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https://hackaday.com/2012/09/20/token-authentication-for-gmail-using-a-ez430-chronos-watch/ | Token Authentication For Gmail Using A EZ430 Chronos Watch | Mike Szczys | [
"Security Hacks"
] | [
"encryption",
"oath",
"password",
"token",
"totp"
] | Two-factor authentication allows you to use your chosen password, as well as a one-time password to help keep your services secure. The one-time passwords traditionally come from a dedicated piece of hardware, but there are also solutions for smart phones. [Patrick Schaumont] shows how a
TI eZ430 Chronos Watch can be used to generate authentication tokens
. After walking through the process he uses it to beef up his gmail login.
This method of token authentication is often called Time-based One Time Passwords (TOTP). It’s part of the Open Authentication (OATH) initiative, which seeks to sort out the password-hell that is modern computing. A portable device generates a password by applying an algorithm and a private encryption key to an accuarte time-stamp. On the server side of things a public key is used to verify the one-time password entered based on the server’s own time-stamp. In this case the portable device is the Chronos watch and the server is Google’s own TOTP service.
You can do this with other simple microcontrollers, we’ve even seen
an Arduino implementation
. But the wrist-watch form factor seen here is by far the most convenient — as long as you always remember to wear the watch.
[Thanks Oxide] | 11 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "790961",
"author": "addidis",
"timestamp": "2012-09-20T15:11:03",
"content": "This is pretty sweet. Using a pre-paid phone means setting up token auth on gmail has the potential to be expensive or a pain. This is a nice solution although from experience with blizard games and their ... | 1,760,376,735.456869 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/09/20/homebrew-fpgas/ | Homebrew FPGAs | Brian Benchoff | [
"hardware"
] | [
"74xx",
"fpga",
"homebrew",
"logic chip"
] | Homebrew CPUs made out of logic chips are nothing new, but a homebrew FPGA is another matter entirely. [Joshua] sent in a project he whipped up where he made a
single logic cell FPGA
.
Despite how complicated and intimidating they are in practice, FPGAs are really very simple. They’re made of thousands of logic blocks capable of transmuting into AND, OR, NAND, and XOR logic gates. These logic blocks are all tied together, and with a somewhat complex hardware design language are capable of becoming a CPU, a micocontroller, or even a video card. Basically, programming a microcontroller tells a chip what to do, while programming an FPGA tells the chip what to
be
.
To build his single logic block FPGA, [Joshua] used a four-bit multiplexer to hard wire a truth table out of a 74HC174 D-type flip-flop. A bit of Arduino code changes the state of the pins connected to the multiplexer allows for any combination of TRUE and FALSE to be calculated for AND, NAND or XOR logic functions.
Yes, it’s only a single logic block for an FPGA, and if this build were expanded to even a few hundred cells it would be gargantuan. Still, there’s no better way to learn the ins and outs of abstract hardware, so we’ll gladly tip our hat to [Joshua] and his homebrew FPGA. | 25 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "790859",
"author": "crenn",
"timestamp": "2012-09-20T14:04:17",
"content": "That’s actually pretty good and would be a good insight for a begineer to how FPGAs work",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1026148",
"author": "... | 1,760,376,735.703331 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/09/20/makerbot-occupy-thingiverse-and-the-reality-of-selling-open-hardware/ | Makerbot, Occupy Thingiverse, And The Reality Of Selling Open Hardware | Brian Benchoff | [
"News"
] | [
"makerbot",
"open hardware",
"Replicator 2",
"thingiverse"
] | Yesterday, Makerbot Industries
introduced the Replicator 2
, a very good-looking 3D printer that will is probably the closest thing we’ll see to a proper ‘consumer’ 3D printer for a year or so. There’s only one problem. The new Replicator 2 is rumored to be closed source. If that’s not enough, [Bre Pettis], co-founder and CEO of Makerbot Industries will be speaking at the Open Source Hardware Association conference next week with the suitably titled talk, “
Challenges of Open Source Consumer Products
.”
Of course, the Replicator 2 being closed source is hearesay, and we can’t blame them for closing up parts their product; they have investors to worry about and people are
blatantly copying their work
. There was another change in Makerbot’s operation at the press conference yesterday: Makerbot now owns everything you’ve put up on Thingiverse.
This news
comes from [Josef Prusa]
, creator of what is probably
the most widely used 3D printer
in the world.
[Prusa] begins his rant with the history of the RepRap. The project began with a team of core developers headed by [Adrian Bowyer], and supported by [Zach Smith], [Adam Mayer], and [Bre Pettis]. [Boyer] gave the guys a bit of money to start Makerbot, and it’s something the guys at Makerbot have never been ashamed of. Makerbot went on to create Thingiverse, became the darlings of the Open Hardware movement, and acquired $10 million from investors.
All things change, of course, and Makerbot is no exception. Along with the (again,
rumored
) closed-source Replicator 2, [Prusa] pointed out the
Terms of Use for Thingiverse
say that Thingiverse – and thus Makerbot Industries – owns everything submitted by Thingiverse users. [Prusa] started an
Occupy Thingiverse movement
in response to this discovery.
Honestly, we hope [Josef Prusa] is wrong on this one. We hope the specific clauses in Thingiverse’s Terms of Use granting itself a license to do whatever it wants with uploaded Things is just a bunch of legal mumbo jumbo added in by lawyers to protect Thingiverse from being sued by crazy people. Still, if rumors are true, it may be a portent of things to come.
In any event, [Prusa] will be taking his Thingiverse things down. He plans on posting his stuff on GitHub, probably the most Open Source-friendly community in existence. You can do the same with
this GitHub template
for 3D printed objects.
So, learned reader of Hackaday, what do you make of this? Is Makerbot right to close up their projects? Are we finally becoming disillusioned with Open Hardware? What say you? | 150 | 50 | [
{
"comment_id": "790794",
"author": "Regulus",
"timestamp": "2012-09-20T13:17:57",
"content": "Changing Thingiverse so that they can sell things (perhaps in their store)… well, that’s a bit of a dick move, but it’s not the end of the world.Closing the hardware is NOTHING new, but I expected better o... | 1,760,376,735.987836 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/09/20/another-eerily-similar-high-power-led-driver-hack/ | Another Eerily Similar High Power LED Driver Hack | Jesse Congdon | [
"how-to"
] | [
"DealExtreme",
"high power LED",
"LED driver",
"RGB Flood Light"
] | [Maximilian Güntner] dropped us a comment in last week’s globe writeup linking to
his own project
, which involves a similar high power LED driver mod. This looks like the exact same mod we came up with, and [Güntner] even used the mod to connect a bunch of high power LEDs to a PCA9685 LED driver [
pdf
]. It’s the same exact concept as
Disco Planet
!
It should come as no surprise that people have actually been modding high power led drivers in this way for some time. They are a few bucks per handful and take an enormous input voltage range. In [Güntner]’s case he grabbed a bunch of
these
from Dealextreme. Actually there are
two
others
on the site, and all three contain comments (dating back a year) with helpful tips on various ways to modify the little PCB.
Our Ebay sourced boards are different though. The boards [Güntner] purchased employ the PowTech PT4115 [
pdf
] which uses fewer parts and has an easy to follow data sheet. Take, for instance, the pin graciously labeled “DIM” with a little PWM signal next to it. The nerve! The Ebay drivers use the MCP34063 [
pdf
] which has a much more cryptic data sheet (burned two weeks and several notebook pages to figure out the circuit). Ultimately the two are so similar it makes no difference.
So, if you want to mod some LED drivers on your own, check out the how-to video after the jump. Thanks [mguentner]!
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sohPA29wnFo&w=470] | 1 | 1 | [
{
"comment_id": "791401",
"author": "echodelta",
"timestamp": "2012-09-20T19:35:55",
"content": "Seems that the specs on the linked DX site ‘other two’ are messed up. Current and watts. These are made for track lighting with 12 volts AC as source, hence the diodes.",
"parent_id": null,
"dept... | 1,760,376,735.741358 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/09/20/reading-bare-nand-flash-chips-with-a-microcontroller/ | Reading Bare NAND Flash Chips With A Microcontroller | Brian Benchoff | [
"hardware",
"Microcontrollers"
] | [
"flash memory",
"nand",
"NAND-flash reader"
] | NAND flash, the same memory chips found in everything from USB thumb drives to very expensive solid state disk drives, are increasingly common. As they (partially) serve as the storage for cellphones, Wiis, routers and just about every piece of consumer electronic devices, you’re probably surrounded by dozens of NAND chips at any one time.
[Sprite_tm], hacker extraordinaire, put up a build a few years ago where he was able to read the contents of NAND Flash chips using a PC parallel port. It’s getting rather hard to find a parallel port on a PC anymore, so
he updated his build
to read Flash chips off of a USB port.
There are two main components of [Sprite_tm]’s build. First, to read the Flash chip, he needed a way to break out the pins on the very tiny TSOP48 package. [Sprite] found a neat little socket for these chips on eBay for about 10 Euros.
Communicating with the Flash chip via USB was a little harder. [Sprite] knew he needed USB 2.0, but not many microcontrollers have that implemented. Luckily, the
FTDI FT2232H
has USB 2.0, along with the very nice feature of being able to read data and address pins directly from the Flash chip. After a bit of soldering, [Sprite_tm] was left with the device seen above.
[Sprite_tm] found
a nice library
to bitbang the pins on the FTDI chip and request one page of memory from the Flash chip at a time. The device works as advertised, but it’s still a bit slow at 250 kBps. [Sprite] figures he can increase the speed of reading a Flash chip by requesting multiple pages at a time, but it’s still orders of magnitude faster than the old parallel port solution.
There’s a good bit of software [Sprite] posted to help him (and possibly others) read bare NAND flash chips via USB. This means if you have a broken USB Flash drive or SD card, it’s possible to desolder the chip and read it with your own controller. Interpreting the blocks of data recovered from a Flash drive as a file system is another story, but it’s still a fairly remarkable build. | 30 | 15 | [
{
"comment_id": "790683",
"author": "nes",
"timestamp": "2012-09-20T11:27:32",
"content": "Lovely work, but just wondering why not hack up an xD/SmartMedia card reader and use the support already in the Linux kernel to do this? Should think read access would be a bit quicker.",
"parent_id": null... | 1,760,376,736.163053 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/09/19/introducing-the-makerbot-replicator-2/ | Introducing The Makerbot Replicator 2 | Brian Benchoff | [
"News"
] | [
"3d printer",
"makerbot",
"Replicator",
"Replicator2x"
] | A few short hours ago at press conference, Makerbot announced the release of their
Replicator 2 3D printer
.
The original Makerbot Replicator was released
earlier this year at CES
and regaled by the press as a quantum leap in home manufacturing (a quanta is actually very small, guys) with and option for dual extruders and a rather large build volume. The Replicator 2 takes the same formula and adds a powder coated steel frame, larger build volume (11.2″ x 6.0″ x 6.1″ or 28.5 x 15.3 x 15.5 cm) and a resolution so fine as to approach the realm of uber expensive 3D printers (100 microns or 0.004 inches).
Base price is $2200 USD for the single extruder model with no Makercare service plan. A
dual-extruder Replicator 2X
is slated to be released after the beginning of next year. This model will also handle ABS filament, although we can’t find anything that says the single-extruder Replicator 2 is only able to use PLA.
Even though the new Replicator 2 is
rumored to be
closed source, we’d really struggle to come up with a better 3D printer for a high school shop class, college CS and/or engineering department, or even a hackerspace. | 78 | 31 | [
{
"comment_id": "790165",
"author": "nonnagonna",
"timestamp": "2012-09-19T22:40:10",
"content": "Countdown until Solidmodels are uploaded to “thingiverse” starting… NOWClosed source? Really guys? Open Hardware is just an admission of how easy it is to reverse engineer a product and attempt to garne... | 1,760,376,736.099317 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/09/19/home-automation-hack-controls-lights-based-on-head-count/ | Home Automation Hack Controls Lights Based On Head Count | Mike Szczys | [
"home hacks"
] | [
"distance sensor",
"doorway",
"home automation",
"ir",
"launchpad",
"light",
"msp430",
"relay"
] | This home automation hardware
turns on and off the lights based on room occupancy
. The hack is an extension of
an earlier version
that was only a proof of concept. [RPisces] took the idea and made it into reality by mounting the sensor hardware in a doorway.
He prototyped the device using the MSP430 launchpad. It monitors a pair of IR distance sensors which record a change when something passes between them and the opposite side of the hallway. This is a good sensor choice as it only requires hardware on one side of the passageway. Because two of them are used, it’s quite simple to figure out if a person is entering or leaving the room based on which is tripped first.
In this case [RPisces] drives a relay to switch a lamp on and off. But it could be used for just about anything. We’d enjoy seeing it trigger an audio system like
the one [Quinn’s] installing in every room
. | 19 | 13 | [
{
"comment_id": "790102",
"author": "Untz",
"timestamp": "2012-09-19T21:11:39",
"content": "Yes, ditch the lamp. Two is a crowd three’s a party. Cue the music.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "790109",
"author": "Max",
"timestamp": "2012-... | 1,760,376,735.51364 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/09/19/17-stage-great-ball-contraption-must-use-all-the-lego-pieces/ | 17-stage Great Ball Contraption Must Use All The LEGO Pieces | Mike Szczys | [
"Toy Hacks"
] | [
"automation",
"ball",
"conveyor",
"great ball contraption",
"lego"
] | Looking at this
17-stage Great Ball Contraption
makes us think that [Skiyuky] should be working in industrial automation. The build, which has been assembled from an untold volume of LEGO parts, moves a reservoir of round plastic balls around a circuit. Each module exhibits a different mechanical way of handling the parts. It’s certainly not the first GBC we’ve seen, but
the previous offering
combined stages from many different makers. [Skiyuky] built this one all himself over the last two years.
The video after the break starts off at the main depository of tiny soccer and basketballs. To help illustrate how long it takes to move around the entire circuit [Skiyuky] adds a red and blue ball which are both easy to spot. From there it’s a Willy Wonky type of ride through all manner of contraptions. We’re struck by accuracy and efficiency with which all of the stages operate.
[Thanks Fozzyvis] | 31 | 25 | [
{
"comment_id": "790058",
"author": "LordNothing",
"timestamp": "2012-09-19T20:22:48",
"content": "win",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "790059",
"author": "rhalla",
"timestamp": "2012-09-19T20:24:01",
"content": "Sweet! I especially a... | 1,760,376,735.579098 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/09/19/diy-flux-comes-straight-from-the-tree/ | DIY Flux Comes Straight From The Tree | Mike Szczys | [
"chemistry hacks"
] | [
"alcohol",
"flux",
"isopropyl",
"pine tree",
"sap"
] | [Tom] needed more solder flux and instead of buying it he thought he’d try making his own. The thing is, he didn’t have any rosin on hand. But knowing its source let him acquire it for free. He took a sample of
tree sap and turned it into his own solder flux
.
We’ve seen a few different DIY flux recipes this year.
The most recent guide
suggests sourcing rosin from the hardware store because of the quality, or if that fails you’ll find some at the music store. [Tom] was lucky enough to find a large dollop leaking from a pine tree in his neighborhood. He let it sit overnight in a container along with some isopropyl alcohol. In the morning the sap had fully dissolved, so he ran it through a coffee filter to get rid of any debris. He keeps it in a small jar, applying it to his projects using cotton swabs. You can see his short soldering demo after the break. | 19 | 15 | [
{
"comment_id": "790049",
"author": "miceuz",
"timestamp": "2012-09-19T20:15:52",
"content": "my friend used resin directly form the pine, hot nail and a piece of lead from fishing kit to solder a mini jack connector so they can play a thrashy soundsysten in the woods ;)",
"parent_id": null,
... | 1,760,376,735.634254 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/09/19/qube-robots-use-well-designed-laser-cut-acrylic/ | Qube Robots Use Well-designed Laser-cut Acrylic | Mike Szczys | [
"Robots Hacks"
] | [
"arduino",
"bluetooth",
"boxz",
"cube",
"motor driver",
"papercraft",
"shield"
] | These robot cubes, called BOXZ, use an interesting
interlocking part design to mount and protect the parts within
. But to really make them pop you need to color and apply your own papercraft skins.
The actual hardware is quite simple. They’ve used an Arduino, along with motor driver and Bluetooth shields, to control a set of geared DC motors. There’s a battery pack which holds four AA cells and a pair of servo motors which seem to be there to act as arms. This base can then be adorned with sensors to add functionality (line following, wall following, obstacle avoidance, etc.).
Despite the simple appearance of the cube, the chassis is the most complicated part. It uses sixteen pieces of acrylic, but they may also be hand cut from cardboard by printing out templates and gluing them onto the material. The parts are designed with interlocking tabs which we often see used on laser-cut wooden box parts.
We’ve embedded the video presentation of BOXZ after the break. | 0 | 0 | [] | 1,760,376,735.407644 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/09/19/this-hack-can-refill-your-stratasys-3d-printer/ | This Hack Can Refill Your Stratasys 3D Printer | Mike Szczys | [
"3d Printer hacks"
] | [
"3d printer",
"cartridge",
"eeprom",
"refill",
"stratasys",
"virtual machine"
] | [Dan] has his own Stratasys Dimension SST 768 3D printer. It’s a professional grade machine which does an amazing job. But when it comes time to replace the cartridge he has to pay the piper to the tune of $260. He can buy ABS filament for about $50 per kilogram, so
he set out to refill his own P400 cartridges
.
Respooling the cartridge must be quite easy because he doesn’t describe the process at all. But the physical act of refilling it doesn’t mean you can keep using it. The cartridge and the printer both store usage information that prevents this type of DIY refill; there’s an EEPROM in the cartridge and a log file on the printer’s hard drive. [Dan] pulled the hard drive out and used a Live CD to make an image. He loaded the image in a virtual machine, made some changes to enable SSH and zap the log file at each boot, then loaded the image back onto the printer’s drive. A script that he wrote is able to backup and rewrite the EEPROM chip, which basically rolls back the ‘odometer’ on how much filament has been used.
[
Image Source
] | 92 | 38 | [
{
"comment_id": "789813",
"author": "flink",
"timestamp": "2012-09-19T17:04:49",
"content": "I wonder how long it’ll be until Stratasys slaps him with a DMCA lawsuit….",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "790115",
"author": "mark",
... | 1,760,376,736.279526 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/09/19/regarding-the-development-files-that-accompany-tis-microcontroller-offerings/ | Regarding The Development Files That Accompany TI’s Microcontroller Offerings | Mike Szczys | [
"Rants"
] | [
"arm",
"compiler",
"ide",
"stellaris",
"ti"
] | We received a tip from [Fabien] that Texas Instruments had
posted a set of IDEs for the Stellaris Launchpad
on their download page. At first we skipped right over the link, but then decided to take a look and see if things had changed any since the MSP430 Launchpad had been released. As we expected, there’s really no help on this page if you’re looking to develop for the hardware without using one of these IDEs.
Why would we want to forego the preconfigured development environments TI supplies? For one thing, they offer only trial licenses. When you go to download one of the packages you have to wade through a eyebrow-raising non-export agreement. When we made it that far, the ~500 MB Sourcery package we downloaded was quite slow. And we don’t see any option for installing any of these on a Linux machine. No matter what OS you choose, we think you should be able to develop for
any
architecture using the same development environment — be it Eclipse, GNU Emacs, Notepad, or whatever . We don’t want to download a huge package just to try out a new chip.
We know you can develop for Stellaris ARM chips using a vanilla cross compiler like arm-none-eabi (we use Sourcery CodeBench Lite — formerly CodeSourcery G++ lite). We hope that TI is planning on adding a barebones package that supplies a simple Makefile, Linker Script, and base libraries for the hardware. But we won’t hold our breath. After all, it is
an industry standard to leave out Linux support
. | 20 | 14 | [
{
"comment_id": "789751",
"author": "Miroslav",
"timestamp": "2012-09-19T16:22:46",
"content": "Mike is right. It is interesting that they will spend incredible amount of time developing 500 mb WIMP package, yet no time is spent developing command line tools, that could work cross platform.",
"p... | 1,760,376,736.340614 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/09/19/retroball-or-super-pong-table-grows-up/ | Retroball Or Super Pong Table Grows Up | Jeremy Cook | [
"Toy Hacks"
] | [
"led",
"led matrix",
"pong",
"Retroball"
] | Retroball is, as
its Kickstarter campaign
says, “Retro Fun for up to Four Players.” What you might not know, is that it’s ancestor was
featured here
earlier last year. With a year and a half of development underway, the build looks spectacular, and the people in their promo video look like they’re having lots of fun (obviously).
The whole concept of the game is that it has up to four players that each manipulate a paddle as in the
classic Pong
game. The obvious difference is that there are four players, and everything is played on a 32 x 32 LED array.
Although it looks like fun in it’s stock form, readers of Hack a Day will most likely start thinking about how they could modify it for their own uses. Everything is open source, and they promise to release the documentation for this project. On the other hand, if you can’t wait, or would rather build something very similar, check out [Brad]’s
original Instructable article
! | 8 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "789697",
"author": "imajeenyus",
"timestamp": "2012-09-19T15:46:26",
"content": "Grammar Nazi: it’s alert ;-)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "789738",
"author": "Beat707",
"timestamp": "2012-09-19T16:11:58",
"content... | 1,760,376,736.824982 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/09/19/variable-frequency-laser-using-shaken-ball-berings/ | Variable Frequency Laser Using Shaken Ball Bearings | Brian Benchoff | [
"Laser Hacks"
] | [
"arxiv",
"laser",
"physics",
"variable frequency laser"
] | Lasers normally emit only one color, or frequency of light. This is true for laser pointers or the laser diodes in a DVD player. [Kevin] caught wind of state-of-the-art research into making variable wavelength lasers using shaken grains of metal and
decided to build his own
.
When [Kevin] read
a NewScientist blog post
on building variable frequency lasers built with shaken metallic grains, he knew he had to build on. He dug up
the arxiv article
and realized the experimental setup was fairly simple and easily achievable with a bit of home engineering.
[Kevin]’s device works by taking thousands of small ball bearings and putting them in a small vial with
Rodamine B
laser dye. To vibrate the particles in the dye, [Kevin] mounted his container of dye and bearings on an audio speaker and used a frequency generator to shake the ball bearings.
When a small 30mW green laser shines through the vial of ball bearings and dye, the laser changes color to a very bright yellow. By vibrating the vial at 35 to 45 Hz, [Kevin] can change the frequency, or color of the laser.
[Kevin] can only alter the frequency of the laser by about 30 nm, or about the same color change as a reddish-orange and an orangish-yellow. Still, it’s pretty amazing that [Kevin] was able to do state-of-the-art physics research at home.
Sadly, we couldn’t find any videos of [Kevin]’s variable frequency laser. If you can find one send it in to the tip line and we’ll update this post. | 22 | 13 | [
{
"comment_id": "789578",
"author": "Coda",
"timestamp": "2012-09-19T14:13:46",
"content": "This is cool. I can see a practical application somewhere relating to lightsabers.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "789582",
"author": "mark",
"ti... | 1,760,376,736.778784 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/09/19/using-an-undocumented-display-with-an-fpga/ | Using An Undocumented Display With An FPGA | Brian Benchoff | [
"LED Hacks"
] | [
"fpga",
"led"
] | When [Mike] ran across a display on Deal Extreme with 8 seven-segment displays, 8 red/green LEDs, and 8 buttons, he knew it would find a good home in a future project. There was only one problem, though: except for an Arduino library, there was absolutely no documentation available for this display. Wanting to use this display with an FPGA board, [Mike] decided against bit-banging a protocol and
ported the C++ code into a hardware implementation
.
This Deal Extreme display,
the TM1638
, features enough seven-segment displays, LEDs and buttons to build something really cool, and surprisingly isn’t terribly hard to interface with a microcontroller. The TM1638 library communicates with the outside world via only three pins and a simple serial connection.
After figuring out what commands are sent to make the display turn LEDs on or off, [Mike] wrote a hardware implementation for his Digilent Nexys2 and Digilent Basys2. Now the display operates on an FPGA just like it does with an Arduino, and is a great tool for debugging HDL code for [Mike]’s FPGA. | 11 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "789556",
"author": "ino",
"timestamp": "2012-09-19T14:00:53",
"content": "Nice work. It could be usefull.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "789562",
"author": "Ren",
"timestamp": "2012-09-19T14:05:49",
"c... | 1,760,376,736.87462 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/09/19/popinator-fires-popcorn-into-your-mouth-is-probably-a-pr-stunt/ | Popinator Fires Popcorn Into Your Mouth, Is Probably A PR Stunt | Brian Benchoff | [
"cooking hacks"
] | [
"popcorn",
"PR",
"trying to go viral"
] | [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b1cz8IasV4w&w=470]
Popcorn Indiana, the same company that manufactures the bags of kettle corn you might find in a convenience store, posted a project on their website called
The Popinator
. It’s a device you fill with popcorn, turn on, and responds to the word, ‘pop’ by firing a piece of popcorn into your mouth. Details on this build are scant, most likely because The Popinator doesn’t operate exactly as described in
the video demo
for the Popinator project.
We’re going to call this build a figment of the imagination of one of Popcorn Indiana marketing drones, but the idea behind the project is actually fairly interesting. The idea of using voice recognition to determine when the word ‘pop’ is said to turn on the machine is very cool. Using time of flight to calculate where someone’s head is puts this build into a category of awesome we’ve rarely seen before.
Despite all that coolness, we can’t help but think this project is simply an attempt to “go viral” and get a ton of publicity from random tech blogs using only a video camera and a few hours in Final Cut Pro. You’re welcome, Popcorn Indiana.
Surely there will be a ton of comments for this post arguing the merits of this build. You can check out those comments after the break, along with the official Popinator video.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b1cz8IasV4w&w=470] | 28 | 22 | [
{
"comment_id": "789415",
"author": "Chris",
"timestamp": "2012-09-19T12:06:56",
"content": "No “probably” about it. However, the gauntlet has been thrown down. Someone needs to build this.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "789423",
"author": ... | 1,760,376,737.153166 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/09/19/turning-video-game-sprites-into-3d-objects/ | Turning Video Game Sprites Into 3D Objects | Brian Benchoff | [
"3d Printer hacks",
"cnc hacks",
"Software Hacks"
] | [
"3d printing",
"computer vision",
"video game sprite",
"voxel"
] | Anyone who has played
Minecraft
for a good amount of time should have a good grasp on making 3D objects by placing voxels block by block. A giant voxel art dragon behind your base is cool, but what about the math behind your block based artwork? [mikolalysenko]
put together a tutorial
for making 3D objects out of video game sprites and covers a lot of the math involved in turning pixels into voxels.
The process of modeling a 3D object from a series of 2D images is a very well-studied computer vision problem called multiview stereo reconstruction. This process has been used to build 3D models of random objects with devices such as the
Stanford spherical gantry
. Unfortunately the math for this algorithm is a mess, but there is another way: using
photo hulls
(PDF warning) to find the largest possible object from a series of images showing the top, bottom, left, right, front, and back views.
[mikolaly] put together an algorithm to produce 3D images from a series of images and even went so far as to
build a web-based shape carving editor
. With this web app, it’s possible to make 3D objects simply by inputting a bunch of colored pixels onto six 2D grids.
Once the models were complete, [mikolaly] sent some of the 3D models off to Shapeways for 3D printing. He’s completed Meat boy, Mario, and Link 3D sprites,
all available for sale
.
Now the only thing left to do is build a script to turn these objects into
Minecraft
object schematics. | 9 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "789345",
"author": "nes",
"timestamp": "2012-09-19T11:10:58",
"content": "(…and build out of Lego bricks.)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "789405",
"author": "Silver Bullet",
"timestamp": "2012-09-19T12:02:13",
"cont... | 1,760,376,736.923007 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/09/18/investigating-the-strength-of-the-4-digit-pin/ | Investigating The Strength Of The 4-digit PIN | Mike Szczys | [
"Security Hacks"
] | [
"analysis",
"database",
"password",
"pin",
"statistics"
] | If we wanted to take a look at the statistics behind 4-digit pin numbers how could we do such a thing? After all, it’s not like people are just going to tell you the code they like to use. It turns out the databases of leaked passwords that have been floating around the Internet are the perfect source for a little study like this one. One such source was filtered for passwords that were exactly four digits long and contained only numbers. The result was
a set of 3.4 million PIN numbers which were analysed for statistical patterns
.
As the cliché movie joke tells us, 1234 is by far the most commonly used PIN to tune of 10% (*facepalm*). That’s followed relatively closely by 1111. But if plain old frequency were as deep as this look went it would make for boring reading. You’ll want to keep going with this article, which then looks into issues like ease of entry; 2580 is straight down the center of a telephone keypad. Dates are also very common, which greatly limits what the first and last pair of the PIN combination might be.
We’ll leave you with this nugget: Over 25% of all PINs are made of just 20 different number (at least from this data set).
[Thanks Awjlogan] | 46 | 24 | [
{
"comment_id": "788802",
"author": "nullsmack",
"timestamp": "2012-09-18T21:29:54",
"content": "1234? That’s what an idiot would use for the combination on their suitcase!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "789170",
"author": "BlackCow",... | 1,760,376,737.097955 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/09/18/how-to-build-an-extremely-powerful-nerf-gun/ | How To Build An Extremely Powerful Nerf Gun | Mike Szczys | [
"Weapons Hacks"
] | [
"air",
"breech",
"dart",
"nerf",
"pneumatic",
"PVC"
] | [TopCityGear] was trying out a piece of PVC as a blow gun barrel when he thought he’d try to give it a little more power than what his lungs could put out. What he came up with is
this air-powered Nerf gun that definitely leaves a mark
. The video after the break is a show-and-tell, a build log, and finally a demonstration of its power. He adds a nail to a Nerf dart and drives it through a board, then leaves a huge welt on his poor friends chest with a plain old foam dart. It reminds us of those riot guns that shoot bean bags.
The air is stored in that twelve-inch PVC reservoir. On the rear cap there’s a Schrader valve for pressurizing the tank with a compressor or even a bike pump. The grip is a gutted cordless drill whose battery doubles as the power source for the electric sprinkler valve which fires the gun. The screw fitting just in front of the hand grip lets him remove the barrel so that the projectile can be inserted.
This reminds us of
that gun which shoots water-filled ping-pong balls
.
[via
Hacked Gadgets
] | 25 | 12 | [
{
"comment_id": "788713",
"author": "asdf",
"timestamp": "2012-09-18T20:13:59",
"content": "Cool. Similar performance to the recent JT Splatmaster single pump guns (no air required).http://www.sears.com/kee-jt-splatmaster-z200-paintball-shotgun-50-cal-red/p-SPM6138326605P",
"parent_id": null,
... | 1,760,376,736.714855 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/09/18/thousands-of-physical-pixels-turn-these-walls-into-a-huge-display/ | Thousands Of Physical Pixels Turn These Walls Into A Huge Display | Mike Szczys | [
"cnc hacks"
] | [
"art",
"display",
"pixel",
"stepper motor",
"wall"
] | The scale of this project is daunting. Each of the three white walls seen in the image above is made up of thousands of oblong square blocks. The blocks move independently and
turn the room into an undulating 3D display
.
If it had only been the demonstration video we might have run this as a “Real or Fake” post, but we’re certain this is real. Each pixel is made of what looks like a foam block mounted on a stepper-motor-driven linear actuator. So basically this must have set the world record for the CNC machine with the most axes. The motors make for very accurate and smooth motion, and the control software lets them draw shapes, words, animated objects, and the like. But the one side effects that we absolutely adore is the sound all of these motors make when running. After the break you can see a demo video and a ‘making of’ clip.
The installation is the work of the
Jonpasang art collective
and is installed as a Hyundai exhibit at an expo in Korea.
Demo Video:
Making of Video:
[via
Design Boom
and
Creative Applications
] | 47 | 30 | [
{
"comment_id": "788594",
"author": "neorazz",
"timestamp": "2012-09-18T19:07:15",
"content": "Glados approves",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "792452",
"author": "Mime",
"timestamp": "2012-09-21T18:42:45",
"content": "M... | 1,760,376,737.276082 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/09/18/android-hack-cracking-wifi-passwords-with-your-phone/ | Android Hack: Cracking WiFi Passwords With Your Phone | Brian Benchoff | [
"Android Hacks"
] | [
"android",
"monitor mode",
"pwnage",
"wifi"
] | The WiFi adapter in your laptop has a special mode – monitor mode – that can be used to listen in on WiFi traffic and, with a little patience, can be used to crack a WEP password. Surprisingly, this monitor mode can’t be found on any Android device due in part to the limitations of the hardware. A group of three researchers, [Ruby], [Yuval], and [Omri], decided to spend their vacation
adding monitor mode to their Android smartphones
, allowing for a much more portable version of WiFi pwnage tools.
The phones used by the researchers – the Nexus One and Galaxy S II – used Broadcom chipsets that didn’t support monitor mode. To get around this limitation and allow the OS to see full 802.11 frames the team needed to reverse engineer the firmware of this Broadcom radio chip.
The team has released a firmware update for the bcm4329 and bcm4330 chipsets found in the Nexus One and Galaxy S II. The update
may
work for other phones with the same chipset, but don’t take our word on that.
There’s still a lot of work [Ruby], [Yuval], and [Omri] need to do. They’d like to add packet injection to their firmware hack, and of course create an APK to get this into the wild more easily.
If you have experience with kernel development and would like to help out, send the team an email. The source can be found
at google code
if you’d like to play around with it. | 61 | 32 | [
{
"comment_id": "788503",
"author": "CoolMod",
"timestamp": "2012-09-18T18:05:48",
"content": "The first link is incorrect. Please fix it!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "788588",
"author": "farout",
"timestamp": "2012-09-18T19... | 1,760,376,737.365585 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/09/18/tuitwall-uses-php-fed-arduino-to-display-tweets/ | Tuitwall Uses PHP-fed Arduino To Display Tweets | Mike Szczys | [
"Arduino Hacks"
] | [
"ethernet shield",
"led matrix",
"oauth",
"twitter",
"twitteroauth"
] | [Santiago] recently completed this project which he calls Tuitwall. It will
display your Twitter feed on an LED matrix
. The method he used to put it together will come in handy for any project where you need to scrape information from the Internet.
The project does require a server in addition to the Arduino hardware seen above. On the Arduino side [Santiago] uses an Ethernet shield and an LED matrix which is addressed via SPI. The server is running a PHP script which takes advantage of
the twitteroauth library
to handle authentication.
There’s a little bit of configuration to be done, most of it having to do with how Twitter handles 3rd party applications. But once everything is set up you can take the hardware with you and plug it into any network (as long as it offers DHCP). With this framework as a guide it’s a snap to bend it to your will. It could be used as an RSS reader, time and temperature, server farm status, a prank ticket displaying fake headlines, etc. | 4 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "788459",
"author": "Michael",
"timestamp": "2012-09-18T17:32:50",
"content": "Is this the LED Matrix from Sure Electronics?http://www.sureelectronics.net/goods.php?id=1124",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "788483",
"auth... | 1,760,376,737.195592 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/09/18/programming-without-a-toolchain-crafting-pic-op-code-by-hand/ | Programming Without A Toolchain; Crafting PIC Op Code By Hand | Mike Szczys | [
"Microcontrollers"
] | [
"12F1840",
"assembly",
"op code",
"operation codes",
"pic"
] | We’ve been living a life of luxury, writing our microcontroller code in a text editor and using — of all things — a compiler to turn it into something the chip can use. [Dan Amlund Thomsen] shows us a different way of doing things. He’s actually
crafting the operation codes for a PIC microcontroller by hand
. We’re glad he’s explained this in-depth because right now we feel way over our heads.
His program is pretty simple, it blinks a single LED and he’s chosen t work with a PIC 12F1840. The first order of business is to issues the words that configure the chip using 14-bit binary values from the datasheet. From there he goes on to write the program in assembly code. At this point he could pretty much just run this through the assembler, but he’s really just getting started now. He walks through the format necessary to package the configuration words, then goes on to illustrate the translation of assembly commands to binary op codes. We’re not sure we’ll ever get around to trying this ourselves, but it was certainly fun to read about it. | 32 | 19 | [
{
"comment_id": "788333",
"author": "firmwarez",
"timestamp": "2012-09-18T16:07:00",
"content": "It’s archaic, but I believe that those of us who learned how to code like this better understand what the machine is actually doing as opposed to those who learn very high level abstracted languages.Does... | 1,760,376,737.434126 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/09/18/self-monitoring-a-home-alarm-system/ | Self Monitoring A Home Alarm System | Mike Szczys | [
"home hacks",
"Security Hacks"
] | [
"alarm",
"dtm",
"dtmf",
"home security",
"m8870"
] | [Lior] wanted to cancel the monitoring system for his home’s alarm, but he didn’t want to stop using the alarm all together. The trick is to rig up some way to monitor it himself. It would have been simple to have it just call him instead of the alarm company since the system just uses a telephone connection. But this would require that he have a land line for it to connect to, and when it calls him he would have no idea what part of the system had been set off. He developed
a way to have the system text message him
with all of the available details.
An Arduino controls the system, with a SIM900 GSM shield to hand the cell side of things. The board to the left emulates the standard telephone line, with an M8870 DTMF touch tone decoder to figure out what the alarm system is telling him. He also needed to implement touch tone generation to talk back to the system. His write-up includes links to other articles he posted about hardware, software, and protocol specifics. | 16 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "788265",
"author": "JD",
"timestamp": "2012-09-18T15:25:25",
"content": "Or you could just get a simple $100 module that connects your alarm to your network. They have dev APIs if you don’t want to use their free website. There are free apps for Android that work with it too.http://... | 1,760,376,737.488044 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/09/18/center-pivot-pen-plotter/ | Center Pivot Pen Plotter | Mike Szczys | [
"cnc hacks"
] | [
"marker",
"pivot",
"plotter",
"polar"
] | This
center pivot pen plotter
is an interesting take on the idea, and manages to somewhat simplify the fabrication when compared to a gantry-style built.
Normally we’d see a gantry that travels on two rails, with a print head that moves along its length. Here the gantry is anchored on just one side, with a chain driven system to rotate it along the plotting surface. The print head uses a fine-point felt-tipped marker. It still travels along the arm as you would expect, and can be tilted away from the paper for repositioning.
What was made easier in hardware ends up adding to software complexity. The benefit of a traditional system is that it uses X and Y coordinates to plot a design. The pivot of this mechanism means that as the print head moves further from the center of the machine, the distance between each pixel is magnified. But the clip after the break proves that this issue has been solved. | 22 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "788055",
"author": "bot",
"timestamp": "2012-09-18T12:31:45",
"content": "just a polar-rectangular conversion, x=rcos(o) and y=rsin(o) where r is the distance from the marker to origin",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "788063",
... | 1,760,376,737.546513 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/09/18/giving-the-ipod-nano-a-home-on-a-honda-dashboard/ | Giving The IPod Nano A Home On A Honda Dashboard | Mike Szczys | [
"ipod hacks",
"Transportation Hacks"
] | [
"accord",
"dashboard",
"Honda",
"ipod nano",
"mp3",
"music"
] | [Hyeinkali’s]
iPod Nano looks right at home on the dashboard
of his 2001 Honda Accord. He got rid of the simple LCD clock and the buttons that were used to set it. The hack holds the iPod securely in place, but it remains easy to remove and take with you.
He started by popping out the bezel that holds the clock module and hazard light button in place. The original display was about the same width as the Nano, but he wasn’t interested in mounting the mp3 player under the dash. Since he needed to be able to take it with him to sync his music library he made a space near the bottom of the bezel to accept the connector end of the USB cable while keeping the device accessible. After connecting the other end to power he covered the hole in the bezel with mesh and put everything back together. We’re not sure if audio is piped into the car stereo via a cable or through Bluetooth, but it does feed to the head unit.
[via
Reddit
] | 10 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "788039",
"author": "nah!",
"timestamp": "2012-09-18T12:14:58",
"content": "ugly build is ugly, requires more bondo",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "788399",
"author": "Eric",
"timestamp": "2012-09-18T16:46:18",
... | 1,760,376,737.591862 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/09/17/retrotectacular-time-sharing/ | Retrotectacular: Time Sharing | Mike Szczys | [
"computer hacks"
] | [
"corbato",
"mit",
"retrotechtacular",
"time sharing"
] | It’s easy to forget the layer upon layer of technological advances that led to the computers we use today. But this look at the state of the art half a century ago does a good job of reminding us. Here [Fernando J. Corbató]
explains the concept of Time-Sharing
. He is one of the pioneers of the topic which is now used in every computer system in the world.
Since processors (read: a single core) can only work on one operation at a time, it inherently creates a bottle-neck. This is a huge issue when you consider the cost of the computers used at the time. In the video he mentions $300-$600 an hour. That was in the 1960’s and would roughly equate to about $2300-$4600 in 2012. In other words, there’s big money in using the machine as efficiently as possible.
Early on in the discussion he mentions how programs were loaded and solutions were returned by computers of the day. It started with punch cards, then moved to magnetic tape. At the time this was filmed they had just started using teletype and were hoping to add a graphical interface in the near future. We’ve come a long way but the core principles he’s explaining are still quite important. See both parts of the film after the break.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Anxxe8SdX78
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jc6jrhycDsA
[via
Reddit
] | 26 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "787598",
"author": "bandit",
"timestamp": "2012-09-17T23:30:15",
"content": "Thanks for this. My father designed time-shared OS’s for GE (GECOS) and IBM (CALL/360, a stop-gap for OS/360). He was part of an OS team that formed at GE and split off in 1967 when GE Computers dissolved. ... | 1,760,376,737.912085 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/09/17/some-technical-improvements-on-alton-browns-hacked-smoker/ | Some Technical Improvements On [Alton Brown’s] Hacked Smoker | Mike Szczys | [
"cooking hacks"
] | [
"alton brown",
"flower pot",
"good eats",
"pid",
"smoker",
"temperature probe"
] | Bringing that smoky goodness to your cooking is neither hard, nor is it expensive. [Alton Brown], who we consider to be the MacGyver of cooking, always seems to be able to build cooking contraptions from common items. The smoker he built from a flower pot was the inspiration for [Tom’s] own project. But [Tom]
added in PID hardware to smoke at just the right temperature
.
The enclosure hides a single electric burner at the bottom. A metal tray full of wood chips sits on top of it, smoldering as the burner gets hot. You could just set it and forget it, but it will take a lot of trial and error to figure out which setting achieves the best results. [Tom’s] additional hardware, housed in the grey electrical box, switches the burner with a solid state relay. The PID controller takes measurements from a temperature sensor inserted in the lid of the smoker, ensuring perfectly prepared food every time.
If you’re interested in making your own you could try
building a heating element from toaster oven parts
. | 6 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "787562",
"author": "Steve",
"timestamp": "2012-09-17T22:13:10",
"content": "Alton Brown knows his stuff. Anyone who uses X-Ray Diffraction to explain how fudge is made is all right in my book…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "78... | 1,760,376,737.775703 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/09/17/qr-code-opens-doors-to-you/ | QR Code Opens Doors To You | Mike Szczys | [
"Security Hacks"
] | [
"beaglebone",
"door lock",
"jeremy blum",
"linux",
"qr code",
"webcam"
] | [Jeremy Blum] wrote in to share
his LibeTech QR Code Door Lock project
. He developed it during his Senior year at Cornell University along with three of his classmates. It seeks to move away from magnetic card locks in favor of optical locks that authenticate based on a QR code.
The hardware he’s using here is definitely cost prohibitive, but we’re sure the concept could be greatly simplified. In this case a BeagleBone running embedded Linux monitors a feed from a webcam. When it detects a QR code it compares it with a database of approved keys and will unlock the door for you.
There are problems with this technique, one being that an attacker might be able to get a usable photograph of your key without you knowing. But the majority of
hotel locks in use right now are even less secure than that
. On the upside, the key to your room can be emailed to you for use on just about any device with a screen, or printed out on a piece of paper.
You can find [Jeremy’s] presentation video embedded after the break. | 31 | 16 | [
{
"comment_id": "787523",
"author": "Snap",
"timestamp": "2012-09-17T21:09:55",
"content": "“On the upside, the key to your room can be emailed to you for use on just about any device with a screen, or printed out on a piece of paper.”This would be good for a one-use system, where your real key is i... | 1,760,376,737.848978 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/09/17/vending-machine-prototyping/ | Vending Machine Prototyping | Mike Szczys | [
"hardware"
] | [
"changer",
"coinco",
"vending",
"vending machine"
] | [Vending Mexico] plans to design, build, and sell their of vending machines. You’ve got to start somewhere so they’ve built this prototype. It offers
a range of vending features but was built with parts we’re used
to seeing in hobby projects.
The one challenge they didn’t take on is the ability to identify coins and make change. You can see they’ve chosen to use
a Coinco Guardian 6000 changer
. But the custom circuit taps into the device, identifying how much money has been dropped in the slot, and controlling the coin dispenser to make change. Right now there is only one item to choose from; some packs of gum stored in a cardboard partition with the typical metal corkscrew — driven by a servo motor — to dispense the product. Just below that partition there is a row of IR LEDs which have a complimentary set of IR phototransistors. The machine uses these to detect when product has dropped through. This way if your candy gets stuck you get your money back.
The user interface is shown off in the video after the break. It uses a set of seven segment displays for feedback. An arcade button is used to select the desired product. The video dialog is in Spanish but we had no trouble telling what is being shown off even though we don’t speak the language.
We can’t remember seeing other scratch built vending machine. It seems all of them have been
hacks on older commercial vending hardware
.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RR3gY9zEo_U
[Thanks Nancy] | 11 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "787465",
"author": "Jmicz",
"timestamp": "2012-09-17T20:08:08",
"content": "So what is I shine a IR flashlight at it to trick it into giving me my money back, just something to think about.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "7874... | 1,760,376,738.012251 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/09/17/incredible-fabrication-process-makes-this-word-clock-stand-out/ | Incredible Fabrication Process Makes This Word Clock Stand Out | Mike Szczys | [
"clock hacks"
] | [
"glass",
"MAX7219",
"vinyl",
"word clock"
] | From the look of it his is just another Word Clock, right? From the outside maybe. But if you
take a look at the build photos
this a good example of extreme fabrication.The design uses a five-layer lamination of glass bezel, vinyl lettering, diffuser, mounting plate, and back panel. The mounting and lettering layers were labor intensive, but are also the reason for the gorgeous finished look.
The bezel consists of black adhesive foil applied to the back of the glass faceplate. The letters were cut out using a vinyl cutter, and the lamination process happened in a pool of water. This technique helps to ensure that no fine particles end up between the glass and the foil.
The wooden mounting bracket was ordered from a local kitchen cabinet fabricator. It’s MDF that is 17.7″ and has been edge wrapped in glossy white PVC. Once it arrived, [Muris] started drilling the 248 holes and their counter sinks. This is on the front side of the layer and when sprayed with silver paint the countsinks act as reflectors. On the back side he milled groves to accept PCB strips to host the LEDs as well as the breakout boards that hold the MAX7219 drivers.
Don’t miss the video clip after the break that shows off the final product. | 13 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "787448",
"author": "ino",
"timestamp": "2012-09-17T19:48:46",
"content": "superbe !",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "787453",
"author": "Kuy",
"timestamp": "2012-09-17T19:49:46",
"content": "Superb project and writeup... | 1,760,376,737.960535 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/09/17/integrating-a-power-bus-into-a-quadcopter-frame/ | Integrating A Power Bus Into A Quadcopter Frame | Mike Szczys | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"bed liner",
"etch",
"laser engraver",
"later cutter",
"paint",
"pcb",
"quadcopter"
] | When working on flying vehicles weight is always a consideration. [Brendin] found a way to get rid of a wiring harness on his quadcopter, simplifying the assembly while lightening the load. He did it by
incorporating the power bus into the frame of the vehicle
.
He started with some copper clad board. Because the substrate is a structural component he didn’t want to use a CNC mill to do the etching as it also removes a bit more than just copper. After using the mill to cut out the shape and drill holes he coated the board with flat black paint. This acts as the etch resist, which he sent through a 50W laser engraver to remove the paint and expose the areas he wants to etch. After etching he removed the rest of the resist, and masked off his solder pads with small rectangles of electrical tape. This protects the solder pads from the truck bed liner paint he uses to insulate the copper. He says it works great and plans to use the technique on all future builds. | 15 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "787362",
"author": "Drake",
"timestamp": "2012-09-17T18:09:43",
"content": "Id like to see the effects of the emf on the signal lines",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "787386",
"author": "Shock_Trooper",
"timesta... | 1,760,376,738.18055 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/09/17/scrolling-tweets-with-a-wifi-led-matrix/ | Scrolling Tweets With A WiFi LED Matrix | Brian Benchoff | [
"Arduino Hacks"
] | [
"arduino",
"twitter",
"wifi",
"wifi shield"
] | For his most ambitious build to date, [Param] thought it would be a cool idea to have a LED matrix display spitting tweets out via a WiFi connection.
The build is now done
, and we’ve got to hand it to him for a very nice build.
The build is based on an Arduino with a Sparkfun WiFi shield providing the network connection. The Arduino pings a Javascript app that pulls down tweets from The Verge and displays them on an 8×8 LED matrix display.
What makes [Param]’s build so cool is its portable nature; the entire device is completely wireless, getting its power from a Sparkfun
LiPower shield
and an apparently extremely capacious LiPoly battery.
With a rat’s nest of wires hanging out the back of the LED display, [Param]’s build is crying out for a proper enclosure, but even given that it remains a quality project. You can see a video of the WiFi’d Twitter display after the break. | 4 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "787227",
"author": "Beat707",
"timestamp": "2012-09-17T16:38:42",
"content": "If it was twice the size in width it would be killer, this way is a bit hard to read. But still, GREAT WORK! :-p",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "829... | 1,760,376,738.232569 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/09/17/turning-a-kindle-into-a-weather-display/ | Turning A Kindle Into A Weather Display | Brian Benchoff | [
"Kindle hacks",
"Tablet Hacks"
] | [
"epaper",
"kindle",
"weather display"
] | Since the first time [Matt] saw an e-paper display, the idea of using it as a regularly updated, non real-time display consumed him. It really is the perfect platform for very readable calendars, agendas or, as [Matt] found out,
a weather display.
[Matt]’s build uses a server to fetch and parse weather data and forecasts
from NOAA
. This data is then inserted into an SVG file, rendered, converted into a PNG, and finally converted into a grayscale, no transparency image required by the Kindle.
After the image is crafted by [Matt]’s server, a small script running on the Kindle fetches the image, clears the screen, and displays the image. This entire process happens twice a day, often enough for [Matt] to get a good idea of the weather outside without having to look out a window.
The really striking feature of [Matt]’s build is how good his weather display looks. The wonderful iconography of this weather display comes partly from graphics found on
The Noun Project
, with a few weather conditions drawn by [Matt] himself. It looks great, and is an awesome example of an excellent use of e-paper. | 29 | 15 | [
{
"comment_id": "787117",
"author": "Bogdan",
"timestamp": "2012-09-17T15:02:55",
"content": "It looks awesome :) Wish you could buy e paper screens at lower prices then a full e reader.Also, the link is broken.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": ... | 1,760,376,738.376952 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/09/17/help-create-a-universal-arm-programmer/ | Help Create A Universal ARM Programmer | Brian Benchoff | [
"ARM",
"Microcontrollers"
] | [
"arm",
"cortex m0",
"cortex-m3",
"cortex-m4",
"debugger"
] | The new crop of ARM Cortex M0/M3/M4 microcontrollers have a lot of interesting features for developers. In addition to supporting drag and drop programming via USB, the same hardware can also be used as a debugger. Setting breakpoints and inspecting memory at any point in the code is a wonderful feature, but not all the new ARM dev boards we’ve seen support this feature.
The folks over on SimpleCortex
have a solution to this problem
, but they need your help. To get their CMSIS-DAP hardware working with Open Source tools, they’re looking for a few good programmers and hardware developers to build a toolchain.
Right now, the hardware only works with
Keil development tools
. A closed source development environment is no good to anyone, so if you have some experience writing drivers and such, send the guys at SimpleCortex an email. They’ll give you a free board in return for a contribution to building an open source ARM toolchain.
Common sense requires us to mention that you should probably only send these guys an email if you actually plan on working on this problem. Still, it’s a great opportunity to contribute to open hardware. | 20 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "787048",
"author": "Ren",
"timestamp": "2012-09-17T14:09:36",
"content": "I’m sorry, I can’t program my way out of a wet paper bag, so I won’t be much if any help, but I applaud their efforts!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "787... | 1,760,376,738.307145 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/09/17/building-a-bigger-shapeoko-router/ | Building A Bigger Shapeoko Router | Brian Benchoff | [
"cnc hacks"
] | [
"cnc",
"CNC router",
"makerslide",
"router",
"shapeoko"
] | Hackaday alumni [Will O’Brien] sent in a few projects he’s been working on lately while he’s in the process of upgrading his workspace. He’s building a
1200 x 1200 mm CNC router
based on the Shapeoko router, and it sure looks like he’s having fun doing it.
The
Shapeoko router
is based on the Makerslide
open source linear bearing system
. This system uses common aluminum extrusions as the frame of a very simple, very inexpensive CNC router. The Makerslide system is designed to be expandable; if you want a larger axis, just bolt in a longer piece of aluminum extrusion. We haven’t seen many Makerslide builds take advantage of this fact, a shame as the stock Shapeoko only has a build area of 200 mm square.
[Will] is expanding this build area to 1200 mm square, but of course this means beefing up some parts of the build. He’s already moved up to very hefty 250 oz/in Nema 23 stepper motors (up from the Nema 17s for a standard Shapeoko), as well as
beefing up the motor mount
a great deal.
[Will] also sourced a few lengths of
cable drag chain
(yes,
that’s
what it’s called) to keep all the wires for his huge CNC routers out of the path of a moving gantry and spinning motors. It looks like he’s got a very nice build shaping up, and we can’t wait to see it in action. | 15 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "786993",
"author": "pencilneck",
"timestamp": "2012-09-17T13:14:06",
"content": "For what it is worth, the “cable drag chain” stuff can be had for next to nothing.http://www.cnczone.com/forums/diy-cnc_router_table_machines/114054-dirt_cheap_cable_carrier_flesh.html",
"parent_id"... | 1,760,376,738.434032 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/09/17/an-ice-tube-clock-for-the-ti-launchpad/ | An Ice Tube Clock For The TI Launchpad | Brian Benchoff | [
"clock hacks"
] | [
"clock",
"icetube",
"ti launchpad",
"vfd"
] | Because Nixies, Decatrons, and VFD tubes really are
that
cool, [cubeberg] over on the 43oh forums
designed an IV-18 clock for the TI Launchpad
.
Like adafruit’s
Ice Tube clock
, [cubeberg]’s project uses a surplus Russian IV-18 VFD tube conveniently sourced on eBay. On the board, there are three buttons for changing the time and setting the alarm along with a
MAX6921
VFD tube driver and a small switching regulator to boost the 5 Volts on the Launchpad to the 50 V the tube requires.
There was a little bit of space left on [cubeberg]’s PCB design, and he filled that space with a header for a buzzer and a temperature sensor. Right now, the code doesn’t support an alarm function and he’s still waiting on a few components to finish off the thermometer portion of the board, but it’s still the makings of a very nice clock.
If you’d like to grab your own Launchpad ice tube clock, [bluehash] is
organizing a group buy
for 430h forum members. If they can get 15 pieces built, the clock will cost less than $5/unit. Very cool, and very cheap when you consider TI is practically giving Launchpads away. | 8 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "786963",
"author": "cubeberg",
"timestamp": "2012-09-17T12:53:06",
"content": "Just an FYI – the tubes themselves should be < $5 before shipping, not the whole kit – that'll be more. We're working on doing a kit as well, but the price of the other components will push up the price ... | 1,760,376,738.487998 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/09/17/ch00ftech-visits-a-shenzhen-market/ | [ch00ftech] Visits A Shenzhen Market | Eric Evenchick | [
"Parts"
] | [
"components",
"lasers",
"shenzhen"
] | On a business trip, [ch00ftech]
visited a Shenzhen electronics market
and documented the trip. Some of the attractions included multiple Apple stores of questionable authenticity, stores selling PC components with no manuals, drivers, or packaging, and a variety of LEDs and lasers.
[ch00ftech] showed off the loot from the trip, including breadboards, perf boards, LED matrices, and an RFID reader all for very low prices. There’s also the Class 4 laser pointer that cost about $120 and has a power output of “between 500 mW and 8000 mW.” Given the 500 mW power restriction on lasers sold in the US, it’s fair to say that this thing should be handled with care. Hopefully the included safety classes actually block the specific wavelength of the laser.
The staff in these stores were very knowledgeable and knew part numbers and inventories by memory. One of the biggest surprises was just how low the prices were. While Radio Shack has started to carry some more parts for hackers, it seems that nothing stateside can compare these Chinese electronics markets. | 33 | 20 | [
{
"comment_id": "786887",
"author": "ka1axy",
"timestamp": "2012-09-17T11:14:04",
"content": "“One of the biggest surprises was just how low the prices were.”You’re making the assumption that the parts work (I was going to say “meet spec”, but since there were no specs available…) and will keep work... | 1,760,376,738.62061 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/09/16/gamegun-makes-call-of-duty-more-immersive/ | GameGun Makes Call Of Duty More Immersive | Brian Benchoff | [
"Peripherals Hacks",
"Xbox Hacks"
] | [
"call of duty",
"Gamegun",
"xbox",
"xbox 360"
] | In an effort to improve his Call of Duty gaming experience, Reddit user [Harbingerx81]
built a custom controller out of an Airsoft gun
. Not only does this gun feature all the buttons and joysticks normally found on a stock xbox controller, it’s also loaded up with accelerometers and gyros so his on-screen character points his gun wherever [Harbingerx] points his gun.
From
the imgur album
, we can see that [Harbingerx] modded an Airsoft gun with a few buttons, d-pads, and switches optimized for Call of Duty. What really gets us is the clever use of accelerometers and a gun-mounted HDMI display (with a wireless HDMI adapter) to provide a home-made virtual reality setup for one of the most popular games.
Building this controller/display wasn’t cheap – it cost [Harbingerx] upwards of $600. A good price, we’re thinking, since the
Oculus Rift
will be north of $300 along with the added cost of a gun-shaped xbox controller. | 10 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "786463",
"author": "makeitrain",
"timestamp": "2012-09-16T18:55:43",
"content": "This guy is going to make DARPA happy.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "786476",
"author": "ChalkBored",
"timestamp": "2012-09-16T19:24:13",... | 1,760,376,738.544623 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/09/16/a-portable-wifi-enabled-kinect/ | A Portable, WiFi-enabled Kinect | Brian Benchoff | [
"Kinect hacks"
] | [
"gumstix",
"Kinect",
"kinect fusion",
"reconstructme"
] | The builds using a Kinect as a 3D scanner just keep getting better and better. A team of researchers from the University of Bristol
have portablized the Kinect
by adding a battery, single board Linux computer, and a WiFi adapter. With their Mobile Kinect project, it’s now a snap to automatically map an environment without lugging a laptop around, or just giving your next mobile robot an awesome vision system.
By making the Kinect portable, [Mike] et al made the Microsoft’s 3D imaging device much more capable than its present task of computing the volumetric space of the inside of a cabinet. The
Reconstructme project
allows the Kinect to be used as a hand-held 3D scanner and
Kintinuous
can be used to create a 3D model of entire houses, buildings, or caves.
There’s a lot that can be done with a portabalized, WiFi’d Kinect, and hopefully a few builds replicating the team’s work (except for replacing the Gumstix board with a Raspi) will be showing up on HaD shortly.
Video after the break.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sfSqHEtljVg&w=470] | 21 | 16 | [
{
"comment_id": "786381",
"author": "Zee",
"timestamp": "2012-09-16T16:34:50",
"content": "I thought the Kintinuous was never released to the public.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "786410",
"author": "xorpunk",
"timestamp": "2012-09-16... | 1,760,376,738.7384 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/09/16/etching-brass-and-copper-with-the-etchinator/ | Etching Brass And Copper With The Etchinator | Brian Benchoff | [
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"brass",
"copper",
"etching",
"pcb",
"spray etching"
] | If you’re in to making your own PCBs at home, you know the trials of etching copper clad boards. It’s slow, even if you’re gently rocking your etch tank or even using an aquarium pump to agitate your etching solution. [cunning_fellow] over on Instructables
has the solution to your etching problems
, and can even produce printmaking plates, jewelry, photochemically machine small parts, and make small brass logos of your second favorite website.
The Etchinator is a spray etcher, so instead of submerging a copper clad board into a vat of ferric or cupric chloride, etching solution is sprayed onto the board.
We’ve seen this technique before
, but previous builds use pumps to spray the etching solution and cost a bundle. [cunning_fellow]’s Etchinator doesn’t used pumps; it’s driven by two cordless drill motors sucking up etching solution through a hollow tube.
The basic idea behind the build is sticking a vertical PVC pipe in a box with etching solution. Mount an impeller in the bottom of the tube, drill many small holes in the side of the tube, and spin it with a motor up top. The solution is sucked up the tube, sprayed out the sides, and falls back down into the reservoir. Put a masked off copper board in the tank and Bob’s your uncle.
Not only did [cunning_fellow] come up with an
awesome
PCB etching solution, but the same machine can be used for etching brass plate for printmaking, and even photoetching brass sheets for model planes, trains, and automobiles. The quality is really amazing; the Instructables robot above was etched out of 0.7 mm thick brass, with an etch depth of 0.35 mm with only 0.05 mm of undercut. A very awesome build that is already on our ‘to build’ project list. | 16 | 12 | [
{
"comment_id": "786313",
"author": "Bakamoichigei",
"timestamp": "2012-09-16T15:22:35",
"content": "Wow, I was trying to design a spray-etch tank recently (Because I’m sick and goddam tired of bubble etching) and I had been wondering if a piece of PVC pipe with a bunch of tiny holes would be suffic... | 1,760,376,738.67554 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/09/16/700-hp-electric-honda-s2000-built-by-high-school-senior/ | 700+ Hp Electric Honda S2000 Built By High School Senior | Brian Benchoff | [
"Transportation Hacks"
] | [
"electric car",
"EV conversion",
"Honda",
"S2000"
] | [Juan] dropped us a note to let us know about a little project he’s working on. A few years ago, he bought a Honda S2000. It served him well, but now
he’s converting it to electric power
, and it’s going to be a beast.
[Juan] is using 104 battery packs each containing 4 cells in parallel. The total output of his battery assemblage is 686 kilowatts, or 920 horsepower. [Juan] is assuming his drive train will be 85% efficient, meaning his wheels will be getting 782 horsepower and 1500 ft/lbs of torque at 0 rpm. Yes, this thing is going to scream.
A project of this caliber is usually undertaken by gear heads with decades of experience, but that’s not the case for [Juan]; he’s still a senior in High School. A build this awesome can only portend a very bright future as an engineer and certainly a few drag race wins. This car is going to be a monster, and we can’t wait to see it on the track. | 109 | 46 | [
{
"comment_id": "786182",
"author": "aztraph",
"timestamp": "2012-09-16T11:40:55",
"content": "Awesome build! give the kid an A+. I hope he reinforces the mounting on the electric motors though, otherwise he might be shearing a lot of bolts. it looks like there are only 2 bolts holding each motor to... | 1,760,376,738.966507 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/09/15/video-preview-new-ioio-prototype/ | Video Preview: New IOIO Prototype | Mike Szczys | [
"Android Hacks",
"Microcontrollers"
] | [
"24fj256",
"android",
"host mode",
"ioio",
"otg",
"pic",
"usb"
] | We got our hands on this prototype of the new IOIO design. It’s a breakout board that makes adding hardware to an Android device pretty easy. [Ytai Ben-Tsvi] sent it our way, and took a bit of time to explain some of the differences between this board and the original version. You can see our video preview embedded after the break.
The size and form factor of the board remain the same, but the choice and layout of parts has changed. Most obviously, the USB-A connector is gone, replaced by a USB
mini-B
micro-B connector. This makes it possible to use the board as a USB-on-the-go device, or as a USB host device with the help of an adapter that will ship with the board. The JST connector is for external power. The previous revision included a footprint for it but it was never populated. There has also been an upgrade to the voltage regulation circuit, using a newer part as the switch-mode regulator.
There was a last-minute bug discovered in the layout. [Ytai] wants iron-clad 5V to ground short protection and is re-spinning the board to ensure he achieves that goal. He can’t say for sure, but as we mentioned in
our previous post about the prototype
, a price cut is planned. It could cut the current price of $50 down to just $30, but that won’t be decided until all of the choices have been made for the first production run. | 9 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "785763",
"author": "trandi",
"timestamp": "2012-09-15T22:07:55",
"content": "Congrats Ytai for this new revision !I’m working right now on a small project with my old IOIO (yep, after all this time :) ) and I hope you’ll enyoy it…:)Dan",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"r... | 1,760,376,738.789439 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/09/15/how-to-make-your-own-piezoelectric-speaker/ | How To Make Your Own Piezoelectric Speaker | Brian Benchoff | [
"Musical Hacks"
] | [
"piezo",
"rochelle salt",
"speaker"
] | Piezoelectric speakers are found all around you, from musical greeting cards to the tweeters in your car stereo setup. Making your own piezo speakers is actually very easy,
as [Steven] shows us
after replacing the speaker in a clock radio.
Piezo speakers require a small crystal with piezoelectric properties, so this build is the perfect followup to [Steven]’s
tutorial for making Rochelle salt crystals
. After attaching two strips of aluminum foil to his Rochelle salt crystal, [Steven] took the wires that previously went to the clock radio speaker, connected them to the crystal, and turned on the radio. When attached to a tin can, the newly created piezo speaker created a little bit of sound, but the results weren’t very impressive.
To boost the sound output of his homemade speaker, [Steven] needed to increase the voltage across his piezo speaker. At first he tried a doorbell transformer with somewhat better results, but much more sound was produced when he used a transformer taken from a microwave oven.
After experimenting with his microwave transformer and Rochelle salt, [Steven] moved on to piezo elements found in BBQ and cigarette lighters. These homemade speakers were much clearer than the chunk of Rochelle salt he was using previously, and surprisingly produced about the same audio quality as a commercially made piezo speaker [Steven] picked up at Radio Shack.
You can check out the build video for [Steven]’s crystal speaker after the break.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R7zjfaPKMSE&w=470] | 14 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "785747",
"author": "Chris C.",
"timestamp": "2012-09-15T21:32:16",
"content": "If you’re going to throw a microwave oven transformer in the mix, why stop there? Try an electrostatic speaker while you’re at it.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
... | 1,760,376,739.01068 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/09/14/avr-programmer-made-without-a-programmer/ | AVR Programmer Made Without A Programmer | Mike Szczys | [
"Microcontrollers"
] | [
"atmega32u4",
"Atmel",
"AVR",
"dfu",
"programmer"
] | [blueHash] uses this
cheap development board as an AVR programmer
. What’s interesting to us is that it solves the chicken-or-egg problem that is usually encountered when bootstrapping a programmer. We’ve
written about this issue
before. Most programmers use microcontrollers, which first need to be flashed using a programmer. But it turns out the chip on
this dev board has a DFU mode
which gets around that conundrum.
He grabbed a uSD dev board for about $6. It’s got a crystal, an ATmega32u4 chip, and on the other side there’s a MicroSD card slot. We looked around and found an
Atmel Datasheet
(PDF) which describes the Device Firmware Upgrade mechanism. The AVR devices which support DFU are factory configured to use it. This dev board is designed to use DFU so all [blueHash] needed to do is find and configure a ISP firmware package that worked with this chip. | 20 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "784681",
"author": "NewCommentor1283",
"timestamp": "2012-09-14T20:44:37",
"content": "the price of a computer with a parallel port is SO cheap it’s… FREE? oh yeh i forgotdb25 connector, check!scrap wire, check!resistors, optional, but still, check!done.DFU is a bootloader, which is... | 1,760,376,739.070283 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/09/14/a-truly-professional-raspi-analog-input/ | A Truly Professional Raspi Analog Input | Brian Benchoff | [
"Raspberry Pi"
] | [
"adc",
"analog in",
"gpio",
"i2c",
"Raspi"
] | Much to the chagrin of hardware tinkerers, the Raspberry Pi doesn’t have analog inputs on its GPIO pins. Sure, you can blink a LED with just a few console commands, but reading sensors with a bone-stock Raspi requires a little additional hardware. [Brian Dorey] just
released a board that allows for 8 analog inputs
on the Raspberry Pi with a 16-bit resolution that is much higher than any Arduino-based build.
[Brian]’s build is based on
an earlier, similar iteration
of a Raspi analog board we saw last July. Like the previous version, the new professionally made PCBs use a pair of Microchip MCP3428 analog to digital converter. These ADCs are able to sample four channels at a resolution of 16 bits; a vast improvement over the 8-bit ADCs included on every Arduino.
The boards communicate with the Raspberry Pi over an I2C serial bus using a neat stackable header. In theory, it should be possible to use several of these boards and measure dozens of analog channels, but we’ll leave a demonstration of that up to [Brian]. | 37 | 14 | [
{
"comment_id": "784470",
"author": "KNfLrPn",
"timestamp": "2012-09-14T18:13:03",
"content": "The ATMEGAs have 10-bit DACs, no? Does the Arduino software only support 8-bit?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "784476",
"author": "KNfLrPn... | 1,760,376,739.273703 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/09/14/dumping-a-c64-kernel/ | Dumping A C64 Kernel | Mike Szczys | [
"Microcontrollers"
] | [
"18f4520",
"c64",
"commodore 64",
"image",
"kernel",
"pic",
"rom"
] | [Blark] picked up a couple of Commodore 64 machines on Craig’s List so that he could play around with the SID chips inside. But there’s some other fun stuff in there and his attention was drawn to the PROM which stores the kernel. He thought it would be a fun adventure to
build a ROM dumper capable of storing binary images
.
In the video after the break you can see that when powered up the dumper immediately starts streaming hex values to the terminal. The system is set up to feed a Python script which packs the data stream into an image file. The reading is done by a PIC 18F4520, streaming the data in at 9600 baud with a generous delay between each address read to get the cleanest read possible. He had
a bit of help from the AVR Freaks
to get to this point.
We’d guess he’s going to pull the image off the chip several times and compare results to filter out any possible data corruption. From there we’re not sure what he’ll do with the files but there’s always the possibility of making is own emulator using this kernel image. | 9 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "784418",
"author": "SFRH",
"timestamp": "2012-09-14T17:38:36",
"content": "“There’s always the possibility of making is own emulator using this kernel image.”You mean like he could do with the countless dumps of the C64’s internal ROMs that already exist? Given how widespread the C6... | 1,760,376,739.207196 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/09/14/coilgun-with-laser-sights-built-in-an-airsoft-rifle-housing/ | Coilgun With Laser Sights Built In An Airsoft Rifle Housing | Mike Szczys | [
"Weapons Hacks"
] | [
"airsoft",
"CoilGun",
"laser",
"night vision",
"rifle"
] | This
coilgun started as a stock Airsoft rifle
. The stock weapon cost about 40€ (just over $50), but we think it was well worth it since it provides plenty of room for all the coilgun components and solves most of the mechanical issues of the build like a body that is comfortable to hold, a trigger, etc.
The clear tube which serves as the barrel (the same setup as we saw in
this coilgun guide
) is protected by three stainless steel barrels which surround it. They each host a laser diode which results in a
Predator
-style aiming mechanism that is shown off in the video after the break. There’s even a night vision system that uses IR leds and a viewfinder attached to the stock.
A camera flash is scrapped for the transformer inside. This acts as the voltage generator, charging up a few capacitors. It seems to have no problem generating enough juice to work well, despite the fact that it’s only being powered from two AA batteries mounted in the magazine. | 25 | 15 | [
{
"comment_id": "784285",
"author": "ho0d0o",
"timestamp": "2012-09-14T16:22:41",
"content": "I love that you used the G36c housing for this! Well done my friend!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "785675",
"author": "Bebop",
"tim... | 1,760,376,739.335553 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/09/14/testing-30-brands-of-batteries/ | Testing 30 Brands Of Batteries | Brian Benchoff | [
"hardware"
] | [
"aa",
"alkaline",
"battery",
"cell",
"lithium",
"zinc"
] | Batteries come packaged in bright blister packs emblazoned with vague guarantees such as “45% more pictures” and “five times longer lasting.” During his internship at BitBox this summer, [Thomas] decided to put those statements to the test.
He tested thirty brands of batteries
on a homebrew rig to find the batteries with the most power and the most bang for your buck.
The hardware [Thomas] used an STM32 microcontroller to perform two different tests: a high drain and a low drain condition. For the high drain, 1000 mA were sucked out of the batteries until the voltage reached 0.8 V. For the low drain, 200 mA were used. Data including milliwatt-hours, milliamp-hours, joules, voltage, current, power, and effective load resistance were all logged for both conditions for all 30 batteries.
Generalizing the results for both low and high drain conditions, lithium batteries were better than alkaline, which were both better than zinc AA cells. Perhaps unsurprisingly, batteries marketed as ‘long life’ and ‘extended power’ were the worst batteries for the money, but a brand-name battery – the Kodak Xtralife cells – were actually the best value for the money. | 46 | 25 | [
{
"comment_id": "784114",
"author": "boondaburrah",
"timestamp": "2012-09-14T14:13:51",
"content": "Would there also need to be a test case for batteries that needed to do high drain in short infrequent bursts over a long time? Or is that covered by testing high drain? (Assuming drain inbetween burs... | 1,760,376,739.453482 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/09/14/rc-car-upgraded-to-bluetooth-control/ | RC Car Upgraded To Bluetooth Control | Mike Szczys | [
"Arduino Hacks",
"Toy Hacks"
] | [
"bluetooth",
"boost converter",
"rc"
] | [Chet] is showing off
the Bluetooth controller upgrade for this RC car
. The donor vehicle is a rather inexpensive Porche which he purchased to make sure he didn’t start hacking up his more expensive toys.
He took a bit different route than
the IOIO RC truck
we saw earlier in the week, but the concept is basically the same. That build used an IOIO board with a USB Bluetooth dongle. This one uses an Arduino Mini with a serial Bluetooth module. He patched into the motor driver circuits on the original PCB. While he was at it he also soldered in some LEDs to use as switchable headlights.
There was one issue which he had to overcome. The current draw from the motor starting up would sometimes dip the voltage low enough to reset the Arduino. He tried using a bigger capacitor to feed the board, but in the end
opted to add a boost converter
. | 7 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "784164",
"author": "bean",
"timestamp": "2012-09-14T14:54:52",
"content": "That looks like a nano, not a mini.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "784307",
"author": "a3",
"timestamp": "2012-09-14T16:37:05",
"content": "... | 1,760,376,739.377201 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/09/14/checking-out-mount-olympus-from-38-km/ | Checking Out Mount Olympus From 38 Km | Brian Benchoff | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"balloon",
"high altitude balloon",
"weather balloon"
] | The image above shows Mount Olympus in the center, with a tiny bit of the western suburbs of Thessaloniki, the second largest city in Greece, in the lower right hand corner. These two points are 70 kilometers apart, but we’re not seeing a picture taken from the International Space Station. This is a picture from
the SlaRos project
, a high altitude balloon launched last summer that ascended to 38 kilometers above Greece.
On SlaRos’
project page
(Facebook warning), the team covers the hardware that went in to lofting a camera high above the cruising altitude of commercial airplanes. A GPS module tracked the balloon in real time and relayed this to a GSM module to the mobile command and tracking team.
There are
a ton of high altitude pictures
of Greece over on the project’s Facebook page as well as
a time lapse video
of the Grecian wilderness after the SlaRos payload landed. The payload spent a full night in a field before it was recovered, but we’re very glad the team was able to recover these awesome pictures. | 6 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "784258",
"author": "Coda",
"timestamp": "2012-09-14T16:01:21",
"content": "Wouldn’t Zeus get angry at losing his privacy?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "784718",
"author": "Luke",
"timestamp": "2012-09-14T21:2... | 1,760,376,741.039876 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/09/14/making-plastic-filament-at-home/ | Making Plastic Filament At Home | Brian Benchoff | [
"3d Printer hacks",
"cnc hacks"
] | [
"3d printer",
"abs",
"extruder",
"filament",
"PLA"
] | There’s one problem with the popularity of plastic-extruding 3D printers such as the RepRap and Makerbot; since they’ve become so popular, the price of plastic filament has skyrocketed over the past few years. Without a way to produce filament at a hackerspace or home lab, the price of 3D printed objects will remain fairly high.
Project Spaghetti hopes to rectify that
by building a machine to make plastic filament for 3D printers.
The folks behind Project Spaghetti – a loose amalgamation of makers going under the title of Open Source Printing, LLC – have successfully built a machine that is able to produce short lengths of plastic filament.
Early machines used a plunger to press small pellets of ABS plastic through a heated steel pipe to produce filament. There are a few problems with this approach,
especially when the temperature is set to 480F
, but the team was able to
make a bit of filament
with this design.
Although the team is using a piston to force melted plastic out of a nozzle, they do have
a screw-drive ‘plan B’ in the works
. This design should allow for continuous extrusion for theoretically endless reels of plastic filament, every RepRappers dream and a neat way to
win 40 grand
. | 44 | 20 | [
{
"comment_id": "783939",
"author": "bob",
"timestamp": "2012-09-14T12:03:30",
"content": "boy are they gonna be in for a surprise.All modern injection machines use a screw compression method, problem is, that several tons of force can build up inside the screw mechanism, then you need a heater, bec... | 1,760,376,741.493993 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/09/13/ios-terminal-debugging-tool/ | IOS Terminal Debugging Tool | Mike Szczys | [
"iphone hacks"
] | [
"debugging",
"ftdi",
"serial",
"terminal"
] | This is
a simple iOS debugging tool
that will take no time to solder together. There’s even a chance that you already have everything you need on hand. The hack simply connects an RS232-to-USB converter to a breakout board for an iPod connector.
The hardware is aimed not at stock iOS systems, but as an aid to those who wish to run alternative operating systems on them. When
the OpeniBoot package
is run on an iPod Touch or iPhone it enables a serial terminal on pins 12 and 13. The FTDI breakout board takes these as RX and TX and makes them available to your terminal program of choice via USB. Speaking of USB, you may already have noticed the black cable leaving the right side of the image. Using the terminal doesn’t limit your ability to use the device’s USB functions. | 8 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "783497",
"author": "hellahella",
"timestamp": "2012-09-13T22:23:33",
"content": "FT232 isn’t a RS-232 to USB converter, it’s an serial UART to USB converter.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "783594",
"author": "kay",
"tim... | 1,760,376,741.184906 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/09/13/art-controller-relay-board-with-switches-for-timing/ | Art Controller: Relay Board With Switches For Timing | Mike Szczys | [
"Microcontrollers"
] | [
"attiny2313",
"dip switch",
"relay",
"timer"
] | Meet the Art Controller
, a new dev board available over at Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories. It provides a drop-in solution for switching higher voltage loads (but not mains). The thing we like most about it is the ability to alter a switching delay without reprogramming the firmware.
The board uses an ATtiny2313 for control. It’s fed regulated 5V power from the on-board 7805 linear regulator. The relay can handle a 24V DC or 40V AC load, which is targeted at an audience that needs electronic switching for art-related devices but doesn’t want the hassle of designing a circuit every time. This offers a single shot, or repeat action, with that bank of DIP switches selecting a delay from once every second, to every 31 hours. It can get its initial trigger from anything that can pull a pin low, like a button, or a coin acceptor.
Keep this in mind.
The open source nature of the project
means it could come in handy as a reference design. | 12 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "783467",
"author": "Bob Spafford",
"timestamp": "2012-09-13T21:46:00",
"content": "The relay says 10A 277VAC. “Not for mains”? What’s the problem? Did they run low side traces too close for you?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id"... | 1,760,376,741.343089 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/09/13/radio-built-from-the-london-underground-map/ | Radio Built From The London Underground Map | Mike Szczys | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"art",
"exhibit",
"london",
"museum",
"pcb",
"subway"
] | We love it when PCB artwork is actually artwork. Here’s one example of
a radio whose layout mimics the map of London’s subway system
.
The build is for an exhibit at the London Design Museum. They have an artist in residence program which allowed Yuri Suzuki time and resources to undertake the project. He speaks briefly about the concepts behind it in the video after the break.
The top layer of copper, and silk screen was positioned to mirror the subway lines and stops on a traditional transportation map. Major components represent various transfer hubs. In this way he hopes the functioning of the circuit can be followed by a layman in the same way one would plan a trip across town.
This may be a bit more abstract than you’re willing to go with your own projects. But there are certainly other options to
spicing you track layout
.
http://vimeo.com/48937359
[Thanks Murli and Hsiboy] | 20 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "783419",
"author": "paulmcguinness",
"timestamp": "2012-09-13T20:46:54",
"content": "Underground… not ‘Subway’",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "783498",
"author": "Infidellic",
"timestamp": "2012-09-13T22:23:52"... | 1,760,376,741.237881 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/09/13/hackerspace-intro-xin-che-jian-in-shanghai/ | Hackerspace Intro: Xin Che Jian In Shanghai | Caleb Kraft | [
"Hackerspaces"
] | [
"shanghai"
] | [youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SGx5hm4jwNQ]
[Paul] wrote in to submit this video introduction to the
Xin Che Jian hackerspace in Shanghai
. It appears as though they have a fairly active space there, with several ongoing projects. They show off a range of things from an intelligent wireless power strip to aquaponics. The space seems to have the usual amenities such as project storage and a machine shop. The familiar sound of someone explaining that several of the tools are “almost working” reminds us that it is a small world, and we’re all pretty much the same. | 9 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "783435",
"author": "superbrainak",
"timestamp": "2012-09-13T20:58:00",
"content": "seems a bit crowded, but a critical flaw in the explanation of the aquaponics the plants dont get oxygen from the fish the plants make the oxygen for us!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"... | 1,760,376,741.549061 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/09/13/building-a-passive-3d-projection-system-in-your-attic/ | Building A Passive 3D Projection System In Your Attic | Caleb Kraft | [
"home entertainment hacks"
] | [
"3d",
"projector",
"stereoscopic"
] | While the whole 3d movie/game craze seems to be ramping up, it really isn’t a new thing. We all recall those fancy red-blue glasses that were popular in theaters for a while, but I’m not talking about that. Passive 3d projection (using polarized glasses) has been around for a while too. Many people have figured out cheap ways to build these systems in their homes, but only recently have we seen media created for them in quantity. Now that you can buy 3D games and movies at your local box store, the temptation to have a 3d system in your home is much higher.
Here’s a great read on
how to put together a fairly simple projection system
that uses two identical projectors with polarizing filters. Basically, all you need are two projectors, two filters, a screen, and the glasses. There are plenty of tips for mounting and setup in the thread to help alleviate any headaches you might encounter.
This system is primarily used with a PC, because it requires two video feeds to function. A cost breakdown might make you wonder why you wouldn’t just jump on amazon and get a 32″ 3d tv for under $400, but sitting in front of that giant screen might make you understand. | 16 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "783245",
"author": "Silver Bullet",
"timestamp": "2012-09-13T18:40:20",
"content": "Bonus points for the air ducts.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "783246",
"author": "Greenaum",
"timestamp": "2012-09-13T18:41:33",
"... | 1,760,376,741.092723 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/09/13/3d-printer-control-for-the-raspi/ | 3D Printer Control For The Raspi | Brian Benchoff | [
"3d Printer hacks",
"cnc hacks",
"Raspberry Pi"
] | [
"3d printer",
"raspberry pi",
"reprap",
"web interface"
] | Instead of dedicating his laptop to control his RepRap all night, [Walter] is
using a Raspberry Pi as an Internet-enabled front end
for his 3D printer.
Before [Walter] got his hands on a Raspberry Pi, he set up his laptop next to his RepRap and let the machine do its work for hours on end. Obviously, this tied up his laptop for a while so when his Raspi was delivered he was eager to offload the responsibilities of controlling a printer to his new Linux board.
Right now, [Walter] has his Raspberry Pi set up as a web interface able to control his printer similar to
Pronterface
. We have to note that the Raspberry Pi isn’t driving servos or feeding filament onto the bed; those responsibilities are still handled by the RepRap electronics, but the ability to use a 3D printer over the web is still pretty cool.
[Walter] is putting the finishing touches on his 3D printer web interface, after which he’ll upload everything onto the git. Planned features for future updates include uploading gcode from the web and an option to connect a webcam for visual feedback when controlling a remote printer.
Video demo after the break.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tsMdusrO6bk&w=470] | 27 | 12 | [
{
"comment_id": "783142",
"author": "coolworlds",
"timestamp": "2012-09-13T17:13:29",
"content": "So the printer is stil running off an arduino, and the Raspi is working like a network node, via web interface?No one managed to get a 3d printer/cnc running directly off a Raspi.don’t get me wrong i th... | 1,760,376,741.409012 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/09/13/hacking-the-peggy/ | Hacking The Peggy | Eric Evenchick | [
"LED Hacks"
] | [
"kit",
"led matrix",
"peggy"
] | Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories received an email from someone who wanted to
hack their Peggy kit
. This LED matrix kit has been featured on Hack a Day in the
past
, and provides hardware to set up a 625 LED matrix.
This user built an external array of LEDs that they wanted to drive with the Peggy hardware. There are a few options for making this happen. The first one is to run wires from each of the 625 LED footprints on the board. Each has an anode and cathode, so that makes for a total of 1250 wires to run. It turns out that people have actually done this with the Peggy in the past, using very fine wire.
EMSL suggests wiring the rows and columns instead. This way, only one wire is needed for each row and column, allowing a 25×25 LED grid to use 50 wires instead of 1250. They also explain how to expand the grid to a 30×20 LED matrix. It’s a good explanation of how the kit works, and how it can be expanded.
Photo [
oskay
] | 6 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "783071",
"author": "Sheldon",
"timestamp": "2012-09-13T16:13:11",
"content": "To be honest, I can’t believe people would be crazy enough to wire 1250 links without checking the schematic/PCB routing to see if there was an easier way! (2500 solder points could get quite tedious after... | 1,760,376,741.139986 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/09/13/measuring-a-pulse-with-infrared-light/ | Measuring A Pulse With Infrared Light | Brian Benchoff | [
"Medical Hacks"
] | [
"heart rate",
"photoplethysmographic",
"pulse",
"pulse meter"
] | The next time you’re unfortunate enough to make your way to a hospital, emergency room, or urgent care clinic, you’ll be asked to attach a small pulse monitor to your finger. The device the nurses clip on to one of your remaining digits is called a photoplethysmographic sensor, and basically it is able to read your pulse through reflected light. In the search to find out how these devices actually work, [Raj]
sent in a great tutorial
covering the theory behind photoplethysmographicy, and also built a simple device to detect a pulse without using a microcontroller.
These photoplethysmographic sensors operate by shining light into someone’s flesh – usually a finger or ear lobe – and recording the light reflected back to the source. The volume of blood in the finger will have an effect on the amount of light reflected back, and makes for a perfect way to automatically measure someone’s heart rate.
To build his device, [Raj] used a
TCRT1000 reflective optical sensor
. Inside this sensor is an infrared LED and a phototransistor. Of course with a finger over the sensor there is a ton of noise both from ambient light and the base rate of reflected light from a piece of flesh. [Raj] filtered this out, leaving only the small variations in the amount of reflected light, thus creating a very simple – and very inexpensive – electronic pulse meter. | 18 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "783008",
"author": "Bakamoichigei",
"timestamp": "2012-09-13T15:30:35",
"content": "Cool, I’ve been wanting to play around with making some manner of bio-sensors, and the other day I saw a video somewhere about this exact sort of hack. (Can’t remember where, think it was a Make you... | 1,760,376,741.292768 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/09/13/raspy-juice-gives-you-serial-ports-and-servo-control/ | Raspy Juice Gives You Serial Ports And Servo Control | Brian Benchoff | [
"Raspberry Pi"
] | [
"ATmega168",
"Raspi",
"Raspi Juice",
"serial",
"servos"
] | Up next on the continual march of expansion boards for the Raspberry Pi is the
Raspy Juice
, a board designed to break out the GPIO pins on the Raspberry Pi into servo, serial, and other miscellaneous connections.
The Raspy Juice features an ATMega168A microcontroller connected to the Raspberry Pi as an I2C slave device. Not only does the addition of a microcontroller add analog inputs to the Raspberry Pi, but also RS232 and RS485 serial connections, a real-time clock, and four JST plugs for hobby servos.
Because the Raspberry Pi can be powered from the GPIO header, the creator, [NTT] added a buck regulator so batteries or solar cells can be used to power the Raspberry Pi.
The Raspberry Pi is a terribly awesome robotics platform, but sadly limited by its capability to drive motors and servos natively. The Raspy Juice adds some much-needed capability to the Raspberry Pi, and we can’t wait to see a robot take its first steps with this expansion board. | 21 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "782903",
"author": "Raspysucks",
"timestamp": "2012-09-13T14:29:20",
"content": "“Raspberry Pi is a terribly awesome robotics platform”Bullshit.If the Raspberry Pi was an awesome robotics platform it would drive motors and servos natively and wouldn’t require an additional expansion... | 1,760,376,741.84465 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/09/13/simple-concepts-behind-complex-coilguns/ | Simple Concepts Behind Complex Coilguns | Mike Szczys | [
"Weapons Hacks"
] | [
"2n6504",
"capacitor",
"CoilGun",
"scr",
"thyristor"
] | Coil guns use electromagnetic coils to propel a metal projectile. On the surface they may look rather complicated. But when you break down the concepts it’s pretty easy to learn. If you’ve ever thought of dabbling in this field
this lengthy coilgun primer
will be a great help.
The basic concept of a coilgun comes in three parts: the coil, the voltage source, and the switch that combines the two. In the build above you can see two spools of wire on the clear barrel of the gun. These make up a pair of accelerators which connect to those huge black capacitors supplying the voltage. The switch they used can’t really be seen but from the article we know it’s a
Thyristor
; a Silicon Controlled Rectifier (2N6504).
In the video after the break you can see these three parts coming together for a test firing. This is the first step in a longer journey. To achieve higher projectile velocities you must add coils, as in the image above. But spacing and timing quickly complicate the simple concept. But if you can work out all the kinks
you end up with some pretty great hardware
.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6cJM8oKiQYA] | 8 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "783248",
"author": "Dax",
"timestamp": "2012-09-13T18:42:38",
"content": "What bugs me is that everybody’s doing the same old same old coil gun, when it’s been proven time and time again that it’s not going to work very well because the coils are not fast enough and the projectile g... | 1,760,376,741.784597 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/09/13/ugly-upgrade-keeps-the-tunes-playing-longer/ | Ugly Upgrade Keeps The Tunes Playing Longer | Mike Szczys | [
"digital audio hacks"
] | [
"battery",
"clip",
"mp3 player",
"sansa"
] | [Sam] picked up a Sansa Clip audio player to listen to some tunes while working on projects. He liked the fact that he could run the Rockbox alternative firmware on the device, but thought the 15 hour battery life needed some improving. He
swapped out the stock cell with a larger Lithium cell
for a long life of 50-60 hours. It’s an upgrade fom 300 mAh to 1100 mAh, but as you can see, the size of the replacement made for some interesting case modification.
The battery swap required more than just taking one battery out and putting in the other. [Sam] is using a cellphone battery as the replacement and he didn’t want to have issues with the internal circuitry. He took the cell out of its plastic enclosure, removing the circuit board in the process. That PCB is the charging circuit, which he replaced with the one from the stock battery. After insulating the cell with a layer of Kapton tape he soldered it to the MP3 player and did his best to adhere all the parts to each other.
Sure, its ugly, but that makes it right at home on the work bench. | 25 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "782679",
"author": "Dave",
"timestamp": "2012-09-13T12:27:18",
"content": "That PCB isn’t the charging circuit, it’s the battery protection circuit. It prevents over-charging and over-discharging, by opening the circuit for charge or discharge as necessary.Absolutely essential to k... | 1,760,376,742.350407 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/09/12/building-a-recirculating-infusion-mash-system-for-your-brewing-pleasure/ | Building A Recirculating Infusion Mash System For Your Brewing Pleasure | Mike Szczys | [
"Beer Hacks"
] | [
"homebrew",
"mashing",
"pid",
"rims"
] | If you’re into all-grain brewing a little automation goes a long way. [Tom Hargrave] had his eye on a Recirculating Infusion Mash System (RIMS) but the price tag kept him from pulling the trigger. Recently he bit the bullet and
built his own small and inexpensive RIMS
for use with the 10 gallon cooler he uses as a mash tun.
Mashing
is the part of brewing process that collects sugars from the milled grains. Water needs to move through the grain mash and should be kept within a narrow temperature window. This RIMS hardware does that automatically by combining a pump, the heating element from an electric water heater, and a temperature sensor. The wooden disc fits on the top of the mash tun and tubing lets the pump move the liquids as needed. The one thing missing from this build is the PID controller to automate the process. After the break we’ve embedded a video from a separate project that shows off how the PID control would work with a system like this one.
If you’re into automated home brewing you’ll also like
this mini-batch brewing setup
. | 28 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "782292",
"author": "Dom",
"timestamp": "2012-09-13T03:06:32",
"content": "just a random question wouldn’t the grain clog the intake if the valve is located at the bottom of the mash tank, you might want to reverse the connections so it pumps the water from the bottom valve up, unles... | 1,760,376,742.063292 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/09/12/visualist-a-hardware-visual-effects-synthesizer/ | VISUALIST – A Hardware Visual Effects Synthesizer | Mike Szczys | [
"Video Hacks"
] | [
"analog",
"circuit bending",
"composite video",
"synthesizer",
"video"
] | [Berto] wrote in to tell us about
the visual effects synthesizer he built
. It works as a pass-through for a video signal, rendering crisp clean images into a more psychedelic flavor like the one seen above. On the one hand this does a dishonor to the high-quality video devices we carry around in our pockets these days. On the other hand it will make some really interesting background video at a party or at your local dance club.
This is not a filter for a PC, or an FPGA-based processing system. A set of analog parts alter the incoming composite video (NTSC or PAL formats) and pipes the result to a television or projector. [Berto] included controls to alter the effects. They’re mounted on a panel and everything is given a home inside of a handy carrying case. Check out the video clip after the break to get a better idea of the video manipulations this things can pull off. | 12 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "782095",
"author": "DanAdamKOF",
"timestamp": "2012-09-12T22:45:03",
"content": "This is extremely cool! Since I’m an enormous video nerd, I wonder how hard it would be to implement these in RGB instead of composite, looks like I have some reading to do.",
"parent_id": null,
... | 1,760,376,741.997349 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/09/15/ask-hackaday-who-likes-retrocomputing/ | Ask Hackaday: Who Likes Retrocomputing? | Brian Benchoff | [
"classic hacks"
] | [
"68000",
"68008",
"homebrew",
"homebrew computer",
"kiwi",
"sid"
] | Last week
we posted a link to Project Kiwi
, a homebrew Motorola 68008-based microcomputer built by [Simon] that includes Ethernet, a very good display adapter, an interface for IDE hard disks, two Commodore SID chips (for stereo chiptunes), a floppy disk controller, and an already existent software library that will make it very easy to develop your own software for this wonderful computer.
After thinking about [Simon]’s Project Kiwi for a while, I’ve been thinking there really hasn’t been a homebrew computer made that is so perfect for a proper Open Hardware release. There are more than enough peripherals in the computer to make development
very
fun. I’ve suggested doing a group buy to get Kiwi PCBs out into the wild and into the hands of other retrocomputer fanatics, but [Simon] would like a little more feedback.
Of course, this means turning to you, the wonderful Hackaday reader. Would any of you be interested in your own Kiwi microcomputer?
[Simon] tells me there are a lot of problems for turning the Kiwi microcomputer into a Open Hardware project. His prototype PCB cost €300, greatly reducing the number of people who would be interested in making their own Kiwi. Also, there are a few problems on the current PCB design (easily fixed for the next revision), and [Simon] would like to add a few features like DMA and a proper framebuffer.
Despite all those problems, I can’t see a better way to learn about computer architecture the hard way (i.e. 80’s microcomputers as opposed to futzing around with a Raspberry Pi). You’ll also get a really wonderful computer system that will show the power of 80s-era electronics, with the very hopeful goal of spreading the gospel of retrocomputing with the venerable Saint MC68000.
If you’d like to add your two cents – if having an Open Hardware 80s microcomputer is a good idea, or some technical requests such as adding a proper 68000 CPU to future designs, leave a note in the comments or on the forum [Simon]
set up on his Kiwi page
.
I think it’s a cool idea, but then again I’m probably blinded by how cool an 80s computer of this caliber is. The fate of this project is now in your hands. | 54 | 27 | [
{
"comment_id": "785660",
"author": "Michael",
"timestamp": "2012-09-15T19:32:25",
"content": "I think it would be awesome to have my own kiwi computer to fiddle around with. If it was somehow possible to source all the “obscure” parts he managed to get(the Yamaha V9990 comes to mind)… I think this ... | 1,760,376,742.157968 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/09/15/robotic-odometry-from-an-optical-mouse/ | Robotic Odometry From An Optical Mouse | Brian Benchoff | [
"Peripherals Hacks",
"Robots Hacks"
] | [
"odometry",
"optical mouse",
"robot"
] | One of the problems future engineers spend a lot of class time solving is the issue of odometry for robots. It’s actually kind of hard to tell how far a robot has traveled after applying power to its wheels, but [John]
has a pretty nifty solution to this problem
. He converted an optical mouse into an odometry sensor, making for a very easy way to tell how far a robot has traveled regardless of wheels slipping or motors stalling.
The build began with a very old PS/2 optical mouse he had lying around. Inside this mouse was a MCS-12085 optical sensor connected to a small, useless microcontroller via a serial interface.
After dremeling the PCB and discarding the microcontroller, [John] was left with an optical sensor that recorded distance at a resolution of 1000dpi. It does this by passing a value from -128 to 127, rolling over every time the sensor moves more than 3.2 mm.
As far as detecting how far a robot has moved, [John] now has the basis for a very simple way to measure odometry without having to deal with wheels slipping or motors stalling. We can’t wait to see this operate inside a proper robot. | 22 | 16 | [
{
"comment_id": "785550",
"author": "kay",
"timestamp": "2012-09-15T17:19:09",
"content": "Neat! I did a similar build with a propeller a while ago – if your micro can do floating point math, this gives you a fairly decent dead reckoning system if you have the patience to calibrate it. I ended up us... | 1,760,376,741.945293 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/09/15/hackaday-links-sept-15-2012/ | Hackaday Links: Sept 15, 2012 | Brian Benchoff | [
"Hackaday links"
] | [
"aquarium",
"bluetooth",
"Flip video camera",
"icontrolpad",
"Magnum PI",
"operating system"
] | Very tiny keyboard
The idea behind the iControlPad2 is pretty simple – just take the slide-out keyboard from a phone, discard the phone part, add two analog sticks and a D-pad, and put Bluetooth in it.
It makes for a very small keyboard
perfect for controlling a Raspi, a home media server, or even a phone or tablet.
I think it’s cool
, anyway.
I mustache you a question. Where’s the Hawaiian Shirt?
At her local hackerspace, [Akki] heard someone pronouncing Raspberry Pi as, “Raspberry pee eye.” Of course this joke needed to be taken to its fullest absurdity, so [Akki]
gave her Raspi a [Tom Selleck] mustache
. Slightly better than the
Googly Eyes Arduino shield
.
Not giving a Flip about proprietary batteries
When powering a Flip video camera, [Dan] had two choices: regular AA batteries, or a proprietary battery rechargeable through the USB port. When the rechargeable battery is inserted, it closes a small switch telling the Flip it can recharge these batteries. Wanting to put his own rechargeable batteries in his camera, [Dan]
closed the switch with a little bit of cardboard
, thus allowing him to use his own NiMH rechargeable batteries.
Building operating systems from scratch
A while ago we posting something about
a Cambridge professor putting up a tutorial
for developing an operating system from scratch on the Raspberry Pi. [Joey]
decided to follow these tutorials
and has a blog dedicated to his adventures in OS development. It’s not a custom UNIX-inspired OS
yet….
Put a quarter in, get a goldfish
[Yooder] over on Reddit spent a week
turning a gumball machine into a fish tank
. A very nice build that is now home to a few neon tetras. Check out
the imgur album
for a full build walkthrough. | 13 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "785449",
"author": "DainBramage1991",
"timestamp": "2012-09-15T15:37:30",
"content": "My hat goes off to Yooder for a truly impressive gumball machine aquarium build. Very creative!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "785466",
"... | 1,760,376,742.211818 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/09/14/helmet-of-many-leds-built-for-burning-man/ | Helmet Of Many LEDs Built For Burning Man | Mike Szczys | [
"LED Hacks",
"Wearable Hacks"
] | [
"arduino",
"burning man",
"daft punk",
"helmet",
"led",
"MAX7219",
"motorcycle"
] | This motorcycle helmet was heavily altered to accept all of the hardware that goes into driving that huge array of LEDs. [Brian Cardellini]
built it to wear at burning man
. He claims to have been in over his head with the project, but we certainly don’t get that feeling when we see the thing in action. It’s light on build details, but there are plenty of demo shots in the video after the break. The animation and fading action really gets started about a minute and a half into it.
One of the early frames of the video is a shot of the parts order webpage. Since it’s an HD clip we were able to glean a few bits and pieces from that. It includes a MAX7219 LED Display Driver and fifteen 25-packs of Blue LEDs. Now that chip is a great choice, and one of the later shots shows two of them on breakout board driven by an Arduino. The look is very clean since he carved out most of the helmet’s padding to make room for the electronics.
[via
Adafruit
] | 54 | 24 | [
{
"comment_id": "784777",
"author": "Ryoku",
"timestamp": "2012-09-14T23:10:01",
"content": "daft punk called, they wanted to talk about commissioning some new helmets.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "785007",
"author": "bean",
... | 1,760,376,742.29316 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/09/14/16x8-pixel-laser-projector/ | 16×8 Pixel Laser Projector | Mike Szczys | [
"Laser Hacks"
] | [
"arduino",
"mirror",
"projector",
"xbee"
] | [Michiel] gave us a little shout-out by drawing the Hackaday logo with
his recently completed 16×8 pixel laser projector
. It uses a spinning set of mirrors mounted at slightly different angles to redirect the path of the red laser diode.
The projector is driven by an Arduino. To give it more than just a hard-coded existence [Michiel] included an Xbee module. This lets him connect to it with a computer in order to stream messages. One of the demo videos linked in his project log shows the web interface he coded which will push a message typed in the submission form out to the projector where it is scrolled like a marquee.
This type of spinning display
is one of a few common methods for making laser projectors. In the image above you can see the optical sensor which is used to sync the diode with the spinning mirrors, each of which is responsible for a different row of pixels. He lists off several things that he learned when working on the project. We think the most important is the timing issues which go into something like this. | 4 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "785136",
"author": "GeriBoss",
"timestamp": "2012-09-15T07:51:40",
"content": "Awesome writeup, very detailed, however I’d love to see a video of the device in action.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "785154",
"author":... | 1,760,376,742.389832 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/09/14/dinosaur-hoodie-to-remind-you-halloween-approaches/ | Dinosaur Hoodie To Remind You Halloween Approaches!! | Mike Szczys | [
"Holiday Hacks"
] | [
"dinosaur",
"halloween",
"hoodie",
"led",
"rgb",
"stegosaurus"
] | [Tom’s]
dinosaur hoodie
would make a bang up Halloween costume. It’s a glowing version of the bony plates you’d find on a Stegosaurus. Not only does it look great at night, you should be able to put one together or yourself in an afternoon.
He used a laser cutter to make the translucent fins, but it would not be hard to cut them all out by hand. Each piece is two sides of the plate connected by a narrow rectangle which leaves room inside for an RGB module. These are chained together and controlled by an Arduino (most likely using SPI or I2C, we’re not sure which), then sewn on the back of a hoodie.
Update:
[Matt] made a derivative of this design. The plates are
pointy like a stegosaurus
.
Send in those Halloween projects
Which reminds us… Halloween quickly approaches and we haven’t seen the usual onslaught of awesome. We love this time of year because of the ingenuity that comes out to play in the costumes, yard decor, and scare tactics being prepared for the big night.
Please send a link to your project
and we’ll start pumping out the holiday features.
To get you thinking, here’s a set of
folding wings used in a costume
, and
a possessed powerwheels
to chase down the little ones. Don’t sit on your hands, we want to hear about every project! | 3 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "784725",
"author": "holden",
"timestamp": "2012-09-14T21:34:18",
"content": "reminds me of godzilla",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "784807",
"author": "Hirudinea",
"timestamp": "2012-09-14T23:22:16",
"content": "Some... | 1,760,376,742.433308 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/09/14/sculpting-with-lcd-pixels/ | Sculpting With LCD Pixels | Mike Szczys | [
"hardware"
] | [
"lcd",
"museum"
] | Each one of the small squares in this sculpture is actually an LCD cell, and this is just the tip of the iceberg. What you see here is just a small portion of
the sculpture that spans multiple floors
of the atrium at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences. It’s made up of multiple panels hosting a total of 3600 LCD cells.
We first saw it
way back in April, but now there is a ‘making of’ video which you can see embedded after the break.
The project took about 18 months to complete, starting with a 256 pixel prototype. That served as proof that the non-lit hardware would achieve the look they were going for. From there they designed the code which would generate patterns on the sculpture and used it to drive a digital model (we’d bet that was to get the go-ahead and funding). The fast-motion footage of the three-man assembly line formed when soldering up the circuits is fun to watch, the real nail-biting stuff comes when they start mounting the fragile panels in the space.
[Thanks Stig] | 15 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "784689",
"author": "squantmuts",
"timestamp": "2012-09-14T20:48:31",
"content": "I am quite curious where they got those single transparent LCD pixels.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "784693",
"author": "messmaker",
"tim... | 1,760,376,742.484761 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/09/12/4-seven-segment-displays-make-a-fine-scoreboard/ | 4″ Seven Segment Displays Make A Fine Scoreboard | Mike Szczys | [
"LED Hacks"
] | [
"ATtiny24",
"scoreboard",
"seven segment"
] | [Blark] took a few parts and
turned them into a simple scoreboard
. The centerpiece of the build is a set of 4″ seven-segment displays. With those in hand it was just a matter of choosing a controller to feed them data, and developing a user interface.
He seems to have had some issues as he mentions having blown up two PIC chips while soldering. He transitioned to an ATtiny24 chip and everything seems to work quite well now. The user interface depends on two buttons, each increments the score for one half of the display and pushing both at once zeros the game score. The displays use shift registers to store data so they’re
quite easy to control with AVR chips
. Check out the demo video after the break.
The only problem here is that someone needs to be on the sidelines to increment the score. We’ve seen some
more intricate designs that let you use a remote control or even a smart phone
. | 5 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "782172",
"author": "Jerry Tremble",
"timestamp": "2012-09-13T00:25:39",
"content": "Did he have the PICS in the socket when he was soldering? Else why would changing to the AVR have mattered? Anyway, nice project and one that could be very easily and cheaply enhanced. What he said a... | 1,760,376,742.527934 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/09/12/building-a-turing-machine-from-magic-the-gathering/ | Building A Turing Machine From Magic The Gathering | Mike Szczys | [
"computer hacks",
"Toy Hacks"
] | [
"magic the gathering",
"Turing machine"
] | If you really know your Magic the Gather and you’re a programming wiz you’ll appreciate this paper on
building a functioning Turing Machine from Magic the Gathering cards
. We’re sure you’re familiar with Turing Machines, which uses a rewritable strip to store and recall data. Most of the time we see these machines built as… machines. For instance,
this dry-erase marker Turing Machine
has long been on the top of our favorites list. But as
The Diamond Age
by Neal Stephenson illustrates, there’s more than one way to skin this cat.
A complete list of
the cards used in this machine can be found here
. A little bit of preparation (casting to tweak abilities) goes into making sure the cards will work as called for in the Turing design. The tape is made of Ally tokens to the right of the head, and Zombie tokens to the left. The computational abilities of the head depend on the colors of the cards. It’s a bit too complex to paraphrase, but the design is based on
this 2-state, 3-symbol setup
whose rules are listed in the image above.
It’s going to take us a while to fully wrap our heads around this thing, but it’ll be fun getting to that point!
[via
Slashdot
] | 8 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "781965",
"author": "Eirinn",
"timestamp": "2012-09-12T20:43:17",
"content": "Crap rare, crap rare crap rare :PBut cool project! :D",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "782327",
"author": "M4CGYV3R",
"timestamp": "2012-09-13T0... | 1,760,376,742.704456 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/09/12/stm32-f3-discovery-dev-board-includes-some-extras/ | STM32 F3 Discovery Dev Board Includes Some Extras | Mike Szczys | [
"Microcontrollers"
] | [
"arm",
"cortex-m3",
"stm32",
"stm32f3discovery"
] | ST Microelectronics keeps kicking out development boards to show off their new ARM processor line. Yesterday they issued
a press release announcing the STM32 F3 Discovery Board
. As their naming scheme implies, this carries an ARM Cortex-M3 processor, but compared to
the F0 Discovery board
(which we loved) it’s got several extra goodies built into it.
We took a look at
the F3 Discovery product page
and it doesn’t look like you can order these quite yet. But click-through to the pricing and you’ll see they’ve set it at $10.90. Digikey lists the board at that price point, Mouser lists it at about $16, but neither supplier has any available. We also didn’t see a link for free boards like when the F0 model was released. If you do come across a giveaway link
please tip us off about it
.
Okay, now let’s discuss those extras. We think this dev kit could be used as an IMU for applications like a quadcopter or a self-balancing robot. That’s because it has a gyroscope and an accelerometer. It’s also got ten LEDs, eight of which are arranged on that white circle. We’d guess that layout is for displaying orientation data from the IMU sensors. There’s also a second USB port to use when developing USB applications for the chip.
Like the other boards in the Discovery family this has the STlinkV2 built-in to use as a programmer. We don’t know if OpenOCD has support for the F3 chipset yet, which is what we’ve been using to program STM chips in a Linux environment. | 55 | 22 | [
{
"comment_id": "781755",
"author": "David M.",
"timestamp": "2012-09-12T18:17:15",
"content": "Also includes a magnetic sensor..“The MEMS devices provided on the board are the L3GD20 3-axis digital gyroscope and LSM303DLHC 6-axis geomagnetic module”",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"rep... | 1,760,376,742.961258 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/09/12/quinn-resurrects-an-amplifier-that-experienced-death-by-capacitor/ | [Quinn] Resurrects An Amplifier That Experienced Death-by-capacitor | Mike Szczys | [
"Repair Hacks"
] | [
"amp",
"amplifier",
"capacitor",
"repair"
] | [Quinn Dunki] is adding wireless audio to all of the rooms in her home. She’s going with Airplay, snatching up used or refurbished Airport Express units because of their ability to work with both her existing WiFi and the Airplay protocol. The last piece in the puzzle is to get an Amp and she chose the small unit seen above. The problem is that it was dead on arrival and she couldn’t get the company to respond to her issue. So
she cracked it open and fixed it right up
.
The offenders are the three electrolytic capacitors at the top of the picture. She took some close-up images of each and you can’t miss the fact that they’re blown out. These are often among the higher price-per-unit parts and manufactures try to pinch the penny as much as possible. Add to it the heat in a small enclosure like this one and you’ve got a failure. [Quinn] dug through her junk bin but the size of the replacement had to be a perfect match so she ended up putting in a parts order. The new caps fit and work perfectly as you can hear in the clip after the break. | 28 | 13 | [
{
"comment_id": "781677",
"author": "Allen",
"timestamp": "2012-09-12T17:33:15",
"content": "I would have bet money before reading the article that the caps would be CapXon…surprise! I wonder how many hundreds/tens of thousands of devices have been thrown out by less-skilled persons due to bad capac... | 1,760,376,742.871827 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/09/12/64-rasberry-pis-turned-into-a-supercomputer/ | 64 Rasberry Pis Turned Into A Supercomputer | Brian Benchoff | [
"Raspberry Pi"
] | [
"raspberry pi",
"supercomputer"
] | In retrospect, it was only a matter of time before someone
turned a bunch of Raspberry Pis into a supercomputer
.
The Raspi supercomputer is the result of a project headed up by University of Southampton professor [Simon Cox]. Included in the team are a gaggle of grad students and [Simon]’s 6-year-old son who graciously provided the material, design, and logistics for the custom LEGO case.
The Iridris-Pi supercomputer, as the team calls their creation, consists of 64 Raspberry Pis, all configured for parallel processing using a lightweight version of
MPI
. [Simon] was kind enough to put up
an excellent guide
for turning two (or more) Raspberry Pis into a supercomputer.
The machine has a full 1 TB of disk space provided by a 16 GB SD card in each node. Although the press release doesn’t go over the computational capabilities of the Iridris-Pi, the entire system can be powered from a single 13 A supply.
If you’re wondering what it would take to get a Raspberry Pi supercomputer into the
TOP500 list of supercomputers
, a bit of back-of-the-envelope computation given the
Raspi’s performance
and the fact the 500th fastest computer can crank out about 60 TeraFLOPS/s, we’ll estimate about 1.4 Million Raspis would be needed. At least it’s a start. | 72 | 36 | [
{
"comment_id": "781553",
"author": "Don",
"timestamp": "2012-09-12T16:10:51",
"content": "It’s not a supercomputer as it can’t even compete with a modest beowulf cluster. Parallel computer, sure… supercomputer, no.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_... | 1,760,376,743.233876 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/09/12/attiny-controlled-magic-eye-tube/ | ATtiny Controlled Magic Eye Tube | Brian Benchoff | [
"ATtiny Hacks",
"classic hacks"
] | [
"attiny85",
"EM800",
"magic eye",
"tube"
] | In the early days of broadcast radio, the most expensive radio sets were extremely impressive pieces of furniture. With beautifully crafted wooden cases polished to a high shine, these wireless receivers were the focal point of any family room. Some of the most expensive radio sets even included a visual indicator signaling the strength of the reception, something [Marcus]
decided to re-engineer using an ATtiny85
.
The display tube in question is an EM800
magic eye tube
, used in radio sets, stereos, and electronic test equipment as a rudimentary display indicator. By applying a control voltage (from 0 to -10V), the illuminated display can be controlled like a bar graph display.
[Marcus]’ tube display is built around an ATtiny85 microcontroller, using a homemade PCB. It’s a fairly simple build, once the issue of supplying 250 Volts to the EM800’s anode is taken care of.
In the video after the break, you can see the bar display of [Marcus]’s magic eye tube slowly growing and receding, perfect for either displaying the current CPU load on your computer or anything else a dynamic bar graph display would be used.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3pyJwGBj36M&w=470] | 9 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "781548",
"author": "Ian",
"timestamp": "2012-09-12T16:03:48",
"content": "The DM70 (AKA CV2980) might prove to be a more economic device as it was designed to be used in battery portable equipment.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id":... | 1,760,376,743.006568 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/09/12/generating-random-numbers-from-white-noise/ | Generating Random Numbers From White Noise | Brian Benchoff | [
"hardware"
] | [
"random",
"random numbers",
"white noise"
] | Even though rand() may be a good enough random number generator for making a video game, the patterns of random bits it spits out may not be sufficient for applications requiring truly random data. [Giorgio]
built his own random number generator
, and after many statistical tests it ended up being random enough for a few very complex calculations.
Previously, we saw [Giorgio] generate random numbers with a
Chua circuit
, but for all the complexity of building an electronic strange attractor there’s actually a much simpler source of random data: a white noise generator.
[Giorgio]’s random number generator for this project is just a pair of resistors, with an op-amp buffer, amplifier, and current switch to turn analog data into a digital output of random 1s and 0s. [Giorgio] sampled this data by plugging the digital out into one of the GPIO pins of a Raspberry Pi and recording the data with s small script.
To verify his sequence of bits was actually random, [Giorgio] performed a few tests on the data, some more reliable in determining randomness than others.
Because every project needs a few awesome visualizations, [Giorgio] plotted each sequence of bits as either a black or white pixel
in a bitmap
. The resulting image certainly
looks
like television static, so there are no obvious problems with the data.
[Giorgio] also performed an interesting Monte Carlo simulation with his megabytes of random data: By plotting points on a plane (with a range from 0,0 to 1,1), [Giorgio] can approximate the value of π by testing if a point is inside a circle with a radius of 1. The best approximation of pi using 10,000 points of random data came out to be 3.1436
Of course [Giorgio] put his random data through a few proper statistical tests such as rngtest and
dieharder
, passing all the tests of randomness with flying colors. An interesting build that shows a small glimpse of how hard generating really random numbers actually is. | 22 | 12 | [
{
"comment_id": "781414",
"author": "ZombieLinux",
"timestamp": "2012-09-12T14:20:18",
"content": "That comes out to just about 2098baud for creating random bits. I have to wonder if you would be better off tuning a ham radio or just using an audio output from an old crystal radio tuned to the empty... | 1,760,376,743.065475 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/09/12/drag-and-drop-code-onto-this-arm-dev-board/ | Drag And Drop Code Onto This ARM Dev Board | Brian Benchoff | [
"ARM"
] | [
"arm",
"bootloader",
"usb"
] | On the continuing list of homebrew ARM dev boards we’ve seen over the past few months, [Squonk42]’s
USBug is one of the best we’ve seen
. Like many other ARM boards, it breaks out a member of the Cortex M0/M3 family into a 40-pin DIP, but unlike all the others, [Squonk] designed it so you can drag and drop code onto the microcontroller just like a USB thumb drive.
[Squonk]’s trick relies on a certain breed of NXP LPC11xx/LPC13xx microcontrollers. These chips feature a ROM-based mass storage, meaning you can compile code on your desktop and simply shuffle it over to the USBug, no external programmer required. Here’s
the relevant app note
(PDF in a zip file. Double whammy).
Of course, the USBug features the I/O you’d generally expect from the current crop of Cortex-M3 devices, all while serving up 64 kB of Flash and 12 kB of RAM.
[Squonk] says he’d like to put the USBug on Kickstarter, but unfortunately he’s not a US citizen. In the spirit of Open Hardware, perhaps some maker-based electronics manufacturer will pick up where [Squonk] is forced to leave off. | 26 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "781316",
"author": "alexchadwick",
"timestamp": "2012-09-12T13:27:29",
"content": "“unlike all the others, [Squonk] designed it so you can drag and drop code onto the microcontroller just like a USB thumb drive.” – what!? How about mbedhttp://mbed.org/and Galagohttp://www.kickstarte... | 1,760,376,743.130827 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/09/12/log-guitar-uses-tube-as-a-bridge-actually-is-the-blues/ | Log Guitar Uses Tube As A Bridge, Actually Is The Blues | Brian Benchoff | [
"Musical Hacks"
] | [
"6GM8",
"guitar",
"preamp",
"slide guitar"
] | In the never ending quest to replicate the tone of depression-era blues records, [Valve Child] managed to
build the most backwoods guitar ever seen
.
The body of [Valve Child]’s slide guitar was taken from the limb of a red gum tree felled during a wind storm. After taking a chainsaw, router, and sander to the guitar, [Valve] sealed it with linseed oil.
The real beauty of this build comes from the bridge and electronics: the pickup is made from six stacks of magnets encased in hot glue and wound with enamel wire. The bridge of the guitar is actually made from a 6GM8 dual triode. Not only does this provide the guitar with a wonderful brassy sound, the tube serves as a wonderful low-tech preamp when powered by a 6 volt battery.
The three strings on the guitar are tuned DAD, perfect for the likes of [Robert Johnson], or, for the younger kids, [Jack White]. Surprisingly, [Valve Child]’s guitar actually sounds really good. as heard in the video demo after the break.
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2FBaVq2WDNE&w=470] | 8 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "781249",
"author": "jimmy",
"timestamp": "2012-09-12T12:26:07",
"content": "How microphonic is that 6GM8?Maybe ValveChile didn’t need the diy pickup at all… ;-)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "781588",
"author": "DJEle... | 1,760,376,743.326046 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/09/12/more-led-maddness/ | More LED Madness! | Jeremy Cook | [
"LED Hacks"
] | [
"fireflys",
"led",
"Path Light",
"Simple Hacks",
"solar",
"wheel lights"
] | So last week [Caleb] posted an article about
hacking a floating LED ball
. In response, here’s a couple simple LED hacks or repurposings that I’ve come up with recently.
LED Solar Glow Cube:
If you’ve ever seen path lights lighting up people’s gardens or walkways you may have wondered what components they had in them and
how they could be repurposed
. As shown in this article, there’s not much too them other than a circuit board, rechargeable battery, and, of course, a solar panel. Combine this with some leftover foam with a hole in it, and you have the device pictured above. Really simple, but the results are pretty cool as seen in the video after the break.
LED Nunchucks:
If you thought that wheel lights were only for actual wheels, than you haven’t seen these
nunchucks built with some PVC pipe
and acceleration-sensitive wheel lights. This may not be much of a “hack” in that they are quite easy to build, but the results are pretty neat, being fun to sling around or even for use in long-exposure photography. Check out the videos after the break of these nunchucks in action and of some
LED light paintings
that can be made with them.
[youtube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RD2sypP8Wr4&w=470&h=315%5D
[youtube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ec1q-DRk-30&w=600&h=315%5D
[youtube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GuZVUd6S_Yw&w=470&h=315%5D | 5 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "781773",
"author": "reqd",
"timestamp": "2012-09-12T18:29:59",
"content": "Okay, so that glow cube may look like a piece of garbage, and well…technically it is. –BUT! as someone that loves making sunjars as gifts, making something that would better fit into the workshop and uses up ... | 1,760,376,743.280486 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/09/11/using-a-raspberry-pi-as-your-travel-computer/ | Using A Raspberry Pi As Your Travel Computer | Mike Szczys | [
"Raspberry Pi"
] | [
"keyboard",
"kindle",
"screen",
"terminal",
"usb"
] | Do you think you could travel for the entire summer and leave your laptop at home? [Gef] did just that. With the help of his Kindle
he used a Raspberry Pi as his travel computer
. This was an easy association to think up, since he planned to bring the Kindle along as his reading material anyway. All it was going to take was some creative hacking to get it working as a display for the single-board computer.
The Kindle is merely connecting to the Raspberry Pi through a terminal emulator. This happens via USB, and requires that you Jailbreak the kindle and install a package called USBnetwork. The problem with the technique is that you’re going to go crazy trying to use the tiny keyboard that is built into the eBook reader. [Gef] decided to take a USB keyboard along with him, but how is he going to use it to control the terminal screen on the Kindle? The answer is the ‘screen’ application. We’ve used it a lot to keep programs running on a machine after we’ve exited from an SSH session. It turns out it can also be used to host multiple users on the same terminal session. Pretty neat!
[via
Make
] | 29 | 16 | [
{
"comment_id": "780712",
"author": "rasz",
"timestamp": "2012-09-11T22:04:25",
"content": "sooo you have jailbroken kindle that is perfectly fine as a ARM linux computer and you connect ‘keyword of the month’ to it just to be on hackaday?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
... | 1,760,376,743.387909 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/09/11/hackaday-links-september-11-2012/ | Hackaday Links: September 11, 2012 | Mike Szczys | [
"Hackaday links"
] | [
"batman",
"LG",
"sd card",
"sword",
"xbee"
] | Xbee sensors at Lowe’s?
Lowe’s, the home improvement big box store, is
selling some home automation items which might be Xbee compatible
. They’re being
sold under the brand name Iris
. There is some debate as to whether they’re Xbee, or just 802.15.4 hardware. Either way they might be worth checking out for your wireless projects.
Father sword replica from Conan the Barbarian
Sometimes its just fun to watch the master at work. In this case it’s
a blacksmith replicating the sword
from
Conan the Barbarian.
[via
Reddit]
LG washing machine that phones home
LG has built an interesting troubleshooting feature into some of their washing machines.
This video shows the encoded audio it will output
if you use the right button combination. You’re supposed to hold your phone up to the machine while talking to customer service and they’ll be able to get some type of debugging information from the dial-up modem type of sounds. If you end up decoding this audio
we want to know about it
! [Thanks Pedro]
MicroSD card adapter for Raspberry Pi
[TopHatHacker] was surprised to see a full-sized SD card slot on the Raspberry Pi. His temporary solution to get his microSD card working was to
uses a miniSD adapter
. He cut away the case and bent the pins until they lined up with the microSD card.
Batman’s cowl for retro motorcycle enthusiast
s
Okay, we think this
Batman cowl in the style of 1950’s motorcycle garb
is pretty cool. Just realize that if you’re seen wearing this you will be thought of as one of the crazy guys in town. [via
BoingBoing
] | 12 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "780707",
"author": "xyzzy",
"timestamp": "2012-09-11T21:57:18",
"content": "Adafruit sells a shortened uSD-to-SD adapter in their Raspberry Pi section:http://www.adafruit.com/products/966",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "780709",... | 1,760,376,743.440927 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/09/11/augmented-reality-welding-mask/ | Augmented Reality Welding Mask | Mike Szczys | [
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"augmented reality",
"mask",
"welding"
] | There are so many good ideas crammed into this project its hard for us to believe this isn’t already widely used for critical welding applications. Traditional welding masks simply filter out light to protect the welder’s eyes. This mask doesn’t have a window in it at all. Instead,
the mask includes two cameras on the outside and two LCD screens on the inside
. It filters light by processing the video which lends itself to that grab-bag of features we mentioned earlier.
Possibly the best of the system is its ability to selectively filter the brightness of the weld. What this means is that areas outside of the welding arc appear at a normal brightness level, whereas before they would have been greatly dimmed. A demonstration of augmented reality is also shown, where a computer monitors the welding surface, giving the welder a target to follow and measuring the distance between the weld and the filament. The video mentions that an FPGA would be well suited for the image processing, making us think this could be produced at a reasonable cost. After all, they already use X-ray machines for some welds, we’d bet a set of these helmets could be supplied to a crew at a similar cost.
[via
Reddit
] | 53 | 21 | [
{
"comment_id": "780595",
"author": "Aaron",
"timestamp": "2012-09-11T20:06:52",
"content": "On the downside, using this mask just once on a job site ensures that your life will be nothing but Vader jokes from now until the end of time.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
... | 1,760,376,743.529542 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/09/11/preserve-history-and-dispose-of-asbestos/ | Preserve History And Dispose Of Asbestos | Brian Benchoff | [
"News"
] | [
"asbestos",
"gettysburg",
"map"
] | If you’ve ever visited Gettysburg, the turning point of the American Civil War, you’ve probably seen this illuminated topographical map. For years, it was housed in one of the many visitor centers in Gettysburg and demonstrated the progress of the 3-day battle with an amazing 1960s-era visualization using a 30 foot by 30 foot topographical map and many, many light bulbs. Even the coolest museum exhibits are eventually made obsolete, so
this masterpiece of battlefield education is now up for sale
. The starting price for this auction? Five dollars.
We’re going to be honest. We talked about using Hackaday’s influence (and funding to buy toys such as an
AR Drone
and the
Oculus Rift
) to put a project together to save this gigantic map. It’s got everything we love in a large-scale project: giant things weighing several tons, cool representations of data, and vintage electronics. Really, restoring this map is the perfect project for any (very) ambitious hacker. It also helps I live a half hour away from Gettysburg.
There’s a problem, though: the map is literally covered in asbestos. Also, it takes up four shipping containers and weighs 12 and a half tons. Basically, you’re bidding on a GSA auction to be responsible for a hazardous waste disposal project.
Now that our dreams of doing something
really cool
with five dollars have come crashing down, we’re turning it over to Hackaday readers. If you run an asbestos disposal company and are around South Central PA or Maryland, there may be some people who want to get in touch with you. Drop a note in the comments.
Really, we’d really just like someone to scan this 30-foot square map with a Kinect and a high-resolution camera, and maybe get our hands on a video of the hourly show when this map was still in operation. It should be possible to dig up some topographical data and replicate this map fairly easily… maybe someone should start a Kickstarter to build a smaller, non-asbestos laden copy? | 41 | 22 | [
{
"comment_id": "780494",
"author": "Brian Benchoff",
"timestamp": "2012-09-11T19:05:01",
"content": "I realize posting even a vague idea of my geographical location means I’ll probably be doing an informal HaD meetup. Here’s the deal:Sometime in October (after Maker Faire NY), and either at the Fly... | 1,760,376,743.606476 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/09/10/humanoid-robot-kinects-with-its-enviroment/ | Humanoid Robot Kinects With Its Enviroment | Richard Steele | [
"Robots Hacks",
"Xbox Hacks"
] | [
"animatronic",
"festo",
"fingripper",
"germany",
"human",
"humanoid",
"Kinect",
"Malte Ahlers",
"neurobiology",
"quickcam",
"robolink",
"robot torso",
"robotics",
"xbox"
] | [Malte Ahlers] from Germany, After having completed a PhD in neurobiology, decided to build a
human sized humanoid robot torso
. [Malte] has an interest in robotics and wanted to show case some of his skills.The project is still in its early development but as you will see in the video he has achieved a nice build so far.
A1 consists of a Human sized torso with two arms, each with five (or six, including the gripper) axes of rotation, which have been based on the robolink joints from German company igus.de. The joints are tendon driven by stepper motors with a planetary gear head attached. Using an experimental controller which he has built, [Malte] can monitor the position of the axis by monitoring the encoders embedded in the joints.
The A1 torso features a head with two degrees of freedom, which is equipped with a Microsoft Kinect sensor and two Logitech QuickCam Pro 9000 cameras. With this functionality the head can spatially ”see” and ”hear”. The head also has speakers for voice output, which can be accompanied by an animated gesture on the LCD screen lip movements for example. The hands feature a simple gripping tool based on FESTO FinGripper finger to allow the picking up of misc items. | 3 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "778759",
"author": "technodream",
"timestamp": "2012-09-10T17:31:34",
"content": "no video? didn’t happen.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "778956",
"author": "monkus",
"timestamp": "2012-09-10T19:59:09",
... | 1,760,376,743.954188 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/09/10/bits-and-peices-robotic-arm/ | Bits And Pieces Robotic Arm | Richard Steele | [
"Arduino Hacks",
"Robots Hacks"
] | [
"arduino",
"arm",
"bluetooth",
"remote",
"robot",
"robotic",
"scrap",
"tv",
"VoR73X"
] | [V0R73X], who is 17 has been working on a project, to build
A robotic arm
. This project started out as a challenge put forward from one of his school teachers to build a robotic arm for $200. [VoR73X] accepted, and the challenge began.
He came up with a robotic arm that can be controlled from his mobile phone and other bluetooth enabled devices. He also designed it so that he can control it from the infrared remote control of an old tv set. [VoR73X] decided to kept the design simple, to make it easy for others to build. [VoR73X] has shared the code and a step by step process of how to build in the hopes that others would also like to take up the challenge. Watch the video after the break for further details on his project.
via[
Instructables
]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tE-gb2O_4KI | 3 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "778712",
"author": "afj",
"timestamp": "2012-09-10T16:56:20",
"content": "One word: ghetto.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "778755",
"author": "saul_goode",
"timestamp": "2012-09-10T17:28:52",
"content": "i before e,... | 1,760,376,743.766542 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/09/10/getting-around-the-raspis-usb-host-current-limit/ | Getting Around The Raspi’s USB Host Current Limit | Brian Benchoff | [
"Raspberry Pi"
] | [
"polyfuse",
"Raspi",
"usb",
"USB 2.0"
] | For being such a revolutionary device, there are still a few problems with the Raspberry Pi. For one, the USB host ports are only able to source 140 mA per port, while the USB ports on your desktop, laptop, and even tablet are able to send a full 500 mA per port.
The official ‘fix’ for this problem is to use a powered USB port for any device that requires more than 140 mA, something that didn’t sit well with [Manis].
He came up with an easy fix
, though, that only requires a few bits of wire and a soldering iron.
The USB ports on the Raspi are current limited to 140 mA by a pair of polyfuses. [Manis] bridged these fuses, effectively taking them out of the circuit with a short length of wire. This allowed him to use a USB hard drive (powered by USB, of course) with the Raspi.
There’s one small problem with sending that much current through the Raspi’s USB port. Sometimes, when the high-power USB device is powered on, the voltage will sag, resetting the SoC and rebooting the system. [Manis] did his homework and discovered USB 2.0-spec ports
should use a 120 μF, low-ESR capacitor
to prevent this. The Raspi comes stock with a 47 μF cap used for this purpose. Replacing this cap (C32) might be a good idea if you’re planning on using high-power devices with your Raspi. | 26 | 17 | [
{
"comment_id": "778524",
"author": "dattaway2",
"timestamp": "2012-09-10T15:11:30",
"content": "This works well for me. I just solder blobbed all three polyfuses. To help with the current spikes I soldered a larger capacitor over the one next to the USB ports.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth"... | 1,760,376,744.022096 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/09/10/sexy-six-axis-robotic-arm-is-a-work-of-art/ | Sexy Six Axis Robotic Arm Is A Work Of Art | Brian Benchoff | [
"Robots Hacks"
] | [
"robot",
"robotic arm",
"six-axis"
] | We don’t know if it’s a mid-life crisis or just the result of way too many solder fumes, but [sparten11] on Instructables is building one of
the coolest robotic arm we’ve ever seen
, and we thank him for that.
The build began with a set of brushed DC motors running capable of running on 60 volts at up to 8 amps. These motors were attached rotary encoders that, with the gearing [sparten11] is using, provide 400,000 steps per revolution.Combined with
a heavy duty motor controller
, [sparten]’s arm has more than enough power and control for just about any industrial process.
Of course muscles are useless without a skeleton or brain, so [sparten] milled the structural and mechanical members of his arm in his home machine shop. It’s an impressive bit of kit; the base of his robot tested the capacity of his lathe, and the waterjet-cut arms form a graceful skeleton of an absurdly powerful robotic arm. The electronics for the build consist of a Pico PC running Windows XP with servo control board etched from a copper clad board.
The build isn’t quite done yet, but judging from the videos after the break, [sparten] will have a fabulous robotic arm shuffling around his workshop in short order.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LxvEYlwQhXY&w=470]
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tkJ-lmerihE&w=470]
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0bfEyfDt0jU&w=470] | 14 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "778426",
"author": "Ren",
"timestamp": "2012-09-10T14:07:44",
"content": "“Of course muscles are useless without a skeleton or brain,”…Tell that to a jellyfish, oh wait, they wouldn’t hear it anyway. B^)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"co... | 1,760,376,743.914182 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/09/10/galago-the-latest-in-a-series-of-awesome-arm-boards/ | Galago, The Latest In A Series Of Awesome ARM Boards | Brian Benchoff | [
"ARM",
"Crowd Funding"
] | [
"arm",
"ARM Cortex-M3",
"Galago"
] | Long time Hackaday reader [Kuy] sent in a project he’s been working on for the last year and a half.
It’s called Galago
, and it wraps up all the features we’d like to see in the current crop of ARM microcontroller dev boards into one neat package.
The Galago features an AMR Cortex-M3 microcontroller running at72 MHz. Included on its pinout are 25 digital IO pins, 6 analog input pins, 10 PWM pins, and an I2C and SPI port.
The Galago isn’t simply an exercise in hardware development, though. [Kuy] spent a great deal of time writing proper libraries for his board, allowing you to get started with the Galago very quickly without having to rely on crippled tools.
A proper library isn’t Galago’s only significant developer feature: [Kuy] went as far as to
create a browser-based IDE
(no Internet connection required, thankfully) that has the ability to upload code directly to the board via a USB cable. Add in a hardware debugger, and the Galago might just be the perfect ARM board for tinkerers weaning themselves off the Arduino.
[Kuy] has
released the Galago on a Kickstarter
, with a single board costing $25. It’s a cool device, and something we’d really like to come to market. | 31 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "778322",
"author": "Kemp",
"timestamp": "2012-09-10T13:07:03",
"content": "It looks the same as the mbed, has a microcontroller from the same family, and has a browser-based IDE… He really needs to set himself apart from the mbed devices or it’s going to look like a clone.",
"pa... | 1,760,376,744.092704 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/09/10/put-a-solder-mask-on-those-homebrew-pcbs/ | Put A Solder Mask On Those Homebrew PCBs | Brian Benchoff | [
"hardware"
] | [
"pcb",
"solder mask"
] | While making your own PCBs at home is one of the best marks of a competent builder, if you want to give your project a more professional vibe, you’re going to need to do better than bare copper traces on a piece of fiberglass. To help out his fellow makers, [Chris] sent in his Instructable on
creating a solder mask for homemade circuit boards
using a minimal amount of tools and materials easily sourced from the Internet.
[Chris]’ soldermasks are made from UV curing paints he found on eBay. Of course the traditional green paint is available, along with paints very similar to the Sparkfun red or Arduino blue soldermasks.
After brushing the soldermask paint onto his home-etched circuit board, [Chris] printed out the solder mask onto a piece of transparency film using a laser printer. This mask is vitally important if you ever plan to solder your board; by covering the pads you wish to solder, the paint won’t cure and can later be removed.
[Chris] cured his soldermask by leaving it in the sun for a half hour. After the paint was dry, he removed the excess paint covering the pads with a little bit of turpentine and some elbow grease.
While [Chris]’ paint had somewhat of an ugly matte finish, the soldermask does its job, protecting the PCB traces while leaving the pads uncovered and ready to solder. | 19 | 13 | [
{
"comment_id": "778235",
"author": "Eirinn",
"timestamp": "2012-09-10T12:09:35",
"content": "I’m not sure if this is an electronical sound idea, but if the matte finish is a bad thing you could cover the pads and add some high gloss clear coat.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies"... | 1,760,376,744.339533 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/09/10/remote-control-does-everything/ | Remote Control Does Everything | Brian Benchoff | [
"Radio Hacks",
"Toy Hacks"
] | [
"FPV",
"OSRC",
"remote control"
] | After a year of development,
the OSRC is ready to hit a manufacturing plant
. This transmitter (and receiver) for remote control cars, airplanes, quadcopters, and semi-autonomous drones features modular
everything
and allows you to transmit video from the cockpit and display it on a screen in the palm of your hands.
This isn’t the first time we’ve
posted something on the OSRC
, but since then [Demetris], the team lead has released a ton of information on the capabilities of the OSRC
main unit
, the clip-on
FPV display
, and the
receiver and transmitter modules
made to operate with the OSRC.
Unfortunately, [Demetris] spent a good deal of money developing the OSRC and
is now doing a pseudo-kickstarter
, ostensibly to gauge interest and allay a bank’s fears when applying for a small business loan. If all goes as planned, the OSRC base unit should cost somewhere around €300, a significant sum, but really not that bad considering the OSRC simply does more than other high-end RC transmitters.
We’re hoping enough people will step up and promise to buy the OSRC after it goes into manufacturing, otherwise we’ll be waiting a few more years before the big names in the RC transmitter game manage to come out with a similar product. | 31 | 16 | [
{
"comment_id": "778153",
"author": "thehypnotist",
"timestamp": "2012-09-10T11:17:19",
"content": "I couldn’t really concentrate on the audio of the video that was linked at kickstarter, perhaps a native english speaker could help with a more comfortable video.The controller appears to be awesome t... | 1,760,376,744.241594 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/09/11/bed-of-nails-and-accuracy-in-pcb-manufacturing/ | Bed Of Nails And Accuracy In PCB Manufacturing | Brian Benchoff | [
"hardware"
] | [
"accuracy",
"bed of nails",
"hardware testing",
"test fixture"
] | A few days ago, we mentioned the new ARM-powered
Teensy 3.0 project on Kickstarter
. The creator, [Paul Stoffregen], decided to share the trials of building a test fixture along with a shocking comparison of the accuracy of different PCB manufacturers
in an update to his Kickstarter
.
Because [Paul]’s Teensy 3.0 has more IO pins than should be possible on such a small board, the test fixture to verify if a board is defective or not is fairly complex. To test each board, a Teensy is placed on dozens of spring-loaded contacts arranged like a bed of nails. From there, another Teensy (this time a Teensy 2.0) performs a few tests by cycling through all the pins with several patterns.
Because the spring-loaded contacts require rather precise drill holes in the PCB of his test fixture, [Paul] thought it would be neat to compare the accuracy of several board houses. In the title pic for this post (click to embiggen), [Paul] demonstrates the capabilities of
OSH Park
,
Seeed Studio
, and
iTead Studio
. The lesson here is probably going with a US company if quality drill work is a necessary requirement of your next project. | 43 | 16 | [
{
"comment_id": "779657",
"author": "tinkerer",
"timestamp": "2012-09-11T11:09:16",
"content": "I’m living in The Netherlands, and the US-based services aren’t attractive to me due to shipment cost. I’ve sent a few designs to Itead, and the quality of the PCB’s is OK, not outstanding. 0402/0.5mm pit... | 1,760,376,744.172335 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/09/10/breadboarding-a-4-bit-alu/ | Breadboarding A 4-bit ALU | Mike Szczys | [
"computer hacks"
] | [
"ALU",
"breadboard",
"computer",
"ttl"
] | [TGTTGIT] recently took the plunge and decided to build his own computer using logic chips. He just completed
a 4-bit ALU which can compute 18 functions
. It took a long time to get the wiring right, but in true geek fashion his build was accompanied by an alternating
Chapelle’s Show
and
Star Trek: TNG
marathon playing in the background.
This project is the stepping stone for a larger 16-bit version. The experience of wiring up just this much of it has convinced him that an FPGA is the only way to go for the future of the build. But since he had already ordered the chips it was decided that the only thing to do was to see this much through. He used the truth table from
The Elements of Computing Systems
for the design and posted several times about the project before arriving at this stopping point so you may be interested in clicking through the other post on his blog. There’s also a lot of other
TTL computer projects around here worth checking into
.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NVcyhtcDeW8 | 8 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "779254",
"author": "Ken",
"timestamp": "2012-09-11T00:49:30",
"content": "The problem with trying to port a project like this to an FPGA is that if you make best use of the synthesis tools, the problem becomes trivial.If you use structural definitions in say VHDL, the software will ... | 1,760,376,744.285766 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/09/10/adding-a-sound-synthesizer-to-a-dont-touch-the-sides-maze-game/ | Adding A Sound Synthesizer To A ‘don’t-touch-the-sides’ Maze Game | Mike Szczys | [
"Musical Hacks"
] | [
"game",
"maze",
"operation",
"stylus",
"synthesizer"
] | Part of the fun of the classic game of Operation is the jump you get from the loud buzzer which sounds if you touch the sides. This exhibit piece uses the same principle of lining the edges of a track with metal, but instead of an annoying buzz, each touch will issue a bit of music. That’s because
the maze has been paired with a synthesizer
. Instead of one sound wherever the stylus touches the sides, different parts of the maze act as one of 94 keys for the synthesizer.
There’s a lot more built into the base of the device than
just a maze game
. The knobs are used to alter the audio effects and the buttons work in conjunction with they stylus to sequence audio samples. There’s even a graphic LCD screen which shows the currently playing wave form. You can get a better look at the project in the video after the break. | 1 | 1 | [
{
"comment_id": "779491",
"author": "Furqan",
"timestamp": "2012-09-11T07:02:49",
"content": "Wow……i love it….keep it up….love to see whats next",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
}
] | 1,760,376,744.380714 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/09/10/2708-eprom-dumper/ | 2708 EPROM Dumper | Mike Szczys | [
"Microcontrollers"
] | [
"18f4610",
"dump",
"dumper",
"eprom",
"pic",
"reader"
] | [Andrea “Mancausoft” Milazzo] has been restoring old equipment which often contain EPROM chips. He thought he was all set with an EPROM reader which easily dumped the data from 2716 chips and a few others. But he found that the hardware was unable to read 2708 and 2704 chips. His solution was to
build a PIC-based EPROM dumper
.
You may remember from
some of our recent features
that these chips are something of a ticking clock. They store program code and other information vital to the functioning of old hardware. Since they’re erased with UV light, years of exposure to ambient light can zap some of the data.
The specs needed to read a chip of this type are rather rudimentary. There are ten address pins and eight data pins. [Andrea] also needed a way to get data from the microcontroller to a computer for backup. He uses two more pins for this purpose, bringing the I/O count to 20. He went with PIC 18F4610 and built the rest of the reader around it. | 4 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "779259",
"author": "Kaz",
"timestamp": "2012-09-11T00:55:57",
"content": "Yeah… you’d really have thought that someone would’ve said “Hmmm… we’d like to keep this… maybe we should put some electrical tape over the window.” But I’ve just about never seen that :/",
"parent_id": n... | 1,760,376,744.423909 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/09/10/mind-controlling-cockroaches/ | Mind-controlling Cockroaches | Mike Szczys | [
"Medical Hacks",
"Robots Hacks"
] | [
"biobot",
"cockroach",
"insect",
"mind control",
"remote control"
] | Producing micro robotics is not yet easy or cost-effective, but why do we need to when
we can just control the minds of cockroaches
? A team or researchers from North Carolina State University is calling this augmented Madagascar Hissing cockroach an Insect Biobot
in their latest research paper
(PDF). It’s not the first time the subject has come up. There have already been
proofs in research
and even more
amateur endeavors
. But the accuracy and control seen in the video after the break is beyond compare.
The roach is being controlled to perfectly follow a line on the floor. One of the things that makes this iteration work so well is that the microcontroller includes a new type of ADC-based feedback loop for the stimulation of the insect brain. This helps to ensure that the roach will not grow accustom to the stimulation and stop responding to it. Since this variety of insect can live for about two years, this breakthrough makes it into a reusable tool. We’re not sure what that tool will be used for, but perhaps the next plague of insects will be controlled by man, and not mother nature.
[Thanks Ferdinand via
NBC News
] | 81 | 37 | [
{
"comment_id": "778967",
"author": "EKoelle",
"timestamp": "2012-09-10T20:09:15",
"content": "Reminds me of this…http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DrHMBletjXg",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "779147",
"author": "anybodysguess",
"t... | 1,760,376,744.560753 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/09/10/rickrolling-remote-control-prank/ | Rickrolling Remote Control Prank | Mike Szczys | [
"Microcontrollers"
] | [
"attiny10",
"gag",
"ir",
"piezo",
"prank",
"remote control",
"rickroll"
] | This device is a prank or gag that [Eric Heisler] came up with. It will
intercept IR remote control codes and play them back
after a bit of a delay. The example he shows in the video (embedded after the break) catches the television power signal from a remote, then sends it again after about thirty seconds. This shuts off the TV and would be extremely annoying if you were unable to find the device. Fortunately (for the victim), [Eric] included a piezo buzzer that Rickrolls after sending each code. Just follow that tune to find the offending hardware.
He chose to use an ATtiny10 microcontroller. It looks like it’s realizing its full potential as the six-pin package use all available I/O to control the IR receiver module, an IR led, and the buzzer. It runs from a coin cell without regulation and the circuit was free-formed on a tiny surface mount breakout board which hosts the microprocessor. | 18 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "778899",
"author": "video",
"timestamp": "2012-09-10T19:17:07",
"content": "[youtubehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KIWRlj4BX_c&w=420&h=315%5D",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "778931",
"author": "le samourai",
"timestamp":... | 1,760,376,744.61316 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/09/10/kalman-filter-keeps-your-bot-balanced/ | Kalman Filter Keeps Your Bot Balanced | Mike Szczys | [
"News"
] | [
"accelerometer",
"gyroscope",
"kalman filter",
"pid",
"Self Balancing Robot"
] | If you’re looking to improve the stability of your self balancing robot you might use a
simple
horrifying equation like this one. It’s part of the journey [Lauszus] took when
developing a sensor filtering algorithm for his balancing robot
. He’s not breaking ground on new mathematical ideas, but trying to make it a bit easier for the next guy to use a
Kalman filter
. It’s one method of suppressing noise and averaging data from the sensors commonly used in robotic applications.
His robot
uses a gyroscope and accelerometer to keep itself upright on just two wheels. The combination of these sensors presents an interesting problem in that accelerometer input is most accurate when sampled over longer periods, and a gyroscope is the opposite. This filter takes those quirks into account, while also factoring out sensor noise. Despite the daunting diagram above, [Lauszus] did a pretty go job of breaking down the larger function and showing us where to get the data and how to use it in microcontroller code. | 19 | 12 | [
{
"comment_id": "778810",
"author": "Eccentric Electron",
"timestamp": "2012-09-10T18:12:31",
"content": "Did a “pretty go[od] job”?A pretty good job?!What are you guys on? This is an awesome piece work. Give the guy credit, I’d be willing to bet the authors of this blog couldn’t even begin to write... | 1,760,376,744.672591 |
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