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https://hackaday.com/2012/05/29/hackerspace-introduction-makers-local-256-in-huntsville-alabama/ | Hackerspace Introduction: Makers Local 256 In Huntsville Alabama | Caleb Kraft | [
"Hackerspaces"
] | [
"hackerspaces",
"southeast tour"
] | When I announced I would be traveling through Alabama and Georgia this summer, [Tim] from Makers Local 256 emailed me pretty quickly and asked if I’d like to swing by for a visit. Since I was planning to take my kids to the space center in Huntsville anyway, I thought it would be a perfect opportunity to tour another hackerspace.
Makers Local 256
was started after being inspired by the tech shop in San Fransisco. Their first meeting was in 2006 and they’ve grown considerably since then. They started out in a space of about 900 square feet and now have a facility with over 2500 square feet. As you can see in the video, they are very active, there are projects everywhere. It was quite difficult for me just to walk around and look, then leave. I really wanted to tear into some of the projects going on.
While we were walking around, we found [Jennifer] working in an office to construct a rather impressive looking LED cube. I asked her to explain the project in the video below. It looks like it will be pretty cool.
As I said before, there were tons of things to look at and play with there. There was a life sized Dalek, giant model rockets, a Jacob’s ladder, a couple motorized scooters welded together, gutted pinball machines. All kinds of fun. We even played frisbee with a 100% duct tape Captain America shield. | 23 | 12 | [
{
"comment_id": "662943",
"author": "Ren",
"timestamp": "2012-05-29T19:56:30",
"content": "What is the orange/brown sagging thing in the middle picture? Object d’art?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "662946",
"author": "strages",
... | 1,760,376,857.055165 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/05/29/making-an-audio-spectrum-analyzer-with-a-microcontroller/ | Making An Audio Spectrum Analyzer With A Microcontroller | Brian Benchoff | [
"Microcontrollers"
] | [
"ATmega32",
"DFT",
"fft",
"Fourier",
"spectrum analyzer"
] | While [Vinod] says he’s not an expert in this sort of thing, we really like his
audio spectrum analyzer
build from a simple microcontroller and LCD display.
It is a well-studied fact that every audio waveform – a recording of your voice, for instance – is just the sum of many, many sine waves. These sine waves can be plucked out using
Fourier analysis
, using a
Discrete Fourier transform
. This is the principle that spectrum analyzers operate under; [Vinod] wrote a bit of code using DFT to take apart audio captured from a microphone and output their frequency on an LCD display.
To output the spectrum on his LCD, [Vinod] stacked horizontal bars up into 8 custom characters in his display. Like [Vinod]’s previous
audio on an ATMega32 experiment
, an LM324 amplifier is connected to the ATMega through an analog pin. [Vinod] has a very clever build on his hands with his spectrum analyzer, and a great answer to the perennial ‘how do I build a guitar tuner’ questions we’re constantly asked.
After the break, you can see [Vinod]’s spectrum analyzer in action. Be forewarned; you may want to turn down the volume.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IUYPmN5fJhY&w=470] | 6 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "662885",
"author": "C. Holmberg",
"timestamp": "2012-05-29T18:19:14",
"content": "Ah, reading the linked page *first* pays dividends! I was going to ask why Vinod didn’t use the more efficient FFT, instead of the DFT. But, he has already stated his rationale!",
"parent_id": null... | 1,760,376,856.633752 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/05/29/hackaday-links-may-29-2012/ | Hackaday Links: May 29, 2012 | Brian Benchoff | [
"Hackaday links"
] | [
"antenna",
"cnc halftone",
"discone",
"electrofishing",
"fume extractor",
"halftone",
"shapeoko"
] | Teensy CNC mill
The guys at Inventables put together
a neat CNC router kit
that looks very interesting. It uses Makerslide linear bearings and CNC’d parts to make a surprisingly cheap frame for something that can engrave wood and metal. Inventables is running a Kickstarter-esque preorder to fund this production run but right now they’re 30 orders short. We’d like to see how these routers turn out in the real world, so if you’re on the fence (or just want a CNC router), this might be the time to buy.
DIY solder fume extractor
[Jared] sent in
a fume extractor
he put together. It’s a small PC case fan with a carbon filter sandwiched between a pair of grilles. Not much, but if should keep those wonderful flux fumes away from your face.
A million fake Internet points to the first person to come up with a DIY clone
[filespace] shared an
awesome Electrofishing video with us
.
Electrofishing
pulses a DC current through two electrodes attached to a boat. This current causes galvanotaxis in fish, causing them to swim towards the anode. The fish can be caught with a net and released afterwards; there’s no damage to the fish at all. We’d love to see a DIY solution, but
throwing M-80s into a lake doesn’t count.
Improving GSM reception with a bit of metal
[Raivis] lives in the country, so even his voice reception on GSM is terrible, let alone data. Inspired by an
earlier post
, [Raivis] built
a discone antenna
to improve his cell signal. Now everything is crystal clear and his Huawei E1752 USB/GSM modem improved from 3 mbps down to 5 mbps down.
CNC halftone photos
[Dana] sent in a few pics of a project he’s working on. He’s making halftone prints with a CNC and metal. We’ve
seen this before
, but we’re really loving [Dana]’s take on it. He’s using two-layer engraving plastic with a .005” engraving tool on his CNC. There’s a gallery of his work after the break; [Dana]’s portrait is 14000+ dots and took 6 hours, his bosses kids are 16000+ dots and took 4 hours, and [Dana]’s niece is 5500 dots and took 35 minutes. Very awesome work, and now [Dana] has fulfilled a lifelong dream of machining his face. | 25 | 15 | [
{
"comment_id": "662796",
"author": "Aaron",
"timestamp": "2012-05-29T16:13:16",
"content": "Bonus points for the DIY “electrofishing” method addressing the general illegality of catching fish that way.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "662800",
... | 1,760,376,856.988538 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/05/29/climbing-robot-glues-its-own-feet-to-the-wall/ | Climbing Robot Glues It’s Own Feet To The Wall | Mike Szczys | [
"Robots Hacks"
] | [
"hot glue",
"hot melt glue",
"wall climbing"
] | The problem of gripping all surfaces has always plagued the field of climbing robotics. But if you don’t care about damaging the wall, why not just
let the robot glue its feet to the surface
. That’s exactly how this robot does it, using a couple of climbing feet in conjunction with a hot melt glue gun wielding arm. It seems to be a predecessor of
the hot glue 3D printing robot which we saw last week
.
Check out the video to get a full overview of the climbing process, but here’s the gist of it. The legs and arm are able to pivot around the central axis of the robot, parallel to the climbing surface. Once one leg is glued in place the robot swivels around it so that the body is directly above that leg. From there it reaches up with the arm to deposit some glue on the wall, then moves it out of the way so the other foot can be pressed against the hot adhesive. When the newly attached foot has cooled sufficiently, the lower foot is reheated to free it from the wall. At this point the whole process repeats.
We’re still fond of vacuum-based climbers
like this parachute-equipped robot
. But the design of the hot-glue arm on this guy is something that might make it into one of our own projects someday. | 8 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "662759",
"author": "HAD",
"timestamp": "2012-05-29T15:09:02",
"content": "Oh crap out of glue ahhhhhhhhhhhhh!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "662841",
"author": "barry99705",
"timestamp": "2012-05-29T17:36:31",
"cont... | 1,760,376,856.494889 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/05/29/a-sample-player-you-can-slip-in-your-pocket/ | A Sample Player You Can Slip In Your Pocket | Mike Szczys | [
"digital audio hacks"
] | [
"arm",
"cortex-m3",
"lpc1769",
"midi",
"sampler"
] | This
portable sample player
packs quite a punch. [Lee] wanted a nice portable way to take his samples with him, but refused to water-down the features just because it is portable. He set of goal of playing between 3-8 simultaneous notes from a large assortment of stored samples.
Sample space was the first design consideration, and it’s hard to beat the price per megabyte of an SD card. After some calculations he concluded that it is possible to pull these samples off the card quickly enough to achieve his simultaneous note goal at CD quality frequencies, but only if there is little or no latency when reading from the card. This means [Lee] needed a fast processor so he chose the LPC1769 which is an ARM Cortex-M3 processor which can run at 120 MHz.
The project box includes room for a volume knob to control the output from the in-build headphone amplifier. There’s also a rotary encoder for selecting sample sets. But we’re a bit confused on this part as the device is MIDI controlled. [Lee] is the creator of
the electronic Moolodeon
, which itself has MIDI out and will be used as a controller for this project. | 8 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "662755",
"author": "krylenko",
"timestamp": "2012-05-29T14:53:54",
"content": "It’s MIDI-controlled in that it plays notes sent to it by other MIDI devices (e.g., a keyboard).The rotary encoder allows you to change the type of sound (such as a bass or guitar) that’s played when it r... | 1,760,376,856.737037 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/05/28/a-wedding-cake-made-out-of-leds/ | A Wedding Cake Made Out Of LEDs | Brian Benchoff | [
"cooking hacks",
"LED Hacks"
] | [
"led",
"pic18f",
"RGB LED",
"wedding cake"
] | [Andrew] wanted to do something special for his wedding. Since he and his fiance [Missy] decided on a cupcake wedding cake, [Andrew] decided to wow his guests with
an RGB LED cupcake holder
.
The tiers of [Andrew] and [Missy]’s cupcake holder are made of acrylic laser etched with a damask pattern. These tiers are supported by a cylinder embedded with RGB leds that provide edge lighting for the acrylic panels.
The effect
is a series of permutating lights that illuminate the cupcake holder with every imaginable color. On the top of the cupcake cake, there’s
a great cake topper
made of frosted and laser cut acrylic that has the same color fade effect as the cupcake holder.
On the electrical side of things, the cupcake holder has 44 LEDs on all it’s levels. FETs driven by a 40-pin PIC18F control all the LEDs and the whole piece is powered by a computer power supply.
It’s an awesome build, especially considering it was finished just days before the wedding. After the break, you can check out a few more videos showing off the beauty of [Andrew] and [Missy]’s wedding cake.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pJOqSRMimFU&w=470]
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qDw6ctRTMkc&w=470]
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mm6YVIRiDCg&w=470]
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oeviF4V4UOU&w=470] | 15 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "662007",
"author": "MorbiousStone",
"timestamp": "2012-05-28T22:29:11",
"content": "Very Cool",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "662012",
"author": "Stephen",
"timestamp": "2012-05-28T22:34:35",
"content": "I love it!",... | 1,760,376,856.548278 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/05/28/building-your-own-eye-in-the-sky/ | Building Your Own Eye In The Sky | Mike Szczys | [
"Toy Hacks",
"Video Hacks"
] | [
"helicopter",
"radio controlled",
"rc",
"wireless camera"
] | His goal of one post a week for a year has past, but [Dino] keeps bringing his skills to bear on new projects. This time around he’s
adding a wireless camera to an RC helicopter
.
These radio controlled fliers (there are cheap ones that use IR control which is much less reliable) can be found for around $30-60. [Dino] already had a wireless camera to use, but adding it and a 9V battery is just too much weight to lift. After some testing he established that 2oz of payload is the upper limit. He began removing parts from the helicopter to achieve enough savings to lift both the camera and its battery. Along the way he discovered that removing the weights from the fly bar added a lot of maneuverability at the cost of a small stability loss.
Check out his project video embedded after the break. It’s not anywhere near the results of
professional multi-rotor camera mounts
, but it is cheap and fun! | 22 | 17 | [
{
"comment_id": "661924",
"author": "John Schuch",
"timestamp": "2012-05-28T21:07:49",
"content": "The transmitter has an antenna, so I doubt it’s I/R controlled.Great job Dino!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "662010",
"author": "MorbiousSto... | 1,760,376,856.87031 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/05/28/on-the-go-tool-wallet/ | On-the-go Tool Wallet | Mike Szczys | [
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"cd wallet",
"tool box",
"tool kit"
] | Whether you’re off to the local Hackerspace, or headed to a friend’s house to lend a hand with the latest project it’s nice to have your favorite tools in a handy package. [Mário Saleiro] decided to take the concept one step further than a toolbox by making his own
zipper wallet with cutouts for his favorite tools
.
The enclosure is a CD wallet, but who carries those plastic discs around with them anymore? After removing the CD sleeves [Mário] positioned his tools — in this case a pen, angle cutters, and pliers — on one side of the case to make a template. The tracings were then used to cut out pieces from an exercise carpet (we think this is like a rubber yoga mat). The square was glued to the side of the wallet, and some elastic band was sewn in to hold them in place. On the other side is a small components bin, and a little box to hold a tiny multimeter.
[Thanks Nuno] | 18 | 13 | [
{
"comment_id": "661927",
"author": "Flying Judas",
"timestamp": "2012-05-28T21:07:55",
"content": "looks useless for me, those are steel tools, they won’t break if you put them into backpack or toolbox.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "662483"... | 1,760,376,856.689115 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/05/28/building-the-backend-of-internet-controlled-devices/ | Building The Backend Of Internet Controlled Devices | Mike Szczys | [
"home hacks"
] | [
"atmega644",
"enc28j60",
"solid state relay",
"web server"
] | [Adam] and [Jeremy] took on the challenge of designing a system that would make it easy to
control appliances from the Internet
. We’ve seen the concept many times before; it involves some method of switching mains power and connecting that mechanism to the Internet. This design is both well planned and nicely executed.
We’re always very interested in the power switching for a project like this. It’s good that an approved electrical box houses all of the high-voltage parts in the project. Here a GA8-2B02 solid state relay switches power between the incoming cord and the two outlets. We didn’t get a look in the box, but hopefully there’s a partition between those wires and the low-voltage control wiring which uses a standard 3.5 mm audio jack as an interconnect.
An ATmega644 drives the control signal for the relay. It’s connected via Ethernet cable to the Internet through the use of an ENC28J60 chip which takes care of LAN communications. This is essentially a light-weight web server that will be easy to adapt to receive commands from just about any web-connected sender.
[Thanks Bruce] | 2 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "661818",
"author": "James",
"timestamp": "2012-05-28T19:07:46",
"content": "I’m working on a control system for my garage that this should help with. Maybe not a drop-in system but looks like some good resources to solve problems that I’m going to encounter. I’m working on a system ... | 1,760,376,856.589606 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/05/28/hipster-chandelier/ | Hipster Chandelier | Mike Szczys | [
"LED Hacks"
] | [
"arduino",
"bottle",
"chandelier",
"glass",
"lamp",
"light",
"rgb"
] | This chandelier
is something we’d expect to see on sale in the local gallery store. [Starkec] made it a couple of years back and we just love the look. The materials are pretty common, and you can throw it together in an afternoon.
The diffuser are made from clear glass soda bottles. After removing the labels and giving them a good cleaning, they were each set upside down and sprayed with some glass frosting spray. A four-conductor telephone wire serves both as the support for the bottle and electrical path for the RGB LED inside of each. The original screw cap for the bottles makes it a twist to install them after the soldering is done. There are two common color buses so that alternating colors can be shown at the same time. After seeing the video we think you’ll agree that the wiring scheme makes for some great animated effects.
[Thanks Craig] | 16 | 12 | [
{
"comment_id": "661789",
"author": "starkec",
"timestamp": "2012-05-28T18:31:33",
"content": "Thanks for the feature guys, not too sure on the title though hahaha :P",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "661808",
"author": "rasz",
"timestamp"... | 1,760,376,856.923682 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/05/28/turning-a-pedal-powered-tractor-into-a-power-wheels/ | Turning A Pedal-powered Tractor Into A Power Wheels | Brian Benchoff | [
"Toy Hacks"
] | [
"pedal car",
"Power Wheels"
] | A while back, [Stefan] bought a pedal-powered tractor for his son. It was a fun toy, but what it really needed
was an electric motor
. After a fair bit of tinkering, [Stefan] turned a pedal-powered tractor into a battery-powered Power Wheels.
Before turning his son’s pedal tractor into a battery-powered ride, [Stefan] ordered a 250 Watt motor and a
Pololu motor controller
. After tearing out the pedal parts, the motor was attached to the tractor with a few bits of wood (giving the tractor running boards), and a bike chain was run between the rear axle and motor. A pair of small 12 Volt batteries provide all the power and a Hall effect sensor in the handlebars provides the throttle.
Right now, [Stefan] has his son’s new battery-powered tractor set to a top speed of 5 km/h, or just a little bit faster than walking speed. [Stefan] says the tractor has a top speed of about 15 km/h, or about 10 mph; much too fast for a kid’s toy. After the break there’s a video of the tractor rolling along, and [Stefan]’s son having a great time.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yISjfukugvI&w=470] | 22 | 13 | [
{
"comment_id": "661742",
"author": "Sci",
"timestamp": "2012-05-28T17:25:21",
"content": "That’s a really nice simple build. Sweet even.(Though the music choice on the demo-video makes it feel like it’s going to be used as a tragic slow-mo flashback in the movie of either father or son’s lives.)",
... | 1,760,376,857.114038 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/05/28/mini-pinball-mame-machine-is-small-enough-to-fit-in-any-game-room/ | Mini Pinball MAME Machine Is Small Enough To Fit In Any Game Room | Brian Benchoff | [
"Toy Hacks"
] | [
"pinball",
"pinmame",
"virtual pinball"
] | A huge collection of pinball machines in your basement is one of the crowing achievements of a geek, but what if you could have a huge library of physical pinball machines at you fingertips? [veriix] shared an
imgur gallery
in a
reddit post
documenting his wee little pinball machine he built from scratch.
Inside the pinball cabinet, there are two monitors. A 4:3 Samsung monitor serves as the backglass for the machine while a 23″ HDTV provides the playfield. On the software side of things, [veriix] used
PINMAME
and
Visual Pinball 9
running on an old motherboard he had lying around. The result is impressive. The HD monitor playfield provides the right perspective to fool [veriix]’s brain into thinking he’s playing a real pinball machine.
We’ve seen
PINMAME builds before
, but those were encased in full-size pinball cabinets that took up far too much room. [veriix]’s machine is much smaller, and perfect for the garage, den, basement, or anywhere you’d like to set up an awesome game room.
You can check out [veriix] playing his mini pinball machine after the break. Thanks [Johnny] for sending this one in.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GtdDIQQV9Zk&w=470] | 14 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "661701",
"author": "soopergooman",
"timestamp": "2012-05-28T16:19:28",
"content": "You need to get the game called PINBOT, i am its master, i can roll it over endlessly. once spent abut 6 hours straight playing it without losing one try when i was 15.",
"parent_id": null,
"d... | 1,760,376,857.375712 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/05/28/turning-a-1942-lathe-into-a-functional-piece-of-art/ | Turning A 1942 Lathe Into A Functional Piece Of Art | Brian Benchoff | [
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"lathe",
"machining",
"metalworking",
"Monarch 10EE",
"rebuild"
] | A couple of years ago, [macona]
picked up a 1943 Monarch 10EE lathe
. This monstrous machine is not only an amazing piece of engineering but an awesome work of art; not only can this lathe manufacture parts with exacting precision, it’s also a wonderful piece of machine age design.
The Monarch 10EE lathe was extremely high-tech for its time, and the War Dept Detroit Ordinance District tag on the cooling pump bears this machines lineage: this lathe was most likely used to make very precise military equipment such as the
Norden bombsight
.
After 60 years of faithful service, [macona]’s lathe picked up several coats of paint in different colors and generally fell into a state of disrepair. [macona] spent a great deal of time overhauling this lathe by
replacing a bent feed rod
,
troubleshooting the motor problems
, and eventually replacing the whole motor with
a modern AC brushless servo
. You can check out the improvement the AC servo made in a video after the break.
Of course no post about a rebuilt lathe would be complete
without a few beauty shots
. We’re extremely thankful for [macona] for not only restoring this machine, but also for sharing it with us. Thanks to [macona]’s restoration, this machine will hopefully be around for another 60 years.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ioS6_Qk1SoA&w=470]
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=si4MWsdGQpE&w=470] | 28 | 17 | [
{
"comment_id": "661616",
"author": "HAD",
"timestamp": "2012-05-28T14:21:54",
"content": "Thanks to [macona]‘s restoration, this machine will hopefully be around for another 60 years.Unlike most of the junk “lathes” produced overseas in places that don’t care about quality and are sold for $2000 – ... | 1,760,376,857.491215 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/05/28/fine-tune-your-morse-code-skills-with-this-mint-tin-practice-keyer/ | Fine Tune Your Morse Code Skills With This Mint Tin Practice Keyer | Mike Nathan | [
"classic hacks"
] | [
"cw",
"keyer",
"mint tin",
"morse code",
"msp430"
] | Hackaday reader [svofski] wrote in to share a device he built, which would be useful to any ham operators out there trying to hone their CW skills.
He calls his practice keyer the Morseshnik,
and it is a combination of various items [svofski] found while digging through his parts drawer.
He disassembled an old hard drive, saving its read arm to serve as the keyer’s paddle. He purchased some small angle brackets to create a set of contacts for the device, between which the lever sits, automatically centered by a pair of springs.
An MSP430, which was also collecting dust in [svofski’s] junk pile, resides inside the Morseshnik’s mint tin base on a small DIY PCB. It allows him to toggle between manual and automatic keying modes with the flick of a switch as he whiles his time away practicing his dits and dahs.
Continue reading to see a short video of the Morseshnik in action, and swing by his site for code and PCB schematics should you want to build one of your own.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cbtNn3pxcic&feature=player_embedded&w=470] | 9 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "661605",
"author": "rue_mohr",
"timestamp": "2012-05-28T13:48:58",
"content": "COOL paddle!msp430, drat, I was hoping, from the image, he’d used a 7414 in a creative way.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "661617",
"author": "e... | 1,760,376,857.419802 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/05/28/the-styharp-an-instrument-modeled-after-a-pig-sty/ | The Styharp, An Instrument Modeled After A Pig Sty | Caleb Kraft | [
"digital audio hacks"
] | [
"game controller",
"performance"
] | This is a first for us. We’ve never heard of an instrument modeled after a pig sty before. The Styharp, built by [Yann Seznec], for [Matthew Herbert] is meant to be a mix between performance and visual art. [Matthew]’s followed a pig from birth to the plate and made an album from the sounds he recorded. The project is called “one pig”. This would explain the reason behind modeling an instrument after a sty.
[Yann] started with a
Gametrak
controller, basically a reel of line connected to a potentiometer. He ended up using 12 of these, which each have 3 outputs. This gave him plenty of ways change the sound during the performance. You can see a little bit of him demoing it after the break. | 4 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "661589",
"author": "aztraph",
"timestamp": "2012-05-28T13:12:56",
"content": "ow",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "661668",
"author": "bootdsc",
"timestamp": "2012-05-28T15:45:58",
"content": "Horrible.",
"parent_i... | 1,760,376,857.276928 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/05/26/small-life-on-a-character-lcd/ | Small Life On A Character LCD | Mike Szczys | [
"Arduino Hacks"
] | [
"character lcd",
"conways game of life",
"game of life"
] | [Duality] just finished programming
Conway’s Game of Life on a character LCD
. The game is a great programming exercise that everyone should undertake at one point or another. It uses a very simple set of rules to evolve the playing area from a given starting state. In this case the game grid is only 64 pixels, one for each of the positions on this 16×2 character LCD screen. This makes for very quick games as the cells tend to quickly reach an equilibrium as they arrive at the outer borders. See for yourself in the clip after the break.
We could have sworn we’ve seen this before, but with four times the playing space thanks to some custom characters. We couldn’t find an example of that, but the idea is to use a larger grid (something more like
what’s seen on this graphic LCD
) by generating a set of custom characters that slices each 5×8 pixel character into four smaller discrete areas. Something along the lines of what is being done with
this spectrum analyzer
. | 8 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "660365",
"author": "Sprite_tm",
"timestamp": "2012-05-26T21:15:38",
"content": "There’s actually another way. Divide a 5×8 character field in three parts (upper – middle – lower), then fill the custom characters which all the combinations of these parts on/off possible. Character 0 ... | 1,760,376,857.322092 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/05/26/electric-motorcycle-is-awesome-goes-54-mph/ | Electric Motorcycle Is Awesome, Goes 54 Mph | Brian Benchoff | [
"Transportation Hacks"
] | [
"electric motorcycle",
"motorcycle"
] | The folks over at the Cincinnati hackerspace Hive13 were wowed last week by
an electric motorcycle built by one of their own
.
[Rick]’s new ride is built from a 1989 Honda VTR 250. After removing the 24 HP motor, the frame was loaded up with four deep cycle batteries and a DC golf cart motor. Even with the addition of the four heavy batteries, the new electric bike only weighs about 70 pounds more than the stock Honda, allowing all that power to be translated into speed. Right now, [Rick]’s build can reach 54 mph; comparable to an
earlier ebike
we saw, but [Rick] can also go
100
about 20 miles on a single charge.
After the break you can see a short time lapse of [Rick] tearing down his bike, the first ride though the Cincinnati hackerspace, and a very nice road test showing off the speed of [Rick]’s new ride. There’s also a great
Flickr slideshow
with some really great pics of the build in progress. Very nice work, [Rick].
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ySj2f5tlRpY&w=470]
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QmZJlET0Zzs&w=470]
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VbY9uEVyQj4&w=470] | 40 | 18 | [
{
"comment_id": "660299",
"author": "Paul",
"timestamp": "2012-05-26T19:09:23",
"content": "Minor correction to the article, the range is actually closer to a far more modest 20 miles, I think the 100 miles quoted in the Hive13 article is in reference to how far he has ridden it in total since build... | 1,760,376,857.573698 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/05/26/moppy-lets-you-play-your-floppy-drives/ | Moppy Lets You Play Your Floppy Drives | Mike Szczys | [
"Musical Hacks"
] | [
"arduino",
"floppy",
"keyboard",
"stepper"
] | Get ready to join a band. Just follow
the guide over at the Moppy project page
and you’ll have your very own floppy drive instrument.
The name is a mashup between Musical and Floppy. By using an Arduino UNO as a translator, you can command an array of floppy drives with a musical keyboard (think piano). The head on each floppy drive is controlled by a stepper motor which will put out some sweet sounds if driven at just the right frequency. The lower notes tend to fair a bit better than the high range. One great example of this is the Imperial March theme as heard after the break.
Once you get the base system up and running, it’s time to think of some alternate interfaces. Sure, you can obvious things
like toy keyboards
. But wouldn’t it be more fun to
make it fruit controlled
? | 13 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "660281",
"author": "ultrawipf",
"timestamp": "2012-05-26T18:27:02",
"content": "Yeah moppy is nice and i am using it for some time.it works great with up to 16 drives (i only use 12 on youtube) and i think it is very good idea to use it with keyboards.i hope there will be a tutorial... | 1,760,376,857.63745 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/05/26/robot-fish-detect-pollutants/ | Robot Fish Detect Pollutants | Caleb Kraft | [
"Robots Hacks"
] | [
"environment",
"fish"
] | If you happen to visit the Spanish port of Gijon, you may notice some giant yellow robotic fish swimming around. These 5 foot long swimmers are part of a
proposed sensor network to detect pollutants in the water
. Equipped with an array of sensors, the fish can test for general water quality, or swap out the sensors for specific testing. They communicate with each other to keep from straying too far from the rest of the network and the base charging station.
The fish was designed by the Shoal Consortium, a European commission funded program that draws from intelligent minds in universities all over europe. While the fish cost over $35,000 right now, mass production should reduce that cost considerably.
You can see them swimming around in the BBC video at the link. | 4 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "660193",
"author": "hspsoftware",
"timestamp": "2012-05-26T15:44:13",
"content": "“Who wants to go fishing for spare parts?”… Quite Literally.It could also be interesting to try and hijack the acoustic signals…Well I’m just being evil now! :@",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,... | 1,760,376,857.688477 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/05/26/adam-savage-giving-a-speech-about-the-maker-movement/ | [Adam Savage] Giving A Speech About The Maker Movement | Caleb Kraft | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"discussion"
] | [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_otrgJ8Lmx4&t=1m1s]
[Adam Savage] gives an
interesting talk titled “why we make”
at the Bay Area MakerFaire. Many have been comparing the leaps we’ve been taking in home engineering/hacking/making etc, to the early days of computers. People are making things at home that are actually making a difference.
[Adam] is a huge collector and maker of movie prop replicas. When he was talking to someone and showing off some of the amazing replicas that determined individuals are constructing in their homes, the person lamented the lack of originality. [Adam] does a good job of representing the other side of that argument. He explains how the drive to replicate these things is sometimes what is pushing the methods and technology further and supporting the community. It is an interesting video to watch, if only for the fun stories you get to hear.
Though he does open the speech by mentioning that he wants to play with an Arduino, you should continue watching. He’s done some amazing work and has some great insight. | 32 | 13 | [
{
"comment_id": "660134",
"author": "Conner Smith",
"timestamp": "2012-05-26T13:59:50",
"content": "Didn’t have to bring Obama into this :(",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "660158",
"author": "fartface",
"timestamp": "2012-05-26... | 1,760,376,857.807075 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/05/25/tornado-lamp-made-with-lasers/ | Tornado Lamp Made With Lasers | Mike Szczys | [
"Laser Hacks"
] | [
"fan",
"flask",
"fluoresein",
"lamp"
] | [Styropyro] did a great job of taking common parts and making an interesting item. He calls this
his Tornado lamp
, and it’s made with stuff you probably have around the house — well you might have to substitute more common glassware for that Erlenmeyer flask.
The bulk of the hack is in the base. You’ll find a laser diode pointed at a small scrap of mirror. That mirror is mounted on the center of a small case fan, giving the tornadic effect when spinning. To make everything fit just right, the laser is pointed horizontally, with the fan/mirror at a 45 degree angle. The beam points up through a hole in the project box and illuminates the liquid in the flask. That liquid is water doped with a substance that fluoresces. In this shot it’s some fluorescein, but we did mention you can do this with stuff from around the house. [Styropyro] demonstrates the use of liqud from some highlighting markers as a substitute.
If you’re decoration a mad scientist’s lab this is a perfect companion for
a Jacob’s ladder
. | 9 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "659645",
"author": "Keith",
"timestamp": "2012-05-25T22:18:34",
"content": "That’s got real potential. Turn it in to a magnetic stirring device as well for a real vortex and the laser should just add to it.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"co... | 1,760,376,857.736258 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/05/25/lighting-up-a-runway-into-the-garage/ | Lighting Up A Runway Into The Garage | Mike Szczys | [
"home hacks",
"LED Hacks"
] | [
"driveway",
"runway",
"WS2801"
] | [Timo] didn’t want to look like every other lighted driveway but using solar path lights. Instead he decided to
light it up as if it were a runway
. It’s easy to look at the result as cute and move on to the next hack. But look again. If you were going to do this yourself how would you implement it considering a car will drive over it, and it’s outdoors?
The first issue of protecting this from traffic is actually not too tough in this case. [Timo’s] driveway is made of pavers and is not a solid sheet of asphalt or concrete. He drilled out some of the intersections to make just enough room for each of the PCBs he etched to house the LEDs and host the driver. These boards are inserted horizontally into the sand between the pavers like a fin, with the surface mount LED positioned along the edge. Power and control wires run along each line of lights. They are serial controlled which cuts down on the number of conductors needed. [Timo] didn’t mention weather proofing but we’d suggest casting them in crystal clear resin
just like this headphone amplifier
. | 21 | 16 | [
{
"comment_id": "659603",
"author": "Eirinn",
"timestamp": "2012-05-25T21:15:43",
"content": "That’s sorta cute! Props! :DHere’s an idea that may take less effort though: Use projected light of some sort from the top of the garage. Configure it so even though the image is slanted the projection ends... | 1,760,376,857.93885 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/05/28/the-bicycle-can-tell-us-how-to-make-it-better/ | The Bicycle Can Tell Us How To Make It Better | Mike Szczys | [
"Transportation Hacks"
] | [
"balance",
"bicycle",
"research",
"stability",
"uc davis"
] | Over the years bicycle design
has
changed. Materials were upgraded as technology advanced, and accumulated knowledge helped bicycle builders make improvements along the way. But deep analysis with the intent to make meaningful improvements has not been widely embraced. Reasearchers at UC Davis are looking to expand into this frontier by
letting the bicycle tell us how it can be improved
. This is one of the test bikes they’ve been working on, which is mainly aimed at data harvesting. They’re hoping to find some real improvements based mostly on how the machine can get out of the rider’s way as much as possible. The thought here is that the rider’s body makes up 80-90% of the volume of the vehicle and should be accommodated in every way possible.
Sure, this could be a case of trying to build a better mouse trap. But listening to the discussion in the video after the break really drives home the complex issues of stability and locomotion that go into these seemingly simple vehicles. We’re going to guess the final recommendations will not involve
making the bike five times taller
. | 16 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "661537",
"author": "B005H",
"timestamp": "2012-05-28T12:08:31",
"content": "They’ve obviously made a big improvement by removing the mini basketball ring and backboard from his chest in photo 2…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": ... | 1,760,376,857.989415 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/05/27/making-capacitive-touch-sensors-with-pencil-and-paper/ | Making Capacitive Touch Sensors With Pencil And Paper | Mike Nathan | [
"Microcontrollers",
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"capacitive touch",
"microcontroller",
"sensor"
] | There are few things more frustrating than being in the middle of working on a project and realizing that you are missing some crucial component that ties the whole thing together. According to Murphy’s Law, this sort of thing will only happen when parts are completely impossible to procure.
If you’re ever
hunting for a touch sensor
but can’t get your hands on one, [Alan Chatham’s] tutorial on simple DIY capacitive touch sensors might be just what you need to keep things moving along.
[Alan’s] sensors rely on the conductive properties of graphite, which is easily found in just about any pencil on the market. The sensors are created by simply drawing on a piece of paper with a pencil, then wiring the images or text up to your favorite microcontroller via some paperclips and a couple of resistors.
Paper and pencil might not make for the most durable means of input, but we’re pretty sure that [Alan’s] capacitive touch sensors would be very helpful in a pinch. He doesn’t have video of the sensors in action just yet, though he says
he’ll put something together here shortly. | 6 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "660994",
"author": "Ed",
"timestamp": "2012-05-27T21:28:29",
"content": "A lot like this article:http://hackaday.com/2010/11/16/paper-touchpad/I am seeing a lot more duplicates/very similar posts more recently on HAD",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
... | 1,760,376,858.074598 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/05/27/an-arduino-based-quadruped-robot/ | An Arduino Based Quadruped Robot | Jeremy Cook | [
"Arduino Hacks",
"Robots Hacks"
] | [
"arduino",
"quadrocopter",
"quadruped",
"robot"
] | Sure, we see hexapods all the time at [HAD], but moving around with four legs can be more tricky kinematics-wise.
This Instructable
shows you how to make one out of balsa wood.
Although one might not think of balsa to make their robot out of [vexedpheonix] explains that this was chosen because it’s extremely light and easy to work with. Since he was trying to keep costs down, the cheapest servos available were used. These weren’t all that powerful, so the lighter the body the better! According to the included
bill of materials
, he was able to keep the entire robot build under $100.
According to the article, the hardest part was making four copies of the same leg. We might suggest using a
CNC router
, but building one would obviously add a huge layer of complication to the project!
Thanks for the tip on this one [SteveT]! Be sure to check out the video of this little robot waving one of it’s legs or trying to walk after the break!
[youtube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hj4JvLvztLs%5D
[youtube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UvTE_WAhqBg&w=470&h=315%5D
If you’d rather see a hexapod in action, why not
check out this one
! | 6 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "660953",
"author": "Thill E. Savidge",
"timestamp": "2012-05-27T20:31:17",
"content": "Glad to see that the writing on the introductions are back to normal. I was getting nervous.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "660960",
"au... | 1,760,376,858.118903 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/05/27/reading-rfid-cards-from-afar-easily/ | Reading RFID Cards From Afar Easily | Brian Benchoff | [
"Radio Hacks",
"Security Hacks"
] | [
"rfid",
"security"
] | RFID hacking has been around for years, but so far all the builds to sniff data out of someone’s wallet have been too large, too small a range, or were much too complicated for a random Joe to build in his workshop.
[Adam]’s RFID sniffer
gets around all those problems, and provides yet another reason to destroy all the RFID chips in your credit cards.
The project was inspired by
this build
that took a much larger RFID reader and turned it into a sniffer capable of covertly reading debit cards and passports from the safety of a backpack or briefcase. [Aaron]’s build uses a
smaller off-the-shelf RFID reader
, but he’s still able to read RFID cards from about a foot away.
[Aaron]’s build is very simple consisting of only an Arduino and SD card reader. [Aaron] is able to capture all the data from an RFID card, write that data to the SD card, and emulate a card using his
RFID cloner
.
What’s really impressive about the build is that [Aaron] says he’s not a programmer or electrical engineer. His build log is full of self-denegration that shows both how humble [Aaron] is and how easy it is for anyone with the requisite skill set to clone the bank card sitting in your wallet. We don’t know about you, but you might want to line your wallet with aluminum foil from now on. | 41 | 18 | [
{
"comment_id": "660924",
"author": "techknowledgist",
"timestamp": "2012-05-27T19:27:26",
"content": "How would one go about destroying the RFID chip in one’s credit cards without leaving any evidence of tampering with the card? I was thinking maybe some kind of over-current using some coils hooke... | 1,760,376,858.3054 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/05/27/motorized-skateboard-just-begging-to-be-your-next-project/ | Motorized Skateboard Just Begging To Be Your Next Project | Mike Szczys | [
"Transportation Hacks"
] | [
"battery",
"electric",
"lead-acid",
"lifepo",
"motor",
"skatebaord"
] | You’re not going to be doing any flip-tricks with this board, but it’ll let you get around without getting sweaty. The
ZBoard is a motorized skateboard
which is in the pre-order stages thanks to a successful Kickstarter campaign. It’ll set you back $500 now or $600 later. With that kind of budget wouldn’t it be fun to build your own?
This base model can go about five miles or five hours between charges. It carries a seal lead-acid battery (really?) but if you upgrade to the pro model for just $250 more you get a LiFePo that doubles the range (but curiously not the run time). To make it go there are pressure sensitive foot pads on the front and rear of the deck. This allows you to go slow with just a bit of pressure, or put the pedal to the metal to get up to the 15 mph speed limit. It’s even got regenerative breaking to slow things down while giving a boost to the battery.
The idea is nothing new
. But the cleanliness that this product brings to market is something to be respected. We’re hoping this sparks some inspiration for a rash of DIY clones, kind of
like we’ve seen with the Segway
.
[via
Engadget
] | 21 | 16 | [
{
"comment_id": "660831",
"author": "George",
"timestamp": "2012-05-27T17:11:54",
"content": "I have a feeling “Charge Time” is meant to mean the time it takes to charge, not the time between charges. That might be why it isn’t different between the two battery types.",
"parent_id": null,
"d... | 1,760,376,858.174214 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/05/27/reading-wax-cylinders-with-lasers/ | Reading Wax Cylinders With Lasers | Caleb Kraft | [
"digital audio hacks"
] | [
"wax cylinder"
] | From 1902 to 1905, Polish anthropologist [Bronislow Pilsudski] did a series of recordings in Hokkaido japan on wax cylinders. Researchers at the university of Hokkaido have been working on ways to read the cylinders without causing any further damage to the grooves. Their
preferred method has been to use reflected laser light
. They have a very short writeup on their configuration, but it should be enough to get the idea.
Another project they’ve taken on is reading the original molds as well. They had to completely reconfigure their device to be able to be inserted into the cylinder. The quality they get from those is far superior though. | 19 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "660796",
"author": "HAD",
"timestamp": "2012-05-27T15:28:58",
"content": "What about using silicone rubber to duplicate the wax cylinders? It will capture the detail without damaging the cylinders and then allow them to replicate them as many times as they wanted.In fact, “modern” m... | 1,760,376,858.230368 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/05/27/ask-hackaday-troll-physics-super-deluxe-edition/ | Ask Hackaday: Troll Physics Super Deluxe Edition | Brian Benchoff | [
"Ask Hackaday"
] | [
"Ask Hackaday",
"led",
"parallel",
"series",
"troll physics"
] | Here’s a brain bender for you: YouTube user [Fredzislaw100] put up a video of
six LEDs and six switches wired up in series
. After soldering a resistor and 9V battery connector, the first switch turns on the first LED, the second switch turns on the second LED, and so on for the rest of the circuit.
We’ve seen this trick before
from [Fredzislaw100], only this time he’s moved up from 3 LEDs to 6. In
the reveal of the previous trick
, [Fredzislaw] built two AC power supplies
inside a nine volt battery connector
; one high frequency and one low frequency. The low frequency AC line powers the first two LEDs with the help of diodes in the switches and LEDs. The high frequency AC line turns on the third LED with the help of an inductor
inside an LED.
Apparently [Fredzislaw] still has some soldering skills to show off; the circuit powering this trick is most likely the work of a soldering god.
From a close viewing, it looks like LEDs are wired up in pairs, i.e. LED 1 works the same as LED 2, LED 3 works the same as LED 4, etc. We’ll let Hackaday readers argue it out in the comments as to how this trick is possible.
Tip ‘o the hat to [Th0m4S] for sending this one in. | 16 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "660746",
"author": "Jeff",
"timestamp": "2012-05-27T13:16:31",
"content": "probably used an ardunio.Looks like the led polarity changes between leds in the string, based on the flat spot on the case.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_... | 1,760,376,858.424835 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/05/25/captcha-bot-beats-new-are-you-a-human-playthru-game/ | CAPTCHA Bot Beats New Are You A Human PlayThru Game | Mike Szczys | [
"Security Hacks"
] | [
"are you a human",
"bot",
"captcha",
"playthru"
] | What do you put on your pancakes? Butter and syrup but not a pair of shoes? This makes sense to us, and it’s the premise of the new CAPTCHA game PlayThru. The space that is normally filled by nearly illegible text is now taken up by a little graphic-based game where you drag the appropriate items to one part of the screen. In addition to being easier than deciphering letters, this new platform shouldn’t require localization. But alas, it seems the system is already broken. [Stephen] sent us a link to
a bot that can pass the PlayThru CAPTCHA
.
Take a look at the video after the break to see the four test-runs. It looks like the bot is just identifying the movable objects and trying them out. Sometimes this is quick, sometimes not. But it does eventually succeed. For the PlayThru developers this should be pretty easy to fix, just make an error limit for trying the wrong item. At any rate, we can’t think defeating the current system is nearly as hard
as defeating reCaptcha
was.
Update:
[Tyler] over at
Are You A Human
wrote in to share their side of this story. Apparently we’re seeing the bot play the game, but not necessarily pass it. It isn’t until the game if finished and the playing information is sent to their servers that a decision is made on whether it is successful or not. This way they can change the authentication parameters from the server side at any time.
At the same time, [Stephen] updated his bot and
made a video
of it playing the game without any shoes on the pancakes.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ahu3fvW2H0E
javascript:(function(){var vidID = prompt(‘Enter YouTube video ID’); window.open(‘
http://img.youtube.com/vi/’
; + vidID + ‘/0.jpg’)})() | 27 | 16 | [
{
"comment_id": "659557",
"author": "Mihail121",
"timestamp": "2012-05-25T20:10:09",
"content": "Sure, the only way to make a reliable captcha is to use problems unsolvable by machines such as the halting problem :) Boy, I can’t wait to verify programs.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"... | 1,760,376,858.372417 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/05/25/soldering-from-the-hip/ | Soldering From The Hip | Mike Szczys | [
"Tool Hacks",
"Toy Hacks"
] | [
"gun"
] | You can be the Sheriff around these parts, but only if you have
a solder gun and holster to boot
. [Mikasaurus’] latest build is certainly fun, even if it’s not so practical. We’re not giving up our Weller knock-off any time soon, but this quick-heat repackage will certainly be a conversation starter at your next Hackerspace event.
The business end of the build is taken from a cheap four-battery soldering iron. [Mike] separated each of the components, then grabbed a toy gun to see where each of them might fit. The batteries are just the right size to fit into the gun’s magazine. All he had to do to make that happen is add contacts to the gun and springs to the magazine. A momentary push switch was positioned behind the trigger and used to connect the battery pack to the solder tip.
After the break you’ll find a little over-the-top modeling, and some solder melting. This will go great with that
9mm Bluetooth headset
you built. Just don’t stick the wrong one in your ear. | 17 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "659510",
"author": "Rob Wentworth",
"timestamp": "2012-05-25T19:06:07",
"content": "I am sure the TSA would show you some respect if you brought that to a hacker convention in your carry-on luggage. :-)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comme... | 1,760,376,858.476489 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/05/25/retrotechtacular-7-function-remote-control-color-television/ | Retrotechtacular: 7-function Remote Control Color Television | Mike Szczys | [
"Wireless Hacks"
] | [
"remote control",
"retrotechtacular",
"television"
] | Ah, the days when a television was a solid piece of furniture. When it comes to moving, we can’t say we miss it. But looking at this
wooden TV cabinet with storage for its 7-function remote
we can’t help but think that today’s TVs seem more… trivial… when it comes to the layout of the living room.
The promotional video that goes with this model is a gem of a different era. As you probably have heard, this week
[Eugene Polley] passed away
. He is credited with inventing the first wireless television remote control. It was not nearly as advance as what’s shown in the video after the break. Instead, it used visible light in conjunction with four light sensors at each corner of the CRT screen. You could turn the set on and off, and flip through channels, but sometimes with the right lighting conditions the set would change all by itself. We wonder if you’d ever come home to find the TV has mysteriously flipped itself on?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NF2Xp3P6-m0 | 14 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "659494",
"author": "Garret",
"timestamp": "2012-05-25T18:43:47",
"content": "I wonder how much electricity the remote amplifier consumes when left on.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "659504",
"author": "Rob Wentworth",
"... | 1,760,376,858.527131 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/05/25/making-a-digital-delay-from-a-simple-microcontroller/ | Making A Digital Delay From A Simple Microcontroller | Brian Benchoff | [
"Microcontrollers",
"Musical Hacks"
] | [
"ATmega32",
"delay",
"echo"
] | If you’d like to start experimenting in DSP, or just want to build a guitar pedal, here’s the project for you. It’s
an audio echo
using just a microcontroller from the fruitful workshop of [Vinod].
For his circuit, [Vinod] fed the output of a small electret microphone into a small amplifier, and then into the ADC of an ATMega32. Inside the microcontroller, [Vinod] set up a circular array which writes the voltage from the microphone and sends it out to a speaker. Because the array is circular (i.e. it loops around when it gets to the end), [Vinod] has a digital version of a loop of magnetic tape, perfect for recording sounds and playing back echos.
Because [Vinod] is using an ATMega32, he only has a limited amount of RAM to record audio samples. The delay time could be lengthened with a more capable microcontroller, or even the addition of a large RAM chip. With his setup, [Vinod] can do some really interesting experiments with audio and DSP, so we wouldn’t be surprised if an enterprising musician used this project as the basis for a digital delay stomp box.
You can check out [Vinod]’s demo of his echo machine after the break.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-qBbiaAhu0&w=470] | 12 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "659466",
"author": "Brian",
"timestamp": "2012-05-25T18:10:22",
"content": "If you make the size of the circular buffer a power of two, you could just mask bits off the index. Might be a tiny bit faster and result in more consistent loop timing.In fact, if you match the buffer size ... | 1,760,376,858.57986 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/05/25/making-instagram-with-an-old-crt/ | Making Instagram With An Old CRT | Brian Benchoff | [
"classic hacks",
"digital cameras hacks"
] | [
"crt",
"InstaCRT"
] | If you’re not familiar with Instagram, it’s a mobile app that takes pictures, applies low-fi ‘lomographic’ digital filters, and shares them on the Internet. For reasons we can’t comprehend, Instagram has been wildly successful as of late and was recently purchased by Facebook for a Billion dollars. [Martin Ström] figured he could do something much cooler than applying digital filters to a cell phone picture, so he built
InstaCRT
, an app that turns your pictures into grainy CRT images and satiates the geek and hipster in everyone.
From [Martin]’s
project page
, InstaCRT uses a small black and white CRT from an old camcorder and a Canon 7D to apply real-world analog filters to all the uploaded pictures. Once the pictures are uploaded to the MacBook Pro server, they’re displayed on the CRT and a picture is taken with the 7D. Once an Android/iOS device sends a picture to the server, it’s displayed on the CRT, the 7D snaps a picture, and the resulting ‘filtered’ picture is sent back to the mobile device.
While we’re sure a few Hackaday commentors are going to ask ‘why’, it’s still a very cool build that is the first real world digital camera filter we’ve seen. You can check out the video demo of InstaCRT after the break.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fOH67LZJnuw&w=470] | 14 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "659378",
"author": "Johnny O. Farnen",
"timestamp": "2012-05-25T16:20:53",
"content": "Very cool project. Too bad Instagram is a prime example of everything that is wrong with digital photography for the masses. I really, really hate Instagram.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": ... | 1,760,376,858.640222 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/05/25/interview-vladimir-denin-the-creator-of-the-player-guitar/ | Interview: [Vladimir Demin] The Creator Of The Player Guitar | Caleb Kraft | [
"Featured",
"Interviews"
] | [
"bayan",
"interview",
"vladimir"
] | We have been amazed by [Vladimir Demin]’s work twice now. Originally, with his
automatic Bayan
, and more recently with
his amazing automatic guitar
. What you didn’t get to see was how pleasant ant fun [Valdimir] was in his email correspondence with us. You will get a chance though, because [Vladimir] agreed to answer some questions for us in an impromptu email interview. Join us after the break to get to know this fascinating gentleman a little bit better.
[Vladimir] was very apologetic about his language skills in this interview. It goes without saying, english is not his first language. That being the case, we think he’s doing pretty well. We debated about wether or not to paraphrase to clean up his english and spelling. I felt that I would remove too much of his personality. Here are his responses, un-edited.
1. What kind of machining equipment do you use? (cnc, traditional, hand tools?)
I using simple hand tools, and most of all to use a drill.
All did only by my hand.
By example,I have to drill holes more than 3,000! with high accuracy,or tolerances.
below,in this video, I sometimes show my equipment.
By the way, I recommend for your readers look the video.
It is famous old Russian song.I (or guitar?) have made very good sound like original.
2. What is your education? Did you go to school to learn this or teach yourself?
I have higher education, my main job is to design electronic circuits
with a microprocessor, and then design and develop different software for them.
And music-robots is my outside interest like hobby .
3. Where are you located? Does your location have any effect on your projects?
Now I live in Moscow, and before lived in the Irkutsk-region(eastern Siberia,famous lake Baikal).
I think ,location it does not matter. More important don’t forget You brain(head) at any place.
4. After you’re done with a project like the auto-guitar, do you still use it for your own enjoyment or does it become more of a show-and-tell piece on display somewhere?
The project I did for my family enjoyment, my sons many times asked me to do this.(I have three sons.)
Despite my age is 62 years old,I am young inside and curious, as a small child.
Solenoids are ordered in China on my individual requirements,so I spent too match money.
And I use a lot of my free(rest) time.(I have job for salary in office.)
So my curiosity is very expensive.
I was advised to seek order from manufacturer Guitar or from same restaurant, etc. to do the guitar-robot
for promotional purposes.But I am not sure,even if I am much improve the quality of the device.
(As for “much improve”, I am sure).
The product no use for make money- I think.In spite of all,I am happy-very impotant for health.
As for ‘selfplaying bayan’,I made one for my sons educational goals.
They(sons) go to school of Bayan’s Music begin from 1987 year .
So I’m not competing with Japan(this comment made my older son)
5. Have you ever thought of assembling a whole band or building an ‘organ’ with a group of instruments?
No, I think it’s better to make several(few) devices but also high quality.
Quality is more important than quantity.It isn’t?
6. What was your first completed project?
I do not remember.May be is a small explosion near my home at the age of 10 years.
7. What would you like to build if you had unlimited resources?
OOO! Hard to answer,just opened my eyes wide and say WOW!!!!
Once my youngest son as he asked me,
“Dad what would you do,if you to be very rich?”
I replied,” sang a song for the people. ”
-but people do not like(hate) your singing, no one to listen to you
I- “crowd of people will be happy to listen my singing
because I have paid them a lot of money”
8. What do you plan to build next?
When me ask that question, I usually make the joke- next to build is violin with solenoids.
Surprisingly, some people believe me .
But seriously, I am going to make a new high-quality accordion and do a duet with the guitar.
and do a duet 2 guitars.
But the first , to delete the noise of strumming mechanism and improve the quality of the guitar.
Maybe I’m in the future applicability of Gibson guitar company with automatic tuning.
9. Can we have some more pictures of the mechanics of the guitar or bayan? We’d love to see any projects you’ve got going on, finished or unfinished. Our readers are very technical people.
We love to hear the music, but we would also love to see the details!
For pictures,please,see attached files.
I now describe some details .
This guitar-robot (in my opinion) includes 4 or 5 know-how.
The main Know-How is the interface that I had developed in 1988 for real (not digital)
instrument. I did not know Midi in 1988.Now I say-Midi totally inappropriate for real music device(like my robot).
Also my interface allows very easily, accurately, quickly enter notes of melody without error.
Guitar is controlled by digital part of the handset designed earlier for radio trunking system.
The handset was designed by me.
It(handset) manages the memory of solenoids, which are mounted on the guitar.
It includes microCPU ADSP2187, flash memory, DAC and ADC.
You can listen the future melody for the guitar from small speaker inside the handset
without guitar.Very usefull.
The device for strum strings has four phases of operation time.( management by software)
-switch on a solenoid-string tension(same delay)
-switch on a solenoid strum(same delay)
-switch off solenoid-string tension(same delay)
-switch off solenoid strum(don’t care delay)
for a short time, not more than 7 msec ,current guitar power supply can consume up to 30 amperes at a voltage of 12 volts.
Despite the high current(because short time), battery capacity of 5 amp/ hour rather continuous play 2-4 hours.
It depends on the type of music.
Too much talking.Ok!You can edit, cut the text, as you like.
I think the first need to retranslate my text from ‘Russian English’ to ‘Cambridge English’.
If you decision to post the interw., then my question for yous readers-
“If a robot playing music much better then Human,
which one You prefer to listen?.”
(a big secret! As for me,I prefer human,only if this one is a beautiful woman)
best wishes = Vladimir Demin.
P.S. The intrew. is more difficalt for me,then design device. | 23 | 14 | [
{
"comment_id": "659340",
"author": "pcpcpc2",
"timestamp": "2012-05-25T15:35:04",
"content": "This guy is absolutely charming as well as impressive. Thank god you didn’t change his interview to Cambridge English. You were right to say that it would have lost a little something in the process.",
... | 1,760,376,858.70589 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/05/25/legos-for-girls-limur-has-some-ideas/ | Lego For Girls? [Limor] Has Some Ideas. | Caleb Kraft | [
"News"
] | [
"adafruit",
"lego"
] | When Lego announced that they were going to do a series of “Lego for girls”, many of us didn’t get it. When we were kids(get off my lawn!), legos were completely asexual. At least, that’s how my mind saw them, being a caucasian male. While the idea itself makes sense in marketing terms, the products they rolled out were stuck
firmly in the same old gender roles
. Pink abounds and flowers are prevalent. There’s nothing wrong with little girls being into those things, but it is sad when that is the only option ever presented. To attempt a parallel, I’m not into sports, and I can tell you that the availability of scientific role models kept me sane through many tough periods of life.
[Limor], who you may recognize as the brains behind Adafruit
has proposed the set you see above which puts another option out there
. They’ve entered the set into the Lego Cuusoo site, where it could become a real product if it earns enough votes. Here is another
nice idea for female lego sets
being proposed, that shows females in realistic roles such as a chemist and archaeologist . I’m kind of surprised that I don’t see [Amelia Earhart] or [Ada Lovelace] herself anywhere in the list.
Gender roles aside, who is going to build the ultimate [Nikola Tesla] kit for us? | 48 | 19 | [
{
"comment_id": "659281",
"author": "Haku",
"timestamp": "2012-05-25T14:11:43",
"content": "LEGO not LEGOs!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "659284",
"author": "Bob",
"timestamp": "2012-05-25T14:19:11",
"content": "Corre... | 1,760,376,858.953018 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/05/24/layerone-badges-stop-bullets-drive-away/ | LayerOne Badges Stop Bullets; Drive Away | Mike Szczys | [
"cons"
] | [
"arduino",
"badge",
"badges",
"layerone",
"rc",
"remote control",
"RF",
"shield"
] | We love badges. And we’ve really got to thank [Charliex] for taking the time to write
a huge post about this year’s LayerOne badges
, especially since they’ve got their backs up against the deadline for pulling everything together in time.
Here it is, the stock badge on the left, with an add-on shield on the right. Now the original intent was to make this badge the chassis of an RC car. [Charliex] chewed through his development time trying to source toy cars that could be gutted for parts that would mount easily on the badge. This looked promising at first, but turned out to be folly. Instead what we have here is an Arduino compatible board with an RF transmitter which can be cut off and used separately if you wish. Attendees will be able to use the badge to take control of the toy cars (cases of them have been shipped to the conference), with the option to use the USB functionality to facilitate automation.
So what about stopping bullets? There is a bug in the module [Charliex] used to export the board design from Eagle. They came back from the fab house as 0.125″ substrate. That’s pretty beefy!
The conference is this weekend
… better get on that! | 13 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "658598",
"author": "charliex",
"timestamp": "2012-05-24T18:10:37",
"content": "UHH YEAH THANKS DG ! haha..",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "658607",
"author": "Mike Szczys",
"timestamp": "2012-05-24T18:21:46",
... | 1,760,376,858.779669 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/05/24/hacking-color-and-battery-life-on-a-solar-powered-garden-light/ | Hacking Color And Battery Life On A Solar Powered Garden Light | Mike Szczys | [
"LED Hacks"
] | [
"garden",
"solar"
] | Give your garden lights a little bit more life by changing out the LEDs. In the process, you can also choose a different color if you like. It really is as simple as
cracking it open and replacing the stock LED
, but a bit of a change may also prolong the stored charge.
These garden lights consist of a small solar cell and an LED, both controlled by a small PCB powered from a NiMH rechargeable battery. Sure, you could try to put in a battery that has more potential, but if you replace the single LED with two of them in series, it drops the current consumption and increase the battery life. Just make sure to use super bright LEDs and the intensity change will not be all that noticeable. That comes partly from the fact that our eyes don’t detect intensity changes as well when a light is already very bright. And since it’s two LEDs, mixing colors is an option as we see above.
[Thanks Ken] | 15 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "658638",
"author": "Cliff",
"timestamp": "2012-05-24T18:59:29",
"content": "This is a fun project, but the second paragraph is nonsense. Putting two LEDs in series does nothing for the amount of current flowing through each (since current is conserved in series). Thevoltage drop a... | 1,760,376,859.005775 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/05/24/cementechs-ultimate-calculator-v2/ | Cemetech’s Ultimate Calculator V2 | Caleb Kraft | [
"classic hacks"
] | [
"calculator",
"texas instruments",
"ti-83"
] | [Christopher] piped up in our comments on a recent post about using laptop touch pads in other things, noting that he had done this on his
Ultimate Calculator Version 2
. What he’s done is upgraded his TI-83+ calculator to house a number of improvements and customizations. It now has a stronger RGB backlight so he can illuminate his screen in whatever color strikes his mood. He also integrated a PS2 port so he could use an external mouse/ keyboard. What brought this to our comments though, was the embedded laptop touchpad on the back that is also fully functional. He topped it all off with a rather pleasing paint job as well.
The funny thing is, we
caught a glimpse of this thing
in a previous post about networking these calculators. | 13 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "658514",
"author": "Jim",
"timestamp": "2012-05-24T16:45:37",
"content": "I believe it’s “Cemetech” :)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "658515",
"author": "Christopher Mitchell",
"timestamp": "2012-05-24T16:48:1... | 1,760,376,859.371619 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/05/24/building-a-travel-trailer-from-the-ground-up/ | Building A Travel Trailer From The Ground Up | Brian Benchoff | [
"Transportation Hacks"
] | [
"airstream",
"camper trailer",
"travel trailer"
] | While it may only be [ioan]’s first ‘real build’, we’re loving his DIY
teardrop travel trailer
built from the ground up.
The trailer started its life as a Super Duty
Harbor Freight utility trailer
that [ioan] managed to put together in a day. After mounting a wooden frame on the utility trailer, [ioan] fabricated the body of the trailer out of 1/2 inch plywood for the exterior, hard foam as insulation, and gorgeous 5mm plywood for the interior. To finish off his build, [ioan] cemented aluminum sheets to the exterior for a wonderful Airstream aesthetic.
[ioan] even went so far as to
install a small kitchen
in the back of his trailer that includes a small propane stove and (a limited supply of) running water. It’s an excellent build that really shows off his craftsmanship, and something we wouldn’t mind spending a weekend in.
[ioan] put up
an Instructable
of his build that showcases the construction including all the electrical work of wiring up his trailer with LED lights and 12 volt power jacks. | 23 | 13 | [
{
"comment_id": "658424",
"author": "Brad",
"timestamp": "2012-05-24T15:19:35",
"content": "Seriously? Are you watching my browsing history? Was looking at this article last night. Been thinking about a teardrop trailer for a few months now. This one is nicely executed.",
"parent_id": null,
... | 1,760,376,859.065479 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/05/24/keeping-an-old-8mm-projector-alive-with-high-power-leds/ | Keeping An Old 8mm Projector Alive With High-power LEDs | Brian Benchoff | [
"LED Hacks"
] | [
"8mm",
"8mm projector",
"high power LED",
"led",
"movie projector"
] | There’s a certain mystique about old home movies and 8mm film; whether it’s footage from a family gathering from 40 years ago or a stop-motion animation you made when you were 12, there’s an immediacy for film that the VHS tapes from your family’s first camcorder can’t match. [Teslas Moustache] has been getting into 8mm cameras and projectors, so when he
came across a 8mm/super 8 projector that needed a bulb
, he knew he had a worthwhile project on his hands.
To replace the burnt-out and very expensive to replace incandescent bulb, [Teslas] sourced a very bright star LED from Jameco. This 1 Watt LED puts out more than enough light to project a frame of film onto a screen and fortunately doesn’t get as hot as the stock bulb.
To power the LED, [Teslas] used a cell phone charger powered from the 120 VAC incandescent socket to supply
the requisite 5 Volts at 1 Amp
(Ohm’s Law works on coffee) power for the LED. Right now, there’s still the matter of fabricating a nice enclosure to mount the LED and charger in the bulb socket, but once [Teslas] figures that out, he’ll have a very nice 8mm projector on his hands. | 51 | 28 | [
{
"comment_id": "658372",
"author": "Dax",
"timestamp": "2012-05-24T14:32:23",
"content": "I don’t think a 1 Watt LED is nearly bright enough for the job, seeing that the original reflector bulb was a 150 watt incandecent. Getting a similiar amount of light from LEDs would require about 30 Watts wor... | 1,760,376,859.214706 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/05/24/fisher-price-record-player-plays-stairway-to-heaven/ | Fisher-Price Record Player Plays Stairway To Heaven | Brian Benchoff | [
"Musical Hacks",
"Toy Hacks"
] | [
"phonograph",
"record",
"toy"
] | [Fred Murphy] has an old Fisher-Price music box/record player that has lost many of its disks over the last 40 years. It’s a very simple device – concentric grooves in a plastic disk have plastic bumps that are picked up by the tines of the record player ‘cartridge.’ Seeing as how this toy is basically a music box, [Fred] figured making his own records would be well within his grasp; he did the reasonable thing and
made a Stairway to Heaven disk
for a toy music box.
To figure out where to place the ‘bumps’ for the musical tines, [Fred] built a small tool in Visual C# 2010 that allowed him to place notes on a scale and generate the requisite GCode for the disk. After sending this file to his CNC mill, [Fred] had an acrylic disk that played Led Zeppelin on a child’s music box.
Of course, this Instructable wouldn’t be complete without a video demo of Stairway blasting out of this record player. You can check that out after the break.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OPQPNj8NbBA&w=470] | 27 | 18 | [
{
"comment_id": "658321",
"author": "James",
"timestamp": "2012-05-24T13:20:57",
"content": "No disrespect to this guy, the record looks beautiful and it’s an awesome feat of hackery, but after all that the music is poor – the lower voice plays the wrong notes, and the upper could have used two and... | 1,760,376,859.126796 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/05/24/putting-linux-on-the-vtech-innotab/ | Putting Linux On The Vtech InnoTab | Brian Benchoff | [
"Toy Hacks"
] | [
"busybox",
"Innotab",
"SCUMMVM",
"Vtech Innotab"
] | The Vtech InnoTab is a child-sized tablet computer built for kids. Apart from being the ideal solution to keeping the grubby, sticky hands of nieces and nephews away from proper ‘adult sized’ tablets, it can also serve as a Linux tablet perfect for a few homebrew apps. [Mick] picked up an InnoTab for his son, but
after getting BusyBox working
, we’re thinking it has become a toy for the father and not the son.
[Mick] cracked open the InnoTab and
soldered a few wires to a pair of pins
that connect to a TTL level converter and then to a TV. There’s a full Linux shell running on [Mick]’s new tablet, encouragement enough for him to start porting
ScummVM
, the engine behind famous LucasArts point-and-click adventure games of the early 90s.
Right now, it’s still very much a work in progress, but [Mick] has full screen support and a virtual keyboard working; more than enough to enjoy
Day of the Tentacle
and
Sam & Max Hit the Road
.
After the break you can see the video of [Mick]’s InnoTab running the much more child-friendly SCUMM adventure
Putt Putt Goes to the Moon
,
something we’re sure his son will love.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9gI_La66BhA&w=470] | 22 | 14 | [
{
"comment_id": "658286",
"author": "Lord_NT",
"timestamp": "2012-05-24T12:29:43",
"content": "I searched and found more info about this article here.http://www.wizardmods.net/f446/vtech-innotab-hack-hacking-130417/",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_i... | 1,760,376,859.269198 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/05/24/building-an-x-ray-machine-and-letting-everything-go-to-your-head/ | Building An X-ray Machine And Letting Everything Go To Your Head | Brian Benchoff | [
"Medical Hacks",
"News"
] | [
"Adam Munich",
"popsci",
"x-ray",
"xray"
] | It’s not every day one of the builds on Hackaday gets picked up by a big-name publication, and it’s even rarer to see a Hackaday contributor grace the pages of an actual print magazine. Such is the case with [Adam Munich] and his
home-built x-ray machine
.
We first saw [Adam]’s
x-ray machine
at the beginning of this year as an entry for the Buildlounge/Full Spectrum laser cutter contest. [Adam]
won the contest
, landed himself a new laser cutter, and
started writing for Hackaday
. Now that [Adam] is gracing the pages of Popular Science, we’re reminded of the story of Icarus, flying too close to the sun.
[Adam]’s x-ray machine is built around a Coolidge tube, the same type of vacuum tube found in dental x-ray machines. The device is housed in two suitcases – one used as a control panel and graced with beautiful dials and Nixies, the other housing the Coolidge tube and power supply. Proper x-ray images can be taken by pointing a camera at the scintillation screen, allowing [Adam] to see inside hard drives and other inanimate objects.
Sure, it’s a build we’ve seen before but it’s still very cool to see one of Hackaday’s own get some big name recognition. | 15 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "658231",
"author": "Jax184",
"timestamp": "2012-05-24T11:10:24",
"content": "Wow, way to be sore about someone’s success! Are you seriously calling the guy full of himself, and saying that he’s setting himself up for a (potentially fatal) fall, because he’s garnered mainstream recog... | 1,760,376,859.321729 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/05/23/robotic-falconry-winged-unit-lands-on-you/ | Robotic Falconry: Winged Unit Lands On You! | Mike Szczys | [
"Robots Hacks"
] | [
"articulated",
"bird",
"falcon",
"glider",
"perch",
"university of illinois",
"wings"
] | It doesn’t have four rotors, but this advanced-glider is every bit as impressive as the most complicated of quadrotor offerings. It’s
the first glider that can successfully perch on your arm
. We can’t help but think back to the owl in the original
Clash of the Titans
movie.
The team at the Aerospace Robotics and Control Lab of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign is happy to show off the test flights they’ve been conducting. We’ve embedded two of them after the break which show the unit landing on this person’s arm, and on the seat of a chair. The image above shows a montage of several frames from the flight, and gives us a pretty good look at the articulated wings. You can seen them both bent in the middle of the flight to zero in on the landing zone. In addition to this there are flaps on the trailing edge of the wings and tail. The flight path is a bit wandering since the glider has no vertical tail to stabilize it.
Now if they can make it
harvest power from overhead electrical lines
they’ve got a spy-bird which can be dropped from a plane (or from a drone).
[via
Technabob
] | 14 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "657851",
"author": "coraydayday",
"timestamp": "2012-05-23T23:36:14",
"content": "Should have fairly strong magnets on both the hand and the bird\\uav instead of velcro.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "657929",
"author... | 1,760,376,859.420494 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/05/23/apc-android-computer-isnt-a-raspberry-pi/ | APC Android Computer Isn’t A Raspberry Pi | Brian Benchoff | [
"Android Hacks",
"hardware"
] | [
"android",
"VIA APC"
] | VIA Technologies, ostensibly in an attempt to compete with the Raspberry Pi (if you can believe all those bloggers out there), is releasing a tiny single board computer
called the APC Android PC
. The
VIA website for the APC
is down, so just search
Google News
for all the details.
The specs are somewhat similar to the Raspberry Pi – HDMI out, Ethernet, SD card, and a few USB ports – but that’s about where the similarities end. The APC runs a version of Android 2.3 customized for mouse and keyboard input where the RasPi runs Linux. The APC can only display 720p video (compared to the RasPi’s 1080p), and doesn’t have
GPIO pins that can be used with Arduino shields
.
We’re pretty sure VIA is going after the media center PC market here with a low-power board that can easily stream movies or a season of TV shows over a network. At $50, we’re sure the APC will find a home in a few homebrew devices, MAME machines, and carputers.
If anything, this only portends a whole bunch of single-board ARM/Linux computers riding on the coat tails of the RasPi. That’s awesome no matter how you look at it.
If a $50 Android board doesn’t whet your whistle, VIA also released a
Mini-ITX board with 12 hardware serial ports
. Hardware serial ports are getting rare nowadays despite how useful they are for embedded applications. 12 (with riser cards, natch) serial ports seems overkill, but we’re sure some Hackaday reader has been looking for this board for a while now. | 60 | 28 | [
{
"comment_id": "657800",
"author": "Kris Lee",
"timestamp": "2012-05-23T22:16:47",
"content": "I told it in Make blog and I tell it here again.This is very interesting board but I think that they got it really wrong when they used that connector with 2 USB and Ethernet on top.Now the board installa... | 1,760,376,859.516034 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/05/23/hackerspace-intros-squidfoo-in-springfield-missouri/ | Hackerspace Intros: Squidfoo In Springfield, Missouri | Caleb Kraft | [
"Hackerspaces"
] | [
"southeast tour",
"springfield",
"squidfoo"
] | I am particularly pleased to be announcing
SquidFoo, an Art gallery/studio and hackerspace
in Springfield Missouri (
hackerspaces.org link
). For those unaware, this small town is where I’m located (Brad Pitt came from here too!). I would love to take credit for this hackerspace, but I can’t. [Scott Sauer] and [Phil Broussard] created it and reached out to me when they heard I was in town. I’m going to make up for coming late to the party by helping them get organized, and possibly planning some events. You’ll be seeing more of SquidFoo here because this is probably where I’ll be doing future Hackaday projects for a while!
The space is divided into 4 physical areas. There’s the art gallery, the art studio/lounge, the hackerspace or “collaboratory”, and the chopshop. Right now, as you can see in the pictures, there’s quite a mess in the hackerspace and shop area. They just finished cleaning out a rather large basement “the fallout shelter” to put all this stuff in, so the workstations should be much more usable in the immediate future. Right now, there are areas for painting, sewing, electronics stations, a 3d printer, the full shop. Some plans for the immediate future include adding an RFID system, automating our lighting, an amateur radio studio, alternative media studio, and there’s a nearly finished RepRap Mendel.
If you’re in the area, please stop by sometime and check it out. As I said, they’re just getting things going so there are only a handful of members. Those few members are kicking some butt though. I ran into [Ryan], aka [
Platinumfungi
] while he was working on a Metroid helmet prop for an upcoming video. He explains a bit about how it was made in this short clip. You might have heard of him before, he does custom modded classic gaming systems.
I know I had seen his Zelda themed NES before
.
Remember to send us your hackerspace intro. We don’t care how big or how small you are, Hackaday wants to get the word out to help you grow! | 7 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "657841",
"author": "Bolerg",
"timestamp": "2012-05-23T23:15:23",
"content": "Wow! Awesome! I live in Springfield. I’d heard of this place but had no idea it was so cool. I’ll Def be stopping in asap!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_... | 1,760,376,859.775854 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/05/23/laptop-touchpad-as-a-standalone-peripheral/ | Laptop Touchpad As A Standalone Peripheral | Mike Szczys | [
"Peripherals Hacks"
] | [
"laptop",
"ps2",
"salvage",
"TouchPad"
] | [Viktor] is working on salvaging parts from a dead laptop. In his eyes the biggest gem to be had is the touchpad, so he set out to see if he could
make the touchpad a standalone device
. You might be envisioning the many hells of interfacing this with a microcontroller and writing firmware to measure and translate the input to HID compatible commands. The good news is it’s quite a bit simpler than that, with just one gotcha.
He looked around to see what he could find about the chip that drives the touchpad. He couldn’t locate an exact match, but a datasheet from a similar family of controllers make him think that there should be a PS/2 data and clock output from the chip. After probing the test points on the board he found them, as well as the voltage and ground rails. Above you can see he soldered an old mouse cable to the board and it works when plugged in.
But we did mention the gotcha. There doesn’t seem to be any support for the right and left buttons. Those were housed on a flexible PCB which attached to the white connector seen above. That PCB also connected to the computer so we don’t know if they will work with this hack or not. | 52 | 25 | [
{
"comment_id": "657738",
"author": "zaprodk",
"timestamp": "2012-05-23T20:10:20",
"content": "Old hack, done that 10 years ago. I’ve yet to scrap a computer that uses a USB-based Touchpad – all i have tried so far is PS/2-based. He can use the buttons for sure! – The FFC cable routes the buttons t... | 1,760,376,859.683677 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/05/23/your-face-in-chocolate/ | Your Face In Chocolate | Mike Szczys | [
"cooking hacks"
] | [
"123d",
"3d printer",
"chocolate",
"mold",
"openscad",
"slic3r"
] | We think in might be absurdly vain, but wouldn’t it be fun to give everyone in your family a chocolate modeled after your mug this holiday season? [Eok.gnah] has already worked out
a system to make this possible
. It consists of three parts: scanning your head and building a 3D model from it, using that model to print a mold, and molding the chocolate itself.
He used 123D to scan his face. No mention of hardware but
this face scanning rig
would be perfect for it. He then cleaned up the input and used it to make a mold model by subtracting his face from a cube in OpenSCAD. That needs to be sliced into layers for the 3D printer, and he used
the Slic3r program
which has been gaining popularity. Finally the mold was printed and the face was cast with molten chocolate. We’d suggest using a random orbital sander (without sand paper) to vibrate the bottom of the mold. This would have helped to evacuate the bubble that messed up his nose.
You know, it doesn’t have to be your face. It could be another body part, even an internal one…
like your brain
! | 19 | 12 | [
{
"comment_id": "657696",
"author": "draeath",
"timestamp": "2012-05-23T19:12:07",
"content": "“It could be another body part, even an internal one… like your brain!”Please – we really know what you WANTED to say, here. :P",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"co... | 1,760,376,859.738544 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/05/23/telepresence-robot-lets-you-play-a-hand-of-cards/ | Telepresence Robot Lets You Play A Hand Of Cards | Mike Szczys | [
"Robots Hacks"
] | [
"18f4585",
"card game",
"pic",
"playing cards",
"telepresence"
] | Virtual card games proliferate the interwebs, but
this card-playing telepresence device
is unique. [Patrick] calls the project Vanna, and we’d bet that’s an homage to the tile-flipping TV star [Vanna White]. Much like she flips the blank tiles to reveal letters, this device can flip the hand of cards either face up or face down.
Each of the six card trays is connected to a stepper motor. The local player deals the hands, placing each card in a tray so that it faces the webcam for the remote player. That remote player has an on-screen interface that can discard by tilting the tray forward and dropping the card on its face, or play a card by tilting toward to the local player so they can see its face value. All becomes clear in the clip after the break.
The hardware is USB controlled from a Windows machine thanks to the PIC 18F4585 which controls it. But it should be quite simple to get it talking to the OS of your choice. | 5 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "657701",
"author": "Justin",
"timestamp": "2012-05-23T19:14:18",
"content": "Does the local player deal the cards with his eyes shut?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "657723",
"author": "SAC_Rob",
"timestamp": "... | 1,760,376,859.930972 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/05/25/review-and-a-build-makey-makey-a-banana-piano-and-mario/ | Review And A Build: Makey Makey, A Banana Piano, And Mario | Brian Benchoff | [
"Featured",
"Reviews"
] | [
"Crowd Funding",
"MaKey MaKey"
] | We’ve been getting a lot of emails on the Hackaday tip line about the
Makey Makey
. This business-card sized circuit board turns everything – bananas, Play-Doh, water, and people – into a touch interface.
There have been a
ton
of
blogs
that have written about the
Makey Makey Kickstarter
and debut at the Bay Area Maker Faire, but Hackaday has been mum on the pending release of the Makey Makey. There’s a reason for that: [Jay] and [Eric], the MIT Media Lab rats who came up with the Makey Makey, offered to send a demo board out to somebody at Hackaday. Well, here’s the review of all the cool stuff you can make with the Makey Makey.
The Makey Makey is a simple device that is designed to make everyone an inventor. On the front of the board are a couple holes for alligator clips to plug into, and on the back is a USB plug. Plug an alligator clip into anything conductive, and attach the ‘Earth’ lead to your body to turn anything into a touch sensor. On the back there’s a bunch of easily-breadboarded headers that expand the six inputs on the front to 16 inputs that can send any input to a PC.
What you can do with it
Already, the standard “first thing” to make with the Makey Makey is the banana piano. In fact, it’s the first example listed in the Beta instruction manual included in the package [Jay] and [Eric] sent me. Even Hackaday’s own circuit god [Sprite_tm]
built a clone of the Makey Makey banana piano
, so I figured I’d give it a go.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pfjWdoW7pt4&w=470]
Yes, shakey cam.
To rig this banana piano up, all I did was attach a few leads to a hand of bananas, plug them into the Makey Makey, and ground myself with an improvised ESD ankle strap made out of aluminum foil. Load up the Makey Makey
demo piano page
and I have a banana piano on my desk. I’ve really got to hand it to [Jay] and [Eric] on this one. This thing is a blast.
After that, I decided to step things up a notch and make a giant Super Nintendo controller out of bits of aluminum foil:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KN6vhSsGq2c&w=470]
I had a Genesis growing up. Obviously.
I honestly can’t say enough about how cool the Makey Makey is. It’s a completely open toolbox to build
anything you want
. I was giddy when I put the banana piano together, and I’m sure my blood pressure was rising during my many preliminary tests of Super Mario World.
Hardware specs
It wouldn’t be a Hackaday review without at least a paragraph on the hardware. The Makey Makey is loaded with an ATMega32U4 (the same microcontroller found in the brand-new
Arduino Leonardo
), is compatible with the Arduino IDE, and fully reprogramable through the 6-pin AVR header. The USB port operates just like any other USB HID device, so if your computer can use a USB keyboard it can use the Makey Makey.
On the reverse side of the Makey Makey, there are 16 female headers that breakout into sensors for additional keys. Currently the Makey Makey will send WASDFGHJ, up, down, left, right, left click, and right click to your computer, but that can be easily remapped in the Arduino environment when the Makey Makey source is released ([Jay] says they’ll release the source at least by the time they ship, if not sooner). In total, the enterprising maker has 18 touch-sensitive inputs that can be mapped to any USB input.
In closing…
The Makey Makey is friggin’ awesome. Think of just about any project you’d like to make – musical beers, for instance. You can do that with the Makey Makey. It’s a fabulous toy that is the
perfect
introduction for that inquisitive elementary school student you’re in charge of, and more than enough to get even the most jaded teenager interested in building something cool. It’s more than worth the price of admission, especially when there’s
so much
you can do with it. | 14 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "659240",
"author": "kante",
"timestamp": "2012-05-25T13:08:09",
"content": "the second video is marked as “private” please correct that.i have a nes without controllers… please show me the second video XD",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"com... | 1,760,376,861.79609 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/05/25/making-music-with-radiation/ | Making Music With Radiation | Caleb Kraft | [
"Musical Hacks"
] | [
"geiger",
"radiation"
] | [Jeff Keyser] from mightyohm.com got a chance to
show off this interesting take on ambient music
. He’s using his geiger counter kit to detect beta and gamma radiation. This then sends a pulse down the line to an Arduino to turn it into a musical note. The geiger counters put out a 1.ms 3v pulse though, so he first has to run this through a 74Ls04, which spits out the 5V the arduino wants. He’s admittedly no musician, but you can hear in the video it sounds fine. Especially considering they are all just C in different octaves. Those of us that are musicians probably would have gone with a B#.
The ambient noise is interesting, but when you realize it is due to radioactive decay, it becomes somehow more attention getting. We often forget about the invisible world around us. He even drops a few Uranium marbles onto the geiger counters to spice things up. | 11 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "659203",
"author": "reboots",
"timestamp": "2012-05-25T12:17:34",
"content": "See also:http://www.kosmophone.com/",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "659204",
"author": "ImNotASissy",
"timestamp": "2012-05-25T12:18:01",
... | 1,760,376,861.588254 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/05/25/classic-vw-bug-stereo-gets-bluetooth/ | Classic VW Bug Stereo Gets Bluetooth | Caleb Kraft | [
"Cellphone Hacks",
"Transportation Hacks"
] | [
"bluetooth"
] | If any of you deal with older car fanatics, you’ll know that the original dash stereo is a coveted piece of equipment. If they haven’t been removed and replaced with something more modern over the years, they’re usually non functional. [Hadrien] has gone through some trouble to retain his original stereo in his 69 Volkswagen Beetle. First, he did a common hack we see even in modern cars. He added an auxiliary input.
This satiated his desire for modern audio for a while, but he really found the necessity for a cable attachment annoying. He decided he was going to
add bluetooth
(
google translated from french
). To do this, he took a pair of bluetooth headphones and tore them apart. Using an old cassette tape as the case, he rebuilt them as something that could be wired directly to his dash stereo. He even kept the mic just in case he wanted to use this as a hands free device.
Being build in 1969, his car stereo doesn’t use a cassette, so he just keeps it in the glove box. This isn’t optimal, but as he says, at least he doesn’t have to plug in his phone. | 23 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "659181",
"author": "vasskk",
"timestamp": "2012-05-25T11:23:46",
"content": "what if.. instead of power wires coming out of this… generator utilizing the movement of the tape drive wheel? how much power does this sort of Bluetooth circuit need?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth":... | 1,760,376,861.537993 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/05/24/diy-solar-collector-boost-your-hot-water-system/ | DIY Solar Collector Boost Your Hot Water System | Mike Szczys | [
"green hacks",
"home hacks"
] | [
"hot water",
"hot water heater",
"solar collector"
] | This home is heated by a wood stove in the winter, which also produces hot water. But the other three seasons it’s an electric water heater that does the work. This latest hack is
a solar collector meant to take over the hot water production
work for the house. it uses basic building materials and rudimentary construction skills, making it much more approachable than trying to make electricity from the sun.
It’s really just a wood box with a glass lid. The inside has been painted black, and the black tubing that snakes through it holds the water. A three-way valve lets the homeowner patch into the hot water reservoir. The collector is lower than the reservoir, so the heated water makes its way back into the tank as cooler water takes its place. Not bad for an entirely passive system!
[Thanks Minde] | 23 | 17 | [
{
"comment_id": "658819",
"author": "Zak",
"timestamp": "2012-05-24T22:06:05",
"content": "Needs more bends, the longer the path the hotter it will get",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "658824",
"author": "Dan",
"timestamp": "2012-05-24T22... | 1,760,376,861.92776 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/05/24/hackaday-store-it-exists-again/ | Hackaday Store: It Exists Again | Caleb Kraft | [
"News"
] | [
"news",
"store"
] | We used to have a store. Actually, it was just me, pumping out shirts and stickers from my garage. However, I found that over time, I wasn’t particularly happy with the quality of the shirts. The vinyl would crack over time, and I wasn’t the fastest person in the world to get an order out the door. I shut down the store because I didn’t want to too poorly in the name of hackaday. I’ve had TONS of emails asking me to turn it back on.
Today,
we’re turning on another store
. It isn’t fancy. It isn’t amazing. It should, however, provide higher quality products than we had before, and more different products to choose from. I’ve put shirts, coffee mugs, and stickers in so far. The graphics were all done correctly for each format, so they should turn out very nice.When you buy Hackaday merchandise, you help ensure Hackaday will stick around as long as possible.
Now, lets talk a little bit about where we should go from here.
1. Merchandise
Yes, we know we could go get shirts screen printed. I would rather have custom Merchandise made for us that we could inspect and keep in stock. That is a “one day” kind of thing that we will have to work towards. Right now we have virtually no budget for this and I don’t trust us to provide the customer service a retail store demands. We’re too busy looking for cool stuff to write!
2. Tools/components
Someone always mentions that we should sell tools. I don’t have a problem with it, but it doesn’t make sense to me either. You all know that we don’t make tools. The tools you would buy from us would just be other people’s tools that we bought first. We think the people we know who sell tools probably do a better job with customer service and order fulfillment than we would. Maybe someone has an angle on this I haven’t thought of.
3.Kits
We’ve discussed this and every time, we get excited. We would love to come up with some kits to sell. We have a few ideas floating around but have to work out some things first. This will most likely be our next step. We would be interested in hearing your ideas and input on this one. Obviously, these would be on the simpler side. If any of our writers put in the amount of time and effort necessary for a huge project, they’d probably branch out on their own.
So that’s it for now. Go buy a shirt and a coffee mug. We appreciate it. Oh, and post pics of your stuff in our forums or on the
Hackaday flickr pool
… or on every wall of every building of your town square. | 39 | 19 | [
{
"comment_id": "658748",
"author": "Addidis",
"timestamp": "2012-05-24T21:10:32",
"content": "Maybe someone has an angle on this I haven’t thought of.HAD esd matts.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "658753",
"author": "Addidis",
... | 1,760,376,861.869227 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/05/24/grab-your-iron-and-add-gamecube-back-to-the-wii/ | Grab Your Iron And Add GameCube Back To The Wii | Mike Szczys | [
"Nintendo Hacks"
] | [
"gamecube",
"motherboard",
"solder",
"wii"
] | One of the really cool things about the Nintendo Wii when it was first introduced was the ability to play GameCube games on it. This made it a no-brainer for a lot of folks to upgrade. But as the heyday of legacy systems fades into history, Nintendo decided this was no longer a selling point and stopped populating those components. The good new is, if you don’t mind a lot of PCB soldering you can
add your GameCube bits to a modern Wii motherboard
.
[Deadlyfoez] launched a raffle to raise enough money to buy a new version of the hardware (we guess the raffle prize is the modded console). He then proceeded to solder on four GameCube controller ports and a memory card reader. There are also a number of passive surface mount components that need to be added. But as the video after the break shows, once in place the functionality reappears on the software side.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8wi0AcBJZo8 | 44 | 23 | [
{
"comment_id": "658692",
"author": "dillon1337",
"timestamp": "2012-05-24T20:04:20",
"content": "I didn’t realize they removed the GameCube bits from the newer Wiis. Makes sense when reducing the cost.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "658786",... | 1,760,376,862.005295 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/05/24/arduino-tells-you-how-rough-your-last-mountain-bike-ride-was/ | Arduino Tells You How Rough Your Last Mountain Bike Ride Was | Mike Szczys | [
"Transportation Hacks"
] | [
"abs",
"accelerometer",
"arduino",
"bike",
"data logger",
"mountain bike",
"shield"
] | If you want to see what kind of abuse you’re causing your body when out on those single-track rides this system is just the thing. It’s an
Arduino data logger that [Wdm006] takes along on the rides
with him. When he gets back home, a Python scripts captures the data dump and graphs it. It may sound like a neat trick, but he’s got something planned for that information.
The enclosure mounts to the stem of his bike. It houses an Arduino board with a data logging shield of his own design. That shield holds an SD card for storage, and breaks the other pins out as screw terminals. Right now there’s an accelerometer on the front fork, and some method of recording wheel speed. This is the research phase of an anti-lock brake system (ABS) he plans to build for mountain biking. No word on what hardware he’ll use for that, but we can’t wait to see how it comes out. | 16 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "658651",
"author": "atomsoft",
"timestamp": "2012-05-24T19:18:11",
"content": "Is it me or are people simply forgetting what a arduino is meant for?I see tons of projects using Arduinos and its cool but its like people will never learn to make there own board when done. They rather ... | 1,760,376,861.746579 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/05/23/power-index-window-display-turns-buildings-into-led-matrices/ | Power Index Window Display Turns Buildings Into LED Matrices | Mike Szczys | [
"LED Hacks"
] | [
"2.4 ghz",
"building",
"led",
"marquee",
"matrix"
] | What started off as a fun project using light bulbs picked up some sponsorship and is going on tour. This project now uses LED modules controlled on the 2.4 GHz band to
turn buildings into full color displays
. It’s the product of students at Wrocław University of Technology in Poland. The group is something of an extra-curricular club that has been doing this sort of thing for years. But now they’ve picked up some key sponsorships which not only allowed for upgraded hardware, but sent the group on a tour of Universities around Europe. Who would’ve thought you could go on tour with something like this?
Much like
the MIT project we looked at in April
, this lights up the dark rooms of a grid-like building. It does go well beyond playing Tetris though. The installation sets animations to music, with a custom animation editor so that you can submit your own wares for the next show. Don’t miss the lengthy performance after the break.
[Thanks Sándor] | 7 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "657683",
"author": "Marek",
"timestamp": "2012-05-23T18:55:51",
"content": "P.I.W.O. means B.E.E.R.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "659023",
"author": "Hitek146",
"timestamp": "2012-05-25T03:42:21",
"co... | 1,760,376,861.68911 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/05/23/measuring-projectiles-with-openchronometer/ | Measuring Projectiles With OpenChronometer | Brian Benchoff | [
"Arduino Hacks",
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"amani GTX",
"chronometer",
"CLPD",
"netduino"
] | [Spork] over on the Netduino forums wanted to push the limits of what his little board could do. He put together
a chronometer to measure the velocity of rifle rounds and Nerf darts
using an Arduino-compatable CPLD shield.
The project is built around a pair of commercial CED M2 chronograph sensors; because people have the tendency to shoot
through
these sensors, they’re available as replacement units for much less than the cost of a complete chronograph setup. [Spork] couldn’t figure out a way for his Arduino clone to read pins with a resolution of 1 microsecond, so a
Amani GTX CLPD shield
was added to the build. This programmable logic chip takes the output from a chronometer sensor, starts a timer, waits for the second sensor to trigger, and stops the timer. From that, the velocity of just about any projectile can be calculated.
Of course, [Spork] needed to test his new device, so he took it out to the range and fired 25 rifle rounds through his chronometer. The result was a very nice, normal distribution centered around 2400 feet per second, exactly as would be expected. Although [Spork] didn’t test out low-velocity projectiles such as Nerf darts, we expect the same reliable results.
via
majolsurf | 14 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "657662",
"author": "Standard Mischief",
"timestamp": "2012-05-23T18:17:30",
"content": "I’ve been looking for a good explanation about how the (skyscreen) sensors work. It’s probably just LEDs and silicon based light detectors, along with some reflector tape, but I’ve yet to meet an... | 1,760,376,861.643504 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/05/23/ironman-replica-twofer/ | Ironman Replica Twofer | Mike Szczys | [
"Wearable Hacks"
] | [
"arc reactor",
"costume",
"helmet",
"ironman",
"led"
] | We think it’s a bit to late to show up for a screening of
The Avengers
in full costume, but an arc reactor T-shirt would be pretty cool. [4ndreas]
built a chest strap
that looks much like [Tony Stark’s] chest-mounted power source. It has a 3D printed enclosure which hosts the ATmega8 and 22 LEDs which provide the pulsing goodness. The thin cellphone battery helps to keep the size of the package to a minimum
and a strategically placed hole in a black T-shirt completes the look
. It’s even bright enough to shine through the fabric of this black T-shirt.
But if you insist on head-to-toe regalia you’ll appreciate [James Bruton’s]
Ironman suit replica build
. Not only does he look the part, but he’s trying to build as much functionality into the project as possible. Most recently he finished the helmet. It’s got a motorized faceplate and LED edge-lit eye plates to impress hackers and cosplay fans alike.
Find video of both projects after the break. | 8 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "657573",
"author": "plfx",
"timestamp": "2012-05-23T16:16:01",
"content": "I see no hole. I believe it’s shining through the fabric of the shirt.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "657579",
"author": "Mike Szczys",
... | 1,760,376,861.473578 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/05/23/build-a-levitating-bed-for-under-1000/ | Build A Levitating Bed For Under $1000 | Caleb Kraft | [
"home hacks"
] | [
"bed",
"neodymium"
] | Many of us have had this exact thought and wondered if it was feasible. As it turns out, you can, in fact, just buy a bunch of magnets and
make a levitating bed
. Those magnets need to be extremely strong, so [mememetatata] used some rather large
Neodymium magnets
. This frame involved some careful planning since these magnets can actually be
quite dangerous
if not handled properly. [mememetatata] did manage to get everything spaced correctly and now has a bed that can levitate holding up to about 250 lbs. We really want to know what it feels like. That kind of thing seems as though it would be difficult to describe.
As usual, more information might be available in the
reddit thread
.
[thanks poisomike87]! | 98 | 41 | [
{
"comment_id": "657476",
"author": "DJCalarco",
"timestamp": "2012-05-23T14:02:01",
"content": "Getting my drill…..",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "657480",
"author": "snowdruid",
"timestamp": "2012-05-23T14:08:20",
"content": "soun... | 1,760,376,862.240896 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/05/23/jeri-builds-a-c64-bass-keytar/ | [Jeri] Builds A C64 Bass Keytar | Caleb Kraft | [
"digital audio hacks"
] | [
"commodore 64",
"jeri ellsworth",
"mustache"
] | [Jeri] built this really cool C64 bass Keytar from a commodore64 and a cheap bass guitar. She’s using an FPGA to do the string detection and the key scanning, it then sends everything to the original 8bit sound chips. The reason that she is using a bass guitar is that the commodore sound chip only has 3 channels.
There’s an interview with her from the maker faire
, and if you keep watching, there are some other interesting projects too.
She notes that the implementation she went with has many performance issues due to the overtones the strings create when played. If she did it again, she’d go another route. Since [Jeri] has previously created the fully functional C64 games on FPGA, maybe she’ll add some video synth to this down the road. | 23 | 17 | [
{
"comment_id": "657459",
"author": "Chuckt",
"timestamp": "2012-05-23T13:30:20",
"content": "We need a video of her playing it.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "657556",
"author": "frankbuss",
"timestamp": "2012-05-23T15:46:59"... | 1,760,376,862.385853 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/05/23/spacex-finally-launches-scotty-makes-it-to-space/ | SpaceX Finally Launches, [Scotty] Makes It To Space. | Caleb Kraft | [
"News"
] | [
"nasa",
"SpaceX"
] | We’ve been eagerly anticipating the first launch of our new space era. Like it or not, NASA isn’t going up anymore, so someone else has to. When we posted that the launch event was going to be broadcasted live (which ultimately failed), there was a lot of debate in our comments on the subject of private vs government entities doing the space traveling. There was also a lot of childish bickering.
Just to clarify, Hackaday’s official stance is, “Go to space”. We do not care if it is the government, [Elon Musk], The russian space program, a hackerspace in a home made rocket, or an evil billionaire. We just want space research to continue. Sure, there are drawbacks to some of these, most notably that the evil billionaire would most likely be doing this to kill us all, but at least the research would be funded.
You can
watch a short clip of the launch
, and while you do so, remember that on board that ship
are the ashes of actor [James Doohan] also known as [Scotty]
. That’s pretty awesome. | 18 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "657426",
"author": "svofski",
"timestamp": "2012-05-23T12:12:22",
"content": "I can’t help it but every time I see Mr. Elon Musk I remember this dude from LOST:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Martin_Keamy.png",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
... | 1,760,376,862.112021 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/05/23/hot-glue-appendages-may-be-predecessor-to-the-flow-metal-of-the-t-1000/ | Hot Glue Appendages May Be Predecessor To The Flow Metal Of The T-1000 | Mike Szczys | [
"Robots Hacks"
] | [
"hot glue",
"hot melt glue",
"robot arm",
"tools"
] | The T-1000 was the shape-shifting robot from T2 (the second Terminator movie). It was so amazing because it could assume the form and texture of anything; humans, piercing weapons, inanimate objects. This robot doesn’t even compare, except for one small trait. When it needs a tool,
it can build it as its own appendage
. This really is nothing more than making tools with a 3D printer. However, the normal boxy infrastructure is missing.
The print head is mounted on a single robot arm, and the tool is printed using hot melt glue in order to stick to a plate which makes up the business end of robot arm. In this case the robot needed to transport some water. It sets down the plate, uses the hot melt extruder to print a cup on that plate, then picks it up again and uses it to move water from one bowl to the other. You can see it all in the video clip below the fold.
Sure, it’s just baby steps. But hot melt glue sticks are light weight, and don’t require much energy to melt. This makes for a perfect combination as a portable tool shop.
[via
DVICE
] | 3 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "657493",
"author": "Paul",
"timestamp": "2012-05-23T14:23:27",
"content": "Cool concept.The video needs some work. I didn’t understand what I was looking at for the first 45 seconds.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "657643",
... | 1,760,376,862.44097 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/05/22/rebuilding-a-fried-fan-motor/ | Rebuilding A Fried Fan Motor | Mike Szczys | [
"Repair Hacks"
] | [
"ac",
"brushless",
"commutator",
"fan",
"tower fan"
] | The fan motor on [Pete’s] oscillating tower fan conked out on him. It’s a shame to throw away the whole thing, but it’s near impossible to source parts for a small appliance like this one. So
he set out to rebuilt the motor
and get the thing working like new.
The motor in question is of the brushless AC variety. [Pete’s] gut told him that the failure was due to bad lubrication of the bearings at the factory. It stopped working because the commutator could no longer rotate freely. A check of the continuity of each of the coils led him to this thermal fuse. When the motor seized the AC current built up a lot of heat. This fuse is made to burn out before a fire can start but now it needs to be replaced. With a new one in place he reassembled the motor, making sure to pack the bearings with some quality lubricant. Now he’s once again ready for a long hot summer. | 53 | 14 | [
{
"comment_id": "657038",
"author": "rectifier",
"timestamp": "2012-05-22T22:28:47",
"content": "Amazes me how motors mix up otherwise smart engineer types.Not “brushless ac” just capacitor run by the look of it. Though there are no brushes, this is just a standard cheap AC induction motor.No commut... | 1,760,376,862.802347 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/05/22/the-engineer-guy-explains-how-mems-accelerometer-chips-work/ | The Engineer Guy Explains How MEMS Accelerometer Chips Work | Mike Szczys | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"accelerometer",
"bill hammack",
"Engineer Guy",
"MEMS",
"silicon"
] | There’s a good chance that you use a MEMS accelerometer every single day. It’s the small chip that let your smart phone automatically adjust its screen orientation. They’re great chips, and since they’re mass-produced you can add them to your projects for a song (if you can abide the tiny packaging). But we have no idea of how they are made and only a inkling of how they work. [Bill Hammack] has filled that knowledge gap with this explanation of
how MEMS accelerometers are made and how they function
.
Our base knowledge comes from the acronym: Micro Electro-Mechanical Systems. There’s something in the chip that moves (so much for solid state electronics; and it makes us wonder if these wear out). [Bill] includes a diagram in his video after the break which shows the silicon-based system that moves as it is affected by gravity. This changes the capacitive properties of the structure, which can be measured and reported to a microcontroller for further use. The structure is built using an intricate etching process which we never want to try out at home.
Looking for a project in which to use one of these devices? We’ve always been fond of
this POV device
. | 12 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "656987",
"author": "Deg",
"timestamp": "2012-05-22T21:19:09",
"content": ">>>and it makes us wonder if these wear outNo, the moving parts are designed to stay below the fatigue limit. Seehttp://www.lbl.gov/ritchie/Programs/MEMS/Fatigue.htmlHowever, due to electrostatic forces being ... | 1,760,376,862.535393 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/05/22/viper-flight-simulator-a-la-battlestar-galactica-finished/ | Viper Flight Simulator (a La Battlestar Galactica) Finished | Mike Szczys | [
"hardware"
] | [
"battlestar galactica",
"Crowd Funding",
"flight simulator",
"maker faire",
"sim",
"viper"
] | Here’s a story about some guys who set out to
build a flight simulator for the Viper from Battlestar Galactica
. The goal is to bring a grand project to the Maker Faire. This is a recurring challenge for the group, which has participated over the last several years. But this year they decided to go big and mounted
a successful Kickstarter campaign
to help with the cost.
The best place to get the build details is
their progress updates page
. Each week the cadre of teenagers tried to post some info about their progress, and we’ve got a big grin on our faces after reading through them. The simulator aims to provide you with as much of a space flight experience possible given the restraints which gravity imposes. The cockpit can roll and pitch a full 360 degrees in each direction. Of course safety is a concern and they were careful with their frame design and pilot restraint system. But so much more goes into this than just the physical build. There’s sound, lighting, and the virtual simulator, all of which have been complete at an impressive quality level. There’s a ton of video posted and we’ve embedded one short clip after the break showing off the cockpit’s dashboard.
via [
Gizmodo
] | 13 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "656978",
"author": "fartface",
"timestamp": "2012-05-22T21:14:01",
"content": "Except it’s missing software. they need developers to make a good viper sim.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "657004",
"author": "draeath",... | 1,760,376,862.663529 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/05/22/gyroscopically-stabilized-carmotorcycle-thing/ | Gyroscopically Stabilized Car/motorcycle Thing | Mike Szczys | [
"Transportation Hacks"
] | [
"c-1",
"car",
"gyroscope",
"lit motors",
"motorcycle"
] | So yeah, this thing exists. Well, at least some pretty interesting looking prototypes of it do. It’s
the C-1 from Lit Motors
(anyone else think that’s a reference which belongs in /r/trees?). The idea here is that the small form-factor of a motorcycle is very efficient and easily maneuverable. But the cage protecting the passenger from harm, and the canopy keeping the elements out give it some of the desirable traits of a car.
Design aside, check out the video after the break. The prototype uses two horizontally positioned gyroscopes placed beneath the passenger seat, just in front of the rear wheel. The builders take it out on a hockey rink and give it a few kicks and slide a few tires into it. Sure, it reacts to the impact but it doesn’t fall over.
Want to see some fast-motion welding of the C-1? Right now there’s a one-minute clip up
on the company’s main page
.
[via
Reddit
] | 41 | 23 | [
{
"comment_id": "656875",
"author": "davidmitchell836",
"timestamp": "2012-05-22T19:08:23",
"content": "Hmmmm… C1… Sounds familiar..http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BMW_C1",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "657382",
"author": "el jonco",
... | 1,760,376,862.612994 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/05/22/the-most-portable-gamecube-ever/ | The Most Portable GameCube Ever | Brian Benchoff | [
"handhelds hacks",
"Nintendo Hacks"
] | [
"console mod",
"gamecube",
"wiikey"
] | Here’s
the smallest GameCube
we’ve seen, straight from the fruitful workbench of [lyberty5] over on the ModRetro forums. Even though we’ve seen
disc-less GameCubes before
, [lyberty5] puts this project together so well it wouldn’t look out-of-place in the Nintendo product lineup.
Unlike most of the other portable GameCubes we’ve seen, [lyberty5]’s build doesn’t have a disk drive. The games are loaded off an SD card with the help of a
Wiikey Fusion
, a small FPGA’d device that replaces the CD drive in GameCubes and Wiis with an SD card.
The enclosure was constructed out of vacuum formed plastic with the always popular ‘dremeling and bondoing a controller for proper button placement’ method. Inside the enclosure is the hacked up GameCube, a 3.5 inch screen capable of displaying NTSC video at 640×480 resolution and enough battery power to get two or three hours of playtime from a single charge.
After the break you can check out [lyberty5] fast-paced demo video that really sets the bar for portablized console presentation.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EWTUDm4HrOY&w=470] | 13 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "656782",
"author": "Jarel",
"timestamp": "2012-05-22T18:53:37",
"content": "ha640x48cked?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "656788",
"author": "Sprite_tm",
"timestamp": "2012-05-22T19:03:11",
"content": "... | 1,760,376,862.493355 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/05/22/update-using-your-forearms-as-a-ui/ | Update: Using Your Forearms As A UI | Mike Szczys | [
"Multitouch Hacks"
] | [
"chris harrison",
"depth camera",
"omnitouch",
"pico projector",
"skinput"
] | This image should look familiar to regular readers. It’s a concept that [Chris Harrison] has been working on for a while, and
this hardware upgrade
uses equipment which which we’re all familiar.
The newest rendition, which is named the Omnitouch, uses a shoulder-mounted system for both input and output. The functionality is the same as
his Skinput project
, but the goal is achieved in a different way. That used an arm cuff to electrically sense when and where you were touching your arm or hand. This uses a depth camera to do the sensing. In both cases, a pico projector provides the interactive feedback.
There’s a couple of really neat things about this upgrade. First, it has a pretty accurate multitouch capability. Second, it allows more surfaces to be used than just your arm. In fact, it can track moving surfaces and adjust accordingly. This is shown in the clip after the break when a printed document is edited in real time. Pretty neat stuff!
[Thanks 0.zer0] | 11 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "656730",
"author": "MikrySoft",
"timestamp": "2012-05-22T17:21:17",
"content": "Looks cool, but how big is the lag? In this paint demo (hand + wall) it looked quite severe.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "657146",
"aut... | 1,760,376,862.713434 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/05/22/automatic-capacitor-charger-lets-you-have-fun-with-sparks/ | Automatic Capacitor Charger Lets You Have Fun With Sparks | Mike Szczys | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"capacitor",
"charger",
"relay",
"sparks"
] | [GranTotem] is delighted by the sparks put out when a capacitor is rapidly discharged. But he’s not impressed at the relatively slow process of connecting them to a power supply for a recharge. So he built this
auto-charging station for his capacitors
that provides a shockingly good time almost continuously. Check out the video to see what we mean.
We always like to see the guts of the project, and that’s why we chose this image for the feature. But when everything is properly seated in the project box [GranTotem] has managed to achieve a really clean look. There are two barrel jack connectors on the end, one for 16V and the other for 20V inputs. The lid of the enclosure hosts an on/off switch, adjustment knob, and two banana connector terminals. Once switched on, a relay connects and disconnects the capacitor from the power supply at regular intervals which are adjusted by the knob. Just connect a couple of probes to those banana terminals and let the sparks reign down. | 14 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "656704",
"author": "Nuno.S.Almeida",
"timestamp": "2012-05-22T16:43:03",
"content": "That relay will last for a week. Next time use a properly protected mosfet.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "657651",
"author": "harvi... | 1,760,376,862.857377 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/05/22/3d-printed-circuit-boards-using-conductive-ink/ | 3D Printed Circuit Boards Using Conductive Ink | Mike Szczys | [
"3d Printer hacks",
"cnc hacks"
] | [
"3d printer",
"conductive ink",
"pcb"
] | The thought of using a 3D printer to fabricate PCBs is tantalizing and the good news is that it’s a reality. This project shows that it’s possible to use a special
printer head to apply traces to an extruded substrate
.
This is similar to
the point-to-point 3D printer circuits
with one big upgrade. Now the traces can be printed directly onto the ABS using conductive ink. The process starts with the design files, which are used to model a substrate that has a trench for each trace. A Makerbot then prints out this model. Once complete, the ABS extruder head is swapped for a special ink head. Each trace is then filled with the conductive fluid, which is kept in place by the trench walls until it can dry. We think this improves on
the trace printing techniques we’ve seen before
because it doesn’t require your printer heat to use molten metals.
The circuit above uses printed traces for the high and low side of an LED circuit. It’s a bit rough at the edges, but it shows a lot of promise. Don’t miss the demo video embedded after the jump. | 13 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "656669",
"author": "fartface",
"timestamp": "2012-05-22T15:55:33",
"content": "A lot harder than just swapping out the melting head for a dremel tool and have it cut traces in a copper clad board.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id"... | 1,760,376,862.907472 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/05/22/macetechs-led-glasses-prototype/ | Macetech’s LED Glasses Prototype | Caleb Kraft | [
"LED Hacks"
] | [
"kanye",
"led",
"macetech"
] | While there was
no mention of it on their blog
, [Garret] from mace tech was spied wearing some pretty cool looking LED glasses at MakerFaire last weekend. This morning, we noticed a
Lytro gallery of the glasses
and they look pretty cool (as a toy, not a fashion accessory). For those who haven’t played with Lytro, you can click around and refocus the image. Neat right? Back to the glasses.
Someone who we’re guessing is [Garret]
spoke up on Reddit this morning
explaining some tech specs and dropping a video of them in action.
The shades are a 20×6 matrix (with some pixel missing of course) driven by SPI from an integrated Arduino-compatible in the right temple. There is a Lithium-Polymer battery on the left temple. You can charge the glasses through USB, and download new code to it over the same connection. A button on the right temple allows switching between modes or auto cycling animated patterns. | 9 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "656601",
"author": "puzzud",
"timestamp": "2012-05-22T14:13:52",
"content": "Oh god, do not show Kanye!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "656707",
"author": "bob",
"timestamp": "2012-05-22T16:45:16",
"content": "just t... | 1,760,376,863.1073 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/05/22/win-40000-for-squirting-plastic-out-of-a-nozzle/ | Win $40,000 For Squirting Plastic Out Of A Nozzle | Brian Benchoff | [
"cnc hacks",
"contests"
] | [
"3d printer",
"3d printer filament",
"contest",
"extruder",
"filament",
"Inventables"
] | 3D printers such as the RepRap and Makerbot turn spools of plastic filament into just about any object imaginable. There’s a problem though: this filament costs about $40 a kilogram, and raw plastic pellets cost about 1/10th of that. Obviously, there’s a lot of room for improvement. The folks at Inventables
are throwing $40,000 at the problem
in a contest to build a machine that takes plastic pellets and turns it into usable plastic filament.
The object is simple: build a device that takes ABS or PLA pellets and turns them into a 1.75mm filament. The machine has to cost less than $250, be able to add colorant to the plastic, and be usable in a 3D printer. The winner gets $40,000, a laser cutter, a 3D printer, and a CNC milling machine courtesy of
Inventables
. Sign up on the
official contest website
and don’t be shy about sending your progress into the
Hackaday tip line
If you’d like to get started,
here’s a great page
that goes over the basics of plastic extrusion, and a few attempts (
1
,
2
) from [Adrian Bowyer] and [Forrest Higgs] that show exactly how hard this is. There’s also the
Filabot
that had a
successful Kickstarter
, but there’s apparently been no (or very limited) progress in the four months since the Kickstarter. I’ve even
given this idea a go
, but am currently stuck at manufacturing a proper auger. To put this in perspective, this is the moonshot of the current crop of 3D printers; a simple device to lower the barrier of entry to 3D printing is desperately needed, and we’ve got to give props to the Inventables crew for putting this contest together. | 47 | 23 | [
{
"comment_id": "656604",
"author": "Gutierrez",
"timestamp": "2012-05-22T14:17:02",
"content": "How about a stake in the device and credit in the patents that will come out of it? I don’t see anything about the results remaining open source.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": ... | 1,760,376,863.059706 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/05/22/more-kinect-holograms-from-programming4fun/ | More Kinect Holograms From [programming4fun] | Brian Benchoff | [
"Kinect hacks"
] | [
"3d display",
"head tracking",
"hologram",
"Kinect",
"Kinect hologram"
] | [programing4fun] has been playing around with his Kinect-based 3D display and building a
holographic WALL-E
controllable with a Windows phone. It’s a ‘kid safe’ version of his
Terminator personal assistant
that has voice control and support for 3d anaglyph and shutter glasses.
When we saw [programming4fun]’s Kinect hologram setup
last summer
we were blown away. By tracking a user’s head with a Kinect, [programming] was able to display a 3D image using only a projector. This build was adapted into a
3D multitouch table
and
real life portals
, so we’re glad to see [programming4fun] refining his code and coming up with some really neat builds.
In addition to robotic avatars catering to your every wish, [programming4fun] also put together a
rudimentary helicopter flight simulator
controlled by tilting cell phone. It’s the same DirectX 9 heli from [programming]’s original build. with the addition of
Desert Strike
-esque top-down graphics. This might be the future of gaming here, so we’ll keep our eyes out for similar head-tracking 3D builds.
As always, videos after the break.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E4fU59lv5KA&w=470]
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QJ6Mc0aOk_o&w=470]
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qspZlu9jtkE&w=470] | 15 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "656545",
"author": "MrX",
"timestamp": "2012-05-22T13:08:53",
"content": "Stop calling this “holograms”. This is nowhere the definition of a “hologram”. If the editors were Hollywood people, then I would let it pass but this is a hacker’s space for the god’s sake!http://en.wikipedia... | 1,760,376,863.164168 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/05/22/3d-printing-with-nylon-for-a-more-useful-objects/ | 3D Printing With Nylon For A More Useful Objects | Brian Benchoff | [
"3d Printer hacks",
"cnc hacks"
] | [
"delrin",
"nylon",
"polycarbonate",
"reprap",
"thermoplastic"
] | [taulman] over on Instructables has been working on his own version of a 3D printer. Unlike the usual PLA or ABS filament all the RepRaps and Makerbots use,
this printer uses nylon
to make parts with very interesting properties.
Most extrusion printers are designed to print with ABS (a very hard plastic that melts around 220-230° C) or PLA (a somewhat softer plastic that melts at about 180° C). [taulman] is using
Nylon 6
, a very slippery and bendable plastic that melts around 320° C (about 600 degrees Fahrenheit). He’s doing this with a
hot end of his own design
and a
‘spiky’ extruder bolt
that allows high-temperature thermoplastics to be extruded into any shape imaginable.
For the longest time, the 3D printer community has been using low-temperature thermoplastics such as PLA and ABS. There are obvious benefits to these materials: it’s pretty easy to source a spool of filament, and the low melting point of these plastics makes building a printer easier and safer. Now that [taulman] has the high-temperature plastic nut cracked, he’s moving on to easily-machiniable Delrin and transparent Polycarbonate. Very cool, and hopefully in a year’s time we’ll have a choice of what material to run in our printers.
After the break, there are a few videos [taulman] put up showing his printer at work and the properties of his 3D printed objects. It looks like [taulman] can print objects that are impossible on any other 3D printer we’ve seen; the flexible iPhone case probably couldn’t be made on any other DIY machine.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LHTXhyh7X5s&w=470]
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CPqRJ86e0jk&w=470] | 34 | 12 | [
{
"comment_id": "656501",
"author": "Triffid Hunter",
"timestamp": "2012-05-22T12:17:14",
"content": "http://goo.gl/FMP4X<– nylon printing december last year.. haven't done more because it smells revolting and emits hydrogen cyanide, carbon monoxide and other nasties… Need a garage that's not attach... | 1,760,376,863.233435 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/05/22/volt-teardown-shows-more-than-just-whats-under-the-hood/ | Volt Teardown Shows More Than Just What’s Under The Hood | Mike Szczys | [
"Transportation Hacks"
] | [
"chevrolet",
"chevy",
"ev",
"teardown",
"volt"
] | The Chevrolet Volt is one of the top contenders in mass-market electric vehicles. Now you can get a look at the components that make up the electrical system with
this Chevy Volt teardown article
.
The adventure starts with a look at the 288 cell battery. It forms a T shape and takes up the space that forms the hump down the center of the interior of a vehicle. Theses have a liquid cooling system build into the enclosure to make sure things don’t get too hot during use or charging. The sights are then set on the control and monitoring hardware, and there’s a lot of it. In fact, the image above is an overview of the eighteen modules that pull the new plug-in EV technology together. If you’re brave enough to void the warranty on one of these, this should be a helpful road map to get you started.
Has anyone seen a teardown of the home charging station for one of these? | 31 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "656528",
"author": "fartface",
"timestamp": "2012-05-22T12:47:21",
"content": "Far cheaper to buy a Old Civic and install a EV kit.Actually it’s cheaper to keep the civic gasoline and drive for 20 years on the price difference in Gasoline at $6.00 a gallon.As the Volt is the exact s... | 1,760,376,863.527483 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/05/21/man-stranded-in-the-desert-makes-a-motorcycle-from-his-broken-car/ | Man, Stranded In The Desert, Makes A Motorcycle From His Broken Car | Caleb Kraft | [
"Transportation Hacks"
] | [
"citroen",
"desert",
"french"
] | The original
story is in French
, and the
Google translate is very rough
. Please forgive us if we don’t get this completely accurate.
While traveling through the desert somewhere in north west Africa in his Citroen 2CV , [Emile] is stopped, and told not to go any further due to some military conflicts in the area. Not wanting to actually listen to this advice, he decides to loop around, through the desert, to circumvent this roadblock.
After a while of treading off the beaten path, [Emile] manages to snap a swing arm on his vehicle, leaving him stranded. He decided that the best course of action was to disassemble his vehicle and construct a motorcycle from the parts. This feat would be impressive on its own, but remember, he’s still in the desert and un-prepared. If we’re reading this correctly, he managed to drill holes by bending metal and sawing at it, then un-bending it to be flat again.
It takes him twelve days to construct this thing. There are more pictures on the site, you simply have to go look at it. Feel free to translate the labels and post them in the comments.
Update: From [Semicolo] in the comments
You got the translation right, but there’s not just a swing arm that’s broken, there’s a frame beam broken too (not sure about the exact term, one of the 2 girder of the chassis).
He’s not far away but he has a lot of tools and other hardware that could be stolen if he leaves them unattended.
[via
Reddit
] | 190 | 50 | [
{
"comment_id": "656110",
"author": "Paul",
"timestamp": "2012-05-22T01:27:06",
"content": "This is clearly a load of bullshit. I’m surprised you fell for this, Hackaday!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "656114",
"author": "Caleb Kraft"... | 1,760,376,863.690338 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/05/21/heliowatcher-positions-solar-panels-for-highest-efficiency/ | Heliowatcher Positions Solar Panels For Highest Efficiency | Mike Szczys | [
"green hacks"
] | [
"gps",
"light sensor",
"motor",
"solar panel"
] | [Jason Wright] and [Jeremy Blum] are showing off the project they developed for their Designing with Microcontrollers course at Cornell University. They call it the Heliowatcher, and if you know your Greek mythology we’d be you figured out this
watches the movement of the sun and adjust a solar panel to follow
it.
Their design is simple and effective. The base is mounted like a Lazy Susan, able to pivot on the horizontal plane. The bottom edge of the solar panel is mounted with two door hinges, with a motorized screw jack used to raise and lower it. The system uses a GPS to provide geographical position, day, and time feedback. This is used in conjunction with an array of four LEDs to determine the best position of the panel. Those LEDs are acting as light sensors; when the top and the bottom detect similar levels, the panel is at its most efficient orientation. The left and right LED sensors work the same way.
Now if we can just work out a self-cleaning system to keep the panels free of the dirty film that builds up over time we’d be set! | 17 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "656078",
"author": "Kendall",
"timestamp": "2012-05-22T00:24:08",
"content": "Nice looking project. I am sure you all got a awesome grade. However from a real world prospective, I imagine that you could drop everything but the moving parts, microcontroller and leds. Then just use th... | 1,760,376,863.741921 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/05/21/fta-dish-used-to-receive-l-band-amateur-radio/ | FTA Dish Used To Receive L-band Amateur Radio | Mike Szczys | [
"Radio Hacks"
] | [
"dish",
"fta",
"ku-band",
"l-band",
"satellite"
] | [David Prutchi] has an FTA (free-to-air) satellite dish. This means he can tune and watch freely available satellite television feeds. But this sounds much better than it actually is. There isn’t much that’s broadcasted unecrypted from satellites with the exception of a collection of religious channels. But he still uses the dish by using the FTA satellites to calibrate the alignment, then repositioning it to
receive L-Band radio transmissions with his own add-on hardware
. In the image above it’s the spiral of wire attached to the dish’s collector.
The satellite transmissions are picked up on the KU-band by an aftermarket horn that [David] purchased for this purpose. To add his own helix receiver he cut a square mounting plate that fits around the horn. This plate serves as a reflector and ground plane, and also hosts the helix connector which picks up the L-band transmissions. He had to be creative with routing the first few inches of the helix but it looks like he manages to get some pretty good performance out of the hardware.
[via
Hacked Gadgets
] | 11 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "656053",
"author": "walter",
"timestamp": "2012-05-21T23:38:08",
"content": "Poor people in the US. In Europe, the satellites are full of FTA stations, especially the 19.2 and 28.2°E positions.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "... | 1,760,376,863.836598 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/05/21/hackerspace-intro-stgo-makerspace-in-santiago-chile/ | Hackerspace Intro: STGO Makerspace In Santiago, Chile | Brian Benchoff | [
"Hackerspaces"
] | [
"hackerspace",
"makerspace",
"StgoMakerSpace"
] | [Roy MacDonald] sent in a few links to all the cool stuff his home base – the
StgoMakerSpace
(
Google translation
) in Santiago, Chile – is putting together. They’re a new hackerspace that’s only been open for two months or so, but already they’re put together a great assemblage of tools, hosted a few awesome workshops, and even gotten a good bit of local media exposure.
The StgoMakerSpace found its first bit of fame with a very in-depth article
in Qué Pasa
, a Chilean magazine (
Google Translate
). There’s a lot of very, very talented people at StgoMakerSpace that includes [macapola], an industrial designer who spent a year in China learning all about modern, global manufacturing processes.
StgoMakerSpace has a few workshops coming up, including a Kinect hacking workshop, and Arduino workshop, and a welding workshop. If you’re around Santiago, it’s worth checking out. In addition to very, very smart people and a whole bunch of tools, StgoMakerSpace also has a retro video game museum and
FREE BEER
brewed in-house.
As a small aside, [Roy] tells us the word ‘hacker’ has a negative connotation in Spanish, and it immediately associated with cybercrime; that’s the reason it’s the Santiago
Maker
space. In our experience, the same connotation sometimes applies in English, something that hasn’t stopped all the Hackerspaces around the US. | 13 | 12 | [
{
"comment_id": "656004",
"author": "zubiaur",
"timestamp": "2012-05-21T22:06:39",
"content": "Excellent! Congratulations and keep up the good work, if I ever sneak into Santiago can I visit and say hi?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "656015",
... | 1,760,376,863.792764 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/05/21/salvaged-lcd-screen-hacking/ | Salvaged LCD Screen Hacking | Mike Szczys | [
"Microcontrollers"
] | [
"arduino",
"character lcd",
"OpenBench Logic Sniffer",
"reverse engineering",
"spi"
] | You can find all kinds of LCD screens in broken electronics. But it’s often a chore to figure out how they are controlled if you don’t have a working device that can be used to sniff the communications protocol. [Justin] grabbed this character LCD screen from an old Brother printer and decided to see if he could reuse it in his own projects. Luckily the driver card still worked so he
patched into the LCD’s control lines and sniffed the signals
when the printer is powered on.
He used
the OpenBench Logic Sniffer
for this project. It easily captured the data, and also provided analysis tools. The SPI analyzer managed to decode the command signals and message of “Please wait” that pops up at power up. After a bit of folly with the pin out of the display, he is now able to control it thanks to an Arduino library which he wrote. Check out the demo after the break to seem him scrolling through a bunch of different functions for the device. | 17 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "655961",
"author": "sdevvoodoo",
"timestamp": "2012-05-21T21:16:30",
"content": "This is why it’s so important to learn how to use triggering on your chosen analyser, it would have made your task about ten thousand times less painful. Nice job figuring out how to drive the LCD, thou... | 1,760,376,863.888008 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/05/21/prototyping-an-advanced-inductive-charger/ | Prototyping An Advanced Inductive Charger | Mike Szczys | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"inductive charger"
] | This is
an advanced inductive charging system
into which [David McIntosh] has put a lot of hard work. It uses the same coil-based concepts that we’ve
seen in other DIY systems
, but the game changer is a communications function that just isn’t found in home brew versions of the hardware. It lets the receiver (device being charged) give feedback to the transmitter by rolling another signal into the EM field being generated.
Do why would you need feedback? Well, if the two coils are not positioned well, the power produced on the receiving end can vary greatly. For instance, you may have the wrong voltage because the coils are not balanced. Or there may not be enough current to properly start charging. The feedback system is designed to let the sending unit change frequency to try to account for physical orientation, or to shut itself off if the charge is just not possible. This is done in expensive commercial devices, and that’s what [David] used as his model. | 8 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "655939",
"author": "ColinB",
"timestamp": "2012-05-21T20:33:11",
"content": "Awesome writeup — very detailed. Nice work.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "655941",
"author": "ColinB",
"timestamp": "2012-05-21T20:35:19",
... | 1,760,376,863.936172 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/05/21/a-dslr-shutter-cable-for-android/ | A DSLR Shutter Cable For Android | Mike Szczys | [
"Android Hacks",
"digital cameras hacks"
] | [
"audio jack",
"dslr",
"remote shutter release",
"transistor"
] | Here’s a very easy way to
trigger your DSLR camera using an Android
device. It’s a similar method
used with IR triggered cameras
, in that all you need to do is assemble some simple hardware to plug into the headphone jack. The app that triggers the camera simply plays back a well crafted audio file to do so. The thing that this cable adds is the ability to use the focus feature, since the cable has two data lines.
The hardware is dead-simple. A pair of NPN transistors and a pair of resistors are hosted by this small chunk of strip board. The audio jack for Android uses left and right audio channels to drive the base of these transistors. On the camera side of things the transistors are pulling the focus, and shutter contacts to ground. Once this is covered with shrink tubing it’ll be pretty rugged, and ready to be thrown in your camera bag for use on short notice.
[Thanks Hannes] | 4 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "655935",
"author": "Bryan",
"timestamp": "2012-05-21T20:27:50",
"content": "Yea don’t through-hole the wires, wouldn’t want them to be secure. O_oAlso, I feel like the perfboard could be half the size.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"commen... | 1,760,376,863.977979 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/05/21/player-guitar-sounds-wonderful-makes-us-drool-because-of-the-complexity/ | Player Guitar Sounds Wonderful; Makes Us Drool Because Of The Complexity | Mike Szczys | [
"Musical Hacks"
] | [
"guitar",
"midi",
"pic",
"solenoid",
"strum"
] | It becomes obvious when you listen to
this player guitar
that it’s not a human being playing. But the only reason for that is the unrelenting precision with which the songs are played. In addition to that accuracy, it’s interesting to note that this tune is normally played by a group of guitarists but here the machine manages to do it on one instrument. And we think it sounds fantastic!
This comes from [Vladimir Demin], a maker who
previously built an automatic Bayan
(like an accordion but with buttons where the keyboard is normally found). This time around it’s the six strings and many frets of a guitar that have been outfitted with one solenoid each. In the image above you can see the strumming mechanism mounted near the tone hole. Six picks are held in place, and it appears that each has two solenoids. From what we can observe in the video, one of the solenoids is used to strum the sting, the other tilts the pick mount so that there won’t be a second strumming when the pick is returned to its starting position.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cu0-i3-IG5o | 23 | 20 | [
{
"comment_id": "655875",
"author": "heatgap",
"timestamp": "2012-05-21T18:05:08",
"content": "Wow…that took a ton of free time.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "655880",
"author": "dougmsbbs",
"timestamp": "2012-05-21T18:22:41",
"con... | 1,760,376,864.033851 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/05/21/hackaday-links-may-21-2012/ | Hackaday Links: May 21, 2012 | Brian Benchoff | [
"Hackaday links"
] | [
"3d printer",
"antenna",
"bluetooth",
"fpga",
"hackerspace",
"MaKey MaKey",
"Pentagon"
] | Turning anything into a touch sensor
Makey Makey
is a small board with a USB plug and bunch of contact points for alligator clips. Plug the Makey into your computer and attach just about anything to the contacts, and you can make anything into a video game controller, a keyboard, a piano, or pretty much anything you can imagine. If
[Sprite_tm] copied it
, you know it has to be cool.
RepRaps will finally cost a million dollars
The Pentagon is throwing money at 3D printers
. It’s “only” $60 Million the DoD is putting into 3d printer research, but hopefully our most brilliant researchers will help refine some of the ‘unsolved problems’ – like metal and circuit printing – the 3D printer community is facing.
Getting started with FPGAs
[Tim] found a
neat little $40 FPGA board
aimed right at the hobby hacker. The good news: It’s compatible with Arduino shields, and it’s very cheap. The bad news: it only has 1280 logic cells, so you probably won’t be emulating CPUs on this thing. If anyone has a teardown / project with this board, send it in.
Improving a Bluetooth dongle with a bit of wire
Unsurprisingly, the extremely cheap Bluetooth dongle [Mike] bought on eBay didn’t have great reception or range. No problem, because you can just
replace the internal antenna
with a piece of wire cut to length. Now bluetooth devices are recognized instantly, and there are no Bluetooth ‘dead spots’ around [Mike]’s computer.
Come to France, make stuff
The Toulouse Hackerspace is
having a little shindig
this coming weekend (May 25-27) featuring a conference, workshop, concerts and performances. If you’re in the area, drop on by, | 12 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "655864",
"author": "Alex Rossie",
"timestamp": "2012-05-21T17:53:11",
"content": "Glad to see FPGAs are becoming more noob friendly, wish we had access to boards like that when I started out. Which wasn’t long ago.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
... | 1,760,376,864.085159 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/05/21/hackit-leap-motions-new-motion-sensor/ | Hackit: Leap Motions New Motion Sensor | Caleb Kraft | [
"HackIt"
] | [
"Kinect",
"leap"
] | The big news
circulating this morning is of the Leap Motion sensor
that will be hitting the market soon. They claim that their sensor is ~100 more accurate than anything else on the market right now. Check out the video to see what they mean (there’s another at the link). This is pretty impressive. You can see the accuracy as they use a stylus to write things. If you’ve played with the Kinect, you know that it is nowhere near this tight. Of course, the Kinect is scanning a massive space compared to the work area that this new sensor works in. The response time looks very impressive as well, motions seem to be perfectly in sync with the input. We’re excited to play with one when we get a chance.
So, why do we care as hackers? Well, we always care when a new toy arrives. That alone should be good enough. However, what we really like is the price tag. This thing is $69. That is a great thing to hear. At roughly half the cost of a Kinect, this is getting into a new market. As these prices drop, we might start to see motion input used as it really should be; a
supplement
to your other input devices. Undoubtely, someone won’t actually read this article and one of the comments will be “your arms will get tired doing everything by waving your hands”. Yep, your arms would get tired. With the cost of these devices being rather high, people tend to think of them as being the primary input device. As the prices drop (and size as well), we could start adding these things to our laptops and keyboards. Sometimes you
actually do
want to wave your hand at the screen, when an application can utilize that naturally. Then you go right back to the keyboard/mouse when that fits. If these got cheap enough, we could see them pop up in vending machines making them ~100 times more sanitary!
Like everyone else, we really want to know how these work. We can see several demos of it in action in the videos. We’re familiar with common methods of doing this kind of thing. At one point, there’s a hand visualization that looks like it might be a very tightly packed point cloud (IR array? those points do jitter!). Then again, that could just be a fun little graphical representation. We can’t wait to see, so if any of you get your hands on one of the developer models, let us know! | 73 | 37 | [
{
"comment_id": "655812",
"author": "wardy",
"timestamp": "2012-05-21T16:40:49",
"content": "$69? Earth dollars?? Wow.Is this thing optimised for human hand detection or can it track random objects like walls, rocks…Could this be used to improve collision avoidance and orientation stability in qua... | 1,760,376,864.335293 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/05/21/3d-printing-a-mini-lathe/ | 3d Printing A Mini Lathe | Caleb Kraft | [
"3d Printer hacks",
"cnc hacks",
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"3d printing",
"lathe"
] | While browsing on one of our regularly visited sites, RobotsDreams, we found
this interesting little video
. Here, [Sublime] is showing off his 3d printed mini lathe. In the video he mentions that all the files are available for download so you could make one for yourself, but there were unfortunately no links. A quick bit of googling and we found some more information. We found the project on
Thiniverse
, though reading through the comments it seems that [Sublime] no longer uses Thingiverse. You can now find the files on
his GitHub account
to make your own.
The design seems very solid and looks like it could handle some basic jobs. As [Sublime] points out in the video below, you already know what parts are going to wear out fast and can simply print a few extras to have on hand. While that may seem somewhat wasteful, he also points out that he’s using PLA which is compostable and much easier to recycle. | 21 | 12 | [
{
"comment_id": "655770",
"author": "Addidis",
"timestamp": "2012-05-21T15:52:19",
"content": "This takes 3d printing to a new level of usefulness. Im curious what limitations this puts on what you can turn, and if it could be overcome by strategic use of non printed parts to reduce wear and increa... | 1,760,376,864.762694 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/05/21/light-trikes-allow-you-to-pedal-for-your-life/ | Light Trikes Allow You To Pedal For Your Life | Caleb Kraft | [
"Toy Hacks"
] | [
"game",
"light cycle",
"makerfaire"
] | Unfortunately, none of our writers are located in California this year. This means that we weren’t able to go to the Bay Area MakerFaire and see the cool stuff for ourselves. We have been following along on the web though and a few projects have caught our eye. The rig you see above is a
physical controller for a game that was inspired by the classic Tron light cycle
. The gameplay is pretty obvious, you pedal the trike to go and turn the handlebars to turn your light tricycle. The hardware seems fairly simple, they’re using an arduino to collect information from the bike, then sending that through NetLab hub, a cross platform toolkit for taking data from a micro controller and feeding it to flash. We think they did a fantastic job on the presentation, this actually looks like fun to play.
For some reason though, we want them to
build a level that looks like the Stanley Hotel
. | 2 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "655750",
"author": "UltimationEE",
"timestamp": "2012-05-21T15:21:54",
"content": "Man the tron game looks extremely fun to play, and could be awesome for losing weight.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "655913",
"author": "Ga... | 1,760,376,864.403813 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/05/21/getting-great-bootlegs-with-the-bootlegmic/ | Getting Great Bootlegs With The BootlegMIC | Brian Benchoff | [
"Cellphone Hacks",
"hardware"
] | [
"bootleg",
"electret",
"electret microphone",
"jfet"
] | Go to any concert, show, or basement band practice, and you’ll find someone recording a bootleg. While these live recordings are sometimes fairly high quality, bootlegs recorded with a cell phone usually sound terrible. The guys over at Open Music Labs have a great solution to these poor quality recordings that only needs a few dollars worth of parts.
The project is called
bootlegMIC
. It’s a simple modification of an electret microphone – the same type of mic found in cellphones and bluetooth headsets – that allows for some very high quality recording in very noisy environments. According to the
open music labs wiki
, the modification is as simple as cutting a few traces on the PCB in an electret mic and soldering on a cap and a few resistors.
An electret mic contains a small JFET to amplify the signal coming from the microphone diaphragm; the specific JFET is selected by the manufacturer to ensure the microphone has the right gain and response. Usually these JFETs are chosen with the expectation of a relatively quiet environment, and trying to record a concert only results in a ton of distortion. By putting a resistor between the source of the JFET and ground of the microphone, it’s possible to reduce this distortion.
The circuit is easy enough to solder deadbug style, and should work with most cellphones. The guys at Open Music Lab were able to get their mic working with an iPhone, but they’re still working on figuring out the Android mic input. There’s a great demo video showing the improvement in audio quality; you can check that out after the break. | 28 | 13 | [
{
"comment_id": "655642",
"author": "fartface",
"timestamp": "2012-05-21T11:43:41",
"content": "If you want great bootlegs, then you build a set of binaurial mics and get them in your collar.High fidelity bootlegs has been going on for decades, and I have some Violent Femmes bootlegs I recorded myse... | 1,760,376,864.63013 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/05/20/the-pi-pad/ | The Pi Pad | Adam Munich | [
"Ask Hackaday"
] | [
"attenuation",
"RF"
] | In the world of electronics we have impedance; the combination of all forces which oppose the flow of electric current. Often times we have circuits with different impedances, 50 ohms for RF, or 75 for cable TV. It’s pretty important to use the right coax in these circuits, else you’ll be wondering why your RG-58 antenna feed line doesn’t give you anything good to watch.
It’s pretty important to match impedances when connecting different circuits. Apart from the obvious flaws such as a 50 ohm load blowing up a 300 ohm amplifier, there are subtler things such as signal reflection and destructive interference which might just be enough to break whatever it is your playing with. RF mosfets are not cheap! But how could we match impedances? Well we could always use a transformer, but those are rather expensive and bulky. What if we only have a box of resistors to play with?
Well, we could build an attenuator! Most of you probably know what an attenuator is; if not, it’s a de-amplifier. Simply put, it’s a circuit which reduces the strength of a signal. Often these are called ‘pads’ in the RF world, and the pad most often used is the pi pad. By looking at the network’s schematic it becomes rather obvious *why* we call it that.
It looks like a π.
Now our guests want a 50 ohm signal attenuation of 3dBm, or 50%. Let’s pick some toppings for our pi then, shall we?
When Z=50, R1 and R3 equal…
[292.4 ohms].
Now R2 equals…
[17.61 ohms]
Well that was a pain. Luckily,
there’s a cheat sheet for this.
So now we have our values, and assuming a 50 ohm load everything should work just fine. But wait! Somebody F*cked up and put a 300 ohm feed line on the end of the pad! Crap. Let’s look at the resistance values of the network now, from A to ground. I’m assuming you should know how to calculate resistances…
…105.7 ohms. That’s near double the 50 ohm input impedance and is going to wreak all hell upon the other circuitry. Sure, it does its job of reducing the signal 3dBm but still.
Now here’s the neat thing. Let’s pick some new resistor values so that we attenuate by 10dBm, or about 90%. According to our cheat sheet we’d need 71.75 ohms of attenuating resistance and 96.25 ohms to ground on either end. What’s the impedance mismatch now?
57.78 ohms, or 7.78 away from 50. That’s a lot better than before, and should actually be usable as an impedance matching network. Sure, you lose 10dBm or about 90% of your signal strength, but that’s nothing that can’t be compensated for by putting a Class-C amplifier in series with the attenuator. Even with an active component it’s still cheaper and smaller than a transformer. What I’m trying to prove here is that pi pads can be used as the poor man’s impedance matcher; as attenuation goes up the impedance mismatch goes down.
What’s nice about resistive pi pads is that they are ultra-wideband; since there are no reactive components this network will always attenuate by 10dBm and always match the impedance by 7.2 ohms. An inductive network such as a transformer might not work at both 200kHz and 200MHz. Actually, it certainly won’t work! Capacitive networks would have the same limitations.
</ LESSON> | 40 | 23 | [
{
"comment_id": "655263",
"author": "Twilight Sparkle",
"timestamp": "2012-05-20T20:17:25",
"content": "Some of the images are giving me a 504 error fyi.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "656272",
"author": "asiekierka",
"timesta... | 1,760,376,864.70488 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/05/20/iphone-charger-teardown-shows-astounding-miniaturization/ | IPhone Charger Teardown Shows Astounding Miniaturization. | Brian Benchoff | [
"hardware",
"Teardown"
] | [
"apple charger",
"ipod charger",
"power adapter",
"teardown"
] | There’s no question that Apple has their industrial design down pat; comparing a cell phone charger made by Blackberry or Motorola to the tiny 1-inch-cube Apple charger just underscores this fact. [Ken Shirriff] posted
a great teardown
of the Apple iPhone charger that goes through the hardware that makes this charger so impressive.
Like most cell phone chargers and power supplies these days, Apple’s charger is a switching power supply giving it a much better efficiency than a simple ‘transformer, rectifier, regulator’ linear power supply. Inside the charger, mains power is converted to DC, chopped up by a control IC, fed into a flyback transformer and converted into AC, and finally changed back into DC, and finally filtered and sent out through a USB port.
The quality of the charger is apparent; there’s really no way this small 1-inch cube could be made any smaller. In fact, if it weren’t for the microscopic 0402 SMD components, it’s doubtful this charger could be made at all.
Comparing the $30 iPhone charger
of a cheap (and fake) iPhone charger
, the budget charger still uses a flyback transformer but there are serious compromises of the safety and quality. The fake charger doesn’t use a power supply controller IC and replaces the four bridge diodes for a single diode to rectify the AC; a very efficient cost-cutting measure, but it does lead to a noisier power supply.
There’s also the issue of safety; on the Apple charger, there is a (relatively) huge physical separation of ~340 VDC and your phone. With the off-brand charger, these circuits are separated by less than a millimeter – not very safe, and certainly wouldn’t be UL approved.
It’s worth pointing out that [Ken] compares a
similar $7 Samsung charger
favorably to the
$30 Apple charger
. Both are functionally identical, but Apple also has their
marketing
down pat, to say the least.
Tip ‘o the hat to [George] for sending this in.
EDIT: In case a 1-inch cube wasn’t impressive enough, check out the
euro version
of the iPhone/iPad charger. It supplies 1A @ 5V, and isn’t much thicker than the USB port itself. Thanks [Andreas] for bringing this to our attention. If anyone wants to do a teardown of the euro version,
send it in
on the tip line. | 24 | 15 | [
{
"comment_id": "655208",
"author": "andsetinn",
"timestamp": "2012-05-20T18:20:51",
"content": "I’d like to point out that these are usually not a chargers as such but transformers or “power supplies”. The charging circuitry is almost always inside the phones these days and the transformers only su... | 1,760,376,864.476579 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/05/20/building-a-6502-in-minecraft/ | Building A 6502 In Minecraft | Brian Benchoff | [
"classic hacks",
"Toy Hacks"
] | [
"0x10c",
"6502",
"minecraft"
] | We’ll admit that we haven’t been following Minecraft like we used to; its been a while since we’ve seen something amazing in Minecraft, but [eloraam]’s
6502 emulator
(part of her
RedPower Minecraft mod
) takes the cake.
The RedPower mod adds a lot of industrial technology to Minecraft. Pumps, solar panels, and pneumatic tubes to move blocks around are the staple of this mod, but with the addition of a fully emulated 6502 computer, Minecraft moves from an anachronistic medieval-themed steampunk aesthetic to a full-on machine age, mainframes everywhere style.
The heart of the 6502 portion of the RedPower mod are three craftable blocks; a CPU, a monitor, and a disk drive. All these blocks are connected together with ribbon cables and can interact with other blocks in the Minecraft universe. The CPU is an emulated 6502, with a few instructions borrowed from the 65816 and the addition of MUL and DIV. It’s possible to program this computer in assembly, but [eloraam]
a Forth interpreter
with the OS to make programming a little easier.
It’s been almost two years since we first saw
the beginnings of a CPU
made in Minecraft, but this mod takes everything to the next level. In actuality, this isn’t very different from
the game [notch] is currently working on
; both feature an emulated 80’s era computer that can do all your in-game bidding. We can’t imagine anything better to get us hooked on Minecraft again, and we’ve got to commend [eloraam] for some seriously awesome work.
After the break is a 23-minute tutorial on the functions of the RedPower CPU, as demonstrated by Minecraft aficionado [direwolf20].
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vb0Q9htsbBI&w=470] | 21 | 16 | [
{
"comment_id": "655162",
"author": "Whatnot",
"timestamp": "2012-05-20T16:38:58",
"content": "I don’t get minecraft at all, but I still think it’s nice to see people that are fans have it, since they enjoy it so much.It’s odd since normally I’m not that empathic really.",
"parent_id": null,
... | 1,760,376,864.957843 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/05/20/rain-activated-light-show-in-an-umbrella/ | Rain Activated Light Show In An Umbrella | Caleb Kraft | [
"LED Hacks"
] | [
"umbrella"
] | In a decision we completely agree with, these industrious young women decided that playing in the rain would only be more fun if it included an interactive light show.
They wanted the rain itself to cause LEDs in their umbrella to light up
. To achieve this, they put piezo sensors on each of the 8 panels of the umbrella. When that panel gets hit, its LEDs light up. You can see in the video after the break that it was quite effective.
Their next step should be to somehow increase the resolution to be similar to
this one
, while maintaining interactivity with the rain. How would you sense rain drops with more definition though?
[via
Adafruit
] | 6 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "655156",
"author": "Paul",
"timestamp": "2012-05-20T16:25:22",
"content": "If you aren’t concerned about a precise one-to-one mapping of drop to LED, then use the piezo sensors to detect the sound of each drop hitting a rough area on the top and use it to trigger a random LED on the... | 1,760,376,864.808566 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/05/20/delorean-hovercraft/ | DeLorean Hovercraft | Caleb Kraft | [
"Transportation Hacks"
] | [
"DeLorean",
"hovercraft"
] | [Matthew Riese] got frustrated waiting for the future to arrive so he could have his flying car. He decided to take things into his own hands and construct the closest thing he could. This turned out to be a hovercraft. Not only that, but he thought that the most fitting shape for this thing would be a DeLorean. We can’t say that we disagree with him. Unfortunately, there isn’t a whole lot of information on his build. There is this cool video on
his kickstarter page
(don’t worry, he got funded back in 2010). To make up for the fact that the build information is sparse, we’ve found you
some plans to make your own hovercraft
. Just add whatever shape body you want, though
we have
some
suggestions
.
[via
Makezine
] | 11 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "655065",
"author": "Jasper",
"timestamp": "2012-05-20T13:13:40",
"content": "anyone remember the monster garage attempt at this?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "655097",
"author": "brad",
"timestamp": "2012-05-20T14:37:0... | 1,760,376,864.902336 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/05/19/making-real-life-portals-with-a-kinect/ | Making Real-life Portals With A Kinect | Brian Benchoff | [
"Kinect hacks"
] | [
"Kinect",
"portal"
] | [radicade] wanted to know what real life portals would look like; not something out of a game, but actual blue and orange portals on his living room wall. Short of building a portal gun, the only option available to [radicade] was
simulating a pair of portals
with a Kinect and a projector.
One of the more interesting properties of portals is the ability to see through to the other side – you can look through the blue portal and see the world from the orange portal’s vantage point. [radicade] simulated the perspective of a portal using the head-tracking capabilities of a Kinect.
The Kinect grabs the depth map of a room, and calculates what peering through a portal would look like. This virtual scene is projected onto a wall behind the Kinect, creating the illusion of real-life orange and blue portals.
We’ve seen this kind of pseudo-3D, head tracking display before (
1
,
2
), so it’s no surprise the 3D illusion of portals would carry over to a projected 3D display. You can check out [radicade]’s portal demo video after the break. | 10 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "654526",
"author": "atomsoft",
"timestamp": "2012-05-19T20:37:13",
"content": "nothing special here..",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "654747",
"author": "Mikey",
"timestamp": "2012-05-20T02:31:50",
"con... | 1,760,376,864.856273 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/05/19/diy-spring-and-plate-reverb/ | DIY Spring And Plate Reverb | Brian Benchoff | [
"Musical Hacks"
] | [
"audio",
"plate reverb",
"reverb",
"spring reverb"
] | If you’re running your own recording studio, you’re going to need a lot of gear that seems excessively esoteric to the non-musically inclined. A rack full of synth gear looks just like any other cabinet of technology you would find in a server room. Electronic music is, for the most part, very utilitarian looking, but there are a few pieces that add a very nice aesthetic touch to any studio. [Peter] made two great looking pieces of hardware – both reverbs – that significantly add to the decor of his studio. As a bonus, they also sound really good.
[Peter]’s
spring reverb
(Dutch,
Google translate
) works just the same as any other spring reverb; a speaker puts some music into a slightly stretched spring, and this sound is picked up by another transducer at the opposite end. For this build, [Peter] used a Slinky and a piece of PVC pipe left over from a bathroom remodel. Adding a few jacks, pots, and a preamp, [Peter] had a very nice and extremely large spring reverb.
The
plate reverb
(
translation
) is also a staple of pro recording studios around the globe. This reverb is somewhat similar to a spring reverb, except the spring is replaced with a tuned metal plate. [Peter] used a cymbal from a drum set for this piece of kit. Two speakers are attached to the back of the cymbal, one feeds a sound into the cymbal, the other speaker picks up those sounds and sends it to the mixing board.
There’s a lot of really cool musical DIY projects over on
[Peter]’s site
, along with a few audio demos for each of his DIY projects. We’ve included his reverb demos after the break, feel free to give those a listen.
Thanks go to [geekabit] for sending this one in.
Plate reverb:
https://hackaday.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/plate.mp3
Spring reverb:
https://hackaday.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/plate.mp3 | 8 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "654468",
"author": "echodelta",
"timestamp": "2012-05-19T19:07:39",
"content": "Was the cymbal being driven or played actively. This is more instrument than effect. It would be nice to hear speech fed thru it, wet only to gauge the clarity or lack of it. This is how I refined the si... | 1,760,376,865.003711 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/05/19/geeks-living-off-the-grid-are-hard-on-batteries/ | Geeks Living Off The Grid Are Hard On Batteries | Caleb Kraft | [
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"battery",
"charger",
"desulfator",
"sklar"
] | Many of you will remember [Mikey Sklar] from the
multitude of times he’s been on hackaday
. What you may not have noticed is that he is an ubergeek, living off the grid.
He has Solar PV battery bank, three electric vehicles, a shipping container loaded with battery powered tools and a small army of iRobot Roomba’s for cleaning. Getting the maximum lifetime out of a battery by removing sulfation is essential to keep expenses down.
Keeping expenses down is nearly a full time job when trying to live the homestead lifestyle. Our current culture makes it extremely difficult to survive completely on self made/grown things and bartering. They seem to be doing pretty well though. One way he can reduce his costs while still getting to enjoy some modern gadgets is to get longer life out of his batteries. He does this by using
a capacitive battery charger and desolfator that he designed and affectionately calls “Da Pimp”
. He also brings in a little bit of income by selling kits!
A capacitive charger behaves like a constant current power supply dynamically adjusting the voltage to get over the batteries internal resistance. Plus there is a pulse from the AC/DC conversion. This allows for old batteries to last longer and for dumpster dived to be used as replacements. Capacitive chargers are small, silent and super efficent (up to 60% more so than cheap transformer based chargers).
Of course, [Mikey] is a supporter of sharing information so you can also go to his site and download the schematics,bill of materials, gerber files, and files for the housing, to build one yourself. | 37 | 20 | [
{
"comment_id": "654381",
"author": "limpkin",
"timestamp": "2012-05-19T15:23:34",
"content": "a cap on aref is missing…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "654383",
"author": "limpkin",
"timestamp": "2012-05-19T15:24:42",
... | 1,760,376,865.075488 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/05/19/building-a-color-sensor-using-luminosity/ | Building A Color Sensor Using Luminosity | Caleb Kraft | [
"LED Hacks"
] | [
"luminosity",
"photocell",
"rgb"
] | [Richard Osgood] is back again with an interesting project. This time he has
constructed a color sensor
. His initial design was to use three LEDs and a photoresistor. He would shine a red, then green, then blue LED on a surface and record the reflected light with the photoresistor allowing him to determine how much reflected light there was of each color. Unfortunately, he found it to be completely unreliable. An attempt at using a light frequency sensor didn’t work either. What did finally work, was a luminosity sensor shown above.
Finally, his prototype worked. Unfortunately only the red LED gives readings that he considers to be adequate with the blue and green being “not all quite right”. With this type of circuit, he could
build a clone of the magic chameleon lamp
. | 13 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "654304",
"author": "Dax",
"timestamp": "2012-05-19T13:18:09",
"content": "The premise is flawed because he’s confusing additive with subtractive color.Real objects don’t have RGB values, they have a spectum of color. Trying to probe the color of a real object with RGB light is like ... | 1,760,376,865.122923 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/05/18/reminder-spacex-launch-tomorrow-watch-it-live/ | Reminder: SpaceX Launch Tomorrow. Watch It Live! | Caleb Kraft | [
"News"
] | [
"launch",
"rocket",
"SpaceX"
] | There isn’t a hacker out there that isn’t interested at least a little bit in the prospect of building a mission specific rocket to explode someone off the face of the planet… without killing them. We got a tiny taste of what is coming when they let us
watch their engine test
a few weeks ago. Tomorrow, May 19th, they are going to broadcast a launch live! You can watch it on their site beginning at 1:15 AM pacific. For some additional insight, you can also read the tweets of [Elon Musk], the founder of spaceX during the event.
Take a few minutes and enjoy the video below that discusses the program and some of the engineering obstacles they’ve had to overcome.
[via
BoingBoing
]
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HcbxFzPSBsw&feature=player_embedded] | 74 | 26 | [
{
"comment_id": "653987",
"author": "joe",
"timestamp": "2012-05-19T01:55:25",
"content": "It’s an absolute travesty that this is being done by a private corporation, and it’s an even bigger concern that space and space exploration is heading toward the private corporation route.This kind of stuff n... | 1,760,376,865.5583 |
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