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https://hackaday.com/2013/03/13/retrotechtacular-mechanical-targeting-computers/ | Retrotechtacular: Mechanical Targeting Computers | Mike Szczys | [
"computer hacks",
"Weapons Hacks"
] | [
"cams",
"differen",
"gears",
"mechanical computer",
"retrotechtacular"
] | The device that these seamen are standing around is a US Navy targeting computer. It doesn’t use electricity, but relies on
mechanical computing to adjust trajectories of the ship’s guns
. Setting up to twenty-five different attributes by turning cranks and other input mechanisms lets the computer automatically calculate the gun settings necessary to hit a target. These parameters include speed and heading of both the ship and it’s target, wind speed and bearing, and the location of the target in relation to this ship. It boggles the mind to think of the complexity that went into this computer.
The first of this seven part series can be seen after the break. The collection covers shafts, gears, cams, and differentials. Sounds like it would be quite boring to sit through, huh? But as we’ve come to expect from this style and vintage of training film it packs a remarkable number of simple demonstrations into the footage.
See
all seven parts
of the series
[Thanks Justin] | 26 | 17 | [
{
"comment_id": "977863",
"author": "Gdogg",
"timestamp": "2013-03-13T23:40:30",
"content": "s/it’s/its/",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "977873",
"author": "AE7HA",
"timestamp": "2013-03-13T23:54:25",
"content": "Yep, m... | 1,760,376,586.765175 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/03/13/cloud-support-for-fleets-of-3d-printers/ | Cloud Support For Fleets Of 3D Printers | Brian Benchoff | [
"3d Printer hacks"
] | [
"3d printer",
"BotQueue",
"print server"
] | More than ever, 3D printers are being used for small prototype and production runs, and the normal way of using a 3D printer with a single desktop app is becoming more and more out of date. [Zach ‘Hoeken’ Smith] has a solution to the frustration of printing out multiples of objects:
it’s called BotQueue
, and allows anyone to submit print jobs to multiple 3D printers over the Internet.
The idea behind BotQueue is to allow anyone to send jobs to a 3D printer over the Internet. Queues and multiple printers are supported, meaning small-scale manufacturing just got a lot easier for anyone dealing with multiple printers.
We’ve seen
a few 3D printer fleets
that could benefit from an online print server for multiple 3D printers. It’s not a project meant for everyone – one 3D printer per person should be enough for just about everybody – but if you’re part of a hackerspace with a few printers, we could see this being used to great effect among your fellow makers. You’re not limited to using the official BotQueue servers, either. You can
run your own BotQueue from [Zach]’s git | 15 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "977760",
"author": "wo",
"timestamp": "2013-03-13T21:11:10",
"content": "Combine this with automated quadcopters with robot arms that travel to each printer location and picks up and delivers the printed product. Then we have distributed automated larger scale manufacturing.",
"... | 1,760,376,587.238656 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/03/13/no-touch-music-player/ | No-touch Music Player | Mike Szczys | [
"Arduino Hacks",
"digital audio hacks"
] | [
"mp3",
"ping",
"ping sensor",
"rangefinder",
"ultrasonic"
] | This little box not only plays tunes, but it lets you control several aspects of playback without touching a thing. [Thomas Clauser] calls it the LighTouch and we like it because
it uses inaudible sound to control audible sound
.
We think the pair of cylinders sticking up through the top of this project enclosure will be recognized by most readers as the business end of an ultrasonic rangefinder. This is the only control interface which [Thomas] chose to use. Although he didn’t write very extensively about the specific control scheme he implemented, the video embedded in his post shows some of the gestures that cause the Arduino inside to change its behavior. For instance, a swipe of the hand at higher level starts playback, swiping at a lower level pauses it. When adjusting the volume the box responds to how close his hand is to that sensor. With this control in place, the music side of these things is simply handled by a music shield he is using. | 10 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "977704",
"author": "Veda",
"timestamp": "2013-03-13T19:42:09",
"content": "Looks like he can only control the volume…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "977714",
"author": "Alex Rossie",
"timestamp": "2013-03-13T19:48:36",
... | 1,760,376,586.812785 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/03/13/mailbox-notifier-texts-when-the-letter-carrier-arrives/ | Mailbox Notifier Texts When The Letter Carrier Arrives | Mike Szczys | [
"Arduino Hacks",
"Lifehacks"
] | [
"mailbox",
"moteino",
"notifier",
"RF"
] | [Felix Rusu’s] mailbox is on the other side of the street and he’s got a pretty big front yard. This means checking for mail is not just a pop your head out of the door type of activity. This becomes especially noticeable during the winter months when he has to bundle up and trudge through the snow to see if his letter carrier has been there yet. But he’s made pointless trips a thing of the past by building
a notifier that monitors the mailbox for him
.
He’s using a Moteino, which is an Arduino clone of his own making. It’s tiny and features an RF module on the underside of the board which takes care of communicating with a base station inside the house. The module seen above rolls the microcontroller board up along with a 9V battery and a hall effect sensor which can tell if the mailbox door is open or closed. When the Arduino detects a change to that sensor it pushes some data back to the base station which then relays the info to a computer or Raspberry Pi in order to send him a text message. All of this is shown off in the video after the break. | 71 | 26 | [
{
"comment_id": "977576",
"author": "Addidis",
"timestamp": "2013-03-13T17:07:12",
"content": "I just give my mail man hot coco when its cold and sodas when its hot. He knocks when any thing important comes.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "9775... | 1,760,376,586.697619 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/03/13/remote-control-car-that-packs-its-own-beretta/ | Remote Control Car That Packs Its Own Beretta | Mike Szczys | [
"Weapons Hacks"
] | [
"beretta",
"car",
"china",
"firearm",
"gun",
"handgun",
"rc"
] | We’ve never really thought to ourselves “This RC car is fun, but it really needs more handguns”. And if we did, it certainly would not be a built to undertake with students. But to each his own. [Jerod Michel] is a mathematician working in China. He recently built the project seen above with a group of students. Look closely and you’ll notice that the remote control car includes a remote control Beretta strapped to the side.
He doesn’t have a blog post about the project, but you can find a couple of images and his build instructions after the break. The firearm has a motor attached to the trigger that allows it to be fired by tapping into one of the extra channels on the RC car’s PCB. But you won’t just be firing blindly. The project also includes a video transmitter which can be viewed from an LCD screen mounted on top of the remote control unit. There’s even a laser sight that will show what you’re aiming at.
We wonder what the recoil of the firearm does to this light-weight vehicle?
Build Instructions
(.txt file) | 82 | 39 | [
{
"comment_id": "977471",
"author": "Dax",
"timestamp": "2013-03-13T15:04:55",
"content": "We wonder how safe it is to operate a remote control handgun on unlisenced radio frequencies.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "977481",
"author":... | 1,760,376,587.001023 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/03/13/a-clock-that-uses-sixty-rgb-pixels/ | A Clock That Uses Sixty RGB Pixels | Mike Szczys | [
"clock hacks"
] | [
"pixel",
"rgb",
"WS2801"
] | Here’s a project inspired by a highly polished art piece. [Tobias] has been working on his own
RGB LED clock which uses one light for each minute in an hour
. He was inspired to start the project after seeing
the Equinox clock
. That one used a little PCB for each LED, and included an acrylic bezel and diffusers for each light. With the advent of LED pixel strings assembling one of these for yourself has become quite a bit easier.
The key part of the project is the laser-cut plywood frame which has a finger between each digit in order to perfectly space the lights. Each pixel is hot glued in place, with the Arduino board which drives them at the center of the frame. These lights are super bright, so [Tobias] also included a light dependent resistor which allows the system to measure ambient light and modulate the pixel brightness accordingly.
There are four parts to his project post so make sure you take some time to click around in order to get all the gritty details. | 11 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "977399",
"author": "Rob M Clarke (@ahremsee)",
"timestamp": "2013-03-13T13:16:29",
"content": "Looks like the space gate from Stargate-SG1",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "977405",
"author": "Dynamic Memory Map",
"timesta... | 1,760,376,586.520847 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/03/13/briquette-press-for-rocket-stove-fuel/ | Briquette Press For Rocket Stove Fuel | Mike Szczys | [
"green hacks"
] | [
"briquette",
"fuel",
"press",
"rocket stove"
] | [Gregory] uses a rocket stove for heating when it’s cold outside. He’s been trying out all kinds of different materials as fuel when the idea of
making his own briquettes from waste materials
came to mind. Obviously the project works. As you can see in the image above, he has just formed a lump of fuel using a mixture of newspaper pulp and sawdust.
The orange device with the ax handle seen in the background is his own creation. You can see the device in action in the video after the break. In the video comments he also links to a CAD file if you’re interested in building your own.
If it’s a rocket stove you’re interested in there’s always the option of
building your own
. | 23 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "977338",
"author": "Galane",
"timestamp": "2013-03-13T11:22:14",
"content": "Needs a bit of pipe welded on the front to hold the plug. How about a 2 or 3 chamber version for faster production?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "977... | 1,760,376,587.305311 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/03/12/hinged-nes-case-hides-an-integrated-lcd-screen/ | Hinged NES Case Hides An Integrated LCD Screen | Mike Szczys | [
"Nintendo Hacks"
] | [
"cartridge",
"case",
"lcd",
"new"
] | We’ve sure been seeing a lot of original NES cases used in projects lately. This time around the thing still plays the original cartridges. This was one of the mains goals which [Maenggu] set for himself when
integrating the LCD screen with the gaming console
. There is a quick video clip which shows off the functionality of the device. It’s embedded after the break along with a few extra images.
To our eye the NES looks completely unmodified when the case is closed. The cartridge slot still accepts games, but you don’t have to lower the frame into place once that cartridge has been inserted. The image above shows a ribbon cable connecting the top and bottom halves of the build. It routes the signals for both the LCD screen and the cartridge adapter to the hardware in the base. He mentions that he used the original power supply. We’re not sure if the original motherboard is used as well or if this is using some type of emulator. | 28 | 14 | [
{
"comment_id": "976989",
"author": "Danny",
"timestamp": "2013-03-13T03:11:01",
"content": "Have you seen this video?Is this what a NES motherboard looks like? Maybe someone can ID it for us.http://vimeo.com/60364483",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment... | 1,760,376,586.590037 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/03/12/a-clever-solution-for-constantly-locking-workstations/ | A Clever Solution For Constantly Locking Workstations | Brian Benchoff | [
"Cellphone Hacks",
"Security Hacks"
] | [
"bash",
"bluetooth",
"security"
] | [Vasilis] works at CERN, and like any large organization that invented the World Wide Web, they take computer security pretty seriously. One ‘feature’ the IT staff implemented is locking the desktop whenever the screen saver runs. When [Vasilis] is in his office but not at his battlestation, the screen saver invariably runs, locking the desktop, and greatly annoying [Vasilis].
The usual Hackaday solution to this problem would be a complex arrangement of RFID tags, webcams, and hundreds, if not thousands of lines of code. [Vasilis] came up with a much better solution: have the computer ping his phone over Bluetooth. If the phone is detected by the computer, kill the screen saver.
The code is up on Github
. It’s not much – just 20 lines of a Bash script – but it’s just enough to prevent the aggravation of typing in a password dozens of times a day. | 57 | 34 | [
{
"comment_id": "976894",
"author": "dave",
"timestamp": "2013-03-13T01:05:12",
"content": "This was solved back when we loaded websites through Netscape Navigator, it’s a program called mousemover.dun sun.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "9769... | 1,760,376,587.184731 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/03/12/playing-mame-games-on-a-rgb-laser-projector/ | Playing MAME Games On A RGB Laser Projector | Eric Evenchick | [
"classic hacks"
] | [
"laser projector",
"mame",
"openlase",
"xmame"
] | Vector based displays were used for arcade games in the ’70s and ’80s. A typical CRT uses raster graphics, which are displayed by deflecting a beam in a grid pattern onto a phosphor. A vector display deflects the beam in lines rather than a full grid, drawing only the needed vectors. Perhaps the best known vector game is the original Asteroids.
[Jeremy] built up a RGB laser projector, and wanted to run some
classic arcade titles on it
. He started off by using the XMAME emulator, but had to modify it to communicate with the laser and reduce flicker on the display.
To control the laser, a modified version of
OpenLase
was used. This had to be enhanced to support RGB color. The modified sources for both the
MAME emulator
and
OpenLase
are available on Github.
[Jeremy]’s friend, [Steve], even got a vector based game that he wrote working on the system. “
World War vi
” is a shoot-em-up battle about the vi and emacs text editors.
The results of the build are shown in a series of videos after the break. | 28 | 15 | [
{
"comment_id": "976836",
"author": "Galane",
"timestamp": "2013-03-12T23:36:33",
"content": "The actuators he’s using are too slow and rounding off the corners. Looks like he’s gotten much farther than the two previous attempts at a LASER MAME. One important bit is correcting for distortion caused ... | 1,760,376,586.878626 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/03/12/making-a-propane-tank-hank-drum/ | Making A Propane Tank Hank Drum | Jeremy Cook | [
"Musical Hacks"
] | [
"drum",
"hank-drum",
"instrument",
"music",
"propane"
] | A
[Hank Drum], as explained here
, is a steel drum-type instrument made out of a propane tank. The name comes from the
[Hang] or [Hang Drum]
which is significantly more expensive than that $40 or so an empty propane tank costs. Of course, you’ll have to do some work to get it to play beautiful music, which can be seen in a time-lapse construction video after the break.
The details of
how this instrument was made can be found here
, including how to lay everything out and cut out eight relatively neat “tongues” for producing different tones. I used a Dremel tool, but this can also be done using saber saw for a curved top. This method is
explained here with a template,
but the results may not be as neat.
If you want to try this yourself, make sure to use an empty, unused propane tank. This is extremely important. For another entirely different homemade instrument, why not check out the
[Whamola] that we made
a year or so ago?
[youtube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_kI0vPOn35o%5D
[youtube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y1jw5J53mhw%5D | 39 | 17 | [
{
"comment_id": "976755",
"author": "Anonymous",
"timestamp": "2013-03-12T21:06:03",
"content": "That right there is a clean-burnin’ musical instrument, I tell you what.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "976783",
"author": "Jon",
... | 1,760,376,587.383292 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/03/12/defcad-the-island-of-misfit-objects/ | DEFCAD, The Island Of Misfit Objects | Brian Benchoff | [
"3d Printer hacks",
"Weapons Hacks"
] | [
"DEFCAD",
"Defense Distributed"
] | Defense Distributed, the guys working on 3D printed guns and lower receivers for an AR-15, have a storied history with makers, corporations, and our elected representatives. When the news broke they were designing a 3D printed weapon, their $25,000 leased 3D printer was taken away from them. When their designs were too controversial for Thingiverse, they were taken down. Defense Distributed keeps on firing back, though, and
now they’re hosting their own 3D model repo called DEFCAD
.
In another one of Defense Distributed’s
well-produced promo videos
, they make their case for a repository of 3D models that doesn’t respond to takedown requests. Basically, 3D printing is a disruptive technology and is too important to be beholden to copyright lawyers, talking heads of the media, and, “the collusive members of the maker community”.
DEFCAD isn’t only about guns. They plan on hosting anything those in the upper echelons of power don’t like – or at least those with a copyright, patent, or trademark gripe – and never responding to a takedown request. It’s a great idea, somewhat akin to The Pirate Bay for physical objects,
but actually popular
. | 128 | 23 | [
{
"comment_id": "976677",
"author": "dALE",
"timestamp": "2013-03-12T19:07:33",
"content": "Sometimes I think that these dummies are just left wing wackos that are trying to rustle as many jimmies as possible in order to push the anti gun agenda further.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
... | 1,760,376,587.542951 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/03/12/hacking-the-xbox-released-for-free-in-honor-of-aaron-swartz/ | “Hacking The Xbox” Released For Free In Honor Of [Aaron Swartz] | Eric Evenchick | [
"News",
"Xbox Hacks"
] | [
"bunnie",
"ebook",
"free",
"hacking the xbox",
"swartz"
] | [Bunnie], the hardware hacker who first hacked into the original Xbox while at MIT, is releasing his book on the subject for free. The book was originally released in 2003, and delves into both the technical and legal aspects of hacking into the console.
The book is being released along with an
open letter from [Bunnie]
. He discusses the issues he faced with MIT legal and copyright law when working on the project, and explains that the book is being released to honor [
Aaron Swartz
]. [Swartz] committed suicide in January following aggressive prosecution by the US government.
The book is a great read on practical applications of hardware hacking. It starts off with simple hacks: installing a blue LED, building a USB adapter for the device’s controller ports, and replacing the power supply. The rest of the book goes over how the security on the device was compromised, and the legal implications of pulling off the hack.
[Bunnie]’s open letter is worth a read, it explains the legal bullying that hackers deal with from a first hand prospective. The book itself is a fantastic primer on hardware hacking, and with this release anyone who hasn’t read it should grab the free PDF. | 23 | 14 | [
{
"comment_id": "976622",
"author": "roboman2444",
"timestamp": "2013-03-12T17:06:24",
"content": "Does it mention that the later version xboxes can be run from only 5 and 12 volts?Probably not… found that out myself and it has been very very useful.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"rep... | 1,760,376,587.781714 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/03/12/hackaday-links-march-12-2013/ | Hackaday Links: March 12, 2013 | Brian Benchoff | [
"Hackaday links"
] | [
"analog meter",
"raspberry pi",
"survey",
"vandals",
"volt meter"
] | Thankfully saved from steampunkers
[Chris] found a really cool pocket watch-style multimeter in a box of junk that was passed down from father to son. There aren’t any markings on it, so he’s looking for any information he can get on it. It’s a cool piece of vintage tech in any occasion; check out the pics he sent in below:
Here’s a fix for your illegal stuff
[Don] ‘acquired’ one of those
China-only Raspberry Pis
, but after plugging it in, only the power light would stay on. The fix, apparently, is putting
these three files
in the /boot folder of a Red Pi SD card.
Not a pocket watch
[Tom] picked up an old DC volt meter in an antiques shop. He quickly gutted it
to make an analog meter display for his Raspberry Pi
. There’s a few status lights to remind [Tom] of something he hasn’t figured out yet. Bonus points for a cheap buck boost converter, though.
Smashing monitors? Really?
The Meriden, CT hackerspace, the New England Society of Information and Technology,
was vandalized last week
. They’re dealing with some real punks here; their computers weren’t stolen, they were just smashed. NESIT is looking for donations (both money and equipment), so if you have a few monitors or old boxxen and live around there, consider donating them.
Help a guy out here.
[Jonathan] is a real cool dude that’s working on his master’s thesis on ways to build a sustainable company through the development of open source hardware.
He wants you to take a survey
. How do we know he’s cool?
He had something posted on HaD
back when we had the old black and white and scotch tape images. | 28 | 19 | [
{
"comment_id": "976539",
"author": "Eric",
"timestamp": "2013-03-12T15:11:55",
"content": "I have voltmeter envy.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "976546",
"author": "elerepair",
"timestamp": "2013-03-12T15:14:42",
"content": "google... | 1,760,376,587.66467 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/03/12/molding-rubber-for-a-pre-production-prototype-use-a-3d-printed-model/ | Molding Rubber For A Pre-production Prototype Using A 3D Printed Model | Mike Szczys | [
"3d Printer hacks"
] | [
"mold",
"scoreboard",
"silicone"
] | When you’re getting close to a production run the prototypes really need to hit the mark before pulling the trigger. [Bob’s] still hard at work getting his scoreboard off the ground and his most recent endeavor was to find a way to prototype the rubber gasket without blowing his shoestring budget. His solution was to harness the power of 3D printing to generate a model from which he could
create the mold from which he cast the rubber part
.
To make things a bit more difficult, the band isn’t just decorative, it doubles as the tactile part of the scoreboard buttons. You can see all six of them (before being painted to make them stand out) in the inset image above. Just above that image is a picture of the mold making process. The toothpicks are suspending the 3D printed model of the rubber band while the lower half of the silicone mold sets up. Once that had happened [Bob] sprayed release agent to ensure the top half of the mold wouldn’t stick while it cured.
The results turned out just great. Sure, this isn’t the way to go if you’re making a lot of these things. But we’re impressed at the quality he achieve for a one-off item.
If the finished product on the left looks familiar it’s because
we looked in on the project last June
. [Bob] continues with improvements and plans to launch
a crowd funding campaign
this week. | 16 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "976481",
"author": "Andrew Hooker (@GeekOnCoffee)",
"timestamp": "2013-03-12T13:20:13",
"content": "The Crowd Funding Campaign is launched! Early Birds can get a scoreboard for $199",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "976492",
"... | 1,760,376,587.596417 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/03/12/camera-adapter-for-a-microscope/ | Camera Adapter For A Microscope | Mike Szczys | [
"Tool Hacks",
"Video Hacks"
] | [
"camera",
"microscope",
"stereo microscope",
"video"
] | [Steve] really has a nice microscope setup in his lab now that
he built a video camera adapter for his stereo microscope
. The image above shows the magnified view of the circuit board on the LCD screen behind it. This lets him work without needing to be in position to look through the eye pieces. The hack is a perfect complement to
the custom stand he fabricated for the scope
.
The camera attachment can be seen attached to the right lens of the scope. It’s an old security camera which he already had on hand. The stock lens wasn’t going to bring the picture into focus, but he had some different optics on hand and one of them fit the bill perfectly. The rest of the project involves fabricating the adapter ring on his lathe. It slips perfectly over the eyepiece and even allows him a bit of adjustment to get the focal length right. The best view of this is shown off in the video after the break. | 21 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "976418",
"author": "aliveoneee",
"timestamp": "2013-03-12T11:47:52",
"content": "this isn’t a hack so much as something people do all the time…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "976451",
"author": "K!P",
"timesta... | 1,760,376,587.722149 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/03/11/two-wire-serial-backpack-for-glcd-screens/ | Two-wire Serial Backpack For GLCD Screens | Mike Szczys | [
"Microcontrollers"
] | [
"595",
"backpack",
"glcd",
"graphic lcd",
"serial",
"shift register"
] | [Debraj] wrote in about his
2-wire serial backpack he developed for a Graphic LCD screen
. It’s build on a hunk of protoboard and uses a pair of 595 shift registers to translate incoming serial data to the parallel interface which is used by the LCD screen. It takes more time to push commands this way, but the interface is still quite snappy as you can see in the clip after the jump.
The real trick here is how the hardware has been configured to get away without a third wire for latching the shift registers (if you need a primer on 595 chips
check out this feature
). The idea of using a latch is that all of the data can be shifted in over the serial pin before it appears on the output pins. Otherwise, the GLCD would see each bit as it shifts into the register, wreaking havoc on its communication protocol. [Debraj] gets around this by using a diode AND gate trick he learned
from this other serial LCD project
.
One good thing about this method is the 595 chips have a wide range of control voltage that will allow you to drive this with 3.3V or 5V microcontrollers. But you do need to implement the communication protocol and push those commands via serial. For nearly the same cost in chips something like an ATtiny2313 could be substituted to make an even simpler addressing scheme — or even switch to 1-wire protocol. But you’d then lose the wide input voltage tolerance. | 14 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "976119",
"author": "James",
"timestamp": "2013-03-12T03:34:35",
"content": "It’s not hard to control a (SIPO) latched shift register with just one line and some careful timing, a short drop of the line causes 1 to be entered, a medium drop of the line causes a 0 to be entered and a ... | 1,760,376,587.830505 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/03/11/non-resettable-thermal-fuse-teardown/ | Non-resettable Thermal Fuse Teardown | Mike Szczys | [
"Parts",
"Teardown"
] | [
"fuse",
"thermal fuse"
] | This component is a one-shot thermal fuse. When the body rises above the specified temperature the two leads stop conducting. They’re useful in applications like motors, where you want to make sure power is cut to an overheating piece of hardware before permanent damage happens. They’re pretty simple, but we still enjoyed
taking a look inside
thanks to [Fatkuh’s] video.
The metal housing is lined with a ceramic insulator, which you can see sticking out one end in the shape of a cone. It surrounds a spring which connects to both leads and is under a bit of tension. The alloy making the connections has a low melting point — in this case it’s about 70 C — which will melt, allowing the spring to pull away and break the connection.
In the clip after the break [Fatkuh] uses his soldering iron to heat the housing past the melting point, tripping the fuse. He then cracks the ceramic cone to show what’s inside.
The only problem with using a fuse like this one is you’ll need to solder in a new component if it’s ever tripped. For applications where you need a fuse that protects against over current (rather than heat)
a resettable polyfuse
is the way to go.
[via
Reddit
] | 32 | 17 | [
{
"comment_id": "976048",
"author": "Squirrel",
"timestamp": "2013-03-12T01:09:47",
"content": "Also used in Espresso/Coffee machines to make them not overheat when left on without water for extended periods of time (my uncle found this out the hard way).",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
... | 1,760,376,588.361049 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/03/11/pcb-stencils-for-200/ | PCB Stencils For $200 | Brian Benchoff | [
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"sihouette cameo",
"Sihouette portrait",
"solder paste",
"solder stencils",
"vinyl cutter"
] | There’s some really cool stuff to find if you wander around a Michaels craft shop or Hobby Lobby long enough. Recently, [Ben] picked up a craft cutter – a small vinyl cutter-like device meant for scrapbooking and other crafty endevours.
He’s using this machine to create solder paste stencils
that are better than any laser cut stencil he’s used before.
Like a build we’ve seen before
, [Ben] is using a desktop-sized vinyl cutter, the
Sihouette Portrait
, with 4 mil Mylar. After converting the relevent layers of a Gerber file into .SVG files, [Ben] loaded up
Robocut
to cut very, very small holes in his solder stencil. The results are great; much better than a laser would cut Mylar, and good enough to apply paste to a few hundred boards at least.
While [Ben] is using his stencils to apply solder paste, we’re wondering if a similar process could be used to apply a UV-curing solder mask to home-fabbed boards. That would allow for some very professional-looking boards to be produced with a turnaround time of just a few hours. | 26 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "975979",
"author": "gossja",
"timestamp": "2013-03-11T23:17:29",
"content": "The “Silhouette studio” software is what comes packaged with the Silhouette line of cutters from Graphtec. It’s actually pretty good on it’s own, and it imports .dxf extensions natively. I’ve been using it ... | 1,760,376,587.957856 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/03/11/one-piece-3d-printed-crossbow/ | One Piece, 3D Printed Crossbow | Brian Benchoff | [
"3d Printer hacks",
"Weapons Hacks"
] | [
"3d printing",
"crossbow",
"weapons"
] | Centuries ago, craftsmen and smiths of all sort spent hundreds of hours crafting a crossbow. From the fine craftsmanship that went into making the bow to the impeccable smithing a windlass requires, a lot of effort went into building a machine of war. Since [Chris] has a 3D printer, he figured he could do just as well as these long-dead craftsmen and
fabricate a crossbow in under a day
.
What’s really interesting about [Chris]’ crossbow is that it is only a single piece of plastic. The bow is integrated into the stock, and the trigger works by some creative CAD design that takes advantage of the bendability of plastic. The only thing required to shoot a bolt from this crossbow is a piece of string. That, and a few chopsticks.
He won’t be taking part in any sieges, but [Chris]’ weapon is more than capable of shooting a bolt across a room or launching a balsa wood airplane. You can see an example of this after the break.
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T0hZ038-y1Y&w=580] | 17 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "975931",
"author": "okowsc",
"timestamp": "2013-03-11T21:09:19",
"content": "Wont be long before 3d printed nukes",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "976709",
"author": "dbear",
"timestamp": "2013-03-12T19:41:11",
... | 1,760,376,588.018653 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/03/11/hackerspace-intro-heatsync-labs/ | Hackerspace Intro: HeatSync Labs | Mike Szczys | [
"Hackerspaces"
] | [
"hackerspace intro",
"tour"
] | [Todd Harrison] wrote in not with a project but with a video tour of his local hackerspace:
HeatSync Labs
in Mesa, Arizona. He
took a camera along with him
over the weekend to record what you can expect when visiting the space. You’ll find the tour embedded after the break.
It starts off with something we love to see. The space is being used for a talk and it looks to be quite well attended. The building is one unit in a string of storefronts and this provides a big open space as soon as you walk in the door. Just past this gathering area there are a few rows of electronics work benches which include hardware like bench supplies and scopes, as well as soldering and rework areas. In the back corner they’ve got a great big laser cutter and [Todd] spends some time with one of the members looking through all the fun stuff they’ve made with it. The back room keeps the messy projects like wood working, machine tools, and welding separate from the rest.
The place is remarkably clean and we’ll organized. Make sure you stop by and check it out for yourself if you’re in the area.
This is the second time we’ve seen HeatSync Labs.
The first tour
was hosted by our own [Caleb Kraft] | 6 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "975901",
"author": "Ryoku",
"timestamp": "2013-03-11T20:11:30",
"content": "I think within a month of throwing a motor on my bicycle I’ll be making a journey down to Mesa. I really wish there was a hackers space in Phoenix though, I need some tools to do some projects but taking adv... | 1,760,376,588.109095 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/03/10/tracking-a-car-like-it-were-a-computer-mouse/ | Tracking A Car Like It Were A Computer Mouse | Mike Szczys | [
"Parts",
"Transportation Hacks"
] | [
"18f2221",
"adns-3080",
"optical mouse",
"pic",
"sensor",
"tracking"
] | This is [Paul Mandel’s]
Ground-truth velocity sensor
. That’s a fancy name for a device which tracks the movement of a vehicle by actually monitoring the ground its travelling over. This differs from simply measuring wheel rotation (which is how traditional odometers work) in that those systems are an indirect measurement of motion. For us the interesting part is the use of an ADNS-3080 single-chip optical mouse sensor on the left. It’s cheap, accurate, and only needs to be ruggedized before being strapped to the bottom of a car.
[Paul] designed a case that would protect the electronics and allow the sensor to mount on the uneven underbelly of a vehicle. The optical chip needs to be paired with a lens, and he went with one that cost about ten times as much as the sensor. Data is fed from the sensor to the main system controller using the PIC 18F2221. One little nugget that we learned from this project is to poll a register that always returns a default value as a sanity check. If you don’t get the expected value back it signals a communications problem, an important test for hardware going into the vibration-hell that is automotive technology. | 35 | 15 | [
{
"comment_id": "974967",
"author": "Akranis",
"timestamp": "2013-03-10T15:14:26",
"content": "At first I thought they were going to drive a car around the block to surf the web, but this is cool too.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "974970",
... | 1,760,376,588.278576 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/03/09/oil-truck-transforms-into-giant-mobile-grill/ | Oil Truck Transforms Into Giant Mobile Grill | Ryan Fitzpatrick | [
"cooking hacks",
"Transportation Hacks"
] | [
"mobile grill",
"oil truck",
"portable grill",
"propane",
"tanker truck",
"transformer"
] | When the truck rolls up, everything seems normal enough. It’s a generic oil tanker. But when the theme from “2001: A Space Odyssey” begins to play and the side of the tank starts to open, you suddenly realize things are not what they seem. This is no mere tanker truck,
it’s a massive meat cooking monster dubbed the “X Grill”
.
[Ken Foster], owner and creator of this $40K+ beast, worked with welder [Gary Webb] to custom design and fabricate every component of the vehicle, from hinges to hydraulic systems. They claim not a single part came from a box. The cooking area, complete with speakers and spotlights, has storage cabinets, stainless steel prep counters, a four burner stove, and a 42 inch grill. If that’s not enough, there are three more grills you can set up beside the truck and hook into the system. All the appliances are run off a 65 gallon propane tank that’s mounted to the side of the truck.
Although the “X Grill” is available to rent for private parties, [Ken] says they spend most of their time at community and charitable events. He donates his equipment and cooking services, and the host group supplies the food and gets to keep any profit.
Good work guys!
[via
Neatorama
] | 20 | 16 | [
{
"comment_id": "974463",
"author": "DainBramage1991",
"timestamp": "2013-03-09T22:44:28",
"content": "Now THAT’S a cool hack.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "974473",
"author": "localroger",
"timestamp": "2013-03-09T22:56:04",
"cont... | 1,760,376,588.417734 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/03/09/hard-drive-centrifuge-for-sensitizing-copper-clad-boards/ | Hard Drive Centrifuge For Sensitizing Copper Clad Boards | Mike Szczys | [
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"centrifuge",
"ink",
"pcb",
"resist",
"uv"
] | We would wager that most of the home etched PCB projects we see around here use the toner transfer method. But the next most popular technique is to use photosensitive ink which resists the etching acid once it has been exposed to light. Most people buy what are called pre-sensitized boards, but you can also get ink to make your own. [Jardirx] does this, and
uses an old hard drive to apply an even layer of the light-sensitive ink
.
The narration and subtitles of the video found after the break are both in Portuguese, but it’s not hard to figure out what’s going on here. He begins by using double-sided foam tape to secure the piece of copper clad board to the hard drive platters. You’ll want to center it as best as you can to keep the vibrations to a minimum. From there [Jardirx] applies a coating of the ink using a brush. The image above is what results. So as not to get ink everywhere, he then lowers a soda bottle with the bottom cut off to catch the excess. Power up the drive for a few seconds and the board will have a nice even layer ready for a trip through
a UV exposure box
.
[Thanks Daniel] | 26 | 16 | [
{
"comment_id": "974396",
"author": "Liam Hogan",
"timestamp": "2013-03-09T20:26:24",
"content": "I tired this once with a laser pointer, it flew off and almost broke a window. =D",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "974409",
"author": "Dany Ouel... | 1,760,376,588.523285 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/03/09/dispensing-change-for-low-stakes-gambling/ | Dispensing Change For Low-stakes Gambling | Brian Benchoff | [
"Arduino Hacks"
] | [
"arduino",
"change machine",
"gambling"
] | Every year, [Nathan] hosts an Oscar party with a lot of drinking, adoring the off-color comments of [Joan Rivers] and some low stakes wagering. Everyone throws a dollar into the pot for a particular award, and when the winner is announced, [Nathan] splits the pot between the winners and begins counting out coins. As convenience stores have discovered,
there’s an easier way to dole out pocket change
, so this year [Nathan] created a change machine that dispenses coins for the winners.
The change machine is just like the ones you would find at a supermarket or convenience store; load up the machine with a few rolls of coins, and a few solenoids fire in response to serial data received from a computer. [Nathan] used an Arduino, Serial shield, button matrix, and LCD display for his change machine interface, allowing him to dispense pocket change to each of the winners after an award is announced. | 3 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "974590",
"author": "Ren",
"timestamp": "2013-03-10T02:30:32",
"content": "I bought a coin dispenser at my college’s auction sale in 1987 for $2. It is used as a “piggy bank”. It isn’t hooked up.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id"... | 1,760,376,588.460839 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/03/09/3d-display-controlled-with-the-leap-motion/ | 3D Display Controlled With The Leap Motion | Mike Szczys | [
"Video Hacks"
] | [
"3d",
"Leap motion",
"pepper's ghost",
"three.js",
"volumetric"
] | Touch screens are nice — we still can’t live without a keyboard but they suffice when on the go. But it is becoming obvious that the end goal with user interface techniques is to completely remove the need to touch a piece of hardware in order to interact with it. One avenue for this goal is the use of voice commands via software like Siri, but another is the use of 3D processing hardware like Kinect or Leap Motion. This project uses the latter to
control the image shown on the 3D display
.
[Robbie Tilton] generated a 3D image using
Three.js
, a JavaScript 3D library. The images are made to appear as if floating in air using a pyramid of acrylic which reflects the light toward the viewer’s eyes without blocking out ambient light in the room. In the past we’ve referred to this as
a volumetric display
. But [Robbie] points out that this actually uses the illusion called
Pepper’s Ghost
. It’s not really volumetric because the depth is merely an illusion. Moving your point of view won’t change your perspective unless you go around the corner to the next piece of acrylic. But it’s still a nice effect. See for yourself in the demo after the jump.
[via
Dvice
] | 9 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "974275",
"author": "Frank",
"timestamp": "2013-03-09T16:18:06",
"content": "Okay, so it isn’t volumetric… but why couldn’t it be? It seems this 3d display is displaying four different images projects onto the four sides of a pyramidshape.So why couldn’t they do a computer generated ... | 1,760,376,588.633903 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/03/09/airport-x-ray-machine-teardown/ | Airport X-ray Machine Teardown | Mike Szczys | [
"Teardown"
] | [
"airport",
"luggage",
"x-ray"
] | Who has an airport carry-on X-ray machine sitting in their garage? Apparently [Mike] does, and he’s sharing the fun by posting
a video teardown series
that really digs into the machine’s hardware and operating system.
At this point the series includes six lengthy segments. The first episode, which you’ll find embedded after the break, starts with an external overview of the hardware. [Mike] mentions that it’s not functional at that point. He guesses that this has to do either with security settings to enable the machine (it does produce x-ray after all) or corrupt memory in an EPROM chip. The password lockout is later confirmed when he looks at a code disassembly and finds strings requesting username and password to gain access to some of the menus. The second installment involves more disassembly to figure out the passwords and gain full access to the machine. By the fourth video he’s X-raying random items from around the shop and then some.
It’s a lot to watch, but it’s exciting to see how far he gets with the rare equipment.
[Thanks Andrew] | 20 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "974246",
"author": "ejonesss",
"timestamp": "2013-03-09T15:38:23",
"content": "i am surprised that you can even get a working xray machine never mind password protection on the controls.hospitals usually destroy or remove the xray tube before disposing ofretired machines.i can unde... | 1,760,376,588.577395 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/03/08/making-a-commodore-64-portable/ | Making A Commodore 64 Portable | Mike Szczys | [
"classic hacks"
] | [
"c64",
"commodore 64",
"lcd",
"portable",
"sd2iec",
"sid",
"stereo"
] | This is [Wpqrek’s]
Commodore 64 modified to go on the road with him
. The elderly machine has a special place in his heart as it was what he learned to code on. He performed a series of hacks which house everything necessary to use the machine inside the original case.
Obviously the hack that has the most effect when it comes to portability was swapping a display for the small LCD mounted above the number keys. This was a pretty simple process because the screen, originally intended for a rear view camera in a vehicle, already had a composite video input. To emulate the floppy disc drive he’s using an SD card via an sd2iec board which he laid out himself. Rounding up the alterations is a stereo SID. The second channel uses the pre-amp circuit cut from a second C64. This audio hardware will let him do cool things like
playing some classic Zeppelin
.
You can get a video tour of these alterations after the break. | 20 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "973851",
"author": "Greenaum",
"timestamp": "2013-03-09T04:10:09",
"content": "This would be really great to do to the C64DTV (which I got for Xmas a few years ago). You could do something like a Gameboy Advance SP, clamshell case. You’d need to customise the SD-card interface to co... | 1,760,376,588.698841 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/03/11/building-new-weird-cpus-in-fpgas/ | Building New, Weird CPUs In FPGAs | Brian Benchoff | [
"hardware"
] | [
"address",
"computer architecture",
"cpu",
"fpga"
] | The popularization of FPGAs for the hobbyist market means a lot more than custom LED controllers and clones of classic computer systems. FPGAs are also a great tool to experiment with computer architecture, creating new, weird, CPUs that don’t abide by the conventions the industry has used for 40 years. [Victor]
is designing a new CPU
that challenges the conventions of how to access different memory locations, and in the process even came up with a bit of example code that runs on an ARM microcontroller.
Most of the time, the machine code running on your desktop or laptop isn’t that interesting; it’s just long strings of instructions to be processed linearly. The magic of a computer comes through comparisons, an if statement or a jump in code, where the CPU can run one of two pieces of code, depending on a value in a register. There is the problem of reach, though: if a piece of code makes a direct call to another piece of code, the address of the new code must fit within an instruction. On an ARM processor, only 24 bits are available to encode the address, meaning a jump in code can only go 16 MB on either side of its call. Going any further requires more instructions, and the performance hit that comes along with that.
[Victor] decided
a solution to this problem
would be to create a bit of circuitry that would be a sliding window to store address locations. Instead of storing the literal address for jumps in code, every branch in the code is stored as a location relative to whatever is in the program counter. The result is an easy way to JMP to code very far away in memory, with less of a performance hit.
There’s an implementation for this sliding window token thing [Victor] whipped up for NXP’s ARM Cortex M3 microprocessor, and he’ll be working on an implementation of this concept in a new CPU
over on his git
. | 40 | 18 | [
{
"comment_id": "975788",
"author": "Mohonri",
"timestamp": "2013-03-11T17:09:02",
"content": "Isn’t that how AVRs work? IIRC, the branching instructions can go 64 locations up or down from the current PC.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "9758... | 1,760,376,588.778172 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/03/11/laser-toting-robot-taunts-house-cat/ | Laser Toting Robot Taunts House Cat | Mike Szczys | [
"Arduino Hacks",
"Robots Hacks"
] | [
"arduino",
"laser pointer",
"servo",
"wowwee"
] | [Rodney Lederer] and his cat were bored after moving to a new city. He fixed that for both of them by taking on
this project which turns a Wowwee robot into feline entertainment
.
It’s no secret that cats have a weakness for the little red dot produced by a laser pointer. [Rodney] put that trait to work by automating the movement of a red laser pointer. After mounting it on a servo motor he got down to work programming an Arduino to move it in a playful manner. But it wouldn’t have been much fun if the this was only capable of preprogrammed patterns, so he also included an IR proximity sensor to help give the thing interactivity. Add to that the treaded robot base and you’ve got mobile cat entertainment. The proof is in the video after the break… the cat is certainly having fun chasing the dot. [Rodney] plans to work a bit more on his code so that the motions of the laser dot include a lot of different patterns to keep things exciting. | 26 | 12 | [
{
"comment_id": "975719",
"author": "Brian",
"timestamp": "2013-03-11T15:37:48",
"content": "I’ve also thought about building something similar. But I just wanted to fit 2 servos on a shelf / the wall, then the red dot would be able to move around the entire room.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth... | 1,760,376,588.919848 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/03/11/coffee-pot-aquarium-keeps-fish-warm-without-cooking-them-hopefully/ | Coffee Pot Aquarium Keeps Fish Warm Without Cooking Them (hopefully) | Mike Szczys | [
"cooking hacks",
"home hacks"
] | [
"aquarium",
"coffee maker"
] | Beta fish are one of the easiest pets to care for. So when [Derek] gave his girlfriend one for Valentine’s day he thought the job was done. Turns out these tropical pets want 75-80 F water and that’s not going to happen in a plain old bowl when you keep your home thermostat in the mid sixties during the winter. While looking for a simple heating solution he stumbled across the idea of
using a cheap drip coffee maker as an aquarium
.
The two main components are already in place: a clear glass vessel for the water and a way to heat it. The real trick is to use the heating element to gently warm the water to the appropriate temperature. Perhaps the key piece of the project is that the device already had a timer that shut off the heating element. This translates to easy control with his MSP430 microcontroller as it means there’s a relay present. He also patched into the two seven-segment displays to give him feedback on the temperature currently being read by the RL1003 thermistor which is submerged in the water. You’ll also note that he added a few LEDs to the lid to give the aquarium some inner glow. | 36 | 20 | [
{
"comment_id": "975630",
"author": "Ren",
"timestamp": "2013-03-11T13:30:44",
"content": "I wonder if the Betas will thrive under the blue LEDs, I would’ve gone for white or full spectrum.Has he logged the on/off and temperature data?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
... | 1,760,376,588.857083 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/03/10/launching-a-glider-from-space/ | Launching A Glider From Space | Mike Szczys | [
"Toy Hacks",
"Video Hacks"
] | [
"FPV",
"glider"
] | We get a ton of tips about weather balloon launches taking hobby electronics into space. But every once in a while one of them stands out from the rest. This project does send an electronic payload into space, but it also lets [David]
fly his hardware back from near-space using an RC airplane
.
The return vehicle is unpowered, but that shouldn’t be a problem as launching from a weather balloon will provide plenty of altitude for the flight. Because the temperature experienced in that part of the atmosphere is so cold [David] had to take several things into account. Obviously you want your batteries and control electronics to be insulated from the cold. But something that doesn’t usually pop into mind are issues with the servo motors which run the glider’s flaps. They usually have some white grease on the gears. At temps as low as -50C that grease will harden and make the servo stop working so he made sure to clean the gears thoroughly before the flight.
Unfortunately [David] had several problems capturing images and recorded video from the ground station. But his write up is still a fun read and the clip after the break gives a general overview of the entire project from the nose camera of the glider.
[Thanks Limpkin] | 45 | 21 | [
{
"comment_id": "975241",
"author": "Jordan",
"timestamp": "2013-03-10T23:12:24",
"content": "Do it again!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "975250",
"author": "lightningstructure@mailinator.com",
"timestamp": "2013-03-10T23:33:55",
"c... | 1,760,376,589.047679 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/03/10/makerbot-shows-off-3d-scanner/ | Makerbot Shows Off 3D Scanner | Brian Benchoff | [
"3d Printer hacks",
"News"
] | [
"3d scanner",
"makerbot",
"scanner"
] | We’ve said our piece over Makerbot and their interpretation of what Open Source means, but the fact remains if you’re sourcing a 3D printer for a high school shop class or a hackerspace, you really can’t do much better than a Makerbot Replicator. Apparently Makerbot is looking to expand their 3D design and fabrication portfolio; they just announced an upcoming 3D scanner at SXSW.
It’s called the Makerbot Digitizer
, and it takes real, 3D objects and turns them into CAD files.
Since Makerbot and [Bre Pettis] didn’t give out much information about the 3D scanner they’re working on, the best information
comes from Techcrunch
. The Makerbot Digitizer uses two lasers to scan real objects and turns them into 3D CAD files. The hardware isn’t finalized, and the prototype is made of a few pieces of laser cut plywood. No details are available on how much the Digitizer will cost, when it will be available, or what its resolution is.
Of course 3D scanning of real objects to translate them into CAD files is nothing new for Hackaday readers. We’ve seen
our fair share of desktop 3D scanners
, including one that
was built in a day out of junk
. Even the Kickstarter crew has gotten into the action with a few desktop 3D scanners,
some of which scan in full color
. | 27 | 12 | [
{
"comment_id": "975147",
"author": "Hack Man",
"timestamp": "2013-03-10T21:06:21",
"content": "Maybe you have said your peace over Makerbot and their interpretation of what Open Source means but I still think they have back stabbed the open source community.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,... | 1,760,376,589.111353 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/03/10/another-salvo-in-the-pic-vs-avr-holy-war/ | Another Salvo In The PIC Vs. AVR Holy War | Brian Benchoff | [
"Microcontrollers"
] | [
"AVR",
"microcontroller",
"pic"
] | Ah, PIC vs. AVR, the never-ending battle of electronic design supremacy. Some people swear by Atmel’s AVR microcontrollers, while others are wrong. [majenko] is firmly planted in Microchip’s PIC camp, so he
wrote up a nice comparison of Atmel’s AVR versus Microchip’s PIC family of microcontrollers
. The results aren’t that surprising; PIC microcontrollers come out as a better product that no hobbyist uses because no hobbyist uses them.
Atmel and their series of AVR microcontrollers has seen a huge increase in popularity in the hobbyist market in the last few years, no doubt thanks to the Arduino and other AVR-powered dev boards. This isn’t to say Microchip and PIC haven’t seen their time in the lime light; there was a time when you could actually buy electronic components at Radio Shack, including kits containing Microchip’s very popular but somewhat outdated Basic Stamp.
After going over the capabilities of the Atmel AVR ATMega328p, the similarly equipped Microchip’s PIC PIC18F25K80, and TI’s MSP430G2533, [majenko] found the perennial favorite, the AVR, lacked in some very important categories. The AVR has a lower resolution ADC, fewer PWM pins, fewer 16-bit timers, while costing about $0.75 more.
Of course [majenko]’s analysis doesn’t take into account the intangibles of choosing a PIC over an AVR. Thanks to the Arduino’s adoption of the AVR, there are many, many more code and schematic examples floating around on the Internet for just about every project imaginable. The development tools for PIC are a bit more expensive than their AVR equivalents;
A PICkit2 runs about $50
while AVR ISP programmers can be found just about everywhere for pocket change.
It’s a lazy Sunday, so all ‘yall can go on and argue in the comments. | 193 | 50 | [
{
"comment_id": "975057",
"author": "FrankenPC",
"timestamp": "2013-03-10T19:04:39",
"content": "To me, this is just like the arguments about various robotics platforms. I don’t care how good the mechanical platform is or how competent the control logic is. The question is: what can it do? And th... | 1,760,376,589.554535 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/03/10/diy-lighting-solutions/ | DIY Lighting Solutions | Jeremy Cook | [
"LED Hacks"
] | [
"flashlight",
"led",
"lights",
"PVC"
] | With daylight savings time starting up, you might not have quite as much need for lighting, but this pair of hacks should keep everything well lit whether outside or indoors. Check out the videos of both in action after the break.
The first lighting solution
comes to us from
[Ben]’s Youtube channel
. It’s a simple solution, press-fitting a clamp light into a 1 inch PVC Tee to attach the light to a pipe. The base is made with PVC shaped into three feet for a (hopefully) sturdy rest. Several lights can be used as needed, and would probably work well for making his next video.
The
second light also comes to us from Youtube
, and is about converting a stock LED light into one that is much brighter. Skip to around 7:00 to see the outdoor comparison. You may or may not want to do this exact hack, but you never know when you might want to swap out
your blinkenlights
for something that will scare the neighbors!
[youtube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PaxP72L8QeI%5D
[youtube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HK-7E-1Ya0I%5D | 14 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "975021",
"author": "aztraph",
"timestamp": "2013-03-10T17:32:38",
"content": "Ok, so about the flashlight, pretty cool, I like the lumins on it, it beats mine at 180 and the batteries it takes beat it too, mine takes 2 cr123 which cost me $2 each at digikey and it goes through them... | 1,760,376,589.607374 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/03/08/printed-machine-does-nothing-until-the-heat-death-of-the-universe/ | Printed Machine Does Nothing Until The Heat Death Of The Universe | Brian Benchoff | [
"classic hacks"
] | [
"3d printer",
"art",
"gears",
"Oh boy another comments section dedicated to the study of aesthetics"
] | A 2:1 gear reduction slows down a spinning shaft to half speed and doubles the torque. Repeat this a few times, and you’ve got a ludicrous amount of torque moving too slowly to see with even precision instruments. That’s the idea behind [Jeshua]’s project,
a Printed Machine
partially embedded in a block of concrete.
[Jeshua]’s build is a replica of one of
[Arthur Ganson]’s kinetic sculptures
. [Ganson]’s machine uses 50 sets of gears to reduce the rotation of 200 RPM motor more that 200 quintillion times. The final gear in the sculpture is embedded in a block of concrete, waiting to be freed by either erosion of the concrete block or the sun going nova.
Instead of metal gears, [Jeshua] used 3D printed gears in PLA. After assembling them on a stand, he cast concrete around the final, barely moving gear. It’s an impressively useless build that will turn to dust before the final gear makes even 1/10th of a revolution. This machine could have a longer life if it were printed with ABS instead of PLA, but with the time scales we’re talking about here it won’t make much difference. | 43 | 19 | [
{
"comment_id": "973805",
"author": "Gert",
"timestamp": "2013-03-09T02:19:01",
"content": "If one reads the actual page, it’s 12 gear downs, each with a 1:50 gear ratio, rather… (or 50:1? Friday; who cares about that last bit :) )And then of course the pictures only show 8 gear pairs. Who knows…",
... | 1,760,376,589.68653 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/03/08/hackaday-links-march-8-2013/ | Hackaday Links: March 8, 2013 | Brian Benchoff | [
"Hackaday links"
] | [
"arduino",
"gps",
"hackerspace",
"knitting",
"paintball",
"pci express",
"twitter",
"WIndows 8"
] | Cheap GPS modules
If you’re making a GPS-enabled project, you may have noticed the commonly available GPS modules are pretty expensive – usually around $50.
Here’s one for $8
. It’s a U-blox PCI-5S GPS receiver on a PCI Express card. There are test points for serial and USB data, though, so fitting this in your project is a breeze.
Grandfather clock makes a giraffe’s scarf
Here’s a clock project from [Siren Elise Wilhelmsen]
. Over the course of 365 days, the clock knits a giant, 2-meter tube of yarn that should be the perfect start for a half-dozen pairs of socks. No video for this, but if you find one, post a comment.
A huge hackerspace for Hotlanta
Atlanta is getting a new hackerspace.
It’s called My Inventor Club
and they’re starting to move into their space. Judging from
[Scott]’s pictures
of the new space it’s huge. We can’t wait for the video tour once they’re done moving in.
Ardino and Windows 8
Windows 8 is… weird… and you can’t install unsigned drivers without a lot of rigamarole. This means installing the Arduino IDE is a pain but
[Dany] has a solution
. Reboot into “test mode” and you can install unsigned drivers without your computer throwing a hissy fit.
Tweet for welts and bruises
[Zach]’s boss told him to come up with a Twitter-controlled paintball gun. Why he was asked to build this is beyond us, but
the build is still cool
. It’s powered by an Arduino and was built in just 12 hours. If only there was a video stream…
Hey guys, need some help here.
Alright, I’ve got a little problem with component sourcing. I’m making a ‘shield’ for the Raspberry Pi. Does anyone know where I can get really long female headers for the GPIO pins so the board will fit over the USB and Ethernet jacks?
Here’s the project
if you’re curious. I think the female part of the header needs to be 14mm high at least to fit over the USB port.
EDIT: Samtec ESQ-113-33-L-D.
Here’s their site
. This site is amazing. You can actually… find things. Completely unique experience here. Thank you, [Richard]. | 25 | 16 | [
{
"comment_id": "973715",
"author": "macegr",
"timestamp": "2013-03-09T00:08:06",
"content": "Love the cheap-GPS alert. Looks good.For the female headers…can’t you repurpose some long-pin female Arduino headers? Get Caleb to print you some spacers if that’s not long enough, or cut up some more heade... | 1,760,376,589.803412 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/03/08/putting-yourself-inside-a-display/ | Putting Yourself Inside A Display | Brian Benchoff | [
"Kinect hacks",
"LED Hacks"
] | [
"geodesic",
"Kinect",
"RGB LED"
] | Here’s an interesting build that combines light, sound, and gesture recognition to make a 360 degree environment of light and sound. It’s called
The Bit Dome
, and while the pictures and video are very cool, we’re sure it’s more impressive in real life.
The dome is constructed of over a hundred triangles made of foam insulation sheet, resulting in a structure that is 10 feet in diameter and seven and a half feet tall. Every corner of these panels has an RGB LED driven by a
Rainboduino
, which is in turn controlled by a computer hooked up to a Kinect.
The process of interacting with the dome begins by stepping inside and activating the calibration process. By having the user point their arms at different points inside the dome, the computer can reliably tell where the user is pointing, and respond when the user cycles through the dome’s functions.
There are bunch of things this dome can do, such as allowing the user to conduct an audio-visual light show, run a meditation program, or even play Snake and Pac-Man. You can check out these games and more in the videos after the break.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9rvwq-BbXtM&w=580]
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R6Nr8g9t0Jo&w=580] | 3 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "974054",
"author": "Frank",
"timestamp": "2013-03-09T10:42:15",
"content": "Pretty neat. What struck me is that in immersive simulators and games, a system like this could be used for ambient light and sudden movements in peripheral vision and so on.",
"parent_id": null,
"de... | 1,760,376,589.362294 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/03/08/pumping-1080p-video-out-of-an-fpga/ | Pumping 1080p Video Out Of An FPGA | Mike Szczys | [
"Video Hacks"
] | [
"fpga",
"hdmi",
"jitter",
"pipistrello",
"spartan-6"
] | [Hamster] admits this
1080p HDMI hack for an FPGA
doesn’t put a signal that’s fully up to specifications. But as you can see in the image above it does output a 1920×1080 image at 60 Hz, which is the size and frequency of full HD video. It falls just short due to some jitter, which may be just fine if this is only being used for early prototyping and will be replaced with a dedicated encoder later in the design process.
Here he’s chosen a Pipistrello board but thinks that any device which has a Spartan 6 chip with the differential pairs connected to an HDMI socket will work. The difficulty of the task comes in serializing four output channels at 1500 Mb/s each. Because of this just coding your logic isn’t going to work. After roughing out the design [Hamster] went back in and chose to manually place some of the components to ensure that data from each channel arrives at the same time.
While you’re messing with HDMI you may also want to
give this overlay hack a try
. | 14 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "973622",
"author": "Alex",
"timestamp": "2013-03-08T21:01:41",
"content": "His site seems to be having trouble, but it loaded after several minutes. I’m amazed that the connection didn’t time out!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": ... | 1,760,376,589.738403 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/03/08/hackerspace-develops-ways-to-get-peeps-to-spill-their-secrets/ | Hackerspace Develops Ways To Get Peeps To Spill Their Secrets | Mike Szczys | [
"Hackerspaces"
] | [
"candy",
"peeps",
"torture"
] | Whether you call it enhanced interrogation or torture, the subject is a lot less serious when the victim is a sugary confection. The LVL1 Hackerspace in Louisville, Kentucky recently held an event focused on getting Peeps — the bunny-shaped sugar-covered marshmallow treats — to spill their guts. Participants
developed a range of tongue-in-cheek torture devices
then demonstrated their functionality on the bunnies.
You shouldn’t be surprised that the event posting starts with Peep waterboarding. But from there the rigs do get a lot more creative. For instance, the electric chair above connects the bunny to a stun gun (there’s no mention of what that big set of capacitors has to do with this. There’s also an Iron Maiden which is really more of a Plastic Maiden. It subjects the marshmallow to multiple stab woulds using a plastic egg as an enclosure and a hair brush head as the spikes. You can’t mutilate Peeps without at least one being sent through a microwave. But perhaps our favorite is The Rack. A pair of them were built, one was laser cut and the other was constructed free-hand. Both are a whimsical take on a historically brutal implement. | 37 | 15 | [
{
"comment_id": "973470",
"author": "Gizmos",
"timestamp": "2013-03-08T18:05:05",
"content": "I question the constitutionality of Peep drone strikes in the U.S.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "973478",
"author": "pablo",
"timestamp": "20... | 1,760,376,589.881064 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/03/08/quick-wallet-hack-adds-pickpocket-alarm/ | Quick Wallet Hack Adds Pickpocket Alarm | Caleb Kraft | [
"Featured",
"Lifehacks",
"Security Hacks"
] | [
"pickpocket",
"wallet"
] | Recently there were a bunch of videos going around the net about
some of the greatest pickpockets in the world
. Simply put, if they wanted something you had, they were going to take it and you probably wouldn’t notice. I’ve always kept my wallet in my front pocket, and usually with my hand on it, but they even showed them getting around that in the video (you can’t always be vigilant).
I had the idea to make some kind of alarm that would go off if anyone but me removed the wallet from my pocket. A quick google search revealed tons of wallet alarms, but I noticed that they all had a credit card form factor(that’s good) and would make noise when exposed to light(that’s bad). This represents a problem since the pickpockets in the videos tended not to open the wallets till later at another location. I needed something that would make noise as it was removed from my pocket. Most importantly, I needed the alarm to be located
inside
the wallet. This immediately makes the wallet undesirable and will hopefully make someone drop it like hot coals.
I happened to have a few little magnetic window alarms sitting around. They’re just a loud buzzer with a magnetic reed switch. After holding one up to my poor fat old neglected wallet, I saw that the alarm was roughly the same thickness as all the old business cards I should’ve cleaned out of my wallet anyway.
I promptly tore the alarm apart and started planning how I was going to slim it down as much as possible. Most of the thickness is from the case, the batteries would be the next biggest contributor. After destroying the buzzer from one by trying to pry it from its plastic enclosure, I decided to leave the buzzer and simply live with the thickness. After all, if the prototype worked well, I could design something in a credit card form factor later. That is, if my attention span were long enough to do a thing like that.
The only real modification I made to the alarm itself was to un solder the reed switch and relocate it to the very end of the whole mess. This would allow it to be at the “spine” of the wallet and keep the power switch at the opening for easy access. The rest was simply cutting away as much bulk as possible and hot gluing things together.
It actually works exactly as expected. There are two choices for the alarm, a single chime when removed, or a constant alarm. The only big upgrade that I would suggest would be a stronger magnet so it wouldn’t need to be aligned perfectly. | 60 | 27 | [
{
"comment_id": "973360",
"author": "Dr. DFTBA",
"timestamp": "2013-03-08T15:50:19",
"content": "What about if they drink a Philther of Pickpocketing with a skill of 100?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "973557",
"author": "Luke",
... | 1,760,376,589.982466 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/03/08/handwriting-suck-build-a-machine-to-do-it-for-you/ | Handwriting Suck? Build A Machine To Do It For You | Mike Szczys | [
"cnc hacks"
] | [
"arduino",
"calligraphy",
"g-code",
"grbl",
"pen",
"plotter",
"printer",
"stepper"
] | Children of the information age are doomed to have the worst handwriting just for lack of use if nothing more. But some students at Olin College harnessed technology to find a solution to that problem. Meet Herald,
a CNC machine that can produce beautiful calligraphy
.
The machine uses a gantry to move the writing tip along the X and Y axes. The flexible-nib calligraphy pen is mounted on a sprocket which rotates the tip onto the writing surface, taking care of the third axis. The rig was beautifully rendered from their CAD drawings, then tweaked to ensure the smoothest motion possible before the quintet of Sophomores began the physical build.
The drive hardware is very simple yet it produces great results. It uses an Arduino along with three stepper motor drivers. There are also limiting switches to protect the hardware from runaway code. The software interface designed by the team lets the user cut and paste their text, and select a font, font size, alignment, etc. It then converts the text to G-code and pushes it to the Arduino where
the GRBL package
takes care of business.
Don’t miss the device in action, writing out a [Langston Hughes] work in the clip after the break. | 76 | 27 | [
{
"comment_id": "973233",
"author": "Justin",
"timestamp": "2013-03-08T12:08:19",
"content": "The awesomeness is overwhelming.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "973246",
"author": "lmn",
"timestamp": "2013-03-08T12:32:05",
"content": "... | 1,760,376,590.107663 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/03/06/print-your-own-adjustable-lenses/ | Print Your Own Adjustable Lenses | Mike Szczys | [
"3d Printer hacks",
"Linux Hacks"
] | [
"adjustable",
"eyeglasses",
"glasses",
"lens",
"telescope"
] | [Christopher] is really going the distance with
his liquid-filled 3D printed lens project
. The idea is to create a bladder out of two pieces of clear plastic. It can then be filled with liquid at a variable level of pressure to curve the plastic and create an adjustable lens. He was inspired by the TED talk (which we swear we already covered but couldn’t find the post) given by [Josh Silver] on
adjustable eyeglass lenses
.
Don’t miss the video after the break. [Christopher] shows off the assembly process for one lens. Two 3D printed frames are pressure fit together to hold one piece of plastic wrap. Two of those assemblies are then joined with JB weld and some 3D printed clips that help to hold it. A piece of shrink tubing is used as a hose to connect a syringe to the bladder. By filling the lens assembly with water he’s able to adjust how it refracts light. | 23 | 12 | [
{
"comment_id": "971857",
"author": "Polaczek",
"timestamp": "2013-03-06T18:24:11",
"content": "In order to help with the wrinkled/imperfections surface after the tightening you could use a blower dryer/hot air gun on the cellophane .Really neat idea though! Congrats.",
"parent_id": null,
"... | 1,760,376,590.165441 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/03/06/everything-you-need-to-build-a-light-cured-resin-3d-printer/ | Everything You Need To Build A Light-cured Resin 3D Printer | Mike Szczys | [
"3d Printer hacks"
] | [
"dlp",
"projector",
"resing"
] | [Rachel Levine] was one of the mechanical engineers on the team at the Rochester Institute of Technology who built this resin-based 3D printer. She wrote in to show off the fantastic work they’ve been doing.
Their project website
is daunting to take in at first, which shouldn’t be all that surprising since the concepts used here are fairly advanced. But give yourself a few minutes of blind clicking and you’ll begin to grasp the scope of this fantastic piece of engineering. The bad news is you’re not going to whip the thing together in a weekend. The good news is that if you’re determined to build one this should give you the lion’s share of the background you’ll need to make it happen.
The rig pulls a printed object up from the ooze on the build platform. They’re using resin that is cured with visible light. That’s why you see the level in the foreground; the bath needs to be a uniformed thickness so that it solidifies correctly when the light hits it from the underside. The build table is made of glass sandwiched between gaskets where it comes in contact with the frame, keeping the liquid in place while letting the DLP projector shine through. Check out the fast-motion build video after the break to see how each layer is exposed to light, then pulled upward to make room for the next. We estimate the build was around two hours of real-time and you can see that a technician replaces the extracted resin at regular intervals during the process.
DLP Projector based printers have been gaining in popularity. Check out this
roundup of several offerings from last year
. | 28 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "971800",
"author": "John Pfeiffer",
"timestamp": "2013-03-06T16:29:29",
"content": "I don’t have time to read this this morning, so I’ll just ask; isn’t getting/making the resin for a reasonable price still the primary obstacle to this method on a hobbyist? If that weren’t an issue... | 1,760,376,590.351148 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/03/06/scratch-built-bottle-cap-coffee-table-pulses-to-the-music/ | Scratch-built Bottle Cap Coffee Table Pulses To The Music | Mike Szczys | [
"home hacks",
"LED Hacks"
] | [
"2x4",
"bottle cap",
"lumber",
"resin",
"table",
"VU meter"
] | This isn’t a thrift-store coffee table modified as a craft project. [Dandujmich]
built it from the ground-up
using framing lumber, bottle caps, plastic resin, and some electronics for bling.
The first step was to see if he had enough caps on hand for the project. It’s hard to grasp how many were used just by looking at it, but the gallery description tells us there’s about 1700 which went into the design! From there he grabbed some 2x4s and began construction. The table legs started with two end assemblies built by doweling the legs to the end cross pieces. From there he cut a rabbit on the side rails and screwed them to the leg assemblies from the inside.
The tabletop includes a frame with a recessed area deep enough to keep the caps below the surface. After spending about ten hours super gluing all of the caps in place he mixed and poured two gallons of the resin to arrive at a glass-like finish. The final touch is some custom hardware which pulses two rows of embedded LEDs to music being played in the room. The video after the break isn’t fantastic, but it gives you some idea of how that light rig works.
[via
Reddit
] | 12 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "971735",
"author": "jjmcousineau",
"timestamp": "2013-03-06T14:22:20",
"content": "Not being a carpenter I was interested in what cutting a “rabbit” was. Turns out its called cutting a rabbet. Though I should post this in case anyone else was curious but couldn’t find an answer thro... | 1,760,376,590.398929 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/03/06/time-lapse-dolly-uses-some-stock-parts-and-a-bit-of-machining-work/ | Time-lapse Dolly Uses Some Stock Parts And A Bit Of Machining Work | Mike Szczys | [
"cnc hacks",
"digital cameras hacks"
] | [
"dolly",
"guide rail",
"precision thread bar",
"time-lapse"
] | [Ben] just finished
building this time-lapse dolly
and decided to share his experience. We think he struck just the right balance of diy and commercially available materials to create a rig that is stable yet relatively inexpensive.
The project was
inspired by Project Chronos
. It gives a lot of details about the drive electronics and code used, but there are some gaps in the instructions for building the track itself. [Ben] forged ahead, purchasing linear bearings and a double-guide rail from IGUS. He didn’t mention the price on that item but we found 1000mm of the stuff (about 40 inches) for under $75 so it’s not outrageous. The part he couldn’t get for a reasonable price was precision thread bar. He ended going with regular threaded rod and a couple of nuts combined with a spring mechanism to keep the sled steady. That seems to work just fine. You can see the rod bouncing a bit in the clip after the break but it doesn’t harm the stability of the captured images.
The end stops including the one to which the stepper motor is mounted are his own work. It sounds like they required a bit more fabrication work than he was planning on but we figure if you don’t challenge your skill set you never get any better.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sluvAehKTwg | 7 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "971692",
"author": "Mental2k",
"timestamp": "2013-03-06T12:49:24",
"content": "I never really appreciated the use of dollys in filming until I saw the set up of a shoot once and then saw the footage. It’s funny how you don’t notice these things, even though they are relatively ubiq... | 1,760,376,590.455129 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/03/05/quick-and-easy-rocket-stove/ | Quick And Easy Rocket Stove | Ryan Fitzpatrick | [
"cooking hacks"
] | [
"chimney liner",
"rocket stove",
"sand"
] | [Simon], a gardener in the United Kingdom, created
this super cheap and easy to build rocket stove
. The great thing about this little guy is that the methods and materials used to create it are so basic, anyone should be able to quickly make their own for just a few bucks. If nothing else, this is a good introductory project for people wanting to experiment with these stoves.
The only materials required are a metal 5 gallon cooking oil drum, a few scrap pieces of chimney liner pipe, and some sand.
That’s it
.
[Simon] cut off the top of the oil drum and made a hole in the front to fit the pipe. He then trimmed the scrap pieces of pipe to form a 90 degree elbow and positioned that in place inside the drum. Sand poured around the pipe acted as the insulator. Finally, he cut and flattened a scrap piece of pipe to use as a front loading tray for the wood.
Simple as that. Party on.
[via
The Flying Tortoise
] | 20 | 12 | [
{
"comment_id": "971403",
"author": "mahoney",
"timestamp": "2013-03-06T05:19:52",
"content": "Looks pretty toasty. If you were to retrofit a removable forced air supply (a blower or some other small fan) to your feeding chute you could achieve more heat.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
... | 1,760,376,590.51376 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/03/05/24v-relay-driver-circuit/ | 24V Relay Driver Circuit | Mike Szczys | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"industrial",
"optoisolator",
"relay"
] | [Glitch] got his hands on a slew of relays which are meant for use in industrial equipment. They are designed to operate at 24V. He wanted to use these with common microcontrollers and instead of buying a driver
he designed and built his own
.
There’s a few things to consider with a project like this. You need a power source, a way to level convert the driver pins, and some protection in case something goes wrong with the circuit. Looking at the board above should give you some idea of what’s going on. There’s a big transformer taking up half of the footprint. This steps down mains voltage to something a 7824 regulator can handle. That’s a 24V linear regulator which is fed by a bridge rectifier along with some smoothing capacitors. With the source taken care of [Glitch] uses an optoisolator for both protection and level conversion. After working the bugs out of the design he was able to control the relay using 3.3V, 5V, or 12V. | 38 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "971282",
"author": "Louis Charles Bruckner",
"timestamp": "2013-03-06T02:33:45",
"content": "if you only need one channel.cool build neat job.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "971284",
"author": "HC",
"timestamp": "2013-0... | 1,760,376,590.635879 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/03/05/oreo-separators-episode-2-chucks-food-at-your-face/ | Oreo Separators Episode 2 Chucks Food At Your Face | Mike Szczys | [
"cooking hacks"
] | [
"cookie",
"oreo",
"rube goldberg",
"separator"
] | Here’s a portable, well-built Oreo separator that still manages to border on ridiculous. Instead of just ditching the creme filling,
it dispenses the cookie and the creme separately
. Ostensibly the two creators like different things. One enjoys the cookies while the other only likes the creme. Of this division was born the professional-looking snack divider.
Unlike the hatchet-based system shown off
in the first episode
this machine has a hopper into which several Oreos may be loaded. The demo cookie is like none we’ve seen before because the top portion is pushed off as if it took no effort at all. The creme is then softened with a stream of hot air before the gooey creme is blasted into the other creators face. Some of it may even have entered his mouth. The final step ejects the remaining chocolate cookie by launching it straight up into the air.
Our favorite part of the video after the break is the “DO NOT ATTEMPT” subtitle that flashes on the screen whenever the apparatus is launching food into the guys’ mouths. | 13 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "971209",
"author": "jwrm22",
"timestamp": "2013-03-06T00:25:46",
"content": "You guys aren’t quick enough. there is already a part 3!http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ryas71YWsx4",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "971210",
"author... | 1,760,376,590.558013 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/03/07/human-powered-emergency-cell-phone-charger/ | Human Powered Emergency Cell Phone Charger | Ryan Fitzpatrick | [
"Cellphone Hacks",
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"cell phone",
"charger",
"drill",
"emergency",
"human-powered"
] | Power outage? For the average citizen it’s very easy to take electricity for granted. Go a few hours or more without it though, and you’ll suddenly be reminded just what a luxury it is. During an emergency situation, sometimes you have to come up with alternative methods to get the job done.
This human powered cell phone charger
is a great example.
Using just a few ordinary around the house items, [
The King of Random
] turned a cordless electric drill into a human powered electrical generator. If the drill is run in reverse and cranked by hand, the generated energy can be transferred through the battery terminals to a connected device. So, he cut a USB charger cable in half and wired it up to the terminals to be able to charge his cell phone. Some yarn, a salad fork, a mixing beater, a scrap 2″x4″, some aluminum foil, and scotch tape were the only other materials he used. Using this technique, a totally dead phone battery was charged in around 3 hours.
Remember that this method is only intended to be used in an emergency, not as every day practice. Using these methods could potentially overheat or damage your gear, so be careful.
Check out the MacGyver worthy video tutorial after the break.
[via
Neatorama
] | 36 | 17 | [
{
"comment_id": "972998",
"author": "Squirrel",
"timestamp": "2013-03-08T04:20:39",
"content": "I’d throw a 7805 in there, since I have those laying around.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "973000",
"author": "mistahdoom",
"timestamp": "2... | 1,760,376,590.711205 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/03/07/wireless-doorbell-battery-monitor/ | Wireless Doorbell Battery Monitor | Mike Szczys | [
"home hacks",
"Microcontrollers"
] | [
"attiny13",
"batteries",
"doorbell",
"wireless"
] | We know exactly what [Dan] is going through. We also bought a cheap wireless doorbell and are plagued by the batteries running down. When that happens, the only way you know is when people start pounding on the door because you’re not answering the bell. Well no more for [Dan]. He built
a backup system which monitors the voltage of the batteries
on the chime unit.
You can see the small bit of protoboard he used to house the microcontroller and the UI. It’s an ATtiny13 along with a green LED and a single push button. The idea is to use the chip’s ADC to monitor the voltage level of the pair of batteries which power the chime. When it drops below 3V the green LED will come on.
First off, we wish these things would come with better power supply circuits. For instance, we just replaced the CR2032 in an Apple TV remote and measured the voltage at 2.7V. That remote and the chime both run from a 3V source. Can’t they be made to work down to 1.8V? But we digress.
In addition to monitoring voltage [Dan’s] rig also counts the number of times the chime has rung. Every eight seconds it flashes the count in binary, unless he presses the red button to clear the count. This is shown in the video after the break. We guess he wants to know how many times this thing can be used before running the batteries down.
Seriously though, for a rarely used item like this how hard would it be to use ambient light harvesting to help save the batteries? Looking at
some indoor solar harvesting numbers
shows it might be impossible to only power this from PV, but what if there was a super-cap which would be topped off with a trickle from the panels but would still use the batteries when that runs down? | 10 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "972902",
"author": "J. Peterson",
"timestamp": "2013-03-08T02:09:16",
"content": "We have a light switch based onEnocean’s“energy harvesting” switches. The motion of the switch itself provides the energy to send the RF signal to the receiver. The switches were expensive ($200+ for... | 1,760,376,592.315172 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/03/07/real-multifunction-sonic-screwdriver/ | Real Multifunction “Sonic Screwdriver” | Ryan Fitzpatrick | [
"Arduino Hacks"
] | [
"arduino pro mini",
"brown note tone generator",
"dr. who",
"emf meter",
"sonic screwdriver",
"universal remote"
] | “I don’t understand, you don’t have the technology.” OK, so it’s not actually a futuristic tool with the same capabilities as the one off the hit TV series Dr. Who, but
this homemade “sonic screwdriver”
is
a multifunction device that’s pretty cool nonetheless.
Created around an Arduino Pro Mini, [Gunther] really one-upped
the last screwdriver we featured
. Built in functions include: brown note tone generator, dog whistle, EMF meter, flashlight, IR universal remote, laser pointer, ohm meter, sound level meter, voltage detector, and a voltage meter. You can also have an electromagnet or output voltage supply if you want. If that wasn’t enough, it can even play the theme song from Star Wars! Whew. That’s a mouthful of functionality.
Although he
has
posted
the Arduino code
, you’ll have to keep an eye on his site for more details if you want to create your own. He’s mentioned that he’s working on blue prints and a full parts list… Awesome. Now where’s that lock pick function?
Check out a video showing off some of the features after the break.
[via
Make
] | 30 | 13 | [
{
"comment_id": "972817",
"author": "Michael Creighton",
"timestamp": "2013-03-08T00:12:24",
"content": "Great hack! now it just needs that 3D printing pen implemented as well!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "972854",
"author": "XOIIO",
... | 1,760,376,592.575031 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/03/07/bga-rework-station/ | BGA Rework Station | Brian Benchoff | [
"hardware"
] | [
"bga",
"rework station",
"solder"
] | SMD components may be a little challenging for the home builder – even though the’re inordinately practical for homebrew PCBs – but if you play around with electronics and solder long enough, you’re eventually going to run into the horrors of BGA parts. Instead of convenient pins, BGA parts have tiny metallic balls on which solder is applied, a board is thrown through a reflow oven, and hopefully at the end, everything works. Sometimes these balls corrode or otherwise need to be reflowed. This isn’t an easy process, so [Edmar] came up with
his own BGA rework station
that costs much less than commercial offerings.
[Edmar]’s build began when he wanted to repair a graphics card. A common error on his Amilo XI2428 graphics card is having the small balls on the underside of the chip corrode, leaving the user with a non-functional graphics card.
Towel trick
notwithstanding, the easiest way to fix this error is to heat up the card to above the melting point of solder, removing the chip, and resoldering it with careful application of solder paste.
[Edmar]’s reflow station is made of an electric skillet for the bottom of the board, an infrared lamp for the top side of the board, and control circuitry constructed from an ATMega128, temperature sensors, and a huge power supply. The temperature is controlled via USB by a computer, allowing [Edmar] to set a temperature profile as recommended by the BGA chip’s data sheet.
Right now, removing a BGA chip works great, but [Edmar] is still working on the tech necessary to replace a BGA chip on a board. | 19 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "972725",
"author": "Hack Man",
"timestamp": "2013-03-07T22:07:41",
"content": "http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MqRT6KaMubk",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "972751",
"author": "dALE",
"timestamp": "2013-03-07T22:3... | 1,760,376,592.369038 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/03/07/shock-sword-works-best-on-foes-who-fight-with-multiple-blades/ | Shock Sword Works Best On Foes Who Fight With Multiple Blades | Mike Szczys | [
"Weapons Hacks"
] | [
"shock",
"stun",
"sword"
] | This project most certainly has some of
Trailer Park Boys
rolled into it. We say that because the living room is the only place this will ever been used and this guy’s reaction to getting shocked is exactly how [Ricky] would respond.
The sword on the left has an electronic stun
mechanism built into it. it works by energizing two blades which are separated by nylon bolts and spacers. Look closely at the tip and you’ll see the blue glow which indicates high voltage. To shock your victim you have to touch them with both blades at the same time. This is demonstrated in one of the videos after the break. But the real pain comes when [Jonathan] — the guy who built the stun sword — touches it on either side with this pair of blades. His body completes the connection and his NSFW language tells the tale of how it feels.
This thing seems to pack a bit more of a punch than
our own stun-gun enabled quadcopter
.
Hardware description:
Shock tests:
[Thanks Rush] | 57 | 24 | [
{
"comment_id": "972620",
"author": "soopergooman",
"timestamp": "2013-03-07T20:08:51",
"content": "why do you need this? morons. who the eff fights with swords on a daily basis? also tpb is the worst show in the history of television.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
... | 1,760,376,592.893131 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/03/07/fabricating-edible-leds/ | Fabricating Edible LEDs | Mike Szczys | [
"3d Printer hacks"
] | [
"gumm"
] | They’re edible, yes. But they don’t light up. That’s fine with us, since the process [Becky Stern] used to
make these gummy candy LEDs
taps into several techniques handy to have under your belt.
The first part shown in her video (embedded after the jump) is to make a mold for the candies. You probably have a few bags of LEDs in your parts bin. Those along with a trough made of foam core come together to create the form for the silicone mold. After mixing, pouring, and hardening, [Becky] peels the silicone off of the LEDs and sends it through the oven to make it food-safe. Mixing up the candy uses simple ingredients (gelatin, water, and ascorbic acid) but you’ll need to follow the methodology closely to get the taste and clarity you’re used to. Syringes are used to fill the tiny voids in the mold before adding leads which were 3D printed using PLA.
These will be a huge hit at your next hackerspace meeting!
[Photo: Johngineer] | 24 | 16 | [
{
"comment_id": "972529",
"author": "Martin Espinoza (@hyperlogos)",
"timestamp": "2013-03-07T18:05:23",
"content": "Mmm, delicious PLA.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "972541",
"author": "RooTer",
"timestamp": "2013-03-07T18:1... | 1,760,376,592.50687 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/03/07/debian-linux-on-a-powermac-7200/ | Debian Linux On A PowerMac 7200 | Jeremy Cook | [
"computer hacks",
"Software Hacks"
] | [
"macintosh",
"PowerMac 7200",
"retro computing"
] | Those of us that run Linux on a modern or nearly-modern PC know that it’s a capable operating system. It’s also (at least in my case with Ubuntu) extremely easy to install on a semi-modern computer. On a mid-90s era
PowerMac 7200, things aren’t quite so simple
.
In a testament to both his technical ability, and possibly even more so his tenacity, [Chris] was able to get Debian 6.07 running on a PowerMac destined for destruction. He had slated a few hours to upgrade this 56 Megabyte monster, but it turned out to be a several-day event. Those that are well-schooled in Linux may find the hairy details useful, and some
more background can be found in part one
. This project was a stepping-stone to something else, so we’re anxious to see what the end result is.
If you find this interesting, feel free to check out the
retro edition of our site
. It’s not entirely about ancient computers, but it can hopefully be displayed on one.
via
[twitter] | 27 | 21 | [
{
"comment_id": "972469",
"author": "Flippy9",
"timestamp": "2013-03-07T16:35:42",
"content": "Awesome work! The school districts used to throw out palettes and palettes of these machines. These, and the PowerMac 5500 AIOs. The motherboards in the 5500s weren’t quite as friendly towards Linux, but t... | 1,760,376,592.703688 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/03/07/diy-space-experiments-within-a-ping-pong-ball-satellite/ | DIY Space Experiments Within A Ping Pong Ball ‘satellite’ | Ryan Fitzpatrick | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"aerospace",
"pongsat",
"satellite"
] | Ahhh space. The final frontier. While many people dream of one day becoming an astronaut (and possibly battling aliens or cylons), it’s a select few who actually make it their reality. Fortunately for us, there’s a middle ground that allows the masses to still have some fun in the sky. Enter the
“Pongsat” program – space experiments within a ping pong ball.
Created by
JP Aerospace
, this
free
program allows anyone to create their own mini experiment and send it off to the edge of space. The imagination is the limit. Curious if a marshmallow will expand? Interested what the temperature would be? Wonder if you can charge a solar battery? Stuff it inside a ping pong ball and find out!
Check out the
PDF Users Guide
to get started, then their
Blog
and
Facebook page
for more up to date information. Now go out there and get your experiment to Mars! (Or at least 100,00 feet)
Watch a video of in flight footage after the break.
[via
adafruit
] | 36 | 12 | [
{
"comment_id": "972404",
"author": "Purduecer",
"timestamp": "2013-03-07T14:34:46",
"content": "Actual ping pong balls? Would there not be outgassing problems?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "972414",
"author": "Tom Kane",
"ti... | 1,760,376,592.444529 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/03/07/wiimote-controlled-rpi-robot/ | Wiimote Controlled RPi Robot | Eric Evenchick | [
"Nintendo Wii Hacks",
"Raspberry Pi",
"Robots Hacks"
] | [
"cwiid",
"python",
"RPi",
"wiimote"
] | [Brian] has brought together a powerful collection of hardware to build a robot. The end goal is to have a
robot that’s controlled by a Wiimote
.
The Wiimote communicates over Bluetooth with a Raspberry Pi, which is running a Python script. This script uses the CWiid Python module to communicate with the controller, and [Brian] has detailed instructions on getting the
Wiimote working with a RPi
. The RPi controls an ATmega based development board over SPI, which drives an h-bridge to control the two DC motors that move the robot.
[Brian]’s code for this could be helpful for anyone looking to control their RPi with a Wiimote. Since Wiimotes and Bluetooth dongles are fairly cheap nowadays, this is a great way to drop in wireless control to any RPi project, or even to control your media center from the couch.
After the break, check out a video of the build in action | 24 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "972336",
"author": "hemalchevli",
"timestamp": "2013-03-07T12:19:10",
"content": "Why us the micro-controller, connect the H-bridge (IC L293d) and use soft PWM on gpio(https://projects.drogon.net/raspberry-pi/wiringpi)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
... | 1,760,376,592.641957 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/03/06/this-maglite-is-a-bb-gun/ | This Maglite Is A BB Gun | Eric Evenchick | [
"Weapons Hacks"
] | [
"bb gun",
"gas gun",
"GGDT",
"maglite",
"pneumatic"
] | This innocent looking Maglite houses a piston and barrel, making it into a functional
pneumatic BB gun
. A Maglite was chosen due to its high durability, and easy access to the internals. A schrader valve sticks out of the battery cap, which allows the gun to be charged using a standard fitting. A brass tube is used as the barrel, and a piston controls firing.
Firing the gun is simple. First, the whole thing is charged up to the desired pressure. Then the ammunition is inserted into the barrel. At this point, the rubber piston is held against the end of the barrel by the pressure in the gun. By pushing the pin of the valve in, the piston is able to move back slightly. This acts as the trigger, and causes air to rush into the barrel, firing the BB.
The results are fairly impressive. Using a chronograph, the speed of the BB was measured at 850 feet per second. Using the
Gas Gun Design Tool
simulator, it was estimated that the gun could fire at over 1000 feet per second, and maybe even break the sound barrier. | 49 | 18 | [
{
"comment_id": "972128",
"author": "waruwaru",
"timestamp": "2013-03-07T04:47:02",
"content": "You are gonna shoot your eyes out!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "972143",
"author": "Sheff",
"timestamp": "2013-03-07T05:17:40",
... | 1,760,376,592.978429 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/03/06/a-real-thermal-imaging-camera-for-300/ | A Real Thermal Imaging Camera For $300 | Brian Benchoff | [
"Crowd Funding",
"hardware"
] | [
"camera",
"ir",
"thermal imaging camera",
"thermopile"
] | If you want to check your house for hot air leaks, take pictures of the heat coming off a rack of equipment, or just chase the most dangerous animal, [Arnie], through the jungles of central america, a thermal imaging camera is your friend. These devices normally cost a few thousand dollars, but the team
behind the Mu Thermal Camera
managed to get the price down to about $300.
The basic idea behind the Mu Thermal Camera is overlaying the output of an infrared thermopile – basically, an infrared camera – on top of the video feed of a smart phone’s camera. This is an approach
we’ve seen before
and something that has even been
turned into a successful Kickstarter
. These previous incarnations suffered from terrible resolution, though; just 16×4 pixels for the infrared camera. The Mu thermal camera, on the other hand, has 160×120 pixels of resolution. That’s the same resolution as
this $2500 Fluke IR camera
. After the indiegogo campaign is over, the Mu camera will eventually sell for $325.
We have no idea how the folks behind the Mu camera were able to create a thermal imaging with such exceptional resolution at this price point. The good news is the team will be open sourcing the Mu camera after their indiegogo run is over. W’e’d love to see those docs now, if only to figure out how a thousand dollars of infrared sensor is crammed into a $300 device. | 127 | 50 | [
{
"comment_id": "972042",
"author": "T.M.",
"timestamp": "2013-03-07T02:27:56",
"content": "I really want one of these but Flexible Funding IndieGoGo is an automatic “No.”",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "972056",
"author": "HC",
... | 1,760,376,593.136602 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/03/06/beautiful-replica-team-fortress-2-weapons/ | Beautiful Replica Team Fortress 2 Weapons | Brian Benchoff | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"prop",
"prop making",
"replica",
"silicon mold",
"team fortress 2",
"tf2"
] | We’ve seen our share of replica props, but [Nathan]’s replica of
the spy’s sidearm from Team Fortress 2
is the bee’s knees.
The build began as an off-the-shelf Airsoft gun. After removing the barrel and cylinder, [Nathan] used Apoxie Sculpt and a whole lot of sanding to turn a stock piece of metal and plastic into something that came straight from the Mann Co. store. The in-game version of the Ambassador also includes an engraving of the object of the spy’s affection, replicated by [Nathan] with some very careful Dremel work. Once the prop was done, [Nathan] built a mold box out of plywood and filled it with silicone rubber. This allowed him to
make several castings of his prop weapon
This isn’t [Nathan]’s only TF2 replica prop; he also made a replica of
the stock sniper gun
and
scout’s scattergun
and
a megaphone from Borderlands
. In an effort to out do himself, [Nathan] is gearing to build a gun that
fires two hundred-dollar, custom-tooled cartridges at ten thousand rounds per minute.
He has yet to craft any hats. | 16 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "971995",
"author": "Mohonri",
"timestamp": "2013-03-07T00:43:31",
"content": "If I had a CNC router, this is something I would do. Perfectly-accurate replicas.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "972305",
"author": "Chris... | 1,760,376,593.19427 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/03/06/dynamic-bicycle-headlight-uses-the-open-road-as-a-display/ | Dynamic Bicycle Headlight Uses The Open Road As A Display | Mike Szczys | [
"Raspberry Pi",
"Transportation Hacks",
"Video Hacks"
] | [
"bicycle",
"bike",
"dynamic",
"pico projector",
"RPi"
] | This thing is so cool it almost looks fake. But [Matt Richardson] isn’t a hoaxster. He actually built what might be called
a heads-down display for your bicycle
. He refers to it as a headlight because it borrows a similar function. It mounts on the handlebars and shoots light off the front of the bike. But it’s more than just a battery and a bulb, this uses a pico-projector to give that light some meaning. In the video after the break he shows it off on the streets of NYC.
So far he’s only displaying information that has to do with the speed of travel, but the proof is there just waiting for a brilliant new use. Feeding the projector is a Raspberry Pi board. For this prototype [Matt] mounted it, along with the portable cellphone charger which plays the role of the power source, on a hunk of hardboard strapped inside the bike frame.
If you’re thinking of doing this one yourself beware of the BOM price tag. That projector he’s using runs upwards of $400. We wonder if you could hack together a rudimentary replacement with an old cellphone screen and
this diy film projector
? | 33 | 16 | [
{
"comment_id": "971923",
"author": "Clem",
"timestamp": "2013-03-06T22:12:53",
"content": "This could be the beginning of a great HUD. Speed + Maps (esp. for NYC; my hometown) + Notifications.Anyways, nice project guys",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comme... | 1,760,376,593.300018 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/03/06/pov-pong-game-uses-all-kinds-of-smart-design/ | POV Pong Game Uses All Kinds Of Smart Design | Mike Szczys | [
"Microcontrollers"
] | [
"16f690",
"pic",
"pong",
"POV"
] | This little device lets you
play some head-to-head pong using a spinning LED display
. We’re really in love with the design. You get a pretty good idea of the Persistence of Vision aspect of the build by looking at this picture. But hearing [Dennis] explain the entire design in the video after the break has us really loving its features.
He’s using the head from a VCR as the spinning motor. The display itself uses a vertical row of LEDs with a bit of wax paper as a diffuser. These are current limited by a 1k resistor for each of the eight pixels. They’re driven by a PIC 16F690 but you may have already noticed that there’s no battery on the spinning part of the board. It gets voltage and ground from a pair of brushes which he fabricated himself. To avoid having to do the same thing to map the control buttons in the base to the spinning board he came up with something special. There’s a downward facing phototransisor which registers LED signals from the base to move the paddles up or down.
If you love this project check out
the POV Death Star
. | 3 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "971919",
"author": "TK9K1",
"timestamp": "2013-03-06T21:51:34",
"content": "Now THAT is a hack.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "972000",
"author": "Robot",
"timestamp": "2013-03-07T00:56:49",
"content": "Neat. I espe... | 1,760,376,593.236841 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/03/05/nes-annoyance-timer-makes-no-friends-at-your-work/ | NES Annoyance Timer Makes No Friends At Your Work | Mike Szczys | [
"Lifehacks"
] | [
"alarm",
"arduino",
"clock",
"nes",
"timer",
"wave shield"
] | Still trying to solidify that reputation as the office Grinch? This project will let everyone know you’re a complete jerk in no time. It’s called
the 8-bit Annoying Person Remover
. It detects when someone enters your office at which point it starts to play the Super Mario Bros. theme song while the display counts down 400 seconds. Just like in the game the music gets faster at the end and when it stops they know it’s time to get the heck out.
The hardware inside isn’t too complicated. An Arduino and a Wave shield do most of the work. The song played is stored on an SD card and can easily be changed. There’s a speaker mounted under the top heat vent of the enclosure. The device defaults to displaying the time of day, but monitors a motion sensor on one side to detect when someone comes through the door. This also works when someone leaves, cutting off the music and resetting the display. Don’t miss a video of it in action after the break.
It’s as if this was made specifically for
the Comic Book Guy
[via
Technabob
] | 16 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "971135",
"author": "Cricri",
"timestamp": "2013-03-05T22:18:37",
"content": "Since we’re having a round of redundancies, I’ll pass. In my experience, showing a lack of social skills at the workplace never ends up being rewarding.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies... | 1,760,376,593.409178 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/03/05/viscerally-pleasing-electromechanical-doorbell/ | Viscerally Pleasing Electromechanical Doorbell | Mike Szczys | [
"home hacks"
] | [
"doorbell",
"mercury",
"switch"
] | Sure, we could just slap the steam-punk label on this doorbell hack, but we think that cheapens it. The rig uses a combination of
mercury switch and creative mechanics to form a doorbell
. And we think it goes beyond aesthetics to a statement of who you are starting with the front door of your house. No wonder [Nick Normal] has moved it along with him from home to home over the years.
The portion to the right is the ringer itself. Pulling on the lever moves the chain through an eyelet to affect the mercury switch mounted above. That switch completes the circuit which drives the motor on the “bell” unit. We use quotes because instead of ringing a bell it’s striking the large valve control wheel which looks like it came straight from the same industrial plant where
The Joker
took his unfortunate fall into a vat of acid.
This certainly gives you something to aspire to. And if you think you’ve already achieved a doorbell setup on similarly-geeky footing
why haven’t you tipped us off about it
? | 13 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "971071",
"author": "RoadWarrior222",
"timestamp": "2013-03-05T20:56:29",
"content": "Mercury OOOOOMMMMGGGGGGG!!!!1111 Think of all those poor Californian lab rats…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "971140",
"author": "An... | 1,760,376,593.460283 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/03/05/sparkfun-takes-their-educational-show-on-the-road/ | SparkFun Takes Their Educational Show On The Road | Mike Szczys | [
"News"
] | [
"education",
"sparkfun",
"workshop"
] | They’ve bought an RV and are headed for your state with buckets full of hobby electronic hardware. It’s
SparkFun’s National Education tour
and if you want them to host a workshop for kids in your area now’s the time to sign up!
It’s no stretch to say that our everyday lives are tightly bound with technology. Chances are every one of the kids in this picture will walk around with an embedded system in their pockets by the time they hit middle school if not earlier (seriously, many of them have the newest generation of high-end smart phones). The sad fact is that nearly 100% will never have any idea how the hardware in those devices functions. And that’s where we think this program really shines.
SparkFun is scheduling 50 stops where $1000 of the cost is subsidized. The team will work with each school/organization to come up with an appropriate workshop for the age of the students and their base knowledge on the topic. Hopefully this will inspire a new generation of hardware hackers who will eventually contribute to using technology to solve world issues. Check out their promo clip after the jump.
We mentioned subsidized visits. The program still costs $1500 and will go up to $2500 after the first 50 stops. But the hardware used in the workshop stays with the kids. And we hope that the $37.50-$125/head price tag will be seen as a worthwhile investment in getting kids interested in more than just entertaining themselves with the social medial offerings running on the hardware. | 18 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "970938",
"author": "Mark",
"timestamp": "2013-03-05T18:43:52",
"content": "I did this at a robotics conference in Missouri. It was one of the more advenced classes, but they did an amazing job. Go, sparkfun!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"co... | 1,760,376,593.354473 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/03/05/digging-deep-into-how-the-8085-processors-registers-were-designed/ | Digging Deep Into How The 8085 Processor’s Registers Were Designed | Mike Szczys | [
"Microcontrollers"
] | [
"8085",
"die",
"registers",
"reverse engineering"
] | Hardware design enthusiasts should already be salivating just looking at this image. But [Ken Shirriff’s] write-up on
how the 8085 processor’s registers were designed
will put you in silicon reverse-engineering heaven. He manages to get to the bottom of the tricks the designers used to make register access as efficient as possible, like routing some through the ALU on their path elsewhere.
We’re certainly not experts in studying dies like the one seen above. Luckily [Ken] does a great job of zooming in on important parts, then dissecting how they work by representing the silicone image as a functional flow chart. One of the parts which we found most interesting is the WZ temporary registers. These are a set of internal registers that are not accessible to the programmer. They’re only used internally by the chip. They act as temporary storage for multiple operand functions, and also hold register addresses for a handful of instructions (JMP, CALL, RST, etc.).
If you’re more interested in how images of these chips are attained you should do some searching on Hackaday. Just last week
we featured one such project in a links post
.
[via
Reddit
] | 14 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "970819",
"author": "sean",
"timestamp": "2013-03-05T16:44:35",
"content": "Ouch, the “silicone” in the middle of that writeup was painful to read…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "970831",
"author": "andarb",
"t... | 1,760,376,593.506036 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/03/05/turning-the-samsung-galaxy-note-10-1-into-a-proper-linux-box/ | Turning The Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 Into A Proper Linux Box | Brian Benchoff | [
"Linux Hacks",
"Tablet Hacks"
] | [
"debian",
"linux",
"samsung galaxy note",
"tablet"
] | Over on the xda developers forum, [exception13] shows us the work he’s put into
geting Debian running on his Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1
, allowing him to dual boot Android and Linux on a single device.
The project is still in a fairly early state, but so far [exception13] has most of the goodies required for a decent Linux experience running already. There’s WiFi, bluetooth, sound, usb-otg and touchscreen support, as well as support for the Note’s S Pen, the Wacom digitizer that basically turns the Galaxy Note 10.1 into an Intuos touch pad.
There’s still a lot of work work to be done, including getting the camera up and running, as well as enabling the GPS receiver. Still, it’s a very cool project that puts the power of a proper desktop interface into a tablet with enough horsepower to get something useful done.
If you’d like to get this running on your Galaxy Note, [exception13] has a download avaiable
over on Google Code
. There’s also a video [exception13] put together demoing all the cool stuff his Note can do, you can check that out after the break.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HU4yNdq8FzY&w=580] | 23 | 15 | [
{
"comment_id": "970717",
"author": "Bob Fleming",
"timestamp": "2013-03-05T14:08:09",
"content": "Using the S-Pen to “type” Emacs shortcuts. Not sure even I’d try that.Cool hack, though :)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "970731",
"author": ... | 1,760,376,593.794964 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/03/05/finally-a-machine-that-makes-cheap-3d-printer-filament/ | Finally, A Machine That Makes Cheap 3D Printer Filament. | Brian Benchoff | [
"3d Printer hacks"
] | [
"abs",
"Desktop Factory Competition",
"filament",
"PLA"
] | If there’s one problem with the RepRap, it’s the cost of filament. Sure, there’s also the computationally difficult problem of slicing 3D models, but a 5 to 10 times markup on turning plastic pellets into filament is the biggest problem. It’s even a bigger problem than the problems of compatibility and interchangeable parts that comes with everyone forking a ‘standard’ printer design dozens of times. The cost of filament, though, is the biggest problem, right up there with RepRap developers focusing nearly entirely on different printer designs instead of the software, firmware, and electronics that are also vitally important to the RepRap project.
Nearly a year ago, we caught wind of a competition to create a home-based filament manufacturing station that takes cheap plastic pellets available for about $5/kg and turns them in to 3D printer filament that usually sells for $50/kg.
A winner for this competion has finally been announced
. The winner, [Hugh Lyman] just won $40,000 for his home filament creation station, the
Lyman Filament Extruder
The goal of the
Desktop Factory Competition
was to create a machine that produces filament suitable for 3D printers with a total build cost of under $250 USD. [Lyman] met the goal by using a few motors, 3D printed parts, a PID controller, and
off the shelf auger drill bit
(that’s the actual model and supplier he used, by the way) that is able to reliably churn out plastic filament.
If you want to build your own Lyman Extruder, all the plans are
up on Thingiverse
, but LulzBot,
the awesome people who gave us a 3D printer
, hope to sell a pre-assembled version of this extruder sometime in the future, hopefully with a chain guard around that sprocket. | 104 | 28 | [
{
"comment_id": "970683",
"author": "tophathacker",
"timestamp": "2013-03-05T13:15:03",
"content": "Wow. That first paragraph was hard to read. Not functionally difficult, but phonetically.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "970690",
"aut... | 1,760,376,594.03688 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/03/05/programmable-computer-built-from-a-humble-attiny84/ | Programmable Computer Built From A Humble ATtiny84 | Mike Szczys | [
"computer hacks",
"Microcontrollers"
] | [
"ATtiny24",
"computer",
"Magic 8-ball"
] | Here’s a way to play around with simple computing concepts without going too crazy with the hardware side of things. [John Eisenmann] calls it the DUO tiny. It’s
a programmable computer based around the ATtiny84
. He wrote the operating system himself, building in a set of commands that make it quite functional, but allow the user to manipulate or even write the programs using the four button interface. Editing and running programs (which include some games) is demonstrated in the clip after the break.
The three major components used in the system are the ATtiny84, and EEPROM chip with 64 KB capacity to hold the programs, and the 102×64 pixel LCD screen seen above. The project began on a breadboard, but as he brought each part into being it transitioned to a strip-board prototype and finally this fab-house version. | 19 | 15 | [
{
"comment_id": "970643",
"author": "NoX",
"timestamp": "2013-03-05T12:11:17",
"content": "Should be possible to make it even smaller with a ATTiny85 and software i2c.Though then it would more likely be a project centered around the idea of using a single MCU with a few pins as possible to accomplis... | 1,760,376,593.724895 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/03/04/audiobook-player-used-only-nfc-tags-for-control/ | Audiobook Player Used Only NFC Tags For Control | Mike Szczys | [
"Raspberry Pi"
] | [
"audiobook",
"NFC",
"RPi",
"visually impaired"
] | [Martynas Mickevičius] has a Grandmother who is visually impaired. She enjoys listening to audiobooks and has been doing so using a DVD player for quite some time. The problem is that there is no way for her to save her position in between listening session. He set out to help by building
a dedicated audiobook reader that doesn’t have any buttons
.
The project was inspired by
a one-button reader
we featured back in November. Like that project, [Martynas] chose to use the inexpensive, yet powerful Raspberry Pi. The main difference comes in the control method. He’s using an NFC tag reader, which is mounted in the top portion of the RPi case. The image above shows the rig during prototyping, but his final version is all bundled up in the pink enclosure and only needs the power and audio cables connected to it. See for yourself in the demo after the jump.
Each book has its own NFC tag. When she’s done reading she can simply cut the power and it will resume in the same place the next time it is plugged in. The tag setup is a vast improvement since it allows an entire library to be stored on the SD card and chosen using a different tag. With this hardware in place it should be trivial to code extensions to the system, like a script that uses text-to-speech to announce which book is being played before playback starts. | 14 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "970450",
"author": "rasz",
"timestamp": "2013-03-05T05:19:58",
"content": "This is actually quite ingenious. At first I was like ‘why nfc, just connect to TV and make her use TV remote to scroll the menu”. Then I realized its for old people, people that have trouble dialing a phone... | 1,760,376,594.09987 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/03/04/frans-pcb-etching-techniques/ | [Fran’s] PCB Etching Techniques | Mike Szczys | [
"chemistry hacks"
] | [
"etch",
"lab",
"laboratory",
"pcb",
"toner transfer"
] | We think that anyone who’s done at-home PCB fabrication will appreciate the tidiness that [Fran] maintains throughout her etching process. She recently posted
a three-part video tutorial
which showcases her techniques. As you can see in the screenshot above, her habits reek of top-notch laboratory skills.
Regular readers can probably guess what circuit she’s etching. It’s the test boards for
her LVDC reverse engineering
. She is using the toner transfer method, but in a bit different way than most home-etchers do. She uses the blue transfer paper made for the job, but before transferring it to the copper clad she uses a light box (kind of like the X-ray film viewer at the doctor’s office) to inspect for any gaps where toner did not adhere. From there she uses a heat press to apply the resist. This is a heck of a lot easier than using a clothes iron, but of course you’ve got to have one of these things on hand to do it this way.
The second part of the tutorial is embedded after the break. We chose this segment because it shows off how [Fran] built her own chemical hood. It’s a clear plastic storage container lying upside down. A work window has been cut out of the front side, and a 4-inch exhaust hose added to the top. [Fran’s] lab has a high volume low velocity fan to which it connects to whisk the fumes outside. | 10 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "970408",
"author": "rue_mohr",
"timestamp": "2013-03-05T03:47:15",
"content": "nice fume hood, I should set up someting like that….Bubbler tanks rule.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "970576",
"author": "BotherSaidMayans",
... | 1,760,376,594.157001 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/03/04/wireless-pinball-controller-for-tablet-gaming/ | Wireless Pinball Controller For Tablet Gaming | Mike Szczys | [
"Android Hacks",
"Arduino Hacks"
] | [
"android",
"arduino",
"bluesmirf",
"bluetooth",
"debounce",
"nand",
"pinball"
] | This wooden box is
a wireless pinball controller and tablet stand
. The idea is to set it on a workbench to give you some of the thrill of standing and playing the real thing. [Jeff] has been rather addicted to playing a pinball app on Android lately, and started the journey because he needed a way to give his thumbs some relief.
An Arduino monitors buttons on either side of this wooden controller. [Jeff] is new to working with hardware (he’s a Linux Kernel developer by trade) and was immediately struck with button debouncing issues. Rather than handle this in software (we’ve got
a super-messy thread on that issue
with our favorite at the bottom) he chose a hardware solution by building an SR latch out of two NAND gates.
With the inputs sorted out he added a BlueSMiRF board to the project which allowed him to connect a Nexus 7 tablet via Bluetooth. At this point he ran into some problems getting the device to respond to his control as if it were an external keyboard. His stop-gap solution was to switch to a Galaxy Tab 10.1 which wasn’t throwing cryptic errors. Hopefully he’ll fix this in the next iteration which will also include adding a plunger to launch the pinball, a part which just arrived in the mail as he was writing up this success.
We’ve embedded his quick demo video after the break. | 6 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "970376",
"author": "Hirudinea",
"timestamp": "2013-03-05T02:20:10",
"content": "Just one question, after all this work why play the game on the tablet screen, why not hook it up to a TV?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "970391"... | 1,760,376,594.20851 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/03/04/a-longboard-speed-and-distance-computer/ | A Longboard Speed And Distance Computer | Mike Szczys | [
"Arduino Hacks",
"Transportation Hacks"
] | [
"bike computer",
"distance",
"longboard",
"reflectance",
"speed"
] | Why should cyclists have all of the fancy toys? Bicycle computers are very common these days but you won’t find similar hardware for skateboards and longboards. [KobraX22] isn’t taking it lying down.
He built this speed and distance computer for his longboard
. It doesn’t use very many components and should be easy to install.
The device monitors the rotation of one of the wheels by mounting a reflectance sensor on one of the trucks. It points toward the inside of a wheel which has a piece of black tape on it. Every time the tape passes it prevents the IR led from reflecting back at its paired receiver. This lets the Arduino count the revolutions, which are then paired with the wheel diameter to calculate speed as well as distance traveled. Of course the wheels wear down over time to so frequent riders will have to take new measurements at regular intervals.
[KobraX22] went with a QRB1114 sensor. It costs less than $2 and doesn’t require him to embed a magnet in the wheel like a hall effect sensor setup would have. It also shouldn’t interfere with any other fancy wheel hacks you’ve done, like
adding a POV display
.
[via
Reddit
] | 17 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "970244",
"author": "Mark",
"timestamp": "2013-03-04T22:06:51",
"content": "Anyone know where to source a QRB1114? Digikey and Sparkfun don’t carry them anymore.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "970254",
"author": "Mark... | 1,760,376,594.272764 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/03/04/retrotechtacular-donner-3500-portable-analog-computer/ | Retrotechtacular: Donner 3500 Portable Analog Computer | Mike Szczys | [
"computer hacks"
] | [
"analog",
"breadboard",
"donner 3500",
"retrotechtacular",
"vacuum tube"
] | What if we told you we had a computer you can take with you? What if it
only
weighed 28 pounds? This is a pretty hard sell when today you can get a 1.5 GHz quad-core processor packing computer to carry in your pocket which weighs less than 5 ounces. But back in the day
the Donner 3500
was something to raise an eyebrow at, especially for tinkerers like us.
The machine was unveiled in 1959 as an analog computer. Instead of accepting programs via a terminal, or punch cards, it worked more like a breadboard. The top of the case features a grid of connectors (they look like banana plugs to us but we’re not sure). The kit came with components which the user could plug into the top to make the machine function (or compute) in different ways.
We’re skeptical as to how portable this actually was. It used vacuum tubes which are not fans of being jostled. Still, coming during the days when most computers were taking up entire buildings we guess the marketing claim holds up. If you’d like to see a bit more about the machine’s internals
check out this forum post
. | 40 | 14 | [
{
"comment_id": "970175",
"author": "Ren",
"timestamp": "2013-03-04T20:35:10",
"content": "Radio Shack used to sell a “computer” kit, that required placing jumper wires in the panel on top.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "970176",
"aut... | 1,760,376,594.358631 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/03/04/preserving-locomotives-with-3d-laser-scanning-and-3d-printing/ | Preserving Locomotives With 3D Laser Scanning And 3D Printing | Brian Benchoff | [
"3d Printer hacks",
"Laser Hacks"
] | [
"3d printing",
"lidar",
"locomotive",
"model railroad",
"train"
] | [Chris Thorpe] is a model railroading aficionado, and from his earliest memories he was infatuated with the narrow gauge locomotives that plied their odd steel tracks in northern Wales. Of course [Chris] went on to create model railroads, but kit manufacturers such as Airfix and Hornby didn’t take much interest in the small strange trains of the Ffestiniog railway.
The days where manufacturing plastic models meant paying tens of thousands of dollars in tooling for injection molds are slowly coming to an end thanks to 3D printing, so [Chris] thought it would be a great idea to
create his own models of these small locomotives
with 3D laser scanners and high quality 3D printers.
[Chris]
started a kickstarter
to fund a 3D laser scanning expedition to the workshop where the four oldest locomotives of the Ffestiniog railway were being reconditioned for their 150th anniversary. The 3D printed models he’s able to produce with his data have amazing quality; with a bit of paint and a few bits of brass, these models would fit right in to any model railway.
Even better than providing scale narrow gauge engines to model railway enthusiasts around the world is the fact that [Chris] has demonstrated the feasibility of using modern technology to recreate both famous and underappreciated technological relics in plastic for future generations. There’s a lot that can be done with a laser scanner in a railway or air museum or [Jay Leno]’s garage, so we’d love to see more 3D printed models of engineering achievements make their way onto Kickstarter. | 3 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "970183",
"author": "Ren",
"timestamp": "2013-03-04T20:43:45",
"content": "I suppose it is costly, but I’ve been toying with the idea of building scenery for model railroad layouts with 3-D printing (structures such as houses, buildings, factories, bridges, cars and trucks. To buy t... | 1,760,376,594.397891 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/03/04/using-opencv-with-the-raspberry-pi/ | Using OpenCV With The Raspberry Pi | Brian Benchoff | [
"Raspberry Pi"
] | [
"computer vision",
"opencv",
"raspberry pi"
] | When we first heard of the Raspberry Pi we were elated that projects that once required a full-blown computer could now be done on a tiny, and cheap board running Linux. Unfortunately, we haven’t seen much in the way of using computer vision algorithms on the Raspi, but thanks to [Lentin]
the world of OpenCV is now accessable to Raspberry Pi users
everywhere.
[Lentin] didn’t feel like installing OpenCV from its source, a process that takes the better part of a day. Instead, he installed it using the synaptic package manager. After connecting a webcam, [Lentin] ssh’d into his Raspi and installed a face detection example script that comes with OpenCV.
It should be noted that [Lentin]’s install of OpenCV isn’t exactly fast, but for a lot of projects being able to update a face tracker five times a second is more than enough. Once the Raspberry Pi camera module is released the speed of face detection on a Raspi should increase dramatically, though, leading to even more useful computer vision builds with the Raspberry Pi. | 47 | 18 | [
{
"comment_id": "970012",
"author": "Tobi",
"timestamp": "2013-03-04T16:14:22",
"content": "and how exactly is this a kind of a hack ? this is by no means worth an article on hackaday !! everyone that is able to google and has ever used linux is able to do this ?!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth... | 1,760,376,594.487442 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/03/04/warming-seeds-in-an-outdoor-garden/ | Warming Seeds In An Outdoor Garden | Brian Benchoff | [
"home hacks"
] | [
"garden",
"growing",
"seeds"
] | Spring is almost here and with that the green thumbs out there are preparing for their summer gardens. It’s usually a good idea to get a jump on all your gardening activities by starting seeds indoors, but with this comes the problem of making sure juvenile plants get enough sunlight. Putting a few seeds on a window sill will keep seeds warm enough to start germinating, but that will drastically reduce the amount of sunlight available for any given day. The best solution is to make sure the seeds are kept warm outside, but for wont of a properly placed clothes dryer vent [Tim] decided to
make a solar soil heater
using junk he had lying around.
[Tim] constructed a simple heater cartridge using a few 5 and 10 Ω resistors. These were sealed inside a piece of copper pipe with heat shrink tubing and silicone. The solution to powering this heater cartridge, though, is an impressive display of thinking outside the box.
The cartridge is powered by a solar lantern – the same kind you’d find illuminating a garden path at night and recharging during the day. After inserting the cartridge in a hill of seeds, the heater provides a little bit of warmth to get the seeds through the night. During the day, the battery in the solar lantern recharges, providing just enough power to cycle through another night.
It works for [Tim] in his native New England, so we’re betting it’s good enough for just about any growing region. | 16 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "970014",
"author": "Sven",
"timestamp": "2013-03-04T16:22:17",
"content": "I’m calling placebo on this one. That tiny solar cell is barely enough to light a small LED all night, i doubt there would be any noticeable heat generated.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"repli... | 1,760,376,594.549766 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/03/04/drm-chair-only-works-8-times/ | DRM Chair Only Works 8 Times | Brian Benchoff | [
"Android Hacks"
] | [
"chair",
"drm",
"furniture",
"self destruct"
] | Download a song from iTunes, and you can only add that song to the music library of five other computers. Grab a copy of the latest Microsoft Office, and you’d better hope you won’t be upgrading your computer any time soon. Obviously DRM is a great tool for companies to make sure we only use software and data as intended, but outside planned obsolescence, there isn’t much in the way of DRM for physical objects.
This is where a team from the University of Art and Design in Lausanne, Switzerland comes in.
They designed a chair that can only be sat upon eight times
. After that, the chair falls apart necessitating the purchase of a new chair. Somewhere in the flat-pack furniture industry, someone is kicking themselves for not thinking of this sooner while another is wondering how they made a chair last so long.
The design of the chair is fairly simple; all the joints of the chair are cast in wax with a piece of nichrome wire embedded in the wax. An Arduino with a small switch keeps track of how many times the chair has been used, while a solenoid taps out how many uses are left in the chair every time the user gets up. When the internal counter reaches zero, a relay sends power through the nichrome wire, melting the wax, and returning the chair to its native dowel rod and wooden board form.
Melting wax wasn’t the team’s first choice to rapidly disassemble a chair; their first experiments used gunpowder. This idea nearly worked, but it was soon realized no one on the team wanted to sit on a primed and loaded chair. You can see the videos of the wax model failing after the break.
http://vimeo.com/60335141
http://vimeo.com/60342769 | 104 | 45 | [
{
"comment_id": "969860",
"author": "Remko Janse",
"timestamp": "2013-03-04T12:13:48",
"content": "Uhm the iTunes 5 pc/mac limit is gone with iTunes Plus which has been a standard since 2009",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "970247",
"au... | 1,760,376,594.719472 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/03/03/street-art-bot/ | Street Art Bot | Eric Evenchick | [
"Robots Hacks"
] | [
"art",
"chalk",
"hackerspace",
"the deconstruction"
] | For the Deconstruction decentralized hackathon, “The FABricators” from Fab Lab Tulsa built a
Street Art Bot
. The robot drives around and dispenses liquid chalk in a pattern to make sidewalk art.
The FABricators’ robot is based on an electric wheelchair platform. Attached to the base is the hardware for dispensing chalk, which is controlled over wifi. The operator drives the robot around the area to chalk, and chalk is deposited in the right pattern.
In order to ensure the art is chalked correctly, the robot’s software needs to know where the robot is at all times. This is done using a camera mounted above the area and a fiduciary marker that localizes the robot. The tracking is done using the
reacTIVision
library.
The robot was built to be expandable, and in the future they want to add multiple colors, or even multiple robots printing simultaneously. After the break, check out a video overview of the project.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?&v=XM7aHy1gb0o | 12 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "969671",
"author": "Hack Man",
"timestamp": "2013-03-04T03:33:58",
"content": "Not trying to be rude but the output is bordering on illegible.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "969679",
"author": "RoadWarrior222",
"timesta... | 1,760,376,594.78014 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/03/03/rpi-printer-server-for-your-3d-printer/ | RPi Printer Server For Your 3D Printer | Eric Evenchick | [
"News"
] | [] | Want to run your 3D printer without your laptop attached? Looking to make your hackerspace printer network accessable?
OctoPrint
aims to make a 3D print server for the Raspberry Pi.
The open source Python project allows you to upload and manage GCODE files on the RPi. You can then select files that you want to print, and get basic statistics before running the printer. Information including temperature can be reported back via the UI, and arbitrary GCODE commands can be run for setup and testing.
Some other nifty features include streaming video to the UI so the print job can be watched remotely. Support for creating time-lapse videos is also available. Adding a wifi dongle and webcam to an RPi turns it into a fully featured print server.
The project uses the Flask web framework to serve the UI, and Tornadio with Socket.io to communicate with the UI asynchronously. You can pull the code from the project’s Github and try it out.
Thanks to [Camerin] for sending this in. | 20 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "969586",
"author": "Necromant",
"timestamp": "2013-03-03T22:48:46",
"content": "Looks good. Too bad it’s that damned python. Something tells me I will have a hard time making it work on an OpenWRT MIPS box and integrating it with luci…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"r... | 1,760,376,595.028856 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/03/03/building-a-remote-control-for-a-cable-release-camera/ | Building A Remote Control For A Cable Release Camera | Mike Szczys | [
"digital cameras hacks"
] | [
"cable release",
"fuji x100",
"remote shutter release"
] | A lot of the remote shutter and intervalometer hacks we see are simplified by the camera’s built-in Infrared or other shutter techniques. But this camera doesn’t have a simple way to electronically trigger the shutter. The Fuji x100 is a digital camera, but it uses a cable release mechanism. The box you see on top is [Andy’s]
method of making a remote shutter release
for it.
The solution for “remote” triggering is that black cable which physically attaches to the shutter button. Just depress the plunger at the opposite end and a picture will be snapped. This process is automated with the use of a hobby servo hidden inside the box. It’s driven by an Arduino which is also monitoring the receiver. You could use just about any remote thanks to the Arduino’s flexibility in interfacing with hardware (we would have gone with a Bluetooth module and our smartphone). [Andy] chose to use an RF remote and receiver for a different camera. | 10 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "969548",
"author": "Khordas",
"timestamp": "2013-03-03T21:32:43",
"content": "I use the receivers from the cheap one button ‘reverse and turn’ style of radio control cars for this sort of thing. You put a reversed diode in series with the motor output, and connect a solenoid. When... | 1,760,376,594.878062 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/03/03/hackerspace-intro-workshop-88/ | Hackerspace Intro: Workshop 88 | Mike Szczys | [
"Hackerspaces"
] | [
"chicago",
"hackerspace intro"
] | If you find yourself in the West suburbs of Chicago, IL with nothing to do
you should head over to Workshop 88
. [Andrew Morrison] shot some video at the last public meeting which includes a tour of the facilities. We’ve embedded it after the jump for your convenience.
The clip isn’t so much a tour as it is a POV experience. There’s no narrative and the people at the meeting seem to be oblivious that anyone’s recording video. This makes for a pretty interesting presentation, starting with a little rubbernecking at the projects being shown off at the meeting. From there we pass by a couple of members pulling a wire run through the ceiling of the machine shop. Next we see the electronics lab complete with a Makerbot and a very tidy component storage wall. [Andrew] makes a quick trip through the small music studio before heading back to the main room at the close of the segment. | 8 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "969485",
"author": "Kevin Roof (@roofuskit)",
"timestamp": "2013-03-03T19:30:13",
"content": "A few things. It was really weird that nobody was in the electronics lab. It’s usually filled with at least a few tinkerers. I wish he’d shown the door logo from the outside, because it was... | 1,760,376,594.834427 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/03/03/high-contrast-laser-etching/ | High Contrast Laser Etching | Mike Szczys | [
"News"
] | [
"engraver",
"engraving",
"high contrast",
"laser",
"spray paint"
] | The problem with laser etching dark materials is that the areas burnt away by the intense light don’t really stand out from the rest of the surface. [The 5th Fool] is taking a roundabout way of correcting this by
topping his laser engravings with contrasting paint
. The technique is still pretty simple and we think it looks great!
Basically he’s etching a layer of painter’s tape which becomes a stencil. But the surface it is masking also gets etched so the paint has an area below to the surface which it can fill in. We figure this will help with durability issues.
After etching the painters tape the design gets a few coatings of a high-contrast paint color and is left to dry. To remove the stencil, duct tape is applied to the entire area. This helps quite a bit in removing the tiny bits of tape from an intricate design. | 22 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "969401",
"author": "Chris in NC",
"timestamp": "2013-03-03T16:01:26",
"content": "Love duct tape! That shit can be used for anything. Except ducts.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "969456",
"author": "Sheff",
... | 1,760,376,595.10318 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/03/02/vfd-tube-clock-built-using-protoboard-and-free-formed-psu/ | VFD Tube Clock Built Using Protoboard And Free-formed PSU | Mike Szczys | [
"ARM",
"clock hacks"
] | [
"iv-3",
"switch mode",
"tube",
"vfd"
] | [James Glanville] wrote in to show of his latest tube project. It’s
a clock using six IV-3 VFD tubes
. In addition to the tube displays the project prominently features a blue 3D printed case which hides away all the guts of the build including the Stellaris Launchpad which drives the clock.
Speaking of guts, you’ll want to look through a few of [James’] other posts on the project.
His first write-up
on this clock shows off the protoboard and point-to-point soldering that makes the tubes work. To help simplify things he went with a MAX6921 VFD driver chip. He mounted it dead-bug style on its own piece of protoboard and then soldered all of the necessary connections to the larger hunk hosting the tubes. There’s also an interesting post that
details the switch mode power supply
which ramps the USB 5V power all the way up to the 50V used to drive the displays.
If you like this you should check out the first VFD clock he built. We featured it a while back
in a links post
. | 8 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "969006",
"author": "andarb",
"timestamp": "2013-03-02T22:36:44",
"content": "Either the link is wrong or he’s been “HackaDay”ed already.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "969011",
"author": "James Glanville",
"timestamp": ... | 1,760,376,595.142012 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/03/02/virtual-archery-game-makes-practicing-convenient-safe-and-inexpensive/ | Virtual Archery Game Makes Practicing Convenient, Safe, And Inexpensive | Ryan Fitzpatrick | [
"Microcontrollers",
"Toy Hacks",
"Weapons Hacks"
] | [
"arrow",
"bow",
"virtual"
] | Inspired by playing The Legend of Zelda video game series, Cornell University students [Mohamed Abdellatif] and [Michael Ross] created a
Virtual Archery
game as their
ECE 4760 Final Project
. The game consists of a bow equipped with virtual arrows and a target placed about 20 ft away. The player has three rounds to get as high of a score as possible. A small display monitor shows the instructions, and an image of where the shot actually hit on the target.
Pressing a button on the front of the bow readies a virtual arrow. A stretch sensor communicates with a microcontroller to determine when the bow string has been drawn and released. When the bow is drawn, a line of LEDs lights up to simulate a notched arrow. The player aims, and factors in for gravity. An accelerometer calculates the orientation of the bow when fired. The calculated shot is then shown on the display monitor along with your score.
This immediately makes me think of Laser Tag, and feels like a product that could easily be mass marketed. I’m surprised it hasn’t been already. Good work guys.
[via
Hackedgadgets
]
Check out the video demonstration after the break: | 13 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "968990",
"author": "Frank",
"timestamp": "2013-03-02T22:08:48",
"content": "Not in any way a good way to practice for actual archery; not until the draw of the virtual bow is the equivalent of the bow you’d usually be shooting. After all, archery is 99% about being able to reproduce... | 1,760,376,595.390596 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/03/02/more-acetone-vapor-polishing-experiments/ | More Acetone-vapor Polishing Experiments | Mike Szczys | [
"3d Printer hacks",
"chemistry hacks"
] | [
"acetone",
"nail polish",
"polish",
"vapor"
] | If you’re thinking of trying the acetone-vapor polishing process to smooth your 3D printed objects you simply must check out [Christopher’s]
experiments with the process
. He found out about the process from
our feature a few days ago
and decided to perform a series of experiments on different printed models.
The results were mixed. He performed the process in much the same way as the original offering. The skull seen above does a nice job of demonstrating what can be achieved with the process. There is a smooth glossy finish and [Christopher] thinks there is no loss of detail. But one of the three models he tested wasn’t really affected by the vapor. He thinks it became a bit shinier, but not nearly as much as the skull even after sending it through the process twice. We’d love to hear some discussion as to why.
There is about eight minutes of video to go along with the project post. You’ll find it after the jump. | 42 | 19 | [
{
"comment_id": "968939",
"author": "medix",
"timestamp": "2013-03-02T20:13:13",
"content": "Ought to give this a go with methylene chloride. More toxic, but works faster.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "969015",
"author": "Luke",
... | 1,760,376,595.239241 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/03/02/24-port-gpio-on-a-pci-card/ | 24-port GPIO On A PCI Card | Brian Benchoff | [
"hardware"
] | [
"gpio",
"Hauppauge",
"pci",
"WinTV"
] | So you’ve got a project running on an x86 board and you’d like some GPIO pins. Whether you want to read a few buttons, light up a few LEDs, put an accelerometer in your computer or whatever, you’ve got a problem. Luckily
there’s an easy way to get 24 GPIO pins on an x86 board
using a PCI card for just a few bucks.
The key component of the build is a PCI TV Tuner card made by Hauppague under the WinTV brand. If you’ve got one of these cards with either a Brooktree bt848, bt849, bt878 or bt879 video capture chip, having 24 GPIO pins is just a spool of magnet wire, a soldering iron, and a steady hand away.
It’s a great build if you’d like some GPIO action without going through the usual parallel port mess, and especially useful since these WinTV capture cards can be had from the usual Internet suppliers for just a few bucks. You’ll need a driver, of course, but the relevant Linux kernel driver – bt8xxgpio – should be included any reasonably modern distro.
Special thanks to [Dex Hamilton] for notifying us of this build. | 34 | 17 | [
{
"comment_id": "968879",
"author": "qwerty",
"timestamp": "2013-03-02T18:13:01",
"content": "the bt878 is a pretty good video sampling chip. someone also managed to get high sample rates from it for use with audio or even SDR applications. Having spare i/o pins would make possible for example switc... | 1,760,376,595.326676 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/03/02/building-a-touchscreen-xbmc-setup-with-the-raspberry-pi/ | Building A Touchscreen XBMC Setup With The Raspberry Pi | Mike Szczys | [
"home entertainment hacks",
"Raspberry Pi"
] | [
"RPi",
"touch screen",
"xbmc"
] | [Andrei Istodorescu] has been hard at work
building a 7″ touch-screen rig which runs XBMC
. It may be upside-down, but the Raspberry Pi board which is front and center is still easily recognizable. There’s a lot of stuff connected to it in order to pull this off, and even more software configuration. But as you can see in the clip after the break he did get it working!
The screen is an eGalaxy 7″ touch sensitive module he picked up on eBay. It sounds like it was meant for a backup camera in the dashboard of a car. He compiled his own Linux kernel to add support for the screen. It uses HDMI for the video interface with the driver board, and the touchscreen connects to one of the USB ports. The rest of the setup involves compiling XBMC with touchscreen support and calibrating the screen to accurately sense input. | 29 | 17 | [
{
"comment_id": "968864",
"author": "Zee",
"timestamp": "2013-03-02T17:42:51",
"content": "Nice build. What’s the estimated cost of the whole thing?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "968898",
"author": "Bryan Baker (@XBrav)",
"ti... | 1,760,376,595.467255 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/03/02/laser-etching-an-iphone-5/ | Laser Etching An IPhone 5 | Eric Evenchick | [
"iphone hacks",
"News"
] | [
"hackerspace",
"iphone",
"laser cutter",
"laser etching"
] | CrashBangLabs in Regina recently got their hands on a laser cutter. The Full Spectrum cutter was donated by a local company, who were upgrading to a larger machine.
With no laser cutting experience, [Brett] decided that his first project would be
laser engraving his iPhone 5
. This is a bit of an ambitious first project, since the power and speed would have to be set correctly to get a good contrast level, and you only have one try to get it right. Also, using too much power might have turn the phone into a laser etched brick.
[Brett] used an older aluminium iPod for testing. Once the laser speed and power was dialed in, he loaded up the artwork for the real thing. The cutter did a pretty good job at etching the art, but as the etching started it became clear that an alignment error had occurred. Fortunately [Brett] decided to not interrupt the cutter, and ended up with a good looking phone, with a slight alignment issue.
After the break, check out a time lapse of the laser cutter doing its thing. | 33 | 18 | [
{
"comment_id": "968774",
"author": "Phrewfuf",
"timestamp": "2013-03-02T14:07:46",
"content": "Next Post on HaD: How not to screw up alignment of objects for Lasor-etching.The etch is about 5mm off.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "968787",
... | 1,760,376,595.548101 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/03/01/cool-new-hardware-spectacular/ | Cool New Hardware Spectacular | Brian Benchoff | [
"hardware"
] | [
"ftdi",
"lcd controller",
"minnowboard",
"qvga",
"wqvga"
] | It should come as no surprise the Hackaday tip line is regularly flooded with press releases. Everything from an infographic comparing Call of Duty 3 to Battlefield 3 (yes, totally serious), announcements that a company we’ve never heard of is getting a new CFO, to the business proposals from hat box manufacturers that wind up in our inbox on a nearly weekly basis.
With the Hackaday crew sifting though hundreds of these emails a month, you’d figure the PR people would hit gold once in a while, right? Apparently not. The coolest stuff we get in our email is usually from an engineer working on a project and doing a PR rep’s job for them. We thank them for that, so here’s two really cool pieces of hardware that showed up in the tip line recently.
Microcontollers and LCD displays, easily
Interfacing a color LCD with a microcontroller isn’t necessarily
hard
, but making it look good absolutely is. It’s a piece of cake to download an Arduino library for an LCD display and get a few lines of text up on the screen, but building a GUI? A fool’s errand, we say.
This is where FTDI’s new chip,
EVE
, comes in. It’s a single chip video engine designed for QVGA (320×240) and WQVGA (400×240) displays with a parallel RGB interface. From the diagrams up on FTDI’s site, getting a display running is as simple as connecting a microcontroller via an I2C or SPI interface, and then hooking up the video lines. There’s also support for touch screen interfaces and audio out, so if you’re looking to build a graphical home automation remote EVE might be the way to go.
x86 with GPIO
A few years ago, before the Raspberry Pi and the realization that low-power ARM boards were capable computing devices, your only choice when developing an embedded device with reasonably fast hardware were either
Gumstix
or a MiniITX board. Now ARM boards like the Beagleboard, Raspberry Pi, and others have taken over as the preferred platform, but there’s still a market for a small, capable x86 dev board.
[Matt] over at Intel sent us the low down on a project he’s working on
called Minnowboard
. Basically, it’s a 1GHz Intel Atom E640 processor with everything you would expect on an x86 motherboard – PCI Express, SATA, Gigabit Ethernet, USB, and HDMI through DVI. Unlike just about every other x86 board out there, the Minnowboard borrows ports from the embedded world, with I2C, SPI, CAN bus, and GPIO pins, LEDs, and switches.
[Edward Bernays] was the Antichrist
So there you go. Press releases that aren’t press releases, sent in to us by people who actually care about what they’re working on. While we’re on the subject of the crazy stuff that comes into our email, here’s a really good one that elicited a facepalm or two:
Name:
redacted
Email:
redacted
Website:
http://
../../../../../../../../../../../../../../../../etc/passwd
Message:
Time: Thursday September 27, 2012 at 4:22 pm
IP Address:
redacted
Contact Form URL:
http://hackaday.com/contact-hack-a-day/
You gotta learn to rollerblade before hacking the gibson, son. | 24 | 14 | [
{
"comment_id": "968534",
"author": "Martin Espinoza (@hyperlogos)",
"timestamp": "2013-03-02T05:05:41",
"content": "It would be helpful to have a projected price for the minnowboard, even if it is a lie, to help decide how excited to get, or not.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replie... | 1,760,376,595.676688 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/03/01/pwnpad-the-pentesting-tablet/ | PwnPad, The Pentesting Tablet | Brian Benchoff | [
"Security Hacks",
"Tablet Hacks"
] | [
"pentesting",
"pwn pad",
"pwnpad",
"tablet"
] | Over the last few months, we’ve seen our fair share of pentesting appliances. Whether they’re in the form of a Raspberry Pi with a custom distro, or an innocuous looking Internet-connected wall wart, they’re all great tools for investigating potential security vulnerabilites at home, in the workplace, or in someone else’s workplace. Pwnie Express, manufacturers of pentesting equipment, are now releasing one of the best looking and potentially most useful piece of pentesting equipment we’ve ever seen.
It’s called the PwnPad
, and it allows you to get your pentesting on while still looking stylish.
Based on Google’s Nexus 7 tablet, the PwnPad combines all the goodies of a really great tablet – the ability to read NFC tags and multiband radios – with open source tools and a USB OTG cable with USB Ethernet, Bluetooth, and WiFi adapters. Everything in the PwnPad is designed for maximum utility for pentesting applications.
Of course, for those of us that already have a $200 Nexus 7, Pwnie Express says they’ll be giving away the source for their software, enabling anyone with knowledge of make to have the same functionality of the PwnPad. Of course you’ll need to get yourself a USB OTG cable and the WiFi, Bluetooth, and Ethernet adapters, but that should only add up to about $100; combined with a $200 Nexus 7, building your own is more than just a bit cheaper than Pwnie Express’ asking pre-order price of $795. | 46 | 14 | [
{
"comment_id": "968432",
"author": "mikemac",
"timestamp": "2013-03-02T03:07:10",
"content": "Why do you need an external USB WiFi when the Nexus 7 has WiFi built in?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "968439",
"author": "Matt Dommell",
... | 1,760,376,595.760376 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/03/01/tymkrs-deconstruction-for-the-zombie-apocalypse/ | Tymkrs’ Deconstruction For The Zombie Apocalypse | Brian Benchoff | [
"green hacks",
"Solar Hacks",
"Transportation Hacks"
] | [
"bike trailer",
"can crusher",
"solar lantern"
] | We’ve seen a few of the projects from The Deconstruction, a 48-hour build-a-thon for hackerspaces and other groups around the globe. Of course Tymkrs, a pair of geeky vloggers famous for their building prowess, were part of The Deconstruction, and in the process they
came up with a few really cool builds at their hackerspace
, The Rabbit Hole, in Rochester, MN.
Their theme for The Deconstruction was “a zombie apocalypse”. Instead of homemade crossbows and electric fences, Tymkrs and the rest of The Rabbit Hole put a ‘rebuilding society’ spin on the whole zombie apocalypse and ended up building things that would be useful after Z-day.
First up is a
PVC bike trailer
designed to easily attach to the back of a bicycle. The frame is made out of a few pieces of 2″ PVC pipe with some nylon rope knotted together for a nice webbed platform. a 5/8″ steel rod was turned down to accept two 20″ bike wheels. A useful build, even if it’s not the zombie apocalypse.
The second build is a solar japanese lantern, combining [Addie]’s love of solar lanterns and japanese-style lanterns into one great project. The materials for this build came from a broken solar-powered lantern with completely revamped electronics. There’s a Joule thief to keep the LED lit, and a few solar panels to charge up the batteries during the day. Of course the build wasn’t complete without a little decoration, so [Addie] drew four panels of rabbits for The Rabbit Hole team.
By far the most dangerous build undertaken by The Rabbit Hole
is their can crusher
. It’s a pair of snowblower tires powered by a disused garage door opener. The theory of operations is that a can will drop in between the rotating wheels, crushing the can, and sending it to a waste basket below the device. In practice, the device didn’t really live up to expectations, but it’s loud and dangerous, so we’ll give it a pass. | 4 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "968314",
"author": "Atdiy",
"timestamp": "2013-03-02T00:09:18",
"content": "It was a lot of fun for our hackerspace :) – here’s the final video we ended up turning in!http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eCHQqMoU4Jg",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"... | 1,760,376,595.605843 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/03/01/high-powered-rocket-engines-made-from-pvc-pipe/ | High Powered Rocket Engines Made From PVC Pipe | Brian Benchoff | [
"Engine Hacks"
] | [
"high power rocket",
"PVC",
"rocket",
"rocket engines",
"rockets"
] | For as much as we enjoy rockets, explosives, and other dangerous things, we haven’t said a word
about the works of [Richard Nakka]
. He’s the original hacker rocketeer with thousands of words dedicated to the craft of making things move straight up really fast. One of his more interesting builds is his series on
building rocket engines out of PVC pipe
written in conjunction with [Chuck Knight].
For the propellent grains, the PVC rocket didn’t use the usual potassium nitrate and sugar mixture of so many homebrew solid rockets. Instead, it uses Sorbitol, an artificial sweetener. While melting and casting the Sorbitol-based propellant grains is much easier than a sugar-based concoction, the Sorbitol had much less thrust than a typical sugar rocket, making it the perfect candidate for a PVC engine.
For those of you wondering about the strength of a PVC engine casing, [Richard] does say making larger rocket engines out of 2 or 3-inch PVC may not make much sense due to the increased chamber pressures. There is a
fairly clever reinforcement method for these PVC rockets
(PDF warning) that involves using PVC couplers, but the experiments into the strength of these casings have yet to undertaken.
Thanks [Caley] for sending this one in. | 24 | 12 | [
{
"comment_id": "968240",
"author": "geekmaster",
"timestamp": "2013-03-01T22:25:44",
"content": "At first I thought this was going to be about rockets that use PVC as the FUEL. But no, just a containment vessel.There are some pretty large rockets out there that use nitrous oxide as the oxider, and ... | 1,760,376,595.826127 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/03/01/hacking-a-pal-snes-to-output-50hz-or-60hz-with-a-single-switch/ | Hacking A PAL SNES To Output 50Hz Or 60Hz With A Single Switch | Mike Szczys | [
"Nintendo Hacks"
] | [
"ntsc",
"pal",
"snes",
"super nintendo",
"switch"
] | [Derecho] grabbed a PAL format Super Nintendo but wanted to make it play nicely with a 60 Hertz NTSC screen. His hack added
a single switch to choose between 50 Hz and 60 Hz
.
Take a look at the image above to see his alterations to the mainboard. The jumpers soldered to the two chips at the top are by far the trickiest part of the project. Each of the pins he soldered to needed to first be lifted from the PCB pad so that they no longer make contact with the etched traces. The technique he used involves heating the pin with an iron, then gently lifting it with a pin or a razor knife/blade. If you’ve got some experience populating SMD boards with a handheld iron this shouldn’t prove too difficult. The rest of the hack involves adding a 3-position switch (along with a 2k2 resistor) to choose between output modes based on what format game is being played. | 10 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "968158",
"author": "MrX",
"timestamp": "2013-03-01T20:42:02",
"content": "Love the duct tape soldering technique. Though recently I started using cyanoacrylate glue instead. The principle is simple, first I glue the wire into place. Then with the soldering iron I melt the glue simul... | 1,760,376,595.873495 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/03/01/oreo-creme-hater-builds-rube-goldberg-cnc-router-to-remove-the-stuf/ | Oreo-creme Hater Builds Rube Goldberg CNC Router To Remove The Stuf | Mike Szczys | [
"cnc hacks"
] | [
"advertising",
"arduino",
"cookie",
"dremel",
"hatchet",
"marketing",
"oreo",
"router"
] | Look, we understand the need to find a project to occupy your time and interest. So we’re not going to ask the wrong question (why?) for this one. This guy hates the creme that connects the chocolate cookies to make an Oreo. So he built
a complicated system to separate the cookies and remove the creme
. Check out the video after the break for a hardware overview (where we catch a glimpse of an Arduino RBBB) and a complete demonstration.
Although the project is a marketing gimmick for the company, we really love the fun they had making the video and the device actually works! Drop a cookie in the chute and it will be lifted into position for cleaving with a hatchet (we’re unsure what the string mechanism on the hatchet is for). The two pieces are then grabbed by some servo-powered grippers and transferred to a CNC router bed where a Dremel tool removes the residual creme before dumping the cookies out into your hand.
Once again, marketers should take note of this style of advertising. Notice the two main features achieved here: including a product in something we’re genuinely interested in and not being annoying (we’re looking at you
Head-On
).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pii4G8FkCA4
[via
Reddit
] | 48 | 23 | [
{
"comment_id": "968040",
"author": "Justin",
"timestamp": "2013-03-01T18:07:19",
"content": "Awesome.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "968041",
"author": "Gizmos",
"timestamp": "2013-03-01T18:09:37",
"content": "Please send me the cr... | 1,760,376,596.092434 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/03/01/soluble-support-structure-can-be-used-with-any-extruder-based-3d-printer/ | Soluble Support Structure Can Be Used With Any Extruder-based 3D Printer | Mike Szczys | [
"3d Printer hacks",
"chemistry hacks"
] | [
"abs",
"high-impact polystyrene",
"hips",
"polystyrene"
] | One of the issues with extruder-based 3D printing is that it can be very difficult to print objects that have voids in them. You simply must have something to deposit the soft material on until it has a chance to harden. [Matt] found a solution which should work for any extruder-based printer (with one caveat we’ll get to in a minute). He
prints a support structure out of HIPS then later dissolves it using Limonene
. The image on the left shows the object soaking for 24 hours. The final project is seen beside it.
The only real problem with this technique is that it requires a second extruder. Since printers build objects by layers, switching material in a single print head isn’t an option. HIPS stands for
High-Impact Polystyrene
. It extrudes at the same temperature as the ABS (235C) and adheres well to a heated bed kept at 115C. ABS will be unaffected by the hydrocarbon solvent
Limonene
, except for the residual smell of citrus. | 34 | 12 | [
{
"comment_id": "967960",
"author": "Bojan",
"timestamp": "2013-03-01T16:13:43",
"content": "Is it possible to use sugar somehow?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "967978",
"author": "mario_1UP",
"timestamp": "2013-03-01T16:37:39",
"co... | 1,760,376,596.159159 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/03/01/mexican-law-enforcement-seizes-a-hacked-together-weed-cannon/ | Mexican Law Enforcement Seizes A Hacked Together Weed Cannon | Mike Szczys | [
"News"
] | [
"cannon",
"compressed air",
"drugs",
"law enforcement",
"marijuana",
"police",
"PVC"
] | Here’s an interesting hack. It’s
a small pick-up truck with a Dope Cannon attached to it
. Sure, it looks more like
something you’d see in Syria
, but this item was actually seized in Mexico where it was being used to fire 30 pound slugs of Marijuana over the border fence with the US. Usually when you fire artillery there isn’t someone on the target range trying to recover the projectile!
The device uses a PVC barrel to guide the pot-pellet as it’s propelled by compressed air. Hey, swap out the drugs for an energy drink and that sounds pretty familiar. Our qualifying entry for the 2012 Red Bull Creation Contest was
an energy drink cannon
which used the same setup with a slightly smaller caliber. It makes us wonder if the drug cartel uses little parachutes like we did?
Doesn’t it arouse suspicion to drive something like this around town? You’d think they’d use a box truck or something similar to hide the
giant gun.
[Photo Credit:
AP via NY Daily News
]
[via
Reddit
] | 73 | 26 | [
{
"comment_id": "967913",
"author": "pcf11",
"timestamp": "2013-03-01T14:20:21",
"content": "That isn’t an air cannon, these are air cannons!http://img59.imageshack.us/img59/1189/pict0594.jpgPumpkin Chunkin baby yeah! I live 2 blocks from the original site.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
... | 1,760,376,596.266232 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/03/01/revolving-camera-mount-helps-to-capture-3d-video-game-assests/ | Revolving Camera Mount Helps To Capture 3D Video-game Assests | Mike Szczys | [
"digital cameras hacks"
] | [
"123d",
"3d scanning",
"digitize",
"video game"
] | Here’s a camera rig that makes it a snap to produce photorealistic 3D models of an object. It was put together rather inexpensively by an indie game company called Skull Theatre. They published a couple of posts which show off
how the rig was built
and
how it’s used to capture the models
.
They’re using 123D, a software suite which is
quite popular for digitizing items
. The rig has a center table where an object is placed, and a movable jig which holds three different cameras (or one camera for three rotations). You can see the masking tape on the floor which marks the location for each shot. These positions are mapped out in the software so that it has an easy time putting them all together. The shaft which connects the jig to the base is adjustable to accommodate large or small items.
One thing that we found interesting is the team’s technique for dealing with reflections. They use a matte spray to make those surfaces less reflective. This helps 123D do its job but also allows them to map reflective surface more accurately using the game engine. | 24 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "967865",
"author": "Bagetu",
"timestamp": "2013-03-01T12:55:30",
"content": "Why not just model in 3ds max or maya?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "967870",
"author": "medix",
"timestamp": "2013-03-01T13:04:07"... | 1,760,376,596.387605 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2013/02/28/a-solar-powered-cattle-crossing-gate/ | A Solar Powered Cattle Crossing Gate | Mike Szczys | [
"Arduino Hacks"
] | [
"cattle",
"farm",
"gate",
"remote control",
"solar"
] | Anyone who’s traveled the grounds of a cattle ranch will tell you there’s a lot of stopping to open and close gates. But this project is aimed at letting you operate the gate from the comfort of your vehicle. It uses a spool of wire as the gate,
lowering it for vehicle access with the use of a remote control
.
The base station uses a solar panel to keep the battery topped off. But if you’re not frequently using the system it shouldn’t take much electricity at all. An Arduino board listens for the signal from the remote control. It then unspools the wire until it lays flat across the ground and can be driven over. Once the car has passed another click of the remote raises the gate back into position. There’s even a version that uses two gates which make up a cattle corridor.
We were thinking that it would be easy enough for the cows to push right through this. But after seeing the clip after the break it’s obvious they like to follow the rules.
[Thanks Mark] | 21 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "967611",
"author": "James",
"timestamp": "2013-03-01T04:14:55",
"content": "It’s an electric fence tape. They know if they touch it they get a zap.Also, looks like they are going to the milking shed – they know where they’re going and they want to be milked more than go wandering, ... | 1,760,376,596.32628 |
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