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https://hackaday.com/2012/09/09/eventorbot-3d-printer/ | Eventorbot 3D Printer | Eric Evenchick | [
"3d Printer hacks",
"cnc hacks"
] | [
"3d printer",
"RAMPS",
"thingiverse"
] | Tired of 3D printers that use t-slot construction? The
Eventorbot
is yet another open source 3D printer, but it’s built out of steel and 3D printable parts. The design also aims to minimize the effect of vibrations by using a single solid frame. All of the wiring runs through the steel frame, which gives the printer a professional look.
The Eventorbot page on the RepRap wiki provides details on how to build your own, along with STL files for all the printable parts. If you want to see renders of the parts, they’re all available on
Thingiverse
. The material cost is $300-$500, and the assembled cost is quoted at $799.
Like many of the open source printers we’ve seen, this one uses the
RepRap Mega Pololu Shield
(RAMPS) to control the actuators. This is attached to a
Sanguinololu
motherboard, which runs the RepRap firmware.
The Eventorbot
Youtube channel
has a collection of videos detailing the assembly of the robot. Check out a video of a test print after the break.
Via
Make
http://http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AUZKqjrOeSU | 29 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "777668",
"author": "chuck",
"timestamp": "2012-09-09T21:07:51",
"content": "I really need to save up and build one of these. Feel like I’m being left out of the fun.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "777810",
"author": "... | 1,760,376,746.966246 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/09/09/building-a-watch-for-curiositys-drivers/ | A Watch For Curiosity’s Drivers | Brian Benchoff | [
"clock hacks"
] | [
"Martian time",
"TI Chronos"
] | Eight long years ago, when the Martian rovers
Spirit
and
Opportunity
were steaming towards our dusty neighbor, JPL systems engineers [Julie Townsend] and [Scott Doudrick] were stuck trying to solve a very strange problem. After the twin rovers landed, the rover drivers would have to live on Mars time. Because a Martian day lasts 24 hours, 39 minutes, rover team members would have to report to work 39 minutes later than the previous day. After much cajoling, a watchmaker by the name of [Garo Anserlian]
was convinced to create a mechanical watch that lost 39 minutes per day
, giving the team responsible for driving
Spirit
and
Opportunity
across the Martian desert these last eight years a temporal connection to the task at hand.
Of course, a lot happens in eight years. Now we have incredibly inexpensive, fully programmable TI Chronos watch, used by [Arko] to
make a wristwatch set to Martian solar time
. Instead of a master watchmaker selling the slowest wristwatch ever for hundreds of dollars, staying on
Curiosity
time is a simple matter of reprogramming a $50 wrist-mounted computer.
The build began by taking the default firmware for the Texas Instruments EZ430 Chronos wristwatch. In its stock configuration, the Chronos takes a 32.768khz clock signal, counts out clock pulses, and increments the number of seconds every time a counter reaches 32,768.
Because a Martian Sol is 24 hours, 39 minutes and 35 seconds of Earth time, [Arko] needed to program the seconds display to change every 1.027 Earth seconds. This meant changing the seconds every 33,668.833 clock cycles, instead of the Earth-oriented 32,768 clock cycles.
There’s one small glitch with that plan: the timer in the Chronos wristwatch can’t deal with floating point numbers, meaning [Arko] had to settle for incrementing the number of seconds ever 33,668 or 33,669 clock cycles. After a bit of math, [Arko] found using a value of 33,669 would mean his Martian time watch would only lose about 2 seconds a day, a minute after 78 Martian Sols, or 8.57 Martian minutes after one Martian year.
The build only took [Arko] five hours in front of his computer, and he doesn’t consider this to be a finished product. He plans on adding a few bells and whistles such as being able to display both Earth and Mars time. Still, an awesome build if your job description includes driving a rover across the Martian plains. | 37 | 15 | [
{
"comment_id": "777620",
"author": "Jon Hollander",
"timestamp": "2012-09-09T20:15:45",
"content": "One way to get around the floating point limitation and keep more accurate time is to unroll the timing loop and alternately increment the seconds every 33,669 or 33,668 clock cycles.If the desired s... | 1,760,376,746.601376 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/09/09/genetic-research-on-the-cheap/ | Genetic Research On The Cheap | Eric Evenchick | [
"Medical Hacks"
] | [
"arduino",
"dna",
"genetics",
"PCR"
] | When you think of DIY hardware, genetic research tools are not something that typically comes to mind. But [Stacey] and [Matt]’s
OpenPCR
project aims to enable anyone to do
polymerase chain reaction
(PCR) research on the cheap.
PCR is a process that multiplies a specific piece of DNA a few million times. It can be used for many purposes, including DNA cloning and DNA fingerprinting for forensics. PCR is also used for paternity testing.
The process involves baking the DNA at specific temperatures for the right amount of time. The DNA is first denatured, to split the helix into individual strands. Next, the temperature is lowered and primers are bound to the strands. Finally, another temperature is used to allow the
polymerase
to duplicate the DNA. This process is repeated to multiply the DNA.
The OpenPCR uses an Arduino to control a solid state relay. This relay provides power to two large resistors that act as heaters. A
MAX31855
is used to read a thermocouple over SPI and provide feedback for the system. A computer fan is used to cool the device down.
A milled aluminium sample holder houses and heats the samples during cycling. The laser cut, t-slot construction case features some helix art, and houses all of the components. It will be interesting to see what applications this $85 PCR device can perform.
Via
Adafruit | 12 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "777583",
"author": "Inuyasha10121",
"timestamp": "2012-09-09T19:21:11",
"content": "As a hacker, this is really cool. As a biologist, I’m worried about the precision of the heating and cooling cycles. Enzymes like to be at very precise temperatures for maximum efficiency, after al... | 1,760,376,746.278979 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/09/09/3d-games-for-the-arduino-with-raycasting/ | 3D Games For The Arduino With Raycasting | Brian Benchoff | [
"Arduino Hacks",
"Software Development"
] | [
"arduino",
"ray casting"
] | For all the Arduino-based video game builds we’ve seen, we’re really only left with a bunch of 2D platformers and other sprite-based games. [Reimecker] wasn’t satisfied with this level of computational complexity, so he
ported the 3D game engine made famous by
Duke Nukem 3D
to the Arduino
(German,
Google translation
).
[Reimecker]’s project is based on the very popular
Build Engine
written by [Ken Silverman] and used in games such as
Duke Nukem 3D
,
Shadow Warrior
,
Blood,
and
TekWar
.
The Build Engine can be used to make a first person shooter, but more on the level of
Wolfenstein 3D
instead of
Half-Life.
The hardware [Reimecker] used is a regular ‘ol 8-bit Arduino with an attached LCD touch screen displaying 320×240 pixels of a ray cast environment. From the videos of the build (available after the break), [Reimecker] has a fairly decent game engine capable of displaying a 2.5D environment. The frame rate might not be very high, but it’s still an amazing build considering the hardware [Reimecker] is working with.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BxW5ZtcXx0E&w=470]
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJi85lr5Ofo&w=470]
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9M32PF1IVQg&w=470]
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iE8F2E5CnCI&w=470] | 18 | 14 | [
{
"comment_id": "777530",
"author": "Philip",
"timestamp": "2012-09-09T18:15:45",
"content": "I wonder if this might benefit from switching to a ChipKIT Uno32…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "777537",
"author": "Denbo",
"timestamp": "201... | 1,760,376,746.699074 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/09/09/it-was-only-a-matter-of-time-before-we-saw-nixie-modules-for-the-arduino/ | It Was Only A Matter Of Time Before We Saw Nixie Modules For The Arduino | Brian Benchoff | [
"Arduino Hacks",
"LED Hacks"
] | [
"arduino",
"nixie"
] | The Nixie tube, a neon-filled tube with a series of 10 cathodes shaped like numerals, is a classic display for any build wanting a unique, vintage, or steampunk aesthetic. We shouldn’t be surprised a factory in China is now turning out
Arduino-compatable Nixie modules
(English
translation
, but don’t get your hopes up), but there it is.
The modules are based on the QS30-1 Nixie tube capable of displaying the digits 0 through 9, and include an RGB LED behind the tube for some nice additional illumination. According to
the manual
, the modules themselves are based on a pair of 74HC595 shift registers, and are ‘stackable.’ By applying 12 volts to a pair of pins and connecting another 5 wires to an Arduino, it’s possible to drive as many of these Nixie modules as you’d like.
[Paul Craven] got his hands on
a quartet of these modules
and is planning on building a steampunk style alarm clock as a personal project. [Paul] was able to get the modules up and running fairly quickly, as seen after the break.
While they’re most certainly not the cheapest option, if you’re planning a build with Nixies, this probably is the
easiest
way to get a vintagey, steampunkey numerical display.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uNjAUwL48hw&w=470] | 33 | 15 | [
{
"comment_id": "777496",
"author": "Zee",
"timestamp": "2012-09-09T17:19:21",
"content": "I don’t quite understand where we can buy these. That website is extremely cryptic.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "777506",
"author": "jakeb",
... | 1,760,376,746.519195 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/09/09/the-easiest-way-to-dive-in-to-arm-programming/ | The Easiest Way To Dive In To ARM Programming | Brian Benchoff | [
"ARM"
] | [
"breadboard",
"dip",
"microcontroller"
] | [Brad] has been very excited about an ARM Cortex-M0 chip released by NXP; it’s a fully featured ARM microcontroller, and is, quite amazingly, stuffed into a hobbyist and breadboard-friendly DIP-28 package. After finding a supplier for this chip, [Brad] dove in and put together a great tutorial for
programming an ARM on the breadboard using open source tools
.
The chip in question is NXP’s
LPC1114FN28
, a 28-pin breadboard friendly chip
we’ve posted about before.
After finding
a single supplier
for this microcontroller (only $1.26 for one chip!), [Brad] pulled out his breadboard and started wiring things up.
Because this microcontroller has an on-board oscillator, wiring up a breadboard and putting in a breakout for an FTDI cable was a snap. After
configuring a toolchain
and writing a bit of code, the only issue was uploading the code to the chip. This was handled by the
lpc21isp
programming tool, slightly modified and configured by [Brad] to support his favorite microcontroller.
The LPC1114FN28 is an impressive bit of kit, and with free tools to program the damn thing, we can’t wait for a homebrew ARM dev board to show up. | 47 | 18 | [
{
"comment_id": "777434",
"author": "MostThingsWeb",
"timestamp": "2012-09-09T16:08:33",
"content": "Looks like Mouser will be stocking it in about a month:http://www.mouser.com/ProductDetail/NXP/LPC1114FN28-10212/?qs=%2fha2pyFaduiLADrKbRZV0bSPLrw14TKtsaj4o8J30amfCF2LUv%2f8YQ%3d%3d",
"parent_id"... | 1,760,376,746.838659 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/09/09/wireless-upgrade-for-a-heathkit-hero-1-robot/ | Wireless Upgrade For A Heathkit HERO 1 Robot | Jeremy Cook | [
"Robots Hacks",
"Wireless Hacks"
] | [
"ETW-18",
"FR3DDY",
"hero",
"robot",
"serial router"
] | For those of you that don’t know, the Heathkit HERO (Heathkit Educational Robot) was a ‘bot built in the early 1980s. [Rick] wasn’t satisfied with his model ETW-18’s programming interface, so decided to
upgrade it to be able to run Python
using a hacked wireless router. We’d agree that things have advanced since then, since this little guy was originally programmed in machine code using an onboard keypad. As [Rick] points out, it’s “exactly as awful” as it sounds!
To begin restoring and upgrading his robot, a kit was obtained from
[hero-1]
to allow for a serial programming interface. Although an improvement, the desire was to be able to program this robot using Python, and to not have to have a cable running across the floor all the time. A router with a serial port was obtained from a thrift store, then hacked using
[OpenWrt]
. After fitting the components into the robot, [FR3DDY] was born, “A ~30 year old robot, accessible through wifi, capable of running Python.”
Be sure to
check out his site
, which has some videos we weren’t able to embed. He’s also included some Python code that he used to program it. If this has made you curious about the Python language, why not check out this recent post about
learning it the hard way
? | 15 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "777341",
"author": "Timbo",
"timestamp": "2012-09-09T14:49:42",
"content": "Where did you dig up Mr Wizard’s droid??",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "777392",
"author": "Electrosmith",
"timestamp": "2012-09-09T15:20:58",
... | 1,760,376,746.334008 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/09/11/full-color-video-on-a-spinning-pov-display/ | Full-color Video On A Spinning POV Display | Mike Szczys | [
"LED Hacks",
"Video Hacks"
] | [
"display",
"fpga",
"gumstix",
"POV",
"telecom paristech",
"video"
] | Watching Big Buck Bunny on a spinning POV display
is pretty impressive. Sure, the circular display area cuts off some of the picture, but otherwise it looks fantastic. This POV display is based on a Gumstix board. It runs embedded Linux which makes video playback rather easy. But translating each frame to the round display is another story.
The device is the result of a course project at Telecom ParisTech. [Félix], [Sylvain], and [Jérémy] used an FPGA to do the pixel mapping. This uses an encoder wheel (rather than a traditional hall effect sensor) to ascertain the blade’s position. The sensor that monitors the disc sends quadrature encoded pulses which result in 10-bit position data. The FPGA uses that data to calculate where each LED falls in its arc, then looks up the pixel color for that position. It’s not
the largest POV display we’ve seen
, but it certainly has the very best RGB resolution by far.
[Thanks Alex] | 30 | 19 | [
{
"comment_id": "780392",
"author": "SAC_Rob",
"timestamp": "2012-09-11T18:11:01",
"content": "I would think you could just draw a rectangular screen inside the spinning area sure you don’t fill up the entire screen surface area but you also do not have to trim the video.",
"parent_id": null,
... | 1,760,376,746.760586 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/09/11/robot-bar-tender-records-wedding-guests-getting-drunk/ | Robot Bar Tender Records Wedding Guests Getting Drunk | Mike Szczys | [
"home hacks"
] | [
"bartender",
"cocktail",
"video",
"wedding"
] | Having an open bar usually means hiring at least one bar tender. But this hack does away with those labor costs (and someone to make sure your teenage cousins aren’t drinking) by putting a robot in charge of things. But the fun doesn’t stop there. One of the features of this bartender is that
it records a 30 second video every time it dispenses a beverage
. We’d image these get a bit funny as the night wears on before taking a dramatic turn into sadness.
The link above shares a ton of details on the device so make sure that you click-through the different pages in the navigation bar. The mechanical page shows off all of the effort that went into designing the machine in Solidworks. The ingredients start on the top layer in inverted bottles. Each feeds to a valve which has its own nozzle. Like a round version of
the Inebriator
, a glass is placed in a trolley at the bottom that pivots around the center of the machine. Once it gets back to the opening in the acrylic case you can grab your drink, give it a quick stir, and off you go.
Check out the video after the break to get a look at the user interface which includes that recorded video greeting for the happy couple. | 3 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "780455",
"author": "nizon",
"timestamp": "2012-09-11T18:45:58",
"content": "Cool, but you’d need like 10 of them to serve fast enough at any of the weddings I’ve been to.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "780586",
"author": "A... | 1,760,376,746.64327 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/09/11/binoculars-as-a-zoom-lens/ | Binoculars As A Zoom Lens | Mike Szczys | [
"digital cameras hacks"
] | [
"binoculars",
"camera",
"kodak",
"lens",
"telephoto",
"zoom",
"zx3"
] | It may seem trivial at first, but the effect [Dan] gets when
using binoculars as a telephoto lens
is surprising. The images are well in focus with great colors. This technique not only brings your subject mater closer but also provides a depth-of-focus feature not normally available on simple cameras or camera phones.
The proof is in the example footage found after the break, but you’ll also find a video tutorial detailing the build. [Dan] already had the expensive components are a pair of mini binoculars and a Kodak Zx3 pocket camcorder. The camcorder is the same form factor as a smart phone so using different hardware will be a breeze. He started off by building a prototype out of paper. Basically it’s a bracket that properly aligns the camera with one lens of the binoculars. Once he had everything lined up he transferred his measurements to some sheet metal. The bracket for the binoculars is attached to the one for the camera using bolts and wing nuts to make it adjustable. One important part of the design is to gut a hole for access to the binocular focus wheel.
Example footage:
Build tutorial: | 21 | 13 | [
{
"comment_id": "780203",
"author": "bean",
"timestamp": "2012-09-11T16:26:49",
"content": "I tried something very similar many year ago. My results were horrible. Massive vignetting around the edges. The colors were so washed out it looked sepia. If only I had thought to name it something the k... | 1,760,376,746.894391 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/09/11/ioio-controller-replacement-for-an-rc-truck/ | IOIO Controller Replacement For An RC Truck | Mike Szczys | [
"Android Hacks",
"Toy Hacks"
] | [
"android",
"antenna",
"bluetooth",
"ioio",
"Joystick",
"rc",
"truck"
] | This RC truck can be controlled with the tip of your thumb or the tilt of a wrist. That’s thanks to
the IOIO which was inserted
in place of the toy’s original controller. [Exanko] made the hardware changes in order to use his Android phone as the controller. The white circle is
a software joystick
that acts as throttle when your thumb moves along the Y axis, and steering when it moves along the X axis. But while he was at it he also included accelerometer input as an alternative control option.
The IOIO board has a Bluetooth dongle connected to its USB port as a means of wireless communication. The dongle was hacked to accept an external antenna, thereby increasing the truck’s range. There is also some on-board flair like LEDs for lights and even a laser diode for… well we’re not sure what that’s for. Get a better look at the hardware internals in the clip after the break.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XSAzSw3QTOY | 5 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "780322",
"author": "Mental2k",
"timestamp": "2012-09-11T17:37:56",
"content": "Nifty, makes me wish there were better ‘droid phones when I bought my iPhone 3GS!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "780418",
"author": "draeath",
... | 1,760,376,747.010193 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/09/11/typewriter-is-usb-keyboard-also-awesome/ | Typewriter Is USB Keyboard, Also Awesome | Brian Benchoff | [
"classic hacks",
"Peripherals Hacks"
] | [
"hipsters",
"keyboard",
"typewriter",
"usb keyboard"
] | If you’re a brooding author putting the finishing touches on the next Great American Novel™ while sipping a latte in Starbucks, a MacBook is far too common to impress uncultured proles guzzling caramel macchiatos. No, to impress the next [Joyce] or [T. S. Eliot] sitting at the table next to you, you’ll need something much more hip, like
a kit to turn a typewriter into a USB keyboard
.
This kit to turn an old Underwood into a USB keyboard comes from the drawing board of [Jack Zylkin], member of Philly hackerspace Hive 76. [Jack] managed to make the process of turning an old typewriter into a keyboard a relatively painless process.
[Jack] created a sensor board loaded up with 74HC595 shift registers that easily mounts to the frame of just about any typewriter. When a key on the typewriter is struck, the mechanical levers strike metal strips soldered to the sensor board. An ATMega microcontroller records these keypresses and sends them over a USB port just like any other USB keyboard.
Modifying a typewriter into a USB keyboard is one of those projects we’d dread; you’d think there would be far too much futzing about with a lot of small electrical contacts and dirty mechanical devices. [Jack] actually managed to put together a very nice kit to turn a typewriter into a keyboard here.
You can pick up a kit over at
[Jack]’s etsy store
, but doing the same thing with a bit of perf board isn’t out of the question. Awesome video after the break. | 15 | 12 | [
{
"comment_id": "779948",
"author": "nickstewartroc",
"timestamp": "2012-09-11T14:06:32",
"content": "Very cool! Wish you could see how he did it so you could mimic is a bit easier, also, how does he get it to work on his iPad? I thought the usb adapter was for cameras only?",
"parent_id": null,... | 1,760,376,747.062381 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/09/11/giving-the-nexus-7-hd-video-recording/ | Giving The Nexus 7 HD Video Recording | Brian Benchoff | [
"Android Hacks"
] | [
"nexus 7",
"tablet"
] | As released, the Nexus 7 tablet includes a 1.2 Megapixel front-facing camera. Even though the camera supports taking pictures at a resolution of 1280 x 960, recording video is limited to a paltry 480p resolution. It turns out the inability to record HD 720p video isn’t a hardware limitation; engineers at either Google or Asus simply didn’t bother telling the Nexus 7 how to record in 720p.
[hillbeast] over on the XDA developers forum came up with
a very easy fix for this problem
that only involves a quick copy and paste job into the
media_profiles.xml
file.
After the break you can see two videos recorded with [thehillbeast]’s Nexus 7. The first is a 480p video of a bit of shrubbery and a fence, while the second video is the same scene recorded at 720p. A noticable difference in quality, and a neat hack to give the already awesome Nexus 7 some additional capabilities.
480p:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1hELsUBVR5I&w=470]
720p:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZAq47ogkWKc&w=470] | 22 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "779913",
"author": "takashimoto",
"timestamp": "2012-09-11T13:52:16",
"content": "wow! seriously why would they do that??",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "779928",
"author": "David M.",
"timestamp": "2012-09-11T13:59:50",... | 1,760,376,747.489276 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/09/11/disco-planet-a-massive-rgbw-led-array-in-a-6-globe/ | Disco Planet, A Massive RGBW LED Array In A 6′ Globe | Jesse Congdon | [
"Arduino Hacks",
"Featured",
"LED Hacks"
] | [
"fastSPI_LED",
"high power LED",
"IRRemote",
"led strips",
"msgeq7",
"RGB Flood Light"
] | About half a year ago [John] over at
Frank’s Kitchens
came to me with an idea for a giant lighting project. He had this 6ft diameter aluminum frame globe rescued from the Philadelphia Theater Company and wanted it to be an interactive display of sorts. After a few discussions we got together and somehow managed to order 800 3 watt LEDs in red, green, blue, and white. We had a system that worked great on paper, and managed to get it built by Valentines day for a big show. It failed miserably and hardly even illuminated the LEDs. I, naturally, took this far too personally and set out for a complete redesign, looking in the direction of digitally addressable LED strips.
In addition to building a crazy turbo charged LED array I also spent a lot (a whole lot) of time coding a nice clean fully functioning RGB LED strip controller using an Arduino Pro Mini (5V 16 MHz), the MSGEQ7 audio frequency multiplexer (
PDF
) , and an IR remote. I plan on using this for other projects so the code can be easily reconfigured to use many different LED strips and a whole slew of IR remotes.
The schematic of the globe is
here
. The top half of that schematic be catered to other projects using a variety of pre-built LED strips. The pastebin with code is
here
, fastSPI_LED and IRRemote
here
and
here
. Some code jockeying was required to get IRRemote.h and FastSPI_LED to play nicely together, so check the code comments.
At the start of the build I had a huge frame with red, green, blue, and white LEDs arranged in pixels on aluminum brackets. I had to strip out a ton of over sized wire, and two completely destroyed Peggy2 boards. I kept getting asked if the Peggy 2 system could just be resurrected; aside from the coding nightmare that Peggy presents (at least for a coder of my level). The original goal was to individually power every single LED (720 in total), and appropriately fade them with an individual PWM signal. This is impossible with Peggy since it relies on a row-at-a-time enumeration of an array. Keep in mind the system is great and works amazingly well for lower power applications. We had strapped high power drivers to each column and a high current MOSFET to each row. Below was a panicked “short every control pin of every driver to just light it up” version, and yet it could only put out that pithy amount of light. Everything had to go. Even my top hat.
Since the complete overhaul was now my project my budget and my money I had to keep the LED drivers under a dollar each. Well under a dollar each. Enter: China. I managed to source some crazy 12V AC drivers that were meant to replace track lighting. The boards use the MC34063 switching regulator (
PDF
) in some configuration that wasn’t shown on the data sheet. Lots of pencil sketched circuits later I had a reverse engineered schematic and no clue as to what it was trying to accomplish. It took some google-fu but I managed to find a
current driver schematic
for the IC, primarily due to my
inability to spell
. The schematic looks just like my drawing and has a nice simple way to pump a slow speed PWM signal into the chip, Pin 5. Cool, this is so simple: just peel up Pin 5, replace the input posts with a 3 pin connector and wire the middle pin to the chip.
It worked fantastically with a PWM signal. Now I just had to do that… 800… times.
To provide that PWM signal I needed something cheap, available, simple, and capable. I tested a few methods of driving the driver, and settled on the WS2801. This chip was easy to find cheaply, and handled all of the serial signal transmission and boosting through serial in and serial out pins. The big issue is that this chip is meant to only control RGB, not RGBW. This actually ended up being a massive problem, EVERYTHING is catered to RGB arrays, and here I was with a giant (expensive) RGBW setup. Since each WS2801 controls three LEDs, I decided to tack the white LEDs onto every 4th driver in line. I haven’t gotten around to making my code work with this scheme yet so the output looks kind of funky in the videos.
Each PCB when running can draw up to 2A of current (on the 12V line). In order to supply 60 of these boards I managed to find a couple hot swappable server power supplies. Actually 6 of them, each providing a whopping 52 Amps Max. I also bought the controller board they plug into and pried the connectors off, mounting them to perf boards. I used Ethernet wire pretty much exclusively for the entire project, it melts and shorts and doesn’t like to bend more than a few times. It was awful. The wire was cheap though, and I am still debating if the few hundred dollars to design this thing with connectors would have been worth the time savings considering I hadn’t tested it with connectors.
At any rate this was a pretty fun project. I still have to sort out a few buggy LED drivers, and glue the driver boards to the PCBs (they’ll unplug while transporting). I plan on making a few more of these controller circuits since I have to test code two states away from the shop, also I can put them in other stuff. Sound reactive top hat? Maybe I can inspire [Caleb] to do a bit more with his
RGBW globe
. Here is a break-down of the controller parts:
Below is the crappy video from the day I finally got the driver circuit installed, under that is one of the first “woohoo my code works” video. I’d have a better video to show off the circuit and modes and IR but I had to use my breadboard parts in the globe! I ran over my spare microphone breakout board with my chair and totally crushed the poor little guy.
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v-bGqV5o_bE&w=470]
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nLmlFjeQ4bs&w=470]
Also just to annoy people trying to scroll down to the comments section, here is a massive gallery of photos for a massive project. Check out the comments for more info. Some decent computer background fodder in there as well. | 24 | 12 | [
{
"comment_id": "779793",
"author": "knightvoyager",
"timestamp": "2012-09-11T12:32:08",
"content": "Very impressive and blindingly bright,well done! :)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "779845",
"author": "t&p",
"timestamp": "2012-09-11T1... | 1,760,376,747.773523 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/09/07/programming-a-propeller-on-an-arm/ | Programming A Propeller On An ARM | Brian Benchoff | [
"ARM",
"Linux Hacks"
] | [
"arm",
"linux",
"Parallax Propeller",
"propeller"
] | [Stefan] uses a small ARM-powered netbook for his development work, so when he tried to play around with the Parallax Propeller he ran into a few problems. The official tools from Parallax are Windows only, and the available 3rd party dev tools are only compiled for x86. After a lot of futzing about, [Stefan]
was able to develop on his ARM netbook
and wrote in to tell us how it’s done.
Luckily,
Parallax released a GCC port for the Propeller
, but unfortunately isn’t completely portable to ARM. The Propeller loader for this architecture ambivalent build uses a little bit of SPIN code, which can only be compiled on Intel machines.
To get around this problem, [Stefan]
wrote an installer script
to gather all the necessary bits of code to his computer. His ARM/Linux toolchain consists of the Propeller GCC,
an open source SPIN compiler
, and a Python script used to load code [Stefan] found on the Propeller forums.
Now that [Stefan] has a complete toolchain for programming the Propeller on an ARM device, it’s possible to develop for this very cool multi-core microcontroller on his netbook or even the Raspberry Pi. | 10 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "775669",
"author": "navic",
"timestamp": "2012-09-07T20:13:37",
"content": "Awesome! Glad to know I can program a Propeller with a Raspi in the field!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "775782",
"author": "WhiteCrane",
"ti... | 1,760,376,747.429083 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/09/07/hackaday-links-september-7-2012/ | Hackaday Links: September 7, 2012 | Brian Benchoff | [
"3d Printer hacks",
"Hackaday links"
] | [
"kerf",
"kerf bending",
"makerbot",
"makerslide",
"model",
"photography",
"RTLSDR",
"sdr"
] | MakerSlide, European edition
We’re all familiar with the
MakerSlide
, right? The linear bearing system that has been turned into everything from
motorized camera mounts
to
3D printers
is apparently very hard to source in Europe. A few folks from the ShapeOko forum have teamed up to
produce the MakerSlide in the UK
. They’re running a crowdsourced project on Ulule, and the prices for the rewards seem very reasonable; €65/£73 for enough extrusion, v-wheels, and spacers to make an awesome CNC router.
Kerf bending and math
A few days ago, I
made an offhand remark
asking for an engineering analysis of kerf bending. [Patrick Fenner] of the Liverpool hackerspace DoES
already had a blog post covering this
, and goes over the theory, equations, and practical examples of bending acrylic with a laser cutter. Thanks for finding this [Adrian].
276 hours well spent
[Dave Langkamp] got his hands on a Makerbot Replicator, one thing led to another, and now he has
a 1/6 scale model electric car
made nearly entirely out of 3D printed parts. No, the batteries don’t hold a charge, and the motor doesn’t have any metal in it, but we’ve got to admire the dedication that went in to this project.
It was thiiiiiiis big
If you’ve ever tried to demonstrate the size of an object with a photograph, you’ve probably placed a coin of other standard object in the frame.
Here’s something a little more useful
created by [Phil]. His International Object Sizing Tool is the size of a credit card, has inch and cm markings, as well as pictures of a US quarter, a British pound coin, and a one Euro coin. If you want to print one-off for yourself,
here’s the PDF
.
Want some documentation on your TV tuner SDR?
The full documentation for the E4000/RTL2832U chipset found in those USB TV tuner dongles
is up on reddit
. Even though these chips are now out of production (if you haven’t bought a proper tuner dongle yet, you might want to…),
maybe
a someone looking to replicate this really cool device will find it useful. | 17 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "775170",
"author": "Tron9000",
"timestamp": "2012-09-07T11:35:27",
"content": "Maker slide in europe! About time! I’m sick of looking for the parts I want I finding out thier only available in the US!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_i... | 1,760,376,747.376244 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/09/06/electronic-beer-pong-removes-beer-from-the-equation/ | Electronic Beer Pong Removes Beer From The Equation | Mike Szczys | [
"Beer Hacks"
] | [
"beer pong",
"dart board",
"electronic"
] | You can take the guy out of the frat house, but you can’t take the frat house out of the guy. [Evan Flint] proves this with his incessant need to have a beer pong game at all of his parties. But now that he’s growing up, and living in nicer places, he doesn’t necessarily want to have the oft-messy game in his home. So he found an electronic solution to his problem. Electropong is like
an electronic dart board for playing beer pong
. You won’t find beer in the cups, but you’ll still find plenty of fun.
The game includes the triangle of cups that makes up
a traditional playing area
. In the bottom of each cup is an RGB LED that will keep track of each player’s hits by lighting the cup in that team’s color. Illuminated buttons provide a way to control the game, with an LED marquee to read out the score.
[Evan] mentions some difficulty in recreating the physics of a cup full of beer. He says he overcame the challenge, but alas, there are no details on how. We’ve asked him to update his post so check back for more info. | 12 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "774732",
"author": "T.M.",
"timestamp": "2012-09-06T21:38:33",
"content": "Just look inside a Cuponk to see how they did it. It’s like a soft plastic(like pleather) insert that absorbs all the energy and prevents the ball from bouncing. They were on clearance everywhere, the last ... | 1,760,376,747.318579 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/09/06/protosynth-the-prototyping-synthesizer/ | ProtoSynth, The Prototyping Synthesizer | Mike Szczys | [
"Musical Hacks"
] | [
"breadboard",
"keyboard",
"propeller",
"protosynth",
"synthesizer"
] | This project isn’t really a prototype, but a tool for prototyping. [Tymkrs] came up with a
unique way to build this synthesizer prototyping tool
. They actually patched into the underside of the breadboards in order to keep all of the permanent bits nice and tidy.
In the clip after the break you’ll see all of the build photos that lead up to this point. After cutting out and assembling the wooden pieces for the case they grab a soldering iron and get to work. Two octaves worth of keys were pulled out of an electric keyboard. Ribbon cable is soldered onto each key’s electrical connection, with an SIL pin header as a connector. This mates with another ribbon cable with a SIL socket on one end, and an IDC connector on the other. The real trick is getting that IDC connected to the breadboard. They cut back the adhesive tape on the underside of the board and soldered a surface mount pin header onto it. This way the inputs from the keys, as well as a few 1/4″ jacks from the back of the case are always available in a tidy way on the breadboards. The video goes on to show preliminary synthesizer work on the device. | 7 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "774701",
"author": "Coda",
"timestamp": "2012-09-06T21:11:52",
"content": "Cool, I want to see an 7 octave keyboard version :-)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "774792",
"author": "nafix",
"timestamp": "2012-09-06T23:24:5... | 1,760,376,747.632812 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/09/06/2012-open-7400-logic-competition/ | 2012 Open 7400 Logic Competition | Mike Szczys | [
"contests"
] | [
"7400",
"announcement",
"competition",
"dangerous prototypes",
"logic"
] | The Open 7400 Logic Competition
is being held again this year. Start thinking about your entries, they’ll need to be finished and submitted by October 31st. As motivation, Digilent has put up two of their Analog Discovery kits as prizes. They can be used as a dual channel oscilloscope, function generator, or 16-channel logic analyzer. Last year was
the first time the competition was held
. As hype for the event built, more and more prize sponsors signed on and we hope to see the same thing happen this year.
Your entry can be just about anything as long as you show your schematic, explain the project, and use logic. It can be 7400 TTL, 4000 CMOS, discrete gates, or even a CPLD. Last year’s entries spanned a wide range of themes from
LED blinkers
, to
unorthodox 74xx chip hacking
, to
boards packed full of chips
. Good luck and don’t forget to
tip us off about your work
!
[Thanks Adrian] | 5 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "774708",
"author": "David",
"timestamp": "2012-09-06T21:20:53",
"content": "Is it fair to enter this if you’re an old-timer who built boards full of a hundred TTL chips back in 1980?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "774884",
... | 1,760,376,747.690278 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/09/06/diy-arm-prototyping-board/ | DIY ARM Prototyping Board | Mike Szczys | [
"ARM"
] | [
"arm",
"cortex m0",
"dev board",
"development board",
"nxp"
] | We’re impressed by the ARM prototyping board which [Danjovic] is showing off. He proves that in this day of ever shrinking packages it’s still possible to
make your own development tools with protoboard and a soldering iron
.
To tell you the truth, if he had designed and etched his own board we probably wouldn’t have featured it. But he didn’t need to
spend time on the layout, etching, and reflow
. Instead it’s just some enamel wire and a lot of patience. The patience is because the NXP ARM Cortex-M0 chip comes in a HVQFN package. We’re not entirely sure about the HV part (
the package alphabet
was not entirely clear on this) but QFN means Quad Flat No-Lead. That means no legs on the chip. So [Danjovic] glued it upside down and soldered point-to-point to break out all of the pins.
The top side of the board has a bootloader button, reset button, power regulation, and a crystal oscillator. He doesn’t mention what bootloader he’s using, but a Nokia USB cable gives him the connectivity to push his programs onto the chip. | 21 | 13 | [
{
"comment_id": "774493",
"author": "tomdf",
"timestamp": "2012-09-06T18:36:53",
"content": "That is impressive",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "774499",
"author": "sixlima",
"timestamp": "2012-09-06T18:43:12",
"content": "He is using... | 1,760,376,747.83011 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/09/06/frequency-analyzer-built-from-the-new-stellaris-launchpad/ | Frequency Analyzer Built From The New Stellaris Launchpad | Mike Szczys | [
"Microcontrollers"
] | [
"arm",
"dma",
"dsp",
"launchpad",
"stellaris"
] | Here’s the first project we’ve seen for the new Stellaris Launchpad. It’s
a frequency analyzer which displays a graph
on an 8×8 LED module. What’s that you say? You haven’t received your new Launchpad board yet? Neither have we since
they don’t start shipping until the end of the month
. But [EuphonistiHack] works as a software dev for TI and snagged one of the early development units.
Hardware is rather simple. He uses an OpAmp to feed audio from his laptop to the ARM processor. The 8×8 LED module is an MSP430 booster pack that is addressed via SPI. On the software side of things he’s really taking advantage of hardware peripherals to simplify his work. A timer triggers each ADC reading which in turn writes the values using uDMA. Digital Signal Processing (available as a CMSIS library for many ARM chips) is then used to translate the ADC value to one that can be displayed on the LEDs. Check out the video after the break to see the final version.
The Hackaday writers are looking for an easier name for this hardware than “Stellaris Launchpad”. It doesn’t seem to lend itself to a shorter name, like RPi or Raspi does for the Raspberry Pi. If you’ve got a catchy nick name for the new board please share it in the comments. | 79 | 48 | [
{
"comment_id": "774209",
"author": "Clint",
"timestamp": "2012-09-06T16:08:03",
"content": "stell-pad or s-pad",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1075231",
"author": "Bil",
"timestamp": "2013-10-14T06:19:34",
"content": "... | 1,760,376,747.941051 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/09/09/building-a-very-low-power-full-featured-desktop/ | Building A Very Low Power, Full Featured Desktop | Brian Benchoff | [
"green hacks"
] | [
"casemod",
"desktop computer",
"high efficiency"
] | For a few years now, [mux] has been playing around with extremely efficient computation. In 2010, he built a fully featured MiniITX / Core 2 duo computer that only consumed 20 watts. Last year, [mux] managed to build an Intel i3-powered desktop that was able to sip a mere 8.3 watts at idle. He’s back at it again, and now his sights are set on a fully featured Intel i5-powered build with a built-in monitor
that will draw less than 6 watts of power
.
Like his previous
8 watt i3 build
, [mux] reduces the power requirement of his build by carefully measuring the power draw of every component on his board. The power savings come from a simple fact of any power supply; when converting from AC to DC, or from one DC voltage to another, there’s always a little bit of power lost in the process.
[mux] reduces these power losses by removing a few voltage regulators and re-routing power lines across his motherboard. So far, the power draw on [mux]’s computer is more than half of what it was when the parts were stock, and we can’t wait for the finished build that includes a built-in monitor, UPS, and a proper case. | 48 | 17 | [
{
"comment_id": "777246",
"author": "GeriBoss",
"timestamp": "2012-09-09T12:11:02",
"content": "That is pretty amazing.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "777251",
"author": "Galane",
"timestamp": "2012-09-09T12:22:12",
"content": "In o... | 1,760,376,748.022618 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/09/08/hacking-a-floating-rgb-led-decorative-ball/ | Hacking A Floating RGB LED Decorative Ball | Caleb Kraft | [
"Ask Hackaday"
] | [
"555",
"arduino",
"led",
"rgb"
] | Knowing that I’m always happy to get something new and glowy, my wife brought home a cheap “
floating pool light
” that she found on sale for roughly $10. This is a large white floating ball that has LEDs inside and cycles through different colors. Meant to be put into a pool for neat effects, we found it to be much more interesting just used around the house.
However, it was a bit too bright and cycled colors too quickly for our taste. It was actually somewhat distracting when we were just trying to sit and have a few beers late at night on our patio. This gave me a perfect excuse to tear it apart and start hacking… like I wasn’t going to do that anyway.
What I found inside was extremely simple. There’s a single un-marked chip that holds the different display modes (there were 3 display modes: warm, cool, and white). The LEDs were arranged in an array of Reds, Blues, Greens, and Whites (half marked yellow).
My goal was to make this a little more tolerable as mood lighting, so I needed to draw up a plan. I have an arduino sitting here from the redbull contest, so I figured why not hook it up to that? It would allow full PWM control of the channels and I could do some pre-programmed sequences if I wanted.
This was ridiculously easy. All I needed to do was solder leads on to each of the LED channels. There
are already great tutorials on how to run PWM from the arduino
and a couple
quick additions would give me direct controls
over each channel via potentiometers. So problem solved right?
Well, sort of. It really bugs me that there’s an entire arduino there just for some PWM.
I can go buy the components to do 555 timer PWM circuits if all I want is PWM
. Then again, if I compare the price, that free arduino is a much cheaper solution than buying 2xcaps, 1×555, 1xtransistor, and assorted resistors and diodes, especially if consider that I’d have to buy it all in triplicate.
Ultimately if I wanted to just leave this as PWM control on each channel, I’d opt for the 555 circuit. What else is there to do with a glowing ball? Simple notification system? Sound reactive? Give me some ideas. | 36 | 19 | [
{
"comment_id": "776750",
"author": "Izzy",
"timestamp": "2012-09-08T19:35:01",
"content": "Why dont you use ATTiny85?extremely small and cheap, and has 2 PWM.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "776905",
"author": "sirus20x6",
"ti... | 1,760,376,748.096622 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/09/08/le-gokart-a-gokart-built-entirely-from-lego/ | Le-GoKART; A GoKart Built Entirely From Lego | Richard Steele | [
"Toy Hacks"
] | [
"gokart",
"kart",
"lego",
"mindstorms",
"Netherlands",
"vehicle"
] | [Eric Steenstra], from the Netherlands, decided to
build a GoKart entirely from LEGO Mindstorm parts
. Tested at being able to carry just over 100Kg in weight, a 16 stone man(224 lbs). This GoKart can easily carry a child and propel him along. Eric used 48 stock Mindstorm motors, geared down, and 16 battery packs to provide a balance between torque and speed.
This vehicle doesn’t expect to win any races in the speed department. From the point of view of being something different this wins hands down. The Karts first test drive was only two weeks ago so drivability and durability are still under development at this stage. See the video after the break on this monstrous Mindstorms creation.
via[
Make
] | 24 | 13 | [
{
"comment_id": "776619",
"author": "Itwork4me",
"timestamp": "2012-09-08T17:15:49",
"content": "Way cool!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "776622",
"author": "NotImpressed",
"timestamp": "2012-09-08T17:19:34",
"content": "Probably co... | 1,760,376,748.155628 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/09/08/a-fifty-dollar-project-screen-you-can-be-proud-of/ | A Fifty-dollar Projection Screen You Can Be Proud Of | Mike Szczys | [
"home entertainment hacks"
] | [
"paint",
"projection",
"projetor",
"protection screen",
"screen"
] | [Lou] wrote in to share
the fifty-dollar projection screen he built in his home
. We’ve seen several of these projects lately. Unlike the one
used at a lake cabin
, or the other that
fills an awkward alcove
, this version doesn’t use fabric for the screen. He actually painted it right on the wall.
The key to achieving a great end product is to make sure your wall is flat. [Lou’s] instructional video (embedded after the break) shows how to patch holes in the wall, and repair high spots. Before beginning the process he uses his projector’s grid feature to map out the portion of the wall that will be used as a viewing area (that’s the grid seen on the screen above). Once the area has been marked with masking tape and carefully repaired he paints it with bright white or silver paint. You might also consider a paint additive for better results. We’ve seen
sand blasting beads used for this purpose
.
A frame is added to the area to make it look like a proper screen. This is nothing more than molding covered in black fabric. [Lou] stretches the fabric around the molding, using duct tape to hold it in place until it can be stapled down. | 31 | 19 | [
{
"comment_id": "776519",
"author": "Thopter",
"timestamp": "2012-09-08T15:13:30",
"content": "My church recently added a new audio/video system, for the benefit of the elderly and hard of hearing. While we did not go to quite the level of detail as this guy, we did paint the screens for our project... | 1,760,376,748.33414 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/09/08/building-the-best-homebrew-computer-ever/ | Building The Best Homebrew Computer Ever | Brian Benchoff | [
"classic hacks"
] | [
"68008",
"68k",
"homebrew computer"
] | A few days ago when I posted a
homebrew Motorola 68000 computer spectacular
, I briefly mentioned a truly spectacular homebrew computer built by [Simon Ferber]. When I posted a link to a Youtube demo of his 68k board, he was working on a website to document the architecture design, hardware, and software.
That website is now up
(
cache
if you need it) and now we can all get a good look at the best homebrew computer ever built.
Built around the 68008 CPU – slightly less capable than the 68000 found in the original Macs, Amigas, and the TI-89 – [Simon]’s Kiwi computer
has peripherals out the wazoo
. A Yamaha V9990 Video Display Processor provides a 640×480 display with 32k colors. Two SID chips taken from a Commodore 64 provide stereo chiptune audio, and a floppy disk controller, IDE/ATA bus, and
CS8900A
Ethernet controller provide all the practical functionality you’d expect from an awesome computer.
On the software side of things
, [Simon] is running
Enhanced Basic 68k,
but of course he can’t just use BASIC to fiddle around with all the cool chips on the Kiwi. With that in mind, he came up with a C-based toolchain that included porting
libc
to the Kiwi.
Like any good homebrew computer project, all the schematics, a bit of code, and a BOM are provided. [Simon] is currently working on (slightly) redesigning the PCB layout of the Kiwi, and we’ll be happy to see those files released. Anyone up for a Kiwi PCB group buy? | 22 | 16 | [
{
"comment_id": "776518",
"author": "elerepair",
"timestamp": "2012-09-08T15:12:04",
"content": "website seems to be down..Does it load up for anyone?BR",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "776589",
"author": "Anon",
"timestamp": "2012-09-08T... | 1,760,376,748.217448 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/09/08/beautifully-crafted-geiger-counter-a-must-if-you-live-in-a-hot-zone/ | Beautifully Crafted Geiger Counter A Must If You Live In A Hot Zone | Mike Szczys | [
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"geiger counter",
"laser cut",
"nixie tubes",
"radiation"
] | Have a little class when you’re screening for radioactive particles. You can follow the example which [Moustachenator] has set with
this gorgeous Geiger counter case
.
The business end includes
the same Geiger tube we see in all of these projects
, but he took the time to solder together a tidy circuit board and housed it in an acrylic tube. it connects to the base unit using a springy telephone handset cord. The laser cut walnut enclosure offers plenty of room for the ATX power supply hidden inside. This feeds the Arduino which runs the system, and provides a powerful source for the Nixie tubes which serve as the display. The attention to detail when it came time to assemble the case is what lends an antique look to the project, even though everything was built from the ground up. Check out the video after the break to see a brief demonstration.
[Thanks Rob via
Make
] | 10 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "776409",
"author": "1000100 1000001 1010110 1000101",
"timestamp": "2012-09-08T13:16:25",
"content": "Nice!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "776416",
"author": "GeriBoss",
"timestamp": "2012-09-08T13:28:09",
... | 1,760,376,748.380302 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/09/07/rotary-and-cordless-phones-mashup/ | Rotary And Cordless Phones Mashup | Mike Szczys | [
"Arduino Hacks"
] | [
"cordless phone",
"rotary phone",
"telephone"
] | This pile of hardware marries telecommunications hardware from distinctly different generations. [Andrew D. Farquharson] wanted the retro look and operation of a rotary phone, with the convenience of a modern cordless.
He combined the two technologies
to achieve his goal.
The first problem was to find a way to translate the rotary inputs to something he could use. There are already a bunch of
projects that use rotary hardware
so he didn’t have to reinvent the wheel. He followed
this guide to connecting Arduino to a rotary phone
.
The next step was to interface with his cordless phone. He ditched the case and soldered rainbow ribbon cable to the entire button matrix. An opto-isolator is used to protect the Arduino while making each connection. Finally, he patched into the mechanism which monitors the cradle to see if the handset has been picked up. It sounds like his code lets you enter the number on the dial, then pick up the handset to actual transmit it through the cordless phone. | 5 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "776082",
"author": "Nurglesauce",
"timestamp": "2012-09-08T03:01:47",
"content": "I wonder if it’d be a stretch to speed the dial up to 20 IPS with this?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "776618",
"author": "Waffles",
"tim... | 1,760,376,748.649322 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/09/07/cheetah-robot-can-run-down-even-the-fastest-of-us/ | Cheetah Robot Can Run Down Even The Fastest Of Us | Mike Szczys | [
"Robots Hacks"
] | [
"bigdog",
"boston dynamics",
"cheetah",
"darpa"
] | It’s a blur, but you really don’t want to seen this thing coming for you anyway. It’s the latest look at what the folks at Boston Dynamics have been working on under a DARPA contract. They call it the Cheetah robot as
it’s the fastest four-legged bot ever developed
. The clip after the break shows it breaking the world record over 100 meters… for a human. This isn’t really legitimate since the run is done on a treadmill and the robot is tethered. But it’s still
impressive
scary.
The Cheetah is
a relative of BigDog
, another Boston Dynamics robot which we’ve seen several times in the past. BigDog specializes in lifting heavy loads and traversing rough terrain. We don’t think it will be too long before both traits can be “bred” into one device. A lot of times when we feature these robots there are comments about how they invoke images from
The Terminator
movies. For us this is more along [Michael Bay’s] vision of robots from the
Transformers
series. It certainly not small enough or fast enough to be seen as an early version of
the Rat Thing
.
[Thanks Ferdinand via
EnDanDit
] | 69 | 33 | [
{
"comment_id": "775656",
"author": "Nick Miller",
"timestamp": "2012-09-07T20:05:59",
"content": "Yeah but it can’t stand up.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "775783",
"author": "Dax",
"timestamp": "2012-09-07T22:21:12",
... | 1,760,376,748.483868 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/09/07/scratch-built-rfid-reader/ | Scratch-built RFID Reader | Mike Szczys | [
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"discrete",
"opamp",
"oscilloscope",
"rfid"
] | We never bought an RFID reader because it seems too simple to be all that much fun. But [Abdullah] really caught our eye with his latest project. It’s
an RFID reader built from discrete parts
, and that’s an adventure we can get behind!
His write-up dives right into the theory of the device. He wrapped his own coil, which measure about one microhenry, then shares an equation used to calculate the appropriate capacitor pair for it. This is fed by a 125 kHz oscillator and works as the most basic reader. In practice this needs more components for rock-solid operation and he quickly moves to a marginally more complicated circuit which still does exactly the same thing.
He is now able to detect RFID tag data by reading this circuit with an oscilloscope. But the signal is very very weak. The rest of the post focuses on how to best utilize an OpAmp to increase signal quality and on/off time.
If you’re looking to recreate his reader [Abdullah] included a Kicad schematic and board layout. | 11 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "775657",
"author": "welshmullet",
"timestamp": "2012-09-07T20:06:30",
"content": "I’ve always wondered if you can do 2-way with rfid. Has anyone done it?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "775691",
"author": "gizmoguyar",... | 1,760,376,748.810549 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/09/07/adding-epaper-navigation-data-to-a-sailboat/ | Adding EPaper Navigation Data To A Sailboat | Mike Szczys | [
"Transportation Hacks"
] | [
"nmea",
"nmea 0183",
"Nook",
"sailing",
"simple touch"
] | [Mike Holden] has been on the hunt for a display that is easy to read in bright sunlight. He wants to use it to read out navigational data on his sail boat. The best option is an ePaper display. He managed to build a system that will
feed updating NMEA 0183 data to a Nook Simple Touch
.
NMEA 0183
is a protocol that governs data from marine navigational equipment. The most obvious is GPS, but there are a lot of possibilities like sonar, a gyrocompass, and an autopilot. To get things rolling he wrote an Arduino sketch which generates dummy packets using the standard. This let him develop and test the system without being near any of the real equipment. The heart of the build is a WiFi router. It pulls in the data over a USB port using an RS232 to USB converter cable. A Python script parses the data and generates a webpage which refreshes the data every second. This is loaded using Opera browser on the Nook
Check out the video after the break to see a demo of the system. | 27 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "775566",
"author": "tehoo",
"timestamp": "2012-09-07T18:15:14",
"content": "I like this setup a lot.…but isn’t this exactly what GPSd was designed to do (and actually gives you more flexibility)? Couldn’t you get GPSd running on the router and have the NMEA stream parsed on each dev... | 1,760,376,748.759679 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/09/07/researching-cosmic-rays-with-cloud-chambers/ | Researching Cosmic Rays With Cloud Chambers | Brian Benchoff | [
"chemistry hacks"
] | [
"cloud chamber",
"cosmic ray",
"wilson cloud chamber"
] | In the late 1940s, the US Naval Research Laboratory used a few German-built V2 rockets to study cosmic rays from above Earth’s atmosphere. To do this, a nitrogen-powered cloud chamber was fitted inside the nose cone of these former missiles, sent aloft, and photographed every 25 seconds during flight. When [Markus] read about these experiments, he thought it would be an excellent way to study cosmic rays from a high altitude balloon and set about
building his own Wilson cloud chamber
.
Cloud chambers work by supersaturating the atmosphere with water or alcohol vapor. This creates a smoky cloud inside the chamber, allowing for the visualization of radiation inside the cloud. Usually the clouds in these chambers are made in a very cold environment using dry ice, but rapidly decreasing the air pressure in the chamber
will work just as well
, as [Markus] discovered.
[Markus]’s small cloud chamber uses a CO2 cartridge to provide the pressure in the cloud chamber before dumping the CO2 out of the chamber with the help of a solenoid valve.
In the video after the break, [Markus] demonstrates his cloud chamber by illuminating the cloud with a laser pointer and introducing a few alpha particles with a sample of Americium 241. It looks very cool, and seems to be useful enough to count cosmic rays aboard a balloon or amateur rocket.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RooYG0bLx7s&w=470] | 2 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "775519",
"author": "ffffff",
"timestamp": "2012-09-07T17:18:52",
"content": "Interesting use of CO2 cartridges, but due to all the turbulence I don’t see how it would be possible to see collisions and splits without a lot of luck and a high speed camera.Perhaps this could be combine... | 1,760,376,748.697203 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/09/07/mixing-video-for-old-school-effects/ | Mixing Video For Old School Effects | Brian Benchoff | [
"Video Hacks"
] | [
"cross fade",
"video",
"video mixer"
] | For all the high production values Final Cut Pro and Adobe Premier have released upon the world, there’s still a cinematographic aesthetic only possible with analog video, linear editing, and video feedback. [gijs] just sent in
a video mixer he’s been working on
to allow crossfading between two video signals and introducing some very cool analog video distortion effects.
[gijs]’ mixer uses the
LM1881 video sync separator
also found in the
Arduino video experimenter shield
. Because two different video feeds are unlikely to send their sync signal at exactly the same time, the selected video will stay still on the screen while the second video feed will slowly scroll horizontally across the screen.
This isn’t the first analog video hack [gijs] has come up with; last year he released an
Arduino video sampler
capable of recording about a second of video and playing it back forward, reverse, looped, or inverted.
We’re sure combing both the video mixer and sampler would produce an aesthetic similar to the experimentation seen on 80s-era public access or our time in AV club. Either way, a very cool build that just can’t be done digitally.
Video of the mixer after the break. | 19 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "775454",
"author": "Haku",
"timestamp": "2012-09-07T16:23:11",
"content": "Does anyone know of any chip or small device capable of taking two composite video signals from cameras, compressing their width by 50% and combining them into a single picture, to create a 3D side-by-side im... | 1,760,376,748.865953 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/09/07/saving-the-iss-by-hacking-a-toothbrush/ | Saving The ISS By Hacking A Toothbrush | Caleb Kraft | [
"Solar Hacks",
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"iss",
"nasa",
"space"
] | We absolutely love these stories of hacker ingenuity saving peoples lives. In this case, it was aboard the ISS, and
the item being hacked was a toothbrush
.
The story is as follows. Some equipment failed, as space junk tends to do, and the astronauts found themselves needing to do some repairs. Upon inspection, they couldn’t remove some modules due to an accumulation of “space dust” around some bolts. This was especially troubling as the unit in question was something that was supposed to route power from some of the solar arrays to the ISS. Even more troubling is that another unit failed while they were assessing the situation.
Realizing they had to act fast so as not to lose too much power to function, they cobbled together some tools to allow them to clean out the access ports and remove the units for repair. A task that sounds like an easy solution here on earth proved to be life threatening in space. Eventually though, their makeshift tools came to the rescue and they were able to repair and restore power. | 32 | 13 | [
{
"comment_id": "775397",
"author": "signal7",
"timestamp": "2012-09-07T15:17:03",
"content": "seems odd. billions of dollars to put up a space station and they don’t have all of the tools they need to repair a problem? the relative cost of the mission to that of a couple of tool kits (that have m... | 1,760,376,748.93978 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/09/07/putting-300-watts-of-leds-on-an-rc-plane/ | Putting 300 Watts Of LEDs On An RC Plane | Brian Benchoff | [
"LED Hacks"
] | [
"airplane",
"led",
"water cooling"
] | Being a member of the FPVlab forums, [HugeOne] is really in to strapping a video camera to RC airplanes and flying around by the seat of his pants. He’s also in to flying his plane at night. Combine these two interests, and you’ve got
300 watts of LEDs flying around at night
, most likely causing a spike in UFO reports in [HugeOne]’s native Quebec.
The main issue with putting 16 CREE XM-L LEDs in such a confined space is the issue of heat; even though these LEDs are amazingly efficient, they still produce a good amount of heat. [HugeOne] solved this problem by soldering these LEDs to a piece of copper pipe and connecting two radiators to his plane for liquid cooling.
The result is a small, lightweight LED array capable of producing more than 20,000 lumens flying around the wilds of Quebec. This greatly improves [HugeOne]’s night flying ability (video after the break), and has surely annoyed the local police department with an increase in UFO reports.
Does anyone know how bright the nav and landing lights on single-engine passenger airplanes are?
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wsVAGMK4OlY&w=470]
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OKj4OGWV_1o&w=470]
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kuMSyYb2e7c&w=470] | 35 | 18 | [
{
"comment_id": "775334",
"author": "RonB",
"timestamp": "2012-09-07T14:20:55",
"content": "I used to use GE’s Q4509 100W landing lights as driving lights on my motorcycle. They are not rated in lumens, but candlepower, which does not directly compare. For comparison purposes, they are a pencil beam... | 1,760,376,749.016819 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/09/06/5-keg-tap-system-treats-your-home-brew-right/ | 5-keg Tap System Treats Your Home Brew Right | Mike Szczys | [
"Beer Hacks"
] | [
"chest freezer",
"keg",
"tap"
] | One of the biggest expenses when moving to a kegging system for your homebrew beer is finding a way to keep it cold. [Sanchmo] took a traditional route of using a chest freezer, but a bit of extra effort made the ordinary looking appliance into
a 5 tap showpiece in his livingroom
.
Home brewing is most often done in five gallon batches, so Cornelius kegs (for soda) work perfectly. The chest freezer used here has plenty of room for five of them and a canister of carbon dioxide. A temperature controller (
something along these lines
) turns the freezer into a refrigerator. But to make it beautiful [Sanchmo] hit the wood shop pretty hard. He screwed a sheet of plywood to the lid and then trimmed it out, along with a tower to hold the taps. This was further accented with the inclusion of some LEDs for effect.
We did find one word of warning in
the Reddit discussion
. It’s possible that the original metal housing of the freezer is used as a heat sink which is now covered in wood paneling. We’re not sure if this is true of this particular model or not, but some investigation is warranted if you’re thinking of building your own. | 8 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "774254",
"author": "mrbippers",
"timestamp": "2012-09-06T16:20:53",
"content": "Not to be a buzzkill but these builds are a dime a dozen (google keezer). There’s nothing novel here, nor is there any detail on important parts of the build like how the tap lines in the upper housing ... | 1,760,376,749.059471 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/09/06/hacking-dog-collars-to-save-money-on-batteries/ | Hacking Dog Collars To Save Money On Batteries. | Caleb Kraft | [
"home hacks"
] | [
"collar",
"pet",
"shock"
] | [Lou] sent in this amazingly simple hack that has been saving him money on special batteries for his dog collar. He uses an invisible fence system which gives the dog a shock if it passes beyond certain markers in his yard. The collars use special batteries so you’re not strapping multiple full sized cells to your dogs neck. This is especially necessary when you have a smaller dog that doesn’t weigh much to begin with.
What [Lou] found was that the $8 replacement batteries were simply a plastic shell on a battery he could buy for considerably less. All that was required were a few small cuts to the plastic casing to release the old battery, then he presses the new one into place. This tiny modification will be saving him a considerable amount since the unit burns through a battery in a few weeks. | 75 | 32 | [
{
"comment_id": "773995",
"author": "Scuffles",
"timestamp": "2012-09-06T14:09:57",
"content": "Oh if I only had a nickle for every time a proprietary part was just a needlessly complicated conveyance for an off the shelf component that was a fraction of the price.",
"parent_id": null,
"dept... | 1,760,376,749.37765 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/09/05/building-a-classic-coin-op-game-in-an-fpga/ | Building A Classic Coin-op Game In An FPGA | Mike Szczys | [
"Microcontrollers"
] | [
"arcade",
"bomb jack",
"fpga"
] | This game of Bomb Jack is the same as the original arcade version. The difference is that this
hardware was built in an FPGA using schematics found on the Internet
.
We’re a little shocked by the complexity of such a project. We’ve been impressed before by the
use of FPGAs to implement classic CRT vector graphics
. But that project used a library that had already implemented the original game. For this effort, [Alex] wanted to find a game that hadn’t ever been translated to an FPGA, and used stock parts.
Bomb Jack
is a 1984 platformer which ran on a Z80 processor, AY-3-8192 sound generators, and common TTL logic chips. This meant he didn’t have to write the cores himself, but rather use already existing versions of the chips and code together the hardware.
You can read about his experience at the page linked at the top, or just jump after the break to see video of the final project. You can see the monitor is on its side, and the game sounds great and runs flawlessly. | 17 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "773326",
"author": "dext3r",
"timestamp": "2012-09-06T01:22:40",
"content": "that was a great writeup; nice hack with the 48mhz SRAM clocking.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "773352",
"author": "MarkS",
"timestamp": "201... | 1,760,376,749.206678 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/09/05/can-a-robot-be-a-safe-and-cost-effective-alternative-to-guide-dogs/ | Can A Robot Be A Safe And Cost-effective Alternative To Guide Dogs? | Mike Szczys | [
"Medical Hacks",
"Robots Hacks"
] | [
"3d",
"assistive technology",
"beagleboard",
"guide dog",
"guide robot"
] | [Tom Ladyman] is making the case that
a robot can take the place of a guide dog
. According to his presentation, guide dogs cost about £45,000 (around $70k) to train and their working life is only about six years. On the other hand, he believes that this robot can be put into service for about £1,000 (around $1500). The target group for the robots is blind and visually impaired people. This makes since, because the robot lacks a dog’s ability to assist in other ways (locating and returning items to their companion, etc.). The main need here is independent travel.
He starts with the base of an electric wheelchair — a time-tested and economy-of-scale platform. The robot navigates based on images from four downward facing cameras mounted on the pole seen above. The X on the top of the pole allows for a much wider range of sight. The robot identifies its companion via a tag on their shoe, but it’s got another trick up its sleeve. The cameras feed to a set of four BeagleBoards which work together to process them into a 3D map at about 12 FPS, allowing for obstacle avoidance.
Check out the video after the break for a bit more information. The 3D guidance system is also explained in detail at the link above. | 34 | 20 | [
{
"comment_id": "773103",
"author": "Gdogg",
"timestamp": "2012-09-05T21:05:28",
"content": "But can it love?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "773108",
"author": "addidis",
"timestamp": "2012-09-05T21:12:31",
"content": "I had the cra... | 1,760,376,749.272826 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/09/05/alarm-system-makes-sure-your-moving-truck-doesnt-get-raided/ | Alarm System Makes Sure Your Moving Truck Doesn’t Get Raided | Mike Szczys | [
"Arduino Hacks"
] | [
"alarm",
"moving",
"moving truck",
"twilio",
"wifi"
] | When you move you generally load up everything you own into one truck. If your entire life is ever going to get ripped off, this is probably when it’s going to happen. To guard against the threat [Tim Flint]
built his own alarm for a moving truck
. If someone opens the door on the truck it’ll alert him via text message. Hopefully he’s got an annoying notification sound that will wake him up in time to catch them red-handed.
The setup is simple and shouldn’t distract you too much from your packing and loading. [Tim] connected a proximity sensor to an Arduino board which has its own WiFi module. The entire thing is housed in the black project box seen above and the proximity sensor is pointed at the moving truck door. When the door is opened the Arduino pushes an alert to Twilio which is configured to send him text messages.
The alarm system doesn’t protect from someone stealing the entire truck… that kind of system is an entirely different project. | 20 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "773075",
"author": "dave m",
"timestamp": "2012-09-05T20:45:24",
"content": "How is using wifi for this a good idea? Free networks to hop onto are sporadic at best.. and well this thing is on the move.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"commen... | 1,760,376,749.440269 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/09/05/tank-router-defends-your-pets/ | Tank Router Defends Your Pets? | Mike Szczys | [
"Hackerspaces",
"Robots Hacks"
] | [
"android",
"robot",
"tank",
"webcam",
"wifi",
"wrt54g"
] | The guys over at Section9 Hackerspace in Springfield, Missouri just finished building this treaded robot. Despite the juxtaposition of the cat, it really doesn’t defend anything. The project is
a reconnaissance robot controlled over the network with video feedback
.
The team started off with some lofty goals. They wanted to the robot to be able to climb stairs and to feature a detachable flying portion in order to get a better look at hard to reach places. Cost and complexity are cited as the reasons they ditched the idea of the flyer. The rest of the features came out much as planned. The motor controller for the treads is connected to an Arduino. This uses an Ethernet shield to connect to the WRT54G router which is also coming along for the ride. This seems a bit over-powered but it makes it easy to connect the webcam on the front (also via Ethernet).
On the software side they wrote an Android app. It controls the movement of the robot, as well as that of the camera. Of course you need to see where you’re going so they went the extra mile to include video from the webcam. Check out their show-and-tell video after the break.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7E0ybIYRPaw | 13 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "772924",
"author": "dKnerr",
"timestamp": "2012-09-05T19:09:08",
"content": "I dont know. I think either a WiFi-enabled webcam and/or an Apple irport Express make a lot more sense than a WRT54G…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": ... | 1,760,376,749.691284 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/09/05/adding-features-to-a-dx6i-transmitter/ | Adding Features To A DX6i Transmitter | Mike Szczys | [
"Microcontrollers"
] | [
"10f222",
"dx6i",
"pic",
"rc",
"transmitter"
] | About thirty cents and some wire are all it takes to
start hacking extra features into this DX6i transmitter
. The DX6i is a six-channel, two-mode transmitter used to control hobby airplanes and helicopters. There are several built-in features but [Ligius] found an easy way to add a few more. In the upper left portion of the case you can see the eight-pin microcontroller he brought to the project.
It’s a PIC 10F222 mounted in a DIP socket so that it may be removed for reprogramming. The hardware page of
the wiki
shows the connections he made. By reading from the throttle, and tapping into the trainer wire, he is able to add features without any apparent alterations to the controller (no extra buttons, etc). You can see in the clip after the break that the throttle position when power is switched on selects between different modes. This can be the delay for turning off the LCD backlight, or presets for helicopter or airplane modes. [Ligius] thinks there’s a lot more potential here, even the possibility of fixing a bug in this particular model of transmitter.
http://vimeo.com/41668214 | 3 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "773458",
"author": "A Bryant",
"timestamp": "2012-09-06T05:23:33",
"content": "Interesting, I just inherited one of these in need of a little repair!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "774768",
"author": "ftkalcevic",
"time... | 1,760,376,749.483011 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/09/05/imac-reborn-with-present-day-parts/ | IMac Reborn With Present-day Parts | Mike Szczys | [
"computer hacks",
"Mac Hacks"
] | [
"apple",
"Case mod",
"imac",
"upgrade"
] | [Paul] spent his summer
bringing an iMac G3 into this decade
. There’s plenty of room to work with since he removed the CRT which originally occupied most of the computer’s space. The final project is much more powerful and since he preserved most of the metal mounting parts inside it remains quite strong.
He started by swapping flat screen monitors with his Grandma (who incidentally runs Linux… nice!). She had a 15″ model which would fit nicely in the case so he upgraded her to 17″ and took the old one. With bezel removed it fits perfectly where to old tube had been. Next comes the power supply. It’s mounted on the bracket which held the back of the tube, with a bit of metal removed to clear the air intake. To mount the motherboard he fabricated a bracket at one end where the iMac’s stage drops away. In retrospect he wishes he had rotated the board to make the I/O panel more accessible. The hard drive mounts on the original carriage, and he did some creative gluing to make his replacement DVD drive align with the original optical drive opening. The finished product looks great from the front and sides, with the cables running out the back as the only indication that it’s had some major work done on it. | 20 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "772710",
"author": "kalashnikovator",
"timestamp": "2012-09-05T17:11:53",
"content": "Now runs Windows, I’d say that was worthwhile the effort. But now If it were linux, that’d be a way toi stick it to the… Apple?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
... | 1,760,376,749.542422 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/09/05/mess-of-wires-is-actually-a-one-instruction-computer/ | Mess Of Wires Is Actually A One Instruction Computer | Brian Benchoff | [
"hardware"
] | [
"homebrew",
"One instruction computer",
"ttl"
] | If you’re going to build your own computer, it probably wouldn’t do you well to exactly emulate the computer you’re looking at right now. The modern x86 and x64 chips that power your desktop or laptop contain hundreds of individual instructions, and the supposed RISC CPUs found in ARM-powered devices contain nearly as many. No, if you’re going to build your own computer you should make it easy on yourself, just as [Jack Eisenmann] did
when he built the DUO Compact
, a one-instruction set computer made on a breadboard.
Instead of dozens or hundreds of individual instructions, a
one instruction computer
has – like its name implies – only one way of manipulating bits. For the DUO Compact, [Jack] chose a NOR and fork conditionally instruction. Each line of assembly written for the DUO Compact has four memory instructions: a source address, destination address, skip address 1, and skip address 2. [Jack] explains exactly how this operation can allow him to compute everything:
Three steps occur when executing the instruction:
Load the byte at the first and second address. NOR these bytes together.
Store the result of step 1 in the second address.
If the result of step 1 was zero, then skip to the instruction at the fourth address; otherwise, skip to the instruction at the third address.
As if designing a one instruction computer built using only basic logic and memory chips wasn’t impressive enough, [Jack] went as far as writing an
emulator for his system
,
a compiler
, an
operating system
, and even a few programs such as a square root calculator and a text-based adventure game.
By any measure, [Jack] has finished an amazing build, but we’re blown away by the sheer amount of documentation he’s made available. He’s even gone so far as to write a tutorial for
building your own DUO Compact
.
You can check out a few videos of the DUO Compact after the break. Of course, if you’re looking for a project to tackle, you’re more than welcome to design a PCB from
the DUO Compact schematic
. We’d certainly buy one.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IoMgCrOT3fU&w=470]
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rqaZvJXc1Fk&w=470] | 21 | 14 | [
{
"comment_id": "772557",
"author": "addidis",
"timestamp": "2012-09-05T16:05:42",
"content": "The thing nightmares are made of :Come back to your desk after an argument with your roommate to find a single jumper laying on the table.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
... | 1,760,376,749.964747 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/09/05/winning-a-no-holds-barred-pinewood-derby/ | Winning A No Holds Barred Pinewood Derby | Brian Benchoff | [
"Toy Hacks"
] | [
"pinewood derby"
] | Every year, [ilektronx] and a few other guys get together and compete in a ‘no holds barred’ pinewood derby for kids of all ages. Of course this results in an immense amount of engineering to push a wooden block with wheels down a track, and [ilektronx]’s car is no exception. He won the competition
with electronics from a remote control airplane
bolted on to a piece of wood.
The electronics for [ilektronix]’s build are pretty much what you’d find in any small electric RC plane: a cheap transmitter / receiver combo sends commands to an ESC which powers a small brushless motor with a small LiPo battery.
Like all good pinewood derby cars, the success of [ilektronix]’s entry relied on the overall design. The wooden chassis cleverly hugs the raised guide in the track, and the slight downward angle of the propeller keeps the car from popping a wheelie when it is released from the starting line.
You can check out a video summary of the pinewood derby competition after the break. Also shown are a few of the other derby cars, including an amazing futuristic tank entry built by [Ken Cook]. [Ken] spent the better part of a year on his build, and the amazing detail of making his own tank treads by hand made him a shoe-in for the winner of the ‘style’ competition.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VYP2-NnhME0&w=470] | 27 | 15 | [
{
"comment_id": "772472",
"author": "brad",
"timestamp": "2012-09-05T15:37:53",
"content": "A “no holds barred” competition was won by a guy with a battery powered propeller? Sad.We used to put CO2 cartridges in the back of derby cars, and I know a guy who used model rocket engines.Where are the fla... | 1,760,376,749.756916 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/09/05/meet-the-teensy-3-0/ | Meet The Teensy 3.0 | Brian Benchoff | [
"ARM",
"Crowd Funding"
] | [
"arm",
"Teensy",
"Teensy 3.0"
] | [Paul Stoffregen], the brains behind the popular and very capable Arduino-compatible Teensy development board, has offered his contribution to the explosion of ARM-powered boards
with the Teensy 3.0
.
The original Teensy
is an AVR-based development board that goes far beyond the official Arduino offerings. The new and improved Teensy 3.0 improves upon an already wonderful platform with a 32 bit ARM Cortex-M4 microcontroller running at 48 MHz. There’s also a lot of pins available for whatever project you have in mind: the Teensy 3.0 supports 14 analog inputs, 10 PWM outputs, a USB host mode, and an
I2S
audio interface that will be very useful when accessing the microcontroller’s DSP functions.
There are a couple neat features on the Teensy 3.0 [Paul] somehow managed to work in. In addition to supporting a real-time clock, there are also a few extra IO pins in the middle of the board. [Paul] says the extra pins are due to Kinetis not releasing a 48 pin version of the microcontroller in time for production. It may not be what [Paul] originally had in mind, but we’ll take the upgraded board just the same.
Of course the Teensy 3.0 will be compatible with the
Teensyduino
Arduino IDE add-on, so if you’d like to run your Arduino sketches on a very powerful piece of hardware, this will be the board to use. | 31 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "772331",
"author": "dattaway2",
"timestamp": "2012-09-05T14:32:37",
"content": "The feature to footprint ratio is impressive. This leaves a lot of room on a breadboard for prototyping.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "772334",
... | 1,760,376,749.828679 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/09/05/70-watt-amp-uses-an-attiny/ | 70 Watt Amp Uses An ATtiny | Brian Benchoff | [
"ATtiny Hacks"
] | [
"amplifier",
"attiny",
"class-d"
] | If you’re looking for a DIY amplifier project made with a minimum of parts,
this is the build for you
. [Rouslan] created a 70 watt class D amplifier using an ATtiny45 and just a few dollars worth of additional components.
A
class D amplifier
simply switches transistors of MOSFETs on and off very rapidly. By passing the signal produced by these MOSFETs through a low pass filter and connecting a speaker, a class D amp is able to amplify a signal very efficiently. Usually, these sort of amp builds use somewhat esoteric components, but [Rouslan] figured out how to use a simple ATtiny microcontroller to drive a set of MOSFETs.
In [Rouslan]’s circuit, the audio signal is passed into the analog input of an ATtiny45. Inside this microcontroller, these analog values are sent to the MOSFETs through a PWM output. [Rouslan] threw in a few software tricks (explained in
revision 2
of his build) to improve the sound quality, but the circuit remains incredibly simple.
[Rouslan] posted a video going over the function of his ATtiny amp, and from the audio demo (available after the break), we’re thinking it sounds pretty good. Amazingly good, even, if you consider how minimalistic this 70 watt amp actually is.
Thanks [Alec] for sending this one in.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CrAB9rIcakE&w=470] | 40 | 20 | [
{
"comment_id": "772299",
"author": "messmaker",
"timestamp": "2012-09-05T14:20:17",
"content": "I’ve been wanting to build a class d amplifier for my wife to use… well, I would like one as well. This is a cool project, thanks for showing it here!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"repl... | 1,760,376,749.905607 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/09/05/the-python-programming-language-for-physical-hacking/ | The Python Programming Language For Physical Hacking | Jeremy Cook | [
"Software Hacks"
] | [
"coding",
"physical computing",
"python"
] | We see projects here all the time that blend computing with the real world. Some people are naturally stronger on the mechanical end of things, whereas some are better with electronics or coding. All three specialities can be needed depending on your project. If your weakness lies in making a computer do your bidding, I might suggest that
the Python language
is a good one to learn.
I’ve been going through
Learn Python the Hard Way
, which is offered for free online, or you can pay for it if you so choose. I’ve published my thoughts on
lessons 1-10
and
11-20
so far. As a mechanical engineer with limited (but not totally nonexistent) programming skills, it’s been an excellent experience so far.
If you’re wondering if Python is a good language to learn if you’d like to participate in [HAD] style projects, why not check out the following projects featured here:
Light painting bar
using Python to translate a picture into Arduino code.
Writing Python Drivers for Input Devices
such as a joystick.
Splunk LED Meter
external system data display.
Or just do a search of [HAD], and you’ll find many other projects for inspiration. If you’ve got a Python project to share, be sure to tell us about it in the comments! | 12 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "772039",
"author": "C.Fraser",
"timestamp": "2012-09-05T12:08:40",
"content": "Great place to learn python, udacity.com",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "772172",
"author": "1one",
"timestamp": "2012-09-05T13:08:15",
"... | 1,760,376,750.013896 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/09/05/wireless-stereo-add-on-turns-on-receiver-and-pipes-in-some-music/ | Wireless Stereo Add-on Turns On Receiver And Pipes In Some Music | Mike Szczys | [
"home entertainment hacks"
] | [
"bluetooth",
"receiver",
"stereo",
"wireless"
] | [PC486] wanted to add Bluetooth to a simple shelf stereo system. But if you’re going to go wireless, why not develop an all-in-one solution.
His adapter turns on the stereo and feeds it audio
all from a smart phone.
This is his roommate’s hardware so cracking it open and grabbing an iron wasn’t really an option. He needed a way to control the system without any permanent alterations. Since the unit has IR remote control capabilities that’s the most obvious way to go. But the original remote is long gone so he had to hit the Internet. Luckily the remote control codes are in the LIRC repository. He grabbed a small microcontroller, an ATtiny25, and wired up an IR led to send commands to the unit.
Next he examined the Bluetooth audio receiver board he planned to used in the project. It’s got an LED that lights up when connected to another Bluetooth device. The microcontroller knows when to turn the stereo on and when to shut it off again by monitoring that LED with a pin interrupt. Check out the final results in the clip after the break. | 2 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "771999",
"author": "fartface",
"timestamp": "2012-09-05T11:49:55",
"content": "Rasberry Pi can do this without effort. All hail the Rasberry Pi!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "777902",
"author": "incognito",
"timestamp... | 1,760,376,750.060253 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/09/04/hands-on-with-the-electric-imp/ | Hands On With The Electric Imp | Brian Benchoff | [
"Wireless Hacks"
] | [
"Electric Imp",
"wifi"
] | A while ago we
caught wind of the Electric Imp
, a very cool little device that packs an ARM microcontroller and a WiFi adapter into an SD card. We got our hands on an Imp last week, and now it’s time to show off what this little device can do. You can check out the rest of this hands on tutorial with the Electric Imp after the break.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g42Tt5HUZao
Sorry for filming this with a potato.
In the interests of full disclosure, I paid for my Imp and dev boards out of pocket ($25 USD for the Imp, $25 for the Hannah dev board, and $7 for the April board), but [Kevin Fox] over at Electric Imp was kind enough to bump me to the front of the queue for developer units.
As you can see, it’s fairly easy to connect an Electric Imp to the Internet, but what about doing something
useful
? For that, Electric Imp has a cloud-based IDE to develop code and push it to Internet connected Imps.
When you first connect your Electric Imp to the Internet and log on to the Electric Imp ‘planner,’ as it is called, you’re presented with a blue box representing your Imp and dev board. In the picture above, I have a ‘Hello World’ program running on my Imp that simply passes a text string to the cloud. In this case, my Imp has sent ‘Hello World’ to the cloud.
Displaying a line of text is all well and good, but how about something with a little more I/O? Clicking on the ‘code’ link above the planner allows you to write your own code for the Electric Imp:
I used a piece of example code for the Hannah development board called
colorblink
. It’s nothing too terribly complex; it uses the I2C port expander on the Hannah to cycle an RGB LED through a few colors. Uploading the code to my Imp is a piece of cake:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sj_OIJt3xKI
Again, sorry for the potato.
So there you have it, folks. A wireless, cloud-based microcontroller platform that fits inside an SD card.
As far as the Electric Imp is concerned, I’m going to go on record and say it’s a neat piece of hardware that functions exactly as advertised. I must point out, though, that even though the Electric Imp comes packaged inside an SD card,
it’s not an SD card.
There’s currently no way for you to plug Electric Imp into an SD card socket connected to an Arduino (or other microcontroller platform) and have it function like an
Eye-Fi
.
There’s a good amount of info covering the necessary support hardware over on the
Electric Imp dev wiki
, and surprisingly the Imp doesn’t need much. The only components necessary to turn an SD card socket into an Electric Imp-able piece of hardware is a
small crypto chip
connected to pin 6 on the Imp. This chip provides the necessary identification for the Electric Imp IDE/cloud environment. This makes it very easy to add an Electric Imp to whatever project you’ve got in mind.
There’s a lot I haven’t covered with this short tutorial, including pushing data from the Imp’s cloud environment to your server (thus making it possible to use the Imp as a wireless sensor platform), or connecting an Imp to other hardware designed for this ‘Internet of Things’ I’ve been hearing about. I’ll start working on a few demos for later this month.
For me, I only have two issues with the Imp: first, the Electric Imp requires the use of the Electric Imp ‘cloud.’ I’d really like to see another Imp developer come up with a way to either run my own Imp cloud, or simply program an individual Imp to work with a non-Imp server.
Secondly, and I think it’s necessary to reiterate this point, the
Electric Imp is not an SD card
. The Electric Imp provides no storage; it just happens to be a small microcontroller platform with a WiFi adapter stuffed into the shell of an SD card.
I’ve looked through the documentation for the Electric Imp and found that all the pins required to write to an SD card are available as GPIO pins. This leads me to believe it might be possible to write a bit of code to emulate an SD card and make the Imp serve as an invisible bridge between a microcontroller and a server. Yes, it might just be possible to turn the Electric Imp into an Eye-Fi, but don’t quote me on that.
In short, the Electric Imp is really cool, does everything it’s advertised to, and shows a lot of potential for WiFi-enabled builds. I’ll play around with this a little more and keep Hackaday readers updated. | 33 | 18 | [
{
"comment_id": "770545",
"author": "gabriel",
"timestamp": "2012-09-04T15:08:04",
"content": "the SD format is very weird.i’d love it if i could:– transfer code to it via usb mass storage– power it via standard SD card interfaces available everywhere.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"r... | 1,760,376,750.136909 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/09/04/playing-around-with-kerf-bending/ | Playing Around With Kerf Bending | Brian Benchoff | [
"cnc hacks"
] | [
"kerf",
"kerf bending"
] | With laser cutters popping up in hackerspaces and maker’s tool sheds like weeds, it’s no surprise we’re seeing an explosion in manufacturing techniques that would be nearly impossible without a laser cutter. One of these techniques is kerf bending, a method of bending plywood simply by burning patterns along the desired bend. [Martin] just put up a great tutorial on
kerf bending with a laser cutter
, and even came up with a few very interesting patterns that can be used to build your own case with rounded corners.
[Martin]’s adventures into kerf bending began with
a small radio transmitter case
he built. This case used the very common ‘vertical slit’ method, but in the first version of the case, the slits were placed too far apart. By moving the slits closer together, [Martin] was left with a very easy to bend and very strong wooden case.
There are also a few other patterns [Martin] tried out. A herringbone pattern made for a wooden case nearly as bendable (and a little stronger) as the traditional vertical slit method. From there, [Martin] branched out into more esoteric patterns such as a medieval cross and Space Invader pattern, both ideal for your next highly stylized enclosure.
In the end, [Martin] says just about any pattern will work for kerf bending, so long as the design isn’t diagonal to the bend. We’d love to see some proper engineering analysis for kerf bending, so if you can figure out the optimal pattern for high strength, low machine time bends,
send it in
on the tip line. | 22 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "770443",
"author": "Nippey",
"timestamp": "2012-09-04T14:20:17",
"content": "I’m somehow reminding a certain series of YouTube videos.May I ask: “DOES IT BEND?” ;)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "770451",
"author": "Tony",
... | 1,760,376,751.951071 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/09/04/tindie-is-growing-up/ | Tindie Is Growing Up | Brian Benchoff | [
"News"
] | [
"etsy",
"Tindie"
] | Tindie, the etsy for electronics and DIY projects
is growing up
. After growing 300% in August, the creator of Tindie, [emile], is now working full-time as the head of Tindie, LLC.
Intended to be a place to connect makers with homebrew project connoisseurs, Tindie is seeing new projects and builds added every day. [emile] figures since some Tindie contributors are using the platform as the source of their livelihood, the least he could do would be to focus his energies into turning Tindie into a profitable and sustainable enterprise.
From the humble beginnings of an empty storefront, Tindie has grown large enough to feature some very cool projects such as a
GoPro time lapse control board
, a
CNC router control board
, a
LiPo charger the size of a USB plug
, a
Raspi case milled out of a billet of aluminum
, and
a gag gift
we wouldn’t want to take through airport security. Not bad for a web site that only launched a few months ago. | 14 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "770357",
"author": "BohemianHacks",
"timestamp": "2012-09-04T13:38:48",
"content": "This sounds awesome but I think this is a bit relevant here.http://xkcd.com/1102/",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "770394",
"author": "... | 1,760,376,752.051094 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/09/04/autonomous-plane-quadrotor-both-meet-the-atmos/ | Autonomous Plane? Quadrotor? Both? Meet The ATMOS! | Jeremy Cook | [
"drone hacks"
] | [
"quadcopter",
"quadrotor",
"uav"
] | If you’ve been trying to decide between building an autonomous quadcopter or a fixed wing UAV, you may not have to choose anymore.
[Team ATMOS]
from
Tu Delft University
in the Netherlands, has developed a UAV that can autonomously transition from quadcopter flight to that of a fixed-wing aircraft. Although the world has seen several successful examples of transitioning-flight or
VTOL aircraft
, team [ATMOS] claims to have made the first autonomous transition of this type of craft.
This UAV was featured in
their school newspaper
, which provides a write-up about the work that went into creating this hybrid UAV. When you’re done with that, be sure to check out the two videos after the break. The first shows the [ATMOS] taking off vertically and flying off as a flying-wing fixed aircraft. The second video shows this and other UAVs in the
[DARPA]
competition that it was designed for. Fast forward to 2:24 to see this aircraft do a fly-by.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=81NvfLFzhqQ
Thanks for the tip [Dirk]! | 12 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "770262",
"author": "words",
"timestamp": "2012-09-04T12:51:41",
"content": "It’s easier to build a VTOL when it’s1.) Really small2.) Not carrying people(relatively, of course) I think unmanned drones are probably very well suited to it for obvious reasons and this is a great idea.Ha... | 1,760,376,751.996358 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/09/04/carrot-gun-packs-a-punch-improves-eyesight/ | Carrot Gun Packs A Punch; Improves Eyesight | Mike Szczys | [
"Weapons Hacks"
] | [
"carrot",
"compressor",
"cpvc",
"PVC",
"rifle"
] | Just in time for your garden’s carrot harvest [Lou] shows us
how to make a carrot firing rifle
. It’s cheap, easy, and quick. If you’ve got 15 buck and 15 minutes you can have one to call your own.
The loading method is quite easy. Shove a carrot in the muzzle as far as it will go, then cut of the excess. Finish up by using a ramrod to push the carrot stub the rest of the way into the barrel. Once you’ve gnawed down the rest of the carrot nub and connected a compressor hose to the rifle you’re ready to do some damage. The video after the break shows a carrot fired all the way through a cardboard box, and penetrating a gallon jug of water.
[Lou] uses CPVC for the project. It takes just a few lengths of pipe, pipe fittings, a valve, and a threaded metal compressor fitting. After gluing everything together he threads the compressor attachment in place and heads to the firing range. | 26 | 20 | [
{
"comment_id": "770104",
"author": "Galane",
"timestamp": "2012-09-04T11:33:09",
"content": "Carrot smoothbore. When you say rifle I want to see it with rifling.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "770117",
"author": "Steve",
"timestamp": "... | 1,760,376,752.266656 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/09/03/switch-mode-breadboard-supply-from-a-pth08080/ | Switch Mode Breadboard Supply From A PTH08080 | Mike Szczys | [
"Parts"
] | [
"breadboard",
"power supply",
"protoboard",
"pth08080",
"switch mode",
"ti"
] | [Ben] wanted
a switch mode power supply for his breadboard
. He ordered a PTH08080 module which is made by Texas Instruments. The spec sheet would make it a great choice for him, but he was not happy to learn that the pinout doesn’t conform to the 0.1″ spacing used by solderless breadboards. His solution was to make a breakout adapter from some protoboard.
The PTH08080 can source up to 2.25A. It accepts 4.5-18V input and can output 0.9-5.5V. The best part is the efficiency that a switch mode supply achieves compared to linear regulators. This design adds in two capacitors which are suggested in the application circuit from
the datasheet
(PDF). Notice that there are two headers on the breakout board. One supplies power and ground to the breadboard. The other gives him a place to connect the adjustment resistor used to select the output voltage. This connects between one pin on the PTH08080 and GND. [Ben] plans to upgrade the design by included a precision trimpot for easy output voltage adjustments. | 19 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "769549",
"author": "crenn",
"timestamp": "2012-09-03T23:33:38",
"content": "Looks nice, I’ll have to remember this design when I go prototyping again",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "769577",
"author": "rick",
"timestamp"... | 1,760,376,752.205963 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/09/03/building-your-own-led-based-home-lighting/ | Building Your Own LED-based Home Lighting | Mike Szczys | [
"home hacks",
"LED Hacks"
] | [
"12f683",
"cree",
"dimmer",
"pic",
"xm-l"
] | We see LEDs used in all kinds of projects but rarely does someone build a home lighting system from scratch with them. [Paulo Oliveira] decided to give the idea a try, included
a fading power supply for the LEDs
which he built himself. Here you can see the installation at full brightness, but his controller also offers a single lower setting.
We saw [Sprite_TM] use
an RGB LED strip to light up his living room
. [Paulo] went with individual LED modules instead, all the same color. They are Cree XM-L power LEDs so some thought needs to be put into heat dissipation. All six are mounted along an aluminum strip which serves as the heat sink. They’re wired in series and powered by an old laptop power supply. A PIC 12F683 uses PWM to dim the string via a MOSFET.
The control system for the two brightness levels uses the wall switch. When turned on, the LEDs fade in to full brightness. If you turn the switch off and back on before they are all the way on, the dimmed setting takes over. This was complicated by the capacitance of the PSU but [Paulo] solved that by adding a power resistor. | 10 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "769594",
"author": "DarwinSurvivor",
"timestamp": "2012-09-04T00:12:28",
"content": "I think I’m most impressed by the ingenious way he decided to use the old switch instead of using pots/etc like most people would.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{... | 1,760,376,751.826426 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/09/03/pic-based-usb-conversion-for-an-nes-controller/ | PIC-based USB Conversion For An NES Controller | Mike Szczys | [
"Nintendo Hacks",
"Peripherals Hacks"
] | [
"18F2550",
"18f4550",
"nes",
"pic",
"usb"
] | [Andres] wrote in to share
his USB for NES controller project
(
translated
). It enumerates as a USB keyboard and is easily mapped on most emulators. Over the weekend we looked in on
an AVR programmer used for this purpose
. [Andres] went a different direction, using a PIC microcontroller and eventually incorporating his circuit into the body of the controller.
The prototype circuit can be seen above. [Andres] uses a breakout board for the PIC 18F4550 to test the circuit. The chip has native USB support, and reading the button states from the controller’s shift register is a snap. You can see him using this test rig to play Super Mario Bros. on an emulator in the video after the break.
The second iteration of the project moves from breadboard to a soldered circuit. A 18F2550 is used as it comes in a rather small DIP package. If the legs are flattened there’s room inside the controller case for it, along with a few capacitors and a crystal. The original controller cord is removed to make way for a USB cable. | 2 | 1 | [
{
"comment_id": "769651",
"author": "Anonymous",
"timestamp": "2012-09-04T01:25:49",
"content": "I think I’m the only one in the world who is driven totally insane by people who pronounce and type “NES” and “SNES” phonetically.More on topic, would this act as a keyboard or an actual gamepad?",
"... | 1,760,376,751.734289 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/09/03/an-stm32-processor-powers-this-pc/ | An STM32 Processor Powers This PC | Mike Szczys | [
"computer hacks"
] | [
"elua",
"enc28j60",
"lua",
"stm32",
"STMF103"
] | This 32-bit computer
is a project [Bogdan Marinescu] built as a contest entry. Sadly he didn’t win, but he did do an excellent job of documenting the build. Having seen several other
home built PC projects
we’re familiar with the challenges that go into such a thing, and he found some great solutions to each of them.
He started with an STM32F103ZET6 chip. This is an ARM Cortex-M3 processor which brings a lot of power to the playing field. That being said, generating a VGA signal would pretty much zap the usefulness of the chip for other processes so he offloaded that work on a separate Propeller chip. A microSD card serves as storage for the machine, which runs eLua (
embedded Lua programming language
). There is 1 MB of external RAM and a PS/2 port for keyboard interface. The system is networked thanks to an ENC28J60 Ethernet controller. Don’t miss the video after the break where you can see several demos running on the system.
http://vimeo.com/28886601 | 7 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "769398",
"author": "Kaz",
"timestamp": "2012-09-03T20:57:49",
"content": "As much as this thing rocks and I’d love to mess with it, unless someone makes a version for the Stellaris LaunchPad, I probably won’t get around to it :(",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies"... | 1,760,376,751.781364 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/09/03/steam-powered-hexapod/ | Steam-powered Hexapod | Mike Szczys | [
"Robots Hacks"
] | [
"hexapod",
"steam",
"wilesco"
] | This
all-mechanical hexapod
(
translated
) was meticulously planned and beautifully constructed. It’s not craning its neck to see what’s ahead. That’s a smoke stack for the steam engine which propels the machine.
Mechanically the legs were the hardest part. That’s only because the steam engine was not built from scratch. It’s a Wilesco D14 which is powered by solid fuel tablets. It puts out high RPM but low power so the gear ratio was set at 286:1 to make the most of its output.
The legs themselves are made of brass rods. These are anchored on one side of a larger gear, with a pivot point that allows the leg to slide vertically. The result is best seen in the clip after the break. As the drive wheel rotates, the pivot point moves the body forward until the foot is lifted by the sliding motion of the rod. It ends up looking more elegant than some of the
more dexterous hexapods
, but it lacks the ability to turn. | 25 | 20 | [
{
"comment_id": "769240",
"author": "Panikos",
"timestamp": "2012-09-03T19:16:45",
"content": "Now this is steampunk, very “howl’s moving castle”",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "769250",
"author": "Xeracy",
"timestamp": "2012-09-03T19:23... | 1,760,376,751.891477 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/09/03/displaying-images-on-the-surface-of-bubbles/ | Displaying Images On The Surface Of Bubbles | Brian Benchoff | [
"hardware",
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"colloidal display",
"display"
] | The image you see above isn’t a simple photograph of our blue marble from thousands of miles above. No, that image is much cooler than a satellite because it’s
a projection of the Earth onto a soap film screen
. Yes, we can now display images on the surface of bubbles.
Instead of a the soap bubbles you’d normally give a small child, this project uses a mixture of sugar, glycerin, soap, surfactant, water, and milk to produce a film much more resistant to popping than your standard soap bubble. Shining an image through these films doesn’t result in much of an image, so the researchers used ultrasonic speakers to vibrate the film and make it possible to display a picture.
With a small projector, this system makes it possible to display an image on the surface of bubble. Of course, the display area is tiny right now, but the size will most likely increase as the experimentations continue.
You can check out a whole bunch of videos demoing this tech after the break.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HUQlK6lga0I&w=470]
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tvxJs_4m0ZE&w=470]
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UoG6WD90xbQ&w=470] | 13 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "769139",
"author": "alucard",
"timestamp": "2012-09-03T18:28:39",
"content": "omg good job",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "769153",
"author": "Luke",
"timestamp": "2012-09-03T18:34:51",
"content": "Maybe I’m just slo... | 1,760,376,752.320216 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/09/03/simulating-led-cubes-in-blender/ | Simulating LED Cubes In Blender | Brian Benchoff | [
"LED Hacks"
] | [
"blender",
"LED cube"
] | [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bl-kvfJxYwM&w=470]
The Jyväskylä, Finland hackerspace hacklab-jlk was lucky enough to work on a public arts project for their home town. They had the opportunity to design, build, and install a trio of LED cubes in Jyväskylä’s central Church Park. As such a high-profile project, the hacklab-jlk team decided to take their time and ended up implementing a lot of very cool features for their LED cubes, including
simulating the light show in Blender
.
The LED cube is similar to all the other LED cube builds we’ve seen before; it’s an 8x8x8 cube controlled by an ATMega328. The Elovalo project, as it is called, is a trio of LED cubes – one using red LEDs, one using green LED, and a blue LED cube each mounted on a pedestal in a Jyväskylä park.
Because the Elovalo is a permanent installation, the team needed a way to verify new firmware for the LED cubes. They came up with a
LED cube simulator
for Blender that allows them to write a new display function in C and render either single frames or a full animation of the lighting pattern.
A very cool build, and nearly too awesome for a public arts project. We look forward to a video of the complete installation, but until then we’ll make do with the short preview video available after the break.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bl-kvfJxYwM&w=470] | 8 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "768987",
"author": "andygoth",
"timestamp": "2012-09-03T17:10:42",
"content": "Why is the video posted twice? It’s both at the beginning and “after the break”.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "769242",
"author": "Brian... | 1,760,376,752.58396 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/09/03/hacking-your-grill-for-performance-and-features/ | Hacking Your Grill For Performance And Features | Caleb Kraft | [
"home hacks"
] | [
"charcoal",
"grill"
] | Summer is winding down, which means that sales will be beginning on grills at stores all over the place. For those that enjoy the outdoor cooking experience, a nice new grill is always tempting. If you’re anything like me though, it can be hard to justify the expense. All you need is some fire right? Well, not if you want to smoke foods, or do long controlled jobs, basically anything but quickly searing something.
[Joe Brown]
over at Gizmodo found himself wanting to upgrade from simple coals/wood to something fancier
, but really didn’t want to shell out the $2,000 that he found would be necessary to get the mic features he wanted. So, he set out to find a good platform to mod and added the features he wanted separately. The end result was a nicely performing out door cooking appliance that only cost him $540.
This hack is on the simpler side, but his modification really did add some great features. Many of you could build the addons from scratch, which makes me wonder, how would you improve a grill, dear Hackaday Reader? | 14 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "768819",
"author": "Hack Man",
"timestamp": "2012-09-03T16:03:07",
"content": "mic features?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "768852",
"author": "Max",
"timestamp": "2012-09-03T16:15:26",
"content": "If ... | 1,760,376,752.387413 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/09/03/for-vacation-on-hoth-snow-speeder-sleds/ | For Vacation On Hoth: Snow Speeder Sleds | Caleb Kraft | [
"Transportation Hacks"
] | [
"hoth",
"sled",
"snow speeder",
"star wars"
] | Next time you’re taking a vacation anywhere that resembles the planet Hoth, you might want to take the time to build a snow speeder sled before you go. As you can see in the video above (at around the 1:00 mark), the sled looks great, even as it “flies” down the slopes. We were fairly surprised to find it was made entirely out of cardboard. We were also fairly surprised at how large the person was that unfolded from the cockpit when it stopped!
You can see
pictures of the build process over at Dvice
. | 8 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "768730",
"author": "Paul",
"timestamp": "2012-09-03T15:09:56",
"content": "Ok, I hate Star Wars, but even I have to admit that was cool.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "768986",
"author": "TacticalNinja",
"time... | 1,760,376,752.536154 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/09/01/turning-a-midi-sequencer-display-into-a-tetris-clone/ | Turning A MIDI Sequencer Display Into A Tetris Clone | Mike Nathan | [
"Arduino Hacks",
"classic hacks",
"News"
] | [
"808",
"arduino LED array",
"follow up",
"sequencer",
"tetris"
] | Tetris is unquestionably a game for the ages. Despite its simplicity,
someone, somewhere will always find a way to port the game
(
Translation
) to just about any electronic device that can handle it.
Earlier this year
we showed you a slick MIDI sequencer
project that was constructed using an Arduino Mega, which also happened to drive an incredibly detailed touch screen display. [Christian] must have gotten bored with his awesome creation one day, because he pulled the drum level display out of his Arduino Sequencer 808, and turned the LED array into a mini Tetris game.
As you can see in the video below, the game runs pretty well, though from what we can see it lacks any sort of score keeping. We dig it because we never really tire of Tetris clones, and we think it’s great that he kept his 808 sequencer design modular enough that he can pluck different components out for reuse in other projects.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T-g6dYaAvoA&feature=player_embedded&w=470] | 11 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "767304",
"author": "RebelHell",
"timestamp": "2012-09-02T07:18:23",
"content": "Nobody gets that many straight lines in Tetris!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "771367",
"author": "darth cradd",
"timestamp": "20... | 1,760,376,752.888396 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/09/01/homebrew-computer-is-16-bits-of-awesome/ | Homebrew Computer Is 16 Bits Of Awesome | Brian Benchoff | [
"classic hacks"
] | [
"6502",
"65816",
"homebrew"
] | We’ve seen our share of homebrew computers over the years. Usually, these bare-bone systems use a small, early 80s-era microprocessor such as the Z80 or 6502. These little 8-bit machines are awesome, but somewhat limited in their capability. [BigDumbDinosaur] sent in
a computer he’s been working on for a few years now
featuring the infamous 65816 CPU – the same CPU found in the Apple IIgs, the Super Nintendo, and
[Jeri Ellsworth]’s C-ONE computer
.
The 65816 is a direct descendant of the venerable 6502 CPU found in the Commodore 64, Apple II, and just about every 80s microcomputer of note. [BigDumbDinosaur] chose the 65816 for its backwards-compatibility with the fun to program 6502 and the ability to use high clock rates and tons of address space for a very cool design.
After a ton of careful design and consideration, [BigDumbDinosaur]’s computer included a real-time clock, a watchdog timer, a serial port, 256kB of ROM, and 128kB of RAM.
It’s a really wonderful build, but [BigDumbDinosaur] isn’t done with this project yet. He’s working on version 2 of a 65816 computer that will use programmable ‘glue’ logic, a lot more RAM, have a SCSI interface (for a hard drive), and have preemptive multitasking.
An awesome job, and it’s wonderful to see the wonderful 65816 make its way into another homebrew computer. Now if only we could find a 68000-based homebrew computer… | 23 | 12 | [
{
"comment_id": "766923",
"author": "dattaway2",
"timestamp": "2012-09-01T20:09:02",
"content": "Does the 65816 use zero page addressing and encourage other nifty 8 bit tricks like the 6502?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "766949",
"au... | 1,760,376,753.020436 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/09/01/tracking-a-stolen-laptop-triggers-a-drug-bust/ | Tracking A Stolen Laptop Triggers A Drug Bust | Caleb Kraft | [
"Security Hacks"
] | [
"police",
"stolen"
] | When then folks from the MakerShed had a laptop and iPad stolen from their vehicle in Detroit, they found out several important things.
The Detroit police have more important things to pursue.
Tracking services are awesome.
You never know how your adventure will end.
Luckily they were using an online backup system that offered location services as well. While many may disable these prying eyes as a matter of principle when they join,
this is one scenario where you’d be happy you had it
.
As it turns out, the Detroit police were fairly busy with other things and left the laptop owners to their own devices tracking the stolen goods via the internet. Some fun and interesting detective work involving Google maps, craigslist, and backed up images ended up leading them to the stolen goods.
Once they had a physical address, the police were available to check things out… well, a few days later. When they went to the address with a search warrant… and a battering ram, they found the house lacking tenants, but containing several forms of ID, a stolen laptop, and some Marijuana meant for distribution.
The entire story is interesting, especially the fact that the amateur detective work was capable of providing enough information for a search warrant. This actually makes me wonder how easily one could fabricate all of this information falsely to cause trouble to an innocent person. It looks like it would only take about 15 minutes and some photoshop. Maybe that’s a conversation best left for another time. | 52 | 21 | [
{
"comment_id": "766808",
"author": "sad panda",
"timestamp": "2012-09-01T18:18:23",
"content": "I’d just like to put out there that Detroit has huge areas devoid of buildings that aren’t condemned, foreclosed, or abandoned.It is an eerie thing walk or drive into an area where you see no signs of li... | 1,760,376,753.130892 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/09/01/rc-plane-made-specifically-for-uavs/ | RC Plane Made Specifically For UAVs | Brian Benchoff | [
"Crowd Funding",
"Robots Hacks",
"Toy Hacks"
] | [
"drone",
"POV",
"remote control",
"uav"
] | We’ve seen our fair share of remote-controlled planes turned into UAVs and FPV platforms, but
the Techpod
is the first airplane we’ve seen specifically designed to be used as a camera-equipped robotic airplane.
The Techpod is the brainchild of [Wayne Garris]. He has been flying camera-equipped FPV airplanes for a while now, but recently realized the current offerings of remote control planes didn’t match his needs. [Wayne] decided to design his own plane specifically designed with a pan/tilt camera mount in the nose.
[Wayne]’s prototype was designed with some very fancy aeronautical design software packages and milled out of foam. From the videos after the break, we can see the Techpod flies beautifully, but needs the Kickstarter community to bring his model to the masses.
The specs for the Techpod put it up there with other high-performances FPV and UAV models; with its 102 inch (2590 mm) wingspan and a pair of batteries wired in parallel, the Techpod can stay aloft transmitting video for up to one hour.
Video of the plane in action after the break.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y3hghWV7WeY&w=470]
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KhOhR7FOJT4&w=470] | 20 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "766751",
"author": "xorpunk",
"timestamp": "2012-09-01T17:33:46",
"content": "These planes should use the aerodynamic models of gliders..I noticed this one has a missing mid-section which creates a major coefficient do to the obvious aerodynamic flaw.. This means it wastes a lot of ... | 1,760,376,753.485567 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/09/01/diy-oculus-rift-vr/ | DIY Oculus Rift VR | Caleb Kraft | [
"Virtual Reality"
] | [
"hmd",
"oculus rift",
"vr"
] | For those that absolultely can’t wait to get to experience the Oculus Rift, you can
follow these plans to build your own
.
MTBS3D forum user [Rfurlan] pledged in the
oculus rift kickstarter
(which concluded last night), but simply couldn’t wait till November/December to get his developer kit. That, and he’s probably only getting one, and who can live with only one? Since [Palmer], the creator of the oculus rift has been very open about parts, [Rfurlan] was able to compile build instructions for your very own Oculus Rift! Keep in mind though, this is only the immersive display, not the tracking component. It is also, possibly not
exactly
the same as the oculus, but rather the same as a recent prototype.
At one point he was having issues finding the correct lenses and [Palmer] jumped in to make some suggestions to keep things going. That’s the kind of enthusiasm that we love to see from an innovator, even when he’s in the middle of a kickstarted for the very item that [Rfurlan] is creating. This is a testament to the VR community.
Lets take a look at what makes this thing tick, and why it is such a big deal.
Many of you, after a quick look at the specs will notice this is just a single, not excessively high resolution, display with a couple wide FOV lenses in front of it. This is absolutely true. What makes this a big deal isn’t the paper specs in terms of resolution or complicated optics.
The thing that makes the rift stand out is that [Palmer] and the other people helping him work on it,
like [John Carmack] have been striving to find the key items that allow your brain to be tricked for the sake of immersion
. Mainly, the latency between action and display. Since the initial push to Virtual Reality, latency has plagued the experience. Even the slitest disconnect between head movement and environment response can snap your brain into “I’m looking at a display” instead of “i’m looking through a portal”.
The Rift team have found latency sources in every step of the equation. From the input device tracking your movement to the rendering system adding a slight delay when warping the image appropriately for the extremely wide FOV lenses, to displays having their own latency. They’ve managed to just barely scrape into a sweet spot that allows for you to feel as though you’re actually looking around when you move your head (so we’ve heard), and that’s a pretty big deal.
This DIY oculus prototype, and the Oculus Rift themselves aren’t meant to be the final solution. [Palmer] has actually stated that consumers should wait for their next model. This model is going to go out into the world and all of the wonderful people in the VR community, as well as all the game studios, are going to start working on making this better. The consumer version shouldn’t be far behind and will probably boast higher resolutions and even lower latency.
We can’t wait
. | 15 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "766542",
"author": "neorpheus",
"timestamp": "2012-09-01T14:31:28",
"content": "Any one else thinking VR troopers?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "766604",
"author": "Caleb Kraft",
"timestamp": "2012-09-01T15:1... | 1,760,376,752.832814 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/08/31/diy-laser-cutter-from-non-diy-parts/ | DIY Laser Cutter From Non-DIY Parts | Mike Szczys | [
"cnc hacks",
"Laser Hacks"
] | [
"gantry",
"laser cutter"
] | [Jerry] missed the laser cutters he had been using at the local TechShop. It closed down and after seeing some hardware in a surplus store
he decided to build a laser cutter to call his own
. You won’t be disappointed by his build log. It’s got a ton of hi-res images and plenty of explanation.
Often, cost is the key consideration in these types of builds. [Jerry] spent a little more than average, but look what he got back out of it. This started as a CNC machine aimed at loading silicon wafers for a company making electron microscopes. It’s barely been used, and the light-duty specs will work just fine with a laser cutter as the gantry won’t be moving much weight or fighting the rotational force of a mill motor. He tore out the stock controllers and built his own, adding a q-switched 355nm Frequency Tripled DPSS laser along the way. We’re not quite sure what that means… but in laymen’s terms it’s an ultraviolet laser source. See the finished unit cutting out some Kapton in the clip after the break.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HA4cvwn1U_A | 20 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "765765",
"author": "macona",
"timestamp": "2012-08-31T22:54:51",
"content": "Q-Switching is a process where the internal beam path of the laser is interrupted causing the laser crystal (Nd:YVO4) to store the energy and then release it in one big pulse. Kind of like putting your fing... | 1,760,376,752.95478 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/08/31/hackaday-links-august-31-2012/ | Hackaday Links August 31, 2012 | Mike Szczys | [
"News"
] | [
"nes",
"package",
"rc plane",
"switch",
"ZX Spectrum"
] | Landing a fixed-wing through hotel balcony french doors
As you can see, launching an RC airplane off of a hotel balcony is easy. But watch the video and you’ll find out
trying to fly through the french doors for a landing
is another story. [Team BlackSheep] hits (har, har) Thailand in this collection of breathtaking flights.
Quieting rack-mount switch for home use
[VictorB] got his hands on this switch to beef up his home network. Since the three fans on the back sound like a jet engine he
did some cutting to use a larger, quieter fan
.
Component package alphabet
Sure, you probably know what SOIC stands for, but what is a CSP? You can clear things up a bit by
studying your IC Alphabet
.
ZX Spectrum audio card
For those still looking to squeeze everything they can out of a classic ZX Spectrum, here’s a way to
improve the audio with a custom sound card
(
translated
).
AVR programmer reprogrammed as an NES controller interface
[Slack] modified his
USBasp programmer to uses as an NES controller interface
. The hardware can be had on eBay for under $10, and he was already using one as a dev board. After seeing
this USB to NES dongle post
it didn’t take long to make the programmer into a gaming tool. | 12 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "765682",
"author": "Anonymous Coward",
"timestamp": "2012-08-31T21:34:59",
"content": "It is always great to see more videos from Team Blacksheep. I really miss the lack of new videos from team mate Trappy since he had that lithium battery fire that took out much of his workshop and... | 1,760,376,753.184843 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/09/04/rocket-propellant-manufactured-from-old-newspaper/ | Rocket Propellant Manufactured From Old Newspaper | Mike Szczys | [
"chemistry hacks"
] | [
"fuel",
"KClO3",
"newspaper",
"potassium chlorate",
"propellant",
"rocket"
] | It turns out that old newsprint can be a bit explosive; at least when it’s combined with the proper ingredients. [Markus Bindhammer] worked out
a way to make solid rocket propellant from newspaper
. Judging from the test footage after the break the home made engines work great!
There isn’t a long list of ingredients. In addition to newspaper you’ll need some potassium chlorate (KClO3) which serves as an oxidizer, white wood glue, and PVC pipe. The KClO3 is ground with a mortar and pestle, then run through a sieve before being combined with the wood glue. This combination is painted on the newspaper which is then rolled up with a glass rod at the center. This is allowed to harden before going into the PVC. The excess is trimmed and the whole thing is baked in a convection oven at 105 C for two hours.
If this process doesn’t suit you maybe cooking up
a batch of sugar-based propellant
is worth a try? | 43 | 20 | [
{
"comment_id": "771324",
"author": "Peertux",
"timestamp": "2012-09-04T22:05:30",
"content": "Looks more like a smokebomb than a rocket.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6172055",
"author": "Wayne",
"timestamp": "2019-08-13T19:... | 1,760,376,753.276102 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/09/04/teensy-board-used-as-an-am-radio-transmitter/ | Teensy Board Used As An AM Radio Transmitter | Mike Szczys | [
"Radio Hacks"
] | [
"am radio",
"isochronous",
"Teensy",
"transmitter",
"usb"
] | [Angus McInnes] has been working on AM radio transmission techniques. He tried out a method of using a VGA port for the task but found the vertical blanking was audible. His latest experiments use
a Teensy microcontroller board as an AM transmitter
.
This is not a standalone solution, but rather a hardware extension for his laptop. This is because the microprocessor doesn’t have enough cycles to do much more than read bytes over USB and push their bits out one of the I/O pins.
To get a steady stream of data he’s using isochronous mode to push a steady data stream via the USB connection. Bulk transfer is another option but [Angus] found that it caused some jitter in the audio. Each byte is fed to the AVR SPI hardware once every eight clock cycles. His transmission can be picked up from across the room, but that’s the limit since the AVR doesn’t put out that strong of a signal. But it should be a rather trivial exercise to build a simple amplifier. | 7 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "771567",
"author": "Harvie.CZ",
"timestamp": "2012-09-05T02:36:02",
"content": "I’ve been experimenting with such square-wave AM transmitters based on Arduino, CMOS ICs and similar, but i can’t figure out how to make output more powerfull.I can hear transmitted signal when transmitt... | 1,760,376,753.327819 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/09/04/movie-night-at-the-lake-cabin/ | Movie Night At The Lake Cabin | Mike Szczys | [
"home entertainment hacks"
] | [
"binder clip",
"movie",
"screen"
] | [Andrew’s] family has a rustic lake cabin. There is a lot to do during the day, but since there’s no electricity your options are limited when the sun goes down. Sure there’s the traditional campfire, but lately they’ve been
spicing things up with an outdoor movie viewing
.
To get this up and running they needed to build a projection screen. He’s going for a 2.35:1 aspect ration, but the technique will work for any aspect if you do your own math. They had a couple of extruded aluminum channels from an old chalk board which work perfectly as the top and bottom rails of the frame. With the width set at fourteen feet he just needed to mount the cross pieces on uprights at 5.95 feet apart. This provides a 183″ viewing surface.
White bed sheets serve as the screen material. After it’s stretched into place they line the rails with
binder clips
to hold it in place. The projector is powered from two 12V batteries via an 800W inverter. During the day the batteries get topped off by a solar panel system. | 19 | 13 | [
{
"comment_id": "771177",
"author": "Mikey",
"timestamp": "2012-09-04T20:08:33",
"content": "Grammar Nazi Time:“aspect ration” should be “aspect ratio”.Also, your inch marks on 183 blend together in this font, I thought it said 183 foot, which makes no sense. Perhaps just spell the word out?",
... | 1,760,376,753.543879 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/09/04/homebrew-68k-extravaganza/ | Homebrew 68k Extravaganza | Brian Benchoff | [
"classic hacks"
] | [
"68000",
"68k",
"motorola"
] | Introduced in 1979, the
Motorola 68000 CPU
was first used in very expensive and very high-end workstations from the likes of Sun and SGI. As the processor matured it became well-known for its use in the original Macintosh, early Amigas, and even the TI-89 graphing calculator and a few video game consoles such as the Sega Genesis and Atari Jaguar.
A few days ago when I posted
a homebrew computer build
based on the 65816 CPU, I lamented the lack of builds using the venerable Motorola 68k. Hackaday readers were quick to point out the many homebrew computers making use of this classic CPU, and I’m glad to post them here.
First up is
an amazing 68008 build
featuring an IDE disk interface, a floppy disk interface, 10base-T Ethernet connectivity, a real-time clock, and
two
SID synthesizer chips. As far as features go, this build takes the cake. Pity I can’t find a writeup.
Here’s a 68000-based computer
built around the S-100 bus. Like the first computer to use the S-100 bus, the
Altair 8800
, this computer is plugged into a backplane that breaks out the data, address, and interrupt lines to every device on the bus.
Of course, no mention of backplane computers would be complete without a Eurocard version. [N8VEM]
built a 68000 computer
able to be plugged in to a backplane along with an IDE controller card and a
display controller
.
Finally, in true ‘giant mess of wires’ spirit, [Dajgoro] sent in his
68k single board computer
featuring 512 kB of RAM and a 16k ROM. [Dajgoro] also took the time to wire in a PIC microcontroller, allowing him to expand his computer far beyond what vintage components would allow.
The 68k was – and still is – a very powerful CPU that far surpasses the capabilities of the 6502 and Z80 homebrew computers we see from time to time. Short of building a 486 or Pentium-based computer from scratch, building a 68k machine is one of the crowning achievements of hardware hackery, and something we hope to see more of in the future. | 45 | 26 | [
{
"comment_id": "771067",
"author": "Skitchin",
"timestamp": "2012-09-04T19:12:07",
"content": "This came up as a related video on youtube – pretty neat work around!http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3TLg3MAHWCg",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "948... | 1,760,376,753.630675 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/09/04/problems-powering-raspberry-pi-from-gpio-header/ | Problems Powering Raspberry Pi From GPIO Header | Mike Szczys | [
"Raspberry Pi"
] | [
"gpio",
"power supply",
"RPi"
] | [Zaion] grabbed an ATX power supply to source the 5V the Raspberry Pi needs to run. The common problem when it comes to RPi supplies is a shortfall in how much current a USB wall adapter can source. The ATX shouldn’t have this problem, but none-the-less he found that the USB ports were only reading about 5V. Strange. He grabbed the soldering iron and
fixed the issue with a piece of jumper wire
(English translation found in the second half of his post).
The problem was discovered when trying to get a WiFi dongle to work on one of the RPi’s USB ports. It simply wouldn’t show up, and after going down the blind alley of assuming it was a driver problem he started to investigate the hardware. After discovering the below-nominal voltage [Zaion] measured the resistance between the 5V pin on the GPIO header and the one on the USB port. It reads 3-4 Ohms and he concluded that the trace is too thin. We took a quick look at
the schematic for the board
and see no reason for the voltage drop. His jumper wire fixed the issue but it leaves us wondering, is this an isolated case, or a design flaw? Tell us what you think in the comments section. | 38 | 18 | [
{
"comment_id": "770968",
"author": "thantik",
"timestamp": "2012-09-04T18:10:22",
"content": "Typo in article – his USB ports were reading 4v.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "770973",
"author": "thantik",
"timestamp": "2012-09... | 1,760,376,753.781238 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/09/04/open-source-brushless-motor-controller/ | Open Source Brushless Motor Controller | Brian Benchoff | [
"hardware"
] | [
"brushless motor",
"esc",
"motor controller"
] | It’s been a long time coming, but efforts to create Open Source brushless motor controller
are finally paying off
.
The
Open-BLDC project
aims to create an open source motor controller for the brushless motors usually found in remote control airplanes, helicopters, and quadcopters. Normally, these motor controllers – usually called electronic speed controllers – can’t supply more than a few dozen amps, and are usually only controllable via a servo signal.
The Open-BLDC goes far beyond the capabilities of off-the-shelf ESCs with up to 200 amps of output, TTL level serial input, and the ability to use regenerative breaking.
While the Open-BLDC project is far from complete, the team working on the hardware hopes to add I2C, CAN, and PPM interfaces, along with speed and torque control.
There is no word on when, or even if, the Open-BLDC will ever be available for sale, but with the features it has it would be welcomed by just about any builder constructing a gigantic RC vehicle. | 29 | 16 | [
{
"comment_id": "770847",
"author": "Nick",
"timestamp": "2012-09-04T17:07:30",
"content": "“Normally, these motor controllers – usually called electronic speed controllers – can’t supply more than a few dozen amps”Not true. Most brushless controllers found in the r/c industry can handle 50+ amps wi... | 1,760,376,753.696718 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/09/04/zeppelin-on-the-fisher-price-record-player-now-thanks-to-a-3d-printer/ | Zeppelin On The Fisher Price Record Player Now Thanks To A 3D Printer | Mike Szczys | [
"Toy Hacks"
] | [
"3d printer",
"fisher-price",
"openscad",
"record player"
] | [Fred Murphy] went ahead and revised his method of making custom records for a Fisher Price toy record player. He’s
now able to 3D print the discs
. The toy works much like a music box, with a comb in the “cartridge” of the record player and notches in the record that pluck the fingers of the comb as it turns. He had previously developed a subtractive method that let him
mill records out of a solid piece of plastic
. But this additive method means less waste.
The music creation portion of the project is the same as the previous version. That’s because it’s pretty hard to outdo the C# software he wrote which serves as a composition studio. The difficulty comes in getting a clean print for the disk. The ridges on the discs are 0.7mm so you’re going to need a well-aligned printer with fine resolution. [Fred] printed in both ABS and what he calls “Vero clear” plastic. The former works but he got better results with the latter. | 13 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "770772",
"author": "JohnA",
"timestamp": "2012-09-04T16:31:59",
"content": "The vero clear material is a material used in Objet brand 3d printers.http://objet.com/",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "771017",
"author": "0x... | 1,760,376,753.906474 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/09/03/make-cell-phone-calls-with-your-arduino/ | Make Cell Phone Calls With Your Arduino | Brian Benchoff | [
"Arduino Hacks",
"Cellphone Hacks"
] | [
"cellphone",
"GPRS",
"gps",
"gsm"
] | Cellular shields for the Arduino have been around for ages, but
this is the first one
we’ve seen that turns your Arduino into a proper cell phone.
The shield is based around the
SIM900 GSM/GPRS
radio module, and is compatible with the
SIM908 GSM/GPRS
module that adds a GPS receiver. Also on board this shield are a pair of 1/8″ audio jacks, perfect for connecting a microphone and headphones. Yes, you can actually make cell phone calls with your Arduino now.
The real star of this build is the new
GSM Shield library
. This library of code includes the methods necessary for an Arduino to function as a cell phone (answer, hang up, dial a number), but also includes a lot of improvements for TCP/IP communication.
Even though the cost of getting an Arduino communicating through a GSM or GPRS network is fairly high, we’re thinking this would be the perfect starting point for a completely open source, open hardware cell phone. A phone with the same functionality as an old Nokia brick that is also a MiFy would be an amazing piece of hardware, and would surely make for a profitable Kickstarter. | 23 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "768659",
"author": "jaromirs",
"timestamp": "2012-09-03T14:29:14",
"content": "open source and hardware cellphone – do you mean something like thishttp://hackaday.com/2012/04/25/diy-cellphone/or thishttp://hackaday.com/2012/04/26/%C2%B5phone-is-small-and-home-made/or thishttps://pic... | 1,760,376,753.851794 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/09/03/saving-a-bricked-phone-with-a-pencil-lead/ | Saving A Bricked Phone With A Pencil Lead | Brian Benchoff | [
"Android Hacks",
"classic hacks"
] | [
"bricked",
"graphite"
] | [stompyonos] bricked his Samsung Captivate. Not wanting to be without a phone for a while, he researched a fix online and found shorting a pair of pins on the USB port would put the phone into download mode, saving his phone. The only problem for this plan is [stompy] didn’t have any resistors on hand. Instead, he came up with
a wonderful MacGyverism
using a piece of paper, a bit of graphite, and a pair of paper clips.
The process of unbricking a Captivate requires a 300 or 330 kΩ resistor across pins 4 and 5 of the mini USB port. This can be done
with a few resistors
, but [stompy] only had a multimeter lying around. After scribbling a good bit of pencil lead on a piece of paper, he attached two paper clips to make a variable resistor, dialed it in to about 300 kΩ, and cut up an old Nokia charger for its USB plug.
Not bad for a very easy fix that didn’t cost [stompyonos] a dime, and certainly better than a $500 paperweight. | 34 | 18 | [
{
"comment_id": "768553",
"author": "NotImpressed",
"timestamp": "2012-09-03T13:29:35",
"content": "I just did this same thing to fix a PCB trace.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "768586",
"author": "IJ",
"timestamp": "2012-09-0... | 1,760,376,754.034106 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/09/03/help-computer-vision-researchers-get-a-3d-model-of-your-living-room/ | Help Computer Vision Researchers, Get A 3d Model Of Your Living Room | Brian Benchoff | [
"Kinect hacks"
] | [
"3d modeling",
"computer vision",
"Kinect",
"kinect@home"
] | Robots can easily make their way across a factory floor; with painted lines on the floor, a factory makes for an ideal environment for a robot to navigate. A much more difficult test of computer vision lies in your living room. Finding a way around a coffee table and not knocking over a lamp present a huge challenge for any autonomous robot. Researchers at the Royal Institute of Technology in Sweden are working on this problem,
but they need your help
.
[Alper Aydemir], [Rasmus Göransson] and Prof. [Patric Jensfelt] at the Centre for Autonomous Systems in Stockholm created Kinect@Home. The idea is simple: by modeling hundreds of living rooms in 3D, the computer vision and robotics researchers will have a fantastic library to train their algorithms.
To help out the Kinect@Home team, all that is needed is a Kinect, just like the one lying disused in your cupboard. After signing up on the Kinect@Home site, you’re able to create a 3D model of your living room, den, or office right in your browser. This 3D model is then added to the
Kinect@Home library
for CV researchers around the world. | 5 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "768488",
"author": "Grovenstien",
"timestamp": "2012-09-03T12:48:49",
"content": "So this is how google street view finally gets into our homes!Seriously though this is an excellent piece of work especially given that it is browser based. No where did I put that kinect?",
"pare... | 1,760,376,753.951578 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/09/02/building-a-pda-from-scratch/ | Building A PDA From Scratch | Brian Benchoff | [
"ARM",
"hardware"
] | [
"arm",
"gwen",
"pda"
] | Extremely powerful ARM microcontrollers have been around for ages now, but only recently have they been available for just a few dollars with a good enough toolchain for some serious development work. [Jose] wanted to develop something awesome with an ARM chip he had lying around, so
he built a PDA
(Spanish,
translation
) that can be used as a game console, an oscilloscope, a clock, or a wristwatch. Basically, it’s a portable homebrew computer that can do just about anything.
The hardware is built around an ARM Cortex M4 chip clocked at 170MHz. Included on the PCB is an SD card slot, a JTAG interface, a USB port (only used for charging the battery at this point), and a touch screen LCD controller.
After designing the PCB and enclosure, [Jose] looked around the Internet for a decent GUI library without much success. He eventually found
Gwen
, a lightweight library for programming GUIs that is easily ported to [Jose]’s hardware.
So far, [Jose] has a few GUI demos up and running on his homebrew PDA, but nothing very useful yet. Still, the fact that [Jose] can get a full-featured ARM tablet-like piece of hardware off the ground without a team of developers brings a smile to our face. We can’t wait to see the state of homebrew ARM devices in a few years when
everyone
has the requisite hardware and software knowledge. | 34 | 15 | [
{
"comment_id": "767715",
"author": "Zee",
"timestamp": "2012-09-02T18:29:40",
"content": "This is like Linux only for hardware",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "767725",
"author": "KillerBug",
"timestamp": "2012-09-02T18:41:49",
"cont... | 1,760,376,754.227015 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/09/02/labor-day-weekend-water-gun-spectacular/ | Labor Day Weekend Water Gun Spectacular | Brian Benchoff | [
"Toy Hacks"
] | [
"water gun"
] | In the US, summer is marked by two holidays. In late May, Memorial day traditionally marks the the beginning of summer, the opening of public pools, and the day shopping malls are invaded by scores of petulant teenagers. In early September, Labor day marks the traditional end of summer, a great weekend to fire up the grill, and finally – finally – an end to the neighborhood kids screaming their heads off outside. Being Labor day weekend, we were very happy to see two builds show up in the tip jar concerning the one object that defines summer: water guns.
Homemade Super Soaker
[Michael] had the genius idea of
building a water gun out of a diaphragm expansion tank
(German, here’s
the terrible translation
). These tanks – usually connected to a house’s hot water line near the hot water heater – allow for the expansion of hot water and protects pipes from excessive pressure. It does this with a rubber membrane separating the inside the tank into two halves. Half the tank is filled with water while the other half is filled with compressed air from a bicycle pump.
[Michael] connected a hose and made a nice gun out of aluminum pipe to build the ‘gun’ part of his build. With 9 bar of pressure in the expansion tank, [Michael] can shoot a stream of water 20 meters.
Water gun turret with a laser sight
This build
comes from [Valentin]. He picked up a automobile water pump for just a few Euros, and attached it to a 1 liter bottle filled with water. A pan/tilt turret was constructed out of CNC milled aluminum and a pair of servos.
After [Valentin] got the water-shooting turret part of the build out of the way, he installed a 2.4 GHz wireless camera on the pan/tilt mount and taped a receiver to the back of his remote control.
The addition of a small LCD screen displaying the turret’s point of view makes for a very cool build, perfect for pestering those annoying neighborhood kids.
Video of [Valentin]’s build after the break.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K4S0BELUJF4&w=470] | 4 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "767712",
"author": "Mark A",
"timestamp": "2012-09-02T18:27:45",
"content": "I fill sorry for the dog.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "767739",
"author": "birdmun",
"timestamp": "2012-09-02T19:05:59",
"content": "I w... | 1,760,376,754.087505 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/09/02/lazy-labor-day-educational-time-watch-cornells-microcontroller-courses/ | Lazy Labor Day Educational Time. Watch Cornell’s Microcontroller Courses. | Caleb Kraft | [
"Hackaday links"
] | [
"bruce land",
"cornell",
"ece"
] | C’mon, you know you’re not really going to do much today. You might as well spend that time learning some skills instead of watching funny cats. The Cornell ECE lectures on microcontrollers (ECE 4760 and ECE5760), taught by [Bruce Land], are available online for free.
Not only do you get to
enjoy these two courses, but there are videos available showing off several different categories of student projects as well
.
[via
hackedgadgets
] | 13 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "767579",
"author": "Alex Volkov",
"timestamp": "2012-09-02T15:31:35",
"content": "I chill in this guy’s office once a week to just talk about random electronics stuff! Hah this is awesome – Prof. Land is a really chill guy, always wears Hawaiian shirts and flop flops…",
"parent_... | 1,760,376,754.142098 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/09/02/operating-systems-development-with-the-raspberry-pi/ | Operating Systems Development With The Raspberry Pi | Brian Benchoff | [
"Raspberry Pi"
] | [
"assembly",
"os",
"raspberry pi",
"software development"
] | Even though the Raspberry Pi has, from the very beginning, been touted as an educational computer, we’ve seen neither hide nor hare of coursework, lesson plans, or even computer sciencey tutorials using the Raspi. We’re guessing academia works at a much slower pace than the average hardware hacker, but [Alex Chadwick] at Cambridge University has managed to put together an online tutorial on
developing an operating system from scratch
for the Raspi.
The goal of this tutorial is to throw a budding Raspi tinkerer into the strange and confusing world of registers, hexadecimal, and ARMv6 assembly. After going through the necessary toolchain, [Alex]’s tutorials cover
blinking the ‘OK’ LED on the Raspberry Pi
using only assembly.
The OS development guide goes on from there to include
drawing graphics on the screen
and even
accepting input from a USB keyboard
.
It’s important to point out what [Alex]’s tutorial
isn’t;
even though this series of tutorials goes through manipulating the bare metal of the Raspberry Pi, don’t expect to be porting UNIX to the Raspi after going through these guides. That being said, after completing these tutorials, you’ll be in a fabulous position for building your own homebrew OS on the Raspberry Pi. | 20 | 14 | [
{
"comment_id": "767524",
"author": "awj",
"timestamp": "2012-09-02T14:15:06",
"content": "why even bother with Rasp when you can use Siemens S7 PLCs that uses much nicer STL",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "767857",
"author": "eroomde"... | 1,760,376,754.711371 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/08/31/taking-moving-time-lapse-images-over-days-at-a-time/ | Taking Moving Time-lapse Images Over Days At A Time | Mike Szczys | [
"digital cameras hacks"
] | [
"dolly",
"flowers",
"lilies",
"lilly",
"time-lapse"
] | It’s neat to watch these lilies open and close during the time-lapse movie. But what makes it even better is to see the camera slowly move during the time-lapse event. It’s thanks to
a special dolly which the photographers built for this purpose
.
The system is based on two curved and inclined pipes which make up the rails of the system. The dolly that rides along the rails has a geared motor on it which turns at 2 RPM. This is used as a winch, spooling a string that is tied to the high-end of the rail system. As the winch winds the string, the dolly slowly moves along the track.
To make this work over multiple days they covered all of the windows in foil and lighted the room with fluorescent fixtures. An intervalometer was used to trigger the camera every three minutes. An Arduino monitors the camera’s shutter LED via a light dependent resistor. Sixty seconds after an image is take the Arduino will drive the dolly motor for a few seconds
The finished video, as well as a hardware show-and-tell, can be seen after the break.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ws1TdPqRXBw | 7 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "765489",
"author": "ino",
"timestamp": "2012-08-31T19:51:08",
"content": "too bad the clip is shorter than the time it took me to read the article !",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "765584",
"author": "anybodysguess",
"ti... | 1,760,376,754.320617 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/08/31/preorder-tis-arm-cortex-m4-launchpad-for-5-delivered/ | Preorder TI’s ARM Cortex-M4 Launchpad For $5 Delivered | Mike Szczys | [
"Microcontrollers"
] | [
"arm",
"launchpad",
"lm4f120h5qr",
"stellaris",
"ti"
] | Texas Instruments just open
preorders for the new Stellaris LaunchPad
. The boards won’t ship until the end of September, but if you don’t mind the wait you can get one for $4.99 including delivery (
we’d wager non-U.S. addresses have to pay for delivery, but leave a comment if you know for sure
several readers have reported that international shipping is free).
We routinely pay more in shipping for parts orders so we already jumped at the opportunity and put in our own order. Earlier in the month we heard
the first murmurs about the device
. We’re glad to see they hit the $4.99 target price, but the TI website mentions that this is a promotional price that will be available for a limited time only. The board boasts an ARM Cortex-M4 processor, the
Stellaris LM4F120H5QR
. It includes 256 KB of flash memory, 32 KB of SRAM, and more peripherals than you can shake a stick at. To get you up and running quickly they’ve included two user buttons and an RGB LED. As with the 16-bit Launchpad, the board acts as its own programmer. It has a microUSB jack, but they’ve included a micro B to USB A cable in the kit to make sure you don’t need to also put in a cable order.
We’ll give a follow-up post once we finally get our hands on the board. We hope this will be easy to get working with a Linux box!
[Thanks Chris] | 189 | 50 | [
{
"comment_id": "765327",
"author": "Paul",
"timestamp": "2012-08-31T18:34:03",
"content": "At this point, maybe “delivered” is an overly strong word?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "765331",
"author": "jurriaanpruis",
"timestamp": "2012... | 1,760,376,754.648644 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/08/31/what-you-can-do-when-a-raspberry-pi-teams-up-with-an-arduino/ | What You Can Do When A Raspberry Pi Teams Up With An Arduino | Mike Szczys | [
"Arduino Hacks",
"Raspberry Pi"
] | [
"jquery",
"json",
"php",
"RPi"
] | We thought that connecting an Arduino to a Raspberry Pi was overkill, but one thing caught our attention. [Jan Stevens] mentions that the RPi is less expensive than the Ethernet Shield. Interesting. As we looked into his writeup a bit more we began to think he’s onto something. [Jan]
uses the PHP serial class to communicate between the RPi and Arduino
(dead link;
Internet Archive
). This ends up being a very inexpensive way to bring some of the more powerful web programming options to your hardware devices.
Sure, he’s just driving three RGB LEDs. But the demo video after the break gives us a glimpse as some of the interface options that become available when an embedded Linux machine is in play. He’s using jQuery, AJAX, PHP, and JSON to name a few. If you want to give this a try yourself you can
grab the code from his Github repo
. Of course
we’re going to want to hear about any projects you develop
from this starting point!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eiu-zppEsi4 | 16 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "765274",
"author": "barbudor",
"timestamp": "2012-08-31T18:14:37",
"content": "The TP-Link WR703N is even less expensive than a RPi. Once hacked with OpenWRT it can behave as a Wifi+Ethernet shield and more…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"... | 1,760,376,754.763355 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/08/31/replacing-a-finger-or-an-arm-in-the-hacker-tradition/ | Replacing A Finger Or An Arm In The Hacker Tradition | Mike Szczys | [
"Medical Hacks"
] | [
"finger",
"prosthetic",
"Prosthetic arm",
"prosthetics"
] | Just a few weeks ago we were wondering if we’d try to build our own prosthesis if we were ever to lose a limb. This pair of hacks answers that query with a resounding “YES!”.
To the right is
a replacement pointer finger
. The missing digit took the first two knuckles with it, but there’s enough left to easily interface with this creation. It’s a mechanically clever assembly that moves as you would expect the original to. See for yourself after the break. It seem the maker intended to mold silicone around the structure but never got around to posting an update video.
On the left we have a chinese man who lost his arms while fishing. It seems they were using homemade bombs instead of nets and one went off prematurely. Since then he’s constructed several different prosthetic arms, each with its own special purpose. This one has a saw connected to it
but these two
write ups
on the man
show images of him using a fork and wielding a hammer. | 33 | 24 | [
{
"comment_id": "765144",
"author": "atomsoft",
"timestamp": "2012-08-31T17:20:01",
"content": "awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "765173",
"author": "nfritsche",
"timestamp": "2012-08-31T17:30:19",
"cont... | 1,760,376,754.907518 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/08/31/a-laser-audio-transmitter/ | A Laser Audio Transmitter | Mike Szczys | [
"digital audio hacks",
"Laser Hacks"
] | [
"audio",
"audio output transformer",
"radio",
"receiver",
"stereo",
"transmitter"
] | Here’s a way of transmitting audio that makes it virtually impossible for someone else to listen in. Instead of sending radio waves bouncing all over creation, this uses the
focused light of a laser to transmit audio
. In the image above you can see the silver cylinder which houses the laser diode. It is focusing the beam on a light dependent resistor to the right which looks almost like a red LED due to the intensity of the light.
The simplicity of this circuit is fascinating. On the receiving end there is no more than the LDR, a 1.5V power source, and a headphone jack. The transmitter is not much more complicated than that. It includes an audio output transformer which boosts the resistance of the audio signal. This increase in resistance ensures that the laser diode modulates enough to affect the LDR on the receiving end. The transmitter uses a 3.3V supply. Check out the video after the break to hear the high quality of audio coming through the setup.
Once you’re done playing around with the transmitter you might try
turning the laser into a remote control for your stereo
. | 38 | 22 | [
{
"comment_id": "764907",
"author": "WA",
"timestamp": "2012-08-31T15:34:17",
"content": "Interesting. I can remember Forest M. Mims writing about this same concept and possibly the circuit in the early to mid 1980’sAmazing how often I see others making use of his circuits/ideas.",
"parent_id":... | 1,760,376,754.98815 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/08/31/propeller-turned-into-chiptune-player-with-a-software-sid/ | Propeller Turned Into Chiptune Player With A Software SID | Brian Benchoff | [
"Musical Hacks"
] | [
"chiptune",
"parallax",
"Parallax Propeller",
"sid"
] | If there wasn’t reason enough to love the Parallax Propeller, now you can listen to chiptunes with your own
pocket SID audio player
.
This chiptune audio player uses the very unusual and very cool eight-core Parallax Propeller microcontroller. After soldering a few caps and resistors to a Propeller dev board to allow for audio out, the only thing necessary to play SID music files is a bit of code and an SD card breakout.
The key piece of code for this build would be the
SIDcog object
written by [Johannes Ahlebrand] this piece of code turns one of the eight cores in the Propeller into a virtual version of the classic Commodore 64 sound chip.
Since the SIDcog object only takes up one core on the eight core Propeller, it could be possible to turn this SID player into an all-inclusive chiptune audio source; the addition of an Atari POKEY or FM synthesis cog would allow for just about any conceivable chiptune sound to be carried around in a pocket.
No Hackaday post about chiptunes or SIDs would be complete without an audio demo, so you can check out the Propeller-powered SID after the break.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nj5BEQ4bup4&w=470] | 10 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "765095",
"author": "dude",
"timestamp": "2012-08-31T16:58:06",
"content": "Nice work. Adding other “chips” to the mix would be cool, but the first thing that comes to mind is a midi enabled device with 8 sid chips. Imagine the amazingly lush chiptunes that could be made with that ma... | 1,760,376,754.822925 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/08/31/the-simulacrum-an-innovative-solution-to-walking-in-virtual-reality/ | The Simulacrum, An Innovative Solution To Walking In Virtual Reality | Caleb Kraft | [
"Virtual Reality",
"Wearable Hacks"
] | [
"hmd",
"oculus rift",
"vr"
] | If you’ve been following along with immersive gaming, even casually, you’ve probably considered the difficulty in trying to do a comfortable and believable “walk” in a game. The first thing that usually pops into peoples minds are Omni Directional Treadmills, or ODTs. There are many problems with these, one of the biggest simply being cost. They’re very expensive.
[Zalo] at the MTBS3d forums has been working on his own
very cost effective solution called the “Simulacrum”
. He has built this for under $100 and it allows for a walking motion to be translated into the game. As you can see in the video below it works fairly well, even when one is out of commission for repairs (hence the limp).
As you can see, each foot lift sends a signal to the console to move forward for a specified interval. That alone would be very easy to reproduce, but he has taken this a step further to allow for natural turning as well. Each pad is actually capable of spinning on its vertical axis allowing you to swivel your feet somewhat naturally. As you lift your foot, the pad snaps back to forward so your real body maintains its forward orientation while your virtual body turns.
It is really an interesting and fairly simple solution to a complicated problem, even if it isn’t perfect. At some point in the thread, [Zalo] mentions that he has tabled the idea as he kept accidentally walking off cliffs using the “lift for forward” method. Hopefully he’ll pick it back up and think of a solution.
We’ll be keeping a close eye on this as well as some other ideas
in anticipation of getting our Oculus Rift
. | 12 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "764755",
"author": "Thopter",
"timestamp": "2012-08-31T14:29:29",
"content": "Perhaps the addition of some sensors to the device to detect if the lifted foot is moving forward or backward relative to the other.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
... | 1,760,376,755.167566 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/08/31/raspberry-pi-synth-gives-a-softsynth-dedicated-hardware/ | Raspberry Pi Synth Gives A Softsynth Dedicated Hardware | Brian Benchoff | [
"Musical Hacks",
"Raspberry Pi"
] | [
"raspberry pi",
"software synthesizer",
"synth",
"synthesizer"
] | For all the musicians out there,
here’s a great use
for your Raspberry Pi. All the features you would expect from a nice analog synth are implemented in a Raspberry Pi-based polysynth – dual oscillators, LFOs, and phasers – and it looks like there will be a few more features added before the Raspi synth is released.
Even though the ‘synthesis’ part of the Raspi synth already sounds wonderful, getting MIDI on the Rasberry Pi leaves much to be desired. The creator of the Raspi synth thought about
using the GPIO pins as a MIDI interface
, but because the GPIO pins cannot run natively at 31250 bps (the MIDI spec), the Raspberry Pi has to waste most of its CPU cycles just listening for MIDI traffic.
Right now the Raspberry Pi synth is controlled by a USB-connected MIDI interface, and as you can hear after the break, sounds wonderful. We can’t wait to hear what this synth will be able to do in a few months’ time.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qyU7TAi_b04&w=470]
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4YNUHoek6Zk&w=470] | 6 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "765085",
"author": "Russtopia",
"timestamp": "2012-08-31T16:50:26",
"content": "Uh… really? I admit I haven’t yet read the article. But an ARM chip running at multiple MHz can’t run a software UART, in Rx-only mode on some GPIO pins without using ‘most of its CPU cycles’?One can imp... | 1,760,376,755.033017 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/08/31/dual-core-arduino-for-more-pins/ | Dual Core Arduino For More Pins | Brian Benchoff | [
"Arduino Hacks"
] | [
"arduino",
"dual core",
"ExtraCore"
] | There are easy ways of getting more I/O pins for any project; shift registers, I2C expanders, or ADCs will give you plenty of pins for whatever project you have in mind. All these require extra components, though. Enter
the ExtraCore library for Arduino
, a software library that turns two or more Arduinos into a multi-core microcontroller with more pins than you’ll ever need.
The ExtraCore library comes from [Dustin Andrews], and allows anyone to control the input and output pins of two Arduinos with the same ease as a single Arduino.
The hardware setup is fairly simple – just connect A4, A5, power, and ground on both Arduinos together. After installing the ‘client’ sketch on the second Arduino, you can modify the ‘manager’ sketch to suit whatever project you’re building. From there you’ve nearly doubled the number of Arduino pins your project can control.
It may not be the most practical use of two Arduinos, but it’s certainly impressive. You can pick up [Dustin]’s code
over on GitHub
. | 41 | 20 | [
{
"comment_id": "764478",
"author": "Mike Rogers",
"timestamp": "2012-08-31T11:54:12",
"content": "I2C master and slave. Nicely done. I wonder what kind of latency this adds, if it’s negligible or not.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "765022",
... | 1,760,376,755.113076 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/08/30/doubling-down-on-motor-drivers/ | Doubling Down On Motor Drivers | Mike Szczys | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"fuse",
"motor driver"
] | Motor driver chip too weak for your needs? Just use two of them. That’s the advice which [Starlino] gives. He
stacks motor driver chips to product move powerful controllers
.
When stacked as shown, the driver combos should be able to drive at 4A. This is partly because he ganged together the outputs in pairs, and also because of the stacking. That’s a lot of juice, but [Starlino] documented his testing stage which shows that they’re up to it. It’s a bit hard to see from this angle, but he is using a serpentine heat sink. It snakes its way between the stack of chips, then over the top chip before folding back and spreading its wings. The motors he’s using have a stall current of 3.7A, and he included resettable fuses graded at a 2A hold current. He’ll be glad to have that extra protection is something goes wrong with the drivers.
[Thanks Roger] | 31 | 14 | [
{
"comment_id": "763899",
"author": "Mike",
"timestamp": "2012-08-30T23:18:49",
"content": "I don’t know, seems a bit dodgy. Unless they are both from the same batch, I would expect the two to have slightly different response time, and over time, I think you could fry them.",
"parent_id": null,
... | 1,760,376,755.239697 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/08/30/arduino-tachometer-tutorial/ | Arduino Tachometer Tutorial | Mike Szczys | [
"Arduino Hacks"
] | [
"infrared",
"ir",
"rpm",
"tachometer"
] | This tutorial will guide you through the process of
building a tachometer around an Arduino
. Tachometers are used to measure rotation rate in Revolutions Per Minute (RPM). You don’t need much in the way of hardware, this version uses an Infrared beam to measure fan speed. As with
last year’s PIC-based tutorial
, [Chris] is using a character LCD to output the reading. Wiring and driving the LCD ends up being the hardest part.
An IR transmitter/receiver pair are positioned on either side of the fan. When the blade passes in between then, the receiver shuts off a transistor connected to one of the Arduino’s external interrupt pins. He shows how to use this interrupt to measure the amount of time between the passing of each fan blade. If you divide for the number of blades, and average the reading for greater accuracy, you can easily calculate RPM.
Another alternative would have been to
use a reflectance sensor
which allows to for the transmitter and receiver to both be on the same side of the fan. | 10 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "763809",
"author": "Xeracy",
"timestamp": "2012-08-30T22:11:10",
"content": "at bit more kludgy but i did this with a gutted ball mouse and a kazoo..http://xeracy.wordpress.com/2009/11/02/augmented-kazoo/",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comme... | 1,760,376,755.289098 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/08/30/word-clock-of-a-different-nature/ | Word Clock Of A Different Nature | Mike Szczys | [
"clock hacks"
] | [
"display",
"ds1307",
"eeprom",
"i2c",
"relay",
"tick"
] | This work clock functions in an unexpected way
. With each passing second it displays a random four letter word on the right side of the display. Traditional word clocks
tell the time in natural language
, but this one is simply used as a learning opportunity.
[Iron Jungle] got his hands on the display for just five buck from Deal Extreme. Looks like the price has gone up two dollars but that’s still a bargain. He wanted to use all eight digits of the display, and was looking for an opportunity to control more than one i2c device at a time. He ended up rolling an EEPROM and DS1307 RTC into the design. He figured the could display 24-hour time on four of the digits, and pull a library of four-letter words off of the EEPROM to fill the rest. He grabbed a word list off of the Internet then used a Python script to remove words containing 7-segment unfriendly characters (K, M, V, W, X, Z). The final touch was to use a salvaged relay to give the clock a ticking sound. Hear it for yourself in the clip after the break. | 8 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "763748",
"author": "kade",
"timestamp": "2012-08-30T21:24:39",
"content": "I don’t get why this exists, though I am a big fan of using those dealextreme displays and akways have a spare.the relay may wear out over time but that’s probably a long way away.Still it is fun.",
"pare... | 1,760,376,755.506874 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/08/30/building-touch-sensors-from-digital-barometer-chips/ | Building Touch Sensors From Digital Barometer Chips | Mike Szczys | [
"Microcontrollers"
] | [
"barometer",
"freescale",
"mpl115a2",
"rubber",
"touch sensor"
] | A couple of Harvard researchers have developed a method of
using digital barometers as a touch sensor
. The good news for us is that they’ve open sourced the project, including Eagle board files, firmware, and details about the materials they used.
The digital barometers were chosen for their characteristics, availability, and low-cost. The sensor uses an array of Freescale MPL115A2 chips, a MEMS Barometer designed for use in altimeters. The mass production makes them cheap (Octopart found some in single quantities for $1.71 at the time of writing). The chips are soldered onto a board which is then cast in rubber. This distributes the force while protecting the sensors. The video after the break shows them standing up to rubber hammer blows and supporting a 25 pound weight.
There are a few tricks to reading the array. The first is that the devices are designed to be used one-to-a-project so they have a fixed i2 address. A separate chip must be used to address them individually. But one it’s up and running you should be able to use it as feedback for the fingertips of
that robot arm you’ve been building
.
[via
Engadget
] | 16 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "763534",
"author": "anybodysguess",
"timestamp": "2012-08-30T19:33:13",
"content": "I think the title should be changed to “force” sensor.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "763562",
"author": "Tinkerer",
"timestamp": "2012... | 1,760,376,755.610162 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/08/30/playstation-gaming-on-a-nook-simple-touch/ | PlayStation Gaming On A NOOK Simple Touch | Mike Szczys | [
"Android Hacks",
"Playstation Hacks"
] | [
"emulator",
"fpse",
"mac os 7",
"mini vmac for android",
"Nook",
"simple touch",
"system 7"
] | Improvements in processing power really hit home when you see
an eBook reader playing PlayStation games
. Sure, we’re talking about a system which launched more than 15 years ago (the original PlayStation launched way back in 1995), but this is a $99 device which seems to be playing the games at full speed!
[Sean] wrote in to share the project with us. After rooting the device he installed System 7 (aka Mac OS 7) using
Mini vMac for Android
. He uses Free PlayStation Emulator (FPSE) to run the games. There is an Android version which provides the touch-screen controls you see above. We figured the graphics would be awful, but the video after the break proves us wrong. Other than being in black and white we think the graphics are fantastic. Just one hack was necessary to make this happen. [Sean] uses NoRefresh to keep the Nook from refreshing the screen which is what causes the film-negative type of flashing after several page turns.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mXiiaprv3do | 19 | 12 | [
{
"comment_id": "763342",
"author": "DanAdamKOF",
"timestamp": "2012-08-30T18:07:38",
"content": "For e-ink that’s a surprisingly smooth framerate. Very nice.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "763704",
"author": "t&p",
"timestam... | 1,760,376,755.663858 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/08/29/data-from-your-coffee-maker-turned-into-art/ | Data From Your Coffee Maker Turned Into Art | Mike Szczys | [
"Arduino Hacks"
] | [
"art",
"coffee",
"espresso",
"processinga"
] | This is what your coffee looks like as it is being brewed. The three different art pieces seen above were
generated based on data from different parts of a high-end coffee maker
. This isn’t a bargain basement single switch drip maker (we reserve those for
NES retrofits
) but a top-of-the-line espresso machine. And before you cry foul we’ll warn you that the project is a marketing device for the manufacturer. But we still think it’s interesting so read on or jump directly to the video after the break.
We’re unsure if the sensors are normally included in the machine or if they were added during the hack. An Arduino pulls in data about the brew process from two flow meters, a steam indicator LED, and three thermistors. The measured values are sent to a Processing application which turns them into the generative art seen above. What results is a widescreen display that aims to turn your bleary-eyed wait for morning coffee into something interesting.
[Thanks Matthew] | 10 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "761860",
"author": "rkward",
"timestamp": "2012-08-29T21:10:54",
"content": "Whatever",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "761872",
"author": "riycou",
"timestamp": "2012-08-29T21:22:37",
"content": "this is awesome wish ... | 1,760,376,755.556675 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/08/29/arm-based-debugging-tool-aims-to-improve-on-the-bus-pirate-performance/ | ARM-based Debugging Tool Aims To Improve On The Bus Pirate Performance | Mike Szczys | [
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"arm",
"bus pirate",
"cortex-m4",
"debugging",
"f4",
"stm32"
] | The Bus Pirate is a fantastic development tool. It does an amazing job at a lot of different things. And as it has matured, community support has driven it to new areas beyond the original design. This is where its hardware holds back performance a little bit. For instance, as an I2C or SPI sniffer it has limited capture speed. That’s the type of thing that this board could improve upon. It’s
a debugging tool based on an STM32 F4
microcontroller. That’s an ARM Cortex-M4 chip which runs at 168 MHz, and has 192 KB of SRAM.
[TitanMKD] has been working on the design but it is still just in digital form. Since there’s no prototype there is also no firmware for the device. That’s a tall mountain to climb and it’s one of the reasons we’re featuring the project now. [Titan’s] plan is to model this after the Bus Pirate interface. We think it’s a good idea since a lot of folks have already learned the syntax. We didn’t see a contact form on his site, but if you’re interested in contributing to the project you might want to leave a comment here or on his project page (linked above). | 36 | 14 | [
{
"comment_id": "761748",
"author": "rockets4kids",
"timestamp": "2012-08-29T20:08:34",
"content": "So is there any reason at all why this would be better than simply using the STMF4 Discovery board? Is there any way this can be sold more cheaply than the F4 Discovery board?",
"parent_id": null... | 1,760,376,756.045841 |
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