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https://hackaday.com/2012/10/12/turn-your-iphone-into-a-view-master/ | Turn Your IPhone Into A View-Master | Mike Szczys | [
"Android Hacks",
"iphone hacks"
] | [
"stereoscope",
"stereoscopic",
"view-master"
] | This super quick hack will be fun to do with the kids. Remember the days of View-Masters? You’d put a disk of small slides into a little plastic viewer and a stereoscopic image would jump out at you in 3D! Now you can
not only view stereoscopic images on your smartphone, but make your own too
!
To shoot the images just hold your phone in portrait orientation and take a snapshot of your subject, then move the camera six inches to the right and take a second image. The two pics need to be displayed on the screen at the same time and for this [Plarky] uses a free iPhone app called Pic Stitch. We’re sure you can find an Android equivalent in no time if you do a bit of searching.
To view the stereoscope it helps to make a divider out of cardboard like the one seen above. You’ll need to cross your eyes and focus on a point to bring the two images together. We don’t remember having to do this with the View-Master so we’re hoping someone will take the idea and improve upon it. We’ve already seen
a digital View-Master
. Now we want to see those dual screens replaced with an iPhone cradle. | 27 | 18 | [
{
"comment_id": "816227",
"author": "subsubl",
"timestamp": "2012-10-12T20:06:16",
"content": "http://projects.ict.usc.edu/mxr/diy/fov2go-viewer/",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "818439",
"author": "hugowesseling",
"timestamp": ... | 1,760,376,712.529207 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/10/12/configurable-rfid-tag-from-7400-logic-chips/ | Configurable RFID Tag From 7400 Logic Chips | Mike Szczys | [
"Microcontrollers"
] | [
"7400",
"contest",
"rfid",
"tag"
] | This soldering nightmare is a configurable
RFID tag which has been built from 7400-series logic
chips. The beast of a project results in an iPhone-sized module which can be used as your new access card for security systems that uses the 125 kHz tags. The best part is that a series of switches makes the tag hand programmable, albeit in binary.
Of course this is an entry in
this year’s 7400 Logic Competition
. It’s from last year’s winner, and he’s spent a lot of time documenting the project; which we love. We were surprised that this many chips can be powered simply by what is induced in the coil from the reader. This is just one of the reasons the 7400-series have been so popular over the years. After working out the numbers, a 64-bit shift register was built to feed the tag ID to the encoding portion of the design. There were many kinks to work out along the way, but once it was functional a surface-mount design was put together resulting in the final product shown off in the video after the break. | 16 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "816201",
"author": "Paul",
"timestamp": "2012-10-12T19:20:05",
"content": ">>We were surprised that this many chips can be powered simply by what is induced in the coil from the reader.>>This is just one of the reasons the 7400-series have been so popular over the yearsThese are rel... | 1,760,376,712.467142 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/10/12/emulators-101-how-to-write-a-program-that-functions-like-an-nes-cpu/ | Emulators 101: How To Write A Program That Functions Like An NES CPU | Mike Szczys | [
"Nintendo Hacks",
"Software Hacks"
] | [
"cpu",
"emulator",
"nes"
] | We’d bet everyone reading this article has played a game on an emulator at some time or another. And you may have a base idea of how those emulators work. But we’d wager the vast majority of you are clueless about the actual implementation of game emulators (we know we are). But that has all changed after seeing this demonstration of
how [Bisqwit] wrote his own NES emulator
. The description doesn’t cover anything more than the basics of writing code that emulates the NES CPU hardware itself. But it’s presented in such a way that makes it quite easy to understand for anyone who has a basic knowledge of programming. He starts with a switch statement for handling the processor’s opcodes and then moves through piece by piece showing how he refined his code to make it work while keeping it readable. We think this is a great teaching method and appreciate the time he put into producing this tutorial.
The explanation starts about 4:22 into the video which is embedded after the break. You’ll also find the first two demo videos there. Those involve mostly fast-motion text editing of the emulator coding process with some gameplay tests at the end of the second video.
Explaining how to emulate CPU operations (jump to 4:22)
Emulator programming & Demo:
[via
Reddit
] | 27 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "816139",
"author": "Gdogg",
"timestamp": "2012-10-12T18:04:51",
"content": "Definitely need to check out later. I have always been interested in writing an emulator.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "816172",
"author": "... | 1,760,376,712.59452 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/10/12/arduino-voice-changer-turns-you-into-vader/ | Arduino Voice Changer Turns You Into [Vader] | Brian Benchoff | [
"Holiday Hacks",
"Musical Hacks"
] | [
"adafruit wave shield",
"arduino",
"halloween",
"voice changer"
] | Halloween is just around the corner, so of course we’re looking forward to a bunch of awesome costumes put together by Hackaday readers. In an effort to match his voice to his costume, [Phil Burgess] over at Adafruit (and former Hackaday alumnus) put together
an Arduino-powered voice changer
to give his voice the gravitas of [James Earl Jones] or the lightheartedness of a member of the Lollipop Guild.
If you’ve ever played with a turntable, you’ll know playing a 33 RPM record at 45 or 78 RPM turns your treasured copy of
Dark Side of the Moon
into a lighthearted aural experience with a pitch that is much too high. Likewise, playing a single at 33 or 16 RPM means those once dulcet tones are now recordings of tormented souls in an acoustic hell.
[Phil]’s voice changer operates on the same principle by recording sounds from a microphone into a
circular array
and playing them back at a different rate; faster if the desired effect is a Munchkin, and slower if this year’s Halloween costume will be a Sith lord.
The completed build incorporates a 10k pot to dynamically change the timbre of the voice changer, as well as an
Adafruit Wave Shield
to play back a few pre-recorded sounds of lightsabers clashing. In all, a very cool project for your Halloween costume that’s also a very good introduction to DSP and real-time audio modifications with a microcontroller.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eRdSi4gJz98&w=470] | 12 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "816415",
"author": "bzroom",
"timestamp": "2012-10-13T02:03:35",
"content": "Very nicely done. I didnt know this shield was capable of real time signal processing like that. Super convincing too. NICE JOB.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comm... | 1,760,376,712.640291 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/10/12/tripod-mount-anything/ | Tripod Mount Anything! | Jeremy Cook | [
"Cellphone Hacks",
"digital cameras hacks",
"Lifehacks"
] | [
"bolt",
"camera",
"env2",
"Logitech c910",
"tripod"
] | [Shawn] wrote in to tell us about his extremely simple method he used for mounting a webcam on a tripod.
His article
explains it better, but the basic premise is to glue a 1/4 – 20 nut onto the bottom of it. The hack-worthiness of this could be in question, but the technique could come in handy at some point.
After seeing this tip, I was reminded of a slightly
crazier, if effective mount
that I made for my
state of the art
Env2 phone. Referenced in a
links post in March
, it was made of a 2×4 with a 1/2 inch slot milled in it. After some thought, it was drilled and tapped for a 1/4 – 20 bolt in the other side to mount it on a tripod. So this could be an option in very limited circumstances.
On the other hand, if you want something a bit more hack-worthy, why not check out this
motorized camera rig
that we featured in July. Sure, it’s more complicated than gluing a nut onto a webcam, but at least it still uses 2 x 4s in it’s mounting hardware! | 15 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "816084",
"author": "Allen",
"timestamp": "2012-10-12T16:48:01",
"content": "I have to say, if gluing a nut to a webcam isn’t a hack in the truest sense of the word, then what is? I like seeing the simple stuff like this – maybe in the new site layout there’ll be a place for “quick h... | 1,760,376,712.090676 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/10/12/still-more-software-defined-radio-fun-on-the-mac/ | Still More Software Defined Radio Fun On The Mac | Brian Benchoff | [
"Radio Hacks"
] | [
"os x",
"RTLSDR",
"sdr",
"software-defined radio"
] | Even though the world of software defined radio started out as a Linux-only endeavor, several recent software releases have put the ball fully into the court of OS X users. [hpux735]’s new
Cocoa Radio release
provides a (nearly) fully functional software defined radio for anyone with a USB TV tuner and a mac.
Earlier this week, we saw (and tested) [Elias]‘
port of gqrx
and were reasonably impressed. [hpux735]’s app does the same job and also provides the source so you can compile it yourself.
Previously, [hpux735]
ported the osmocom driver
for these RTL2832U-based USB TV tuner dongles to the Mac and wrote a small Cocoa driver. The new Cocoa Radio software uses this driver and adds all the features you’d expect from a software radio package; in the title pic for this post, you can see a top 40 radio station near my house and their insipid hatred of dynamic range.
[hpux735] posted a few videos of his development process. You can check those out after the break.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k3tg8zx3Tj8&w=470]
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SZRCAIMSinA&w=470] | 9 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "816040",
"author": "sbrk",
"timestamp": "2012-10-12T15:30:27",
"content": "“in the title pic for this post, you can see a top 40 radio station near my house and their insipid hatred of dynamic range.”But louder is better, right? Just smash all the music into those low-order DAC bits... | 1,760,376,712.138345 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/10/12/led-matrix-pendants/ | LED Matrix Pendants | Mike Szczys | [
"LED Hacks",
"Wearable Hacks"
] | [
"5x7",
"attiny2313",
"matrix",
"penant"
] | If you want to mess around with some microcontrollers but don’t really have a purpose in mind this project is perfect for you. It’s cheap, easy to assemble, and there’s blinking LEDs! [TigerUp] shows us how he put together
some LED matrix pendants using just five components
.
He calls the project Tiny Matrix, which is fitting as the pendant outline is barely 0.5″ by 0.7″. On the back an ATtiny2313 chip has been soldered directly to the legs of the LED display. They just happen to line up with I/O pins on the chip which makes for super simple soldering. Power comes from a coin-cell which is connected to the pendant by a red and black wire which make up the necklace for the device. The last two components not yet mentioned are a momentary push switch for changing modes, and a pull-up resistor on the reset pin. The bill of materials rings in at $4 and his firmware offers up nine different modes as you can see in the clip after the break.
[TigerUp] was inspired by
this 8×8 matrix project
. | 35 | 16 | [
{
"comment_id": "816018",
"author": "mh",
"timestamp": "2012-10-12T15:06:14",
"content": "I love this… but must wonder how annoying those wires are, being so thick.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "816021",
"author": "Chest Tetris",
"time... | 1,760,376,712.365118 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/10/12/stellaris-launchpad-library-to-drive-the-tm1638-ui-board/ | Stellaris Launchpad Library To Drive The TM1638 UI Board | Mike Szczys | [
"ARM"
] | [
"driver",
"launchpad",
"library",
"stellaris",
"tm1638"
] | For those that grabbed one of these TM1638 UI boards you can now easily use it with your Stellaris Launchpad. [Dan O] took it upon himself to publish
an ARM library for the UI board
.
There’s not a lot of new stuff to talk about here. We’ve already seen this
being driven by an FPGA
. [Dan] also links to both an Arduino and an MSP430 library for the board. The one thing that is good to know is that the board seems to run fine from the 3.3V supplied by the Stellaris Launchpad.
The ARM chip has four different hardware SPI modules which could have been used to drive this display. But [Dan] opted to bit bang instead. This give him more flexibility, like easily changing the pin mapping and foregoing the need for external components. All it takes is direct connections from three I/O pins which are used for clock, data in, and data out. We’ve embedded the obligatory demo video after the break. | 3 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "816209",
"author": "tuxfool",
"timestamp": "2012-10-12T19:37:17",
"content": "“and foregoing the need for external components”Why would hardware (as opposed to software) SPI require extra components?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_... | 1,760,376,712.036436 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/10/12/nook-simple-touch-as-a-glider-computer/ | Nook Simple Touch As A Glider Computer | Mike Szczys | [
"Android Hacks",
"Nook Hacks"
] | [
"display",
"ebook. xcsoar",
"glider",
"Nook"
] | Look at the beautiful screen on that Nook Simple Touch. It has a lot of advantages over other hardware when
used as a glider computer running the open source XCSoar software
. The contrast of the display is excellent when compared to an LCD or AOMLED. That’s quite important as gliding through the wild blue yonder often includes intense sunlight. The display is also larger than many of the Android devices that have been used for this purpose. There are a few drawbacks though. One is that unlike other Android devices, this doesn’t have a GPS module built into it. But the price point makes up for the fact that you need to source an external module yourself.
This isn’t the first time we’ve seen the device used as a navigational display. This other hack put
a simple touch on a sailboat
for the same direct-sunlight-readability reason. For $100, and with the ability to root the system for use as an Android device, we expect to see this to keep popping up all over the place as a simple interface for a multitude of projects.
After the break you can see a video comparing the software running on a Nook display to one on a Dell Streak 5 LCD tablet.
[Thanks Folken] | 13 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "815937",
"author": "ehud42",
"timestamp": "2012-10-12T13:39:44",
"content": "Sorry, dumb question – what is the refresh rate of e-ink and how does that affect its life span? I assume that as a nav aid some of the details would need to update every few seconds at least. Is that a pro... | 1,760,376,712.41731 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/10/12/malting-kiln-controller-for-preparing-beer-brewing-grains/ | Malting Kiln Controller For Preparing Beer Brewing Grains | Mike Szczys | [
"Beer Hacks"
] | [
"arduino",
"brewing",
"grain",
"hot air gun",
"kiln",
"malt"
] | A quick primer is in order: when it comes to hobby brewing there’s two main types, extract brewing and all-grain brewing. The former uses a syrup that has been extracted from the grains at a factory while the latter adds the steps to do this yourself. But in both cases the brewing grains have already been malted. This is a careful process of soaking the grains and then kiln drying them. [Richard Oliver]
built his own malt kiln controller
to add the preliminary step to his home brewing ritual. Now the only thing he’s not doing himself is growing the grains (and perhaps culturing the yeast).
His original design used a food dehydrator for the drying step, but this didn’t work because the temperature wasn’t at the correct level. The new build uses the ceramic heating element from a 300W hot air gun. A blower directs air through the element and into the wooden box that serves as the kiln. An Arduino monitors the heated air to keep it right in the sweet spot. He’s included a graphing GUI for easy monitoring, which is shown in the video after the break. | 5 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "815885",
"author": "Frank Cohen",
"timestamp": "2012-10-12T12:07:54",
"content": "Nice work. I think I am going to stick with buying malts for now though.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "815887",
"author": "Jgreendyk",
... | 1,760,376,712.182732 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/10/11/building-a-better-pid-smoker-controller/ | Building A Better PID Smoker Controller | Mike Szczys | [
"cooking hacks"
] | [
"arduino",
"pid",
"smoker",
"solid state relay",
"ssr"
] | [Matt] wanted to have more control over his meat smoker so
he built this advanced PID smoker controller
. It uses the solid state relay seen in the bottom-right of this image to switch the smoker’s heating element. But all of the other goodies that are included add several features not usually found in these builds.
This is a replacement for the commercial PID unit he used on
the original build
. That monitored the temperature in the smoker, using predictive algorithms to maintain just the right heat level. But this time around [Matt] is looking for extra feedback with a second sensor to monitor meat temperature. Using an Arduino with an SD shield he is able to data log the smoking sessions, and his custom code allows him to specify temperature profiles for resting the meat after it has hit the target temperature. It kind of reminds us of
a reflow oven controller
… but for food. | 20 | 15 | [
{
"comment_id": "815099",
"author": "d hamilton",
"timestamp": "2012-10-11T19:31:04",
"content": "Where did you get the thermocouple cables ??",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "815506",
"author": "Bradley Pearce",
"timestamp": "2... | 1,760,376,712.698629 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/10/11/programming-tetris-by-first-building-a-logic-gate-then-a-computer-then/ | Programming Tetris By First Building A Logic Gate, Then A Computer, Then… | Mike Szczys | [
"computer hacks"
] | [
"course",
"learning",
"logic",
"nand",
"tetris"
] | Hone your fundamental understanding of computer systems by completing
this online course called NAND to Tetris
. The idea is to develop each fundamental unit that goes into making computer programs a reality. This starts with logic gates, which are put together into modules that eventually become a functioning computer. From there you need an operating system, a compiler, and eventually you’ll be playing a game of Tetris which you programmed yourself.
It’s certainly not an easy journey, but if you have a computer at your disposal you should be able to make it all the way through the course. There’s a software suite which includes a hardware simulator so that the computer you’re building can be assembled using HDL instead physical components.
The concept is discussed in
this TED talk
given by [Shimon Schocken]. It is also embedded after the break and in addition to the NAND to Tetris project he shows off some self learning software on the iPad. To us it seems very much like the learning software [Neal Stephenson] envisions in the Young Lady’s Illustrated Primer from his
Diamond Age
novel.
[ted id=1570] | 25 | 14 | [
{
"comment_id": "814970",
"author": "dattaway2",
"timestamp": "2012-10-11T18:08:05",
"content": "One day, someone will build a game of Tetris using the least possible number of transistors.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "815052",
"aut... | 1,760,376,713.273454 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/10/11/acoustic-barcodes-deliver-data-with-a-fingernail-and-microphone/ | Acoustic Barcodes Deliver Data With A Fingernail And Microphone | Brian Benchoff | [
"News"
] | [
"acoustic barcode",
"barcode",
"hci"
] | Either through QR codes, RFID, or near field communication, there seems to be some desire to share tiny pieces of data in a more physical and accessible form. [Chris Harrison], [Robert Xiao], and [Scott E. Hudson] of the HCI Institute at Carnegie Mellon have come up with a fairly interesting solution of making data more physical.
They call it Acoustic Barcodes
, and it’s able to store over a billion unique IDs in a small strip of plastic.
By engraving a barcode pattern into a piece of wood, stone, glass, or plastic, the guys then attached a microphone to the barcode and ran their fingernails across their invention. A computer interprets the sounds of a finger scraping against the acoustic barcode and produces a series of 1s and 0s.
This binary code can be used to look up various items in a database, or perform actions on a computer. In the video after the break, you can see these acoustic barcodes attached to a whiteboard to provide real tactile control of a video projector.
You can check out a PDF of the
Acoustic Barcode paper here
. | 44 | 22 | [
{
"comment_id": "814853",
"author": "cjwoodall",
"timestamp": "2012-10-11T17:09:40",
"content": "Super cool! I love some of the stuff that comes out of CMU when it comes to Human Computer Interactions. Just really solid stuff.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"... | 1,760,376,713.352882 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/10/11/hackadays-portal-gun-actually-levitates-a-companion-cube/ | Hackaday’s Portal Gun Actually Levitates A Companion Cube | Caleb Kraft | [
"News"
] | [
"companion cube",
"portal",
"prop"
] | I was out to lunch with a couple friends, brainstorming ideas for fun projects when one of them says “Wouldn’t it be cool if we could build a working gravity gun?”. We all immediately concurred that while it would in fact be cool, it is also a silly proposition. However, only a few seconds later, I realized we could do a display piece that emulated this concept very easily. Floating magnetic globes have been around for quite some time.
I determined I would tear the guts out of a stock floating globe and mount it on a portal gun, since they’re easier to find than a gravity gun. I would also build a custom companion cube to be the correct size and weight necessary.
The Levitation System
I started off with a StellaNova magnetic levitating globe. I chose the larger version that is roughly 8″. My assumption was that this one would be able to hold a little more weight than the smaller version.
Prying the coil out of the metal frame turned out to be difficult and actually resulted in a damaged coil that I had to repair. If you were to replicate this, I’d suggest cutting the entire metal case that contains the coil from the frame instead of trying to remove just the coil.
Once I had the coil out, I tore the strong magnet out of the top of the globe. This globe actually has a magnet in the base that helps stabilize it during levitation so I knew I was going to have to tweak my companion cube to get the weight just right. As you can see, my process is purely scientific and extremely precise.
The portal gun
I really wanted to make my own portal gun for this. My schedule and my ego fought hard on this subject and ultimately my schedule won. While I feel like I could have built a fantastic portal gun, there’s no way I could have done it in a reasonable amount of time and gotten as nice of results as just buying the portal gun props available at toy stores.
When initially mounted the coil on the gun, I found that the “arms” were far too flexible. I had to reinforce the arm somehow. The option I chose was simply to bend a piece of steel to the correct shape and strap it to the underside of the “arm”.
I made a cardboard model to test weight and size of the companion cube and got the system working
on
the portal gun.
The Cube
At this point, the entire thing is working. I’m far too excited to wait for some kind of store bought cube to arrive and attempt to get it to the correct weight. That’s assuming I could find one the right size. So, I made my own out of foam. Admittedly, it isn’t the best looking companion cube in the world. If I were to take this further, I’d probably sculpt one and make a mold so that I could make my own solid foam companion cube.
A single huge improvement:
I started off thinking that the final product would be a portal gun that you could hold while it levitated a cube. This meant that I needed to actually mount the coil that suspends the floating cube
on to
the portal gun. As you can see in the video, it is a fairly visible modification. You can see the coil, wires, and reinforcement on the top arm of the portal gun. Once it was built however, I found that I couldn’t hold it still enough to maintain the levitation.
Since holding it is officially not going to happen, I realized I could have done this in a more aesthetically pleasing manner. Instead of using the type of floating globe that dangles the magnet
below
a coil, I could have used one with a magnetic base that floats the magnet
above
the coil. This would have left the portal gun completely un-modified.
Thanks
I wanted to give a special thanks to
Vintage Stock
in Springfield Missouri (the one on Glenstone), who let me bring the system in and show it off until the hall effect sensor finally got smashed too many times and the cube wouldn’t levitate. | 57 | 39 | [
{
"comment_id": "814757",
"author": "sneakypoo",
"timestamp": "2012-10-11T16:10:44",
"content": "God dammit, now I want to play Portal again…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "814762",
"author": "jakeb",
"timestamp": "2012-10-11T16:13:42",... | 1,760,376,713.078034 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/10/11/getting-started-with-the-stellaris-launchpad/ | Getting Started With The Stellaris Launchpad | Eric Evenchick | [
"how-to"
] | [
"code composer studio",
"launchpad",
"stellaris"
] | We’ve already given an overview of the Stellaris Launchpad, but lets look at the first steps to running code on the device. First we’ll get the development software working, then we’ll build and run a very simple example.
TI allows use of the full version of their IDE, Code Composer Studio, with the Launchpad’s on-board debugger. To work with Stellaris microcontrollers, you’ll also need to grab StellarisWare. This free software package contains support for the Stellaris devices including peripheral drivers, a USB library, and code examples. Finally, you’ll need the ICDI drivers to communicate with the debugger. TI has all the required software for this board available
here
. See the TI
getting started directions
for a walk-through of how to install the required software.
Windows 8
If you’re using Windows 8, the drivers won’t install because they aren’t signed. The workaround is to reboot and interrupt the Windows 8 boot by holding Shift and mashing F8. Select the “Disable Driver Signature Enforcement” option and let Windows boot up. You can now install the drivers by following TI’s instructions.
Creating a Project
With these packages installed, we can start writing code for the device. Create a new CCS project (File -> New -> CCS Project) and give it a name. Choose “ARM” as the family, “Stellaris LM4F120H5QR” as the variant, and select “Stellaris In-Circuit Debug Interface” as the connection. Select “Empty Project (with main.c)” under “Empty Projects” and click finish.
Now we need to include a header file that gives names to the microcontroller’s ports. To do this, click Project -> Properties and go to Build -> Arm Compiler – >Include Options. Click the plus beside “Add dir to #include search path,” click “File System,” and find the “inc” subdirectory under where you installed StellarisWare. Click OK to add the folder.
Making Light
Lets test that everything is working. In this simple example, we’ll just turn on all three colors of the RGB LED. To do this, we turn on the pins that the LED are connected to, which happen to be:
PORTF 1 = RGB LED red
PORTF 2 = RGB LED blue
PORTF 3 = RGB LED green
See the
user manual
for full schematics. Here’s the code:
// processor definitions
#include "lm4f120h5qr.h"
#define LED_RED 0x2
#define LED_BLUE 0x4
#define LED_GREEN 0x8
void main(void) {
// enable PORT F GPIO peripheral
SYSCTL_RCGC2_R = SYSCTL_RCGC2_GPIOF;
// set LED PORT F pins as outputs
GPIO_PORTF_DIR_R = LED_RED|LED_BLUE|LED_GREEN;
// enable digital for LED PORT F pins
GPIO_PORTF_DEN_R = LED_RED|LED_BLUE|LED_GREEN;
// clear all PORT F pins
GPIO_PORTF_DATA_R = 0;
// set LED PORT F pins high
GPIO_PORTF_DATA_R |= LED_RED|LED_BLUE|LED_GREEN;
// loop forever
for(;;);
}
Replace the code in main.c with this snippet. Debug the project by clicking Run -> Debug. This will build your code, and load it onto the device. To start execution, click Run -> Resume. The LED should light up white. Changing which pins are set high will change the color of the LED.
Any issues getting your Stellaris Launchpad up and running? Let us know in the comments. | 72 | 28 | [
{
"comment_id": "814689",
"author": "Jeff Patton",
"timestamp": "2012-10-11T15:19:15",
"content": "Jealous, mine boards won’t get shipped until early Novemeber :(",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "815062",
"author": "Bill Stewart",
... | 1,760,376,713.214615 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/10/11/stare-deep-into-this-well-lit-interactive-infinity-mirror/ | Stare Deep Into This Well-lit Interactive Infinity Mirror | Mike Nathan | [
"News"
] | [
"infinity mirror",
"led",
"Teensy"
] | [acorv] recently sent us a link to a cool,
interactive infinity mirror
(
Translation
) he built. He was originally a bit gun-shy about sending the project our way, but our
recent Reddit AMA
inspired [acorv] to submit it via our tip line, and we’re glad he did.
Having been lucky enough to score $100 of gear from Sparkfun’s 2012 Free Day, he picked up a pair of addressable LED strips and a Teensy++. He built an LED ring from reflective foil, sandwiching the strips between a mirror and a piece of mirror glass. The resulting infinity mirror looked nice enough, but [acorv] wanted to make the static display a bit more interesting.
He added an IR receiver and ultrasonic rangefinder to the mirror’s frame, allowing him to both control the display remotely and detect when people were standing nearby. As you can see in the video below, [acorv] can change the patterns on a whim, and the mirror speeds up the display when someone stops to take a closer look.
[vimeo http://vimeo.com/45364766 w=470] | 26 | 17 | [
{
"comment_id": "814647",
"author": "faabur",
"timestamp": "2012-10-11T14:51:39",
"content": "Very cool! Está to wapo, acorv!But not infinite, just a 13 times repetition. Why?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "814692",
"author": "Haku",
... | 1,760,376,713.785186 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/10/11/nixie-clock-without-a-pcb/ | Nixie Clock Without A PCB | Eric Evenchick | [
"News"
] | [
"atmega8",
"boost converter",
"nixie clock"
] | Looking for an artistic way to build circuits? Don’t want to design a PCB? The
Lethal Nixie Tube Clock
is a free form circuit that gives you the time one digit at a time. It uses a IN-1 Nixie tube to display the digits. This is driven by ten MPSA42 high voltage transistors. A IRF520 N-FET, inductor, and a diode are used as a switching power supply that generates the high voltage needed to drive the Nixie tube. It’s probably not lethal, but there are exposed high voltages in the cube. You’d definitely regret touching it.
An ATMega8 is used to control the clock. It drives the various digits of the Nixie tube, and generates a PWM output to switch the high voltage supply. Unfortunately, the schematic has been lost. If you’re interested in the switching supply, it’s likely similar to the one explained
here
.
Check out a video of the clock after the break.
Via
Dangerous Prototypes | 23 | 14 | [
{
"comment_id": "814526",
"author": "Mike bradley",
"timestamp": "2012-10-11T13:08:33",
"content": "I love it, all of it!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "814549",
"author": "ginsublade",
"timestamp": "2012-10-11T13:34:03",
"content":... | 1,760,376,713.459068 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/10/11/motivating-engineering-students-with-microcontrollers/ | Motivating Engineering Students With Microcontrollers | Eric Evenchick | [
"News"
] | [
"education",
"microcontrollers",
"pic",
"PICkit 2"
] | We see a lot of microcontroller based hacks around here, and it’s not hard to see why learning how to use microcontrollers is valuable to prospective engineeer. Unfortunately, microcontroller courses are dreaded by students since they focus on theory instead of application. In
The First Lecure
, [Colin] talks to a class of engineering students about how to get practical with microcontrollers.
He starts with an overview of a bomb countdown project that he used to learn the basics of microcontrollers. This started as a 555 based timer, but he ended up using a PIC18 after having issues with timing and reliability. Next, he discusses a paintball sentry gun inspired by a Hackaday post. He finishes off some advice and gives the students some hardware: a
Pickit2
programmer and a
Saleae Logic Analyzer
.
It’s easy to lose motivation due to the heavy focus on theory in engineering. [Colin]’s advice to start building stuff will hopefully motivate these students to take an interest in microcontrollers. We also like how he advises students to read Hackaday. Check out the full video of the lecture after the break. | 16 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "814512",
"author": "jbevren",
"timestamp": "2012-10-11T13:02:08",
"content": "His opening quote just won my attention for the whole video. :)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "814629",
"author": "messmaker",
"timestamp": "... | 1,760,376,713.678399 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/10/10/build-your-own-water-rocket-launcher/ | Build Your Own Water Rocket Launcher | Mike Szczys | [
"News"
] | [
"compressor",
"hose",
"PVC",
"valve",
"water",
"water rocket"
] | We feel like the days when you want to play in the water are far behind us. But if you can still find a warm afternoon here or there
this water rocket launcher build
is a fun undertaking. We figure most of the time spent on the project will be in shopping for the parts. They’re all quite common, and once you have them on hand it can be assembled in under an hour.
The concept is simple, but that doesn’t stop people from building
rather complicated water rocket rigs
. This one which [Lou] devised is rather simple but it does offer connections to a hose and air compressor (the alternative being to fill the bottle with water ahead of time and use a bike pump for air pressure). PVC is used to connect the two inputs to the bottle via a pair of valves. The bottle is held in place while water and air are applied. The launch happens when a pull on that rope releases the bottle.
Check out the build process and bottle launch after the break. We think that rocket needs a few fins. | 16 | 12 | [
{
"comment_id": "813571",
"author": "dALE",
"timestamp": "2012-10-10T23:04:45",
"content": "I loved this in school. I found that my best design used a PVC pipe outside the bottle as well, try not to make it looks like a potato launcher though.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies":... | 1,760,376,713.620296 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/10/10/turning-a-plush-dalek-into-a-wifi-enabled-robot/ | Turning A Plush Dalek Into A WiFi Enabled Robot | Mike Szczys | [
"News"
] | [
"browser",
"dalek",
"Doctor Who",
"servo",
"TL-WR703N",
"tp-link"
] | You can now “EX-TER-MIN-ATE!” with one finger since
this plush Dalek from
Doctor Who
has been turned into a wireless robot
. The build started out with the toy whose only trick was to spout quotes from the popular science fiction television series. [Madox] took it apart to see how it worked, then added some of his own goodies to make it better.
We just looked in on a project from this guy on Tuesday. It was
a light painting wand
that used the TP-Link TL-WR703N wireless router. This uses the same tiny hardware as the controller. Since it’s a WiFi router it’s quite simple to serve up a control interface on any browser. To make it all work [Madox] designed and printed a new base plate. This provides brackets on which the two servo motors can be mounted. It also gives him a place to anchor the driver board and the router itself. The original voice hardware is still there, driven by a connection to the router hardware. See the final product in the clip after the jump. | 11 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "813520",
"author": "Chirpinchuckthehumanduck",
"timestamp": "2012-10-10T22:40:23",
"content": "So funny. :)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "813566",
"author": "Amatol",
"timestamp": "2012-10-10T23:01:20",
"content": ... | 1,760,376,713.402586 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/10/10/edge-lit-musical-birthday-card/ | Edge-lit Musical Birthday Card | Mike Szczys | [
"ATtiny Hacks"
] | [
"acrylic",
"attiny85",
"birthday",
"card",
"edge-lit",
"greeting card",
"led"
] | [Monirul Pathan] decided to make the card as unique as this gift when getting ready for a birthday. He designed and
built his own musical card with LED edge-lit acrylic
to display the message.
The electronic design seeks to keep things as flat as possible. The card-shaped acrylic panel has a void to fit the PCB exactly, and the components are relatively flat. One thing we found quite interesting is that the ATtiny85 which drives the device is surface mounted, but it is
not
a surface mount component. The layout includes though-hole pads, but instead of drilling holes [Monirul] clipped off the excess of the DIP legs and soldered the remainder directly to the copper. We suppose this isn’t going to get a lot of use so it just needs to hold together for one day.
As you can see in the video after the break, the speaker plays ‘Happy Birthday’ followed by ‘Under the Sea’. At the same time, four blue LEDs pulse to the music, lighting up the words that are engraved in the plastic. | 2 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "813576",
"author": "rue_mohr",
"timestamp": "2012-10-10T23:10:39",
"content": "nice trick, to think some people go to all the work to bend the pins under the dip to surface mount them.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "813733",
... | 1,760,376,713.718365 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/10/10/raspberry-pi-foundation-looks-a-counterfeit-apple-power-supplies/ | Raspberry Pi Foundation Looks At Counterfeit Apple Power Supplies | Mike Szczys | [
"iphone hacks",
"Raspberry Pi"
] | [
"adapter",
"apple",
"charger",
"counterfeit",
"iphone",
"raspberry pi",
"RPi"
] | The Raspberry Pi foundation is in a somewhat unique position. They always test the units that get returned to them in hopes that they can improve the design. They often request that the power supply also be sent back with the RPi unit, as we know the board will not work well if the PSU can’t source enough current. And so they’ve been able to get
a look at several counterfeit iPhone chargers
. This is not one of the recommended ways to power the RPi, but their ability to collect failed hardware means that they have identified three different fakes on the market.
Seen here is a genuine Apple product on the left. The others are fake, with the easiest way of spotting them being the shiny chrome plug connectors. The genuine part has a matte finish on the connectors. There is also a difference in the chamfering, and even a variation on the orientation of the USB port on some of them. Unfortunately we don’t get a look inside, which is what we really wanted. But you can see in the video after the break that weighing the adapter will also give it away as a fake, showing that the components within probably vary quite a bit. This reminds us of some
other fake PSUs that have been exposed
.
[Thanks Joe] | 42 | 18 | [
{
"comment_id": "813398",
"author": "Gdogg",
"timestamp": "2012-10-10T20:35:02",
"content": "I don’t get why people would buy cheap chinese crap that has the potential to put 120/240 volts through your $600 phone. If you can spend that much on a phone you can nut up and get a reliable (not necessari... | 1,760,376,713.867195 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/10/10/giving-the-rygol-ds1052e-scope-a-spectrum-analyzer/ | Giving The Rigol DS1052E ‘scope A Spectrum Analyzer | Brian Benchoff | [
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"DS1052E",
"oscilloscope",
"rygol",
"spectrum analyzer"
] | Like a lot of hardware tinkerers, [dexter2048] has a Rigol DS1052E oscilloscope sitting on his bench. One day when trying to coax some information out of the FFT setting, [dexter] threw his hands up in frustration and decided to write a file viewer with FFT spectrum analysis. The resulting viewer gives this very capable and inexpensive oscilloscope
a spectrum analyzer
.
[dexter2048]’s app is able to capture signals from 0 Hz to 500 MHz and demonstrated this fact by sticking a piece of wire into one of the Rigol’s inputs. The resulting waveform is then sent to a computer where [dexter] got a nice picture of the radio spectrum between 82MHz and 114MHz. In his graph, you can clearly see the FM radio stations that can be picked up in [dexter]’s lab.
This small modification to the Rigol DS1052E oscilloscope it the latest in a
long line of hacks
that give this wonderful, inexpensive scope
double the bandwidth
,
data collection via Python
, and even a
homebrew version of Pong
. Anything that provides new functionality for old gear is great news to us, and we look forward to many, many more 1052E hacks in the future.
Tip ‘o the hat to [Murlidhar] for sending this in. | 16 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "813253",
"author": "hospadar",
"timestamp": "2012-10-10T19:05:25",
"content": "IN DEXTER’S LAAAAAAABAm I the only one who thought that?I wonder if there’s gloom and doom when things go boom.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "813... | 1,760,376,713.969144 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/10/10/papercraft-flash-reflector/ | Papercraft Flash Reflector | Mike Szczys | [
"digital cameras hacks"
] | [
"flash",
"hot shoe",
"papercraft",
"reflector"
] | We never use the flash on our point-and-shoot. It has a way of washing out every image we take. But [Joey] has a different solution to the problem. He shows us
how to make a papercraft flash reflector
that will still light up your subject without washing out everything in the foreground.
[Joey] is perfectly aware that at first glance it would seem you need to have a reflective forehead for this to work. But the reflector is actually set up to aim the flash toward the ceiling. Since most ceilings are white this will reflect the light back into the room, dispersing it at the same time. His write-up includes a link to a PDF of the pattern. After cutting it out, one side is coated in black electrical tape, the other is left white to reflect the light. The design includes a tab that slides into the hot shoe of his Nikon DSLR to position it in front of the pop-up flash. | 13 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "813203",
"author": "just me",
"timestamp": "2012-10-10T18:30:43",
"content": "Nice. I, however have used over an year piece of Stratocell® (didn’t know the name until today).Get the white one (about 1-2 cm thick), otherwise the image colors change…It is really good for flash reflect... | 1,760,376,713.921686 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/10/10/putting-guitar-pedals-in-a-web-page/ | Putting Guitar Pedals In A Web Page | Brian Benchoff | [
"Musical Hacks",
"Software Development"
] | [
"effects pedal",
"guitar effects",
"guitar pedal",
"javascript"
] | Only half of playing guitar – according to a few musician friends of mine – is moving your fingers up and down a fretboard and banging out some chords. The other half is the artistry of mastering your tone, usually through amp settings and stomp boxes.
Effects pedals – little boxes of electronics that go between the guitar and amp – are able to amplify and distort a guitar’s output, add reverb and delay, and even filter the tone via a wha or envelope pedal. These pedals can be simulated in software, but we can’t believe that they can now be
emulated completely in JavaScript
.
Pedalboard.js is a project put together by [dashersw], and aims to put a slew of pedals ‘in the cloud’ and turn editing and effects board as easy as building a web page.
The project is built around Webkit’s W3C audio API, allowing this virtual pedal board to work in Chrome, Safari, and other Webkit-enabled browsers. Pedals are programmed as nodes, each configurable to have and input, output, or analyzer that is able to modify the gain, wave shape, or filter of anything received by the line in on your computer.
Thee is a small demo of Pedalboard.js
available here
with a pre-recorded guitar track feeding into a few stomp boxes. It’s a pretty cool idea if you’d like to play around with a few guitar effect, but we can’t wait to see this bit of JavaScript implemented by
effects pedal manufacturers
allowing us to try before we buy. | 13 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "813135",
"author": "Mark Swope",
"timestamp": "2012-10-10T17:42:36",
"content": "Nice. However, can someone tell me what “Convo” is?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "813326",
"author": "krylenko",
"timestamp": ... | 1,760,376,714.023169 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/10/10/desktop-mill-built-as-a-high-school-project/ | Desktop Mill Built As A High School Project | Mike Szczys | [
"cnc hacks"
] | [
"desktop",
"mill",
"plasma cutter"
] | This desktop mill would be impressive coming from anyone, but we’re really excited that it was made as a high school project. [Praneet Narayan] built it during his design and technology class.
As his build log shows
, he worked with a range of different tools to make sure he had a rock-solid platform on which to mount the motors and cutting head.
The uprights of the frame are made from two steel plates. After hacking them to rough shape with a plasma cutter he finished the edges with a mill. The two parts were then tack welded together so that the mounting holes could be drilled in one step, ensuring alignment between the two sides. The rest of the frame parts are built from extruded rails but he did machine a set of mounting plates to pull it all together. You can see the finished machine milling a message in MDF in the clip after the break.
[Thanks Kevin] | 43 | 16 | [
{
"comment_id": "812965",
"author": "Downing",
"timestamp": "2012-10-10T16:11:45",
"content": "Impressive build no doubt. I’m wondering though what the benefit is of having the table act as the Y-axis instead of the arm. I mean yes it works either way no doubt, but was it just easier to do in a DIY ... | 1,760,376,714.515868 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/10/10/using-arduino-shields-with-the-raspi/ | Using Arduino Shields With The Raspi | Brian Benchoff | [
"Arduino Hacks",
"Raspberry Pi"
] | [
"arduino",
"arduino shield",
"Raspi",
"shield"
] | With hundreds of Arduino shields available for any imaginable application, it’s a shame they can’t be used with the Raspberry Pi. Breaking out the Raspi GPIO pins to Arduino-compatible headers would allow makers and tinkerers to reuse their shields with a far more capable computing platform.
The folks over at Cooking Hacks realized a Raspi to Arduino shield bridge would be an awesome device, so they
made their own
, complete with a software library that allows you to port your Arduino code directly to the Raspberry Pi.
There are a few limitations with the Raspberry Pi’s GPIO headers; the Raspi doesn’t have analog inputs, so the Cooking Hacks team added an 8-channel ADC. Along with analog inputs and the headers required to pop a shield on the board, there’s also a socket for an XBee module.
The software library contains most of the general Arduino functions such as digitalWrite() and digitalRead(). There Serial, Wire, and SPI libraries are also implemented, allowing any device that communicates through UART, I2C, or SPI to talk directly to the Raspberry Pi.
While the Raspi Arduino bridge doesn’t allow for PWM in the same capacity as an Arduino, you’re always welcome to whip up a servo or LED shield for this neat little adapter. | 12 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "812851",
"author": "SgtStens",
"timestamp": "2012-10-10T15:04:28",
"content": "Looks like the Cooking Hacks servers got a Hackaday bomb.First Post!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "812855",
"author": "SgtStens",
... | 1,760,376,714.275521 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/10/09/led-wand-brings-ergonomics-to-light-painting/ | LED Wand Brings Ergonomics To Light Painting | Mike Szczys | [
"LED Hacks"
] | [
"led strip",
"light painting",
"rgb",
"router",
"TL-WR703N",
"wand"
] | Quit struggling with hastily patched together electronics for your light painting images. Follow [Madox’s] example and build
a light painting wand designed with your hand in mind
.
You wield it much like a sword, but the only damage it does is to the long-exposure camera pointed its way. The RGB LED strip is controlled by the guts of a tiny little wireless router, a TP-Link TL-WR703N. This lets [Madox] connect using an Android device to upload different images. It also lets you tweak the settings like adjusting the timing between columns to match your exposure settings. The custom handle design provides a home and mounting plan for everything involved. It was 3D printed at the Sydney Hackerspace.
This isn’t the first light painting device running Linux. We’ve actually seen
the Raspberry Pi used in much the same way
but that final project involved using an entire recumbent tricycle to move the colored lights. | 3 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "811228",
"author": "ChalkBored",
"timestamp": "2012-10-09T17:36:11",
"content": "I applaud you for not relating it to those swords from that movie.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "811454",
"author": "rasz",
"ti... | 1,760,376,714.316476 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/10/08/pic-programming-adapter-for-the-raspberry-pi/ | PIC Programming Adapter For The Raspberry Pi | Mike Szczys | [
"Microcontrollers",
"Raspberry Pi"
] | [
"gpio",
"pic",
"programmer",
"RPi"
] | Here’s another offering when it comes to
PIC programming from the Raspberry Pi
. The design seeks to adapt the GPIO header so that it may be used for programming PIC microcontrollers, but this does involve a bit more than just physically connecting pins to the target chip. Most of the PIC family require a 12V programming level, and this setup makes that possible.
The sets of NPN transistors shown in the schematic fragment above are arranged in darlington pairs. They’re actually switching voltage from the 6V linear regulator built into the system using the Pi’s 3.3V pins. There’s also a 12V regulator, so you’re going to need a power supply that is capable of sourcing more than that.
We’ve seen
a similar concept
before but this design carries it a step further. There are several status LEDs built into the programmer, and it includes support for detecting which chip is being programmed. So far this covers just four different chips, but we’re sure that it could be adapted to fit your own needs.
[via
Reddit
] | 11 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "810173",
"author": "jaycarlson3825840",
"timestamp": "2012-10-08T23:23:12",
"content": "Those transistors are *not* arranged in a Darlington pair (where two transistors’ collectors are tied together, and the emitter of one is tied to the base of the other to improve gain).Rather, th... | 1,760,376,714.439656 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/10/08/stm32-driving-a-pcie-video-card/ | STM32 Driving A PCIe Video Card | Mike Szczys | [
"Microcontrollers",
"Video Hacks"
] | [
"amd",
"arm",
"discovery",
"graphics card",
"PCIe",
"radeon",
"stm32"
] | [Gpuhackr] chose his username to explain exactly how he spends his time. For instance, here he’s
using an STM32 Discovery board to drive an AMD Radeon HD 2400
graphics card. The ARM microcontroller isn’t actually using the PCIe interface on the card. Instead, [Gpuhackr] has patched into the debugging interface built into the card itself. This isn’t quite as straight forward as it sounds, but if you do the wiring carefully it’s a pretty intersting way to connect an ARM to an LCD monitor.
This project would be almost impossible if it weren’t for the open source code which AMD has released. This lets him implement the card’s 3D rendering features. The demo directly programs the UVD Xtensa CPU which is on the video card. It draws a cube with color gradients on each side. The cube spins while the debug information is overlaid on the screen. In this case the ARM chip/board is really being used as a programmer to upload some custom firmware. But we think a real code-ninja could implement a communications protocol to open up a simple way to drive the card in real-time.
[Thanks uMinded] | 33 | 21 | [
{
"comment_id": "810118",
"author": "jaspel",
"timestamp": "2012-10-08T22:09:44",
"content": "can you say clusters..??",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "810129",
"author": "james",
"timestamp": "2012-10-08T22:18:52",
"content": "So… no... | 1,760,376,714.391212 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/10/08/ask-hackaday-anything-over-at-reddit-tomorrow/ | Ask Hackaday Anything Over At Reddit Tomorrow | Caleb Kraft | [
"Ask Hackaday",
"News"
] | [] | I’ve had several requests over the years to do an AMA on Reddit. If you’re into that kind of thing (asking us anything), you can join us tomorrow morning at 10am central
RIGHT HERE
. For a rough example of what to expect, you can see the AMA that [Eliot Phillips]
did when he moved on from hackaday
. However, I suspect this one will contain much more Hackaday relevant content. | 2 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "810391",
"author": "mixup2010",
"timestamp": "2012-10-09T05:54:19",
"content": "Wait……When is this? Date??????",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "810503",
"author": "Solenoid",
"timestamp": "2012-10-09T09:10:29",
"conte... | 1,760,376,714.558728 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/10/08/usb-to-rs-232-adapter-hacked-to-use-rs485-instead/ | USB To RS-232 Adapter Hacked To Use RS485 Instead | Mike Szczys | [
"Microcontrollers"
] | [
"converter",
"rs-232",
"rs-485",
"usb"
] | [André Sarmento] needed to connect a computer to an RS-485 bus. A simple converter can be sourced online, but the only thing he could find locally that was even close was a USB to RS-232 converter. He used that component to
craft his own USB to RS-485 bridge
.
RS-485 is often used for remote sensors as it provides a method of connecting electronics over long distances. The converter which he started with seems to be encased in a hot-glue-like substance. A bit of time with a torch and he was able to get to the components on the board. There are two stages, one which converts RS-232 to TTL, and the other converts TTL to USB. [André] removed the RS-232 chip and patched his own board (shown on the left) into its TTL lines. He was also able to add a few more configuration options, like using an external power source, and having a few jumper-selected resistor options. | 5 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "810117",
"author": "wulfman",
"timestamp": "2012-10-08T22:07:32",
"content": "http://www.aliexpress.com/item/USB-2-0-to-RS485-DB9-COM-Serial-Port-Device-Converter-Adapter-CABLE-1M/627897482.htmlAt 9.82 USD I am sure that it would have been cheaper to buy one with shipping than to ma... | 1,760,376,714.599734 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/10/08/sensor-based-dehumidifier-system-for-your-home/ | Sensor Based Dehumidifier System For Your Home | Mike Szczys | [
"Arduino Hacks",
"home hacks"
] | [
"home automation",
"weather"
] | The apartment [Angus] lives in must be sealed up pretty tight. It was so humid during the winter that there was a mold issue. We usually have the opposite problem, needing to add humidity to the air in the colder months. To combat the issue he bought a small dehumidifier, but wanted to automate the system a bit more than what was built into its meager controls. He combined
a set of wireless sensors and remote control outlets to switch the dehumidifier automatically
.
The sensors are from a weather station he bought on eBay. It came with a base station and three remote units, all of which monitor both temperature and humidity. He wanted a system that could compare temperature with dew point and make decisions based on a simple look-up table. An Arduino with a custom milled shield reads these measurements from the sensors and feeds them to a router which is running a cron job script every minute. When that script judges the time and weather conditions warrant a change it tells the Arduino to switch the wireless outlet to which the dehumidifier is connected. | 6 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "809974",
"author": "fartface",
"timestamp": "2012-10-08T19:34:09",
"content": "Not sealed up. He showers without the Vent fan running or a window open. You are dumping GALLONS of water into the apartment when you shower or cook without a vent fan that is piped outside running d... | 1,760,376,714.737203 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/10/08/scary-putin-guards-your-stash/ | Scary Putin Guards Your Stash | Mike Szczys | [
"Security Hacks"
] | [
"ikea",
"infrared",
"picture frame",
"proximity",
"vladimir putin"
] | If anyone tries to take anything from this coin bank they’re going to have to brave the creepy looks that [Vladimir Putin] gives them. That’s because [Overflo] rigged up the wall hanging to react when you approach it. It’s all in the eyes, which
open and turn red based on your proximity to the picture
frame.
The frame itself is the ugliest thing [Overflo] could find at Ikea. He spray painted it gold and added an image of [Putin] with a zany background. At rest [Vlad] has his eyes closed. But the lids are connected to a servo motor to pull against the spring that keeps them shut. An infrared proximity sensor is used to trigger the eyelids when you get relatively close, but if you reach out your hand it will even light up the red LEDs hidden in the pupils of the eyes. See a demonstration of the setup in the video after the break. | 26 | 15 | [
{
"comment_id": "809834",
"author": "txyzinfo",
"timestamp": "2012-10-08T17:51:55",
"content": "super! Fuck you bitch dictator Putin.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "809999",
"author": "dmilivojevic",
"timestamp": "2012-10-08T1... | 1,760,376,714.84977 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/10/09/exploiting-dfu-mode-to-snag-a-copy-of-firmware-upgrades/ | Exploiting DFU Mode To Snag A Copy Of Firmware Upgrades | Mike Szczys | [
"hardware",
"Security Hacks"
] | [
"dfu",
"facedancer",
"firmware",
"travis goodspeed",
"usb"
] | [Travis Goodspeed] continues his work at educating the masses on how to reverse engineer closed hardware devices. This time around he’s showing us
how to exploit the Device Firmware Updates protocol in order to get your hands on firmware images
. It’s a relatively easy technique that uses a man-in-the-middle attack to dump the firmware image directly to a terminal window. This way you can get down to the nitty-gritty of decompiling and hex editing as quickly as possible.
For this hack he used his Facedancer board. We first saw the hardware
used to emulate a USB device
, allowing the user to send USB commands via software. Now it’s being used to emulate your victim hardware’s DFU mode. This is done by supplying the vendorID and productID of the victim, then pushing the firmware update as supplied by the manufacturer. In most cases this shouldn’t even require you to have the victim hardware on hand. | 11 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "811318",
"author": "Anne Nonymous",
"timestamp": "2012-10-09T18:10:47",
"content": "Why not use the Linux USB debug options?Similar to capturing packets using wireshark, the USB debug interface allows one to capture all the packets on the USB bus, with handy decoding built in.For “W... | 1,760,376,714.784086 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/10/09/teens-pulled-over-while-driving-their-wooden-roadster/ | Teens Pulled Over While Driving Their Wooden Roadster | Mike Szczys | [
"Transportation Hacks"
] | [
"car",
"dirt bike",
"engine",
"frame",
"wood"
] | From this view we would think
the handmade wooden roadster
(
translated
) was street legal. But it’s missing a few items that are required to take it out on the highway. The teenagers that built it
were pulled over the other night
(
translated
) and cited for driving without a speedometer or side indicator lights.
The image above shows the mark II of their design. Sadly they crashed the first version, which gave them a chance to overhaul the entire design. Now they have a proper frame which was welded from steel square tube. It’s got an impressive rack and pinion steering system and shock absorbing suspension in the front and rear. A dirt bike engine mounted behind the seats drives the rear wheels via a chain. They’ve used an Arduino to add turn signals, and have headlights for night driving.
[Gerrit] sent in the tip on this one and he figures that with an Arduino already being used in the vehicle it should be a quick fix to add a speedometer and get back on the road. | 49 | 26 | [
{
"comment_id": "811081",
"author": "Alexander",
"timestamp": "2012-10-09T16:09:28",
"content": "Just a thought, cool build, but why does it need an arduino for the turn signals!?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "811102",
"author": "H. ... | 1,760,376,714.934531 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/10/09/hackaday-ama-happening-right-now-at-reddit/ | Hackaday AMA Happening Right Now At Reddit. | Caleb Kraft | [
"News"
] | [
"reddit"
] | Our
AMA is live right now
. Come ask us questions. You can ask here in our comments too, but frankly the Reddit system is better for at length nested discussion.
Items to be discussed:
-how to submit your story to hackaday
-our new template coming soon | 2 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "811217",
"author": "JeeCee",
"timestamp": "2012-10-09T17:28:10",
"content": "To lazy to make an account on Reddit, but I would like to thank Hack A Day and all writers/contributers/hackers/commenters for the best place on the Internet! :)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
... | 1,760,376,715.08707 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/10/09/bootloader-brings-usb-firmware-updating-to-the-attiny85/ | Bootloader Brings USB, Firmware Updating To The ATtiny85 | Brian Benchoff | [
"ATtiny Hacks",
"Microcontrollers"
] | [
"attiny85",
"firmware",
"tiny85",
"usb",
"V-USB"
] | [Jenna] sent in a very cool bootloader she thought people might like. It’s called
Micronucleus
and it turns the lowly ATtiny 85 into a chip with a USB interface capable of being upgraded via a ‘viral’ uploader program. Micronucleus weighs in at just over 2 kB, making it one of the smallest USB-compatible bootloaders currently available.
The USB support comes from
V-USB
, a project that puts a virtual USB port on a suite of AVR microcontrollers. With V-USB, it’s easy to turn a Tiny85 into a keyboard, custom joystick, data logger, or computer-attached LED display.
One very interesting feature of Micronucleus is the ‘viral updater’ feature. This feature takes a new piece of firmware, and writes it to a Tiny85, disabling the current bootloader. If you’re designing a project that should have a means of updating the firmware via USB instead of the usual AVR programmer, this might be the bootloader for you.
Not bad for a bootloader that emphasizes small code size. At just over 2 kB, it’s possible to use this bootloader on the similar, smaller, and somewhat cheaper ATtiny45. | 14 | 12 | [
{
"comment_id": "810978",
"author": "Dan Fruzzetti",
"timestamp": "2012-10-09T15:21:42",
"content": "That is pretty cool. I love how tiny it is. It’s like PicoBSD back in the day, which fit on a 720k floppy…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "811... | 1,760,376,715.136868 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/10/09/bringing-java-to-the-world-of-microcontrollers/ | Bringing Java To The World Of Microcontrollers | Brian Benchoff | [
"ARM",
"Software Development"
] | [
"arm",
"java",
"java ME embedded"
] | C is a beautiful language perfectly suited for development on low-power devices such as the 8-bit microcontrollers. With newer, more powerful ARM microcontrollers making their way onto the market and workbenches around the world, it was only fitting that Oracle got in on the action. They
released a version of Java
targeted at these newer, more powerful microcontrollers called
Java ME embedded
.
The new embedded version of Java has everything you would expect from a microcontroller development platform – access to GPIO pins, including SD cards and I2C devices. The new Java machine is designed for full headless operation and is capable of running on devices with as little as 130 kB of RAM and 350 kB of ROM.
As for the utility of programming a microcontroller in Java, it’s still the
second most popular language
, after spending the better part of a decade as the number one language programmers choose to use. The requirements of the new embedded version of Java are far too large to fit onto even the best 8-bit microcontrollers, but with a new crop of more powerful ARM devices, we’ll expect to see more and more ARM/Java projects making their way into the Hackaday tip line in the coming months.
Tip ‘o the hat to [roger] for sending this one in. | 104 | 40 | [
{
"comment_id": "810848",
"author": "gonzih",
"timestamp": "2012-10-09T14:12:01",
"content": "Can I run Clojure/Scala on that JVM? :Dbtw awesome news!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "811110",
"author": "Kris Lee",
"timestamp": ... | 1,760,376,715.340947 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/10/09/single-sided-arduino-is-a-great-introduction-to-pcb-etching/ | Single Sided Arduino Is A Great Introduction To PCB Etching | Brian Benchoff | [
"Arduino Hacks"
] | [
"arduino",
"etching",
"pcb manufacturing",
"single-sided"
] | After you’ve taken the plunge and decided to learn how to etch your own circuit boards, you’ll quickly find even the simplest boards are still out of your grasp. This is due mostly to the two-layer nature of most PCBs, and turn making a homemade Arduino board an exercise in frustration and improving your vocabulary of four-letter words.
After looking around for an easy-to-manufacture single-sided Arduino board, [Johan] realized there weren’t many options for someone new to board etching.
He created the Nanino
, quite possibly the simplist Arduino compatible board that can be made in a kitchen sink.
Billing it as something between the
Veroduino
and the
Diavolino
, [Johan]’s board does away with all the complexities of true Arduinos by throwing out the USB interface and FTDI chip. A very small parts count makes the Nanino much less expensive to produce in quantity than even the
official Arduino single sided board
.
For an introduction to etching your own PCBs at home, we couldn’t think of a better first board. As an Arduino, you’re guaranteed to find some use for it and the ease of manufacture and low parts count makes it the perfect subject for your hackerspace’s next tutorial series. | 20 | 15 | [
{
"comment_id": "810782",
"author": "cjwoodall",
"timestamp": "2012-10-09T13:29:31",
"content": "Very nice!Have you thought about using the usbASP bootloader and a USB B port? (http://www.obdev.at/products/vusb/usbasploader.html)The usbASP loader works pretty well in my experience! It could be worth... | 1,760,376,715.197495 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/10/09/hackadays-duelling-marble-mazes-are-dead/ | Hackaday’s Duelling Marble Mazes Are Dead | Caleb Kraft | [
"News"
] | [] | Well, the whole RedBull Creation contest has finally wrapped up. We’re back home and fully recovered from our weekend at MakerFaire. I want to thank the Redbull crew for making the weekend very fun and the crew from
Squidfoo
for being an awesome team.
Now that all the “thank you” statements are out of the way, lets talk about what happened. Kids trashed our game. Right off the bat we noticed our construction wasn’t going to hold up to the abuse. It was designed, built, and tested in such a short time that we really had no idea how it would hold up under the weight of the masses. As it turns out, we should have gone much, much, more rugged. It was destroyed almost immediately.
After finding that it had been smashed in shipping (our fault for not crating it correctly), we got everything functional in anticipation of the gates opening. After the first wave we saw that our cable system was quickly coming out of alignment. This was not aided by the fact that children would literally climb on it as their parents watched without saying a word.
By lunch, [Andrew], our carpenter had already spent a couple hours making quick repairs. A young teenager stomping on one of the control levers finally rendered one table completely out of commission. By 2:00 pm the first day, both tables were completely out of order.
Though it was a slight bummer that the tables were broken, it left us able to wander around and have tons of fun. [Scott Sauer] and [Ryan Fitzpatrick] had decided at some point to make a minotaur costume that turned out to be a huge hit. You can see some highlights of the costume above. | 38 | 19 | [
{
"comment_id": "810675",
"author": "Andy",
"timestamp": "2012-10-09T12:16:44",
"content": "I was there Sunday and saw it out of order. They place was a zoo, but there were lots of neat stuff to see. Too bad about kids climbing and smashing. For all the kids and parents who are respectful there will... | 1,760,376,715.579665 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/10/10/free-software-foundation-certifies-hardware-that-respects-your-freedom/ | Free Software Foundation Certifies Hardware That Respects Your Freedom | Brian Benchoff | [
"News"
] | [
"Free Software Foundation",
"open hardware",
"Respects Your Freedom",
"yro"
] | The Free Sofware Foundation, the very same organization responsible for the GNU General Public License and open source advocacy on the part of the Free Software stalwart [Richard Stallman], has
certified its first piece of hardware as Respecting Your Freedom
.
This new certification goes far beyond the goals of
Open Source Hardware
. In addition to providing documentation, schematics, and design files, hardware certified as Respecting Your Freedom must
meet much more stringent requirements
.
Of course, all software used with RYF hardware must be Free Software, but the certification also carries with it a few more requirements. The source and CAD files must be provided, it must use formats unencumbered by closed licenses, and the hardware must not spy on the user.
The honor of the first RYF-certified piece of hardware goes to, of course, a 3D printer. It’s
the AO-100
printer developed and sold by Aleph Objects, Inc., a.k.a. Lulzbot out of Colorado.
With so many Open Source Hardware projects coming down the pipe, it’s great to see a somewhat more militant organization (that’s a good thing!) such as the Free Software Foundation provide a certification process for hardware projects. Keep in mind this isn’t a ‘certified once and forget about it’ proposition; the FSF is willing to provide a bounty to encourage the public to report violations of RYF certification. Anything to
keep them honest
, right? | 32 | 19 | [
{
"comment_id": "812768",
"author": "Coda",
"timestamp": "2012-10-10T14:09:40",
"content": "I wondered when you’d make a reference to Makerbot lol.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "812774",
"author": "thegraynomad",
"timestamp": "2012-10-... | 1,760,376,715.500819 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/10/10/playing-around-with-mram/ | Playing Around With MRAM | Brian Benchoff | [
"hardware"
] | [
"dram",
"eeprom",
"FRAM",
"Magneto-Resistive",
"MRAM",
"ram",
"sram"
] | For the longest time, hardware tinkerers have only been able to play around with two types of memory. RAM, including Static RAM and Dynamic RAM, can be exceedingly fast but is volatile and loses its data when power is removed. Non-volatile memory such as EPROMS, EEPROMS, and Flash memory retains its state after power is removed, but these formats are somewhat slower.
There have always been competing technologies that sought to combine the best traits of these types of memory, but not often have they been available to hobbyists. [Majenko] got his hands on a few MRAM chips – Magneto-Resistive RAM –
and decided to see what they could do.
Magneto-Resistive RAM uses tiny pairs of magnetic plates to read and write 1s and 0s. [Majenko] received a sample of four MRAM chips with an SPI bus (it might be
this chip
, 4 Megabits for $20, although smaller capacity chips
are available
for about $6). After wiring these chips up on a home-made breakout board, [Majenko] had 16 Megabits of non-volatile memory that was able to run at 40 MHz.
The result was exactly what the datasheet said: very fast write and read times, with the ability to remove power. Unlike EEPROMS that can be
destroyed by repeated reading and writing
, MRAM has an unlimited number of write cycles.
While MRAM may be a very young technology right now, it’s a wonderful portent of things to come. In 20 (or 30, or 40) years, it’s doubtful any computer from the largest server to the smallest microcontroller will have the artificial separation between disk space and memory. The fact that any hardware hacker is able to play around with this technology today is somewhat amazing, and we look forward to more builds using MRAM in the future. | 26 | 15 | [
{
"comment_id": "812690",
"author": "Ren",
"timestamp": "2012-10-10T13:21:24",
"content": "Just as HaD reported a while back about someone testing the read/write cycles of an MCU chip, maybe the “unlimited number of write cycles” of these chips could be checked.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth":... | 1,760,376,715.642868 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/10/10/100000-lumen-chandelier-is-like-having-the-sun-a-few-feet-above-your-head/ | 100,000 Lumen Chandelier Is Like Having The Sun A Few Feet Above Your Head | Mike Szczys | [
"Lifehacks"
] | [
"chandelier",
"metal halide",
"seasonal affective disorder"
] | [Michail] doesn’t mess around when it comes to lighting.
He built this 100,000 Lumen chandelier
to make sure his office is bright during the dreary months. The thought is that it will provide the health benefits of long sunny day. It has been hanging for about a year now, and he slowly came to the realization that it’s several times too bright for indoor use.
We know where he’s coming from though. When it’s dark at 5 pm we want it to be plenty bright inside. He started with an incandescent bulb, then moved through compact fluorescent and halogen bulbs before deciding to undertake the build. What you see above are 150W Metal Halide lamps. There is some danger to using these without an enclosure. They do emit some UV light and they can explode. So whenever you buy a fixture that uses them there’s a sheet of filtering safety glass sealing up the enclosed sockets. [Michail] decided not to bother with this safety feature, instead depending on the benefits of an electronic ballast. He says these reduce the chances of an explosion sending scorching hot glass shrapnel your way.
As we mentioned earlier, his conclusion is that just one of these bulbs is enough to illuminate his small office. | 45 | 20 | [
{
"comment_id": "812494",
"author": "dopefishlives",
"timestamp": "2012-10-10T11:18:54",
"content": "metal halide lamps emit an eerie clinical blue light. It must have been like working in a UFO abduction scene from a b-movie.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
... | 1,760,376,715.427837 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/10/09/new-hackaday-template-coming-soon-heres-your-chance-to-make-it-better/ | New Hackaday Template Coming Soon. Here’s Your Chance To Make It Better! | Caleb Kraft | [
"News"
] | [] | <
edit
— Dark default layout (now shown above) with white option>
We’re going to be implementing a new template soon. We’ve been wanting to do this for years and it is finally happening. There are many reasons why this is necessary from site load speed to better commenting. This will give use more control over what is in our sidebar (right now I have to hand code everything into the friggin’ template!).
This is going to happen. Help us make it awesome.
Here is a preview of the new template. Yes, there is a white background. Lets take that as issue number 1. Anybody want to chime in on how to use javascript/jquery to load a different CSS file so people can choose a dark background? I’ve started reasearching, but I’m no star programmer.
<
edit
–> we’ll default to dark with an option for light.>
What does everyone think about the commenting system? How deep should we be able to nest? Right now I think we’re at 3 levels deep.
Would you prefer for us to do the stories as we are now (picture + a breakpoint wherever we want), or would you prefer for us to use excerpts to put more stories on the front page, but you only see a predefined amount of characters before you have to click to read? (ex:
venturebeat
)
<
edit
–> keeping our current system of BIG picture and controlled break>
We won’t be coding any completely new systems. We use WordPress and we don’t even have the ability to use all wordpress plugins that are available because of the hosting system we’re on. However, if you have any more ideas on how we can make browsing hackaday easier/better, lets us know.
We obviously can’t make
everyone
happy. Change is always met with resistance ([Newton’s] 17th law). | 339 | 50 | [
{
"comment_id": "811703",
"author": "soopergooman",
"timestamp": "2012-10-09T22:06:33",
"content": "looks like oh gizmo site.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "811715",
"author": "Caleb Kraft",
"timestamp": "2012-10-09T22:16:13",... | 1,760,376,715.972441 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/10/09/oscilloscope-vfd-repair-like-doing-brain-surgery-on-yourself/ | Oscilloscope VFD Repair Like Doing Brain Surgery On Yourself | Mike Szczys | [
"Repair Hacks",
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"msp430",
"oscilloscope",
"vfd"
] | [Jerry Pommer] has an old Tektronix 2236 that is having some issues. Just to the right of the top corner of the screen is a VFD display that is used to show various numerical measurements. Unfortunately this has stopped working, so
he made the oscilloscope probe itself in order to trouble-shoot
the situation.
The entire repair process was filmed and you can see the 42-minute job embedded after the break. There’s a lot of stuff crammed inside that oscilloscope, and we see a tour of it all at the beginning of the video. Once [Jerry] gets down to business he traces the problem to a JK Flip-Flop used to feed the display. The output appears correct at first, but the clock signal is not functioning as expected. His solution is to use an MSP430 chip to replace the Flip-Flop functions.
The confidence to try this repair was sparked by [Todd Harrington’s]
car-stereo VFD repair video
. | 11 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "811611",
"author": "rasz",
"timestamp": "2012-10-09T21:27:11",
"content": ">CD4027 J-K flip flop as the culprit, and not>having one on hand to replace it I had the idea of>programming a TI MSP430I died inside a little (even more than during the last FVD repair video)",
"parent_i... | 1,760,376,715.784321 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/10/09/gravity-bike/ | Gravity Bike | Mike Szczys | [
"Transportation Hacks"
] | [
"bicycle",
"frame",
"gravity bike",
"lead",
"mountain"
] | This bicycle has no pedals and really nothing that resembles a seat. It’s not so much a way to get around as it’s a way to get down. Down from the mountain, and down low to the pavement. This is
a gravity bike built by the guys at S.I.N. Cycles
.
The frame is a long triangle which stretches the wheel base to make room for the rider. After getting the layout just right and welding the frame together they added the rather unorthodox building step of pouring molten lead into the hollow frame tube. This bike is used to descend a mountain road with the force of gravity, so the extra weight will help pull it just a bit faster. There’s one thing you’ll want to make sure is working before you climb aboard — the single front brake which you’ll need when coming into the curves. Check out some ride footage on this thing in the video after the break.
[via
Hacked Gadgets
] | 73 | 26 | [
{
"comment_id": "811496",
"author": "[]D [] []v[] []D",
"timestamp": "2012-10-09T20:16:54",
"content": "Because heavier objects must certainly fall faster than lighter objects… LOL!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "811712",
"author": "... | 1,760,376,716.13127 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/10/09/dummy-load-uses-gray-code-to-adjust-load-in-small-steps/ | Dummy Load Uses Gray Code To Adjust Load In Small Steps | Mike Szczys | [
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"dummy load",
"generator",
"gray code"
] | We’re not really interested in building a dummy load like this one for ourselves. But the concepts behind its design make for a nice little mental exercise as you read your way through the build description. [Pabr] wanted to build a dummy load which could be used to test a cheaply made gas generator. He wanted it to be as simple as possible, while providing a range of different loads. What he came up with is
this monotonically adjustable load tester which uses gray codes for switching
.
The video after the break does a good job of explaining the motivation for the design. Grey coding ensures that just one bit changes at a time. The example he uses to show the importance of this is when binary code transitions from 7 (0b0111) to 8 (0b1000). Three digits have been turned off and one has been turned on. Since he’s using light bulbs for his load this will turn off 700 Watts and then switch on 800W. That sudden jump in power draw can cause all kinds of problems with the generator’s engine. But the system he wired up will ensure that each flip of a switch moves in smaller steps. | 10 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "811349",
"author": "rj",
"timestamp": "2012-10-09T18:25:40",
"content": "That’s nifty, but I’m concerned about the halogen lights’ huge inrush current here.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "811492",
"author": "pabr",
... | 1,760,376,716.024679 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/10/08/building-up-an-inventory-of-smd-parts/ | Building Up An Inventory Of SMD Parts | Brian Benchoff | [
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"components",
"smd",
"tools"
] | Once you’ve been tinkering around with electronics for a while, you’ll realize the through-hole components that make breadboarding a circuit so easy won’t cut it anymore. Surface mount parts are the future, and make it incredibly easy to build a semi-professional mockup at home. The question arises, though:
how do you store thousands of surface mount parts
smaller than a grain of rice?
As [George] was building up his SMD inventory, he came across a few clever solutions. The first
was a binder
sold by Adafruit (and others) that holds strips of cut tape SMD components. [George] wanted something a little more modular, and when he came across an eBay auction for 5000 0805 resistors and 3000 0805 caps, he needed to find a storage solution.
[George] ran across these
tiny modular boxes
while shopping at Adafruit. These boxes are completely modular, interlock with each other, and have a hinged lid that will hopefully prevent the eventual, ‘SMD parts everywhere’ spill everyone his likely to have.
After printing out some labels for his boxes, [George] had a very tidy solution to his SMD organization problems. We’re wondering what other Hackaday readers use to organize their parts, so if you have a better solution
send it in
. | 57 | 32 | [
{
"comment_id": "809616",
"author": "Justin",
"timestamp": "2012-10-08T15:06:23",
"content": "FYI, you can make those binder pages yourself with a plastic bag sealer. I like the stuff they sell on adafruit but 35$ is a bit too much for a bundle of plastic.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
... | 1,760,376,716.229466 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/10/08/os-x-port-of-gqrx-is-the-easiest-way-to-get-into-software-defined-radio/ | OS X Port Of Gqrx Is The Easiest Way To Get Into Software Defined Radio | Brian Benchoff | [
"Mac Hacks",
"Radio Hacks"
] | [
"GnuRadio",
"GQRX",
"realtek",
"RTLSDR",
"sdr"
] | Many have tried to put together an easy package for running software defined radio packages on the Mac. Not many have succeeded the way [Elias]’
port of the gqrx SDR package
has. It’s simply the easiest way to get a software defined radio up and running on the mac.
gqrx
is a front end for the very popular
GNU Radio
software defined radio toolkit. Originally designed for the FUNcube SDR dongle, gqrx can also be made to work with one of the many, many USB TV tuners that have come out of China this past year for use as a software radio.
[Elias]’ port of gqrx isn’t the first app to put software defined radio on the Mac, but it certainly is the easiest. Simply by downloading [Elias] disk image, plugging in a TV tuner dongle, and starting the app, I was able to have a software radio receiver on my MacBook Air in less than a minute.
Everything required by GNU Radio and gqrx is already included, making this the easiest way to get SDR on a Mac. Very awesome work from [Elias], and we thank him. | 18 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "809385",
"author": "matt",
"timestamp": "2012-10-08T11:44:28",
"content": "Is there anything similar for windows?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "809404",
"author": "psps99",
"timestamp": "2012-10-08T12:08:13",... | 1,760,376,716.277527 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/10/07/hackaday-retro-roundup-this-time-with-a-powerpc-and-a-pet/ | Hackaday Retro Roundup, This Time With A PowerPC And A PET | Brian Benchoff | [
"classic hacks"
] | [
"commodore",
"Commodore PET",
"macintosh",
"PC/XT",
"Power Macintosh",
"retro edition"
] | Thought we forgot about this, didn’t you? Well, the
Hackaday Retro Edition
is still going strong, and this time we have a
few more retro successes
that were able to load our retro site with ancient hardware.
First up is a submission by [rusbus]. He had a Power Macintosh 6100/60 lying around – the first Macintosh with a PowerPC processor instead of the Motorola 68k – and loaded up our retro site. There are some weird quirks about the 6100, notably the
AAUI Ethernet tranceiver
connected to a 10BASE-T network.
Although some browsers are available for the 6100, notably
iCab
(it’s not
great,
but it also works on 68k machines), [rusbus] had to settle for Internet Explorer 3.01. He eventually got it working and
has a picture to prove it
.
On the subject of finding a proper web browser, [azog]
loaded up the retro site with a Commodore PET
. There aren’t any web browsers for a PET, you say? Well, [azog] had to make one.
The network adapter is a
Retroswitch Flyer Internet Modem
, and after finding some network-aware projects on the Retroswitch site such as an IRC and Telnet client, [azog] put together an extremely crude web browser. In BASIC.
Old
BASIC. We’re impressed.
With [azog]’s browser, the PET opens up a channel to a URL, reads the text coming in, and processes it. There’s only 1kb of video RAM and 32kb of system RAM, so small luxuries like scrolling are nearly impossible. An amazing piece of work, really.
Finally, [Bob] from Portugal sent in
a neat Flickr gallery
of a Schneider euro XT he found in his basement. It’s based on the IBM PC/XT running an Intel 8088 processor, but is enclosed in a ‘the keyboard is the computer’ form factor reminiscent of a C64 or TRS-80. He hasn’t gotten it on the Internet yet, but it’s still a cool piece of kit. | 8 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "808874",
"author": "Galane",
"timestamp": "2012-10-07T22:34:31",
"content": "Schneider euro XT … is enclosed in a ‘the keyboard is the computer’ form factorLook again, the computer is in a box separate from the keyboard, which looks to be a normal PC-XT type.It’s one of those weird ... | 1,760,376,717.922367 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/10/07/giving-the-msp430-a-gui/ | Giving The MSP430 A GUI | Brian Benchoff | [
"hardware",
"Microcontrollers"
] | [
"gui",
"msp430",
"uart"
] | Sometimes you need to toggle or read a few pins on a microcontroller for a project so simple (or so temporary) that coding some firmware is a rather large investment of time. [Jaspreet] had the same problem – wanting to read values and toggle pins without writing any code – so he came up with
a rather clever solution
to control an MSP430 through a serial connection.
[Jaspreet] calls his project ControlEasy, and it does exactly as advertised: it provides a software interface to control ADC inputs, PWM outputs, and the state of output pins via a desktop computer. ControlEasy does this with a matching piece of code running on any MSP430 with a hardware UART (like the TI Launchpad) sending and receiving data to the computer.
Right now ControlEasy can read analog values, generate PWM output, and set individual pins high and low. [Jaspreet] plans on expanding his software to allow control of LCDs and I2C and SPI devices.
In the video after the break you can see [Jaspreet] fiddling around with some pins on his LaunchPad via the GUI. The software is also available for download if you’d like to try it out, but unfortunately it’s a Windows-only build at this point.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rMAQzwj42QI&w=470] | 30 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "808742",
"author": "Hack Man",
"timestamp": "2012-10-07T19:15:40",
"content": "Anybody done this with a Mega yet?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "808748",
"author": "Hack Man",
"timestamp": "2012-10-07T19:29:47... | 1,760,376,718.12991 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/10/07/a-mobile-electronics-lab-for-all-your-projects/ | A Mobile Electronics Lab For All Your Projects | Brian Benchoff | [
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"electronics workbench",
"mobile workbench",
"tools",
"workbench"
] | When [Nisker]’s son got a very, very loud and annoying toy, he did what any good maker parent would do: instead of removing the batteries, he sought a way to lower the volume instead. This, of course, meant cracking open the toy and going at the circuit board with a soldering iron. Not having a permanent electronics workbench meant [Nisker] needed to dig out his Weller from a bag full of tools. Surely there must be an easier way to be a tinkerer with a small workspace.
[Nisker]’s solution was to build a
mobile electronics workbench
. The resulting wooden box has more than enough space to hold a signal generator, power supply, soldering iron, multimeter, and a bunch of other tools required for making or modding electronics projects.
The case was designed in Google Sketchup and constructed out of 12mm plywood for the sides and 6mm ply for the shelves. All the pieces were cut out with a circular saw and pieced together with screws and glue.
Now [Nisker] has a very compact – 16.9 x 7.9 x 22 inches – electronics lab he can carry just about anywhere. Not a bad project if you’re limited by your current space, and classy enough to keep around once you finally set up a proper workshop. | 20 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "808670",
"author": "Joe",
"timestamp": "2012-10-07T17:16:13",
"content": "All to solder a few resistors.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "808735",
"author": "Justin",
"timestamp": "2012-10-07T19:00:08",
... | 1,760,376,718.284904 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/10/07/using-uavs-to-find-mannequins-lost-in-the-outback/ | Using UAVs To Find Mannequins Lost In The Outback | Brian Benchoff | [
"drone hacks",
"Robots Hacks"
] | [
"drone",
"outback challenge",
"uav"
] | Every other year the Australian Research Center for Aerospace Automation, the government of Queensland, Australia and other government and research institutions hold a contest to develop technology for unmanned aerial vehicles for the wastes of central Australia. Canberra UAV – a group of autonomous drone enthusiasts from the Make, Hack, Void hackerspace – took part in this UAV challenge this year. They ended up
with one of the most successful UAVs
to every compete, and while they didn’t quite finish the competition they were one of the most successful entries to date.
The goal of the
Search and Rescue Outback Challenge
is to take off from a landing strip, search for a mannequin named Outback Joe, and deliver 500 ml of life-giving water via air drop. Out of 72 teams entered in to this year’s Outback Challenge, only 6 were allowed to take off – safety restrictions, don’t you know – and all but two hadn’t been destroyed via ‘rapid, unplanned descent’ during qualifications.
UAV Canberra
was the only team able to search
the entire 5 nautical mile radius search area with their cameras and find Outback Joe. Contest judges gave them permission to drop their payload, but unfortunately the bottle of water was snagged on the engine.
In the many iterations of the Search and Rescue Outback Challenge, UAV Canberra is only the second team to locate a mannequin in the outback, and the first to do it autonomously. A shame, then, that they were unable to claim a victory, but we’ll look forward to their entry in the next Search and Rescue competition.
You can check out a few videos of the Canberra UAV team’s flights after the break.
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9_WTa6y-P74&w=470]
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DucMZswn8rM&w=470] | 40 | 13 | [
{
"comment_id": "808591",
"author": "Chris Anderson",
"timestamp": "2012-10-07T15:15:11",
"content": "This was a huge accomplishment, and Tridge and team did extraordinary work. They are part of the core ArduPilot team from DIY Drones, and the APM2.5 autopilot and ArduPlane software was used in the ... | 1,760,376,718.06409 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/10/07/freesoc-for-when-you-need-68-io-pins/ | FreeSoC, For When You Need 68 I/O Pins | Brian Benchoff | [
"Crowd Funding",
"Microcontrollers"
] | [
"cypress",
"freeSoC",
"gpio",
"PSoC 5"
] | Like many of us, [Jon] began his journey through the magical world of microcontrollers with an Arduino. For a beginner, the Arduino is a wonderful tool, but [Jon] quickly found himself limited by the platform. There are too few pins on the Arduino, and and the platform doesn’t really lend itself to extremely complex projects. To this end, [Jon]
designed freeSoC
, an Arduino-compatible platform based on the Cypress Semiconductor PSoC 5.
The
Cypress PSoC 5
is an extremely capable microcontroller with 60 general purpose I/O pins and 8 special purpose, high current outputs. Every pin on [Jon]’s freeSoC is completely configurable; if you want 24 SPI ports and a dozen 20-bit ADCs, just launch Cypress’ design software and configure the chip graphically. With this many I/O ports, the PSoC 5 is as useful as an FPGA, without all the hassle of actually
being
and FPGA.
A really neat feature of the freeSoC is its ability to be programmed graphically. Using Cypress’
PSoC Creator IDE
, the multitude of I/O pins can be configured to just about anything very easily. Because the PSoC 5 is based on an ARM Cortex-M3, programming the freeSoC is as easy as any one of many ARM dev boards that were recently released.
[Jon] came up with a very, very neat project here, and it’s something we can definitely see the utility of.
Thanks [Dale] for sending this one in. | 25 | 13 | [
{
"comment_id": "808593",
"author": "DazzlingDuke",
"timestamp": "2012-10-07T15:17:55",
"content": "This is not as capable as an FPGA. FPGAs can run all the logic behind their pins concurrently. Microprocessors run their code sequentially. Which means you can spend hours trying to get the behavior y... | 1,760,376,717.981136 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/10/06/hackaday-links-october-6-2012/ | Hackaday Links: October 6, 2012 | Brian Benchoff | [
"Hackaday links"
] | [
"android",
"computer science",
"graphics card",
"ip webcam",
"math",
"PCI-E",
"Private Hackaday",
"programming",
"troll physics"
] | Upgrading a desktop with a diamond cutting wheel
[Michail] needed a new graphics card. The only problem was his motherboard didn’t have any free PCI-E x16 slots available. Unable to find a PCI-E x1 card, he did what any of us would do
and broke out the Dremel
. Yes, he got it working, but don’t do this unless you know what you’re doing.
It’s recycling!
[Steve] recently got a Galaxy S3 and was looking for something to do with his old phone. It’s got WiFi, it’s got a camera, and
with a free app
, [Steve]
now has an IP Webcam
. Neat way to recycle a phone.
This is now bookmarked
We’re not much for plugging other blogs, but
Math ∩ Programming
– that’s intersection, remember – is really cool. Apparently it has been around for a little more than a year and already there are quite a few really cool posts. How to
use cellular automaton to generate caves in video games
and
facial recognition through Eigenvalues
are amazingly in depth, and show the theory behind some really cool techniques. Very, very cool.
Troll Physics: now wireless!
Remember [Fredzislaw100], the guy who puzzled the Internet
with impossible circuits?
He’s back again, this time with
wireless LEDs
. We’re guessing something similar to an induction charging system in the battery clip, wirelessly coupled to something under the paper, and that is wirelessly coupled to the LEDs. Your guess will probably be better than ours, though.
Not shown: Captain Obvious, Major Major
Pv2 [Zachary Ricks] of the U.S. Army thought we would get a kick out of the last name of one of the guys in his company. Yes, it’s ‘Hackaday,’ and yes,
it’s a real surname
.
Here’s the full pic
[Zach] sent in. Apparently it’s a name along the lines of ‘Holiday.’ Honestly, we had no idea this was a real surname, but we’re thinking Private Hackaday could use a care package or two (dozen).
Anyone up for sending a few hacker friendly (for [Zach] and a few other guys) care packages? Even socks or books or Oreos would make for an awesome care package. Email me if you want the mailing address. | 33 | 20 | [
{
"comment_id": "808075",
"author": "Alex Rossie",
"timestamp": "2012-10-06T21:40:38",
"content": "Loving the graphics card chop-shop,",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "808091",
"author": "majincline",
"timestamp": "2012-10-06T22:01:23",
... | 1,760,376,718.562495 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/10/06/hackaday-proofing-your-hackerspaces-server/ | Hackaday-proofing Your Hackerspace’s Server | Brian Benchoff | [
"Hackerspaces",
"Software Hacks"
] | [
"hackerspace",
"web hosting",
"web server"
] | Last month we posted a tutorial from Hub City Labs on
making your own PCBs at home
. At the time, Hub City was hosting their hackerspace web site on a tiny vps graciously provided by a member. As you might expect, the throngs of Hackaday readers turned Hub City Labs’ server into a pile of molten slag and made their admin’s hair a little more gray. Their web site is up again, and Hub City provided a tutorial on protecting your server from
the ravages of being Slashdotted, Farked, Reddited, and even Hackaday’d.
The solution for the first few hours was to transfer Hub City Labs’ site to an
Amazon EC2 instance
. Since then, they’ve moved over to a Debian EC2 instance that is able to handle half a million pageviews an hour for a WordPress site.
This amazing capability required a good bit of optimizations. A WordPress installation is set to run cron tasks on every page load; not good if you’re going to see thousands of hits every minute. The guys added define(‘DISABLE_WP_CRON’, true) to their wp-config.php file and set all the background tasks – checking to see if a page should be updated – to a fixed schedule every minute or so. Along with an increase in the WordPress cache, these optimizations increased the number of pageviews an hour from 1500 to 60000.
To get up to half a million pageviews an hour, the EC2 instance was loaded up with
Varnish
, a front-end cache that really speeds things up.
The result – 375 million pageviews for $15 a month – is more than Hub City Labs will probably ever need. The nature of hackerspace web sites, though – light load until Hackaday, Slashdot, or Reddit figure out you did something cool – means hosting on an expandable EC2 instance is probably the way to go. | 24 | 15 | [
{
"comment_id": "807898",
"author": "ho0d0o",
"timestamp": "2012-10-06T16:13:42",
"content": "This is understandable. I ran a popular streaming anime site that was constantly having these same problems. It’s awesome that HAD has the sheer visitor power to bring a server down, especially a tiny share... | 1,760,376,718.346541 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/10/06/web-ide-for-the-raspi/ | Web IDE For The Raspi | Brian Benchoff | [
"Raspberry Pi",
"Software Development"
] | [
"adafruit",
"ide",
"Raspi",
"Web IDE"
] | For this month’s release of Adafruit’s Raspberry Pi Linux distribution, [Limor], et al. decided to build a
web-based IDE for the Raspberry Pi
.
The Raspberry Pi WebIDE is a web server that runs on the Raspi. By connecting to your raspi in a web browser, you’re able to create your own Python programs that are able to interact with the GPIO pins. All the code is stored in the cloud with the help of
bitbucket
.
The WebIDE is in its early Alpha stage right now; there are a few bugs and minor issues, but in the video after the break, [Limor] shows us it’s possible to push code to a Raspi through the Internet and view the result in a web-based serial terminal.
For fear of editorializing, we have to point out that Adafruit’s web IDE – along with other Arduino web IDEs such as
Codebender
and the
Wifino
– work on the cloud. If you’re planning a long-term project that relies on a web-based IDE, you might be in for a world of hurt if only because you can’t host a cloud on a personal server. We’d love to see a package that allows us to have the same functionality as bitbucket on a personal server. If you can find a project that does something similar, or have written your own,
send it in
and we’ll spread the word.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mbwxXzIPxdc&w=470] | 9 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "807885",
"author": "Peter",
"timestamp": "2012-10-06T15:51:19",
"content": "http://www.zdnet.com/blog/open-source/owncloud-an-open-source-cloud-to-call-your-own/10011",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "807928",
"author": "1one"... | 1,760,376,717.875799 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/10/06/flashing-leds-protect-livestock-from-lion-attacks/ | Flashing LEDs Protect Livestock From Lion Attacks | Ryan Fitzpatrick | [
"LED Hacks"
] | [
"led",
"lion",
"solar"
] | When we think of defense against lion attacks, the first thought is usually guns. Lots and lots of guns. [Richard Turere], a 13 year old Kenyan tinkerer with neither books nor any technical education, has come up with something entirely different – He’s keeping the lions at bay with
a solar powered system of flashing LEDs
. Yup. Flashing LEDs.
Since he and his family live next to
Nairobi National Park
, lion attacks are an ever present danger. The only defense systems available were far too expensive for his family to afford, so he decided to build his own. He utilized the basic resources he had readily available: LED bulbs removed from broken flashlights, some switches, an old car battery, wire, and a solar panel that also operates his family’s TV.
The results speak for themselves. His family has had no lion attacks in over two years, and at least five of his neighbors believe in the system enough to have had him install it on their fences too. With the cost for this set up at less than ten dollars, and all the parts being readily available, this rather basic electrical system is an amazing breakthrough for the Kenyan pastoralists.
We look forward to seeing more of [Richard’s] inventions. Way to go! | 50 | 17 | [
{
"comment_id": "807763",
"author": "Chris C.",
"timestamp": "2012-10-06T13:25:28",
"content": "Now that’s a good invention!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "807768",
"author": "faso",
"timestamp": "2012-10-06T13:28:40",
"content": "w... | 1,760,376,718.429493 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/10/05/getting-a-nest-thermostat-to-work-in-europe/ | Getting A Nest Thermostat To Work In Europe | Mike Szczys | [
"home hacks"
] | [
"europe",
"nest",
"spain",
"thermostat",
"wireshark"
] | [Julian] was really excited to get his hands on a Nest learning thermostat. It’s round, modern design will make it a showpiece in his home, but he knew there would be a few hiccups when trying to take advantage of its online features. That’s because [Julian] lives in Spain, and Nest is only configured to work in North America. But as you can see above, he did a bit
of hacking to get it displaying his actual location
.
The Nest is web-connected and phones home to the company’s server to handle configuration. Since they’ve made the decision to only support a portion of the world [Julian] had to do a little bit of digging to bend it to his will. He used Wireshark to sniff the packets it was sending. The calls to the company’s server use SSL, but the device also contacts the Weather Underground for data and this is not encrypted. So he was able to intercept that with his router and inject custom information. It’s not a full solution, but he’s part way there.
We’d really like to see what is possible with this device so
please send us a link
to any Nest hacks of your own. | 24 | 12 | [
{
"comment_id": "807107",
"author": "Mike",
"timestamp": "2012-10-05T22:39:19",
"content": "I dont have any hacks for this, but as I was studying HVAC in college, we got to mess with one of these as they came out. We had an issue with the RC and RH terminals not being jumped together and there isnt... | 1,760,376,718.489274 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/10/05/stcdude-is-linux-friendly-isp-programming-software-for-stc-8051-chips/ | Stcdude Is Linux Friendly ISP Programming Software For STC 8051 Chips | Mike Szczys | [
"Microcontrollers"
] | [
"8051",
"SDCC",
"stcdude"
] | [Andrew] picked up a handful of these big STC 8051 chips for a song and dance. The problem he has with them is the clunky VB6 programming software that only wants to run on a Windows box. He buckled down and
wrote his own programming software called stcdude
. As you have probably guessed, it’s meant to perform the same open-source functions that avrdude does for AVR chips. It can be used in conjunction with
the Small Device C Compiler (SDCC)
.
It uses an API which is based on Lua script. We think this is to make it easy to interface your own hardware programmer with the software. The package is still quite early in development but it is working and even implements the ability to poll and identify the type of chip based on its stored hardware database. It sounds like he could use a hand. The stock software must still be used for setting the MCU options. We’re not really familiar with the 8051 family but we’d bet that is akin to setting the fuses on the AVR chips. Please let us know in the comments if we’re wrong about that. | 12 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "807124",
"author": "sqkybeaver",
"timestamp": "2012-10-05T23:03:15",
"content": "the 8051 uses SFRs to change device settings, unlike avr, most all 8051 derivatives reset the SFRs at powerup.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "8071... | 1,760,376,718.615483 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/10/05/theres-a-friggin-cellphone-in-the-most-recent-entertainment-weekly/ | There’s A Friggin’ Cellphone In The Most Recent Entertainment Weekly | Mike Szczys | [
"Android Hacks",
"Cellphone Hacks"
] | [
"android",
"Entertainment Weekly",
"magazine"
] | Hackaday readers were stumbling over each other to send in a link about
this Android cellphone inside of an Entertainment Weekly magazine
. Thanks to all who sent it in, and keep them coming. We’d rather get too many tips than none at all!
The first thing we should address is the discomfort you will feel while watching the video after the break. If you’ve got any experience tearing open electronics to see what’s inside you will be physically uncomfortable watching this pair bumble through it. It makes us want to do some MST3K-style overdubbing of the video, but their content ownership claim in the description makes us sure we’d get an immediate take-down notice if we did so.
At any rate, what we have here is some really cool tech you almost certainly will
not
be able to get your hands on. In the image above you can see the small LCD screen to the right. It comes to life when the page is opened thanks to the sliding switch being pointed to in the image. A few television show promos will play before the device starts scrolling items from the CW Twitter feed. When the hardware is pulled out of the pages there’s some interesting tinkering to be done. Shorting the contacts on the keyboard overlay (about 8 minutes into the video) brings up an Asian-language menu which is pretty obviously Android.
This is not the first time the magazine has done something like this.
CBS embedded video a few years back
but we’re pretty sure that one didn’t use the full guts of a cellphone. It’s just too bad these issues are so rare (only 1000 are available in two cities) as we had a lot of fun
hacking that Esquire issue with the epaper in it
. | 131 | 50 | [
{
"comment_id": "806956",
"author": "ashirviskas",
"timestamp": "2012-10-05T20:06:47",
"content": "What is the model of that phone ?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "806970",
"author": "rasz",
"timestamp": "2012-10-05T20:17:29",
"cont... | 1,760,376,719.395682 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/10/05/rube-goldeberg-mixes-in-freerunning-reminds-us-of-human-sized-game-of-mouse-trap/ | Rube Goldeberg Mixes In Freerunning; Reminds Us Of Human-sized Game Of Mouse Trap | Mike Szczys | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"freerunning",
"redbull",
"rube goldberg"
] | Yep, those are just some shipping containers being used as dominoes in
this very impressive Rube Goldberg machine
. The apparatus includes a human element, with freerunners making their way through a whole bunch of obstacles. In fact, if you look closely you’ll see the outline of a man who just jumped from the top of each container to get to the ground. The project is a marketing device for Red Bull, who must have shelled out quite a bit for the setup. We’ve embedded the video after the break where you’ll see they went all out with the filming of the device.
To tell you the truth we kind of wish that a Rube-Goldberg build had been the goal of
this year’s Redbull Creation Contest
. It would have been all but impossible to go this big, but some of the stages (like a suspended bath tub slowly draining its reservoir of water) would have been easy to make happen. Well, there’s always next year!
[Thanks Doug] | 13 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "806926",
"author": "Jarrod",
"timestamp": "2012-10-05T19:47:42",
"content": "Apparently Red Bull give you balls as well as wings…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "806963",
"author": "Ben H.",
"timestamp": "2012-... | 1,760,376,719.259802 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/10/05/led-cyber-eyes-more-nerdy-than-just-taping-your-glasses/ | LED Cyber Eyes; More Nerdy Than Just Taping Your Glasses | Mike Szczys | [
"LED Hacks",
"Wearable Hacks"
] | [
"12F1840",
"accelerometer",
"eyebrow",
"eyebrows",
"glasses",
"led",
"mma8450",
"pic"
] | Regular glasses are okay, but
these light up and respond to your movement
. [Dr. Iguana] is at it again, designing a very interestingly shaped PCB to augment your visual augmentation devices.
The circuit board has two thin curving wings which conform to the shape of a pair of glasses. In the middle there’s a larger area that holds most of the components but it’s still smaller than a common coin cell battery that powers the device. Over each eye there are a half dozen red LEDs which are driven by a PIC 12F1840. It can flash a bunch of patterns the but the interactivity is the real gem of the project. The doctor included an MMA8450 3-axis accelerometer. As you can see in the clip after the break, shaking your head this way and that will be reflected in the pattern of lights. | 11 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "806905",
"author": "XOIIO",
"timestamp": "2012-10-05T19:19:09",
"content": "I’m sure this has a practical application, but I can’t think of one.It does, right?Anyways, hishead movement reminds me of johnny 5 for some reason.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
... | 1,760,376,719.210463 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/10/05/ians-global-geek-tour-new-york/ | [Ian’s] Global Geek Tour: New York | Mike Szczys | [
"Hackerspaces"
] | [
"dangerous prototypes",
"ian lesnet",
"maker faire",
"new york",
"open source hardware"
] | [Ian Lesnet], founder of Dangerous Prototypes and Hackaday alumnus, entertains us once again with his Global Geek Tour.
This time around he’s visited New York City
for the Open Source Hardware Summit, Maker Faire, and a tour of the geeky attractions the city has to offer.
There’s a 25-minute video embedded after the break. [Ian] starts off with an homage to [Anthony Bourdain] but don’t worry, that subsides after a couple of minutes. This year he skipped the hotel and rented an apartment in the village for the same price. After making a survey of the local food offerings he heads off to
the OSH Summit
. There are interviews with a lot of big names in the industry, as well as a look at some distillery hardware and a mobile hackerspace built in an old ambulance acquired from Craig’s list (go figure). Next it’s a tour of Hack Manhattan, a hackerspace from which the screenshot above was pulled. We loved seeing the box labeled “abandoned projects” and were surprised to see the hackerspace is keeping bees. Are there any other spaces doing this? Before heading over to the Maker Faire [Ian] checks out some of the local shops. There’s a stop a Radio Shack, the Makerbot store where even the display cases are 3D printed, and finally a tour of some local component shops.
We’re always entertained by these world travelling videos. Here’s
one he did in Seoul
, South Korea. | 2 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "809579",
"author": "draeath",
"timestamp": "2012-10-08T14:44:35",
"content": "Zoom H1. Got one myself. Never have thought to use it that way, though. Great recorder.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "816741",
"author": "raster... | 1,760,376,719.112154 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/10/05/another-automatic-air-freshener-use/ | Another Automatic Air Freshener Use | Jeremy Cook | [
"LED Hacks",
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"air freshener",
"led",
"pir"
] | We’ve seen air fresheners used for many hacks here at hackaday. This one is a bit different as
it uses the PIR sensor assembly
to turn on LEDs in sequence, rather than reversing a motor. Generally, the motor would be reversed by the fact that this assembly is reversing the voltage on a motor (see
[H Bridge] on Wikipedia
), but instead it turns on one set of LEDs and then the other.
This works because a diode (the “D” in LED) only allows current to flow one way. The LEDs are reversed with respect to the voltage source, making them come on in sequence. An Arduino or other microprocessor could of course be used to accomplish the same thing (see this
[HAD] post about harvesting the PIR sensor
only). However, if you had $10 or less to start your hardware hacking career, this is yet another way an air freshener can be hacked up to do your bidding.
Be sure to see the video of this simple hack after the break, used to “LED-ify” a Star Wars AT-ST painting. If you’re interested in using the gears and motor of an air fresher as well, why not
check out this post
on remotely triggering a camera with the internals from a time-based model?
[youtube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5beN8mZy4OM&w=470&h=315%5D | 3 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "806789",
"author": "brimstoner",
"timestamp": "2012-10-05T17:43:22",
"content": "…automatic motion sensor pepper sprayer with RFID disabler…and go.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "806832",
"author": "Jeremy Cook",
... | 1,760,376,719.06928 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/10/05/a-javascript-interpreter-for-arm-micros/ | A JavaScript Interpreter For ARM ‘micros | Brian Benchoff | [
"Software Development"
] | [
"arm",
"interpreter",
"javascript",
"microcontroller",
"STM discovery",
"stm32f3discovery"
] | When programming a microcontroller to do your bidding, you only have two choices. You could write your code in a proper language such as C and cross-compile your source into a piece of firmware easily understood by a micro. Alternatively, your could load an interpreter on your microcontroller and write code via a serial connection. Interpreters are a really fast and easy method to dig in to the hardware but unfortunately most microcontroller interpreters available are based on BASIC or Forth.
[Gordon] figured it’s not 1980 anymore, and interpreters for these relatively low-level languages aren’t a good fit with the microcontrollers of today. To solve this problem,
he created Espruino
, a JavaScript interpreter for the new batch of ARM development boards that have been cropping up.
Espruino is designed for the
STM32VL Discovery board
, although [Gordon] plans on porting his interpreter to the Arduino Due when he can get his hands on one. Installation is as easy as uploading any other piece of firmware, and even though [Gordon]’s STM32VL doesn’t have a USB port for a serial terminal, it’s a snap to connect a USB to TTL converter and get this interpreter working.
Espruino isn’t open source
yet,
only because [Gordon] would like to clean up his code and write a bit of documentation. He’d also like to make Espruino profitable so he can work on it full-time, so if anyone has an idea on how [Gordon] can do that, leave a note in the comments. | 42 | 17 | [
{
"comment_id": "806593",
"author": "Dynamo Dan",
"timestamp": "2012-10-05T15:22:00",
"content": "If the raspberry pi is considered an ARM development board (armv6 architecture, after all) there is nodejs.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "80665... | 1,760,376,719.563269 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/10/05/led-illuminated-isomorphic-keyboard-looks-as-good-as-it-sounds/ | LED Illuminated Isomorphic Keyboard Looks As Good As It Sounds | Brian Benchoff | [
"Musical Hacks"
] | [
"isomorphic keyboard",
"keyboard",
"midi controller",
"piano",
"synthesizer"
] | Unlike the traditional ebony and ivory found on pianos, isomorphic keyboards arrange buttons on a grid. This makes every chord the same shape, and to transpose a piece it’s simply a matter of moving your fingers a few places to the left or right. [Brett Park]
sent in an isomorphic keyboard
he built loaded up with LEDs, and we’re thinking it the perfect instrument for musicians looking to move up from playing their MacBook.
The body of [Brett]’s keyboard is made out of a sheet of acrylic. After drilling 64 holes for each of the
clear arcade buttons
, [Brett] bent the sides of his hexagonal keyboard into a very sturdy-looking enclosure.
On the hardware side, [Brett] used a
64 button Arduino shield
and a
Sparkfun MIDI shield
. The RGB LEDs behind each button are controlled via MIDI sysex messages generated outside the instrument, making it perfect for a little bit of visual feedback from whatever soft synth you desire.
In the videos after the break, you can check out the light patterns in action along with one of [Brett]’s improvs. Notice how all the chords are the same shape, and changing the key only requires [Brett] to move his hands slightly to the side.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQYPXATlC1E&w=470]
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NuHa3982PyU&w=470] | 15 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "806568",
"author": "Mike",
"timestamp": "2012-10-05T14:55:31",
"content": "Is this the same pattern of buttons on the button accordion?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "806578",
"author": "David Gerhard",
"times... | 1,760,376,719.161484 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/10/05/jailbreaking-the-kindle-paperwhite/ | Jailbreaking The Kindle Paperwhite | Brian Benchoff | [
"Kindle hacks",
"Tablet Hacks"
] | [
"jailbreaking",
"kindle",
"kindle paperwhite",
"rooting"
] | The Kindle Paperwhite, Amazon’s newest e-ink reader featuring a touch interface with a higher contrast display,
is now officially jailbroken
.
[geekmaster], the geek master behind this hack, based his jailbreak off
[Yifan]’s previous hack
to jailbreak the Kindle Touch. Installation is a snap, and only requires you to upload the
data.stgz
file to the root directory of the Paperwhite and restart the device. On the next boot, the Paperwhite will be jailbroken, allowing you to do tons of cool stuff with a tiny Linux device connected to an e-ink screen.
We’ve already seen a few really cool uses for jailbroken Kindles including
a weather station display
and
a serial terminal
for your Raspberry Pi. Cracking the newer and better Kindle Paperwhite means those e-ink projects you’ve been thinking about building just became much more attractive.
One word of warning from [geekmaster], though: USB downloader mode isn’t yet enabled. If you brick your device, you’ll need to connect your Kindle to a serial port. This shouldn’t be a problem for Hackaday readers, but it is something to watch out for. | 32 | 20 | [
{
"comment_id": "806360",
"author": "Brandon",
"timestamp": "2012-10-05T12:54:36",
"content": "Looks like a good forum for info. Got my unit this week but it’s already 5.2.0 and this jailbreak is for 5.1.x. That’s even with keeping it in Airplane mode for the last two days.",
"parent_id": null,... | 1,760,376,719.75085 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/10/04/making-a-nostalgic-apple-mouse-wireless/ | Making A Nostalgic Apple Mouse Wireless | Mike Szczys | [
"Mac Hacks",
"Peripherals Hacks"
] | [
"apple",
"classic",
"mouse",
"retrofit",
"wireless"
] | If you’ve got an old mouse sitting around that has that perfect retro look why not start using it again? We’d bet there’s just enough room in there to
turn the input device wireless
.
The hack does away with everything but the case. The guts from a brand new wireless laser mouse are used as replacements. For the most part this is a simple process of making room for the new board and laying it in place. It involves cutting off a few plastic case nubs, enlarging the hole on the bottom so that the laser has a clear line of sight to the desktop, and hot gluing the thing in place. The button cover had a bit of plastic glued in place so that it lines up correctly with the replacement mouse’s switch.
The only thing that didn’t work out well is the battery situation. The AA cell that the mouse needs was too big for the retrofit so it was swapped with an AAA. These have a lower capacity which means more frequent replacement.
[via
Make
] | 22 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "805873",
"author": "Hirudinea",
"timestamp": "2012-10-04T23:47:26",
"content": "With a little more dremeling he could have put the mouse button on a pivot so he could have left and right clicking, just saying.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
... | 1,760,376,719.685398 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/10/04/3d-printing-a-rocket-engine/ | 3D Printing A Rocket Engine | Brian Benchoff | [
"Engine Hacks"
] | [
"laser sintering",
"liquid fuel",
"rocket",
"rocket engine"
] | Most any rocket engine you’d find on a spacecraft – save for solid or hybrid rockets – use an engine system that’s fairly complex. Because of the intense heat, the fuel is circulated around the chamber before ignition giving a motor its regeneratively cooled nomenclature. This arrangement leads to a few complicated welding and machining processes, but surprisingly these obstacles can be overcome by simply
printing a rocket engine on a 3D printer
.
The current engine is quite small, but still fueled just like any other proper rocket engine that makes it into Earth orbit. The fuel is propane, the oxidizer is NO2, and the entire device is ignited with an automotive spark plug. Of course this was an expensive proposition; a motor with 12 pounds of thrust cost somewhere in the range of four figures.
Printing a rocket engine has a few advantages over traditional manufacturing techniques. [Rocket Moonlighting] explains that traditional techniques (mills, lathes and other heavy equipment) are bound by labor, material, and time. The costs of printing a rocket engine are only bound
by the volume of the finished piece
, meaning the most expensive engine per unit of thrust is the one that will fit in your pocket; scaling up means more efficiency for less cost.
There are a few videos up after the break showing the engine in action at full throttle, a few start and restart tests, and a test that involved throttling the engine. It’s an extremely impressive piece of kit, and hopefully [Rocket Moonlighting] will release the CAD source so we can make our own.
EDIT: [RM] tells me his engine cost less than $2000 to make. If just 10 people wanted their own engine from a ‘group buy,’ the price would drop by more than half. If you’d like your own 3D printed rocket engine, you might do well to
drop [Rocket Moonlighting] a line
.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bt2vQdgpZZg&w=470]
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W_idSgO0jlQ&w=470]
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JqDkgrQTP_Q&w=470] | 26 | 13 | [
{
"comment_id": "805848",
"author": "ByteLord",
"timestamp": "2012-10-04T23:04:50",
"content": "cool, soon we can just download and print the bombs we want to fire at each other.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "805891",
"author": "mzun... | 1,760,376,719.62197 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/10/04/try-out-your-assembly-and-basic-skills-with-a-zx-spectrum-project/ | Try Out Your Assembly And BASIC Skills With A ZX Spectrum Project | Mike Szczys | [
"computer hacks"
] | [
"assembly",
"basic",
"ZX Spectrum"
] | It can be really hard to warm up to coding in Assembly. But this tutorial looks to make it understandable and (almost) easy. It focuses on
programming a game for the ZX Spectrum
. But you won’t need the hardware on hand as you can just use the ZX Spin emulator as you work your way through the code.
Ostensibly this is a 30-minute tutorial but that’s a gross underestimate. We finished a cursory read of the tutorial and the building blocks are certainly clear and easy to understand. But we like to make sure we understand every line of code and plan to spread that out over the coming weekend.
The first chapter eases us into machine code by combining it with a bit of BASIC. You’ll see how to manipulate the ZX Spectrum memory and then pluck that value back out into the BASIC program. But once chapter 2 hits it’s pretty much all assembly from there on out. The nice thing is that as you go along you learn how the hardware works and there are quite a few references to pages in the manual so you can do some extra learning along the way.
[Thanks Mathilda] | 15 | 12 | [
{
"comment_id": "805786",
"author": "Guesser",
"timestamp": "2012-10-04T21:33:54",
"content": "ZXSpin hasn’t been developed for quite some time now and has quite a few known bugs which can be quite frustrating. Personally I mostly use a win32 build of Fuse (The Free Unix Spectrum Emulator) but there... | 1,760,376,719.804581 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/10/04/malicious-raspberry-pi-power-strip-looks-a-bit-scary/ | Malicious Raspberry Pi Power Strip Looks A Bit Scary | Mike Szczys | [
"Raspberry Pi",
"Security Hacks"
] | [
"pen testing",
"power strip",
"RPi"
] | What you see here is a Raspberry Pi shoehorned into a power strip. The idea is to
leverage the power and low-cost of this board into a stealthy network observation device
. It packs a similar punch as
the Power Pwn
but should cost at least $1100 less!
The fact that when you plug your Ethernet into this ‘surge protector’ it starts sniffing your traffic doesn’t really scare us. It’s the mains wiring that traverses the RPi itself that’s a bit unnerving. Call us overly-protective, but we like to see some shielding between our high-voltage and low-voltage components. But that aside, the rest of the hack is pretty solid. That item wrapped in electrical tape is a power converter for the board itself. It’s not shown here, but the NIC is patched into the surge protector’s RJ-45 connector. The one thing that might be nice to include is a WiFi nub so that you can access the strip wirelessly. This would open the door for other snooping items, like a small microphone. | 28 | 17 | [
{
"comment_id": "805714",
"author": "deadlyfoez",
"timestamp": "2012-10-04T20:19:24",
"content": "Really bad idea to not have that better protected and shielded.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "806130",
"author": "Troels",
"tim... | 1,760,376,719.924088 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/10/04/wrapping-up-maker-faire-with-ben-heck-giant-arduinos-and-an-apple-lisa/ | Wrapping Up Maker Faire With [Ben Heck], Giant Arduinos, And An Apple Lisa | Brian Benchoff | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"Apple Lisa",
"arduino",
"ben heck",
"macs",
"retro computer",
"sunglasses"
] | All good things, and apparently our coverage of Maker Faire, must come to an end. Here’s a few more things we saw in New York this last weekend that piqued our interest:
A 10x scale Arduino
[Robert Fitzsimons] of
Part Fusion Electronics
made
a gigantic Arduino
. It wasn’t quite functional, but [Robert] did manage to make a few 10:1 scale LEDs (with built-in circuit protection), 1 inch pitch headers, and a few other miscellaneous components out of foam and paint.
Since he’s from Dublin, Ireland, [Robert] didn’t want to take this giant board home with him. He graciously gave it to me in the hopes of turning it in to a proper working Arduino. I’ll do my best, [Robert].
There are hundreds of Lisas buried in a landfill in Utah.
Tekserve
, an indie Apple store located in the heart of Manhattan, really knows how to put on a good show. For the entirety of their stay at Maker Faire, they had people showing off
one of the first digital cameras
, Apple Newtons, and
an awesome collection of vintage Macs
. No, your eyes do not deceive you; that’s a real Lisa there in the bunch.
Sadly, they didn’t have the boot disk to turn any of these on. Pity.
Yes, there were celebrities at Maker Faire
Well, celebrities to the Hackaday crowd, at least. [Ben Heck] showed off the
electronic automatic sunglasses
he built. It’s a pair of lensless glasses, a servo, light detector, and a pair of clip-on sunglasses. When [Ben] is out in daylight, the sunglasses swivel down. Inside, the amount of light received by the detector decreases and the shades rotate up.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mYpayRVB8YM&w=470]
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=clvt0_q-4fs&w=470]
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-jqufTisMVM&w=470] | 8 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "805661",
"author": "Jax184",
"timestamp": "2012-10-04T19:40:38",
"content": "What, the mac store couldn’t get boot disks for old macs? Hell, when I was helping the Hackery to show off some old machines at Vancouver’s Mini Maker Faire I made sure to get the NeXT cube booting Nextstep... | 1,760,376,719.967463 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/10/04/diy-armor-starts-with-this-gauntlet-tutorial/ | DIY Armor Starts With This Gauntlet Tutorial | Mike Szczys | [
"Wearable Hacks"
] | [
"armor",
"blacksmith",
"gauntlet"
] | This is not photoshopped, it’s a real gauntlet made of brass. [David Guyton] crafted it for some promotional photos for his book. But he also took the time to put together
a step-by-step build tutorial
.
The process starts with paper templates. These are much easier to work with than metal stock so [David] spends quite a bit of time trimming each piece to fit correctly. They are hinged together using thumb tacks which he crimps with a pair of pliers. With all the templates tuned to perfection he uses an awl to scratch the outline in his brass stock (you can use the metal of your choice). All of the holes are drilled and a bit of hammering flattens the parts before he heads to the grinder to smooth the cut edges.
To make the curves [David] fabricated his own jigs from pieces of pipe and carved wood squeezed together with a bench vice. It’s time-consuming, but the skills needed should be rather easy to develop with a little practice. You can catch his entire build in the video after the break. | 20 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "805550",
"author": "Necromant",
"timestamp": "2012-10-04T18:04:49",
"content": "Okay, so who’ll be the first to follow the instructions and fit electronics in it?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "805652",
"author": "Dra... | 1,760,376,719.863325 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/10/04/how-to-convert-an-internal-combustion-engine-to-run-from-steam-power/ | How To Convert An Internal Combustion Engine To Run From Steam Power | Mike Szczys | [
"Engine Hacks"
] | [
"check valve",
"engine",
"internal combustion",
"steam",
"trimmer"
] | We had no idea that what’s needed to
convert an internal combustion engine to steam power
is actually rather trivial. [David Nash] shows us how it’s done by performing the alterations on the engine of a string trimmer. These are the tools used to cut down vegetation around obstacles in your yard. The source of the engine doesn’t really matter as long as it’s a 2-cycle motor.
This engine had one spark plug which is threaded into the top of the block. [David] removed this and attached his replacement hardware. For now he’s using compressed air for development, but will connected the final version to a boiler.
There are only a couple of important parts between the engine and the boiler. There’s an in-line oil reservoir to help combat the corrosive nature of the steam. There is also a check valve. In the video after the break [David] shows the hunk of a ball-point pen that he uses to actuate the check valve. It’s really just a spacer that the piston pushes up to open the valve. This will be replaced with a metal rod in the final version. | 50 | 20 | [
{
"comment_id": "805509",
"author": "Doktor Jeep",
"timestamp": "2012-10-04T17:30:13",
"content": "With this knowledge we can convert the Chevy Impala to run on steam….",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "805540",
"author": "Jeff_G",
... | 1,760,376,720.048064 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/10/04/limpkins-new-business-card/ | [Limpkin’s] New Business Card | Mike Szczys | [
"Microcontrollers"
] | [
"at90usb162",
"business card",
"limpkin"
] | [Limpkin] decided to give the whole embedded business card thing a try. Here is his finished project,
a low-profile mass storage business card
that doesn’t cost an arm and a leg. Sure, the $6 price tag could score him a hundred paper cards, but those don’t light up like this one does!
The main components on the card include an AVR microcontroller, a flash memory chip, and an ESD protection chip. The latter is to make sure a static shock on the USB connector doesn’t zap the MCU. Speaking of, he went with an AT90USB162 which runs from an external 8 Mhz oscillator. Sure, it’s not the fastest thing out there, but since there’s only 16 Mb of flash on this card we don’t think you’ll notice any data transfer delay. The processor is running the LUFA stack and has two flavors of firmware. One that enumerates as an HID keyboard to automatically use keyboard shortcuts to launch a browser and load up his website. The other implements a mass storage device.
If you don’t like the electronic route, you could always go with some laser cut metal. We’ve heard that [Kevin Mitnick’s] business card has snap-out lock picking tools
kind of like these
. | 10 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "805450",
"author": "Brian",
"timestamp": "2012-10-04T16:25:42",
"content": "Typo? Is it [Limpkin] as in the subject, or [Linkin] as in the text?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "805460",
"author": "limpkin",
"ti... | 1,760,376,720.477219 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/10/04/basking-in-the-vintage-glory-of-infoage/ | Basking In The Vintage Glory Of InfoAge | Brian Benchoff | [
"classic hacks"
] | [
"InfoAge",
"Mid-Atlantic Retro Computing Hobbyists",
"radio receivers",
"retrocomputing"
] | Last weekend’s Maker Faire wasn’t only about the latest and greatest. Some of the groups there brought up the latest and greatest from earlier eras.
InfoAge
is a historical science and technology learning center based out of the former Camp Evans in Wall, New Jersey, and they really know how to put on a show using old technology.
I made it to two booths at Maker Faire claimed by members or associates of InfoAge. First up is the booth from
MARCH, the Mid-Atlantic Retro Computing Hobbyists
. They’ve got a PDP-8, a PDP-11/20, a few VAXxen, IBM mainframes, entire
kilobytes
of core memory, and enough C64s, TRS-80s, Commodore PETs, teletypes, and punch cards to get to the moon several times over.
The feature of MARCH’s booth was a nearly 100% accurate Apple I reproduction. Yes, the same computer built by hand by [the Steves] who later went on to found Apple Computers. In the video (above, and after the break), a MARCH member demonstrates booting BASIC from a cassette interface with the help of an iPod and typing in a simple program.
Next up are the guys from
the radio technology museum
at InfoAge. They decided to celebrate the 100th anniversary of [Edwin Armstrong]’s invention of the
regenerative radio receiver
.
The regenerative radio receiver is an extremely simple device; it can be built out of baling wire and some variants use only one tube. In the video, [Al] shows off his recreation of a regenerative receiver with fancy olde tymie components that include a variable capacitor and a
B cell battery
(it’s a recreation using a bunch of 9 Volts, but
yes,
B batteries do exist).
It goes without saying that InfoAge is really cool, and certainly worth the visit if you’re ever in the area. Bonus: it’s only 20 miles away from where [Penzias] and [Wilson]
earned their Nobel Prize
for discovering the Big Bang.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PrW80L9BWtI&w=470]
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lymlEVMdW70&w=470] | 13 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "805373",
"author": "ekoblentz",
"timestamp": "2012-10-04T15:19:00",
"content": "Thank you Hackaday for featuring InfoAge exhibits! In addition to the vintage computer and antique radio groups, InfoAge also hosts a hackerspace; shipwreck museum; amateur radio club; electronics warfar... | 1,760,376,720.329228 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/10/04/octopus-submarine-is-something-out-of-jules-vernes-imagination/ | Octopus Submarine Is Something Out Of [Jules Verne]’s Imagination | Brian Benchoff | [
"3d Printer hacks"
] | [
"3d printer",
"Maker Faire NYC 2012",
"Objet",
"octopus",
"steampunk"
] | Making
an octopus
on a Reprap or Makerbot isn’t that terribly hard. There were dozens of these octopuses at nearly every Maker Faire booth with a 3D printer. These octopuses have almost become a right of passage for new owners of 3D printers, and serves as a wonderful reference object on par with the
Utah teapot
and the
Stanford bunny
.
[Sean Charlesworth] wasn’t happy with any old octopus; no, he had to build a better octopus, and what better way to do as such then to make a steampunk and
[Jules Verne]-inspired model submarine
?
[Sean]’s Octopod underwater salvage vehicle was almost entirely printed on
a very expensive printer
. Save for a few LEDs, electronics, and armature wire, the entire model sub/octopus was printed on an
Objet 500 Connex printer
.
The Objet is unique among most 3D printers in that it can print objects made of several types of materials. In
[Sean]’s show and tell
he showed me how the tentacles were made of a hard plastic material and a bendable rubber material. [Sean] put a piece of wire through the length of each tentacle so he could pose the Octopod in just about any way imaginable.
The hull of the Octopod is an amazing amount of work. The cockpit features miniature controls, an illuminated display for a very tiny pilot, and even moving parts that include a mechanical iris in the recovery bay, a winch that works, and even doors that open and close.
[Sean] put a bunch of glamour shots of the Octopod
on his web site
along with a few videos of the construction process. You can check those videos alongside my interview after the break.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WpOGmZzQOtw&w=470] | 11 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "805296",
"author": "Bob",
"timestamp": "2012-10-04T14:09:20",
"content": "“rite of passage”, not “right of passage”.(The Masked Proofreader strikes again!)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "805297",
"author": "messmaker",
... | 1,760,376,720.384238 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/10/04/seeed-studio-shows-off-their-wares/ | Seeed Studio Shows Off Their Wares | Brian Benchoff | [
"hardware"
] | [
"b-squares",
"magnets",
"Maker Faire NYC 2012",
"Seeed"
] | Everyone’s favorite Open Hardware store –
Seeed Studio
– was at Maker Faire this last weekend. They showed off a bunch of cool toys, oscilloscopes, Arduino shields and other hardware goodness, but one of the more interesting products was from
their B Squares line
.
As [Colin] from Seeed
showed us
, each B Square is a small plastic enclosure about the size of a drink coaster. The corners of these squares are clad in metal, and each one has magnets inside. The idea behind the B Squares system is to provide power to other B Square boards via magnetic connections.
So far, Seeed has released an Arduino square, battery, solar, and LED squares, as well as iPod docks and prototyping boards. These boards can also be orthogonally, meaning it’s entirely possible to turn six B Squares into a B Cube.
These magnetic connections only provide power connections; there is currently no way to transfer data between different B Squares. We suspect, though, that anyone wanting to replicate the Apple MagSafe power adapter and invent a magnetic I2C bus would find these boards perfectly suited to the task.
Video after the break.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VrTqa3GgG9Y&w=470] | 4 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "805246",
"author": "drkness01",
"timestamp": "2012-10-04T13:23:52",
"content": "Shut up and take my money!5 min companion cube anyone?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "805279",
"author": "Tony",
"timestamp": "2012-10-04T1... | 1,760,376,720.278331 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/10/04/building-a-tilt-rotor-uav/ | Building A Tilt Rotor UAV | Mike Szczys | [
"Wireless Hacks"
] | [
"quadcopter",
"tiltrotor",
"uav"
] | We see a lot of quadcopters, and even the occasional octocopter around here. But this build does it with just two propellers. It’s
a tiltrotor build
which allows the two upward-pointing propellers to tilt forward and backward. The real world equivalent of this UAV design that pops to mind is the
V-22 Osprey
.
The motors are mounted on a beam running perpendicular to the direction of travel. Each of them is mounted on a bearing which can be rotated by a servo motor. They rotate independently of each other, which allows for yaw. Of course roll is controlled by driving the propellers at different speeds and pitch is adjusted by tilting both mounts at the same time.
[Stephen] mentions that the tiltrotor design has several advantages over its relatives that use more than two props. This design costs less to build, uses less electricity, and makes for an easier autopilot implementation. If you want to see it in the air, don’t miss the clip after the break.
This is just the second tiltrotor build we remember seeing.
The other one was a Halloween prop
. | 17 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "805177",
"author": "Mike",
"timestamp": "2012-10-04T12:12:25",
"content": "Want to see another tiltorotr? here’s one we built last year:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IffQxSo6G04http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T2lUJk-fziE",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
... | 1,760,376,720.434381 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/10/04/light-bulb-efficiency-exhibit-updated-with-led-bulb-option/ | Light Bulb Efficiency Exhibit Updated With LED Bulb Option | Mike Szczys | [
"green hacks",
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"dino",
"generator",
"light bulb",
"rotary switch"
] | It seems like tinkerers are always being tapped to build or repair exhibit hardware. This time around it’s [Dino’s] turn. He’s been asked to
alter a light bulb efficiency demo so that it includes an LED option
.
The idea here is that you crank a generator to power different types of light bulbs. There’s an ammeter built in, but possibly the best feedback is knowing how hard you have to crank to illuminate the most inefficient choice. As it stands there is a toggle switch to choose between incandescent and CFL bulbs. [Dino’s] solution is to use a three-position rotary switch. He removes the toggle switch and replaces it with a socket for the LED bulb. A new location for the rotary switch is chosen and he does a bit of work to get it mounted securely. If you haven’t worked with this type of switch before he takes the time in the video after the break to explain how they work. | 30 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "805122",
"author": "Dax",
"timestamp": "2012-10-04T11:20:13",
"content": "There’s a gaping flaw in these sort of demostrations, and it’s the fact that a person is a poor judge of brightness and color.Put simply, the LED/CFL bulb can be up to 1/3 dimmer before you’d notice it by simp... | 1,760,376,720.546995 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/10/03/200-pound-wifi-deploying-robot-ran-over-my-foot/ | 200 Pound, WiFi Deploying Robot Ran Over My Foot | Brian Benchoff | [
"Robots Hacks",
"Wireless Hacks"
] | [
"node.js",
"robot",
"tank",
"webserver",
"wifi repeater"
] | [Adam Bercu] and [Dan Landers] from Artisan’s Asylum in Somerville, MA brought a very, very cool toy to Maker Faire this year. It’s a two hundred pound WiFi repeater deploying robot able to amble across unforgiving terrain and my foot.
The robot is controlled through a web interface with the help of a front-mounted web cam with pan and tilt controls. All the signals are sent through a WiFi connection to a node.js web server; not the best way to communicate with a robot over long distances, but [Adam] and [Dan] have a few tricks up their sleeve.
On the back of the robot are two Pelican cases loaded up with a battery and a Linksys WRT54G wireless router. When the robot reaches the limits of its range, it activates a solenoid, dropping a WiFi repeater. This repeater has enough battery juice to stay powered for about a day and a half, meaning the robot can make multiple trips to deploy a wireless network through some very hostile terrain. Perfect for disaster and search and rescue operations.
There are two videos after the break: the first is [Dan] going over the capabilities of his tank bot and the second is a short demo of the bot tearing up the grass at Maker Faire.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9h7mOwdwkF0&w=470]
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z5ItFZftAFY&w=470] | 28 | 14 | [
{
"comment_id": "804819",
"author": "rir",
"timestamp": "2012-10-03T23:50:01",
"content": "So how well does it run over feets?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "804844",
"author": "Brian Benchoff",
"timestamp": "2012-10-04T00:35:... | 1,760,376,720.806341 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/10/03/intelligent-autonomous-vehicle-makes-it-to-maker-faire/ | Intelligent Autonomous Vehicle Makes It To Maker Faire | Brian Benchoff | [
"Robots Hacks"
] | [
"autonomous vehicle",
"robot",
"Rutgers"
] | A few guys from Rutgers showed up at Maker Faire with Navi, their vehicle for the
2012 Intelligent Ground Vehicle Competition.
Powered by two huge lead acid batteries, Navi features enough high-end hardware to hopefully make it through or around just about any terrain.
Loaded up with a laser range finder, a stereo camera setup, compass, GPS receiver, and a pair of motors capable of pulling 40A, Navi has the all the hardware sensors required to make it around a track with no human intervention. Everything is controlled by a small netbook underneath the control panel, itself loaded up with enough switches and an 8×32 LED matrix to be utterly incomprehensible.
In the videos after the break, the guys from Rutgers show off the systems that went into Navi. There’s also a video showing off Navi’s suspension, an impressive custom-built wishbone setup that will hopefully keep Navi on an even keel throughout the competition.
Also of note: A
PDF design report
for Navi and
Navi’s own blog
.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yk9x00MtHII&w=470]
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KTO-CDAPRoA&w=470] | 6 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "804400",
"author": "Bill",
"timestamp": "2012-10-03T15:06:06",
"content": "And why wasn’t this running in the Power Racing Series exhibition race??",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "804446",
"author": "Twerpling",
... | 1,760,376,720.689374 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/10/03/checking-in-with-ian-from-dangerous-prototypes/ | Checking In With [Ian] From Dangerous Prototypes | Brian Benchoff | [
"hardware"
] | [
"dangerous prototypes",
"Maker Faire NY 2012",
"nixie",
"Sick of Beige"
] | Former Hackaday writer and electronic wizard [Ian] from Dangerous Prototypes made his way to the Maker Faire last weekend. He had a ton of cool stuff to show off, and luckily we were able to grab a few videos.
First up is a chainable Nixie module. [Ian], like all gurus of his caliber, had a box full of Nixie tubes waiting to be used in a project. These tubes never quite made it into their planned projects, mostly due to the difficulty of getting these old Nixies working. To remedy this problem, [Ian] created a chainable Nixie tube module – just hook up a high voltage supply to the board, connect it to the microcontroller of your choice, and you’ve got 2 Nixie tubes for your project.
[Ian] also showed off an ingenious solution to one of every maker’s problems. After designing a few cool boards like the Bus Pirate, Flash Destroyer, and Logic Sniffer, he realized he never made two boards that were the same size. This meant it was nigh impossible to have a standardized set of cases for his (and other maker’s) projects. The result is
the Sick of Beige standard
for electronics projects.
This standard provides PCB layouts in both square and golden rectangle formats complete with mounting holes, radiused corners, keepout areas, and suggested placement locations for USB ports and SD cards. The idea behind Sick of Beige is to get makers and fabbers using the same board dimensions so a set of standardized cases can be constructed. It’s an awesome idea and something we
highly
recommend for your next project.
Videos after the break.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l4FRkeeopv0&w=470]
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q3fNXVE_WY0&w=470] | 5 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "804343",
"author": "Ren",
"timestamp": "2012-10-03T14:08:19",
"content": "Standardized PCB boards, I like it, although completely anathema to the Sick of Beige (SoB) ideal, do these PCB sizes also fit the black plastic and black plastic and brushed metal project cases found at Radio... | 1,760,376,720.736747 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/10/03/lego-record-player/ | LEGO Record Player | Eric Evenchick | [
"Musical Hacks"
] | [
"lego",
"record player",
"turntables"
] | Some people claim that the sound of vinyl is superior to digital playback. While this hack wont win any awards for audio quality, [Ryan]’s
LEGO Record Player
is a unique use of one of our favorite toys. Most of the components including the tone arm, counterweight, and base, are built entirely of LEGO. A large gear from an educational construction set is used for the platter. Unfortunately, the rotation isn’t terribly smooth, and the playback is rather distorted.
The turntable uses a standard cartridge and stylus, which should allow it to be connected to any receiver with a phono preamplifier. Using these off the shelf parts, it’s possible to build the mechanical components a turntable out of a variety of things. As the video demonstrates, getting the platter to turn correctly is a bit of a challenge.
Check out a video of the wobbly playback featuring Cindy and Bert after the break.
Via
Make | 7 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "804337",
"author": "niekblankers",
"timestamp": "2012-10-03T14:00:44",
"content": "On the upside, it added some vibrato!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "804359",
"author": "deadlyfoez",
"timestamp": "2012-10-03T14:19:33"... | 1,760,376,720.852275 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/10/03/controlling-your-webcam-with-an-old-guitar-hero-pedal/ | Controlling Your Webcam With An Old Guitar Hero Pedal | Mike Nathan | [
"Arduino Hacks",
"News",
"Playstation Hacks"
] | [
"arduino",
"atmega8",
"guitar hero",
"ps2",
"webcam"
] | Hackaday reader [Tom Price] often uses Skype to communicate with family near and far, but he was
getting tired of adjusting his webcam
each time his kids moved out of frame. While the solution he came up with isn’t fully automated, it is hands-free, which is good enough for his purposes.
[Tom] was
looking around for an electronic foot pedal
of some sort when he came across a wireless 3rd party Guitar Hero peripheral that happened to fit the bill. Using an
Arduino library created by [Bill Porter]
, he was quickly able to get the toy to communicate with an Arduino-flashed Atmega8, but things kind of fell flat when it came time to relay signals back to his computer. Using another Atmega8 along with the PS2X library, he was able to emulate the Guitar Hero controller that his foot pedal was looking for.
With the pedal portion of his project wrapped up, he focused on his webcam. [Tom] mounted the camera on a small servo, which he then wired up to the receiving end of his foot pedal rig. As you can see in the video below, he can now pan his camera across the room with a tap of his foot, rather than leaning in and manually adjusting it.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UMS9BExhU1U&w=470] | 1 | 1 | [
{
"comment_id": "804333",
"author": "nes",
"timestamp": "2012-10-03T13:50:20",
"content": "Soup herb retasking of obsolete gaming hardware. ????Another way of going about it if there are just pots and switches is to parasite your own microcontroller onto the existing electronics inside. e.g.Gametrak... | 1,760,376,720.889202 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/10/02/weather-balloon-payload-that-almost-guides-itself-back-to-you/ | Weather Balloon Payload That (almost) Guides Itself Back To You | Mike Szczys | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"parafoil",
"weather balloon"
] | The biggest issue with sending expensive electronics into near space is trying to recover them. [Lhiggs] set out to solve this issue with his Senior project for a Mechanical Engineering degree. He figured that a payload dropped from 100,000 feet should be able to glide its way back to some predefined coordinates. Here you can see one of the tests, where
the payload is guiding its descent using a parafoil
.
Directional control is possible with a parafoil simply by shifting weight between the two supporting ropes. In this case [Lhiggs] designed the payload to hang from a pair of servo-motor-actuated arms. Since the payload already carries altitude and position hardware (such as a GPS, electronic compass, and altimeter) it’s just a matter of waiting for the target height before separating from the weather balloon, then using the servos to navigate to the landing zone.
Unfortunately the project was never fully completed. But you can see that he got pretty far. There is test footage embedded after the break showing the device being dropped from a plane.
[Thanks Dan] | 26 | 18 | [
{
"comment_id": "803786",
"author": "André Esteves",
"timestamp": "2012-10-02T23:15:50",
"content": "There is a US Air Force System to drop and forget cargo on Parafoils:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yQlj5-aWdSk",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id":... | 1,760,376,720.952204 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/10/02/disassembling-and-reprogramming-webkeys/ | Disassembling And Reprogramming Webkeys | Mike Szczys | [
"Microcontrollers",
"Security Hacks"
] | [
"bus pirate",
"eeprom",
"usb",
"webkey"
] | Webkeys are small, inexpensive USB devices which launch a web browser when plugged into a computer. They’re given out as a promotional item, but they can be fun to hack as well. [Brad Antoniewicz] recently got his hands on one and decided to
crack it open to see what he could accomplish
.
The majority of the device was packaging but it didn’t take him long to get down to the guts seen here. There are two units shown in the image above so that we can get a look at both sides of the circuit board. As you can see, there’s a chip-on-board processor (that black blob) that handles the USB connectivity. But the data which is pushed to a computer is stored in that EEPROM chip at the top. It’s got legs which are just begging to be probed. [Brad] wasn’t able to find the exact datasheet but he got some clues as to the pinout. Using his Bus Pirate he was able to establish communications and sniff the i2c traffic. With that success he went on to overwrite that data. You can see a quick demonstration of it after the break.
[Brad] hopes to do a bit more with the hardware. He thinks those four pads can be used to reprogram the MCU. We’ll keep our eyes out for updates as he moves along on that mission. | 13 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "803748",
"author": "zibri",
"timestamp": "2012-10-02T22:26:07",
"content": "It has already be done:http://jjshortcut.wordpress.com/2011/09/26/webkey-hack/",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "803768",
"author": "truebassb",
"... | 1,760,376,721.054342 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/10/02/dry-erase-marker-opens-all-hotel-room-doors/ | Dry Erase Marker Opens All Hotel Room Doors | Mike Szczys | [
"Arduino Hacks",
"Security Hacks"
] | [
"arduino",
"dry erase",
"exploit",
"hotel room",
"lock",
"marker",
"onity"
] | If you’re carrying around an exposed circuit board and a bunch of wires people are going to notice you. But a dry erase marker won’t turn any heads. And this one holds its own little secret.
It acts as a master key for hotel room door locks
.
This is really more of a repackaging hack.
The exploit
is already quite well-known. The Onity brand of key card locks most commonly used in hotels have a power jack on the bottom that doubles as a 1-wire communications port. The first published proof of concept used an Arduino board and a simple adapter to unlock any door in under one second. Now that hardware has been reduced in size so that it fits in the hollow shell of a dry erase marker. Even better, the felt tip has been replaced with the appropriately sized barrel jack. Check out the ultra-fast and inconspicuous use of it after the break. We think using this is no more obvious than actually having the key card. | 50 | 27 | [
{
"comment_id": "803694",
"author": "[ZF]",
"timestamp": "2012-10-02T21:13:45",
"content": "You can defend against this attack by checking in to your hotel room but just staying out at the clubs all night. If criminals break in, you are not there. Solved.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
... | 1,760,376,721.264257 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/10/03/laser-etched-led-zeotrope-looks-like-a-circular-monochrome-screen/ | Laser-etched LED Zeotrope Looks Like A Circular Monochrome Screen | Mike Szczys | [
"LED Hacks",
"Video Hacks"
] | [
"laser etch",
"led",
"POV",
"zeotrope"
] | The still image of this animated display really doesn’t do it justice. But you can get an idea of how this really does look like an old monochrome display. It’s actually
a zeotrope made from LEDs and etched acrylic
. The LEDs blink at a rate that synchronizes with the spinning acrylic to produce an animated image.
You probably already know that
a zeotrope uses moving physical models
to trick the eye into seeing an animation. In this case the models are etched into a piece of acrylic so that their outline glows when the material is edge-lit. Twelve pie piece shaped panes were designed in Inkscape to look like a scene from the Linux game World War IV. A stepper motor spins the ring which allows for the perfect synchronization seen in the clip after the break. | 12 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "804779",
"author": "wowme@wtf.com",
"timestamp": "2012-10-03T22:22:55",
"content": "oe eo oe eo oe eo well, which is it?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "804787",
"author": "Ned",
"timestamp": "2012-10-03T22:39:06",
"... | 1,760,376,721.099975 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/10/03/lvds-on-an-fpga-could-make-it-possible-to-reuse-laptops-lcds-and-the-like/ | LVDS On An FPGA Could Make It Possible To Reuse Laptops LCDs And The Like | Mike Szczys | [
"Microcontrollers"
] | [
"fpga",
"lcd",
"lvds"
] | Search around the Internet and you’ll find a landfill of forum threads asking how to drive the LCD screen from a dead laptop. The answer is always that there is just no way to do it. That’s because most of them use a Low-Voltage Differential Signalling protocol that just isn’t available through the hardware used in hobby projects. But the appearance of this board could signal that things are about to change. We don’t want to get your hopes up too much. This isn’t an open source project, but it is
a piece of hardware that can make LVDS available
for the 8, 16, and 32-bit microcontrollers you’re used to working with.
It’s a derivative of a project [Thomas Jespersen] worked on for a customer. It uses an FPGA to implement the LVDS standard used by high-pixel-count LCD displays. It contains enough memory for a full frame-buffer, and includes a Motorola-8080 communication standard. [Thomas] gives a full description of how the setup works in the video after the break. Demonstrations start about 7:30 into the video with an STM32 F4 Discovery board driving the display. | 41 | 24 | [
{
"comment_id": "804723",
"author": "Per Jensen",
"timestamp": "2012-10-03T21:16:05",
"content": "HAD – Fyi LVDS is not, and have never been the dealbreaker when trying to reuse an laptop lcd panel, as you can just buy an LVDS-transmitter chip than converts single-ended signals to LVDS-signalling. H... | 1,760,376,721.182448 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/10/03/breadboarding-with-a-144-core-processor/ | Breadboarding With A 144-core Processor | Mike Szczys | [
"hardware"
] | [
"breadboard",
"ga144",
"greenarrays",
"multi core",
"parallel computing"
] | At the center of that green PCB is a tiny little processor with way too many cores. It’s
the GA144 which was taken for a test-drive on a breadboard
by [Andrew Back]. We saw
a multi-core Kickstarter project
last month. This will cost a lot less and get you more than twice the number of cores. But as was mentioned in the comments on that post, the drawback is the programming language. This chip’s IDE uses Forth.
There is a dev board available, but [Andrew] went instead with a QFN-to-Through-Hole adapter board which he hand soldered. Once he has access to the pins the chip can be programmed with an FTDI adapter which is compatible with the 1.8V logic levels. The provided Forth IDE (arrayForth) is a Windows only program but it does run under Wine. We followed the project through to see him twiddling I/O pins. But we still have trouble thinking of applications for it. In a world of complex and inexpensive FPGA chips, what would
you
use this type of processor for? | 36 | 16 | [
{
"comment_id": "804682",
"author": "Jan",
"timestamp": "2012-10-03T20:29:07",
"content": "I would use it to blink a LED",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "804708",
"author": "Brian",
"timestamp": "2012-10-03T20:56:57",
"c... | 1,760,376,721.886417 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/10/03/hackaday-links-october-3-2012/ | Hackaday Links: October 3, 2012 | Mike Szczys | [
"Hackaday links"
] | [
"ergonomic",
"gui",
"QR codes",
"RGB LED",
"textile"
] | Cheap ergonomic mouse
If your had keeps cramping while using the computer mouse why not grab a hunk of wood and a couple of buttons to
make your own ergonomic input device
?
C# GUI for Arduino testing
Here’s
a Windows GUI for controlling Arduino
. [Rohit] put it together using C#. It should make development very simple as you have control of almost everything before you need to worry about writing your own server-side software.
Networked strip lighting replaces the office overheads
[Jeremy] got tired of replacing the halogen bulbs in his office.
He upgraded to ten meters of RGB LED strips
. We can’t think they do as well at lighting up the room. But he did add network control so they can flash or change colors depending on what type of alert they’re signalling.
Woven QR codes
Now that [Andrew Kieran] proved
you can weave a working QR code into textiles
do you think we’ll see garments that have a QR code leading to care instructions? We could never figure out what all those strange icons stood for.
World’s largest QR code in a corn maze
The world’s largest QR code was cut out of this field of corn. It’s at
the Kraay Family Farm
in Alberta, Canada.
Gizomodo called it “Stupidly Pointless”
. But we figure if it got them a world record and put their website on the front page of Giz and Hackaday they’re doing okay. Plus, we whipped out our Android and it read the QR code quite easily. | 15 | 12 | [
{
"comment_id": "804618",
"author": "Tinkerer",
"timestamp": "2012-10-03T19:16:14",
"content": "Regarding the mouse: I once had to add a third mouse button to a 2-button mouse, and decided to throw in a second mouse ;)http://www.hackvandedam.nl/blog/?p=371",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
... | 1,760,376,722.165123 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/10/03/how-to-dim-el-wire-current-limiting-the-oscillator/ | How TO Dim EL Wire: Current Limiting The Oscillator! | Jesse Congdon | [
"home entertainment hacks"
] | [
"EL dimming",
"electroluminescence"
] | [Ch00f] finally made a breakthrough with his efforts
dimming EL wire
. He’s been at it for months and the last we heard his
TRIAC idea
had sputtered out. Not to be discouraged and with an determination we have to admire he has been hard at work
reverse engineering
others’ and developing his own methods. He put all of this knowledge to task helping a friend of his with a sleeping disorder, and made a dream-catcher that pulses at the approximate rate of an average person’s breathing (as determined by Apple for their pulsing power button lights).
Essentially the whole thing boils down to simply using a transistor to limit the current to the oscillator. A 555 timer is used to pass a triangle wave to the current limiting transistor at approximately the same rate as the Apple button (1/5 Hz). [Ch00f] notes that this isn’t the sinusoidal wave that apple uses, but it’s good enough. Finally a timeout power off is built in to the night light using a decade counter to monitor the number of triangles from the 555. This should keep the EL wire from wearing down faster, though we are hard pressed to think of a project we used EL on that has lasted anywhere near the 7 year service life of the wire.
Check out [Ch00f]’s
page
as he walks us through the process, or just watch his circuit in action after the jump!
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jzcYCGBHbdc&w=470] | 8 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "804575",
"author": "Per Jensen",
"timestamp": "2012-10-03T18:14:56",
"content": "How about the annoying buzzing sound EL wire/panels make ? I can hear an EL backlight from metres away….",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "804690",... | 1,760,376,721.504631 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/10/03/finally-an-arm-powered-arduino/ | Finally, An ARM-powered Arduino | Brian Benchoff | [
"Arduino Hacks",
"Microcontrollers"
] | [
"arduino",
"Arduino DUE",
"arm",
"cortex-m3"
] | Far removed from the legions of 3D printers featured at this year’s Maker Faire in New York was a much smaller, but far more impressive announcement: The ARM-powered Arduino DUE is going to be released later this month.
Instead of the 8-bit AVR microcontrollers usually found in Arduinos, the DUE is powered by an
ATSAM3X8E
microcontroller, itself based on the ARM Cortex-M3 platform. There are a few very neat features in the DUE, namely a USB On The Go port to allow makers and tinkerers to connect keyboards, mice, smartphones (hey, someone should port IOIO firmware to this thing), and
maybe
even standard desktop inkjet or laser printers.
The board looks strikingly similar to the already common Arduino Mega. That’s no mistake; the DUE is compatible with existing shields, so connecting
a RAMPS board
for your 3D printer should be a snap.
Here’s a PDF
the Arduino and Atmel guys were handing out at their booth. A few DUE boards have already made it into the hands of important people in the Arduino community, including 3D printer guru [Josef Prusa]. Sadly, the folks at Arduino didn’t think media personalities needed a DUE before its release, so you’ll have to wait until we get our hands on one later this month for a review. | 70 | 35 | [
{
"comment_id": "804499",
"author": "Jesse Congdon",
"timestamp": "2012-10-03T17:10:25",
"content": "Very excited about the CAN bus compatibility on this one.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "804515",
"author": "MobileWill",
"timestamp": ... | 1,760,376,721.664615 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/10/03/through-hole-electroplating-in-your-home-lab/ | Through-hole Electroplating In Your Home Lab | Mike Szczys | [
"chemistry hacks",
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"electroplating"
] | For the few double-sided PCBs we’ve actually etched at home we simply soldered a piece of wire to either side of a via and clipped off the excess. But if you want to go the extra mile you can’t beat electroplated through holes. The setup seen above is
an electroplating tank build from simple materials
which [Bearmos] has been working on.
The two sets of copper structures are both used as anodes. Some copper water pipe (like you’d use for a refrigerator ice maker) was cut into short rods and soldered onto pieces of bus wire. The portion of the metal which will stick above the chemical bath was coated with a generous layer of hot glue. This will protect it from corrosion cause by the off-gassing during the plating process. The traces of the etched PCB act as the anodes, but the holes themselves must be conductive in order for the plating process to work. A water proof glue with powdered graphite mixed in is applied to all of the holes in the substrate. This technique is based on the
huge electroplating guide published by Think & Tinker
. | 19 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "804475",
"author": "Jack",
"timestamp": "2012-10-03T16:33:43",
"content": "“The traces of the etched PCB act as the anodes…”According to the article, the PCB traces are the cathodes.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "3542824",
... | 1,760,376,721.561769 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/10/01/build-a-pov-death-star-you-will/ | Build A POV Death Star, You Will | Mike Szczys | [
"LED Hacks"
] | [
"arduino",
"atmega328",
"death star",
"POV",
"star wars"
] | Building a Persistence of Vision globe is pretty awesome, but
overlaying a Death Star pattern on the display
takes it to the next level of geekery. Like us, [Jason] has wanted to build one of these for a long time. His success pushes us one step closer to taking the plunge and we hope it will inspire you to give it a shot too.
As he mentions in the beginning of his write up, the mechanical bits of these displays are really where the problems lie. Specifically, you need to find a way to transfer power to the spinning display. In this case use went with some DC motor brushes. These are replacement parts through which he drilled a hole to accept the metal axles on top and bottom. We hadn’t seen this technique before, but since motor brush replacements are easy to find and only cost a few bucks we’d say it’s a great idea.
The 24 blue LEDs that make up the display are all on one side of the PCB. They’re driven by an ATmega328 running the Arduino bootloader. [Jason] uses an FTDI adapter to program the chip. Don’t miss the video embedded after the break. | 26 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "802369",
"author": "bzroom",
"timestamp": "2012-10-01T17:23:46",
"content": "WOOOT. someone please invent a POV that doesnt flicker when video taped",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "802484",
"author": "XOIIO",
"... | 1,760,376,721.723836 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/10/01/l-i-o-s-the-ten-ish-dollar-robot/ | L.I.O.S.: The Ten-ish Dollar Robot. | Jesse Congdon | [
"how-to",
"Robots Hacks"
] | [
"cheap",
"Microchip PIC",
"pic12f683",
"robot projects",
"robots",
"robots for kids"
] | We love cheap stuff here. Who doesn’t? [Oscar Rodriguez Parra] does too, and wrote in to show us his super cheapey robot
L.I.O.S
. The build was for the AFRON design challenge, which involves building a 10 dollar robot to teach students robotics. The
winners
of the challenge were neat and all, but they all look too fancy flaunting their molded plastics and electronics breadboards.
[Oscar’s] design is super simple, LDRs as eyes, a PIC12F683 to do the brainin, LEDs for indicators and a couple modded servos to drive the wheels. An extraordinarily complex cardboard flap roller helps the cart turn, but probably isn’t going to see much aside from smooth flooring. The electronics are mounted using one of our favorite techniques, the paper perf board (very similar to the
substrate free technique
).
Check out the video after the jump to see LIOS in action. This is an excellent introduction to robotics for any classroom. Thanks [Oscar]!
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jwrVHF3-TMw&w=470] | 10 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "802189",
"author": "Bill Gander",
"timestamp": "2012-10-01T14:34:43",
"content": "Glad to see someone else using the old “paper perfboard” too! I used to draw my somewhat blown up schematic on a pizza box and just punch thru components and tap solder. Less confusing than dead bug ... | 1,760,376,721.937204 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/10/01/honey-bee-temperature-logger-tracks-internal-hive-movement/ | Honey Bee Temperature Logger Tracks Internal Hive Movement | Jesse Congdon | [
"green hacks",
"home hacks"
] | [
"bee",
"beekeeping",
"TemperatureLogging"
] | Apparently bees tend to use different areas of the hive throughout the year. All we know is not to mess with them. [Max Justicz], on the other hand, does exactly that at his high school. He built a whether resistant solar powered
multi-point temperature logger
to do such things. The logger is designed to track heat movement within the hive throughout the year. Bees can be tracked like this because they generate a good amount of heat, some even use it to
kill off predators
.
Building weather resistant electronics is no picnic. You have to deal with rubber O rings, cable glands and clunky waterproof connectors. [Max] shows the whole process of mounting the various components into the enclosure. A solar panel feeds an Ardunio Mega, charging electronics, and SD card shield. With a 1GB SD card this bugger is in for a long haul. The 6600mAh battery should keep it running excessively long though. We’d cut the fat a bit though and swap out that Mega for something less power hungry, but going super low power can get a bit
fancy
. That mega is powerful enough to incorporate every other
bee project
we have here.
[Max] has yet to install the logger in his high school’s apiary but will update with logs once he can furnish them. We can’t wait to see the patina it develops over the seasons. | 15 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "802055",
"author": "Hack Man",
"timestamp": "2012-10-01T12:12:20",
"content": "whether resistantBuilding whether resistant electronics",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "802247",
"author": "Velli",
"timestamp": "2... | 1,760,376,721.986305 |
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