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https://hackaday.com/2013/03/23/hacked-interactive-r2d2-controlled-by-raspberry-pi/ | Hacked Interactive R2D2 Controlled By Raspberry Pi | Ryan Fitzpatrick | [
"Raspberry Pi",
"Robots Hacks",
"Toy Hacks"
] | [
"opencv",
"pocketsphinx",
"r2d2",
"rasbian",
"raspberry pi"
] | Ah R2D2. Probably one of the most recognized little robots on the planet. There have to be a hundred different toys of R2 out there, but one of the more impressive is the 30th Anniversary Interactive edition. Complete with all kinds of bells and whistles, it’s about as realistic as they come. One Star Wars fan found himself in possession of a broken Interactive R2, and with his girlfriend’s birthday coming up,
decided to do a little droid surgery to create the ultimate gift
.
Giving Anakin a run for his money, all the controls for this R2 unit were custom built. A Raspberry Pi running Rasbian acts as the brain. Facial recognition was implemented using
OpenCV
. Voice commands in either English or Chinese were made possible by
PocketSphinx
. Some of the other features he included are: message recording and playback, ultrasonic distance detection, motion detection, wifi, and a rechargeable battery. Many of those features
were
included in the original toy, but since this unit was broken, had to be rebuilt from scratch.
In the end, it must have impressed his girlfriend – she’s now his wife. Good work Jedi. Check out some build photos and a video demonstration after the break. | 2 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "985708",
"author": "RandomReader",
"timestamp": "2013-03-28T11:06:04",
"content": "Just Pure awsome! :Dtho i do wonder why we dont see robot ATAT’s being built, they have got to be easyer?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1018042... | 1,760,376,575.121557 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/03/23/lifepo4-batteries-work-much-better-in-a-camera-than-nimh/ | LiFePO4 Batteries Work Much Better In A Camera Than NiMH | Mike Szczys | [
"green hacks"
] | [
"aa",
"battery",
"camera",
"canon",
"LiFePO4"
] | We agree with [Zapmaker] that Canon cameras chew through nickel metal hydride batteries. But we’re not going to use Alkaline because we think it’s wasteful. His solution is to use a battery that has a higher voltage rating. What you see here is
a single lithium iron phosphate cell paired with a dummy cell
to increase life between charges.
The reason that NiMH batteries don’t last very long is that they’re only rated at 2.4V. It won’t take long for that voltage to drop below the camera’s cutoff threshold since they didn’t start very high to begin with. But a single LiFePO4 cell has the same form-factor but produces 3.2V and maintains voltage well through it’s discharge cycle.
The size is right, but using one cell won’t work by itself. He built a filler for the other slot which is just a wood dowel with a screw all the way through it. The point was ground down and a bit of foil added to ensure a proper connection. We’d be interested to hear back about how this performs over the long term. | 13 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "983553",
"author": "Adobe/Flash hater",
"timestamp": "2013-03-23T22:15:35",
"content": "I have owned a sx-120 and a sx-130,have always used rechargeables in themThe 130 was a battery hog compared to the 120.The cells were always disturbingly hot when removed from the 130.I’ve found ... | 1,760,376,575.434705 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/03/28/centerpieces-for-a-geeky-wedding/ | Centerpieces For A Geeky Wedding | Brian Benchoff | [
"LED Hacks"
] | [
"laser cut",
"led",
"sihouette cameo",
"wedding"
] | [Bill Porter] is a married man now, and evidently his new wife, [Mara], is awesome. They put together one of the geekiest weddings that included
custom side-lit LED centerpieces
.
Instead of laser engraving the dozens of plastic panels for each centerpiece, [Bill] tricked [Mara]’s
Silhouette Cameo
home vinyl cutter – the same one they
made their invitations with
– into engraving acrylic panels. They’re made out of very thin plastic, but the fact that the couple were able to snap apart the engraved plasic after putting sheets though the machine is very impressive for something that’s generally used for scrapbooking.
As for the base of each centerpiece, [Bill] whipped up a few enclosures on his 3D printer and built a few battery packs out of 18650 lithium ion cells. The nine LEDs in each base were leftovers from a previous project involving LED strips, perfectly suited to run for a few hours in a reception hall.
It’s a great build for a wonderful occasion, and we’re really impressed with the plastic cutting ability of the Sihouette Cameo. Very nice work there. | 17 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "985742",
"author": "Jonas",
"timestamp": "2013-03-28T12:40:17",
"content": "Weding-shweding, I want that on my desck.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "985745",
"author": "Matt",
"timestamp": "2013-03-28T12:50:48... | 1,760,376,575.173505 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/03/27/handwriting-robot-arm-is-a-little-stiff-wristed/ | Handwriting Robot Arm Is A Little Stiff-wristed | Mike Szczys | [
"cnc hacks"
] | [
"arm",
"hilbert curve",
"plotter",
"scara"
] | Check out
this robot arm capable of handwriting
which is orders of magnitude clearer than our own. It was built by [Patrick Barnes] as contract work for a campaign to raise funding for research into Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy.
Don’t miss the video after the break which starts off with the satisfying whine of some serious stepper motors. Judging scale from this image is a bit tough, but [Patrick] tells us that the entire assembly stands almost fourteen inches tall and the arm has a reach of around twenty inches. The demonstration shows off it’s abilities by drawing a
Hilbert Curve
. From watching the action you’ll realize that, though this arm and hand look fantastic, this is really a SCARA plotter. The wrist and fingers are for looks only, providing a place where the felt-tipped pen can be mounted (held flush to the paper with a rubber band). Whether that’s a disappointment or not, the precision and look of the machine bring it very high marks. It could take a bit of a lesson in penmanship
from another we’ve seen
though.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-EFDt3eXv4 | 13 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "985564",
"author": "aztraph",
"timestamp": "2013-03-28T03:11:33",
"content": "Impressive, but I would be more impressed if it actually wrote something out, all it’s doing in the video is right angles.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment... | 1,760,376,575.703577 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/03/27/hi-hat-midi-controller/ | Hi-Hat MIDI Controller | Mike Szczys | [
"Musical Hacks"
] | [
"drum set",
"hi-hat",
"midi",
"pedal",
"potentiometer",
"trimpot"
] | Drumming hackers take note, if you’ve got an extra bass drum pedal it’s
cheap and simple to use it as a MIDI controller
. This rig was thrown together to supplement a DIG DRUM electric drum set. That piece of equipment has a pedal add-on that didn’t come with it. Turns out all it does is feed a resistance value to the set.
To get this up and running a frame was built from a metal base and acrylic side piece. The acrylic hosts a trimmable potentiometer which connects to an 1/4″ stereo jack right beside it. This facilitates connecting the pedal to the drum set using an audio patch cable. Interface with the pedal is accomplished with a few bits from the hardware store. The axle of the pedal sticks out one side, and is clamped between two washers. The other side of the washer grip the timpot causing it to move when the pedal does.
This hardware is a snap to use with your own MIDI device. We’d suggest
giving the HIDUINO package a try
. | 10 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "985531",
"author": "Hack Man",
"timestamp": "2013-03-28T01:32:12",
"content": "Should be aluminum instead of acrylic but overall, pretty sweet.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "985548",
"author": "XOIIO",
"times... | 1,760,376,575.219598 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/03/27/color-ntsc-video-directly-from-an-avr-chip/ | Color NTSC Video Directly From An AVR Chip | Mike Szczys | [
"Video Hacks"
] | [
"ATmega168",
"AVR",
"cnlohr",
"color",
"ntsc",
"video"
] | We’ve seen composite video out from AVR chips many times before. But we can’t remember coming across one that managed to produce a color signal. This project does just that,
producing a color video signal from an ATmega168
without using external integrated circuits.
[CNLohr] is seen here showing off his accomplishment. You’ll remember him from
the glass-slide PCB server project
he’s been working on recently. This time around it’s a small piece of gaming hardware which he’s working on. But using four pins from the microcontroller, connected via resistors in parallel, he is able to generate a color NTSC signal without using a chip like the AD723.
After the break you can see the two minute demo in which he shows the game running for just an moment, then gives a general overview of how the signals are being built. There isn’t a ton of explanation, but he did post his code as well as a resource for you to teach yourself more about the NTSC standard. Maybe you can make a color version of
that AVR tetris game
?
[via
Reddit
] | 27 | 15 | [
{
"comment_id": "985481",
"author": "Jac Goudsmit (@JacGoudsmit)",
"timestamp": "2013-03-27T23:17:16",
"content": "Color me impressed!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "985483",
"author": "Nathan Campos",
"timestamp": "2013-03-27T23:23:31"... | 1,760,376,575.381824 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/03/27/business-card-draws-ch00fs-logo/ | Business Card Draws [ch00f]’s Logo | Brian Benchoff | [
"ATtiny Hacks"
] | [
"attiny85",
"business card",
"V-USB"
] | [ch00f] is at it again,
expanding the horizons of the art of PCB business cards
. This one draws his logo on any computer over a USB port.
The physical design of the card is heavily inspired by
[Frank Zhao]’s card
; both use an ATtiny85 and the V-USB package to handle the USB protocol and communications. Instead of typing words into a text editor like [Frank]’s, [ch00f]’s card draws the ch00ftech logo in MS Paint or other image editor.
There was a problem with simply emulating the mouse to draw a logo on the screen, though; because different computers have different mouse settings for acceleration, the ch00ftech logo was nearly always distorted. [ch00f] fixed that by emulating an absolute input device, basically turning his business card into a single-function pen tablet.
The logo was traced by hand and put into a few arrays in the firmware. Surprisingly, the logo didn’t take up much space – only 4k of the tiny85’s flash is used. There’s a lot more space for a more complicated drawing, but for now the simple ch00ftech logo (video after the break) will do.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lF31aDuSZ6E&w=580] | 23 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "985435",
"author": "Matt",
"timestamp": "2013-03-27T21:20:28",
"content": "Cool, but a bit oldschool. I prefer NFC business cards",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "985440",
"author": "biozz",
"timestamp": "2013-... | 1,760,376,575.573975 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/03/27/making-a-12v-bulb-work-in-a-6v-socket/ | Making A 12V Bulb Work In A 6V Socket | Mike Szczys | [
"LED Hacks",
"Transportation Hacks"
] | [
"led",
"moped",
"motobecane",
"voltage doubler"
] | This is something of a square peg in a round hole type of problem. [Kiel Lydestad] has been riding a vintage Moped around. You know, a motorcycle that can be pedaled like a bike. He of course wants to keep the thing looking stock, but also needs it to be fully functional. Enter this light bulb replacement project. His brake light needed a new bulb, and he managed to
make this 12V LED bulb work in the 6V socket
.
An LED is a really great choice for this application since
the Motobécane Moped
uses a magneto generator to power the lights. It won’t pull much current, but it did need modification to run from half as much voltage. [Kiel] mentions that it may have been possible to crack open the LED tower and adjust the current limiting circuit inside, but he felt it was easier to just add this voltage doubling circuit. He assembled the components in a way that still allows them to fit in the metal base of the bulb. | 28 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "985394",
"author": "Per Jensen",
"timestamp": "2013-03-27T19:06:33",
"content": "The current limiting resistor could have been changed, but with strings of 2 White LED’s in series, 6V isn’t really enough for proper operation, since White LED’s are usually between 3 and 3,6V",
"p... | 1,760,376,575.6471 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/03/27/robot-steals-soda-from-the-vending-machine/ | Robot Steals Soda From The Vending Machine | Mike Szczys | [
"Robots Hacks"
] | [
"arm",
"soda",
"theft",
"vending machine"
] | It’s very hard to tell from this photo because of the super bright blue LEDs, but
this soda machine is being robbed by a robot
.
We don’t condone theft, but neither does the creator of the project. [Ioduremetallique] is really just problem solving; doing something because he can. And we’d bet this type of thing will end up landing him a high-paying job some day (we’re assuming he’s currently in school).
The project is shown off in the video after the break. The gist of it is that a compact robot arm is put into the drop area of a vending machine. After the flap is closed the wired remote control is used to raise up the telescoping arm, and grip the soda can with the grippers. It’s brilliant and devious all at the same time.
The entire video is in French, but the YouTube captions translator actually worked quite well with this video. To turn it one, use the ‘CC’ icon on the bottom of the video. We had to select the French captions before it would allow us to chose English from the translated captions list. About four minutes in we get a great look at the hardware itself… a super hack!
[Thanks William] | 45 | 22 | [
{
"comment_id": "985335",
"author": "brian4120",
"timestamp": "2013-03-27T17:07:42",
"content": "Was featured a few days ago!http://hackaday.com/2013/03/25/hackaday-links-march-25-2013/",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "985338",
"author"... | 1,760,376,575.516723 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/03/27/extending-old-games-with-reverse-engineering-and-mame/ | Extending Old Games With Reverse Engineering And MAME | Brian Benchoff | [
"classic hacks"
] | [
"mame",
"ram",
"reverse engineering",
"robotron"
] | For last year’s Toorcamp, the folks over at DorkbotPDX helped out with the Church of Robotron installation. A religion founded on the prophesy of a cybernetic uprising in the year 2084 is a little esoteric even for us, so the Dorkbot crew wanted a way to make playing
Robotron: 2084
a little more visceral. Using MAME and a few debugging tools, they were
able to read the memory of a machine playing Robotron
to extend the game into the physical world. When the player dies, lights go off, alarms sound, and the prophet of the Church of Robotron is pleased.
The setup at the Church of Robotron included a machine running MAME with a Robotron ROM. When events happened in the game, such as lasers firing or a player death, physical events would be triggered. To do this, the Dorkbot team read the memory locations of a game of Robotron at different times and found memory locations tied to in-game events. On their blog they go over using the MAME debug tool to detect a player’s death which can then be translated into physical apparitions for the Church of Robotron.
It’s a very cool hack, and one we wish we had a video of. Having a plastic ghost hit a player while playing Pac-Man seems like an awesome idea, and with the Dorkbot tutorial, it looks fairly easy. | 8 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "985303",
"author": "Manu",
"timestamp": "2013-03-27T15:21:56",
"content": "There’s a video :)http://vimeo.com/49144596",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "985318",
"author": "Eric Evenchick",
"timestamp": "2013-03-27T16:05:1... | 1,760,376,575.748885 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/03/27/android-controlled-minecraft-ores/ | Android Controlled Minecraft Ores | Brian Benchoff | [
"Android Hacks",
"LED Hacks"
] | [
"android",
"bluetooth",
"led",
"minecraft",
"RGB LED"
] | [Ryan] has a friend with a birthday coming up, and being inspired by ever 12-year-olds favorite game, he decided to
make a Minecraft ore block
with RGB LEDs. The block can change from diamonds to emeralds via commands send from an Android phone.
After a few false starts, [Ryan] eventually had his ore cube laser cut at Acess Space, a hackerspace-ish group in Sheffield. The box was constructed out of 3mm MDF, while the windows were laser cut out of frosted acrylic, while the stone pattern on the cube is one giant custom-made sticker.
With the tedious part of the build out of the way, [Ryan] set to work on the electronics. He used a PIC attached to a few very large RGB LEDs, and a Bluetooth module that allows him to connect his phone to an ore block. Dialing in the right colors took some work, but eventually, [Ryan] had an Android-controlled Minecraft ore block, able to transmutate between gold, iron, diamond, emerald, lapis, and redstone.
You can check out a video of [Ryan]’s ore block in action after the break.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oe1aAQTeK-I&w=580] | 8 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "985317",
"author": "eldorel",
"timestamp": "2013-03-27T16:03:29",
"content": "It’s spelled “lapis”, not “lapiz”.It’s the first part ofhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lapis_lazuli",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "985319",
"author... | 1,760,376,575.788695 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/03/27/turning-pcbs-into-art/ | Turning PCBs Into Art | Brian Benchoff | [
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"eagle",
"KiCAD",
"pcb",
"PCBmodE"
] | Designing a circuit, laying out a board, and sending it off to be fabbed is so easy anyone can do it. A lot of people are, in fact, and with the traditional tools like KiCAD and Eagle, a lot of different boards look very, very similar. You could always add some cool silkscreen graphics to your board to make it stand out, but [Saar] has a better solution: it’s called
PCBmodE
, and it allows you to draw circuits artistically instead of the 45° angles we’ve become so accustomed to.
PCBmodE takes the parts, pads, signals, and vias for boards stored in JSON files and converts them to an SVG representation. The file is then routed (manually, but [Saar] is working on automated routing) and Gerberized so it can be sent off to a production house.
You can grab PCBmodE
over on bitbucket
, but right now it’s still a very early version.
Vias and copper pours are working
, but [Saar] has only fabbed
this board
so far. | 35 | 16 | [
{
"comment_id": "985228",
"author": "indiantinker",
"timestamp": "2013-03-27T11:13:45",
"content": "Great Work..Even I did something like this to make some home-made keyrings.. Have a look!http://indiantinker.wordpress.com/2012/10/06/trying-some-graphic-etching/",
"parent_id": null,
"depth":... | 1,760,376,575.857848 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/03/26/atomic-skull-clock-reminds-us-were-dying/ | Atomic Skull Clock Reminds Us We’re Dying | Ryan Fitzpatrick | [
"Arduino Hacks",
"clock hacks"
] | [
"arduino",
"atmega8",
"atomic clock",
"skull"
] | Whether you like it or not, every second that passes brings you one step closer to your own demise. It’s not a comforting topic to dwell upon, but it’s reality.
This art installation entitled ‘Memento Mori’ is a haunting reminder of just that
. Even with all the advanced technology we have today, we still have absolutely no way of knowing just
when
our time will come.
[Martin] cast a real human skull, then added a 4 digit LED display that’s attached to a
rubidium atomic clock
(running a FE-5680A frequency standard). The display counts down a single second over and over, measured in millisecond-steps, from 1.000 to 0.001. He built a custom electronic circuit to convert the 10 MHz sine wave into a 1 kHz pulse signal, and used ATmega8 chips running an Arduino sketch to do the rest of the dirty work.
Watching the video after the break, with that smooth mysterious music in the background, one can’t help but ponder our mortality. On a personal note, this totally feels like something you’d find in a video game.
[Thanks Martin] | 25 | 14 | [
{
"comment_id": "985014",
"author": "Matt",
"timestamp": "2013-03-27T01:10:23",
"content": "Where did he get the human skull to make the mold with?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "985018",
"author": "Eirinn",
"timestamp": "2013... | 1,760,376,575.92173 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/03/26/diy-6-serial-cable-for-vintage-apple-quicktake-cameras/ | DIY $6 Serial Cable For Vintage Apple QuickTake Cameras | Ryan Fitzpatrick | [
"digital cameras hacks",
"Parts"
] | [
"apple",
"camera",
"quicktake",
"serial cable",
"xp emulator"
] | Knowing he was a guy who liked electronics and taking things apart, one of [Erik]’s friends sent him a vintage Apple QuickTake 100/150 digital camera as a bit of a joke. [Erik] enjoyed the gift, but since his friend hadn’t sent the necessary serial cable he really couldn’t do that much with it. He searched online only to discover the cable is very difficult to find these days, and thus very expensive. So, being the handy guy he is,
he built his own
.
Starting with an Apple MiniDin8 Male cable, he cut off one end and attached the wiring to a RJ45 connector. That got plugged into a modular adapter with a DB9 Female Plug end and wired up. The procedure required no soldering, and cost less than $6. Awesome.
Unfortunately the lack of serial cable isn’t the only problem he faced. QuickTake isn’t compatible with newer Apple computers that use Intel. You have to either have a much older Mac, or use a Windows XP emulator. If that wasn’t bad enough, the cameras only want to save photos in QuickTake file format. Luckily, [Erik] documents how he overcome all these issues in his post.
[Thanks Erik] | 15 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "984988",
"author": "smee",
"timestamp": "2013-03-27T00:13:50",
"content": "1994 is vintage now? I’m old :(",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "985012",
"author": "drew",
"timestamp": "2013-03-27T01:07:13",
... | 1,760,376,576.311563 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/03/26/raspberry-pi-the-perfect-machine-for-old-dos-games/ | Raspberry Pi: The Perfect Machine For Old DOS Games | Brian Benchoff | [
"Raspberry Pi"
] | [
"dos",
"emulation",
"Raspi"
] | There’s a treasure trove of excellent yet ancient games made for DOS that are nearly unplayable on modern computers. Awesome games like the Lucasarts SCUMM adventures, the original Civilization and SimCity, Starflight, the King’s Quest series and even Leisure Suit Larry aren’t played much today because of the near impossibilities of getting them to run on modern hardware or setting up an emulator with proper sound.
[Patrick] has been doing his best to help out classic gamers with
an x86 emulator for the Raspberry Pi
. It’s designed to be a very capable DOS box with 20 MB of extended memory, a 640×480 display with 256 colors, an ~20MHz 486 emulated CPU, and a Soundblaster 2.0 sound card.
There’s still a lot of work to be done, but outside of finding a 20-year-old computer, emulation on a Raspberry Pi it probably the most authentic DOS gaming experience you’ll get. | 62 | 22 | [
{
"comment_id": "984886",
"author": "barellinger",
"timestamp": "2013-03-26T21:06:38",
"content": "A post about running old DOS games, and no mention of DOSbox? For shame.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "984887",
"author": "Darren",
"tim... | 1,760,376,576.482314 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/03/26/get-phone-calls-answered-with-the-moshi-moshi/ | Get Phone Calls Answered With The Moshi Moshi | Eric Evenchick | [
"Arduino Hacks"
] | [
"Arduino DUE",
"asterisk",
"phones",
"ruby",
"sinatra"
] | Have a significant other that isn’t the best at picking up the phone? [Aaron] was having a hard time reaching his wife, so he hacked up a solution. The
Moshi Moshi
detects calls from [Aaron], and plays music to get her attention.
A remote server running Asterisk picks up the call and uses a Ruby script to log the call. Every ten seconds, an Arduino Due with an Ethernet shield polls a Sinatra web server to see if a call has arrived. If a new call has come in, a music loop is played. Getting the Due to loop audio was a bit of a challenge, but the end result sounds good.
Quite a bit of tech is brought together to make the Moshi Moshi, and all the code is provided in the write up. This could be helpful to anyone looking to combine hardware with the Asterisk PBX. After the break, [Aaron] shows us how the system works. | 28 | 18 | [
{
"comment_id": "984830",
"author": "a3",
"timestamp": "2013-03-26T19:13:22",
"content": "Unrelated:Mobile layout text is too big. Only getting 4 5 words per line.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "984832",
"author": "Alex Rossie",
"timest... | 1,760,376,576.38359 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/03/26/having-fun-with-dumb-terminals/ | Having Fun With Dumb Terminals | Brian Benchoff | [
"classic hacks"
] | [
"dumb terminal",
"teletype",
"terminal"
] | For a long time now, [Morgan] has been wanting an old serial terminal. In a stroke of luck, one of his pals at the Quelab hackerspace scored an awesome ADM-3A terminal from a collector. It’s a historically significant piece of computing and UNIX history, so obviously [Morgan]
needed to get it working
.
The ADM-3A terminal pre-dates the famous DEC VT-100 terminal, but since [Morgan]’s new acquisition speaks RS-232, he had a good shot at getting it to work with one of his more modern boxes. He’s using a Windows laptop loaded up with FreeBSD in a VM to talk to the terminal. Surprisingly, the only additional hardware required was a USB to serial cable and a DE9-DB25 serial adapter.
It may not be as cool (or as loud) as Quelab’s
Teletype ASR-35
they have set up for Zork sessions, but it’s great to see ancient hardware have
some
use. Right now, [Morgan] is editing files with vi and of course playing Zork. Seems like there’s plenty of life left in this old dumb terminal. After looking for an old VT-100 for a while now, I’ve got to say I’m pretty jealous. | 37 | 18 | [
{
"comment_id": "984761",
"author": "Twerpling",
"timestamp": "2013-03-26T17:07:15",
"content": "Over at Baltimore Hacker space we did some stuff with a dumb terminal a while ago.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PGHZJQ5DNx0Pretty basic, but cool nonetheless.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
... | 1,760,376,576.670479 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/03/26/giving-a-cnc-knitting-machine-a-new-brain/ | Giving A CNC Knitting Machine A New Brain | Brian Benchoff | [
"Arduino Hacks",
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"brother knitting machine",
"knitting",
"knitting machine"
] | We’re all about big machines that build things for us – laser cutters, CNC mills, and 3D printers are the machines de rigueur for Hackaday. Too often we overlook the softer sides of fabrication that include textiles and knitting. [varvara] and [mar] are doing their best to bring us the softer side of things with their modification of a
Brother knitting machine
. They call their build Knitic, and it’s a great way to knit with computer control.
Instead of
previous
Brother knitting machine hacks
we’ve seen
, Knitic doesn’t bother with emulating the keypad or controlling the microprocessor already there; this build dispenses with the Brother brain and controls the solenoids and switches of the knitting machine directly with the help of an Arduino and
a home-etched shield
.
It’s not quite an automated knitting machine – someone still has to run the shuttle across the machine – but the patterns are controlled via a Processing app available on the
Knitic github
. You can check out [Varvara]’s demo of Kinitic after the break. | 21 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "984719",
"author": "Xtremegamer",
"timestamp": "2013-03-26T15:12:24",
"content": "then i wonder , could this be done analog with some large punch roll where the pins accordingly slide to form the same image.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"... | 1,760,376,576.943716 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/03/26/rate-gyroscope-circuitry-explained/ | Rate Gyroscope Circuitry Explained | Mike Szczys | [
"classic hacks"
] | [
"accelerometer",
"MEMS",
"rate gyroscope"
] | Hackaday alum [Adam Munich] shot
a tutorial video on using a rate gyroscope
.
Here he’s showing off the really fancy piece of ancient (technologically speaking) hardware. It would have set you back about fifteen grand in the 1960’s (inflation adjusted) but can be had these days for around $30. What a deal! These are not small, or power efficient when compared to the components that go into smart phones or gaming controllers, but they’re a heck of a lot more accurate than the ubiquitous modern parts. That’s because
a rate gyroscope
— which is the gold cylinder on the left — actually incorporates a spinning motor and a way to monitor how it is affected by changes in gravity. The driver/interface circuitry for this gets hairy relatively fast, but [Adam] does a solid job of breaking down the concept into smaller parts that are easy to manage.
Wondering what is different about this compared to a MEMS accelerometer? We know they’re really not the same thing at all, but wanted a chance to mention [The Engineer Guy’s]
video on how those parts are made
. | 26 | 12 | [
{
"comment_id": "984697",
"author": "medix",
"timestamp": "2013-03-26T13:26:39",
"content": "C’mon guys: rate gyro != accelerometer.Not even close.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "984702",
"author": "Hyratel",
"timestamp": "201... | 1,760,376,576.259169 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/03/26/playing-meat-boy-on-an-fpga/ | Playing Meat Boy On An FPGA | Mike Szczys | [
"FPGA"
] | [
"altera de2",
"fpga",
"meat boy",
"video game"
] | We usually look at these FPGA University projects and think how much fun it must have been to get credit for the work. But in this case we can’t image the grind it must have been to
implement the game mechanics of Meat Boy in an FPGA
. See how well it came out in the clip after the break.
Remember that with an FPGA you’re basically building hardware devices by using code.
The Reddit discussion
of the project sheds some light on where to start (and even
shares the source code
). The Altera DE2 is pushing the game to a monitor using SXGA at 60Hz. The map is laid out as a collection of 32×32 tiles, each represented by 2 bits in memory. [SkipToThe3nd] does go into detail about how the physics work but we can’t even begin to paraphrase that part of the discussion.
The game being cloned here is Meat Boy, the Flash game predecessor to Super Meat Boy. If you’ve never heard of the title we’d suggest watching
Indie Game: The Movie
,
a documentary which follows several independent game developers as they try to get their titles to market. | 11 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "984686",
"author": "jwrm22",
"timestamp": "2013-03-26T12:52:36",
"content": "Nicely done! I know the pain of getting these games to work properly, for a class i had to write a graphics card for the FPGA and a game for ARM. After 20 weeks ( 14 hours a week) with 4 other students the ... | 1,760,376,576.761431 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/03/25/rigol-wfm-viewer-ported-for-non-windows-users/ | Rigol WFM Viewer Ported For Non-Windows Users | Mike Szczys | [
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"csv",
"DS1052E",
"oscilloscope",
"python",
"rigol",
"spectrum analyzer",
"wfm"
] | [Matthias Blaicher] may think this isn’t a big deal when it comes to the amount of work he put into the hack. But for us, anything that extends the functionality of the versatile yet affordable Rigol DS1052E is a win. In this case he’s taken a previous hack and made it work for more people by
extending the functionality of the WFM file format viewer
.
[Dexter2048] pulled off
the original hack
which allows this oscilloscope to be used as a spectrum analyzer. [Matthias] didn’t want the tool to be limited to running only on Windows systems so he got to work. This isn’t quite as easy as sounds because the only part of the original code that was released is the parser itself. [Matthias] had to build everything up from that starting point. His software uses standard Python to parse the WFM file and reformat the data. The features included in the current version allow you to export data as a CSV file and even plot the waveform and FFT as seen above. | 5 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "984567",
"author": "biozz",
"timestamp": "2013-03-26T02:45:38",
"content": "nice job!im tll trying to get my owon scope to work over USB on linux! ,,, or even just on 64 bit …",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "986726",
"author... | 1,760,376,576.714063 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/03/25/robot-bartender-mixes-a-mean-drink/ | Robot Bartender Mixes A Mean Drink | Ryan Fitzpatrick | [
"Beer Hacks",
"Robots Hacks"
] | [
"alcohol",
"bartender",
"beer",
"robot",
"robotic arm"
] | Back in 2002, [Dave] came across a discarded PUMA robotic arm and quickly set his sights on turning it into a bartender to serve drinks at his parties. Unfortunately, the arm was far from operational and being an engineer at his day job meant that working on this project was the last thing he wanted to do when he came home. So, progress trickled along slowly for years. He eventually announced a public deadline to spur him to action, and this years Pi(e) party saw
the official debut of ‘Sir-Mix-a-Bot’ – the robot bartender
.
With the exception of having to build a new hand for it, mechanically, the arm was still in good condition when [Dave] found it. The electronics were another story however. Using some off the shelf components and his own know-how, [Dave] had to custom build all the controls. The software was written from scratch as well. (He lucked out and had help from his brother who was taking a Ph.D. program in robotics at the time).
As if the robotics aspect of the project wasn’t enough, [Dave] even created a beautiful custom table that both houses and displays his masterpiece. The quality of craftsmanship on his table alone is worth the time to check this out – there’s a short video after the break.
[Thanks
Dave
]
[vimeo
http://www.vimeo.com/62023335
w=400&h=300] | 11 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "984539",
"author": "Miles Simon Cave",
"timestamp": "2013-03-26T00:49:10",
"content": "Well, it’s not that slow, pretty neat but I bet someone would just grab a bottle and screw it up!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "984550",
... | 1,760,376,576.884515 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/03/25/hackaday-links-march-25-2013/ | Hackaday Links: March 25, 2013 | Brian Benchoff | [
"Hackaday links"
] | [
"3d printer",
"bomb",
"chiptune",
"keygen",
"nokia",
"oscillator",
"robot",
"software-defined radio",
"theft",
"Tindie"
] | Illegal, yet impressive
Want a soda?
Just grab a robot, shove it in a vending machine
, and grab yourself one. This video is incredibly French, but it looks like we’ve got a custom-built robot made out of old printers and other miscellaneous motors and gears here. It’s actually pretty impressive when you consider 16 ounce cans weigh a pound.
UNOBTANIUM
Okay, we got a lot of emails on our tip line for this one.
It’s a group buy for a programmable oscillator
over on Tindie. Why is this cool? Well, this chip (an SI570) is used in a lot of software defined radio designs. Also, it’s incredibly hard to come by if you’re not ordering thousands of these at a time.
Here’s a datasheet
, now show us some builds with this oscillator.
Chiptune/keygen music anywhere
[Huan] has a co-loco’d Raspi and wanted a media server that is available anywhere, on any device.
What he came up with
is a service that streams chiptune music from your favorite keygens. You can access it with Chrome (no, we’re not linking directly to a Raspberry Pi), and it’s extremely efficient – his RAM usage didn’t increase a bit.
Take it on an airplane. Or mail it.
[Alex]’s hackerspace just had a series of lightning talks, where people with 45-minute long presentations try to condense their talk into 10 minutes. Of course the hackerspace needed some way to keep everything on schedule. A simple countdown timer was too boring,
so they went with a fake, Hollywood-style bomb.
No, it doesn’t explode, but it still looks really, really fake. That’s a good thing.
Printers have speakers now?
[ddrboxman] thought his reprap needed a nice ‘print finished’ notification. After adding a piezo to his electronics board, he
whipped up a firmware hack that plays those old Nokia ringtones
. The ringtones play over Gcode, so it’s possible to have audible warnings and notifications. Now if it could only play Snake. | 38 | 16 | [
{
"comment_id": "984444",
"author": "Austin Appleby",
"timestamp": "2013-03-25T21:12:29",
"content": "I have the Si570 kit from sdr-kits.net – works exactly as advertised. According to the review here –http://www.cliftonlaboratories.com/si570_kit_from_k5bcq.htm– the Si570 can, with proper calibratio... | 1,760,376,576.839985 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/03/25/installing-glados-in-the-ceiling-of-your-house/ | Installing GLaDOS In The Ceiling Of Your House | Mike Szczys | [
"3d Printer hacks",
"home hacks"
] | [
"ceiling light",
"glados",
"lamp",
"light fixture"
] | Install this light fixture in your bedroom and you might kiss your nights of peaceful sleep goodbye. Fans of the Portal game franchise will recognize it as a smaller version of the megalomaniacal artificial intelligence character from the game. This particular rendition is how she looked in the second installment of the series. The lamp is the creation of [Dragonator].
It was entirely 3D printed before being outfitted with LEDs
to actually function as a light.
Our first thought is that this project is all about 3D design to get the final product t0 look so fantastic. But if you dig a little deeper you’ll see that it’s so much more than that. To get pieces that look this fantastic you must have a well tuned printer and be willing to let it run for 40-60 hours as it burns through 2 kg of filament. At that point you’re still far from the finish line as the [Dragonator] then set to work sanding and painting all of the pieces. From there he lovingly assembled everything, including gears and motors to give it motion.
In the end the electronics did not work as he envisioned. But maybe after a bit of time off from all that work he’ll revisit the project and make a bit more progress. For us, the aesthetic already makes the hack. Making it move and sound like the character would be over the top.
If you liked this you can’t miss
the GLaDOS potato
. | 14 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "984375",
"author": "Eirinn",
"timestamp": "2013-03-25T19:09:50",
"content": "Still contemplating making one for my new workshop…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "984376",
"author": "jwrm22",
"timestamp": "2013-03-25T19:09... | 1,760,376,576.997104 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/03/25/ir-based-augmented-reality/ | IR Based Augmented Reality | Eric Evenchick | [
"Cellphone Hacks"
] | [
"2.4 ghz",
"atmega128rfa1",
"augmented reality",
"ir"
] | For a final design project, [Frank] and his group took on an augmented reality project. The goal was to make objects interactively controllable by pointing a smartphone at them. Their solution was
Augmented Reality Universal Controller and Identifier
(ARUCI).
The system locates controllable objects by sensing IR beacons that contain identifiers for each object. The IR is received by a Wiimote sensor, which has been integrated into a custom PCB. This board sits in a 3D printed enclosure, and mounts to the back of a smartphone. The electronics are powered by tapping off of the phone’s battery.
Commands are sent to devices using a custom 2.4 GHz protocol which was implemented using the ATmega128RFA1. Each device has another ATmega to receive the signal and control the real world object. In their demo, the group shows the system controlling devices including a TV, a radio, and an RC car.
The system provides an interesting way to interact with objects, and the hardware integration is quite impressive. After the break, watch [Frank] give a demo. | 12 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "984280",
"author": "Jared Kotoff (@XZ3R0)",
"timestamp": "2013-03-25T17:21:13",
"content": "Wheeeeee",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "984323",
"author": "Jon",
"timestamp": "2013-03-25T18:11:49",
"conten... | 1,760,376,577.097698 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/03/25/going-back-to-our-old-commenting-system/ | Going Back To Our Old Commenting System! | Caleb Kraft | [
"News"
] | [
"comments",
"downgrayed"
] | On Friday,
I announced we would upgrade
our commenting system. It was tested over the weekend, and ultimately I have decided to go back to the wordpress system. Here are the reasons why:
1. Our old comments never got transitioned over.
The intenseDebate system says I can just click a single button and it will import our old posts into the new system. I did this Friday and the page never moved from 0%. I tried again Saturday night, with the 0% import still there this morning(Monday). Our old posts simply never imported. I don’t know if it was because our database of comments was so large (I doubt it) or what. I went to contact their support, but found them out for the weekend. That’s no big deal, but I wonder if the importer was a manual thing and no one was there to do it? If so, they should probably put a warning on the importer page.
2. It wasn’t failing gracefully.
I had many emails and comments saying that the comments were not showing when people were using script blockers, or certain android devices. The intenseDebate website claims that their system will show comments even if someone is using a script blocker. I did not personally test this, and frankly I don’t have to. Even if those people are mistaken or have peculiar setups, I simply can’t ignore complaints that our content
isn’t even showing
.
3. I couldn’t expand all replies by default, or maybe I’m an idiot.
I didn’t see an option anywhere to display all comment threads expanded by default. Maybe I just overlooked it. Maybe there’s some css trick to it. We HAVE to have our comments expanded. Often there is more useful information in the comments than the article itself. With replies nested you would have to go through and click every single thread just to see if there was anything useful.
This is such an obvious feature that I’m convinced I just went stupid for a while and didn’t read the button that enabled it, surely they didn’t omit it.
For these 3 reasons, I removed it. Just like they said it would, it came out with no issue. | 101 | 46 | [
{
"comment_id": "984190",
"author": "Brian Benchoff",
"timestamp": "2013-03-25T15:07:24",
"content": "First",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "984350",
"author": "Velli",
"timestamp": "2013-03-25T18:40:39",
"content": "Non... | 1,760,376,577.433919 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/03/25/giving-an-electric-rc-plane-an-afterburner/ | Giving An Electric RC Plane An Afterburner | Eric Evenchick | [
"drone hacks"
] | [
"afterburner",
"butane",
"fire",
"flitetest"
] | The folks at Flitetest decided to add some extra power to an electric DH.100 Vampire RC plane by adding a butane afterburner. After some testing, and a bit of fire, they were able to make it fly.
Their afterburner uses a small butane canister for fuel. A servo motor actuates the valve on the canister, forcing fuel into a tube. This tube is set up to regulate the flow of butane and ensure it vaporizes before reaching the afterburner.
At the afterburner, a circular piece of tubing with holes is used to dispense fuel, much like a barbecue. This tube is connected to one side of a stun gun’s flyback generator, and the metal surrounding it is connected to the other. The stun gun creates sparks across the gap and ignites the fuel.
With the extra components added, the landing gear was removed to save weight and the plane was given a nice coat of paint. They started it up for a test run, and the plane’s body caught fire. After some rework, they managed to take off, start the afterburner, fly around, and belly land the plane. It achieved some additional thrust, but also sounds and looks awesome.
After the break, check out a video walkthrough and demo. We promise you fire. | 40 | 21 | [
{
"comment_id": "984200",
"author": "Nacho",
"timestamp": "2013-03-25T15:17:46",
"content": "But… That’s just aesthetics? Is the “afterburner” giving extra throttle power?If it’s for aesthetics, then it’s ok (the model itself is not a big deal, and the blue flame in the twilight is a very nice effec... | 1,760,376,577.178529 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/03/25/a-tiny-custom-table-saw/ | A Tiny Custom Table Saw | Brian Benchoff | [
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"proxxon",
"table saw"
] | If you’re working with small parts, even the smallest table saw available at Home Depot or Lowes is generally overkill. For cutting up small pieces of wood, metal, and copper-clad board, a micro table saw is a great investment. They’re actually pretty inexpensive, but why just buy one
when you can make one
that is better than any model on the market?
The bed is constructed out of 1/4″ aluminum plate with a 1/15 horsepower motor bolted to the underside. The fence clamps on to the table with a pair of delrin brackets, while the angle guide is made of delrin and a brass bar that fits into a slot in the table.
The actual blades came from a Proxxon micro table saw (a very good brand from our experience), but comparing this homemade saw to the commercial one provides a few surprises: The Proxxon has a more powerful motor, but the homebrew version has four times the cutting capacity. You can check out this saw cutting a 1/4″ aluminum bar in the video after the break.
Thanks [Hubert] for sending this one in.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NzRSE-ZMdR8&w=580] | 33 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "984153",
"author": "thevac",
"timestamp": "2013-03-25T13:20:47",
"content": "Props to him…. however i dont care how tiny it is he should still hold it with 2 hands (insert inuendo here)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "984163"... | 1,760,376,577.562623 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/03/25/mining-bitcoins-on-a-nintendo/ | Mining Bitcoins On A Nintendo | Brian Benchoff | [
"Nintendo Hacks"
] | [
"6502",
"bitcoin",
"bitcoin mining",
"nes",
"nintendo"
] | His friends know [gbg] as an aficionado of just about anything with a 6502 processor in it. He’s also interested in bitcoins. A while back, a friend asked if it would be possible to mine bitcoins with an old Nintendo Entertainment System. While this suggestion was made in jest, it’s not one of those ideas anyone can let go of easily. Yes,
it is possible to mine bitcoins with an NES
, and [gbg] is here to show us how.
Mining bitcoins is simply just performing a SHA256 hash on a random value from the bitcoin network and relaying the result of that calculation back to the Internet. Of course this requires an Internet to NES bridge; [gbg] brought in a Raspberry Pi for this task. There’s the problem of actually getting data into an NES, though, and that’s something only a
USB CopyNES
can handle. After doing some 32-bit math, the NES sends this out to the Raspberry Pi and onto the bitcoin network.
When you consider that even a high-end gaming computer has little chance of mining a bitcoin in any reasonable amount of time, there’s little chance RetroMiner will ever be able to mine a bitcoin. It’s all random, though, so while it’s
possible
, we’ll just appreciate the awesome build for now. | 25 | 12 | [
{
"comment_id": "984149",
"author": "Bernd",
"timestamp": "2013-03-25T12:59:27",
"content": "Has science gone to far?!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "984209",
"author": "hunterz0",
"timestamp": "2013-03-25T15:27:07",
"content": "Wou... | 1,760,376,577.773821 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/03/24/cnc-ping-pong-printer-uses-simple-construction/ | CNC Ping Pong Printer Uses Simple Construction | Mike Szczys | [
"cnc hacks"
] | [
"eggbot",
"pen",
"ping pong ball",
"printer",
"sphere",
"stepper motor"
] | This is one of the simplest CNC builds we’ve seen but it still functions quite well. It’s
a clone of the EggBot
, but is aimed at printing on spherical Ping Pong balls rather than oblong eggs. [Chad] calls it the Spherebot, but you should be careful not to confuse it with
the morphing sphere robot
which can walk around like a hexapod.
The project is both mechanically and electronically simple. The body of the printer is made up of three acrylic plates, which we’re sure were clamped together when drilling holes to guarantee proper alignment. Threaded rod and nuts are used to mount the plates to one another, as well as to hold the sphere in place while printing. One stepper motor turns the ball while the other pivots the pen mount. A servo motor is responsible for lifting the pen. The entire thing is driven by an Arduino along with two stepper motor driver boards. Don’t miss [Chad’s] presentation embedded after the break.
[via
Reddit
] | 6 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "983972",
"author": "Matt",
"timestamp": "2013-03-25T00:36:50",
"content": "Nice use of Nerf darts as well :-)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "984081",
"author": "naught101",
"timestamp": "2013-03-25T08:56:13",
"conte... | 1,760,376,577.604478 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/03/21/nandputer-is-mostly-wiring/ | NANDputer Is Mostly Wiring | Mike Szczys | [
"computer hacks"
] | [
"nand",
"wire porn"
] | We would wager that by weight this project is mostly wiring. We might go as far as betting that the wire outweighs the rest of the components 2 to 1. We’ll keep our fingers crossed that there’s never a loose connection, but for now it seems that [Kevin Horton’s]
NAND-based computer project is up and running
. Very nearly ever part of the build is based on NAND gates, which is why the point-to-point wiring is so crazy. There is one peripheral board which uses some non-NAND components, but he eventually plans on replacing that to make the system…. pure?
Now get ready for the crazy part. This is just one half of the program counter! There’s another board that looks just like it. The two join at least a half-dozen other boards of similar size and complexity to make a functioning computer. Crazy! The post shares a ton of details, but you can also just skip down after the break to see a video of it running a program.
If you’re wondering how a NAND-based computer works you should make your way through
this online course
.
[Thanks Jeroen] | 24 | 13 | [
{
"comment_id": "982698",
"author": "Gizmos",
"timestamp": "2013-03-21T21:05:11",
"content": "Someone will make a NANDuino in 3, 2, 1…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "982728",
"author": "John",
"timestamp": "2013-03-21T22:02:13... | 1,760,376,577.491713 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/03/21/wspr-transmitter-shows-true-value-of-raspberry-pi-for-hacking/ | WSPR Transmitter Shows True Value Of Raspberry Pi For Hacking | Mike Szczys | [
"Radio Hacks",
"Raspberry Pi"
] | [
"ham",
"ham radio",
"low pass filter",
"RPi",
"wspr"
] | Don’t get us wrong, we love our Raspberry Pi. But if you’re merely running a Linux image without adding a hardware hack into the mix you’re missing out on part of the power for which the platform was developed. This project is a great example of how to embrace the Raspberry Pi’s ability to deliver both low-level hardware access, and solid embedded Linux performance. [Dan Ankers] and [Threeme3] have developed a program which
turns the RPi in to a WSPR transmitter
. The GitHub readme shares many of the details on how it was done. But you’ll also want to dig through the .c file to see how they’re making use of the GPIO header pins.
[William Meara] sent in the tip for this. He’s been featured on Hackaday previously for
his work with WSPR
(Weak Signal Propagation Report). It’s an amateur radio protocol which lets you communicate over very long distances using relatively weak transmitters. The trick is to use computing power to find the signal hidden in all the noise. Be warned that you do need a HAM license to try this out, but otherwise all you need to connect to the board is a low-pass filter and an antennae.
[via
SolderSmoke
]
[Photo credit:
WSPR hompage
] | 33 | 20 | [
{
"comment_id": "982656",
"author": "asheets",
"timestamp": "2013-03-21T19:26:53",
"content": "I will be trying this out. It’ll be a good complement to my 10meter propagation beacon.73 de KD0GZJ",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "982667",
"aut... | 1,760,376,577.911801 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/03/21/words-of-wisdom-from-a-maker-entrepreneur/ | Words Of Wisdom From A Maker Entrepreneur | Ryan Fitzpatrick | [
"Lifehacks",
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"entrepreneur",
"maker business",
"pianocade"
] | Have an awesome invention that you want to create and sell to the world? Think you have everything all planned out and you’re ready to just let the money flow in? Maybe not. Take a few moments and read [Jonathan]’s first hand experience of
a maker start up business that didn’t go anything like he had planned
.
[Jonathan] thought he was ready. He had created a unique product and, by taking pre-orders, didn’t have to front any of his own capital. He had shown that there was demand for such a device. The big problem…supply. Selling things was the easy part. Actually
making
them was another story. Every step of the way had complications. Printing errors, parts suppliers backed out, an international money transfer didn’t go through, postage rates increased, suppliers sent the wrong parts, and he and his wife had a baby. His stress levels were through the roof knowing that his customers had prepaid and were waiting through all the delays.
In the end, [Jonathan] learned a lot and survived the journey. He is currently working on his next invention. If you’d like to learn more about his experiences,
you can message him personally
. There’s also a Pianocade features video after the break.
[via
Adafruit
] | 20 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "982599",
"author": "polossatik",
"timestamp": "2013-03-21T17:20:29",
"content": "And the sad thing is that,especially if you take into account all the hours of work, you’re actually not making any $$ at all.Not that it always matter, plenty of people who do “small runs” are happy to... | 1,760,376,577.971136 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/03/21/assigning-new-packages-to-eagle-pcb-components/ | Assigning New Packages To Eagle PCB Components | Mike Szczys | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"component",
"eagle",
"footprint",
"KiCAD",
"part",
"tutorial"
] | If you’ve spent any time at all laying out your own circuit boards we’re sure you’ve run into the issue of not having the right component or package available in the standard libraries. If it’s a common part, chances are the symbol definition will be there. But perhaps the footprint you want to use is missing? Here’s an easy to follow tutorial which demonstrates
how to assign new packages to existing Eagle PCB components
. It even shows the basics of how to tweak the footprint to fit your needs (like making SMD footprints easier to hand solder).
This will not teach you how to make your own custom symbols, or how to build packages from scratch. But it will let you locate the package you want to use from a different component, then copy it to your own library for use with different parts. And the techniques shown make this a quick and relatively painless process.
We certainly don’t want to start another comment quagmire like
the recent PIC v. AVR discussion
. But we’ve used both Kicad and Eagle rather extensively and feel that neither one has really mastered part/footprint creation in a user-friendly way. We like Kicad’s total separation of footprints from components, and it’s myriad of parameters which can be used to tweak the layout. But if you use the same components frequently, Eagle’s standard of linking parts and footprints does end up saving a lot of time. What do you think? | 14 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "982565",
"author": "MikrySoft",
"timestamp": "2013-03-21T16:18:08",
"content": "Separating footprints and components is a really stupid idea – same type of package from different manufacturers will have slight differences, thermal requirements will differ etc. Having footprints desi... | 1,760,376,577.83102 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/03/21/printed-vacuum-pump-muffler-quiets-the-lab/ | Printed Vacuum Pump Muffler Quiets The Lab | Mike Szczys | [
"3d Printer hacks",
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"muffler",
"pump",
"vacuum"
] | [Joel] made a brilliant improvement to his shop. If you think about it, most folks would hear a loud vacuum pump and either tolerate it or put in some ear plugs. But [Joel] heard a loud vacuum pump and thought: hey, I can fix that! His solution was to
design and print his own muffler
.
He did a bit of research on the topic and found that design complexity runs the gamut based on the application. For instance, you don’t want to affect the airflow of a vehicle’s exhaust too much or you will take a horsepower (and efficiency) hit for it. In this case the vacuum pump making all the noise has a relatively low airflow so that is not a concern. What he ended up doing is designing a baffle that will help cushion the vibrations in the airy by piping it through a maze of channels. The end result drops from about 92 dB to 82 dB. That might not seem like much, but
decibel measurements aren’t linear
so it ends up having a great effect. Hear for yourself in the video after the break. | 46 | 14 | [
{
"comment_id": "982474",
"author": "Louis Charles Bruckner",
"timestamp": "2013-03-21T13:25:08",
"content": "I have done the same thing with a large aquarium air stone.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "982478",
"author": "Louis Charles... | 1,760,376,578.052778 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/03/21/futaba-10c-radio-modified-for-spektrum-module-compatibility/ | Futaba 10C Radio Modified For Spektrum Module Compatibility | Ryan Fitzpatrick | [
"Radio Hacks",
"Toy Hacks"
] | [
"futaba",
"radio",
"spektrum"
] | The Futaba 10C radio (non-module version) is [Tom]’s transmitter of choice. Unfortunately, it isn’t compatible with the Spektrum DSM2 technology modules he wanted to use. So, being the crafty guy he is,
he decided to hack it so it was
.
Upon opening the Futaba transmitter, he realized that the non-module version of the 10C didn’t really seem that different than a module version. His transmitter just has a pcb hardwired in place where the modules would otherwise go. He soldered a 4 conductor audio jack to the unused pins on the pcb in the transmitter, then mounted it in the case with some J.B. Weld. He then wired and mounted the receiving jack in the module case. A small 6 inch audio cable bridges the two devices, and velcro holds them neatly together.
He discovered that certain modules have problems with the channels being out of order. Unless someone comes up with a firmware hack, there’s no way to remap the controls. So, some modules are just not compatible. [Tom] gives a very nice video walkthrough after the break. Check it out. | 4 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "982610",
"author": "Preamp",
"timestamp": "2013-03-21T17:45:25",
"content": "“He discovered that certain modules have problems with the channels being out of order.”You could easily swap the connections from the potentiometers to the main board. Won’t work if you need a pot on chann... | 1,760,376,578.093478 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/03/20/second-grade-science-project-a-steam-engine/ | Second Grade Science Project: A Steam Engine | Mike Szczys | [
"Engine Hacks"
] | [
"air pressure",
"engine",
"science project",
"steam engine",
"straws"
] | If you’re looking for a way to let the kids get hand-ons with science this is a perfect example of how to do it. [Erich] wanted to help out with his 7-year-old’s science project. They decided to build a working model of a steam engine but couldn’t find online instructions appropriate for the age group. So the two of them not only pulled off the build, but then
they wrote a guide for others to follow
. The thing about it is, you really have to understand a concept to teach it to someone else. So we think the write-up is equally important to having actually done the experiment.
Steam can scald you if you’re not careful. But you don’t really need steam to explore the concepts of a steam engine. The main reason to use steam is that it’s a fairly rudimentary way to build pressure which can be converted to motion. For this demonstration the blue balloon provides that pressure. It’s feeding a reservoir that connects to the valve built out of straws. A plastic piston inside pushes against the crank shaft, spinning the cardboard wheel on the left. When the piston travels past the valve opening it releases the air pressure until the machine makes a revolution and is in place for the next push. This is well demonstrated in the clip after the break. | 30 | 12 | [
{
"comment_id": "982216",
"author": "Earlz",
"timestamp": "2013-03-21T03:18:15",
"content": "Heh, I never thought a steam engine assembly (ie, piston and such) could be made this easily out of such simple materials. Awesome write up! (am I the only person older than 18 that wants to make one of thes... | 1,760,376,578.162682 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/03/22/finally-upgrading-our-comment-system/ | Finally Upgrading Our Comment System. | Caleb Kraft | [
"News"
] | [
"comments",
"dislike trolls"
] | UPDATE: I’m working on making the visual style fit better. It really needs some work.
Yes Ladies and Gentlemen, we’re finally taking the plunge into a more robust commenting system. This one has a ton of features, but the following few have been asked for quite frequently.
You can now edit your comments. Yes, finally. No seriously, try it. To do this, you’ll need to log in though!
Subscription to a comment thread is now optional. Horay!
You can now “Like” or dislike comments.
IntenseDebate is converting our old comments over, so they should begin to appear soon. Please feel free to email me directly[caleb@] with any issue you encounter using the new system. I know you’ve been asking for it for a very long time, I’ll do my best to make sure that it goes as smoothly as possible. | 18 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "983243",
"author": "Mariusz",
"timestamp": "2013-03-22T18:41:39",
"content": "No, please no.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "983248",
"author": "Ren",
"timestamp": "2013-03-22T18:54:28",
"content": "This sucks!",
... | 1,760,376,578.51518 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/03/22/low-resolution-toaster-prints-on-slices-of-bread/ | Low-resolution Toaster Prints On Slices Of Bread | Mike Szczys | [
"cnc hacks",
"cooking hacks"
] | [
"heating element",
"printer",
"toaster"
] | Why toast your bread evenly when you can
burn low-resolution images instead
? Meet the Super Mega Mega Toaster, a University project created by [Scott van Haastrecht] for his Creative Technology course.
Now you may be thinking that this has been done before. And indeed, a bit of searching will lead you to
a post about toasting Jesus
. But that is a one-shot toaster hack which simply used a stencil to block heat to create a certain pattern. This is a mechanical overhaul for the toaster concept. It uses one row of six heating elements. Each is connected to a servo motor which moves the element next to the bread or away from it based on the pattering being printed. A stepper motor then moves the bread up so that the next row can be printed. All of this is mounted in a laser-cut wood frame which makes us just a bit nervous because the purpose of the elements is to burn stuff.
See a demo of the toaster, as well as its internal components in the clip after the jump.
[Thanks Philippe] | 11 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "983198",
"author": "roboman2444",
"timestamp": "2013-03-22T17:07:03",
"content": "cheap plastic servos and hot heating elements = no",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "983205",
"author": "M",
"timestamp": "2013-03-22T17:20:... | 1,760,376,578.453311 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/03/22/gamma-ray-scintillation-probe-in-a-paint-can/ | Gamma-ray Scintillation Probe In A Paint Can | Ryan Fitzpatrick | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"gamma ray",
"PMT",
"radiation meter",
"scintillation probe"
] | The [Prutchi] family sounds pretty cool. [David], the father, is a well educated engineer, has 70 patents, and has written two books. On his off time, he has a passion for making experimental physics accessible to the average Joe. His daughter [Shanni] is a high school student who co-authored one of those same books, and helps conduct research in the fields of Radio-Astronomy and Quantum Physics. Together, they came up with
an affordable, yet very sensitive, gamma-ray scintillation probe
for their customized Civil Defense V-700 radiation survey meter. Sweet.
They decided to use parts that were low cost and readily available so others could easily follow in their footsteps. A Philips XP5312/SN photomultiplier tube (PMT) and scintillation plastic are the main components. The enclosure for the probe is a standard paint can, lined with polyurethane foam inserts to help protect the assembly and hold everything in place.
[David] says that since the probe is very portable and has a high level of sensitivity, it is an ideal candidate for radioactive mineral surveying and scouting miscellaneous gamma-ray sources. They documented the whole process and have
compiled a handy PDF file
for those who are interested in creating their own. | 5 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "983150",
"author": "oodain",
"timestamp": "2013-03-22T16:37:03",
"content": "sweet,sounds like an absolutely awesome guy.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "983224",
"author": "vonskippy",
"timestamp": "2013-03-22T17:55:45"... | 1,760,376,578.35041 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/03/22/diy-pc-to-telescope-interface-cable/ | DIY PC To Telescope Interface Cable | Ryan Fitzpatrick | [
"computer hacks",
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"astronomy",
"astrophotography",
"cable",
"telescope"
] | If you’re serious about astronomy these days, you want to have a computer controlled telescope. Although you can easily purchase a pre-made cable that connects the two devices, where’s the fun in that? [Charles], being an avid Maker, has created
a nice step by step guide so you can build your own
.
This is a great weekend project, and one that even a novice electronics hobbyist should be able to tackle. It’s straight forward, rather quick, and very easy. Strip some insulation off both ends of the cable, then cut off the unneeded wires. (You’ll only be working with three of them.) Prep everything with heat shrink tubing. Crimp one end of the wires into an RJ10 plug, then solder the other end of the wires into a DB9 connector. Secure the heat shrink tubing in place, attach the housings, and you can call it finished!
[Charles] said the whole procedure only took him around 15 minutes. Total cost? Less than $17 in parts. | 13 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "983093",
"author": "Brewmaster",
"timestamp": "2013-03-22T13:20:58",
"content": "Nicely Detailed writeup, but how is this worthy of Hackaday? Its just a RS232 crossover cable… Whats next? How to make Cat5 cables?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
... | 1,760,376,578.398875 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/03/22/analog-input-expansion-boards-for-raspberry-pi/ | Analog Input Expansion Boards For Raspberry Pi | Mike Szczys | [
"News"
] | [
"analog",
"circuits.io",
"mcp3008",
"RPi",
"spi"
] | [Ken Olsen] needed a bunch of analog inputs for his model railroad project. He wanted to use the Raspberry Pi board, but alas there are no analog inputs available on the GPIO header. But there is SPI. So he
used an online service to design his on Analog input expansion boards
.
He mentions that Eagle can be a bit of a pain to work with. For this project he decided to give circuits.io a try. This is an in-browser PCB layout tool which
we looked at in a links post
some time ago. The service lets you order directly from your in-browser design without the need to run gerber files or the like (boards are made using the OSH Park service). He’s very happy with the boards he got back. They feature a footprint for a connector to interface with the RPi.
The design uses MCP3008 Analog to SPI chips. Each has eight channels but [Ken] needed more than that. Since the service provides three copies of the board he made them modular by adding end connectors which chain the SPI and power rails from one board to the next. Don’t miss his full demo in the video after the break. | 14 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "983063",
"author": "fartface",
"timestamp": "2013-03-22T12:08:56",
"content": "A real hack! Schweet!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "983098",
"author": "cantido",
"timestamp": "2013-03-22T13:30:53",
"content": "It s... | 1,760,376,578.751294 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/03/21/bluetooth-headset-garage-door-opener-update/ | Bluetooth Headset Garage Door Opener Update | Mike Szczys | [
"Android Hacks",
"home hacks"
] | [
"android",
"bluetooth",
"garage door",
"headset",
"transistor"
] | [Lou Prado] sent in a link to his new video on
using a Bluetooth headset as a garage door opener for your Android device
. This isn’t a new hack, and
we’ve actually seen him pull it off once before
back in 2011. But we’re running this as an update for a couple of reasons. First off, we had forgotten about the hack and it’s worth revisiting. Secondly, the headset which he used with the initial hack has gone out of production. He chose a new model, and the assembly video (embedded after the break) which he made is a treasure trove of best practices to use when hacking consumer electronics.
Here’s how the hardware part of the hack goes. He removes the speaker from the headset and solders the base of a transistor in-line with a resistor to the red wire. The emitter connects to the grounded frame of the USB charging cable which is plugged into an outlet next to your garage door opener. The collector of the transistor is then connected to the garage door opener, along with a common ground connection, allowing audio from the headset to trigger the transistor to open the door.
The systems is secure based on Bluetooth pairing, which was done with his phone before starting the hardware hack.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jHOQLcOvhR4 | 22 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "982874",
"author": "Phillip Smith",
"timestamp": "2013-03-22T04:16:23",
"content": "I’m thinking this would be nice with a DTMF decoder chip in-line with the speaker, that would be really awesome.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": ... | 1,760,376,578.968883 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/03/21/remote-control-command-center-includes-rf-and-ir-functions/ | Remote Control Command Center Includes RF And IR Functions | Mike Szczys | [
"home entertainment hacks",
"home hacks"
] | [
"ATmega88",
"bluetooth",
"command center",
"home automation",
"remote control",
"RF",
"smart phone"
] | We’re still not quite sure what to call these projects, but as we’ve said before, it’s a pleasure to see what people are doing to use one remote control to rule them all. The project being developed by [Kalle Löfgren] seeks to simplify the remote controlled items in his home by combining all control into one smart phone app. The linchpin of the system is this command center which
lets a smart phone send IR and RF commands to various devices
(
translated
).
We’ve seen this done with pretty beefy microcontrollers, like
this project that uses a PIC32
. But the communications going on between the smartphone and the base station are very simple, as are the remote control commands which are being relayed. So we’re not surprised to find that this setup just uses an ATmega88, IR LED, Bluetooth Module, and RF module. There is no connection to a computer (the USB simply provides power via a cellphone charger). If you’re interested in how [Kalle] sniffed the protocol for each remote he wrote two other articles which you can find in the write-up linked above. | 9 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "982783",
"author": "Nick",
"timestamp": "2013-03-22T00:26:45",
"content": "This could be exactly what I am looking for! THanks!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "982784",
"author": "Nick",
"timestamp": "2013-03-2... | 1,760,376,578.692678 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/03/23/shocking-operation-makes-sure-you-have-skin-in-the-game/ | Shocking Operation Makes Sure You Have Skin In The Game | Mike Szczys | [
"News"
] | [
"capacitor",
"disposable camera",
"flash",
"operation",
"shock"
] | Odds are you played the game of Operation when you were a kid. The classic electronic toy challenges you to use a tethered tweezers to extract plastic pieces without touching the sides of the holes they’re hiding in.
This upgrade makes the challenge more interesting
for a grown-up audience. If you touch the sides you won’t hear a jarring sound, you’ll get a painful shock!
The modification starts by clipping off the melted plastic portions that hold the paperboard face plate on the game. From there the original electronics are completely removed. We think this a bit of a mistake as we’d still like spectators to hear the sound as the player gets a shock. But we digress. The circuit board from a disposable camera is patched into the game. A wrist band forms an electrical connection with your body, providing a path for the camera’s flash capacitor to discharge if you happen to touch the sides with the tweezers.
This write-up is missing one important thing: video of someone getting shocked. [Psycosisnine] promises to add some soon, but for now you’ll just have to fall back on our absolute favorite
Mindflex shock project
. | 4 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "983509",
"author": "Hack Man",
"timestamp": "2013-03-23T17:58:15",
"content": "Your average disposable camera contains a 330uf 330v photo flash capacitor.That’s just under 18 joules of energy.Dumbasses.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comme... | 1,760,376,578.644938 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/03/23/html-link-tag-hack-sends-you-to-the-wrong-place/ | HTML Link Tag Hack Sends You To The Wrong Place | Mike Szczys | [
"Security Hacks"
] | [
"html",
"javascript",
"redirect"
] | We consider ourselves fairly cautions Internet warriors. We know when to watch out for malicious links and tread lightly during those times. But this hack will still bite even the most cautions of link followers. It’s a
hack that changes where a link is sending you
after
you click on it
.
The concept is driven home right away by a link in the post which lists PayPal as the target when you hover over it with your mouse. Clicking on it will give you a warning that it could have been a malicious page you were redirected to. Of course the address line of the page shows that you were sent somewhere else, but it’s still an interesting issue. The hack is accomplished with just a few lines of JavaScript. In fact, the original example was 100 characters but a revision boils that down to just 67.
So who’s vulnerable to this kind of thing? It sounds like everyone that’s not using the Opera browser, which has been patched against the exploit. There are also some updates at the bottom of the post which mention that Firefox has been notified about it and Chrome is working on a patch.
[via
Reddit
] | 16 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "983477",
"author": "Xyroze",
"timestamp": "2013-03-23T15:12:49",
"content": "Not an issue with Firefox if you have scripts blocked to begin with.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "983479",
"author": "tobi",
"time... | 1,760,376,578.802145 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/03/23/hacking-the-right-side-of-a-keyboard-completely-off/ | Hacking The Right Side Of A Keyboard Completely Off | Mike Szczys | [
"Peripherals Hacks"
] | [
"cherry",
"g80-3000",
"keyboard",
"numpad",
"usb"
] | The form factor of this keyboard just doesn’t look right. What’s missing? Oh,
the numpad has been completely removed
! We use our numpad almost exclusively (especially when coding) so it’s a little hard to figure out why [Ludw] did this. His only mention of motive is that he wanted the mouse closer to the main part of the keyboard and that he didn’t use the numpad. No matter what the reason, we still think he did an amazing job of giving new life to the older keyboard.
It started out as a plain old beige Cherry G80-3000 keyboard. After cracking open the case [Ludw] carefully traced out the connections between the key matrix and the PCB which provides the USB connection. This is because the controller is mounted over on the part of the PCB he his about to remove. Before making the cuts he desoldered all seventeen switches (these can be reused to
fabricate a new keyboard
, or
add switches to various projects
). He then lopped off the depopulated substrate and used point-to-point soldering to reconnect the controller. A bit of case alteration removed the extra space while also reusing the nicely molded edges. A clean and tidy paint job finishes the hack.
[via
Reddit
] | 12 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "983472",
"author": "Bigfoot",
"timestamp": "2013-03-23T14:58:40",
"content": "I don’t know much about keyboards in other countries but it just seems wrong: two A’s two U’s two O’s , Y and Z reversed.. Nevertheless it still looks great.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"r... | 1,760,376,579.018914 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/03/22/comparing-usb-to-ethernet-converters-apple-vs-knock-off/ | Comparing USB To Ethernet Converters: Apple Vs. Knock-off | Mike Szczys | [
"Teardown"
] | [
"apple",
"asix",
"ax88772alf",
"bridge",
"ethernet",
"fake",
"knock-off",
"usb"
] | [Angus Gratton] recently
cracked open a pair of USB to Ethernet converters
to see what’s inside. One was an Apple branded device, the other a no-name from eBay. The former rings in at $30, with the latter just $4. This type of comparison is one of our favorites. It’s especially interesting with Apple products as they are known for solid hardware choices and
the knock-offs are equally infamous for shoddy imitations
.
From the outside both devices look about the same. The internal differences start right away with a whole-board metal shield on the Apple dongle and none on the off-brand. But the hardware inside is actually quite similar. There’s an RJ-45 jack on the left, followed by the Ethernet isolation chip next to it. From there we start to see differences. The off-brand had a blank chip where Apple’s ASIX AX88772ALF USB to Ethernet bridge controller is located. There is also a difference with the clock; Apple is using two crystals with the other using just one.
[via
Reddit
] | 4 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "983346",
"author": "Bill Stewart",
"timestamp": "2013-03-23T02:11:40",
"content": "The cheap one is the one on top. The Reddit story points to the real story atprojectguswhich has more pictures and lots more discussion. One big difference that’s not visible from the top is that th... | 1,760,376,579.064251 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/03/22/atari-800-eprom-cartridge-hack/ | Atari 800 EPROM Cartridge Hack | Mike Szczys | [
"classic hacks"
] | [
"2764",
"atari",
"atari 800",
"cartridge",
"eprom"
] | [FozzTexx] had an old Atari 800 collecting dust and decided to pull it out and get to work. The problem is that it’s seen some rough storage conditions over the years including what appears to be moisture damage. He’s read about a cartridge called SALT II which can run automatic diagnostics. Getting your hands on that original hardware can be almost impossible, but if he had a flashable cartridge he could just download an image. So
he bought the cheapest cartridge he could find and modified it
to use an EPROM.
When he cracked open his new purchase he was greeted with the what you see on the left. It’s a PCB with the edge connector and two 24-pin sockets. These are designed to take 4k ROMs. He dropped in an EPROM of the same size but the pin-out doesn’t match what the board layout had in mind. After following the traces he found that it is pretty much an exact match for an Intel 2764 chip. The one problem being that the chip has 28-pins, four too many for the footprint. The interesting thing is that the larger footprint (compared to the 2732) uses all the same pins, simply adding to the top and moving the power pins. A small amount of jumper wire soldering and [FozzTexx] is in business. | 5 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "984925",
"author": "foo",
"timestamp": "2013-03-26T22:06:40",
"content": "I made use of the same Pin-similarity back in the 90ies when I wanted to modify the ROM of my VGA card or make Ethernet cards bootable without an EPROM burner. It turns out that conveniently accessible Flash E... | 1,760,376,579.113141 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/03/22/writing-new-firmware-for-a-handheld-radio/ | Writing New Firmware For A Handheld Radio | Brian Benchoff | [
"Radio Hacks"
] | [
"amateur radio",
"ham radio",
"radio",
"uv3r"
] | When playing around with a cheap, handheld, dual-band radio, [Lior], a.k.a. [KK6BWA], found a schematic for a similar and even cheaper radio. He realized the programming pads were very accessible and the dev tools for the radio’s microcontroller were available from the manufacturer. After these discoveries, there really was only one thing to do:
write new firmware for a $40 radio
, and making a great tool for playing around in the 2 meter and 70 cm bands.
The instructions
for reflashing the firmware on this radio only require an Arduino and a handful of miscellaneous components. [Lior]’s
new firmware
for the uv3r radio isn’t quite finished yet, but he plans on adding some really impressive features. Things like a better UI for a four-button radio, a mode for tracking satellites, a digital mode, and a computer-controlled mode are all possible and on
[Lior]’s project wishlist
.
Getting a $40 radio to do your bidding with an Arduino is cool enough, but [Lior] says this mod for the uv3r can be taken even further: if you’ve got an amateur radio license, it’s possible to use the uv3r to control an Arduino or other microcontroller from miles away. It’s a great hack, right up there with the
USB TV tuner/software defined radio thing
we saw almost exactly one year ago.
You can check out a demo of some custom software running on the uv3r after the break. The radio listens for a DTMF tone (supplied by the uv3r’s big brother, the uv5r), and plays back a three-digit DTMF tone. There’s also a more through walk through of what [Lior]’s new radio can do as well.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-bYRF7IxtLA&w=580]
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rfNqLhF10Gc&w=580] | 12 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "983296",
"author": "scorinth",
"timestamp": "2013-03-22T21:56:53",
"content": "The other day a ham radio friend asked me if I thought more people were getting into the hobby, to which I replied, “Yeah, but it’s probably just the crazy prepper crowd.”But I see I was wrong. Ham radio ... | 1,760,376,579.1619 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/03/22/lulzbot-is-giving-away-more-printers/ | LulzBot Is Giving Away More Printers | Brian Benchoff | [
"3d Printer hacks",
"News"
] | [
"3d printer",
"giveaway",
"lulzbot"
] | LulzBot, the awesomely named 3D printer manufacturer and parts supplier,
is giving away eight of their AO-100 printers
to eight lucky hackerspaces.
It’s not so much a contest, but instead a giveaway aimed at eight community-operated hackerspaces who come up with a great idea on how to use a 3D printer. If you’re part of a well-established hackerspace that doesn’t have a 3D printer yet, this is a great opportunity to get your hands on a very nice printer.
A while back,
we acquired one of these LulzBot printers
to print off some custom gaming controllers for gamers with physical disabilities (and to make some other cool stuff as well). Our boss man [Caleb] says the AO-100 is a great printer, and in my dealings and purchases with LulzBot, they seem like a great company with great support. We’re sure the hackerspaces that win these printers LulzBot is giving away will be able to put them to use quickly by making some really cool stuff. | 1 | 1 | [
{
"comment_id": "983286",
"author": "NoX",
"timestamp": "2013-03-22T21:13:53",
"content": "I will be disappointed if the winners won by suggesting anything else than they’d use the 3D printers to fabricate parts for even more 3D printers, which they would sell to even more hackerspaces (and later on... | 1,760,376,580.745176 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/03/20/cuteuino-only-use-the-parts-of-the-arduino-that-you-need-for-each-project/ | CuteUino: Only Use The Parts Of The Arduino That You Need For Each Project | Mike Szczys | [
"Arduino Hacks"
] | [
"atmega328",
"AVR",
"cuteuino",
"modular",
"module"
] | [Fran’s] been working on
her own version of the Arduino
. She calls it CuteUino for obvious reasons. The size of the thing is pretty remarkable, fitting within the outline of an SD card. But that doesn’t mean you won’t get the power that you’re used to with the device. She’s broken it up into several modules so you can choose only the components that you need for the project.
The main board is shown on the right, both top and bottom. It sports the ATmega328p (it’s hard to believe we could make out the label on the chip package in the clip after the break) in a TQFP-32 package soldered to the underside of what she calls the Brain Module. You can also see the extra long pins which stick through from the female pin headers mounted on the top side of the board. Inside of these pin headers you’ll find the clock crystal, status LEDs, and a capacitor. The other module is an FTDI board used to connect the AVR chip to a USB port.
You’ll definitely want to check out
her prototyping post for this project
. She uses a very interesting technique of combining two single-sided boards to make a 3-layer PCB. The side that was not copper clad is fitted with copper foil by hand to act as a ground plane for the vias. Neat!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OqW0eQiR1lE
[Thanks Daniel] | 38 | 16 | [
{
"comment_id": "982169",
"author": "Thopter",
"timestamp": "2013-03-21T01:33:41",
"content": "When mating the USB to the “brain” module, does orientation matter? I don’t see any markings to indicate certain sides have to be together.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{... | 1,760,376,581.164726 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/03/20/bullet-time-with-a-single-gopro/ | Bullet Time With A Single GoPro | Caleb Kraft | [
"digital cameras hacks",
"Featured"
] | [
"bullet time",
"GoPro",
"slow motion",
"video"
] | Earlier this week I saw a video that was showing how some guys
made some really cool bullet time effects
with 15 tiny rugged awesome cameras called “GoPros”(that wasn’t a paid endorsement, they’re awesome). For those unfamiliar, the bullet time effect gained popularity from the first matrix movie. The footage slowed down to slow motion while [Neo] dodged some bullets, but the camera was still able to move around. To do this, they built a massive circular rig and mounted tons of cameras all around. Using these multiple angles, they were able to stitch together the scene in slow motion and “move” the camera.
I know that the multiple camera method works, but I also know that many production companies have moved to a new method of using a single high def slow motion camera on a fast and precise robotic arm. They get the cool shot they need and have the flexibility to change the path the camera takes much easier. The only disadvantage here is that you can’t stop time entirely and rotate around the object.
I can’t find the video right now
, but there was a great one that showed how they could use this industrial arm to move the camera along with pouring wine, or around a drum set.
I decided I could easily build a rig to allow me to do a rotating effect during slow motion. I opted to go the easiest quickest route which was simply to mount an arm on a “lazy susan”. I then placed a GoPro Hero3 on the end of the arm, set the recording mode to 120fps and gave it a spin.
The faster you spin the arm, the more the effect looks like bullet time. Otherwise, it just looks like a nice rotating movement. The results turned out great, even though the slow motion footage is only in 720p.
Some possible future improvements would be to add a platform for things in the middle. I had intended to do this, but the metal I was using flexed too much when extended that far. There is a tiny bit of wobble, some additional weight on the lazy susan might clear that up. | 38 | 22 | [
{
"comment_id": "981990",
"author": "mofoq",
"timestamp": "2013-03-20T20:00:27",
"content": "oh noes..watch out…Go*ro might send in a C&D letter.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "982003",
"author": "Caleb Kraft",
"timestamp": "2... | 1,760,376,581.298891 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/03/20/retrotechtacular-flying-foot-soldiers-are-coming-for-you-sixty-years-ago/ | Retrotechtacular: Flying Foot-soldiers Are Coming For You (sixty Years Ago) | Mike Szczys | [
"News"
] | [
"hiller",
"pawnee",
"retrotechtacular",
"rotor",
"vz-1"
] | Pictured above is a remarkable piece of experimental technology from the 1950’s that never ended up going anywhere.
The Hiller VZ-1 Pawnee
is a single-rider vehicle that was supposed to provide a tactical advantage to US forces. The Office of Naval research spent a couple of years developing the aircraft, wich uses two rotors mounted inside the base of the platform. They spin opposite each other — which removes the need for a tail rotor like you’d find on a helicopter –to lift the platform a short distance off the ground. Although six of them were made only two survive. But the good news is you can go and see them at museums on the East or West coast of the US.
Now that the serious business is behind us, let’s talk about the video clip after the break. The narrative style is a gem of the newsreel era. We can’t tell what is going on with the accent, but we’re totally convinced that at least one general meeting per year at your local hackerspace should require all presenters to use their best impression of this talented gentleman’s voice.
[via
Hacked Gadgets
and
Laughing Squid
] | 28 | 17 | [
{
"comment_id": "981971",
"author": "Steve",
"timestamp": "2013-03-20T19:14:07",
"content": "Someone give me $150k, I’ll make this thing more realistic, MCUs and accelerometers for built-in stability, it’ll actually work and it’ll be a blast to fly! Add some google glasses for machine gun control!"... | 1,760,376,580.874892 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/03/20/bakery-automation-mixes-single-cookies/ | Bakery Automation Mixes Single Cookies | Mike Szczys | [
"cnc hacks",
"cooking hacks"
] | [
"baking",
"cookie",
"scale"
] | [Ben Krasnow’s] latest project is a delicious one. In the image above he’s showing off
the beginnings of his cookie dispenser
. No, it’s not another take on
a way to eat Oreo cookies
. It actually comes much earlier in the production chain. His device is akin to a 3D printer for baked goods in that it will be able to automatically combine raw ingredients to form production runs as small as a single serving of cookie dough.
When we first heard about it we wondered why you would want to bake just one cookie? But of course that’s not the purpose at all. The machine will allow you to bake a full sheet of cookies, but provides the option of making each one of them with a different recipe. As with all baking, combining ingredients in the proper proportions is paramount. In the post linked at the top he’s working on a butter dispenser. But in an earlier post
he hacked an electronic scale to help weigh other ingredients
. You can watch both video clips after the break.
Imaging a dozen cookies with slightly different amounts of flour in them. A few test sheets and he should be able to dial in the very best recipes. | 12 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "981935",
"author": "Joe",
"timestamp": "2013-03-20T17:56:19",
"content": "Since the pain in the a$$ in making cookies is making the dough, not making the cookies from the dough, I am not seeing this as very useful",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
... | 1,760,376,580.799153 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/03/20/putting-the-brains-of-a-reverse-geocache-on-the-outside/ | Putting The Brains Of A Reverse Geocache On The Outside | Brian Benchoff | [
"Android Hacks"
] | [
"geocache",
"gps",
"ioio",
"reverse geocache"
] | A reverse geocache – a box that only opens in a specific geographical area – is a perennial favorite here at Hackaday. We see a ton of different implementations, but most of the time, the builds are reasonably similar. Of course dedicating a GPS receiver solely to a reverse geocache isn’t an inexpensive prospect, so [Eric] came up with a better solution.
He’s using a smart phone as the brains of his geocache
, allowing him to keep the GPS and display outside the locked box.
The build began by finding an old box and modifying it so it can be locked with a servo. The only other bits of electronics inside the box are an IOIO board, a battery pack, and an I2C EEPROM for storing a few settings. On the phone side of things, [Eric]
wrote an Android app
to serve as both the programming interface, UI, and GPS hardware for his reverse geocache. It’s exactly like all the other reverse geocaches we’ve seen, only this time the controls are wireless.
[Eric] put up a video demoing his reverse geocache. You can check that out after the break.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CGC7AH99Yzk&w=580] | 9 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "981909",
"author": "Jeremy",
"timestamp": "2013-03-20T17:07:00",
"content": "Very innovative take on the reverse geocache idea. Well done! I have just one suggestion: Calm down!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "981913",
... | 1,760,376,580.983924 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/03/20/hackaday-links-march-20th-2013/ | Hackaday Links: March 20th, 2013 | Ryan Fitzpatrick | [
"Hackaday links"
] | [
"fresnel",
"gauntlet",
"ipad",
"iron man",
"laser",
"magnet",
"projection mapping",
"projector",
"virtual reality"
] | Giant fresnel lens is dangerous fun
Here’s an interesting, and rather dangerous,
use for those old big screen TVs
that are frequently listed for FREE on Craigslist. With the lens from the old TV built into an adjustable wooden frame, [Grant] was able to melt a stack of pennies, instantly burn wood, melt spots in concrete, and serve his family a cooked egg… Cool.
Projection mapping app helps create hologram like performance stage
[Aimino] used an iPad, a mobile projector, and a mosquito screen
to create a trippy hologram like stage.
It might not seem like much at first, but it’s actually a pretty interesting effect. Watching the video makes me wonder what other applications this could have in the near future.
The world’s strongest magnet
At a cost of over $14 million dollars and weighing in at 35 tons,
the 45 Tesla Hybrid is the strongest DC magnet on Earth
. It’s powerful enough that the film crew couldn’t even safely get in to take footage of it. Over half of their camera tapes were wiped clean just while being in the same facility that houses it!
Virtual Body chair uses 4 of our 5 senses
Created in the hopes of providing a VR experience for seniors with mobility problems who can no longer travel the world, Tokyo Metropolitan University’s Ikei Laboratory presents
the ‘Virtual Body’ exhibition
. Included are a 3D monitor, a pair of headphones, a fan to create breezes and spread scents, a chair that moves and vibrates, and moving foot pedals.
Iron Man laser gauntlet pops balloons with ease
If you’re an Iron Man fan with disposable income, you might want to check out
this functional full metal laser gauntlet
. Built from scratch using no blueprints or guides, [AnselmoFanZero] sells them for around $3K USD. | 23 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "981828",
"author": "M",
"timestamp": "2013-03-20T13:33:55",
"content": "Totally unrelated, but the magnet video made me wonder, where the hell are youtube’s captions any more?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "981856",
"... | 1,760,376,581.225374 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/03/20/measuring-meditation-with-a-heart-rate/ | Measuring Meditation With A Heart Rate | Brian Benchoff | [
"Medical Hacks"
] | [
"heart rate",
"meditation",
"Wee"
] | We’ve seen our fair share of builds over the years that attempt to peer inside a user’s head and divine their state of mind. Whether the goal is to induce lucid dreaming or just reduce anxiety, we’re always impressed with how many ways you can detect moods with physiological measurements. [Kirk] has been measuring his own physiology for months, and found the biggest change during meditation is the variability in his heart rate. Using that algorithm, he
made an orb that changes colors when he’s meditating
.
The hardware for the build uses a Bluetooth LE heart rate monitor connected to a smart phone communicating with an Electric Imp. After processing the heart rate data, the Imp triggers an RGB LED strip controlled with an Arduino. The result is a plastic orb that glows whenever the user is displaying some sort of mindfulness, cross referenced with algorithm generated from mindlessly browsing the Internet. | 15 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "981781",
"author": "Rob",
"timestamp": "2013-03-20T11:52:25",
"content": "Just goes to show I know nothing about meditation. I would have thought a heart rate of 1.5x normal would be anything but relaxing. Clicking through his links, the rate fluctuated massively over short periods.... | 1,760,376,580.935411 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/03/19/hackerspace-intro-make-lehigh-valley/ | Hackerspace Intro: Make Lehigh Valley | Mike Szczys | [
"Hackerspaces"
] | [
"warehouse"
] | The video tour
of
Make Lehigh Valley in Pennsylvania
involves mostly a show-and-tell about the raw materials just waiting to find their way into members’ projects. The tour starts off outside the warehouse that house the hackerspace as well as an associated business incubator called Hive 4A. It then moves inside to give us a look at what they’ve got going on.
We love the space. There are really two kinds of buildings we see used in these tours. One type are commercial retail spaces, like
HeatSync Labs
or
Workshop 88
. They’re clean, well-lit, and in the public view. This is the other kind, behind closed doors and full or floor-space. The building features a really awesome wide-plank wooden floor. It plays host to a smattering of different equipment and a multitude of boxes, jars, troughs, and jugs full of all kinds of stuff. It looks like they’re beginning to get the parts organization under control. Old milk jugs serve as a first round of sorting. There’s also a nice little small parts rack built from plastic tea bottles and small cubby holes made of cardboard. See it all in the clip after the break. | 16 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "981537",
"author": "John",
"timestamp": "2013-03-20T03:35:14",
"content": "THIS!! I want this as my shed to work on things. Actually… I just wish South Australia had a decent hackerspace. Last I heard, there is nothing here :(",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": ... | 1,760,376,581.033283 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/03/19/carry-a-git-server-in-your-pocket/ | Carry A Git Server In Your Pocket | Mike Szczys | [
"Android Hacks",
"Linux Hacks"
] | [
"android",
"gingerbread",
"Git",
"lighttpd",
"server"
] | We love using Git for its superior version control. We often host our more advanced projects in a public Github repository. But the bulk of our little experiments are simply local repos. This is fine if you’re always at home, but if we are away from home we find ourselves having to SSH into our server to copy over the Git files. [Andrew] found a way around this slightly awkward process. He used
an old Android phone as a Git server
.
This actually makes a lot of sense when you start to think about it. Most Android phone have a microSD card slot to provide a huge storage bin (the lack of this on the Nexus 4 is baffling) so you don’t need to worry about running out of space. All of these devices have WiFi, making it easy to use them as an AP when there isn’t any other WiFi around. And the web-connected nature of the device will make syncing your repo over the Internet a snap.
Most of the behind the scenes work is done using Debian packages. This provides a few issues which [Andrew] walks through one by one. We also like his pointers like using ‘noatime’ on your EXTx file systems to avoid wear on the SD card. | 17 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "981449",
"author": "jc",
"timestamp": "2013-03-20T01:24:23",
"content": "carry a sd card in your pocket = carrying a git server in your pocket.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "981758",
"author": "fartface",
"ti... | 1,760,376,581.088661 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/03/19/fabricating-custom-displays-for-a-commercial-coffee-roaster/ | Fabricating Custom Displays For A Commercial Coffee Roaster | Mike Szczys | [
"Microcontrollers"
] | [
"coffee roaster",
"display",
"motor",
"pic",
"speed controller"
] | Roasting the perfect coffee bean is an art form. But even the most talented of roasters can use a little feedback on what’s going on with their equipment. [Ludzinc] recently helped out a friend of his by building this set of
7-segment displays to show what’s happening with this coffee roaster
.
The yellow modules hiding underneath the display panel are responsible for setting the speed of the hot air blower and the rate at which the drum turns. They’re adjustable using some trimpots, but it sounds like the stock machine doesn’t give any type of speed feedback other than direct observation.
The solution was to patch into those speed controllers using the ADC of a PIC chip. They each output 0-10V, which [Ludzinc] measures via a voltage divider. After the speed is quantified the microcontroller outputs to one of the displays. Since there’s a different chip for each readout, the firmware can be custom tuned to suit the operator’s needs.
Keep this in mind if you’re still planning to
build that coffee roaster out of a washing machine
. | 14 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "981383",
"author": "me",
"timestamp": "2013-03-19T23:42:45",
"content": "It reminds me of the control panel for the Back To The Future time machine..",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "981470",
"author": "Hack Man",
"timest... | 1,760,376,581.427874 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/03/19/stereoscopic-display-art-installation/ | Stereoscopic Display Art Installation | Mike Szczys | [
"Video Hacks"
] | [
"mirror",
"monitor",
"stereoscopic"
] | This rig is something of a museum or art installation, but the concept is so simple we thought it could easily inspire your next project. The two mirrors and two video sources
make up a stereoscopic display
.
The user sits between two displays (computer monitors shown here, but the post also shows images projected on two walls of a room). A pair of mirrors mounted at forty-five degrees form the eye pieces. It’s a V-shaped mirror assembly in which the narrow end pointing toward the bridge of the user’s nose. The mirrors reflect the images from the monitors, giving a different view for each eye.
In this case each monitor is playing back a video loop, but one is just slightly longer than the other. Each monitor has a potentiometer in front of it. The user can turn them to speed or slow the playback in an attempt to bring the video back into sync. We don’t think we’d replicate that portion of the project. But it might be fun to view some stereoscopic clips in this way. There’s even instructions on how two cameras were used to record the scenes.
You can get a closer view of the test apparatus in the clip after the jump.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qdT83N003nI | 9 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "981293",
"author": "Dax",
"timestamp": "2013-03-19T21:39:03",
"content": "There’s a trick you can do with sunglasses. Load up a youtube video shot out of a car window etc. where the scenery is moving sideways. Then put the sunglasses on front of one eye only.The lowered light input ... | 1,760,376,581.475278 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/03/19/python-script-migrates-from-dying-google-reader-to-evernote/ | Python Script Migrates From Dying Google Reader To Evernote | Mike Szczys | [
"internet hacks"
] | [
"evernote",
"google reader",
"json",
"python"
] | We’re sure you’ve heard by now that Google has decided to close its RSS feed aggregator service called Google Reader. We’ve got to remember to get our list of thousands of great hacking blog feeds off of there before it’s gone. But just preserving the list is rather easy. [Paul Kerchen] has a bit different problem. He’s got hundreds of articles starred and he wants to preserve a way to find those pages again. His solution was to write his own
Python script to migrate starred Google Reader articles over to Evernote
.
We’re not here to promote the Evernote service. But just so we’re on the same page, it’s an archiving system that lets you save things like webpages and text documents for access on a wide range of different platforms. So all that really needs to happen is for [Paul] to get the list of links from his starred articles folder formatted for import on Evernote. It starts by using
Google Takeout
to download an archive of his account data. Within this dump is a JSON formatted file called ‘starred.json’. His script parses the data and imports each article into Evernote. There’s even rate limiting to manage the daily import maximum of free accounts. | 17 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "981146",
"author": "Necromant",
"timestamp": "2013-03-19T19:07:59",
"content": "Well, this pretty much sums up why I don’t use any cloud services not running on my server or vps, under MY control.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id"... | 1,760,376,581.809334 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/03/19/ask-hackaday-what-movies-have-the-bestworst-hacking-scenes/ | Ask Hackaday: What Movies Have The Best/worst Hacking Scenes | Mike Szczys | [
"Ask Hackaday"
] | [
"Ask Hackaday",
"fail",
"hacking",
"hollywood",
"movies"
] | It’s time to do your best impression of [Comic Book Guy] as you make your case for trash or triumph in big screen hacking scenes. We watch a lot of movies, and it’s hard not to groan when the filmmakers cut corners by doing zero research into what using a computer actually looks like. But then once in a great while you have a team that does its due diligence and puts up a scene that makes sense to those of us in the know. So we’re wondering, what movies do you think have the best hacking scenes, and which ones are the worst offenders? Leave your opinion on the topic in the comments section.
We realize that you can come up with tons of poorly done ones,
what we would really like to hear about is who did it right.
We’ll get you started with a couple of examples. The image on the upper left is a scene from
Tron: Legacy
which we think did a fantastic job of portraying actual computer usage. You can
read more about the huge amount of work that went into it in this article
(via
Reddit
).
In the lower right is one of the most shady movies scenes that comes to mind. [Hugh Jackman] is compelled to do some ‘hacking’ by [John Travolta] in the movie
Swordfish
. The caption at the top of the screen is “COMPILER”, and who the heck knows what the rest of that is supposed to be?
On the hardware hacking side, it gets a little more difficult, we would LOVE some examples of
hardware hacks or mods
done right. | 342 | 50 | [
{
"comment_id": "980999",
"author": "dALE",
"timestamp": "2013-03-19T17:03:37",
"content": "not Hackers.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "981011",
"author": "Mike",
"timestamp": "2013-03-19T17:15:20",
"content": "Yeah, t... | 1,760,376,582.347386 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/03/19/diy-arduino-pro-mini-quadcopter/ | DIY Arduino Pro Mini Quadcopter | Ryan Fitzpatrick | [
"Arduino Hacks",
"drone hacks",
"Toy Hacks"
] | [
"arduino pro mini",
"quadcopter"
] | [execUc] took a stock V929 quadcopter and
started making some crafty customizations.
The main change – the control electronics were replaced by an Arduino Pro Mini (16Mhz model). He soldered all the modules on a prototyping board and, although admittedly a bit heavy, the little guy takes flight with no problem.
Among other details, an HMC5883L (magnetometer) and MPU6050 (accelerometer / gyroscope) are used as sensors. A LiPo 7.4V battery pack supplies the power. The brushed motors are controlled by pulse-width modulation from SI2302 MOSFET with added diodes. He plans to swap out the micro-controller for an ARM7 stm32F103 for extra computing power, and needs to play with the PID values to correct a slight problem he seems to be having when rotating.
Check out a test flight video after the break. [execUc] has a thorough list of all the alterations he made in the video description, so be sure to read it.
[via
Hacked Gadgets
] | 5 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "980977",
"author": "Tim Andersson",
"timestamp": "2013-03-19T16:36:46",
"content": "Hello Ryan!Im really impressed with your project and im making nearly the same thing! Could you send me your arduino code? Since it might help me with alot! my email issaxen2@gmail.comThanks again",
... | 1,760,376,581.754845 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/03/19/make-your-own-steadycam-mount/ | Make Your Own Steadycam Mount | Jeremy Cook | [
"digital cameras hacks"
] | [
"GoPro",
"steadycam"
] | [Ryan] wrote in to tell us about his partially
3D-printed steadycam mount
on Instructables. In the video after the break, the camera does stay quite steady through some basic tests. The base is a paint roller handle, and the device works by using a long arm on the bottom with some weights to keep the camera upright. This handle is attached to the weights and camera through a 3-axis Gimbal system that allows the camera to stay relatively steady even if your hand isn’t. A full bill of materials and the needed STL files are provided.
Of course if you’re “old school” and like to use subtractive manufacturing methods, you can always check out this
[camera stabilizer]
from [Do-It-Yourself Gadgets]. The device works in a nearly identical manner, but the BOM seems to be: metal, screws, threaded rod. There are some cool animated GIFs of it in action on the site, or check out the video after the break.
As a “camera mount” bonus, check out this super easy
[GoPro] (or any other small camera) clamp mount
. Really clever.
[youtube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qeCgvwQO9I4&w=470&h=315%5D
[youtube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J0pbN4p51eA&w=470&h=315%5D | 13 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "980894",
"author": "twchambers",
"timestamp": "2013-03-19T13:20:03",
"content": "Why is there never any sample footage taken from the mount with these sorts of things?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "980976",
"author":... | 1,760,376,581.718328 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/03/19/designing-and-building-a-wooden-mechanical-clock/ | Designing And Building A Wooden Mechanical Clock | Jeremy Cook | [
"clock hacks"
] | [
"clock",
"escapement",
"mechanical clock",
"pendulum",
"wood gears"
] | Electronics are undoubtedly the basis for our modern society. Leaving out transistor-based devices, and a mechanical clock would be one of the most intricate devices man has come up with. As a Mechanical Engineer, I thought it would be a fun challenge to design and
build my own gear-driven clock.
Because clocks have obviously been invented, I wouldn’t be starting from scratch, and I don’t think I could have figured out an escapement on my own. I explain my initial
clock escapement and gear reduction design
thoughts in this post, and originally getting the escapement to work was my biggest fear.
As seen in the first video after the break, the escapement gear is still a big problem, but not really for the reason I expected. The shaft that the gear sits on seems to be bent, so it allows the escapement to “go free” for part of it’s cycle, losing any sense of accurate timekeeping. Be sure to also check out the second video, especially around 1:50 when I show what happens when an escapement gear goes much faster than a normal clock.
[youtube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UFFODaXkz58%5D
[youtube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W_TzPqYTH6E%5D
This clock project has been really fun so far. Right now I’m planning to step back and redo the main frame, and put in some better gear axes. Considering all the equipment we now have, it’s really amazing how people were able to build much better clocks than what I could make hundreds of years ago. | 16 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "980844",
"author": "ejonesss",
"timestamp": "2013-03-19T11:30:41",
"content": "you may need to use a popsicle stick because the rod is probably flexing and buffering some of the motion",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "981393",
... | 1,760,376,581.666553 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/03/18/robotic-rat-torments-and-depresses-real-rats/ | Robotic Rat Torments And Depresses Real Rats | Ryan Fitzpatrick | [
"Robots Hacks"
] | [
"animal testing",
"depression",
"mouse",
"rat",
"robot"
] | Animal testing has always been a subject of much debate. On one hand, it allows us to determine if something is probably safe for humans. On the other hand, it’s injuring and killing the very animals that help us escape that same fate. Any way you look at it, be thankful you’re not a lab rat. Being a mammal, they share a similar physiology with us. They are also easy to breed and easy to dispose of. These characteristics make them the prime subject for testing the safety of drugs and treatments that might one day be used on humans. Scientists at
Waseda University in Tokyo, Japan,
have created a new rat nemesis – the WR-3, a robot designed specifically to stress and depress lab animals in the name of science.
Depression isn’t normally something rats have to worry about in the wild. So, the WR-3 tries to instill it upon them. The robot has three functions: attacking continuously (relentlessly rams the victim), attacking interactively (attacks for 5 seconds whenever the victim moves, then stops), and chasing (stays right next to the victim but never attacks). The scientists found that the best way to make the rats depressed was to attack them continuously in their youth, then attack interactively as they get older.
With the data the scientists gain from these new experiments, they hope to learn more about human depression and hopefully come up with more successful treatments. There isn’t a lot of specific information we could find about the WR-3, but we’ll keep you posted.
[via
Gizmodo
] | 92 | 36 | [
{
"comment_id": "980617",
"author": "kivig",
"timestamp": "2013-03-19T01:11:31",
"content": "A joke? :D",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "980834",
"author": "Alex Rossie",
"timestamp": "2013-03-19T11:03:08",
"content": "D... | 1,760,376,582.04497 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/03/18/uc-davis-students-build-coffee-can-radar-project-inspired-by-mit/ | UC Davis Students Build Coffee Can Radar Project Inspired By MIT | Mike Szczys | [
"Radio Hacks"
] | [
"coffee can",
"ee",
"mit",
"opencourseware",
"radar",
"uc davis"
] | Blinking lights is a lot of fun, but if you’re getting an EE degree the cool stuff becomes a bit more involved. In this case, building your own radar is the thing to do. Here’s
a coffee can radar setup
being shown off by a group of UC Davis students. Regular readers will recognize the concept as
one we looked at in December
. The project was inspired by the MIT OpenCourseware project.
One of the cans is being used as a transmitter, the other as the collector. The neat thing about this rig is that the analysis is performed on a PC, with the sound card as the collection device. The video after the break shows off the hardware as well as the results it collected. About a minute and a half into the clip they show a real-time demonstration where a student walks in front of the apparatus while another takes a video of the plot results. As the subject moves away from the receiver the computer graph changes accordingly. The rest of the video covers some operational theory and pcb assembly.
[Thanks Gregory] | 25 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "980563",
"author": "Doktor Jeep",
"timestamp": "2013-03-18T23:21:36",
"content": "I just love projects like this. Good work!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "980598",
"author": "richnormand",
"timestamp": "2013-03-19T00:3... | 1,760,376,581.901104 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/03/18/temperature-controlled-wine-cellar-substitute/ | Temperature Controlled Wine Cellar Substitute | Mike Szczys | [
"Lifehacks"
] | [
"foam",
"peltier",
"storage",
"wine",
"wine cellar"
] | Serious wine enthusiasts keep their bottles in a room built for the task. If you don’t have that kind of space you can still fabricate a similar storage environment. This foam box keeps stored wine at a controlled temperature. It also keeps light off of the precious goods. [Michael] built it himself to use in his apartment and published
a description of the build process
.
He picked up some foil-coated foam board from the home store. Six sections come together into a box about the size of a mini-fridge; 24″ by 24″. A square hole was cut in the center of the top section. This receives the smaller of two heat sinks mounted to a Peltier cooler. The temperature inside is monitored by a thermistor which [Michael] tore out of an old iPod battery. To give him some visual feedback on the internal temperature he added that yellow and black striped meat thermometer.
Since this is for long-term storage, we’d bet the system is rather efficient. As long as the door isn’t frequently opened the temperature change should be quite slow thanks to the insulation and the cool liquid in wine bottles. | 11 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "980510",
"author": "Sven",
"timestamp": "2013-03-18T21:25:17",
"content": "This thing will not be very efficient, it’s using a peltier rather than a compressor, and i don’t think that foam board is much better than the insulation in a regular wine refrigerator…",
"parent_id": nu... | 1,760,376,582.096258 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/03/18/prototyping-a-modular-led-matrix/ | Prototyping A Modular LED Matrix | Mike Szczys | [
"Arduino Hacks",
"LED Hacks"
] | [
"matrix",
"MAX7219",
"module"
] | [Will] was toying with the idea of creating a scrolling LED marquee to display messages as his wedding in May. But you’ve got to crawl before you can walk so he decided to see what he could do with the MAX7219 LED driver chips. They do come in a DIP package, but the 24-pin 0.1″ pitch chip will end up being larger than the 8×8 LED modules he wanted to use. So he opted to go with a surface mount part and
spun a PCB which makes the LEDs modular
.
These drivers are great when you’re dealing with a lot of LEDs (like
the motorcycle helmet of many blinking colors
). Since they use SPI for communications it’s possible to chain the chips with a minimum of connections. [Will] designed his board to have a male header on one side and a female socket on the other. Not only does it make aligning and connecting each block simple, but it allows you to change your mind at any time about which microcontroller to use to command them. For his first set of tests he plugged the male header into a breadboard and drove it with an Arduino. We hope to hear back from him with an update when gets the final device assembled in time for the big day. | 23 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "980456",
"author": "Hack Man",
"timestamp": "2013-03-18T19:10:48",
"content": "WHY ARE THESE NOT AVAILABLE FOR $1 OR $2 EACH???",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "980459",
"author": "bluewraith",
"timestamp": "201... | 1,760,376,582.406293 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/03/18/wireless-base-station-eavesdrops-on-robot-communications/ | Wireless Base Station Eavesdrops On Robot Communications | Mike Szczys | [
"Wireless Hacks"
] | [
"2.4 ghz",
"dsPic",
"dspic33",
"mRF24J40MA"
] | The good [Doctor Iguana] has been working on a pair of robots which communicate with each other using mRF24J40MA wireless transceivers. This presents a challenge in debugging, as he really didn’t have an easy way of monitoring those communications. His solution was to
build his own base station
which lets him use a computer to monitor what each robot is saying.
He spun his own board for the project. USB connectivity is provided by an FTDI chip, the FT232RL. This converts the USB communications in to serial for the dsPIC33 microcontroller. The FTDI chip comes with a fairly fine-pitch, but the footprint can still be fabricated using toner transfer if you’re fairly familiar with the process. [Dr. Iguana] took some close-up images of the unpopulated board which might make you a little nervous with the soldering iron. The other end of the board hosts the same Microchip wireless module as he used in his robots.
After a bit of rework (noted on the photo labels) he got this up and running. Now he can capture all of the wireless communications and see if problems are due to the sender or the receiver. | 6 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "980403",
"author": "hemalchevli",
"timestamp": "2013-03-18T17:17:18",
"content": "That is one cool tool..",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "980446",
"author": "biozz",
"timestamp": "2013-03-18T18:53:10",
"content": "so... | 1,760,376,582.549689 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/03/18/hack-removes-firmware-crippling-from-nvidia-graphics-card/ | Hack Removes Firmware Crippling From NVIDIA Graphics Card | Mike Szczys | [
"News"
] | [
"gtx690",
"NVIDIA",
"quadro k5000",
"resistor"
] | If hardware manufacturers want to keep their firmware crippling a secret, perhaps they shouldn’t mess with Linux users? We figure if you’re using Linux you’re quite a bit more likely than the average Windows user to crack something open and see what’s hidden inside. And so we get to the story of how [Gnif] figured out that
the NVIDIA GTX690 can be hacked to perform like the Quadro K5000
. The thing is, the latter costs nearly $800 more than the former!
[Gnif] wanted the card for gaming and to support multiple monitors. It has no problem driving up to three screens under Windows. But the Linux drivers only allow this on the professional counterpart to the GTX690, the Quadro K5000. It turns out that the card responds to a device ID as assigned by a series of analog values. These can be tweaked by swapping, yanking, or adding resistors in just the right places. As with
that Agilent multimeter unlock of his
which we saw a few days ago, he somehow managed to figure out the secret sauce that unlocks the power hidden in this card. | 135 | 26 | [
{
"comment_id": "980341",
"author": "flink",
"timestamp": "2013-03-18T15:15:31",
"content": "When a person buys a high-end video card, it is expected that you get something more than when you buy a low end card.Unless by “more” they mean “bend over and grab your ankles.”I don’t mind a company making... | 1,760,376,582.716187 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/03/18/heat-your-house-with-propane-but-not-in-the-way-youre-thinking/ | Heat Your House With Propane (but Not In The Way You’re Thinking) | Mike Szczys | [
"home hacks",
"Repair Hacks"
] | [
"coolant",
"geothermal",
"Heat pump",
"propane",
"r-22",
"r-290"
] | [Ralph Doncaster] has a geothermal heat pump which is responsible for providing heat for his home. He’s been looking into some hacks that would make it more efficient and decided that the freon (R-22) needed to be tweaked. Some would say the stuff is bad for the environment, so he decided to go a different route. He replaced the Freon with propane,
using this rig to make the fuel-grade propane more like cooling-grade propane
called r-290.
He purchased the gauge set which is used whenever a technician services an A/C system (but you can also see it in
this other A/C propane hack
). That’s important because it’s responsible for making sure the old coolant is recaptured (his hose failure nixed this part of the plan) and the new coolant goes where it should at the correct pressure. But before dumping in propane from the local hardware store he needs to dry it out. Fuel-grade propane can have moisture in it, which can be bad for the cooling system. He bought a drier device, the grey bulb seen above, and soldered it on one end to a propane torch fitting and to a valve connection on the other. Now he could remove moisture as he pressurized the system.
Everything is working again, and the cooling side of the system gets much colder. He plans to do more testing as time goes by. | 87 | 28 | [
{
"comment_id": "980280",
"author": "Garbz",
"timestamp": "2013-03-18T13:13:20",
"content": "And thus History repeats itself. The primary reason to go from earlier refrigerants to CFCs was due to the danger early refrigerants posed, and now we using explosive propane. Back to square one.",
"pare... | 1,760,376,582.836952 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/03/17/google-glass-hack-for-apple-fanboys-can-be-had-right-now/ | Google Glass Hack For Apple Fanboys Can Be Had Right Now | Mike Szczys | [
"Wearable Hacks"
] | [
"google glass",
"ios",
"iphone",
"ipod touch"
] | If you’re a follower of Apple hardware the upcoming Google Glass release probably doesn’t interest you much. But the
concept
is universally cool. If you want to
have your own one-eyed voice-activated computer running iOS
, then this is the hack for you. [John] calls it the Beady-i, and posted a step-by-step article on how he put it together.
The headpiece is shown on the left. It’s a combination of a pair of glasses with projection screens built-in, and a gaming headset. [John] cut off one of the lenses, and removed the remaining arm of the glasses. That arm was replaced with the frame of a gaming headset, which now wraps around the back of his neck to make sure the lopsided display isn’t going to fall off.
By combining the electronics from both the glasses and the headset, and terminating the connections with a docking plug he’s got what he was after. The lens displays what is shown on the screen, and the gaming headset lets him hear the device’s sound in one ear and register input using the microphone. | 27 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "979879",
"author": "strider_mt2k",
"timestamp": "2013-03-17T20:21:10",
"content": "So it just mirrors the display then?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "979909",
"author": "djneo",
"timestamp": "2013-03-17T21:41... | 1,760,376,582.899249 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/03/17/custom-boards-at-home-without-etching/ | Custom Boards At Home Without Etching | Brian Benchoff | [
"hardware"
] | [
"circuit board",
"etching",
"pcb",
"perf board"
] | PC board houses are getting more accessable and less expensive all the time. Some of us are even getting very, very good at making our own circuit boards at home. There are times, though, when a project or prototype requires an extremely cheap custom board
right now
, something etching a custom board won’t allow. [KopfKopfKopfAffe]
has a unique solution to this problem
, able to create custom boards in under an hour without any nasty chemicals.
Instead of starting his build with copper-clad board, [KopfAffe] used every rapid prototyper’s friend, simple one-sided perf board. The shape of the board was milled out on a CNC machine, and both the top silk screen and bottom layer were marked off using the toner transfer method. After that, a custom circuit is just a matter of placing components and putting solder bridges between all the marked pads.
[KopfAffe] is only using this technique for single-sided boards, but we don’t see any reason why it couldn’t be employed for simple double-sided boards. This would still have the problem of making vias between the layers, but that’s still a problem with proper, home-etched double sided boards. | 39 | 14 | [
{
"comment_id": "979828",
"author": "Steven J. Falken",
"timestamp": "2013-03-17T18:13:49",
"content": "the vias could be realy simply realized with these 0.1″ pinheader sticks.just soder it one side, pull of the plastic and knip it away on the right lengt and solder the other side ;)",
"parent_... | 1,760,376,582.977987 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/03/17/auto-off-for-any-circuit/ | Auto Off For Any Circuit | Brian Benchoff | [
"hardware"
] | [
"auto shutoff",
"power"
] | Properly configured, your computer will go into sleep mode when left unattended for a long enough time. So will your cell phone, and just about every other piece of sufficiently complex electronics. Much simpler circuits, though, are left at the mercy of a SPST switch; if you forget to turn a flashlight off, it will be dead next time you need to use it. Wanting an auto-off circuit simple electronics, [Kyle] threw together
this auto shutoff circuit
.
The basic idea behind the cirucuit is to use a microcontroller as a timer controlling two transistors. When [Kyle]’s circuit is power cycled, the timer inside an AVR starts, making a pin high, and when the timer is up, making the pin low again. This pin feeds into a PNP transistor which is in turn connected to a NPN transistor, creating a very tiny auto off circuit for anything with an SPST switch.
[Kyle] says there are a few improvements to be made – using MOSFETS to handle higher currents and possibly using a smaller microntroller like an ATtiny 4/5/9/10 to shrink the circuit’s volume. It’s a great idea, bringing the idea of a flashlight with auto shutoff into reality. | 54 | 23 | [
{
"comment_id": "979701",
"author": "Mike",
"timestamp": "2013-03-17T12:44:44",
"content": "I did the same thing for my car, it makes the dome light dim out rather than snap off. Only difference is I used 1 transistor, 1 capacitor, and 1 resistor. But hey, at least with an AVR you could make it usb ... | 1,760,376,583.068272 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/03/16/testing-caps-with-a-diy-esr-meter/ | Testing Caps With A DIY ESR Meter | Brian Benchoff | [
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"capacitor",
"ESR",
"meter",
"tool"
] | There’s a problem with collecting old tube amps and vintage electronics – eventually the capacitors in these machines will die. It’s not an issue of a capacitor plague that causes new electronics to die after a few years; with time, just about every capacitor will dry out, rendering antique electronics defective. The solution to getting old gear up and running is replacing the capacitors, but how do you know which ones are good and which are bad? With
[Paulo]’s DIY ESR meter
, of course.
An ideal capacitor has a zero equivalent series resistance, and failure of a capacitor can be seen as an increase in its ESR. Commercial ESR meters are relatively cheap, but [Paulo] was able to build one out of a 555 chip, a small transformer, and a few other miscellaneous components.
The entire circuit is built on stripboard, and if you’re lucky enough to find the right parts in your random parts bin, you should be able to build this ESR meter with components just laying around. | 21 | 14 | [
{
"comment_id": "979430",
"author": "Bill Jackson",
"timestamp": "2013-03-16T17:22:13",
"content": "I have replaced many old can type dried out electrolytics by opening the can at the bottom joint and replacing the innards with a modern electrolytic cap of the right value. Modern caps are a lot smal... | 1,760,376,583.195578 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/03/16/sonic-screwdriver-meets-tv-b-gone/ | Sonic Screwdriver Meets TV-B-Gone | Brian Benchoff | [
"Toy Hacks"
] | [
"attiny85",
"sonic screwdriver",
"tv-b-gone"
] | [furrysalamander] has a friend that is a really big Doctor Who fan. It happens that this friend has a birthday coming up, and [furrysalamander] wanted to get her something amazing. A Sonic Screwdriver is always a great gift, but [furrysalamander] wanted to put his personal touch on it. He ended up
adding a TV-B-Gone to [10]’s screwdriver
, turning a fictional deus ex machina into a functional device.
The body of the Sonic comes from
this replica
of [10]’s screwdriver from Think Geek. Inside, the screwdriver has space for a battery a circuit board to control the lights and sound normally expected of a sonic screwdriver. [furrysalamander] added a freeform circuit composed of an ATtiny85, a transistor, LED, and a few resistors to add the ability to turn just about any TV off.
Of course [furrysalamander] needed to program the ATtiny with the TV-B-Gone firmware, and lacking any AVR development tools he used a Raspberry Pi’s GPIO pins to write the firmware to the microcontroller. That’s something we’ve seen before, but [furrysalamander] is a champ for including the process in his Instructable.
The end result is a Sonic Screwdriver that doesn’t work on wood and can’t break a deadlock seal. It turns off TVs just fine, though, and looks great to boot. You can check out a demo of [furrysalamander]’s sonic in action after the break.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cUDJHyptKHY&w=580] | 35 | 13 | [
{
"comment_id": "979392",
"author": "furrysalamander",
"timestamp": "2013-03-16T15:20:59",
"content": "Hey! Thanks for posting my project. If you don’t mind though, I’d rather go by furrysalamander!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "979397",
... | 1,760,376,583.144645 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/03/16/ac-vs-dc-human-pain-test/ | AC Vs DC Human Pain Test | Ryan Fitzpatrick | [
"News"
] | [
"ac vs dc",
"pain",
"voltage"
] | Ever wondered just how much being zapped by electricity hurts? Curious if AC is worse than DC? Want to know just how many volts a human body can take? Although many people might cringe at the shear thought of it, [Mehdi Sadaghdar] is an electrical engineer who
decided to turn himself into a human guinea pig and find out
.
[Mehdi] measured the electrical resistance of his dry skin, his wet skin, and finally his tongue. He found that his tongue had the least resistance, so it would feel the electricity at much lower levels. Using a bench power supply, he then used his tongue as a testing ground – slowly turning the voltage up and up until he could no longer take the pain. He tested the levels at which: he could first feel the electricity, when it began to get annoying, when it felt like torture, and when he could no longer stand the pain. He tried both AC and DC, and reports that AC is much worse.
Check out the informative, yet admittedly hilarious at times, video after the break. [Mehdi] seems like one awesome engineer! Remember – don’t try this at home. | 62 | 27 | [
{
"comment_id": "979340",
"author": "BobFeg",
"timestamp": "2013-03-16T13:12:13",
"content": "AC does NOT conduct across the human body according to Ohms Law.It is more complicated than that…resembling somewhat conduction through a fluorescent tube.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"repl... | 1,760,376,583.342411 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/03/16/midwest-reprap-festival-2/ | Midwest RepRap Festival | Brian Benchoff | [
"3d Printer hacks"
] | [
"festival",
"maker faire",
"reprap"
] | We’re a US-centric site, but aside from events in New York or California, we don’t see many hacker, maker, or 3D printer events aimed at the parts of the country filled with corn and WalMarts.
The 1st annual Midwest RepRap Festival aims to change that
with enough events, speakers, and activities to make Elkhart, Indiana look like the hoppingist place around.
Officially, the festival started yesterday but
the schedule of events
really ramps up today. [Josef Prusa] will be taking the stage talking about the state of the RepRap, and a ton of 3d printing vendors will be there showing off their wares and selling some really cool stuff. There’s also tons of experienced RepRappers available to help you tune your machine to perfection; just as well, because the festival is going for the world record for the greatest number of 3D printers printing simultaneously.
If you’re around northern Indiana, you might want to check out the festival and send us a few pics or videos. | 19 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "979311",
"author": "bonooobong",
"timestamp": "2013-03-16T11:35:59",
"content": "I wish there were events like this in EUrope as well… the only one is the 3DPrintShow in the UK but that’s all… It’s a shame that all the technical inventions come delayed overseas…",
"parent_id": n... | 1,760,376,583.248926 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/03/15/mug-plotter-based-on-the-eggbot/ | Mug Plotter Based On The Egg-Bot | Mike Szczys | [
"cnc hacks"
] | [
"coffee",
"eggbot",
"laser cut",
"mug",
"plotter"
] | Here’s a fun way to break up the monotony in the old cubicle farm. The Mug Plotter will let you
expertly inscribe your coffee vessel
with a different witty saying or design for each day of the week. If it looks familiar that’s because it’s loosely based on the non-flat drawing robot,
the Egg-Bot
.
[Teed] built the machine using laser cut plywood parts. He starts off the build description with the griping technique. There are two parts to this, one is concave and fits in the mouth of the mug. The convex side grips the bottom edges of it. These parts go on the frame along with the slide and thread rods which hold the stylus. A servo motor is along for the ride, providing the ability to lift the marker when necessary.
You can see in the clip after the break that there’s a bit of oscillation in the rig when one of the steppers starts turning really fast. But it doesn’t seem to affect the look of the design very much at all. | 23 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "979032",
"author": "dave",
"timestamp": "2013-03-16T01:35:22",
"content": "Convex on the mouth, concave on the bottom.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "979036",
"author": "Andrew",
"timestamp": "2013-03-16T01:51... | 1,760,376,583.524136 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/03/15/asetniop-chorded-typing-with-a-piano-keyboard/ | ASETNIOP Chorded Typing With A Piano Keyboard | Mike Szczys | [
"Peripherals Hacks"
] | [
"asetniop",
"chorded keyboard",
"midi",
"piano",
"typing"
] | We don’t know if typing your Facebook updates from a piano keyboard counts as practicing or not. But if you want to give it a try here’s how. [Zach] wrote in to our tips line with his latest
ASETNIOP hack which uses a MIDI piano keyboard to touch type
on a computer.
Last July was
when we first heard about ASETNIOP
. It’s a chorded typing system which at the time was aimed at, but not limited to, touch screen devices. This version gives a pretty good idea of how the system actually works. Your fingers and thumbs are each assigned a key and they never move away from it. To type more than just the ten letters, combinations of keys are assigned the rest of the alphabet. You can see the piano example of the system after the break. But better yet would be hooking your own MIDI keyboard up to the computer and
trying it in a browser
. | 21 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "978978",
"author": "Thopter",
"timestamp": "2013-03-15T23:15:08",
"content": "I would have much rather listened to the actual sounds coming from the keyboard than that other piano music. That’s the only reason I started playing the video, to hear what the chords sound like when typi... | 1,760,376,583.815304 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/03/15/script-makes-custom-pinout-labels-for-your-chips/ | Script Makes Custom Pinout Labels For Your Chips | Mike Szczys | [
"Microcontrollers"
] | [
"label maker",
"PDIP",
"Pearl",
"pinout",
"prototyping",
"yaml"
] | After years of prototyping hobby electronics we’ve learned (several times actually) that when something’s not working it’s a problem with the hardware. Usually the jumper wires aren’t hooked up correctly, or we needed to throw a pull-up resistor in and forgot to. One thing that can really help sort these problems out quickly is a pinout label for each chip like the ones seen above. This is a project which [John Meacham] came up with. It uses
a script to generate chip pinouts on a label maker
.
The label maker he started with is a Brother PT-1230PC. It connects to a computer via USB and can use a few different widths of self adhesive label tape. [John] found that the 1/4″ wide tape is nearly a perfect fit for PDIP components.
His script takes
a YAML file
as the input. This formatting standard makes is quick an easy to whip up a label for a new chip using just your text editor. From there his Pearl script turns the data into a Portable Network Graphics (.png) file with the labels spaced for the 0.1″ pitch of the chip. Send this graphic to your label maker and you’ve got an adhesive reminder that will help reduce the time you spend pawing through datasheets just for the pinouts. | 55 | 24 | [
{
"comment_id": "978917",
"author": "coder543",
"timestamp": "2013-03-15T21:09:06",
"content": "Perl, not Pearl, just FYI.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "978922",
"author": "Akoi Meexx",
"timestamp": "2013-03-15T21:23:36",
"content"... | 1,760,376,583.906897 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/03/15/adding-fireplace-control-to-your-home-automation/ | Adding Fireplace Control To Your Home Automation | Mike Szczys | [
"home hacks"
] | [
"arduino",
"fireplace",
"gas",
"home automation",
"remote control",
"RF"
] | [James] has an admirable home automation system which he’s been working on for years. It does things like monitor the state of the garage door, control the lights, and it even notifies him of a power failure. One thing that wasn’t on the system yet are the fireplaces he has in his home. The hardware you see above is
how he patched into the fireplace remote control system
in order to automate them.
The remote control uses RF to communicate with a base station. Unlike controlling home theater components which use IR, this makes it a bit more difficult to patch into. Sure, we’d love to see some
reverse engineering of the protocol
so that a simple radio module could be used, but [James] chose the route which would mean the least amount of hacking on his part. He soldered wires onto the PCB for the buttons and connected to them using reed relays. These let the Arduino simulate button presses.
With the rig connected to the home network he has a lot of options. The system can sense if the house is occupied. If it determines that no one is home it will switch off the fireplaces. [James] also mentions the ability to monitor for carbon monoxide or house fires, switching off the gas fireplaces in either case. | 6 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "978910",
"author": "fartface",
"timestamp": "2013-03-15T20:44:30",
"content": "Or you can use what the rest of us that do this professionally use… a relay at the control unit inside the gas fireplace insert.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"c... | 1,760,376,583.753618 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/03/15/repairing-broken-injection-molded-parts-with-a-3d-printer/ | Repairing Broken Injection Molded Parts With A 3D Printer | Mike Szczys | [
"3d Printer hacks",
"Repair Hacks"
] | [
"123d",
"bracket",
"broken",
"mount",
"tom tom"
] | The value of a 3D printer is obvious for people who hack hardware as a hobby. But this repair project should drive home their usefulness for the commoner. [James Bruton]
used a 3D printer to recreate a hopelessly broken injection molded plastic part
. This is a suction cup mounting bracket for a Tom Tom GPS module. The sphere which makes it adjustable had broken off of the column holding it. For 100% of non-hacking consumers that’s the end of this item. We can’t see a fix that would restore the strength of the original part.
The replacement starts by measuring the broken part with precision calipers. [James] then grabbed a copy of 123D, which is free software. He starts by modeling the sphere, then builds up the support column and the base with a cut-out. It’s obvious he’s already very familiar with the software, but even the uninitiated should be able to get this done pretty quickly. After slicing the design for the 3D printer he finds the part will be ready in about 11 minutes. The first prototype is a bit too small (the ball requires close tolerances to work well). He spins up a second version which is a bit large and uneven. A few minutes of filing leaves him with a smooth sphere which replaces the original part beautifully!
You can see the entire design, print, and assembly process in the clip after the break. | 28 | 13 | [
{
"comment_id": "978823",
"author": "Nicholas Dalziel",
"timestamp": "2013-03-15T17:14:42",
"content": "“We can’t see a fix that would restore the strength of the original part.”I don’t have one of these so this is purely speculation. By the looks of the part in the image, if the break happened righ... | 1,760,376,583.655979 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/03/14/lighting-up-a-workspace-twofer/ | Lighting Up A Workspace Twofer | Brian Benchoff | [
"LED Hacks"
] | [
"led",
"led strip",
"RGB LED",
"workspace"
] | Sometimes a pair of extremely similar builds hit the Hackaday tip line within hours of each other. We’re not one to play favorites, so here’s two projects that put RGB LED strips in a desk and workbench.
[Charles] over at The Makers Workbench has long needed a lighting solution for his workspace. Flourescent lights are
alright
, but for real geek cred
nothing but LED strips will do
. He picked up an RGB strip on Amazon for $20 and now has a lighting solution that’s able to change colors above his workstation. Check out
the video of his RGB workbench rave
.
A computer desk is a workbench too, right? [Will] had the idea of letting people on the Internet
control the lighting color of his desk
. He’s asking people to head over to
this site
and asking people to schedule the color of his desk for an entire day. A Raspi pulls each day’s color off the server. With a few transistors, an RGB strip, a custom shield, and
faking three PWM channels
, [Will] has a new color at his desk every day. | 14 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "978363",
"author": "Gizmos",
"timestamp": "2013-03-14T19:26:58",
"content": "Guh. Migraine.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "978370",
"author": "Bobby O",
"timestamp": "2013-03-14T19:48:29",
"content": "That was annoy... | 1,760,376,583.70857 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/03/14/camera-trick-lets-you-see-sound-waves-in-falling-water/ | Camera Trick Lets You See Sound Waves In Falling Water | Mike Szczys | [
"digital audio hacks",
"digital cameras hacks"
] | [
"camera",
"fps",
"framerate",
"illusion",
"subwoofer",
"water"
] | From this still image you’d think the hose dispensing the water is being moved back and forth. But watch the video after the break and you’ll see the hose is quite steady, as is the standing wave of water. It’s bizarre to be sure. Knowing how it works makes cognitive sense, but doesn’t really diminish the novelty of the demonstration.
This is the second time [Brasspup] has posted a video of this phenomenon.
The newest version
does a great job of showing several different patterns. But even
the first segment
from a year ago, which has over 4 million hits, shows the water moving against gravity. We also saw
a similar rig in a links post
a year ago.
We’d call it an optical illusion but it’s really more of a technological illusion. The water is falling past a sub-woofer speaker which is tuned to 24 Hz. At the same time, the camera filming the demonstration is capturing 24 frames per second. As was mentioned then, it’s much like
flashing a light to freeze the water in mid-air
. But the flashing of the frames is what causes this effect.
[Thanks Limpkin and Michael] | 27 | 17 | [
{
"comment_id": "978309",
"author": "alxy",
"timestamp": "2013-03-14T17:16:45",
"content": "Looks like a CMOS sensor rolling shutter artifact. Probably won’t work on cameras with CCD sensors.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "978334",
"... | 1,760,376,584.01682 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/03/14/raspberry-pi-as-a-spotify-server-with-mpd-control/ | Raspberry Pi As A Spotify Server With MPD Control | Mike Szczys | [
"digital audio hacks",
"Raspberry Pi"
] | [
"airtunes",
"mopidy",
"mpd",
"spotify"
] | The Raspberry Pi has been very popular as a streaming music player. Sure, the only audio out option on the board is an analog stereo jack, but you can use a USB audio device to improve upon that if you wish. [Wouter van Wijk] wanted to use his RPi as a Spotify server. It’s a bit tricky to get everything configured for this, so he decided to give back by publishing
a ready to use Spotify server image
for the Raspberry Pi.
The project is call the Pi MusicBox. Like some of
the RPi Pandora setups
we’ve seen he included the ability to use the hardware as an AirPlay device too. To connect to the Spotify service he uses
the Mopidy package
. It can also play tracks from local storage (including the home network). It’s even capable of mixing the two sources in the same queue. Possibly the best part is that it can be controlled with any Music Player Daemon (MPD) client like the smart phone screenshots seen above.
If you’re interested, check out
his GitHub repo for the project
. | 15 | 12 | [
{
"comment_id": "978244",
"author": "Chris Larkee",
"timestamp": "2013-03-14T15:09:25",
"content": "> the only audio out option on the board is an analog stereo jackNo, there’s an HDMI output too. My Raspberry Pi + MPD setup uses that connection for a digital audio output into my receiver. It sounds... | 1,760,376,583.957021 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/03/14/extreme-game-boy-hack-plays-titles-from-a-wide-range-of-systems/ | Extreme Game Boy Hack Plays Titles From A Wide Range Of Systems | Mike Szczys | [
"Nintendo DS Hacks",
"Nintendo Game Boy Hacks"
] | [
"ds lite",
"game boy"
] | [Akira] can play any Game Boy, GBC, GBA, NES, SNES, or SMS game while on the go thanks to all the work he put into
this portable gaming hack
. The outside seems familiar; it’s an original Game Boy case. But you should immediately notice that it has a few extra buttons. That’s the first clue that what’s inside isn’t stock… which is a huge understatement.
The idea for the project started off rather simple, but quickly got out of hand (
check out the build log
for full details on that). He thought it would be nice to have a backlight for the original screen. After mixed results he scrapped the original mainboard and started anew with some Nintendo DS Lite hardware. It had a broken LCD connector so he tried a couple of different fixes to get it working again. After some success he started adding more equipment, like the extra pair of buttons, a better speaker on the battery door, and the microSD add-on you can see above.
You can catch a demo of the finished goods after the jump.
[Thanks Downing] | 26 | 14 | [
{
"comment_id": "978194",
"author": "Nick",
"timestamp": "2013-03-14T13:13:53",
"content": "That’s awesome! Love the color scheme too!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "978204",
"author": "FiLeSpaCe",
"timestamp": "2013-03-14T13:27:05",
... | 1,760,376,584.084634 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/03/14/shuttavr-can-snap-a-pic-or-serve-as-an-intervalometer/ | ShuttAVR Can Snap A Pic Or Serve As An Intervalometer | Mike Szczys | [
"ATtiny Hacks",
"digital cameras hacks"
] | [
"ATtiny25",
"cannon",
"intervalometer",
"remote control"
] | This project started as a simple microcontroller replacement on this IR camera remote control PCB. But the soldering job went rather badly for [Balthamos] so he changed things up and designed his own
simple AVR remote shutter release and intervalometer
.
The DIP chip seen with most of its legs bent backwards is the ATtiny25 which makes the system work. It’s patched into the traces for the battery connections, button (on the other side of the board) and the IR LED he’s pinching with his left hand. Point it at a Cannon camera and push the button to snap a photo. But as you can see in the clip after the break it also serves as an intervalometer; letting him take several pictures with a user-defined pause between each. That mode is selected by first pressing and holding the button. Once released the chip waits for a second button press to register the delay. The new circuit still fits in the original case after just a bit of alteration to it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AxuifhkwKsE | 8 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "978158",
"author": "Tommy Waffles",
"timestamp": "2013-03-14T11:44:08",
"content": "Anyone have any idea how much work would be involved in modifying this to work with Nikon (DSLRs)? I would imagine it would just be a matter of changing the LED blinking sequence, right?",
"paren... | 1,760,376,584.176583 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/03/13/minimalist-user-interface-for-headless-raspberry-pi-applications/ | Minimalist User Interface For Headless Raspberry Pi Applications | Mike Szczys | [
"Raspberry Pi"
] | [
"character lcd",
"headless",
"RPi"
] | [Jason Birch] just finished building
a beautifully simple user interface for the Raspberry Pi
. The goal was to keep it small and intuitive while still providing a range of functionality. His add-on hardware gives feedback using several LEDs and a four-line character LCD screen. It provides control using just four momentary press switches.
The base for the add-on hardware is a chunk of protoboard the same size as the Pi itself. This is just slightly wider than the LCD screen, leaving room along the top for the row of buttons with different colors of LEDs in between them. Look closely in that nest of point-to-point wiring and you’ll find the dual pin-socket which mates with the RPi GPIO header. One important note from [Jason] mentions that the LCD screen R/W pin must be tied to ground. This keeps it from going into read mode, which would push 5V over the I/O pins, potentially damaging the 3.3V tolerant header on the RPi.
Throw in a battery and that pretty much covers the hardware. To see how he’s using it you’ll want to view the video clip after the break.
[Thanks Tom] | 8 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "978012",
"author": "Julio Della Flora",
"timestamp": "2013-03-14T05:33:03",
"content": "Reblogged this onJulio Della Flora.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "978136",
"author": "fartface",
"timestamp": "2013-03-14T10:52:31... | 1,760,376,584.12985 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/03/13/cardboard-lampshade-makes-ordinary-recycling-a-centerpiece-of-your-room/ | Cardboard Lampshade Makes Ordinary Recycling A Centerpiece Of Your Room | Mike Szczys | [
"green hacks",
"home hacks"
] | [
"cardboard",
"lamp",
"lampshade"
] | This cube lamp was
assembled using common cardboard
. Not only does it look interesting, but it’s basically free with every Ikea purchase since all you need is a source of cardboard, cutting implements, and glue.
[Lindarose92] fabricated the shade out of narrow strips of corrugated cardboard. This particular lamp also has a cardboard base but we’re sure you could use it for just about any light source with doesn’t generate enough heat to cause problems. The build starts out with the tedious process of cutting 5mm by 8cm strips, and you’re going to need a lot of them. Each strip is cut perpendicular to the corrugation, which allows the light to shine through the wave pattern. The strips are then glued into 8cm x 8cm squares, which are in turn glued together into the four by four panels that make up each side of the cube.
Boom, you’re done. And if you get tired of it, just toss the thing in your recycling bin.
[via
Hacked Gadgets
] | 5 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "977976",
"author": "slowJim",
"timestamp": "2013-03-14T03:38:05",
"content": "Looks good, reminds me of a bamboo skewer & wax paper shade I saw on Reddit –http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TGUkz5nFKXsI guess you wouldn’t want to use anything other than an LED or CFL in there. Even with... | 1,760,376,584.21273 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/03/15/enabling-an-unused-touchscreen-overlay-on-a-consumer-lcd/ | Enabling An Unused Touchscreen Overlay On A Consumer LCD | Mike Szczys | [
"Microcontrollers"
] | [
"arduino",
"resistive",
"RPi",
"touch screen"
] | When [Andrei] first got his Raspberry Pi he wanted to make it a standalone computer right away. This means the normal input devices like a mouse and keyboard, but also some type of display. To avoid waiting for shipping he ended up using a cheap vehicle backup camera screen from the local big box store. It worked great, and recently he decided he would try to convert it to run off of 5V power to simplify his setup. While snooping around inside the device he discovered an
unused resistive touch overlay and figured out how to get it to work
.
What tipped him off is the small four-conductor connector which wasn’t hooked up to anything. He carefully soldered wires onto the flexible circuit traces, then generously covered them in hot glue to help prevent movement from breaking the rigid connection. To get this working you need to measure the resistance between the conductors. Most of the time we figure the RPi GPIO header can be used directly, but for this task an intermediary is necessary. [Andrei] went with a small Arduino clone board. A bit of trial and error was all it took to get the connections right and to iron out the code which translates the values into coordinates. | 23 | 12 | [
{
"comment_id": "978761",
"author": "Matt",
"timestamp": "2013-03-15T15:11:24",
"content": "Love it…. Needs a 3 channel ATD, buys an Arduino",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "978769",
"author": "Ren",
"timestamp": "2013-03-15T15:... | 1,760,376,584.489148 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/03/15/deploying-an-open-source-pollution-monitoring-network/ | Deploying An Open Source Pollution Monitoring Network | Mike Szczys | [
"green hacks"
] | [
"arduino",
"beaglebone",
"pm10",
"pollution",
"sensor network",
"solar"
] | [Kasey] and [Guyzmo] have been working for the past couple of years on a side project that lets them monitor pollution using a network of sensors. They’ve just decided to make the project open source, both hardware and software. The details of the system are available at
their GitHub repository
.
There are two main components to the system. On the right is a base station which collects the data from the array of sensor, one of which is shown on the left. Each sensor runs off of a battery, but features a PV solar panel which keeps the power source topped off. It uses an Arduino to drive the system, and an XBee radio for communications. Some info about the sensors can be found on
this summary page
. There’s a PM10 particle pollution sensor, temperature, sound, nitrogen, and oxygen sensors. We also wonder if any data can be gleaned from how much electricity the solar panel is able to harvest?
The base station also uses an XBee radio to poll the network, but it’s not driven by an Arduino. They’ve gone with the ARM-based BeagleBone to manage the data. | 21 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "978743",
"author": "TheAlchemist",
"timestamp": "2013-03-15T14:10:40",
"content": "It’s my turn to know something about a topic! Hooray!This project is a good start and recognize this is a Beta, but has a long way to go before it’s actually monitoring pollutants that are very meanin... | 1,760,376,584.547509 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/03/15/workshop-computer-floats-above-bench-and-is-nearly-wireless/ | Workshop Computer Floats Above Bench And Is Nearly Wireless | Mike Szczys | [
"computer hacks"
] | [
"compaq",
"dual screen",
"lab",
"laptop",
"workshop"
] | [Ezra] used the parts he had lying around to
build a self-contained dual screen shop computer
. What might one name such a project? Obviously you’d call it the Dr. FrankenComputer.
The lower monitor is a dell desktop flat screen. During prototyping [Ezra] used the stand to support everything. But to keep his work space clear the final version has been mounted to the wall in the corner of his lab. The upper display is the LCD from a Compaq laptop which he wasn’t using. The laptop still works and we believe that’s what is driving the Fedora system. A bracket mounted to the desktop screen’s inner skeleton supports the laptop screen and motherboard. One power supply feeds everything and connects to an outlet in the wall behind the monitors. The keyboard and mouse are wireless, as is the computer’s connection to the network.
The only thing we would worry about in our own shop is sawdust filling the heat sinks and other components of the motherboard. Perhaps his lab is electronic projects only or he has a dust cover that he uses when the system isn’t in use. | 22 | 14 | [
{
"comment_id": "978681",
"author": "Ren",
"timestamp": "2013-03-15T12:02:58",
"content": "“The only thing we would worry about in our own shop is sawdust filling the heat sinks and other components of the motherboard.”But if it isn’t only electronics (such as a working woodshop or uses electric wel... | 1,760,376,584.696385 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/03/14/eloquent-universal-receiver-for-your-home-entertainment-equipment/ | Eloquent Universal Receiver For Your Home Entertainment Equipment | Mike Szczys | [
"home entertainment hacks"
] | [
"cable box",
"home theater",
"ir",
"pic32",
"stb",
"universal remote"
] | We’re really starting to enjoy the home entertainment control hacks which use a universal receiver to act on commands from any remote. This one is especially interesting as it uses
a single remote to control the system but rolls in lots of extras
.
Looking at the receiver itself the white plastic dome of the PIR sensor should raise an eyebrow. Since the cable box takes a while to turn on [Ivan] included the motion sensor to switch that component on when you walk into the room. This way it’ll be ready to go by the time you sit down. It does this by sending IR signals from the PIC32 dev board. Of course the board has its own receiver to listen for the remote control commands. The remote buttons have been mapped a bit differently than originally intended. You can see in the diagram above that the normal VCR/DVD/DVR buttons have been set to control the room’s LED strips. There’s even a power consumption monitor rolled into the project. All of these features are demonstrated in the clip after the break.
This is a nearly perfect base setup. But we’d love to see it with
a web interface
at some point in the future. | 8 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "978504",
"author": "derpdeedoo",
"timestamp": "2013-03-15T04:23:46",
"content": "seriously? ‘wow..",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "978621",
"author": "Tony",
"timestamp": "2013-03-15T10:19:30",
"content": "Eloquent? ... | 1,760,376,584.740423 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/03/14/eeprom-hack-unlocks-crippled-features-in-agilent-multimeter-and-lcr-meter/ | EEPROM Hack Unlocks Crippled Features In Agilent Multimeter And LCR Meter | Mike Szczys | [
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"agilent",
"cripple",
"eeprom",
"multimeter",
"stm32"
] | [Gnif] was doing what any good hacker does… poking around the insides of one of his tools to see how it works. While in there, he discovered that an EEPROM hack could
make the Agilent U1241A function like the U1242A
.
If you’re into this kind of thing
the Rigol 1052e hack
should have already popped to mind. That was a firmware crippled device that, when unlocked, made the cheaper model behave the same ways as it’s $400 more expensive sibling. This doesn’t have quite the same impact, as the price difference is somewhere between $20-$100. Still, this stuff is just cool, right?
A few posts down in the thread linked above [Gnif] shares the story of how he found the hack. After shorting the i2c lines of the EEPROM while powering up the meter he was able to see that the device initializes a lot of its values to 0xFF when it can’t find the stored data. The next step was to use an STM32 board to dump the EEPROM contents. With the backup file stored safely he started changing values and reflashing the chip. Through this process he discovered that switching one byte from 0x01 to 0x02 enabled the higher model’s features. It also works for upgrading the U1732C to the U1733C feature set. | 31 | 12 | [
{
"comment_id": "978477",
"author": "SYNTRONIKS",
"timestamp": "2013-03-15T02:12:42",
"content": "This kind of a hack is what I have come to expect of the occasional firmware-related HaD post. Thank you for the underground knowledge — this is really stimulating food for thought.",
"parent_id": n... | 1,760,376,584.807787 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/03/14/this-cube-is-made-for-walkin/ | This Cube Is Made For Walkin’ | Mike Szczys | [
"Robots Hacks"
] | [
"angular momentum",
"balance",
"companion cube",
"cube",
"self balancing"
] | Meet Cubli, a research project which aims to
make a cube that can walk around without using any appendages
. It’s a research project at the Institute for Dynamic Systems and control in Switzerland. Anyone else thinking about our beloved companion cube right now?
The robotic experiments are based on angular momentum. Inside of the cube there are center mounted motors which each spin a wheel. Three of these are mounted perpendicular to each other to give the cube the ability to change its position along any axis. This is best shown by the first video after the break where just a single side of the assembly is demonstrated. A square frame starts at a rest position. You see the wheel spin up and it is suddenly stopped, which causes the momentum of the wheel to pop the square frame up onto one corner. The wheel then switches into a second mode to keep it balancing there. The final mode is a controlled fall. This theoretically will let the cube move around by falling end over end. So far they’re not showing off that ability, but the second demo video does show the assembled cube balancing on one corner.
[
Reddit
via
Robohub
] | 32 | 15 | [
{
"comment_id": "978434",
"author": "112358",
"timestamp": "2013-03-14T23:13:04",
"content": "It’s really an awesome project but I can’t see an application for but that hasn’t stopped me from doing projects because “I can”. Maybe an amusement park ride, obviously on a bigger scale. Any takers for ... | 1,760,376,584.875459 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/03/14/stealing-cars-and-ringing-doorbells-with-radio/ | Stealing Cars And Ringing Doorbells With Radio | Brian Benchoff | [
"Radio Hacks",
"Security Hacks"
] | [
"RTLSDR",
"sdr",
"software-defined radio",
"usrp"
] | The cheap software defined radio platforms that can be built out of a USB TV tuner aren’t getting much love on the Hackaday tip line of late. Thankfully, [Adam] sent in a great guide to
cracking sub-GHz wireless protocols wide open
, and ringing doorbells, opening cars, and potentially setting houses on fire in the process.
The first wireless hack [Adam] managed to whip up is figuring out how a wireless doorbell transmitter communicates with its receiver. [Adam] connected a
FUNcube software defined radio dongle
(although any one of the many USB TV tuner dongles we’ve seen would also work) and used GNU Radio to send the radio signals received to a WAV file. When looking at this audio file in Audacity, [Adam] saw the tell-tale signs of digital data, leaving with a string of 1s and 0s that would trigger his wireless doorbell.
The FUNcube dongle doesn’t have the ability to transmit, though, so [Adam] needed a more capable software defined radio to emulate the inner workings of a doorbell transmitter. He found one in the
Ettus Research USRP
, a software designed radio that’s doing a good job of keeping [Balint],
Hackaday SDR extraordinaire
, very busy. By sending the data [Adam] decoded with the FUNcube dongle over the USRP, he was able to trigger his wireless doorbell using nothing but a few hundred dollars of radio equipment and software ingenuity.
Doorbells are a low-stakes game, so [Adam] decided to step things up a little and unlock his son’s car by capturing and replaying the signals from a key fob remote. Modern cars use a rolling code for their keyless entry, so that entire endeavour is just a party trick. Other RF-enabled appliances, such as a remote-controlled mains outlet, are a much larger threat to home and office security, but still one [Adam] managed to crack wide open. | 25 | 16 | [
{
"comment_id": "978397",
"author": "smilr",
"timestamp": "2013-03-14T21:10:03",
"content": "Currently I see two links to the funcubedongle website, and a link to a previous hackaday SDR article…Does Adam not have a writeup for all this available online? Or am I just blind / not seeing the link to h... | 1,760,376,584.934574 |
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