba for a katana that had been lost to the sands of time. Fortunately, a black and white photograph of the original as well as the matching wakizashi tsuba were available for reference, making the design of this tsuba an exercise in replication.
The piece of metal this tsuba was constructed from is made out of a slightly modified traditional alloy of 75% copper and 25% silver. After the blank was cast, many, many hours of scraping, filing and hammering began before the design was laid out.
The craftsmanship in this tsuba is, quite simply, insane. There are about 100 different pieces of metal inlaid into the tsuba to emulate the tiger’s stripes, and hundreds of hours of work in hand carving every leaf and every bit of fur.
Even more, no power tools were used in the creation of this hand guard; everything was crafted using the same methods, tools, and materials as the original tsuba. A masterful piece of craftsmanship, indeed.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wGMj7o6AwnM&w=580]
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pM0VnL30rDc&w=580] | 4 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "1038246",
"author": "Tom The Brat",
"timestamp": "2013-06-14T16:59:46",
"content": "Rats. Video 2 is not available.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1038247",
"author": "Tom The Brat",
"timestamp": "2013-06-14T1... | 1,760,376,529.24852 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/06/13/wet-spill-vacuum-cleaner-attachment/ | Wet Spill Vacuum Cleaner Attachment | Mike Szczys | [
"home hacks"
] | [
"p-trap",
"plumbing",
"shop vac",
"vacuum",
"wet"
] | You’ve got to hand it to [Lou], not only does he know how to build simple items, he also knows how to sell their worth. Here’s
a wet spill vacuum cleaner attachment
which you can build on the cheap. A picture of the final product fails to have the same impact as his video showing its use in cleaning up a simulated cat disgorging from the carpet.
From the picture we’re sure you’ve already figured out how it work. The air and damp matter come in one side and are dropped into the jar as the air is sucked out the other. [Lou] suggests raiding your recycling bin for the jar. The intake and outflow are both pieces from a PVC P-trap intended for a sink drain. They have a threaded flange which keeps the part from pulling all the way through the 1.5″ holes drilled in the lid.
This is going to work best with a high-flow shop vacuum. So while you’ve got the tools out, why not
build a dust separator
as well? | 45 | 19 | [
{
"comment_id": "1015676",
"author": "Wrap it Good",
"timestamp": "2013-06-13T21:07:45",
"content": "What is the white tape-like substance?Didn’t he have any duct tape?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1015806",
"author": "Nebulous",
... | 1,760,376,529.329167 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/06/13/heading-to-new-york-to-judge-the-redbull-creation-contest/ | Heading To New York To Judge The RedBull Creation Contest! | Caleb Kraft | [
"contests"
] | [
"creation contest",
"redbull"
] | We had a ridiculous amount of fun last year in the RedBull Creation Contest. This year, however, we’re not participating as competitors, we’re judging! I will be there representing Hackaday as a judge as well as getting behind the scenes coverage. Sometimes the best stuff gets missed when all you get is the highlight reel.
The format this year is returning to what it was in 2011. The 6 teams will meet in New York this weekend to compete in a 72 hour build off. I can’t wait to see what they’re going to come up with. You can see what each team did to get into this stage in the video above.
I’ll be recording video during the event so you can follow along. I’ll try really hard to give a real view of what an amazing event like this is like. I imagine it will be a whirlwind of activity, so I’ll do my best to capture it. | 7 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "1015743",
"author": "dustin evans (@dl_evans)",
"timestamp": "2013-06-14T01:48:43",
"content": "Awesome! Safe flight. Maybe you could do a Google Hangout from behind the scenes?? That’d be cool.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1... | 1,760,376,529.367512 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/06/13/becks-beer-bottle-sound-recording/ | Beck’s Beer Bottle Sound Recording | Mike Szczys | [
"cnc hacks",
"digital audio hacks"
] | [
"advertising",
"advertisment",
"becks",
"beer",
"edison cylinder"
] | This beer bottle includes recorded audio etched into the glass. But you certainly won’t find half an album included with your next sixer. This is a
one of a kind item that took a team of engineers to craft
.
The idea comes from
Phonographic Cylinders
invented by [Thomas Edison]. Analog audio was etched into cylinders made of wax which could then be played by a needle and amplifying horn. The beer bottle is a similar size of cylinder, but etching the audio signal into glass is a horse of a different color. The video below includes a recounting of the development process from the guys who pulled it off. It includes using hard drive parts and special processing filters that remove harmonics introduced by the milling rig.
We’re sure you’ve figured it out by now; this is an advertisement. We say good! This is the kind of advertising we want. It’s topical, well targeted, and worth paying attention to. We felt the same way about
the recent Oreo campaign
and
that Skittles hack
. We hope that ad execs will take note of this.
By the way, it
is
possible to do this stuff at home. Check out the guy who made
an Edison Cylinder wedding ring. | 50 | 17 | [
{
"comment_id": "1015637",
"author": "draeath",
"timestamp": "2013-06-13T19:05:51",
"content": "Well, I hope that Ad Execs take a nice long walk off of a long pier.Now that that’s off my chest, I’d like to mention there is almost no useful text information here – it’s all historical information on t... | 1,760,376,529.450795 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/06/13/upgrading-a-hackerspaces-shelving/ | Upgrading A Hackerspace’s Shelving | Brian Benchoff | [
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"23B",
"hackerspace",
"shelf",
"shelving",
"tool"
] | Shelving is probably one of the most underappreciated items in the shop. Think about it; would you rather have a place to store boxes, or a fancy new thickness planer, laser cutter, or pick and place machine. The folks over at the 23B hackerspace were growing tired of their disintegrating Ikea shelving unit
and decided to make some shelves
. They didn’t phone this one in, either: these shelves will be around far longer than you or I.
[Chris], the creator of these wonderfully useful pieces of metal, was inspired by
a video featuring [Jamie Hyneman] of Mythbusters fame
. An entire 80 foot section of M5 Industries, [Jamie]’s shop, is covered in shelving units constructed out of square steel tubing, put together in a way that’s easy to construct and able to handle amazing amounts of random stuff.
The new shelves for the 23B shop follow a similar design as the shelves over at M5, only a bit smaller in scale. It’s a wonderful beginner’s project for a welding and fabrication class, and more than sturdy enough to handle a few pull-ups. | 54 | 12 | [
{
"comment_id": "1015568",
"author": "raster",
"timestamp": "2013-06-13T15:09:38",
"content": "At Milwaukee Makerspace we use pallet racks and big metal shelves which we probably got for free somewhere… We’re sort of expert scroungers. ;)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
... | 1,760,376,529.540095 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/06/13/dummy-batteries-let-you-use-an-ac-adapter/ | Dummy Batteries Let You Use An AC Adapter | Mike Szczys | [
"green hacks"
] | [
"ac adapter",
"battery",
"dummy",
"linear regulator",
"LM317",
"wall wart"
] | We find it frustrating when battery operated consumer electronics don’t include a way to connect an external power supply. We try not to purchase disposable alkaline cells if we can avoid it, and
this dummy battery AC adapter hack
will aid in our mission.
The battery compartment shown above is for a motorized baby swing. It accepts C sized batteries (who has those just lying around?) and lacks a barrel jack to connect a wall wart adapter. [Jason Smith] mentions you can get around this by connecting your positive and ground wires directly to the conductor springs. But using a dummy battery makes it a bit easier to remove the adapter if you do want to use battery power.
Each of the orange dummy is a wooden dowel with a screw at each end. The screws are connected with a piece of jumper wire, shorting the two terminals. This completes the circuit in the battery compartment and allows him to power everything from the adapter cell at the bottom. The adapter uses an LM317 adjustable voltage linear regulator. He used fixed resistor values to dial in his target voltage. The equipment should be rather forgiving as battery voltage starts higher than the printed value and drops as the cells are used up.
This technique has been around for a long time. One of our favorites was a hack that
converted an Apple Magic Trackpad to USB power
. | 63 | 32 | [
{
"comment_id": "1015539",
"author": "Phil",
"timestamp": "2013-06-13T13:06:36",
"content": "I directly wired the one for my daughters, the batterys only lasted an hour or so but the swing was so much help when they were younger.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
... | 1,760,376,529.81998 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/06/15/the-secret-projects-at-the-redbull-creation-challenge/ | The Secret Projects At The RedBull Creation Challenge | Caleb Kraft | [
"contests"
] | [
"creation",
"pissbot",
"redbull"
] | You’ve all already seen that there are 6 teams making some kind of a musical instrument. However, there are two more projects that have materialized out of nowhere and are looking like a lot of fun.
In the shop, there are “Shop Monitors”, artists and hackers who are here to help the teams get stuff built. There are also the judges. Since all of us have some experience and craving for making things, you can imagine that no one is just twiddling their thumbs.
[Greg] the lead judge has taken this opportunity to play with the plasma cutter and various metal working tools and is making a voting system so that the public can walk up and hit a button to vote on their favorite. Yup, those are easy buttons you see there. This thing is shaping up to be pretty nice looking thanks to that cutting machine and [Greg’s] hard work.
[JoeJoe], the guy who built the
turbull incabulator
is building “piss bot”, an inside joke turning to reality. Pissbot will literally just freak out and urinate all over. Don’t ask why, ask why not.
the back of pissbot’s head
pissbot’s body
the voting system logo
nice grinding work
that was easy
the logo
pissbot’s face
pissbot’s vibration system in progress
working on the fancy plasma cutter | 15 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "1016226",
"author": "Funkdat",
"timestamp": "2013-06-15T16:35:40",
"content": "Must be super secret",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1016472",
"author": "c3p",
"timestamp": "2013-06-16T11:43:13",
"conten... | 1,760,376,529.649071 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/06/15/raspberry-pi-tor-proxy-lets-you-take-anonymity-with-you/ | Raspberry Pi Tor Proxy Lets You Take Anonymity With You | Mike Szczys | [
"internet hacks",
"News"
] | [
"privacy",
"proxy",
"RPi",
"tor"
] | Your web traffic is being logged at many different levels. There are a few different options to re-implement your privacy (living off the grid excluded), and the Tor network has long been one of the best options. But what about when you’re away from you home setup? Adafruit has your back. They’ve posted a guide which will
turn a Raspberry Pi into a portable Tor proxy
.
The technique requires an Ethernet connection, but these are usually pretty easy to come by in hotels or relatives’ homes. A bit of work configuring the Linux network components will turn the RPi into a WiFi access point. Connect to it with your laptop or smartphone and you can browse like normal. The RPi will anonymize the IP address for all web traffic.
Leveraging the Tor network for privacy isn’t a new subject for us. We’ve looked at
tor acks that go all the way back
to the beginnings of Hackaday. The subject comes and goes but the hardware for it just keeps getting better! | 41 | 17 | [
{
"comment_id": "1016171",
"author": "J",
"timestamp": "2013-06-15T13:04:37",
"content": "Very nice! Wouldn’t it be possible to use two wifi dongles? One that connect to an existing wifi network and one to broadcast a secured wifi for your computer?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"repl... | 1,760,376,529.729657 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/06/15/wherein-books-are-judged-by-their-cover/ | Wherein Books Are Judged By Their Cover | Brian Benchoff | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"book",
"bookbinding",
"leather"
] | Yes, Kindles are wonderful, a computer full of PDFs are awesome, and [Tim Berners-Lee] will probably go down in history as more important than [Gutenberg]. That doesn’t mean there’s not something intangible about books that brings out the affections of so many bibliophiles. Even a book filled with blank pages can be a work of art unto itself, and most of the time these volumes are handmade.
This video
of a hardbound volume made by Smith Settle bookbinders covers the entire process from words on a page to a finished book. No, they’re not using movable type; the folios are created using lithography, but sorting, gluing, sewing and binding the folios is done in much the same way as it was done in the middle ages.
Next up is
a wonderful film from 1968
by Iowa state university on creating the gold tooling on fine leather-bound volumes. You’ll be hard pressed to find a book with gold tooling nowadays, but it’s still a technique accessible to the industrious amateur bookbinder.
First, gold leaf is applied to the leather spine of a book. Then, custom-made tools are heated to a few hundred degrees and pressed into the leaf. The heat bonds the gold with the leather, and with custom-designed tools designs are burnt into the leather. After that, the excess leaf is simply wiped off, and a fine tooled leather book is born.
What’s really cool about bookbinding is the fact that just about anyone can do it. Go to a craft store, pick up some hardboard and paper, and bind yourself a book. You could make a blank journal, or for the nerds out there (myself included), make a hard bound volume of
the NASA wiring standards
.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iuFV5196dYQ&w=520]
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-SJqlyEiPE8&w=520] | 4 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "1038250",
"author": "Hirudinea",
"timestamp": "2013-06-16T20:40:51",
"content": "The great thing about real books is that they will still be readable in 100 years, well if you use the right paper and literacy rates don’t keep falling, try that with ebooks.",
"parent_id": null,
... | 1,760,376,529.858929 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/06/14/redbull-creation-update-fantastic-videos-from-the-welder-company/ | RedBull Creation Update: Fantastic Videos From The Welder Company! | Caleb Kraft | [
"contests"
] | [
"creation",
"redbull"
] | As I’ve been wandering around today, I saw a couple people filming all day. They were crawling on their bellies, climbing things, and doing interviews. It isn’t that surprising till I found out they’re from
Lincoln Electric
, the company that supplied the plasma cutter and the welders.
During our conversation, they gave me some tips on how to use my new camera (I literally had no idea and no time to research before today). I pulled up their videos and was blown away. Great footage and nice amusing editing.
Some of you might be asking yourselves again, “why point out what is obviously just marketing?”
For the same reason we love the
RedBull Creation challenge
. If a company wants to promote their stuff by holding an awesome event that encourages people to build things, we will support them. | 13 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "1016018",
"author": "Hackineer",
"timestamp": "2013-06-15T00:45:57",
"content": "???",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1016101",
"author": "Nova",
"timestamp": "2013-06-15T06:44:50",
"content": "Ditto",
... | 1,760,376,529.989331 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/06/14/hackit-sony-invites-you-to-hack-its-smartwatch-firmware/ | HackIt: Sony Invites You To Hack Its SmartWatch Firmware | Mike Szczys | [
"ARM",
"clock hacks",
"HackIt"
] | [
"firmware",
"sdk",
"smartwatch",
"sony"
] | This is Sony’s smart watch, which has been around for a while now. It’s designed for use with your Android phone, and has always included an SDK that allows app developers to interact with it. But now Sony is taking it one big step further. They’ve published everything you need to know to
hack your own firmware for the SmartWatch
.
The navigation scheme for that articles includes five menu items at the bottom which you’ll want to dig through. The most interesting to us was the one labeled “SmartWatch hacker guide”. It lays bare the hardware used in the watch and how it’s peripheral component connect to each other. This starts with the STM32 (ARM) microcontroller that drives the watch. It goes on to document how the screen is addressed (SPI1) including the pin to turn it on and off. The same goes for the Bluetooth, accelerometer, buzzer, and touch sensors.
Firmware is updated via USB using Device Firmware Upgrade (DFU) mode. We don’t don’t see any way to connect an on-chip debugger. We searched to see if there is a JTAG port on the circuit board and it sounds like getting the watch apart without breaking it is pretty tough.
Now that you don’t need to stick to what Sony had planned for the device, what do you want to do with your
strapless wristwatch
?
[Thanks Brian] | 63 | 16 | [
{
"comment_id": "1015961",
"author": "dmitry grinberg",
"timestamp": "2013-06-14T21:15:42",
"content": "This is not open. They threw some code over the wall and said “here, hack on this!” The BT chip in there is undocumented. No datasheet provided for any parts. Where are the schematics?",
"pare... | 1,760,376,530.087497 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/06/14/machining-beer-can-solder-stencils/ | Machining Beer Can Solder Stencils | Mike Szczys | [
"cnc hacks",
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"aluminum",
"milling",
"solder paste",
"stencil"
] | This is
a solder paste stencil machined from a beer can
. [Simon Ludborzs] spent quite a bit of time dialing in his process to get to this point. Note the nice crisp edges of the openings. That’s a big change from his first attempt.
When looking for a way to make his own stencils he considered two options: plastic and aluminum. He produced both (more about the plastic stencil and his reflow process is
discussed in this post
). Plastic is a bit easier to work with since it lays flat. But it proves to be too thick. After applying paste with a squeegee there’s way too much solder on the pads. Aluminum beverage can walls are much thinner, depositing less paste.
We’ve seen soda cans used in the past, but they were
produced through an etching process
. [Simon] cut these holes using a CNC mill. This required a bit of futzing to figure out the right settings. For instance, he used Altium to produce CAM files from his circuit design. But the program is set up to mill the outside of traces, resulting in openings that are too large. He fixed this by setting the pasted expansion rule in the program to a negative value. The other advantage to using a mill is that he can cut precision tooling holes to ensure proper alignment. You can see them in the upper corners of this image. | 20 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "1015944",
"author": "Renan",
"timestamp": "2013-06-14T19:06:18",
"content": "I had a hard time parsing the title.I was wondering WTF was a machining beer and how it could solder stencils.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "102420... | 1,760,376,530.2781 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/06/14/hackaday-at-the-redbull-creation-challenge-the-teams-begin-to-build/ | Hackaday At The Redbull Creation Challenge: The Teams Begin To Build | Caleb Kraft | [
"contests"
] | [
"new york",
"redbull"
] | After a long day sitting around airports watching one flight after another get cancelled due to the storm in New York, I finally made it. Unfortunately I missed the entire first day, but luckily
RedBull put out a recap of Day1
. They also have a live feed if you want to check in.
I got a chance to run around this morning and check everything out. The 6 teams are already in the heat of competition, rushing to get their musical instrument built before the time runs out.
I apologize ahead of time for the noise. I don’t have a better microphone for this environment. I’ll do my best to try to pull them into a quieter area if I’m going to talk to them in the future. Also I can now see that the footage is over exposed. I’ll fix that, though you can see the gallery of pictures turned out well.
I’ve had several emails asking about what it is actually like to BE one of the teams here competing. So, I’ll share what they are working with.
1. They have a small budget given to them by RedBull. I haven’t asked if any of them are infusing their own money.
2. They get raw materials at any place they want. There’s a “pick n place” down the street as well as several hardware stores. Some have ordered things online. There are big vans that will drive them wherever they want to go.
3. There are many tools available to them here. You can see that a plasma cutter, some big metal working tools, some 3d printers, a couple laser cutters and welding materials are available on top of some electronic workstations and a couple welders.
4. They aren’t being secretive about their creation at all. They all share their ideas and have gone team to team for help when needed. Someone called it an “un competition”, I think at this point they all feel like they’ve already won an awesome trip just getting to come here.
If there’s anything you want to know, please leave a comment.
electronics workstation
electronics workstation
electronics workstation
plasma cutter
plasma cutter
3d printers
3d printers
laser cutter
fs lasers
supplies
pipe bender
plasma cutter
metal working
metal working
electronics
tools
tools
the lounge
the vans that can take them to get parts | 6 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "1015929",
"author": "Zero",
"timestamp": "2013-06-14T17:49:09",
"content": "Try izotope’s RX to get rid of the noise :D… Works like a charm..",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1015939",
"author": "treymd",
"timestamp": "20... | 1,760,376,530.444372 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/06/13/aupod-the-solid-gold-ipod-nano-watch/ | AuPod, The Solid Gold IPod Nano Watch | Brian Benchoff | [
"ipod hacks"
] | [
"gold",
"ipod",
"ipod nano",
"jewelry"
] | The 6th generation iPod nano makes a wonderful watch, but something milled out of aluminum doesn’t lend itself to more formal events. [Ted] liked the idea of an iPod nano watch, but wanted to kick things up a notch and fabricate
an 18k gold iPod nano
. It took 500 hours and $2500 in materials, but we’d say it’s worth it.
The new 18k gold enclosure for the watch was fabricated using the lost wax casting method. First, all the electronics and buttons were removed from the iPod, then a negative mold was made in silicone rubber. A positive wax mold was made with the silicon mold, and finally another negative mold – this time in plaster – was made by vaporizing the positive wax mold in a furnace.
[Ted] used two one-ounce coins as the source of gold for his nano enclosure, spun into the plaster mold. From there, it’s just a simple but tedious matter of cutting the sprues off, shaping, filing, buffing, and polishing. With a new leather strap, the iPod is reassembled in its new enclosure.
Wonderful work, and amazingly impressive from someone who doesn’t consider himself a jeweler. | 4 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "1038242",
"author": "blodgar",
"timestamp": "2013-06-13T13:52:06",
"content": "Very impressive work!…Hate to sound snarky, but I hope you can afford a better watchband than that tattered leather thing…ruins the whole effect…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []... | 1,760,376,530.127782 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/06/13/building-a-strandbeest/ | Building A Strandbeest | Brian Benchoff | [
"Robots Hacks"
] | [
"robot",
"strandbeest"
] | [Jeremy] may have given up on his
big hexapod project
, but that doesn’t mean he’s out of the world of legged robots just yet. He’s embarked on another project, much more elegant and beautiful than a simple hexapod. This time,
he’s building a Strandbeest
, the same machine designed by walking machine extraordinaire [Theo Jansen].
Coming up with the correct lengths and joints of a Strandbeest leg linkage isn’t something you can just pull out of your head, so after [Jeremy]
found the inspiration for his new project
he dug into the related literature on Strandbeest legs. He found
the work of [Dominique Studer]
and set to work making his own mechanical legs.
Right now, [Jeremy] has a prototype of the Strandbeest leg linkage made out of wood. It still needs a little bit of work, but soon enough there will be a PVC pipe Mountainbeest trolling the backwoods near [Jeremy]’s house.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0T-Eg2_ofg8&w=520]
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c37VXSlFh0A&w=520] | 8 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "1015521",
"author": "nebulous",
"timestamp": "2013-06-13T11:24:46",
"content": "That would be a ‘bergbeest’, to stay in the appropriate Dutch-based terminology. ;) That looks very cool!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1015534"... | 1,760,376,530.387017 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/06/12/ditch-that-boring-mouse-for-a-military-grade-trackball/ | Ditch That Boring Mouse For A Military-grade Trackball | Mike Szczys | [
"Microcontrollers",
"Peripherals Hacks"
] | [
"5400",
"atmega32u4",
"encoder",
"military",
"trackball"
] | The bad thing about this type of hack is that now [Tomek Dubrownik] needs to cut a hole in his desk to house the thing. He got this
military grade trackball working over USB
. It’s old, and could be used as a blunt weapon. But as the video shows it still makes a great input device.
He found the hardware on
Allegro
— a Polish auction site similar to eBay — for just $20. The
original circuitry
didn’t make a lot of sense, but a bit of probing with the old oscilloscope let him establish connections to the encoders which are read by some TI 54xx parts. Apparently they use the same logic as 7400 parts but are military grade. He chose a ATmega32u4 development board for his replacement control board. That chip has native USB support so the rest is just a matter of passing data like an HID input device. His code even lets him use those pushbuttons to toggle between cursor movement and window scrolling.
[Tomek] translated his post into English after some prompting by friends at the Warsaw Hackerspace. Here’s
the original in Polish
if you’re interested.
[Thanks Sergiusz] | 25 | 19 | [
{
"comment_id": "1015409",
"author": "John Poe",
"timestamp": "2013-06-12T21:46:39",
"content": "I bought a bunch of Megatron 816 TC trackballs for $10 each on ebay a few years ago. There’s plenty of documentation available, including technical drawings to cut your own faceplate. You can supply you... | 1,760,376,530.342268 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/06/12/using-electrical-conduit-for-a-3d-printer-frame/ | Using Electrical Conduit For A 3D Printer Frame | Mike Szczys | [
"3d Printer hacks"
] | [
"conduit",
"electrical conduit",
"frame"
] | We’re always on the lookout for parts that can be source locally and that don’t cost a bundle. This hack fits both of those criteria. [Lee Miller] came up with a way to
use steel electrical conduit as a 3D printer frame
. He recently finished building the device seen above, and has been showing it off at Solid State Depot, a Hackerspace in Boulder, Colorado where he is a member.
Look closely at the corners of the frame in this image and you’ll see the 3D printed parts that make up the clamping mechanism. Each has three components that screw together. The two gaps in between each have a rubber ‘O’ ring. When the plastic clamps are screwed together they squeeze the rings which hold the electrical conduit firmly. This also has the side benefit of dampening vibrations.
It’s certainly easy to find this type of conduit which is sold at every home store (and most hardware stores). Just make sure that you check that a piece is straight when you pick it out. The SCAD files for the parts are available from
his Github repo
. | 12 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "1015383",
"author": "Finger",
"timestamp": "2013-06-12T19:05:41",
"content": "Who’s a good octopus? Who’s a good cephalopod?NO!BAD!BAD CTHULHU! We don’t *eat* the octopus.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1015390",
"author"... | 1,760,376,530.497984 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/06/12/building-a-digital-scale-from-scratch/ | Building A Digital Scale From Scratch | Brian Benchoff | [
"classic hacks"
] | [
"Duplo",
"scale",
"strain gauge",
"wheatstone bridge"
] | [Raivis] was given a particular task at his university – find a way to measure how many Duplo bricks are stacked together. There are a number of ways to do this, everything from computer vision to using a ruler, but [Raivis] chose a much more educational method. He built a
digital scale from scratch
out of a strain gauge and a Wheatstone bridge. The build log is immensely educational and provides some insight into the challenges of weighing things digitally.
A strain gauge is a simple piece of equipment, just a small force sensitive resistor. When attached to a metal bar and a force is applied, the resistance inside the strain gauge changes, but not by much. There’s only a few micro Ohms difference between the minimum and maximum of [Raivis]’ load cell, so he needed a way to measure very slight changes in resistance.
The solution was a Wheatstone bridge, or four resistors arranged in a square. When one of the resistors in the bridge is replaced with a strain gauge, very small changes in resistance can be measured.
With a custom ‘duino amplifier shield, [Raivis] can measure the resistance of his load cell with 10-bit resolution, or a maximum weight of 1.32 kg with a resolution of two and a half grams. A single duplo block weighs about 12 grams, so we’ll call this one a success. | 13 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "1015374",
"author": "Raivis",
"timestamp": "2013-06-12T17:43:25",
"content": "Thanks, for posting my article hackaday!Apparently my internet connection wasn’t fast enough for the traffic. I’ll sort out this issue as soon as possible. Didn’t expect that!Thanks.",
"parent_id": nul... | 1,760,376,530.547539 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/06/12/loading-atari-games-from-an-sd-card/ | Loading Atari Games From An SD Card | Brian Benchoff | [
"Arduino Hacks"
] | [
"atari",
"atari 800",
"SIO"
] | They’re not a 2600, but the Atari 400, 800 and 1200 are awesome computers in their own right. With only BASIC built in to the ROM, they’re not especially useful or fun, as [Jeroen] found out when he acquired an 800 with a broken tape drive. There are options that allow you to load emulator files from a PC, but [Jeroen] wanted something more compact. He came up with a way to
load games and apps off an SD card
using a simple microcontroller.
The 400, 800, and 1200 each have a port that allows the computer to talk to printers, modems, disk drives, and load games. There are already a few circuits around that connect the SIO port to a computer so games can be loaded, but [Jeroen] wanted a more compact and portable solution for his 800.
What he came up with is actually pretty simple; just an Arduino, SD card, and an LCD display that allows him to browse the directory on the SD card and load it into the 800’s memory.
A lot of folks over on the Atariage forums are really impressed with [Jeroen]’s work, and would like to get their hands on one of these boards themselves. The project isn’t done just yet – [Jeroen] still needs to make a case for his device – but hopefully he’ll be spinning a few boards up in the coming months.
You can see a pair of videos of the device in action below.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zl2DFLIxzV0&w=580]
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0SZ8zClsYu4&w=580] | 16 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "1015348",
"author": "Josiah Gould",
"timestamp": "2013-06-12T15:10:35",
"content": "Awesome, got an 800XL a few weeks back for free. Someone was going to just toss it in the recycle box at work. Looked around for flash carts but the existing ones are not too friendly. I definately w... | 1,760,376,530.603729 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/06/12/the-birth-of-a-tool-damascus-steel-knife-making/ | The Birth Of A Tool: Damascus Steel Knife Making | Caleb Kraft | [
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"damascus",
"knife"
] | I suspect we’ll be seeing more of [John Neeman] on HANDMADE. He’s made some beautiful videos of the process of building tools. In this video, he forges a Damascus steel knife. The cinematography is fantastic and the mood is great. enjoy.
[thanks Zadok] | 6 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "1038237",
"author": "Michael",
"timestamp": "2013-06-13T13:14:03",
"content": "Incredible craftsman",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1038238",
"author": "andar_b",
"timestamp": "2013-06-13T21:04:53",
"content": "I lov... | 1,760,376,530.644608 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/06/11/60000-rpm-vacuum-powered-rotary-tool-was-3d-printed/ | 60,000 RPM Vacuum Powered Rotary Tool Was 3D Printed | Mike Szczys | [
"3d Printer hacks",
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"bearing",
"drill",
"pneumatic",
"rotary tool",
"shop vac",
"vacuum"
] | The whining of the turbines in the
3D printed pneumatic rotary
tool might make your teeth hurt. When [Axodus] tipped us off about it he mentioned it sounded like a 747 taking off. But we hear a dentist’s drill when watching the demo video.
[Richard Macfarlane] published his design if you want to try building one for yourself. But you will need to do some machining in addition to printing the enclosure and the pair of turbines. The shaft of the tool needs to fit the bearings precisely. It accepts a center blue spacer with a red turbine on either side. This assembly is encapsulated in the two-part threaded blue body which has a flange to friction fit with the shop vacuum hose. The business end of the machined shaft was designed and threaded to accept the collet from a Dremel or similar rotary tool.
We wonder how much work it would be to re-engineer this to act as
a PCB drill press
? | 61 | 33 | [
{
"comment_id": "1015030",
"author": "Jordan",
"timestamp": "2013-06-11T13:31:20",
"content": "now make a 2in high torque version :D",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1015031",
"author": "Christian Restifo (@restifo)",
"timestamp": "2013-0... | 1,760,376,530.750294 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/06/10/automated-programming-and-testing-jig-built-with-raspberry-pi/ | Automated Programming And Testing Jig Built With Raspberry Pi | Mike Szczys | [
"Microcontrollers",
"Raspberry Pi"
] | [
"avrdude",
"gpio",
"jig",
"Pogo pin",
"programmer",
"RPi",
"test"
] | [Doug Jackson] makes word clocks, and he must be doing quite a bit of business. We say that because he put together a
programming and test bed for the clock circuit boards
.
This is a great example to follow if you’re doing any kind of volume assembly. The jig lets the populated PCB snap into place, making all the necessary electrical connections. This was made possible by a package of goods he picked up on eBay which included rubber spacers to separate the board from the acrylic mounting plate, pogo pins to make the electrical connections, and a spring-loaded board clamp seen to the left in this image.
The switch in the lower right connects power to the board and pulls a Raspberry Pi GPIO pin high. The Python script running on the RPi polls that pin, executing a bash script which programs the ATmega169 microcontroller
using the GPIO version of AVRdude
. We looked through his Python script and didn’t see code for testing the boards. But the image above shows a “Passed” message on the screen that isn’t in his script. We would wager he has another version that takes the hardware through a self test routine.
We first saw one of [Doug’s] word clocks
back in 2009
and then again
a few months later
. The look of the clock is fantastic and it’s nice to see the project is still going strong. | 5 | 1 | [
{
"comment_id": "1014876",
"author": "ojh",
"timestamp": "2013-06-11T06:05:09",
"content": "Any copyright(R) issues with Biegert & Funk ?http://www.qlocktwo.com/index.php?lang=en",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1014882",
"author": "Mar... | 1,760,376,530.891703 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/06/10/gesture-control-uses-wifi-doppler-shift/ | Gesture Control Uses WiFi Doppler Shift | Mike Szczys | [
"Peripherals Hacks"
] | [
"adr",
"ap",
"control",
"gesture",
"wifi"
] | We’ve said it before: in the future simple interfaces will use nothing but your body. At least at first glance that’s the case with
this WiFi-based gesture control system
. If you have Internet at home you probably have a WiFi access point. That’s the first portion of the equation. The remainder is a way of measuring how the radio waves bounce off of your body. So far this is being done with Software-Define Radio (SDR) but researchers at University of Washington think it may be possible to build the technique into future WiFi devices.
The demo video shows this man waving his arm to adjust the volume of his home entertainment system. Intuition tells us that this would be impossible if your arm wasn’t the only thing in motion at the time. But that issue is quickly addressed. Multiple antennas can track multiple people at the same time. There is also consideration for false-positives. The system requires a moderately complex wake-up gesture sequence to prevent you from, say, accidentally turning on the stereo when you roll over in bed.
If you’re having trouble wraping your mind around this, consider
this ultrasonic music player
. The WiFi version does the same thing, but processing changes in the returning radio waves is much more complex.
[Thanks Mateusz via
UW Today
and
Y Combinator
] | 29 | 17 | [
{
"comment_id": "1014761",
"author": "okowsc",
"timestamp": "2013-06-10T19:02:41",
"content": "covered before",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1014830",
"author": "XOIIO",
"timestamp": "2013-06-11T01:52:46",
"content": "... | 1,760,376,530.955899 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/06/10/incredible-bow-lathe-work-in-morocco/ | Incredible Bow Lathe Work In Morocco | Caleb Kraft | [
"cooking hacks"
] | [
"lathe",
"morocco",
"vendor"
] | Bow lathes are a fairly old an simple contraption. A bow is used to rotate a block of wood back and forth while tools can be used to shape it, just like a modern lathe. Despite the fact that the wood is oscillating instead of spinning in one direction, the results are very smooth.
Watch as this street vendor shows his skills with the bow lathe. I find it quite impressive how well he uses his foot. You can tell he’s been doing this for a very long time. I was also pleasantly surprised when that ring popped free, I wasn’t expecting it.
[thanks Rudolph] | 13 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "1038224",
"author": "andar_b",
"timestamp": "2013-06-10T15:58:35",
"content": "I wonder how many times he’s nearly cut his thumb off using a chisel like he does to round out the stock? :pBut yes, prehensile toes are almost as useful as fingers in certain jobs. I think I would have f... | 1,760,376,531.140619 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/06/10/a-binary-clock-that-uses-bulbs/ | A Binary Clock That Uses Bulbs | Mike Szczys | [
"clock hacks"
] | [
"binary clock",
"neon lamp",
"nixie",
"steampunk"
] | Based on his username, [Horatius.Steam], it’s not a surprise that he calls this project a “SteamPunk” style binary clock. But we think using
neon glow lamps in this binary clock
is more of mid-century modern proposition. Either way, the finished look is sure to make it a conversation piece for your home.
He doesn’t give all that much information on the bulbs themselves. They seem to be
neon glow lamps
along the lines of a Nixie tubes. It sounds like they just need mains power (based on the image annotations for the relay board). The high voltage is switched by that collection of solid state relays. The controller board includes a DCF radio whose antennae is seen just below the controller. This picks up an atomic clock signal from Frankfurt, Germany. We think it’s a nice touch that he included a mechanical relay to simulate a ticking sound. That and the bulbs themselves can be turned off using the two switches in the base of the clock.
This seems like a good time to direct your attention to
an artistic take on a Nixie clock
. | 8 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "1014693",
"author": "Michael",
"timestamp": "2013-06-10T14:29:30",
"content": "Is this a C-Control I see there?This board was my “entry drug” into microcontroller programming and was programmed using Basic. Did not know that people are still using it!",
"parent_id": null,
"d... | 1,760,376,531.00165 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/06/10/learning-letters-particularly-r-f-i-d/ | Learning Letters, Particularly R, F, I, & D | Brian Benchoff | [
"Raspberry Pi"
] | [
"bluetooth",
"raspberry pi",
"rfid",
"toddler",
"toy"
] | After [yohanes] picked up a toy at a yard sale – a Leap Frog Letter Factory Phonics – he thought he could do better. The toy originally asked a child to find a letter, and after digging one of 26 plastic characters out of a plastic tub and placing them on the Letter Factory’s sensor, would play a short musical ditty.
[yohanes]’ version does the same
, but because he made it himself it is infinitely more expandable.
The letters for [yohanes]’ version
are RFID tagged
. This, combined with a cheap
RFID module
and a bluetooth module means a Raspberry Pi can read RFID cards from across the room. From there, it’s a simple matter of writing up some Python to ask his toddler for a letter, reading the bits coming from a bluetooth, and keeping score.
The build isn’t over by a long shot. [yohanes] still needs to make his build multilingual by adding Indonesian and Thai. There’s also a possibility of adding a spelling game to make it more interesting. | 12 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "1014649",
"author": "bernd",
"timestamp": "2013-06-10T11:25:38",
"content": "i’ve worked on a product which basically does the same (but got developed in cooperation with neuroscientists -> trying to pay attention to “how does a childs brain learn”)",
"parent_id": null,
"dep... | 1,760,376,532.769647 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/06/09/hackaday-links-sunday-june-9th-2013/ | Hackaday Links: Sunday, June 9th, 2013 | Mike Szczys | [
"Hackaday links"
] | [
"eeg",
"LED cube",
"light painting",
"nixie",
"snes",
"star trek",
"tail light"
] | This week we saw an interesting
animated motorcycle tail light
over on
Reddit
. But there wasn’t really enough background to get its own feature.
The NeuroKnitting project captures brainwaves by
weaving them into a scarf
.
On Semiconductor is
showing off an 8x8x8 LED cube
which they claim as 12,000 LEDs. We can’t figure out where all those LEDs are used in the design, but maybe you can. Here’s one that we
know
has 4096 LEDs in its matrix
.
[Jeff] used hard drive platters as the disc section of
his original Enterprise desk model
.
Play around with
an SNES controller and Arduino
by following [Damon’s] guide.
Hackaday Alum [Jeremy Cook] posted
an update of his laser graffiti project
. His earlier effort
used camera tricks
to capture the image but this time around he’s exciting phosphorescent glow material to make a persistent display visible to the human eye.
This server hides in plain sight after being
wrapped in a hard cover book binding
. Hopefully this won’t cause heat dissipation problems.
[Trumpkin] built
his own Nixie tube wristwatch
which we think has the potential to be as neat as
the one [Woz] wears
. | 25 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "1014435",
"author": "VimTo",
"timestamp": "2013-06-09T21:06:36",
"content": "I count a 16x16x16 cube, so tri colour is over 12k LED. I think they rushed the post… ‘LED Bulbs’ ???",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1014450",
... | 1,760,376,532.832566 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/06/12/telegraph-sounder-clicks-out-email-messages/ | Telegraph Sounder Clicks Out Email Messages | Mike Szczys | [
"Radio Hacks",
"Raspberry Pi"
] | [
"email",
"morse code",
"osh park",
"RPi",
"sounder",
"telegraph"
] | [Patrick Schless] is excited to show off the project he took on about nine months ago. After finding an antique telegraph sounder he wired it up to an Arduino to see if he could make it tick. The successful experiment laid the ground work for different hardware that would make it into
a morse code email reader
.
He doesn’t know much about the background of the old hardware, but driving it is relatively simple. It’s basically a magnetic relay so you need to have a transistor for switching and a flyback diode for protection. Once those components are in place it’s just a matter of toggling a bit. [Patrick] knew he wanted to pull messages from an online source, so he set his Arduino aside and grabbed a Raspberry Pi. It worked like a charm. His plan was to put this on a bookshelf in perpetuity so he went the extra mile, designing his own PCB and having it spun using the OSH Park service. The project is finished with this low-profile laser-cut base which houses all of the electronics.
Now if he wants to respond to his emails in Morse code
he needs to build this keyboard
. | 7 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "1015326",
"author": "Hirudinea",
"timestamp": "2013-06-12T13:40:38",
"content": "-. . .- –",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1015339",
"author": "HackerK",
"timestamp": "2013-06-12T14:40:34",
"content": ".–. — .. -. – ... | 1,760,376,533.140999 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/06/11/giving-an-rc-tank-a-fire-control-computer/ | Giving An RC Tank A Fire Control Computer | Brian Benchoff | [
"Arduino Hacks",
"Toy Hacks"
] | [
"arduino",
"fire control computer",
"rc",
"RC tank",
"remote control"
] | [Vincent] plays around with remote control tanks, and even though his current model is a WWII-era armor piece, he’d still like modern accoutrements such as a fire control computer and laser sighting for his main gun. His latest project
did just that
(French,
Google translation
) with the help of an Arduino, a few modifications to the receiver, and an IR rangefinder.
The stock RC tank includes servos to move the turret and the requisite electronics to fire an Airsoft gun. The precision of the mechanical movements inside the turret weren’t very precise, though, so [Vincent] had to gear down the servos to turn large movements into slight adjustments. After that, he installed an IR rangefinder and laser diode onto the barrel that allowed the gun to sight a target and read its distance.
After some experimentation with the rangefinder and laser, [Vincent] plotted data from firing a few BBs at a whole bunch of distances and targets. The graph came out fairly linear, and after plugging this into a graphing calculator, he was able to find an equation that took into account the distance and angle so the Arduino-powered fire control computer would hit its mark.
The accuracy of the gun is very impressive, all things considered. [Vincent] is able to accurately fire BBs downrange and hit an 8×12 cm target at five meters. You can check out that action below.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lrbta4zqUyA&w=520] | 29 | 13 | [
{
"comment_id": "1015205",
"author": "polossatik",
"timestamp": "2013-06-11T23:25:02",
"content": "And another arduino rant coming…Anyway, nicely done, that tank looks like a nice chassis to play with",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1015214",
... | 1,760,376,532.996367 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/06/11/building-a-wifi-enabled-nixie-counter/ | Building A WiFi Enabled Nixie Counter | Mike Szczys | [
"Microcontrollers"
] | [
"Electric Imp",
"nixie",
"socket",
"wifi"
] | [Kevin Ballard] built this Nixie counter on the company dime. Tubes like this are getting more and more difficult to find since they’re no longer being manufactured. But when the Bossman hands you a corporate credit card those kinds of concerns take a back seat to your parts-shopping impulses. Start to finished
this WiFi enabled counter
took six weeks to build.
Connecting the board to the internet was very easy thanks to the Electric Imp that drives it. The difficult part comes in building a driver board and sockets for the tubes. We don’t see a lot of detail on how he’s generating the high voltage. But you can get a good feel for the tube connectors from the picture. He’s using an adapter PCB from
Kosbo
which breaks the tube pins out to two rows of 0.1″ pitch pin headers. The acrylic base has a port for each made of pin sockets spaced by a thick chunk of acrylic. Wiring harnesses wrap around the back side of the base to mate with the driver hardware. It’s programmed to count some type of company metric (it was funded by the corporation after all). They must be fairly successful because those numbers are flying by in the demo video.
[via
Reddit
] | 13 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "1015172",
"author": "Alex Rossie",
"timestamp": "2013-06-11T21:18:13",
"content": "This article is one of the few where you see the title go downstairs pick up a beer and peruse the article you just know you wont be disappointed.Great work.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
... | 1,760,376,533.194159 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/06/11/3d-printed-hand-cranked-digital-computer/ | 3D Printed Hand-cranked Digital Computer | Mike Szczys | [
"3d Printer hacks",
"computer hacks"
] | [
"digital computer",
"electromechanical",
"punch card"
] | What a beautiful thing it is to see this digital computer in action. [Chris Fenton] did an amazing job of
designing and printing this mechanical digital computer
. If you’re interested in one to call your own
check out the source files
he published this week.
[Chris’] design inspiration came from some research into Victorian Era mechanical looms. He adjusted the concept to build a punch card reader, starting with a capacity of three holes and moving to this design which can read ten holes. It provides just enough bits to address all three of the counters pictured above. Program the computer by inserting a punch card that is the size of a business card and crank away. The video below shows the process from afar… hopefully he’ll post a follow-up video with closer views of each piece in action.
This isn’t his first basic computing machine. Check out
the electromechanical version
from last year.
[Thanks Maarten] | 17 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "1015135",
"author": "Mathew Brunning (@ByteTripper)",
"timestamp": "2013-06-11T19:08:34",
"content": "Wouldn’t this technically be Analog…?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1015161",
"author": "nebulous",
"times... | 1,760,376,533.299573 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/06/11/arc-reactor-replica-could-have-been-crafted-in-a-cave/ | Arc Reactor Replica Could Have Been Crafted In A Cave | Mike Szczys | [
"Wearable Hacks"
] | [
"arc reactor",
"costume",
"iron man",
"replica"
] | Following in the footsteps of [Tony Stark]
this Arc Reactor replica
was hand crafted using almost no power tools. From what we can tell in his build gallery, a cordless drill was his only departure from using pure elbow grease.
[DJ Maller] started his build by cutting out a disc of acrylic for the base plate. While we might have reached for a hole saw, he grabbed a framing square and laid out a center point and square cuts on the stock. Kudos for his use of an awl (we often take the Luddite approach of hammer and nail) to make an impression for his compass point to rest in. After using a coping saw to rough out the shape he sands the round up to the line with the drill and a sanding wheel.
After drilling holes and inserting LEDs he begins to build up the replica piece by piece. What looks like a recessed handle for a sliding closet doors makes up the center. The spring-like copper coils was produced by wrapping wire around a pen then stretching to the desired shape. He added a bicycle spoke wrench wrapped with copper for some additional visual appeal before finishing the decoration off with some storm door clips.
[via
Reddit
] | 0 | 0 | [] | 1,760,376,532.715582 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/06/11/an-interview-with-shapeways/ | An Interview With Shapeways | Brian Benchoff | [
"3d Printer hacks"
] | [
"3d printer",
"interviews",
"shapeways"
] | It seems [Andrew] is an up and coming historian for the world of 3D printing. We’ve seen him
interview the creator of Slic3r
, but this time around he’s headed over to Eindhoven, Netherlands
to interview the community manager for Shapeways
, [Bart Veldhuizen].
Unlike the RepRaps, Ultimkers, and Makerbots, Shapeways is an entirely different ecosystem of 3D printing. Instead of building a machine that requires many hours of tinkering, you can just upload a model and have a physical representation delivered to your door in a week. You can also upload
objects for others to buy
. Despite these competing philosophies, [Bart] doesn’t see Shapeways as encroaching on the homebrew 3D printers out there; they serve different markets, and competition is always good.
Unfortunately, [Andrew] wasn’t allowed to film on the Shapeways factory floor. Proprietary stuff and whatnot, as well as a few certain ‘key words’ that will speed your customer support request up to the top of the queue.
As for how Shapeways actually produces hundreds of objects a day, [Andrew] learned that individual orders are made in batches, with several customer’s parts made in a single run. While most of the parts made by Shapeways are manufactured in-house, they do outsource silver casting after making the preliminary positive mold.
As for the future, a lot of customers are asking about mixed media, with plastic/nylon combined with metal being at the top of the list. It’s difficult to say what the future of 3D printing will be, but [Bart] makes an allusion to cell phones from 10 years ago. In 2003, nobody had smartphones, and now we have an always-on wireless Internet connection in our pockets. Given the same rate of technological progress, we can’t wait to see what 3D printing will be like in 10 years, either. | 11 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "1015103",
"author": "Brendan Sleight",
"timestamp": "2013-06-11T17:29:56",
"content": "Bart is cool guy. Met him at the London shapeways meet-up. (He is big in Blender). I see Shapeways definitely fitting in to the hacker culture. Sometime you need a part in metal to fix something o... | 1,760,376,533.098993 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/06/11/giving-toys-an-electronic-voice/ | Giving Toys An Electronic Voice | Brian Benchoff | [
"digital audio hacks",
"hardware",
"Toy Hacks"
] | [
"attiny",
"attiny2313",
"audio",
"digital audio",
"pwm"
] | Whether it’s a Furby or Buzz Lightyear’s button that plays, ‘To infinity and beyond’, most digital audio applications inside toys are actually simple affairs. There’s no Arduino and wave shield, and there’s certainly no Raspi streaming audio from the Internet. No, the audio inside most toys are one or two chip devices capable of storing about a minute or so of audio. [makapuf] built an electronic board game for his kids, and in the process decided to
add some digital audio
. The result is very similar to what you would find in an actual engineered product, and is simple enough to be replicated by just about anyone.
[makapuf]’s game is based on
Game of the Goose
, only brought into the modern world with electronic talking dice. An ATtiny2313 was chosen for the microcontroller and an
AT45D
4 Megabit Flash module provided the storage for 8 bit/8khz audio.
The electronic portion of the game has a few functions. The first is calling out numbers, which is done by playing recordings of [makapuf] reading, ‘one’, ‘two’, ‘three’, … ‘twelve’, ‘thir-‘, ‘teen’ and so on. This data is pumped out over a pin on the ATtiny through a small amplifier and into a speaker. After that, the code is a simple matter of keeping track of where the players are on the board, keeping score, and generating randomish numbers.
It’s an exceptional exercise in engineering, making a quite complicated game with a bare minimum of parts. [makapuf] estimated he spent under $4 in parts, so if you’re looking to add digital audio to a project on the cheap, we can’t imagine doing better.
You can see a video of [makapuf]’s project after the break. | 20 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "1015089",
"author": "Not-Butthurt Bert",
"timestamp": "2013-06-11T16:44:54",
"content": "umaduino?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1015091",
"author": "Anonymous",
"timestamp": "2013-06-11T16:53:17",
"content": "Save... | 1,760,376,533.252393 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/06/08/raspberry-pi-used-to-build-a-smart-television/ | Raspberry Pi Used To Build A Smart Television | Mike Szczys | [
"home entertainment hacks",
"Raspberry Pi"
] | [
"google tv",
"node.js",
"RPi",
"smart television"
] | In the title of his post [Donald Derek] calls this a Google TV you can build yourself. That’s certainly an over-reach. But the project is still a very impressive
smart television built using a Raspberry Pi
.
The open source project starts with the Rasbian OS, an RPi version of Debian Linux. Functionality is built up by installing Chromium to display webpages, a script to download YouTube videos, and OMXPlayer to play videos including 1080P HD content. The image above shows the smart phone controller for the system. This is provided by a Node.js configuration that manages communication between the remote and the RPi board.
On the one hand we love that this is open source. On the other, it’s not going to be able to tap into a lot of the content which makes a Google TV so valuable. For instance, you won’t be able to watch Netflix because that service doesn’t work on Linux systems. But you should be able to watch browser-based content like Hulu. | 20 | 13 | [
{
"comment_id": "1014081",
"author": "polossatik",
"timestamp": "2013-06-08T19:14:19",
"content": "Not sure if downloading youtube movies before playing is so handy,but at least kudos for the nice write up, it will be handy for some poeple.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
... | 1,760,376,533.048266 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/06/08/wireless-unread-email-counter-tells-you-how-busy-youre-not/ | Wireless Unread Email Counter Tells You How Busy You’re Not | Brian Benchoff | [
"Microcontrollers",
"Network Hacks",
"Wireless Hacks"
] | [
"email",
"Gmail",
"un"
] | One of the marks of how busy you are – or how well your spam filters are set up – is how many unread emails you have in your inbox. [trumpkin] over on Instructables posted a great tutorial for
making a wireless counter that displays the number of unread emails
in your Gmail account.
[trumpkin] used a tiny and inexpensive 419 MHz transmitter and receiver combo to make this project work. On his desktop, he wired up a USB to UART bridge attached to the transmitter. For the receiver side, an ATMega328 reads the data coming off the receiver and displays the number of unread emails on two seven-segment displays.
The wireless device runs off of two AA batteries and should provide enough power to keep the email monitor running for a long time. More than enough time for your inbox to fill up and for you to become overwhelmed with the work you should be doing. | 12 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "1014068",
"author": "Peter Lissen",
"timestamp": "2013-06-08T17:50:37",
"content": "Most Nixie version is here:http://store.curiousinventor.com/blog/nixie-tube-gmail-unread-mail-count-notifier",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "101... | 1,760,376,533.35426 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/06/08/3d-mapping-of-rooms-again/ | 3D Mapping Of Rooms, Again | Brian Benchoff | [
"Kinect hacks"
] | [
"3D mapping",
"3d scanning",
"Kinect",
"Kintinuous"
] | Last year we saw what may be the coolest application of a Kinect ever. It was called Kintinuous,
and it’s back again
, this time as Kintinuous 2.0, with new and improved features.
When we
first learned of Kintinuous
, we were blown away. The ability for a computer with a Kinect to map large-scale areas has applications as diverse as Google Street View, creating custom Counter-Strike maps, to archeological excavations. There was one problem with the Kintinuous 1.0, though: scanning a loop would create a disjointed map, where the beginning and end of a loop would be in a different place.
In
the video for Kintinuous 2.0
, you can see a huge scan over 300 meters in length with two loops automatically stitched back into a continuous scan. An amazing feat, especially considering the computer is processing seven million vertices in just a few seconds.
Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like there will be an official distribution of Kintinuous 2.0 anytime soon. The paper for this Kintinuous is still under review, and there are ‘issues’ surrounding the software that don’t allow an answer to the if and when question of release. Once the paper is out, though, anyone is free to reimplement it, and we’ll gladly leave that as an open challenge to our readers.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D3yYjaLmiqU&w=580] | 19 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "1014036",
"author": "acadien",
"timestamp": "2013-06-08T15:40:48",
"content": "I can imagine something like this would be useful for crime scene investigators.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1014117",
"author": "Haku"... | 1,760,376,533.404641 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/06/08/usb-infrared-receiver-looks-good-sitting-in-your-livingroom/ | USB Infrared Receiver Looks Good Sitting In Your Livingroom | Mike Szczys | [
"Microcontrollers"
] | [
"18f2553",
"enclosure",
"flash light",
"ir receiver",
"pic"
] | The problem with building your own electronics for the living room is that the final product may not fit your decorating style. This was true with [Itay’s] prototype of a
universal USB IR receiver
. So after testing it out for a few weeks he decided to build a final version that started by selecting an enclosure he could be proud of.
He came across an LED flash light at the dollar store which has an aluminum body. When we read about this we envisioned a cheap version of a Mag Light from which he removed the cylinder that holds the batteries. But actually, the pod seen above is the entire flashlight (with an added base). It forced him to design a tiny surface mount PCB to fit everything inside.
It’s not too much of a stretch since
IR receivers tend to be small
anyway. [Itay’s] design put a PIC 18F2553 on one side of the board. The other side hosted the through hole components: an IR receiver, LED for feedback, and the connections for the USB cable that exit through the rubber button cover that used to switch the flashlight on. He had a problem with one of the resistor values which took a while to figure out. But eventually he got it working. It’s been in use now for six months. | 7 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "1014016",
"author": "steaky",
"timestamp": "2013-06-08T13:20:38",
"content": "You learn more when something doesnt work, than when it works first time, but its awesome that he didnt give up.Regarding screwing the base into the aluminium case – he really should have used a tap to get... | 1,760,376,533.694872 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/06/08/no-space-in-the-garage-build-a-lamborghini-in-the-basement/ | No Space In The Garage? Build A Lamborghini In The Basement | Brian Benchoff | [
"Transportation Hacks"
] | [] | It took 17 years, but [
Ken Imhoff] finally got the car of his dreams. This isn’t a, ‘go down to the dealership’ situation. No, [Ken]
built a Lamborghini Countach by himself in his basement
.
The build process started off by fabricating a wooden frame to which hand-crafted aluminum panels were attached. The frame of the car was welded out of tubular steel, and slowly, over the course of 17 years, a custom Lamborghini Countach took shape.
When the car was complete, there was one problem left to solve – how do you get a car out of a basement? Rent a backhoe and knock out a wall, of course. Replacing a few cinder blocks in a properly reinforced wall is a lot easier than cutting a Lambo chassis in half, it seems.
It’s an amazing piece of artistry that is a testament to [Ken]’s skill in metalworking, welding, and pretty much any other skill we can think of. | 5 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "1038178",
"author": "Pouncer",
"timestamp": "2013-06-08T13:17:49",
"content": "Would be interesting to know the financial costs involved. Parts, materials, what he considers his labor costs and compare that to purchasing an authentic one. Then of course cost of digging it out of h... | 1,760,376,533.840027 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/06/07/embedded-solution-for-uploading-webcam-pictures-to-the-cloud/ | Embedded Solution For Uploading Webcam Pictures To The Cloud | Mike Szczys | [
"digital cameras hacks",
"Linux Hacks"
] | [
"bash",
"carambola2",
"cloud",
"dropbox",
"webcam"
] | We have friends watch the cats when we go out-of-town. But we always leave a server running with a webcam (motion activated using the Linux “motion” software) so we can check in on them ourselves. But this project may inspire a change. It leverages the features of
a Carambola2 to capture images and upload them to Dropbox
.
In the picture above the green PCB is a development board for the tiny yellow PCB which is the actual Carambola2. It is soldered on the dev board using the same technique as those
HC-05 Bluetooth modules
. That shielded board includes a Qualcomm SoC running Linux and a WiFi radio. The dev board feeds it power and allows it connect to the USB webcam.
There’s a bit of command line kung-fu to get everything running but it shouldn’t be out of reach for beginners. Linux veterans will know that taking snapshots from a webcam at regular intervals is a simple task. Uploading to a secure cloud storage site is not.
A Bash script
handles the heavy lifting. It’s using the Dropbox Application API so this will not violate their TOS and you don’t have to figure out your own method of authenticating from the command line. | 22 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "1013816",
"author": "Alex Rossie",
"timestamp": "2013-06-07T22:38:37",
"content": "Don’t really see why uploading to a cloud storage site need be difficult but whatever I have a set up similar to this to watch my cat and rabbit when I’m at work.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth":... | 1,760,376,533.902722 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/06/07/ios-keyboard-exploit-allows-brute-force-ipad-lock-screen-attack/ | IOS Keyboard Exploit Allows Brute Force IPad Lock Screen Attack | Mike Szczys | [
"iphone hacks",
"Security Hacks"
] | [
"brute force",
"ios",
"lock screen",
"passcode",
"Teensy 3.0"
] | It’s quite common to have a timed lockout after entering several bad passwords. This simple form of security makes automated brute force attacks unfeasible by ballooning the time it would take to try every possible permutation. The lock screen on iOS devices like iPad and iPhone have this built in. Enter your code incorrectly several times and the system will make you wait 1, 5, 15, and 60 minutes between entries as you keep inputting the wrong code. But there is an exploit that gets around this. [Pierre Dandumont] is showing off
his hardware-based iPad lock screen attack
in the image above.
He was inspired to try this out after reading about
some Mac EFI attacks using the Teensy 3
. That approach used the microcontroller to spoof a keyboard to try every PIN combination possible. By using the camera kit for iPad [Pierre] was able to do the same. This technique lets you connect wired keyboards to the iPad, but apparently not the iPhone. A bluetooth keyboard can also be used. These external keyboards get around the timing lockout associated with the virtual lockscreen keyboard.
We’re of the opinion that this is indeed a security vulnerability. If you forget your passcode you can simply restore the device to remove it. That wipes all of your personal data which can then be loaded from an iTunes backup. Lockscreens are paramount if a device is stolen. They will give you the time you need to change any online credentials which might be remembered by the device. | 19 | 13 | [
{
"comment_id": "1013767",
"author": "Adam",
"timestamp": "2013-06-07T19:15:36",
"content": "Does this also work on the main login screen, or just to disable the device pass code? If it only works in the settings menu, then this has much fewer practical applications.",
"parent_id": null,
"de... | 1,760,376,533.800339 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/06/09/super-cap-powered-blinky-jewelry-charged-by-the-sun-or-usb/ | Super-cap Powered Blinky Jewelry Charged By The Sun Or USB | Mike Szczys | [
"Wearable Hacks"
] | [
"jewelry",
"led",
"opamp",
"pendant",
"solar"
] | We don’t see ourselves wearing these pendants around, but we still enjoyed taking a look at the design. These are just two from a wide range of offerings meant to be worn around and recharged by the sun. But a cloudy day won’t ruing the fun; they can be topped off via USB as well. Parts lists and schematics are included in the assembly Instructables for both
the Owl
and
the Heart
.
[Marty] and [Robin], a brother and sister developement/design team, were showing them off at
the Sector67
hackerspace in Madison, WI. The single integrated circuit used in both is an OpAmp responsible for managing the blinking. The heart board has a calculator-style solar cell which charges that 0.5F supercap. The Owl has just a 0.022F coin-type capacitor and features a different style of solar harvester. The six components around the cap are each individual solar cells. [Marty] told us that they pump out a ton of juice in direct sunlight, outperforming the calculator-style cell. The opposite is true indoors. But as we’ve seen before,
indoor solar harvesting
is a tough game.
Need even more bling around your neck? Check out these
LED matrix pendants
. | 16 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "1014395",
"author": "Pat",
"timestamp": "2013-06-09T19:32:35",
"content": "I was searching for shop with this little calculator sized solar cells, but with no luck. Can anyone tell me, where to get them?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comm... | 1,760,376,533.750172 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/06/09/open-source-plc/ | Open Source PLC | Brian Benchoff | [
"hardware"
] | [
"automation",
"hardware",
"logic controller",
"plc"
] | In industrial applications, controlling relays, servos, solenoids, and the like isn’t just a matter of wiring in an Arduino and plugging in some code. No, for reliable operation you’ll need a PLC – a programmable logic controller – to automate all your hardware. PLCs are usually pretty expensive pieces of hardware, which led [Warwick] to come up with his own. He built two versions,
one large
and
one small
that can handle just about any task thrown at them.
Both devices are powered by an ATMEL SAM7S ARM chip running at 48 MHz. The smaller of the two devices has 10 digital inputs, 4 analog inputs, and 8 digital outputs able to sink 200 mA each. The larger PLC has 22 digital ins, 6 analog ins, and 16 digital outputs. Both of these devices have a ton of connectivity with USB, RS-232 and RS-485 ports
Below you can see the large PLC being used as a barcode scanner and as a strange device using compressed air to levitate a ping-pong ball. There’s also a demo of the smaller PLC lighting up some LEDs.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NI1yIPvMQeM&w=520]
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k1WZWhAmvn0&w=520]
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OlFS3bXI-wQ&w=520] | 60 | 22 | [
{
"comment_id": "1014315",
"author": "homer simpson",
"timestamp": "2013-06-09T16:17:27",
"content": "Now make sure you connect that PLC to the internet. Why ?Because homeland (what is this mother russia?) security saysall PLC’s are connected up so evil “hackers” can access them.How else are they go... | 1,760,376,534.20762 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/06/09/this-week-on-handmade-hackaday/ | This Week On HANDMADE.hackaday | Caleb Kraft | [
"News"
] | [
"candy",
"engine",
"handmade"
] | This week on HANDMADE.hackaday we’ve seen a pretty good variety of skills.
There is the guy who makes tiny running engines by hand.
You might recognize the construction of these triodes.
A Lamborghini built from scratch in someone’s basement.
Making edible works of art from sugar on the streets of china
HANDMADE.hackaday.com is growing quickly. Keep sending in those good tips! We have some videos of our own planned as well, keep an eye out for those! | 7 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "1014313",
"author": "JJ",
"timestamp": "2013-06-09T16:07:25",
"content": "I’ve seen that guy’s work before. As amazing as the craftsmanship is, they don’t run on fuel. They just turn via compressed air. Here is the real thing:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lc6jCGHj6Nc",
"pare... | 1,760,376,533.955775 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/06/09/1200-hours-of-work-results-in-the-smallest-v12-engine/ | 1,200 Hours Of Work Results In The Smallest V12 Engine | Caleb Kraft | [
"Engine Hacks"
] | [
"engine",
"miniature",
"motor"
] | [José Manuel Hermo Barreiro] has spent many many hours crafting these tiny engines from hand. Every single piece is custom made specifically for the engine it is going onto. He has created aircraft engines, car engines, and marine engines that all actually run and are the smallest of their kind in the world.
At one point in this video he stands in a room with several engines lined up, all running smoothly and considers that there are possibly over 15,000 hours of work right there in front of him.
Here’s a video specifically about the 12 cylinder construction.
[Thanks Staskazz] | 41 | 21 | [
{
"comment_id": "1038183",
"author": "Per Jensen",
"timestamp": "2013-06-09T14:32:14",
"content": "Yeah, it’s very nice made, but saying that it runs is s bit of a stretch. It rotates…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1038184",
"author"... | 1,760,376,534.026013 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/06/09/echolocation-pinpoints-where-a-gunshot-came-from/ | Echolocation Pinpoints Where A Gunshot Came From | Mike Szczys | [
"Arduino Hacks",
"digital audio hacks"
] | [
"acoustic location",
"echo location",
"echolocation",
"microphone"
] | [Kripthor] suspected that hunters were getting too near his house. When thinking of a way to quantify this belief he set out to build
a triangulation system based on the sound of gunshots
. The theory behind it is
acoustic location
, which is a specialized type echolocation.
The most common example of echolocation is in Bats, who emit ultrasonic noise and listen for its return (echo) to judge the location of objects. [Kripthor] doesn’t need to generate the sound himself, he just needs to pick it up at different points. The time difference from the three samples can be used to triangulate coordinates as seen in the image above.
He first tried using a PC sound card to collect the samples. The stereo input only provides two channels so he tinkered around with a 555-based multiplexing circuit to sample from three. The circuit noise created was just too great so he transitioned to using an Arduino. The ADC samples from each microphone via an NPN transistor which is used as a simple amplifier.
This brings to mind
a homebrew sonar hack from way back
. | 50 | 12 | [
{
"comment_id": "1014261",
"author": "okowsc",
"timestamp": "2013-06-09T13:18:30",
"content": "is this similar to what some US states apparently do?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1014328",
"author": "matt",
"timestamp": "2013... | 1,760,376,534.406962 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/06/09/ask-hackaday-can-you-steal-a-car-with-a-mini-tesla-coil/ | Ask Hackaday: Can You Steal A Car With A Mini Tesla Coil? | Brian Benchoff | [
"Ask Hackaday",
"lockpicking hacks"
] | [
"emp",
"tesla coil"
] | Last week we caught wind of
a piece from the Today Show
that shows very technically minded thieves stealing cars with a small device. Cops don’t know how they’re doing it, and of course the Today show (and the Hackaday comments) were full of speculation. The top three theories for how these thieves are unlocking car doors are jamming a keyless entry’s ‘lock signal’, a radio transmitter to send an ‘unlock’ code, or a small EMP device touched to the passenger side door to make it unlock.
That last theory – using a small EMP device to unlock a car’s door – got the attention of someone who
builds mini EMP devices
and has used them to
get credits on slot machines
. He emailed us under a condition of anonymity, but he says it’s highly unlikely a mini EMP device would be able to activate the solenoid on a car door.
This anonymous electromagnetic wizard would like to open up a challenge to Hackaday readers, though: demonstrate a miniature EMP device able to unlock an unmodified car door, and you’ll earn the respect of high voltage tinkerers the world over. If you’re successful you could always sell your device to a few criminal interests, but let’s keep things above board here. | 85 | 36 | [
{
"comment_id": "1014227",
"author": "krater",
"timestamp": "2013-06-09T11:19:49",
"content": "Hmmm……I’m not sure that anything he shows isn’t faked…i.e.: I see a flashing fluorescent tube, but i don’t see the left and right end of it.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
... | 1,760,376,534.322194 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/06/08/omniwheel-robot-build-uses-a-bit-of-everything/ | Omniwheel Robot Build Uses A Bit Of Everything | Mike Szczys | [
"Robots Hacks"
] | [
"ATmega168",
"driver",
"omniwheel",
"stepper motor"
] | Machinist, electronics engineer, programmer, and factory worker are all skills you can wield if you take on a project like
building this omniwheel robot
(
translated
).
The omniwheels work in this tripod orientation because they include rollers which turn perpendicular to the wheel’s axis. This avoids the differential issue cause by fixed-position wheels. When the three motors are driven correctly, as shown in the video below, this design makes for the most maneuverable of wheeled robots.
An aluminum plate serves as the chassis. [Malte] milled the plate, cutting out slots for the motor with threaded holes to receive the mounting screws. A few stand-offs hold the hunk of protoboard which makes up the electronic side of the build. The large DIP chip is an ATmega168. It drives the motors via the trio of red stepper motor driver boards which he picked up on eBay.
So far the vehicle is tethered, using a knock-off of a SixAxis style controller. But as we said before, driving the motors correctly is the hard part and he’s definitely solved that problem. | 10 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "1014115",
"author": "Haku",
"timestamp": "2013-06-08T22:24:47",
"content": "Very impressed with how well the omnidirectional control works, I once programmed a Picaxe to control tank tracks by a traditional RC car stick controller (left stick = forward/back, right stick = left/right... | 1,760,376,534.452065 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/06/07/smoothing-pla-printed-parts/ | Smoothing PLA Printed Parts | Brian Benchoff | [
"3d Printer hacks",
"Tech Hacks"
] | [
"3d printer",
"abs",
"PLA",
"smoothing"
] | We’ve seen a few advances in the finishing processes of 3D prints over the last few months that result in some very attractive parts that look like they were injection molded. Smoothing ABS prints is now a necessary skill for anyone looking to produce professional parts, but those of us using PLA for our RepRaps have been left in the cold. After some experimentation, the guys over at protoparadigm have
come up with a way to smooth out those PLA prints
, using the same technique and a chemical that’s just as safe as acetone.
Instead of acetone, the guys at protoparadigm are using tetrahydrofuran, or THF, as a solvent for PLA. Other PLA solvents aren’t friendly to living organisms or are somewhat hard to obtain. THF has neither of these qualities; you still need to use it in a well ventilated area with nitrile gloves, but the same precautions when using acetone or MEK still apply. It’s also easy to obtain, as well: you can grab some
on Amazon
, even.
The process for smoothing PLA prints with THF is the same as
smoothing ABS prints
with acetone. Just suspend the print in a glass container, pour in a tiny amount of the solvent, and (gently) heat it. The evaporated solvent will smooth all the ridges out of the print, leaving a shiny and smooth surface. You can, of course, hand polish it by dedicating a lint-free cloth and a pair of gloves to the task. | 40 | 19 | [
{
"comment_id": "1013717",
"author": "Pookie",
"timestamp": "2013-06-07T15:17:56",
"content": "I’m no toxicologist, but speaking as a former chemist, THF is about an order of magnitude more toxic than acetone or MEK. Sure, it’s no Benzene, but I’d rather if my metabolic pathways didn’t have that as ... | 1,760,376,534.606943 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/06/07/apple-magsafe-protocol-hacking/ | Apple MagSafe Protocol Hacking | Mike Szczys | [
"Mac Hacks"
] | [
"1-wire",
"arduino",
"ds2413",
"magsafe"
] | [Ken Shirriff] was interested in how the Apple MagSafe works. Specifically he wanted to know what controlled the LED on the connector itself so he tore one open to see what is inside. There’s a chip present and he didn’t waste time figuring out
how the MagSafe communication protocol works
.
The DS2413 chip he found on the MagSafe’s tiny little PCB has just six pins. Two of these control a pair of LEDs, which give the indicator its color range. Another pin is used for 1-wire communications. When polled the charger will return a 64-bit identification number that includes a variety of information. [Ken] looks into what data is offered from several different models of charger by using the Arduino setup above. But the results are not entirely straight-forward as he discusses in his article. The 1-wire protocol is also used to switch the LEDs. This process is the responsibility of the computer being charged, but [Ken] shows how the colors can be cycled using an Arduino (with a couple of 9-volts as a source instead of a connection to mains). | 4 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "1013700",
"author": "dustin evans (@dl_evans)",
"timestamp": "2013-06-07T13:58:28",
"content": "Great work, Ken. I still visit your site whenever I do anything with an IR LED.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1013721",
"autho... | 1,760,376,534.48936 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/06/07/the-construction-of-an-electrode-by-hand/ | The Construction Of An Triode, By Hand | Caleb Kraft | [
"classic hacks"
] | [
"triode",
"tube"
] | [Claude Paillard] is truly talented. He makes triodes by hand. This is a long and arduous process that has many steps, each of which could be messed up pretty easily. [Claude] makes it look easy though.
You might recognize this from way back in 2009
when we covered it on hackaday.com
[thanks for the tip David] | 14 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "1038164",
"author": "John Craker",
"timestamp": "2013-06-07T13:49:26",
"content": "THAT my friends is a lesson in patience, and diverse skills. Major respect.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1038165",
"author": "Doug",
"... | 1,760,376,534.536579 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/06/06/alarm-clock-uses-raspberry-pi-to-poll-google-calendar/ | Alarm Clock Uses Raspberry Pi To Poll Google Calendar | Mike Szczys | [
"clock hacks",
"google hacks",
"Raspberry Pi"
] | [
"alarm clock",
"python",
"RPi"
] | We know a lot of people love using their smart phone as a bedside alarm clock. The problem is that a mobile phone is mobile by nature and eventually you’ll forget to put it in the bedroom one night. That’s why we like the solution that [Devon Bray] has chosen. He set up his Raspberry Pi as
an alarm clock that is set using Google Calendar
.
The setup which he shows off in his video is quite simple. The Raspberry Pi is connected to a set of powered computer speakers. It plays a song whenever an appointment called “wake” comes up on his Google Calendar. This is accomplished by using the
Google Data APIs Python Client Library
(isn’t that a mouthful?).
This only scratches the surface of what is possible. With this in place you could easily add LEDs to the room for
a sunrise alarm
. But if you’d prefer a more bare-bones hardware side of things
that’s possible too
. | 19 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "1013496",
"author": "Christian St. Cyr",
"timestamp": "2013-06-06T21:28:34",
"content": "Forget to put it in the bedroom? Clearly a Millennial did not write this because we go to sleep and wake up to our smartphones.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
... | 1,760,376,534.662389 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/06/06/sliding-gopro-rig-for-timelapse/ | Sliding Gopro Rig For Timelapse | Caleb Kraft | [
"Lifehacks"
] | [] | This week I released a
project for LIFE. involving a timelapse rig
.
After seeing this super simple
timelapse egg timer we had earlier this week
, I wanted to have a try at doing a “no tools required” rig for moving timelapse. I used an egg timer to pull it along a table. It wasn’t perfect but it worked. Admittedly not as well as if I had just pulled out a teensy and a geared motor, but still ok. | 9 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "1013488",
"author": "Dan",
"timestamp": "2013-06-06T20:54:57",
"content": "Excellent simple idea for the egg timer! I saw the Lego cart and right away my mind got to thinking of Lego Escapements and weights",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"com... | 1,760,376,534.7913 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/06/06/hacking-the-r-390a-military-shortwave-radio-receiver-to-transmit-as-well/ | Hacking The R-390A Military Shortwave Radio Receiver To Transmit As Well | Mike Szczys | [
"Radio Hacks"
] | [
"military",
"R-390A",
"receiver",
"shortwave",
"transeiver"
] | After getting his hands on this relic [Gregory Charvat] manage to hack it,
converting the receiver into a transceiver
.
It may be old, but
the R-390A
is nothing to scoff at. It’s abilities include AM, code, and FSK operation from 500 kHz to 32 MHz. But it is a receiver with no way of transmitting on the same bands. This is where [Gregory’s] hack comes into play. He rerouted the variable-frequency oscillator feed inside of the R-390A in order to use his 20M single-sideband unit. Basically what this does is allow him to control everything from the 390, using the microphone from the SSB — along with some switching hardware — to transmit his own messages.
His demo video starts with him making a few contacts using the hacked equipment. He then spends some time at the whiteboard explaning the changes. This portion went over our heads, but it becomes more clear when he cracks open the case and shows the actual modifications. | 12 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "1013466",
"author": "Tom Krueger",
"timestamp": "2013-06-06T19:15:51",
"content": "Hey, they did that on an episode of Gilligan’s Island.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1013691",
"author": "Jerry Tremble",
"ti... | 1,760,376,534.838659 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/06/06/sugar-painting-street-vendors-make-works-of-edible-art/ | Sugar Painting: Street Vendors Make Works Of Edible Art | Caleb Kraft | [
"cooking hacks"
] | [
"candy",
"sugar"
] | Street vendors can sometimes show the best examples of refined skill. These street vendors in China have carved out a niche with a very specific type of candy. They pour heated sugar in various shapes and designs, then put it on a stick for your consumption. It doesn’t sound that impressive, but watch these videos and see the skill they show. As with many street vendors, you can tell these people have done this 10,000 times and the muscle memory could almost carry them on autopilot.
I would be happy to support street vendors like this.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=239GSmRW9XY | 4 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "1038160",
"author": "MEGA",
"timestamp": "2013-06-09T15:54:04",
"content": "5 Chinese Yuan = 0.82 US DollarIt took 5 – 6 minutes to produce one. Assuming 100% production, that’s $8 – $9 / hour. Minus fuel, sugar costs.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
... | 1,760,376,534.880203 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/06/06/making-a-bow-from-scratch/ | Making A Bow From Scratch | Brian Benchoff | [
"Uncategorized",
"Weapons Hacks"
] | [
"bow",
"weapon"
] | With Hackaday’s new handmade category we have the option of covering a wide range of builds – everything from jet engines designed on paper and built on manual machines, to old-world crafts made with the most primitive tools. This time, we’ll be looking at
making a longbow from scratch
, the work of [Billy Berger], a project that covers everything from selecting a tree to tillering a bow to make the best possible weapon.
European-inspired longbows are usually constructed out of yew, but in [Billy]’s native east Texas yew is a little hard to come by. He eventually selected a small Osage orange tree for his bow, stripped the bark, split the log, and started crafting his handmade bow.
The most important part of making a bow is ensuring the back of the bow consists of only one growth ring. With a drawknife, [Billy] carefully planed down the back of the bow so only one of the tree’s growth rings was visible, then began shaping the belly and sides of the bow.
Wood is a natural material, and when freshly cut contains a lot of moisture. As [Billy] was working on his bow, some of the moisture left his piece of Osage, leading to some twists and turns in the lumber. There’s a solution to this that mankind has been doing for millennia – fire bending the wood. By covering the wood in some sort of animal fat ([Billy] used olive oil), you can hold a piece of wood over a small frame without scorching. Using the crook of a tree as a vice, [Billy] twisted the wood, giving him a perfectly straight bow.
There’s an amazing amount of work that went into this bow, not surprising given that [Billy] is only using hand tools and primitive woodworking methods. Still, the completed bow is a work of art and a masterpiece of craftsmanship. You can check out all four parts of [Billy]’s demo below.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6eWDgNrLYps&w=580]
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5e4lVUhBh90&w=580]
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ws-6AU8WZb8&w=580]
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y7UMmtSI3vU&w=580] | 8 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "1038153",
"author": "featheredfrog",
"timestamp": "2013-06-06T14:57:49",
"content": "Hmmm. Not really able to see x-section, but from the limbs I’d guess “flatbow” rather than longbow. Rather cool.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_... | 1,760,376,535.01329 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/06/06/nes-zapper-modified-to-work-with-an-old-nintendo-vs-cabinet/ | NES Zapper Modified To Work With An Old Nintendo VS. Cabinet | Mike Szczys | [
"Nintendo Hacks"
] | [
"arcade",
"coin-op",
"duck hunt",
"nintendo vs",
"zapper"
] | The company which [Eric Wright] works for recently bought a Nintendo VS. It had Ice Climber installed as one of the titles but they asked the vendor if it was possible to swap it out for the Duck Hunt ROM. They had the ROM but not a light gun that would work with the system. [Eric] suggested they buy it with Duck Hunt and
hack an NES Zapper to work with the VS cabinet
.
Let’s take a step back for a moment.
The Nintendo VS
was a coin-operated gaming cabinet you would find in an Arcade. Luckily there’s quite a bit of information about the original hardware on the web. Some research helped him discover that electronically the only difference between the arcade and home versions of the Zapper is that the sensor capture is inverted. This was fixed by replacing a transistor in the gun with a jumper wire. The next challenge was figuring out how to wire the gun up to the second controller port. And finally he patched the ROM to work with the
incorrect PPU
as the right chip was not easily sourced. | 12 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "1013319",
"author": "Jeff",
"timestamp": "2013-06-06T13:46:10",
"content": "Incredibly awesome.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1013429",
"author": "wretch",
"timestamp": "2013-06-06T17:27:30",
"content": "How come I... | 1,760,376,535.103826 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/06/05/ask-hackaday-how-are-these-thieves-exploiting-automotive-keyless-entry/ | Ask Hackaday: How Are These Thieves Exploiting Automotive Keyless Entry? | Mike Szczys | [
"Security Hacks",
"Transportation Hacks"
] | [
"encrypted",
"encryption",
"keyless entry",
"theft",
"thieves"
] | A new attack on automotive keyless entry systems is making headlines and we want to know how you think it’s being done. The Today Show reports that vehicles of different makes and models are
being broken into using keyless entry
on the passenger’s side of the car. It sounds like thieves steal items found inside rather than the vehicles themselves which makes these crimes distinctly different from
the keyless ignition thefts
of a year ago.
So how are they doing this? Here are the clues: The thieves have been filmed entering only the passenger side of the car. They hold a small device in their hand to unlock the doors and disable the alarm. And there is evidence that it doesn’t work on 100% of vehicles they try. Could it be some hidden manufacturer code reset? Has an encryption algorithm been hacked to sniff the keyfob identifier at a previous time? Or do you think we’re completely off track? Let us know your opinion by leaving a comment.
[Thanks Mom] | 368 | 50 | [
{
"comment_id": "1013002",
"author": "Per Jensen",
"timestamp": "2013-06-05T21:08:49",
"content": "The TV programme mentions nothing about if the owner has CHECKED that the car is indeed locked. I would guess the thieves have a jammer, preventing the owner to lock the car, as most people just lock i... | 1,760,376,535.710074 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/06/05/jimmy-the-torch-making-blown-glass/ | [Jimmy The Torch] Making Blown Glass | Caleb Kraft | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"blown glass",
"hot"
] | Skip to about 2:30 if you just want to see the action.
Blowing glass is always so pretty to watch. The warm glow of the glass mixed with the light playing through the cool parts makes for a stunning visual environment, especially when you stop to think about the fact that this is potentially a very dangerous thing as well.
In this video [Jimmy the torch] starts off very conversational. At about 2:30 things shift a bit. Some music starts up, the camera work gets a little more serious, and the real glass blowing begins. | 5 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "1038149",
"author": "Protolamer",
"timestamp": "2013-06-06T00:38:58",
"content": "Ugh, horribly annoying video. Chatter about other things and then artsy-tartsy colors and blur. Worst of all, no shot of the (cool) finished product.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"repli... | 1,760,376,535.056102 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/06/05/plex-hack-runs-apple-tv-without-a-jailbreak/ | Plex Hack Runs Apple TV Without A Jailbreak | Mike Szczys | [
"home entertainment hacks"
] | [
"apple tv",
"plex"
] | Apple has been keeping a tight leash on the third generation of their Apple TV hardware. Not only has it stood up to every attempt at a Jailbreak, but they don’t allow 3rd party applications through the app store like the other iOS hardware does. The second generation hardware was a popular platform for XBMC. It required a jailbreak to load the home media software which is why it can’t be done on the newest box. But here’s an alternative. This hack uses DNS redirects to
make Apple TV 3 a Plex frontend
.
Instead of putting new software on the Apple TV this uses a separate computer to intercept its web traffic. You aim your Apple TV DNS at the computer running the script, then use the native Movie Trailer app, which will be populated with movies and TV shows from your Plex backend. All other functionality will be retained, making for a near-perfect solution. For more info on the system
check out this forum
.
[via
Gigaom
via
Reddit
] | 28 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "1012964",
"author": "Json",
"timestamp": "2013-06-05T19:38:39",
"content": "Uhm, I have to put a pc to feed this device, why don’t I just connect the pc to the tv? I throw a small foxconn pc to the back of our tv’s in our conference rooms and my home and I am done.",
"parent_id"... | 1,760,376,535.411499 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/06/05/whats-up-with-these-subdomains-at-hackaday/ | Whats Up With These Subdomains At Hackaday? | Caleb Kraft | [
"News"
] | [
"news",
"update"
] | We recently added two subdomains to hackaday.com
LIFE.hackaday.com
: learn tips and tricks to make your life better.
HANDMADE.hackaday.com
: Celebrating craftsmanship
We thought we would share our thoughts and goals with these wonderful additions.
Over the years, Hackaday has grown considerably. Hacking has also changed considerably and can mean so very many things. Lets face it though, hackaday is a blog about tech hacking. That’s what you’re here for, and that’s what we want to give you.
We are bursting at the seams with these things that we really want to share with you but aren’t necessarily
tech hacking
. Things like “lifehacks” and amazing videos of extreme skill. We decided that we would be doing a disservice to put all of this on hackaday all the time. We decided that what we should do, is focus hackaday on what it has always been, a tech hacking blog.
We are creating these new areas because we just really love sharing cool things with you. We really want to share them, and we think many of you will enjoy reading them too. We’re basing this off of the number of requests and tips that have fallen into these external categories over the years.
We also hope that this will make long time hackaday readers happy to know that hackaday will be staying focused on the old stuff.
in the future:
We’ve discussed making the main site have ALL the content, and creating a subdomain called TECH that would have the normal hackaday stuff. We all think that this can wait. Right now, we just want to work on getting everything running smoothly while focusing on how all of these changes can
improve
hackaday.com
picture courtesy of
asyrum design
. | 54 | 26 | [
{
"comment_id": "1012814",
"author": "Jordan Earls",
"timestamp": "2013-06-05T13:53:42",
"content": "I think this is probably a good thing. I know that’ll mean overall less content on this portion, but it’ll be of better quality and be something I’m more interested in reading.. though some of the li... | 1,760,376,536.026196 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/06/05/handmade-hackaday-celebrate-craftsmanship/ | HANDMADE.hackaday: Celebrate Craftsmanship | Caleb Kraft | [
"Featured"
] | [
"glass blowing",
"handmade",
"subdomain"
] | Today we are quite excited to announce
HANDMADE.hackaday
. HANDMADE is a place where we celebrate craftsmanship. Usually in the form of a stunning video, or a beautiful image gallery. We will also be sharing extremely detailed DIY projects as well as tutorials. Hop on over and take a peek for yourself to see what you’re in for, but be prepared to clear your schedule, you’re not leaving any time soon.
We are also producing some videos of our own for this that we hope you’ll like.
A personal note:
I am personally so excited about HANDMADE. I’ve been wanting to put this together for a very very long time. I eagerly consume every video of this nature I stumble across, often putting them full screen, high def, and putting in headphones. Any of you who know me personally will attest that getting my full attention on any single thing ever is a daunting task. Also note that these videos usually last
several entire minutes
; a lifetime in my attention span.
Watching people make things, while applying a practiced and refined skill is almost a religious experience for me. This is creation. I hope some of you will enjoy this area as much as I do. | 24 | 15 | [
{
"comment_id": "1012802",
"author": "Ren",
"timestamp": "2013-06-05T13:20:46",
"content": "Go-fer it!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1012804",
"author": "CB4",
"timestamp": "2013-06-05T13:22:36",
"content": "cudo’s for expanding yo... | 1,760,376,535.349592 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/06/05/retrotechtacular-how-i-wrote-pitfall-for-the-atari-2600/ | Retrotechtacular: How I Wrote Pitfall For The Atari 2600 | Mike Szczys | [
"Software Development",
"Software Hacks"
] | [
"activision",
"atari 2600",
"pitfall",
"programming"
] | This week we’re taking another departure from the ordinarily campy videos featured in the Retrotechtacular section. This time around the video is only two years old, but the subject matter is from the early 1980’s. [David Crane], designer of Pitfall for the Atari 2600 gave a talk at the 2011 Game Developer’s Conference.
His 38-minute presentation
rounds up to a full hour with the Q&A afterwards. It’s a bit dry to start, but he hits his stride about half way through and it’s chock-full of juicy morsels about the way things used to be.
[David] wrote the game for Activision, a company that was started after game designers left Atari having been told they were no more important than assembly line workers that assembled the actual cartridges. We wonder if any heads rolled at Atari once Pitfall had spent 64-weeks as the number one worldwide selling game?
This was a developer’s panel so you can bet the video below digs deep into coding challenges. Frame buffer? No way! The 2600 could only pump out 160 pixels at once; a single TV scan line. The programs were hopelessly synced with the TV refresh rate, and were even limited on how many things could be drawn within a single scan line. For us the most interesting part is near the end when [David] describes how the set of game screens are nothing more than a pseudo-random number generator with a carefully chosen seed. But then again, the recollection of hand optimizating the code to fit a 6k game on a 4k ROM is equally compelling.
If you like this you should take a look at
an effort to fix coding glitches in Atari games
.
[via
Reddit
] | 19 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "1012803",
"author": "d",
"timestamp": "2013-06-05T13:21:26",
"content": "Some middle and high school kids asked me what video games did I play as a kid. This was the first one I named. .",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1012... | 1,760,376,535.804996 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/06/05/hacking-high-school-exams-and-foiling-them-with-statistics/ | Hacking High School Exams And Foiling Them With Statistics | Brian Benchoff | [
"Security Hacks"
] | [
"bueler",
"exam",
"high school",
"SAT",
"statistics"
] | A few weeks ago, [Debarghya Das] had two friends eagerly awaiting the results of their High School exit exams, the ISC national examination, taken by 65,000 12th graders in India. This exam is vitally important for each student’s future; a few points determines which university will accept you and which will reject you. One of [Debraghya]’s friends was a little anxious about his grade and asked if it was possible to hack into the board of education’s servers to see the grades before they were posted.
[Debraghya] did just that
, and was able to download the exam records of nearly every student that took the test.. Looking even closer at the data, he also found evidence these grades were changed in some way.
Getting the grades off the CISCE board of education’s servers was very simple; each school has a separate code, and each student is given an individual number. With the simplest javascript magic, [Debraghya] discovered that individual grades could be accessed by pointing a script to /[4 digit school ID]/[3 digit student ID] on the CISCE server. There was absolutely no security here, an impressive oversight indeed.
After writing a small script and running it on a few machines, [Debraghya] had the exam results, names, and national IDs of 65,000 students. Taking a closer look at the data, he plotted all the scores and came up with a very strange-looking graph (seen above). It looked like a hedgehog, when nearly any test with a population this large should be a continuous curve.
[Debraghya] is convinced he’s discovered evidence of grade tampering. Nearly a third of all possible scores aren’t represented in the data, but scores from 94 to 100 are accounted for, making the hedgehog shape of the graph statistically impossible. Of course [Debraghya] only has the raw scores, and doesn’t know exactly how the tests were scored or how they were manipulated. He does know the scores were altered, though, either through normalizing the raw scores or something stranger and more sinister.
While scraping data off an unencrypted server isn’t much of a hack, despite what the news will tell you, we’re awfully impressed with [Debraghya]’s analysis of the data and his ability to blow the whistle and put this data out in the open. Without any information on
how
these scores were changed, it doesn’t really change anything, and we’ll welcome any speculation in the comments. | 99 | 35 | [
{
"comment_id": "1012747",
"author": "0xfred",
"timestamp": "2013-06-05T11:09:12",
"content": "Newsflash: Indian IT quality poor and output untrustworthy. Anyone who’s been involved in outsourcing has known this for a while.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"... | 1,760,376,535.938747 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/06/04/superbly-built-walking-cane/ | Superbly Built Walking Cane | Caleb Kraft | [
"Medical Hacks"
] | [
"cane"
] | This cane is fairly simple, and very beautiful. [Bill Lewey] made this and was nice enough to document the entire process in detail. There are tons of pictures of the build for you to ogle over, from cutting the rough shape all the way to the finish.
I’ve include a few of the images below, but you should really
go to his site for all the details
, you won’t be sorry. | 1 | 1 | [
{
"comment_id": "1038148",
"author": "Anonymous Viper 7",
"timestamp": "2013-06-07T05:37:46",
"content": "Damn, that’s a fine cane.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
}
] | 1,760,376,535.752801 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/06/04/ship-building-in-volgograd/ | Ship Building In Volgograd | Caleb Kraft | [
"Transportation Hacks"
] | [
"boat",
"ship",
"weld"
] | I don’t know if you’d consider this handmade. I don’t know if you’d consider this skilled. I do know you should stop thinking about those things and just watch this stunning video. Molten metal, grungy environments, and hard work are presented here in a fascinating look at how ships are built in Volgograd. | 4 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "1038144",
"author": "Steve Lindsey",
"timestamp": "2013-06-04T23:55:11",
"content": "awesome video",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1038145",
"author": "Caleb Kraft",
"timestamp": "2013-06-05T19:55:25",
... | 1,760,376,536.104703 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/06/04/building-a-treadle-powered-lathe/ | Building A Treadle Powered Lathe | Caleb Kraft | [
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"lathe",
"tools"
] | [Chris] found inspiration in an antique flywheel he found. He decided he was going to construct something with it and began rounding up parts. The flywheel, along with some old sewing machine parts becomes a treadle powered lathe.
There’s something so very cathartic about seeing all the wood chiseled and sawed away. That pile of sawdust just means you’re getting things done! | 6 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "1038138",
"author": "wretch",
"timestamp": "2013-06-05T07:00:32",
"content": "I know this’ been posted to HaD before, but every time I see it I still think he’s going to make a giant pepper grinder.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_i... | 1,760,376,536.068528 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/06/04/how-does-that-ship-get-into-the-bottle/ | How Does That Ship Get Into The Bottle? | Caleb Kraft | [
"Toy Hacks"
] | [
"miniature",
"model"
] | Meet [Ray Gascoigne]. He’s a ship builder. Well, he builds ships in bottles. He’s been doing it for years and years and years and you can see it in his hands. The details are fantastic on the ships, but I really love hearing about the tools. He talks about how much things have changed over the years from having to build your own specialized tiny drill bits from broken needles to being able to just walk right down to the store and buy some.
The part that I found most interesting is this video, as amazingly beautiful as it is, never shows the insertion and erection of a full ship. | 3 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "1038135",
"author": "smee",
"timestamp": "2013-06-06T06:25:39",
"content": "I could watch this all day.If anything I wish I could ask him how his hands are holding up. The wear and tear of frequent precision work combined with age concerns me and my prospects of continuing skill gro... | 1,760,376,536.235774 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/06/04/gopro-panning-time-lapse-with-ikea-egg-timer/ | GoPro Panning Time-lapse With Ikea Egg Timer | Mike Szczys | [
"3d Printer hacks",
"digital cameras hacks"
] | [
"egg timer",
"GoPro",
"panning",
"time-lapse"
] | [Sebastian Schuster’s] weekend project was to turn his GoPro camera into a panning time-lapse rig. You’ll notice it’s in a waterproof case as his demo for the hack was an outdoor session and the weather’s not the best right now. He put this together quickly, easily, and on-the-cheap thanks to
the Ikea egg timer and a 3D printed camera mount
.
An egg timer is
a popular choice for panning hacks
. Any type that includes a dial that spins on the horizontal axis will do. The Ikea Stam egg timer has that raised handle which is easily gripped by the 3D printed part. You can get a hold of the design files through a web service which is new to us. [Sebastian] used
Tinkercad
for the design, and shared it in his project post linked above.
This is just one more tool in his collection of camera hacks. A couple years back we looked at
a motorized pan and tilt platform he built
. | 29 | 13 | [
{
"comment_id": "1012568",
"author": "lasershark",
"timestamp": "2013-06-04T21:18:09",
"content": "“…He put this together quickly… …and a 3D printed camera mount.”a trip to the dollar store would have been quicker.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id... | 1,760,376,536.302444 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/06/04/hand-crafting-a-tuba/ | Hand Crafting A Tuba | Caleb Kraft | [
"Musical Hacks"
] | [
"brass",
"instrument"
] | Brass, beaten and molded can be a thing of beauty. Watch as this craftsman puts together a very nice looking tuba. The tools of the trade in this case are somewhat automated, with that mechanical hammer, but it looks like much of this is still done by hand. | 4 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "1038132",
"author": "Rock Kennedy",
"timestamp": "2013-06-06T14:04:48",
"content": "I like the chem trails at the very beginning. The tuba build was cool too.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1038133",
"author": "Luke"... | 1,760,376,536.391111 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/06/04/automated-aquarium-fertilizer-doser/ | Automated Aquarium Fertilizer Doser | Mike Szczys | [
"Arduino Hacks",
"chemistry hacks"
] | [
"aquarium",
"fertilizer",
"fish tank"
] | If you are using live plants in your aquarium you must remember to fertilize them at regular intervals. Being a bit forgetful, [Deven] automated the process by
building this auto-doser
.
There are three different chemicals which are dispensed by the system. They are stored in the drink bottles seen above. Each has a plastic tube which runs up to the dosing motors mounted on the black box. [Deven] sourced the motors from eBay. They are designed for this type of application.
Inside the black box is the Arduino that handles timing and switches the motors. The control circuitry is protected using one MOSFET for each. To keep the fish safe the outflow is directed right into the aquarium pump so that the concentrated chemicals are quickly dispersed through the entire tank.
Now that he’s made it this far he might as well
add the ability to feed the fish and control the lighting
. | 14 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "1012533",
"author": "Addidis",
"timestamp": "2013-06-04T19:18:55",
"content": "Pretty slick project.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1012537",
"author": "parko",
"timestamp": "2013-06-04T19:30:21",
"content": "I thou... | 1,760,376,536.35305 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/06/04/hackaday-retro-edition-roundup-3/ | Hackaday Retro Edition Roundup | Brian Benchoff | [
"hardware",
"Misc Hacks",
"Tech Hacks"
] | [
"retro",
"retro edition"
] | The
Hackaday retro edition
hasn’t been updated in a while, and for that I am very sorry. Still, digging through my email reveals quite a lot of very cool retro computers that were able to load the retro edition over the Internet, and it would be a terrible shame to let these awesome submissions die in my inbox. Without further adieu, here are the best retro computers that have been sent in over the last few months:
[Scott]
got his Mac SE to load up the retro edition
. This was a chore; after getting a serial connection from his SE to the outside world, [Scott] realized he didn’t have a browser on his retro mac. 800k drives are a pain, it seems. He eventually got everything running in a terminal session, and the retro edition loaded beautifully.
How about
another Mac
? This one is [Raymond]’s Mac II, the first not-all-in-one Macintosh. NuBus Ethernet card, Netscape 2.02, and 26 years of history behind this machine.
Here’s a weird one: it’s a
Siemens interactive display
originally used for a building management display. It has a 10 inch touch screen display at 640×480 resolution and runs Windows CE 5.0. After fiddling with some files, [Nick] managed to get the networking running on this machine and tried to load Google. Anyone who has played around with the class of machines we seen for retro submissions knows what happened next (nothing), but luckily [Nick] remembered Hackaday has a retro site. The rest is history.
[Kyle] has a
really cool box on his hands
. It’s a Compaq 486SX overclocked from 25MHz to 33MHz. 20 Megabytes of RAM, network card, and a Soundblaster 16 make this computer from 1993 a very respectable box for old DOS gaming. It can also browse the web with
Arachne
.
Finally, [cnlohr], the guy who
made his own electron microscope
never mind, he’s still awesome and can
manufacture glass PCBs at home
, found an old green screen CRT while cleaning out a friend’s place. He
hooked it up to one of his glass PCB AVR microcontroller things
and did the usual text terminal fare; ASCII Star Wars with telnet and using lynx to load up the retro site. It’s only a 48-column display, but the retro edition is surprisingly readable. Very cool. | 17 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "1012492",
"author": "Charles",
"timestamp": "2013-06-04T17:08:38",
"content": "I never made an electron microscope! Also, links loads retro.hackaday, telnet loads ascii star wars :-p.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1012514",... | 1,760,376,536.934758 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/06/04/raspi-internet-radio-with-google-music/ | Raspi Internet Radio With Google Music | Brian Benchoff | [
"digital audio hacks",
"Raspberry Pi"
] | [
"google",
"Google Music",
"raspberry pi"
] | It’s not his first Internet radio, but [Matthias]’
modernization of a classic Bakelite radio
is a real, functional piece of art. Not only does it retain the look of an old radio, it also has the capability to listen to streams and his entire MP3 collection through the Internet.
For the software, [Matthias] used jquery to pull down web radio streams and soon figured out how to play all his MP3s through Google Music. This, and a web-based remote for his mobile device, allows the new old-school Internet radio to play everything [Matthias] would ever want to listen to.
The controls for the radio are rotary encoders, with indication provided by a really fabulous numbered LED display (seen above) replacing the 70-year-old tuning dial. These numbers indicate both the current Google Music playlist or the currently playing Internet stream, depending on what mode the selector knob is at.
It’s a beautiful piece of work, and the knobs and dials look like something that could have come from a real 70-year-old radio. That’s a win in our book. | 22 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "1012463",
"author": "mattbed",
"timestamp": "2013-06-04T15:10:49",
"content": "Very similar idea to Raspyfi that ive just got running on a hifi at home.Though his case blows the factory made RPi cases out the water",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
... | 1,760,376,536.880893 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/06/04/hello-world/ | Nikkor Optical Glass | Caleb Kraft | [
"digital cameras hacks"
] | [
"camera",
"lens"
] | Glass work is always a feast for the eyes, especially when it is hot glass. Watch as a Nikkor lens is made from beginning to end. It is wonderful to see the care taken to search by eye for defects, refraction issues, clarity etc. It may just be for the video, but it seems that the workers truly do take pride in their product.
What I found somewhat surprising was the amount of work that went into refining the glass BEFORE it was even put into a lens mold. I would have assumed that much of the work would have come after. | 8 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "1038124",
"author": "wanderer",
"timestamp": "2013-06-05T09:05:49",
"content": "Careful selection of the starting materials and fine control of each process during production is the only good way to achieve any precision manufacturing task with any reasonable reliability. This can b... | 1,760,376,536.765464 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/06/04/dead-simple-jamming-gripper-design/ | Dead Simple Jamming Gripper Design | Mike Szczys | [
"Robots Hacks"
] | [
"balloon",
"coffee grounds",
"gripper",
"jamming"
] | This jamming gripper design
is the simplest we’ve seen so far. It uses a syringe to generate the suction necessary for the orange appendage to grip an object.
As with previous offerings this uses coffee grounds inside of a balloon. When pressed against an object the grounds flow around it. When a vacuum is applied to the balloon those grounds are locked in place, jamming themselves around the item for a firm grip. About a year ago we saw
a hardware-store grade design
which used a vacuum pump for suction and a shower head as the gripper body. This time around the plastic syringe serves as both.
The plastic tip was cut away and the resulting hole covered with a cloth to keep the coffee in place. After installing the coffee-filled balloon the grip can be operated by pulling the plunger to lock the grounds in place. It’s not going to be as easy to automate as a pump-based rig. But if you just want to toy with the concept this is the way to go. | 19 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "1012415",
"author": "Hack Man",
"timestamp": "2013-06-04T13:37:28",
"content": "Buttplug.There, I said it. Now comment on anything else.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1012989",
"author": "Wayno",
"timestamp":... | 1,760,376,536.82179 |
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