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https://hackaday.com/2012/07/27/designing-a-quadcopter-brain-pcb/ | Designing A Quadcopter Brain PCB | Mike Szczys | [
"Microcontrollers"
] | [
"eagle",
"osh park",
"pcb",
"quadcopter"
] | When working on his quadcopter project [Matt] decided it would be best to build a robust controller for the device. He had never sent off a PCB design for fabrication, but took the plunge and ended up with
a compact and reliable PCB on the first try
.
One of the first things that comes to mind when we hear about quadcopter controllers are the feedback sensors. The accelerometers which are used for these projects generally come in a DFN or QFN package. This means there are no legs. Instead the chip has pads on the bottom of the package making it a lot more difficult to solder. [Matt] side-stepped this issue by using an IMU board which already has the sensors in place and offered a 0.1″ SIL pin header to use as an interface. This is simple to roll into the design, along with all of the other connectors for motor control, power, etc. He grabbed a copy of Eagle Lite to do the layout, and used
OSH Park
to get the boards fabricated. He was surprised that everything worked on the first try. Thanks to his planning it fits inside of a plastic food container where it should be able to ride out most minor crashes with ease. | 6 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "715427",
"author": "Mark",
"timestamp": "2012-07-27T13:30:44",
"content": "Angry birds, now on quadcopter!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "715571",
"author": "Bakamoichigei",
"timestamp": "2012-07-27T15:28:25",
"cont... | 1,760,376,792.056681 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/07/26/adding-payload-to-an-rc-cessna/ | Adding Payload To An RC Cessna | Mike Szczys | [
"Toy Hacks"
] | [
"airplane",
"bomb",
"parachute",
"payload",
"rc plane"
] | For just a few bucks
you can add a payload to your flying toys
. In this case it’s a Cessna RC plane which now has an added surprise. The first thing to be dropped was a parachute with a weight on it (for testing purposes). But there are hints of future projects that will use the same system for different purposes.
As you can see in the image above, the system depends on an additional compartment attached to the bottom of the plane. It was built from foam board to keep the weight down and connects using rare earth magnets. The bottom of the enclosure acts as the door, hinging on a servo motor with a bamboo skewer as the axle. So far the test drops have gone pretty well, but some more work needs to be done with the parachute design. It only opens about 60% of the time. We can sympathize, having had to
work out some of our own parachute issues
.
Don’t miss video from the plane as well as the ground after the break. | 11 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "714989",
"author": "Treehouse Projects",
"timestamp": "2012-07-27T01:07:14",
"content": "WOW thank you very much for featuring my project! It’s truly a huge honor!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "714994",
"author": "Ka... | 1,760,376,792.107165 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/07/26/bamboo-bike/ | Bamboo Bike | Jesse Congdon | [
"Transportation Hacks"
] | [
"bamboo",
"bamboo bicycle",
"bicycle"
] | Reddit user [tkgarrett101] recently did away with expensive exotic materials for his bike frame and opted for a somewhat less processed form of natural building material,
bamboo
! The bike consists of a regular metal bike frame with a majority of the structural beams cut and replaced with bamboo poles. The bamboo is fit snug first with some expanding gorilla glue then tied in place with hemp string and fiberglass resin. Instead of running cables along the frame the bike has coaster
breaks
brakes and a two speed hub, this also preserves the simplistic look of the whole ensemble. [tkgarrett101] says his bike is not so cheap, the overall parts cost was around 800 bucks (USD)! Plus it weighs a whole lot for a fixed gear. Plus the alignment is a bit off on the seat post. Either way this thing would surely turn some heads!
Too rich for your blood? Check out this
cardboard bike
, or if that green isn’t bright enough for you how about some
glowbars
for night visibility.
via
Reddit | 24 | 14 | [
{
"comment_id": "714868",
"author": "Gdogg",
"timestamp": "2012-07-26T23:06:35",
"content": "breaks or brakes?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "715187",
"author": "n0lkk",
"timestamp": "2012-07-27T07:13:48",
"content": "... | 1,760,376,791.672852 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/07/26/box-maker-extension-for-inkscape/ | Box Maker Extension For Inkscape | Mike Szczys | [
"cnc hacks"
] | [
"box",
"box maker",
"extension",
"inkscape",
"tab",
"teeth"
] | If you use Inkscape to lay out your laser cutter designs you might want to
look into this box maker extension
. Inscape is [Elliot’s] drawing software of choice since it’s easy to use, and it’s open source. After having to lay out the tabs for a box he decided it was worth his effort to develop a tool to do this automatically. The extension works inside of Inkscape, letting you start your projects with a set of automatically generated box sides.
The input window for the extension leaves you plenty of options for the joint design. In addition to the size of the box (inside or outside measurements can be selected), you need to enter the thickness of the material, the kerf size (how wide the cut will be), and how much clearance you want between the teeth. The width of the teeth is also configurable.
Our feature of a laser cut replacement case
is what prompted [Elliot] to tip us off about his extension. That project used a web-based parts generator to do the joint design. | 12 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "714810",
"author": "Gert",
"timestamp": "2012-07-26T22:31:37",
"content": "Nice work! Does it come with a laser cutter? ;DAnd to intentionally hijack the comments, does anyone else use Inkscape for doing thru-hole board wiring/soldering layout? E.g.https://mywebspace.wisc.edu/relso... | 1,760,376,791.852226 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/07/26/dont-ignore-the-middle-of-the-country/ | Don’t Ignore The Middle Of The Country! | Caleb Kraft | [
"Rants"
] | [] | “Nothing happens in the midwest”. I won’t say who said it, but it absolutely makes my blood boil. I’ve heard this several times during my time at Hackaday. Aside from being so insanely arrogant and dismissive, it is also completely inaccurate.
Some people believe you absolutely have to be on a coast to be part of anything interesting. In the modern age of the internet, geographical location is becoming less and less of an issue. People are collaborating on projects that span the world. Here at hackaday we see projects quite daily that are spawned from a forum linking hackers to a common theme with virtually no central geographical point. Robots, video games, open source software, tools, and art installations have all sprung from the diaspora that is the hacker culture without any necessity for being located on a coast.
With tools like 3d printers becoming common in hackerspaces collaboration on physical design is even being spread geographically. You could be in your garage in Arkansas, assembling a machine that was designed by someone in Minnesota, and inserting code that was uploaded by someone in Kansas!
Sure, we all know the coasts are great. High concentrations of like minded people as well as the culture you can find anywhere near the ocean. But please, don’t ignore the middle, it makes you sound like antiquated ass. | 153 | 50 | [
{
"comment_id": "714705",
"author": "daeid",
"timestamp": "2012-07-26T21:04:18",
"content": "Great hack, very relevant.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "714710",
"author": "DanAdamKOF",
"timestamp": "2012-07-26T21:06:48",
"content": "... | 1,760,376,792.01395 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/07/26/make-your-own-custom-iphone-back-glass/ | Make Your Own Custom IPhone Back Glass | Mike Szczys | [
"iphone hacks",
"Repair Hacks"
] | [
"back plate",
"glass",
"toner transfer"
] | [Jake von Slatt] is at it again; putting his own artistic spin on ordinary items. This time around it’s the glass on the back of an iPhone. It kept breaking and after a few replacements he wanted to try to replace the glass with a piece of etched brass. But part way through that experiment, he figured out how to
use toner transfer to develop these stunning custom iPhone glass back plates
.
The first step is to source the correct replacement back for your phone. These are made of two parts, the glass and a plastic backer. By carefully heating and wedging the two parts with some popsicle sticks he was able to separate the pieces. Next, he cleans and buffs the glass, preparing it for the artwork he is about to apply. Toner transfer paper, just like that used for PCB resist, is used to print and adhere a design to the underside of the glass. From there he hand paints over the black outline to achieve the results seen above.
It takes time and patience, but shouldn’t be any harder than etching a circuit board. | 18 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "714657",
"author": "Hirudinea",
"timestamp": "2012-07-26T20:22:56",
"content": "This isn’t (only) a hack, this is art!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "714672",
"author": "nes",
"timestamp": "2012-07-26T20:37:29",
"co... | 1,760,376,791.616541 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/07/27/writing-on-leds-with-a-laser-pointer/ | Writing On LEDs With A Laser Pointer | Brian Benchoff | [
"LED Hacks"
] | [
"led",
"LED display",
"led matrix",
"light sensor"
] | After [Ch00f] got his hands on an 8×8 LED display, he didn’t make a 64-pixel video game or VU meter. He made
a laser doodler
, allowing him to draw on this display with only a laser pointer.
Using LEDs as light sensors is nothing new; [Forrest Mims III] discovered that
LEDs can also detect light
way back in the late 60s. [Ch00f]
played around
with this concept before creating a circuit that uses an LED as both a light emitter and sensor that reacts to the ambient brightness.
[Ch00f]’s laser doodler takes this phenomena and applies it to
an Adafruit bicolor LED matrix
. When a light shines on an individual pixel in the display, the ATMega48 senses the current and turns that pixel on. Since this these pixels have two colors, [Ch00f] used a latch circuit and a button to cycle between what color the ‘Mega writes to the display.
In the video after the break, [Ch00f] shows off his display by having the LEDs light up in response to a laser pointer. It may be a bit small, but we can see a lot of potential for something like this as a gigantic art installation.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mi5vIlPz_J4&w=470] | 13 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "715772",
"author": "loathingkernel",
"timestamp": "2012-07-27T18:32:54",
"content": "Very cool. And I think this hack can be used to even impress some chicks! Kudos dude.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "715783",
"author": "R... | 1,760,376,792.155928 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/07/27/drawbot-software-aims-to-do-it-better-than-the-rest/ | Drawbot Software Aims To Do It Better Than The Rest | Mike Nathan | [
"Robots Hacks"
] | [
"arduino",
"drawbot",
"gcode"
] | There are plenty of drawbot projects out there, many of which come with their own special software in tow. While some of these packages are easier to use than others, [Dan Royer] is pretty sure
he can do it better.
Looking for a fun and engaging way to teach STEM subjects in schools across the country, [Dan] developed a relatively simple drawbot which can be constructed by a wide range of age groups. While he is trying to get schools to purchase his robot kits, we’re guessing that our readers would be more inclined to build their own.
So what does [Dan] have to offer that might interest you? Well, he says he has developed some drawbot software that’s pretty darn easy to use. Rather than multiple applications generating machine-specific code, his software will transform your picture into a line drawing in one easy step. The app uses a traveling-salesman algorithm to generate drawings with nary a crossed line in sight before outputting the resultant machine instructions in easy-to-use GCode.
We don’t have a drawbot of our own handy
to test his software out
, so if you do happen to give it a shot, let us know how it worked for you in the comments. | 7 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "715679",
"author": "addidis",
"timestamp": "2012-07-27T17:03:03",
"content": "Very nice drawing system. Definitely destroys the one I made. I will have to see if I can adapt this to my hw.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "715697"... | 1,760,376,791.71903 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/07/27/building-an-artificial-moon-for-burning-man/ | Building An Artificial Moon For Burning Man | Mike Nathan | [
"Arduino Hacks",
"LED Hacks"
] | [
"arduino",
"burning man",
"leds",
"Lune and Tide",
"moon"
] | If you were lucky enough to score passes to this year’s Burning Man, be sure to keep a look out for [Laurence Symonds] and crew, who are putting together an ambitious fixture for the event. In reality, we’re guessing you won’t have to look far to find their giant moon replica floating overhead –
in fact it will probably be pretty hard to miss.
They are calling the sculpture “Lune and Tide”, which of an 8 meter wide internally lit moon which hovers over a spinning platform that’s just as big across. The inflatable sphere is made up of giant ripstop nylon panels which are home to 36,000-odd sewn-in LEDs. The LEDs illuminate the sphere to reflect the natural color of the moon, though with a simple command, [Laurence] and Co. can alter the lighting to their heart’s content.
If Hack a Day’s [Jesse Congdon] makes his way out to the festival again this year, we’ll be sure he gets some footage of Lune and Tide in action. For now, you’ll have to satisfy your curiosity by checking out the project’s build log. | 15 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "715620",
"author": "dingolishious",
"timestamp": "2012-07-27T16:13:41",
"content": "One of the more subtle weird things I saw on the playa was small lights hung from balloons that at night looked like a constellation that was not observing the same set of rules as the rest of the st... | 1,760,376,792.208169 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/07/27/gaining-low-level-spi-access-on-the-raspberry-pi/ | Gaining Low-level SPI Access On The Raspberry Pi | Mike Szczys | [
"Raspberry Pi"
] | [
"bit bang",
"broadcom",
"hardware spi",
"peripheral",
"raspberry pi",
"RPi",
"spi"
] | We’ve seen a ton of projects that interface hardware with the Raspberry Pi. But they usually depend on bit-banging. That means they toggle the pins in software to match a specific protocol. The thing is that the beefy Broadcom SoC that anchors the board has a lot of built-in peripherals that are just waiting to be used instead of bit banging. In this case, it’s the hardware SPI peripheral which can be accessed via
the bcm2835 library for RPi
.
One of the things that would have really complicated this process is the pin mapping between the Broadcom chip and the RPi GPIO header. Since not all pins are broken out, it was either luck or good design forethought that made all of the SPI0 pins from the chip available on the RPi breakout header. The library page (linked above) explains this well. But if you’re looking for more of a working example check out [EngineerByNight’s] project with
adds an accelerometer using hardware SPI
. | 7 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "716107",
"author": "Aaron",
"timestamp": "2012-07-28T03:31:31",
"content": "Filed under:misspelled tag",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "716246",
"author": "jc",
"timestamp": "2012-07-28T08:20:17",
"content": "SERIOUSL... | 1,760,376,791.557274 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/07/27/girl-decides-to-restore-a-car-in-time-for-her-16th-birthday/ | Girl Decides To Restore A Car In Time For Her 16th Birthday | Gerrit Coetzee | [
"Transportation Hacks"
] | [
"pontiac fiero restore rebuild buildlog"
] | When, born hacker, [Kathryn] was 12, she approached her parents with an interesting proposition; she wanted to
restore a Pontiac Fiero before her 16th birthday
. So, using her babysitting money, parental guidance, and an enviable attitude, she has set out to do just that. The build log linked above is incomplete as she has not yet reached 16, but is a very good read. Lots of build logs gloss over some of the more basic steps because they’ve done this a time or two. It’s fun to learn along with [Kathryn] as she and her dad work all the way from upholstery and painting to grinding and welding wheel wells. It seems this project has acquired quite a fan base over the past few months, us included, and even a 3M sponsorship. We look forward to seeing what [Kathryn] does next. It looks like some engine work, along with a lot more welding.
Didn’t [Jeri Ellsworth] have a history of building cars too? | 35 | 19 | [
{
"comment_id": "715547",
"author": "addidis",
"timestamp": "2012-07-27T15:06:07",
"content": "Cool, I did the same thing with a car half as cool. I took two escourts I got for pennies. One had a bad engine , ones entire electrical harness was melted/shorted and it had a bad trans / clutch. 3 or 4 m... | 1,760,376,792.279942 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/07/27/a-much-larger-rainbow-board-of-many-ping-pongs/ | A Much Larger Rainbow Board Of Many Ping Pongs | Mike Szczys | [
"LED Hacks"
] | [
"arduino",
"diffuser",
"display",
"ping pong",
"rgb"
] | [George] started with an 8×8 grid, but just couldn’t help himself from
upscaling to this 32×16 pixel ping pong ball display
. That’s right, It’s a 512 pixel array of fully addressable RGB LEDs diffused with one ping pong ball each.
We featured
the predecessor to this project
back in January. That one was an 8×8 display using a Rainbowduino as the controller. [George] took what he learned from that build and expanded upon it. The larger display is modular. Each module starts as an 8×8 grid which connects back to the Arduino using a breakout shield with some Ethernet jacks used as quick connects. The LEDs are driven by 595 shift registers, with transistors which protect the logic chips from the currents being switched.
He had a lot of help soldering all the connections for the display and ended up bringing it to show off at the Manchester mini maker faire. See it in action in the video after the break.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-A1ZEgLELtQ | 11 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "715487",
"author": "ino",
"timestamp": "2012-07-27T14:19:52",
"content": "Even if it’s the same old “led matrix” type of projet, this one makes me jealous :)So pretty !",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "715494",
"author": "svo... | 1,760,376,792.75165 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/07/27/force-carbonating-root-beer-with-dry-ice/ | Force Carbonating Root Beer With Dry Ice | Mike Szczys | [
"Beer Hacks"
] | [
"carbon dioxide",
"carbonation",
"co2",
"dry ice",
"pressure",
"psi",
"root beer",
"valve"
] | [Paul] is sick and tired of his homemade root beer being flat. He analyzed the problem with his carbonation techniques and ended up with
a method of force carbonating beverages using dry ice
.
He starts of by discussing the various methods that are used to carbonate beverages. There’s the old yeast and sugar trick that takes place inside of a sealed bottle. But this takes time, and if you don’t calculate the mixture correctly you could have over or under carbonated bottles (or exploding bottles in the case of glass beer bottling). [Paul] himself has tried the dry ice in a cooler full of root beer method. The problem is that the cooler isn’t pressurized so the carbonation level is very low. You need to have cold temperatures, high pressure, and the presence of carbon dioxide all at the same time in order to achieve high levels of carbonation.
His solution is to use a 60 PSI safety valve. He drilled a hole in a plastic bottle cap to receive the valve. He then drops a few chunks of dry ice in and seals it up. The valve will automatically release the gas as the pressure builds past the 60 PSI mark. What he ends up with is a highly carbonated beverage in a matter of minutes.
If you don’t mind spending some cash you can use an adjustable pressure regulator. This way
you can carbonate just about anything
.
[Thanks Steven] | 49 | 16 | [
{
"comment_id": "715443",
"author": "dave",
"timestamp": "2012-07-27T13:44:09",
"content": "First time I tried making a dry ice bomb I didn’t add enough dry ice. Ended up shooting the thing with a bb-gun. Got a nice shower of carbonated water.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": ... | 1,760,376,792.843887 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/07/26/know-thy-enemy-open-vias-in-bga-footprints/ | Know Thy Enemy: Open Vias In BGA Footprints | Mike Szczys | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"bga",
"microcscope",
"reflow",
"soldering",
"via"
] | [Andrew Zonenberg] has crossed a line in his electronic hobby projects. The Ball Grid Array (BGA) is a type of chip footprint which most hobbyists leave to the professionals. But he’s learned the skills necessary to use them in his projects. Recently he ran a test batch to
show off his soldering process and illustrate one of the errors a novice might make
.
For those that are unfamiliar, the
BGA
footprint is notoriously difficult to accurately solder because it consists of a large grid of tiny points covering the bottom of the chip. There’s no way to get in there with an iron, so soldering depends on accurate placement of solder paste and chip, as well as a near-perfect reflow cycle. Often times it’s difficult for the professionals too. Many blame the heat-failure of Xbox 360 on the complications of the BGA connects for one of the console’s chips.
For this experiment [Andrew] wanted to show what happens if you include vias in the BGA footprint. It’s fine to do so, as long as they’re capped. But if a standard via is included, capillary action ends up pulling the solder down into the via instead of making a connection with the chip. The image above is a cross-section of one such uncapped via, seen on the far right.
[Thanks George] | 14 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "714586",
"author": "Tom",
"timestamp": "2012-07-26T19:21:03",
"content": "Actually the uncapped via is the middle one. The solder ball has completely wicked down into the via leaving an open circuit. The far right one had a (partialy successful) solder mask dam.",
"parent_id": n... | 1,760,376,793.123199 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/07/26/visualizing-heat-with-schileren-photography/ | Visualizing Heat With Schlieren Photography | Brian Benchoff | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"3d printer",
"photography",
"Schileren"
] | [Kevin] wanted to check out the air patterns present when his 3D printer is in action. This is useful research; slight differences in temperature can affect the quality of his prints. Instead of something like a thermometer, [Kevin] decided to
use Schlieren photography
to visualize the air around his 3D printer.
If you’ve ever seen very old-school pictures of supersonic research, you’ve seen
Schlieren photography
. It’s a way of visualizing the density of transparent objects using only mirrors, lenses, and a point light source. The resulting pictures are usually black and white, although some
amazing color pictures
exist of bullets traveling through the air next to soap bubbles and candles.
The process of creating a Schlieren photograph
is actually pretty easy
. [Kevin] pointed a light at a used a 4-inch parabolic mirror placed behind his printer. A knife edge is placed at exactly twice the focal length of the mirror, and after putting a camera behind this knife edge, differences in the density of the air are visible.
From [Kevin]’s video of his Schlieren setup (available after the break), you can see the air is extremely turbulent around his print. That might have been obvious given the presence of a cooling fan, but it’s still very, very cool to look at.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xDZgPOBlTFI&w=470] | 12 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "714482",
"author": "Dax",
"timestamp": "2012-07-26T18:06:03",
"content": "The same effect can be had by using sunlight passing through the volume you intend to photograph, because the sun is pretty much a point source. The air casts a shadow where the turbulence is visible.",
"p... | 1,760,376,793.219358 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/07/26/hackaday-southwest-tour/ | Hackaday Southwest Tour | Caleb Kraft | [
"Parts"
] | [
"hackerspaces",
"southwest tour",
"tour"
] | Earlier this summer, I took a trip through the southeast of the country. On this trip I was able to visit several hackerspaces and meet some really great people. We started at
Squidfoo in Springfield
Missouri. Then Moved on to
Makers Local 256 in Huntsville
Alabama. After that we saw
7hills hackerspace in Rome
Georgia as well as
Freeside hackerspace in Atlanta
Georgia. The final leg of the trip took us to
Chatt*Lab in Chattanooga
Tennessee and the
Hacker Consortium in Nashville
.
For this trip, I am taking my family to the Grand Canyon. Well, that’s the part the kids are looking forward to. I’m looking forward to more hackerspaces and fantastic people. If you’re along the route from Springfield Missouri to Flagstaff Arizona, let me know (we’ll be hitting roswell NM on the way back too). We can go a little out of our way, but not hours. I would really love to visit some hackerspaces on this trip and do a video tour. You can comment here or hit me directly at caleb@hackaday.com.
confirmed:
OhmSpace.org — Oklahoma City
Quelab.net — Albuquerque
Mikey Sklar — Truth or Consequence
Heatsync — Mesa
Xerocraft — Tucson
Waiting for confirmation:
BorgSpace — Tulsa | 20 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "714447",
"author": "wretch",
"timestamp": "2012-07-26T17:32:31",
"content": "Didn’t you run a story about a hackerspace in Mesa? I can’t remember the name, but, anyway, that’d require a trip down south (from Flagstaff), though.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies"... | 1,760,376,792.701776 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/07/26/3d-printed-ar-15-lower-works/ | 3D Printed AR-15 Lower Works | Jesse Congdon | [
"3d Printer hacks",
"Weapons Hacks"
] | [
"3d printed",
"rifle"
] | Ar15.com user [HaveBlue] has been working for some time on a
3D printed lower receiver
, and now reports that the parts are fully working. Using a Stratasys 3D printer from the 90’s [HaveBlue] managed to spin out a modified version of an already available model from cncguns.com. He strengthened the holes for the takedown lugs, which hold the upper and lower halves of the rifle together. Strengthened the bolt hold lugs, which when the magazine is empty lifts a lever assembly that catches the bolt as it springs back to push another round into the chamber. and added an integral trigger guard AKA the bar that surrounds the trigger.
Legally this print is a veritable gauntlet of state and federal regulations. At least in the US. The lower receiver is the part of the rifle that holds the spring and pins that operate the rifle’s trigger safety and hammer assembly, hold the magazine in place, and mount the buttstock/return spring tube. The other key point about the lower receiver is that it contains the primary traceable identification markings, the serial number. All of the parts that are contained within the lower receiver can be ordered online (this varies state to state). In fact, every single other part of the rifle can be bought and sold freely. The only component of the rifle that can not be ordered online, and requires a background check at a gun store, is the body of the lower receiver (we have to keep saying that this varies state to state). Typically laws allow though for the manufacture of this part without a serial number so long as it is never sold to another individual (again, state laws vary widely).
There is some more info on the build at [HaveBlue]’s website
here
and
here
, but it is currently down. This sort of steps up 3D printing past the
nerf gun
stage, but we have seen
shot gun
and
pistol
hacks. | 82 | 21 | [
{
"comment_id": "714315",
"author": "b1r6m4n",
"timestamp": "2012-07-26T16:03:47",
"content": "LOVE it!!!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "714339",
"author": "Doktor Jeep",
"timestamp": "2012-07-26T16:13:59",
"content": "Good work",
... | 1,760,376,792.958379 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/07/26/bike-made-from-cardboard-is-too-cheap-to-steal/ | Bike Made From Cardboard Is Too Cheap To Steal | Brian Benchoff | [
"Transportation Hacks"
] | [
"bicycle",
"cardboard",
"cardboard bicycle"
] | If you’ve ever had to replace a bicycle, [Izhar Gafni] is your man. He
created a bicycle made completely out of cardboard
that is strong enough to support the largest riders and costs about the same as combo meal at McDonald’s.
[Izhar]’s bikes are made from varying thicknesses of cardboard, the thickest sheet being about an inch wide. After cutting and gluing these pieces of cardboard together, [Izhar] submerges them in resin and brushes on a little paint creating an incredibly strong, very light, and unbelievably inexpensive bike.
[Izhar] says the cost of production is about $10 per bike and estimates it could be sold for $60 to $90, cheaper than even the most inexpensive metal bike. If you’ve ever had a bike stolen, you know the sting of having to replace your main means of transportation. [Izhar] says his bike is so cheap thieves wouldn’t even bother taking it off your hands.
You can check out the awesome video of [Izhar] making a cardboard bike after the break. | 77 | 34 | [
{
"comment_id": "714225",
"author": "Max",
"timestamp": "2012-07-26T15:08:09",
"content": "I think the cost is not so much the frame as the hubs, gears, brakes, bearings, etc… which could be salvaged from an old steel bike but could still be a high percentage of the value.",
"parent_id": null,
... | 1,760,376,793.379454 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/07/26/diablo-3-is-an-arcade-game-apparently/ | Diablo 3 Is An Arcade Game, Apparently | Brian Benchoff | [
"home entertainment hacks"
] | [
"arcade cabinet",
"Diablo 3",
"mame"
] | MAME cabinets are simply awesome. They’re a great way to relive the stained and sticky fluorescent carpets, loud noises, and Neon signs and blacklights of old arcades. If there’s one problem with MAME cabinets, it’s that gaming has moved on from the quarter-eating cabinets of yesteryear. It simply doesn’t make sense to put Starcraft, TF2, or other popular games in an arcade cabinet.
[Dave] grew up playing Gauntlet in the arcade, but the various console ports never lived up to the experience of playing it with a joystick and buttons. When Diablo 3 came out, [Dave] knew what he had to do. He
built a Diablo 3 arcade cabinet
, fully playable and faithful to the dungeon crawlers of yore.
Thankfully, an old cabinet wasn’t gutted for this build; a month before the game came out, [Dave] picked up a few pieces of plywood and built himself an arcade cabinet. After applying some very nice graphics and installing buttons and a joystick, [Dave] had a fully functional Diablo arcade game that doesn’t even require quarters.
Recently, we’ve seen our share of builds that
turn traditional game controls on their head
, a trend we hope continues. You can check out [Dave]’s demo video after the break.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BwtjomsXfGE&w=470] | 7 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "714174",
"author": "Eirinn",
"timestamp": "2012-07-26T14:33:11",
"content": "Well apart from strategic targeting (which you can’t live without) then this is great :) Should be playable through normal, get very hard on nightmare and completely impossible after that*.*if using an arca... | 1,760,376,793.167551 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/07/26/morphield-is-a-hot-mess-of-wiring-also-really-cool/ | Morphield Is A Hot Mess Of Wiring, Also Really Cool | Brian Benchoff | [
"contests"
] | [
"creation",
"MB Labs",
"Morphield",
"red bull"
] | In case you missed MB Labs’ demo of their project for the Red Bull creation contest last Sunday night,
the page describing their build
is up and is giving us at Hackaday a run for our money.
The Morphield consists of a piece of fabric stretched over a frame, itself hiding 135 solenoid-controlled balloons that move the field instead of playing soccer by moving the ball. These solenoids are controlled by a wiimote, allowing players to manipulate the terrain of the field and hopefully guide a ball into their opponent’s goal.
In addition to creating a worthy competitor to Hackaday’s own
Minotaur’s Revenge
,
MB Labs also released an Arduino library and an API so the Morphield can be repurposed for other games, kinetic art installations, and – we’re hoping – a gigantic, soft version of
a pin art display
.
When the guts of MB Labs’ Morphield was revealed on the Red Bull Creation live stream, the only words that showed up in the chat window were ‘wow,’ ‘holy crap,’ and ‘amazing.’ We’ve got to agree; the guys put together a really cool game that will also be over once the Creation contest is over. | 11 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "714149",
"author": "Isotope",
"timestamp": "2012-07-26T13:54:35",
"content": "Why will the game be over when the contest is over?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "714154",
"author": "dreamer",
"timestamp": "2012-07-26T14:... | 1,760,376,793.269064 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/07/25/adding-bluetooth-audio-playback-to-a-toyota-matrix/ | Adding Bluetooth Audio Playback To A Toyota Matrix | Mike Szczys | [
"digital audio hacks",
"Transportation Hacks",
"Wireless Hacks"
] | [
"ATmega168",
"audio",
"Bluegiga",
"bluetooth",
"matrix",
"toyota",
"WT32"
] | In this project [Ryan] shows
how he added Bluetooth audio to the stock stereo
of his Toyota Matrix. The work he did with his add-on hardware is quite good. And the installation was surprisingly easy. For example, the dashboard bezel which is hanging in the foreground of this picture simply pulls off without the need for any tools. Also, the CD changer input for the stereo is what he uses to patch into the system. It just happened to have a 0.1″ pin header so finding a connector that would work wasn’t a problem.
As for the add-on hardware, he built his own circuit board around an ATmega168 microcontroller and Bluegiga WT32 Bluetooth module. To connect to the car’s data system he went with an RS485 driver chip. It’s not quite the right part but it works well enough for his purposes. So far he can get audio playback working and plans to add support for hands free phone calls and displaying audio track information. Hey, maybe he’ll even
add some extra shake-based automation
; who knows?
Get a look at the install in the clip after the break. | 16 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "713148",
"author": "Tim",
"timestamp": "2012-07-25T19:46:17",
"content": "My friend has a matrix. Its the worst modern car i have driven. Its like trying to parallel park a cinderblock.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "713333",... | 1,760,376,793.434156 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/07/25/emulating-the-dcpu-on-an-avr/ | Emulating The DCPU On An AVR | Brian Benchoff | [
"hardware",
"Microcontrollers"
] | [
"0x10c",
"atmega",
"DCPU",
"emulation"
] | [skywodd] just finished
his own DCPU emulator
(French,
translation
) based on [notch]’s upcoming game, 0x10c. The neat thing about [skywodd]’s build is his emulator uses the lowly ATMega328, the same microcontroller found in (some) Arduinos.
The DCPU specification
goes over the operations required of any DCPU emulator. There’s a lot of crazy stuff here – a division instruction that takes only 3 clock cycles, using an overflow for carry conditions, and a complete lack of a JMP instruction – but [skywodd] was able to tease something apart from
DCPU studio
and a
VGA interface
Everything in this emulator is built on a solderless breadboard, but the ROM and RAM isn’t complete yet. As of now, everything is handled by the ‘328, using 478 bytes of RAM on the microprocessor.
We promised we would be holding a contest for the best physical implementation of the DCPU
when we caught wind of 0x10c
, and [skywodd]’s build is starting to look like the beginnings of the winning entry. We honestly have
no
idea when we’ll be holding this contest, but it’ll probably be shortly after the first playable release.
Go bug [notch]
if you’d like to speed up the progress, because obviously Twitter abuse speeds up software development. | 6 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "712960",
"author": "anon",
"timestamp": "2012-07-25T17:32:09",
"content": "Cool project.Re the contest: Would this really qualify as a physical implementation if it’s an emulator? If so, where is the line drawn between a hardware and software implementation?To me, it seems like a ph... | 1,760,376,793.476195 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/07/25/building-a-controller-for-mmos/ | Building A Controller For MMOs | Brian Benchoff | [
"Peripherals Hacks"
] | [
"controller",
"fps",
"MMO",
"RPG",
"trackball"
] | It’s a simple fact of gaming that controllers are more suited for shooters, while the WASD + mouse control of the PC gaming master race is more suited for real-time strategy games and MMOs. [Gabriel] wanted to challenge this idea, so he put together a controller
combining the best of a mouse and keyboard
for some hand-held RTS and MMO action.
The Keyball Controller as [Gabe] calls it is an amazing amalgamation of a 3rd party XBox and PS3 controllers, an SNES controller, a trackball, two USB keyboards and a ton of Bondo. The front of the Keyball features a WASD D-pad, scroll wheel, trackball, tiny keyboard and a few other commonly used buttons. The rear of the controller is loaded down with tons of trigger buttons and a few meta buttons that alter the function of other buttons.
The fabrication of the controller is absolutely phenomenal and certainly something that deserves to be copied. We’ve seen some controllers duplicated
with a silicone mold and resin
, so we can only hope that [Gabe] is looking at RTV silicone at the moment. | 34 | 15 | [
{
"comment_id": "712852",
"author": "Iskuri",
"timestamp": "2012-07-25T16:15:59",
"content": "Since when were shooters better suited for controllers?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "713014",
"author": "Geancarlo",
"timestamp": ... | 1,760,376,794.021772 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/07/25/voting-is-open-for-the-red-bull-creation-contest-go-team-hackaday/ | Voting Is Open For The Red Bull Creation Contest. Go Team Hackaday! | Caleb Kraft | [
"contests"
] | [
"creation",
"hackaday",
"labyrinth",
"maze",
"redbull"
] | Go Vote Now!
update: looks like the vote button opens a popup to a Facebook app. this is required to vote :(
For the full writeup on our entry,
go here
!
As you can see above, our entry into the contest was a set of giant dueling mazes.
We took the idea of a table top marble maze and expanded that to be much larger. Each team races to finish the maze first. That alone was actually really fun, but we also wanted to add a way for the teams to interact with each other. To do this, we put in a trap system. There are magnets that activate to trap the ball for a few seconds and gates that can force your ball into a more difficult path. These are all controlled by your opponent.
The game is very fun to play. We were all amazed by the end that we managed not only to pull it off, but to make it actually enjoyable! I’ll be writing up a detailed post on how to construct these with tons of pictures, but for now, GO VOTE!
If you want to see all of the entries in the contest,
go here and check them out
… then vote for hackaday. | 96 | 48 | [
{
"comment_id": "712775",
"author": "Barefoot",
"timestamp": "2012-07-25T15:07:22",
"content": "Well crap, that sucks. Sorry guys… I’d love to vote for you, but I’m notbeing sucked into the abyssjoining Facebook just to do it.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
... | 1,760,376,794.390938 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/07/25/yet-another-reprap-host-looks-pretty-cool/ | Yet Another RepRap Host Looks Pretty Cool | Brian Benchoff | [
"3d Printer hacks",
"cnc hacks"
] | [
"gcode",
"reprap",
"reprap host",
"stl"
] | Joining the pantheon of other RepRap host software packages such as ReplicatorG, RepSnapper, and Skeinforge is
Yet Another RepRap Host
, a project by [Arkadiusz] that combines a lot of neat features into a very cool package.
One thing we’ve really got to give [Arkadiusz] credit for is
a virtual table
that allows you to import several .STL files, place them on a virtual build platform, and print them all at once. Previously, the only way we knew how to do this was by either creating a single .STL file with all the desired parts already in place, or arraying several object to increase production. The virtual table feature allows anyone to bypass those steps and print out a lot of objects all at once.
YARRH also allows you to
view the GCode in 3D.
This feature is a little kludgy at the moment, but [Arkadiusz] says it’s functional and more than serviceable to run a 3D printer.
Right now, YARRH is only available for Windows, but a package for Ubuntu (and hopefully OS X) are coming down the pipe. You can check out some videos of YARRH in action after the break.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oA21ulT2ZyU&w=470]
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ayTQ40QOoqo&w=470]
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3jWcQTWKv1g&w=470]
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-P-Q-Q4HeI&w=470] | 9 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "712736",
"author": "wookieegunner",
"timestamp": "2012-07-25T15:02:19",
"content": "As far as the “Virtual Table” Pronteface has had that ability for a while if you use it to front in your slicing program, and Slic3r recently added it as well.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1... | 1,760,376,793.842184 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/07/25/remote-uploading-to-an-arduino-with-codebender/ | Remote Uploading To An Arduino With Codebender | Brian Benchoff | [
"Arduino Hacks",
"Software Development"
] | [
"bootloader",
"Codebender",
"ethernet",
"tftp"
] | [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KCHqhV6xPMg&w=470]
A few weeks ago, we saw codebender, an online replacement for the Arduino IDE that allowed you to upload a sketch to your board from a web browser. Over on the codebender blog [Vasilis] and his team are rolling out a way to
remotely upload code to an Arduino over Ethernet
. Now you don’t even need a serial connection to program an Arduino; it can be done over the Internet to a board in the next room, or on another continent.
The star of this hack is the Ariadne bootloader, an implementation of
TFTP
that allows any Ethernet-enabled Arduino to receive updates over the Internet. There is still one small problem with the Ariadne bootloader: uploading code over Ethernet requires someone to press the reset button on the Arduino, completely negating the benefits of programming an Arduino over Ethernet.
This problem has been solved before for earlier Arduino boards, so we’re sure [Vasilis] and his team will be able to fix the reset issue in very short order. If you’d like to check out the remote TFTP bootloader and play around with codebender, you can
grab Ariadne
over on GitHub. | 15 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "712655",
"author": "sonofabit",
"timestamp": "2012-07-25T13:13:39",
"content": "whoa! that’s great! now you can build interned enabled projects and dont have to worry about uploading sketches (i.e. when they’re mounted on the roof/mast). Pity someone still needst to reset the board ... | 1,760,376,794.152915 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/07/25/hackaday-links-july-25-2012/ | Hackaday Links: July 25, 2012 | Brian Benchoff | [
"Hackaday links"
] | [
"brushless motor",
"camera",
"cvs",
"engineering notebook",
"glider",
"intel",
"notebook",
"rocket",
"sewing",
"tablet"
] | Ever wonder what CPU dev boards look like?
In the realm of highly confidential hardware, it doesn’t get much more secret than upcoming CPUs coming out of Intel. Somehow, a few CPU dev boards wound up on eBay, and [Leon] was cool enough to
save all the pictures
(Polish,
Google translation
, or translate in the sidebar). There are
a few ongoing auctions
right now, but we’d settle
for this LGA 1156 breakout board
. So cool.
No, we’re not linking
directly
to the free stuff
TI is giving away
a brushless motor controller
powered by a Stellaris ARM processor. [Chris] says he’s ordering one to figure out how to make a Stellaris dev board out of the giveaway. This controller is designed for e-bikes, so at the very least we see a few ginormous UAVs in someone’s future.
More rocket stuff!
One of [Bill]’s older hacks was taking a
CVS disposable digital camera
(remember that?) and stuffing it into the nose code of an
Estes D-powered rocket
. There’s
a ton of videos
of the flights [Bill] put up on YouTube.
On another note, [CyberPunk] built a half-scale model of a swing-wing rocket launched glider (pics:
1
,
2
,
3
,
4
). He’s currently building the full-size version capable of carrying RC and video gear and wants some feedback.
So, CAD on a tablet?
[spuder] caught wind of a
tablet-based engineering notebook
a few people are working on. They’re looking for some feedback on their demo video. We think it’s cool – especially the ability to share stuff between devices – but CAD on a tablet makes us
extremely
skeptical. Tell them what you think; we’d love to see this make it to our phone.
Now if they only made one for editing WordPress posts….
Test-driven development just got cooler. Here’s a
Tamagotchi for Eclipse
that you ‘feed’ by going from red to green and refactoring your code. Be careful, because having the same code test as red twice will kill your little code ninja.
And now I’ll rant about
you.
A few days ago, I posted [Becky Stern]’s light-up
handlebars project
, and
one comment
surprised me. Who says guys can’t sew? It’s time to confront the gender roles that show up whenever sewing is used in a project. I’m doing a tutorial on how to sew a parachute, but I need your help. It’ll be a two-parter: one on how to actually use a sewing machine, and another for how to make a ‘chute. Is there anything else you’d like to see? | 45 | 34 | [
{
"comment_id": "712583",
"author": "Pete",
"timestamp": "2012-07-25T12:07:37",
"content": "I learned how to sew bow tieshttp://petemills.blogspot.com/2011/07/engineering-bow-tie.htmlafter buying a sewing machine for my guitar pickup winderhttp://petemills.blogspot.com/2011/08/guitar-pickup-winder.h... | 1,760,376,794.104064 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/07/26/building-a-custom-interface-for-surplus-hf-radios/ | Building A Custom Interface For Surplus HF Radios | Mike Szczys | [
"Radio Hacks"
] | [
"controller",
"ebay",
"head unit",
"micom",
"motorola",
"state department"
] | [PRC148] picked up a Motorola Micom radio from eBay. These are US State Department surplus, but apparently the 125 Watt HF units are top-of-the-line at a tenth of the sticker price. The one hangup is that they’re headless; you can’t control them without additional hardware. But the Internets are often kind to the hobbyists, and this is no exception. You can get software to run the radio from a PC thanks to the Micom Yahoo Group. [PRC148] took that software as an example and built his own stand-alone interface. [
Cached version of the page
]
The head unit is an Arduino driving a four-line LCD display and a rather large array of buttons. The forum thread linked above shows his humble beginnings on a breadboard. During the project [PRC148] learned a lot of skills to end up with what you see above. Hiding behind the reused bezel is a PCB he designed in Eagle CAD and etched himself. It allowed him to cram the tactile switches close enough to work with the button overlay on this keypad.
UPDATE:
The traffic from this feature took down the forum hosting the content. They requested that we do not link to them because of this. A cached version without images can be found above thanks to [Termm]. | 12 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "714081",
"author": "regulatre",
"timestamp": "2012-07-26T12:21:25",
"content": "Bravo!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "714110",
"author": "Corrosion",
"timestamp": "2012-07-26T12:57:48",
"content": "Damn!Congrats man... | 1,760,376,793.944742 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/07/26/a-mixer-rebuilt-to-travel/ | A Mixer (re)built To Travel | Mike Szczys | [
"cnc hacks",
"Hackerspaces"
] | [
"box",
"dj",
"face plate",
"mixer",
"mounting",
"plywood"
] | [Toby Cole] likes to mix tunes whenever he gets a chance. But the size of his DJ equipment made it a real bother to lug around with him. He does own a Behringer portable mixer but without cross faders it’s not really all that usable, and most of the other offerings don’t get good reviews. He ended up
replacing the enclosure of a proper mixer in order to make it light and small
. The growing availability of affordable laser-cut parts made this project possible.
Build Brighton
, [Toby’s] local Hackerspace, has a laser cutter. So he knew that if he could figure out a smaller case design it would be a snap to get his parts made. He cracked open the heavy metal case on the KMX 100 mixer and found it had a ton of extra room inside. He designed all of the plates using a digital calipers to properly space the holes and text labels. These designs were combined with
BoxMaker
to produce the files the laser cutter needed. The first prototype was cut from cardboard, with the finished product cut from 3mm plywood. | 11 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "714041",
"author": "Vic",
"timestamp": "2012-07-26T11:58:23",
"content": "I checked the original mixer, and its pretty much the same size…wheres the advantage of fitting it in roughly the same enclosure? Nice wooden box anyway, but still…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
... | 1,760,376,793.895105 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/07/25/fabricating-your-own-backpack-straps-for-unorthodox-uses/ | Fabricating Your Own Backpack Straps For Unorthodox Uses | Mike Szczys | [
"Wearable Hacks"
] | [
"backpack",
"ikea",
"polycarbonate",
"sewing",
"speakers",
"straps"
] | Back in the 1980’s there was a movie cliché that the person with the largest boombox on their shoulder was always the coolest. It’s obvious to us that [Tim Gremalm] thinks that’s silly. Why be uncomfortable carrying something like that on your shoulder when you can strap a much larger object to your back? He’s working on a mammoth speaker enclosure which can be carried around, but
he needed a set of backpack straps to make it happen
.
This thing is going to be adding some serious weight to his body, so he also whipped up the padded waist belt seen above. For fabric he reused an Ikea couch cover. The material is made to survive a lot of pulling and stretching. For padding he used what he calls ‘floor mop’. It looks like it might be microfiber mop cloth be we can’t really be sure. With ten layers of the mop encased in the couch cover he finish off each strap by sewing it to some nylon webbing.
After the break you can see a picture of [Tim] modelling the huge polycarbonate speaker enclosure for which these backpack and waist straps were made. This project has many posts associated with it so if you’re interested in seeing more you can
use this project tag link
. | 14 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "713601",
"author": "NewCommentor1283",
"timestamp": "2012-07-26T00:33:13",
"content": "maybe you can help me with heat rash… 18AH SLA hurts the back, and the skin XDPS: and the everything else; neck, shoulders, waist, hips, yep, 12v18ah LEAD battery hurts, litterallydont drop it on ... | 1,760,376,794.444158 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/07/25/lighting-controller-counts-how-many-people-are-in-a-room/ | Lighting Controller Counts How Many People Are In A Room | Mike Szczys | [
"home hacks"
] | [
"counter",
"home automation",
"light switch",
"sensor"
] | [Deekshith Allamaneni] built this controller which will
automatically turn the lights in a room on and off
. No big deal, right? You can already get a replacement light switch at the home store that will do this for you. But there is one big difference. The commercial solutions we’ve seen simply rely in a motion sensor and a timer. But [Deekshith] found a way to count the number of people that enter a room, turning the lights on when the first person enters and off when the last person leaves.
The video after the break shows a demo of his test rig. At first we just thought that this was only counting how many times an object passes between the sensors. But it can also detect in which direction that object was traveling. Now the system just needs to be scaled up for use in a doorway.
It would be a great addition to
the house that doesn’t have any light switches
. | 32 | 23 | [
{
"comment_id": "713446",
"author": "RR",
"timestamp": "2012-07-25T22:11:01",
"content": "This will go wrong when two people leave or enter the room together…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "713550",
"author": "Destate9",
"timestamp": "2... | 1,760,376,794.587987 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/07/25/spinning-hell-of-a-game/ | Spinning-hell Of A Game | Mike Szczys | [
"contests"
] | [
"centrifuge",
"creation",
"north street labs",
"rbc",
"red bull",
"spinning"
] | North Street Labs really brought their ‘A’ game to the build finals for the Red Bull Creation contest. Behold
the Centrifury, their spinning hell of a game
. You can’t really make it out (because of the spinning) but the game consists of two bucket seats positioned opposite of each other on a merry-go-round type deck. Each player has a button in front of them which must be held down for the rig to start spinning. When you can’t take it any more just release the button and the spinning will stop. But you’ll also have lost the game. Whomever can hold out longer wins.
It’s not surprising to see such a well-polished build. After all, this is the same group that
built the violently vibrating game of Simon
. This time around most of the work came in the form of engineering and welding. First they had to make sure the design could take the forces this things puts out, then they had to build it. And all within the 72-hour time limit. We’re not sure what’s harder, winning the game or trying not to smile while watching the video after the break. | 26 | 18 | [
{
"comment_id": "713320",
"author": "Simon Inns",
"timestamp": "2012-07-25T21:22:52",
"content": "Props to NSL for an awesome build… Just not entirely sure that counts as ‘safe’ however I wouldn’t say no to trying it out :o)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
... | 1,760,376,794.513712 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/07/25/new-cameras-learning-old-lens-tricks/ | New Cameras Learning Old Lens Tricks | Mike Szczys | [
"digital cameras hacks"
] | [
"bellows",
"dslr",
"view camera"
] | [Michael H] tipped us off about
this guide to using view camera lens parts with DSLR cameras and lenses
. We weren’t familiar with the term ‘view camera’ but we certainly recognize the accordion-like bellows that define
that type of camera
. The idea is that modern cameras with their fixed lenses miss out on some types of shots. Why not work out a way to get the best from both old and new?
The concept behind the view camera is that there are two plates connected by the bellows. One plate holds the film and shutter, the other holds the lens. The two can be adjusted for focal length but can also be set at an angle to each other. This modern adaptation uses an adjustable frame to hold the two plates in position. Custom connectors were made by attaching lens rings to the plates. It’s pretty much the same connection technique as we’ve seen when trying to
mate cameras with lenses from a different maker
. | 13 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "713185",
"author": "th3badwolf",
"timestamp": "2012-07-25T20:18:51",
"content": "I actually own one of those from minolta tho it doesn’t have the angle adjustment,pretty neat!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "713222",
"author... | 1,760,376,794.645251 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/07/25/arduino-resistor-and-barrel-plug-lay-waste-to-millions-of-hotel-locks/ | Arduino, Resistor, And Barrel Plug Lay Waste To Millions Of Hotel Locks | Mike Szczys | [
"cons",
"Security Hacks"
] | [
"arduino",
"hotel room",
"lock",
"lock picking",
"onity"
] | The security flaws on this common hotel keycard lock are nothing short of face-palmingly stupid. Look closely at the picture above. This is a hotel room door swinging open. The device he holds in his hand is an Arduino connected to the OUTSIDE portion of the door lock. It takes approximately 200 milliseconds from the time an attacker plugs the device in, until the door can be opened. Yes, in less than 1/4 of one second
an Arduino can open any of the millions of these locks
in service.
The exploit in Onity programmable keycard locks was
revealed by [Cody Brocious]
at the Blackhat conference. Apparently the DC barrel jack on the outside of the lock serves as a one-wire protocol interface. Once communications are established a 32-bit sitecode can be read from any of the locks and immediately used to open the door. There is
no authentication or encryption
used to obfuscate this kind of attack. To make matters worse, you can even read out master key and skeleton key codes. These codes facilitate ‘magic’ keys used to open a variety of different doors through the system.
We’re no strangers to
easy hotel beak-ins
. But how can a digital lock possibly be sold with this type of vulnerability present? Really!?
Here’s
the white paper
on the exploit as well as
the slides from his talk
(PDF).
[via
Reddit
] | 63 | 28 | [
{
"comment_id": "713085",
"author": "mjrippe",
"timestamp": "2012-07-25T19:09:51",
"content": "Amazing. Scary. Stupid. Yes he should have contacted Onity first, but this is an unimaginable oversight on their part.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_... | 1,760,376,794.804468 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/07/25/raspberry-pi-keeps-tabs-on-your-solar-power-setup/ | Raspberry Pi Keeps Tabs On Your Solar Power Setup | Mike Nathan | [
"home hacks",
"Raspberry Pi",
"Solar Hacks"
] | [
"i2c",
"raspberry pi",
"solar"
] | [Brian Dorey] has been adding green power solutions to his home for some time now, and as things have progressed, he has experimented with several different iterations of data loggers. The latest system watching over his solar power setup is a
Raspberry Pi armed with a custom-built I2C analog/digital converter.
The Rasp Pi is responsible for monitoring several different temperature sensors related to his solar water heating and storage system, but that’s just the beginning. It also keeps watch over his roof-mounted solar electric panels, his battery bank, and its charge controller. For good measure, he also monitors his home’s temperature and his water tank’s recirculation pump because, why the heck not?
All of the collected data is relayed to his web server where it is handsomely displayed for his perusal and analysis. [Brian] has made his code
available here
, so you can monitor your home in the same fashion with little fuss. | 15 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "712560",
"author": "problemchild68",
"timestamp": "2012-07-25T11:13:26",
"content": "Simply the best RPi build so far. Nice simple PCB well done. Using a proper ADC rather than an MCU bodged on. The Data logging and web presentation looks nice and sensible. A good use of a RPi to do... | 1,760,376,794.704886 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/07/24/hows-the-60hz-coming-from-your-wall/ | How’s The 60Hz Coming From Your Wall? | Brian Benchoff | [
"clock hacks",
"hardware"
] | [
"60Hz",
"clock",
"mains",
"transmission line"
] | If you’ve ever wondered why NTSC video is 30 frames and 60 fields a second, it’s because the earliest televisions didn’t have fancy crystal oscillators. The refresh rate of these TVs was controlled by the frequency of the power coming out of the wall. This is the same reason the PAL video standard exists for countries with 50Hz mains power, and considering how inexpensive this method of controlling circuits was the trend continued and was used in clocks as late as the 1980s. [Ch00f] wondered
how accurate this 60Hz AC was
, so he designed a little test.
Earlier this summer, [Ch00f] bought
a 194 discrete transistor clock kit
and did an amazing job
tearing apart the circuit
figuring out how the clock keeps time. Needing a way to graph the frequency of his mains power, [Ch00f] took a small transformer and an LM311 comparator. to out put a 60Hz signal a microcontroller can read.
This circuit was attached to a breadboard containing two microcontrollers, one to keep time with a crystal oscillator, the other to send frequency data over a serial connection to a computer. After a day of collecting data, [Ch00f] had an awesome graph (seen above) documenting how fast or slow the mains frequency was over the course of 24 hours.
The results show the 60Hz coming out of your wall isn’t extremely accurate; if you’re using mains power to calibrate a clock it may lose or gain a few seconds every day. This has to do with the load the power companies see explaining why changes in frequency are much more rapid during the day when load is high.
In the end, all these changes in the frequency of your wall power cancel out. The power companies do the same thing [Ch00f] did and make sure mains power is 60Hz over the long-term, allowing mains-controlled clocks to keep accurate time. | 51 | 30 | [
{
"comment_id": "712374",
"author": "bty",
"timestamp": "2012-07-25T06:28:05",
"content": "The frequency is also an indication of the load on the grid.http://jorisvr.nl/gridfrequency.html",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "712375",
"author": "J... | 1,760,376,794.99641 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/07/24/simple-light-painting-bar-build/ | Simple Light Painting Bar Build | Mike Szczys | [
"digital cameras hacks",
"LED Hacks"
] | [
"Arduino Pro",
"led strip",
"light painting",
"rgb"
] | [SkyWodd] took the easy route when it came time to build this light painting bar. But he was still met with great success. Thanks to his well-documented work you should be able to throw this together for yourself in about an hour.
The idea here is to build a full-color display that will draw a picture in a long-exposure photograph. We’ve seen the concept used
with 64 discrete RGB LEDs
, but there’s almost no soldering to be done with this project. Instead, [SkyWodd] used an addressable RGB LED strip. It has 64 pixels, all taking commands via the SPI protocol. This helps keep the number of microcontroller connections to a minimum. He lashed the entire system onto a long hunk of wooden dowel and grabbed a camera.
You’ll need a DSLR as each image needs to have an exposure time approaching 10 seconds. One thing to note is that it may be best to leave the LED bar stationary and move the camera. If you use a tripod it should help keep the vibrations to a minimum. | 15 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "712093",
"author": "registered99",
"timestamp": "2012-07-24T21:57:11",
"content": "Small thing: you won’t neccessarily need a DSLR. Many, many point and shoots can do over 10 second exposures. Noticed, you said something similar last time you posted about a DSLR build.",
"parent... | 1,760,376,794.858144 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/07/24/one-remote-to-stream-them-all/ | One Remote To Stream Them All | Mike Szczys | [
"home entertainment hacks"
] | [
"htpc",
"hulu",
"lenovo",
"n9502",
"netflix",
"remote control",
"streaming",
"xbmc"
] | We’d bet that most readers stream video as the lion’s share of their entertainment consumption. It’s getting easier and easier thanks to great platforms like XBMC, but not everything is available in one place, which can be a bit off-putting. [Tony Hoang] is trying to simplify his viewing experience by creating
one remote to rule all of his streaming software
. He’s got an HTPC connected to his entertainment center, and used a bit of scripting to add some functionality to this Lenovo N9502 remote control.
The hack is entirely software-side. The remote already works quite well, but he remapped the home, end, and page up buttons, as well as the mouse controller. The three buttons will launch XBMC, Hulu, and Netflix respectively. They are also set to kill the other applications before launch so that one button will do everything needed to switch between one another. The mouse remapping takes care of up, down, left, and right keys for navigation in the UI and control of the playing videos. See a demo of the setup after the break.
Everything was done with autohotkey scripts for Windows. But this should be easy to code with other OSes as well. If you’re prone to have a slip of the finger you might want to work out a double-click to launch the applications so you don’t accidentally hit a key in the middle of your favorite show. | 11 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "712098",
"author": "DosX",
"timestamp": "2012-07-24T22:06:23",
"content": "Really nice build and quite simple as well, autohotkey, not bad might have to give this one a try myself",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "712108",
"au... | 1,760,376,794.904664 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/07/24/shakey-robot-plays-angry-birds/ | Shakey Robot Plays Angry Birds | Mike Szczys | [
"Robots Hacks"
] | [
"angry birds",
"delta",
"ipad",
"touch screen"
] | At this year’s Pycon [Jason Huggins] gave
a talk about his Angry Birds playing robot
. He built a delta robot which includes a pen actuator for controlling a capacitive touch screen. The video after the break starts with a demo of the bot beating a level of Angry Birds on the iPad.
The idea behind the build is that robots like this could be used for app testing. I this case [Jason] has tweaked the servo commands manually to achieve the results. But during the talk he does demonstrate some machine vision to analyze and win a game of tic-tac-toe.
We do enjoy seeing the robot, but we’re not sold on the thought that testing will use robots. Perhaps there is a niche need for this type of thing, but we assume the majority of automated testing can be done in the emulator for the device on which you are developing. What we really want to know is how the capacitive stylus works. We didn’t catch him talking about it at all. We want a reliable, yet simple way to electronically trigger touchscreen inputs (
along the lines of this project
). If you know how [Jason’s] stylus is working please share your thoughts in the comments section.
[via
Reddit
] | 18 | 16 | [
{
"comment_id": "711984",
"author": "brad",
"timestamp": "2012-07-24T19:50:53",
"content": "Oo, a video! Oh, it’s 30 minutes long. Nevermind.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "711995",
"author": "NewCommentor1283",
"timestamp": "2012-07-24... | 1,760,376,795.15839 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/07/24/key-covered-textiles/ | Key-covered Textiles | Mike Szczys | [
"Wearable Hacks"
] | [
"bag",
"keyboard",
"purse",
"sewing",
"textiles"
] | [Karolina] has been hard at work adding a little flair to her bag. Well, a lot of flair actually. She rolled
several keyboards worth of keys into one of the panels for this bag
. She had seen the idea in a magazine and decided to give it a try. The secret is to use staples.
The first issues is gather enough keys, so if you give this a try make sure to let your friends know you’re looking for old keyboards. Next she wanted each of the keys to lay flat on the fabric panel, which meant cutting away the plastic pegs that extend past the edges of the key. From there [Karolina] laid out her design with each key face down. Notice how careful she was to make sure there were no gaps between them. Now it was time to link them all together. She used heavy-duty staples as connecting brackets. They were bent to provide a large gluing surface on the underside of the face of each key. With the staples in place, each can be sewn to the fabric with a loop of thread. Although she started the project in the fall she’s just now
showing off the finished bag
. | 13 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "711881",
"author": "JB",
"timestamp": "2012-07-24T17:15:47",
"content": "Cool design!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "711933",
"author": "Destate9",
"timestamp": "2012-07-24T18:45:16",
"content": "I can dig it!",
... | 1,760,376,795.282332 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/07/24/heads-up-controls-for-your-ipod/ | Heads Up Controls For Your IPod | Mike Szczys | [
"ipod hacks",
"Transportation Hacks"
] | [
"driving",
"heads up display",
"ipod"
] | [Cmonaco3’s] girlfriend wanted a better way to control her iPod when driving. She didn’t want to take her eyes of the road and asked him if he could help. He ended up
building a heads up display
which reads out track information and offers a few simple buttons for control.
The display includes controls for track forward, track back, and play/pause. Those buttons, along with the LCD screen, mount on the windshield using a suction cup. This way the driver doesn’t have to completely remove focus from the road to control the iPod which is sitting in the passenger’s seat.
To accomplish this [Cmonaco] used a dock connector breakout board for communication between an Arduino and the iPod. The Arduino pulls song information to be displayed on the graphic LCD screen, and sends commands to the iPod when it detects a button push. See a quick demo of the setup after the break.
[Thanks Chris] | 21 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "711868",
"author": "MrDan",
"timestamp": "2012-07-24T16:54:56",
"content": "Why is the iPod sitting on the passenger seat?Why not just get an in car mount for it?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "711872",
"author": "Aar... | 1,760,376,795.230495 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/07/24/dinos-talking-boxes/ | [Dino’s] Talking Box(es) | Mike Szczys | [
"Microcontrollers",
"News"
] | [
"dino",
"emic2",
"lm386",
"text to speech"
] | [Dino] is about three-quarters of the way through
his talking box project
. He’s completed one of the two boxes, and is showing off the technique he uses to marry motion with sound in order to mimic flapping lips with the box top.
You may remember [Dino’s]
first look at the EMIC2
. It’s a single-board text to speech module which is what provides the voice for the box. But what fun is that without some animatronics to go along with it? So [Dino] started playing around with different concepts to move the box top along with the speech. This is easier said than done, but as you can see in the video after the break, he did pull it off rather well. He built a motor control circuit that takes the audio output of an LM386 amplifier chip and translates it into drive signals for the motor. The shaft is not directly connected to the lid of the box. Instead it has a curved wire which is limited by a piece of string so that it doesn’t spin too far. It lifts the lid which is hinged with a piece of cloth. | 5 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "711807",
"author": "soopergooman",
"timestamp": "2012-07-24T15:25:25",
"content": "Funny stuff, they will be a hit with everyone for sure. I’d honestly like one myself.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "711967",
"author": "asc... | 1,760,376,795.090184 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/07/24/reading-sega-carts-off-a-breadboard/ | Reading Sega Carts Off A Breadboard | Brian Benchoff | [
"Arduino Hacks",
"classic hacks"
] | [
"arduino",
"genesis",
"megadrive",
"sega"
] | Golden Axe
is great, and the
Sonic 3
/
Sonic and Knuckles
combo is one of the highest works of art from the 16-bit era, but for those of us without a working Genesis or Megadrive, we’ve had to make due with the ROMs others provide. [Lee] figured out an easy way to read the data off these old Sega cartridges
using easily scavenged parts and an Arduino Mega
, paving the way for an Arduino-based ROM dumper.
The connector on the bottom of a Sega Genesis cartridge has a 2×32 pinout, normally requiring 64 connections to actually read the card. These connectors aren’t readily available, but [Lee] did manage to find a few 2×31 pin connectors lying around in the form of old ISA sockets. The outer pins of a Genesis cart are used for
grounds and a ‘cartridge insert’ slot
, and after filing away the end of an old ISA connector, [Lee] found he could actually read the data on these old game cartridges.
There are 49 data and address pins on these old Sega carts, so an Arduino Mega needed to be brought into the mix to actually read some of the data on the ROM chip. As of now, [Lee] can read data from the cart but has only gotten so far as to read the licensing data stored at 0x80. Still, very cool and the first step towards an Arduinofied Sega cart dumper. | 10 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "711833",
"author": "Hack Man",
"timestamp": "2012-07-24T15:52:48",
"content": "There are 49 data and address pins on these old Sega carts, so an Arduino Mega needed to be brought into the mix to actually read some of the data on the ROM chip.Or a shift register or Centipede Shield."... | 1,760,376,795.49589 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/07/24/raspberry-pi-case-roundup/ | Raspberry Pi Case Roundup | Jeremy Cook | [
"Raspberry Pi"
] | [
"case",
"enclosure",
"raspberry pi"
] | If you haven’t heard of it yet, the [Raspberry Pi] is all the rage on [HAD] these days, so why not a round up of some of the excellent cases available?
[Nhslzt] wrote in to tell us about his
laser cut Bramble Pi
finger jointed case. These are available for only 12 Euros, or roughly $14.95 in the US. Sure, the exchange rate may not be in America’s favor these days, but it’s cheaper than a trip to Dresden, Germany where some of the profits from this are to go towards setting up a makerspace there!
If you’re feeling more into the additive 3D printing DIY process, why not just download one and make it on your printer? [Thingiverse] has an
excellent selection of cases
many featuring, as you may have guessed, a picture of a Raspberry on the top! (Here’s the printed
case pictured
).
Finally for something more colorful (see the pic after the break), you can’t get much better than
the [Pibow]
. If you’re looking for something colorful, and very solid (as described) this may be the case for you! You can
order one here
or use the unique design to inspire your own case (Thx Brian!).
As for stuff that we’ve already written about at HAD,
this case
looks quite slick made out of black acrylic, as does
this one
, combining the use of a laser cutter and 3D printer. Of course, if you’re going for the strictly utilitarian model, you can always go with
one held together
with rubber bands and tape!
There’s
a nice one at Adafrtuit
too, and like their other items it is
open source
so you could cut it yourself if you had a laser printer, and comes with a
full tutorial
. | 38 | 16 | [
{
"comment_id": "711733",
"author": "echomrg",
"timestamp": "2012-07-24T13:21:00",
"content": "I just got delivery of the ModMyPi case, it looks nice but they have a little problem with tolerance: the RasPi inside the case rattles a little too much.They’re trying to fix the issue in the next iterati... | 1,760,376,795.576448 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/07/24/motorized-camera-rig-makes-panoramic-shooting-simple/ | Motorized Camera Rig Makes Panoramic Shooting Simple | Mike Nathan | [
"Arduino Hacks",
"digital cameras hacks",
"News"
] | [
"camera",
"ir",
"motorized",
"panorama",
"tripod"
] | Where some people might see a pile of junk, Hackaday reader and budget-conscious photo nut [FantomFotographer] sees inspiration. He was in search of a rig that would
help him take better panoramic photos
and found all that he needed to build one right around him.
He had an old tripod kicking around, which serves as the base for rig. At the top sits a pair of servos [FantomFotographer] attached to the tripod with some scrap wood, screws, and glue. The servos are driven by an Arduino Nano, which sits comfortably in a plastic enclosure he scavenged from trash heap. He uses an IR receiver to control the whole thing, which allows him to not only change shooting angles, but camera settings as well.
While it might sound like all is well with his upcycled camera rig, [FantomFotographer] says that like every project, there is some room for improvement. He’s keeping the source code under wraps at the moment, but once he gets everything working to his liking, he says that he’ll release it.
In the meantime, be sure to
check out the cool panoramas he has put together. | 10 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "711714",
"author": "steve",
"timestamp": "2012-07-24T12:52:27",
"content": "I don’t really see the point. Almost all better point and shoots nowadays have free hand panorama mode.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "711738",
... | 1,760,376,795.449225 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/07/24/create-a-laminar-flow-jet-wthout-pesky-fiber-optics/ | Create A Laminar Flow Jet Without Pesky Fiber Optics. | Jesse Congdon | [
"home entertainment hacks"
] | [
"fountain",
"laminar flow",
"water"
] | [ApexLogic] had some PMMA core acrylic rod rod left over from a project and decided to use it as the lighting element in a
laminar flow water jet
.
The typical water jet consists of a bunch of sponges and drinking straws sandwiched together to slow a rough water stream and then a finely cut nozzle to provide a smooth ripple-free strand of clear water. If light is applied to this stream of water it tends to act similarly to fiber optics. [ApexLogic], however, uses a combination of shaved PVC filings, Brillo, and what appears to be most of the plumbing aisle of a local hardware store to get the same laminar flow. To top it off the polished acrylic rod is much less fragile than its glass-fiber counterpart and can have a high power light glued to the end for a nice water tight seal.
The system currently runs off of garden hose pressure, and would probably need some kind of a boost before it went into that front yard mega fountain that [Caleb] is still waiting for somebody to make. If you still need some clarity on laminar water jets check out
these videos
on a few | 15 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "711668",
"author": "Eirinn",
"timestamp": "2012-07-24T11:13:54",
"content": "Gotta love laminar water jets. They look spectacular when used in fountain systems.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "711678",
"author": "Eirin... | 1,760,376,795.70908 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/07/23/cutting-a-record-on-a-cd/ | Cutting A Record… On A CD | Brian Benchoff | [
"Musical Hacks"
] | [
"cd",
"record",
"record cutter",
"vinyl"
] | Vinyl records are an amazingly simple technology, but surprisingly we haven’t seen many builds to capitalize on the ease of recording music onto a vinyl disk. [Seringson]
made his own
vinyl
polycarbonate cutter
to record his own records at home. The impressive thing is he did this with parts just lying around.
Just like the professional and obsolete record cutters of yore, [Seringson]’s build uses two speaker drivers mounted at a 45° angle to reproduce a stereo audio track. Each of these drivers reproduce the left and right audio track by carving them into the polycarbonate of a CD with an extremely sharp needle. From the video, the audio quality of [Seringson]’s record cutter is pretty good – more than enough to recreate the sound of a 1940’s 78 RPM record, but not quite up to the task of reproducing something produced and mastered recently.
We’re extremely impressed that [Seringson] was able to a record cutter out of scraps he had lying around. Now we’ll wait patiently until a combination record/CD is released.
Tip ‘o the billycock to [Gervais] for sending this one in.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y1I3Gi3X3HU&w=470] | 28 | 12 | [
{
"comment_id": "711086",
"author": "Chris",
"timestamp": "2012-07-23T21:08:39",
"content": "My friend Mike has been doing this for years, granted he uses refurbished antique record lathes instead of a home-made machine.He runs a little boutique record label if you want to some of his work. All of ... | 1,760,376,795.644386 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/07/23/the-proper-way-to-put-an-arduino-in-a-raspberry-pi/ | The Proper Way To Put An Arduino In A Raspberry Pi | Brian Benchoff | [
"Arduino Hacks",
"Raspberry Pi"
] | [
"arduino",
"Pi Plate",
"Rasperry Pi",
"shield"
] | For all their hoopla, the GPIO pins on the Raspberry Pi aren’t terribly useful on their own. Sure, you can output digital data, but our world is analog and there just isn’t any ADCs or DACs on these magical Raspi pins.
The AlaMode
, a project designed by [Kevin], [Anool], and [Justin] over at the Wyolum OSHW collaborative aims to fix this. They developed a stackable Arduino-compatable board for the Raspberry Pi.
Right off the bat, the AlaMode plugs directly into the GPIO pins of the Raspberry Pi. From there, communication with the ATMega of the Arduino is enabled, allowing you to send and receive data just as you would with an Arduino. There’s a real-time clock, servo headers, plenty of ways to power the board, and even a breakout for
this GPS module
.
A lot of unnecessary cruft is done away with in the AlaMode; There’s no USB port, but it can be programmed directly over the GPIO pins of the Raspberry Pi. Pretty neat, and we can’t wait to grab one for our Raspi. | 50 | 20 | [
{
"comment_id": "710997",
"author": "Tony",
"timestamp": "2012-07-23T19:44:58",
"content": "Folks, that’s what fanboi nirvana looks like.If only Steve Jobs was around to slap an Apple logo on it.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "711005",
... | 1,760,376,795.837704 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/07/23/growerbot-turns-gardening-into-a-science/ | Growerbot Turns Gardening Into A Science | Brian Benchoff | [
"cooking hacks",
"Crowd Funding"
] | [
"gardening",
"Growerbot",
"horticulture"
] | A backyard vegetable garden can be a hit-or-miss game. You’re really not sure if your crops are getting enough sun, shade, or water until it’s time for harvest and you see the results of a season of hard work. Growerbot, a hardware project by [Luke]
that’s up on Kickstarter now
, hopes to change that. This box will pull down how much sun and water your crops should get, and is smart enough to correct any deficiencies.
On board the Growerbot is a soil moisture sensor, light, temperature, and humidity sensors, as well as WiFi connectivity and a few relays to run pumps and turn on grow lights. The idea is to learn from mistakes and achieve optimal growth for everything connected to the Growerbot. If you’re trying to grow some heirloom tomatoes in the midwest, you can go online and get the growth profile for your area and precisely control environmental variables for the perfect crop.
As of now, there are settings for in-ground gardens, raised beds, and hydroponic setups. There’s not much in the way of ideal growing conditions aside from what is available from the USDA, but once Growerbot is released we expect the data to start flowing in. | 18 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "710910",
"author": "raidscsi",
"timestamp": "2012-07-23T18:15:20",
"content": "At least in Northeast Ohio there is a fairly annoying radio commercial for indoor hydroponics that uses the word “tomato” to mean pot.Cannabis profiles for download in 3 2 1…",
"parent_id": null,
... | 1,760,376,795.904319 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/07/23/blinkenwall-controlled-by-a-c64/ | Blinkenwall Controlled By A C64 | Brian Benchoff | [
"classic hacks",
"LED Hacks"
] | [
"commodore 64",
"shiftbrite"
] | Looking for a dual monitor setup for your Commodore 64? Look no further than the
C64 controlled Blinkenwall
put together over at Metalab.
The Blinkenwall
is 45 glass blocks serving as a partition between the main room and the library over at
Metalab
in Vienna. Previously, the Blinkenwall was illuminated by 45
ShiftBrite RGB LED boards
controlled by an Arduino connected to a Fonera router over a serial port. The Metalab guys have an
awesome web interface
that allows them (and you) to compose 45-pixel animations and play them on the Blinkenwall.
The new hardware update includes a Commodore 64, a
Final Cartridge III
, and the ever popular Commodore tape drive. now, instead of sending animation patterns over the Internet to an Arduino, the folks at Metalab can write their animations as 6510 assembly and save it on a cassette.
Yes, this may be a bit of an anachronism, but think of the possibilities: Prince of Persia on a 9×5 display, or just a light show to go along with some SID tunes. You can check out the video after the break.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l3n3i5SuXf4&w=470] | 6 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "710823",
"author": "Jim",
"timestamp": "2012-07-23T17:01:18",
"content": "“And she’ll have fun fun funTil her daddy gets a TI99/4A”",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "710911",
"author": "Jarel",
"timestamp": "2012... | 1,760,376,795.953212 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/07/23/so-you-want-to-run-a-kickstarter/ | So You Want To Run A Kickstarter? | Brian Benchoff | [
"Crowd Funding"
] | [
"Crowd Funding"
] | Earlier this year, [Anthony Clay] wanted to test the waters of Kickstarter with a low-risk project. The idea he came up with was a series of EE reference posters
we featured in a Hackaday links post
. Now that [Anthony]’s project is over, he
decided to write about the whole ordeal
of putting together a Kickstarter, giving all the gory details of putting on your own crowd-sourced project.
We’ve got to give [Anthony] credit for doing his homework. Even before he designed his first poster, he looked over unsuccessful Kickstarter campaigns to see what they did wrong. Once he knew what he was going to offer, [Anthony] put on his project manager hat and made sure he knew exactly what everything was going to cost, had contingency plans in place, and
knew what his Kickstarter was
before he spread the word.
The best laid schemes of mice and men ‘oft go awry, so of course [Anthony] hit a few snags in his Kickstarter. In his microcontroller quicknotes poster, a few weird underlines made it into the final draft of the voltage characteristics section. Everyone he showed this to thought it was no big deal, but this is something that should have been caught in proofing. Keeping in mind that [Anthony] was only doing a poster and not an electronics project, we think this is a valuable lesson for future Kickstartees.
If you’re wondering what the one thing that [Anthony] credits for the success of his Kickstarter, it’s actually the small blurb we featured in a links post. Once that happened, word started to spread and the funding picked up. To be honest, we’re impressed by that fact, and we’ll try to wield our powers carefully in the future. | 11 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "710692",
"author": "karlexceed",
"timestamp": "2012-07-23T15:07:07",
"content": "Second link points to the wrong place; it should behttp://zarthcode.com/the-ee-poster-kickstarter-a-postmortem/and not the mentioned links post of HaD.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"repl... | 1,760,376,798.109338 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/07/23/hacked-arm-dev-board-gives-you-two-for-the-price-of-one/ | Hacked ARM Dev Board Gives You Two For The Price Of One! | Gerrit Coetzee | [
"Microcontrollers"
] | [
"hacksaw",
"stlink",
"stm32f0-discovery",
"STMF103"
] | [Matt Evans] took a closer look at the popular (and cheap) STM32F0 Discovery development board and
realized he could get a second board out of the deal
.
The Discovery board is designed to advertise ST Microntroller’s STM32F0 microchip; which with 8k RAM, 64K Flash, a bunch of peripherals, 48MHz clock, and a low price is a great chip. Though, they needed a way to program the STM32F0. To do this they added a second, more powerful, chip to the board as an interface. The STM32F103, with 20k RAM, 64K flash, and a 72MHz clock speed. [Matt] summoned genius, and simply sawed the board in half using a hacksaw.
Of course the caveat to all this is that you need a working Discovery board, or at least a working ST-LINK programmer, at the end of the day, to get any use out of your creation. Since the boards are so cheap though, it shouldn’t be a problem to buy two. | 19 | 14 | [
{
"comment_id": "710645",
"author": "crenn",
"timestamp": "2012-07-23T14:27:44",
"content": "Interesting use of the board, got one of these boards on order myself, just waiting for delivery! Should be noted if you have any of the discovery boards, it comes with the STMF103 as the ST-Link section.",
... | 1,760,376,797.639857 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/07/23/real-life-subtitle-glasses/ | Real Life Subtitle Glasses | Gerrit Coetzee | [
"News",
"Raspberry Pi"
] | [
"glasses",
"ipad",
"iphone",
"microsoft translation api",
"Project Glass",
"raspberry pi",
"translation",
"vuzix"
] | [Will Powell] sent in his
real-time subtitle glasses project
. Inspired by the ever cool Google Project Glass, he decided he would experiment with his own version.
He used two Raspberry Pi’s running Debian squeeze, vuzix glasses, microphones, a tv, ipad, and iphone as the hardware components. The flow of data is kind of strange in this project. The audio first gets picked up by a bluetooth microphone and streamed through a smart device to a server on the network. Once it’s on the server it gets parsed through Microsoft’s translation API. After that the translated message is sent back to a Raspberry Pi where it’s displayed as subtitles on the glasses.
Of course this is far from a universal translation device as seen in Star Trek. The person being translated has to talk clearly into a microphone, and there is a huge layer of complexity. Though, as far as tech demos go it is pretty cool and you can see him playing a game of chess using the system after the break.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vw6dJDMmnlw] | 15 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "710666",
"author": "Paul",
"timestamp": "2012-07-23T14:40:58",
"content": "Nice work. I always wanted something like this. I can’t wait to see this progress.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "710693",
"author": "notmyfault20... | 1,760,376,797.907555 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/07/23/using-an-ir-remote-with-your-arduino/ | Using An IR Remote With Your Arduino | Brian Benchoff | [
"Arduino Hacks",
"how-to"
] | [
"arduino",
"IR remote",
"remote control"
] | If you’ve ever needed a short-range remote control for a project, [firestorm] is here to help you out. He put up a great tutorial
on using an IR remote
to do just about anything with everyone’s favorite microcontroller platform.
[firestorm] used the
Arduino IRremote library
to decode the button presses on his remote. After uploading the IR receive demo included in the library, the Arduino spit out hex codes of what the IR receiver was seeing. [firestorm] wrote these down, and was able to program his Arduino to respond to each individual button press.
After figuring out the IR codes for his remote, [firestorm] threw a shift register into his bread board and attached a seven-segment LED. Since [firestorm] knows the codes for the number buttons on his remote, it’s very easy to have the LED display flash a number when the corresponding button on the remote is pressed.
A single seven-segment display might not be extremely useful, but with [firestorm]’s tutorial, it’s easy to give your Arduino some remote control capabilities with a simple IR receiver. Not bad for a few dollars in parts. | 9 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "710564",
"author": "1one",
"timestamp": "2012-07-23T12:16:23",
"content": "How is this a hack?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "710575",
"author": "DJCalarco",
"timestamp": "2012-07-23T12:37:54",
"conten... | 1,760,376,797.687989 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/07/23/retrotechtacular-recovering-lost-moon-images-by-dumpster-diving/ | Retrotechtacular: Recovering Lost Moon Images By Dumpster Diving | Brian Benchoff | [
"classic hacks"
] | [
"dumpster diving",
"lunar orbiter",
"retrotechtacular"
] | In 1966 and 67, NASA launched five probes to image the surface of the moon from orbit, eventually returning over two thousand high-resolution images of future Apollo landing sites and selenogical features to researchers on Earth. After taking its pictures of the moon, developing the film in orbit, and scanning the print with an electron gun and photomultiplier tube, the images were sent to Earth stations and recorded onto magnetic tape with a hugely expensive tape recorder, a state-of-the-art storage system costing $300,000. Researchers poured over these images of another world, made a few 35mm prints and sent the magnetic tapes off to the NASA archives.
Under the care of [Nancy Evans], the tapes sat in a warehouse eventually moving to an abandoned McDonalds at Ames Research Center. In 2005, retired and not bound by NASA, [Nancy]
made a plea
to preserve this milestone of human spaceflight wasting away under the golden arches which was heard by [Dennis Wingo]. [Wingo] and admin of the NASA Watch website admin [Keith Cowling] drove out to [Nancy]’s house with a truck, picked up the Ampex FR-900 tape drives she had saved in her garage from the trash heap at Eglin Air Force Base and headed to the cache of Lunar Orbiter tapes at Ames.
None of these drives worked, of course. Forty years will do a lot to expensive precision equipment. Luckily, one of the employees at Ames tasked with fixing video equipment had worked on the ancient Ampex drives before. Taking the unbroken parts of these machines and turning them into a single working unit didn’t come easily; again, parts needed to be scavenged from the Ames boneyard.
All this work was worth it for [Cowling], [Wingo], and [Evans] when the first image – an Earthrise picture seen above (sans the obvious Photoshoppery) – appeared on their monitor. Later,
an amazing oblique shot of Copernicus crater
was recovered.
In the years since these first images from
the LOIRP project
were released, many more images have been made available. These images are actually
comparable to the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter
, launched in 2012. Not bad for 45-year-old hardware that has since crashed into the moon.
As for what the future holds for the still-magnetized images from the Lunar Orbiter program, [Dennis Wingo] says they’re considering putting up a Kickstarter to close the gap between the necessary funding and what NASA provides. We’ll be sure to post a link when that happens.
via
boingboing | 34 | 15 | [
{
"comment_id": "710523",
"author": "error32",
"timestamp": "2012-07-23T11:23:15",
"content": "I just love this kind of story!What most amazes me is the fact that they had to develop the film, I never thought about it like that.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
... | 1,760,376,798.06125 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/07/22/vibrating-gloves-help-bring-back-finger-sensation-after-injury/ | Vibrating Gloves Help Bring Back Finger Sensation After Injury | Mike Szczys | [
"Medical Hacks"
] | [
"glove",
"injury",
"sensation",
"spinal cord"
] | This glove is something of a medical breakthrough. It’s used in conjunction with a musical keyboard to teach the wearer how to play simple songs. The thing is, instrumental proficiency isn’t the end goal. This is
aimed at returning sensation to patients who have had a spinal cord injury
. Many of the test subjects — all of which had the injuries more than a year before participating — experienced increased sensation in their hands and that is quite rare under these circumstances.
There’s not a ton of information available on the hardware itself, but this image lets us make a pretty good guess. The glove is a typical fingerless cycling glove. There are two conductors worth of ribbon cable going to each digit. On the ring finger you can make out the bulging hardware which appears to be a vibrating cellphone motor. The white enclosure houses the microcontroller which receives wireless commands from a PC. When it is time for a finger to move, the appropriate motor vibrates. This is best explained in the clip after the break.
Apparently the combination of sensory feedback and the need to react to it provides the therapeutic impetus which achieves the promising results seen in the study.
[via
Engadget
] | 6 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "710312",
"author": "iampsion",
"timestamp": "2012-07-23T02:44:34",
"content": "From the stunned silence, I guess I’m not the only one wondering: is the fabric resistant to baby oil or vaseline?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "71... | 1,760,376,797.850427 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/07/22/power-pwns-price-tag-is-as-dangerous-as-its-black-hat-uses/ | Power Pwn’s Price Tag Is As Dangerous As It’s Black-hat Uses | Mike Szczys | [
"Security Hacks"
] | [
"overpriced",
"pen testing",
"penetration testing",
"power strip"
] | This rather normal-looking power strip hides a secret inside. It’s
called the Power Pwn, and it conceals hardware which facilitates remote penetration testing
of a network. It really is the ultimate in drop hardware as you can quickly swap it with existing power strip. Who’s going to question it?
It’s got almost all the bells and whistles. There’s dual Ethernet ports, Bluetooth with 1000′ range, and WiFi with a high gain antenna. The SoC inside comes with Debian 6 and all the exploit tools you might want pre-loaded. There’s even a 3G adapter, but it’s external and not pictured above. The thing is, for a pre-order price-tag of $1,295 we think that 3G should have been internalized and come with a lifetime unlimited data plan! That could be a bit overboard… our heads are still spinning from the sticker shock.
This isn’t the first time we’ve seen hardware from this company. Their Pwn Plug
was used in this project
. We just didn’t catch the $595 price tag for that device until now.
[via
Reddit
via
Zdnet
] | 45 | 20 | [
{
"comment_id": "710091",
"author": "rfengr00",
"timestamp": "2012-07-22T20:09:48",
"content": "What’s the big deal about the price? It costs that of a medium range laptop.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "710097",
"author": "charles",... | 1,760,376,798.191585 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/07/22/driving-your-home-appliances-with-hybrid-power/ | Driving Your Home Appliances With Hybrid Power | Mike Szczys | [
"green hacks",
"home hacks"
] | [
"battery",
"electricity",
"hybrid",
"inverter",
"solar",
"solar panel"
] | This
system of hybridizing your home’s electric appliances
is an interesting take on solar energy. It focuses on seamlessly switching appliances from the grid to stored solar energy as frequently as possible. There’s a promo video after the break that explains the setup, but here’s the gist of it.
Follow along on the pictograph above. We start on the left with solar panel. This feeds to a charger that tops off a 12V battery. When that battery is full, the charger feeds to the inverter which converts the 12V DC to 110V AC power. This is fed to a pass-through which is in between the appliance (in this a case a lamp) and the wall outlet. The pass-through will switch between mains power coming from the outlet, and the 110 coming from the inverter. The homeowner won’t know, or care, which power source is being used. But sunny months should result in lower energy bills. The real question is how long it takes to cover the cost of the system in saved electricity. | 19 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "710013",
"author": "scott",
"timestamp": "2012-07-22T19:16:17",
"content": "If you really want to save energy, you just use a 12VDC lamp run directly from the battery and ditch the inverter… you waste quite a bit in conversion on most devices.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1... | 1,760,376,797.574537 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/07/22/measuring-how-components-react-to-extremely-cold-temperatures/ | Measuring How Components React To Extremely Cold Temperatures | Mike Szczys | [
"chemistry hacks",
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"Experiments",
"liquid nitrogen"
] | [Shahriar Shahramian] is playing with some liquid nitrogen in order to see
how various components react to extremely low temperatures
. After the break you will find forty-one minutes of video in which he conducts and explains each experiment. This does have practical applications. If you’re designing hardware for use in space you definitely need to know how the hardware will be affected. We’ve actually seen
test rigs built for this very purpose
.
During the presentation he doesn’t water down the concepts observed, including the equations governing each reaction to temperature change. If you’re in the mood for a little bit lighter faire you should check out some of the liquid nitrogen cooking hacks like
this super-cold cocktail pops project
. | 8 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "709990",
"author": "DrLuke",
"timestamp": "2012-07-22T18:52:38",
"content": "He has a 4 wire multimeter, why does he only use it in 2 wire mode T_T",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "710107",
"author": "Hans de Jong",
... | 1,760,376,797.80282 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/07/22/task-scheduler-for-arduino/ | Task Scheduler For Arduino | Mike Szczys | [
"Arduino Hacks",
"Hackerspaces"
] | [
"balloon",
"high-altitude",
"scheduler",
"task scheduler",
"watchdog"
] | For their recent high altitude balloon project LVL1 member [Brad] programmed a pretty complicated brain based on an Arduino. It was responsible for collecting data from all of the sensors, and reporting back in a few different ways. One of the things he did to simplify the project was
develop a task scheduler for the Arduino board
. It lets you add functions to a queue of jobs, along with data about when they should be run.
The task scheduler does make coding a bit easier, but where it really shines is in situations like this where you don’t have access to the hardware if there’s a problem. In his description of the scheduler [Brad] mentions the possibility that one of the sensors could fail as the cold of the upper atmosphere takes its toll. This could leave the whole system stuck in a subroutine, and therefore it will stop sending reports back to the team on the ground. Since he was using the task scheduler it was a snap to add watchdog timer servicing to the mix. Now if program execution gets stuck the watchdog will reset the chip and all is not lost.
[Thanks JAC_101] | 20 | 14 | [
{
"comment_id": "709973",
"author": "Ragnar",
"timestamp": "2012-07-22T18:14:42",
"content": "Just as I start to look deeper into Arduino this pops up and will certainly save me some headaches.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "709978",
"autho... | 1,760,376,797.752242 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/07/22/reverse-engineering-a-stylophone/ | Reverse Engineering A Stylophone | Brian Benchoff | [
"Musical Hacks"
] | [
"reverse engineering",
"stylophone"
] | The Stylophone – a musical toy from the 60s – is a surprisingly simple piece of engineering. With a simple metallic keyboard played with a stylus and just a handful of transistors, the Stylophone was able to produce a few marvelous for their time sounds, and is the equivalent of a pre-[Stradivarius] violin for the electronic music scene. [Simon]
tore apart an original Stylophone
, and did a complete teardown of the circuit, going over the ins and outs of why this ancient noise box is so cool.
There have been quite a few DIY Stylophone clones, but all of them suffered from the same raspy sound made by a 555 timer chip
slightly misguided makers used
instead of the relaxation oscillator (in the pic seen above) used in the original. Aside from the oscillator connect to the RC circuit of the metallic keyboard, [Simon] also looked into the vibrato circuit. This is just a simple oscillator producing an 8 Hz sine-ish wave. The keyboard, of course, is connected to the circuit with an array of resistors which [Simon] happily provided the values for.
[Simon] put up
a schematic
of his reverse engineered Stylophone, allowing you to clone this ancient electronic instrument. If you can source the transistors, that is. | 10 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "709882",
"author": "nes",
"timestamp": "2012-07-22T15:20:14",
"content": "You can get those unijunction transistors new in packs of four on ebay. For authenticity you really want the ones in metal cans I suppose but even they’re not scarce.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
... | 1,760,376,798.984357 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/07/22/editing-your-fpga-source/ | Editing Your FPGA Source | Brian Benchoff | [
"Software Development"
] | [
"Emacs",
"fpga",
"hdl",
"Notepad++",
"verilog",
"vhdl"
] | [Dave] noted that in a recent poll of FPGA developers, emacs was far and away the most popular VHDL and Verilog editor. There are a few reasons for this – namely, emacs comes with packages for editing your HDL of choice. For those of us not wanting to install (and learn) the emacs operating system, [Dave]
got Notepad++ to work with these packages.
Notepad++ already has VHDL and Verilog highlighting along with other advanced text editor features, but [Dave] wanted templates, automated declarations and beautification. To do this, he used the
FingerText
to store code as snippets and call them up at the wave of a finger.
As [Dave] writes his code, the component declarations constantly need to be updated, and with the help of a Perl script [Dave] can update them with the click of a hotkey. Beautification is a harder nut to crack, as Notepad++ doesn’t even have a VHDL or Verilog beautifier plugin. This was accomplished by installing emacs and running the beautification process as a batch script. Nobody can have it all, but we’re thinking [Dave]’s method of getting away from emacs is pretty neat. | 18 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "709837",
"author": "biozz",
"timestamp": "2012-07-22T13:17:21",
"content": "i still need to get in to FPGA or CLPD design but i has no moneys for a dev board D8",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "709856",
"author": "Danie... | 1,760,376,798.617691 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/07/21/servos-servos-and-more-servos/ | Servos, Servos, And More Servos | Brian Benchoff | [
"hardware"
] | [
"continuous rotation servo",
"pic",
"raspberry pi",
"servo",
"servos"
] | For one reason or another, a lot of Hackaday readers are doing stuff with servos as of late. Here’s a few servo hacks that made their way into our tip line over the past day or so:
USB servo controller and a Stewart Platform
[Patricio] needed a way to control a bunch of servos for his thesis project. He came up with a
USB servo controller
(Spanish,
here’s the translation
) powered by a 40-pin PIC 18F microcontroller. The board connects to the USB port of a computer and supports up to 8 servos with 8 additional digital I/Os. Why all this horsepower?
It’s for a Stewart Platform
[Patricio] and his partner [Natalia] built.
Continuous rotation servos
Standard servos are usually limited to a rotation angle of somewhere between 140 and 160 degrees. Sometimes you need a continuous rotation servo, and those are a little more expensive. Every servo is a continuous rotation servo
if you disable a the variable resistor
as [Valentin] shows us. It’s a simple, if old, hack. It’s new to someone, though.
Eight servos on a Raspi
[Mikael] made a little board to attach to the GPIO header of his Raspberry Pi
and control up to 8 servos
. The board is running a serial interface with a small microcontroller on board. There’s nothing in the way of schematics or code, a testament for why you should always use a good email address when sending something into the HaD tip line. It seems [Mikael] is making a proper board, and we’ll more than happily give it a full post when it’s complete. | 22 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "709229",
"author": "hash79",
"timestamp": "2012-07-21T18:14:07",
"content": "Using servo’s as low cost Series Elastic Actuators.http://random-workshop.blogspot.com/2012/06/10-series-elastic-actuator-series.html-Hash",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
... | 1,760,376,798.682027 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/07/21/chorded-keyboard-for-touchscreens/ | Chorded Keyboard For Touchscreens | Brian Benchoff | [
"Multitouch Hacks",
"Peripherals Hacks"
] | [
"chorded keyboard",
"keyboard",
"multitouch"
] | For over a hundred years, good typists didn’t ‘hunt and peck’ but instead relied on keeping their fingers on the home row. This technique relies on physical buttons, but with on-screen keyboards used on tablets and other touch screen devices touch typists have a very hard time. [Zach] is working on a new project to
bring a chorded keyboard to these devices
called ASETNIOP.
Instead of training a typist where to place their finger – the technique used in most other keyboard replacements, ASETNIOP trains the typist
which
fingers to press. For example, typing ‘H’ requires the typist to press the index and middle fingers of their right hand against the touchscreen. In addition to touchscreens, ASETNIOP can be used with
projection systems
,
Nintendo Power Glove replicas
, and
extremely large touchpads
that include repurposed nooks and Kindles.
If you’d like to try out ASENTNIOP,
there’s a tutorial
that allows you to try it out on a physical keyboard as well as
one for the iPad
. It’s a little weird to try out but surely no more difficult to learn than a Dvorak keyboard. | 18 | 14 | [
{
"comment_id": "709202",
"author": "Mike bradley",
"timestamp": "2012-07-21T17:30:11",
"content": "More advanced typist, multitask their fingers. Faster to move whole hands and cross",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "709213",
"author": "Apron... | 1,760,376,798.564872 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/07/21/building-fiber-optic-chandeliers/ | Building Fiber Optic Chandeliers | Mike Szczys | [
"home hacks"
] | [
"chandelier",
"diffuser",
"fiber optics",
"rgb"
] | This chandelier
keeps the light source hidden and uses fiber optics to illuminate the acrylic diffusers
. It’s the second attempt [TheCreator] has made at building his own. Bother projects are interesting in their own way.
The first attempt
used marbles as diffusers and had a much different look to it. This time around he’s using what he calls acrylic dowels. They’re not round, but square (which is why we’re not sure dowel is the right term), and he says they work better than marbles for several reasons. The marbles weren’t very heavy so they didn’t really weigh down the glass fibers to keep then straight. They were also difficult to attach to the fibers and prone to breakage.
To attach the dowels he drilled a hole in the end and epoxied a fiber optic strand in place. To direct light into the other end of the filament he built his own frustum (a pyramid with the tip cut off) of inward facing mirror. This helps to focus what is coming from the RGB LEDs in the appropriate direction so that as much light as possible makes it into the fibers.
He didn’t really give any final thoughts so we wonder if it puts out enough light for his needs. We’re sure that if it’s purely a mood piece he’s satisfied. | 8 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "709165",
"author": "atomsoft",
"timestamp": "2012-07-21T16:18:53",
"content": "Did you mean “both her” ? for bother ?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "709221",
"author": "TheCreator",
"timestamp": "2012-07-21T18:02:44",
... | 1,760,376,798.466214 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/07/21/building-a-steam-punk-style-time-and-weather-display/ | Building A Steam Punk Style Time And Weather Display | Mike Szczys | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"gadgeteer",
"sprite",
"steam punk",
"weather",
"weather station"
] | This is [Pierre Cauchois’]
digital weather display
. Since weather displays are ubiquitous in this day of smart phones in every pocket he went out of his way to give it a unique look. He started with a wooden voltmeter case, swapping the ancient display for a modern LCD screen.
He used Gadgeteer components for the retrofit. The images for the LCD are stored on an SD card and displayed on demand. Since the digital bezel will be the same no matter what the time or environmental conditions [Pierre] used the power of the .NET framework that drives the system. He made up an image using magenta for all of the dial openings. This way a sprite can be used just for the changing numbers, weather icon, and graphing area.
Looking at all that went into coding the project we think the Gadgeteer components are perfect for those that are well-versed in upper-level languages and don’t really want to deal with low-level microcontroller issues.
[Thanks George] | 8 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "709130",
"author": "elwing",
"timestamp": "2012-07-21T15:18:11",
"content": "hum, Steampunk? as inhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TFCuE5rHbPA?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "709462",
"author": "PI",
"timestamp"... | 1,760,376,798.513501 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/07/21/redesigning-the-rc-tank/ | Redesigning The RC Tank | Jake W | [
"Android Hacks",
"Robots Hacks"
] | [
"detection",
"obstacle",
"tank",
"unmanned"
] | [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=–YZHMqHzPw]
[Vincent] started building
this tank
(
translation
) with a regular hobby model: the
Heng Long Tiger 1
. However, after considering some goals for the project, he decided to nearly gut the tank and redesign it, basing it on the Arduino and a standard Motor Shield. The possibilities with this setup are nearly endless. In its current form, the ArduTiger detects obstacles in front of it by way of three servo-mounted infrared rangefinders. The tank’s trajectory can be adjusted automatically based on feedback from the servo positions. Two additional short-range rangefinders detect if there is ground for the tank to roll over, keeping it safe from cliffs and black holes. [Vincent] plans on updating this beast by adding a
Raspberry Pi
for live video and advanced control… and maybe even adding a Geiger counter! | 6 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "709084",
"author": "trandi",
"timestamp": "2012-07-21T14:22:13",
"content": "Nice, but I’m still waiting for somebody to add IR targets finding capabilities to their tank so that we can have an autonomous fight:)http://trandi.wordpress.com/2011/05/14/tiger-1-bb-airsoft-rc-tank-%E2%8... | 1,760,376,798.72624 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/07/21/diy-globars-for-nighttime-bike-visibility/ | DIY GLOBARS For Nighttime Bike Visibility | Brian Benchoff | [
"Transportation Hacks"
] | [
"bicycle",
"bike",
"GLOBARS",
"led strip"
] | Inspired by a non-existant yet still cool illuminated bicycle handlebar project, [Becky] over at Adafruit came up with her own version of
light up handlebars
. Not only is her project actually
real
, they’re also a pretty cool build that brings a little lightcycle ambiance to twilight bicycling.
[Becky]’s light up handlebars are inspired by
the GLOBARS concept
design that made the blog rounds earlier this year. Instead of custom machined aluminum tubing, [Becky] used an Adafruit LED strip neatly assembled with heat shrink tubing and waterproof tape, along with an 8 AA-cell battery holder in a fabric and velcro pouch suspended from the top tube on her bike.
After wrapping the LEDs around the handlebars, [Becky] wrapped them in clear handlebar tape she sourced from Amazon. From the video after the break, the 2 meter LED strip on [Becky]’s handlebars verge on lightcycle territory, but sourcing a 6 AA-cell battery holder over an 8-cell will bring the brightness down to a reasonable but still safe level.
You can check out [Becky]’s build video after the break.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BIwcYmOzLoE&w=470] | 28 | 15 | [
{
"comment_id": "709076",
"author": "BurlyMan2012",
"timestamp": "2012-07-21T14:03:35",
"content": "That is absolutely awesome, although… I would never ever ever point a light at my face, or anywhere my face would be. That’s a bad idea, you want to point the lights everywhere, everywhere but up at y... | 1,760,376,798.793691 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/07/21/picking-handcuffs-with-laser-cut-keys/ | Picking Handcuffs With Laser Cut Keys | Brian Benchoff | [
"lockpicking hacks"
] | [
"handcuffs",
"lockpicking"
] | At this year’s HOPE conference, German competitive lockpicker and security researcher [Ray] gave a talk about
escaping high security handcuffs
that are probably being used by your local police and other LEOs. He’s doing this with 3D printed and laser cut keys because, you know, security through obscurity never works.
Two years ago, [Ray] gave a talk at HOPE on
3D printing Dutch handcuff keys
(you can listen to his conference
as an .MP3 here
). This time around, [Ray] copied the keys of Bonowi and Chubb handcuffs, very popular brands for American police. After obtaining a key from each of the two brands, [Ray] broke out the calipers and micrometer and designed his own versions that can be printed on a RepRap or Makerbot, or just laser cut from a piece of plastic; the perfect material for sneaking one through a metal detector.
The .DXF and .STL files for the handcuff keys will be available on Thingiverse shortly. We’d suggest watching
this Thingiverse account
(nevermind), as they have the files for [Ray]’s
earlier Dutch handcuff key
. | 18 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "709043",
"author": "ZatGuy",
"timestamp": "2012-07-21T12:43:41",
"content": "Very intresting … i know you can buy handcuff keys at many gun shops but this is interesting!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "709087",
"author": "x... | 1,760,376,798.846394 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/07/20/robot-trash-can-catches-anything-you-throw-near-it/ | Robot Trash Can Catches Anything You Throw Near It | Mike Szczys | [
"Kinect hacks",
"Robots Hacks"
] | [
"robot",
"trash",
"waste basket"
] | This guy is about to toss the blue ball half way between the book shelf and the waste basket. By the time it gets there
the waste basket will have moved into position to catch the ball perfectly
. It’ll do the same for just about anything you throw.
We’re unable to read the captions but it looks like this may have been made as part of a commercial which is shown in the first few seconds of the video after the break. From there we see the development of a locomotive mechanism which will fit into the bottom of the bin. It start as a single swivel wheel, but gets more complicated quite quickly. Once the low-profile three-wheeler is milled and assembled it’s time to start writing the code to translate input from a Kinect 3D camera and extrapolate the position for catching the trash. The final result seems to do this perfectly. | 56 | 39 | [
{
"comment_id": "708628",
"author": "Daniil",
"timestamp": "2012-07-20T23:08:38",
"content": "This would benefit from some omni-wheels methinks.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "709156",
"author": "Robogreg",
"timestamp": "2012-... | 1,760,376,798.941525 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/07/20/giving-an-atx-bench-supply-the-case-it-deserves/ | Giving An ATX Bench Supply The Case It Deserves | Mike Szczys | [
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"atx",
"bench supply",
"breakout board",
"psu"
] | Your bench supply doesn’t need to look sad just because you’re using an ATX power supply instead of a commercial product. Follow [Ian Lee’s] example and you could have
beautiful wooden enclosures for the tools in your own shop
.
The woodworking skills used here aren’t all that advanced, but you need to have a knack for it so we suggest running some test pieces before you start the actual build. [Ian] ran a dado for the front and back panel in each piece of the wood sides. At each corner the inside of the the pieces were mitered at 45 degrees. To put it all together he laid the pieces end to end on a the work bench, then applied painters tape to the outside of the joints. This holds the joints together so that he can flip the collection over, apply glue, and then start hinging the sides into place. It’s almost like rolling up a box.
As with
other ATX supply projects we’ve seen
[Ian] designed this so that the PSU can be swapped out later if necessary. Instead of wiring his own cable harness he used
an ATX breakout board
. To get the interface layout he wanted he mounted the banana jacks separately and just ran jumper cables back to that board. | 31 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "708559",
"author": "'Duino",
"timestamp": "2012-07-20T21:05:52",
"content": "Flammable materials do not belong near a bench power supply enclosure.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "708580",
"author": "Rob",
"timestamp": "... | 1,760,376,799.493676 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/07/20/self-balancing-robot-uses-cascading-pid-algorithms/ | Self Balancing Robot Uses Cascading PID Algorithms | Mike Szczys | [
"Robots Hacks"
] | [
"arduino",
"gyroscope",
"IMU",
"pid",
"self balancing"
] | At this point we’re beginning to think that building a self-balancing robot is one of the rights of passage alongside blinking some LEDs and writing Hello World on an LCD screen. We’re not saying it’s easy to pull off a build like this one. But the project makes you learn a lot about a wide range of topics, and really pushes your skills to the next level. This latest offering comes from [Sebastian Nilsson]. He
used three different microcontrollers to get the two-wheeler to stand on its own
.
He used our favorite quick-fabrication materials of threaded rod and acrylic. The body is much taller than
what we’re used to seeing
and to help guard against the inevitable fall he used some foam packing material to protect the top level. Three different Arduino boards are working together. One monitors the speed and direction of each wheel. Another monitors the IMU board for position and motion feedback, and the final board combines data from the others and takes care of the balancing. Two PID algorithms provide predictive correction, first by analyzing the wheel motion, then feeding that data into the second which uses the IMU feedback. It balances very well, and can even be jostled without falling. See for yourself in the clip after the break. | 24 | 12 | [
{
"comment_id": "708520",
"author": "dude",
"timestamp": "2012-07-20T20:11:20",
"content": "It’s pretty cool, but I am not sure what the point of having a 2 wheeled balancing robot is for. You could just add a 3rd swivel wheel somewhere and it wouldn’t need to self balance. Awesome build and work, j... | 1,760,376,799.311056 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/07/20/viewing-cctv-on-every-street-corner/ | Viewing CCTV On Every Street Corner | Brian Benchoff | [
"Video Hacks"
] | [
"2.4ghz",
"CCTV",
"warwatching"
] | 2.4 GHz video transmitters are everywhere these days, in many, many products ranging from baby monitors to CCTV setups. Surprisingly, most owners of these video devices don’t realize they’re transmitting an unencrypted video signal, a belief [Benjamin]
hopes to rectify
.
[Ben]’s project started with him driving around cities recording unencrypted 2.4GHz video feeds. His idea has since expanded to include building metal boxes with an LCD display and attaching them to light poles. Think of it as an education via technology; most people don’t know these devices are receivable by everybody, and showing them it is possible is the first step in learning.
If you’re looking for something a little more creepy than a metal box attached to a lamp-post, [Ben] is also the brainchild behind the
Surveillance Video Entertainment Network
, an installation (also in van form) that exposes unencrypted 2.4 GHz video transmissions in cities around the world.
You can check out a few intercepted surveillance videos after the break. | 27 | 13 | [
{
"comment_id": "708459",
"author": "Skitchin",
"timestamp": "2012-07-20T19:11:13",
"content": "Didn’t thebroken do this way back in the day? Might not have been that show but it was definitely Kevin Rose + crew",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": ... | 1,760,376,799.37325 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/07/20/building-an-autonomous-robot-from-an-xbox-360-controller/ | Building An Autonomous Robot From An Xbox 360 Controller | Mike Szczys | [
"Robots Hacks",
"Xbox Hacks"
] | [
"controller",
"sensor",
"xbox 360"
] | Wow, it’s amazing what [Carl] was able to build
using an Xbox 360 control PCB as the base for his robot
. His forum posts just touches the surface of the build, but he linked to a PDF file which has the full details.
This build basically attaches sensors and replacement motors to the controller board… and that is it! Some distance sensors are connected to the analog inputs for the left and right trigger. The whiskers use a couple of leaf switches soldered to controller button pads. The motors are geared replacements that use the same connectors as the rumble motors did.
The idea is that the controller is connected to a PC via the wireless radio it has on the PCB. Once the connection is made the PC software can read from all of the sensors and drive the motors accordingly. It would also be really easy to use a single-board solution like the RPi to do away with the need for a remote PC. But this is a fantastic start, and an approach which we had never before considered. See some video of the little guy getting around the room after the break. | 8 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "708348",
"author": "evocube",
"timestamp": "2012-07-20T17:26:08",
"content": "cool build. i would however mute it if your tired. that song put me to sleep.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "708364",
"author": "Aaron",
"tim... | 1,760,376,799.146443 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/07/20/retrotechtacular-the-miracle-of-vacuum-tubes/ | Retrotechtacular: The Miracle Of Vacuum Tubes | Mike Szczys | [
"Radio Hacks"
] | [
"retrotechtacular",
"vacuum tubes"
] | We take our digital life for granted these days, but back in 1943 it was vacuum tubes, not transistors, which made it all possible. This
video on the types and industrial uses of vacuum tubes
was sent into the tips line by [Polar Bear]. The nearly 70-year-old video is
part of a collection
preserved by the New Jersey Amateur Radio Club.
The video was underwritten by Westinghouse, and as you can expect it has a bit of propaganda spin for the company. The time period in which the reel was produced is also telling. Coming about two years after the attack on Pearl Harbor, the applications for technology of the time are almost all military in focus. But we’re sure you’ll be entertained by both the film style and the tech explanation. It’s something of a
How It’s Made
of yesteryear. All twenty-one minutes of it are found embedded after the break. | 5 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "708385",
"author": "n0lkk",
"timestamp": "2012-07-20T18:17:46",
"content": "The old films are fun and informative to watch, howeverhttp://www.engineeringtv.com/,gives us good current information",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "7... | 1,760,376,799.420919 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/07/20/outdo-everyone-at-the-theatre-with-plasma-cut-batarangs/ | Batarangs For The Dark Knight Rises | Brian Benchoff | [
"cnc hacks"
] | [
"batarang",
"plasma cutter"
] | The Dark Knight Rises
is out now, and [Christian] over at MakeIt Labs decided to show up everyone at this year’s Halloween party with
these custom made Batarangs.
After the Batarangs were plasma cut out of 11-gauge steel, [Rob] beveled the trailing edges of the wing, powder coated them, and sharpened them with a grinder and a diamond stone. Yes, these Batarangs are probably much better weapons than the on-screen logo shaped shuriken, but it’s questionable how useful they are compared to perfectly balanced CGI weaponry. They’re a really awesome looking build perfect for this year’s Halloween costume.
One small word of warning for all the commentors: We know a few of you have already seen the midnight showing of
The Dark Knight Rises
, but posting
any
spoilers will result in a member of the Hackaday team hunting you down and savagely beating you. Also, given the
shooting at the premier in Aurora, Colorado
you probably don’t want to bring weapons – even prop ones – to a movie theatre.
You can check out the making of video for [Christian]’s Batarangs after the break.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FXJby075mUQ&w=470]
[Thanks Christian] | 39 | 15 | [
{
"comment_id": "708249",
"author": "John Schuch",
"timestamp": "2012-07-20T15:08:25",
"content": "Wow. Do you guys watch the news? Or was this a scheduled post? Showing up at Batman with any sort of weapons would probably be a REALLY bad idea right about now.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1... | 1,760,376,799.569583 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/07/20/cutting-islands-into-copper-clad-pcbs-with-a-drill/ | Cutting Islands Into Copper-clad PCBs With A Drill | Mike Nathan | [
"News",
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"copper clad",
"drill",
"islands",
"lands",
"pcb",
"tool"
] | If you’re looking to build some small radio circuits, or if you are simply seeking a new look for your PCBs, you might want to
check out what YouTube user [AndyDaviesByTheSea] has been working on lately.
He has been building RF circuits as of late and was searching for a better way to create islands or “lands” on copper-clad PCBs.
He says that these sorts of islands are traditionally cut into the PCB with a scalpel or file – hardly an efficient process. [Andy] did a little experimenting and found a great way to quickly and precisely cut lands with a drill. Borrowing a bit of metal from an old VHS tape, he crafted a circular land cutter with a metal file. When mounted as a drill bit, his cutter produces clean, shallow cuts which create perfect lands on which to solder his components.
The only drawback to this method is that [Andy] found his bits were being dulled by the fiberglass boards pretty quickly. His solution
was to carefully grind a broken heavy duty drill bit
to do the task, which he says works even better than his original cutter. | 18 | 15 | [
{
"comment_id": "708199",
"author": "svofski",
"timestamp": "2012-07-20T14:07:54",
"content": "Very clever! Nice!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "708208",
"author": "Miroslav",
"timestamp": "2012-07-20T14:24:59",
"content": "Smart. T... | 1,760,376,799.675848 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/07/20/hackaday-links-july-20-2012/ | Hackaday Links: July 20, 2012 | Brian Benchoff | [
"Hackaday links"
] | [
"apollo 11",
"dev board",
"heathkit",
"RTLSDR",
"software-defined radio",
"troll physics",
"watch band"
] | Hey, it’s the 43rd anniversary of men first walking on the moon. Here’s some stuff we found to celebrate that. Fun trivia: for Apollo 11, [Neil] and [Buzz]
didn’t go more than 200 feet from the LEM
.
This is so incredibly sad
Remember Heathkit? A lot of cool kit-based electronics came from them. They’re out of business, but you can get
all the Heathkit swag you can imagine from the repo man
. A ton of stuff from the old Heathkit headquarters is being auctioned off in Byron Center, Michigan this Tuesday, July 24. Notable lots include a
HE-Robot
and
a nice pair of o’scopes
. If someone wants to pick up one of the catalog lots for us, we’d be thankful.
Troll Physics: ‘What is with this guy’ edition
We’ve seen [Fredzislaw]’s LED trickery before. The first time was
a crazy 3 LED circuit
, the
reveal of which
showed two AC power supplies in a battery connector. This time,
[Fred] has two switches and an LED
. Turn one switch on, the LED lights up. Turn that switch off and flip the other one, the LED still lights up. Turn
both
switches on, the LED goes off. Your guess is as good as ours.
Prototyping with a key fob remote
[Gary] wrote in to tell us about t
he dev board
he’s been working on. It has either a PIC or AVR on the back side, broken out into 0.1 inch headers on the front. There’s a small solderless breadboard and an on-board RF link that uses a five-button key fob remote. Seems very useful, no matter what side of the PIC/AVR holy war you’re on.
Consumer Alerts: Software defined radio
Over on the RTLSDR subreddit, [photoscotty] bought this
TV tuner dongle
from Deal Extreme and received the inferior EZTV645 tuner. Unsurprisingly, Chinese manufacturers will just
grab whatever is available
, put it in an envelope, and ship it off on a slow boat from China. [photoscotty] is trying to return his dongle to DX, but until Sparkfun or Adafruit start selling these things (yes, there’s a market now get on it) you’ll have to be careful out there.
Wouldn’t this feel terrible against your skin all day?
[Colin] printed a
watch band on his Makerbot
. Apparently Shenzhen humidity didn’t play nicely with his nylon strap, so [Colin] made his own out of plastic. It’s flexible and has a neat looking clasp, as well as an awesome demo for what a 3D printer can actually do.
Thingiverse files here
. | 13 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "708164",
"author": "Bob",
"timestamp": "2012-07-20T13:23:05",
"content": "The only asset of value is the Heathkit name. If it were owned by someone who could do justice to it, that would be sweet.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": ... | 1,760,376,799.624046 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/07/20/using-a-watch-to-control-ms-pacman/ | Using A Watch To Control Ms. Pacman | Brian Benchoff | [
"classic hacks",
"Wearable Hacks"
] | [
"atari",
"TI Chronos",
"TI EZ430"
] | Recently, [Alan] broke out the ‘ol Atari 2600 to relive his childhood with a bit of
Yar’s Revenge
and
Adventure,
but after looking at his new TI EZ430 Chronos watch, he figured he could add a bit of motion control from this classic game system. He used the accelerometer in this watch to
play
Ms. Pacman
by tilting his wrist
, an awesome build that really shows off the power of his new wrist worn device.
The watch is running stock firmware and communicates to a PC via an RF module attached to his computer’s USB port. The accelerometer data is fed into a VB.net app to convert the movements of the wrist into up, down, left, and right commands. These commands are then sent out over a serial port to an Arduino to translate those commands into something the Atari joystick port can understand.
Sure, it may be a roundabout way of playing Ms. Pacman, but considering the TI Chronos has been used for very serious work such as
stopping SIDS
and
helping out soccer referees
, we’re happy to see a more frivolous application for this neat watch.
You can check out [Alan]’s video after the break, or get the VB and Arduino source
here
and
here
.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TcZBFHLC4U4&w=470] | 4 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "708145",
"author": "alxy",
"timestamp": "2012-07-20T12:55:04",
"content": "Try this with regular pac-man. While flopping around from a flicker-induced seizure, you can still play the game.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "708162... | 1,760,376,799.723257 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/07/19/hackaday-rbc-team-live-streaming-now/ | Hackaday RBC Team Finished! | Mike Szczys | [
"News"
] | [
"contest",
"creation",
"live stream",
"red bull"
] | Our Project:
“Minotaur’s Revenge”
We built two giant marble mazes. The maze itself is all mechanical, with a 2 person team controlling x and y axis. The fun happens though when you hit buttons to activate magnets and traps on the other team’s table.
Check out the
Live Stream
. Nothing is happening at the moment, but a couple of dedicated Hackaday fans are checking out an empty couch. We have a very strange readership.
[sonofabit] recorded the last 8 hours of the build at 1fps and
made a time lapse video
. It’s an hour long, and we thank [sonofabit]’s CPU for all its hard work. You can also check out the video after the break.
Rules of the contest as announced via Live Stream at 8:20pm Central Time on 7/18/12:
-Develop a game
-This must be a physical tangible game (not just a video game made from code)
-It must function like a game (there must be a way to win)
-The game must be safe and must be playable so the public can use it-Physical constraint: Must be able to be crated (8’x7.5’x7.5′) and must weigh under 2000 lbs.
Summary of 7/19:
We gathered, got our topic, made a shopping list and preceded to slack the rest of the night.
There was a fire breather, then lots of whiskey. At one point we pulled the red bull cannon out and shot things with it.
Summary of 7/20:
Decided what to build and bought supplies. General carpentry took the entire day. [Andrew Mitzel] and [Shawn McKee] pretty much did all the work while the rest of us ate food and watched fire breathers and graffiti artists. Here’s a pic of what they created (click to embiggen):
Summary of 7/21:
We split into teams for tasks. [Phil], [Ryan], and [Scott] set out to design the puzzle itself. [Shawn], and [Brian] built up the electronics. [Andrew] kept kicking ass at general construction. We barely made it, but it was done by the deadline.
[sonofabit]’s time lapse video:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xn4bBRFvR2E&w=470] | 28 | 25 | [
{
"comment_id": "707794",
"author": "oodain",
"timestamp": "2012-07-20T00:33:49",
"content": "cool, hackaday marathon it is then.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "707818",
"author": "DosX",
"timestamp": "2012-07-20T01:07:11",
"content... | 1,760,376,799.871213 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/07/19/reclaiming-the-numpad-for-laptop-users-everywhere/ | Reclaiming The Numpad For Laptop Users Everywhere | Mike Szczys | [
"News"
] | [
"10-key",
"numeric pad",
"numpad",
"Teensy",
"usb"
] | We have to agree with NYCResistor, the exclusion of numeric pads from laptops is a real loss for productivity. Ever try to working with a huge spreadsheet ledger without a 10-key? Sure, there are usually function key alternatives hiding somewhere on those reduced keyboards. But that’s hardly the same thing. We think it’s time to take back the numpad. This project shows you how easy it is by
using some old time lab equipment to replace the missing keys
.
They’re using a Teensy microcontroller board to translate the key matrix into USB inputs. Most of the work is already done for you because of
the USB HID Keyboard library
available for the development board. Scanning your own key matrix, or decoding the buttons from some rad hardware like this Walters 600E is up to you. A demo of the rig in action can be found after the jump.
Is there anyone else who wishes the 10-key had an ‘X’ on it for coding hex values? Perhaps that will be a future project for us. | 37 | 22 | [
{
"comment_id": "707747",
"author": "aztraph",
"timestamp": "2012-07-19T23:11:27",
"content": "ya know you can buy them for less than $20, and they look better. all things considered, not bad DIY",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "707758",
"aut... | 1,760,376,799.803169 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/07/19/rc-pvc-bot/ | RC PVC Bot | Mike Szczys | [
"Robots Hacks"
] | [
"pipe",
"PVC",
"rc"
] | This
hunk of PVC pipe is radio controlled
. The wheels on the ends provide the locomotion, but it wouldn’t be going anywhere if it weren’t for that little tail strapped to the center of the tube.
When the motors are turning the body of the bot needs something to push against. In this case the tail hits the ground and keeps the chassis from spinning. We have seen attempts to go without a tail by
using lopsided wheels to provide angular momentum
, but this method is much more reliable.
The control for the bot is scrapped from a toy RC car. Once hooked up to the gearhead motors it’s ready to roll. The real difficulty of the build came in fitting everything into the pipe. A frame was built from a few disks used as mounting platforms which were separated by threaded rod. See it making its way around a gravel road in the clip after the break.
[via
Hacked Gadgets
] | 16 | 13 | [
{
"comment_id": "707719",
"author": "macegr",
"timestamp": "2012-07-19T22:16:30",
"content": "Wow the image stabilization is freaky disorienting sometimes.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "707732",
"author": "Rower",
"timestamp"... | 1,760,376,800.018258 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/07/19/defense-against-the-dog-arts/ | Defense Against The Dog Arts | Gerrit Coetzee | [
"classic hacks"
] | [
"atmega",
"Atmel",
"bicycle",
"defense",
"dog",
"ultrasonic"
] | It’s possible that it was [Matt Meerian]’s awesome pun that won us over, not his
ultrasonic bicycle dog defense system
, but that would be silly. [Matt] wanted an elegant solution to a common problem when riding a bicycle, dogs. While, obscenities, ammonia, water, pepper spray, and others were suggested, they all had cons that just didn’t appeal to [Matt]. He liked the idea of using C02 powered high pressure sound waves to chase the dogs away with, but decided to choose a more electronic approach. He used a Atmel ATmega644 as the MCU, four 25kHz transmitters, and two 40kHz transmitters. When the rider sees a dog he simply flips a switch and it activates the transducers (along with, cleverly, a human audible horn so he doesn’t have to look down to know it’s working). So far [Matt] has not had a dog chase him in order to test it’s efficacy, but his cat clearly seems unaffected by the device as you can see after the break.
[youtube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HMNpZvXnm60%5D | 25 | 18 | [
{
"comment_id": "707690",
"author": "ZatGuy",
"timestamp": "2012-07-19T21:37:20",
"content": "sooo it failed?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "707724",
"author": "0xCD",
"timestamp": "2012-07-19T22:20:51",
"content": "I hate to be neg... | 1,760,376,800.782044 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/07/19/from-0-to-c-teaching-programming-without-a-computer/ | From 0 To C: Teaching Programming Without A Computer | Brian Benchoff | [
"Software Development"
] | [
"educational",
"programming",
"teaching"
] | It’s no secret that learning how to program is
very hard,
and teaching it doubly so, requiring the student to wrap their head around very unorthodox concepts. [Ubi de Feo] over at the Amsterdam tech collective Hello, Savants! has a unique solution for taking someone who knows nothing of programming and turning them into a computer aficionado capable of deftly wielding semicolons and parens. It’s called
From 0 to C
, and aims to teach students programming in an environment without computers.
For his class, [Ubi] made up a lot of wooden boxes with eight subdivisions representing the bits in a byte. By putting ping-pong balls in each slot, [Ubi]’s students can grasp the concept of counting by powers of two and quickly move on to hexidecimal and more advanced concepts like bit shifting.
After learning the ins and outs of how stupid computers actually are, [Ubi]’s students then learn the syntax of a language of their choice (C, JavaScript, or Python, for example), and write a few programs.
Although we’re sure most of our readers are far past the ‘learning programming from a blank slate’ portion of their hacker and maker career, anything that gets more people solving their own problems is okay in our book. [Ubi] has a pretty neat take on the pedagogy of teaching programming, and we’d really like to see his work expand outside his Amsterdam collective. | 21 | 17 | [
{
"comment_id": "707641",
"author": "mh",
"timestamp": "2012-07-19T20:24:52",
"content": "If i was programming with m&ms as seen in the picture – id worry about bitrot ;-) – OmNomNom (to underhandely promote a product mentioned earlier tonight)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies":... | 1,760,376,800.225859 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/07/19/comparing-altium-and-cadence-pcb-layout-tools/ | Comparing Altium And Cadence PCB Layout Tools | Mike Szczys | [
"Roundup"
] | [
"allegro",
"altium",
"cad",
"cadence",
"layout",
"pcb"
] | We see a lot of projects using Eagle for the schematics and PCB layout. There are a few that use Kicad, but we hear very little about other alternatives. Recently, [Limpkin] has been
working with Altium and Cadence and wrote about how they compare
when it comes to PCB layout. Neither are free packages so it’s good to know what you’re getting into before taking the plunge.
[Limpkin] begins his overview by mentioning that the schematic editors are comparable; the differences start to show themselves in the PCB layout tools. Here you can see that Altium always labels the pads so you know what net each of them belongs to. Cadence (whose PCB layout tool is called Allegro) will display the net if you hover over the pad with your mouse. Both have 3D rendering, with Altium’s looking a bit more pleasant but what real use is it anyway? Okay, we will admit
we love a good photorealistic board rendering
, but we digress. The most interesting differences show themselves once traces are all on the board and need to be rejiggered. Cadence will actually move traces on other layers automatically to avoid collision with a via that is late to the party, and Altium shows some strange behavior when dragging traces. [Limpkin] doesn’t register a final judgement, but the comparison alone is worth the read. | 35 | 19 | [
{
"comment_id": "707592",
"author": "Hans Peter Haastrup",
"timestamp": "2012-07-19T19:21:27",
"content": "Ahem, would you by any chance be interested in some review of the DesignSpark package then?Although it might be fairly new to the game and sometimes behave strange, I think that it has potentia... | 1,760,376,800.609833 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/07/19/flip-dot-display-is-an-advertising-experience-we-can-get-behind/ | Flip-dot Display Is An Advertising Experience We Can Get Behind | Mike Szczys | [
"Video Hacks"
] | [
"advertising",
"display",
"flip-dot"
] | This
huge and mesmerizing interactive display
is just a big piece of advertising. It is a flip-dot display. Each pixel is a mechanical disk, white on one side and black on the other. The team over at BreakfastNY hacked the display modules and wrote their own software so that it can be refreshed with lighting quickness. To the left you can see the high contrast text, but on the right it’s showing the camera-based interactivity. A few seconds later this gentleman sweeps his arm to the side and all the pixels scatter as if blown away by a forceful wind. You might as well just skip down to the video after the break right now.
The display is an advertisement for a new show on the TNT network called
Perception.
We’ve got to say, if you’re going to advertise this is the way to do it. Make something cool, then share the details. We get to enjoy the clickity-clack of all those dots flipping into place and they got us to at least recognize the network and say the name of the show. Everyone wins.
[Thanks Itamar via
Engadget
] | 24 | 16 | [
{
"comment_id": "707532",
"author": "Eirinn",
"timestamp": "2012-07-19T18:09:30",
"content": "…simply amazing. I’m not sure if any other words are needed.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "707534",
"author": "B",
"timestamp": "2012-07-19T1... | 1,760,376,800.415996 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/07/19/usb-dongle-for-unmodified-nes-controllers/ | USB Dongle For Unmodified NES Controllers | Mike Szczys | [
"Nintendo Hacks"
] | [
"attiny44",
"attiny45",
"controller",
"dongle",
"nes",
"usb",
"V-USB"
] | This USB dongle will let you
use your unmodified NES controllers on a computer
. That’s because it includes the same socket you’d find on the classic console.
The image above shows the prototype. Instead of etching the copper clad board, each trace was milled by hand (presumably with a rotary tool). To the left the black square is made of several layers of electrical tape that builds the substrate up enough to fit snugly in a USB port.
An ATtiny45 running the V-USB stack has no problem reading the controller data and formatting it for use as a USB device. This is actually the second iteration of the project.
The first attempt used an ATtiny44 and a free-formed circuit
housed inside the controller. It worked quite well, but required alterations to the circuit board, and you needed to replace the stock connector with a USB plug. This dongle allows the controller to go unaltered so it can be used with an NES console again in the future. | 21 | 14 | [
{
"comment_id": "707475",
"author": "willow",
"timestamp": "2012-07-19T17:08:29",
"content": "I never get tired of seeing that remote. Really awesome build, perfect for the Wii!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "707476",
"author": "willow",
... | 1,760,376,800.289257 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/07/19/automatic-trough-filler-makes-sure-the-animals-have-water/ | Automatic Trough Filler Makes Sure The Animals Have Water | Mike Szczys | [
"home hacks"
] | [
"float",
"launchpad",
"livestock",
"msp430",
"trough",
"water"
] | It has been a hot hot summer for many parts of the US. The heat has been dangerous at times and making sure the livestock has the water they need is incredibly important. [Maddox] recently
upgraded the automation on their water troughs
which will help with the process. Sure, they still have to check on the animals, but this will ensure there’s plenty to drink in between those visits, and that a malfunction doesn’t waste precious water.
There has always been some level of automation here, but it relied on float valves which were frequently malfunctioning. This project seeks to get rid of the float value and use solenoid valves like those used in irrigation. These solenoids can run from a 9V battery and offer quite a bit more reliability than the mechanical vales. There is still a float sensor which measures the water level, filling up the trough when needed.
An MSP430 Launchpad was used for the prototype, from which a PCB was designed. Since this needs to be weather-proof a water tight enclosure was sourced. The company that makes the enclosure also provides DXF templates which [Maddox] used to establish the size and outline of the PCB. | 24 | 12 | [
{
"comment_id": "707424",
"author": "More Please",
"timestamp": "2012-07-19T16:28:02",
"content": "Could that work with beer?Jokes aside, this seem really well documented and I am enjoying reading the details.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "707... | 1,760,376,800.355678 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/07/19/the-live-streaming-72-hour-build-off-begins-tonight/ | The Live Streaming 72 Hour Build-off Begins Tonight! | Caleb Kraft | [
"contests"
] | [
"contest",
"redbull"
] | Tonight at 6pm pst, the people at RedBull will be announcing the theme for the 72 hour build-off. We’ve cleaned our space, set up the cameras, and tried to get a good night’s sleep. We’re all ready to kick some ass and would love it if you would join in to watch and even chat with us during the build. You should be able to watch all of the teams at the
red bull contest web site
. Though you can also just tune in to us at the link below, or on the sidebar.
During some of our team meetings we decided that
watching a live stream of us hunched over some device for 72 hours
would be extremely boring. To help remedy this, we have been contacting people all week to arrange proper amusement. We have graffiti artists, dancers, and some other miscellaneous things(possibly fire breathers?) in the works to help break the monotony. You’ll see a board labelled “EVENTS” in the bottom left of our stream. This should help keep you notified when the next bit of amusement shall arrive.
If you want to just watch the teams individually, there’s a list of each of our channels after the break.
channel page:
http://www.livestream.com/rbc_121jigawatts
channel page:
http://www.livestream.com/rbc_23bshop
channel page:
http://www.livestream.com/rbc_designateddrinkers
channel page:
http://www.livestream.com/rbc_hackaday
channel page:
http://www.livestream.com/rbc_i3detroit
channel page:
http://www.livestream.com/rbc_midnightinvention
channel page:
http://www.livestream.com/rbc_li4e
channel page:
http://www.livestream.com/rbc_makertwins
channel page:
http://www.livestream.com/rbc_mblabs
channel page:
http://www.livestream.com/rbc_northstreetlabs
channel page:
http://www.livestream.com/rbc_teaminstructables
channel page:
http://www.livestream.com/rbc_techshopsf | 2 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "707418",
"author": "Colecago",
"timestamp": "2012-07-19T16:16:51",
"content": "Looking forward to it. Maybe your fire breather will be your Mario Plant?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "707750",
"author": "spacebar",
"ti... | 1,760,376,800.657742 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/07/19/use-your-tv-remote-as-an-hid-mouse/ | Use Your TV Remote As An HID Mouse | Mike Szczys | [
"Peripherals Hacks",
"Wireless Hacks"
] | [
"atmega8",
"hid",
"infrared",
"ir",
"mouse",
"remote control",
"tv",
"V-USB"
] | [Vinod’s] latest project lets him
use a TV remote control as a mouse
. It may not sound like much, but he did it with a minimum of hardware and packed in the maximum when it comes to features.
He’s using an ATmega8 to read the remote control signals and provide USB connectivity. With
the V-USB stack
he enumerates the device as an HID mouse. One note of warning, he used the PID/VID pair from the
USBasp programmer project
. If you use that programmer you’ll need to uninstall the drivers to get this to work (we think this is only necessary on a Windows box).
The cursor can be moved in eight directions using the number pad on the remote. The numeral five falls in the center of the directional buttons so [Vinod] mapped that to the left click, with the zero key serving as right click. He even included the scroll wheel by using the volume buttons. The firmware supports cursor acceleration. If you hold one direction the cursor will move slowly at first,then pick up speed. Fine adjustments can be made by single clicking the button. Check out his demonstration embedded after the break. | 17 | 13 | [
{
"comment_id": "707346",
"author": "ayman",
"timestamp": "2012-07-19T14:57:49",
"content": "Interesting, I did the similar thing for XBMC.Basically, I used the IR decode of the ps3toothfairy and ported it to a USB avr. I made the USB AVR look like a keyboard so that my IR remote could invoke the x... | 1,760,376,800.718031 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/07/18/a-hardware-random-number-generator-for-your-fpga/ | A Hardware Random Number Generator For Your FPGA | Brian Benchoff | [
"hardware"
] | [
"papilio one",
"random",
"random number generator"
] | [Zach] sent in a project he’s been working on that
brings hardware random number generators to common hardware
you might have lying around. It’s called Whirlyfly and it turns an FPGA dev board into a hardware random number capable of outputting random bits over a USB connection at 3 Mbps.
Previously,
the whirlygig ran on a custom CPLD
that interfaced to a *nix box and provided high quality random numbers via /dev/hw_random. [Zach]’s efforts takes the core of the whirlygig and ports it to the very popular and inexpensive
Papilio One
FPGA dev board.
As for what [Zach] can do with his random number generator, it’s extremely easy to write a
Monte Carlo experiment
to approximate the value of π with a better accuracy than [Ptolemy] was able to muster 1900 years ago. There’s also the aspect of encryption, and – why you would do this we have no idea – making an uncompressable file is also possible. | 8 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "706433",
"author": "MrX",
"timestamp": "2012-07-18T16:28:48",
"content": "Aha indeed. Start pumping those bytes into box.com, Google drive, dropbox etc.. and watch them suffer!All those services rely on data deduplication and compression to fit all the information in their data cent... | 1,760,376,800.827296 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/07/18/static-testing-hybrid-rockets-for-a-flight-to-space/ | Static Testing Hybrid Rockets For A Flight To Space | Brian Benchoff | [
"News"
] | [] | A team of rocketry enthusiasts at Boston University have been working on a
small hybrid rocket motor
that serves as a test bed for a larger, yet-to-be-designed power plant that will hopefully launch a rocket into space.
The static tests of the BURT Mk. II
began last April
with a series of tests using
HTPB
solid fuel and Nitrous Oxide as the oxidizer. The team had a series of failures – mostly due to the JB Weld seal on the igniter leads blowing out – but managed a 10 second burn on April 21st.
For later tests, a vector drive system built by a complimentary Boston University engineering group was used to control the direction of the thrust up to 12 degrees away from the axis of the engine. That’s an impressive bit of kit, especially considering the exhaust from the rocket reaches over 5000 degrees Fahrenheit.
Even though it’s summer now and the Boston University team is on a much deserved break, we can’t wait to see what the BURT team comes up with next year. Hopefully we’ll see a flight test that reaches the team’s goal of the
Karman line
.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ac4sXeRU0cw&w=470]
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K1ZsZOhALwM&w=470] | 7 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "706376",
"author": "Vodka",
"timestamp": "2012-07-18T15:26:31",
"content": "That thing is amazing :D Burn fule, burn :D",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "706560",
"author": "Hirudinea",
"timestamp": "2012-07-18T18:10:16",
... | 1,760,376,800.876439 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/07/18/sending-a-raspberry-pi-to-130000-feet/ | Sending A Raspberry Pi To 130,000 Feet | Brian Benchoff | [
"Raspberry Pi"
] | [
"high altitude balloon",
"raspberry pi"
] | We knew this wouldn’t take long. [David] sent a high altitude balloon
into the upper atmosphere last weekend
using a Raspberry Pi as the brains of the payload.
[David]’s payload consisted of a Raspberry Pi, natch, with a Logitech webcam, GPS receiver, and six AA batteries wired into a LDO regulator with a monstrous heat sink to keep everything in the EPX foam enclosure relatively warm in the frigid rarefied air of near space.
A high altitude balloon isn’t much fun without some real-time data coming down from the upper atmosphere, so [David] used a
Radiometrix NTX2 transmitter module
(anyone know of an equivalent part for the USA?) that transmits a measly 10 milliwatts. Even though the transmitter has an ‘official’ range of 500 meters, [David] got word of image data being received in Northern Ireland, over 500 km away.
We’re pretty impressed with [David]’s flight – and the fact that his flight is now 12th place on the list of UK balloon altitude records – but now we’re wondering what could be done with another Raspi flight to near space. [David] had a lot of computing horsepower up there, enough to get images from a webcam and send them down to earth. Now we’re wondering what else could be done with a Raspberry Pi in space.
You can check out the GoPro video of the very fast decent after the break, or check out the received images
on [David]’s Flickr
.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KGLB9-LdpYM&w=470] | 23 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "706318",
"author": "Anonymous",
"timestamp": "2012-07-18T14:21:16",
"content": "GPS units are designed not to work above 60,000 for security reasons. It would be interesting to devise a different tracking system that doesn’t have that limitation. That may also explain some of the di... | 1,760,376,801.092652 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/07/18/hackaday-links-july-18-2012/ | Hackaday Links July 18, 2012 | Jeremy Cook | [
"Hackaday links"
] | [
"3D topo map",
"air conditioning",
"Apollo13",
"CNC router",
"headphones"
] | Apollo 13 DJ controller F
ollow Up
[Adam] had a really impressive DJ controller
build featured here
recently. Many of you had more questions about the internals and such, so
this post
should clarify a few things. He’s still got a few more updates to make, but promises to reveal all if given enough time!
Noise Absorbing Headphones from Shooting Earmuffs
If the circuitry on your microphone-enabled shooting earmuffs has gone bad, the actual speakers may still be good. Why not convert them into some
noise-blocking headphones
? For that matter, if you’ve broken a pivot, there’s
a simple solution
for that too!
Help Choosing your CNC Router
If you’re in the market for a CNC router, but aren’t sure where to start, Ponoko has put together
a handy pricing guide
to several of the more popular DIY routers available.
DIY AC Unit
It’s very hot out, so what is one to do when your shop or garage is burning up? Why not build your own “AC unit?” Sure you have to supply your own ice, but at under $20 for this cooler-based unit, maybe it’s worth it. Here’s the
Reddit thread
explaining it as well as a
picture
of the finished product.
3D Topo Map on a CNC Router
Once you’ve purchased your CNC router using the above guide, why not make your own 3D top map?
This tutorial
features a map of Ross Island off of Antarctica. Why Ross Island? It was the first vector-format topo map found off of
Wikimedia
. | 13 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "706330",
"author": "Brad",
"timestamp": "2012-07-18T14:34:35",
"content": "Not sure what happened to it, but the price for the ShapeOko mentioned in the CNC kit run-down hasn’t been $375 in a while. It’s now upwards of $600 for a working machine. Kinda sucks because I wanted to ge... | 1,760,376,801.027765 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/07/18/dmg-lib-digital-mechanism-and-gear-library/ | DMG Lib: Digital Mechanism And Gear Library | Gerrit Coetzee | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"books",
"dmg",
"kinematics",
"kmoddl",
"lib",
"mechanism"
] | Reader, [klemens], suggested
DMG Lib
to us when we posted about a
similar site
. DMG-Lib is an amazing source of information. It’s primary downside is that a great portion of the text is in a language other than English, though in some ways this is a plus. Latin, Italian, German, and many other languages held the position of being the chief scientific language of the world long before English, and this repository holds entire books about mechanisms in those languages. Some of the books range all the way back to the 1500s. The mechanism animations are very good on this site and play smoothly. While it’s a little harder to search than KMODDL due to the language oddities, it’s still an extremely useful and interesting site to add to the hacker’s information toolbox. | 9 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "706232",
"author": "mimia",
"timestamp": "2012-07-18T12:35:17",
"content": ">animations require javano thank you but no, i don’t need trojan horses from this bloatware",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "706310",
"author":... | 1,760,376,800.971811 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/07/18/kegerator-tallies-your-pints-on-untappd-while-you-sit-back-with-a-cold-one/ | Kegerator Tallies Your Pints On Untappd While You Sit Back With A Cold One | Mike Nathan | [
"Arduino Hacks",
"Beer Hacks"
] | [
"arduino",
"beer",
"Untappd"
] | [Jeff] admits that he’s pretty well addicted to Untappd, a site he describes as a Foursquare for beer. Like his fellow beer nerds, he enjoys reporting the pints he’s had, even if they happen to be from his own stash of homebrew kegs. Untappd certainly supports this level of dedication, but
it seemed silly to [Jeff] that he needed to grab his phone each time he poured himself a cold one
in the comfort of his own home.
He took a look around the room and spied an Arduino doing a whole lot of nothing, so he set off to build a system that would allow him to automatically record his drinking habits without the use of his smartphone. The system is not overly complex, and measures pours using flow sensors, uploading the results to Untappd using their “check-in” API. [Jeff] was sure to include several other useful features into his build, including a lockout timer that prevents multiple check-ins when simply topping off a pint, as well as “neighbor mode” which lets you pour a round for friends without recording the pour.
Be sure to check out the build in its entirety on [Jeff’s] site, and let us know if you’re doing something equally cool with your keg setup at home. | 2 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "706225",
"author": "elricfate",
"timestamp": "2012-07-18T12:24:28",
"content": "Seems like a good site to follow your drinking habits and prove you’re an alcholic.But really great hack, nonetheless.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id"... | 1,760,376,800.919707 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/07/17/repurposing-server-psu-for-your-charging-needs/ | Repurposing Server PSU For Your Charging Needs | Mike Szczys | [
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"apfc",
"battery",
"charger",
"psu",
"rack mount",
"server"
] | That grey box at the top of the photo is a modular power supply unit for a rack-mounted server system. [Sebastian] decided to
repurpose it as a charging source for his RC batteries
. He chose this HP DPS-600PB because of its power rating, efficiency, and you can get them at a reasonable price.
This is an active power factor corrected (APFC) PSU, which he says draws 40% less current than the non-APFC variety. Since he sometimes charges batteries in the field from a generator this is a big plus. But a bit of modification is necessary before it can be used as a source.
Since this is a rack device it has a set of connectors on the back. For power there are spade connectors which mate with a fin on the rack. He soldered positive and negative leads between the spades to interface with the battery chargers. The PSU won’t fire up if it’s not in the rack, so some jumper wires also need to be added connecting three of the interface pins.
With his modding all worked out he went on to use two PSUs for a 24V source,
housing them to a nice carrying case while at it
. | 21 | 19 | [
{
"comment_id": "705700",
"author": "roboman2444",
"timestamp": "2012-07-17T20:38:30",
"content": "something tells me that charging 2 lipos from one source will lead to some balancing issues",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "707781",
"au... | 1,760,376,801.25319 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/07/19/fatherson-team-goes-big-with-backyard-observatory/ | Father/son Team Goes Big With Backyard Observatory | Mike Szczys | [
"home hacks"
] | [
"observatory",
"telescope"
] | Oh that? It’s just
the backyard observatory we built last summer
. You know, for fun. This is a conversation we image [Kakon24] and his dad are having quite often these days. They’re astronomy interests just got a big equipment upgrade when they built a huge observatory on their homestead. Now we don’t proclaim to know a lot about observatory quality, but this is head and shoulders above what most people manage to acquire.
It isn’t a simple build either. It’s a full-fledged building of its own, starting with a poured foundation, then stick framing which was covered in stone work. The images tell the story of the build, but for information on the hardware you’ll want to read through
the comments over on the Reddit Astronomy thread
. Sounds like the scope itself cost over 100 grand so having a proper building to protect it is a must. | 40 | 18 | [
{
"comment_id": "707263",
"author": "Aaediwen",
"timestamp": "2012-07-19T13:17:06",
"content": "Epic project for a couple folks over summer.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "707264",
"author": "hspsoftware",
"timestamp": "2012-07-19T13:20... | 1,760,376,801.422876 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/07/19/drag-and-drop-images-for-3d-printing/ | Drag And Drop Images For 3D Printing | Mike Szczys | [
"3d Printer hacks",
"cnc hacks"
] | [
"2d",
"3d",
"3d printer",
"model",
"OmNomNom",
"openscad"
] | This piece of software called OmNomNom works with OpenSCAD
to turn 2D images into 3D models
. It’s literally a drag-and-drop process that renders almost instantly.
Here the example is a QR code, which is perfect for the software since it’s a well-defined black and white outline in the source image. But the video after the break shows several other examples that don’t rely on this simplicity. For instance, the Superman logo, which uses four different colors, is converted quite easily. There’s also a depth map of [Beethoven’s] bust that is converted into a 3D object. The same technique can be used to create terrain from topographic source images.
Once the file has been converted to a model it can still be tweaked like normal. This allows you to customize size and depth to suit your needs. This is where OpenSCD comes into play, but if you don’t use that program you can still export an STL file directly from OmNomNom for use on your 3D printer.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GEFzczYCRu4 | 31 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "707246",
"author": "Eirinn",
"timestamp": "2012-07-19T12:48:25",
"content": "Mhm so if i understand this right it’s an automatic beveller that exports STL? That’s pretty nifty!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "707261",
"autho... | 1,760,376,801.502102 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/07/19/small-rc-car-full-size-controller/ | Small RC Car, Full Size Controller | Gerrit Coetzee | [
"classic hacks"
] | [
"arcade racing wheel controller arduino logic rc remote controll cat wine"
] | [Noah Farrington] sent in his latest hack over at his intensely interesting blog;
converting a racing wheel arcade controller to a remote control for his RC car
. He picked up the arcade controller for free, and decided it would be much cooler to control an RC car he had handy with it. He elected not to use an Arduino for this project *gasp* ,and do it all with hard logic. He did, however, use the Arduino in the design process *phew* in order to figure out the working of the RC control board. The final board is pretty simple compared to the Arduino solution, a few op-amps, a voltage regulator, and some passive components. Not bad at all for what [Noah] claims is one of his first big projects. Maybe he’ll post a video of it in action some time soon. | 10 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "707311",
"author": "Skitchin",
"timestamp": "2012-07-19T14:23:56",
"content": "Add an on-board camera and a tv and you’ve got the best racing game around hehe. An accelerometer for force feedback could be pretty sweet too! Great work – I had this idea for a project a long time ago, ... | 1,760,376,801.347896 |
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