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https://hackaday.com/2012/02/23/checking-the-accuracy-of-fake-watches/ | Checking The Accuracy Of Fake Watches | Brian Benchoff | [
"clock hacks"
] | [
"intervalometer",
"wrist watch"
] | Since [th3badwolf] realized a wrist watch is the ultimate men’s fashion accessory, he’s been trolling around eBay looking for a nice looking, but still inexpensive wearable chronometer. The Fauxlex brand isn’t normally regarded for accurate time keeping, so he decided
measure the accuracy
of his off-brand watches in a really clever way.
[th3badwolf] had a camera with a built-in intervalometer lying around and figured if the camera was set to take one picture a minute, the second hand would stay still while the minute and hour hands moved. An
hour-long test
confirmed his theory and he pointed his cameras towards his knock-off watches.
In the resulting time-lapse video available after the break, [th3badwolf] calculated that the first and third watches lose about 24 seconds a day. He attributes this fact to the watches having the same clockworks. The second watch gains nearly three minutes a day, and he’s trying to send that one back to the supplier. We’re not sure how that will end up, but at least [th3badwolf] has two reasonably accurate watches now.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sp21wZbPd7k&w=470] | 82 | 43 | [
{
"comment_id": "587790",
"author": "mattbed",
"timestamp": "2012-02-23T19:07:52",
"content": "To be fair, genuine rolex watches are not best known for their accuracy either",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "587792",
"author": "WestfW",
"t... | 1,760,376,948.866301 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/02/23/control-midi-with-an-android-device/ | Control MIDI With An Android Device | Brian Benchoff | [
"Android Hacks"
] | [
"android",
"ioio",
"midi"
] | [Lewis] wanted to control MIDI devices with the huge touch screen that is his Android phone. After he couldn’t find a simple hardware implementation of MIDI out, he turned to an IOIO board to
send MIDI notes
to just about any imaginable musical hardware. It’s a clean build and fills a gap in the abilities of the Android platform.
Because of the
woeful support
of MIDI in Android, [Lewis] couldn’t find a good way to push MIDI notes from his phone to other devices. While there are a few high-overhead options like MIDI over wi-fi or a
Bluetooth connection
, there wasn’t much in the way of a straight-up hardware connection to other MIDI devices. [Lewis] got around this limitation by using an
IOIO board
and the right software to send MIDI notes though a DIN-5 connector.
Although the project works as intended, [Lewis]’ build could be made more permanent by building one of
these MIDI interfaces
and wiring that to the IOIO. All the Android code is
up and available
, along with a neat demo of [Lewis] controlling the delay time of an effects unit in his guitar rig. You can check that video out after the break.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G6GEsmKtlPw&w=470] | 6 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "588089",
"author": "anti",
"timestamp": "2012-02-24T10:16:43",
"content": "Bad idea and will probably kill your IOIOI pretty soon.There is a reason why the specs mandate galvanic isolation for MIDI interfaces.I killed more than one arduino ignoring this.",
"parent_id": null,
... | 1,760,376,948.311538 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/02/23/doing-it-right-with-a-morse-code-keyboard/ | Doing It Right With A Morse Code Keyboard | Brian Benchoff | [
"Peripherals Hacks"
] | [
"iambic",
"keyboard",
"morse code",
"telegraph key"
] | Hackaday has seen dozens of Morse code keyboards over the years, but [Hudson] at NYC Resistor finally managed to give that idea the justice it deserves. He built a
USB Morse code keyboard
with the same type of telegraph key the pros use.
For his project, [Hudson] got his hands on a
wonderful iambic paddle
that is usually hooked up to CW rigs. Unlike previous
Morse
keyboards
we’ve seen, [Hudson] used
iambic paddles
, a telegraph key with one lever for dits and another for dahs. Because the dits and dahs are separate electrical connections, it’s extremely easy for the microcontroller – a
Teensy
– to parse the Morse code and send the correct letter to the computer.
[Hudson] also added some audio feedback for the dits and dahs, and designed a
laser-cut enclosure
for the Teensy and speaker. Check out the video of the iambic keyer keyboard in action after the break.
[flickr video=6889388305] | 6 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "587685",
"author": "Th3badwolf",
"timestamp": "2012-02-23T16:06:01",
"content": "Kudos!Very nice build!Considering it myself now =P",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "587690",
"author": "sqkybeaver",
"timestamp": "2012-02-2... | 1,760,376,948.265344 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/02/23/electronic-bag-pipes-need-no-bag-and-use-only-1-pipe/ | Electronic Bag Pipes Need No Bag And Use Only 1 Pipe | Mike Szczys | [
"Musical Hacks"
] | [
"arduino",
"bagpipes",
"touch sensitive"
] | A lot of people might turn their noses up at an electronic version of bagpipes. But we see a definite need for them. After all, it’s pretty hard to take your bagpipes on a road trip, but
this eChanter will have no trouble entertaining your fellow travelers
.
The musical instrument is Arduino-based and the builder can decide between a headphone jack (use it with
that FM transmitter
when in the car!) or a speaker. The version seen above uses headphones with a piece of PVC pipe as the body, screw heads as touch sensors, and a project box to hold the electronics. But there are a lot of alternatives suggested, such as using automatic sprinkler parts. It sounds like a riser, connector, and pop-up sprinkler head body will do just as well hosting all of the components.
Want to hear what it sounds like? There’s an mp3 clip under
the final steps section
.
[audio http://www.echanter.com/marine-corps-hymn.mp3] | 25 | 15 | [
{
"comment_id": "587643",
"author": "heatgap",
"timestamp": "2012-02-23T15:07:17",
"content": "This is bad ass! I think I’m actually going to look into this build. The one above is pretty plain (still awesome) and I think there are plenty of things one could do to spruce the look of this instrument ... | 1,760,376,948.949279 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/02/22/backyard-ski-lift/ | Backyard Ski Lift | Mike Szczys | [
"Transportation Hacks"
] | [
"ski",
"ski lift",
"skiing",
"tow rope"
] | If you own a cabin in the mountains of British Columbia what do you do during the warmer summer months? Well, we’d probably mix of a cocktail and string up a hammock, but [Darrin] is quite a bit more motivated. He planned for the snowy season by building his own ski lift. He shared the details in a forum post, but you’re going to have to register and wait for approval before you can
view that thread
. Perhaps you’ll want to look at the video after the break before making that kind of commitment. Normally we would just pass over projects that require a login to view, but this one deserves the attention.
The setup is essentially a very steep tow rope. 1600 feet of 1/8″ aircraft cable covers an 800 foot span of his property. Apparently he’s got a total of 1000 feet of vertical drop but the lift doesn’t cover the whole area quite yet. That 6.5 horsepower Honda engine drives the cable loop, with the pulley system seen above used as an RPM reducer. Each skier can hook onto the cable used the nylon rope with a ski-pole spacer and a hook. The RC vehicle remote control works as a dead man’s switch, starting the lift slowly when the throttle is depressed and stopping it when released.
Normally we like to link to similar projects, but so far this is the only ski lift we’ve covered. You’ll have to settle for this
ski-pole mounted POV display
.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3yyXRBPijG0&w=470] | 44 | 20 | [
{
"comment_id": "587289",
"author": "mohonri",
"timestamp": "2012-02-23T00:23:23",
"content": "The pulleys don’t appear to be actually reducing the speed. I think they’re there to provide greater grip on the cable.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_i... | 1,760,376,948.551447 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/02/22/automated-squinting-instead-of-glasses-contacts-or-lasik/ | Automated Squinting Instead Of Glasses, Contacts, Or Lasik | Mike Szczys | [
"Medical Hacks"
] | [
"contact lenses",
"glasses",
"lasik",
"squint"
] | [Lee] is nearsighted and has had it with contacts and glasses. When trying to figure out an alternative, he looked at the core of the problem. The eye is not shaped correctly and therefore cannot focus adequately. The solution is to change the shape of the lens. This is exactly what lasik (laser eye surgery) does, but instead of going under the incredibly bright knife [Lee] built some
headgear that pulls on your face to reshape your eye
.
The hardware is from an old portable CD player. The sled that moved the laser lens has been repurposed to pull a thread taped to the skin at the corner of his eye. He built a control system that lets him adjust the tension by moving his fingers. Basically when the skin is pulled tight it causes him to squint and possibly reshapes the cornea just a bit. We’re not sold on the idea, but we can’t poo-poo the experiment; who knows what discovery this could lead to? We’re just glad he didn’t
use electrical impulses to hack his peepers
.
You can find some test video embedded after the break.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GSzQtOVbeJI&w=470] | 41 | 26 | [
{
"comment_id": "587248",
"author": "Simon",
"timestamp": "2012-02-22T23:14:16",
"content": "I use CRT lenses.<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OrthokeratologyThey are hard lenses you wear at night while you sleep which reshape your corneas. Then you don't need to wear anything during the day but you ha... | 1,760,376,948.394863 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/02/25/overbuilding-an-itunes-rating-system/ | Overbuilding An ITunes Rating System | Brian Benchoff | [
"Peripherals Hacks"
] | [
"itunes",
"pic18f",
"usb"
] | Even though iTunes and it’s song rating system has been around for over a decade now, [Steve] still hasn’t gotten around to assigning ratings to his vast library of MP3s. We can’t blame him – who wants to pull up iTunes every four minutes and assign a star rating to each song individually? To solve this interface problem, [Steve] set out to design a
hardware song rating interface
that fell down the rabbit hole into development hell.
The build started off simply enough – just an Arduino attached to a few buttons that sends data to a Cocoa app which rates the current song. Everything was working wonderfully until [Steve] restarted his mac and the COM ports went to pot. Wanting a ‘plug-and-play’ solution, he did away with the Arduino-based build and started designing a USB device that would display the current iTunes track and provide hardware buttons for rating the current song.
The current build is based around a very capable PIC 18F4550 micro. After looking up the USB
HID protocol
, [Steve] had some boards fabricated. He’s keeping us waiting on a final build report, but with the amount of work that went into this project, we’re sure it’ll be a winner. | 9 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "588988",
"author": "vic",
"timestamp": "2012-02-25T19:23:40",
"content": "Yeah, he seems to have gone a bit further than the original specifications. Personally I’d have added a volume knob as well ;-)But I’m sure it will be very satisfying once finished.",
"parent_id": null,
... | 1,760,376,948.220468 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/02/25/hacking-hack-a-day-with-greasemonkey/ | Hacking Hack A Day With Greasemonkey | Mike Nathan | [
"firefox hacks",
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"css",
"firefox",
"greasemonkey",
"hackaday"
] | Ever since Hack a Day first emerged on the scene in 2004, the site’s design has been pretty consistent. The black background with its green and white text, while a bit dubious looking at work, is fine by me. For others however, the site’s design is a constant eyesore both figuratively and literally. [James Litton] is one of those readers, and he wrote in to share a tip that
helps him read up on the latest hacks without killing his eyes.
[James] uses Firefox to browse the web, so he whipped up a small Greasemonkey script that tweaks Hack a Day’s style sheet once it reaches his browser. His script inverts the background while changing a few other items, making for a much more comfortable read. Overall we found the change to be pretty reasonable, but go ahead and judge for yourself – you can see the before and after screen shots in greater detail on his site.
[James] also points out that the script should work just fine in Chrome, for those of you who prefer that browser instead.
So if your eyes are a bit on the sensitive side, feel free to grab his script and customize away – I don’t think we’ll be changing the theme any time soon. | 49 | 31 | [
{
"comment_id": "588937",
"author": "M4rc3lv",
"timestamp": "2012-02-25T18:06:15",
"content": "Very funny. I have always used my own Greasemonkey script to do this exact same thing.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "588939",
"author": "rue_moh... | 1,760,376,948.736622 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/02/25/weekly-roundup-22512/ | Weekly Roundup 2/25/12 | Jack Buffington | [
"News"
] | [] | In case you missed them the first time around, Here are out most popular posts from the past week:
In first place is a post about
a DIY ski lift
that [Darrin] built. Why should you let a strenuous hike back up a snowy hill ruin your day when you can ski down the hill and then ski right back up it again? Way to go [Darrin]! You are our kind of lazy!
Our second-most popular post is
a modern twist on the Nixie tube
. This device is made from many layers of clear acrylic that have the numbers engraved onto them. The acrylic is edge lit to achieve a Nixie-tube look-alike.
Next up is a post about
a clever way to check the accuracy of a watch
. [th3badwolf] did this by making a video at one frame per minute and seeing what the second hand did. Under ideal circumstances, the second hand would stay in the same place for the whole video.
Take a look at this one!
Did you think that a CNC machine needs to have a very rigid structure to control the cutting bit?
This one doesn’t have any. You hold it with your hand!
Finally, we leave you with a repeat from last week. We didn’t post it this week but you guys just kept coming back for more of this post where [Superluminal] and some friends
cast their wedding present for an unlucky bride and groom inside of a big sticky sugar cube. | 1 | 1 | [
{
"comment_id": "588902",
"author": "john doe",
"timestamp": "2012-02-25T15:26:42",
"content": "This weekly roundup thing is unnecessary.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
}
] | 1,760,376,948.988271 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/02/24/3d-printed-lugs-for-your-custom-bike/ | 3D Printed Lugs For Your Custom Bike | Mike Szczys | [
"3d Printer hacks",
"cnc hacks",
"Laser Hacks"
] | [
"bicycle",
"lug",
"selective laser melting",
"slm"
] | We haven’t heard much about 3D printing using stainless steel as the medium, but that’s exactly what’s going on with t
he lugs used to assemble this bicycle frame
. They’re manufactured using LaserCusing, which is a brand name for parts produced using
Selective Laser Melting
. The video after the break gives you an overview of what it takes to clean up each of these parts.
The laser melts metal power to solidify areas needed in the final part. Just like the hobby printing we’ve seen on the RepRap or Makerbot there are structural supports necessary to complete the print job, and these need to be removed after the laser has done its work. This is where the majority of the labor comes in. You’ll see a ton of waste material pulled out of the cage-like lug, and we’re sure there’s no shortage of filing and polishing to finish up. But wow, what an interesting result. We just need to figure out if anyone has found a cost-effective way to hack together one of these metal-powder printers.
[vimeo http://vimeo.com/34293503 w=470]
[Thanks Tommy via
Oleksiy’s Comment
] | 39 | 20 | [
{
"comment_id": "588556",
"author": "hazardous",
"timestamp": "2012-02-25T00:50:19",
"content": "would be awesome to make one but clearly the precision that they are getting with the machines it beyond most of us. [youtubehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZlbG3jl6xq4&w=640&h=360%5Dplus most people dont... | 1,760,376,948.470981 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/02/24/all-pcb-quadcopter-makes-the-most-of-each-component/ | All PCB Quadcopter Makes The Most Of Each Component | Mike Szczys | [
"Robots Hacks"
] | [
"atmega128rfa1",
"pcb",
"quadcopter"
] | It’s difficult to contain our excitement for this
tiny quadcopter project called the Picopter
. [Frank] managed to pull together an impressive collection of features when developing the project. First off, the quadcopter itself uses all-PCB construction. Even the supports for the motors are PCBs with keyed slots to mate perpendicular to the main control board, then held firm with solder joints. We think this will be a more resilient option than
this other all-PCB build
.
The control board seen in the foreground has an edge connector which mates with a Wii classic controller connector. This is what you use for flight control. But there’s even more. The pinheader just visible on the left side of the controller mates with a socket on the ‘copter board. This allows you to sync the two so that there’s no radio frequency interference, and recharge the batteries from a USB connection. Speaking of those wireless communications, [Frank] chose to use an ATmega128RFA1. This is a newer microcontroller from Atmel that has a radio built into it. Add a gyroscope sensor and some motor control and you’re in business.
Don’t miss [Frank’s] video after the break when he explains all of the goodies found in his build.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7gpNkCmBlTM&w=470]
[Thanks Franz] | 31 | 18 | [
{
"comment_id": "588457",
"author": "Nick",
"timestamp": "2012-02-24T23:10:43",
"content": "Great progress so far. Can’t wait to see it in the air.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "588459",
"author": "vonskippy",
"timestamp": "2012-02-24T... | 1,760,376,949.152833 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/02/24/touch-based-wirless-rgb-lamp-control/ | Touch-based Wirless RGB Lamp Control | Mike Szczys | [
"LED Hacks"
] | [
"capacitive",
"lamp",
"launchpad",
"msp430",
"rgb",
"touch sensor",
"wireless"
] | [Alex] built an add-on board for his TI launchpad that lets him use it as
a wireless controller for an RGB lamp
(
translated
). As you can see above, the board has a pair of female pin-headers which make it easy to install or remove the board. This way you can use it for other projects without any hassle.
The board itself doesn’t have any buttons. Instead, [Alex] etched a two-sided PCB, including pads for use as capacitive touch sensors. Here we only see the underside of the board, which hosts four RGB LED modules. These give feedback by showing the levels which are about to be set for each color. In the clip after the break you’ll get a good look at the touch sensors. There are two that act like buttons, scrolling through each color channel, and sending the updated values to the lamp via a wireless module mounted on that same side. There are also four pads which act as a slider. We didn’t see any code but apparently
this uses one of TI’s touch sensor libraries
.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uyO9hupfm-g&w=470] | 6 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "588419",
"author": "Alex",
"timestamp": "2012-02-24T22:15:30",
"content": "Fix the title please.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "588456",
"author": "Will",
"timestamp": "2012-02-24T23:10:14",
"content":... | 1,760,376,949.036913 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/02/24/winning-video-games-by-letting-arduino-push-your-buttons/ | Winning Video Games By Letting Arduino Push Your Buttons | Mike Szczys | [
"Arduino Hacks"
] | [
"arduino",
"hid",
"keyboard"
] | [Lars] shows you how to get a perfect score on the first four levels of BIT.TRIP RUNNER by
using an Arduino to time and send button presses
. This is a pretty simple game that uses a couple of buttons to jump or slide past obstacles. The constant speed of the character makes it quite easy to time these movements without any input from the game. This means that the
pixel sampling which some web-game bots use
isn’t really necessary here. Just work out the timing and hard-code it into the sketch. As you’ll see after the break, it works perfectly
The real value of this hack is the guide he wrote to send key presses from the Arduino hardware. It’s not hard at all, but there are several steps and this will get you up and running in no time. Where might you go from here? It wouldn’t take much to turn this into
a keyboard prank that misspells all your words
.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5njzKY0oEy0&w=470] | 6 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "588801",
"author": "Pero",
"timestamp": "2012-02-25T10:25:14",
"content": "You could actually use pure software to simulate key presses :),however this is one badass looking hack =)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "588809",
"... | 1,760,376,949.082648 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/02/26/anodize-titanium-at-home/ | Anodize Titanium At Home | Mike Szczys | [
"chemistry hacks"
] | [
"anodize",
"coke",
"coke zero",
"spork",
"titanium"
] | We don’t really have any titanium lying around, it’s not exactly a cheap material. But this hack that shows you
how to anodize titanium in your home
laboratory (or kitchen for that matter) and it might help the metal make its way into a future project. It seems the process is not overly difficult or dangerous and it’s possible to achieve a lot of different colors in the finish.
In the image above [PinkFlute] is using Coke Zero, a sugar-free soda, as the chemical agent in the process. The alligator clip attached to the utensil is providing the positive voltage and the yellow wire dipped in the drink is negative. Finish color is determined by the voltage supplied. You can choose various shades of green, purple, yellow, and blue based on a voltage range of about 100V to 20V.
This is one of two anodizing methods shown. the other uses a foam brush dipped in soda with the negative lead clamped onto it. You just brush in the electrified substance to alter the camping spork’s finish.
[via
Reddit
] | 26 | 15 | [
{
"comment_id": "589540",
"author": "KOTIX",
"timestamp": "2012-02-26T22:51:22",
"content": "“100V to 20V” ??100V to 200V maybe ?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "590069",
"author": "HAD",
"timestamp": "2012-02-27T18:08:33",
... | 1,760,376,952.623893 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/02/26/adding-footwell-and-glove-box-lights-to-your-ride/ | Adding Footwell And Glove Box Lights To Your Ride | Mike Szczys | [
"LED Hacks",
"Transportation Hacks"
] | [
"glove box",
"glove compartment",
"parking lights"
] | [KonaStar] shows us that adding some light to you car interior isn’t very hard. It’s just a matter finding some unused space and routing the cables so that they’re out of sight. Here he’s
added LED lighting to the footwells and glove box of his car
.
He managed to find some depressions in the molded dashboard of the car which were just the right size for a small four-lead LED. He drilled holes for those leads, and soldered some protoboard to them on the inside of the dash. This way there’s nothing unfinished to catch your eye, and the protoboard provides an area to host the resistor and interconnect.
There are switches in the glove boxes that turn the lights off when closed. These work for the footwells too. In addition, the LED lighting harness is wired to the parking lights so they will not come on when the car’s lights are off. Because he started with a lighting harness intended to add ambient light to a vehicle, the system responds to the doors being opened as well.
It’s a nice addition if you don’t mind pulling out several pieces of your interior during the install. We’re more comfortable with something along the lines of
this turn signal hack
. | 30 | 20 | [
{
"comment_id": "589498",
"author": "Conker",
"timestamp": "2012-02-26T20:57:14",
"content": "Did this in my brothers car with the ikea dioder and custom wiring to get power from the cigarette lighter, blue in the footwells and greny blue in the glove box",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
... | 1,760,376,952.244562 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/02/26/diy-intervalometer-uses-a-great-looking-enclosure/ | DIY Intervalometer Uses A Great Looking Enclosure | Mike Szczys | [
"digital cameras hacks",
"Microcontrollers"
] | [
"12f683",
"intervalometer",
"pic"
] | That finished look for your project is all about the enclosure you find to host it. We think [Punge] really did a great job with the case for
this DIY intervalometer
. The build section of the project page links to the company that makes the enclosures. They’re meant to host round PCBs with several options for button configuration. Combine this with enough space for a coin cell and you’ve got a great looking custom device.
The intervalometer itself is much like others we’ve seen. It uses an audio-jack connector to control the camera. You have the option of using a three or four contact version depending on what your camera supports. The PIC 12F683 uses an optocoupler with a built-in transistor to do the switching. A single button seen at nine o’clock on the board above is all it takes to start the device off. Press and hold once to wake it up, then wait for your desired interval and press the button again to start the timed shots.
You’ll notice that there is no programming head in this design. A separate board was etched to attach the PicKit, with the surface mount chip just held in place during programming. | 1 | 1 | [
{
"comment_id": "589481",
"author": "MauiJerry",
"timestamp": "2012-02-26T20:18:46",
"content": "The company making the enclosures is an italian firm,Teko. Their OVO-3 line used in this build is part of thePOCKETseries which includes more conventionally shaped boxes.They seem to use ABS plastic mos... | 1,760,376,952.118953 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/02/26/investigating-parking-assist-sensors/ | Investigating Parking Assist Sensors | Mike Szczys | [
"Microcontrollers",
"Transportation Hacks"
] | [
"chevrolet",
"mbed",
"parking assist",
"tahoe",
"ultrasonic"
] | While his wife was out-of-town [James] jumped at the opportunity to do
some snooping around with her Chevy Tahoe’s parking assist sensors
. We can understand how pulling parts out of someone’s car would make them none too happy. But we find it hilarious that it’s a leased company car he’s tinkering around with. But we’re glad he did, the ten-page write-up he published about the project is a fascinating read.
You can see the control board above which is housed beneath the passenger seat. It uses a Freescale microcontroller to read from the four bumper-mounted ultrasonic sensors. But just looking at what parts are used obviously isn’t enough to satisfy a hacker’s appetite for knowledge. [James] busted out a CAN bus tool to sniff the data packets. These sensors use a custom chip designed by GM, utilizing a single wire communications system. He figures out the communication scheme and builds an mbed based test rig to read them directly.
[via
Dangerous Prototypes
] | 14 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "589439",
"author": "MaJ",
"timestamp": "2012-02-26T18:16:41",
"content": "I’ve been meaning to give these a try in a project. They can be had on DX (http://www.dealextreme.com/p/black-parking-sensor-radar-kit-dc-12v-24v-10283) for a reasonable price for 4 sensors so you don’t have t... | 1,760,376,952.41549 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/02/26/iou-management-for-roommate-chores/ | IOU Management For Roommate Chores | Mike Szczys | [
"home hacks"
] | [
"chores",
"debt",
"dorm",
"roommates"
] | [Chris] shares a dorm room with five other people. When living with others its important to stay on top of cleaning and to do so equitably the sextuplet came up with a well-planned whiteboard of chores. The problem lies in getting everyone to do theirs in a timely manner. To help facilitate this, [Chris] came up with
a system that lets roommates swap chores
, giving each other IOU’s for future duties.
The system uses an Arduino board along with an RTC chip for precise timekeeping. The user interface is made up of a graphic LCD and a keypad with everything mounted inside of a cardboard box. [Chris] shows off his system in the video after the break, spending the majority of time on the debt system. The roommates have a pot of money for group groceries and this system will let you know where everyone stands. But according to his written description this also stores the calendar of chores that need to get done, and will let you trade with one another to fit your personal schedule.
So now the issue is getting everyone to use the system. But we don’t think that’s going to be too tough since all six of them are computer scientists.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c43Rz-L-YEc&w=470] | 7 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "589420",
"author": "Iw2",
"timestamp": "2012-02-26T16:57:00",
"content": "What is the purpose of the jar in there?Is it where the money is placed?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "589445",
"author": "Mental2k",
"timestamp... | 1,760,376,952.556924 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/02/26/hackaday-links-february-26-2012/ | Hackaday Links: February 26, 2012 | Mike Szczys | [
"Hackaday links"
] | [
"floppy disk",
"laser",
"monotron",
"satellite",
"twitter"
] | Wii Nunchuk controlled Monotron
Adding a bit of motion control to your music synthesizer turns out to be pretty easy. Here’s
an example of a Wii Nunchuk
used to control
a Monotron
. [Thanks John]
Hackers on the Moon and other space related goals
Yep apparently a non-government backed expedition to the moon is in the works. But you’ve got to walk before you can crawl and one of the first parts of the process is to launch a hackerspace-backed satellite network called the
Hackerspace Global Grid
. Check out this
interview with one of the initiative’s founders
[Hadez]. [Thanks MS3FGX]
Laser pointers and frosted glass
We were under the impression that a laser show required finely calibrated hardware. But [Jas Strong] proves us wrong by making pretty colors with
laser pointers and slowly rotating glass
. [Thanks Mike]
MSP430 Twitter Ticker
[Matt] built
a Twitter ticker using the TI Launchpad
. It works on an LED matrix or OLED display along with a Python script which handles the API.
Android floppy drive hack
[Pedro] shows us how
he reads floppy disks with his Android tablet
. The hardware includes a docking station to add a USB port to the tablet, as well as a hub and USB floppy drive. On the software side of things an Android port of DOSbox does the rest. | 5 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "589412",
"author": "Iw2",
"timestamp": "2012-02-26T16:31:36",
"content": "Shouldn’t it be “you’ve got to crawl before you can walk”? Otherwise, thousands of toddlers disprove this every day^^",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "5894... | 1,760,376,952.075809 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/02/25/giving-old-appliances-a-second-life-with-simple-tweaks/ | Giving Old Appliances A Second Life With Simple Tweaks | Mike Nathan | [
"classic hacks",
"home hacks"
] | [
"blender",
"led",
"lighting",
"repurpose",
"retro"
] | Cruising estate sales can be a total crapshoot – sometimes you find a goldmine, other times nothing but junk. [John Ownby] recently found a sleek-looking old blender at such a sale and decided to take it home. The chrome plated base and fluted glass immediately caught his eye, but he didn’t buy the blender so he could make mediocre frozen drinks –
he wanted a lamp instead.
The conversion was fairly simple, requiring him to gut the machine of its moving parts including the motor and blades, replacing them with a small incandescent candelabra base. While his modifications themselves are not groundbreaking, taking them a step further would make for some really cool (and functional) retro house fixtures.
Indulge me for a moment, if you will, and imagine swapping out the simple incandescent bulb for some LED strips or even EL wire. Replace the blender’s cap with a small speaker, and you can use several of these together as retro-looking surround satellites.
We can definitely get behind his reuse of the blender, which would have otherwise likely ended up in a landfill. It’s great to see solid, durable appliances given a second life, even in ways which were never intended. Have you rescued anything from the trash heap like [John], or do you have other ideas for your fellow hackers who might come across similar goods? Let us know in the comments. | 17 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "589031",
"author": "j0z0r",
"timestamp": "2012-02-25T21:21:18",
"content": "I rescue things from Goodwill alla time. I like the vintage or retro looking old stuff. I have a 1940’s radio that I want to make into a web radio, but haven’t had the time. A few things I have turned into l... | 1,760,376,952.176493 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/02/24/microcontroller-gives-you-more-control-of-your-camera-lens/ | Microcontroller Gives You More Control Of Your Camera Lens | Mike Szczys | [
"digital cameras hacks"
] | [
"aperture",
"arduino",
"canon",
"eos",
"freeduino",
"lens"
] | Here’s one way to get more control of your camera lenses. [Vladimir] built
an Arduino-based pass-through ring
(
translated
) which intercepts automatic lens controls. It’s meant for use with the Canon EOS lenses which have their own electronics allowing control of things like focus and zoom.
It seems like part of the motivation here was to uses the lenses with other brands of cameras. But [Vladimir] does also talk about the possibility of improving on some of the sensors that don’t perform well in certain climate conditions (think of how crystal oscillators will drift as temperature changes).
The machine translation is a bit rough to follow, but it seems the adapter ring still uses the settings sent in from the camera but has the Arduino clone to translate them into a format that the lens is expecting. In addition to this there is a set of buttons on that small PCB beside the lens which allow for fine tuning the aperture.
This is a lengthy writeup, but there’s two more on the way that will help fill in the gaps of how this hack works with different lens models, and some more tips on how to use it.
[Thanks Vasily] | 12 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "588403",
"author": "HAD",
"timestamp": "2012-02-24T21:30:30",
"content": "How does this not change the focal point?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "588405",
"author": "HAD",
"timestamp": "2012-02-24T21:33:54",
... | 1,760,376,952.351912 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/02/24/rotating-platform-makes-most-useless-machine-concept-useful/ | Rotating Platform Makes Most Useless Machine Concept Useful | Mike Szczys | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"most useless machine",
"security camera",
"turntable"
] | [Valentin] used a simple concept to
build this auto-reversing rotating platform
. The concept is extremely simple, the leads for the motor are attached to a double-pole double-throw switch which allow the polarity to be reversed. Flip the switch in one direction and it spins clockwise. Flip it in the other direction and it spins counter-clockwise.
In this case, he’s harnesses the power of
the most useless machine
. That often seen hack uses a similar switch, but accomplishes nothing by having the moving parts act as the actuator. This one is useful, taking advantage of a single or double arm to flip the switch and make the platform spin backwards. In the video after the break you can see it’s used to create a scanning security camera. But [Valentin] also shows it at work as a turntable for salable goods. We think’s the gearing is a little brisk for both purposes, but slowing it down is a hack for another day.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3UnxSSxnG1c&w=470] | 13 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "588365",
"author": "Kevin",
"timestamp": "2012-02-24T19:41:17",
"content": "I think… someone missed the point of a most useless machine.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "588366",
"author": "Brett W. (FightCube.com)",
"tim... | 1,760,376,952.298343 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/02/24/variable-pitch-quadrocopter-flies-upside-down/ | Variable Pitch Quadrocopter Flies Upside Down | Brian Benchoff | [
"Robots Hacks"
] | [
"quadrocopter",
"quadrotor"
] | Straight from the Aerospace Controls Laboratory comes a
variable-pitch quadrocopter
designed by [Mark Cutler] and [Jonathan P. Howe]. While real, full-sized helicopters always have variable pitch rotors, changing the pitch of the blades on remote control aircraft is a fairly uncommon modification. When it’s done right, though, being able to easily change the thrust direction of a propeller leads to very cool flights, like
having an airplane hover nose down.
[Mark] and [Jonathan] identified two interesting techniques that a variable pitch quadrotor can bring to the table. The first is trajectory generation – because of the added maneuverability, their quadrotor can perform more aggressive banking turns when following a preprogrammed path. The second benefit to their design is quick deceleration. In the first video after the break, you can compare the deceleration rates of a variable pitch and fixed pitch quadrocopter. While the fixed pitch quad continues climbing after being commanded to stop, the quadrocopter outfitted with variable pitch rotors can stop on a dime.
We’re still waiting for the equivalent of the
Red Bull Air Races
for quadrocopter builds, but when it comes we know what would win the slalom event.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIkqqVr_u9U&w=470]
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vy5Ky50eGJs&w=470] | 50 | 19 | [
{
"comment_id": "588295",
"author": "Destate9",
"timestamp": "2012-02-24T17:55:07",
"content": "I’m sorry, Hackaday, I just don’t care about quadrocopters enough to see posts about them every week",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "588299",
... | 1,760,376,952.71433 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/02/24/diy-conductive-ink-lets-you-freehand-circuits-on-the-cheap/ | DIY Conductive Ink Lets You Freehand Circuits On The Cheap | Mike Nathan | [
"chemistry hacks",
"News"
] | [
"Chemistry",
"conductive ink",
"formic acid",
"silver acetate"
] | [Jordan] likes the
flexibility that conductive inks offer
(dead link, try
Internet Archive
) when putting together electronic circuits, but says that they are often too expensive to purchase in decent quantities, and that they usually require substrate-damaging temperatures to cure. After reading a UIUC Materials Research Lab article about making conductive ink that anneals at relatively low temperatures, he decided to give it a shot.
[Jordan] started out by picking up various chemicals and lab supplies online, setting up shop at
Pumping Station: One.
The process is pretty straightforward, and seems like something just about anyone who took high school chemistry can manage. That said, he does note that some of the chemicals, such as Formic Acid, can be quite painful if mishandled.
After just a few minutes of work and about 12 hours waiting time, [Jordan] had himself a decently-sized vial of conductive ink. He tried it out on a few different substrates with varying results, and in the end found that etched glass made the best circuits. He says that there are plenty of experiments to try, so expect even more helpful info from him in the near future.
[via
Pumping Station: One
] | 37 | 17 | [
{
"comment_id": "588205",
"author": "Alp_X",
"timestamp": "2012-02-24T15:23:27",
"content": "Wow, great work Jordan! I can imagine many useful areas. I am happy to see how the innovation comes from amateurs rather than profit based companies. hackerspaces are great places for this.",
"parent_id"... | 1,760,376,952.982504 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/02/23/autonomous-metal-detector-lets-you-sit-back-get-rich/ | Autonomous Metal Detector Lets You Sit Back, Get Rich | Mike Nathan | [
"Arduino Hacks",
"Robots Hacks"
] | [
"arduino",
"autonomous",
"metal detector",
"radio control"
] | As a kid, metal detectors seemed like great fun. Every commercial I saw beckoned with tales of buried treasure “right in my own back yard” – a bounty hard for any kid to pass up. In reality, the process was both time consuming and tedious, with little reward to be had. [Gareth] liked the idea of scouring the Earth with a metal detector, but he liked sitting and relaxing even more. He decided he could easily partake in both activities if he built himself
an autonomous metal detecting robot.
He stripped down a hand held metal detector, and installed the important bits on to the front of an R/C chassis. An Arduino controls the entire rig via a motor shield, allowing it to drive and steer the vehicle while simultaneously sweeping the metal detector over the ground. He fitted the top of the rover with a camera for remotely watching the action from the comfort of his patio, along with a laser which lets him pinpoint the location of his new found goods.
Continue reading to see a short video of the robot in action, and be sure to check out his site for more build details.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Inlc9sgDoH8&feature=player_embedded&w=470] | 34 | 20 | [
{
"comment_id": "587905",
"author": "Wm_Atl",
"timestamp": "2012-02-23T23:35:44",
"content": "just need an army of them to comb the beach. Wonder if this could be used for land mind detection and removal.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "58792... | 1,760,376,952.908783 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/02/23/a-tv-b-gone-with-a-pic-twist/ | A TV-B-Gone With A PIC Twist | Mike Nathan | [
"Microcontrollers",
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"adafruit",
"pic",
"porting",
"tv-b-gone"
] | [Kayvon] thought that the TV-B-Gone was a fun little device and wanted to build one, but he didn’t have an AVR programmer handy. Rather than picking up some AVR kit and simply building a replica, he decided to give his PIC skills a workout and build
a Microchip derivative of his own.
The PIC-based TV-B-Gone is pretty similar to its AVR-borne brethren, featuring a PIC24F08KA101 at the helm instead of an ATTiny. His version of the TV-B-Gone can be left on indefinitely, allowing him to situate the device in a convenient hiding place to wreak havoc for as long as he likes.
[Kayvon’s] TV-B-Gone does everything the original can at just under $7, which is quite a bit cheaper than the
Adafruit kit.
If you’re not averse to perfboard construction, be sure to check out the build thread over in the Adafruit forums. [Kayvon] has done most of the heavy lifting for you – all you need to do is build it. | 14 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "587885",
"author": "ScottInNH",
"timestamp": "2012-02-23T22:36:25",
"content": "This is an oldie, but very nice just the same.It’s always good to see these open projects/kits get ported from 1 micro to another, with full documentation, and not losing features (like power management)... | 1,760,376,953.447617 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/02/23/multicolor-reprap-prints-the-really-really-hard-way/ | Multicolor RepRap Prints The Really, Really Hard Way | Brian Benchoff | [
"cnc hacks"
] | [
"3d printing",
"Bowden extruder",
"multicolor",
"reprap"
] | [Adrian Bowyer] just posted his
progress with multicolored printing
to the RepRap blog.
The new developments are a continuation of [Adrian]’s experiments with a
mixer extruder
that squirts four different colored filaments out of the same nozzle. [Myles Corbett] took this idea and ran with it producing the two-color print seen above. To squirt two different colored filaments out of the nozzle, [Myles] used two
Bowden extruders
mounted near the apex of the RepRap with tubes leading to the nozzle. Right now, the color of a print is controlled by loosening the grip screws of the extruder, but there are plans for moving that task over to electronic control of the extruders.
While it may be only black and white now, it’ll be a very interesting development once five extruders are loaded up with cyan, magenta, yellow, black, and white filament. Yes, it is now theoretically possible to print full-color 3D objects on a RepRap. While we’re not looking forward towards having to upgrade our one-motor extruder to a four- or five-motor model, the possibilities for desktop fabrication are becoming amazing. | 17 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "587846",
"author": "Kevin",
"timestamp": "2012-02-23T21:12:36",
"content": "This is pretty awesome… much like inkjet… it’s plastijet printing…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "587848",
"author": "NickS",
"timestamp": "201... | 1,760,376,953.201471 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/02/22/heatless-compressed-air-dryer/ | Heatless Compressed Air Dryer | Mike Szczys | [
"Hackerspaces",
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"compressed air",
"desiccant",
"dryer"
] | The pressurized air from a standard air compressor is fine for most uses. But some applications like plasma cutting call for low-humidity air and the hardware available to facilitate this can cost a bundle. [Roland] and his cohorts at TX/RX Labs (a Houston, Texas Hackerspace) just
built this air drying system
.
It works using a desiccant; a substance that sequesters moister. It’s the stuff in those little packets you find in shoe boxes and the like with a warning that you shouldn’t eat it. The image above shows two chambers which house the desiccant. Only one is used at a time, so that as it’s ability to remove moisture drops, the system can switch over to the other chamber. There’s even an automatic recharging system built in that uses a portion of the dried air to remove the humidity from the unused desiccant chamber.
There’s a functional diagram at the link above. It’s resolution is low enough that the text is almost unreadable but we’ve asked [Roland] if he can repost the image. This seems like a build in which other hackerspaces will be interested. | 25 | 16 | [
{
"comment_id": "587199",
"author": "Brook Keele",
"timestamp": "2012-02-22T22:03:40",
"content": "“sequesters moister”moister? really? Try moisture. :)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "587237",
"author": "boarder2k7",
"timestam... | 1,760,376,953.697007 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/02/22/cnc-milled-bicycle-frame-jig/ | CNC Milled Bicycle Frame Jig | Mike Szczys | [
"cnc hacks"
] | [
"bicycle",
"bike",
"frame",
"jig",
"mdf"
] | This
bicycle frame jig is cut from MDF
. It’s the latest in a growing trend that we love to see: the increasing availability of manufacturing techniques for the common hacker. This is a Kickstarter project, and alas it appears the designs are not available for you to cut your own. But we love the potential this shows, and maybe you can use the concept the next time you’re
welding together a frame for something
.
We really never look at building traditional frames at home. Mostly it’s
the oddities
that catch our eye. But if you’re into cycling and want to get your own custom-fit frame this has got to be the lowest-cost option available. In fact, you can get the jig and a tube set for under $600. The frame can be fit with just a few hand tools (a hack saw and a file). It uses lugs so the joints will be strong as long as you get the pipes fitting well enough for a quality welded joint. | 22 | 13 | [
{
"comment_id": "587173",
"author": "Oleksiy",
"timestamp": "2012-02-22T21:11:27",
"content": "On the same subject,VRZ 1. a tack bike frame with 3d printed lugshttp://vimeo.com/34293503",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "587224",
"author"... | 1,760,376,953.335788 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/02/22/android-3-1-devices-have-usb-host-mode-heres-how-to-use-it/ | Android 3.1 Devices Have USB Host Mode. Here’s How To Use It. | Mike Szczys | [
"Android Hacks"
] | [
"arduino",
"serial",
"usb host"
] | With the coming of Android 3.1 you finally have the option of using the device as a USB host. This may be through a USB OTG (On-the-Go) adaptor, but nonetheless it’s a feature which was sorely missed until now. [Manuel] put together
a guide on using Android as a USB host
. As you can see, his example hardware is an Arduino board but this is applicable with just about any device.
The tutorial implements a test app for the Android device where a slider will set the brightness of the Arduino’s on-board LED. The Arduino sketch is nothing special, it just reads data received on the UART. This means that it doesn’t care if it’s connected to an Android, PC, OSX, or Linux system, it goes about its business until the RX interrupt updates the data variable.
This will greatly simplify a lot of projects we’ve seen, such as
this message scrolling belt buckle
. That used extra hardware to make the Arduino the host, a step that is now necessary. | 27 | 17 | [
{
"comment_id": "587144",
"author": "Foxdie",
"timestamp": "2012-02-22T20:08:11",
"content": "Just feel I need to point out, 2.x has had this for certain devices for a while now, my SGS2 for example has had it since the day it was released in the UK when I bought it.Nonetheless, it’s a useful featur... | 1,760,376,953.267869 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/02/22/projection-screen-using-latex-paint-and-sand-blasting-beads/ | Projection Screen Using Latex Paint And Sand Blasting Beads | Mike Szczys | [
"home entertainment hacks"
] | [
"glass bead",
"latex paint",
"projection",
"projector",
"sand blasting",
"screen"
] | This method of building your own projection screen is new to us. [Sean Michael Ragan] ran across some sand blasting material made up of minuscule glass beads at Harbor Freight and inspiration struck. He purchased a fifty-pound bag and set out to
see if it could be used with regular latex paint to create a projection screen
. The answer is an absolute yes, but results are dependent on how you apply it.
Now there is paint you can buy which will turn your wall into a projector screen, but it’s expensive. [Sean’s] hack isn’t a direct replacement as he found the results of just mixing the beads with paint and applying them to a vertical surface weren’t up to the standards he’s looking for. But if you build a screen to hang on the wall you can let gravity work for you. He laid the screen flat and applied a heavy coat of paint to the surface. He then sprinkled a heavy coat of the glass bead over the wet paint and let it dry. Finally he cleaned off the material which didn’t stick and hung it on the wall.
Don’t have a projector to use with this hack? No problem, just
build your own
.
[Thanks Skuhl] | 22 | 16 | [
{
"comment_id": "587111",
"author": "CoolMod",
"timestamp": "2012-02-22T19:04:24",
"content": "Nice. I also love the cat…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "587114",
"author": "bane",
"timestamp": "2012-02-22T19:10:55",
"content": "Sooo... | 1,760,376,953.396834 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/02/22/up-your-fpga-game-by-learning-from-this-lcd-control-prototype/ | Up Your FPGA Game By Learning From This LCD Control Prototype | Mike Szczys | [
"Microcontrollers",
"Video Hacks"
] | [
"fpga",
"lcd",
"LQ043T3DX02",
"psp",
"sharp",
"tft"
] | [Cesar] recently got a PSP display up and running with his FPGA development board. That’s a nice project, but what we really like is that he set aside a lot of time to
show how it’s done every step of the way
. This isn’t just a tutorial on that particular screen, but an overview of the skill set needed to get any piece of hardware working.
The screen itself is a Sharp LQ043T3DX02; a 480×272 TFT display with 16 million colors. Not bad for your project but when you start looking into the control scheme this isn’t going to be like
using a Nokia screen with an Arduino
. It takes twenty pins to control it; Red, green, and blue take sixteen pins, four pins are used for control, the rest are CK, DISP, Hsync, Vsync.
Wisely, [Cesar] designs his own interface board which includes the connector for the ribbon cable. It also has drivers for the screen’s backlight and supplies power to the device. With hardware setup complete he digs into the datasheets. We just love it that he details how to get the information you’re looking for out of this document, and shows his method of turning that first into a flow chart and then into code for the FPGA. | 10 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "587092",
"author": "Ren",
"timestamp": "2012-02-22T18:09:55",
"content": "16 pins for RGB, +4 for control, +4 for CK, DISP, Hsync, Vsync =20 pins?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "587099",
"author": "Bob Spafford",
"times... | 1,760,376,953.505012 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/02/22/retro-hardware-mash-up-spouts-archaic-geekery/ | Retro Hardware Mash-up Spouts Archaic Geekery | Mike Szczys | [
"Video Hacks"
] | [
"arduino",
"buckminster fuller",
"crt",
"tv out"
] | This delightful little box is something only a hacker could love. It uses some
second-hand hardware to display random sayings
attributed to [Buckminster Fuller]. The image above doesn’t do the display justice. There are other photos which show very crisp lettering which is easier to read.
[Autuin] always keeps his eyes open for cool gear at the end of its consumer life. The screen for this project is a CRT from a Coleman TV lantern (you know, for camping… bah!). It finds a home in the chassis of an old non-functional radio he had picked up a few years earlier. With those parts in hand the real adventure started: getting an Arduino to read in quotes and generate a TV out signal to display them.
We love the SD card holder which he fashioned from a card-edge connector he grabbed at the local electronics store. From there he scoured the Internet for help on where to patch into the TV signal. Once the right trace was discovered the Arduino TV out library does the heavy lifting. | 15 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "587081",
"author": "EccentricElectron",
"timestamp": "2012-02-22T17:53:15",
"content": "This is ART.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "587098",
"author": "F4R4D4Y.dc414",
"timestamp": "2012-02-22T18:25:32",
"content": ... | 1,760,376,953.560863 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/02/22/automatic-water-for-your-pets/ | Automatic Water For Your Pets | Kevin Dady | [
"home hacks",
"News"
] | [
"automatic",
"water"
] | If you have livestock or outdoor pets you know how important it is to keep them watered, but also know that sometimes you are not around when the trough runs dry. [Buddy] solves this inconvenience with a trip to the hardware store and some creativity.
The automatic water filler
is made from some PVC pipe, brass fittings, a faucet supply and a toilet float valve. The PVC is arranged into a hook shape, a fitting is put on one end for a standard garden hose. On the other end a bit of adapting is needed to convert the PVC into a faucet supply, where the toilet valve is hooked up. Now whenever your thirsty beasts get the water too low, the float lowers and tops off the watering hole with fresh H20. That sure beats running out there every day to make sure, especially with summer just around the bend. | 35 | 19 | [
{
"comment_id": "587045",
"author": "anti-siphon valve needed",
"timestamp": "2012-02-22T16:45:54",
"content": "You’ll want to put a one-way anti-siphon valve on that – unless you want animal fecal bacteria to make its way back to your drinking water.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"re... | 1,760,376,953.634405 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/02/21/live-out-your-inner-animist-with-animatronic-cat-ears/ | Live Out Your Inner Animist With Animatronic Cat Ears | Brian Benchoff | [
"Wearable Hacks"
] | [
"anamatronic",
"cat ears",
"furries",
"servo"
] | While having a great white shark as your spirit animal may sound cool, we’ve found walking around in public wearing a gigantic set of mechanical jaws to be a bit of a hindrance. [abetusk] doesn’t have that problem; he can wear his awesome
animatronic cat ears
anywhere he pleases.
The build was inspired by
these extremely Japanese
animatronic ears loaded with EEG hardware to read the emotional state of the wearer. [abetusk] decided that tearing apart some
brain scanning hardware
was too much work for not enough benefit, so he decided servos controlled by push buttons would be just fine.
On the electronic side of the build, servos attached to a head band are controlled by an ATtiny13. A single button goes through three states for the ears: a long button press is surprise, a tap followed by a long hold is angry or sad, and tapping three times is an ‘ear wink.’ All of the code is
up on GitHub
, and you can check out these cat ear emotions with [abetusk]’s lovely assistant in the video after the break.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bmfi5lZXoHc&w=470] | 43 | 27 | [
{
"comment_id": "586428",
"author": "Tim",
"timestamp": "2012-02-21T22:05:23",
"content": "Thats the coolest thing ive seen in a long time. Haha",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "586429",
"author": "andrew",
"timestamp": "2012-02-21T22:05:... | 1,760,376,953.901318 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/02/21/hacking-together-a-color-changing-water-wall/ | Hacking Together A Color Changing Water Wall | Mike Szczys | [
"LED Hacks"
] | [
"acrylic",
"aquarium",
"arduino",
"lamp",
"led strip",
"rgb",
"syringe",
"weld"
] | [BadWolf’s] girlfriend wanted him to build her a lamp for Christmas and he didn’t disappoint. What he came up with is
a water-filled color changing lamp with bubbles
for added interest. See for yourself in the clip after the jump.
The color changing properties are easily taken care of by some waterproof RGB LED strips. [BadWolf] went the Arduino route for this project but any microcontroller will be able to fill the role of color cycling. The enclosure is all hand-made from acrylic sheets. He grabbed some chemical welding liquid from the hardware store and applied it to the acrylic with a syringe. That’s easy enough when attaching the edges to one side of the enclosure. But it gets much tougher when it’s time to seal up the other side. He recorded a video of this which shows the syringe taped to a rod so he can get it down in there, pushing the plunger with a second extension device.
Bubbles are supplied by a small aquarium pump. We’re wondering if this will need frequent cleaning or if you can get some pool chemicals to keeps it nice and clear (or just a teaspoon of bleach)?
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QdDXedjsyWg&w=470] | 20 | 14 | [
{
"comment_id": "586414",
"author": "Th3badwolf",
"timestamp": "2012-02-21T21:14:33",
"content": "To keep it clean she used some pool stuff before but now she’s trying pure water from the drugstore,it seems to take much mroe time to build tiny depots now.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
... | 1,760,376,953.959339 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/02/21/data-broacasting-transparency-grenade-ads-whimsy-to-your-meetings/ | Data Broacasting “Transparency Grenade” Ads Whimsy To Your Meetings | Mike Szczys | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"grenade",
"gumstix",
"linux",
"transmit",
"wifi"
] | If you’re tired of underhanded deals going down behind closed doors maybe you need to start carrying around
this transparency grenade
. The enclosure is modeled after a Soviet-era F1 Hand Grenade. But it’s not filled with explosives and won’t send deadly shrapnel around the room. Instead, when the pin is pulled it starts recording audio and sniffing network packets, then broadcasts both to a remote server. Perhaps you could consider this to be data shrapnel sent around the world.
The exploded parts image above shows what hardware is at use. There’s a Gumstix board at the heart of the device which uses a WiFi module for sniffing and broadcasting data. The LED bar graph which you see in the fully assembled unit shows the wireless signal strength.
It sounds like the enclosure itself was 3D printed from Tusk2700T translucent resin but we’re a little confused by this part of the hardware description. We don’t have much of a need to transmit recordings of our meetings, but we’d love to
use this case design for that MP3 enclosure
.
[via
Reddit
] | 11 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "586379",
"author": "Steven Hartig",
"timestamp": "2012-02-21T20:15:17",
"content": "What about the description of the shell is confusing? The shell was clearly made using Stereo-lithography and Tusk2700T was the photo polymer resin that was used in the SLA.",
"parent_id": null,
... | 1,760,376,954.011436 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/02/21/hidden-bookshelf-switch/ | Hidden Bookshelf Switch | Mike Szczys | [
"home hacks"
] | [
"book",
"dimmer",
"hidden",
"switch"
] | So you don’t have any secret passageways in your house, but if you’ve got a bookshelf
this secret switch can add some fun
to your routine. [Brandon] saw a commercially available version which was out of stock when he went to order so he set out to build his own.
He’s using the switch to operate a lamp. The donor part for the hack is a lamp dimmer which you’ll find at the big box store. This is really just a pass-through wall plug with an extension cord. By cutting the dimmer module off of the extension a push button can be used to connect and disconnect one of the conductors in the line. Make sure you use a push button rated or mains voltage!
To make the push switch work with a book [Brandon] bend a bracket which will slide into the spine of a hardcover. We love his homemade press brake (angle iron, a sturdy hinge, and a chunk of 2×4) used when shaping the bracket. Once everything’s in place nobody will ever know there’s anything special about those books. | 20 | 12 | [
{
"comment_id": "586344",
"author": "andrew",
"timestamp": "2012-02-21T19:52:43",
"content": "Make sure you use a push button rated or mains voltage!Hmm.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "586407",
"author": "Nardella",
"timestamp": "2012-0... | 1,760,376,954.135304 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/02/21/who-couldnt-use-a-little-more-screen-space/ | Who Couldn’t Use A Little More Screen Space? | Kevin Dady | [
"Peripherals Hacks"
] | [
"lcd",
"linux",
"parallel port"
] | Text LCD’s are handy for any occasion, a printer port on your PC is also darn handy as well. Mix together and add in a splash of linux and you get a very handy
Linux device driver for a 16×2 LCD connected to the parallel port.
Electrically the LCD is wired up in a typical 4 bit mode, this allows the parallel port to use its 8 bit data register to write data, but also control the Register Select and Enable pins. Next is to make a module for linux to use, it seems like pretty standard fair for this type of screen.
Make the driver, insert the module so it can be loaded, and add a node so you know where to find it later, and your only an “echo Hello > /dev/my_lcd” away from finding all sorts of creative uses for your new external display. | 23 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "586318",
"author": "vintagepc",
"timestamp": "2012-02-21T18:34:39",
"content": "A little research could have saved a lot of work. LCDProc has been around for ages.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "586323",
"author": "de... | 1,760,376,954.076357 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/02/21/tired-of-the-normal-use-for-your-toothbrush-why-not-an-engraving-tool/ | Tired Of The Normal Use For Your Toothbrush? Why Not An Engraving Tool? | Jeremy Cook | [
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"engraving tool",
"reuse",
"toothbrush"
] | Hardware hackers and makers like us may not be well known for our excellent hygiene habits, but after
[Dan]’s creation
, no one can claim he doesn’t know how to use one! Either out of a total disdain for tooth care, or hopefully, after using one properly for many months, [Dan] decided to turn his electric toothbrush into an engraving tool!
At around $4 and meant for cleaning plaque off teeth, this tool isn’t the most powerful engraver on the block, but is capable of good work on softer material such as acrylic. Be sure to check out
the heart that was made
with this improvised tool that introduced us to [Dan]’s work.
This is really a clever use of your resources, and the article gives a nice account of how the toothbrush was modified with pictorial directions. Besides it’s use as an engraving tool, this might give someone other ideas for alternate toothbrush uses. For another neat alternate home-item use, why not check out how to repurpose an
air freshener as a camera trigger
? | 10 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "586258",
"author": "Isotope",
"timestamp": "2012-02-21T16:10:02",
"content": "FYI, if you are looking to build this to save money, just spend the $8 and get this one that can engrave glass:http://www.harborfreight.com/micro-engraver-98227.html(I have it and it works well enough)then... | 1,760,376,954.182222 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/02/21/flash-an-arduino-from-an-sd-card/ | Flash An Arduino From An SD Card | Brian Benchoff | [
"Arduino Hacks"
] | [
"arduino",
"avrdude",
"sd card"
] | [Kevin] has been working on reverse engineering the protocol used by the Arduino IDE and porting it to the Arduino platform. Now that his
BootDrive
project is nearing completion, he’s ready to give every Arduino the ability to program another Arduino over an SD card.
BootDrive isn’t terribly different from using an
Arduino as an ISP
, only now AVRdude runs on the Arduino itself and no computer is required to put new firmware into the target Arduino. [Kevin] attached a
MicroSD breakout board
to an Arduino-compatible clone. When the clone starts up, it searches the SD card for a file called ‘program.hex.’ This file is sent over to the target Arduino and the new firmware is installed.
While it may not be extremely practical if you’ve only got a few Arduinos that never leave your workbench, we’re thinking this would be an invaluable tool if you need to update the software on a board already ‘in the field,’ serving as a weather station or homemade game camera. [Kevin] put up a demo of his BootDrive project; you can check that out after the break.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i4wJ4kRO80Ew=470] | 30 | 14 | [
{
"comment_id": "586229",
"author": "Daid",
"timestamp": "2012-02-21T15:12:01",
"content": "FYI: The Arduino is using the stk500v1 protocol, except for the ArduinoMega2560 which uses the stk500v2 protocol. And every Arduino type uses a different baudrate. No reverse engineering needed, these protoco... | 1,760,376,954.253404 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/02/20/handheld-cnc-fabrication/ | Handheld CNC Fabrication | Brian Benchoff | [
"cnc hacks"
] | [
"cnc",
"dremel"
] | While loading a 3D model into a CNC program and letting a machine go to town on a piece of stock is awesome, there’s a lot to be said about the artistry, craftsmanship and tactile feedback of carving a project by hand. [Amit Zoran] and [Joe Paradiso] created a nice bridge between these two approaches with their hand-held, but still digitally controlled milling device they call
The Free D
.
The Free D looks like your run-of-the-mill handheld Dremel tool with an engraving attachment and a few extra servos attached for good measure. These extra parts serve a purpose: the tool actually keeps track of its own orientation in 3D space. With the help of a few magnets underneath the work piece, the Free D sends its orientation back to a computer running a CNC program. When the computer detects the engraving attachment is getting too close to the desired shape, the Free D automatically retracts its own tool head.
Given the insanity or expense in building our buying a mill with six degrees of freedom, the Free D looks like it could be a useful tool in a few model maker’s toolboxes. Check out the demo video of the Free D after the break.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TxHiTjapTqg&w=470] | 34 | 13 | [
{
"comment_id": "585501",
"author": "gmcurrie",
"timestamp": "2012-02-20T16:12:28",
"content": "That’s great – was thinking about possibility of a similar setup a while ago, but hadn’t fully sussed the possible ways of constraining the operator’s movements – (was thinking along lines of a robot arm ... | 1,760,376,954.325759 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/02/19/bringing-the-stars-to-your-baby/ | Bringing The Stars To Your Baby | Caleb Kraft | [
"home hacks"
] | [
"night light",
"stars"
] | [Zach] saw a stuffed animal that projected some simple stars on the ceiling. This gave him an idea that
he could build a tiny star projector
for his 3 month old daughter’s room. The idea is to put an LED inside a ping pong ball with tiny holes and rotate it slowly.
The electronics are fairly strait forward. He’s using an MSP430 to control the servo and LED, allowing him to set different speeds and turn the whole thing off after a certain amount of time. The ball took a little bit of trial and error though. He first started by drilling some holes, but found this to give poor results. The holes were just too big. He finally ended up heating up a sewing needle and melting tiny holes in the ping pong ball. That worked perfect.
After the break you can see a video of it moving. The servo is pretty loud, which might actually be a good distraction for a 3month old, but might be something to address in the future.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mcq1j0W_LjE&w=470] | 35 | 27 | [
{
"comment_id": "585095",
"author": "EccentricElectron",
"timestamp": "2012-02-19T20:23:03",
"content": "s/strait/straight",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "585097",
"author": "Th3badwolf",
"timestamp": "2012-02-19T20:30:28",
"content"... | 1,760,376,954.458897 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/02/19/hackaday-links-february-19-2012/ | Hackaday Links: February 19, 2012 | Brian Benchoff | [
"Hackaday links"
] | [
"3d printer",
"anamusic",
"nerf",
"psu",
"quadrocopter"
] | Industrial control robot band
Remember
Animusic
, a series of videos featuring computer-generated, highly implausible instruments? Intel
made their own
to demo their industrial control tech. From the looks of things, we’re putting money on a bunch of MIDI triggers bolted onto plastic panels; now it’s slightly less impressive and the reason we’re looking at xylophones on eBay right now.
Quadrocopters everywhere
[Jouni] sent in his
quadrocopter build
that was inspired by the
Japanese spherebot
we caught earlier this year. [Jouni] used a carbon fiber frame to prevent the copter from bumping into things. Other things bumping into it are
another story entirely
.
This is my gun. There are none like it, because I printed it.
[Landru]
printed a Nerf gun
on his 3D printer. The only non-printed parts are a few screws, springs and an o-ring. [Landru] promised to put the files up on Thingiverse, but we can’t find them.
Media center auto power on circuit
[Dizzy]’s media server doesn’t have an ‘AC power loss reset’ feature in its BIOS, and he can’t jumpstart the thing by shorting pins on the ATX power socket. He came up with a very clean,
minimal solution
to starting his server after a power loss. Nice job, [Diz].
Better run, better run, outrun my soldering gun
Alright,
circuit board shoes
probably aren’t that comfortable, or useful, but we did find a like to the works of [Steven Rodrig], an artist who works in
the medium of PCBs
. The recycled circuits don’t do anything, and that’s giving us a few ideas on how to improve a
digital banana
. | 16 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "585037",
"author": "Daid",
"timestamp": "2012-02-19T17:26:23",
"content": "The nerf gun is most likely absent from thingiverse because they have a no weapons policy.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "585087",
"author": "... | 1,760,376,954.3867 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/02/19/ask-hackaday-did-you-catch-the-grammys/ | Ask Hackaday: Did You Catch The Grammys? | Brian Benchoff | [
"Ask Hackaday"
] | [
"Ask Hackaday",
"grammys",
"led"
] | Although award shows aren’t necessarily our thing, [T. D.] sent in something that piqued our interest. His friends recently got back from the Grammy awards where they witnessed thousands of LED bracelets blinking in time to a performance by Coldplay. A little bit of YouTubing pulled up
this video
that demonstrates the effect (because that video will probably be taken down shortly, just pick something from
this link
).
[T.D.]’s friends brought one of these bracelets back with them and like a good Hackaday reader, he cracked it open.
This
is the precious board pic that [T.D.] sent in. We’re pretty confident that the IC is an
ATMega48PA
, but beyond that we’re not quite sure how these bracelets can, “light up and flash at precisely the right time” as [T.D.] puts it.
From what we saw on the Grammy broadcast, it’s
possible
these bracelets merely flashed whenever the user clapped their hands. A circuit that simple doesn’t require a microcontroller, so we’re left wondering what the heck is going on here. If you’ve got an idea of how these choreographed light display bracelets work, drop a note in the comments.
EDIT: Commentors have pointed out these wristbands are called ‘
Xylobands
.’ There’s a
great video
of these wristbands in action at the 2011 X Factor finale. | 82 | 50 | [
{
"comment_id": "585005",
"author": "Nomad",
"timestamp": "2012-02-19T16:18:55",
"content": "There seems to be something on the backside judging from Circuitboard design. Obviously a two-layer board.Are there pics of the backside?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
... | 1,760,376,954.702524 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/02/19/the-panic-button-saves-you-from-bad-music/ | The PANIC Button Saves You From Bad Music | Caleb Kraft | [
"Peripherals Hacks"
] | [
"music",
"panic"
] | Having a communal music collection being played on random can be really fun. You experience new music and get to hear old favorites. However, not everyone shares the same taste. Sometimes, you absolutely need to just skip the song coming on, for the sake of everyone involved. That was how
the Panic button was born
.
Starting with a joke panic button that would play an alarm sound, they promptly tore the guts out. They inserted a minimus board, which has an AT90USB162 its brain, and includes onboard USB hardware. When you slap the panic button, it emulates the key press that goes to the next track, thereby saving everyone from whatever monstrosity was threatening their ear drums. | 15 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "585000",
"author": "Jmicz",
"timestamp": "2012-02-19T16:01:50",
"content": "YES! I need one of these.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "585003",
"author": "santeri",
"timestamp": "2012-02-19T16:14:00",
"content": "wher... | 1,760,376,954.584912 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/02/18/weekly-roundup-21812/ | Weekly Roundup 2/18/12 | Jack Buffington | [
"News"
] | [] | In case you missed them the first time around, here are our most popular posts from the previous week:
Our most read post is one about
[Ben’s] project where he created an electric motorcycle that has a range of 20 miles
. This is a pretty comprehensive tutorial that goes into some good detail about what you will need to do to convert a motorcycle over to electric.
Coming in at second place is [dmw’s] project where they
created their own keyboard from scratch
. We’re not too sure about the choice to stick the space bar(s) up in the corners but otherwise it looks like a really nice build.
Are you one of *those* people who likes to make the presents that they give as difficult as possible to open? Our #3 post of the week is one project that you should definitely check out.
In this post, [Neowinian^2] shows how he and some friends encased some wedding cash inside of a giant cube of sugar!
Have you always wanted to say that you took some classes at MIT but were caught by the little technicality that you didn’t live in Boston? Fret no more my friend,
MIT has just announced an online class program.
You won’t be able to get a MIT degree remotely quite yet but this is a step in that direction.
Finally, we get to
another keyboard project
. This keyboard is a programmable keyboard that almost looks like the keypad on the end of an accordion (plus some other goodies). This keyboard was built by [Tim Tyler] and is designed to allow you to take full advantage of your thumbs instead of banishing them to the space bar. | 0 | 0 | [] | 1,760,376,954.741941 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/02/18/control-a-playlist-with-your-mind/ | Control A Playlist With Your Mind | Brian Benchoff | [
"Peripherals Hacks"
] | [
"eeg",
"mindflex",
"mindwave",
"neurosky"
] | Because switching apps to change a song is such a taxing ordeal, [Oscar Celma] and [Ching-Wei Chen] decided to use their collective brainpower to
change Last.FM playlists with their minds
. They call their project Buddhafy, and it works by taking off-the-shelf EEG hardware and tying it into music streaming APIs.
For the build, the guys used a
NeuroSky MindWave
to read alpha waves inside [Oscar]’s head. The data from the MindWave was passed into a
Python script
that sends requests to the Last.FM and Spotify APIs. High alpha waves in brain wave patterns correspond with concentration or a deep meditative state. If [Oscar] concentrates very hard, he’ll be rewarded with calm and relaxing tunes. If [Oscar] loses focus, the music changes to
the best song ever written
.
The guys put up
the slides
from the presentation they gave at MusicHackDay in San Fransisco this last week. There’s also a video of their build in action; you can check that out after the break.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kJWH1WthRxI&w=470] | 9 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "584589",
"author": "aztraph",
"timestamp": "2012-02-18T18:58:10",
"content": "he got rick rolled! ;P",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "584657",
"author": "Thatcher",
"timestamp": "2012-02-18T21:53:58",
"... | 1,760,376,954.885138 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/02/20/laser-spirograph-exhibit-repair-and-upgrade/ | Laser Spirograph Exhibit Repair And Upgrade | Mike Szczys | [
"Laser Hacks",
"Repair Hacks"
] | [
"exhibit",
"galvanometer",
"laser",
"museum",
"spirograph"
] | [Bill Porter] continues finding ways to help out at the local museum. This time he’s plying his skills to fix a twenty-year-old exhibit that has been broken for some time. It’s
a laser spirograph which had some parts way past their life expectancy
.
He started by removing all of the electronics from the cabinet for further study in his lair. He examined the signal generator which when scoped seemed to be putting out some very nice sine waves as it should. From there he moved on to the galvos which tested way off of spec and turned out to be the offending elements.
A bit of searching around the interwebs and [Bill] figured out an upgrade plan for the older parts. But since he was at it, why not add some features at the same time? He rolled in a port so that just a bit of additional circuitry added later will allow shapes and logos to be drawn on the screen. One of his inspirations for this functionality came from
another DIY laser projector project
.
Take a look at the results of the repair process in the clip after the break.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t4ggH4i4LKo&w=470] | 7 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "585924",
"author": "Hirudinea",
"timestamp": "2012-02-21T05:32:13",
"content": "“We control the horizontal, we control the vertical…”, mabye when this thing needs to be fixed in another 20 years the hacker to do it will have been inspired to have gotten into hacking by playing with ... | 1,760,376,954.933509 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/02/20/get-neck-deep-into-zigbee/ | Get Neck-deep Into ZigBee | Mike Szczys | [
"Microcontrollers",
"Wireless Hacks"
] | [
"tutorial",
"wireless",
"xbee",
"zigbee"
] | Here’s a bulky tutorial that will
round-out your understanding of ZigBee wireless communications
(
translated
). The protocol is great for hobby electronics projects because it uses low-power short range wireless devices to build a mesh network. The guide covers both hardware and software, but also takes the time to explain what that hardware is doing in the background.
As you can see, several different renditions of an XBee module are used as examples. They pretty much all rely on a series of SparkFun breakout boards that each serve different purposes. Once you’ve acquired these modules, there’s a fair number of choices needed to configure them to play nicely with each other. We read most of the tutorial (we’ll save the rest for later enjoyment) and had no problem following along even without owning the hardware or being able to use the interface as we learned.
Whenever we cover XBee modules we always like to mention that it’s quite easy to use these for remote sensors with
no additional microcontroller needed
. | 11 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "585837",
"author": "Westdegrees",
"timestamp": "2012-02-21T03:34:15",
"content": "Its it Spanish?? Wtf?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "585840",
"author": "Westdegrees",
"timestamp": "2012-02-21T03:35:47",
"content"... | 1,760,376,954.982142 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/02/20/repair-a-misbehaving-motor-controller-board/ | Repair A Misbehaving Motor Controller Board | Mike Szczys | [
"Repair Hacks"
] | [
"lathe",
"motor controller",
"pwm",
"reverse engineering"
] | It can be a real drag to fix a circuit board which has stopped working as intended, especially if you don’t have any reference material for the product. That’s the position that [Todd Harrison] found himself in when the controller for his mini-lathe gave up the ghost. He undertook and hefty repair process and eventually
mapped out and repaired the driver board
.
First off, we’re happy to report his success at the end of a year-long troubleshooting process; the entirety of which occupies six different posts. The link at the top is the conclusion, and you’ll find his final test video after the break. But as you can see from the image above, he was met with a lot of problems along the way. The first two segments show him reverse engineering the PCB, with a giant schematic coming out of the process. In part 3 he then started probing the board while it was live, with the smell of hot electronics causing him to disconnect the power every thirty seconds. One time he took too long and blew a resistor with the pictured results.
In the end it was a shorted PWM chip to blame. He tested a couple of different replacement options, dropped in the new part, and is now back in business.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z8h-0XiXVbc&w=470] | 10 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "585678",
"author": "Hackerspacer",
"timestamp": "2012-02-20T23:01:08",
"content": "This is pretty amazing troubleshooting and one can’t fault Todd’s tenacity. But why didn’t he just buy a replacement board instead of spend a year fixing this one, unless he really, really enjoyed the... | 1,760,376,956.634982 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/02/20/sony-google-tv-devices-running-unsigned-kernels/ | Sony Google TV Devices Running Unsigned Kernels | Mike Szczys | [
"Security Hacks"
] | [
"downgrade",
"exploit",
"google tv",
"gtv",
"kernel",
"root",
"sony"
] | The proud cry of “I am root” rings true once again, this time on Sony Google TV devices. Although a low-level exploit was found on previous firmware versions,
a downgrade process lets you run unsigned kernels
on updated TV or Bluray models of the Internet streaming devices.
These systems are Android-based, which currently run version 3.1 Honeycomb. This version patches the previous exploit, but with three different USB sticks you can downgrade, exploit, and upgrade to an altered and unsigned hack of the most recent kernel. This gives you the root access you may have been longing for, but other than
the features discussed in the forum thread
there’s not a whole lot of changes rolled into the exploit yet.
We’re always looking out for open source projects running on living-room devices and hope that someday we’ll see a branch of XBMC for the GTV. Until then we’ll just have to
keep our fingers crossed for the viability of a RaspberryPI XBMC
. | 18 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "585641",
"author": "Hackerspacer",
"timestamp": "2012-02-20T21:45:35",
"content": "Can somebody fill me in as to why this is useful? Android is a reasonable OS but it isn’t as flexible as, say, Debian or even Windows.So you can root these GTV’s – which is nice – but then what? You h... | 1,760,376,957.099361 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/02/20/512k-sram-board-for-your-next-prototyping-run/ | 512k SRAM Board For Your Next Prototyping Run | Mike Szczys | [
"Microcontrollers"
] | [
"dorkbotpdx",
"memory",
"sram"
] | Find you’re running out of memory and paying for more expensive chips just to plug this feature gap? Many of the upper offering of chips have the option of adding SRAM thanks to an on-chip hardware feature, but if you don’t have that
this 512k SRAM add-on board
can be used with any chip that has 13 extra I/O pins available.
That use of pins may sound crippling if you usually use low pin count chips. But thanks to a write protected state option with the memory chips, nine of those thirteen pins can serve a dual use when not reading or writing from the memory. Speaking of, the address scheme is designed to access the memory in 32-bit blocks but individual bytes are accessible too if need be. [Wardy] has been testing his design using a Propeller chip running at 75 MHz so we know it’s built for speed, but he also mentions there’s no minimum clock speed for the board to function either. He used the Open Hardware guidelines when sharing his work, and if you want one for yourself you could always give
the DorkBot PDX service
he used for the prototypes to get your own boards too.
[via
Dangerous Prototypes
] | 8 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "585589",
"author": "peter",
"timestamp": "2012-02-20T19:24:41",
"content": "i could blink so many more LEDs if i had one of these…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "585605",
"author": "wardy",
"timestamp": "2012-02-20T19:4... | 1,760,376,956.770375 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/02/20/robot-overlords-require-chores-in-return-for-technological-access/ | Robot Overlords Require Chores In Return For Technological Access | Mike Szczys | [
"Hackerspaces"
] | [
"artificial intelligence",
"home automation",
"lvl1",
"mother"
] | Looks like you might not be fully immersed in the digital world if you didn’t complete your chores. The members of the LVL1 Hackerspace have put together a lot of automation for their lair, but nothing drives home the utility of the system they call MOTHER like
the shenanigan-preventing trash removal system
. Or in layman’s turns, being nagged by MOTHER until you empty the trash can.
So here’s a bit of background first. Remember that sensor array that just
had way too many environmental sensors on it
? That is just one way that the automation system (MOTHER) measures its surroundings. It seems the hackerspace has been building a pile of scripts
to interface with just about every aspect of the community
.
For instance, the night before trash colletion the system starts by letting members know it’s trash night and someone needs to empty the garbage. There’s a pressure sensor under the can which alerts MOTHER to the fact that it has been moved. But what if nobody moves the can? Say goodbye to Google. Yep, it’ll block all Google searches until the chore is done. And that’s just one punishments in its bag of tricks.
So what if you just move the can and don’t take it out? No dice. MOTHER is also monitoring the garage door which needs to be open to get the extra-large can out to the dumpster. You’ve got five minutes to do that before she starts getting nasty.
[Thanks Jonathan] | 21 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "585566",
"author": "Joe",
"timestamp": "2012-02-20T18:48:09",
"content": "Guess I’m lucky for having a natural “I don’t want piles of filth around me” motivation for taking the trash out.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "585574... | 1,760,376,956.977061 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/02/20/dick-tracys-watch-gets-night-vision/ | [Dick Tracy]’s Watch Gets Night Vision | Brian Benchoff | [
"Android Hacks",
"Kinect hacks"
] | [
"android watch",
"Kinect"
] | After getting his hands on an Android-enabled wristwatch, [Paul] wanted to test the limits of his new hardware. We’ll assume he’s happy with his purchase because his finished build sends data from a
Microsoft Kinect to his wristwatch
, making it a night vision spy watch.
[Paul]’s new toy is a
WIMM One
Android wristwatch that comes complete with wi-fi and a copy of Android 2.1. To get night vision onto his watch, a Kinect on [Paul]’s desk streams depth data to his watch using
OpenCV
. The result is a camera that gathers depth data in the dark and sends it to [Paul]’s watch.
Whenever the movement of an intruder is detected, [Paul]’s watch vibrates and displays the depth image taken from the Kinect. If the intruder gets close to the Kinect, the face is picked up and also sent to the watch. To get the intruder out of the room, [Paul] can tap the face of his watch to turn on a remote alarm and sound an intruder alert. It’s a very neat project that would have been unimaginable a few years ago. | 8 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "585519",
"author": "CRJEEA",
"timestamp": "2012-02-20T16:45:30",
"content": "Amazing what can be done with today’s technology, can’t wait to see what the next few decades bring. (It is a shame the technology is scheduled to be purposely held back for the sake of profit but hopefully... | 1,760,376,956.91626 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/02/18/edge-lit-nixie-tube-is-sheer-brilliance/ | Edge-lit Nixie Tube Is Sheer Brilliance | Brian Benchoff | [
"LED Hacks"
] | [
"edge-lit",
"nixie"
] | It’s not often that we see something so brilliantly simple we’re left reaching for our checkbooks while wondering exactly how we never though of that before. [Jürgen]’s
edge-lit Nixie display
is one of those builds.
[Jürgen]’s modern take on a Nixie display uses ten laser-engraved pieces of acrylic to emulate a Nixie numerical display. In the base of the display are 10 LEDs, each shining onto the side of a piece of acrylic. When an LED lights up, you can clearly see the corresponding number. Edge-lit displays
are old hat
, but talking about the possibility of an RGB Nixie-style display is really neat.
The build was inspired by an
antique edge-lit display
that performed the same function as the ever-popular Nixie tube with 10 miniature light bulbs and light pipes. The ancient
edge-lit displays
came in a rectangular enclosure that worked very well for panel-mount uses, but [Jürgen] stuck to a more traditional cylindrical orientation. All we want to know is when a manufacturer in China is going to start building these. Check out the demo of the edge-lit Nixie after the break.
[vimeo=36983157]
[vimeo=36980928] | 30 | 21 | [
{
"comment_id": "584522",
"author": "svofski",
"timestamp": "2012-02-18T16:11:20",
"content": "This is very beautiful and very cleanly executed.I protest against using the name “nixie” for these indicators though. Nixies are gas discharge tubes, nothing else.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,... | 1,760,376,957.161311 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/02/17/wedding-gift-fail-has-happy-couple-cursing-your-name/ | Wedding Gift Fail Has Happy Couple Cursing Your Name | Mike Szczys | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"cash",
"gift",
"lamp",
"sugar",
"wedding"
] | [Superluminal] received an invite to his friend’s wedding. He got together with some mutual acquaintances to take up a collection as a wedding gift. But as things go, a suitable present couldn’t be found. The pooled money itself ended up being the gift, but apparently a greeting card with a money pocket inside of it wasn’t good enough. The group decided to
encase the coinage in a block of sugar that doubles as a lamp
.
Now as with many well-meaning projects this started out with a rendering of what the final product would look like. That image came out great, with a high-gloss dark amber cube lit from the bottom with the coins suspended throughout catching a bit of a glint. They bought 43kg (almost 100 pounds) of refined sugar, and made a base/mold combination out of sheet metal. A lot of induction cooking went into producing thick syrup that could be poured into the mold. The problem is the final product is basically opaque. Not a sign of the 300 Euros within.
But don’t feel too bad for the groom and his bride. The image above shows him trying to get at the prize. He must do some hacking himself because he has a pressure washer, jack hammer (or is that big drill?), humongous cold chisel, and sizable hatch already at his disposal.
We can’t help but wonder if a heat gun could have polished the sides of the cube and helped add translucence? | 41 | 27 | [
{
"comment_id": "584245",
"author": "Addidis",
"timestamp": "2012-02-17T22:44:03",
"content": "Looks like a mortar mixer. Big heavy duty two handed “drill” for mixing mortar or cement or similar.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "584246",
"aut... | 1,760,376,956.719062 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/02/17/collimated-displays-wrap-around-that-home-cockpit/ | Collimated Displays Wrap Around That Home Cockpit | Mike Szczys | [
"Video Hacks"
] | [
"collimated",
"display",
"flight simulator"
] | We don’t recall having heard the term ‘collimated display’ before, but we’ve seem them in action. These are mirrored projection display that give the viewer a true peripheral vision experience thanks to well-designed optics. Here is a project that [Rob] and [Wayne] have put a ton of time into. It’s their own version of
a DIY collimated display that uses a shop vac and Arduino to form the screen shape
.
The frame above is the structure that will support the screen. A sheet of mylar was later attached to the edges of that frame. That is pulled into place by the suction of the vacuum. But it needs to be stretched just the right amount or the projected image will be distorted. They’ve got something of a PID controller to manage this. A valve box was built to vary the amount of vacuum suction inside the screen’s frame. A switch positioned behind the mylar sheet gives feedback to the Arduino when the screen reaches the appropriate position and a servo closes off the suction box. If you lost us somewhere in there the description in the clip after the jump will help to clear things up.
Here’s
an unrelated project
that implements the same concept on a smaller scale.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QC7H61palXs&w=470]
[Thanks Keith] | 26 | 15 | [
{
"comment_id": "584236",
"author": "Andrew Collier",
"timestamp": "2012-02-17T22:15:14",
"content": "http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4R2bcZ-3eX8&list=UUpSdEDGUppf-I8SUMXjPBZQ&index=2&feature=plcpthe team from your youtube example built a large one too and it works really well.",
"parent_id": nul... | 1,760,376,957.041932 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/02/17/hacking-an-ac-outlet-timer-for-project-use/ | Hacking An AC Outlet Timer For Project Use | Mike Szczys | [
"clock hacks"
] | [
"ac",
"rtc",
"timer"
] | [Karl] needed a programmable real-time clock for one of his projects. He considered adding an RTC chip, LCD screen, and some buttons for use with a microcontroller. That’s not necessarily hard, but it takes time and can be considered a project in itself. Instead, he headed to the hardware store to look for a cheap solution. He was able to get this AC outlet timer for a song. It’s got everything he needs; twenty programmable on/off events, a calendar to track time and day of week, and a user interface made up of a low-power LCD and four buttons. He cracked open the case and
patched into the electronics for use with any project
.
You can see the solder-tab battery in the middle of the board (green coin-cell). That actually runs the timer circuitry and display. It’s topped off when the unit is plugged into mains, but [Karl] ended up replacing it with a much higher capacity AA rechargeable battery. The device works just like a thermostat, using very little power and driving a relay at the appropriate time. Batteries in thermostats seem to last forever and we can expect the same performance from this device. [Karl] rerouted the trigger signal from the relay to his own 2N2222 transistor. This way the device can switch loads running at voltages other than its own 1.2V operating level.
Stock timers are great. They’re mass-produced which makes them cheap, and you can do some interesting stuff with them. We really enjoyed see this other
mechanical version hacked for hydroponic use
. | 3 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "584237",
"author": "Marshkillz",
"timestamp": "2012-02-17T22:17:19",
"content": "I did something similar to this a couple years ago. had scavenged the timer circuitry out of a old microwave oven which was being thrown out and hooked it up to control a heated bed sheet. (which only h... | 1,760,376,956.871256 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/02/17/wire-loop-game-penalizes-for-touches-by-shrinking-your-wand/ | Wire Loop Game Penalizes For Touches By Shrinking Your Wand | Mike Szczys | [
"Arduino Hacks"
] | [
"arduino",
"buzz",
"conductive",
"operation",
"wire"
] | We really like
this take on a conductive wire maze game
. It’s the result of a 48-hour hackathon in Belgium which required that all projects stemming from the event use an Arduino. We think [Jan] and [Kristof] made perfect use of the prototyping device in the time allotted. The event organizers thought so too because this took top prize.
As you can see, the gaming area is two-sided, and consists of some copper wire bent into a maze. There’s a wand made out of a PVC pipe with a loop of braided cable running through it. The loop surrounds the copper track and each player needs to get from the beginning to the end, touching checkpoints along the way without coming in contact with the track.
Pretty standard, right? Well there’s a twist. At each checkpoint the Arduino signals a servo motor in the wand to make the loop smaller. Add to that a penalty/reward system: if you touch the track, your loop gets smaller and your opponent’s loop grows larger. Don’t miss the head-to-head action after the break.
This reminds us of
that wire-based cave racer
from a few years back.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T8CjX9vgBoE&w=470]
[Thanks Toon] | 3 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "584195",
"author": "Kristof",
"timestamp": "2012-02-17T20:14:03",
"content": "Nice to see our project here :)But there’s a litle mistake in this article… The ring doesn’t shrink at a checkpoint… it GROWS to it’s initial size… It starts automatically shrinking when you start.If you t... | 1,760,376,956.819886 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/02/17/kicad-symbol-generating-script-shows-promise/ | Kicad Symbol Generating Script Shows Promise | Mike Szczys | [
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"KiCAD",
"library",
"python",
"xml"
] | Kicad is a fantastic PCB layout tool. We think creating a part for use with Kicad is in many ways easier than in Eagle, but it never hurts to have a few shortcuts. Here’s a new way to quickly get your parts into the schematic editor. It’s
a Python script that generates symbols from an XML input
file. You create the XML file with a list of all the pins on your part and the function they will serve. The Python script will then format that as a library file which can be imported by Kicad.
It’s a little bit clunky due to the number of steps in the process. But it is possible to use a CSV file generated in a spreadsheet program to create the XML needed by the script. We’ve used
the online component builder ourselves
, and appreciate the possibility of mass pin assignments instead of the drop-box for every pin as used by the web interface. One time we were 20 pins into the naming process and accidentally refreshed the page… ugh!
The code is available in
their git repository
, with a description of the XML format, and a wiki tutorial outlining the component building process. After you give it a try we’d love to hear what you think in the comments. | 17 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "584051",
"author": "Juan Grez",
"timestamp": "2012-02-17T15:22:15",
"content": "Hi.Great tweak, I have used Kicad for several years, I used several Orcad since MSDOS versions and Protel, but now I’m pretty happy with Kicad.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
... | 1,760,376,957.259359 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/02/16/rapid-fire-update-brings-many-new-features/ | Rapid Fire Update Brings Many New Features | Mike Szczys | [
"Xbox Hacks"
] | [
"attiny85",
"controller",
"rapid fire",
"xbox 360"
] | [Shawn McCombs] has been spending some time
refining his Xbox 360 rapid fire hack
. This time around he’s got a lot more features, many of which we haven’t really seen before.
When we looked at
the original project
he had added an ATtiny85 which read a potentiometer to set the rapid fire speed for one of the buttons. This time around he’s opened up settings for individual weapons in the game. For instance, if you have a hand-gun and a rifle, you can set different rapid fire rates for each to account for the reload speed for those guns. He patched into the ring of LEDs on the controller in order to indicate which preset is currently chosen. There are three tactile switches on the underside of the controller too. One of them is a reset button which gets you back to your primary weapon and the default rapid fire rate. Settings for each weapon are saved to the EEPROM so you won’t lose them when the controller goes to sleep. Check out [Shawn’s] description of the project in the video after the break.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=68Kbnq3sa8I&w=470] | 24 | 14 | [
{
"comment_id": "583725",
"author": "Gdogg",
"timestamp": "2012-02-17T00:17:46",
"content": "I’m not sure I would put the work of someone who can’t spell “Thief” into my $60 controller. Like I said last time, there are better ones around.He’s keeping the reset pin floating and using seemingly random... | 1,760,376,957.425351 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/02/16/384-led-ball-receives-animation-wirelessly-and-knows-its-orientation/ | 384-LED Ball Receives Animation Wirelessly And Knows Its Orientation | Mike Szczys | [
"LED Hacks"
] | [
"ball",
"led",
"null space labs",
"pcb"
] | We get a ton of tips about Kickstarter projects. Here is a great example of what we need to see in order to feature one of them. This LED Blinky Ball developed by Null Space Labs is the target of a rather ambitious fundraising campaign. But in addition to the fundraising write-up
they’ve shared extensive details about the prototype
.
The ball is made up of sixteen slices; each is its own circuit board hosting an LED driver. All slices use the same PCB design, but one of them has an ATmega328 populated on the board to act as master. Optional components on the master board include an accelerometer, and a Bluetooth module to receive animation data. To get the full effect of the most recent prototype you’re going to want to see the video on
their Kickstarter page
.
Think this ball looks familiar to you? The original design was developed by [Nikolai] as a performance piece for a friend. This version was inspired by
our feature of that earlier project
.
So, use this as a template if you’re planning to submit your Kickstarter links to
Hackaday’s tips line
. We want to juicy details on the project! | 40 | 16 | [
{
"comment_id": "583678",
"author": "charliex",
"timestamp": "2012-02-16T22:36:12",
"content": "Thanks mike/hackaday !",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "583687",
"author": "Zee",
"timestamp": "2012-02-16T23:00:08",
"content": "Is Nikol... | 1,760,376,957.603419 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/02/16/microswitch-keyboard-gives-those-lazy-thumbs-a-workout/ | Microswitch Keyboard Gives Those Lazy Thumbs A Workout | Mike Szczys | [
"Peripherals Hacks"
] | [
"keyboard",
"microswitch"
] | Upon first sight there will be no doubt in anyone’s mind that
this is a hacker’s keyboard
. [Tim Tyler] built the odd-looking conglomeration of keys a few years ago with the goal of improving the man-machine interface. Why waste all that thumb space with just one long keyboard when you can have at least nine keys per thumb?
After some additional consideration this isn’t all that unorthodox. We’ve seen keyboards that split the hands; in fact you can buy them. This just adds the thumb matrices and that rack of programmable keys above the alpha-numeric portion. It’s rather organ-like with its multiple ranks, don’t you think? Check out the demonstration video after the break. It certainly has a keystroke sound that is all its own. The sound is different from the clackity “M” keyboard and its modern relatives thanks to the microswitches that make up each key.
This may be the way to go if you
that other scratch-built keyboard
looks way too normal for your tastes.[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9yg3s77nAMQ&w=470]
[Thanks Geekabit] | 23 | 14 | [
{
"comment_id": "583642",
"author": "Sobiguy",
"timestamp": "2012-02-16T21:43:08",
"content": "If they don’t find it handsome at least they’ll find it handy..",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "583645",
"author": "turbochris",
"timestamp": ... | 1,760,376,957.670554 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/02/16/arduino-saves-you-a-bundle-when-it-comes-to-guitar-pedal-effects/ | Arduino Saves You A Bundle When It Comes To Guitar Pedal Effects | Mike Szczys | [
"Musical Hacks"
] | [
"guitar peda",
"midi",
"whammy 4"
] | [Deadbird] wanted to recreate some guitar pedal effects that he heard on a music video. The thing is, you can end up spending a bundle on hardware unless you’re crafty like he was. He grabbed a Whammy 4 pedal, but decided to forego using a $125 MIDI controller and
sourced an Arduino to perform MIDI-based alterations instead
.
The Whammy 4 was chosen for its ability to perform the sound processing he desired, but also because it can be MIDI controller. By hooking up the Arduino to that port (as seen in the diagram above) he’s able to program changes that would be difficult or impossible with just the pedal. For instance, [Deadbird] illustrates a command which jumps from the lowest to highest setting of an effect without hitting any of the values in the middle. With that under his belt he goes about programming loops of changes with delays in between them. The best part is, you’re only limited by your ability to craft the MIDI commands as Arduino code. | 10 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "583625",
"author": "Paul",
"timestamp": "2012-02-16T21:34:06",
"content": "Hmmmm… the article shows a Duemilanove diagram, but the actual code uses “Serial3” throughout. Maybe it was actually written on an Arduino Mega board?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": ... | 1,760,376,957.848474 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/02/16/build-an-electric-motorcycle/ | Build An Electric Motorcycle | Brian Benchoff | [
"Transportation Hacks"
] | [
"electric motorcycle"
] | On the list of things we’ll build ‘when we get a few free weekends,’ an electric motorcycle is right at the top. With a 20-mile range, they may not be as versatile as a car or truck, but we can’t imagine a vehicle better suited for making a quick jaunt around town. [Ben Nelson] just finished his electric motorcycle and put up a
great Instructable
on converting an ’81 Kawasaki KZ440 to battery power.
After going over the rarely mentioned aspects of
license, registration, and insurance
, [Ben] started his build by pulling the engine from his bike and installing an electric motor. The
batteries
used weren’t insanely expensive LiPo cells, but instead cheap lead-acid units. The calculated range with the lead-acid batteries was 26 miles – perfect for a trip to the next town over and back.
After everything was cabled up, chain wrapped around sockets, and an awesome yellow paint job applied, [Ben] finally took his bike for a test drive. Check out the videos after the break for an idea of how fast [Ben]’s bike can go. | 46 | 20 | [
{
"comment_id": "583512",
"author": "Th3badwolf",
"timestamp": "2012-02-16T17:46:32",
"content": "Sweet stuff!I own a KZ550 84 myself,should try this someday!I am more interested by the second bike,the kawasaki 72V Li one featured on the second video,anyone has info on this? Build log,pics,specs?",
... | 1,760,376,957.993595 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/02/16/happy-late-lit-acrylic-valentines-day/ | Happy Late Lit Acrylic Valentines Day | Jeremy Cook | [
"Holiday Hacks"
] | [
"acrylic",
"lighting",
"Valentines day"
] | Although
[Danman]
was right on time with his home-hacked Valentines day gift, this article comes to you a little late. With the message on the heart changed, however, it could be a perfect “Sorry I forgot Valentines Day again” gift, so it may still be useful.
The concept isn’t that complicated, simply a strip of LED lights around a piece of acrylic. A battery holder and switch rounds out this build. It’s a neat way to light things up, but what we thought was especially interesting was the way it was engraved and cut out with a minimum of traditional tools.
Sure, [Danman] had access to a bandsaw, but as for actually engraving the outline he used a modified electric toothbrush! We’d love to see that build written up. If that wasn’t enough, the lettering was “ghetto blasted”, as he puts it, using a compressed air nozzle, a pen tube, and a styrofoam cup full of ceramic dust! Macgyver would be proud! | 12 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "583442",
"author": "danman1453",
"timestamp": "2012-02-16T15:25:10",
"content": "Is there an interest in the electric toothbrush hack?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "583448",
"author": "Carlos",
"timestamp": "... | 1,760,376,957.790731 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/02/15/tablet-cover-from-old-hardcover-books/ | Tablet Cover From Old Hardcover Books | Mike Szczys | [
"Tablet Hacks"
] | [
"cover",
"ipad",
"kindle",
"tablet"
] | Here’s a way to look hip and destroy books at the same time. This
table cover is made from an old hardcover book
. It’s not difficult to do, an afternoon is all it takes, and if you follow all of the instructions we’d bet this will hold up for a long time.
It’s basically another version of
the Moleskine cover for the Kindle Fire
. You find a donor book (second-hand shops are packed with ’em) with a hardcover which you really enjoy. Kids books would be the most fun because of the artwork – if you can find one thick enough. With book in hand remove all of the pages. This will leave the binding a little flimsy, and since this is a project by the company which make Sugru, you can see why they used the moldable adhesive for that purpose. But check out the brackets in the picture above. They covered the Kindle in cling wrap, then molded Sugru around the corners. Once set, it can be peeled away from the plastic wrap, but will retain its shape. Nice. | 17 | 13 | [
{
"comment_id": "583149",
"author": "Gdogg",
"timestamp": "2012-02-16T01:08:09",
"content": "first link: s/table/tablet",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "583158",
"author": "Hirudinea",
"timestamp": "2012-02-16T01:23:35",
"content": "N... | 1,760,376,957.904105 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/02/15/a-lot-of-love-went-into-this-glowing-valentine/ | A Lot Of Love Went Into This Glowing Valentine | Mike Szczys | [
"Holiday Hacks"
] | [
"acrylic",
"led",
"rgb",
"valentine"
] | [Will] didn’t pick up a card, rose, and bottle of wine for Valentine’s Day like most guys. Nope, he planned way ahead and
built this color-selectable glowing Valentine
. When we first saw it, we figured he threw some LEDs together with a microcontroller and edge-lit a piece of acrylic. While that is technically what happened, there was a lot more design and craftsmanship at play here than you might think.
First off, the controller board is a beautifully designed two-sided PCB which he etched rather than throwing a mess of wires and hot glue into an enclosure. Speaking of enclosures, he grabbed a wooden picture box from the big box store and used a piece of brass plate stock to serve as the control panel. The enclosure was finished with tinted polyurethane after having a slit added to the top for the acrylic. The message itself was milled using an engraving bit and a Dremel tool. This was done by hand and we think achieves a finished look that is comparable to
the CNC milled ornaments we’ve seen in the past
.
Get a good look at the device and a demonstration of its features in the clip after the jump.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G8bdi8ok_N4&w=470] | 12 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "583189",
"author": "t&p",
"timestamp": "2012-02-16T02:27:48",
"content": "Nice job. I like it.Just one thing that bugs me though… Why advertise a web site on the pcb if this is going to the girlfriend?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comme... | 1,760,376,957.729696 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/02/15/space-its-a-junkyard-until-the-swiss-get-their-way/ | Space; It’s A Junkyard Until The Swiss Get Their Way | Mike Szczys | [
"Robots Hacks"
] | [
"debris",
"garbage",
"space"
] | The Swiss plan to clean up the near-space environment. They just announced
a debris removal device which they plan to launch
in three to five years. The first goal of the program is to scoop up two satellites. Both of them are Swiss owned, but there’s
something very James Bond like
that pops into our heads when we hear that.
We’re sure you already know there’s a space junk issue in orbit. But did you know that NASA tracks a half-million pieces of orbital debris? Cleaning that up does sound like a good thing. The plan is to detect the offending item, match its trajectory, grab it somehow (which includes halting any spinning that it’s doing), then encapsulating everything for an eventual re-entry. Looks like they plan on the whole robot burning up along with the junk during that final stage.
We keep hearing about
ways robots will clean up the messes we make
. Hopefully we’ll see these in action at some point.
[via
Reddit
] | 52 | 25 | [
{
"comment_id": "583086",
"author": "Nomad",
"timestamp": "2012-02-15T23:17:30",
"content": "Somehow reminds me of Wall-EIt would be a nice thing if the machine could grab some junk and shoot it at a controlled angle towards earth so only said junk lands in some ocean/desert, but the robot still cou... | 1,760,376,958.085086 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/02/15/hexbug-code-rewrite-makes-it-a-walking-line-follower/ | Hexbug Code Rewrite Makes It A Walking Line-follower | Mike Szczys | [
"Toy Hacks"
] | [
"hexbug",
"infrared",
"ir",
"line following",
"reflectance"
] | You know you’ve got a good hardware platform if you can easily repurpose it with a code rewrite. And that’s what [Eric] continues to do with these little Hexbugs. This time around he’s bent the IR emitter and receiver downward to use as a reflectance sensor. This
gives it the ability to follow a dark line
on a light surface.
He originally
patched an MSP430 into the $25 RC toy
. The IR pair was intended for obstacle avoidance,
which we saw in a recent links post
. This hack does a great job of repurposing the avoidance system. Since the add-on hardware is mounted on a motorized turret, the single sensor pair can sweep back and forth to find the line it will follow. In one way this is better than most line followers which use multiple sensors mounted to the body. But the drawback is that this results in slower travel and won’t be
winning any contests
. Don’t miss the demo clip after the break.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sA1hMtLhBdQ&w=470] | 3 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "583146",
"author": "jim",
"timestamp": "2012-02-16T00:46:24",
"content": "it’s adorable!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "583269",
"author": "johntash",
"timestamp": "2012-02-16T05:29:19",
"content": "I still want one... | 1,760,376,958.126862 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/02/15/intro-to-phase-locked-loops/ | Intro To Phase-Locked Loops | Mike Szczys | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"cd4046",
"kenneth finnegan",
"phase-locked loop",
"PLL"
] | [Kenneth Finnegan] put up
a lengthy primer on PLLs
(Phase-Locked Loops). We really enjoyed his presentation (even the part where he panders to Rigol for a free scope… sign us up for one of those too). The concepts behind a PLL are not hard to understand, and [Kenneth] managed to come up with a handful of different demonstrations that really help to drive each point home.
A PLL is made up of three parts: a phase detector, a low pass filter, and a voltage controlled oscillator. It can do really neat things, like multiply clock speed (you see them in beefier chips like the ARM architecture all the time). The experiments seen in the video use a CD4046 chip which has two different types of phase detectors. The two signals displayed on the oscilloscope above compare the incoming clock signal with the output from the VCO. Depending on the type of phase detector used, and the quality of the low-pass filter, these might be tightly synchronized or wildly unstable. Find out why by watching the video embedded after the break.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0jzLDe950AY&w=470] | 18 | 14 | [
{
"comment_id": "583016",
"author": "jc",
"timestamp": "2012-02-15T21:25:31",
"content": "Great stuff ! thanks :)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "583029",
"author": "Gdogg",
"timestamp": "2012-02-15T21:59:06",
"content": "This could ... | 1,760,376,958.187945 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/02/15/3d-printer-software-tutorials/ | 3d Printer Software Tutorials | Brian Benchoff | [
"cnc hacks",
"Teardown"
] | [
"Alibre3D",
"replicator G",
"sfact",
"skeinforge"
] | It’s no secret that the 3D printer community is extremely fragmented. With three models of RepRaps, three printer kits from Makerbot, and hundreds of ‘printers of the week,’ it’s extremely frustrating for beginners to wrap their heads around the pros and cons of each machine. The software for these printers is segmented nearly as much as the hardware itself, but thankfully [Mike] has put up a
series of videos
so beginners can wrap their head around all the software packages.
[Mike] used
Alibre 3D CAD
software to generate the .stl files for all his printable objects. These .stl files were converted into printer-readable GCode by the very popular
Skeinforge
. The GCode is sent over to [Mike]’s SUMPOD with
ReplicatorG
, an awesome program that serves as the front end to a printer.
Although we’d like to see a tutorial for
Sfact
, the new hotness in .stl to GCode conversion, [Mike] does a very good job at breaking down the complexity of Skeinforge into manageable bites. | 10 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "582989",
"author": "Regulus",
"timestamp": "2012-02-15T20:16:36",
"content": "Hitting all of the permutations of software would be nearly impossible, but here’s hoping someone does some nice videos for Slic3r and possibly Pronterface.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"re... | 1,760,376,958.241599 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/02/15/etching-pcbs-with-vinegar/ | Etching PCBs With Vinegar | Mike Szczys | [
"chemistry hacks"
] | [
"copper",
"etchant",
"hydrogen peroxide",
"pcb",
"salt",
"vinegar"
] | When we hear about etching PCBs at home we assume that either Ferric Chloride or Cupric Chloride were used to eat away unmasked copper from the boards. But [Quinn Dunki] just wrote up
her PCB etching guide
and she doesn’t use either of those. Instead, she combines vinegar, hydrogen peroxide, and salt. It’s easier to find vinegar than muriatic acid (
Cupric Chloride is made
using this, peroxide, and adding the copper) so this is something to keep in mind if you’re in a pinch (or a Macgyver situation).
The rest of the process is what we’re used to. She’s using photoresistant boards which can be masked with a sheet of transparency instead of using the toner-transfer method. Once they take a bath in the developer solution she puts them in a shallow dish of vinegar and hydrogen peroxide along with a teaspoon of salt. She wipes the surface with a foam brush every minute or so, and inspects them every ten minutes to see if they’re done.
She does discuss disposal. Seems that she throws the solution in the garbage after each use. The liquid will contain copper salts which are bad for wildlife. We’ve heard that you should neutralize the acid and make a block of concrete using the liquid, then throw it in the garbage. Does anyone have a well-researched, ethical, and environmentally friendly way of getting rid of this stuff? | 71 | 31 | [
{
"comment_id": "582959",
"author": "Ian",
"timestamp": "2012-02-15T18:45:18",
"content": "From my understanding, this process results in the formation of copper(II) chloride and sodium acetate. Sodium acetate is a common food additive – see salt and vinegar potato chips. The copper ion is of the sa... | 1,760,376,958.45996 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/02/15/building-a-keyboard-from-scratch/ | Building A Keyboard From Scratch | Brian Benchoff | [
"Peripherals Hacks"
] | [
"keyboard",
"Teensy"
] | After over a year of work, [dmw] is nearly done with his
Humble Hacker Keyboard
. It’s a keyboard that has been influenced by some pretty
crazy looking designs
, but meets all of [dmw]’s needs for a compact, programmer-oriented key layout that’s easy to type on.
[dmw] posted a
pseudo-build log
over at the geekhack keyboard forums. Every single part of this keyboard is custom-made. The key caps were made by
Signature Plastics
, the case was made by
Shapeways
, and the custom PCB for the key switches came directly from Express PCB. The key switches are blue Alps sliders (one of the best key switches available) with a few white Alps switches taken from an old Apple keyboard.
After soldering a hundred diodes and switches, [dmw] installed a
Teensy++
to convert the closing key switches to something his computer can understand. This turned out to be a perfect of the Teensy because of the USB peripheral libraries that already exist. The source is
up on github
, so if you’ve ever wanted to replace your Model M with something more ergonomic, here’s your chance. | 46 | 23 | [
{
"comment_id": "582899",
"author": "Arnold",
"timestamp": "2012-02-15T16:44:33",
"content": "Once you try the IBM Model M, you just can’t let yourself use any other keyboard!!!Also, hitting space ONLY with your right thumb doesn’t seem to ergonomic to me…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
... | 1,760,376,958.668919 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/02/14/improving-your-flight-sim-experience-with-hall-effect-sensors/ | Improving Your Flight Sim Experience With Hall Effect Sensors | Mike Nathan | [
"computer hacks",
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"flight simulator",
"gimbal",
"hall effect sensor",
"potentiometer",
"repair"
] | [Gene Buckle] built himself a nice custom cockpit for playing Flight Simulator, but during use he found that the gimbal he constructed for the pitch and roll controls
was nearly unusable.
He narrowed the problem down to the potentiometers he used to read the angle of the controls, so he set off to find a suitable and more stable replacement.
He figured that Hall effect sensors would be perfect for the job, so he picked up a pair of Allegro 1302 sensors and began fabricating his new control inputs. He mounted a small section of a pen into a bearing to use as an input shaft, attaching a small neodymium magnet to either side. Since he wanted to use these as a drop-in replacement for the pots, he had to fabricate a set of control arms to fit on the pen segments before installing them into his cockpit.
Once everything was set, he fired up his computer and started the Windows joystick calibration tool. His potentiometer-based controls used to show a constant jitter of +/- 200-400 at center, but now the utility displays a steady “0”. We consider that a pretty good result!
[Thanks, Keith] | 26 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "582484",
"author": "Tim",
"timestamp": "2012-02-15T00:31:32",
"content": "It sounds like maybe he had a bad case of electrical noise… All video game controllers commonly use pots without issue.Still, pots do suck pretty hard compared to this or an encoder, so huzzah.",
"parent_i... | 1,760,376,958.343981 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/02/13/altsoftserial-looks-to-speed-up-arduino-software-uart/ | AltSoftSerial Looks To Speed Up Arduino Software UART | Mike Szczys | [
"Arduino Hacks"
] | [
"serial",
"uart",
"usart"
] | So let’s say your using an Arduino in your project. You already have the hardware-based serial interface working with one portion of the project and need a second serial port for unrelated hardware. The obvious solution is to write one in software. But this is a place where working in the Arduino environment gets really hairy. Since there’s a layer of abstraction between the code and the hardware interrupts, it can be difficult to know if you are going to have timing problems. But there’s a
new library available which seeks to reduce the latency of software-based serial communications
so that you don’t have to worry about it.
It’s named AltSoftSerial because it is a software-based serial library that is an alternative to the NewSoftSerial package. The former can function with just 2-3 microseconds of latency, while the latter has as much as a 174 microsecond hit. If it functions as advertised that’s quite an improvement. It’s not hard to put together a hardware test platform, and the example program is only about a dozen lines of code (which is the beauty of working in this environment) so give it a try if you have a free hour here or there. | 42 | 18 | [
{
"comment_id": "581884",
"author": "Alex Rossie",
"timestamp": "2012-02-13T22:20:19",
"content": "I always have this problem.Does former mean current or previous? and please don’t reply with “the former” or “the latter”.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"com... | 1,760,376,958.859622 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/02/13/connecting-a-dumb-scale-to-your-smartphone/ | Connecting A Dumb Scale To Your Smartphone | Mike Szczys | [
"Android Hacks",
"home hacks"
] | [
"bathroom",
"bluetooth",
"scale"
] | [Casainho] wanted to track his body weight using an app on his Android phone. He just needed a way to get the weight readings onto the device automatically. He ended up
adding Bluetooth to a bathroom scale and hacking the app to grab data from it
.
The scale which he hacked is a digital model, which makes it possible to read the weight data if you know what you’re doing. [Casainho] already completed
a weight logging scale hack
which stored the data on an SD card. So this was a recreation of that project but with a Bluetooth module for the output rather than the card for storage.
Now you can buy WiFi enabled scales, but that’s not nearly as fun as a hack like this. Plus one of those will cost you around $200 and the hardware for this version came it at only $75. It includes an LPC2103 dev board, $6 Bluetooth module, character display, batteries, and misc. supplies. The software end of the hack was helped greatly by the fact that the Android apps which [Casainho] is using are both open source. | 6 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "581979",
"author": "Hirudinea",
"timestamp": "2012-02-14T01:50:59",
"content": "He should also make this work with an iPhone app, nothing like Siri calling you a fat ass.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "581984",
"author": "E... | 1,760,376,958.713841 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/02/13/fill-in-the-bass-on-your-psp/ | Fill In The Bass On Your PSP | Mike Szczys | [
"PSP Hacks"
] | [
"lm386",
"op-amp",
"sony",
"speaker"
] | [Michael Chen] felt the sound his PSP was putting out needed more dimension. Some would have grabbed themselves a nice set of headphones, but he grabbed his soldering iron instead and
found some space where he could add a bigger speaker
.
Mobile devices tend to cram as much into the small form factor as possible so we’re surprised he managed make room. But apparently if you cut away a bit from the inside of the case there is space beneath the memory card. [Michael] cautions that you need to choose a speaker rated for 8 ohms or greater in order to use it as a drop-in replacement for one of the two original speakers. But he also touches on a method to use both stock speakers as well as the new one. He suggests grabbing an LM386 op-amp and a capacitor and hooking them up. Yep, there’s room for that too if you mount it dead-bug-style. We wonder how the battery life will be affected by this hack? | 15 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "581813",
"author": "dacap",
"timestamp": "2012-02-13T19:35:48",
"content": "is it possible the magnet will corrupt data on the memory card?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "581830",
"author": "Simon Inns",
"time... | 1,760,376,958.769771 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/02/13/wireless-controllers-for-all-your-retro-systems/ | Wireless Controllers For All Your Retro Systems | Brian Benchoff | [
"classic hacks",
"Peripherals Hacks"
] | [
"n64",
"nes",
"Sega Saturn",
"snes",
"wireless controller"
] | Remember those old wireless controllers made for the consoles of our youth like the NES and Super Nintendo? They didn’t work well, mostly owing to the fact they were built using the same infrared technology that is found in a remote control. Now that all the modern consoles are wireless, [micro] over at the nftgames forum decided to
update his classic systems
for wireless control.
The transmitters and receivers are built around an
nRF24L01+
radio module that operates in the 2.4 GHz band. [micro] has the process of converting his controllers down to a science. He cuts the cord and wires the controller up to an AVR running at 16 MHz. The AVR sends this to the receiver where the button presses are sent through the original controller port. Basically, [micro] recreated a
WaveBird
controller for his NES, SNES, Saturn and N64.
The controllers are powered by internal lithium batteries, but the charging ICs are too expensive to put in each controller. To solve this problem, [micro] crafted a small
external charging circuit
that plugs into a 3.5mm jack on each controller. Check out [micro]’s controller demo after the break.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LlnmfaILCHw&w=470] | 24 | 18 | [
{
"comment_id": "581784",
"author": "Tim",
"timestamp": "2012-02-13T18:21:56",
"content": "Genius",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "581786",
"author": "Paul",
"timestamp": "2012-02-13T18:25:18",
"content": "Charging IC’s are pretty dam... | 1,760,376,959.131808 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/02/13/gold-leaf-circuit-board/ | Gold Leaf Circuit Board | Mike Szczys | [
"Hackerspaces",
"Microcontrollers"
] | [
"gold leaf",
"msp430",
"msp430g2211",
"paper",
"pcb",
"substrate"
] | Ah, the glitter of gold… or fake gold, we’re not really sure. But [Mike Hogan] and [PJ Santoro] have been working with
faux gold leaf as a conductor on circuit boards
. The device you see above is mounted on metal-covered paper substrate and it really works.
They started by applying spray adhesive to heavy paper to make the gold-clad they needed. This was cut down into hexagons in homage to their hackerspace, Hive76 in Philadelphia. From there the shape of the microcontroller (an MSP430 G2211 in this case) to prevent shorts under the chip. The leads were flattened to interface well with the gold contacts, and a hobby knife was used to score the traces. Some careful soldering made up the final connections, and they were in business.
Oh, wait; chip on board but nothing on chip. They forgot to program it first! Since there’s no header they needed an easy way to interface with the board. The clever guys used the power of magnets to hold alligator clips in place. See how they did that in the demo video after the break.
They’re also working on some boards that use conductive ink
similar to this hack
but we haven’t seen a write-up from these two about those experiments… yet.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QFBg8Wii8r0&w=470] | 23 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "581762",
"author": "Thopter",
"timestamp": "2012-02-13T17:42:26",
"content": "“From there the shape of the microcontroller (an MSP430 G2211 in this case) to prevent shorts under the chip.”I think you accidentally something.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
... | 1,760,376,958.997304 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/02/13/see-in-the-dark-with-this-bracelet-build/ | See In The Dark With This Bracelet Build | Brian Benchoff | [
"Medical Hacks"
] | [
"bracelet"
] | Even though she’s only in 8th grade, [Hannah Prutchi] is turning into a very respectable builder. She designed
SharkVision
, a wearable distance sensor that is meant to help the blind find objects they might bump into.
The SharkVision gets its name from shark’s ability to ‘see’ prey in their surroundings by sensing the local magnetic field. Instead of building her own
Ampullae of Lorenzini
, [Hannah] decided to take the easy route and use a few infrared sensors mounted to a bracelet. Whenever something is picked up by the proximity sensor, a voltage is applied to a pager motor telling the wearer they’re about to run into something.
[Hannah] and her classmates have successfully tested the SharkVision bracelet by walking around their classroom with eyes closed. They didn’t bump into anything, a fact [Hannah] attributes to neuroplasticity. We think it’s a neat build, but we’re wondering if this could be given to a population of blind people. | 27 | 14 | [
{
"comment_id": "581688",
"author": "War_Spigot",
"timestamp": "2012-02-13T15:30:22",
"content": "When the father and daughter have daughter have published something like, you know that’s a pretty awesome family",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": ... | 1,760,376,958.934706 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/02/12/puncher-tracks-your-freelancing-hours-time-spent-in-tsa-patdowns/ | Puncher Tracks Your Freelancing Hours, Time Spent In TSA Patdowns | Mike Nathan | [
"Microcontrollers",
"Misc Hacks",
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"7 segment",
"Freelance Puncher",
"led",
"time clock",
"time tracking PIC"
] | [Raphael Abrams] does a lot of freelance work, but he has trouble accurately keeping track of the hours he has put in for his clients. After trying various applications and methods of logging his time, he finally decided to
build a device that worked just the way he liked.
He calls his device the “Freelance Puncher”, though it already has been nicknamed the detonator, as it looks like something you would find in the hands of a [James Bond] villain. The device uses a PIC16LF1827 to track the time, saving his logged hours to the built-in EEPROM when powered off. A pair of 7-segment displays are used to display the accumulated hours upon power-on, and a set of seven SMT LEDs separated into two banks keep track of quarter and hundreds of hours worked.
[Raphael] has made his
code and schematics available on Github
, so you can easily replicate his work if you are looking for a better way to track your time. We think it looks great, though it could be the sort of thing that traveling freelancers might want to keep in their checked luggage, unless they want to spend some quality time with the TSA! Be sure to stick around to see a short video where [Raphael] shows off and explains how his Freelance Puncher works.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=7yHF0Ubxdnc&w=470] | 30 | 15 | [
{
"comment_id": "581313",
"author": "wtfhackaday",
"timestamp": "2012-02-12T20:33:11",
"content": "yeah great, the TSA totally isn’t going to think this is a bomb",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "581344",
"author": "Hirudinea",
... | 1,760,376,959.071477 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/02/14/mitx-first-course-announce-6-002x-circuits-and-electronics/ | MITx First Course Announce – 6.002x: Circuits And Electronics | Mike Szczys | [
"News"
] | [
"classes",
"mit",
"mitx",
"opencourseware"
] | The Massachusetts Institute of Technology just announced the first course offering in their new online classes program. Great news, it’s an analog design course which is right up our alley.
The prototype session will be 6.002: Circuits and Electronics
.
If you’re a fan of our links posts you may remember
hearing about the MITx program
a month ago. After seeing the popularity of
the Stanford program
MIT is throwing their hat into the ring too. So what is this all about? How does it work and what will you learn? There’s bits of information all over the place. We recommend reading the news link at the top of this feature first. Next you should
wade through the 6.002x FAQ
and if you’re still interested there’s a big maroon enrollment button at the bottom of
the course summary page
.
Whew, that’s a lot of links. Anyway, expect to spend 10 hours a week on the class; but it’s all free. Future offerings will be free as well, but MIT plans transition to a pay-for-certificate option: “students who complete the mastery requirement on
MITx
will be able to receive the credential for a modest fee.” If you still haven’t made up your mind take a gander at the promo clip after the jump.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2Q6BrNhdh8&w=470]
[Thanks War_Spigot and Stuart] | 36 | 21 | [
{
"comment_id": "582425",
"author": "george graves",
"timestamp": "2012-02-14T22:27:56",
"content": "“In order to succeed in this course, you must have taken an AP level physics course in electricity and magnetism.”Just FYI.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"... | 1,760,376,959.200724 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/02/14/arduino-lawn-care-is-web-controlled/ | Arduino Lawn Care Is Web-controlled | Mike Szczys | [
"home hacks"
] | [
"adk",
"arduino",
"irrigation",
"relay",
"sprinkler system"
] | [Joe Fernandez] is fairly new to the hardware side of the hobby, but he seems to have easily found his way on this project. He wanted to build his own web-bridge for his Toro lawn sprinkler system. He pulled it off with style and shows off the spoils of his work in the clip after the break.
He started with
an Android ADK
, crafting some web magic to use a REST interface and JSON packets as a communications scheme. This makes it possible to control the system from anywhere as long as you have an Internet connection. The rest of the hardware evolved as his needs became clear. The first hunk was to add an Ethernet shield so that he didn’t need to have his Android phone connected to the system for it to work. From there he needed to control the solenoid valves on the system and grabbed three relay shields from Seeed Studios for this purpose.
As you can see, all of that hardware has a home on a polyethylene cutting board. The terminal blocks at the bottom keep the connections nice and neat as they interface with the sprinkler system. We were happy to hear that the stock controller still works, this add-on doesn’t permanently alter it in any way. That’s going to be important if he ever wants to sell the home.
Still using a traditional sprinkler instead of an in-ground system? Perhaps
this variable range hack is for you
. | 8 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "582399",
"author": "vonskippy",
"timestamp": "2012-02-14T21:40:58",
"content": "Nice. I like the cutting board usage.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "582552",
"author": "tempfile",
"timestamp": "2012-02-15T02:... | 1,760,376,959.252298 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/02/14/let-there-be-light-inside-your-epilog-laser-cutter/ | Let There Be Light Inside Your Epilog Laser Cutter | Mike Szczys | [
"Laser Hacks",
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"epilog",
"laser cutter",
"led strip"
] | [Bradley Gawthrop’s] biggest gripe about his laser cutter is the lack of Mac support. We don’t think we’d have any gripes if we owned one of these (yeah, that’s a lie…) but we can understand his second biggest issue which is the inability to see the work piece once it’s inside the machine. He figured out
a very easy way to light the area
as the cutter gets to work.
It occured to him that the optical head is always directly above the part of the work piece he was interested in seeing. He had been using a flashlight to shed some light, but what if he just added lighting to that head? The circuit is certainly nothing hard; some LEDs, resistors and a power source will do the trick. But routing the power is where things get more difficult. You need flexible wiring strung just right so as not to restrict motion on the X/Y axes. Most of his time was spent routing some 14 gauge stranded speaker wire for this task. He added his own 5V DC supply to power the adhesive LED strip which enjoys a resting place on the bottom rail of the head unit. Boom, problem solved. | 15 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "582375",
"author": "biozz",
"timestamp": "2012-02-14T20:09:59",
"content": "ughhh more rubbing these things in my face QnQif i was not such a poor student i would be all over these things!so many possibilities!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
... | 1,760,376,959.308659 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/02/14/take-a-picture-of-a-bang-with-a-camera-sound-trigger/ | Take A Picture Of A Bang With A Camera Sound Trigger | Brian Benchoff | [
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"intervalometer",
"photography"
] | We’ve featured dozens of digital camera triggers over the years. Very rarely do we come across one as well designed as [Viktor]’s
‘lil bang sound trigger
that snaps a picture whenever a microphone picks up a loud noise.
[Viktor]’s build is based around a PIC16F microcontroller with an LM386 amp connected to a microphone. On the front of the device, the right knob controls the sensitivity of the microphone and the left knob sets the delay between detection and the trigger.
The ‘lil bang trigger connects to the camera through an opto-isolated 3.5 mm jack that is compatible with all the fancy Canon and Nikon DSLRs. The delay between sound detection can be changed from 0 to 255 ms, allowing for precise control over a high-speed photography rig.
All this work comes after the
light-activated trigger
[Viktor] built for taking pictures of lightning. The sound-activated version wouldn’t work for lightning pics, but he thinks it could be useful for
collision
or
explosion
photographic studies. Check out the video of [Viktor]’s ‘lil Bang in action after the break.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zT6ORMj7yhc&w=470] | 6 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "582391",
"author": "Sam",
"timestamp": "2012-02-14T21:17:27",
"content": "You can also do this on any canon SLR with magic lantern firmwaremagiclantern.wikia.com/",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "582472",
"author": "M H",
... | 1,760,376,959.355588 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/02/14/tears-from-your-lonely-heart-will-activate-a-comforting-tune/ | Tears From Your Lonely Heart Will Activate A Comforting Tune | Mike Szczys | [
"digital audio hacks",
"Holiday Hacks"
] | [
"conductive",
"fabric",
"greeting card",
"moisture sensor",
"tears"
] | If you’re forever alone we’d guess you’ve long since stopped crying about it. But if you’re still prone to shed a tear on a dateless Valentine’s day this project’s for you. [Mikeasaurus] spruced up this pillow to
play a tune when it senses your lonely soul
. It’s got a moisture sensor which triggers an audio greeting card just when your weeping really starts to get soggy.
If you look closely at the top portion of the white fabric in the picture you can see there are rows of stitching. These hold a matrix of conductive wire mesh fabric on the inside of the pillow case. There are two buses made up of alternating rows (think of the tines of two forks pointed together) which make up the probes. When the gap is bridged by moisture a transistor circuit triggers the audio bits from a greeting card to play a song. Check out the demo after the break. We’re not satisfied that [Mikeasaurs’] couldn’t even bring himself to cry real tears for the clip, but maybe years of solder fumes have clogged up those tear ducts.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VxSXw–_1NA&w=470] | 7 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "582356",
"author": "Paul",
"timestamp": "2012-02-14T19:28:01",
"content": "If he could up update it to figure out what’s making the pillow soggy he could play the current sound for tears, and maybe a different sound for sogginess from another bodily fluid",
"parent_id": null,
... | 1,760,376,959.451816 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/02/14/share-a-light-up-led-heart-with-your-valentine/ | Share A Light-up LED Heart With Your Valentine | Brian Benchoff | [
"LED Hacks"
] | [
"dropbox",
"polycarbonate",
"valentine"
] | It’s not roses or jewelry, but we hope [Erik]’s
light-up USB heart
will be appreciated by his significant other. When the two heart pieces come in contact with each other, each side lights up.
[Erik] started his build by cutting two half-heart shaped pieces out of polycarbonate. After drilling a few holes for LEDs and wires, magnets and reed switches were installed along the ‘broken’ side of the heart. Whenever the hearts come in contact with each other, the magnets trip the reed switches and light up both sides of the heart.
There is USB flash drive embedded in each heart half is loaded with a
portable Dropbox
. When the USB drive is plugged into a computer, the dropbox steps into action and synchronizes the photo album stored in each heart half. No matter how far apart they are, [Erik] and his SO can share pictures through their glowing LED hearts. Not to come off as a hopeless romantic, but this sounds like something we’d like for Valentine’s day. We’re hoping [Erik]’s SO thinks that as well. | 5 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "582293",
"author": "Josh",
"timestamp": "2012-02-14T15:14:43",
"content": "Why can’t we get holiday projects like this, you know, BEFORE the holiday it’s intended for. I know someone this would have been perfect for, but it’s too late by the time everything is ordered, assembled, a... | 1,760,376,959.402839 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/02/13/passive-filters-data-transmission-and-equalization-oh-my/ | Passive Filters, Data Transmission And Equalization Oh My! | Kevin Dady | [
"Misc Hacks",
"Radio Hacks"
] | [
"filters",
"microwave"
] | [Shahriar] is back with a new “The Signal Path” video. It has been a few months but it is okay because his videos are always packed full of good information. Some new equipment has been added to his lab and as an added bonus a quick tour of the equipment is included at the start, which is great if you like drooling over sweet machines.
The real focus of the video is high speed data communications,
getting up into the GHz per second range. [Shahriar] covers filtering techniques from simple RC low pass filters to pretty complex microwave filters. Explaining frequency and time domain measurements of a 1.5Gbps signal through a low bandwidth channel. He also shows how equalization can be used to overcome low bandwidth limitations.
It is an hour long video jam packed with information, so you might want to set aside some time and have a pencil on hand before going in. It is well worth it though, so join us after the break.
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MhWyAL2hKlk&w=470] | 17 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "581907",
"author": "Th3badwolf",
"timestamp": "2012-02-13T22:53:42",
"content": "@ Kevin Dady,I don’t wanna be a dousche but “GHz per second range” is incorrect… Hz is already “impulse/beat/wave/etc per second thus GHz per second here refer to half the derivate of what you’re talkin... | 1,760,376,959.932728 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/02/12/monitoring-software-builds-with-a-traffic-light/ | Monitoring Software Builds With A Traffic Light | Brian Benchoff | [
"Arduino Hacks",
"Software Development"
] | [
"arduino",
"software development",
"traffic light"
] | [JD] at isotope11 was looking for a way to get instant feedback whenever a developer broke a piece of software they were working on. After finding a
48 inch tall traffic light
, he knew what he had to do. Now, the entire development team knows the status of their code from a traffic light hanging in the corner.
isotope11 runs a continuous integration server to do the quality assurance on their software projects. It’s a lot more flexible than the ‘compile and pray’ setup we’re used to, but then again C isn’t very well suited to test-driven development. When one of [JD]’s developers breaks a piece of code, the CI server will send a warning to an Arduino where all the electronic magic happens.
To light the traffic light, [JD] used a few relays to drive the 120 volt bulbs in the traffic light. The traffic light is very easy to read – red means something is broken, green means everything is alright, and yellow means a test suite is being run.
Check out the video of [JD]’s TDD visualization after the break.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3T5fEV5YHYo#!&w=470] | 21 | 14 | [
{
"comment_id": "581273",
"author": "jim",
"timestamp": "2012-02-12T18:29:41",
"content": "um is that one of those hollywood filmset lights with different colours so it comes out normal in postproduction? am i stoned?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment... | 1,760,376,960.04719 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/02/12/hackaday-links-february-12-2012/ | Hackaday Links: February 12, 2012 | Brian Benchoff | [
"Hackaday links"
] | [
"3d printer",
"duct tape",
"lockpicking",
"numeric keypad",
"openframeworks",
"rose",
"Van Gogh"
] | This is why digital picture frames were invented
[Petros] sent in
this video
of his visualization of Van Gogh’s
Starry Night
. He did this with openFrameworks and also made a version that
reacts to sound
. Is anyone else reminded of that one scene in
Vincent and the Doctor
?
A boat’s a boat, but a mystery box can be anything
[Rick] wanted to build a lock pick training station for the Eugene Maker Space, but he needed a way to make it interesting. What could be better than a
mystery box
? When you pick the deadbolt, open the box up and you’ll get a prize. Just make sure you put something of yours in the box for the next person.
3D printer prints its own case
Because the 3d printer community isn’t segmented enough, [Sublime] decided to
design a new one
. Here’s where it gets cool: the Tantillus can print its own case, and can ‘daisy chain’ to another Tantillus so only one set of electronics are needed. Interesting ideas afoot.
A diamond says I love you, but a duct tape rose says I’ll fix that for you
Valentine’s Day is coming up, so if you haven’t already made dinner reservations, you’re probably up the creek. How about making a
duct tape rose
for that special person in your life. Bonus: a dozen costs $3, and they won’t die in a week.
Using keypads over serial or SPI
[Leniwiec] sent in a tutorial on
connecting keypads
to a microcontroller with a serial or SPI interface. If you want to build a calculator, this is your chance. We’d use this for an
Apollo Guidance Computer
, though. | 16 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "581239",
"author": "Brett W. (FightCube.com)",
"timestamp": "2012-02-12T16:56:46",
"content": "+1 if you watched the whole starry night video! That was awexome ;-)The mystery box is also a very clever idea. Kind of like a geocache, without the GPS part.. hackercache?",
"parent... | 1,760,376,959.989297 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/02/11/dye-mac-dye/ | Dye Mac Dye! | Kevin Dady | [
"Mac Hacks"
] | [
"dye",
"macbook"
] | Fabric dye is one of those products where it keeps popping up for unintended uses, we have seen it coloring printed circuit boards, and now a Macintosh computer? [The Brain]’s
project to add a little color to his Macbook
has been done before, but he chooses to do it in a different way, which comes down to a little bit of sandpaper.
You could go ahead and dye the Macbook plastics as is, but that thick layer of glossy plastic is going to take much more time to penetrate and its going to resist taking the color, so it might end up splotchy. The simple solution to this is to just sand off the gloss, that way the color has much less of a barrier to dye the plastic. Once the protective gloss shell is sanded away and cleaned throughly, Rit brand fabric dye is added to a pan of water and set on the stove to boil.
While most of the case plastics are thick and tough enough to withstand some heat, care does need to be taken when dealing with thin soft parts like the display bezel. After about 45 min the parts are dyed and popping with super bright orange color in record time. | 37 | 19 | [
{
"comment_id": "580879",
"author": "Sariel",
"timestamp": "2012-02-11T21:26:40",
"content": "now he should take some industrial acrylic sealant and buff it over the case to give it that shine again. color looks great in the pics, but the texture makes it look bad IRL I bet. I had a similar excurs... | 1,760,376,960.124434 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/02/11/get-tons-of-midi-knobs-and-buttons-with-the-chomp/ | Get Tons Of MIDI Knobs And Buttons With The Chomp | Brian Benchoff | [
"Musical Hacks"
] | [
"Chomp",
"midi"
] | Although MIDI was originally designed for 1 MHz computers with 64 kB of RAM, it’s still an industry standard almost 30 years after its introduction. Even for electronic artists armed with a microcontroller, MIDI is old hat if you want to connect a few buttons up to a music workstation. What if you wanted to connect dozens of buttons and knobs to a bunch of MIDI hardware, though? Enter
Chomp
, the Configurable Hardware Open-source MIDI Platform.
[Max Justicz], an awesome pseudonym if we’ve ever heard one, built a MIDI controller that allows for 48 inputs for buttons, knobs, and any other electrical connection imaginable. The board is powered by an Arduino-fied ATMega328 and connects to your sensors through 2×5 ribbon cables.
If you’ve ever thought about building a
monome MIDI controller
, [Max Justicz] has started a
Kickstarter campaign
to put a few hundred Chomps out into the wild. It seems like a great way to
build some controllers
or simply to send stuff to MaxMSP. Either way, the Chomp is sure to be useful. | 17 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "580868",
"author": "ferm",
"timestamp": "2012-02-11T21:04:43",
"content": "Is the arduino code available for it yet? I didnt see it on the page. also, what ICs are those by the input output headers? Here is a quick usb to midi adapter:http://shiftmore.blogspot.com/2010/01/quick-and... | 1,760,376,959.777709 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/02/11/create-pcbs-in-just-minutes-with-this-awesome-spray-etching-machine/ | Create PCBs In Just Minutes With This Awesome Spray Etching Machine | Mike Nathan | [
"chemistry hacks",
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"etchant",
"etching",
"etching tank",
"pcb",
"sprayer"
] | If you have ever produced your own PCBs at home, you know that it can be somewhat of a time consuming process. Spending 20 or so minutes manually agitating a board is a drag, and while aquarium bubbler setups improve the process, they are far from ideal. [Christian Reed] knew that if he really wanted to streamline his PCB production he had to emulate the big boys and build
a PCB sprayer of his own.
His spray etcher is contained in a custom acrylic case built mostly of scraps from previous projects. It contains two compartments – one for spraying etchant on the PCBs, and another for rinsing the finished work. The system is impressive to say the least, featuring a maze of tubes and piping which allow him to etch boards and manage his chemicals with ease.
[Christian] says that although the parts list might seem daunting at first, it really is pretty easy to assemble the device. Seeing as he can etch and wash a board in about two minutes flat, we think that any amount of effort would be worth the results.
[Christian] points out that he was unable to find a guide for building this type of PCB sprayer anywhere online, so he documented the process in painstaking detail in order to make it as easy as possible to replicate his work. Be sure to check out the video below to see his etch tank in action – we’re pretty sure it will have you itching to build one this weekend.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaSWDJBhp-0&feature=player_embedded&w=470] | 39 | 23 | [
{
"comment_id": "580809",
"author": "charliex",
"timestamp": "2012-02-11T18:06:03",
"content": "that is nifty.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "580816",
"author": "brad",
"timestamp": "2012-02-11T18:48:54",
"content": "mine is a regul... | 1,760,376,960.204067 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/02/11/cnc-light-painting/ | CNC Light Painting | Jeremy Cook | [
"cnc hacks",
"digital cameras hacks"
] | [
"cnc",
"CNC router",
"led",
"light engraving",
"light painting",
"Zen Toolworks"
] | Light painting is a technique where a shape is drawn with a light source while a camera is taking a very long exposure shot of it. To do this well by hand would take a lot of skill, so I naturally decided to make my
“light art” with a CNC router
.
Using this technique, the LED light is treated just like an engraving bit would be under normal circumstances. The difference is that the
Y axis is swapped with the Z axis
allowing for easy movement in the plane that you see displayed in the picture above. This allows the old Y axis to switch the light on and off in the same way that an engraving bit is lifted to stop engraving and lowered to start
(explained here)
. Instead of a bit though, it’s a switch.
Be sure to check out the video of the router in action (with the lights on) after the break:
[youtube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H31rBa46wbM%5D
If you’re curious about the router used, check out
this [HAD] post
. Also we have the
[HAD] logo available in DXF
format here if you’d like to use it in your own project. You may need to delete some layers depending on your use. | 9 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "580802",
"author": "matguy",
"timestamp": "2012-02-11T17:50:00",
"content": "Next step in the evolution: use all 3 axis and make some cool 3D “renderings” of wireframe skeletons.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "580819",
... | 1,760,376,960.297955 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/02/11/plotting-pictures-with-light/ | Plotting Pictures With Light | Brian Benchoff | [
"LED Hacks"
] | [
"drawbot",
"led",
"polar plotter",
"POV"
] | Flashing LEDs for a persistence of vision display are on bicycle wheels, alarm clocks, and even light painting sticks to draw images in the air. What if you wanted to
plot an image in the air
(
translation
) with a single LED? That’s what [acorv] did after taking a cue from a
polar plotter
.
Like the polar plotter and
Drawbot
, [acorv]’s build began with a pair of
stepper motors and fishing line
(
translation
). [acorv]’s brother upped the stakes a bit and suggested replacing the marker with an LED and taking long exposure photographs. Armed with a DSLR and a lot of patience, a few
experimental pics
were taken. To plot the image, the Lightbot flashes its LED as it goes across the plot area. The process of building an image pixel by pixel takes a while – eight minutes for
this image
– but the brothers were encouraged enough to take their rig outside.
After setting up the polar plotter between two tripods, [acorv] and his brother made
this image
in the dead of night. It’s an interesting spin on the POV LED builds we’ve seen before. Check out [acorv]’s Lightbot slowly drawing something after the break.
[vimeo=36521734] | 1 | 1 | [
{
"comment_id": "580836",
"author": "Moi",
"timestamp": "2012-02-11T19:35:24",
"content": "In the age of Photoshop this seams like a total waist of time. But fun nevertheless.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
}
] | 1,760,376,960.24797 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/02/11/weekly-roundup-21112/ | Weekly Roundup 2/11/12 | Jack Buffington | [
"News",
"Weekly Roundup"
] | [
"weekly roundup"
] | In case you have been on vacation, here is the best that we have had on our blog in the past week:
In first place is a post about [the University of Pennsylvania’s] quadcopter team. This time they have
a group of twenty quadcopters flying in formation.
In second place is a post about a nice project by [Joel] where he
converted an overhead projector into a TV projector
by projecting through a LCD TV. He went all-out on this one by using a CNC machine to cut out a special holder for the LCD and the fans necessary to cool it.
Next up we have a post about
a project where a 55 gallon plastic barrel is turned into a wind turbine
. We’re not sure about how much power this would produce but it would probably be fun to play around with.
Following that is
a follow up post about Printrbot
, an inexpensive 3D printer which we previously posted about. It was a successful Kickstarter project a couple of months ago and now the design files have been released into the wild. Check it out!
Finally we finish off with a post about
how to build a solid-state Tesla coil
. It’s presented in an Instructable with 12 easy steps so that you too can feed your high-voltage addiction. | 0 | 0 | [] | 1,760,376,960.420317 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/02/10/electrodroid-your-android-electronic-reference-app/ | ElectroDroid – Your Android Electronic Reference App | Brian Benchoff | [
"Android Hacks",
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"android",
"ElectroDroid",
"electronics",
"reference",
"tools"
] | Earlier this week, fellow Hack a Day-er [Mike Nathan] reviewed Adafruit’s new iPhone/iPad app
Circuit Playground
. The
comments
on [Mike]’s review turned to suggesting
ElectroDroid
as an alternative to Circuit Playground. Surprisingly, Hack a Day authors actually pay attention to the comments, so I’ve decided to throw my hat into the ring and offer up my review of ElectroDroid. For purposes of full disclosure, I have to add that I paid the $2.59 donation for a copy of ElectroDroid without ads, and have had no contact with the developers.
From the opening screen, I was presented with three tabs labeled “Calculators,” “Pin-out,” and “Resources” with a nearly innumerable amount of options beneath each tab. Compared with Circuit Playground, there are far too many options available to fully review in the short format of a blog post. I’ll try to hit the highlights as I go through each tab.
Calculators
Of course ElectroDroid allows you to calculate the value of resistors from the color code and back again, and will give you a resistor value from an SMD resistor code. Interestingly, I couldn’t find a calculator to go from a resistor value to an SMD resistor code. While there is a table in the app to allow a value to SMD code conversion, I’d like to see that implemented as something a little more interactive.
Other calculators include inductor color codes, Ohm’s law, filters, voltage dividers, and everything else listed on the
ElectroDroid website
. As for the series/parallel resistor calculator, ElectroDroid differs somewhat from what [Mike] saw with Circuit Playground. Like every resistor calculator ever, you’re able to enter a desired value and have ElectroDroid pick out two resistors in the E6 through E192 series that when soldered together will match the desired value. Also, you can enter the value of two resistors and get the resulting parallel or serial value.
Unlike Circuit Playground which allows 9 resistors to be placed in either a serial or parallel setup, ElectroDroid limits the user to two. I’m thinking ElectroDroid is a little more representative of reality (why, exactly, would you ever have nine resistors wired in parallel beyond Physics 102 homework?), but the
option
to calculate the value of more than two resistors would be nice.
Pin-Outs
The second tab on ElectroDroid goes to a list of pinouts for all the common connectors one would expect to see on a daily basis. All the regulars are there – USB, serial (both DE9 and DB25 – a nice touch), parallel port, Ethernet, and every video connector I’ve ever seen. There are also some uncommon but vitally important diagrams for 25-pair phone cable and OBD-II automotive diagnostic system.
This is a tough category to review. It’s easy to complain that there are no pin-outs for Super Nintendo controllers, or the ADB or 25-pin SCSI ports found on my old Macs. For me to deduct points for not including extremely esoteric connectors would be wrong; ElectroDroid does a very good job of including pin-outs 99% of makers or builders would need. Here, ElectroDroid serves its purpose.
Resources
Under the resources tab, I was greeted with a 19-item list of stuff I should have already memorized. The connections for PIC and AVR programmers are featured in the first position, followed by tables of standard resistors, capacitors, schematic symbols, switch diagrams (SPST, DPDT, etc), Boolean logic symbols, and a very nice reference image for 78xx voltage regulator pin-outs.
The Resources tab includes a link to
ChipDB
, a website I have admittedly never heard about. This is a welcome feature for anyone who is looking for the pin-outs for the entire 40xx and 74xx logic family, but ChipDB only includes 311 entries in its database as of this writing. I can’t fault the ElectroDroid developer for the incompleteness of this database (it’s not even his), but I’d like to see more entries under this link.
In closing…
When reviewing an app, or any reference work for that matter, there needs to be a distinction between what it
is
and what it
can be.
ElectroDroid is a fabulous tool and reference app that would be very much appreciated by 99% of the people sending projects into Hack a Day. If I judge ElectroDroid on what it
can be
, I’m left a little bit empty.
Like Adafruit’s Circuit Playground, I’d love to see the ability to take a picture of a resistor and have the app display the value. A ‘killer app’ for electronic reference tools would be a front end for
alldatasheet.com
that includes the ability to search, save, and display the datasheet for any imaginable component.
These are all nit-picking, pie-in-the-sky ideas, though, that don’t affect my impression of the app at all. ElectroDroid is more than worth the $2.59 price tag; while it may not be extremely useful for the analog gurus or those who can build computers out of bailing wire, it’s far more than sufficient for a tinkerer or maker who needs the occasional reference tool.
Addendum: Because getting screen shots off of an Android device is insane, I’d also like to add a recommendation for
MyPhoneExplorer
. It works. | 39 | 27 | [
{
"comment_id": "580250",
"author": "pt",
"timestamp": "2012-02-10T22:24:56",
"content": "great review again HaD folks – nice work. this is why we have a link to this app on our own app page as well.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "580307",
... | 1,760,376,960.379326 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/02/10/pov-clock-spins-light-filter-instead-of-leds/ | POV Clock Spins Light Filter Instead Of LEDs | Mike Szczys | [
"clock hacks"
] | [
"arduino",
"atmega328",
"hard drive",
"persistence of vision",
"POV"
] | This
hard-drive based POV clock
is a treasure trove of great design choices. Now, we’ve seen a bunch of spinning clock builds. Several of the hard drive versions
use slits cut in the platters
to create a display by illuminating an LED behind those slits at just the right moment. This is a similar idea but [Jason Hotchkiss] ditched the platters all together and replaced them with a light filter. The filter disc has digits 0-9 as well as a colon (not seen above because the colons blink each second). As this disc spins, the Arduino compatible controller lights up LEDs in the eight digital positions to illuminate the correct number.
The filter is made from an etched copper-clad disc. This is a great choice because the fiberglass substrate is strong, light weight, translucent, and available. The filter idea also means you don’t need to get power or data to a spinning platform. [Jason] has also designed a very impressive controller board that is the same size as the footprint of the laptop hard drive he’s using. Check out the video after the break to see his description of what went into the hardware choices he arrived upon.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kPdYpST_yoE&w=470] | 21 | 17 | [
{
"comment_id": "580209",
"author": "NatureTM",
"timestamp": "2012-02-10T21:11:30",
"content": "That’s pretty cool, and I like all the diy pcb’s he made. I wonder if he should be concerned about the “platter” flying apart at those high speeds, especially with the holes cut out and him moving it aro... | 1,760,376,960.482943 |
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