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https://hackaday.com/2012/06/27/baking-better-bread-with-steam/ | Baking Better Bread With Steam | Brian Benchoff | [
"cooking hacks"
] | [
"baking",
"bread",
"cooking",
"steam"
] | It’s not often we see a build that turns you into a better cook without any electronics whatsoever. [Chris]’s method of
baking better bread with steam
is one of those builds, and we’re more than willing to test it out on our own.
If you’ve ever tried to bake bread at home, you’ll quickly notice the crust is much thicker and harder than a loaf available at a bakery. The thickness of the crust can be controlled, however, with a careful application of steam. To make a better crust, [Chris] used a pressure cooker fitted with a valve to inject steam into an oven through his oven’s exhaust. Not only does this gelatinate the starches in the bread crust, but it keeps this gelatin from hardening too quickly.
The end result is a thin, golden brown crust that makes for the perfect loaf of bread. Of course, the proper application of steam does take a little bit of practice. If someone is up to the task of Arduinofying this hack with a few solenoid valves, PID sensors, and a high-temperature humidity sensor,
send it in
and we’ll put it up. | 39 | 16 | [
{
"comment_id": "689733",
"author": "Kaj",
"timestamp": "2012-06-27T20:05:44",
"content": "That guy needs some custom-branded VALVe bread bags.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "689734",
"author": "just me...",
"timestamp": "2012-06-27T20:... | 1,760,376,824.58763 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/06/27/getting-started-with-software-defined-radio/ | Getting Started With Software Defined Radio | Brian Benchoff | [
"how-to",
"Radio Hacks"
] | [
"RTL-SDR",
"software-defined radio"
] | In the last few months, software defined radio has seen an explosion in popularity thanks to a small USB TV tuner dongle able to receive anything broadcast between 64 and 1700 MHz. It’s a very neat project that opens the door to a whole bunch of radio experimentations, but getting started in the SDR world can be a bit daunting. To help everyone out, [MS3FGX] is
writing a getting started guide
so everyone can get into the world of software defined radio.
After getting one of the TV tuners supported by the RTL-SDR project (by far the most commonly used is
this one
from Dealextreme), the next thing you’ll need is a decent antenna. [MS3FGX] has had some success with
this Radio Shack antenna
, but it’s very easy to
make your own
.
The most popular software package to use with the RTL TV dongle is
GNU Radio
, and [MS3FGX] goes over the ins and outs of
setting this up
along with a brief aside for the
Gqrx receiver
.
After your hardware and software is set up, the only thing left to do is tuning into a few of your favorite stations. The range of frequencies the RTL covers includes AM and FM radio, along with GSM and GPS signals. Of course there’s a whole lot more you can do with this project like listening in on your car’s keyless entry fob, pagers, and wireless weather stations. | 33 | 17 | [
{
"comment_id": "689715",
"author": "kylehotchkiss",
"timestamp": "2012-06-27T19:34:59",
"content": "Has anybody grabbed weather satellite images with one of these? They appear to properly support fm-wide well enough – of course a better antenna would be golden.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth":... | 1,760,376,825.06174 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/06/27/an-etsy-for-electronics/ | An Etsy For Electronics | Brian Benchoff | [
"News"
] | [
"Tindie"
] | A few months ago
we caught wind of Tindie
, a site that gives builders, tinkerers, makers, and hackers a place to sell their projects. Well,
Tindie has gone live
and it looks to be cooler than we expected.
Already there are some pretty awesome projects available on Tindie such as a
truly awesome MIDI keyboard
, an
Arduino synthesizer
, and even
a robot that plays Angry Birds
.
In addition to giving makers a place to sell their wares, Tindie also offers a place to
post want ads
. If you have an idea for a project but don’t have the skills or tools to pull it off, Tindie is just the place for you. Any builder is free to make a bid for jobs that include a sonic screwdriver
TV-b-gone
or a
Pip boy
Hopefully, Tindie will pick up some steam and fill the role of a much geekier Etsy. For now, though, we eagerly await the eventual Tindie/
regretsy
mashup showcasing perpetual motion machines and
alien overlord detectors
. | 29 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "689683",
"author": "Xeracy",
"timestamp": "2012-06-27T18:46:38",
"content": "everything seems to be sold out already…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "689693",
"author": "emilepetrone",
"timestamp": "2012-06-27T... | 1,760,376,824.942159 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/06/27/quick-look-at-the-soldercore-dev-board/ | Quick Look At The Soldercore Dev Board | Mike Szczys | [
"Microcontrollers"
] | [
"dev"
] | It seems like hacker-friendly ARM development boards are just exploding into the market right now. Here’s one we haven’t looked at yet. The
SolderCore
is made by Rowley Associates and is packed with features which help to explain the $80 price tag. [CharlieX] just ordered one and posted
a bit about his first day with the device
.
First off, it’s obviously the Arduino form factor. We think that’s a nice touch in a development board, but we still wish the Arduino folks hadn’t offset that one header way back when. That chip at the center packs quite a wallop; an 80 MHz ARM Cortex-M3 (from TI) with 512 kb of Flash memory and 96 kb of RAM. The in-built Ethernet jack is hard to miss, but right below it in this picture you can also see the USB On-the-Go connector. There’s a microSD card slot and both 3V and 5V regulators. [CharlieX] does a little hacking on the networking features offered, then takes a look at firmware upgrading. For that you’ll need an SD card formatted to FAT 16. | 42 | 17 | [
{
"comment_id": "689620",
"author": "Simon",
"timestamp": "2012-06-27T17:09:13",
"content": "Hmm – doesn’t look as good as theolinuxinofrom olimex, which is cheaper, too.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "689658",
"author": "crossworkswi... | 1,760,376,824.799273 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/06/27/chiptune-player-uses-preprocessed-mod-files/ | Chiptune Player Uses Preprocessed .MOD Files | Mike Szczys | [
"digital audio hacks"
] | [
"18f2685",
"chiptune",
"dac",
"lm386",
"mod",
"opamp",
"pic"
] | [Kayvon] just finished building this
chiptune player based on a PIC microcontroller
. The hardware really couldn’t be any simpler. He chose to use a PIC18F2685 just because it’s big enough to store the music files directly and it let him get away with not using an external EEPROM for that purpose. The output pins feed a Digital to Analog Convert (DAC) chip, which in turn outputs analog audio to an LM386 OpAmp. The white trimpot sandwiched between the chips controls the volume.
The real work on this project went into coding a program which translates .MOD files into something the PIC will be able to play. Because of the memory limits of the chip it is unable to directly use all of the instrument samples from these files. [Kayvon] wrote a program with a nice GUI that lets him load in his music and page through each instrument to fine-tune how they are being re-encoded. The audio track from the video after the break doesn’t do the project justice, but you will get a nice look at the hardware and software. | 6 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "689590",
"author": "Aaron",
"timestamp": "2012-06-27T16:03:50",
"content": "Not sure what the appeal of embedded chiptunes is lately, but it’s a neat little hack nonetheless.Also, well done Szczys for installing a grammar checker!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replie... | 1,760,376,824.630265 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/06/27/nc-maker-faire-2012-other-projects/ | NC Maker Faire 2012: Other Projects | Jeremy Cook | [
"cons"
] | [
"maker faire",
"NC Maker Faire 2012",
"Raleigh Maker Faire 2012"
] | Although I didn’t get to see everything I wanted to at the Faire, there was a ton of stuff that was interesting enough for a mention. Many of these could probably merit their own separate article, and I didn’t get to talk about everything, so feel free to comment, or better yet write in to the tip line if you feel like you deserve more “air time.”
In the video after the break there’s everything from a [steampunk] display, to a model railroad club, and lots of projects in between. For a list of makers at this Faire, check out
this page
.
[youtube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ddHnzbXxFAw%5D | 1 | 1 | [
{
"comment_id": "690005",
"author": "Gravis",
"timestamp": "2012-06-28T03:55:12",
"content": "arg! someone apply an audio filter to that video!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
}
] | 1,760,376,824.838132 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/06/27/how-about-a-nice-game-of-nixie-chess/ | How About A Nice Game Of Nixie Chess? | Brian Benchoff | [
"Misc Hacks",
"Toy Hacks"
] | [
"chess",
"induction charger",
"nixie"
] | [Tony] sent in
a Nixie tube chess set
he’s been working on, and we’re just floored with the quality of this build. The chess pieces glow without any visible wires, the board is extremely elegant with touches of gilding and brass, and extremely well designed using (mostly) materials and components contemporary to the old Russian Nixie tubes.
Instead of numeric Nixies, [Tony] chose IN-7 and IN-7A tubes originally made to display scientific symbols such as A, V, and ~. To power the these tubes, [Tony] used 64 air-core transformers underneath each square on the chess board, allowing these Nixie tubes to be powered just like an induction charger.
Even though his blog posts are a little thin on details, we’ve got to hand it to [Tony] for an amazing build. He says there will be
a kit available
that includes a gigantic PCB, but we wouldn’t hazard a guess as to how much that will cost.
You can check out a pair of videos of the Nixie chess set in action after the break.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7L0_StrEX1U&w=470]
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-3h8f6T89M&w=470] | 12 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "689520",
"author": "Dmitri Ivanov",
"timestamp": "2012-06-27T14:13:11",
"content": "I haven’t personally used nixie tubes, but in my experience with various other tubes the amount of heat tubes can generate is quite hot. Would prolonged games cause these little guys to be uncomforta... | 1,760,376,825.106314 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/06/28/quadrotor-opera-begs-for-lasers-and-pink-floyd/ | Quadrotor Opera Begs For Lasers And Pink Floyd | Brian Benchoff | [
"Robots Hacks"
] | [
"light show",
"quadrocopter",
"quadrotor"
] | In case quadrocopters aren’t cool enough, here’s an
orchestrated quadrotor light show
that was shown at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity this last week. With 16 quadrotors and a few can lights, it’s a light show not to be missed.
This quadrotor show was created by a collaboration between
KMel robotics
and
Marshmallow Laser Feast
. The guys behind KMel are the same brilliant minds behind
this nanocopter swarm
that can
play the [James Bond] theme
. For this light show, the guys at KMel Robotics used a Vicon motion capture system to coordinate the flock of quadrotors, as seen in
this picture
.
With a servo-controlled mirror on the bottom of each quatrotor, each vehicle in the fleet is able to reflect beams of light around the stage and into the audience. Now it’s only a matter of time until a setup like this is used for a showing of Laser Floyd.
Tip ‘o the hat to [cesar] for sending this one in. Via
IEEE Spectrum
.
Edit: They’re not can lights. After watching in 1080p, [Impulse405] is pretty confident they’re High End studio spots or a wash with a tight focus. Thanks for keeping us honest, [Impulse405]! | 10 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "690518",
"author": "me",
"timestamp": "2012-06-28T20:47:43",
"content": "yep, awesome!next step… use for much more insidious tasks…. err wait, there’s no way to use this concept for evil things…. what am I thinking…amazing, but a very scary future is likely to be awaiting us",
"... | 1,760,376,824.884898 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/06/28/resurrecting-a-ps3-controller-that-wont-charge/ | Resurrecting A PS3 Controller That Won’t Charge | Mike Szczys | [
"Playstation Hacks",
"Repair Hacks"
] | [
"max1555",
"ps3",
"sixaxis"
] | [SJM4306] grabbed a used PlayStation 3 from a game store that was going out of business. He got a pretty good deal on what had obviously been the floor model for a number of years. The one real problem was the controller that came with it. The thing was so filthy that he literally used gloves to disassemble and sanitize it. It worked just fine after that,until he discovered that it wouldn’t charge from the USB port as it’s supposed to. But he managed to
replace the charging circuitry with some of his own
.
When cleaning the insides of the controller he found there were numerous deposits of sludge which he attributes to spilled soda. This must have damage one of the chips responsible for charging because he was probing an unstable 2V rather than the regulated 5V which should be coming in on the USB lines. His solution was to desolder the USB port in order to separate its 5V pin from the PCB. He then etched a tiny board to host a MAX1555 charging IC. With the new hardware in place the controller is back in action. | 2 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "690521",
"author": "justice099",
"timestamp": "2012-06-28T20:56:12",
"content": "*blink* *blink*Hmm…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "690882",
"author": "Circuitmage",
"timestamp": "2012-06-29T13:04:14",
"content": "N... | 1,760,376,824.512813 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/06/28/using-an-hd44780-character-lcd-with-the-raspberry-pi/ | Using An HD44780 Character LCD With The Raspberry Pi | Mike Szczys | [
"Raspberry Pi"
] | [
"character lcd",
"hd44780",
"lcd",
"pcf8574",
"RPi"
] | [Tech2077] is one of the lucky ones who already got his hands on a Raspberry Pi. He’s been looking into different interface options with the GPIO header and just posted
a guide to using an HD44780 character display with the RPi
. We like this approach because instead of doing
some hard-core LCD work
he’s using prototyping equipment you probably already have on hand.
Getting a character LCD running should be really simple. The gotcha is the logic level gap between the devices. If you’ve been working with Arduino, your add-ons are probably meant for a 5V power rail and logic levels. The RPi outputs 3.3V logic. You could use a level converter (you’d need at least 7 pins to be converted in this case) or you can be a bit more clever. [Tech2077] grabbed
an I2C port expander
that uses just 2 of the RPi lines to address even lines of the display (four data bits plus three control bits). This is a bit of a hack, as the 3.3V logic is 0.2V below the recommended minimum for a digital 1 on the port expander. But it seems to work just fine! If it didn’t, a couple of NPN transistors would do the trick as well.
Addressing the new peripheral is just a matter of loading the i2c module and writing some Python. | 15 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "690467",
"author": "Zach",
"timestamp": "2012-06-28T18:55:39",
"content": "When I was working on some code for the STM32F4 to use a hd44780, I found that the unit only requires .7v for a logic level high when vcc is 5v. Datasheet confirms this. Could have used 7 pins at normal volta... | 1,760,376,824.995287 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/06/28/building-a-pick-and-place-with-3d-printed-parts/ | Building A Pick And Place With 3D Printed Parts | Brian Benchoff | [
"Robots Hacks"
] | [
"pick and place",
"robot",
"scara"
] | For the last few months, [HeliumFrog] has been
building a SCARA bot
to serve as the basis for a pick and place machine. Somewhat amazingly, this is the first robot of its kind to be printed on a 3D printer.
A SCARA-type robot is an articulated arm perfectly suited for transferring components from tubes and reels to a PCB. [HeliumFrog] began his build with an arm with large gears in joints driven by stepper motors and toothed belts. The Z axis was originally driven with a lead screw, but after a thoughtful redesign that was changed over to another toothed belt.
We’ve seen our share of
DIY pick and place machines
, but most of those have been based on a traditional X/Y Cartesian frame. [HeliumFrog]’s SCARA bot should be – theoretically, at least – faster and more accurate while taking up a smaller footprint in the workshop.
[HeliumFrog] is more or less done with the basics of his build, and is now moving on to building a plastic extrusion tool head for his SCARA bot. Very cool, and should make this robot capable of self-reproduction for under £400 (~$600).
You can check out a video of this articulated arm bot after the break.
Thanks, [Kyle] for sending this one in.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cquw7dvR80A&w=470] | 9 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "690412",
"author": "Zee",
"timestamp": "2012-06-28T17:17:21",
"content": "This is very impressive. If the software is also up to the task I can’t wait to see one of these assembling a PCB",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "690435",... | 1,760,376,825.150139 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/06/28/makerfaire-k-c-incredible-wasp-wings/ | MakerFaire K.C.: Incredible Wasp Wings | Caleb Kraft | [
"News"
] | [] | First off let me say that the Redbull contest has consumed ALL of my time and I haven’t been able to get these Makerfaire coverage posts out as quickly as I’d hoped. Please be patient, there are several more to come I promise.
As I was walking around, I glanced up and saw a really cool set of wasp wings on a mannequin flapping away. The motion was quite nice, but I was really blown away when they folded down to a different position when not in use. I managed to track down the creator at the even and asked him some questions.
[Jordy] was commissioned to build these as part of a costume. He started by just googling ornithopter designs and ended up coming up with a rather nice contraption. Many of the bits are 3d printed specifically to his needs, including the drive gears. This must have saved tons of time and effort. As you can see in the video after the break, the motion is really nice and the fact that they fold down is really cool.
looks like makerbot got some good footage!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ySmwH8xoS74&feature=player_embedded
When I asked him what difficulties he had run into, I could tell there had been several. One example is that the night before the event, the servo which automatically raises and lowers the wings failed to do its job. He quickly rigged up a strap that allows him to manually pull them into position. I noticed he also had a flex sensor on his finger for manually making the wings flap, though it appeared to be disabled. I’d have to say that [Jordy] did an amazing job and I can’t wait to see what will come out of further revisions of the design. | 16 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "690392",
"author": "Aaron",
"timestamp": "2012-06-28T16:47:56",
"content": "Holy God, son, you need to build you one of those handheld steadicam mounts that were on HaD a few months ago.(Or drink less of that subsidized Red Bull, one…)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"r... | 1,760,376,825.270855 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/06/28/vga-message-board-displays-sms-without-a-computer/ | VGA Message Board Displays SMS Without A Computer | Mike Szczys | [
"Cellphone Hacks",
"Video Hacks"
] | [
"atmega16",
"atmega8",
"gsm",
"sms",
"text message",
"vga"
] | [Achu Wilson’s] latest creation is
a VGA message board which is written to via SMS text messages
. This doesn’t sound too interesting at first, until you find out he’s doing this with a microcontroller rather than a PC. All of the complexity is in the code that drives the VGA. He managed to do it without any jitter while using an 8-bit microcontroller.
But first, the cellular side of things. A GSM modem takes care of connectivity. To communicate with the modem [Achu] used an ATmega8. He mentions the he could have used a much smaller uC, like an ATtiny, but this is what he had lying around. When a message is received the ATmega8 feeds the characters to an ATmega16 which is driving the VGA monitor. Rather than deal with the analog voltages necessary to run a color display he simply ganged the three color lines together and drives them from one of the microcontroller pins. This results in white and black which correspond to voltage or no voltage.
You can see him showing off the system in the clip after the break. | 6 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "690534",
"author": "threeck",
"timestamp": "2012-06-28T21:17:29",
"content": "Now this is a hack.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "690579",
"author": "Whatnot",
"timestamp": "2012-06-28T22:48:11",
"content": "Sometime... | 1,760,376,825.196954 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/06/28/diy-rov-explores-the-watery-depths/ | DIY ROV Explores The Watery Depths | Mike Szczys | [
"Robots Hacks"
] | [
"rov",
"submersible",
"underwater"
] | This rig looks so good it’s hard to believe
this is the first ROV that [DZL] has ever built
. It houses an HD camera which feeds the display at the operator’s station. You can see the controller to the left of that screen which uses a joystick and buttons to pilot the underwater vessel.
In order to simplify construction, [DZL] decided not to use propellers. The problem with that technique is that you need to have bearings that will allow the propeller shafts to turn without letting water in. Propulsion is instead provided by a group of small water pumps whose intake is on one end and outflow is on the other. These are mounted at various places on the body and each have one power cable that connects to the control circuitry in the main housing. The passage of cables through the enclosure is another possible leak point, but [DZL] found some off the shelf bushings that ended up making it pretty easy.
The link at the top is a round-up of all the different project posts. For us, the most interesting Flickr set is
the one showing how the enclosure is put together
. There is also a pretty neat dive video after the break that shows the craft being tested underwater.
[Thanks Vanessa] | 20 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "690309",
"author": "ZR",
"timestamp": "2012-06-28T14:25:41",
"content": "Any ideas on where one could get little 12 volt submersible pumps like he’s using?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "690324",
"author": "Luciano",
... | 1,760,376,825.550739 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/06/27/encrypted-drive-attack-hints-at-original-xbox-hacking/ | Encrypted Drive Attack Hints At Original Xbox Hacking | Mike Szczys | [
"Security Hacks"
] | [
"encrypted",
"hard drive",
"hot plug",
"hot swap",
"thumb drive"
] | [Thice] discovered a vulnerability in encrypted portable storage a few years ago. He’s just
pointing about the exploit
now. He mentions that he notified manufacturers long ago and we’d guess the wait to publish is to give them a chance to patch the exploit.
He calls it the Plug-Over Attack and for those who were involved with original Xbox hacking, this technique will sound very familiar. The Xbox used hard drive keys to lock the device when not in use. When you booted up the console it checked the hardware signature to make sure it was talking to the right motherboard. But if you booted up the device, then swapped the IDE cable over to a computer without cutting the power you could access the drive without having the password.
This attack is pretty much the same thing. Plug in a drive, unlock it on the victim system the normal way, then replug into the attacking system. In the image above you can see that a USB hub will work for this, but you can also use a hacked USB cable that patches a second jack into the power rail. For some reason the encryption system isn’t able to lock itself when the USB enumerates on the new system, only when power is cycled. Some of them have a timer which watches for drive idle but that still doesn’t protect from this exploit. | 10 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "689496",
"author": "Adam",
"timestamp": "2012-06-27T13:37:54",
"content": "Yeah, the hotswap technique was pretty popular as an exploit for the XBox1. I hotswapped mine the other day, and was kinda scared that this could be done, especially with half my drives encrypted. But still, ... | 1,760,376,825.600838 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/06/27/simple-ambilight-clone-is-just-a-few-transistors/ | Simple Ambilight Clone Is Just A Few Transistors | Brian Benchoff | [
"home entertainment hacks",
"LED Hacks"
] | [
"ambilight"
] | The Ambilight system – built in to high-end Phillips TVs – is a neat system to add a bit of ambiance to regular television viewing. With this system, a series of RGB LEDs are mounted to the rear of the TV to respond to whatever is currently being displayed. [Lovro] came up with a
very simple way
to add an ambilight system to his computer monitor using only a handful of components.
Unlike other Ambilight clones we’ve seen controlled by
custom software
or a
Processing sketch
, [Lovro]’s system uses a few transistors wired to the red, green, and blue pins of his VGA cable. Each of these lines is connected to an RGB LED, so the intensity of each color is determined by the amount of the respective color on the screen.
There is a down side with this setup: a second video output in a mirrored mode is required for this hack to work. Luckily, [Lovro] has a dual-monitor graphics card, making setup a (relative) breeze.
You can check out [Lovro]’s videos of his Ambilight clone in action after the break.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AsXzHosvjDg&w=470]
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SaRanzsXt_I&w=470] | 36 | 18 | [
{
"comment_id": "689447",
"author": "aayotee",
"timestamp": "2012-06-27T12:11:51",
"content": "so the schematic –http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/546/20939579.jpg/says that the input impedance of a monitor is low, and the transistors used to drive the LEDs load the signal, so you cannot use the ... | 1,760,376,825.779182 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/06/27/urban-farming-uses-aquaponics-to-make-farmland-where-there-is-none/ | Urban Farming Uses Aquaponics To Make Farmland Where There Is None | Mike Szczys | [
"green hacks"
] | [
"aquaponics",
"farming",
"fish",
"hydroponics",
"urban",
"vegetables"
] | [Eric Maundu] is farming in Oakland. There are no open fields in this concrete jungle, and even if there were the soil in his part of town is contaminated and not a suitable place in which to grow food. But he’s not using farming methods of old. In fact farmers of a century ago wouldn’t recognize anything he’s doing. His technique uses fish, circulated water, and gravel to grow vegetables in whatever space he can find;
a farming method called aquaponics
.
The video after the break gives an excellent look at his farm. The two main parts of the system are a large water trough where fish live, and a raised bed of gravel where the fish waste in the water is filtered out and composted by bacteria to becomes food for the vegetables. More parts can be added into the mix. For instance, once the water has been filtered by the stone bed it can be gravity fed into another vessel which is being used to grow lettuce suspended by floating foam board. But the water always ends up back in the fish trough where it can be reused. This ends up saving anywhere from 90-98% of the water used in normal farming.
But [Eric] is also interested in adding some automation. About seven minutes into the video we get a look at the control systems he’s working on with the help of Arduino and other hardware.
[Thanks Andrew] | 47 | 22 | [
{
"comment_id": "689421",
"author": "MorbiousStone",
"timestamp": "2012-06-27T11:26:43",
"content": "Aquaponics will save the world :)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "689431",
"author": "ino",
"timestamp": "2012-06-27T11:39:47",
"con... | 1,760,376,826.03455 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/06/26/adding-heat-sinks-to-a-raspberry-pi/ | Adding Heat Sinks To A Raspberry Pi | Mike Szczys | [
"Raspberry Pi"
] | [
"heat sink",
"raspberry pi",
"RPi",
"temperature"
] | [Michael Dornisch] was surprised to find that the main processor of the Raspberry Pi reaches about 56 degrees Celsius (about 133 degrees F) while streaming video over the network. He thought it might help the longevity of the device if he was able to cool things off a bit. But why stop with just the processor? He
added heat sinks to the SoC, Ethernet/USB chip, and voltage regulator
.
From his parts bin he grabbed a small heat sink that was probably used on a graphics card. After measuring the three chips with his digital calipers he cut out the footprint he needed, resulting in three smaller heat sinks. We didn’t realize that thermal compound has enough gripping power to hold the sinks in place without any mechanical fastener, but apparently it does. [Michael] mentions that it’s possible to use other adhesives, like JB Weld. What’s important is that you use something (ie: thermal compound or a liquid adhesive) to prevent any air gap from coming between the chip surface and the aluminum.
He measured the result as a 17.3 degree C (31 degree F) drop in temperature. We looked around and it seems there’s no internal temperature sensor on the Broadcom chip so these surface readings will have to suffice. Do you think this will prolong the life of the board if it is used regularly to play back high quality video? We already know that
these temperatures are within the specifications for the hardware
.
[Thanks Simon] | 71 | 37 | [
{
"comment_id": "689096",
"author": "Chris C.",
"timestamp": "2012-06-27T00:17:24",
"content": "17.3°C=63°F0°C=32°FTherefore, a drop of 17.3°C is only equivalent to a drop of 31°F – not 63°F.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "689102",
"a... | 1,760,376,825.702646 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/06/26/adding-an-oled-to-a-lego-set/ | Adding An OLED To A LEGO Set | Brian Benchoff | [
"Toy Hacks"
] | [
"display",
"lego",
"oled",
"oled display"
] | Sure, as a very powerful and influential LEGO dictator you’re more than able to make the trains run on time, but how do you make your LEGO citizens realize the benefits of living under your regime? With an
OLED LEGO train schedule
, of course! [Dan] over at Adafruit put together a great guide to interfacing a very small OLED display to a LEGO setup, perfect for displaying which trains are on schedule and not displaying which trains are heading to a ‘camp.’
The build uses a
96×64 RGB OLED display
that is just under an inch in size. After connecting the display to an Arduino, [Dan] crafted a bezel and mounted it inside a LEGO brick wall. Seems like just the thing for the
Adafruit LEGO set
.
Of course, the tiny Adafruit OLED display can be used for much more than showing the train schedule at a LEGO train station. We imagine this could be put to use in an
awesome model train layout
or even a
small plastic security checkpoint
. | 8 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "689055",
"author": "barry99705",
"timestamp": "2012-06-26T23:38:47",
"content": "Heh. Playmobile naked scanners…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "689123",
"author": "ChalkBored",
"timestamp": "2012-06-27T01:07:... | 1,760,376,825.899368 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/06/26/bench-supply-built-in-a-power-strip/ | Bench Supply Built In A Power Strip | Mike Szczys | [
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"bench supply",
"linear regulator",
"power strip",
"psu"
] | Back in his college days [Print_Screen] grew tired of always building a power supply on his breadboard. To make prototyping quicker he came up with
the bench supply that is build into a power strip
. This one is using linear regulators for power, and create much less noise on the lines than
a supply made from a switch-mode PSU
.
First thing’s first, he needed to step down from mains voltage and rectify the AC into DC. He gutted the smallest adapter he could find and managed to fit it into the gutted power strip. It puts out 15V which will work perfectly for the regulators he’s chosen. Each one gets its own slot where an outlet is on the case. The ground hole has been plugged by a toggle switch which routes power to the free-formed regulator/capacitors/heat sink modules. There is a slot for 15V (coming directly off of the converter), 10V, 5V, 3.3V, and two variable regulators which are controlled by the knobs above the outlet. We’ve never seen anything like this and find it most excellent!
[Thanks OverFlow636 via
Reddit
] | 16 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "689013",
"author": "9a3eedi",
"timestamp": "2012-06-26T22:06:44",
"content": "I don’t know about you, but seeing wires stuck into an 110V outlet like that makes me feel uncomfortable lol",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "689018",
... | 1,760,376,825.954326 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/06/26/salvaged-robot-arm-used-for-light-painting-and-pen-plotting/ | Salvaged Robot Arm Used For Light Painting And Pen Plotting | Mike Szczys | [
"Hackerspaces",
"Robots Hacks"
] | [
"light painting",
"mitsubishi",
"movemaster",
"pen plotting",
"rm-101",
"robot arm",
"shackspace",
"z80"
] | The members of Shackspace got their hands on an antiquated robot arm. It’s a Mitsubishi Movemaster RM-101 and was probably manufactured in the mid 1980’s. There’s almost nothing out there that tells you how to use the thing, and so
they set out to figure out how to control the hardware
.
This is a great example of
how an EPROM dump can be really useful
. After further inspection the team discovered that the arm is driven by a Z80 processor whose program is stored on an EPROM. The first thing the guys did was dump the memory since the aging storage will be useless if just a few bits become degraded. This dump will be really useful for others whose chip has already given up the ghost. The data from that dump was disassembled and painstakingly pawed through to figure out what commands were being sent to the arm. This technique worked, as the team was able to re-implement the control protocol and has already used the arm for some light painting and pen plotting (seen above). After the break you can see a control demonstration. | 5 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "689058",
"author": "ricouzuki",
"timestamp": "2012-06-26T23:44:24",
"content": "Ah man that song is a classic!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "689088",
"author": "vdu",
"timestamp": "2012-06-27T00:03:13",
... | 1,760,376,826.185159 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/06/26/maker-faire-nc-2012-electrical-vehicles/ | Maker Faire NC 2012: Electrical Vehicles | Jeremy Cook | [
"cons"
] | [
"electric vehicle",
"NC Maker Faire 2012",
"Raleigh Maker Faire 2012"
] | Although I had no idea what to expect at the NC Maker Faire, I was pleasantly surprised to see several well made electrical vehicles. One of note was
[Lab306]
‘s Fox body electric Mustang. Although it would have been impressive by itself, it was made by a high school class and has been featured in several publications. Be sure to check out their excellent website, or the short video of it after the break! Don’t you wish you went to that high school?
Also of note were a few really cool cars seen after the break, including one built from a kit by
[Green Cycle Design Group]
. The other two were extremely small by traditional car standards and featured very unique designs.
[youtube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xfOoKdBwtj8%5D | 7 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "688951",
"author": "Deranged",
"timestamp": "2012-06-26T20:40:23",
"content": "I like the car, although it would be nice to have more detail such as what transmission they are running and also if the had to upgrade any components such as suspension. Completed interior shot would be ... | 1,760,376,826.077125 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/06/26/building-a-bench-supply-without-altering-the-atx-psu/ | Building A Bench Supply Without Altering The ATX Psu | Mike Szczys | [
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"atx",
"bench supply",
"power supply",
"psu"
] | [FozzTexx] has been using a bench supply he made from an AT PSU for years. He put a lot of work into that one, removing unnecessary wires, mounting banana plug jacks on the metal case, and adding an on/off switch and labels. But if it ever dies on him it will be a major pain to do all that work again in order to replace it. When he set out to
build another bench supply from an ATX PSU
he decided to do so without altering the PSU. This way he can easily swap it out for a different one if he ever needs to.
The hardest part of the hack was sourcing connectors. But with the parts in hand he’s able to just plug the faceplate into the stock connector. This gives him access to all of the voltages, and provides an on/off switch and indicator light. He might also want to add the option of
resetting the unit if the over-current protection kicks in
. | 27 | 18 | [
{
"comment_id": "688887",
"author": "CrashSerious",
"timestamp": "2012-06-26T19:20:59",
"content": "Like this one —>http://www.mouser.com/ProductDetail/TE-Connectivity/1-1775099-1/?qs=28ld6GkVMjTL%2fyasQWtpPCQtMYyxxNeFaCcEuUVhqeY%3d",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
... | 1,760,376,826.141785 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/06/26/bike-cross-country-in-your-basement-with-google-streetview/ | Bike Cross Country In Your Basement With Google Streetview | Brian Benchoff | [
"Arduino Hacks",
"Transportation Hacks"
] | [
"google maps",
"stationary bike",
"streetview"
] | Biking cross-country is a worthwhile pursuit, but then you’ll have to deal with terrible drivers, rain, bugs, and heat. [Jeff Adkins] over at lowendmac has a neat solution to
exploring the country via bicycle
without ever leaving the safety and air conditioning of your basement.
For his build, [Jeff] used a magnetic reed switch attached to the frame of his stationary bike and the pedal crank. Whenever the pedal crank is turned, a reed switch closes on every revolution. This reed switch is connected to a new
Arduino Leonardo
programmed to transmit keyboard presses to a computer for every five revolutions of the pedal. From there, it’s a simple matter of loading up Google Streetview on a laptop and letting the Arduino automatically advance through Streetview images while pedaling.
The next part of [Jeff]’s project will be adding left and right buttons to his stationary bike to navigate Google Streetview images without taking his hands off the handlebars. You can check out a demo of [Jeff] cruising around after the break.
via
reddit
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=–h8UmIRdcs&w=470] | 11 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "688853",
"author": "RicoElectrico",
"timestamp": "2012-06-26T18:29:17",
"content": "Why do people use Arduino for such trivial jobs? This could be done with a reed switch connected to mic in (bias supplies power) and some coding on the host PC.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": ... | 1,760,376,826.232214 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/06/26/makerfaire-k-c-kansas-city-hackerspace-delivers/ | MakerFaire K.C. Kansas City Hackerspace Delivers | Caleb Kraft | [
"cons"
] | [
"hackerspace",
"hammerspace",
"Kansas City",
"makerfaire"
] | The
Kansas City Hammerspace
crowd really brought an amazing amount of stuff this year. Some stuff you’ve already seen, some stuff that is totally new. I’ll be sharing details on some of them individually as they really deserve the attention. Their booth, or booths were huge, taking up roughly 1/3 of the main hall. It was packed with a plethora of individual projects that really were all over the place. There were enthusiastic people at every turn happy to show off what they had built.Their presence really boosted the awesome level of the MakerFaire through the stratosphere.
Not only did they bring tons of awesome to the MakerFaire, they were gracious enough to invite people back to the hackerspace after the show for an after party. They stuffed food in my entire family and made us feel at home. It was really cool seeing everyone gathered discussing various projects. The ArcAttack crew was even troubleshooting a small tesla coil cit that wasn’t working right.
Watch the Hackerspace tour and check out some pictures after the break. Posts highlighting some of the individual projects will be coming soon.
Here’s a short list of what was represented there:
a 3d scanning rig
hacked ASCII typewriter — video interview and details coming soon
flapping wasp wings — video interview and details coming soon
lost plastics printing
scenery models
a “quantum encabulator”
electrolysis of rust
neuron soldering kits
animated props
air cannons
2 power wheels racers
sumo robots
humanoid robots
hamster bots
laser cut CNC routers
a bubble display — video interview and details coming soon
sculpture
an on road electric vehicle
a variety of silkscreened shirts | 4 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "688844",
"author": "Hal",
"timestamp": "2012-06-26T18:12:45",
"content": "Thanks for the great write up and post. We were glad you made it and had fun. It was blast hosting you guys!We look forward to seeing you next Maker Faire. In the meantime check out our site …http://www.c3kc.o... | 1,760,376,826.498227 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/06/26/building-better-cases-with-a-laser-cutter/ | Building Better Cases With A Laser Cutter | Brian Benchoff | [
"Raspberry Pi"
] | [
"box",
"case",
"enclosure",
"enclosures",
"laser cutter"
] | [Ryan] just got his Raspberry Pi, and what better way to add a new toy to your workbench than by
building a case for it
? Using a laser cutter and 3D printer, [Ryan] managed to make a case that is sure to be the envy of all the other tinkerers at his hackerspace.
The build started off with a piece of dark red acrylic in a laser cutter. After cutting the Raspberry Pi logo out of this acrylic, [Ryan] cut the same logo – a little bit larger – out of plywood. Because he was very careful to measure the kerf (or the width of the laser beam/saw blade/what have you), the wooded version of the Raspi logo fit snugly inside the acrylic cut out.
The sides of the enclosure are a single piece of plywood with a kerf bend, making for a very attractive rounded case. Finally, the Raspberry Pi is mounted on
a Pi plate
printed on a Ultimaker.
For as many builds we see using a laser cutter here on Hackaday, there’s surprisingly little information on exploiting the true potential of these machines with marquetry, intarsia, or fretwork. Enclosures are always cool, so if you have a very elegant laser cut box,
send it in
and we’ll put it up. | 16 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "688760",
"author": "Velli",
"timestamp": "2012-06-26T16:21:15",
"content": "SHOPPED!The RaspPi is shopped into the excellent case build. I can tell by the pixels, and because they only made 7 RaspPis, and never shipped them to anyone.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"re... | 1,760,376,826.305139 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/06/26/hackaday-is-entering-in-the-redbull-creation-contest/ | HackaDay Is Entering In The Redbull Creation Contest | Caleb Kraft | [
"contests",
"News"
] | [
"redbull"
] | When I returned from MakerFaire Kansas City I was very pleased to find a Bullduino waiting on my doorstep! Hackaday has been accepted into the first round of the
Redbull Creation Contest
. I’m doing the physical building while the other writers are consulting for this round. I’m also pulling people from around me here at
SquidFoo
(my local hackerspace) that can help.
Today, I got lucky enough to run into [Tony Sherwood] from
MakerBot
. I told him my idea and he eagerly volunteered to lend his brains and his brawn… as well as his Makerbot Replicator. He’s been extremely helpful so far offering very good ideas on how we can get this thing operational as fast as possible.
I’m not going to share exactly what we’re building yet. I can tell you it will not be the most complex project, but it will be really fun, and most likely dangerous. We’re starting today, which means we have very little time to build. Lets hope we can make something interesting enough to go to round two! | 10 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "688717",
"author": "Evocube",
"timestamp": "2012-06-26T15:11:58",
"content": "Ok Now I want to know.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "688766",
"author": "woutervddn",
"timestamp": "2012-06-26T16:25:11",
... | 1,760,376,826.362687 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/06/26/bicycle-quadcopter-flies-for-dozens-of-seconds/ | Bicycle Quadcopter Flies For Dozens Of Seconds | Mike Szczys | [
"Transportation Hacks"
] | [
"bicycle",
"gamera",
"pedal",
"quadcopter",
"university of maryland"
] | If you decide to fly into town on
this bicycle-powered quadcopter
your arms and legs really will be tired. That’s because this athlete had to give it his all to power the rotors through the foot pedals and the hand cranks. You can see just one of the rotors on the right side of the background. Yeah, this thing is big!
You’re looking at the Gamera II, a craft developed by students at the University of Maryland. About a year ago they were showing off
the first version of the aircraft
. With the passing of the year comes the breaking of world records as a different rider manages to keep it up for 50 seconds in the video after the break. Although the structure is huge (over 100 feet across) the building materials and techniques let it weigh in at only 71 pounds.
It still looks like way to much physical work for us. We’re sticking to
the pedal-powered hydrofoil
as our dream transport.
[via
Reddit
] | 32 | 18 | [
{
"comment_id": "688671",
"author": "Max",
"timestamp": "2012-06-26T14:14:40",
"content": "You wouldn’t catch me standing in the middle of those whirling blades! They don’t look to be rotating at a huge number of RPM but the tip speed is enormous…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replie... | 1,760,376,826.872737 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/06/25/makerfaire-k-c-first-impressions/ | MakerFaire K.C. First Impressions | Caleb Kraft | [
"cons"
] | [
"Kansas City",
"makerfaire"
] | I arrived at the Kansas City MakerFaire bright eyed and bushy tailed, excited to meet up with like minded people and see awesome projects. I was not disappointed in that respect. The building itself is quite beautiful with giant main rooms and decorated 40 foot tall ceilings. If you haven’t ever seen the
Union Station in Kansas City
, I suggest you check it out. It is really quite fantastic on its own.
The event seemed rather well organized. There were talks on different subjects as well as clearly outlined areas for each event. The place was absolutely packed, but walking around still managed to be tolerable. Volunteers in bright red shirts were wandering around offering assistance to anyone looking lost or confused. I didn’t run into a single person complaining about the event. I’ve been to a ton of large events and there are usually a few people who were upset. I didn’t find any here.
The booths covered subjects from all over the place. There was knitting, model rocketry, robotics, lego construction, random hacks, cast making, and of course, 3d printing. I’ll be posting projects separately, as there were only a selected few that I think our readers would enjoy.
There were only 3 things I found frustrating.
1. Some of the coolest stuff I found, we have
already covered
.
2. I didn’t have time or ability to get as much detail on any one project as I would have liked. I’m used to seeing full write-ups with schematics and pictures. I only had a couple minutes with anyone. There were constant distractions as well as an amazing amount of noise (tesla coils especially!). I walked away felling almost like there was no point in doing interviews, but I guess this is how “on location” stuff works.
3. My footage is shaky. I apologize in advance. I didn’t end up bringing a rig with me to stabilize the camera and I spent the whole time wishing I had. I
know
how frustrating shaky footage is. I’m truly truly sorry. I will flog myself appropriately at my soonest opportunity.
after the break is a small gallery of random pics from the event with pretty much no accompanying info. Actual posts will be coming soon with details. | 19 | 14 | [
{
"comment_id": "687669",
"author": "James",
"timestamp": "2012-06-25T14:16:20",
"content": "We were there on Sat. and enjoyed the show. I cannot think of a better venue and enjoy all the extras such as Science City, the trains, Planitarium, etc. About 10-20% growth from last year. Hope it keeps gro... | 1,760,376,826.753575 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/06/25/sprite_tm-connects-an-lcd-to-a-tiny-linux-board/ | [Sprite_tm] Connects An LCD To A Tiny Linux Board | Brian Benchoff | [
"Linux Hacks",
"Video Hacks"
] | [
"carambola",
"lcd",
"linux"
] | One of [Sprite_tm]’s colleagues recently challenged him to connect a small LCD touch screen to a Raspberry Pi. Sadly, [Sprite_tm] has yet to take delivery of a Raspberry Pi, but he did manage to
connect an LCD to a Linux board without video capabilities
.
Because [Sprite_tm]’s display has a 16-bit parallel interface, and 16 GPIO pins are hard to come by on the
Carambola
Linux board, a few shift registers had to be brought into the build to make the LCD work. These shift registers are connected to the Carambola board via an SPI interface; a very simple way to connect all the LCD pins to the Linux board.
Of course, there’s no way for Linux to speak to the LCD without a kernel driver; [Sprite_tm] wrote a framebuffer driver so the LCD can be used as a console, an X session, or used by any other program that can write to a framebuffer device.
Like all good driver authors, [Sprite_tm] is giving away the patch to enable SPI-ified LCD panels on the Carambola along with the shift register schematic. With any luck we’ll also see the Raspi drivers when [Sprite_tm] takes delivery of his Raspberry Pi. | 11 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "687647",
"author": "Hack Man",
"timestamp": "2012-06-25T13:23:11",
"content": "SPI is a very simple way to connect all the LCD pins to the Linux board. It’s also quite slow, too.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "687648",
... | 1,760,376,826.689471 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/06/25/logging-temperatures-with-an-etch-a-sketch/ | Logging Temperatures With An Etch-a-Sketch | Brian Benchoff | [
"Toy Hacks"
] | [
"etch a sketch",
"stepper",
"stepper motor"
] | What do you do if you’re given a gigantic ancient printer? If you’re [IronJungle], you throw that printer on your workbench and salvage all the parts you can. After coming across a few stepper motors in an old Oki printer, [IronJungle] decided to
automate an Etch-a-Sketch
with the help of a PIC microcontroller and H-bridge chip to log the ambient temperature on an Etch-a-Sketch display.
After [IronJungle] was finished figuring out his stepper motor circuit, the only thing left to do was to add a thermometer. For this task, he chose a very cool
one-wire digital thermometer
that carries power and data over the same wire.
In the video after the break, you can check out [IronJungle] playing with his new Etch-a-Sketch temperature logger with a shot glass of hot water and a cold can of holy water. There’s no scale or graph lines drawn on this Etch-a-Sketch temperature logger, but [IronJungle] has a few more things planned for this rig. We can’t wait to see those plans come to fruition.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJ19ENIbT3E&w=470] | 9 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "687500",
"author": "Craig",
"timestamp": "2012-06-25T03:12:15",
"content": "This is absolutely excellent. Impractical in all the best ways.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "687644",
"author": "barryronaldo",
"timestamp": ... | 1,760,376,826.640451 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/06/24/knut-logs-data-sends-it-to-your-email/ | Knut Logs Data, Sends It To Your Email | Brian Benchoff | [
"Crowd Funding",
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"Knut",
"wifi"
] | [Richard] and [Jay] needed a WiFi connected data logger for remotely monitored aquariums. After working diligently for three years, they’re finally finished.
While the Knut
was originally designed to keep tabs on a few huge aquariums, it’s more than capable to log all sorts of data and send those sensor readings to your email address.
Knut is a small WiFi enabled device replete with a few plugs for temperature, humidity, accelerometer, and other sensors. All this data goes directly into the memory of Knut, and when the memory is full the data is sent to an email address. As a bonus, there’s also an iDevice app (Android and Windows coming soon) to parse the generated .CSV file and display the results on an iPhone
The Knut may be a touch expensive for our tastes, but if you’re looking for an off-the-shelf solution for sending alerts, logging data, or just reading a few sensors via WiFi, Knut may be just the ticket.
[Richard] and [Jay] put together a demo video showing off the capabilities and operation of the Knut app; check that out after the break.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=egr2HtnYJSQ&w=470] | 7 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "687412",
"author": "Aaron",
"timestamp": "2012-06-24T23:24:21",
"content": "‘Replete with a few’. Oh, HaD, don’t you ever change.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "687422",
"author": "Jarel",
"timestamp": "2012-0... | 1,760,376,826.804547 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/06/24/crayolascope-turns-flat-displays-into-volumetric-coolness/ | Crayolascope Turns Flat Displays Into Volumetric Coolness | Brian Benchoff | [
"Toy Hacks"
] | [
"display",
"glowbook"
] | [Blair] sent in a project he’s been working on for a while. It’s called the Crayolascope, and it allows for the creation of an
extremely low-fi volumetric display
using a Crayola Glow book.
The
Crayola Glow Book
is a pretty neat toy composed of four clear plastic panels. Each of these four panels are illuminated from the side to reveal the image drawn with fluorescent ‘glow pens’. [Blair] had the idea to take several of these Glow Books and draw a rudimentary 3D animation by sequentially lighting one of the 12 plastic panels.
After tracing single frames from a rotating cube animation, the Crayolascope pages through the plastic panel-based 3D display with the help of an Arduino Mega. For each frame of animation, the Arduino illuminates a single display with edge-mount LEDs. Of course there’s a control panel to regulate how fast the frames are shown, along with the ability to scrub a frame and apply a fade effect.
[Blair] admits there are a few problems; there’s a lot of internal reflections in the array of clear plastic sheets, and frames near the end of an animation are really only observable in a very dark room. [Blair] hopes the next version of the Crayolascope will use thinner plastic panels to increase the depth of the animations – a solution that may just solve the decreasing brightness of ‘deeper’ panels. | 8 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "687350",
"author": "UltraApple",
"timestamp": "2012-06-24T19:21:16",
"content": "That is really cool. I think that if each panel had the edges wrapped in electrical tape it would solve much of the internal reflection issues…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [... | 1,760,376,826.919355 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/06/24/using-the-raspi-as-an-ethernet-shield/ | Using The Raspi As An Ethernet Shield | Brian Benchoff | [
"Arduino Hacks",
"Raspberry Pi"
] | [
"arduino",
"ethernet",
"node.js",
"raspberry pi"
] | [Alexandre] wanted to set up a web-based temperature logger with his Arduino, but found the Arduino Ethernet shield a little finicky. Since his Raspberry pi was just delivered, he figured he could
use the Raspi as an Ethernet shield
with just a little bit of coding.
After [Alexandre] set up his Arduino to send a thermocouple through the USB, the only thing left to do was to add
node.js
to the Raspi’s Debian installation. Every five minutes, the Arduino wakes up, takes a temperature reading, and sends it over to the Raspberry pi. From there, it’s easy parse the Arduino’s JSON output and serve it up on the web.
In the end, [Alexandre] successfully set up his Raspberry pi as an Ethernet shield to serve
a web page displaying the current temperature
(don’t F5 that link, btw). One interesting thing we have to point out is the cost of setting up this online temperature logger: the Arduino Ethernet shield
sells for $45 USD
, while the Raspberry pi is available for $35. Yes, it’s actually
less expensive
to use a Raspberry pi as an Ethernet shield than the current Arduino offerings. There you have it, just in case you were still on the fence about this whole Raspi thing. | 47 | 17 | [
{
"comment_id": "687311",
"author": "FozzTexx",
"timestamp": "2012-06-24T17:05:54",
"content": "You say the Raspberry Pi is available for $35, but where? I haven’t seen them *available* anywhere except for 2 or 4 times that on eBay.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
... | 1,760,376,827.093074 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/06/24/nc-maker-faire-2012-machine-tools-and-3d-printers/ | NC Maker Faire 2012: Machine Tools And 3D Printers | Jeremy Cook | [
"3d Printer hacks",
"cons"
] | [
"Maker Faire Raleigh 2012",
"NC Maker Faire 2012",
"Raleigh"
] | There were quite a few 3D printers at the NC Maker Faire this year (like the
[Fablicator]
, several
[RepRap
]s, and [
MakerBot
]s) as well as a few subtractive machining devices including a wood lathe, a
[ShopBot]
display (one of the sponsors), and my little
CNC router
. There was even a little
[Eggbot]
on display, which combines several CNC concepts into a really unique device for printing a picture on an egg.
Check out the video below for lots of examples of what was at the
Faire
. There’s always room for one more 3D printing or CNC machining enthusiast, so hopefully it inspired some makers to expand their capabilities!
[youtube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FAXokt2jyxo&w=470&h=315%5D | 8 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "687302",
"author": "tiefpunkt",
"timestamp": "2012-06-24T16:23:11",
"content": "What is that 3D-Printer in the picture? I don’t think I’ve seen that one before. Does anyone have any details?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "687... | 1,760,376,827.137418 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/06/26/taking-a-dump-from-some-old-hardware/ | Taking A Dump From Some Old Hardware | Mike Szczys | [
"Arduino Hacks",
"Hackerspaces",
"Microcontrollers"
] | [
"chipkit",
"dump",
"eprom",
"memory",
"uv"
] | NYC Resistor shows you how to have some fun with electronics from the junk bin.
Their post called
The Joy of Dumping
encourages you to look around for older memory chips and see what they’ve been hiding away for all these years.
The targets of their hunt are EPROM chips. Note the single ‘E’. These are Erasable Programmable Read-Only Memory chips, and predate EEPROM which adds “Electrically” to the beginning of the acronym. You used to use a UV light source to erase the older types of memory. In fact we’ve seen some
EPROM erasers as projects
from time to time. These shouldn’t be too hard to find as they were prevalent as cheap storage back in the 1980’s.
If the quartz window on the top of the chips has been shielded from ambient UV light, you should still be able to read them and it’s as easy as hooking up your Arduino. Is it useful? Not really, but it still can be neat to interface with what might otherwise never make its way back out of the junk box. | 30 | 16 | [
{
"comment_id": "688622",
"author": "Nuno.S.Almeida",
"timestamp": "2012-06-26T13:25:06",
"content": "If you don’t have enough pins or want to avoid a mess of wires, an alternative is to use a simple binary counter chip (say a cmos 4020, 4040 or 4060) and connects its output to the EPROM address pin... | 1,760,376,827.209729 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/06/26/offloading-vga-generation-onto-a-coprocessor/ | Offloading VGA Generation Onto A Coprocessor | Mike Szczys | [
"Video Hacks"
] | [
"beaglebone",
"coprocessor",
"pru",
"vga"
] | [Alessandro] sent us a link to
his post about a PRU software VGA rasterizer
. It’s not the easiest read, but we think it’s worth your time.
The gist of his background information is that back when his company was developing for an ARM9 processor he wanted to test his mettle with the coprocessor chips. The first iteration was to write a character LCD driver that pulled data from the main processor’s memory and displayed it on the screen. This makes for a low-overhead debugger display, it’s also very limited (32 characters over two lines doesn’t tell you much). And thus began his work on a VGA generator for the Programmable Realtime Unit (PRU is what TI calls this coprocessor) that grabs data in memory just like the original version. But with a much larger display area this becomes quite useful for debugging. That resistor mess is the R2R ladder he soldered together to perform the Digital to Analog Conversions. There’s a quick demo clip after the jump.
This work could end up being useful to you. [Alessandro] reports that the BeagleBone has similar hardware. A bit of porting could get his generator working on that board as well. | 9 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "688579",
"author": "slashsplat",
"timestamp": "2012-06-26T12:24:43",
"content": "Test his “mettle”…met·tle (mtl)n.1. Courage and fortitude; spirit: troops who showed their mettle in combat.2. Inherent quality of character and temperament.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
... | 1,760,376,827.258427 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/06/26/tricking-the-beaglebone-into-outputting-video/ | Tricking The BeagleBone Into Outputting Video | Mike Szczys | [
"Microcontrollers",
"Video Hacks"
] | [
"ATmega32",
"beaglebone",
"cape",
"dvi",
"vga"
] | [FlorianH] wanted to get video out working with his BeagleBone but he just couldn’t figure out how to make the kernel play ball. Then a bit of inspiration struck. He knew that if you plug in the official DVI cape (that’s the BeagleBone word for what you may know as a shield) the kernel automatically starts pumping out the signals he needs. So he figured out a
way to spoof the cape and output video
.
At boot time the kernel polls the I2C bus to see what’s connected. The DVI cape has an EEPROM which identifies it. Since the data from the EEPROM is available for download [FlorianH] grabbed the data he needed, then used an ATmega32 to stand in for the memory chip. When he got the chip talking to the BeagleBone he was able to detect the video sync signals on his scope and he knew he was in business.
Look closely at the breadboard on the right. We love that SIL breakout board for the ATmega32. Very prototype friendly! | 5 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "688606",
"author": "barryronaldo",
"timestamp": "2012-06-26T12:59:34",
"content": "He he nice job FlorianH on tricking the chip into doing its job :) My type of hack :) Keep up the good work and good ideas.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"... | 1,760,376,827.300768 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/06/25/strange-login-request-at-hackaday-com/ | Strange Login Request At Hackaday.com | Caleb Kraft | [
"News"
] | [
"wtf"
] | We’ve received numerous messages about this new login popup on our site. This is NOT our doing. It is most likely some ancient script from our ancient template that has finally become outdated or expired. We’re working on a resolution. If you hit cancel it will go away.
We are truly sorry for the inconvenience and are working to get rid of this immediately.
Update:
It is gone. It was a site statistics script from sitemeeter that suddenly had issues on many sites. We try VERY HARD to make sure our advertisements are unobtrusive since we rely on those ads to support us. Anything that gets in the way of you reading our site is bad. | 43 | 25 | [
{
"comment_id": "688200",
"author": "bluewraith",
"timestamp": "2012-06-26T04:17:24",
"content": "Good thing that this was the first post… I was a bit confused.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "688763",
"author": "Oliver Heaviside",
... | 1,760,376,827.37777 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/06/25/bench-power-supply-resetting-thingy/ | Bench Power Supply Resetting Thingy | Jake W | [
"ATtiny Hacks",
"computer hacks"
] | [
"arduino",
"attiny85",
"atx",
"power supply"
] | As is common among some hackers, [Henry] re-purposed an ATX power supply unit to function
as a bench power supply
for testing circuits on a breadboard (much like
this fancy example
).
However, safety mechanisms on some modern PC PSUs do not automatically reset after over-current protection has kicked in, which soon became annoying for [Henry]. In order to make his power supply more hacker-friendly, he wired up and programmed an
ATtiny85V
, using some
Arduino libraries
, to do that for him. This simple project is a great example of using a hack to improve a pre-existing hack. | 14 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "688061",
"author": "txwikinger",
"timestamp": "2012-06-26T00:17:12",
"content": "Reblogged this ontxwikinger's blog.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "688065",
"author": "Kenneth Finnegan",
"timestamp": "2012-06-26T00:28:4... | 1,760,376,827.430707 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/06/25/course-correcting-the-science-fiction-genre/ | Course Correcting The Science Fiction Genre | Mike Szczys | [
"Rants"
] | [
"biopunk",
"cyberpunk",
"novels",
"science fiction"
] | Usually we post our own mad ravings in the rants category. But we think [Paolo Bacigalupi’s] take on the meandering focus of the Science Fiction genre worthy of the deviation. He discusses the course correction that happened in the 1980’s and
makes a case that it’s time for another nudge in the right direction
.
We’ve done our own extensive reading of the Sci-Fi that’s out there. And it’s not hard to agree that the pillars of the genre (Heinlein, Asimov, Bradbury, Clarke) feel dated. We remember the thrill of reading
Neuromancer,
Snow Crash,
and other cyber-punk offerings with new enthusiasm. But we never really put it together that this was a course correction. The older novels were focused on forecasting the future of older technology, and as the digital world develop those predictions didn’t mirror the reality of “the future”.
So what about now? Do the
Tessier-Ashpools
secretly govern that majority of the planet from a lofty orbital platform? Is it time for another reboot? Of course there’s never one single pivot point for these things, but we think it’s already happening in novels like
Ready Player One.
We haven’t read [Paolo’s] award-winning book
The Windup Girl
(pictured above) yet but he thinks that
biopunk
may be one of the new directions for science fiction literature. What do you think?
[via
BoingBoing
] | 41 | 30 | [
{
"comment_id": "688013",
"author": "beaglebreath",
"timestamp": "2012-06-25T23:11:18",
"content": "The Windup Girl",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "688017",
"author": "Kuy",
"timestamp": "2012-06-25T23:18:06",
"content": "Can’t belie... | 1,760,376,827.503435 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/06/25/printing-and-programming-a-self-balancer/ | Printing And Programming A Self-balancer | Mike Szczys | [
"3d Printer hacks",
"Robots Hacks"
] | [
"3d printer",
"accelerometer",
"arduino",
"balance",
"gyroscope"
] | The Hackaday staff isn’t in agreement on 3d printers. Some of us are very enthusiastic, some are indifferent, and some wonder what if they’re as widely useful as the hype makes them sound. But we think [Jason Dorweiler’s]
self balancing robot
is as strong a case as any that 3d printing should be for everyone!
Don’t get us wrong. We love the robot project just for being a cool self-balancer. Seeing the thing stand on its own (video after the break) using an Arduino with accelerometer and gyroscope sensors is pure win. But whenever we see these we always think of all the mechanical fabrication that goes into it. But look at the thing. It’s just
printed parts
and some wooden dowels! How easy is that?
Sure, sure, you’ve got to have access to the printer, it needs to be well calibrated, and then you’ve got to make the designs to be printed out. But these hurdles are getting easier to overcome every day. After all, there’s no shortage of people to befriend
who want nothing more than to show off their Makerbot/RepRap/etc
. | 2 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "688738",
"author": "aleksclark",
"timestamp": "2012-06-26T15:49:46",
"content": "I don’t see anything there that couldn’t have been done with junk from the junkbox. Certainly nothing I’d bother spending effort on to print. A few plywood scraps and a couple of wheels would have done... | 1,760,376,827.545296 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/06/25/blinky-headgear-2/ | Blinky Headgear | Mike Szczys | [
"LED Hacks",
"Wearable Hacks"
] | [
"555 timer",
"cd4017",
"decade counter",
"hat",
"led",
"protoboard"
] | This
hat has a chasing LED feature
thanks to our old friend the 555 timer. [BananaSlug] even built in the option to change the speed at the push of a button.
His design starts out with a costume hat. Each of the 25 LEDs is soldered to a 2×4 hole chunk of protoboard. The LED package is pushed through a slit in the hat, but the protoboard remains on the inside where it can be sewn in place. From there [BananaSlug] soldered one negative bus around the circumference, and an individual positive lead from each module back to the control board. They’re addressed by a set of CD4017 decade counters which are clocked by the 555 timer circuit.
This is a great little analog/logic project and the style is perfect if you’ve got
the coat to go along with it
. | 5 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "687951",
"author": "zerocool42",
"timestamp": "2012-06-25T21:30:32",
"content": "As someone who has literally just started building the circuitry for his LED hat on a solderless breadboard, I am sincerely impressed with your build! Thank you for sharing how you attached the LEDs as ... | 1,760,376,827.70843 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/06/25/makerfaire-k-c-sneak-peak-at-arcattacks-new-toy/ | MakerFaire K.C. Sneak Peak At ArcAttack’s New Toy | Caleb Kraft | [
"cons"
] | [
"arcattack",
"high voltage",
"makerfaire",
"tesla coil"
] | I’ve been seeing videos of
ArcAttack
all over the web for several years now and hoped one day I’d be able to cross paths with them. When I heard they were going to be at MakerFaire K. C., I was determined to grab them and ask a few questions. As it turns out, they’re fans of Hackaday and were happy to talk. Not only that, but when I was asking what fun things they were building, their eyes lit up. “You’re going to love this” one of them said as he ran off behind the stage. He returned with a device which was strapped to his body and spitting 5 foot long lightning bolts. He was right, I did love it! They demonstrated this proton pack looking portable tesla coil for a while, shocking each other and random bits of metal, all the wile grinning like the fools we all are.
I know we’ve covered a
portable tesla coil or two before
, but seeing this thing in person,heading right for you,strapped to someone who might actually even be able to run faster than you, is pretty cool.
There is video (sorry, shaky) and a ton of pictures after the break. Enjoy.
It looks like you can get a few cool pictures of an earlier stage of the handheld tesla coil from
their Facebook page
as well. | 17 | 15 | [
{
"comment_id": "687891",
"author": "Galane",
"timestamp": "2012-06-25T20:07:20",
"content": "Don’t cross the streams!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "687989",
"author": "Kaj",
"timestamp": "2012-06-25T22:28:40",
"conte... | 1,760,376,827.876869 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/06/25/building-a-boombox-where-tools-are-meant-to-go/ | Building A Boombox Where Tools Are Meant To Go | Mike Szczys | [
"digital audio hacks"
] | [
"boombox",
"toolbox"
] | [Danman1453] is ready to face the rest of his summer thanks to
this toolbox boombox he built for outside use
. It’s always nice to have some tunes when laboring at those not-so-fun jobs (we’ve got some windows that need re-glazing and you can bet we’re not doing that in silence). But if you can’t really hear it what’s the point? The highest volume [Danman1453] could get out of the consumer options he tried just wasn’t cutting it, and that led him to this project.
The only thing he bought to complete the boombox was some black spray paint. He already had an old toolbox for the enclosure, a head unit and the larger speakers from an old car, and the small speakers came from a set of computer speakers. Those are cleverly mounted in the compartments on the lid of the toolbox, pointed down so that they’re oriented correctly when the lid is propped open. The faceplate was even recycled by using wood an old shipping pallet.
He would like a little bit of advice though. When he’s playing a CD and the bass really gets bumping the head unit tends to skip. Does anyone have an easy method of isolating it from the speakers while still keeping it safe and sound in the portable enclosure? | 28 | 23 | [
{
"comment_id": "687849",
"author": "Aaron",
"timestamp": "2012-06-25T19:15:26",
"content": "Rubber washers on the speaker mounts? Same on the head unit mount? I mean, they solve this problem in cars somehow; presumably a similar fix could apply here.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"re... | 1,760,376,827.8125 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/06/25/melting-beer-cans-and-building-engines/ | Melting Beer Cans And Building Engines | Brian Benchoff | [
"Engine Hacks"
] | [
"aluminum casting",
"beer can",
"engine"
] | What do you do if you’ve got a fully equipped machine shop and you’re tired of taking old beer cans to the recycler? If you’re like [Brock], you’ll probably end up
melting those cans down to build an engine.
After gathering 50 pounds of beer cans and melting them down into ingots of various sizes, [Brock] and company had a lot of aluminum and nothing to build. Eventually, someone got the idea to build an internal combustion engine out of these beer can ingots.
So far, the beer can engine crew has built two engines from these beer can ingots. The
four-stroke engine
started off as a 5-inch aluminum cube, bored and milled into something resembling an engine block. When [Brock] and the beer can engine team completed their four-stroke masterpiece, they had a water-cooled engine displacing 150cc with a single 2″ bore piston. The
two-stroke engine
is a much simpler affair with a 1 inch bore displacing 19cc.
Even though there’s no information at all covering the pottery kiln foundry used to melt the beer cans into ingots, it’s an amazing piece of work building and engine from the ground up.
You can check out a few videos of both engines after the break.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TKZ8p6GfktM&w=470]
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ElKrpndzmN0&w=470]
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QzL4ntLqup4&w=470] | 28 | 13 | [
{
"comment_id": "687812",
"author": "Alex",
"timestamp": "2012-06-25T18:33:56",
"content": "What an awesome project!I like that he used his mill table and strapping to hold the engine down for testing, haha.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "68786... | 1,760,376,827.984135 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/06/25/better-driving-with-a-bullduino/ | Better Driving With A Bullduino | Brian Benchoff | [
"Arduino Hacks"
] | [
"bullduino",
"driving"
] | Despite what you may have heard from the kids hanging out in the parking lot of Taco Bell, there’s a lot to be said about driving conservatively. Not peeling out after ever red light and stop sign does wonders for the life of your engine, and not slamming on the brakes 50 feet away from an intersection will keep your brake pads going a long time. [aromaoftacoma] wanted a dashboard gauge telling him how good of a driver he is, so
when he got a bullduino
he knew what he had to do.
[aromaoftacoma]’s project for the
Redbull creation contest
uses the very cool
Arduino shield/Redbull logo
known as a bullduino with an accelerometer to track how conservatively he’s driving. Quick stops and starts are murder on an automobile – it’s the same reason your grandmother has had the same car for 20 years – so [aromaoftacoma] made a wonderful display using red and blue LEDs behind each charging bull.
Because simply blinking a LED in response to data pulled from an accelerometer is a little boring, [aromaoftacoma] added a servo to change the orientation of the charging bulls. When he’s driving well, the blue bull is tilted up, and when he stops short the red bull becomes the focus of attention. Not a bad build at all.
You can check out [aromaoftacoma]’s build video after the break.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=74gQsoUsjLs&w=470] | 7 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "687773",
"author": "KillerBug",
"timestamp": "2012-06-25T17:33:51",
"content": "My grandma goes through cars like shoes…maybe she should press the brakes a little harder. Neat build anyhow…not sure if it’s “extreme” enough for redbull…but a quick adjustment could make it into a g-m... | 1,760,376,827.919394 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/06/25/dont-bring-your-3d-printer-to-makerfaire/ | Don’t Bring Your 3d Printer To MakerFaire | Caleb Kraft | [
"3d Printer hacks",
"Rants"
] | [
"3d printing",
"makerfaire"
] | This could easily be called “the year of the 3d printer”. They are in the news, in every hackerspace, and at every event. This last one is the one I’m going to focus on here. All the coverage we’ve seen as well as our personal experience shows that MakerFaires are filled with 3d printers. At MakerFaire K. C., there were so many that I lost count. I didn’t even bother taking pictures or stopping to look after a while. Many were makerbots, though a few repraps were present too.
If you want to be noticed at MakerFaire, DON’T BRING A 3D PRINTER AS YOUR SOLE DISPLAY.
I understand, you’re excited. 3d printing is
very
exciting. Catch me some time and ask me how I feel about 3d printing and the future and I’ll happily discuss with you how important I think it is and how we’re seeing the infancy of something great. However, when showing off your hackerspace at a MakerFaire, you need to show
projects you are working on
. It doesn’t matter what you’re building at your hackerspace, show it off. I know some of you will mention that
you are building a 3d printer
. Cool, so are all the other hackerspaces, you’d better have some other stuff going on too. Your 3d printer most likely isn’t any different than the one on the table next to you. Especially if you bought a makerbot. Super Especially if the table next to you happens to be the makerbot table.
I’ll tell you what you need to bring. Listen close, because this is very important. Think about the people at your hackerspace. You’ve got a person or a few people who are very excited about something. It may not look particularly special to you. It may not be in the headlines of Make Magainze (yet), and you probably haven’t seen it for sale online with a fancy web page. This person/people may seem like the fringe to you. Some oddball that just happens to get really excited at the thought of some peculiar laser or a specific type of leather working . Bring
that
person. Have them go on and on about their peculiar project. Their enthusiasm is infectious. Your hackerspace will be remembered. Hackerspace’s power lies in the diversity of their people and what they do with the space. Don’t show up thinking about what your hackerspace supplies to your members, but
show off what your members have supplied your hackerspace
. | 48 | 20 | [
{
"comment_id": "687723",
"author": "oodain",
"timestamp": "2012-06-25T16:11:15",
"content": "nice snippet of thoughtkudos",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "687740",
"author": "Bob D",
"timestamp": "2012-06-25T16:37:13",
"content": "I ... | 1,760,376,828.197773 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/06/25/playing-video-on-an-8-bit-microcontroller/ | Playing Video On An 8-bit Microcontroller | Brian Benchoff | [
"Microcontrollers",
"Video Hacks"
] | [
"ATmega32",
"Nokia LCD",
"video"
] | The LCD displays for Nokia phones have seen a ton of use as easily interfaced displays for Arduino or other microcontroller projects. Usually, these LCDs are only used for displaying a few lines of text, or if someone is feeling really fancy, a small graph. Shame, then that we don’t see more complicated and computationally difficult tasks like playing video very often. [Vinod] sent us
his way of playing video
on these small color screens, surprisingly using only an ATMega32 microprocessor.
The build started off by saving uncompressed image data on an SD card using code from a previous project. [Vinod] was able to write a slideshow program to go through the SD card one file at a time and displaying each image. From there, it was simply a matter of using a Python script to convert frames of an .AVI video file to an uncompressed image and display them at 15 frames/second.
Turning these videos into talkies was a bit of a problem, but after taking an uncompressed .WAV file and sending that to a PWM pin on the ATMega, [Vinod] managed to play sound alongside his video.
The result is the ability to play a video with sound at 15 frames a second and a 132 x 65 resolution. You can check out the demo video after the break.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rgvySZNpQFI&w=470] | 8 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "687698",
"author": "spiralbrain",
"timestamp": "2012-06-25T15:19:32",
"content": "Awesome! Vinod is an Ace!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "687796",
"author": "slime",
"timestamp": "2012-06-25T18:04:15",
"content": "... | 1,760,376,828.112536 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/06/22/a-primer-on-dynamic-loading/ | A Primer On Dynamic Loading | Mike Szczys | [
"Linux Hacks"
] | [
"dynamic loader",
"system call"
] | [Graphitemaster] is helping to demystifying the process of tailoring functions for dynamic loading. His tutorial shows
how make a dynamic function that prints “Hello World”
to the standard output. This is of course rudimentary, but if you have no prior experience with the topic you might be surprised at what actually goes into it.
Normally your compiled code has addresses in it that tell the processor where to go next. The point of dynamic loading is that the code can be put anywhere, and so static addresses simply will not work. The code above shows how a simple printf statement normally compiles. The callq line is a system call that needs to be replaced with something that will play nicely in the registers. [Graphitemaster] takes it slow in showing how to do this. Of course a dynamic function alone isn’t going to be much good. So the tutorial finishes by illustrating how to program a dynamic code loader
. | 7 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "686426",
"author": "jason",
"timestamp": "2012-06-22T22:07:24",
"content": "Am I the only one who read that as “dynamite”?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "686473",
"author": "andrewchambers",
"timestamp": "2012-06-22T23:... | 1,760,376,828.242981 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/06/22/bring-your-led-matrix-project-into-the-living-room/ | Bring Your LED Matrix Project Into The Living Room | Mike Szczys | [
"LED Hacks",
"Tablet Hacks"
] | [
"art",
"livingroom",
"matrix",
"rgb",
"strand",
"WS2801"
] | If you’re able to make a project look this good it shouldn’t be hard to convince that significant other to let you install it in a prominent place in the house. We think [Greg Friedland] pulled this off perfectly by
building a 4’x8′ tablet controlled LED matrix
.
First of all, everything looks better in a shiny case. It shouldn’t come as a surprise that this looks nice, thanks to the face plates which are mounted in a way that gives them a modern style (we’d expect to see this hanging in Ikea). They’re acrylic diffuser panels meant for used with lighting in a suspended ceiling. They do a nice job of scattering the light put off by the 544 LED modules that make up the display. The wiring was made easy by using LED strands where each pixel has its own control chip (WS2801). It sounds like the display will peak at around 160 Watts, which isn’t really that much considering the area. One nice touch that’s shown off in the video after the break is a full-feature iPad interface that even allows you to paint in light using your finger. But we’re also satisfied that [Greg]
posted about the physical build too
. | 6 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "686421",
"author": "dashroom",
"timestamp": "2012-06-22T22:01:01",
"content": "Awesome, software looks good, thanks for the step by step on it :-)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "686754",
"author": "Coda",
"timestamp": "... | 1,760,376,829.965849 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/06/22/repairing-a-thermal-imaging-camera/ | Repairing A Thermal Imaging Camera | Mike Szczys | [
"Repair Hacks"
] | [
"camera",
"FireFighter",
"pcb",
"thermal imaging"
] | [Mike] got his hands on this thermal imaging camera which is designed for use by Firefighters. As he’s demonstrating in the image above, it clips to a helmet and has a display what will let rescuers see through heavy smoke. But this one isn’t working right so
he cracked it open and repaired the damaged board
.
The hour-long video (embedded after the break) is quite interesting. He starts with a disassembly of the unit, before diving head-first into trouble shooting. There is a PCB inside that fills the entire U-shaped enclosure. The thermal sensor’s habit of cutting out seems to be a symptom of this design. There is one weak point where the board is very narrow. Flexing or vibrating that section will reset the sensor, and [Mike] ends up replacing a couple of components before the thing is fixed. These include a resistor and a ferrite bead both of which are suspected of having cracks due to that board flexing. The rest of the video is spent with
an EEVblog-style
look that the components and the construction.
[via
Reddit
] | 15 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "686378",
"author": "hboy007",
"timestamp": "2012-06-22T20:59:10",
"content": "I can confirm this is most likely a vacuum seal, I recently took apart a peltier cooled spectrometer camera and it too has a quenched pump stud with a rubber dipping. The manufacturer sells these with a 5 ... | 1,760,376,830.125099 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/06/22/are-you-smarter-than-a-raccoon/ | Are You Smarter Than A Raccoon? | Mike Szczys | [
"home hacks"
] | [
"live trap",
"motion sensor",
"pest",
"raccoon",
"trap"
] | [Ben] has a raccoon problem. It seems that it’s not uncommon for him to come face-to-face with a pesky raccoon in the middle of the night, in his living room. We think most people would solve the problem by preventing the raccoon from entering the home. But [Ben] just seems hell-bent on catching him. Most recently he’s
added motion-sensing to a live trap
which he installed…. in his living room.
So [Ben] has cat’s which that to roam at night. They have free range thanks to a cat door which the hungry pest has been exploiting. Apparently the masked robber has a taste for cat food and that’s what keeps him coming back. [Ben] has been using the cat dish as bait but up to this point the live trap hasn’t worked. You see the raccoon isn’t going inside to get the food, but reaches through the cage and pulls pieces out one at a time. The solution is to put up a solid surface around the cage, and hope that the motion sensor will get him this time. Although we’ve linked the most recent post above, you’ll want to page through his blog for the whole story.
Wouldn’t it be better to install
some kind of automatic lock that only lets in the kitty
?
[Thanks Rick] | 63 | 35 | [
{
"comment_id": "686299",
"author": "Aaron",
"timestamp": "2012-06-22T19:10:28",
"content": "…buy a shotgun?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "686405",
"author": "PeterF",
"timestamp": "2012-06-22T21:43:49",
"content": "I... | 1,760,376,830.534134 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/06/22/stair-tricking-skateboard/ | Stair Tricking Skateboard | Mike Szczys | [
"Transportation Hacks"
] | [
"skateboard",
"snow crash",
"stairs"
] | This skateboard concept lets you
travel down stairs almost as smoothly as gliding down a hill
. This seems to be the eighth iteration in [PoChih Lai’s] attempts to add functionality to a board which will make it the ultimate ride for an urban outing. Check out the video after the break to see just how well he did.
We’ve seen
hand carts that use six wheels
to make stairs a breeze using a triad of wheels as a single-wheel replacement. This was actually the main concept early on in the design. But the drawback to this method is that the design takes up a lot of room and [PoChih] also made the deck much bulkier to keep you from getting a foot caught in the mechanism. The final design does away with the end-over-end concept and adopts a rocking mechanism. The board hangs from a bar which serves as the pivot between the two wheels. This way the wheels can absorb the brunt of the motions, and the base of the deck can slide across the fronts of the steps if needs be.
We were talking about this here at the Hackaday office and the point was made that this is like YT’s skateboard from Neal Stephenson’s
Snow Crash.
Did you hear that it’s
headed to a theater near you
? | 41 | 24 | [
{
"comment_id": "686221",
"author": "afex",
"timestamp": "2012-06-22T18:11:13",
"content": "while the board is pretty awesome, for me the best part of this post was the quality of the video – the cinematography is amazing!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"co... | 1,760,376,830.316169 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/06/22/heading-to-makerfaire-kansas-city/ | Heading To MakerFaire Kansas City | Caleb Kraft | [
"cons"
] | [
"Kansas City",
"makerfaire"
] | Today, I’m heading out to Makerfaire Kansas City. I plan on covering this event quite extensively.
If you see me
, don’t hesitate to come up and introduce yourself. I may even have a custom cut vinyl hackaday sticker left for you. Since we are Hackaday, I plan on trying to get into the details and get interviews following
[Ian Lesnet’s] lead
. We don’t just want to see a neat thing on a table, we want to know how it works and what roadblocks that person ran into. See you there! | 9 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "686210",
"author": "raged",
"timestamp": "2012-06-22T17:57:47",
"content": "I’ll be there on Saturday as a visitor.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "686305",
"author": "Ecogeeco",
"timestamp": "2012-06-22T19:16:56",
"... | 1,760,376,830.014624 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/06/22/hackaday-links-june-22-2012/ | Hackaday Links: June 22, 2012 | Brian Benchoff | [
"Hackaday links"
] | [
"Doctor Who",
"drill press",
"HSM-Modal",
"pcb drill",
"Radio Telescope",
"tardis",
"xylobands"
] | For when you want something
huge
machined
Turn your volume down for
this video
. It’s the HSM-Modal CNC mill carving a full-sized car out of styrofoam, applying clay to the foam core, and machining the clay at 50 meters per minute. Yes, we’ve seen
this machine before
, but never in action. It only took a little over 24 hours to make this full-size model car.
Microscope into a drill press
If you need to drill some PCBs, [wotboa] has a neat build for you. He built a
micro drill press out of a microscope
. It’s a damn good idea if you can find a quality microscope base; those things usually have exceptionally high precision. The ‘hack’ part is a $7 Harbor Freight rotary tool, some PVC pipe, and a PWM control for the motor – home-made, natch.
I’m telling you, they need to get [River] out of the library. Work on it [Moffat].
[Alan] made a TARDIS book case, and he decided to
share the plans with us
. Just the build to combat the severe lack of woodworking and Whovian stuff on Hackaday. Vashta Nerada hopefully not included.
Money can’t buy happiness, but you sure can sell it
[Greg] sent in some info on
Disney’s ‘glow with the show’ hats
they sell at the California Adventure park. For $25, you get a hat with RGB LEDs in the mouse ears that synchronize with the World of Color show every night. There’s a better description of the hats
here
, but we’re thinking these are very similar to the
Coldplay Xylobands
we saw at this year’s Grammys. Anyone want to tear some mouse ears apart?
An exceptionally low-tech radio telescope
[Impulse405] found a
poor man’s radio telescope
on Instructables and decided to share it with us. [Z0rb] found a 10-foot dish in the garbage and quickly absconded with this retro hardware. After adding a power supply and a meter-based total power receiver, [Z0rb] had a radio telescope that covered wavelengths from 850 to 2200 MHz. | 17 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "686150",
"author": "IcYhAwK",
"timestamp": "2012-06-22T16:23:52",
"content": "Love the bookcase. Too late for a father’s day gift, so I guess I’m gonna build it for myself. ;-)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "686189",
... | 1,760,376,830.183529 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/06/24/io-extender-board-and-case-for-a-cheap-wifi-router/ | I/O Extender Board And Case For A Cheap WiFi Router | Mike Szczys | [
"Wireless Hacks"
] | [
"expansion",
"openwrt",
"router",
"TL-WR703N",
"tp-link",
"usb",
"USB hub"
] | This 3d printed case houses the already small [TP-Link TL-WR703N] but also makes room for a custom expansion board. The
expansion board is designed to make the device more hacker friendly
, and who doesn’t need
a nice case to hold it
?
Since the router board already has a USB port (intended for use with USB 3G modems) the add-on acts as a USB hub. The stock USB connector is replaced by a pin header which mates with a DIL socket on the underside of the expansion board. Through the use of an FTDI chip the expander offers three USB ports and a 2×10 pin header to break out the GPIO pins from the router’s processor. Only two USB ports are visible in the image above. That’s because the third is recessed, and an opening has not been added to the enclosure. This struck us as odd until we read that the port is meant to be used with a low-profile thumb drive, essentially adding internal storage for the device.
[Thanks buZz] | 23 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "687296",
"author": "Admin",
"timestamp": "2012-06-24T15:56:46",
"content": "Can someone describe what this does in laymen terms for every day use for people like me who don’t understand.Thanks",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6... | 1,760,376,830.075599 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/06/23/red-bull-creation-hardware-bullduino-arrives/ | Red Bull Creation Hardware (Bullduino) Arrives | Mike Szczys | [
"Arduino Hacks"
] | [
"arduino",
"atmega328",
"ATMega8U2",
"bullduino",
"creation",
"morse code",
"red bull"
] | The Bullduino’s are starting to arrive. When [Arclight] received his in the mail
the first thing he did was to share the hardware details
. Of course this is the hardware that participants in
the Red Bull Creation contest
will be receiving ahead of this year’s contest.
The board is an ATmega328 Arduino clone. Instead of an FTDI chip for USB this one is sporting an ATmega8u2. That’s not too much of a surprise as it should translate to a cost savings. [Arclight] reports that the stock firmware flashes a message in Morse code. It seems the Harford HackerSpace got their Bullduino several days ago
and already decoded the message
. It reads:
“Wouldn’t lou prefer a good game of chess?”
The guys that did the decoding speculate that this could be a type as ‘l’ and ‘y’ are inversions of each other in Morse code; or it could be some kind of clue. At any rate, if you want to do some disassembly and see if there’s anything lurking in the firmware, [Arclight] posted FLASH and EEPROM dumps from both ATmega chips along with his article. | 28 | 17 | [
{
"comment_id": "686959",
"author": "Bob D",
"timestamp": "2012-06-23T19:31:42",
"content": "[I’m going to be circular and point out that “typo” is misspelled.]Is this the first Open Hardware project repurposed for advertising?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
... | 1,760,376,830.247546 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/06/23/diy-microcontroller-switched-power-strip/ | DIY Microcontroller-switched Power Strip | Mike Nathan | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"power strip",
"relays",
"switched outlet"
] | [Teknynja] was looking for
a way to control several discrete AC-powered devices using a microcontroller
, and while he did consider the
Powerswitch tail 2
from Adafruit, handling 5 devices would get pretty expensive. Rather than buying a complete off the shelf solution, he decided to build his own 5-way switched outlet.
He picked up a sturdy metal power strip from a local hardware store along with some Sharp S201S06V relays he ordered online. After test fitting his relays inside the power strip’s chassis, he wired up 5 of the 6 outlets through them to allow for switching via a microcontroller. He configured the 6th outlet to be live at all times, providing a power source for the control system he planned on using to switch the other receptacles.
[Teknynja] pulled the connector from an old PS/2 mouse for use as a control wire, connecting one wire to each of the relays. He says that the strip is working quite well, and after a few months of use it is holding up nicely. | 22 | 12 | [
{
"comment_id": "686888",
"author": "ianlee74",
"timestamp": "2012-06-23T17:46:45",
"content": "I’ve been looking to do something similar. It looks like the S201S06V relay can only handle a 3A load. So, this obviously doesn’t work as a general purpose switched outlet :( Any good suggestions for a... | 1,760,376,830.439662 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/06/23/checking-out-the-temperature-of-a-raspberry-pi/ | Checking Out The Temperature Of A Raspberry Pi | Brian Benchoff | [
"Raspberry Pi"
] | [
"cooling",
"raspberry pi",
"temperature"
] | [Remy] has access to a very nice Fluke thermal camera, so when his Raspberry pi came in he
pointed the thermal camera at the Raspi
(Spanish,
Google translation
) to see how far this neat computer could be pushed before it overheated.
There are three main sources of heat on the Raspberry Pi: the voltage regulator, the
USB/Ethernet controller
and the
Broadcom SoC
. At idle, these parts read 49.9° C, 48.7° C and 53° C, respectively; a little hot to the touch, but still well within the temperature ranges given in the datasheets for these components.
The real test came via a
stress test
where the ARM CPU was at 100% utilization. The Broadcom SoC reached almost 65° C while the Ethernet controller and regulator managed to reach the mid-50s. Keeping in mind this test was performed at room temperature, we’d probably throw a heat sink on a Raspberry Pi if it’s going to be installed in an extreme environment such as a greenhouse or serving as a Floridian or Texan carputer.
Thanks [Alberto] for sending this in. | 32 | 16 | [
{
"comment_id": "686827",
"author": "dave",
"timestamp": "2012-06-23T15:19:38",
"content": "Um, Floridian.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "686828",
"author": "Val",
"timestamp": "2012-06-23T15:30:09",
"content": "lite weight heat sin... | 1,760,376,830.382758 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/06/23/cddvd-polisher-may-save-your-backups-someday/ | CD/DVD Polisher May Save Your Backups Someday | Mike Szczys | [
"Repair Hacks"
] | [
"cd",
"dvd",
"plastic polish",
"polisher",
"thrift store"
] | CD and DVD payers can often keep the music or movie going despite a small scratch. But occasionally you’ll have to skip to the next chapter/track or the player will just give up. But with data back-ups, a scratch can bork a whole set of files. We think that most of the time these headaches
can be cured with this simple polisher
.
[Wotboa’s] thrift store finds yielded almost all of the components needed to build the device. It’s made up of a couple of motors and a jig. One motor slowly rotates the upturned optical disc while the other spins the polishing pad. That pad is made from felt weather-stripping and is helped along with some plastic polishing compound. [Wotboa] asserts that five minutes in the noisy contraption will work wonders on any disc. You can get an idea of what it’s capable of by watching the video clip after the break. | 22 | 12 | [
{
"comment_id": "686810",
"author": "Dax",
"timestamp": "2012-06-23T14:40:13",
"content": "CD players use infrared lasers, which aren’t deflected much at all by shallow surface scratches. A scratch deep enough would be impossible to just polish away.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"rep... | 1,760,376,830.789805 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/06/23/defcon-20-tamper-evident-contest-signup/ | DEFCON 20 Tamper Evident Contest Signup | Mike Szczys | [
"cons"
] | [
"competition",
"contest",
"defcon 19",
"tamper evident"
] | DEFCON 20 is on its way and if you want to
put a team together to compete in the Tamper Evident competition
now is the time! The idea of the contest is simple: your team needs to break into something without anyone every knowing. The payload is protected by the best of modern tamper evident techniques. One of the things we really like about the competition is that there are multiple levels so if it’s your first time you DO stand a chance. The number of teams accepted is limited, so don’t wait too long and miss your chance to register.
There’s a ton to be learned
from the contest RULES
. But perhaps a better primer is going to be [Datagram’s] fifty-two minute talk which we’ve embedded after the break. He was one of the winners of all four contest levels at DEFCON 19 last year. | 8 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "686821",
"author": "colindanger",
"timestamp": "2012-06-23T15:07:59",
"content": "…anyone every knowing… obviously should be “ever”. Just being that guy for the sake of keeping the posts looking polished.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comm... | 1,760,376,830.589784 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/06/23/amateur-radio-field-day-is-upon-us/ | Amateur Radio Field Day Is Upon Us | Brian Benchoff | [
"Radio Hacks"
] | [
"amateur radio",
"field day",
"ham radio"
] | Looking for something to do this fine Saturday morning? For the US and Canadian readers out there, the fourth weekend in June is
amateur radio field day
, a day when all the amateur radio and ham geeks get together, string up a few antennas, and do their yearly community outreach/contact as many other radio heads as possible.
This weekend, there are more than 1600 field day events taking place all across the US and Canada. Odds are, you’re not more than a half hour drive from a field day event; you can find the closest one with the AARL’s
handy Google Map
of field day locations.
Since last year, we’ve seen a whole host of cool stuff to do with radio including a
$20 software defined radio
. If getting your license is too big of a step for you right now, you could at least plug a USB TV tuner dongle into your computer and see what is possible with radio. As a neat little bonus, you don’t even need a license for SDR. You might need a better antenna, and the ham guys at field day will be more than happy to point you into the right direction. | 10 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "686774",
"author": "Reggie",
"timestamp": "2012-06-23T12:21:47",
"content": "I remember going to these kind of things in the UK as a child, fantastic places to learn about radio and electronics in general, the ham guys really know their beans, they are the original hackers in the tr... | 1,760,376,830.925695 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/06/21/turning-the-wii-classic-controller-into-a-gaming-rig/ | Turning The Wii Classic Controller Into A Gaming Rig | Mike Szczys | [
"Peripherals Hacks"
] | [
"gadgeteer",
"pacman",
"wii classic controller"
] | A bit of clever design lets you
mount a screen and gaming hardware right on this controller
. [Valentin Ivanov] had already been using the Wii Classic Controller Pro as an input for his Gadgeteer-based projects. He wanted a way to marry the project board, display, and controller into one single unit.
We’re huge fans the design because it doesn’t require any alteration of the controller. Instead, five carefully designed pieces were cut from some thin plywood. They lock together into an assembly that embraces the top of the controller while providing plenty of mounting options for the prototyping hardware thanks to a large grid of holes. A couple of pieces of bronze rod lock the mounting bracket in place by keying into the screw holes in the bottom of the controller.
In the image above you can see Mini Pacman running on the rig. It’s now nearly portable, only relying on a barrel jack for power but we’re sure a battery pack could stand in if necessary. | 3 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "685665",
"author": "Xeracy",
"timestamp": "2012-06-21T21:31:49",
"content": "obv, this new black controller doesnt have the button on top and the slots on the back, but way back in ’07 this guy 3d printed a clip that attached the wiimote to the back of the classic controller. it use... | 1,760,376,830.831587 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/06/21/head-mounted-memory-catcher/ | Head-mounted Memory Catcher | Mike Szczys | [
"digital cameras hacks"
] | [
"camera",
"film",
"hat",
"servo",
"wind"
] | A picture’s worth a thousand words so what is
a hat that can take 360 degree pictures worth
? Just make sure you put it on whenever leaving the house and capturing that next memorable moment will be just one click of a button away.
[Mikeasaurus] recently put together this… special… headgear. He used film-based disposable cameras and this choice presented a few interesting challenges. But the choice is not necessarily a bad one, as you can get six of these without really blowing your budget. He cut the top off of a plastic garbage can to serve as a headband on which to mount the hardware (zip-ties to the rescue). But things get hairy when it comes to triggering all of the shutters at once. These are spring-loaded shutter releases and you can’t just patch into them electrically like you could a digital camera. His solution is a group of six servo motors which do the button pushing for him.
A thirty-six exposure trial run turned out okay. Several times the shots didn’t come out, but at the end of his post he shares a few of the good ones that did. We’re going to stear clear of this one as we can’t abide manually winding all six cameras between each shot. But it does give us an idea for a single-camera hat that uses a 45-degree mirror which swivels. We’ll just put that one in the growing pile of ideas we need to make time for. | 20 | 19 | [
{
"comment_id": "685546",
"author": "notdave",
"timestamp": "2012-06-21T19:34:41",
"content": "this photo lives in eternity as YAIM (yet another internet meme) in 3…2…1…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "685559",
"author": "theoldrang",
"t... | 1,760,376,831.220926 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/06/21/building-a-clutch-for-vim/ | Building A Clutch For Vim | Brian Benchoff | [
"Peripherals Hacks"
] | [
"foot switch",
"usb",
"vi",
"vim"
] | Whether you’re using emacs, vi, or vim, your fingers will be performing acrobatics on your keyboard because of the mouseless interface. [alevchuk] thought his feet could be used as a way to reduce the amount of keystrokes, so he built
the vim clutch
. It’s a USB-enabled foot pedal that will insert characters before the cursor in vim.
Vim requires the user to type the letter ‘i’ to insert text before the cursor. [alevchuk] thought this function could be easily replicated by a foot pedal, so he found an
extremely cheap USB foot pedal
to serve as his vim clutch. Ideally, the pedal should send ‘i’ when it is pressed and Esc when it’s released. [alevchuk] took two pedals, programmed one to send ‘i’ and the other to send Esc, and put them in the same enclosure.
The result is a working clutch for inserting before the cursor in vim. [alevchuk] is looking into a three-pedal model to add inserting at the beginning and end of the line to his vim clutch, so we’ll keep an eye out for when he posts that build. | 43 | 20 | [
{
"comment_id": "685485",
"author": "gnomad",
"timestamp": "2012-06-21T18:17:10",
"content": "must… restrain… from… making… Emacs… comment…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "685488",
"author": "BobDabber",
"timestamp": "2012-06-2... | 1,760,376,831.45865 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/06/21/turning-a-raspberry-pi-into-a-laptop-with-a-lapdock/ | Turning A Raspberry Pi Into A Laptop With A LapDock | Brian Benchoff | [
"Raspberry Pi"
] | [
"lapdock",
"raspberry pi"
] | Being a $35, full-fledged Linux computer, the Raspberry Pi brings a lot to the table. There’s one problem, though: this computer doesn’t come with a keyboard, mouse, display, or even a battery. Luckily, it’s pretty easy to add these devices
with the help of a Motorola LapDock
and turn a RasPi into a fully portable computing platform.
The Motorola LapDock is the latest take on the dumb terminal. Consisting of only a 1366 x 768 display, keyboard, touch pad and 38Wh battery, the LapDock is meant to serve as a docking station and breakout for a few select Motorola cell phones. There are only two connections on the LapDock – a micro USB and micro HDMI port – connecting the peripherals to the cell phone. With just
a few adapters
, it’s possible to plug the Raspi into the LapDock, and have a Raspberry Pi-based laptop for under $100.
Interestingly, the Raspi can also be powered over the USB connection to the LapDock, meaning an external power supply isn’t required. Right now the state of a LapDock-ified Raspi is a bit inelegant, but we’ll expect someone to come up with a proper docking adapter to get rid of all the wires and add a WiFi module shortly.
via
adafruit | 40 | 21 | [
{
"comment_id": "685430",
"author": "Xeracy",
"timestamp": "2012-06-21T17:10:01",
"content": "considering my Raspberry Pi will arrive next week, i need to find something to do with it! I was gonna make it the brains for a MAME arcade, but i hear its not powerful enough to run later games like Simpso... | 1,760,376,831.164943 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/06/21/n64-in-an-n64-controller/ | N64 In An N64 Controller | Brian Benchoff | [
"Nintendo Hacks"
] | [
"casemod",
"n64",
"nintendo"
] | We’ve seen portable N64s before, but none were at the level of [Bungle]’s
oversized N64 controller
casemod.
Instead of the usual ‘sanding Bondo and gluing styrene’ method we’ve seen in other casemods, [Bungle] decided to make a
silicone mold with a positive master
. Not only did [Bungle] end up with a case indistinguishable from something produced in a factory, but the molding process left him with more internal room and the ability to make identical duplicates of his over sized controller.
The electronics are the standard fare – a slightly modified N64 with a PSone LCD screen. Because the rumble and memory packs are built in to the body of the gigantic controller, [Bungle] added a multifunction pak to provide ports for power, brightness controls, a/v, and a second controller.
This is an amazing build that really steps up the game for console modders. You can check out [Bungle]’s demo video after the break.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mq8_T4CUV1c&w=470]
Thanks [Raizer04] for sending this one in. | 12 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "685417",
"author": "ibster",
"timestamp": "2012-06-21T16:24:43",
"content": "Very nice! The custom case is amazing.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "685433",
"author": "anonymous",
"timestamp": "2012-06-21T17:19:23",
... | 1,760,376,831.093706 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/06/21/nc-maker-faire-2012-robot-hockey/ | NC Maker Faire 2012: Robot Hockey | Jeremy Cook | [
"cons",
"News"
] | [
"NC Maker Faire 2012",
"Raleigh Maker Faire 2012"
] | Robot combat has inspired makers probably since the first one was conceived. Whether it’s an
epic struggle
between two future superpowers, or simply a friendly match of robot hockey, it’s always fun to watch.
NC Maker Faire
2012 was no exception as
[Carolina Combat Robots]
had a small arena with remote control robots going at it. The matches were incredibly popular, and I was glad to be able to see some of it from my table next door!
Check out the video after the break for some footage of these ‘bots in action!
[youtube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T5yWsCJEAjQ&w=470&h=315%5D | 9 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "685372",
"author": "Ivan",
"timestamp": "2012-06-21T15:08:38",
"content": "I couldn’t help seeing the top picture and thinking “Are those SGI Indys playing hockey!?” :-)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "685400",
"author": "Al... | 1,760,376,831.381505 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/06/21/musical-light-show-is-far-less-complex-than-you-might-think/ | Musical Light Show Is Far Less Complex Than You Might Think | Mike Nathan | [
"LED Hacks",
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"entertainment",
"leds",
"lights",
"music",
"performance"
] | [Matt and Jason Tardy], who make up the musical performance duo known as AudioBody, were
recently featured on Make: explaining how they put on one of their trademark segments.
The most popular portion of their show features color changing tubes of light which the pair spin and fling around not unlike a higher-tech version of the Blue Man Group. While the visuals are pretty slick, the technique behind it is far simpler than most people initially imagine.
As you can see in video below, the tubes look to be nothing more than simple white lights. As the brothers work through their performance however, the tubes switch from white to blue and back again with a liquid-like transition between the colors.
The [Tardys] say that most people peg a microcontroller or other complex electronics as the source of their light wizardry, but the real answer is much simpler. Embedded in the end of each tube is a bright LED flashlight. A sliding blue filter positioned inside the tube provides the silky smooth transition between colors – no fancy electronics required.
If you would like to see how they were built, be sure to
swing by the AudioBody web site for a how-to presentation
by the [Tardys] themselves.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fjiEqpcEdds&feature=player_embedded&w=470] | 15 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "685332",
"author": "FartFac3",
"timestamp": "2012-06-21T14:08:57",
"content": "talk about a radiohead name knockoff",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "685363",
"author": "makify1",
"timestamp": "2012-06-21T14:56:23",
"c... | 1,760,376,831.274077 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/06/22/gooseberry-is-the-latest-arm-linux-board/ | Gooseberry Is The Latest ARM Linux Board | Brian Benchoff | [
"hardware",
"Linux Hacks"
] | [
"arm",
"gooseberry",
"raspberry pi"
] | It looks like we’re finally seeing the proliferation of single board computers take off. The latest is called
the Gooseberry
. While it will cost about £40/$62 USD at release, it greatly outperforms the current crop of tiny Linux boards.
As the latest in what will be a long line of these ARM-ified single board computers, the Gooseberry hugely outperforms the
VIA APC
and Raspberry Pi with a
Allwinner A10
CPU running at 1.2 GHz, 512 MB of RAM, and built-in WiFi. Basically, the Gooseberry has all the features you would expect from an Android tablet; the reason for this is because the Gooseberry actually
is
the board found in a few Chinese tablets.
There’s a few very nice features like an LVDS output to add LCD displays without hogging the HDMI output, and the form factor is incredibly thin making it perfect for building a small portable device.
After the break you can check out a walkthrough of the Gooseberry board along with evidence of it running Ubuntu.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SFQc6WnEQFw&w=470]
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fDX3ihWR7CU&w=470] | 20 | 13 | [
{
"comment_id": "686092",
"author": "Kris Lee",
"timestamp": "2012-06-22T15:07:40",
"content": "FAIL. Why not add 2 GB RAM? Why pretend that 512 MB is anything usable?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "686099",
"author": "Alex",
... | 1,760,376,831.334709 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/06/22/bringing-chromium-to-the-raspberry-pi/ | Bringing Chromium To The Raspberry Pi | Brian Benchoff | [
"Raspberry Pi"
] | [
"chromium",
"raspberry pi"
] | If you’re in possession of a Raspberry Pi, you may want to check out
the new Chromium support
for your tiny pocketable computer. With its terrifically minimal hardware requirements, the Chromium OS seems like just the thing for this $35 computer.
The new Raspberry Pi supported Chromium build comes from the fruitful desktop of [Hexxeh], a.k.a. [Liam McLaughlin]. In the world of Chromium devs, [Hexxeh] has already made a name for himself by getting
Chromium working on a Macbook Air
, putting it in
a VirtualBox
, and generally being
the resident wizard
of the Chromium project
The Chromium OS should provide a much faster computing experience for the Raspi compared to the current Debian and Arch Linux-based builds. Right now, the Chromium support for the Raspberry Pi is very much a work in progress but a slimmed-down, browser-only operating system may be just what the underpowered but useful 700 MHz ARM computer with 256 MB of RAM needs. | 11 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "686055",
"author": "vhangell",
"timestamp": "2012-06-22T14:24:23",
"content": "nice, I wish it is available in the Philippines",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "686073",
"author": "Reggie",
"timestamp": "2012-06-22T14:40:2... | 1,760,376,831.505464 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/06/22/nc-maker-faire-2012-hackaweek-display/ | NC Maker Faire 2012: Hackaweek Display | Jeremy Cook | [
"cons"
] | [
"hackaweek",
"NC Maker Faire 2012",
"Raleigh Maker Faire 2012"
] | [youtube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gjtH3iA1YrY&w=470&h=315%5D
[Dino]
has been featured here at [HAD] on many occasions, so I was excited to see some of his inventions in person and meet the man himself. [Dino] didn’t disappoint,
bringing a display
that included a working demonstration of his upcoming cover story for Make Magazine – an automatic doggie ball-thrower. Also there were some crazy musical instruments, what appeared to be a cylindrical oscilloscope display, and a robot rolling around with the thrown balls (and kids).
As seen in the video, one thing to remember if you’re displaying at a Faire, kids will definitely be there, and will interact with anything they can. This can be good or bad, so make sure you design your display, like [Hackaweek]’s to be the former. [Dino] also had a projector pointed at the wall playing some video. This made for a great attention-getter! Check out the short videos below of his ball thrower in action and a view of the show from one of his robots!
[youtube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s5P8zBpIvwE&w=470&h=315%5D | 7 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "686037",
"author": "Ren",
"timestamp": "2012-06-22T14:15:46",
"content": "Okay, but the dog needs to know how to drop the ball back into the throwing machine. This could be considered “cruel” to some dogs that would continue to “fetch” past the point of exhaustion. A ball count li... | 1,760,376,831.668361 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/06/22/analog-soil-moisture-alarm/ | Analog Soil Moisture Alarm | Mike Szczys | [
"green hacks"
] | [
"analog",
"moisture sensor",
"op-amp",
"soil"
] | The lion’s share of soil moisture monitors we see are meant as add-ons for a microcontroller. So we’re glad that [Miceuz] tipped us off about this
soil moisture alarm he built with analog parts
. It’s really not hard to take the concept and build it in the analog world. That’s because you’re just measuring a resistance value. But for those of us who never really got started with analog parts this is a great project to learn from.
A high-efficiency op-amp is doing the brunt of the work. When the soil is moist the resistance is rather low compared to a reference voltage provided by a separate resistive divider. But when the plant gets thirsty and the soil dries out the resistance increases, triggering the op-amp to illuminate an LED and create some noise on the buzzer (we’re a bit confused on how that buzzer works).
Unfortunately this isn’t a viable long-term solution as the battery calculations show it lasting only about four months. That’s where a microcontroller-based circuit really shines, as it can put it self in low-power sleep and wake infrequently to take readings. | 19 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "685984",
"author": "raidscsi",
"timestamp": "2012-06-22T12:31:59",
"content": "With a row of plants a 12v 1A wall adapter would power a whole heap of these things.Needs a setting to adjust how wet/dry the soil gets before the alarm activates. Some plants like it wet, and some dryer.... | 1,760,376,831.555336 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/06/22/safe-sync-protects-your-camera-from-older-high-voltage-flash-modules/ | Safe-Sync Protects Your Camera From Older High-voltage Flash Modules | Mike Szczys | [
"digital cameras hacks"
] | [
"flash",
"hot shoe",
"protect",
"strobe",
"switch"
] | Since we’re not high-end camera aficionados it was a surprise to us that the hot shoe that allows a camera to interface with a flash module has changed rather dramatically over the years. Apparently the interface used to be mchanical-electrical in that the camera would use mechanical means to connect two electrodes from the hot shoe. It didn’t matter the voltages it was switching because the camera didn’t have an electrical system connected to the interface. The problem is that connecting a modern camera to what [David Cook] calls ‘legacy’ flash hardware could damage it. So
he developed the Safe-Sync to interface modern cameras with older flash modules
.
You can see the board which he’s holding up in the image. It includes a lot of nice features, like the ability to be powered from the external flash, or from a battery. There’s also an optional momentary push switch which can be used to test the flash control (or hack it for other purposes). In addition to providing protection with older equipment, this could also be used to interface flash modules from different manufacturers with your camera. | 10 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "685996",
"author": "torwag",
"timestamp": "2012-06-22T12:49:51",
"content": "“In addition to providing protection with older equipment, this could also be used to interface flash modules from different manufacturers with your camera”Uhh really?! Modern flash modules communicate via ... | 1,760,376,831.716969 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/06/21/hot-enough-for-ya-super-cold-cocktail-pops-will-help/ | Hot Enough For Ya? Super-cold Cocktail-pops Will Help | Mike Szczys | [
"cooking hacks"
] | [
"alcohol",
"cocktail",
"liquid nitrogen",
"popsicle"
] | The staff of Instructables know how to cut loose and cool off in this already-too-hot summer. They’re
making their own popsicles out of cocktails
. If only everyone were lucky enough to have employers who endorse these kinds of projects at work.
So the problem here is the the freezing point of liquor. Your margarita, daiquiri, strawberry with champagne, white russian and other favorites just aren’t ever going to solidify in a run-of-the-mill freezer because zero degrees Fahrenheit just won’t cut it. So the big guns were brought to bear. The cocktail-pops were lined up in a container and dowsed with liquid nitrogen.
The substance boils off at around -321 F, more than cold enough to quickly freeze these alcoholic goodies. But use caution. After they’ve been frozen you need to throw them in the freezer
to warm them up
. The first guinea pigs burned their tongues when trying to lick the pops too soon.
Don’t want to buy your liquid nitrogen? Why not
just make your own
? | 17 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "685679",
"author": "andrew",
"timestamp": "2012-06-21T22:14:38",
"content": "I’ve had such things before (but not on a stick) and they are amazing. And, burning your tongue even after they’ve been out for a while is a real issue.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies... | 1,760,376,831.930358 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/06/21/self-feeding-pen-printer/ | Self-feeding Pen Printer | Mike Szczys | [
"Peripherals Hacks"
] | [
"dvd drive",
"optical drive",
"pen",
"plotter",
"printer"
] | At first look we thought this was a plotter, but it’s really more of a dot matrix (or line matrix) printer. [Bruno]
whipped this up using parts from a DVD optical drive
. It is capable of moving the pen along the Z and X axes, and feeding the paper along the Y axis.
The video after the break shows the machine printing Megaman, an image perfectly suited to the low-resolution pixels this can put out. But even without the high-pixel counts you might get
from a thermal printer
, we just love the look of this one. And who doesn’t have an optical drive sitting around just waiting to be hacked? It looks like the one part you’re going to have to source is the stepper motor and geared feed wheel that moves the paper. | 10 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "685674",
"author": "trialex",
"timestamp": "2012-06-21T22:02:17",
"content": "This is sweet as. Great work.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "685678",
"author": "Standard Mischief",
"timestamp": "2012-06-21T22:13:41",
... | 1,760,376,831.762446 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/06/21/building-a-radio-telescope-for-a-school-science-project/ | Building A Radio Telescope For A School Science Project | Brian Benchoff | [
"Radio Hacks"
] | [
"radio",
"Radio Telescope",
"telescope"
] | The image above is a picture of Hydrogen emissions from our galaxy. The cool thing about this picture is it wasn’t taken with millions of dollars worth of equipment; instead, only a few hundred dollars worth of ham radio gear was needed to get a picture of the Milky Way. [Shanni Prutchi], with the help of her dad [David]
built this radio telescope in 5th grade
, and even gave a presentation on this build at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory.
Instead of a gigantic satellite dish, [Shanni] used a
loop yagi
antenna to collect radio signals in the 1420 MHz band. These signals are amplified, filtered, and sent to an ICOM IC R-7000 receiver
specially modified
by [Shanni]’s dad for radio astronomy.
After her telescope saw first light, [Shanni] and [David] decided to use their brand new toy to detect
the passage of the sun
. At around 10:00 am they pointed the telescope at where the sun would be at 1:30 pm. For the next few hours, the telescope gathered and integrated radio signals to make
an awesome graph
. Yep, [Shanni]’s scope can detect radio waves coming directly from the sun.
Like a lot of us, [Shanni] was very much influenced by the movie
Contact
, something we brought up last week in
a post on software-defined radio telescopes
. This telescope was built in 2005, meaning [Shanni] couldn’t take advantage of any of the new advances in cheap software radios. We’re still waiting for someone to throw a Realtek SDR telescope together, so if you’ve got one
send it in | 22 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "685291",
"author": "muriani",
"timestamp": "2012-06-21T13:16:48",
"content": "I love these posts.If a 5th grade kid can do it, then dangit so can I!I hope she won the science fair that year.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "685... | 1,760,376,832.209713 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/06/21/using-an-android-as-a-webserver/ | Using An Android As A Webserver | Mike Szczys | [
"Android Hacks"
] | [
"botbrew basil",
"dynamic dns",
"lighttpd",
"webserver"
] | In the latest episode of XDA TV [Adam Outler]
turned his Android phone into a webserver
. At first this might sound comical, but the ever-increasing power of our handhelds makes it a pretty legitimate option. It’s hard to come up with concrete uses off the top of our head, but we’re sure there’s value in being able to pull the phone out of your pocket and serve some content.
The app
BotBrew Basil
makes the installation process nearly automatic. It gives you point-and-click access to install
the lighttpd webserver package
and set the daemon to run automatically at boot time. That’s it! Of course you need to supply your own HTML to be served. [Adam] used an HTML5 website template for this.
Next you also need a way to resolve the address of the phone. In this case it’s assigned a static IP from the router, and a dynamic DNS service provides a link that maps to the router’s location. But since these phones are running Linux (at least on the lowest level) it should be pretty easy to add a cron job which will send IP address updates to the service if you want to take the ‘webserver’ out in the world with you. You can watch the entire video after the break.
Ironically this is a big hardware upgrade for [Adam’s] webserver. The previous version was running from
an Evalbot
. | 25 | 18 | [
{
"comment_id": "685253",
"author": "tamberg",
"timestamp": "2012-06-21T12:22:09",
"content": "Cool! Mobile and embedded devices becoming Web servers (in addition to Web clients) is the future and in my opinion quite important to enable an open Internet of Things. REST APIs for physical objects FTW!... | 1,760,376,831.991533 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/06/21/a-closer-looks-helps-you-build-your-own-diwire-bender/ | A Closer Looks Helps You Build Your Own DiWire Bender | Mike Szczys | [
"cnc hacks"
] | [
"arduino",
"bender",
"solenoid",
"stepper motor",
"wire"
] | Whether or not you’re actually going to build this CNC wire bender, we think you’ll love getting
a closer look at how it’s put together
. The team over at PENSA got such a strong response from a look
at the original machine
that they decided to film a video (embedded after the break) showing how the thing was put together. They’ve also posted
a repository
with code, bom, etc.
In the image above [Marco] shows off the portion that actually does the bending. It’s designed to mount on the pipe through which the straightened wire is fed. The 3d printed mounting bracket really makes this a lot easier. The assembly provides a place to attach the solenoid which moves a bearing in and out of position. That bearing presses against the wire to do the bending, but must be moved from one side of the wire to the other depending on the direction of the next bend. This is a lot easier to understand after watching the demo video which is also embedded after the break. | 6 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "685245",
"author": "Christoferjh",
"timestamp": "2012-06-21T11:49:36",
"content": "Sweet!Cant see first video, permission issue.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "685249",
"author": "drew",
"timestamp": "2012-06-... | 1,760,376,832.076624 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/06/20/cheap-arm-netbooks-have-linux-forced-upon-them/ | Cheap ARM Netbooks Have Linux Forced Upon Them | Mike Szczys | [
"Linux Hacks",
"Netbook Hacks"
] | [
"arch linux",
"arm",
"kernel",
"netbook",
"wm8650"
] | [Doragasu] got his hands on one of these WM8650 Netbooks for around 50 euros (~$63.50) delivered. They come with a version of Android preinstalled, but he wanted to use them more like a computer and less like an Android device. So he set out to
load Arch Linux on the ARM-based Netbook
.
This is possible because the hardware inside is actually pretty good. The 800 MHz SoC is accompanied by 256 megs of RAM. There’s 2 gigs of internal storage, a 7″ display, USB, Ethernet, WiFi, and an audio system. This is comparable to what you’d get with a Raspberry Pi (without video acceleration) but also includes all of those peripherals, a case, a touchpad and keyboard… you get the point. There are several patches that need to be applied to the kernel to get it working with the hardware. [Doragasu] covers each of them in the post linked above. You can also hear his presentation in the video after the break. | 33 | 17 | [
{
"comment_id": "684968",
"author": "regulatre",
"timestamp": "2012-06-21T00:12:40",
"content": "way to go!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "684981",
"author": "Mike",
"timestamp": "2012-06-21T00:44:50",
"content": "If you’re going to... | 1,760,376,832.148914 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/06/20/revolight-clone/ | Revolight Clone | Mike Szczys | [
"LED Hacks",
"Transportation Hacks"
] | [
"bicycle",
"bike",
"led",
"light",
"magnet",
"reed switch",
"revolights"
] | [Fabian.E] wanted to light up the rims on his bike, but didn’t want to shell out a bunch of clams to get it done. He came up with this system which uses
magnets and reed switches to light up one arc or each bicycle wheel
.
He calls it the lightrider and it’s based on
the revolights concept
. That design uses a microcontroller which is capable of animating patterns when the wheels aren’t spinning. [Fabian’s] version can’t do that, but the effect while moving is basically the same. The ring of LEDs around the rim is connected to a battery via a set of reed switches. When these switches move past a magnet on the fork it completes the circuit and switches on that segment of LEDs. The clip after the break gives a demonstration of the finished product, and includes a fast-motion video of the fabrication process. | 13 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "684957",
"author": "Adam",
"timestamp": "2012-06-20T23:35:56",
"content": "I might be wrong but the reason that the real revolight has a micro controller is to calculate the speed the bike traveling. Wouldn’t this eventually, at a fast enough speed, be flashing at the rider?",
"... | 1,760,376,832.261158 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/06/20/more-diy-solder-flux/ | More DIY Solder Flux | Mike Szczys | [
"chemistry hacks"
] | [
"flux",
"rosin",
"solder",
"solder flux"
] | [GuShH] wrote a
guide for making your own rosin-based solder flux
. According to [Stephen] — who sent in the tip and tried this method himself — is works well, it’s cheap, but you will need to clean up a bit after using it on a PCB.
Only two ingredients are necessary to make your own liquid or paste flux: rosin and a solvent. The rosin being weighed in the image above, can be found from several sources. We
looked in on the same method quite recently
where flux was sourced from a music store. But [GuShH] suggests that if you can find some from a hardware store it is better because the music store variety tends to be ‘molten’ and doesn’t work quite as well.
Proportions are listed on his guide for light, medium, and heavy concoctions. He recommends isopropyl alcohol as the solvent, and has stored the flux in a clear dropper bottle. We’re fans of needle bottles and asked about sourcing them in a previous post (linked in the paragraph above) so check that comments section if you don’t know where to get one. | 17 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "684937",
"author": "Sven",
"timestamp": "2012-06-20T23:06:11",
"content": "I don’t see why people are obsessed with cleaning rosin flux. It doesn’t damage the board, in fact with home etched bare copper boards it actually protects them from oxidation. Unless you do really sensitive ... | 1,760,376,832.31212 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/06/20/communicating-from-inside-your-dreams/ | Communicating From Inside Your Dreams | Brian Benchoff | [
"hardware",
"Wearable Hacks"
] | [
"eeg",
"lucid dreaming",
"morse"
] | Over the last few years, [Michael] has been working on the
Lucid Scribe project
, an online sleep research database to document lucid dreams. This project uses a combination of hardware and
software
to record rapid eye movements while sleeping. Not only is [Michael] able to get his computer to play music when he starts dreaming (thus allowing him to recognize he’s in a dream), he can also
communicate from within a dream
by blinking his eyes in Morse code.
According to the Lucid Scribe blog, [Michael] and other researchers in the Lucid Scribe project have developed motion-sensing hardware capable of detecting heartbeats. This equipment is also sensitive enough to detect the Rapid Eye Movements associated with dreaming. This hardware feeds data into the
Lucid Scribe app
and detects when [Michael] is dreaming. Apparently, [Michael] has been practicing his lucid dreaming; he’s actually been able to move his eyes while dreaming to blink our Morse code.
The first message from the dreamworld was, of course, “first post”.
[Michael] used ‘first post’ to debug his system, but he has managed to blink ‘S’ from a dream. That should improve after he works on his Morse and lucid dreaming skills.
You may now begin referencing
Inception
in the comments. | 71 | 31 | [
{
"comment_id": "684877",
"author": "Anonymous",
"timestamp": "2012-06-20T21:13:40",
"content": "first postsent from my dreams",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1012218",
"author": "aliveoneee",
"timestamp": "2013-06-03T23:21:22"... | 1,760,376,832.531493 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/06/20/machining-cartridge-connectors-from-pci-sockets/ | Machining Cartridge Connectors From PCI Sockets | Mike Szczys | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"cartridge",
"neo geo pocket",
"pci",
"socket"
] | [Ed] needed a bunch of edge connectors for video game cartridges. He was unable to source parts for Neo Geo Pocket games and ended up
building his own from PCI sockets
. But it sounds like this technique would work with other console cartridges as well.
From the picture you can see that this is a bit more involved than just slapping a cartridge into a socket. Because there are multiple steps, and many connectors were needed, [Ed’s] dad lent a hand and built a few jigs to help with the cutting. The first step was to cut off the key and the narrow end of the socket. These NGP cartridges are one-sided, so the socket was cut in half using a board with a dado cut in it as a jig. From there the plastic bits can be cleaned up before pulling out two center pins and cutting a groove to receive the cartridge key. There are also two shoulder cuts that need to be made after trimming the piece to length. The video after the break will walk you through this whole process.
These PCI sockets are versatile. One of our other favorite hacks
used them to make SOIC programming clips
. | 7 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "684834",
"author": "DanAdamKOF",
"timestamp": "2012-06-20T20:04:57",
"content": "I haven’t seen this video before, but knowing Flavor’s current work with NGPC stuff, I saw “cartridge connectors” and “PCI sockets” and knew it was him :)NGPC is by far my favorite handheld by the way…"... | 1,760,376,832.36056 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/06/20/parallax-shows-love-for-open-source-gcc-propeller/ | Parallax Shows Love For Open Source: GCC + Propeller | Mike Szczys | [
"Microcontrollers"
] | [
"compiler",
"foss",
"gcc",
"open source",
"p8x32a",
"parallax",
"propeller"
] | Parallax has done something that is unthinkable for most microcontroller manufacturing companies. They’ve decided to
throw their support behind an open source toolchain based on GCC
. That’s right, instead of fighting to get your code compiling on a platform whose example code uses crippleware, you can actually download, compile, and start using this toolchain without code size restrictions or other unfavorable limitations.
Why does this matter? One example that comes to mind is
ChibiOS
and the STM32F0-Discovery board. We’ve been
playing around with that board recently
and found out that
the Atollic 8k code-size limitation prevents you from debugging ChibiOS
. So you either pony up the registration fee, or go though at least a little pain (a lot depending on your skill level) to move to an open source solution. Here that’s not going to happen because you start with a GCC option from the word ‘Go’.
So join us in a round of applause for good decisions. Bravo Parallax! This Beta test targets the P8X32A Propeller chip but we hope it’s so popular that the rest of the line gets its own support.
[Thanks Devlin via
Adafruit
] | 35 | 22 | [
{
"comment_id": "684806",
"author": "Senso",
"timestamp": "2012-06-20T19:08:14",
"content": "Thats pretty nice, having gcc make the propellers much more interesting.About the cortex M0, use Coocox!No need to fight about compilers and missing linkers and header files, free, gcc based, install and use... | 1,760,376,832.431979 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/06/20/avc-from-the-vehicles-perspective/ | AVC From The Vehicle’s Perspective | Mike Szczys | [
"News"
] | [
"autonomous vehicle contest",
"avc",
"sparkfun"
] | Team 0x27 was the winner of this year’s AVC, the Autonomous Vehicle Contest put on by SparkFun Electronics. You’ll find video of the two runs from this entry (the third run did not finish). We love it that there’s an on-board camera recording both video and sound of the race from the vehicle’s point of view. They haven’t updated
their team page
yet but we’re sure they will once their done celebrating.
On the first run the team opted not to use obstacle avoidance, and here you can see it annihilating one of the barrels from the course (this is the second one it took out with hulk-like rage). These collisions didn’t keep it from finishing the circuit. On the second run it didn’t slam into anything. Because of the hoop-deduction (a bonus for threading the needle during the run) the official time came in at 2.08 seconds. Still, the unadjusted time of 32.08 seconds is a course record and beat the fastest finisher from the airborne group of compeititors. Nice.
Seriously, this video just cracks us up!
First Run (barrel annihilation):
Second Run: | 4 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "684777",
"author": "Robot",
"timestamp": "2012-06-20T18:00:25",
"content": "In the first video after hitting the second barrel it looks like the robot does a 180, corrects with another 180 turn and goes on it’s merry way.Impressive.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"repl... | 1,760,376,832.57772 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/06/20/raleigh-maker-faire-2012/ | Raleigh Maker Faire 2012 | Jeremy Cook | [
"cons"
] | [
"maker faire",
"Maker Faire Raleigh 2012"
] | As [Caleb]
mentioned
earlier, I attended the
Raleigh Maker Faire
this year as an exhibitor. Although the table was for
my personal site
, some of you might have noticed that I was wearing a sweet [HAD] shirt and dispensing our stickers (which seemed to fly off the table). The event was extremely fun from the “other end of the table,” and I very much enjoyed meeting everyone. If you’re on the fence about showing off your stuff at one of these events, my advice would be to absolutely go for it!
The event itself is staffed entirely by volunteers, and Raleigh was able to attract more people this year than ever before. Thanks especially to [Kevin Gunn] and all of the volunteers for coordinating and setting everything up. Everyone was extremely helpful and the event was easy to find and prep for.
One warning though, if you do decide to set up a booth at a Faire, expect to talk a lot. You’ll feel like you’re among friends though, and you’re probably an expert (or at least can fake it) at whatever you’re displaying, so it’s really fun! I’ll be doing several more posts on this event, so be sure to check back, especially if you attended!
If you decide it’s not fun, you can always just hide behind your equipment… | 17 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "684753",
"author": "Jim McC",
"timestamp": "2012-06-20T17:13:58",
"content": "I didn’t attend, but I was president of Fablocker (the 3D printer folks featured in the photo) until last year – thanks a ton HAD for including us in your picture!Anyone local to Winston-Salem, check out o... | 1,760,376,832.631169 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/06/20/snes-001-advance-puts-displays-in-the-controllers/ | SNES-001 Advance Puts Displays In The Controllers | Brian Benchoff | [
"Nintendo Hacks"
] | [
"casemod",
"console mod",
"nintendo",
"snes"
] | Twenty years ago, [Downing] would fight with his siblings over who got to watch TV. Obviously, this gave him the idea of putting a television inside his Super Nintendo controller, but at he tender age of 12, [Downing] had neither the experience nor skills to make that happen. Now that he’s older, and much less impressed by the Sega Nomad, [Downing]
made his dream a reality
.
Reading over [Downing]’s
madebybacteria forum thread
, he began the build by adding two controller ports and painting the system a classic Famicom red and white. The prominent feature of [Downing]’s design – a display in each controller – are connected to the console through a second pair of SNES controller ports. Internally, the video signal generated by the SNES is broken out to each controller; the controller displays are just a small mirrored version of whats sent to the TV.
Like [Downing]’s previous
Genesis portable
, the SNES-001 is a master work of Bondo and vacuum forming. After the break you can see a few demos of what this console mod can do.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QVis43-Augk&w=470]
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fgU3vgP0Cnw&w=470]
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i5g3Niv1n80&w=470] | 11 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "684724",
"author": "heatgap",
"timestamp": "2012-06-20T16:18:18",
"content": "This is definitely something every kid though about in the late 80s early 90s when mom, dad, bor/sis wanted to watch something on the main T.V. and you had to either quickly find a save point or cold-turn ... | 1,760,376,832.677364 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/06/20/getting-root-on-a-sony-tv/ | Getting Root On A Sony TV | Brian Benchoff | [
"Linux Hacks"
] | [
"firmware",
"jailbreak",
"root"
] | The Sony Bravia series of HDTVs are a great piece of kit; they’re nice displays that usually have enough inputs for the craziest home theatre setups. These TVs also run Linux, but until now we haven’t seen anything that capitalizes on the fact these displays are wall-mounted Linux boxen. [Sam]
sent in an exploit
to root any Bravia TV – hopefully the first step towards replacing our home media server.
The exploit itself is a regular buffer overflow initialized by a Python script. The script sets up a Telnet server on any Sony Bravia with a USB port, and provides complete root access. [Sam] was able to get a Debian install running off a USB drive and all the Debian programs run correctly.
If you have a Bravia you’d like to test [Sam]’s script on, you’ll need a USB network adapter for the TV and a Telnet client to explore your TV’s file system. Right now there’s not much to do with a rooted Bravia, but at least now running XMBC or other media server on a TV is possible.
If anyone would like to start porting XMBC to a Bravia TV, [Sam] says he’s more than willing to help out. We’re not aware of any HDTV modding communities on the Internet, so if you’re part of one post a link in the comments. | 139 | 50 | [
{
"comment_id": "684688",
"author": "cknopp",
"timestamp": "2012-06-20T15:10:13",
"content": "This is where Chromium would be great!I love that you can now root TVs as well!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "684697",
"author": "anon",
... | 1,760,376,833.115218 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/06/20/cramming-for-sparkfuns-autonomous-vehicle-competition/ | Cramming For Sparkfun’s Autonomous Vehicle Competition | Mike Szczys | [
"Robots Hacks"
] | [
"autonomous vehicle contest",
"avc",
"sparkfun"
] | [Paul Breed] participated in this year’s Autonomous Vehicles Contest put on by SparkFun Electronics. As with most projects, the deadline really snuck up on him and he ended up cramming a bunch of code development into the waning days before the competition. His experiences are shared
in this recent blog post
.
One big part of the hardware is a laser range finder used for wall following. This is explained well in the video after the break, but you can see the side-pointing blue box in the image above. [Paul] also spent a lot of time preparing for the checkpoint portion of the course where the vehicle would need to pass through a red hoop. He worked long and hard on an image processing setup to find and navigate those hoops before learning that they would be positioned at known locations and it would be much easier to use a path following technique to complete the challenge.
He had a few follies along the way. At one point during debugging the car — which was connected to his laptop via Ethernet — it got away from him. This ripped the NIC right out of the back of his computer. And on the day of the event he had some low battery issues that zapped his laser calibrations. But [Paul] rolled with the punches and ended having what sounds like a really exciting experience
participating in the contest
. | 4 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "684678",
"author": "fartface",
"timestamp": "2012-06-20T14:49:34",
"content": "“This ripped the NIC right out of the back of his computer.”Epic fail, snap the tab off your Ethernet cable to make them quick release.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
... | 1,760,376,832.849142 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/06/20/milling-a-motorcycle-engine/ | Milling A Motorcycle Engine | Mike Szczys | [
"cnc hacks",
"Transportation Hacks"
] | [
"cylinder head",
"engine",
"machining",
"milling",
"motocycle"
] | Real motorcycle enthusiasts
design and mill their own engines
. Well, perhaps that’s an overstatement. Certainly it takes to more obsession than enthusiasm to go to these lengths. But this gentleman’s modifications started out simple enough, and managed to make it to the most extreme of hardware fabrications.
The used bike came with a modified camshaft that seemed like a botched job. As he got further into tuning up engine performance the prospect of just replacing the entire thing with his own design started to grow. Using a manually operated milling machine he cut his own molds for the new cylinder head out of wood and sent them off to be forged out of aluminum. They come back in rough shape but he just “filed the cast without mercy” and machined the tolerances to his specifications. Apparently the first test ride had him a bit nervous — he also milled his own brakes for the bike. But after a few times around the block he gained confidence with his work.
[Thanks Carlos] | 30 | 19 | [
{
"comment_id": "684626",
"author": "SJ",
"timestamp": "2012-06-20T13:14:28",
"content": "Lol, read this as “Milking” a motorcycle engine.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "684629",
"author": "andrew king",
"timestamp": "2012-06-20T13:20:3... | 1,760,376,833.186343 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/06/20/driving-a-nokia-qvga-screen-with-arduino-or-any-uc/ | Driving A Nokia QVGA Screen With Arduino (or Any UC) | Mike Szczys | [
"Arduino Hacks"
] | [
"arduino mega",
"lcd",
"level converter",
"nokia 6300",
"qvga"
] | This is a Nokia 6300 screen. It’s a 320×240 display that has about 2″ of diagonal viewing area and boasts 24-bit QVGA TFT technology. It’s going to look fantastic in your next project and it won’t be hard to get up and running thanks to
the hardware
and
software guide
which [Andy Brown] put together. He chose this display because of its features, but also because it’s really easy to source and can be had for $5-7 delivered. The guide is aimed at working with the Arduino MEGA, but we’re sure you can port it for just about any microcontroller you’d like.
Much like
the FPGA PSP display we just looked at
, [Andy] chose to design his own PCB to host the LCD. This makes it a snap to attach the LCD — literally, since he managed to source the correct snap-in connector. The board also hosts a constant-current LED driver which takes care of the backlight, and allowed him to build in a level converter (since the screen communicates at 3.3V but Arduino uses 5V logic).
The software tutorial is lengthy but impressive. We’re surprised at the performance he gets out of the AVR chip. See the screen cycle through a set of demos after the break. | 14 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "684618",
"author": "atomsoft",
"timestamp": "2012-06-20T12:55:41",
"content": "Awesome!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "684624",
"author": "Philippe",
"timestamp": "2012-06-20T13:06:45",
"content": "QVGA porn… :-)",
... | 1,760,376,832.900401 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/06/19/hoisting-a-laser-cutter-to-the-3rd-floor-and-other-fun-youll-probably-never-have/ | Hoisting A Laser Cutter To The 3rd Floor (and Other Fun You’ll Probably Never Have) | Mike Szczys | [
"Hackerspaces",
"Laser Hacks"
] | [
"crane",
"hoist",
"laser cutter",
"null space labs"
] | The folks at Null Space Labs bought a 40W CO2 laser tube in order to build their own laser cutter. Unfortunately nobody really
wants
to build a laser cutter; they just want to play with a laser cutter. So they ended up biting the bullet and ordering a $4000 model from China. That’s it hovering in midair. This is
the story of acquiring the unit and playing around with it once it arrived
.
Check out those orange cones in the picture. Hackerspace members put them out to keep the parking spots clear so no damage was caused in the event of an accident. But since they’re located in Los Angeles some of the road warriors didn’t really care and just moved the cones anyway. Luckily the crane hoist to the third floor (they removed one of the windows) ended up going rather well.
So what do you do with a laser cutter like this one? Crack it open and make some improvements. The manufacturer says it can’t cut through steel. Well that’s only if you don’t add some O2 to the cutting process. And the stock mirrors… they’ve got to go. Turns out a simple upgrade boosted the power by about 20% (we’re wondering how they measured that). While we’re talking about optics, might as well upgrade the lens as well. You can see where they’re going with this, and [CharlieX] tells us it is just the first in a series of posts he’ll be working on. | 36 | 16 | [
{
"comment_id": "684339",
"author": "andar_b",
"timestamp": "2012-06-19T21:33:17",
"content": "Nice crane operator. :) I’d have been tempted to ‘oops’ on that car a few times. :s lol",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "684347",
"author": "... | 1,760,376,833.254903 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/06/19/hackaday-retro-submission-browsing-with-an-apple-iic/ | Hackaday Retro Submission: Browsing With An Apple IIc | Brian Benchoff | [
"classic hacks"
] | [
"Apple IIc",
"retro edition"
] | We’ve had
the retro edition
of Hackaday up for about a week now, and already a few people have sent in a few neat builds that use an ancient computer to pull this page up. The latest comes from [RetroAppleFanToday] who
used an Apple IIc
to browse the Internet.
To load our humble retro edition, [RetroAppleFan] used a serial connection between the Apple and a Mac Mini to get a terminal running on the 30-year-old computer. From there, it was a simple matter of running
lynx
to browse the Internet.
There are a few more retro submissions cataloged on
our retro successes page
including a NEXT cube. If you have an old computer lying around that can pull up our retro site, don’t feel shy about
sending it in
; it’s pretty much guaranteed to get a mention.
As far as the development of the retro site is going, we’re posting
5 random stories
every day. There’s a script to generate the front page every day, but if we get enough complaints or compliments we may just generate a new front page for every visitor. | 25 | 15 | [
{
"comment_id": "684320",
"author": "Colecago",
"timestamp": "2012-06-19T20:59:25",
"content": "God, I remember Lynx. Got free internet from the college but we had to login through their service and use Lynx. I used to browse video game sites for cheat codes. And I had to go to pages without fram... | 1,760,376,833.516111 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/06/19/multi-system-nintendo-emulator-uses-stock-controllers/ | Multi-system Nintendo Emulator Uses Stock Controllers | Mike Szczys | [
"Nintendo Hacks"
] | [
"controller",
"emulator",
"gamecube",
"motherboard",
"nes",
"snes",
"usb"
] | The first month of [WoolyDawg5’s] summer break went into
building one Nintendo emulator to rule them all
. He thinks there’s nothing like playing the games on the original controllers, and we agree with him 100%. Here you can see that the cartridge door on this NES enclosure hides the extra connectors he needs.
With that door closed this looks like a stock console, but only from the front. If you take a look at the back of it you’ll see how he pulled this off. There’s a Zotac motherboard whose I/O panel has been fitted into the back. It’s responsible for emulating games for the NES, SNES, and GameCube consoles — we’re sure it can do more but that covers the controller ports seen here. Each port is wired to a USB controller module. The cables for these modules exit the back of the case and plug into the motherboard’s I/O panel. There is WiFi for the board, and that’s what [WoolyDawg] uses for configuration, tunneling into the OS instead of connecting a keyboard or mouse.
Of course you could just
shoehorn all-original console hardware into one package
to accomplish something like this.
[Thanks KoldFuzion] | 17 | 12 | [
{
"comment_id": "684268",
"author": "dishwater63",
"timestamp": "2012-06-19T19:15:58",
"content": "I did the very same a year or so ago. I did as little mod to the case as possible, with the exception of knocking out the bottom bracket for video and PSU cables and removing the original A/V ports for... | 1,760,376,833.309311 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/06/19/hacking-together-two-shop-vacuums/ | Hacking Together Two Shop Vacuums | Mike Szczys | [
"Hackerspaces",
"Repair Hacks"
] | [
"shop vac",
"vacuum"
] | Unfortunately the result of hacking together two shop vacuums isn’t a double-power monstrosity. This is actually the story of
combining broken and substandard parts into one usable machine
. The guys at the Shackspace originally bought a cheap shop vacuum whose motor gave up the ghost way too quickly. The replacement had only a tiny container for rubbish. So they did what any group of hackerspace members would and combined the two.
Since they wanted to use the voluminous enclosure from the broken vacuum the first order of business was to remove the dead motor assembly. Quick work was made of this by melting away the plastic using an old soldering iron. The motor assembly from the small machine was then mounted in place with screws, and sealed with caulk. It was now working, thanks to salvaged hoses and attachments from other long-lost vacuums.
But a boring hack this might have been if they stopped there. The team added a wall outlet to the top, and adorned the beast with RGB LEDs which are powered from a wall wart (hence the added wall outlet). It can double as a mood light when not in use.
[Thanks Momo] | 11 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "684248",
"author": "Ren",
"timestamp": "2012-06-19T18:44:55",
"content": "Oh, I wished they’d taken an extra step and thrown in cyclonic separation.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "684249",
"author": "Eniac",
"timestamp"... | 1,760,376,833.412271 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/06/19/bobs-experience-with-haxlr8r/ | [Bob’s] Experience With Haxlr8r | Mike Szczys | [
"LED Hacks"
] | [
"bob baddeley",
"haxlr8r",
"portable scores",
"score board"
] | [Mike Szczys] recently got together with [Bob Baddeley] to talk about his experiences taking a hobby project to market. He’s not quite there yet, but [Bob] decided to travel a route which we find quite interesting. He has been taking part in
a 111 day accelerator program called Haxlr8r
. The idea is that this experience will give him the manufacturing chops he needs to meet the demand when his product actually launches. He spent a considerable amount of time in China,
an experience he blogged about at length
. The program also provides development cash in return for a percentage of the company.
The product he’s working on is an LED scoreboard, which explains why he calls the company
Portable Scores
. It started as a hobby project, and he brought one of the early prototypes along to show off in the video after the break. It’s a wooden frame, with foam board for the back and substrate, and clear acrylic on the front to protect the LEDs. All of the soldering is point-to point (there’s an image of this available after the break too). His redesigns have moved from Arduino to a PIC controller, made the entire face of the display one PCB, and added Bluetooth control. It’s great to see someone really go for it with a well-conceived project. We wish him all the best!
Wiring for the prototype display: | 17 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "684185",
"author": "Zack",
"timestamp": "2012-06-19T17:18:19",
"content": "Man, 200k to get this going huh?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "684219",
"author": "Zee",
"timestamp": "2012-06-19T18:05:53",
"content": "Th... | 1,760,376,833.363752 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/06/19/blinky-seesaw-has-em-queuing-at-the-playground/ | Blinky Seesaw Has ’em Queuing At The Playground | Mike Szczys | [
"LED Hacks"
] | [
"playground",
"seesaw"
] | How long has it been since you were on a seesaw? Perhaps the plank-and-fulcrum toy of your youth no longer holds any interest. But
add some blinky lights and a fancy enclosure
and folks are lined up to get back in the saddle.
The video after the break gives just a glimpse of what’s inside of this thing. There are 33 sets of LED strips wrapping the plank from on end to the other. They’re covered in a translucent shell (we’d guess it’s acrylic that has been heated and bent). Judging from the children walking in the middle, it’s engineered well enough to hold up to some abuse. The seesaw can sense a change in orientation and sends light cascading from one end to the other as if aided by gravity.
We really like the clean lines of the installation; the spartan center mount, the use of half a tire as a ground bumper, and fact that the very end of the plank also lights up. If we happened upon this (it’s in Melbourne, Australia so not likely) we’d wait a while for our turn!
http://vimeo.com/44005246 | 13 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "684205",
"author": "Eddie",
"timestamp": "2012-06-19T17:31:32",
"content": "In New York City, there are NO seesaws in any New York Parks playground.I am one of millions of Americans who survived despite the “dangers” of the seesaw.The nanny state is sickening.",
"parent_id": nul... | 1,760,376,833.461586 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/06/19/salvaged-robot-arm-makes-a-big-3d-printer/ | Salvaged Robot Arm Makes A Big 3d Printer | Mike Szczys | [
"3d Printer hacks",
"cnc hacks",
"Robots Hacks"
] | [
"3d printer",
"extruder",
"pid",
"robot arm",
"scara",
"servo"
] | Wow, building a precision 3d printer is amazingly easy if you can get your hands on an industrial-quality robot arm. [Dane] wrote in to tell us about
this huge extruder printer
made from an ’80s-era SCARA robot arm. It is capable of printing objects as large as 25″x12″x6.5″.
This 190 pound beast was acquired during a lab clean out. It was mechanically intact, but missing all of the control hardware. Building controllers was a bit of a challenge since the it’s designed with servo motors and precision feedback sensors. This is different from modern 3d printers which use stepper motors and no feedback sensors. A working controller was built up one component at a time, with a heated bed added to the mix to help prevent warping with large builds. We love the Frankenstein look of the controller hardware, which was mounted hodge-podge as each new module was brought online.
You can see some printing action in the clip after the break. A Linux box takes a design and spits out control instructions to the hardware. | 34 | 13 | [
{
"comment_id": "684111",
"author": "Hackerspacer",
"timestamp": "2012-06-19T15:14:27",
"content": "sincetheit’s designed with servo motors and precision feedback sensors. This is different from modern 3d printers which use stepper motors and no feedback sensors.Closed loop servos with encoders are ... | 1,760,376,833.587511 |
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