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https://hackaday.com/2012/04/30/inconspicuous-guitar-hack-adds-a-lot-of-control-to-maxmsp/ | Inconspicuous Guitar Hack Adds A Lot Of Control To Max/MSP | Mike Szczys | [
"Musical Hacks"
] | [
"accelerometer",
"guitar",
"maxmsp",
"wii remote"
] | [Sam] is working on his Interactive Technology Degree and he made some alterations to this guitar as a class project. It doesn’t look much different, but closer inspection will reveal a handful of extra buttons, and a camera module.
He actually added a Wii remote to the guitar
which is used to control Max/MSP.
His pinky is pointing at one of the buttons. That one is red and triggers the Bluetooth sync function for the Wii remote. The other four buttons are wired to the up, down, A, and B buttons. In the video after the break [Sam] talks about the Max/MSP front-end which is used to connect the remote to the computer. Once communications are established the accelerometer sensor data is continuously streamed to the software, and the other four buttons are used for controlling the patches.
The camera module that is mounted in the guitar can be used to stream video but it appears to have no effect on the sound. In fact, the live video feed can be mixed with a waveform generation. Sound characteristics like volume affect the cross-fade between the two video signals. [Sam] talks about this feature, but when the playing demo starts about 6:10 into the clip we don’t seen any of the live video on the projection screen. | 4 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "641193",
"author": "Jarel",
"timestamp": "2012-04-30T20:02:04",
"content": "It’s a good thing this guy isn’t working on a music degree. That sounded terrible. You would have thought he would have arranged a simple song that shows off the virtues of the new creation instead of just s... | 1,760,376,889.17092 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/04/30/signal-sniffing-some-laundry-pay-cards/ | Signal Sniffing Some Laundry Pay Cards | Mike Szczys | [
"Security Hacks"
] | [
"laundry",
"smart card",
"sniffing"
] | It seems that [Limpkin] was up to no good this weekend. He decided to snoop around inside a smart-card laundry machine. He posted about his
larceny
adventure and shared
the details about how card security works with this machine
.
We’re shocked that the control hardware is not under lock and key. Two screws are all that secures the panel to which this PCB is mounted. We know that machines using coins have a key lock, but perhaps there isn’t much need for that if there’s no currency to steal. [Limpkin] made a pass-through connector for the ribbon cable coming in from the card reader. That’s the rainbow cable you can see above and it’s being fed to his logic sniffer. He used the ‘card detect’ signal as a trigger and captured enough data to take back to his lair for analysis. Using what he found and a Bus Pirate to test the smart card he laid bare all the data that’s being sent and received by the controller. | 19 | 13 | [
{
"comment_id": "641122",
"author": "medix",
"timestamp": "2012-04-30T18:20:24",
"content": "Either the system is ‘older’ (pre-hacker generation), or the manufacturer is relying heavily on security through obscurity. I’m still amazed at the things that *aren’t* more secure, just because whomever bui... | 1,760,376,889.722039 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/04/30/led-clock-lights-up-a-dead-mac-mini/ | LED Clock Lights Up A Dead Mac Mini | Mike Szczys | [
"clock hacks",
"Mac Hacks"
] | [
"arduino",
"chronodot",
"DS3231",
"mac mini",
"MAX7219"
] | [Professor Shadoko’s] Mac Mini died. But since the case designs on Apple products are half the reason to buy them,
he decided to reuse the enclosure by turning it into this clock
(
translated
).
As with
the binary clock we saw yesterday
, this one uses a bunch of LEDs to display the time, but it does it in a way that’s a bit more readable if you know what you’re looking for. The face has been divided up into two columns. On the left is hours, then minutes and seconds in increments of five. To the right is AM/PM, with minutes and seconds in increments of one. If we’re doing this right, the time seen above is 10:23:42 PM on April 28th, 2012. The white LEDs below the date act as a digital pendulum, scrolling left and right as the seconds tick by.
The display uses two MAX7219 LED drivers to control the grid which is build on a big hunk of protoboard. An Arduino ties the whole system together with a Chonodot for accurate time keeping. There’s even an ambient light sensor which adjusts the LED intensity to make this readable in direct sun, or the dark of night. See a demo clip embedded after the break.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mr4zjBw0lzQ | 6 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "641329",
"author": "bio",
"timestamp": "2012-04-30T23:59:22",
"content": "i love the idea of binary clocks and i own one my self but for me personally when i want the time i want to look and intently know the time and go back to working … not look, calculate, smile and feel proud of... | 1,760,376,889.406039 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/04/30/watch-a-rocket-engine-test-live-this-afternoon/ | Watch A Rocket Engine Test Live This Afternoon | Brian Benchoff | [
"Engine Hacks",
"hardware"
] | [
"Merlin",
"rocket test",
"SpaceX"
] | If you want to see something awesome this afternoon, watch
SpaceX’s live broadcast
of an engine test today at 3:00 pm EDT/12:00 pm PDT/7:00 pm GMT. You’ll see nine
Merlin rocket engines
power up to full thrust during a test for the upcoming launch of a Dragon space capsule to the ISS.
This is just a static test –
hopefully
the nine Merlin engines won’t go anywhere. To get an idea of the power behind these engines
this is a test
of just Merlin engine being fired at the SpaceX open house in Texas a year or so ago. Today,
nine
engines will be fired at once.
Check out the videos after the break to see just how awesome the Falcon 9 is going to be.
via
boingboing
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UMqyS6FWeA8&w=470]
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VfOo7QAoZys&w=470] | 25 | 20 | [
{
"comment_id": "641081",
"author": "viper2475",
"timestamp": "2012-04-30T17:19:49",
"content": "PURE AWESOME!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "641109",
"author": "Cobalt",
"timestamp": "2012-04-30T17:54:39",
"content": "Will be wacth... | 1,760,376,889.359881 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/04/30/adding-a-remote-shutter-to-a-cheap-digital-camera/ | Adding A Remote Shutter To A Cheap Digital Camera | Brian Benchoff | [
"digital cameras hacks"
] | [
"canon powershot",
"chdk",
"remote shutter"
] | [Luo] sent in a very easy way to
add a remote shutter
to just about any Canon Powershot. Even though it’s just a button, battery, and USB cable, we’re sure this would be a great project to teach the younglings about the power of soldering.
Some Canon Powershot digicams are impressive beasts with the ability to take time-lapse, long exposure, and high-speed photos. These cameras are generally crippled by their firmware, but
by installing CHDK
these features can be enabled.
[Luo] read the CHDK wiki and found the firmware has the ability to snap a picture whenever a button is pressed. All he had to do is send 5V down a USB cable. After whipping up shutter button housed in a tin of Eclipse gum and attaching a cable, [Luo] had a functional shutter.
With the CHDK firmware, you can do a lot of really interesting stuff with the old Canon camera sitting on your shelf: we’ve seen a lot of
intervalometers
and even a few
book scanners
that use a similar setup. Nice work, [Luo]. | 10 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "641039",
"author": "notdave",
"timestamp": "2012-04-30T15:58:00",
"content": "was just looking into this to get remote shutter support on my elph hs100! thanks!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "641041",
"author": "notdave",
... | 1,760,376,889.666781 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/04/30/getting-a-textured-3d-scan-from-just-a-webcam/ | Getting A Textured 3D Scan From Just A Webcam | Brian Benchoff | [
"hardware",
"Software Development"
] | [
"3d modeling",
"webcam"
] | Here’s an oldie but a goodie that passed us up the first time it went around the Internet. [Qi Pan], (former) PhD student at Cambridge, made a 3D modeling program
using only a simple webcam
. Not only does this make very fast work of building 3D models, the real texture is also rendered on the virtual object.
The project is called ProFORMA, and to get some idea of exactly how fast it is, the model of a church seen above was captured and rendered in a little over a minute. To get the incredible speed of ProFORMA, [Qi] had his webcam take a series of keyframes. When the model is rotated about 10°, another keyframe is taken and the corners are triangulated with some very fancy math.
Even though [Qi]’s project is from 2009, it seems like it would be better than the ReconstructMe, the Kinect-able 3D scanning
we saw a while ago
. There’s a great video of [Qi] modeling a papercraft church after the break, but check out the
actual paper
for a better idea of how ProFORMA works.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vEOmzjImsVc&w=470] | 17 | 12 | [
{
"comment_id": "640999",
"author": "roboman2444",
"timestamp": "2012-04-30T14:15:39",
"content": "This is exactly like a program by adobe…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "641005",
"author": "furiousd",
"timestamp": "2012-04-30... | 1,760,376,889.225506 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/04/30/multitouch-table-uses-a-kinect-for-a-3d-display/ | Multitouch Table Uses A Kinect For A 3D Display | Brian Benchoff | [
"Kinect hacks",
"Multitouch Hacks"
] | [
"3d",
"augmented reality",
"Kinect",
"microsoft surface",
"multitouch"
] | [Bastian] sent in
a coffee table he built
. This isn’t a place to set your drinks and copies of Make, though: it’s a multitouch table with a 3D display. Since no description can do this table justice,
take a look at the video
.
The build was inspired by the
subject of this Hackaday post
where [programming4fun] was able to build a ‘holographic display’ using a regular 2D projector and a Kinect. Both builds work on the principle of redrawing the 3D space in relation to the user’s head – as [Bastian] moves his head around the coffee table, the Kinect tracks his location and moves the 3 dimensional grid of boxes in the opposite direction. It’s extremely clever, and looks to be a promising user interface.
In addition to a Kinect, the coffee table uses a Microsoft Surface-like display; four infrared lasers are placed at the corner and detected with a camera next to the projector in the base.
After the break you can see the demo video and a gallery of the images [Bastion] put up on the NUI group forum.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2CbiOikirrg&w=470] | 14 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "640980",
"author": "Cold_Turkey",
"timestamp": "2012-04-30T13:14:57",
"content": "wow! nice build!I can’t help think what an epic Minecraft editor this could make.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "640981",
"author": "Anybodys... | 1,760,376,889.619104 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/04/30/etching-your-own-boards-really-really-fast/ | Etching Your Own Boards Really, Really Fast | Brian Benchoff | [
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"acid",
"etching",
"Hydrochloric",
"hydrogen peroxide",
"laminator",
"Muratic",
"parchment paper",
"toner transfer"
] | Sometimes the planets align and the Hackaday tip line gets two posts that are begging to be used together. Here’s two hacks to etch your own boards at home in just a few minutes.
Toner transfer PCBs on the quick
One way of putting an etch mask on a PCB is with the toner transfer method: print your circuit on a piece of inkjet photo paper using a laser printer, lay that circuit face down on a sheet of copper, and go at it with a clothes iron. This takes a heck of a lot of time and effort, but [Dustin] found another way.
He used parchment paper
instead of inkjet photo paper. Once the paper was on the board, he rolled it through a laminator. The results are awesome. It’s a very fast process as well – you don’t need to soak your board in water to get the photo paper off.
Etching that’s like wiping the copper away
[Royce]
wrote in from the Milwaukee Makerspace
to tell us about [Tom]’s etching process that is like wiping the copper off the board. He used Muratic (Hydrochloric) acid and Hydrogen Peroxide with a sponge to wipe that copper away. The trick in this, we think, comes from the 30% H202 [Tom] picked up at a chemical supply company, but we’re pretty sure similar strengths can be purchased from beauty supply stores. Check out the video after the break to see [Tom] etch a 1 oz. board in just a few seconds.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OTGZcY7WyYI&w=470] | 43 | 21 | [
{
"comment_id": "640955",
"author": "svofski",
"timestamp": "2012-04-30T12:16:14",
"content": "Pfffft this etching is brutal. Breathing chlorine is ok if it saves you 10 minutes?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "640956",
"author": "Eirinn",
... | 1,760,376,889.568571 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/04/29/bitbanging-super-smash-bros/ | Bitbanging Super Smash Bros. | Brian Benchoff | [
"Microcontrollers"
] | [
"M68HC11",
"Super Smash Bros.",
"vga",
"video game"
] | [Kyle] and an a few of his classmates are wrapping up a microcontroller interfacing class at Purdue and thought it best to send in the
results of their efforts
. It’s a version of Super Smash Bros. made by just bitbanging pins on a microcontroller.
The hardware for the project is based around a Freescale 9S12c32, an updated version of the 30-year-old M68HC11 microcontroller. For the controls, the guys used a Playstation 2 joystick and buttons housed in an Altoids box, and the actual console is made out of strips of wood stapled together to look like a crate from Super Smash Bros.
There are nine playable characters: Pikachu, Captain Falcon, Yoshi, Donkey Kong, Mario, Luigi, Link, Kirby, and Fox. Despite these characters being only four pixels high, the game looks extremely playable (at least when two players don’t choose the same character). After the break is the video demo of Super Smash Bros: Bitbang edition, along with a gallery of pics showing the console and gameplay. All the code is
up on GitHub
for your perusal.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C4Wj2XaYu2c&w=470] | 15 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "640639",
"author": "echodelta",
"timestamp": "2012-04-29T18:17:03",
"content": "Go Purdue",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "640680",
"author": "Mike",
"timestamp": "2012-04-29T19:30:59",
"content": "This is an exceptio... | 1,760,376,889.776087 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/05/01/gpib-connectivity-twofer/ | GPIB Connectivity Twofer | Mike Szczys | [
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"gpib",
"ieee-488",
"rs232",
"usb"
] | Dust off that old GPIB hardware and hook it up to your modern computing platform using either of these two solutions. If you haven’t a clue what we’re talking about you probably don’t own any fifty-year-old test equipment. But the General Purpose Interface Bus (aka IEEE-488) was fairly common on 1960’s era test equipment like multimeters and logic analyzers.
[Sven Pauli] is responsible for
the RS232 GPIB interface board
(
translated
) in the upper left. It uses an ATmega16 and a couple of classic bus driver chips to get the job done.
To the lower right is
a USB to GPIB converter board
that [Steven Casagrande] developed. This one is PIC based, using the 18F4520 and an FTDI chip to handle the USB side of the equation.
Check out the connector that is used for this protocol. We’d bet that’s not the easiest part to source. But at least now you’ll know what you’re looking at
when pawing through the flea market offerings
. | 39 | 17 | [
{
"comment_id": "642058",
"author": "kcsaff",
"timestamp": "2012-05-01T19:38:27",
"content": "Hmm, I still use GPIB (under Visa) when putting together new test stations with modern equipment. There are a couple commercial USB to GPIB options, though, which are essentially no more expensive than jus... | 1,760,376,889.299186 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/05/01/led-case-lights-reflect-cpu-usage/ | LED Case Lights Reflect CPU Usage | Mike Szczys | [
"computer hacks"
] | [
"atmega48",
"cpu",
"led",
"rgb",
"ubuntu",
"V-USB"
] | A lot of Linux users include system monitor information in their status panel so that they can see when the CPU is grinding away. [Kevin] is taking the concept one step further by
changing his case lights based on CPU usage
. Above you can see green, orange, and magenta, but [Kevin’s] implementation uses the full spectrum of color.
The project is based on an ATmega48. It’s running the V-USB stack and connects to one of the motherboard’s internal USB ports. This lets him easily push the CPU usage data over to the microcontroller where it is translated into color. One RGB LED has been installed behind each fan panel on the front of the case, with a white LED above and below as an accent. Pulse-width modulation via some MOSFETs lets him mix and match for just the right color. He’s powering the add-on off of the PSU rails rather than USB so that it turns off when the computer goes to standby.
Don’t miss [Kevin’s] explanation of the system, and a demo of it in action after the break. | 7 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "642015",
"author": "jameswilddev",
"timestamp": "2012-05-01T18:54:18",
"content": "Ooh! I wanted to do something similar with the big grille on the front of my Fractal Design Core 1000… was thinking about a shift register being clocked by a 555 and using the HDD indicator to send p... | 1,760,376,889.827746 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/05/01/chicken-coup-door-using-threaded-rod/ | Chicken Coop Door Using Threaded Rod | Mike Szczys | [
"home hacks"
] | [
"aruino",
"chicken",
"coup",
"door"
] | There’s no rooster to wake them up, and [Steve] and his wife are fine with that. What they’re not fine with is having to get up early anyway in order to let the chickens out of the coop. Like many small-scale egg farmers they sought out
an automatic solution for opening the coup in the morning
.
[Steve] had seen a bunch of different automatic coup door hacks kicking around the Internet. But all of the ones he could find
used a vertical door and pulleys
. His setup has a door that opens horizontally and he realized that he needed to build some kind of linear actuator. What he came up with is a system built with hardware store parts. He’s using a plain old piece of threaded rod along with a coupling nut (they’re usually 3/4″ long or so). The nut is held firmly on the door using a conduit mounting bracket, while the threaded rod is turned by an electric screwdriver mounted to the jamb. Two limiting switches are made up of magnetic sensors often used to ring the door entry bell when you enter a store. An Arduino takes care of scheduling and controlling the motor for opening and closing the door. See for yourself in the high-production-value video after the break.
For what it’s worth, we have seen at least one
rope and pulley door that slides horizontally
. | 19 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "641938",
"author": "Aaron",
"timestamp": "2012-05-01T17:38:49",
"content": "Chickencoup? Good God.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "641943",
"author": "ddh819",
"timestamp": "2012-05-01T17:43:16",
"conte... | 1,760,376,889.887127 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/05/01/drop-everything-and-build-this-go-kart-right-now/ | Drop Everything And Build This Go-kart Right Now! | Mike Szczys | [
"Transportation Hacks"
] | [
"go-kart",
"hub motor",
"mit",
"RACE"
] | There are awesome projects, and then there are things that make us drool on the keyboard. We just got done wiping up our mess after seeing
this go-kart which uses four hub-motors as direct drive wheels
. We’ll admit, this is more artwork than a hack as these guys are mechanical engineers and know what they’re doing. But how could we pass up sharing something like this?
The design is smaller than any of the
other go-karts we remember seeing
. The low-backed pilot seat is the biggest part, with a cubby-hole beneath it for the batteries and control hardware. Each of the hub-motors was hand wound and reading through the related blog posts it seems this was a huge and painful part of the build.
So it’s pretty fun to watch these guys tear up the hallways of one of the engineering buildings at MIT. But the footage of a two-kart race up a spiraling parking garage in the middle of the night is absolutely delightful. You’ll find both videos embedded after the break. | 28 | 15 | [
{
"comment_id": "641826",
"author": "FrankTheCat",
"timestamp": "2012-05-01T16:19:35",
"content": "At least this post about Charles isn’t nearly as full of misinformation and stupidity, compared to your post on Land-Bear-Shark. Or was it Segfault you were trying to cover? I honestly couldn’t tell.",... | 1,760,376,890.362098 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/05/01/rail-bike-conversion-is-a-success-and-a-failure/ | Rail Bike Conversion Is A Success, And A Failure | Caleb Kraft | [
"Transportation Hacks"
] | [
"bicycle",
"railway",
"train",
"train tracks"
] | There is a long tradition of hacking transportation to work on the rails. People have done it to all kinds of things for many reasons. Some are for rail maintenance, others are simply to enjoy the tracks. With as much unused railways as we have, it seems a shame to waste them.
This hack turns a bicycle into into a rail bike
with the use of some conduit, a cut up razor scooter, and a fork from another bike. After some tinkering with spacing to make the whole thing a little smoother on the rails, the whole thing seemed like a success. That is, until the front rail guide caught a railway tie and the rider was tossed. Not only that, the impact destroyed his bike frame.
So, does this wreck mark this as a failure? Or is this simply another step in the iterative process we all tend to use. The only difference is if he carries on to build another. | 40 | 23 | [
{
"comment_id": "641775",
"author": "PodexPerfectusSum",
"timestamp": "2012-05-01T15:41:11",
"content": "The failure is if he doesn’t use the experience to improve the design.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "641779",
"author": "chattafuup",
... | 1,760,376,890.439649 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/05/01/automated-cat-feeder-with-a-view/ | Automated Cat Feeder With A View | Caleb Kraft | [
"home hacks"
] | [
"cat feeder"
] | [Robovergne] wrote in to share his
fantastic automated cat feeder
with us. After researching the common commercial products he could find, he decided to build one that utilized a home made linear actuator to pull a certain amount out of a reservoir. Initially, he attempted to use microwave motors but ultimately found them to be too weak to force the bits of cat food should they get stuck. He was afraid this extra strain would cause motor failure before too long. Ultimately, he replaced the microwave motor with a fairly strong servo that seems to do the job just fine. He’s currently using an Arduino to time it all, but he does mention that he feels it is a waste of the arduino for such a simple task.
As you can see in the videos after the break, his mechanism seems quite solid. There isn’t a lot of play in the movement and the amount of food coming out seems to be fairly controllable. | 13 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "641712",
"author": "Zee",
"timestamp": "2012-05-01T14:48:05",
"content": "What he should be afraid of is the cat attacking the feeder because it can see the food.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KRBH21IvSrc",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"com... | 1,760,376,890.529466 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/05/01/keyboard-composes-its-own-music/ | Keyboard Composes Its Own Music | Brian Benchoff | [
"Musical Hacks"
] | [
"composition",
"keyboard",
"markov",
"random music"
] | Summer is right around the corner and all the final projects from electronic design classes are rolling into the tip line. This time, we’ve got [Chaorong] and [Siyu]’s
auto-composing keyboard
from their time in ECE4760 at Cornell.
The keyboard has two modes: a ‘happy’ mode and a ‘tender’ mode, the difference being the tender mode is slower and sounds a little like a lullaby. After two keys are pressed, the ATMega644 figures out what key it should play in and starts generating a random-ish sounding song using a Markov probability matrix.
There’s a third option for the keyboard as well: play a short melody and the software will loop through a few permutations of the melody. After the break, you can see [Siyu] play Ode to Joy and have the autocomposer improvise around the tune. Very, very nice work and we can’t wait to see more senior design projects hit the tip line.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fttsc25U5tQ&w=470] | 5 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "641706",
"author": "Kevin N. Haw",
"timestamp": "2012-05-01T14:39:53",
"content": "A very neat project – made me look up Markov Chains, so I learned something today!Total aside (and apologies for being pedantic), but the post title should be “its” not “it’s.”",
"parent_id": null... | 1,760,376,890.665594 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/04/28/printing-custom-whistles-for-everyone-at-your-reprap-conference/ | Printing Custom Whistles For Everyone At Your RepRap Conference | Brian Benchoff | [
"3d Printer hacks",
"cnc hacks"
] | [
"cnc",
"openscad",
"prusa",
"reprap"
] | When [Josef Prusa] speaks at a conference extolling the virtues of 3D printing, he likes to give out printed objects to show off the possibilities home-brew fabrication. A favorite of [Prusa] are whistles – they’re functional and show off exactly what a 3D printer can do. Printing out hundreds of whistles is a job for a factory and not a printer, so [Prusa] decided to
customize each whistle with the initials of a conference attendee
.
When [Prusa] was asked to attend the INFOTRENDY conference in Bratislava, he had a small audience (only 150 people) and a list of all the attendees a week before hand. It was the perfect scenario to whip up a Python script to generate the models for a whistle with the initials of each attendee emblazoned on the side.
The WhistleGen code is
up on [Prusa]’s GitHub
ready to print out custom whistles for your next conference. While the capabilities of WhistleGen are limited to just two letters of text, we’re sure someone will figure out a way to automate the generation custom conference badges very shortly.
See the example he sent us after the break. | 6 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "640419",
"author": "blargl",
"timestamp": "2012-04-29T04:57:37",
"content": "Me gusta!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "640423",
"author": "Tarik Dursun Zorgulen",
"timestamp": "2012-04-29T05:18:20",
"content": "Oh, p... | 1,760,376,890.296776 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/04/28/nuka-cola-prop-looks-deliciously-radioactive/ | Nuka-Cola Prop Looks Deliciously Radioactive | Caleb Kraft | [
"News"
] | [
"Fallout",
"nuka-cola",
"prop"
] | Yet another Fallout post here on Hackaday. This time, instead of the PIP-Boy, someone has
built a fantastic prop for the iconic Nuka-Cola
. The circuit is super simple, really just an LED array to light up the beverage just right. The construction of the base is quite nice though. If you’re a fan of functional props, or at least semi-functional (we doubt it tastes very refreshing), you’ll enjoy the build.
In case you’re wondering just what
is
in that bottle, it is basically just tonic water. For those who are unaware, tonic glows under UV light. [Kfklown] did add a few drops of paint to get the perfect color though. You’ll note that there are red and blue LEDs in the base as well as UV for color as well. | 12 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "640152",
"author": "noone",
"timestamp": "2012-04-28T15:58:46",
"content": "add some bleach, or it will probably grow moldmy tonic did.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "640326",
"author": "Hirudinea",
"timestamp... | 1,760,376,890.624552 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/04/28/retrotechtacular-science-fair-robot-ca-1984/ | Retrotechtacular: Science Fair Robot Ca. 1984 | Mike Szczys | [
"News"
] | [
"retrotechtacular",
"robot"
] | [Michael Surran] just came across this
video from his seventh grade science fair project
. He really had some fun building and showing off the robot and we’re glad the footage wasn’t lost in the annals of time. Take a look at the clip after the break. That’s not a robot peeing, it’s the ‘fire defense unit’ that pumps liquid to put out very near-range fires. There’s a solar-powered fan on the front, and the claw will spin if you know how to activate it. The shoulders and base are also motorized, and it looks like the keypad from an early calculator gives some extra control on the back of the bot.
We can’t watch this without smiling, and it’s inspired us to launch a recurring feature on Hackaday. We want you to dig out and digitize your old footage. Anything hack-related is fair game… and don’t be bashful! It doesn’t necessarily have to be you either. For example, we loved the video of [Grace Hopper’s]
nanosecond lecture
. If you’ve got some old time footage
send us a link to it
!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p5TELtVe5_A | 4 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "640090",
"author": "MigSantiago",
"timestamp": "2012-04-28T13:53:17",
"content": "Wow… 1984… that’s vintage!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "640138",
"author": "davut naci kaya",
"timestamp": "2012-04-28T15:43:25",
"... | 1,760,376,890.481674 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/04/27/westport-mini-maker-faire-is-the-first-for-connecticut/ | Westport Mini Maker Faire Is The First For Connecticut | Caleb Kraft | [
"News"
] | [
"connecticut",
"maker faire"
] | If you’re in Westport CT, or within day-trip distance, you might want to check out the
Mini Maker Faire happening there this weekend. Being held at the Westport Library & Jesup Green
, there are going to be several interesting planned events, on top of the usual gathering of makers and hackers. Local hackerspaces will be in attendance as well.
Some of the planned events include a battle of the home made bands, rube goldberg events, and jam sessions with the home made bands. Check out the guest speakers as well, there are a few names there that we would love to see. | 5 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "639897",
"author": "Tech B.",
"timestamp": "2012-04-28T04:54:00",
"content": "Wish my state had anything remotely close to a Maker Faire.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "640045",
"author": "Rob K",
"timestamp": "2012-04-... | 1,760,376,890.57256 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/04/27/pinball-stomp-part1/ | Pinball Stomp: Part1 | Caleb Kraft | [
"classic hacks",
"Featured",
"how-to",
"Peripherals Hacks",
"Toy Hacks"
] | [
"pinball",
"virtual pinball"
] | Despite my atrociously short attention span, I’ve always loved pinball. Maybe it is something about all the flashing lights and clunking solenoids. Maybe it is just the simple physics at the center of it all. I’m not really sure. My kids, however, don’t share my enthusiasm. I suspect part of it is that they never wandered through a fog filled arcade in the middle of the night, hopped up on Reese’s Pieces with a shrinking pile of quarters in their pocket. The other part might be the fact that they have gotten used to the Nintendo Wii and the Xbox Kinect (we just got one last week).
Watching them jump up and down playing an extremely simple and repetitive game with the Kinect gave me an idea. I envisioned pinball projected on the side of my house, the kids jumping up and down in front of it to move the paddles. Keep reading to see how I plan to build it and what I’ve done so far. There’s a full video, but also text of the entire thing.
Thanks to that deficiency in the attention span department I mentioned earlier, one of the main requirements of this project were that it be fast and fairly easy. Not only do I simply not want to spend weeks building this, I doubt it will hold anyones attention for more than an evening or two.
It is also worth noting that I’m not an engineer. I’m not as smart as the writers I tend to hire, and I’m certainly not as smart as most of the readers of hackaday. What I do is usually rough, dirty, and barely works.
The easiest possible way I could think to do this, was to make a couple rugged stomp sensors and just wire them into a keyboard. This should be really easy to do and will work perfectly with
Virtual Pinball
.
In Part 1, I build the breakout box from an old keyboard. I decided to go ahead and make this part fairly reusable, in case I wanted to do other projects that needed external input in the future. I used what I had lying around to reduce the cost.
Parts:
old keyboard (I chose a USB one so I could use it with laptops)
project enclosure
Some kind of external connectors for your sensors
Step 1.
Tear stuff apart.
Rip that keyboard apart. Save the screws. As you can see in the video, you need the board that actually sends the data to the computer. The rest is not needed for this project. However, you could just as easily leave the board in place and use the functional keyboard itself as the enclosure. I don’t really see a downfall to this plan… maybe I should have done that!
Step 2.
plan your inputs.
For Pinball Stomp, we only need an input for Left flipper, Right flipper, add coin, begin game, and pull plunger. The easiest way to get these was to use a program called keyhook to poll the keyboard while I bridged some of the connections. You can
download it here
, about halfway down the page. Once I saw what was available, I soldered some lines on to extend them out of the box and labelled them. All that was left at this point was to mount everything in a container.
Step 3.
mount stuff.
Remember those screws from the keyboard you kept earlier? You can use those to screw stuff into soft plastic. This makes everything much easier. Of course if you went with the idea of keeping the keyboard fully functional, all you would need to do is drill a hole in the keyboard for the extensions to come out and re-assemble. Put your easy connectors on the outside of your enclosure and connect your wires to it. You’re done!
That’s it really. At this point I have a re-usable external controller box. Next, I have to build the stomp pads to connect to it.
Part 2 is now completed,
go see how it turned out
! | 16 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "639711",
"author": "NewCommentor1283",
"timestamp": "2012-04-27T22:29:33",
"content": "execellent hack, old school, simple, and USEFUL, bonus.PS: i’d have used parallel port connector for ALL pins, then take “yet another” free parallel printer cable and hardwire one cable up to each... | 1,760,376,890.918949 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/04/27/laser-so-easy-to-build-anyone-can-burn-their-eyes-out/ | Laser So Easy To Build Anyone Can Burn Their Eyes Out | Mike Szczys | [
"Laser Hacks"
] | [
"diode",
"flashlight",
"laser",
"lathe",
"machine"
] | The boys over at North Street Labs
built a handheld burning laser
and made it look super simple. Well it’s not. We don’t think it’s hard either, but the only reason it looks so easy is because they really know what they’re doing.
The first step was to source the best parts for the application. They’re using a handheld flashlight body which is small but still leaves plenty of room for the components. Next they ordered a quality lens made for the wavelength of the diode, as well as a prefab driver board.
Now the real build starts. They hit the metal lathe and machined a housing for the diode out of some aluminum stock. To marry the parts together they applied some thermal paste, and used a wrench socket to protect the diode from the pressure the vice jaws exert. It slid into place and the whole thing fits perfectly in the flashlight housing. The project wouldn’t be complete without video proof of it burning stuff. You’ll find that after the break. | 62 | 19 | [
{
"comment_id": "639651",
"author": "truthspew",
"timestamp": "2012-04-27T21:12:09",
"content": "My favorite laser was the 150W CO2 laser that was part of an engraving system.One day the guy responsible for engraving forgot to turn the chiller on for the system and the RF cavity ate itself.That’s ho... | 1,760,376,890.770016 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/04/27/hackerspace-intro-the-geek-group-in-grand-rapids-michigan/ | Hackerspace Intro: The Geek Group In Grand Rapids, Michigan | Mike Szczys | [
"Hackerspaces"
] | [
"grand rapids",
"michigan",
"The Geek Group"
] | We’re happy to see some links rolling in from
our call for Hackerspace introductions
. This is sort of a reintroduction of
The Geek Group
. They’ve been around for a while and we’ve featured several
interesting projects
coming out of the collective (check out this
pulse capacitor autopsy
). You may remember
some tax woes
they ran into when the home base was located in Kalamazoo, but they’ve moved past the issue and moved out of town. This is their new location in Grand Rapids, MI and you can get a peek at the tour starting about 4:45 into the video after the break. Be warned, there is some mildly vulgar language in the video in the form of the ‘S’ word (you’re welcome cubicle dwellers).
We hope you’ll look at the video and see that we don’t need to you spend a week in post-production. Give us a tour by video as if we were there in person. Show us what you’re up to and we’ll be eternally grateful. | 9 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "639646",
"author": "profito",
"timestamp": "2012-04-27T21:06:24",
"content": "I like that this is a non-profit org… It surely does not solve everything, but it helps.Not all maker joints are non-profit, and I have concerns about those that are for-profit. Why pay to build something ... | 1,760,376,890.967312 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/04/27/receiving-asynchronous-data-bursts/ | Receiving Asynchronous Data Bursts | Mike Szczys | [
"Microcontrollers"
] | [
"assembly",
"asynchronous",
"data",
"pic"
] | [Johan’s] been working on a chunk of code for about seven years and he thinks it’s ready to help you with your next project. He calls it D1 (The One) and it lets you
receive asynchronous data without the need for a hardware USART
. It’s capable of working with signals from an IR or RF remote, as well as tangentially related transmissions like RFID and magstripe readers.
It uses timer and port interrupts to sample the incoming data. Once it’s captured a transmission, the code sets a flag so that you can pull what it got into your own application. If you’re expecting to receive a protocol that sends packets several times in a row a verification module is also included which runs as a precondition of setting the received flag. The package is written in PIC assembly, but with all the information that [Johan] included in his post this shouldn’t be hard to port over to other chip architecture. | 7 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "639728",
"author": "munch",
"timestamp": "2012-04-27T23:01:25",
"content": "Seven years? Commodore has him beat by more than a few years. IEC bus anyone? ;)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "639733",
"author": "Kemp",
"... | 1,760,376,891.009275 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/04/27/scanning-turntable-digitizes-objects-as-3d-models/ | Scanning Turntable Digitizes Objects As 3D Models | Mike Szczys | [
"digital cameras hacks"
] | [
"3d",
"autodesk",
"digitize",
"dslr",
"model",
"scanner",
"turntable"
] | This turntable
can automatically digitize objects for use in 3D rendering software
like Blender3D. [James Dalby] built it using a high-quality DSLR, and some bits and pieces out of his junk box. The turntable itself is a Lazy Susan turned on its head. The base for the spinning model is normally what sits on the table, but this way it gives him an area to rest the model, and the larger portion acts as a mounting surface for the drive mechanism.
He used the stepper motor from a scanner, as well as the belt and tension hardware from a printer to motorize the platform. This is driven by a transistor array (a ULN2003 chip) connected to an Arduino. The microcontroller also controls the shutter of the camera. We’ve included his code after the break; you’ll find his demo video embedded there as well.
The concept is the same as
other turntable builds we’ve seen
, But [James] takes the post-processing one step further. Rather than just make a rotating gif he is using
Autodesk 123D
to create a digital model from the set of images.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BF7QUtghGi8
int camera = 13;
int startButton = 3;
long stepCount = 0;
long stepErrorCount = 0;
int callibrated = LOW;
int photos = 10;
int turns = 0;
int buttonPrep = 0;
unsigned long actualStepsPerRevolution = 1; //keep this at 1 or it gets confused somewhere.
unsigned long serialMode = 0; //to store serial data pulled from void getSerial()
int inbyte;
#include <Stepper.h>
int stepsPerRevolution = 13546; //13546 is about right if you can't be bothered to callibrate.
Stepper myStepper(stepsPerRevolution, 6,8,7,9);
void setup() {
pinMode(camera, OUTPUT);
myStepper.setSpeed(1); // set the speed in rpm based on stepsPerRevolution
Serial.begin(9600);
Serial.println("DalbySpin9002, contact@jamesdalby.co.uk");
Serial.println();
Serial.println("Photos required? (eg, '36/')");
serialMode = 0;
while (serialMode == 0) getSerial();
Serial.println();
photos = serialMode;
Serial.print(photos);
Serial.println(" photos to take.");
if(photos > 360){///////////////////////warn if asked to take too many photos
Serial.println("Hmm, taking this many photos probably wont go to well but you're probably going to try anyway so good luck with that!");
delay(2000);}
Serial.println();
Serial.print(" Positioning for Calibration...");
}
void loop() {
//CALLIBRATION
while (turns < 2){
while (digitalRead(startButton) == LOW && turns < 2){
stepAdv(1,0);//go one step
}
if (digitalRead(startButton) == HIGH){
while (digitalRead(startButton) == HIGH) stepAdv(1,0);//go one step
turns = turns + 1;
if (turns == 1){ Serial.println(" Done.");
Serial.print(" Calibrating...");}
if (turns == 2){
stepsPerRevolution = stepCount;// divide one rotation up into a series of photos
Serial.println(" Done.");
Serial.print(" Recorded steps for one revolution = "); Serial.println(stepCount);
}
stepCount = 0;
delay(5000);
}
}
//END OF CALLIBRATION
//GO CODE:
if (turns >= 2 ){
Serial.println();
Serial.println("Capturing:");
delay(9999);
int photoCount = 1;
for (int i=1; i <= photos; i++){
Serial.print(" Photo "); ///"Photo x of y"
Serial.print(photoCount);
Serial.print(" of ");
Serial.print(photos);
/*Serial.print(" Steps = ");
Serial.print(stepCount);*/
delay(2000);
digitalWrite(camera, HIGH); //trigger SLR
Serial.println(" CLICK!");
delay(2000);
digitalWrite(camera, LOW);
photoCount = photoCount + 1;
stepAdv(stepsPerRevolution/photos, 0); //divide one rotation up into a series of photos
}
delay(10);
while(photoCount >= photos){}
}
///////////////////////////END
}
void stepAdv(int steps, int mode){
go(steps);
stepCheck();
}
void go(int steps1){
for (int i=1; i <= steps1; i++){
myStepper.step(1);
stepCount = stepCount + 1;
stepCheck();
}
}
void stepCheck(){
if (digitalRead(startButton) == HIGH ){
actualStepsPerRevolution = 0;
}
if (digitalRead(startButton) == LOW && actualStepsPerRevolution == 0){
actualStepsPerRevolution = stepCount;
}
}
long getSerial() ///to set number of photos
{
serialMode = 0;
while (inbyte != '/')
{
inbyte = Serial.read();
if (inbyte > 0 && inbyte != '/')
{
serialMode = serialMode * 10 + inbyte - '0';
}
}
inbyte = 0;
return serialMode;
} | 25 | 14 | [
{
"comment_id": "639561",
"author": "gizmoguyar",
"timestamp": "2012-04-27T18:28:50",
"content": "This is cool. It’s nice to see that everything can be controlled from the one Arduino. I’ve needed to make 3d models before, and I’ve just used a microwave oven turntable motor (~ 4 RPM). But this cert... | 1,760,376,891.474611 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/04/27/text-adventures-for-arduino-starting-with-hunt-the-wumpus/ | Text Adventures For Arduino Starting With Hunt The Wumpus | Mike Szczys | [
"Arduino Hacks"
] | [
"adafruit",
"character lcd",
"hunt the wumpus",
"lcd",
"rgb"
] | Let’s be honest, you’re going to have trouble getting kids to play text-based adventure games these days. But this is one way to get them interested. This weekend you should get together with niece, nephew, son, or daughter and help them
build their own hardware and program it with an adventure game
. One last project before school’s out and the weather’s nice.
This is [Dan’s] shiny example of
Hunt the Wumpus
. He used Adafruit’s RGB LCD shield for Arduino. It’s got a character LCD and five buttons. But you can easily breadboard this yourself using a few tactiles plus a screen and uC of your own choosing. One nice touch with this one is the RGB backlight which is used to add an element of danger to the story line. He also mentions a few bugs in the Arduino language which he found while setting up the game.
We’ve been meaning to make our version of Zork using an Arduino, GLCD, and PS/2 keyboard ever since we read “Ready Player One”. This is just a bit more encouragement to get moving on that project.
[Thanks PT] | 5 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "639549",
"author": "Cornelius",
"timestamp": "2012-04-27T17:59:29",
"content": "It’s Zork. With a “k”.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "639628",
"author": "Mike Szczys",
"timestamp": "2012-04-27T20:32:00",
... | 1,760,376,891.199509 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/04/27/a-flashlight-for-any-occasion/ | A Flashlight For Any Occasion | Mike Szczys | [
"LED Hacks"
] | [
"flashlight",
"infrared",
"ir",
"ultraviolet",
"uv"
] | Whether you’re trying to light your path, build your own night vision, or do some tanning at home, this flashlight has you covered. [David Prutchi] designed the
high power flashlight with three swappable heads
.
He built the base unit out of aluminum pipe. It’s got plenty of room for the four 9V batteries that act as the power source. The driver circuit is just a bit smaller than one of those batteries, and to bring the whole thing together [David] and his helper added a potentiometer, toggle switch, and quick connector which makes head swaps a breeze. The heads themselves are all LED based, with one for visible light, another for infrared, and the final module outputs ultraviolet. We joke about tanning with it, but at 10 Watts you should be more worried about accidental damage to your vision.
The finished product is shown checking the security ink on some Canadian Currency. This would also make a nice secondary light source for
your night vision monocle
. | 13 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "639491",
"author": "Colecago",
"timestamp": "2012-04-27T16:27:05",
"content": "I was going to complain about the use of 9Vs because they typically don’t have high mAH ratings, but the article says they are using Lithium based 9Vs which have over double the capacity compared to stand... | 1,760,376,891.357355 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/04/27/build-a-stereo-microscope-from-binoculars-and-a-camera-lens/ | Build A Stereo Microscope From Binoculars And A Camera Lens | Brian Benchoff | [
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"binoculars",
"camera lens",
"microscope",
"smd",
"stereo microscope"
] | Here’s an oldie but a goodie. [RunnerPack] stumbled upon an article from 2001 about building a
stereo microscope
from a pair of binoculars and a camera lens. With a ring light attached to the end of the camera lens, we couldn’t think of a better microscope for SMD work.
To mount the binoculars to the camera lens, [Giorgio Carboni] made a very nice adapter containing four prisms. These prisms are very carefully aligned and glued down with a little bit of epoxy. By using an 8×30 pair of binoculars and a 35-100 mm camera lens, [Giorgio] was able to get a magnification factor of 10-57x. With a macro lens this factor can be increased (a 28mm lens bumps it up to 71x, but a lot more light is needed).
The pedestal is just a few ground rods and ground steel rods, something that requires a bit of machining. Since 2001, though, a lot of tinkerers have 3D printers so it could be possible to build a more easily manufactured version of the focusing apparatus.
[RunnerPack] had a pair of binoculars and a camera lens handy and tried a mono version of this build. He says he was blown away, but unfortunately didn’t provide any pictures. If you decide to build this project, be sure to snap a few pics and send it in
on the tip line
. | 11 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "639445",
"author": "medix",
"timestamp": "2012-04-27T15:20:38",
"content": "Killer idea, considering that old manual focus lenses are cheap on Ebay (especially the Tamron variety that’s shown in the above tutorial).Great build!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies":... | 1,760,376,891.306894 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/04/27/gigantic-liquid-crystal-display-is-like-a-giant-calculator/ | Gigantic Liquid Crystal Display Is Like A Giant Calculator | Brian Benchoff | [
"hardware"
] | [
"lcd",
"LCD glass"
] | Some say he turns on his soldering iron by saying, “Flame on!.” He deadbug solders – QFP packages. All we know is he’s called [stig] and he sent in an awesome
an awesome video
of a new display at the Nature Research Center in Raleigh, North Carolina. It’s a 10 foot by 90 foot LCD display that uses 6 inch square glass panels containing the same liquid crystals you’d find in a calculator.
The display/installation is called Patterned by Nature and is built using 3600 pieces of LCD privacy glass. When a voltage is applied to the glass it changes from clear to opaque. While this technology has been around for decades (just look at your calculator), only in the last few years has LCD privacy glass come down in price to make a project like this economical.
The gigantic display was created in part by Sosolimited, an art studio who has made a
similar project before
. The display hanging in the atrium of the Raleigh Nature Research Center is amazingly efficient for its size drawing only 75 watts.
If you’d like to try your hand at a similar build, we wish you luck; this LCD glass is still somewhat expensive but perhaps in a few years the price will come down enough that we can play Tetris on the side of a building. | 25 | 19 | [
{
"comment_id": "639408",
"author": "Wholly Mindless",
"timestamp": "2012-04-27T14:11:50",
"content": "Go Stig!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "639412",
"author": "st2000",
"timestamp": "2012-04-27T14:26:40",
"content": "I want one!S... | 1,760,376,891.417799 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/04/27/a-papercraft-resistor-calculator-from-adafruit/ | A Papercraft Resistor Calculator From Adafruit | Brian Benchoff | [
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"calculator",
"papercraft",
"resistor",
"resistor calculator"
] | The Adafruit blog just posted a neat
papercraft resistor calculator
. If you haven’t yet learned the horribly offensive mnemonic for resistor color codes, now’s your chance to have a cheap and portable resistor value reference.
This papercraft resistor calculator is the latest in the family of
Circuit Playground
tools that include a fabulous electronic reference app we reviewed
some months ago
. Instead of an Android or iOS device, the papercraft resistor calculator runs on its own mechanical computer; a series of four printed disks and some paper fasteners.
If you’d like to print out your own resistor calculator, Adafruit put up the
PDF on GitHub
and posted the
Illustrator file on Thingiverse
for easy editing. It’s not the old-school cool of a slide rule, but we could easily see this resistor calculator being useful if you’re ever lucky enough to teach electronics to children. At least then you won’t have to share that offensive mnemonic. | 22 | 15 | [
{
"comment_id": "639378",
"author": "Anonymous",
"timestamp": "2012-04-27T13:25:02",
"content": "Black Beer Rots Our Young Guts, But Vodka Goes Well, Good Sir!I see nothing offensive here.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "639397",
"auth... | 1,760,376,891.261089 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/04/27/pedal-powered-hydrofoil-looks-like-a-lot-of-fun/ | Pedal Powered Hydrofoil Looks Like A Lot Of Fun | Brian Benchoff | [
"Transportation Hacks"
] | [
"hydrofoil",
"pedal powered"
] | After reading a bicycle-powered hydrofoil build we posted a few days ago, [James] sent in the project that earned him an iron ring from Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia, Canada. It’s a
pedal-powered hydrofoil
made of carbon fiber and a Titanium drive shaft [James] and five other students in a mech eng senior design class built in 2005.
The Halifoil, as the team called it, is based on a recumbent design and uses twin carbon fiber hulls to keep the rider out of the water when not pedaling. The use of carbon fiber foils and Titanium drive shaft keep the weight down so the rider can easily accelerate to a speed where the hulls come out of the water.
Compared to
the last hydrofoil
we posted, [James]’ build is much heavier, but one is much better suited to sitting in the middle of a lake, then pedaling to the shore while flying above the water.
Even though the project is several years old, it’s still a very cool build. [James] was kind enough to post the videos of his build residing on the Dalhousie servers on YouTube; you can check those out after the break.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EJ6NwbaAU4w&w=470]
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gckjfdinbp8&w=470] | 19 | 13 | [
{
"comment_id": "639351",
"author": "Ren",
"timestamp": "2012-04-27T12:34:49",
"content": "From the videos it looks like a lot of pedaling to get “foilborne”. Once “foilborne” is there a decrease in drag? (I mean what is the benefit of hydrofoils? more speed/less drag? I am aware of the smoother ... | 1,760,376,891.532682 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/04/27/tiny-n64-controller-comes-with-hand-cramp-guarantee/ | Tiny N64 Controller Comes With Hand-cramp Guarantee | Mike Szczys | [
"Nintendo Hacks"
] | [
"16F628",
"n64",
"pic"
] | Just looking at this little thing makes our hands ache. But [Kirren] did do a great job of
building an N64 controller inside a tiny project box
. It’s not a mod, but a ground-up build based on a PIC 16F628 microcontroller.
It has most of the buttons found on a standard controller, and he assures us that you can play most games without missing the ones that didn’t make it into the design. You can just make out the analog stick to the left, but that silver ring on the right is actually a 4-direction tactile switch which stands in for the C buttons. He’s also included Start, A, B, R, and Z.
The link above goes to his Wiki, and there are more than enough details if you’re interested in doing this yourself or just understanding how everything works. Check out his writeup on the protocol, and you can even get a copy of his code. There’s also a video demo after the break which shows [Kirren] playing some Bond with the controller. | 7 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "639323",
"author": "Stephen",
"timestamp": "2012-04-27T11:37:02",
"content": "where’s my DIY Dick Tracey watch already?http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/4/42/Dicktracy1961cartoon.jpg",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "639358... | 1,760,376,891.667808 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/04/26/sip-and-puff-ipod-dock-highlights-assistive-technology/ | Sip-and-Puff Ipod Dock Highlights Assistive Technology | Mike Szczys | [
"Arduino Hacks",
"Lifehacks"
] | [
"assistive technology",
"sip & puff"
] | Check it out,
a Sip-and-Puff Arduino shield
. This is an assistive technology that allows the physically challenged to control things using a plastic air tube. Different combinations of sucking (Sip) or blowing (Puff) differentiate between control commands.
In this case the device is used to control an iPod dock, but [Bob Johnson’s]
Kickstarter project
seeks to put the Sip-and-Puff functionality out there so that it can bridge the control gap no matter what the need. One example that he mentions in the video after the break is a Morse Code keyboard.
This shield uses a pressure sensor to receive input from the plastic tubing. But we’ve also seen it done
using mechanical pressure switches
. That technique is what was used in
the Sip-and-Puff Kayak build
. | 18 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "638879",
"author": "Isaac",
"timestamp": "2012-04-27T00:57:55",
"content": "I’ll admit. I don’t do a great deal to keep up with assistive technologies… but how is this better than eye tracking that we see commercially far more often?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"rep... | 1,760,376,891.58584 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/04/26/time-to-get-serious-about-going-to-layerone/ | Time To Get Serious About Going To LayerOne | Mike Szczys | [
"cons",
"Security Hacks"
] | [
"badge hacking",
"layerone",
"lock picking"
] | This year’s
LayerOne Hacking and Security Conference is right around the corner
. But it’s not too late to attend. You can still get a block-rate hotel room if you register by the end of April, and registration for the two-day event only costs a hundred bucks. It’s scheduled for May 26th and 27th in Anaheim California.
As usual,
the Speaker lineup is quite impressive
. Everything from Android Malware to embedded exploits and botnet adventures will be discussed. And then there’s the perennial favorite lock picking and hardware hacking villages. Did we mention badges? We’d bet it was
this pick-and-place machine
which helped assemble this year’s pile of badges. We haven’t seen any word on what they might include, but there’s a hacking contest so plan to pack your tools. | 2 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "638824",
"author": "charliex",
"timestamp": "2012-04-26T23:52:01",
"content": "I’m not late with the badge design or anything, that is not the reason its not been mentioned.. We will have a killer HHV though.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"c... | 1,760,376,891.626386 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/04/26/avrphone-is-a-barebones-touchscreen-cellphone/ | AVRphone Is A Barebones Touchscreen Cellphone | Mike Szczys | [
"Cellphone Hacks"
] | [
"ATmega128",
"gsm",
"sim100s",
"touchscreen"
] | This little device is
a prototype cellphone based on the ATmega128 microcontroller
(
translated
). It boasts a 2.4″ touchscreen display which serves as the keypad, and uses the SIM100S module which takes care of the GSM radio communications. But the hardware isn’t the only attractive part. Judging from the screen shots a fair amount of time went into building the user interface too.
We seem to have a bounty of cellphone builds recently. This one is quite clean, and boasts a smaller footprint, and larger screen than
this barebones example
. There is a white paper available if you’re interested in digging a little deeper than the overview post. But it’s written in Czech and we didn’t see a way to provide a machine translation other than copying the text from
the PDF file
and pasting it into a translator. | 9 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "638785",
"author": "jameswilddev",
"timestamp": "2012-04-26T22:06:51",
"content": "Oneupmanship I say!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "638813",
"author": "xobmo",
"timestamp": "2012-04-26T23:17:38",
"content": "This ... | 1,760,376,891.744844 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/04/26/coating-technique-makes-glass-you-cant-see/ | Coating Technique Makes Glass You Can’t See | Mike Szczys | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"coating",
"glare",
"glass"
] | Some of the deep thinkers over at MIT have come up with an interesting hack for ordinary glass. If you
coat it in a special way it becomes nearly invisible
. This is only one of the effects of the coating, but brings images of
people walking through glass walls
to our minds.
Joking aside, this is really very useful. The images above show a microscopic view of the cones that are applied during the coating process. They prevent the surface tension on a drop of water from being broken, and you can see the clip of water actually bouncing right off the glass in the video after the break. This also means it acts as a non-stick coating for dirt, grime, and even fog. Anyone who’s taken a tropical vacation will know that taking a picture outside with a camera that’s been in an air-conditioned room results only in a snapshot of a foggy lens. This coating could change that. But it’s also got a lot of potential with the glass panes covering solar cells. If they can’t get dirty, and there’s virtually no glare, you should see a performance boost. It’ll be interesting to see how long this takes to come to market and what the first products to use it might be.
[via
Reddit
] | 24 | 18 | [
{
"comment_id": "638758",
"author": "Finn Margrie",
"timestamp": "2012-04-26T21:14:48",
"content": "No photos? That’s a bit disappointing.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "638761",
"author": "Finn Margrie",
"timestamp": "2012-04... | 1,760,376,892.198351 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/04/26/giant-space-invaders-with-road-barriers-and-no-moving-parts/ | Giant Space Invaders With Road Barriers And No Moving Parts | Mike Szczys | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"barrier",
"construction",
"lights",
"space invaders"
] | This is
space invaders on the large-scale
. To give you an idea of just how big this is, that’s a street lamp to the left. It’s being played on the side of a building, but it’s not really done the easy way. We’ve seen
gaming on the sides of buildings by using projectors
, but this one is more like a classic LCD handheld game… just really really big.
Each of the game pieces is hung in place on a black backdrop. The invaders themselves are molded-plastic road construction barricades. The shield area on the bottom is made op of center-lane dividers. All of the pieces are wired with lights that can be addressed by a central controller. As you can see after the break, just one button gets the action under way.
This is along the same line as
the Christmas Light game we saw several years back
. If you’ve got some extra strings of lights and don’t mind building a controller we think you should add a little fun to the neighborhood with your own giant installation. Just don’t forget to
send in some pictures
.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hS6pabruPwY | 5 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "638713",
"author": "BostonBrian",
"timestamp": "2012-04-26T20:10:19",
"content": "Giant Space Invaders v.s. MIT Tetriswhose do you think pulled off the “large scale game” better, why?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "638748",
... | 1,760,376,892.292155 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/04/29/a-novel-binary-clock-from-hackadays-own/ | A Novel Binary Clock From Hackaday’s Own | Brian Benchoff | [
"clock hacks",
"LED Hacks"
] | [
"attiny44",
"binary clock",
"clock",
"LED driver",
"STP16CP05"
] | Hackaday’s very own [Mike Szczys] just shared an
awesome binary clock
he’s been working on. Unlike a normal binary clock that is only readable by self-admitted geeks and nerds, [Mike]’s clock is nearly comprehensible by the general population.
There are 12 lines of three LEDs around the face of [Mike]’s clock. These LEDs represent the time in minutes in binary – the inner LED is 1, the middle LED is 2, and the outer LED is 4. Adding up each of the LEDs around the clock face gives the number of minutes passed since the top of the hour.
To display the hour, [Mike] used a red/blue bi-color LED in the center of each line of LEDs. For example, at 1:03 the one ‘o clock hand will have a blue LED in the first position and a purple LED in the second position. A minute later at 1:04, this changes to blue, red, blue.
If that is a little confusing, there’s a
wonderful video
demonstrating the pattern of LEDs throughout the hour.
For such an interesting clock, the build is fairly simple – just an ATtiny44 with an STP16CP05 LED driver. Time is kept with a battery-backed MCP7940 real-time clock, and power is provided by a simple USB port.
[Mike] had enough boards manufactured for several dozen clocks, but only had enough parts (and patience) to solder up four clocks. You can check out the time-lapse of him going to town with a soldering iron on one of these boards after the break. As with all good builds, the code and schematics are
provided on GitHub
if you’d like to make your own.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ItUmJYx2YAc&w=470]
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v9x7FkXW6Mo&w=470] | 13 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "640632",
"author": "Thopter",
"timestamp": "2012-04-29T17:48:38",
"content": "Thanks for that video, Mike. Now we know how to pronounce your last name :)So if the center LED is blue, that’s a 2, if it’s red then it’s an hour, and if it’s purple, then it’s both?",
"parent_id": nu... | 1,760,376,892.019559 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/04/29/hackaday-links-april-29-2012/ | Hackaday Links: April 29, 2012 | Brian Benchoff | [
"Hackaday links"
] | [
"arduino",
"CERDIP",
"chiptunes",
"ethernet",
"fpga",
"jukebox",
"lcars",
"Memotech",
"microchip",
"night vision",
"snes",
"wireless"
] | More old computers on FPGAs!
[Andy] loves his
Memotech MTX
computer. It’s an oldie with a Z80 running at 4MHz; the perfect target for
an FPGA port
. The ReMemotech has everything the old one has – cassette interface and all – and can run up to six times faster than the original.
Also found in 10-forward
If you’re going to build a jukebox, why not go all out? Here’s a
touch screen jukebox
with an LCARS skin. Yep, the same interface found on Star Trek: The Next Generation.
New desktop wallpaper for you
[McMonster] found a great pair of blog posts (
1
,
2
) showing what ancient ICs look like without their casing. Since these were CERDIP packages (two ceramic plates glued together) they were exceptionally easy to take apart leaving the entire chip intact. Pages are in Polish, but there’s a Google Translate button on the sidebar
Cheap and easy Arduino wi-fi
Quick quiz: what’s the easiest way to get data onto an Arduino wirelessly? XBees? GSM modules? Nope, just get a
wireless router and an Ethernet shield
. The Ethernet module only cost [Doss] $20, and we’re sure Hackaday readers have a spare wireless router around
somewhere.
Chiptunes! Chiptunes I say!
[mdmoose29] has been working on making a custom SNES cartridge for a dubstep artist (tell us more, [moose]…). In his search for programming tools, he found the
SNES Game Maker
. We tried it out for a bit and it’s still a very unrefined beta. Still, making SNES programming easier is awesome.
You people are awesome. Here’s six things for a links post.
[Valentin] made a
night vision monocular
from an old VHS camcorder, a small spy camera, and a handful of infrared LEDs.
Here’s a video
of [Valentin]‘s build in action. | 11 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "640625",
"author": "McMonster",
"timestamp": "2012-04-29T17:23:43",
"content": "In the part with decapped ICs I submitted you’ve put the same link twice instead of the two different I sent you. ;)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": ... | 1,760,376,892.248536 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/04/29/land-rov-is-internet-connected-and-packed-full-of-stuff/ | Land ROV Is Internet Connected And Packed Full Of Stuff | Mike Szczys | [
"Robots Hacks"
] | [
"arduino",
"controller",
"rc",
"webcam",
"wifly"
] | [Blair Kelly] has always been interesting in the concept of Remote Operated Vehicles. As soon as he got his hands on an Arduino he began his endeavor to
turn an RC vehicle into a land-based ROV
. What he’s done so far is incredible.
Here he’s showing off features of the build using a PS3 controller. But it can also take commands from an Xbox 360 controller or an arcade-style steering wheel. We like the latter the best, which is shown off at about six and a half minutes into the video (embedded after the break). Since there’s a webcam on board, this ends up being a virtual cockpit for the pint-sized car. But it gets better. That webcam is mounted on a servo motor, and [Blair] included controls that pan the camera. This lets the driver ‘look’ left and right. On the front of the vehicle there’s an accelerometer. Data is collected by the Arduino and sent via the WiFly module. This adds rumble to the controller if you’re using one that has that ability.
It’s a big project already, but it sounds like [Blair] has not end of ideas for future versions. Right now he’s planning to increase the overall size which will let him explore places that aren’t as flat as his livingroom. | 9 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "640583",
"author": "asselinpaul",
"timestamp": "2012-04-29T15:24:15",
"content": "Great project, great writeup. Well done.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "640584",
"author": "warspigot",
"timestamp": "2012-04-29T15:26:17... | 1,760,376,892.066237 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/04/29/interactive-table-is-slightly-different-than-most/ | Interactive Table Is Slightly Different Than Most. | Caleb Kraft | [
"Arduino Hacks",
"home hacks"
] | [
"led",
"table"
] | [DanNixon] has put together this unique
interactive table concept
. Usually, when we see the term interactive table, we think of an LED grid. That just happens to be what we see the most of. While this table does, in fact, have an LED grid in the table top, it also has several other features and some very nice construction.
Instead of going the usual boring rectangular route, [DanNixon] decided to build a more visually appealing structure. The build log on that part alone is worth a peek. After that, he has a small LCD screen for displaying headlines and song titles as well as a compact LED matrix for some visualizations.
Great Job [DanNixon]
http://youtu.be/hdA-T6bdcg0 | 7 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "640552",
"author": "Adam",
"timestamp": "2012-04-29T14:18:32",
"content": "I like the coffee table, it’s really a neat design. But, the LCD display’s are really low tech looking. He needs to do something like a Microsoft surface interface. Maybe some capacative touch stuff.",
"p... | 1,760,376,892.342921 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/04/28/home-brew-motorized-bicycle-is-a-super-grocery-getter/ | Home Brew Motorized Bicycle Is A Super Grocery Getter | Brian Benchoff | [
"Transportation Hacks"
] | [
"bicycle",
"moped",
"motorized bicycle"
] | [Thor] sent in an awesome
motorized bike build he found
coming from the fruitful workshop of [Jim Gallant]. It’s an incredible piece of work built nearly entirely from scratch.
[Jim] welded the frame together on a
home-built jig
that keeps all the chrome-moly tubes in alignment before they’re pieced together. With the jig, the frame was kept extremely straight making a bike that turns very well and can be ridden no-handed.
All of [Jim]’s previous motorized bikes used small Honda engines, but after hearing
Robin Subaru
engines are more reliable he decided to give one a go. The motor is attached to the derailleur gears with a continuously variable transmission usually found in scooters. [Jim]’s earlier motorized bikes didn’t have indexed shifting and disc brakes like modern motorized bikes, but he decided to throw them in anyway. Everyone who rides his new super grocery getter comments on how smooth the ride is with these additions.
While [Jim] doesn’t have an official speed or MPG rating, he’s guessing this bike can carry three bags of groceries at 30 mph at 170 miles per gallon. A very efficient mode of transportation that is much safer than the
other motorized bikes
we’ve seen before. | 14 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "640312",
"author": "octel",
"timestamp": "2012-04-28T22:14:07",
"content": "That bicycle chain is very thin and will most likely snap or wear out very quickly. There is a reason real mopeds use thicker chain (415/420)…Other than that, it looks like great build!",
"parent_id": nu... | 1,760,376,892.450694 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/04/28/iron-casting-in-the-parking-lot/ | Iron Casting In The Parking Lot | Mike Szczys | [
"News"
] | [
"blacksmith",
"cast iron",
"casting",
"frying pan",
"iron",
"pour",
"smelting"
] | Here’s one good thing about the bitter cold Midwestern winter, it helps keep you from overheating when working around a hot furnace. Back in February
this iron pour happened in the parking lot
of the Madison, Wisconsin based Sector67 Hackerspace. Look, they’re making iron hearts!
Now this isn’t just a bunch of members who got together and decided to do some casting. As you can tell in the video after the break the team knows what they’re doing. The event was a collaboration with
FeLion Studios
, a custom cast-iron art boutique. But the Hackerspace participants did get to take part in the process of building the cast, watching the pour, and cleaning up the rough results.
One of the people from FeLion Studios
just appeared on the Martha Stuart Show
, along with a 550 pound cast-iron frying pan United States map. [Chris] from Sector67 tells us the New York frying pan that [Martha] is hold was a product of the parking lot pour. | 3 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "640270",
"author": "tjb",
"timestamp": "2012-04-28T19:48:06",
"content": "Sector67 are a cool bunch of people. I have traveled to there space a few times.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "640689",
"author": "Eirinn",
"ti... | 1,760,376,892.545338 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/04/28/build-your-own-radar-system/ | Build Your Own Radar System | Mike Szczys | [
"cons",
"Radio Hacks"
] | [
"cantenna",
"defcon",
"radar"
] | How we missed this one is anybody’s guess, but one of the presentations at DEFCON last year covers
a DIY radar build
. [Michael Scarito] talks about the concepts behind radar, and then goes on to show that it’s not too hard or expensive to build a setup of your own. We’ve embedded his 45 minute talk after the break.
The two large pieces of hardware above should look familiar. They’re descendents of a favorite hacking project, the cantenna. The can-based long-range antenna is most popular with WiFi applications, but
we’ve seen it used for Bluetooth
as well and it’s not surprising to see it here. The rest is a lot of sensing hardware and enough math crammed into the coding to make your ears droop.
If you make it far enough (exactly 39 minutes into the talk) [Michael] shares some links for more information on the build. We think living vicariously is enough for us, but if you manage to build your own setup don’t forget to post a project log!
[via
Dangerous Prototypes
] | 23 | 12 | [
{
"comment_id": "640164",
"author": "steveylonder",
"timestamp": "2012-04-28T16:24:16",
"content": "I’m curious if some of the TV SDR hardware (http://hackaday.com/2012/04/16/playing-air-traffic-controller-with-software-defined-radio/) could be used for this application. Seems like standardizing the... | 1,760,376,892.401667 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/04/26/zen-rock-garden-table-uses-magnets-and-sand/ | Zen Rock Garden Table Uses Magnets And Sand | Brian Benchoff | [
"cnc hacks"
] | [
"cnc",
"coffee table",
"magnets",
"polar plotter",
"zen rock garden"
] | [Nick] is working on a prototype of a
coffee table sand plotter
that draws patterns in sand a lot like a zen rock garden.
[Nick]’s zen rock garden uses a magnet to draw a ball bearing across the sand in interesting patterns. The build uses 3D printed gears and laser cut parts to rotate the table around and move the magnet along a radius of the circle. During
the first test
of the prototype, the ball bearing jerked around but this problem was solved by adding a piece of foam under the sand. Power is supplied through a slip ring in the base, and the table is controlled through Bluetooth.
Speaking of magnet-and-ball-bearing zen coffee tables, we ran across
this video
of a more professional-looking prototype that was the basis for a
successful Kickstarter campaign
. Like [Nick]’s prototype, the entire build relies on magnets and a ball bearing to move sand around in patterns. Because this zen table uses an XY axis instead of [Nick]’s polar setup,
drawing logos
is a lot easier math-wise, lthough it doesn’t look quite as cool as a circular rock garden.
After the break you can see these zen rock garden coffee tables in action.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R1fC33mAp_E&w=470] | 14 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "638672",
"author": "majordump",
"timestamp": "2012-04-26T19:19:59",
"content": "Doing straight lines with Nick’s table is possible. It requires 2 motions rather than 1 but I think the logic and math for it would be easily done.The etch-a-sketch idea is great too. Put the rotary enco... | 1,760,376,892.502939 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/04/26/david-hand-soldered-a-blinky-ball-and-you-can-too/ | [David] Hand Soldered A Blinky Ball… And You Can Too! | Mike Szczys | [
"LED Hacks"
] | [
"arduino",
"ball",
"blinky",
"nano",
"protoboard",
"shift register"
] | This is
a blinky ball that [David] designed, built, and programmed himself
. Does it look familiar? It should, he took his inspiration from
the original prototype
, and
the Hackerspace-produced derivative
. [David’s] version is not as small, or as blinky, but in our minds the development process is the real reason for building something like this. He took a great idea and figured out how he could pull it off while pushing his skill set, staying within his time and budget constraints.
The project is powered by an Arduino nano which resides in the core of the ball. [David] used protoboard sourced locally for each of the slices, soldering green LEDs along the curved edges, and added shift registers to drive them. The ball is driven by a LiPo battery which can power it for about 45 minutes. You can see the animation designs he coded in the clip after the break.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r2yADpGnyyc | 6 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "638659",
"author": "Ren",
"timestamp": "2012-04-26T19:10:03",
"content": "I thought the accelerometer or whatever that determines movement was a neat idea. But the video had too much yawn time.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6... | 1,760,376,892.591778 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/04/26/3d-whiteboard-without-the-whiteboard/ | 3D Whiteboard Without The Whiteboard | Mike Szczys | [
"Peripherals Hacks"
] | [
"3d",
"atmega644",
"matlab",
"paint",
"stylus",
"trilateration",
"ultrasonic",
"whiteboard"
] | This one is so simple, and works so well, we’d call it a hoax if April 1st hadn’t already passed us by. But we’re confident that what [William Myers] and [Guo Jie Chin] came up with exists, and we want one of our own. The project is a method of
drawing in 3 dimensions using ultrasonic sensors
.
They call it 3D Paint, and that’s fitting since the software interface is much like the original MS Paint. It can show you the movements of the stylus in three axes, but it can also assemble an anaglyph — the kind of 3D that uses those red and blue filter glasses — so that the artists can see the 3D rendering as it is being drawn.
The hardware depends on a trio of sensors and a stylus that are all controlled by an ATmega644. That’s it for hardware (to be fair, there are a few trivial amplifier circuits too), making this an incredibly affordable setup. The real work, and the reason the input is so smooth and accurate, comes in the MATLAB code which does the trilateration. If you like to get elbow deep in the math the article linked above has plenty to interest you. If you’re more of a visual learner just skip down after the break for the demo video.
[Thanks Bruce] | 20 | 14 | [
{
"comment_id": "638595",
"author": "plfx",
"timestamp": "2012-04-26T17:20:40",
"content": "This is really cool, of course, but it would be even better if it used emf rather than ultrasound. That might even be easier to build.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"... | 1,760,376,892.820462 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/04/26/modeling-an-object-with-internal-imus/ | Modeling An Object With Internal IMUs | Brian Benchoff | [
"News"
] | [
"accelerometer",
"gyroscope",
"IMU",
"magnetometer",
"measurement"
] | [Joseph Malloch] sent in a really cool video of him
modeling a piece of foam
twisting and turning in 3D space.
To translate the twists, bends, and turns of his piece of foam, [Joseph] used several inertial measurement units (IMUs) to track the shape of a deformable object. These IMUs consist of a 3-axis accelerometer, 3-axis gyroscope, and a 3-axis magnetometer to track their movement in 3D space. When these IMUs are placed along a deformable object, the data can be downloaded from a computer and the object can be reconstructed in virtual space.
This project comes from the fruitful minds at the
Input Devices and Music Interaction Lab
at McGill University in Montreal. While we’re not quite sure how modeled deformable objects could be used in a user interface, what use is a newborn baby? If you’ve got an idea of what this could be used for, drop a note in the comments. Maybe the
Power Glove
needs an update – an IMU-enabled jumpsuit that would put the Kinect to shame.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Dqvf1CXPWg&w=470] | 24 | 13 | [
{
"comment_id": "638547",
"author": "japamalaillo",
"timestamp": "2012-04-26T16:11:33",
"content": "First thing that comes to my mind is a robotic tentacle.Also iron man.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "638549",
"author": "anomdebus",
"t... | 1,760,376,892.876055 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/04/26/micro-star-wars-arcade-game-is-a-work-of-art/ | Micro Star Wars Arcade Game Is A Work Of Art | Brian Benchoff | [
"Toy Hacks"
] | [
"mame"
] | No, it’s not
just
another MAME cabinet build. [Le Chuck] over on the arcadecontrols.com forum built a
fully functioning 1/6 scale replica
of the classic 1983 Atari arcade game
Star Wars
.
The hardware is a CAANOO
Linux-based portable media player running an emulation of the classing 1983 Star Wars video game. When [Le Chuck] turns his cabinet on, MAME4All boots up and goes directly into the game.
Because there are no 1/6 scale arcade parts, [Le Chuck] needed to fabricate most of his build from scratch. The case is basswood, along with the very-accurate light up coin slot doors. The joystick for the game was a bit tricky; the Star Wars game used an X Z joystick modeled after the yoke in the cockpit of an X-wing. To build this joysitck, [Le Chuck] took apart a few pots and crafted the joystick out of thin sheet metal. The controls operate exactly like the original, only in 1/6 scale.
After the break you can see the video of this incredible build in action. | 22 | 14 | [
{
"comment_id": "638521",
"author": "Slipster",
"timestamp": "2012-04-26T15:28:32",
"content": "Awesome. Simply Awesome!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "638522",
"author": "Stephen",
"timestamp": "2012-04-26T15:29:48",
"content": "t... | 1,760,376,892.927055 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/04/26/%c2%b5phone-is-small-and-home-made/ | µPhone Is Small And Home Made | Caleb Kraft | [
"Cellphone Hacks"
] | [
"cellphone"
] | [Victor] popped up in the comments of yesterday’s DIy Cellphone to show off his own home made phone,
the µPhone
(
google translated
). [Victor] has put some effort into making this thing very compact. As you can see in the video after the break, he even left off the number pad to save space. Instead, you do everything by using a small joystick and two buttons. He claims that he really only calls a small number of people, so this layout works fine once he has programmed their contact information in.
For some reason none of the pictures are showing up in the extensive forum thread on the project. It is fun though, to follow along as he tries to get this thing working. | 28 | 16 | [
{
"comment_id": "638469",
"author": "nek0",
"timestamp": "2012-04-26T14:17:26",
"content": "this just scream “zoolander” XDstill awesome",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "638470",
"author": "FrankTheCat",
"timestamp": "2012-04-26T14:20:51"... | 1,760,376,893.086371 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/04/26/hackerspace-intro-hackerspace-gr-in-athens-greece/ | Hackerspace Intro: Hackerspace.gr In Athens Greece | Caleb Kraft | [
"Hackerspaces"
] | [
"athens",
"fablab",
"greece",
"hackerspace"
] | This is a fitting video to be the first of our Hackerspace introductions. After our call for hackerspace tours yesterday, [Nikos] emailed us to let us know that their hackerspace already had a video ready. While this is more of a general video, explaining the idea behind hackerspaces, we do get to see a little bit of what is going on there. You can catch the video after the break (english subtitled), or head on over to
their site to see what is going on
at Hackerspace.gr in Athens Greece.
Though this video is very well made, yours doesn’t have to be. We don’t care if you are filming in your basement with 2 other members, showing off a couple projects, we want to see it! If you’re making a video for us, remember that we already know what a hackerspace is, so show us what you are
doing
! | 4 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "638531",
"author": "Ren",
"timestamp": "2012-04-26T15:41:51",
"content": "Someone here in Rochester, MN, USA tried to start a hackerspace several years ago (J^3 or something), but I have no contact info for them (I’d like to join one (nearby))",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1... | 1,760,376,894.737521 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/04/26/micro-arduino-bot-skitters-its-way-into-our-hearts/ | Micro Arduino Bot Skitters Its Way Into Our Hearts. | Jesse Congdon | [
"Robots Hacks"
] | [
"arduino pro mini",
"continuousrotation",
"robots"
] | Here’s a quick and easy
little robot
with a not-so-pint-sized brain. [Dikos] over at grobot, slapped together some gutted micro servos, an Arduino pro mini, H bridge chip, and a
solar key-chain charger
to make this little three wheeled cutie. The robot boasts some very simple object avoidance thanks to the Sharp GP2Y0A21YK analog IR distance sensor, and that’s about it. This leaves tons of Arduino Pro left for a whole slew of sensors and robot stuff. We can’t spot it but somewhere under the pro mini is the solar key-chain’s 3.7V Lipo battery. The PCB for the emergency charger also makes a convenient little back panel housing a few LEDs, charging electronics, and a handy spot to hang a bead roller.
The micro bot has a pretty mean starboard list due to the lack of wheel position feedback, after all the micro servos were gutted to just function as simple gear boxes. We might have kept the servo mostly untouched, ditched the H bridge and performed a continuous rotation mod. We even
have a guide
for it! This is a really cool little bot though, and not terribly expensive if you need a little maze roller… or if you have a ton of money and like swarms of things.
Check out a (silent) video of the robot after the jump, the bot doesn’t hit the table until 1:16.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GH7gBkAqKek&w=470] | 6 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "638425",
"author": "SuperNuRd",
"timestamp": "2012-04-26T12:15:27",
"content": "Cool project but I recomend never using your PCB as a supporting feature, it’s always a bad idea.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "638840",
... | 1,760,376,894.781347 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/04/25/diy-cellphone/ | DIY Cellphone | Caleb Kraft | [
"Cellphone Hacks"
] | [
"cell",
"kit",
"mit",
"prototype"
] | Here’s an interesting concept. Lets make a kit to build your own super simple cell phone. Thats basically
what a group at the MIT media lab is proposing with this prototype
. Consisting of an SM5100b GSM module and a 1.8″ 160×128 pixel LCD screen on a very basic board holding some buttons, this thing is pretty bare bones. Barely any features aside from sending/receiving calls. It does have caller ID though. At$150, it isn’t really that competitive compared to the phones you’d get from your provider, but it is just a prototype.
We particularly like the laser cut flex areas for the buttons on the front.
[Thanks Paul] | 35 | 18 | [
{
"comment_id": "637996",
"author": "homelypoet",
"timestamp": "2012-04-25T22:30:59",
"content": "Was not there a movie set in the near future where the main character printed off a cell phone (alahttp://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-13308452)?Found it: ultraviolet(http://home.cogeco.ca/~reelworldpr... | 1,760,376,894.990495 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/04/25/3-axis-accelerometer-with-led-bar-displays/ | 3 Axis Accelerometer With LED Bar Displays | Caleb Kraft | [
"hardware"
] | [
"accellerometer"
] | [Viktor] doesn’t remember why he started this project. He doesn’t know what he had in mind in the beginning, nor what the intended use was.He knows he wanted something interactive with blue LEDs. What he ended up with, was a
3 axis Accelerometer with a pretty cool display
that sits on his desk to amuse visitors.
Constructed using a PIC16F887 for the brains and a Freescale MM7361 3 axis accelerometer, you can pull the schematics from his site. The code is available on demand as well.
[via
HackedGadgets
] | 7 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "637941",
"author": "fightcube",
"timestamp": "2012-04-25T21:33:01",
"content": "I forgot what I just read… oh, pretty colors!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "637954",
"author": "CoolMod",
"timestamp": "2012-04-25T21:47:5... | 1,760,376,895.083372 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/04/25/controlling-the-power-with-bluetooth/ | Controlling The Power With Bluetooth | Caleb Kraft | [
"classic hacks",
"home hacks"
] | [
"automation",
"bluetooth",
"mains"
] | [Mike] dropped us a tip to show off a system he has built to
control some power sockets based on his proximity
. Initially the project started as a
parallel port controlled box to switch the mains power
. Then he got the idea of turning this into a little more interactive of an automation tool. He is utilizing the bluetooth from his cell phone as a locator. When the box senses that he’s in the room, the power is on. When he leaves the area, the power is off. You can see his ruby code on his web site if you wanted to give it a try or offer improvements. | 7 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "637965",
"author": "Corey",
"timestamp": "2012-04-25T22:03:02",
"content": "Cool Project! I do something similar to this, but using Insteon for the control. My system knows I’m home based on the presence of my bluetooth interface and also from motion sensors in the ADT alarm system,... | 1,760,376,895.128171 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/04/25/hacking-the-trampofoil-to-be-pedal-powered/ | Hacking The Trampofoil To Be Pedal Powered | Caleb Kraft | [
"Transportation Hacks"
] | [
"hydrofoil",
"trampofoil"
] | We’ve seen a few different versions of the “trampofoil” before. That’s the contraption that utilizes a hydrofoil and human power to scoot you across the water above the surface. It is somewhat difficult to explain, so just check out the first video after the break to see how the original works.
Today, we
stumbled upon a cool video where someone is attempting to make a pedal powered one instead
. Their first prototype, shown above is literally just a trampofoil with an added seat and pedal powered prop. They did manage to take it a step further though and came up with a second prototype that has a better designed hydrofoil as well as using a bike frame for the main structure. This looks really fun as you can see in the second video below. | 31 | 23 | [
{
"comment_id": "637851",
"author": "thefileclerk",
"timestamp": "2012-04-25T19:18:24",
"content": "he seemed to get some surprising speed on that thing",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "637900",
"author": "Daid",
"timestamp": "2... | 1,760,376,895.194911 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/04/25/obd-ii-trckrx-data-logging-in-a-bmw-e36-m3/ | OBD-II TrckrX: Data Logging In A BMW E36 M3 | Caleb Kraft | [
"Transportation Hacks"
] | [
"bmd",
"ece",
"final project",
"obd-ii"
] | [Bruce Land] sent in this cool final project for ECE 4760 at Cornell University. Dubbed TrckrX, it is an
OBD-II tracking and data logging system built into a BMW E36 M3
. The car in question is being used in some auotocross competitions. The driver wanted instant access to some data as well as a log of everything for later analysis. The unit gives a real time display of vehicle speed, coolant temp, and RPM. G-force and timestamps are stored on the SD card.
We think this is a very cool idea, and could be quite useful in some instances. The real time display of speed and RPM seem a bit peculiar as the car’s speedometer and tachometer are more appropriately placed for real time information. However, we completely understand that this was a class project and this person may not have wanted to replace their dash cluster with a new readout. | 14 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "637842",
"author": "Skitchin",
"timestamp": "2012-04-25T18:45:13",
"content": "Nice! Very clean install and sounds like it works pretty well – plenty of documentation too. Now if only my car were OBD-II :(.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"com... | 1,760,376,895.248044 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/04/25/incredible-home-made-miniature-engines/ | Incredible Home Made Miniature Engines | Brian Benchoff | [
"cnc hacks",
"Engine Hacks"
] | [
"machinist",
"model engine",
"stirling engine",
"v8"
] | On the heels of a small stirling engine we featured, an astute Hackaday reader sent in a few awesome builds
from HMEM
, the home model engine machinist forum.
First up is a
fantastic looking stirling engine
made entirely from scratch. The build is modeled on a
Moriya Hot Air Fan
, but instead of making a fan spin around, [IronHorse] put a flywheel on the engine. It also uses propane instead of an alcohol or other liquid fuel lamp for the heat source.
Next up is a
pee-wee sized V8 engine
by [stevehuckss396]. Unlike the model engines we’re used to, this one runs on gasoline. The engine started out as a 3 x 3 x 5 inch block of aluminum. This thread goes on an amazing 85 (!) pages and makes for great afternoon reading, but here’s a
video of the engine in action
.
Last is [keith5700]’s
amazing 1/4 scale V8
. Not only is this [keith]’s first project, he also completed this entire project on manual mills and lathes. There’s an electric starter thrown in there, and
the pictures
are simply incredible.
Thanks to [Norberto] for sending this one in, and if you’ve got an example of amazing machining skill, send it on it to
the tip line
. | 24 | 13 | [
{
"comment_id": "637777",
"author": "plfx",
"timestamp": "2012-04-25T17:07:46",
"content": "http://www.homemodelenginemachinist.com/Links all broken.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "637781",
"author": "marshkillz",
"timestamp":... | 1,760,376,894.837201 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/04/24/pip-boy-2000-build-goes-for-function-over-form/ | PiP-Boy 2000 Build Goes For Function Over Form | Caleb Kraft | [
"home entertainment hacks",
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"Fallout",
"pip-boy"
] | [Daniel] wrote in to tell us about his
PIP-Boy 2000 prototype
. While most
PIP-Boy remakes we’ve seen tend to be focusing more on the aesthetic side
, like a prop, [Daniel] is attempting to make a functional one. He has included a GPS sensor, RFID reader, and radiation detector in his build but did choose to stick with the familiar PIP-Boy visual theme in the menus. He has a very long way to go if he wants it to do everything the PIP-Boy from Fallout did, but his list of semi-functional features is growing steadily.
Currently there are the basic functions of:
automapping and waypoint navigation
external PC interface
inventory status and item recognition (using RFID)
player experience (adds experience as you go to new locations)
ambient radiation
screensaver
Let us know when you get that sucker to stop time [Daniel] | 14 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "637257",
"author": "MGTJ91",
"timestamp": "2012-04-24T22:01:09",
"content": "Wow! I would consider adding in an ECG and pedometer for health status.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "637259",
"author": "Slurm McKenzie",
"t... | 1,760,376,895.041658 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/04/24/dexterity-enhancing-guitar/ | Dexterity Enhancing Guitar | Mike Szczys | [
"Musical Hacks"
] | [
"arduino",
"assistive technology",
"chord",
"dexterity",
"guitar",
"solenoid"
] | [Justin Lange’s] dad loves playing guitar, but an accident left him with nerve damage that makes it pretty much impossible these days. He just doesn’t have the dexterity needed to form the cords using his left hand. But his son’s hacking skills are helping him get back into it. [Justin] built
a button-based add-on that forms the cords for him
.
The build has two parts. A frame mounts over the finger board with slots for eighteen solenoids which push the strings down between the frets. These are controlled by the replacement finger board which is mounted below the neck. It has a double-row of buttons that let the player select the desired chord. One button chooses the key, with a second button acting as a modifier to switch to a seventh cord, or minor cord.
The project, which [Justin] has named folkBox, relies on a microcontroller. We spy an Arduino Mega in one of the build photographs but it will be interesting to see if the final project moves to a standalone chip. He’s set a goal for a more robust version of the build some time this summer.
[via
Make
] | 6 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "637211",
"author": "Zee",
"timestamp": "2012-04-24T20:13:29",
"content": "Does the thing slide up and down?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "637213",
"author": "voodoo",
"timestamp": "2012-04-24T20:15:03",
"content": ... | 1,760,376,895.294987 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/04/24/climbing-the-mountain-of-quadcopter-design/ | Climbing The Mountain Of Quadcopter Design | Mike Szczys | [
"Robots Hacks"
] | [
"IMU",
"pid",
"quadcopter"
] | What a sweet thing it is to see the first outdoor flight of a quadcopter. [Botched] has done a wonderful job of
documenting the entire build process
. Take a look at all that he has done, then jump after the break to see the extremely stable test flight footage.
Earlier iterations used feedback electronics that he designed, etched, and soldered himself. We think they looked pretty good, but he was not happy with the performance. He spent a bunch of time redesigning the IMU board, but after he printed out the PCB artwork he decided his soldering was not up to the QFN challenge and he went with a pre-assembled breakout board.
His post about PID tuning is quite interesting. He removed two of the motors and mounted those opposite ends of the chassis to a hinged stand. This let him tweak the feedback loop until the two remaining propellers were able to maintain balance even when he nudged the unit.
His test flight footage is accompanied by an on-board camera shot. He simply taped a smart phone to the battery and let it roll. Make sure you turn off your speakers before watching this one or the motor noise will let the boss know you’re reading Hackaday again instead of working.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YA5gMKi6e9s
[Thanks Joel] | 5 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "637184",
"author": "Hal",
"timestamp": "2012-04-24T19:22:28",
"content": "While the quad might be stable the camera isn’t. Wozers. Could you strap the camera to it or use a tripod next time?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "63741... | 1,760,376,895.553285 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/04/24/coolbot-keeps-your-laser-cutter-from-overheating/ | CoolBot Keeps Your Laser Cutter From Overheating | Mike Szczys | [
"Hackerspaces",
"Laser Hacks"
] | [
"arduino",
"cooling",
"ethernet",
"laser cutter"
] | [Charles] wrote in to share the project he just built for the London Hackerspace. He calls it CoolBot, and as the name indicates
it’s responsible for keeping the laser cutter from overheating
.
At its heart the system is a water pump. It uses a plastic storage container as a reservoir, with an outfeed from the laser tube coming in the top of the lid. [Charles] mounted a temperature sensor using a 3D printed part to anchor it in the center of the return stream. An Arduino clone uses this sensor, as well as ambient room temperature and laser tube temperature sensors to decide when to switch on the cooling pump. As with any hackerspace add-on, this wouldn’t be complete without Internet connectivity so he included an Ethernet shield in the project box. Speaking of, that box uses panel-mount connectors to keep dust and water away from the electronics. But the lid of the controller box also includes a character LCD for quick reference.
Don’t miss [Charles’] explanation of the system in the video after the break.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MwUcRc7Mizo | 9 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "637203",
"author": "tom",
"timestamp": "2012-04-24T19:58:42",
"content": "zomg its that guy from tv",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "637206",
"author": "Elias",
"timestamp": "2012-04-24T20:08:50",
"content": "What a “... | 1,760,376,895.806603 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/04/24/pong-an-engine-and-bond-theme-oh-my/ | Pong, An Engine, And Bond Theme (oh My!) | Mike Szczys | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"James Bond",
"pong",
"stirling engine"
] | Hopefully you’re not on a network that blocks YouTube, because we’re sharing videos that show off three different projects. Alas, they don’t give any details about the development process, but we think you’ll like seeing the end results just the same.
First up is a Stirling engine. This one is pretty serious business, with machined parts making up
the alcohol-lamp powered engine
[Thanks Pete]. This is much more elegant than
the tuna can version
from last month.
Bust out your Arduino and give theoriginal video game a go.
This game of Pong
is played on an oscilloscope using two micro-trimpots. To make it happen a pair of MCP4901 DAC chips are feeding the probes.
While you’ve got that friendly blue breakout board out, might as well grab a set of old foppy drives. Here is
an eight-channel version of the James Bond theme
[via
Technabob
]. Unlike
the sampler from the other week
, this one uses the stepper motor noise to create sweet music. | 5 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "637214",
"author": "Hal",
"timestamp": "2012-04-24T20:19:48",
"content": "I am going to guess that that the floppys are using a system that Sammy1Am built. Here is tutorial:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w6tuMn5sPyMI was watching various videos and got over to one that said it was h... | 1,760,376,895.849326 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/04/24/hacking-the-chronos-and-exploring-the-ism-bands/ | Hacking The Chronos And Exploring The ISM Bands | Caleb Kraft | [
"Security Hacks"
] | [
"chronos",
"shmoocon"
] | Take a few minutes and watch [atlas of d00m], at Shmoocon 2012, presenting information about using the
RF dongle from the Chronos to explore ISM bands
. Admittedly, I’m not very familiar with many of the things he discusses, but the
words
make sense. The bits and pieces I am familiar enough with to comprehend are truly fascinating. He covers typical methods of RF modulation as well as some hardware specific information to that dongle.
If you have a few minutes, or want more security related stuff, check out
all the coverage from Shmoocon 2012
. Tons of great videos here.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dCvN3Jf2cPY] | 3 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "637121",
"author": "truthspew",
"timestamp": "2012-04-24T16:39:17",
"content": "433MHz is smack in the middle of the U.S. Amateur Radio 70cm band so expect interference.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "637164",
"author": "Wi... | 1,760,376,895.929042 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/04/24/making-old-organs-more-portable-with-midi/ | Making Old Organs More Portable With MIDI | Brian Benchoff | [
"Musical Hacks"
] | [
"bass pedals",
"hammond organ",
"keyboard",
"midi",
"organ"
] | In the 60s 70s and early 80s, roadies would lug hundreds of pounds of musical equipment around to gigs. Although the 8×10 Ampeg bass cabinet wasn’t fun in the least, the absolute worst was the Hammond organ. These behemoths of tonewheel organs sounded great, but moving them was a pain. For better or worse, portable MIDI keyboards caught up with the sound quality of these old electromechanical monsters. Everything is still not right with keyboard players; a good set of organ foot pedals is still hard to come by. To solve this problem, [Jeremy]
converted his old Hammond A-100 organ pedals
to MIDI giving him all the feel and aesthetics of an ancient instrument without all the heft.
To transform the ancient A-100 bass pedals into a keyboard, [Jeremy] turned to the
HighlyLiquid MIDI CPU
. This small board provides a few dozen pins to wire up to switches and potentiometers. A new switch assembly was built for the bass pedals using a momentary push button switch under each key. These buttons are wired up to the MIDI CPU, and everything worked out wonderfully.
Although there’s no video of the newly portable Hammond organ in action (something off Zeppelin I, [Jeremy]…) there is a great
Flickr photoset
of the entire build. Awesome work, [Jeremy] | 3 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "637173",
"author": "echodelta",
"timestamp": "2012-04-24T19:01:51",
"content": "The Hammond pedal rack is a poor pick for this mod. Those push buttons may not be quiet or hold up long. I have a couple of Wurlitzer 25 pedals that have built in reed switches! A Thomas set is first up... | 1,760,376,895.891054 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/04/24/report-from-robogames-2012/ | Report From RoboGames 2012 | Brian Benchoff | [
"News"
] | [
"battlebots",
"robogames",
"robot wars",
"robots"
] | Last week we reported on the upcoming
2012 Robogames competition
would be held in San Mateo, California. Nobody from the Hackaday staff could make it this year, but luckily [Sabrina Merlo] from the Make: blog was able to provide a
full report of the spectacle
of fire, sparks and pierced metal this year.
For anyone who remembers the wonderful
Battlebots
TV show from 10 years ago, the main event is very familiar: two competitors face off with the remote-controlled extensions of themselves in a Lexan enclosed arena. The resulting battle is an orgy of flames sparks and mortally wounded robots. Yes, there are a ton of wedge robots, but most of them had very interesting weapon designs.
Off the main stage, there are also more traditional robotics competitions. Sumo robots try to push each other out of a ring, robot soccer tries to demonstrate a mechanistic Pelé, and foot-tall MechWarriors battle in the streets of a miniaturized city.
There were also a lot of not-really-battling robots like a robotic foosball table. It sounds like everyone had a blast, so we might be hitting up the bay area this time next year. | 2 | 1 | [
{
"comment_id": "637137",
"author": "soopergooman",
"timestamp": "2012-04-24T16:57:20",
"content": "i made a tiny matchbox sized hexbot that gives out a strong emp pulse, can i has entry?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "637157",
"autho... | 1,760,376,895.757388 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/04/24/printing-pcbs-on-a-junked-epson-printer/ | Printing PCBs On A Junked Epson Printer | Brian Benchoff | [
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"board production",
"inkjet",
"pcb",
"printer"
] | When it comes to making PCBs at home really quickly, there’s not much to improve upon with [Ryan]’s
bodged up Epson printer
that prints an etch mask directly on a piece of copper clad board.
Like most of the direct to copper PCB printer conversions we’ve covered (
1
,
2
,
3
), [Ryan]’s build relied on an Epson printer and
Mis Pro yellow ink
. The Mis Pro ink is one of the most etch-resistive substances that can be shot out of an inkjet printer, and Epson printer cartridges use a piezo pump that is perfect for squirting ink out on command.
After tearing the printer apart and lifting the print head a bit, [Ryan] needed a proper feed system to control where on the copper he was printing. He managed to
make a board carrier
out of a sheet of aluminum. By taping down the copper clad board, everything seems to work phenomenally.
After the break you can check out how fast [Ryan] can print out a fully etch-resisted PCB. It’s not improbable that he could produce a few dozen boards an hour; something our toner transfer PCB production method would kill for.
via
makezine
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fpflg2KcORY&w=470] | 28 | 16 | [
{
"comment_id": "636960",
"author": "Nomad",
"timestamp": "2012-04-24T13:27:37",
"content": "“there’s not much to improve upon with [Ryan]‘s bodged up Epson printer”As i can see from the pictures of the etched boards, there is a lot to improve. The boards look like Berlin after WW2! :DI don’t know w... | 1,760,376,895.99644 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/04/24/finding-the-average-of-every-font/ | Finding The Average Of Every Font | Brian Benchoff | [
"Software Development"
] | [
"design hacks",
"font",
"typeface",
"typography"
] | An old book – the smell, the texture of the slowly rotting paper, and the smudges and margin notes accrued over decades – is one of the finer points in life taken for granted much too often. We’re bombarded with high precision vector typefaces all day, but
[Dan]’s Avería font
is beautiful in its irregularity. [Dan] made a font that is the average of all the fonts installed on his computer, and the result looks surprisingly great.
[Dan] started his journey down the generative font path by making images of every letter of all his fonts and mashing them together with a PHP script. The result was a terribly blurry font, and unfortunately
this had been done before
. [Dan] wanted a font with clearly defined edges, though, so the obvious solution would be to take the grayscale result of his first experiment, set a threshold, and make a monochromatic image. This plan didn’t pan out, and [Dan] needed a cleverer way to go about things.
The solution to the problem is astonishingly simple; [Dan] took the perimeter of each font glyph and divided it into hundreds of points. These points could then be averaged in 2D space making a real ‘average’ font.
Even though this project isn’t the usual ‘Arduino doing something’ fare, [Dan] came up with a really clever way of doing something that produced something really cool. It’s enough of a hack in our books. Tip ‘o the hat to [Aleks Clark] for sending this one in. | 17 | 13 | [
{
"comment_id": "636874",
"author": "jaqen",
"timestamp": "2012-04-24T12:10:11",
"content": "i wonder if you violate all the source font copyrights, or none at all by using a font made this way.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "636952",
... | 1,760,376,896.093072 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/04/24/build-your-next-robot-with-amazon-supply/ | Build Your Next Robot With Amazon Supply | Brian Benchoff | [
"News"
] | [
"Amazon Supply",
"component",
"supplier"
] | If you’re a home hardware hacker in the United States, chances are most of your electrical components come from Mouser or Digikey, your hardware and tools from Grainger, and your raw materials from McMaster-Carr. This setup is great – we’d hate to locally source parts for a robot – but organizing larger orders can be a bit of a pain. Enter
Amazon Supply
, the new place to buy business and industrial equipment.
Right now the selection is a little thin, but if you’re looking for a single place to buy a
quality soldering iron
, a
0.005″ endmill
or a
set of brass balls
, now you’ve got a one stop shop with the insanely fast shipping Amazon has won our hearts with.
While Amazon Supply isn’t selling even the most
basic electrical component
, the service
was
just launched, and if there’s a market, [Bezos] will go after it. Time will tell if our beloved vendors have a serious competitor on their hands.
Thanks [Vasili] for sending this in. | 42 | 18 | [
{
"comment_id": "636854",
"author": "MrX",
"timestamp": "2012-04-24T11:14:43",
"content": "0.005″ endmill ?? I now HaD is located in the states et al but using imperial units in the summary is just moronic.SI units are the facto standard for scientific units and measurement. Unless of course HaD wan... | 1,760,376,896.262025 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/04/23/monitoring-a-solar-array-output/ | Monitoring A Solar Array Output | Mike Szczys | [
"green hacks",
"home hacks"
] | [
"elster",
"irda",
"power meter",
"solar"
] | After years of hoping and wishing [Dave] finally took the plunge and installed solar panels on the roof of his house. He’s got twelve panels that are each rated at 240 Watts! But just having them sitting there and pumping power back to the grid isn’t enough. Understandably, he decided to add
his own solar array monitor
so that he could see just what those babies are bringing to the party.
The solar array has an inverter which takes the DC from the cells and converts it to mains voltage AC for use on the grid. The system includes a panel meter which you’d normally find on the supply to the house. All he needed to do is find a way to grab the data from that device. It’s an Elster meter, and offers two types of feedback: a blinking LED that corresponds to each Watt-hour passing through the meter, and an IrDA port which provides a more error-proof method of reading data. Monitoring the 1 Wh pulse is quite
a popular method for keeping track of your electric meter
, but if your hardware misses a pulse the data will be off. [Dave] chose to use a light sensor to monitor the IrDA output, which is encoded data. As long as you can read the protocol, which has been published by Elster, a transmission can be missed now and again without disturbing the overall power consumption data. | 7 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "636589",
"author": "DrivenMad",
"timestamp": "2012-04-24T02:14:31",
"content": "Would a cheap automotive amp meter with a counter work? Was just working on the truck and thought of it :)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "636602",
... | 1,760,376,896.040814 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/04/23/8-bit-logic-chip-computer-build/ | 8-bit Logic Chip Computer Build | Mike Szczys | [
"computer hacks"
] | [
"cpu",
"instruction set",
"logic",
"nvram",
"ring counter"
] | [Kyle] has been hard at working
building an 8-bit computer from the ground up
. He’s using a set of logic IC’s for the various components, and some NVRAM chips to store the control words. What you see above is the roadmap for his instruction set. He’s just started writing them to the chips, making the job easier by building an Arduino-based programmer.
We’ve enjoyed watching [Quinn Dunki’s] progress with her
Z80
6502-based PC build which started on a breadboard in much the same way but
has come a long way
since those humble beginnings. Recently we also looked in on
a 4-bit computer that is using discrete components
. But [Kyle’s] take on the challenge falls somewhere in between the two.
The gist of his design can be found in
one of his earlier post
. He’s got a ring counter which starts by clearing the address register. It then loads the NVRAM address of the next instruction which is then executed on the subsequent count. It seems the build still has some way to go so make sure to keep your eye out for updates.
[via
Reddit
] | 6 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "636491",
"author": "Twilight Sparkle",
"timestamp": "2012-04-23T23:20:35",
"content": "Uhm… Are you sure the Veronica is based of the Z80? I’m pretty sure it’s the 6502.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "636511",
"author": "wa... | 1,760,376,896.30819 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/04/23/driving-a-t6963c-based-graphic-lcd/ | Driving A T6963C Based Graphic LCD | Mike Szczys | [
"Arduino Hacks",
"Microcontrollers"
] | [
"animation",
"arduino",
"bitmap",
"bmp",
"bmp2c",
"graphic lcd",
"t6963c"
] | [Tom Fleet] spent the dreary weekend inside
learning how to drive this T6963C based graphic LCD controller
. Although this is his first time venturing away from HD44780 character displays, the availability of an Arduino library helped him go from being a newbie to coding his own animated graphics.
The hardware setup is straight-forward. The screen has a 20-pin connector and operates at 5V. We don’t see it on his protoboard, but usually these displays also need a potentiometer which serves as a voltage divider for the screen contrast. The data and control pins eat up most of the available I/O on the ATmega328 chip he used, but the I2C and SPI pins are still open and he plans a future project to make this a wireless display for his PC using one of those protocols.
As for fonts and animation, [Tom] links to several tools which will come in handy. There’s a font program that will convert Windows system fonts into a C file for use on the Arduino. The animations start with a 1:1 ratio animated graphic drawn with his favorite image editing software. He then converts those to monochrome bmp files and used
bmp2c
to convert each frame to a C array. After the break there’s a seven second example that would work well as a boot screen for his project. | 7 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "636476",
"author": "kernelcode",
"timestamp": "2012-04-23T22:47:35",
"content": "If you happen to be drawing in The GIMP, it can save as .c and/or .h files directly. I’ve used that feature with good success in the past",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
... | 1,760,376,896.354436 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/04/25/hackerspaces-and-hackaday/ | Hackerspaces And Hackaday | Caleb Kraft | [
"Hackerspaces",
"News"
] | [
"hackerspaces",
"tours"
] | It should really go without saying that Hackday LOVES hackerspaces. We want to support hackerspaces to the best of our ability. There have been many ideas tossed around, like a hackerspace directory, or hackerspace calendar of events, project lists, tool exchange programs, etc. For the short term, we can’t implement either of those in a smooth enough fashion that we think it would beneficial. There are several Hackerspace directories out there, with
hackerspaces.org
seeming to be the most up-to-date. We even have an “events” area
in our forums
, though we feel there could be a much better format or delivery device than a forum for that kind of information.
So what can Hackaday do to start helping? Well, the first small step could be to share more information about hackerspaces. We would like to do video tours of
your
hackerspace. Unfortunately, we don’t have a budget to travel around with a film crew and visit you all. I really wish we did, since I would probably be the one doing the traveling. So what we can offer for now is that you film a tour, showing off some cool projects going on in your hackerspace, and we’ll share the video. Contact me directly at Caleb@hackaday.com to work out the details. Your hackerspace doesn’t have to be a huge one in a big city. We want to help everyone here. If you have a few people gathered and a couple cool projects, we don’t care if you meet in someone’s basement. We want to see what the hacker community is doing!
Toward the end of May I will be spending a few days in Huntsville Al, then a few days in Hilton Head Island SC. I’d love to visit a hackerspace or two while I’m there to do a quick video tour. Again, contact me directly if you’re in those areas. | 20 | 14 | [
{
"comment_id": "637754",
"author": "David",
"timestamp": "2012-04-25T16:14:07",
"content": "to me, hack-a-day is my hackerspace “IN TEH CLOUDZ!” what about offering that sort of service to hackerspaces. obviously not cloud computing, but say a dns like service that could automate the “directory” pa... | 1,760,376,896.52337 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/04/25/sand-casting-motorcycle-cases/ | Sand Casting Motorcycle Cases | Caleb Kraft | [
"Engine Hacks",
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"casting",
"sand"
] | Sand casting has been around since, well, since a really really long time ago. For thousands of years, people have been pouring molten metal into finely crafted sand casts, and there’s really no reason that someone can’t do the same thing in their garage or workshop today. This article covers the process of
sand casting new case parts for antique Indian motorcycles
. In this instance, the parts were not only very difficult to find, the author also wanted to modify the design completely.
Though there are a few terms that pop up with which we’re unfamiliar, the process seems pretty straightforward. You build a model of what you want, you create the sand cast from the model, you fill the cast with molten metal. Done. In some cases, depending on the level of precision needed, you may need some machining done afterward. However, in many cases things
don’t have to be quite so exact
.
[via
Matthew Van Arsdale
] | 12 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "637725",
"author": "pinkertron",
"timestamp": "2012-04-25T15:15:15",
"content": "NO idea what he is saying on his site, but its a badass build. lol",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "637732",
"author": "barry99705",
"times... | 1,760,376,896.665126 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/04/25/automating-household-devices-with-google-calendar/ | Automating Household Devices With Google Calendar | Brian Benchoff | [
"Microcontrollers"
] | [
"google calendar",
"home automation",
"mbed"
] | [Shane] is building a new house and wants some, “subtle home automation” as he calls it. His first project is hooking up a
small heater to the Internet
, and judging from
his demo video
everything is going swimmingly.
[Shane]’s project is built around an
mbed
microcontroller that connects to the Internet via an Ethernet connection. The mbed has a temperature controller and a solid state relay to turn the heater on an off; simple enough, but we really like how easily [Shane] connected his project to Google Calendar.
After
looking over the Google API
, [Shane] was understandably overwhelmed. He figured out that by syncing the mbed’s clock to network time and sending a GET request for one minute in the future, the mbed would always know what was scheduled with a minimal delay.
Now, all [Shane] does to turn on his heater is schedule a time and temperature in Google Calendar. He can do this from across the globe or country and makes for a really slick part of a home automation system.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NlhNqCOUpZ4&w=470] | 14 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "637682",
"author": "jukus",
"timestamp": "2012-04-25T14:07:53",
"content": "I really enjoy the simplicity of the user interaction for this",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "637696",
"author": "jamen lang",
"timestamp": "20... | 1,760,376,896.468676 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/04/25/homebrew-solder-pot-is-too-dangerous-even-for-us/ | Homebrew Solder Pot Is Too Dangerous Even For Us | Brian Benchoff | [
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"halogen light",
"solder",
"solder pot"
] | [rue_mohr] is building a hexapod robot, and that meant he needed to tin a whole bunch of ribbon cables with solder. Using a soldering iron for this task would take far too long, so he
built a homebrew solder pot
to tin all those wires quickly. While [rue] was able to get solder on all those wires quickly, we need to question his method – he used a halogen light and reflector to melt all that solder.
The build began with a recycled halogen light fixture. After taking apart the entire assembly, [rue] reassembled it into something resembling a solder pot; a concave reflector and halogen light bulb sit perfectly flat on the table, ready to accept pieces of solder.
After throwing the switch and putting a few bits of solder in the reflector, the solder pot surprisingly worked. [rue] was able to quickly tin his ribbon cables, and the halogen bulb and reflector didn’t break yet.
This is one of the least safe solder pots we’ve ever seen – the bulb could easily explode, and melted solder could come pouring out of the reflector at any time. [rue] is aware of the safety implications and make sure to wear a pair of goggles. If it works though, we really can’t complain.
Check out the video of [rue]’s solder pot (with an awesome temperature indicator light right in the middle of a pool of solder) in action after the break.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PHI2GVDeTuk&w=470] | 58 | 29 | [
{
"comment_id": "637646",
"author": "macegr",
"timestamp": "2012-04-25T13:09:23",
"content": "Oh…my. Seems like an excellent way to vaporize your lap.“It could be worth mentioning that rue is looking for a female partner any reading this totally fit into the search criteria.”Classy fellow.",
"pa... | 1,760,376,896.618159 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/04/25/detecting-ascii-art-across-the-internet/ | Detecting ASCII Art Across The Internet | Brian Benchoff | [
"Software Development"
] | [
"ASCII",
"php",
"programmin"
] | As a web developer and designer, [Victor] has a habit of putting a very nice ASCII signature in an HTML comment at the top of every web page he designs. He was inspired by seeing others do this, and this piqued his curiosity to see who else was doing this. His idea was to scan through a chunk of the Internet and
see what other web pages had ASCII signatures
in an HTML comment. With a lot of very clever work, [Victor] managed to grab some interesting ASCII art that would have been missed without looking at the source of millions of web pages.
After gathering a list of the top million top-level domains from Alexa, [Victor] wrote a script to download the HTML for all the pages in parallel. After that, it was just an issue of detecting the ASCII art in all the HTML files. There were a few earlier
ASCII art detection algorithms
, but nothing that suited [Victor]’s use case. The best result came from only looking at the first comment (otherwise the signatory wouldn’t want you to find it with a quick glance at the source) that were at least 3 lines long and 40 characters wide. After discarding everything with HTML tags in it, [Victor] had an awesome gallery of the ASCII art from webpages all around the Internet.
What did he find? Well, there’s far too many ASCII signatures for [Victor] to put up on his webpage, but he did provide a nice sample of what he found. They’re mostly logos, although there is a Hypnotoad and Aperture Science sentry turret in there.
If you’d like to try out [Victor]’s script, he made
everything available on GitHub
. | 5 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "637636",
"author": "Eirinn",
"timestamp": "2012-04-25T12:53:31",
"content": "Wow, i wonder if the owner of the page knows there’s ascii version of goatse in his sourcecode :o)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "637654",
"... | 1,760,376,896.86261 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/04/25/a-camera-that-describes-a-picture-for-you/ | A Camera That Describes A Picture For You | Brian Benchoff | [
"digital cameras hacks"
] | [
"beaglebone",
"camera",
"mechanical turk"
] | [Matt]’s
Descriptive Camera
looks just like any other point and shoot camera, albeit a little more boxy and homemade-looking. It even works just like the Polaroids of yesteryear – snap a picture and in a few minutes you’ve got a reproduction in your hands. Unlike any other camera before, [Matt]’s camera doesn’t give you an image. [Matt]’s camera gives you a
description
of the picture you took, printed out on easily-scrapbooked thermal receipt paper. Yes, mankind is now
that
meta.
To build the hardware of his camera, [Matt] took a
BeagleBone
single-board Linux computer and attached a webcam and a thermal receipt printer. The real magic is in the artificial artificial intelligence that is
Mechanical Turk
. [Matt]’s camera sends his picture up to the Internet where some random stranger describes his picture. This description is sent back and printed on the receipt paper.
Even though [Matt] is spending $1.25 to have a single picture described on Mechanical Turk, there’s probably not another camera as retro-meta-fabulous-fantastic out there. | 23 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "637600",
"author": "macegr",
"timestamp": "2012-04-25T11:20:30",
"content": "> TAKE TOOL CHESTYou take the tool chest.> LOOK BAGYou look inside the bag. Contents: nothing.> OPEN DOORThe doorway is pitch dark. You have been eaten by a grue.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
... | 1,760,376,896.923842 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/04/24/a-blanket-that-detects-its-own-orientation/ | A Blanket That Detects Its Own Orientation | Brian Benchoff | [
"Wearable Hacks"
] | [
"blanket",
"conductive fabric",
"fabric",
"tilt switches",
"wearable"
] | If you want to capture a 3D model of a physical object, you could use a Kinect, a couple of lasers, constructive light, or even a simple touch sensor mounted on a robotic arm. Those are all expensive devices, and somewhat unnecessary now that you can just
throw a blanket over an object
and get a 3D model instantaneously.
The project is called IM BLANKY and it’s supposed to reproduce 3D shapes by simply throwing it over an object. The petals in the flower motif are pieces of conductive fabric that serve as contacts for the electrified tassel in the center of each flower. When the blanket is thrown over an object, the tassel is pulled by gravity, makes contact with one of the six conductive petals and sends a tilt switch to a microcontroller.
While we’re not too sure about the resolution IM BLANKY will provide with only 20 tilt sensors, but we imagine this could be used for a few medical applications.
via
dvice | 16 | 14 | [
{
"comment_id": "637275",
"author": "George",
"timestamp": "2012-04-24T22:52:47",
"content": "Or you just use a few iPhone images:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vdt66tsPjCM&feature=fvsr",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "637508",
"author"... | 1,760,376,896.821705 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/04/23/cardboard-hexapod-gets-around-with-three-motors/ | Cardboard Hexapod Gets Around With Three Motors | Mike Szczys | [
"Robots Hacks"
] | [
"beetle",
"bug",
"hexapod",
"rc",
"servo"
] | Here’s a lesson in doing a lot with very little. [Oldrobot]
built this hexapod using cardboard
for most of the pieces. He still had the box from his vacuum clear and it just happened to have a large black area the makes the top of the beetle look like it’s been painted.
The control board is from an old radio controlled airplane. Since RC airplanes used servos for flight control, it was a snap to hook up the three that make the bug go. One controls the set of middle legs which lift the body and change which of the propulsion legs are in contact with the ground. The other two servers move pairs of the front or back legs. It uses the same concept as
this other RC controller hexapod
, but much less time went into crafting the chassis and legs.
As you can see in the video after the break, the control scheme isn’t the most intuitive. But once you get a hang of which stick orientation affects each leg movement the bot ends up having fairly precise steering. | 4 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "636486",
"author": "polossatik",
"timestamp": "2012-04-23T23:13:17",
"content": "nowthisis a hack.very nicely done!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "636534",
"author": "tlalexander",
"timestamp": "2012-04-24T00:25:27",
... | 1,760,376,896.965931 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/04/23/cabbage-haters-can-turn-their-leftovers-into-litmus-paper/ | Cabbage Haters Can Turn Their Leftovers Into Litmus Paper | Mike Szczys | [
"chemistry hacks"
] | [
"cabbage",
"coffee filter",
"litmus",
"litmus paper"
] | [William Finucane] is
making his own litmus paper
by harnessing the power of cabbage. The process is much easier than
the faux gunpowder
he made, as it take just the one ingredient and a few kitchen tools.
In case you’ve forgotten your High School chemistry, Litmus is a set of dyes that change color when exposed to basic or acidic materials. It is common in liquid form, or as a paper. [William] is getting his dye from the leaves of red cabbage by running half a head through a blender with just a bit of water. Once that is reduced to pulp and boiled in the microwave (mmm, must smell great!) he separates the liquid using a coffee filter. A fresh coffee filter serves as a donor for the substrate, just dip some strips in the cabbage juice and let them dry. You can test them with some Ammonia as seen in the video after the break, or just start grabbing whatever is under the sink and see what happens.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nfWSZU4fqcg | 8 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "636349",
"author": "thatcherc",
"timestamp": "2012-04-23T20:03:21",
"content": "Not to burst a bubble, but this is in every kids’ science experiment book. The process is usually just boil up the red cabbage and dip in some paper towel.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"r... | 1,760,376,897.009952 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/04/23/mit-students-take-tetris-to-a-grand-scale/ | MIT Students Take Tetris To A Grand Scale | Mike Szczys | [
"Video Hacks"
] | [
"building",
"grid",
"mit",
"tetris",
"window"
] | Careful, this hack might foster doubts about the level of fun you’re having at you own Computer Science department. Last weekend a group of students at MIT pulled off a hack of great scale by
turning a building into a Tetris game board
.
The structure in question is
the Green Building
on the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Campus. It houses the Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences Departments, but was chose based on the size and regularity of the grid formed by the windows on one side. The group hasn’t provided much in the way of details yet, but the video after the break shows the game play and start-up screen. The middle portion of the building is used as a scrolling marquee to display the word “Tetris” before the game pieces start falling. We’re only guessing (and we hope you will add your conjecture in the comments section) but we’d bet they assembled a set of wireless RGB LED lamps and set one on the sill of each window. There does seem to be a number of ‘dead’ pixels, but it doesn’t diminish the fun of the overall effect.
If you don’t have your own building to play on, you should go small-scale and
implement Tetris on a character display
.
[Thanks via
BostInno
] | 28 | 22 | [
{
"comment_id": "636295",
"author": "Aaron",
"timestamp": "2012-04-23T19:09:03",
"content": "Too bad they couldn’t hack it into something that’s a little less late-Brutalist monstrosity, but I guess we have to fellate Pei’s talentless corpse for another couple decades before anyone can admit in publ... | 1,760,376,897.076567 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/04/23/cheap-and-easy-linear-supported-rail/ | Cheap And Easy Linear Supported Rail | Brian Benchoff | [
"cnc hacks"
] | [
"cnc",
"CNC router",
"linear rail",
"router"
] | Some of the very largest – and coolest – CNC machines use supported linear rail for their movement axes. For any home tinkerer trying to reproduce these supported rails, the problem of cost comes up very quick; these rails can run over $100 for just a few feet. [Michael] came up with a
great way to build his own supported rail
so he can build his very large CNC router.
There aren’t many tools needed to build [Michael]’s rail. He put a 90° notch in a 2×4 to support his 25mm rail, and clamped it down with a piece of plywood. After drilling a 5/16″ hole every 12 cm, he tapped these holes out to receive 3/8″ threaded rod. Yes, we also hate the mix of metric and imperial units in that description, but the results speak for themselves.
The now-supported rail was mounted to a piece of MDF with a few bolts and washers. MDF isn’t the most dimensionally stable material, so [Michael] will be covering the whole thing in a coat of epoxy very soon. Now, he’s one step closer to his
gigantic CNC gantry router
.
You can check out [Michael]’s demo video after the break.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bGbWBDtzydw&w=470] | 39 | 21 | [
{
"comment_id": "636260",
"author": "Simonious",
"timestamp": "2012-04-23T18:18:03",
"content": "Very nice, I can’t help but think that after all that effort you might have come out ahead buying the supported rails, but still, very nice results.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies"... | 1,760,376,897.384958 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/04/23/tank-wars-a-video-game-controlling-a-physical-bot/ | Tank Wars: A Video Game Controlling A Physical Bot | Caleb Kraft | [
"Arduino Hacks",
"Robots Hacks"
] | [
"game",
"tank"
] | [Joe] sent us an email to show off his latest build.
Tank Wars
is the beginning of a video game/robot hybrid. You control the tank via an iPad, telling it where to go and how to fire. You have real life targets, in this case another robot. When you hit your target, the interface is updated with game stats. Currently, this is only a step past being a wifi controlled robot. [Joe] is working on making the game part of it a little more interactive.
The tank and the target are both run by Arduinos with RN-XV WiFly modules. The tank has obstacle avoidance both forward and backward, which, from the video, seems like it might make navigating a bit challenging at times. The iPad interface is just a web page, so it could really be used on any device. This is pretty cool, we can’t wait to see how he proceeds from here.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IDWPTsO3x_g | 2 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "636204",
"author": "Twisty",
"timestamp": "2012-04-23T17:16:24",
"content": "This lines up with an idea I started putting together. I had been debating on using Bluetooth or Wifi after swapping the guts out of an RC Car I found at Goodwill. The RC used two motors, one for the engine... | 1,760,376,897.117377 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/04/23/finding-your-keys-with-bluetooth/ | Finding Your Keys With Bluetooth | Brian Benchoff | [
"Microcontrollers"
] | [
"bluetooth",
"keys",
"msp430"
] | [doragasu]’s wife is always misplacing her keys. To solve this problem, [doragasu] created a small
Bluetooth-enabled key fob
that is able to remotely sound an alarm when commanded to by a cell phone.
The case and LiPo battery of [doragasu]’s project comes from a small photo frame key fob. The LCD display and PCB of the photo frame were tossed aside for a future project, and the design of the circuit started. The Bluetooth buzzer key fob is based around an MSP430 microcontroller because of their extremely low power requirements.
On the software side of things, [doragasu] built a J2ME app to connect to the key fob and turn the buzzer on. His app is portable to any Android phone, and versions can be ported to Windows, OS X and iOS devices.
How does it work? Well, [doragasu]’s wife sometimes forgets to charge her key fob, rendering the whole project useless. There are ideas for updating the device to a Bluetooth 4.0 Low Energy device, but no actionable plans. Still, very good work. You can check out [doragasu]’s walkthrough and demo video after the break.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zdn7MZvHQyc&w=470] | 28 | 12 | [
{
"comment_id": "636146",
"author": "Addidis",
"timestamp": "2012-04-23T16:09:04",
"content": "What about a wireless charger. You could make a key rack that hangs the keychain over a induction charger pad. Put your keys where they belong once or twice a week and then you don’t have to worry about it... | 1,760,376,897.227775 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/04/23/sculpting-clay-with-sound/ | Sculpting Clay With Sound | Caleb Kraft | [
"digital audio hacks",
"Musical Hacks"
] | [
"clay",
"pottery"
] | A group of students at the University of Dundee have created this interesting prototype called
Sound Sculpted
. The goal was to sculpt clay using sound files drive the sculpting arms. Ideally, you would end up with pieces of art that were unique to each piece of music. As you can see in the video (after the break), they did a pretty good job of building this thing and getting the arms to respond to the music. It is almost hypnotizing to watch.
We can’t help but notice that there is a bit of a design issue. Since the 4 arms are fixed vertically, and the clay spins on the same axis they are able to move on, your variation will be very limited. We think this doesn’t detract from the project, but does offer a large area for improvement.
How would you change the sculpting arms or their motion to make each piece more unique? | 12 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "636108",
"author": "julainsr",
"timestamp": "2012-04-23T15:19:42",
"content": "really cool concept…unfortunate thumb placement in the preview video image.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "636114",
"author": "T",
"timestam... | 1,760,376,897.166842 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/04/23/stop-motion-animation-creation/ | Stop Motion Animation Creation | Jeremy Cook | [
"digital cameras hacks",
"Misc Hacks",
"Video Hacks"
] | [
"animation",
"camera",
"env2",
"photography",
"PVC",
"stop motion"
] | Stop Motion Animation has always been interesting to me since I “discovered” that one could make animated flip books by drawing each frame a little different. Fast forward 20 years or so, and computer technology has gotten to the point where this sort of thing can be done electronically quite easily and at an incredibly low price of a camera, computer, and free or paid-for software (here’s the
technique using GIMP
, a free, good quality photo editing tool) to put everything together.
The frames in the picture above are of my latest
[PVC man] animation
, which can be made with some electroluminescent lights, gloves, and some PVC pipe. Each frame was individually photographed, and after several hours of work we had enough footage for 17 seconds of so of stop-motion animation.
Although by no means perfect, the quality of
these animations
has gone up dramatically from
the first animations
that I made using an old ENV2 camera phone. Although I was using a
“custom mount”
for it, it’s amazing these came out as well as they did. As with everything hacking related, this process is a constant work in progress. Check out the videos after the break for the [PVC man] video as well as one of the early ENV2-produced stop-motion shorts!
[youtube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xZl-FnY58n4&w=470&h=315%5D
[youtube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=InM0MKDiOVU&w=470&h=315%5D | 4 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "636072",
"author": "Scott",
"timestamp": "2012-04-23T14:21:37",
"content": "These are cool. Good work.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "636133",
"author": "Mike",
"timestamp": "2012-04-23T15:52:49",
"content": "‘Shaft... | 1,760,376,897.42852 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/04/23/kits-to-fund-hackerspaces/ | Kits To Fund Hackerspaces | Adam Munich | [
"Hackerspaces",
"News"
] | [
"kit",
"kitting"
] | [Overflo] recently tipped us about
HackerspaceShop
; his plan to help fund the Viennese and European hackerspaces by creating a marketplace for electronic kits. The idea is to not only sell kits, but to also create an easy way for others to sell their own kits through the platform, which is pretty awesome if you ask us.
Their kit they sent us to play with is a sun tracking flower developed by [daniel schatzmayr] in the metalab hackerspace. All and all, it’s a pretty awesome kit that’d be perfect for any geeky girlfriend, and of course, it’s arduino controlled. Whether or not that is a good or a bad thing is up to the hackaday trolls to decide, but it does have an FTDI header; something we’d personally like to see on a lot more of these electronic kits.
Currently there’s not to big a catalog on their site but hey, wickedlasers started out as a guy selling modified laser pointers and Hewett Packard started out as two guys selling a better function generator. It’s always awesome when a hacker uses their skills to become an entrepreneur, especially for a good cause.
Good luck [overflo]! | 8 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "636044",
"author": "Coda",
"timestamp": "2012-04-23T13:49:05",
"content": "Cool, I’m an hour from Vienna, so will definitely support them.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "636109",
"author": "Rlyeh_Drifter",
"ti... | 1,760,376,897.632283 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/04/23/automated-bed-leveling-with-our-3d-printer/ | Automated Bed Leveling With Our 3D Printer | Brian Benchoff | [
"cnc hacks"
] | [
"3d printer",
"reprap"
] | Anyone with a RepRap or other 3D printer knows how much of a pain leveling the bed is. To get a good quality print, the bed – the surface the printer prints on – must be exactingly level, and may the engineering gods help you if your surface has the slightest bump in it. [Atntias] is developing a solution to this problem:
an auto leveling platform
that shouldn’t require any parts at all if you already have a metal bed.
The idea is incredibly simple: Just ground your metal bed, and apply a small voltage to the tip of your hot end. [Atntias]’ code (
available on GitHub
) probes the surface of the bed and shoots out a 3D mesh of your current bed profile. This can be used as a GCode offset, so the bottom of your print is always directly on the top of the bed.
Although the utility of leveling a bed down to the micron level is of questionable utility for 3D printers, it’s vitally important if you want to mill a PCB on your printer. [Atntias] says his idea is currently being implemented into the Marlin firmware, so it looks like another firmware update is in our future.
Thanks go to [technodream] for sending this one in. Check out the video after the break to see the bed leveling process in action.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tKFhiu2a64I&w=470] | 15 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "635971",
"author": "Ren",
"timestamp": "2012-04-23T12:08:11",
"content": "While it can compensate for a tilted surface, a bump is still a bump, and so the compensation for that is to work around it. But it is nice to know that the surface is bumpy and where.",
"parent_id": null... | 1,760,376,897.794589 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/04/22/building-new-interfaces-with-an-ipad/ | Building New Interfaces With An IPad | Brian Benchoff | [
"Mac Hacks",
"Peripherals Hacks",
"Tablet Hacks"
] | [
"dj",
"midi",
"point of sale",
"pos terminal"
] | There’s a word – synchronicity – to describe two disparate events that occur together in a meaningful way. We see this a lot in the Hackaday tip line; two people send in somewhat similar hacks solving similar problems in similar ways nearly simultaneously. Here’s two builds by [Bryce] and [spektakx] that hit our inbox within minutes of each other that both implement existing interfaces with iPads.
iPad turntable controller
[spektakx] sent in an
iPad powered DJ MIDI controller
he built as a prototype to test out the size, orientation and layout for an upcoming build. The turntable controllers are simple
USB affairs
made to jog and scratch records digitally. Although [spektakx] admits it’s a little unfinished, it’s still just a prototype. Also, he can use a Windows 7 tablet laptop for ‘more suited’ hardware. Check out [spektakx]’ video demo after the break.
an iPad cash register
[Hacktheory] found [Bryce]’s Flickr photolog of
a DIY ‘Square’ cash register
. The electronics part of this build is practically non-existent; it’s just an iPad with a credit card readers that plugs into the headphone jack. Yes, we just saw these ‘Square’ credit card readers
this last week
. The fabrication portion of this build is incredible – [Bryce] has a few wonderful pieces of walnut there, and did an exceptional job with the wood work. It’s probably not well suited to high-volume retail, but we couldn’t think of a better cash register for a boutique shop.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hebNi_NlSdo&w=470] | 9 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "635838",
"author": "Eirinn",
"timestamp": "2012-04-23T07:15:11",
"content": "(iPad turntable controller)Nice project and with a nice finish!The video itself could be cut down to 2 minutes if explained without redundancy :)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
... | 1,760,376,897.487459 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/04/22/miniaturized-n64-controller-fits-the-tiniest-of-hands/ | Miniaturized N64 Controller Fits The Tiniest Of Hands | Mike Nathan | [
"Nintendo Hacks",
"Peripherals Hacks"
] | [
"controller",
"game cartridge",
"mod",
"n64",
"nintendo"
] | The controllers that came with the Nintendo 64 don’t exactly measure up to the “Duke” of Xbox fame, but they’re not the smallest in the world either. Made by Bacteria forum member [Bungle] says that his girlfriend has incredibly tiny hands, so he thought he might try
trimming some of the fat from an N64 controller
by cramming its components into an N64 cartridge.
He tore down a 3rd-party N64 controller, tossing out the D-Pad, plug, and rumble motor, retaining all of the other buttons. After gutting the game cartridge, he heated the back side under a lamp and stretched the plastic over a roll of electrical tape to make room for the N64’s trademark “Z” button. Having only removed the rumble motor due to size constraints, he found a suitable replacement at Radio Shack, which fills in for the original nicely.
After a good amount of careful trimming, wiring, and mounting, he came up with the little gem you see above. We’re sure [Bungle’s] girlfriend is
pleased with his work
, and he seems happy with how it came out as well.
Continue reading to see a short video showing off [Bungle’s] latest creation.
[Thanks, Chris Downing]
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08tRzdAAQsM&feature=player_embedded#!&w=470] | 27 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "635327",
"author": "HAD",
"timestamp": "2012-04-22T17:18:58",
"content": "We’re sure [Bungle’s] girlfriend is pleased with his workI do not share that certainty. How is this thing comfortable to use???",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comme... | 1,760,376,897.585907 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/04/22/slow-motion-destruction-of-random-things/ | Slow Motion Destruction Of Random Things | Caleb Kraft | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"destroy",
"explode",
"slow motion",
"smash"
] | Though we can’t really tell you how this is hacking related, we’ve always shared random videos of stuff getting destroyed with you. Invariably someone in the comments goes on a rant about how wasteful and/or dangerous it is. This clip, from a Danish TV show called
Stupid and Dangerous
, fits that description quite well. It is also freaking awesome.
We’re really not sure what draws us to these videos exactly. Is it vicarious destruction or possibly our
natural affinity for slow motion
?
[via
Dvice
]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lUZ-e2SkeMI | 21 | 20 | [
{
"comment_id": "635271",
"author": "Haku",
"timestamp": "2012-04-22T15:21:01",
"content": "I take it you guys have seen the short-lived 2 season show Time Warp? If you haven’t see it then check it out, the footage they capture with their expensive cameras is often quite fascinating, they even get t... | 1,760,376,897.689502 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/04/22/sassy-disco-bots-of-the-80s/ | Sassy Disco Bots Of The 80s | Caleb Kraft | [
"Robots Hacks"
] | [
"retro",
"robots",
"waiters"
] | Surely, this is a glimpse into the future. No? Ok, its a glimpse into 1983. A small
chinese fast-food restaurant in California put two 4.5 foot tall, 180 pound robots to work
delivering food. Tanbo R-1 and Tanbo R-2 were their names and delivering food was their game. At least, when there wasn’t radio interference or their batteries were running low. They were built to deliver food to the tables and be polite to the customers. They also had some interesting quirky behavior, like responding “that’s not my problem” and dancing off to some disco music if they didn’t understand you. Do yourself a favor and go read some of the stories. We wish we could have seen them in action, they sound fantastically absurd. | 18 | 13 | [
{
"comment_id": "635211",
"author": "soopergooman",
"timestamp": "2012-04-22T13:04:44",
"content": "My friends father had one of these, back in the 80’s. he used it to entertain us at one of his Bday parties, I was 11 at the time. fun stuff and really coo. thanks fr the memories.",
"parent_id": ... | 1,760,376,897.741444 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/04/21/an-easy-to-build-cat-feeder-driven-by-a-diy-linear-actuator/ | An Easy To Build Cat Feeder Driven By A DIY Linear Actuator | Mike Nathan | [
"Arduino Hacks",
"home hacks"
] | [
"arduino",
"cat feeder",
"continuous rotation servo",
"linear actuator"
] | [Will Finucane] of Revolt Labs/Mad Science Blog was looking for a way to keep his cats happily fed while away on a short vacation, so he put together
a cheap and easy automatic feeder
to ensure that his pets didn’t go hungry while he was away.
We’ve seen different iterations of automatic pet feeders here before,
some relying on rotating false bottoms
, while others use
crank-style feeders to get the job done
. [Will’s] solution is a bit different, employing a cheap linear actuator to deliver feedings.
He emptied out a glue stick, replacing the glue with a brass tube. This gives him the rigidity that the glue lacked, allowing him to easily move a platform full of cat food up and down. He mounted the glue stick on a continuous rotation servo, installing the actuator and a feeding platform inside a cardboard box.
Using an Arduino, he lowers the movable platform every 12 hours, allowing a bit of cat food to fall from the hole he cut in the side of the box. While his creation might not stand up to years of use, it’s a quick solution that can cost very little, depending on what you have sitting around.
Check out the video below to see [Will’s] cat feeder in action.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ml9Z0etNTv4&feature=player_embedded&w=470] | 15 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "634737",
"author": "Tron9000",
"timestamp": "2012-04-21T22:18:08",
"content": "great, now need somthing similar to take care of the other end!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "634800",
"author": "Hackerspacer",
... | 1,760,376,897.842496 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/04/21/visible-kitteh-project-keeps-mice-out-of-the-house/ | Visible Kitteh Project Keeps Mice Out Of The House | Brian Benchoff | [
"Android Hacks",
"Video Hacks"
] | [
"cat door",
"harr cascades",
"object recognition",
"opencv"
] | [Aaron] and his wife have a wonderful cat that likes to contribute to the household by bringing field mice, shrews, and voles into the house as a ‘present.’ Obviously, this leads blood, fur, and viscera staining the carpet, and chasing around mortally wounded rodents isn’t [Aaron]’s idea of fun. To stop the cat from bringing small mammals into the house, [Aaron] is now
preventing the cat from entering the house
when it has an animal in its mouth.
[Aaron]’s project is inspired by
this facial recognition cat door
that refuses entry of all cats holding a small rodent in their mouth. To get his system working, [Aaron]
started researching object recognition
and
built an Android app
using the OpenCV libraries. To detect if his cat has a rodent in his mouth, [Aaron] is using Harr cascades – a proven object detection system that will detect and differentiate between a cat and a cat plus mouse.
Right now, the project is only about half done. [Aaron] is currently training his object recognition system, a process that can take days. Still, anything that keeps mouse guts out of the carpet is an awesome project in our books. | 28 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "634766",
"author": "andres ortiz",
"timestamp": "2012-04-21T23:20:16",
"content": "sounds a lot like this projecthttp://www.quantumpicture.com/Flo_Control/flo_control.htm",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "634909",
"autho... | 1,760,376,897.908582 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/04/21/science-and-engineering-festival-comes-to-dc/ | Science And Engineering Festival Comes To DC | Brian Benchoff | [
"News"
] | [
"bill nye",
"mythbusters",
"science fair"
] | If you’re around the Washington, DC metro area next weekend,
here’s something for you
. It’s the USA Science and Engineering festival, and if you’ve ever wanted to talk to [Adam] and [Jamie] from Mythbusters, [Bill Nye], and several astronauts, this is where you should be next weekend.
This is the second USA Science and Engineering festival. The first festival, brought to bear
because of an act of congress
. The last festival was highly successful (and fun), so we can’t wait to see the reports from next weekend roll in. This time around, there will be scale models of the Orion Service Module, an F-22 cockpit Demonstrator, and a demonstion of an F-35 taking off vertically. Yep, Lockheed Martin is hosting this festival, but it’s still cool.
Even though the website makes it seem this festival is geared towards children, we’re sure we’d have a blast visiting. Here’s a solution: borrow a niece or nephew and show them what engineering can do.
We have to note you can also visit the NASA
Goddard Space Flight Center
while you’re in DC. It’s just a short Metro ride (with a bus transfer) from the convention center where the festival will be taking place. We highly recommend the tour of the facility. If anyone knows if you can see the space shuttles
Discovery
and
Enterprise
at the
Udvar-Hazy center
next weekend, drop us a line. We’ll amend our DC ‘look at cool stuff’ recommendations.
Tip ‘o the hat to [Paul] for sending this one in. | 5 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "634704",
"author": "Joe",
"timestamp": "2012-04-21T21:15:30",
"content": "Discovery is permanently on public display at Udvar-Hazy now.Enterprise is outside the museum and already mated to the SCA, it was supposed to go to JFK on Monday but that’s been postponed for weather at the b... | 1,760,376,897.949145 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/04/21/using-a-touch-sensor-as-a-telegraph-key/ | Using A Touch Sensor As A Telegraph Key | Brian Benchoff | [
"Microcontrollers",
"Radio Hacks"
] | [
"attiny45",
"cw",
"ham radio",
"iambic",
"telegraph key"
] | [Sebastian] is learning Morse code and CW radio, and of course he needed a telegraph key. Instead of using the terribly unergonomic paddle style key, he built a
capacitive touch iambic key
over the course of a few evenings.
An iambic key usually has two switches. When one switch is closed, it will transmit a ‘dit’. When the other switch is closed, it will transmit a ‘dah’. Instead of using mechanical paddles, [Sebastian] brought his iambic key into the 21st century by using a touch sensor. An ATtiny45 measures the time it takes for a single metal plate to fully charge. It’s the same idea behind the wonderful
Arduino CapSense library
.
This isn’t the first capacitive-touch iambic key we’ve seen;
this little guy
is just a pair of metal contacts and resistors that plug right into an Arduino. With an ATtiny45, [Sebastian]’s build is a full-blown iambic telegraph key that plugs right into his CW rig. You can check out the walk through of the project along with [Sebastian] trying out his iambic key after the break.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBP2XldYD2E&w=470] | 14 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "634576",
"author": "truthspew",
"timestamp": "2012-04-21T18:14:54",
"content": "Another trick would be to add speed control so you can vary the timing between dits and dahs. Fairly trivial to do so.And yes, I love Iambic paddles. I’ve had my amateur radio ticket for 20 years now.",
... | 1,760,376,898.091248 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/04/21/valve-scoops-up-bright-young-electrical-engineers/ | Valve Scoops Up Bright Young Electrical Engineers | Caleb Kraft | [
"News"
] | [
"jeri ellsworth",
"keyser",
"mightyohm",
"valve"
] | Several bright young engineers have been swiped up to work for Valve. Yes,
that
Valve, the game company. Amongst them are [
Jeff Keyser
] aka [Mighty ohm] and [Jeri Ellsworth], both names that we have seen on these pages many times. We’ve heard that Valve is a fun and very unique company to work for. Apparently
there’s no solid hierarchy
.
What we, and everyone else in the universe wants to know is what they are building! There were rumors and speculation of a game console that were quickly squashed. [Michael Abrash] let out some information
in an interview that he was doing R&D into wearable computing
. He also points out that he was
not
making a product. So, let the speculation begin!
We asked [Jeri] if this meant she couldn’t publish her own hacks anymore due to contractual agreements, but she said that she can still do them and has some cool stuff coming out soon. | 22 | 14 | [
{
"comment_id": "634502",
"author": "Haku",
"timestamp": "2012-04-21T16:12:27",
"content": "“What we, and everyone else in the universe wants to know is what they are building!”Fingers crossed they’re making real Portal guns!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"c... | 1,760,376,898.040483 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/04/21/chumby-is-no-longer-selling-hardware/ | Chumby Is No Longer Selling Hardware | Caleb Kraft | [
"News"
] | [
"chumby"
] | Hearing that Chumby will
no longer be selling hardware makes us a little sad
. We’ve seen this thing used for so many different things, like
shooting people with missiles
,
spitting out composite video
,
web serving
,
stomping around bipedially
, and
being a 3g router
. We knew it wouldn’t be long, since they actually stopped manufacturing last year, but we just couldn’t help but feel a tear come to our eye when it was officially announced. Let us all take a moment of silence. | 19 | 12 | [
{
"comment_id": "634427",
"author": "Mike",
"timestamp": "2012-04-21T15:42:10",
"content": "The biggest problem I’ve come across on the Chumby(and others) is the kernel support. It uses a really old kernel, no mainline support, and to patch it up to something more modern would be a PITA. If it wer... | 1,760,376,898.144994 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/04/21/sparkfun-electronics-launches-an-educational-site/ | Sparkfun Electronics Launches An Educational Site | Caleb Kraft | [
"News"
] | [
"education",
"school",
"sparkfun",
"tutorials"
] | Sparkfun Electronics has launched
an educational web site
with a full curriculum of classes being held at Sparkfun Headquarters. If you don’t live nearby, no problem. You can download the entire curriculum as well. It appears that they will have a tutorial section for those who prefer a per-project approach, but that area is still “coming soon”. We love to see people educating others. Good job Sparkfun, looking forward to seeing more content on there. | 8 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "634353",
"author": "Indyaner",
"timestamp": "2012-04-21T13:51:21",
"content": "As a beginner myself I have a question for the experts around here: I solder with lead-solder (Its easier for me) and sometimes wonder If I (like the kids in the image) should use a safty glas too while s... | 1,760,376,898.194683 |
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