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https://hackaday.com/2012/01/09/projector-project-bears-no-fruit-but-it-was-a-fun-ride/ | Projector Project Bears No Fruit But It Was A Fun Ride | Mike Szczys | [
"Peripherals Hacks",
"Video Hacks"
] | [
"projector",
"reverse engineer",
"whiteboard"
] | No matter how good the intentions or how strong your hack-fu may be, sometimes you just can’t cross the finish line with every project. Here’s one that we hate to see go unfinished, but it’s obvious that
a ton of work already went into reclaiming these smart white-board projectors
and it’s time to cut the losses.
The hardware is a Smartboard Unifi 35″ computer with a projector mounted on a telescoping rod. It was manufactured for use with a touch-sensitive white board which the guys at the Milwaukee Makerspace don’t have. The projector works, but all it will display is a message instructing the user to connect the computer to the white board. Since they’ve got a couple of these projectors, it would be nice to salvage the functionality.
The first attempt was to replace the video signal to the projector. A few test boards were etched to experiment with DVI input. This included several logic sniffing runs to see what the computer is pushing to get the warning message to display. Alas, the group was not able to get the device to respond. But this opens up a great opportunity for you to play
Monday morning hacker
. Take a look at the data they’ve posted in the link above and let us know how you would’ve done it in the comments. | 18 | 15 | [
{
"comment_id": "554511",
"author": "dantheman2865",
"timestamp": "2012-01-09T18:30:00",
"content": "Personally, I would have looked at the chips inside the projector to see if any of them could be spec’d and traced. They may have done this, although I didn’t see any mention in the recent post.",
... | 1,760,376,986.081932 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/01/09/diy-fresnel-reflector/ | DIY Fresnel Reflector | Brian Benchoff | [
"Solar Hacks"
] | [
"fresnel",
"parabolic mirror",
"solar"
] | Just like destroying an ant colony with a magnifying glass, there’s nothing like cooking hot dogs and roasting marshmallows with a nice parabolic reflector. Of course covering an old satellite dish with mylar or aluminum tape doesn’t take much skill, however cool it is. [Uwe] came up with a much more technical means of
building a Fresnel reflector
that will cook your hot dogs in seconds, but only on sunny days.
[Uwe] channeled a little bit of [Apollonius] when he realized that a flat cardboard ring with a section removed could be joined together into a conic section. The resulting section looks just like one concentric ring in a Fresnel reflector. [Uwe] wrote a small program in Visual Basic to calculate the necessary diameter and angle of his conic sections.
A bit of cardboard was cut out and pieced together with some very reflective aluminum tape. The resulting Fresnel reflector concentrates 117 times the normal solar radiation onto a small point. It’s more than enough to burn holes in construction paper, but we’ll be using a microwave for our lunch today. | 14 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "554473",
"author": "Hirudinea",
"timestamp": "2012-01-09T17:25:00",
"content": "Very clever, and with a little tweeking of the program you could use this technique on other frequencies, like a cardboard an tape WIFI booster. (A really good one.)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth":... | 1,760,376,985.731078 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/01/09/got-dead-bugs-in-your-stereo/ | Got Dead Bugs In Your Stereo? | Kevin Dady | [
"home entertainment hacks",
"Repair Hacks"
] | [
"dead bug"
] | It happens to the best of designers, spending untold amounts of time designing a complex device just to find out that you missed a trace, or you couldn’t rout something to something else. As time marches on its becoming a bit less common to pop open a commercially produced device and see a little jumper wire or 2 flying across a pcb, or a resistor straddling an IC.
But when [Ilektron]
opened up a Yamaha Dolby Pro Logic receiver to scavenge for parts
he saw a very big “oops” and a even wilder fix. The maker took a pair of relays, flipped them “belly up” and hot glued them into place on top of a pair of ICs. Then the mess was “dead bug” wired to the circuit using insulated and uninsulated bus wire, contacts were then reinforced / insulated using more hot glue.
This is one of the most hacky fix we have seen in a commercially produced product, but we would love to hear your amusing horror stories of “WTH did they do?” So join us in the comments after the break. | 44 | 25 | [
{
"comment_id": "554451",
"author": "dave-o",
"timestamp": "2012-01-09T16:26:58",
"content": "Honestly, it looks well done. It seems to be well laid out. The soldering appears to be good. The parts are secured well. Wire color seems to have been respected.Yes, it’s indicative of a major engineering ... | 1,760,376,986.216554 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/01/09/programming-avr-i2c-interface/ | Programming AVR I2C Interface | Kevin Dady | [
"Arduino Hacks",
"hardware"
] | [
"24C16",
"i2c"
] | I
2
C as many of you know, is a simple serial interface for many peripheral devices to micro controllers, but it can quickly become confusing to people who may not be accustom to it. Because of that, I
2
C tutorials are always welcome, and this new tutorial by [Embedds] does an excellent job of
how to use I
2
C with an AVR
with a 24C16 2Kbyte EEPROM.
The first half of the tutorial provides a clear explanation of how I
2
C works, including its signal structure, addressing, and data packets. It then moves on to AVR territory showing how to setup the I
2
C in an AtMega micro controller. The author uses a pretty standard to most of us Arduino, with software written in AVR C and a nifty little GUI programming application which eases the hassle of dealing with AVRDude directly.
Plenty of code samples follow from twiddling registers to a full blown application reading and writing bits from the EEPROM to a serial terminal on a PC. | 8 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "554412",
"author": "egasimus",
"timestamp": "2012-01-09T14:05:57",
"content": "does not compute?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "554424",
"author": "Ben",
"timestamp": "2012-01-09T15:01:00",
"content": "It’s probably... | 1,760,376,985.773324 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/01/08/alex-shows-us-what-happens-when-dance-dance-revolution-meets-simon/ | [Alex] Shows Us What Happens When Dance Dance Revolution Meets Simon | Mike Nathan | [
"Arduino Hacks",
"Toy Hacks"
] | [
"arduino",
"ddr",
"ps2",
"simon"
] | [Alex] was digging through his closet and came upon an old PS2 game pad for Dance Dance Revolution. He hated the idea of throwing it out just slightly more than the idea of playing DDR again, so he
decided to find a way to reuse it.
He was a big fan of the game Simon (aka Genius) as a kid and thought that the DDR pad would make a novel interface for the classic game. Using the PS2XLib by [Bill Porter], which allows an Arduino to easily communicate with a PS2 controller, [Alex] put his Simon replica together in no time flat.
He painted an empty ice cream container with the classic Simon colors, installing a small LED under each quadrant, then wrote the game’s code.
As you can see in the video below, his version of the game works nicely, and forces you to actually get up and move a bit, which we like.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OFKyOM7JNfY&feature=player_embedded&w=470] | 5 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "554012",
"author": "HIrudinea",
"timestamp": "2012-01-08T22:29:08",
"content": "Nice start, but the mat itself needs to light up, how well does EL wire holp up to being stomped on?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "554046",
"a... | 1,760,376,985.919781 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/01/08/diy-shade-finder-tool-takes-the-tedium-out-of-solar-surveys/ | DIY Shade Finder Tool Takes The Tedium Out Of Solar Surveys | Mike Nathan | [
"Solar Hacks"
] | [
"shade finder",
"solar",
"survey"
] | [Steven Dufresne] does a lot of tinkering with solar-powered applications, a hobby which can be very time consuming if done right. One process he carries out whenever building a solar installation is
creating a sun chart
to determine how much (or little) sun the target area will get.
The process requires [Steven] to take elevation and Azimuth measurements of many different points, which often consumes about half an hour of his time. While taking measurements recently, he started thinking about how he could improve the process, and came up with a stellar solution that reduces the process down to a one-minute task.
In short, his shade finder tool uses a pulley, a pair of rollerblade wheels, and a pencil to accomplish a full shade survey in under a minute. The science behind the tool is best explained by [Steven], so be sure to check out his site for plenty of details and diagrams.
We have to say that we’re extremely impressed by his shade finder – hopefully his work can help others maximize the efficiency of their solar solutions.
Stick around after the jump to see a short video of the shade finder in action.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=44NAXcA22Mg&feature=player_embedded&w=470] | 20 | 13 | [
{
"comment_id": "553930",
"author": "smoketester",
"timestamp": "2012-01-08T17:51:33",
"content": "Nice hardware application for this particular geometry problem. I believe that a smartphone App could accomplish the same results even more quickly and accurately and would be more appropriate for the ... | 1,760,376,986.138573 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/01/08/rainbow-board-of-many-ping-pong-balls/ | Rainbow Board Of Many Ping-pong Balls | Brian Benchoff | [
"LED Hacks"
] | [
"arduino",
"colorduino",
"led",
"matrix"
] | [George] just finished his first project: an 8×8 matrix “
Board of Many Ping-Pong Balls
” with 64 RGB LEDs. He started this project when he was 14 years old and finished the build over this last Christmas break. We won’t make any presumptions about [George]’s age, but we couldn’t think of a better project to start out on.
For the build, [George] used a
Colorduino
LED driver shield for his Arduino. This made the wiring simple, but the finished product is where this project really shines. For the base, [George] got a board laser cut at his school and used ping-pong balls to diffuse the LEDs. We’ve seen this
many
times
but with this build there’s a neat way to drill a hole in a ping-pong ball; simply put the drill into reverse. The friction is enough to open the ball up, and the chips of plastic come outside instead of remaining in.
We’re really impressed with [George] and his winter break project. He’s lucky enough to have access to a laser cutter at school, and from a look at his monitor, he’s reading the right websites. You can check out his demo rainbow pattern after the break.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?&v=m41S2sZquC4&w=470] | 13 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "553886",
"author": "sawo",
"timestamp": "2012-01-08T15:33:15",
"content": "Nice project. The Colorduino is not a shield tho, its a full arduino clone. (like e.g. the Rainbowduino)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "553936",
"au... | 1,760,376,986.352345 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/01/10/help-chris-boot-his-cray-1-supercomputer/ | Help [Chris] Boot His Cray-1 Supercomputer | Brian Benchoff | [
"classic hacks",
"Software Hacks"
] | [
"cray",
"cray-1",
"reverse engineering"
] | [Chris Fenton]
needs your help
. After constructing a 1/10th scale, cycle accurate
Cray-1 supercomputer
and
finding a disk
with Cray software on it, he’s ready to start loading the OS. There’s a small problem, though: no one knows how to boot the thing.
[Chris] posted a
disk image
for a Cray-1/X-MP with the help of the people at archive.org. Now he needs your help – if you think you can reverse engineer the file system, [Chris] will pay handsomely with a miniature model of a Cray printed on his MakerBot. In any case, it seems like a fun challenge.
From our quick glance at the disk image with a HEX editor, it looks like [Chris] has something special on his hands. We see a few references to “Cray memory and registers,” as well as “IOP-0 Kernel, Version 4.2.2” in the header along with a few dates referencing July of 1989. This is consistent with the history of the source disk pack. If you think you’ve got what it takes to reverse engineer the file system of a Cray-1, this is your chance. | 72 | 37 | [
{
"comment_id": "555255",
"author": "poisomike87",
"timestamp": "2012-01-10T16:15:24",
"content": "hehe press the power button",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "555260",
"author": "Jay",
"timestamp": "2012-01-10T16:26:43",
... | 1,760,376,985.877088 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/01/09/print-huge-stuff-with-the-makerbot-replicator/ | Print Huge Stuff With The Makerbot Replicator | Brian Benchoff | [
"cnc hacks"
] | [
"makerbot"
] | The folks at MakerBot Industries are introducing their new 3D printer at CES this week. It’s called the
MakerBot Replicator
and features dual heads for 2-color prints and a
huge
build envelope for huge objects
From [Bre Pettis]’ introduction video (available after the break), the build area is about 9x6x6 inches, compared to the about four-inch cube-sized volume for the MakerBot Cupcake and Thing-O-Matic. The Replicator also features optional dual Makerbot Mk. 8 extruders for two-colored printing. We’ve seen
valiant attempts
at printing multicolored objects with one extruder, and if you’d ever want to print with two filaments dual extruders are the way to go.
The replicator also features a nice control panel (which includes a
Snake
game), something that’s relatively rare on the 3D printers we’ve seen. The single extruder model will set you back $1750, while the dual extruder adds another $250 to the price. We
really
want one of these, but don’t take our word – check out [Bre]’s intro.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?&v=DY6VSu-oOws&w=470] | 71 | 24 | [
{
"comment_id": "554726",
"author": "fartface",
"timestamp": "2012-01-10T01:24:54",
"content": "Someone’s definition of huge is a bit off.Call me when they can print car body panels, that’s “huge”",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "554936",
... | 1,760,376,986.027466 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/01/09/build-an-intervalometer-with-these-simple-fabrication-techniques/ | Build An Intervalometer With These Simple Fabrication Techniques | Mike Szczys | [
"digital cameras hacks"
] | [
"atmega8",
"intervalometer",
"strip board"
] | [L] just finished building this intervalometer and
his verbose documentation of the project
has a little bit of everything. The fabrication uses common prototyping materials, and simple skills that are easy to master even for the beginner.
The hardware is based around an ATmega8 microcontroller. After snooping around the Internet [L] wanted to see if the voltage divider based focus and shutter commands that are present in some camera remote shutter controls would work for his model. Investigation with a commercial shutter release showed him how it was done, so he incorporated that into his design. When it comes to firmware for the device we really like his explanation of the menu system. There’s a lot of settings and he did a great job of planning the user interface to make them all work on the finished product.
The schematic and board layout were done with Eagle. During the layout process he made choices for easy assembly using strip board, and even walks us through the steps when cutting the traces and adding jumper wires. It’s nicely finished in this clear plastic case and demonstrated in the video after the break.
[vimeo http://vimeo.com/34741554 w=470] | 4 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "554728",
"author": "nato",
"timestamp": "2012-01-10T01:26:29",
"content": "I’m surprised with the quality of the fit and finish, considering he didn’t even have a drill. I also like how using a transparent box removes the requirement to either find a bezel for the display (near imp... | 1,760,376,985.674396 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/01/09/rainbow-machine-livens-up-any-photograph/ | Rainbow Machine Livens Up Any Photograph | Mike Nathan | [
"digital cameras hacks",
"LED Hacks"
] | [
"arduino",
"camera",
"light painting",
"photography",
"RGB LED"
] | [Shameel Arafin, Sean McIntyre, and Reid Bingham] really dig rainbows. Going by the moniker the “RainBroz”, the trio built a portable display that can be used to
add cool light painting effects to pictures.
The group brings their Rainbow Machine all over the place, including parties, gatherings, and random spots on the street. Anyone is welcome to have their picture taken with the Rainbow machine, and each subject is given a card with a URL on it, so that they can check out their picture whenever they please.
The display consists of addressable RGB LED strips and an Arduino from Adafruit, along with the associated support mechanisms for moving the LEDs. The real magic is carried out by the LPD8806 light painting library, also from Adafruit, which enables the RainBroz to create all sorts of images with little fuss.
As you can see in the video below, the Rainbow Machine seems to get a pretty warm reception from just about everyone, even people grabbed right off the street.
It looks simple enough to build
, so why not put one together for your next gathering?
[vimeo http://vimeo.com/31735737 w=470] | 13 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "554675",
"author": "Alex Rossie",
"timestamp": "2012-01-09T23:31:49",
"content": "AWESOME!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "554689",
"author": "Thopter",
"timestamp": "2012-01-09T23:50:53",
"content": "How is his righ... | 1,760,376,987.063159 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/01/09/using-a-mac-and-xcode-as-a-linux-development-platform/ | Using A Mac And XCode As A Linux Development Platform | Mike Szczys | [
"Linux Hacks"
] | [
"mac",
"ssh",
"ubuntu",
"virtual machine",
"xcode"
] | [Ricard Dias] wrote in to tell us about
his guide for developing Linux applications on a Mac
. He really enjoys the development environment provided by XCode, and it doesn’t take much to make it work as an all-in-one solution for Linux development.
The real trick here is the use of SSH to access a Linux environment. In this example he uses Ubuntu running as a virtual machine, but also mentions that the same thing can be done just as easily with a separate box as long as it is on the same network as the Mac. SSHFS (the SSH Filesystem) lets him mount the development directory on the Linux box locally. This is where the XCode project and files will be stored, but building the program will be done by the Linux machine via a script calling the make comand via SSH. To test out the newly built program, [L] tunnels in using X11 forwarding for ssh, and the application will be shown as a window in OSX, even though it is running on the Ubuntu machine.
We love SSH and use it all the time.
It’s amazing how hand it can be
. | 28 | 14 | [
{
"comment_id": "554650",
"author": "Andreas Sauer",
"timestamp": "2012-01-09T22:41:24",
"content": "Major temperature droppage in hell.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "554658",
"author": "Alex Rossie",
"timestamp": "2012-01-09T22:57:57"... | 1,760,376,986.416511 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/01/09/a-salinometer-built-for-the-science-olympiad/ | A Salinometer Built For The Science Olympiad | Mike Szczys | [
"chemistry hacks"
] | [
"op-amp",
"peltier",
"salinometer",
"science olympiad"
] | This is
a Digital Salinometer
which [Daniel Kramnik] built as a Science Olympiad entry. He’s a Junior in High School and when looking for a project to enter into the Water Quality event he was interested in achieving greater accuracy than a mechanical hydrometer provides.
We think the circuit design is very impressive for anyone who hasn’t complete formal training as an engineer, and outstanding for someone as young as [Daniel]. Measurements depend on two main parts, a temperature control and a salinity sensor. These are both necessary because fluctuation in sample temperature will affect the salinity reading.
A Peltier element is used to heat the water sample if it doesn’t fall within a set range of temperatures. From there, an Op-Amp circuit conditions a signal running through the sample, passing an output to the ADC converter chip which drives the three-digit readout. [Daniel] calculates an accuracy within 0.0014%. He must be on the mark because he’s won his regional competition and will soon compete at the state level. | 13 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "554600",
"author": "NIck",
"timestamp": "2012-01-09T21:39:51",
"content": "Science Olympiad (S.O.) is an academic competition which is coaching intensive. While this student may have done this themselves, it is very likely that they had “assistance” along the way.",
"parent_id"... | 1,760,376,986.764572 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/01/09/the-matrix-reloaded-now-better-than-the-movie/ | The Matrix Reloaded: Now Better Than The Movie | Brian Benchoff | [
"Peripherals Hacks"
] | [
"keyboard",
"keyboard matrix"
] | If you’re looking for a custom controller for a MAME cabinet build, CNC machine, or just want to control a robot build, you’re going to need to wire up some buttons. You could wire up a bunch of buttons to a microcontroller, but if you use an
old computer keyboard
the work is already done for you.
[Rupert] sent in a great tutorial on repurposing old keyboards. The build is very, very simple: just take a multimeter to each contact and measure the rows and columns for continuity. Once [Rupert] had the matrix codes for every button on the keyboard, he wired up a length of ribbon cable to the keyboard PCB. From there, a small breakout board provides all the connections that a MAME cabinet would need.
Opposed to a custom keyboard encoder like an
I-PAC
or a homebrew solution, [Rupert]’s build is very easy and can be built for only the dignity required to dumpster dive for a keyboard. | 34 | 20 | [
{
"comment_id": "554571",
"author": "svofski",
"timestamp": "2012-01-09T20:35:56",
"content": "For regular tasks this is fine, but for MAME rather not. For MAME and the likes you need individually scanned keys.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "... | 1,760,376,986.83698 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/01/07/using-555-timers-to-add-free-play-functionality-to-classic-arcade-machines/ | Using 555 Timers To Add “free Play” Functionality To Classic Arcade Machines | Mike Nathan | [
"classic hacks",
"News"
] | [
"555",
"arcade",
"free play",
"pinball"
] | [John Zitterkopf] is in the middle of restoring a vintage Sega Star Trek Captain’s Chair arcade game for the upcoming 2012 Texas Pinball festival, though one prerequisite for the show is that the game supports some sort of free play mode. At this point he doesn’t have the option of tracking down a freeplay ROM for the device, so he had to
come up with a solution of his own.
He did not want to alter the machine’s operation in any significant manner, and this meant preserving the functionality of the coin chutes. To do this, he put together a small circuit that uses a pair of cascaded 555 timers to provide the machine with the proper signaling to simulate coin insertion, while still accepting coins. You might initially think that this could be easily accomplished by shorting a pair of contacts in the coin chutes, but as [John] explains, the process is a tad more complex than that.
If you have some old arcade games kicking around and are looking for a non-invasive way to make them free to play, be sure to check out his site for schematics and a complete BoM. | 22 | 14 | [
{
"comment_id": "553564",
"author": "Bakamoichigei",
"timestamp": "2012-01-07T22:27:59",
"content": "That’s cool as hell!All the same, I’m glad all I have to do is set dipswitch 7 to ‘on’ in my NEO-GEO cabinet. :3(Not that I actually do, I love feeding it quarters! It’s like the most awesomest piggy... | 1,760,376,986.8961 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/01/07/minimalist-rgb-led-cube-has-a-very-short-bom/ | Minimalist RGB LED Cube Has A Very Short BoM | Mike Nathan | [
"Arduino Hacks",
"LED Hacks"
] | [
"arduino",
"charlieplexed",
"cube",
"led"
] | [Asher Glick] wrote in to share
a project he has been working on
with his friend [Kevin Baker], a 4x4x4 RGB LED cube. The pair are students at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and also members of the newly-formed Embedded Hardware Club on campus. As their first collaborative project, they decided to take on the ubiquitous LED cube, trimming down the component count to nothing more than 64 LEDs, a protoboard, some wire, and a single Arduino.
Many cubes we have seen use shift registers or decade counters to account for all the I/O required to drive so many LEDs. Their version of the cube has none of these extra components, solely relying on 16 of the Arduino’s I/O pins for control instead. You might notice something a bit different about the structure of their cube as well. Rather than using a grid of LEDs like we see in most Charlieplexed cubes, they constructed theirs using 16 LED “spires”, tucking the additional wiring underneath the board.
The result looks great, as you can see in the videos below. The cube looks pretty easy to build, and with a cost around $60 it is a reasonably cheap project as well.
Nice job, we look forward to seeing all sorts of fun projects from the Embedded Hardware Club in the future!
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yg0xVQmX5Co&w=470]
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u9MJb3q-TBM&w=470] | 55 | 20 | [
{
"comment_id": "553534",
"author": "Vonskippy",
"timestamp": "2012-01-07T21:34:25",
"content": "BoM WTF?Back on Market? How does that apply?How about following the standard writing practice of defining acronyms when first used in the article.This is the web, you don’t get charged by the character.... | 1,760,376,987.215671 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/01/07/ancient-mouse-teardown-and-repair/ | Ancient Mouse Teardown And Repair | Brian Benchoff | [
"classic hacks"
] | [
"mouse",
"optical mouse",
"pcjr"
] | For a young geek in the 80s, the
it
computer was the IBM PCjr. On paper, it was a truly remarkable leap in technology. With a wireless keyboard, light pen, and optical mouse it was an impressive, if maligned, piece of hardware. There was a small problem with the optical mouse, though; it required a special mousepad. [Michael], a PCjr aficionado, decided to
make his own
optical mousepad. It works, and was a lot easier to build than finding a used one for sale.
The PCjr mouse used two photodectors – a red LED and photodector for the horizontal axis, and an IR LED setup for the vertical. Light is shot through two holes in the bottom of the mouse and reflects back onto the photodetectors. [Michael] emulated the old mousepad with a sheet of aluminum foil and a transparency with a printed grid pattern. Surely not as elegant as an original, but it does the job nonetheless.
This clever-for-its-day optical mouse setup wasn’t limited to the lowly PCjr. A number of old Sun workstations had a similar setup that used small dots on the mousepad. There were several generations of mousepads that were generally incomparable with each other (because one type of mousepad wasn’t proprietary enough for Sun), but we would assume a similar build would work for these forgotten mice.
Thanks to [josh] for sending this one in. | 24 | 14 | [
{
"comment_id": "553509",
"author": "cb88",
"timestamp": "2012-01-07T20:31:12",
"content": "Supposedly on some of the Sun mice you can get away with printing it on a piece of paper… mine (actually I have 3-4 of them) doesn’t it apparently required a reflective metal mousepad it might work if I print... | 1,760,376,987.015052 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/01/07/remove-function-lock-key-with-a-4016-and-a-555/ | Remove Function Lock Key With A 4016 And A 555 | Kevin Dady | [
"Peripherals Hacks"
] | [
"555 timer",
"Flock",
"HEF4016"
] | Many companies today try to simplify life by over complicating the keyboard. Microsoft has been doing it since 2001. If you love your ergonomic keyboard, but hate that “function lock” key, there are plenty of options out there for you to try.
The least complicated way is to either modify some XML or just set macros up in the MS software, but who wants to do that every time they re-install Windows? Reader [Elco] didn’t so he added a simple little 555 circuit inside the keyboard, that
automatically re-enables the Flock after three seconds
if he happens to hit it during fast and furious typing.
Now no matter what system the keyboard is plugged into he does not have to worry that if he hits F7 whether the system is going to spell check his document, or reply to an email, or that F2 is actually going to rename something and not undo his work silently. | 19 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "553445",
"author": "Steve0",
"timestamp": "2012-01-07T18:15:45",
"content": "If he never uses the F-Lock functionality, why not just disable it by physically preventing it from being pushed? He could either jam it it can’t be pushed, or put something non-conductive between the key ... | 1,760,376,986.952757 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/01/07/a-bicycle-built-for-siamese-twins/ | A Bicycle Built For… Siamese Twins? | Mike Szczys | [
"Transportation Hacks"
] | [
"bicycle",
"bike",
"tandem",
"welding"
] | This project really puts an end to arguing over who has to ride in the back of the tandem bicycle. We challenge you not to smile while viewing the maiden voyage that [Carlos] and his daughter take on
this side-by-side bicycle
. The video can be found after the break.
It certainly makes a bit more sense than
an over-under tandem
, and the fabrication process is really quite manageable. This requires alterations to the seat, handle bars, and pedals, but the majority of the bike (frame, gearing, fork, wheels) is unaltered.
The cranks have been replaced by a custom welded cam mechanism that reminds us of how the pedals on a paddle boat work. Both riders must pedal at the same time and rate. To give each a place to sit the seat post was converted into a T bar to host saddles to the right and left of the frame. Finally, the handle bars are the most complicated of all. Extra framing was welded onto both sides for the front tube to provide a place to mount two pair of handle bars. One of them is fixed in place, the other can be turned, using a lever mechanism to steer the front fork.
It looks a bit awkward to get started, but once both riders are up it seems quite stable.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ln_oGeGZ2lA&w=470] | 24 | 17 | [
{
"comment_id": "553382",
"author": "ino",
"timestamp": "2012-01-07T16:17:17",
"content": "It’s a nice build.Anyway, I would like to see them take a U turn, preferably to the left.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "553387",
"author": "serountr... | 1,760,376,987.125529 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/01/06/treaded-robot-modified-for-stair-climbing/ | Treaded Robot Modified For Stair Climbing | Mike Szczys | [
"Robots Hacks"
] | [
"stairs",
"tank",
"tread"
] | [Mike Li] is showing of
his stair climbing robot
. It’s a bot that cruises around on a pair of tank treads, but some interesting modifications gave him the traction needed to ascend a flight of stairs without slipping backward.
The image above shows this process in great detail. You can see the unaltered treads leaving the top of the image. In the foreground, strips of rubber-backed rug add some sticking power to the otherwise smooth surface. To really stop the bot from slipping, segments of CAT5 cable have been screwed to the tread at regular intervals, holding the carpeting tightly in the process.
You can see in the video after the break the little robot has no problem with rough terrain. The design was
inspired by the iRobot Packbot
which has a set of treaded appendages sticking off the front end. These ensure that the vertical face of an obstacle, such as the beginnings of a staircase, can still be reached by the main set of treads.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ktw6AZU2Wtk&w=470] | 9 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "552984",
"author": "bty",
"timestamp": "2012-01-07T01:37:03",
"content": "i bet it would climb the stairs equally well without those 2 appendages on the front.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "552995",
"author": "tony",
"... | 1,760,376,987.827936 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/01/06/737-cockpit-will-satisfy-even-the-most-discriminating-simulator-afficiandos/ | 737 Cockpit Will Satisfy Even The Most Discriminating Simulator Afficiandos | Mike Szczys | [
"home entertainment hacks"
] | [
"737",
"cockpit",
"flight simulator"
] | This isn’t an airplane, it’s a simulator. But you won’t find it at a flight school as this labor of love is
a home build of a 737 cockpit
(
translated
) that has been going on for more than two years.
It started off as a couple of automotive bucket seats in a room with two computer monitors to display the view out the windscreen. From there each piece has been meticulously added for a wonderful overall reproduction. The range of skills needed to pull this off is impressive. The seats have been rebuilt with padding and upholstery true to the Boeing factory options. The support structure that forms the domed front of the aircraft was built from wood with a metal bracket system to hold the overhead control panels in the right position. The only thing missing here is the rest of the plane. Take a look at the simulated landing run in the video after the break to see what this thing can do.
Looking for something that will take you for a bit more of a ride? Here’s
a collection of motion simulators
that might satisfy your craving.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ra8rhrcFPbk&w=470]
[Thanks Andreas] | 42 | 22 | [
{
"comment_id": "552906",
"author": "jordan",
"timestamp": "2012-01-06T23:34:34",
"content": "now jsut get some bendable OLED screen and form it to the window :)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "552915",
"author": "mess_maker",
... | 1,760,376,987.320325 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/01/04/easy-camera-tracking-with-a-quadrocopter/ | Easy Camera Tracking With A Quadrocopter | Brian Benchoff | [
"Robots Hacks"
] | [
"computer vision",
"ez-builder",
"quadrocopter"
] | [DJ Sures] has been pulling all-nighters lately to get his
AR Drone Parrot build
off the ground. Now that it’s up and flying around, he managed to get it to follow objects around the room using on board cameras.
For the build, [DJ Sures] used the
AR Drone
‘flying video game’ quadrocopter. This toy has two on board cameras that can viewed over wifi. All that’s needed is some interesting software to make things fun. The camera tracking of EZ-Builder software was brought into the mix so the AR Drone can be controlled via object or speech recognition, wiimotes, tablets, or terminals.
[DJ Sures] has come up with some
slightly terrifying
awesome builds like a
Bluetooth Teddy Ruxpin
,
realistic Wall-E
, and an awesome
Omnibot 2000
refurb. This is his first flying hack, and the first to fully exploit the camera tracking of the EZ-Builder software. Check out [Sures]’ copter following him around a room after the break.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?&v=ljlRxka_eBY&w=470] | 11 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "550975",
"author": "arnold",
"timestamp": "2012-01-04T19:33:43",
"content": "I can’t wait to try this when I get home today.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "550998",
"author": "qwerty",
"timestamp": "2012-01-04T20:26:28"... | 1,760,376,988.078921 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/01/04/securing-your-keurig-with-rfid/ | Securing Your Keurig With RFID | Mike Nathan | [
"Arduino Hacks",
"cooking hacks"
] | [
"arduino",
"coffee",
"keurig",
"rfid",
"security"
] | [Andrew Robinson] and his co-workers are lucky enough to have a Keurig coffee maker in their office, though they have a
hard time keeping track
of who owes what to the community coffee fund. Since K-Cups are more expensive than bulk coffee, [Andrew] decided that they needed a better way to log everyone’s drinking habits in order to know who needs to cough up the most cash at the end of the month.
He started by tearing down the Keurig B40, making note of the various PCBs inside while identifying the best way to go about hacking the device. The coffee maker is controlled by a PIC, and rather than try to re-engineer things from the bottom up, he left the core of the machine intact and focused on the control panel instead.
He disconnected all of the unit’s buttons from the control board, routing them through an Arduino before reconnecting them to the machine. This essentially rendered the machine inoperable unless triggered by the Arduino, giving [Andrew] control over the brewing process. He wired in an RFID reader from SparkFun, then
got busy coding
his security/inventory system. Now, when someone wants coffee, they merely need to swipe their office access card over the machine, which enables the use of its control panel.
As you can see in the video below the system seems to work well. If we were to offer some constructive criticism, we would suggest ditching the laptop and rolling the RFID reading/verification into the Arduino instead – other than that, we think it’s great.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=jI1n5lJCzHs&w=470] | 42 | 22 | [
{
"comment_id": "550859",
"author": "Tinkering Engineer",
"timestamp": "2012-01-04T15:36:09",
"content": "Cool, but I’d suggest letting it get to a warmed up state before you swipe your card. That way, you don’t have to wait.Now I just have to resist the temptation to rip my B40 apart……",
"paren... | 1,760,376,987.505001 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/01/03/laser-shooting-gallery-made-from-scrap/ | Laser Shooting Gallery Made From Scrap | Brian Benchoff | [
"Laser Hacks"
] | [
"laser gun",
"shooting gallery"
] | When he’s not being completely awesome hosting a radio show on electronic music, [Gaston Klares] is busy in his workshop coming up with some awesome stuff. One of his most recent builds is a
laser gun shooting gallery
that brings a classic carnival game to his back yard. (
Google translate
link)
The laser gun itself is made up of 95% recycled components. The purpose of the laser gun is pretty simple – just make a sound effect and fire a laser downrange when the trigger is pulled. The
shooting gallery
is where all the fun happens. Five dog food cans are lined up at the far end of the range. There’s a small hole in each can and a phototransistor inside each can that activates the ‘fall over’ mechanism. When all the cans are knocked down, a windshield wiper motor puts all the cans upright again.
Thanks to [Kris] for sending this one in. Check out the shooting gallery in action after the break. | 14 | 12 | [
{
"comment_id": "550271",
"author": "Brett W. (FightCube.com)",
"timestamp": "2012-01-03T20:54:29",
"content": "Very unique and cool! To improve playability, I would suggest pulling the trigger to turn on the laser, increasing the detection area, and maybe adding some gun audio sounds. A counter t... | 1,760,376,987.876731 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/01/03/voting-is-open-for-the-buildlounge-laser-cutter-contest/ | Voting Is Open For The Buildlounge Laser Cutter Contest | Brian Benchoff | [
"contests"
] | [
"buildlounge",
"contest",
"laser cutter"
] | A few months ago, Buildlounge and Full Spectrum Laser started a contest to win a
40 Watt laser cutter
. The only requirement? Submit a project that uses light in some way. The deadline is now over and
voting is open
, right on the buildlounge.com page.
First place gets a
40 Watt laser cutter
provided by Full Spectrum Laser. Second place is a
neat green laser
courtesy of Wicked Lasers, and Third place is an
EL wire starter kit
from Adafruit.
There’s a lot of really awesome projects that were submitted for this contest. The
laser terminal
looks really cool, as does the
friggin huge LED wall
and
choreographed light show
. We would be remiss if we neglected to mention that there’s a
home-made x-ray machine
in the running, and of course there’s the mathematical precision of fellow Hack a Day-er [Jack]’s
solar clock that isn’t a sundial
.
The guys at Buildlounge got a lot of submissions for this project, so
head on over
and vote for your favorite. The winners will be announced next week, Friday, the 13th of January. | 22 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "550270",
"author": "Trebu",
"timestamp": "2012-01-03T20:47:19",
"content": "The destructor distractor FTW!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "550281",
"author": "Beth",
"timestamp": "2012-01-03T21:08:26",
"content": "It... | 1,760,376,987.559082 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/01/03/portable-electronic-drum-kit-made-from-plastic-bowls/ | Portable Electronic Drum Kit Made From Plastic Bowls | Mike Nathan | [
"Musical Hacks",
"News"
] | [
"drum kit kit",
"drums",
"piezo",
"portable",
"Spikenzielabs"
] | [Ian Cole’s] son is learning to play the drums on an electronic drum set, and he wanted a way to
continue practicing during his frequent visits
to his grandparents’ house. [Ian] had picked up a Spikenzielabs “Drum Kit Kit All-Inclusive” (DKKAI) earlier this summer, and set out to build an easily transportable drum set.
The DKKAI comes with an ATmega168-based board and a set of piezos that can be used to register hits. It was up to [Ian] to provide the rest of the kit, so he set off to IKEA in search of cheap, durable drum heads. He returned with a handful of 1/2 Liter plastic bowls, which he mounted on a PVC pipe drum stand.
The piezos were mounted on thin aluminum discs, which were in turn glued to the back side of the bowl lids. The piezos were wired to the DKKAI kit via the PVC tubing, with the signals ultimately fed into an iPad running Garage Band. [Ian] says that his portable drum set works quite well, and although there are some things that require changing, his son is very happy with his new practice set.
Check out the video below to see the portable drum kit in action.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AD5X0JGyayw&feature=player_embedded&w=470] | 13 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "550206",
"author": "aztraph",
"timestamp": "2012-01-03T18:56:13",
"content": "I think the lids make a little too much noise, maybe you could replace it with a rubber mat?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "550328",
"autho... | 1,760,376,987.779026 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/01/03/nerual-networks-control-a-toy-car/ | Neural Networks Control A Toy Car | Brian Benchoff | [
"Robots Hacks",
"Software Development"
] | [
"machine learning",
"neural network",
"remote control"
] | After taking the Stanford Machine Learning class offered over the Internet last year, [David Singleton] thought he could build something really cool. We have to admit that he nailed it with
his neural network controlled car
. There’s not much to the build; it’s just an Android phone, an Arduino and a toy car. The machine learning part of this build really makes it special.
A neural network takes a whole bunch of inputs and represents them as a node in a network. Each node in [Davids]’s input layer corresponds to a pixel retrieved from his phone’s camera. All the inputs of the input layer are connected to 64 nodes in the ‘hidden layer’. The nodes in the hidden layer are connected to the four output nodes, namely left, right, forward and reverse.
After training the network and weighting all the connections, [David] got a toy car to drive around a track. Weird, but it works. All the code is up on
github
, so feel free to take a look behind the inner machinations of a neural net. Of course, you could check out the video of [David]’s car in action after the break.
EDIT: We originally credited [icebrain] as the author. Our bad, and we hope [David] doesn’t hate us now.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?&v=DWNtsS2kZWs&w=470]
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?&v=ndSiW9Zmd6g&w=470] | 27 | 13 | [
{
"comment_id": "550124",
"author": "Philippe",
"timestamp": "2012-01-03T17:24:08",
"content": "Neural maybe?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "550141",
"author": "icebrain",
"timestamp": "2012-01-03T17:37:37",
"content": "Sorry, but a... | 1,760,376,987.725981 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/01/03/two-player-space-invaders-via-fpgas/ | Two Player Space Invaders Via FPGAs | Brian Benchoff | [
"Software Development"
] | [
"fpga",
"space invaders"
] | Last semester, [Peter], [Jared], and [Jeremy] took a course on embedded systems. They managed to turn out a very accurate copy of the classic Space Invaders in their class. Not wanting good code to go to waste, they decided to develop
two player Space Invaders
, and we wouldn’t mind testing it out.
The guys built their Space Invaders clone on a Virtex II dev board. Wanting a little more hardware development, they picked up a pair of
RF trancievers
so the two boards could communicate with each other. The rules of two-player Space Invaders is fairly simple; if you destroy an alien, there’s a 30% chance it will appear on your opponent’s screen. Hit the space ship that flies along the top of the screen, and 1 to 7 aliens will appear on the opponent’s screen. It’s a bit like two player Tetris where your victories bring about your friend’s downfall.
The guys put a really neat spin on an old game, and we’d love to try it out. Check out the guy on the left losing a game of Space Invaders to his lab partner after the break.
[vimeo=34487751] | 8 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "550090",
"author": "chango",
"timestamp": "2012-01-03T16:36:41",
"content": "I love it when class projects encourage creativity in engineering. Next term should have them ditch the PPC and implement the same thing in dataflow.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies":... | 1,760,376,987.918789 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/01/05/giving-the-hexbug-spider-freedom-to-explore-on-its-own/ | Giving The Hexbug Spider Freedom To Explore On Its Own | Mike Nathan | [
"Microcontrollers",
"News",
"Robots Hacks"
] | [
"fan8200",
"hexbug",
"msp430",
"object avoidance",
"robot"
] | [Eric Gregori] recently spent some time messing around with a Hexbug Spider, and
wrote in to share some modifications he made
to the toy. In its unaltered form the robot can be controlled remotely, and while it’s fun to play with, the excitement is short lived. Using a TI MSP430 along with a small motor controller kit he put together, he gave the Hexbug a bit more personality.
The kit is really just a simple board used for mounting the MSP430 and FAN8200 motor driver, along with an IR emitter/sensor pair. It would be easy enough to put something similar together yourself, though if you are looking for a protoboard/deadbug/PCB etching-free solution, his Spider Hack kit is a quick and easy solution.
[Eric’s] walkthrough shows how to disassemble the Hexbug, and details which components need alterations before the controller board can be properly mounted. A few soldered wires later, the toy is ready to be reprogrammed, a process [Eric] carries out using the Launchpad board from which he lifted the MSP430.
As you can see in the videos below, calling the robot autonomous might be a bit of a stretch (I don’t see it walking to the kitchen to make me a sandwich), but it can navigate and avoid objects with ease.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SSusgZawFuQ&feature=youtu.be&w=470]
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oTMujZ_CKpE&feature=youtu.be&w=470] | 28 | 12 | [
{
"comment_id": "552085",
"author": "Chopperdave",
"timestamp": "2012-01-06T00:52:06",
"content": "Is the robot toy based on Jamius’ walking mechanism?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "552136",
"author": "arfink",
"timestamp": "... | 1,760,376,987.982506 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/01/05/self-balancing-robot-with-wii-parts/ | Self Balancing Robot With Wii Parts | Kevin Dady | [
"Nintendo Wii Hacks"
] | [
"Self Balancing Robot"
] | [Moser] is looking to build a quadrocopter sometime in the future, without plunking down a good chunk of change for a kit model. Looking for a good place to start he figured why not work on the control system. Thinking that the balance of the flying platform of doom would be similar to working out a self balancing robot he spent a couple days and made his
self balancing robot.
Armed with a plan, and a logic analyzer, he went out and got a Wii Motion Plus, which is an inexpensive three axis gyroscope, and a nunchuck which features an accelerometer which both can be found in just about any strip mall. After fiddling for a day getting the Wii nunchuck and motion plus to play nice all it took was a little more time to code up the self balancing routines.
And while its not perfect, all its going to take is a little tweaking and maybe some faster servo motors to get things up to top notch.
Join us after the break for a couple quick videos.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=RQTwTn-Vo58&w=470]
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=JCVzN6Wanok&w=470] | 8 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "552065",
"author": "Roger",
"timestamp": "2012-01-05T23:39:51",
"content": "Wow. That’s a really good idea!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "552133",
"author": "Nick",
"timestamp": "2012-01-06T02:19:59",
"content": "I... | 1,760,376,988.030074 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/01/05/hackaday-links-january-5-2012/ | Hackaday Links: January 5, 2012 | Brian Benchoff | [
"Hackaday links"
] | [
"binary to decimal",
"heart rhythm",
"lego",
"mame",
"pinball",
"pinmame",
"superconductors",
"VHS",
"wire"
] | Now make it life size
Here’s a
scale model
of the classic Playstation game
Wipeout.
It uses quantum levitation, superconductors, liquid nitrogen, and incredibly detailed models of the cars in
Wipeout
. They’re able control the speed and direction of the cars electronically
. Somebody get on making one of these I can drive. Never mind, it’s totally fake, but here’s a
choo-choo
that does the same thing. Thanks for the link, [Ben].
Found a use for eight copies of
Deep Impact
Where do you keep all your wire? [Paul] keeps his
inside VHS tapes
. It’s one of the most efficient ways of storing wire we’ve seen, just don’t touch those VHS copies of the original
Star Wars
trilogy.
There’s MAME machines for pinball?
MAME arcade machines are old hat, but we’ve never seen something to
emulate pinball
. The build uses two LCD monitors, a small computer and
PinMAME
. There’s videos in the build log; tell us if we’re stupid for wanting to build one. Thanks go to [Adrian] for sending this one in.
LEGO binary to decimal conversion
[Carl] is doing a few experiments to see if it’s possible to build a calculating machine out of LEGO. He managed to convert four bits of
binary into decimal
. We’ve seen a LEGO
Antikythera mechanism
but nothing on the order of an Analytical Engine or some
Diamond Age
rod logic. Keep it up, [Carl].
Lubs and Dubs that aren’t for dubstep
The folks at Toymaker Television posted a
neat demo
of heart rhythms emulated with a microprocessor. It cycles through normal sinus rhythm, atrial fibrillation, atrial flutter, and everything else that can go wrong with your heart. We know some nurses that would have loved this in school. | 23 | 17 | [
{
"comment_id": "552033",
"author": "jim",
"timestamp": "2012-01-05T22:39:40",
"content": "I just want to check that people realise the Wipeout video is not only CGI, but an advert.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "552035",
"author": "jason",... | 1,760,376,988.218912 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/01/05/led-cube-is-a-little-bit-of-kit-a-lot-of-point-to-point-soldering/ | LED Cube Is A Little Bit Of Kit, A Lot Of Point-to-point Soldering | Mike Szczys | [
"Arduino Hacks",
"LED Hacks"
] | [
"cube",
"rainbow cube kit",
"rainbowduino",
"RGB LED",
"seeed studio",
"tlc5940"
] | [Craig Lindley] recently finished
building his own RGB LED cube project
. It’s made up of four layers of 4×4 LED grids, but you may notice that the framework that supports the structure is not the usual ratsnet of wires we’ve come to expect. They’re actually long, thin circuit boards. [Craig] grabbed
the Rainbow Cube kit
sold by Seeed Studio for this project. But instead of pairing it with their Rainbowduino driver, he built his own to give him more options on how to control the blinky lights.
He’s using an Arduino Uno to control the display, choosing TLC5940 driver chips to safely provide the juice necessary to light up the grid. These drivers also offer 12-bit pulse-width modulation for easy color mixing. Driving the LEDs directly would have taken a large number of these expensive chips (over $4 a piece), but if multiplexed the design only calls for two of them.
Check out a video of the finished cube reacting to music thanks to the microphone and amplifier circuit [Craig] build into the driver board.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AmR0mKrrqqY&w=470] | 4 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "552025",
"author": "Brett W. (FightCube.com)",
"timestamp": "2012-01-05T22:24:37",
"content": "Wow! Finally an LED cube that doesn’t look like a twisted mess. Even with those thin PCBs from seeedstudio holding everything together, this can still be messed up if you don’t have a ke... | 1,760,376,988.156773 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/01/05/ospid-the-open-source-pid-controller/ | OsPID: The Open Source PID Controller | Mike Szczys | [
"Arduino Hacks"
] | [
"arduino",
"atmega328",
"open hardware",
"osPID",
"pid"
] | Need PID control in your next project? Perhaps this little beauty can help. It’s
an Open Source PID controller that also follows the Open Hardware guidelines
. [Brett Beauregard] based the project on the
newly minted Arduino PID library
which he wrote. In the video after the break [Brett] takes apart the device, walking through some of the ways this might be hacked. If you want an overview of every part of this project to-date the best resource is probably
his personal blog post
.
The front circuit board is the meat and potatoes of the device. It hosts the user interface in the form of buttons, LEDs, and a graphic LCD screen. You can also see the USB mini-b connector which gives you access to the Arduino compatible ATmega328 microcontroller on the back. There is also a piezo buzzer for your alarm needs.
The prototype that [Brett] shows off uses pin connectors to join the main board to the two daughter boards. Unfortunately, the production model moved to dual-sided edge connectors. That’s fine if you you’re using it in its stock condition, but it makes it a bit harder to replace those boards with your own hardware. None-the-less, we love to see great Open Hardware projects brought to market!
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n768MXEESUo&w=470] | 19 | 12 | [
{
"comment_id": "551987",
"author": "Mark",
"timestamp": "2012-01-05T20:41:17",
"content": "Just the thing to replace my Omron E5CK controllers. expensive but just excellent. This looks better.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "576780",
... | 1,760,376,988.393483 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/01/05/custom-screensaver-on-the-non-touch-kindle-4/ | Custom Screensaver On The Non-touch Kindle 4 | Mike Szczys | [
"Kindle hacks",
"Security Hacks"
] | [
"developer mode",
"diagnostics mode",
"kindle",
"root",
"screensaver"
] | [Kubbur87] put together a guide to
replacing the Non-touch Kindle 4 screensavers with your own images
. We’ve already seen a way to
remove the Special Offers banners
from the newest version of Kindle Hardware, this hack lets you use your own 600×800 Portable Network Graphics (.png) file instead of the images pushed to the device by Amazon.
Frankly, we’re shocked at how easy this hack is. [Kubbur87] puts the device into developer mode, enables SSH, and then goes to work on the Linux shell within. It seems the only line of protection is the root password which he somehow acquired.
After the break you’ll find his videos which show how to enable developer mode and how to perform this hack. By putting a file named “ENABLE_DIAGS” with no extension on the device when it is recognized as a USB storage device you’ll gain access to the diagnostic menu system. From there it’s just a matter of cruising that menu to get SSH access. Like we said, you’ll need the root password, that that’s as easy as naming your favorite video game character from the 1980’s.
Getting into developer mode:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZEhsCKgMHw&w=470]
Replacing the screensavers:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fG_pGDMsAYo&w=470] | 98 | 48 | [
{
"comment_id": "551927",
"author": "Linux_lover",
"timestamp": "2012-01-05T19:29:47",
"content": "So amazon set the root password to “mario”??? That’s not even a long password. I would expect a bunch of random numbers and letters. I mean seriously that’s the most secure thing they could come up wit... | 1,760,376,988.669837 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/01/05/bang-banging-your-way-to-a-perfect-cake/ | Bang-banging Your Way To A Perfect Cake | Mike Nathan | [
"cooking hacks",
"home hacks",
"News"
] | [
"baking",
"bang bang",
"cake",
"k-type thermocouple",
"max6675",
"pololu"
] | [Rob Spanton’s] house is equipped with
a rather cheap oven
, which was discovered while his roommate tried using it to bake part of a wedding cake. If someone took a shower during the baking process, a large portion of unit’s gas pressure was diverted to the boiler, causing the oven to shut off completely. This is obviously not a good situation for baking cakes, so the housemates decided to construct a makeshift controller to keep temperatures in line.
They started by installing a pulley on the oven’s knob, which is connected to a small motor via a long rubber belt. The other end of the belt connects to a small motor, which is controlled by a Pololu 18v7 motor controller. A K-type thermocouple monitors the oven’s temp, feeding the data through a MAX6675 converter to (presumably) [Rob’s] computer.
Since they were in a bit of a time crunch, [Rob] and his roommate [Johannes] decided the best way to keep the oven at a steady temperature was via bang-bang control. While you might imagine that cranking the gas knob between its minimum and maximum settings repeatedly wouldn’t be the ideal way to go about things, their solution worked pretty well. The cake came out perfectly, and the maximum temperature swing throughout the entire baking process was only 11.5°C – which is pretty reasonable considering the setup. | 26 | 12 | [
{
"comment_id": "551836",
"author": "Ben",
"timestamp": "2012-01-05T18:11:55",
"content": "Cranking the gas knob between minimum and maximum is exactly how oven thermostats do it, and that amount of swing is pretty much the best you could hope for without a much more complicated control strategy. We... | 1,760,376,989.204596 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/01/05/reading-nand-flash-with-an-arduino/ | Reading NAND Flash With An Arduino | Brian Benchoff | [
"Arduino Hacks"
] | [
"arduino",
"NAND flash"
] | [HC] took a gander around the Googles and saw a number of people trying to read NAND flash chips with an Arduino. It’s an interesting problem; at 16 Megahertz, [HC] is looking at about 60 nanoseconds per instruction cycle, and flash chips normally operate around 20 ns. He got the build working, and was able to
read the memory contents and ID
of a flash chip.
Right now, it’s just a proof-of-concept to demonstrate that reading flash memory is possible. [HC] used an Arduino Mega to pull the manufacture ID off a flash chip. Because there isn’t exactly a whole lot of storage on an Arduino to hold Megabytes of data, so [HC] is looking for a way to pull data off his flash chip. He’s considering sending it over Ethernet or storing it on an SD card.
This isn’t the first time we’ve seen a
roundabout way
to use those cheap, ubiquitous NAND flash chips. Considering we’ve got a few dozen of them housed in unused thumb drives, [HC]’s work shows a lot of potential. He posted
a topic
on his forum to see if there’s any interest in further developments, something we’d like to see. | 15 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "551800",
"author": "Daid",
"timestamp": "2012-01-05T17:14:41",
"content": "In general there is no maximum timing for chips. It’s always “minimum X” and no max. (I don’t have NAND datasheets here, but the SDRAM datasheets I have only put requirements on the amount of refreshes you d... | 1,760,376,988.53973 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/01/05/milling-ice-molds-for-craft-cocktails/ | Milling Ice Molds For Craft Cocktails | Mike Szczys | [
"cnc hacks"
] | [
"aluminum",
"cocktail",
"ice",
"ice cube",
"mold"
] | Want some fancy ice for your next cocktail party? You can try to find spherical ice-cube trays but you won’t get the kind of results seen here. It turns out the trick to this isn’t how you freeze the water, it’s how you melt the ice.
[Brendan O’Connor] started this project after seeing an ice mold that could make beautiful shapes rather than just cubes. But the price tag was $1400. If
he could make his own at a hackerspace
we’d bet that would pay his membership for an entire year!
The concept is pretty simple. The video after the break shows the mold he was trying to recreate. It’s two hunks of metal with a shape milled into them. The mold is pre-heated, then an oversized hunk of ice is placed between the blocks. The heat melts away the parts you don’t want, and leaves a perfectly shaped ice orb in between. Gravity is responsible for pulling the mold halves together as they slide along some machined rods.
With a big hunk of scrap aluminum he milled two halves of a sphere. They can be sufficiently heated if held under running water, and a some leftover printer rails keep the two parts aligned as the ice orb is formed. Now [Brendan] just needs to work on his method of creating a crystal-clear ice block as a starter and he’ll have achieved total win.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cuwJEN3VG-Y&w=470]
[via
Sector67
] | 25 | 17 | [
{
"comment_id": "551750",
"author": "James",
"timestamp": "2012-01-05T15:33:48",
"content": "Insulate the guide pins and set up a contact alarm for when it’s complete to prevent over-freezing without requiring constant watching. Nice.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{... | 1,760,376,989.324835 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/01/04/exposing-some-fake-electronics-with-too-good-to-be-true-prices/ | Exposing Some Fake Electronics With Too-good-to-be-true Prices | Mike Szczys | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"canon",
"ebay",
"fake",
"power supply"
] | [Giorgos Lazaridis] needed an AC adaptor for his Canon PowerShot camera. He hit eBay and was excited to find this branded adaptor for just five bucks! It works and, even though it would sometimes reboot his camera if the cord was twisted around in the jack, he was satisfied that it did what it was supposed to.
That is, until one day he observed some very peculiar behavior while taking pictures of a PIC circuit he was prototyping. When holding the camera and putting his other hand near the breadboard one of the status LEDs in his circuit began flashing sporadically. If he was using the camera with batteries instead of the adapter this didn’t happen.
His first instinct was to hook up the adapter to his oscilloscope and see what is happening on the power bus. The signal is incredibly noisy. Shockingly so. [Giorgos]
cracked open the case to see what is going on with the power supply
circuit inside. You simply must view the video after the break to see the horror-show he found. The board is poorly soldered, components are not properly seated in their footprints, and our favorite is when [Giorgos] points out a squiggly trace which takes the place of the smoothing inductors.
Have you documented your own fake electronic hardware finds?
We’d love to hear about them
.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZDh8z9UDTo&w=470] | 130 | 50 | [
{
"comment_id": "551058",
"author": "Zack",
"timestamp": "2012-01-04T23:20:58",
"content": "he didn’t mention if changing the capacitor fixed the issue..",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "551077",
"author": "Giorgos Lazaridis",
"... | 1,760,376,989.606689 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/01/04/line-follower-is-an-homage-to-homer-plans-to-infringe-copyrights/ | Line-follower Is An Homage To [Homer]; Plans To Infringe Copyrights | Mike Szczys | [
"Robots Hacks"
] | [
"battlebot",
"line follower",
"simpsons"
] | The
Chief Knock-a-Homer robot
is [Psycho Freaky’s] shout out to
The Simpsons.
The robot design appeared in an episode where [Homer] built [Bart] a fighting robot. Since he’s not robot builder, [Homer] actually climbed inside the shell and dished out sweet vengeance while suffering some severe injuries at the same time.
But [Psycho] has the skills necessary to make this autonomous and keep it looking just like the TV show at the same time. He has a friend with a CNC mill, and used it to cut out case parts from Masonite which were assembled with hot glue. A pair of small servos drive two wheels at the rear of the base, with a ball-bearing universal wheel centered in the front. There are also two downward-pointing sensors which lend it the ability to follow a line as seen in the video after the break.
We love the paint job, it really polishes the look. But [Pyscho] isn’t quite done yet. He plans to add an audio circuit that will give the robot the ability to play back classic sound clips.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JxpWm1aIkQw&w=470]
[Thanks Tim] | 7 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "551039",
"author": "Alex",
"timestamp": "2012-01-04T22:09:40",
"content": "Hah! Excellent.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "551040",
"author": "Alex",
"timestamp": "2012-01-04T22:11:08",
"content": "I guess it’s a fai... | 1,760,376,988.855099 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/01/04/over-engineering-a-two-zone-thermometer/ | Over-engineering A Two-zone Thermometer | Mike Szczys | [
"Microcontrollers"
] | [
"atmega8",
"bluetooth",
"character lcd",
"dht-11",
"lm35",
"temperature"
] | We love the extra touches that [Andrianakis Haris] added to
his two-zone electronic thermometer
. It includes features that you just wouldn’t find on a mass-market commercial product because of issues like added cost. For example, you can see that the PCB juts up above the LCD display, allowing the module to be mounted on a pair of screws thanks to the keyhole shape that was drilled in the substrate. I increases the board size greatly, but on a small hobby run this won’t usually affect the price of the board depending on the fab house pricing model.
The design uses an ATmega8 microcontroller to monitor sensors in two different places. There is an onboard LM35 temperature sensor for monitoring the space where the unit resides. A remote sensor module uses a DHT-11 chip to gather data about temperature and humidity. That sensor is wired, but there is one wireless option for the device. Data can be pulled down from it via an optional Bluetooth module which can be soldered to a footprint on the back of the board.
Check out the video after the break to see temperature readings pulled down wirelessly.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xcWAdiAGiYk&w=470] | 6 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "551038",
"author": "jarfil",
"timestamp": "2012-01-04T22:03:23",
"content": "What do you mean by over-engineered? It’s not even 8-zone, which is a snap using i2c sensors…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "551041",
"author": "H... | 1,760,376,988.714244 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/01/04/power-protection-circuit-tutorial/ | Power Protection Circuit Tutorial | Brian Benchoff | [
"classic hacks"
] | [
"power protection"
] | Building your first circuit is empowering, but make sure it’s not too empowering. [Jon] sent in a great tutorial of
power protection circuits
to make sure you don’t release the mystical blue smoke that make electronics work.
There’s an in-depth tutorial of the classic
series diode
that’s the simplest of all power protection circuits. There’s not much to it – just a diode that provides reverse polarity protection. A
fuse and parallel diode
doesn’t have the voltage drop a series diode has, but doesn’t do anything for an overvoltage. A
P-channel MOSFET
gets around the problem of voltage drop, and [Jon] gives us some really nice empirical data to demonstrate his testing setup.
There’s a ton of nice write ups on [Jon]’s site that are perfect for getting ideas for projects like
ten switches on one pin
and some strange stuff [Jon]
picked up
at his Goodwill. If you’ve got any tutorials on general electronics, be sure to send them in on our
tip line
. | 17 | 15 | [
{
"comment_id": "551000",
"author": "mohonri",
"timestamp": "2012-01-04T20:29:45",
"content": "Is it just me, or is the site down?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "551002",
"author": "Mike",
"timestamp": "2012-01-04T20:32:31",
"conten... | 1,760,376,988.941231 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/01/04/backplane-and-mainboard-for-a-6502-computer/ | Backplane And Mainboard For A 6502 Computer | Mike Szczys | [
"computer hacks"
] | [
"6502",
"backplane",
"mainboard",
"quinn dunki",
"veronica"
] | [Quinn Dunki] has been busy through the holidays
giving her 6502 processor-based computer a place to live
. The most recent part of the project (which she calls Veronica) involved designing and etching a mainboard for the device. In the picture above it’s the vertical board which is right at home in
the backplane
[Quinn] also designed.
The project is really gaining momentum now. You may remember that
it started off
as a rather motley arrangement of what we’d guess is every breadboard she owns. From there
some nifty hex switches
gave [Quinn] a way to program the data bus on the device. Many would have stopped with these successes, but the continuation of the project makes the hardware robust enough to be around for a while. The single-sided boards are playing nicely together, and the next step is to redesign the ROM emulator to use chips for storage. [Quinn] alludes to a side project in which she plans to build her own EEPROM programmer to help with getting code into the experimental computer. | 11 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "550974",
"author": "YT2095",
"timestamp": "2012-01-04T19:26:10",
"content": "Awesome! looks like ZED is going to have a little Sister :)Your PCB work looks way cooler than my wire-wrap, if I had that same level of PCB skill and equipment as you have, I would be very happy! :)I`m int... | 1,760,376,989.656227 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/01/06/running-the-numbers-on-a-cheap-psu/ | Running The Numbers On A Cheap PSU | Mike Szczys | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"psu",
"usb"
] | [Mike] picked up a cheap USB hub for four pounds (about $6) including delivery. He wanted to know how it’s possible to get quality electronics for that price, and as you may have guessed it’s not possible. He cracked open the power supply that shipped with the hub and
hooked it up for some testing
.
The wall wart has a sticker on it that claims a rating of 1 Amp at 5 volts. It’s pretty easy to see that this hardware cannot meet that spec just by looking at the circuit board. It’s a low-end single sided board that has some really disappointing isolation between the mains and regulated side of the circuit. As far as we can tell there’s really no reliable regulation circuit on the low side of the transformer, and the tests that [Mike] runs in the clip after the break show this. From left to right in the picture above you can see voltage at the hub-side of the power cord, current on the load, and voltage leaving the circuit board. At just 560 mA the voltage the USB hub is receiving has fallen below 3 volts!
The link to this project was sent in by [Paul] after reading about
that fake Canon camera PSU
. We love this kind of stuff so
keep the tips coming
as you find them!
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T88ej64aXUM&w=470] | 22 | 13 | [
{
"comment_id": "552846",
"author": "Chris Stubbs",
"timestamp": "2012-01-06T22:16:16",
"content": "Non official CE mark, standard.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "552852",
"author": "Tron9000",
"timestamp": "2012-01-06T22:24:41",
"c... | 1,760,376,989.264437 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/01/06/need-a-hand-drying-those-gloves/ | Need A Hand Drying Those Gloves? | Kevin Dady | [
"HackIt",
"home hacks",
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"copper pipe",
"drier"
] | While being caught out in the rain skiing, [Andrew] was left with a pair of soaking wet gloves. Leaving them to air dry did little good, as after 3 days they were still wet, and blowing a fan at them did little to nothing to help the situation. Luckily [Andrew] had been thinking about ways to make a
forced air glove drier
for some time now using standard plumbing fittings.
A prototype was made similar to consumer models where the glove is fit over the end of a pipe, and while this worked great to dry the palms, it did not help the wet finger situation at all. In order to solve this issue a new design was whipped up featuring 4 fixed fingers and a movable thumb made out of copper pipe. A little drilling, and soldering was performed then the metal hand was then duct taped to the end of a hair drier, turning soaked gloves into perfectly dry ones in about three hours. | 23 | 16 | [
{
"comment_id": "552819",
"author": "TBO",
"timestamp": "2012-01-06T21:07:47",
"content": "Just be careful… you can quite easily overheat and possibly damage hair dryers by doing this (speaking from experience here…)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_... | 1,760,376,989.140994 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/01/06/3d-printing-minecraft-worlds/ | 3D Printing Minecraft Worlds | Brian Benchoff | [
"cnc hacks"
] | [
"3d printer",
"cnc",
"minecraft",
"reprap"
] | If you’ve ever wanted to build an awesome tabletop game or model train layout scenery, you probably couldn’t do better than printing
Minecraft worlds on a RepRap
. This guide comes courtesy of [Nudel] who figured out how to use
Mineways
with his RepRap. While [Nudel]’s landscape
print
doesn’t have the full color of something from Shapeways, he only spent $3 in materials. Not bad if you’d like to print out your server’s world.
We have to give a shout out to [
erich666
] for his amazing work on Mineways. He bills his work as a bridge between Minecraft and a 3D printer or Blender. You can check out [erich]’s demo of Mineways after the break.
Of course the state of printing voxels wouldn’t be where it is today without the work of
two guys at the MIT Media Lab
and their work on
Minecraft.Print()
. If you manage to print out your base/castle/village, add it to the
Mineways Flickr group
.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?&v=MTAztZjP3ak&w=470] | 10 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "552809",
"author": "Tom",
"timestamp": "2012-01-06T20:40:18",
"content": "Thats really nice!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "552825",
"author": "intertweaker",
"timestamp": "2012-01-06T21:26:34",
"content": "No need ... | 1,760,376,989.370424 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/01/06/gsm-remote-control-with-the-tidigino/ | GSM Remote Control With The TiDiGino | Mike Nathan | [
"Arduino Hacks",
"Cellphone Hacks"
] | [
"arduino",
"ATmega 2650",
"gsm",
"remote",
"TiDiGino"
] | If you’re looking to remotely control things around the house, but can’t do it over the Internet or via WiFi, the
TiDiGino just might have what you’re looking for.
[Boris Landoni] from Open Electronics sent some information on the TiDiGino our way, and it certainly looks like a useful device if you’re in need of a solid GSM remote control module.
At the heart of the TiDiGino lies an ATmega2560, which is normally used in the Arduino Mega, so there’s plenty of processing power to go around. While the form factor differs just a wee bit from what you would expect from an Arduino, the TiDiGino sports all the proper connectivity to support any standard Arduino shield along with the requisite libraries required for use.
Through a
contest/community effort
, the TiDiGino supports remote alarm, gate control, remote thermostat control, and DTMF remote control functionality right out of the box. We imagine that our readers can dream up a litany of other uses as well, since GSM remote control tends to be pretty
popular around here.
Be sure to check out the Open Electronics site if you’re interested in learning more about the TiDiGino – you’ll find a complete BoM along with code and schematics, making it easy to build your own. | 4 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "552753",
"author": "Paul",
"timestamp": "2012-01-06T18:24:44",
"content": "I have not read through the entire spec but it seems like it is an Arduino Mega and a custom GSM shield, has an audio input of some kind, and has two relays. (the following is a real question, I’m not being... | 1,760,376,989.415723 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/01/06/a-little-simon-clone-named-nomis/ | A Little Simon Clone Named [Nomis] | Jeremy Cook | [
"ATtiny Hacks",
"Toy Hacks"
] | [
"ATiny",
"pcb",
"simon"
] | [Chris] has been hard at work building his own version of Simon called
[Nomis]
. Although [HAD] has featured an
ATiny Simon clone
before, the article does an excellent job explaining how the system works.
The ATTiny85 is used to control this game, which, for now is laid out on a simple breadboard. A PCB version of this game has been ordered from
[Seeed]
, so be sure to check back to see the results of this forthcoming upgrade. It’s really cool that this kind of small scale manufacturing is available to the masses.
A parts list is provided as well as a code overview and schematic. To see it in action, check out the video after the break. There’s an explanation at the beginning, but skip to 1:55 if you’d rather just see the machine in action. The game can reportedly run until a 100 “move” limit is reached. This was arbitrary, but it should be enough for most people!
[youtube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NM2AbkHqHag&w=470&h=315%5D | 3 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "552876",
"author": "ftorama",
"timestamp": "2012-01-06T22:56:06",
"content": "I did one by putting each pair of button and led on a single pin ( led to 5V, button to GND).In replay mode, pins are configured as outputs with inverted logic to drive the leds. In capture mode, pins are ... | 1,760,376,989.454071 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/01/06/ok-you-might-not-be-paranoid-perhaps-that-priority-mail-box-is-spying-on-you/ | OK, You Might Not Be Paranoid – Perhaps That Priority Mail Box IS Spying On You | Mike Nathan | [
"News",
"Toy Hacks",
"Transportation Hacks"
] | [
"radio controlled",
"rc",
"surveillance",
"wireless camera"
] | [Thomas Renck] recently picked up a 1000mW wireless video transmitter that he ultimately planned to mount in an RC plane. Before he strapped it on a plane to potentially kiss it goodbye for good, he wanted to
play with it a while
to see what it was capable of.
After a friend helped him determine the camera’s maximum range (about 1900 feet on open ground), he thought it would be fun to strap it on his nitro R/C truck. That didn’t work out so well due to some vibration issues, so he constructed a makeshift R/C car from the shipping box the camera arrived in, along with some other odds and ends.
As you can see in the video below, the propeller-driven “Boxmobile” zips along quite nicely. The video feed from the camera is pretty impressive too, allowing him to easily guide the car while it’s well out of sight.
At nearly $350, the self-proclaimed “ghetto-bot” is certainly not cheap, though we hear body repairs are a piece of cake!
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_c9TwUDyedg&feature=player_embedded&w=470] | 15 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "552636",
"author": "EccentricElectron",
"timestamp": "2012-01-06T15:24:34",
"content": "Nice work. HaD, do you mean 1000mW, (i.e. 1W) or is that a typo for 100mW or…?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "552651",
"author": ... | 1,760,376,989.713941 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/01/06/followup-reproducing-impossible-circuits/ | Followup: Reproducing Impossible Circuits | Brian Benchoff | [
"LED Hacks"
] | [
"troll physics"
] | Last month we caught wind of an impressive display of troll physics. [Fredzislaw100] out of Poland posted
a video
of a circuit that should not exist. As expected, the comments in our coverage
blew up
with 200 posts. About half the commenters called a little Adobe After Effects trickery, while the other half offered up an electrical explanation. We’re happy to report that [Alan]
successfully reproduced
the impossible circuit and earned an incredible amount of electronic wizard points in the process.
[Alan]’s solution uses low-frequency AC with the first two LEDs. The first LED points forwards and the second diode is reversed. Easy enough. For the third LED, [Alan] used high frequency AC with an inductor wired in parallel with the LED and the third switch. For those of you keeping track, that means [Fredzislaw100] put an SMD diode in two LEDs and two switches and an inductor in one LED and one switch.
[Alan]’s build is just a proof of concept – It’s still on a breadboard and doesn’t have the incredible level of polish that [Fredzislaw100]’s has. That being said, [Alan]’s build is most likely very similar given the small glitch at
2:05
in the original video.
Check out [Alan]’s build video below, and for an added treat check out his
2011 Advent Calendar of Circuits
.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YVLyUHaqlFo&w=470] | 43 | 24 | [
{
"comment_id": "552610",
"author": "SuperNuRd",
"timestamp": "2012-01-06T14:31:02",
"content": "damn i was wrong then but still he could have used after effects!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "552658",
"author": "Volfram",
"t... | 1,760,376,989.799982 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/01/02/give-yourself-a-sixth-sense-on-the-cheap/ | Give Yourself A Sixth Sense On The Cheap | Mike Nathan | [
"Misc Hacks",
"News"
] | [
"magnet",
"magnetic fields",
"rare-earth"
] | Hackaday regular [Mikey Sklar] is no stranger to body modifications. He enjoys tweaking his body in ways that help him with day to day tasks, including a ruler tattoo on his arm and an RFID chip embedded in the web of his hand. Lately, he has been toying around with
a less invasive means
of getting a better feel for magnetic fields in his surroundings.
Turned on to magnetic rings by a friend, he now wears an epoxy-coated rare earth ring every day, changing the way he interacts with the world. He says that besides the obvious ability to tell when he’s near iron-heavy material, he can also feel cell phone calls, as the speaker draws the ring closer while producing sound.
He says that holding the electric cord of his tea kettle gave him the biggest start, making him feel as if he had been electrocuted, minus the actual shock.
While it’s not the most high-tech hack, [Mikey] is quite happy with the “sixth sense” this reasonably price ring has been able to provide – we just might have to try it out ourselves. | 71 | 30 | [
{
"comment_id": "549299",
"author": "loueney",
"timestamp": "2012-01-02T16:50:27",
"content": "question: How does the heavy magnet not fuck ith the iron in his blood vessels? does it attract to his ring finger?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "... | 1,760,376,990.021027 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/01/01/see-through-everything-with-a-home-made-x-ray/ | See Through Everything With A Home Made X-ray | Brian Benchoff | [
"hardware",
"Medical Hacks"
] | [
"high voltage",
"x-ray"
] | [Grenadier] built his very own
x-ray machine
. He’s no stranger to high voltage – we’ve seen his
Jacob’s Ladders
and
Marx generators
. Surely he can handle himself with high voltage and dangerous equipment. With this portable x-ray machine, [Grenadier] has begun overloading Geiger counters. We’re just happy he knows what he’s doing.
The key component of [Grenadier]’s portable x-ray machine is the
Coolidge tube
, a simple vacuum tube that produces x-rays with the help of 75 kilovolts of power. The
finished build
looks awesome. Two meters display the milliamps and kilovolts going to the x-ray tube, and a trio of nixies display the exposure time.
Even though [Grenadier] doesn’t have x-ray film, he can see through things with a scintillation screen that fluoresces when exposed to ionizing radiation. There are two pictures of the x-ray in action – one showing the inside of a pen and the guts of a hard drive (as shown in the title pic).
The output of the x-ray was measured with a Geiger counter. [Grenadier] was able to get a hit every second or so at 50 yards, and very loud white noise at 1 foot. Check out the video of [Grenadier]’s Buildlounge laser cutter contest submission after the break.
via
Buildlounge
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?&v=kxK-miDyr78&w=470] | 56 | 24 | [
{
"comment_id": "548913",
"author": "Alex Rossie",
"timestamp": "2012-01-02T00:48:47",
"content": "mhmmmm cancer",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "549024",
"author": "jim",
"timestamp": "2012-01-02T04:13:08",
"content": "... | 1,760,376,992.175602 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/01/01/hackerspace-light-wall-plays-video-at-30-fps/ | Hackerspace Light Wall Plays Video At 30 Fps | Mike Nathan | [
"Arduino Hacks",
"Hackerspaces",
"LED Hacks",
"News"
] | [
"GE color effects",
"hackerspace",
"leds",
"light wall",
"qc co-lab"
] | The folks at The Quad Cities Collaboration and Hackerspace (QC Co-Lab) were trying to find
something to build for their first big project
, and had to look no further than the wall for inspiration. The north end of their facility is home to a huge 15×17 glass block wall that happens to face a well-traveled roadway.
They decided that turning the wall into a huge LED display would be a great way to attract attention from passers-by, so they picked up some
GE Color Effects lights
and got down to business. Once they found out that the technical college next door was putting on an open house, the race was on to get the light display assembled as quickly as possible to maximize their exposure.
The team mounted the 255 LEDs in vacuum-formed reflective cones, which were attached to wooden frames before being installed behind the glass wall. An Arduino drives the entire display at a smooth 30 frames per second, a task they say tests the very limits of the board’s capabilities.
They finished the job in time for the open house, and as you can see in the video below, the display looks great.
Nice job QC-Co-Lab!
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=piZla5fRjz4&feature=youtu.be&w=470] | 24 | 17 | [
{
"comment_id": "548794",
"author": "Graham",
"timestamp": "2012-01-01T21:18:50",
"content": "Oh man, I got rickrolled by a hackerspace. D’oh.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "548799",
"author": "Vonskippy",
"timestamp": "2012-01-01T21:3... | 1,760,376,991.915242 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/01/01/a-very-detailed-reflow-oven-build/ | A Very Detailed Reflow Oven Build | Mike Nathan | [
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"atmega32u4",
"oven",
"reflow",
"soldering"
] | If you do a lot of SMD soldering,
a reflow oven is the fastest and most efficient way
to get all those tiny components attached to your PCB. [Frank Zhao] saw
the reflow ovens
we
featured here
over the last few weeks and figured he might as well show off his rig as well. We’re certainly glad he did, because his very thorough writeup is a great stepping stone for anyone looking to construct a reflow oven of their own.
Like many others, he started off with a used toaster oven, modifying it to be controlled directly via the power cable rather than the oven’s dials. He built a small PCB to regulate the oven, which features an ATmega32u4 and thermocouple to keep the temperature in check. Control of the heating element is done using a solid state relay, for which he built his own heatsink.
He studied the reflow profile of the solder he would be using, programming the microcontroller to regulate the heating/cooling process without requiring any user input, aside from turning the oven on.
Check out the video below to see a brief overview of his system, and be sure to swing by his writeup to take a look at all the build details. There are a handful of additional videos along with plenty of pictures there, walking through each step of the process.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TYAl2s3tuMI&feature=player_embedded&w=470] | 9 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "548749",
"author": "Meseta",
"timestamp": "2012-01-01T19:28:25",
"content": "I did a similar project with a small 900W toaster oven like the one pictured, and a Forebrain microcontroller board. For me it turns out that the oven at full power (without switching) produces a ramp that... | 1,760,376,991.704944 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/01/01/making-pure-caffeine-at-home/ | Making Pure Caffeine At Home | Brian Benchoff | [
"chemistry hacks"
] | [
"caffeine",
"drying chamber",
"supercritical CO2"
] | If you’ve ever thought about
extracting caffeine from coffee beans
, [Ben] is the guy for you. The last time we ran into him, he had already produced a few
aerogel monoliths
with a few chemicals, pipe fittings, and some CO2. We’re guessing he needed another use for his supercritical drying chamber, so after looking over a few
patents
, he decided to make pure caffeine in his garage.
The extraction began with green coffee beans inside the drying chamber. Liquid CO2 is pumped in and heated to the supercritical point. After a few hours, the caffeine will have been extracted from the beans and can be drained from the chamber. Right now, the process results in an inky goo that contains caffeine. [Ben] refined this a little further with Methylene Chloride, a process he’ll document in a future video.
Of course it goes without saying that this build is a little bit on the dangerous side. We’re confident in [Ben]’s abilities to know what he’s doing, but we’re not going to endorse this for every joker on the Internet. Also, two spoonfuls of caffeine
will kill you
, so try not to screw around with that either.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TvmM6qa2a90&w=470] | 36 | 19 | [
{
"comment_id": "548714",
"author": "SQ",
"timestamp": "2012-01-01T17:21:51",
"content": "This doesn’t look good.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "548718",
"author": "jordan",
"timestamp": "2012-01-01T17:36:56",
"content": "that pictu... | 1,760,376,992.083228 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/01/01/sound-reactive-kanye-glasses-2/ | Sound Reactive Kanye Glasses! | Jesse Congdon | [
"Wearable Hacks"
] | [
"AudioVisualizer",
"el wire",
"glasses"
] | [Ch00f] has decided to ring in the new year with some
el wire Kanye glasses
. Technically the term for the glasses is either “shutter shades” or “slatted sunglasses”, invented around the 80s by [Alain Mikli] and originally given the nickname “Venetian Sunglasses”. Kanye West evidently got his own retro redesign by the original creator and the rest is history. That is enough Wikipedia for now. [Ch00f] has augmented the original design with six multicolor tracks of EL wire mounted to the shutters of the glasses. The EL wire is fed back through several discrete wires around the wearers ear and to two control boxes. As the video shows, the glasses function as a crude V/U meter based on the audio received by the driver circuit.
Instead of the typical microcontroller [Ch00f] (who has some kind of deep seated issues agaist the Arduino) decided to go full blown analog with the entire design. The audio signal is fed through various Op Amp circuits first amplifying the weak microphone signal then filtering with a low pass filter to focus on the bass frequencies. The filtered bass is then sent to an envelope detector to turn the audio wave into a DC voltage signal. Keeping with the Op Amp design [Ch00f] then uses a resistor ladder and six comparator circuits (with TRIACs on their outputs) to tune the trigger voltage levels of the EL bars. The TRIACs get to deal with the 100 or so volts for the EL strips so that [Ch00f] doesn’t have to party with six EL power supplies in his pocket. For those of you counting at home, that is a total of 13 Op Amps.
The results are fantastic, check the video below to see the glasses in action. Reportedly the circuit does freak out and lock all of the TRIACs in an on state, but a covert flip of the power switch fixes the issue for now. [Ch00f] admits that the project was rather rushed due to the impending new year’s eve party, but now that that is all over with we just need to get [Ch00f] to roll out a stereo version. If you need more [ch00f] we have covered a few of his projects before such as his
Icebreaker POV toy hack
and a
ghetto accelerometer
using a reflection sensor.
Thanks for the tips [Daniel] and [Sanchoooo], also via [
reddit
]. Happy new year!
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hYAkWoUIqQE&w=470] | 14 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "548702",
"author": "aztraph",
"timestamp": "2012-01-01T16:38:03",
"content": "I could see daft punk wearing something like that, Great job",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "548720",
"author": "CRJEEA",
"timestamp": "2012-0... | 1,760,376,992.012743 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/12/31/best-of-hackaday-2011-edition/ | Best Of Hackaday – 2011 Edition | Jack Buffington | [
"News"
] | [] | 2011 was an interesting year here at Hackaday. We have about 24% more viewers now than we did last year. We started producing our own video content and we have shown some pretty interesting projects in our daily posts. In this post, we are gathering together the best of the best.
Our #1 post for the year with 175,000 views is about a
1 megawatt laser pulse pistol
. Not only does this build work but it also looks cool. It’s definitely one to take a look at.
Coming in with 157,000 views is a post about
how to insert your logo into a QR code
. This one was done by our own [Brian Benchoff] and was a runaway success from the first week that we posted it.
In third place with 151,000 views is a post that could help you if you are trying to
pick a development board
to learn a new processor with. This post breaks down the various development boards available at the time of its writing into three different categories organized by price.
In fourth place with 114,000 views is one about
an unique lock composed of color changing buttons
. Your pass code is a series of colors instead of digits in an ordinary code lock. This build fits behind a standard wall plate so that it can be mounted cleanly using off-the-shelf hardware from the hardware store.
Wrapping things up at fifth place is a post describing
how you can download books from Google
using an utility called Google Book Downloader. We have no idea of the legality of this one. The original link is down but it seems that it is still available elsewhere on the internet. | 12 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "548293",
"author": "mi6x3m",
"timestamp": "2011-12-31T22:13:06",
"content": "Cheers, Hackaday! You are my favorite website and you inspired me to learn electronics and make cool stuff. You are fun and entertaining, you know what humor is, you know how to be sarcastic nicely outlinin... | 1,760,376,991.752991 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/01/03/arduino-heliostat-calculates-the-position-of-the-sun/ | Arduino Heliostat Calculates The Position Of The Sun | Brian Benchoff | [
"Arduino Hacks"
] | [
"heliostat",
"sun tracking"
] | We’re past the winter solstice and the days are getting longer, but that doesn’t mean we’re not sick of the sun setting around 5 in the afternoon. There is a way to get more sunlight through our windows – a heliostat. Lucky for us, [Gabriel] sent in his
Open Source Sun Tracking / Heliostat
project that can reflect sunlight through our windows all winter long.
Using mirrors to brighten up a room is an ancient practice; a few thousand years ago, heliostats went by the archaic term, “slaves.” Luckily there’s a far more elegant way of doing things nowadays – an Arduino. [Gabriel] came up with an Arduino sketch that calculates the
altitude and azimuth of the sun
using only latitude, longitude and time zone. [Gabriel] used this sketch to drive a pair of stepper motors and reflect sunlight through his window.
You can check out [Gabriel]’s demo of his heliostat after the break.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QXtEDCK7GwY&w=470] | 14 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "550059",
"author": "anon",
"timestamp": "2012-01-03T15:47:05",
"content": "Obvious downside: being blinded by science whenever you walk by the window",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "550179",
"author": "Adrian",
... | 1,760,376,991.966559 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/01/03/arcade-controller-will-give-you-button-envy/ | Arcade Controller Will Give You Button Envy | Mike Szczys | [
"Peripherals Hacks"
] | [
"arcade",
"buttons",
"controller",
"xbox 360"
] | [Aaron’s] arcade controller
really makes us want to put in a button order. There aren’t any secrets hidden in his design or fabrication, but he did a remarkably clean job of putting it together.
The housing is a writing box he bought at the hardware store (but he also shows off an emtpy Xbox 360 case hosting the same control layout). It has a hinged cover which is perfect for getting at the components inside, and is also at a nice angle for your wrists during long gaming session.
An Xbox 360 controller provides the connectivity for the device. Obviously it will work with the Microsoft hardware, but all modern operating systems have methods available for interfacing with these controllers as well. In the video after the break you can see [Aaron] gut the controller, soldering wires to all of the button pads and connecting those to some terminal strips. This makes the wire organization inside quite clean. He uses crimp connectors to jumper the buttons and joy stick to the other side of the terminals. Add a nice paint job and you’ve got a controller that will look right at home in your living room.
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L5qrZHVFXE0&w=470] | 17 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "549993",
"author": "DanAdamKOF",
"timestamp": "2012-01-03T14:04:34",
"content": "Definitely one of the better arcade-related builds I’ve seen on here :) The author deserves props for doing his homework: he referenced a tried-and-true button layout, and he used crimp connectors rathe... | 1,760,376,991.86064 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/01/02/hackaday-links-january-2-2012/ | Hackaday Links: January 2, 2012 | Brian Benchoff | [
"Hackaday links"
] | [
"art car",
"BBC Master Compact",
"keyboard",
"lightbox",
"ribbon cable",
"steampunk",
"theater",
"wind machine"
] | The worst computer keyboard, ever
[Gerardus] found an old BBC Master Compact computer for $15. The only problem is the computer didn’t have a keyboard. It’s not a problem if you can make a keyboard
out of an old breadboard
. It’s not a Model M, but it works.
Emergency ribbon cable repair
[Thomas] works in a hospital. One night, a piece of equipment went down because of a bad ribbon cable. Doctors were yelling at him to get the equipment up and running so out of frustration, he took stapler to the cable. It held up until a replacement arrived. Check out these pics:
one
and
two
.
Nobody remembers
Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland
Here’s [Alan]’s gigantic
Nautilus art car
with a huge mechanical iris. Just watch
the video
and be amazed. We won’t hazard a guess as to how much money went into all that brass and copper, but we can confirm an Arduino controls the iris. Check out the
build page
.
Light up street art
[Grissini] put up
an instructable
for a light box that displays [Bansky] street art. We’d go with some RGB leds and a [
Keith Haring
] motif, but more power to ya.
A theater wind machine
This
wind machine
was built by [Willaim] for his High School’s choir concert. It’s basically a concrete form tube with plastic lids taped on and a piece of pipe serving as an axle. The machine makes a wind noise with the help of some nylon pants. | 27 | 17 | [
{
"comment_id": "549472",
"author": "Craig",
"timestamp": "2012-01-03T00:06:19",
"content": "The ribbon cable repair is spectacular, particularly given the story/circumstances that go with it.Looks like an interesting bit of damage though; any ideas on how it came about?",
"parent_id": null,
... | 1,760,376,991.657633 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/01/02/the-gatari-2600-musical-instrument/ | The GATARI “2600” Musical Instrument | Jeremy Cook | [
"Musical Hacks"
] | [
"atari",
"gatari",
"music"
] | So do you have an Atari 2600 laying around collecting dust? Perhaps you’d like to have a musical instrument to take up the time that you would spend playing video games if you had a modern console. Well, look no further than the
GATARI 2600
!
[cTrix] made this device with a custom EPROM chip plugged in as a cartridge. Although details of the build are somewhat vague, this custom chip allows music to be written for the device. Everything is controlled with a joystick that tells the GATARI to generate the desired track. From this basic track, the sound is modified using three pedals including an equalizer, a flange pedal, and a hold pedal.
Check out the video after the break for a brief explanation of how it was built. Skip to 1:05 if you’d rather just see it in action at [Blipfest] in Japan!
If you’d rather listen to music rather than playing it, why not build your own
snap together boombox
instead!
[youtube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S8e7g8kJIlo&w=470&h=315%5D | 14 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "549433",
"author": "aztraph",
"timestamp": "2012-01-02T22:35:23",
"content": "great job on that, not bad sound for 8 bit, but I wonder, with only 2 controls and 5 switches per control, how did you add all the extra bits, the eq and such, was that part of the gatari or did it go in ... | 1,760,376,991.805847 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/01/02/watch-all-of-the-freshly-published-talks-from-28c3/ | Watch All Of The Freshly Published Talks From 28c3 | Mike Szczys | [
"cons"
] | [
"28c3",
"ccc",
"chaos communication congress",
"Mitch Altman"
] | The 28th Annual Chaos Communications Congress just wrapped things up on December 31st and
they’ve already published recordings of all the talks
at the event. These talks were live-streamed, but if you didn’t find time in your schedule to see all that you wanted, you’ll be happy to find your way to
the YouTube collection of the event
.
The topics span a surprising range. We were surprised to see a panel discussion on depression and suicide among geeks (hosted by [Mitch Altman]) which joins another panel called Queer Geeks, to address some social issues rather than just hardcore security tech. But there’s plenty of that as well with topics on cryptography, security within web applications, and also a segment on electronic currencies like Bitcoins.
There really is something for everyone and they’ve been thoughtful enough to include playlists for all talks, just the lightning talks, and lightning talks categorized by the day they occurred. Get those links from their YouTube channel description, or find them after the break.
28c3 Playlist Links:
All Talks
Lightning Talks (all)
Lightning Talks Day 2
Lightning Talks Day 3
Lightning Talks Day 4 | 4 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "549404",
"author": "Davichi Pavel",
"timestamp": "2012-01-02T21:06:28",
"content": "http://www.filejungle.com/f/SPNeK9",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "549434",
"author": "Diego Spinola",
"timestamp": "2012-01-02T22:36:39... | 1,760,376,992.244993 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/01/02/easy-rotary-encoding-for-your-projects/ | Easy Rotary Encoding For Your Projects | Mike Szczys | [
"Robots Hacks"
] | [
"cny70",
"line follower",
"reflective sensor",
"rotary encoder"
] | Want to monitor how much a wheel has turned in your project? Then you need a rotary encoder! Here’s a way to
add rotary encoding without changing the mounting method of your wheels
(
translated
). [Jorge] added it as a way to improve the functionality of this line-following robot. It uses a paper encoder wheel which is monitored by an optical sensor.
The paper wheel consists of alternating white and black pie pieces. You can make this with a felt-tipped marker, or use a tool like the one we featured a couple of years ago to
print out a disc
rendered to your own specifications. This is glued to the inside of the wheel and monitored by a CNY70 reflective sensor (the same one used in that
electric keyboard retrofit
).
The homemade board which holds the sensor can be seen mounted on top of each wheel’s motor. It requires three wires, voltage, ground, and data. The data line is connected to the output of the phototransistor in the CNY70 package so it can be used with a microcontroller interrupt for easy integration with the firmware driving the robot.
[Jorge] goes into some detail about how the added data helps to improve the speed performance seen in the clip after the break.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2SBk3J5ikjM&w=470]
[Thanks Tom] | 10 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "549375",
"author": "Bob D",
"timestamp": "2012-01-02T20:07:27",
"content": "If you want to know which direction the wheel is turning, add another sensor and put aGray codeon the wheels.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "549389",... | 1,760,376,992.683825 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2012/01/02/pep-up-your-house-cats-boring-wintertime-life/ | Pep Up Your House Cat’s Boring Wintertime Life | Mike Szczys | [
"home hacks"
] | [
"cat",
"mouse",
"pulley",
"roomba",
"toy"
] | With winter upon us, and all the windows shut, [Garfield] and [Socks] can get a little restless. But [Dino] is determined to keep his furry friends entertained through the cold dark months. He hit the junk box, and used some interesting fabrication techniques to
build the Chase-a-Mouse motorized cat toy
.
The toy is popular with the cats because it incorporates two traditionally satisfying features; something to chase, and an obstacle to chase it around. The base of the unit is a long plank which is held up from the floor by a couple of inches. The loop of rope which spans the board’s length has a mouse attached to it with about six inches of string. When the motor is flipped on it bounces and jerks its way around the circuit, darting in and out of the space below the base.
As you can see in the video after the break the motor is a bit loud. [Dino] used the sweeper motor from a Roomba for this. It might freak the kitties out at first, but curiosity will get the better of them eventually. It’s a quick build, and we love the drill-turned-lathe that is used make the wooden pulley for the system.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2q6GtA6j7HE&w=470] | 15 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "549354",
"author": "jc",
"timestamp": "2012-01-02T19:23:21",
"content": "haha does he call his cat JFET ? :D",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "549369",
"author": "N0LKK",
"timestamp": "2012-01-02T19:52:30",
... | 1,760,376,992.735956 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/12/31/disco-icosahedron-rings-in-the-new-year/ | Disco Icosahedron Rings In The New Year | Brian Benchoff | [
"Holiday Hacks",
"LED Hacks"
] | [
"disco ball",
"icosahedron",
"New Year's Eve"
] | While city engineers were setting up the multicolored ball of lights in Times Square this year, [Phil] at adafruit was busy designing the
X2 Time Ball
, a disco icosahedron perfect for celebrating the new year.
The ball is made of 20 acrylic triangles zip-tied together into an icosahedron. On each face, six
RGB pixels
light up via commands from an Arduino. The entire project is able to be controlled remotely thanks to the help of a pair of XBees. [Phil] whipped up a
Processing sketch
to control the LED ball any way we could possibly imagine.
Although it may be a little late to build an LED disco ball for this year’s New Year’s Eve party, that doesn’t mean we couldn’t use it the other 364 days of the year. It’s perfect for parties, weddings, and our weekly lightswitch raves. Check out the action video of the Time Ball after the break.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_4ItDx27M4k&w=470] | 2 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "548467",
"author": "Hirudinea",
"timestamp": "2012-01-01T09:13:43",
"content": "Does it come with free extacy?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "548726",
"author": "Waffles",
"timestamp": "2012-01-01T17:50:29",
"conten... | 1,760,376,992.412911 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/12/31/using-mains-wiring-as-an-antenna/ | Using Mains Wiring As An Antenna | Mike Szczys | [
"Radio Hacks"
] | [
"am radio",
"antenna",
"live wire",
"mains"
] | Make sure to brush up on your safety protocol if you undertake this project. The penalty for messing up when
using live wiring as a radio receiver antenna
is rather severe. But after reading about it in some old books [Miroslav] decided to give this technique a try.
We love the old-school chalk board he used to map out his test circuit. With safety in mind, he uses two high voltage capacitors in series. If these should somehow fail, there is also a fuse which would blow, disconnecting the apparatus from mains. But just to be sure, he isolated the circuit using a two coils. These step down the voltage, but would also burn out if hit with a voltage spike.
You can see the results he gets using the setup as an AM radio receiver in the video after the break. He tested against a meter long antenna and found that his setup far outperforms it. Actually, he found that a six foot extension cord which is not plugged into the wall will also outperform the 1m antenna. Something to keep in mind the next time the ball game isn’t coming in as clear as you would like.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zZHjitGCBno&w=470] | 66 | 22 | [
{
"comment_id": "548274",
"author": "Nova",
"timestamp": "2011-12-31T21:13:58",
"content": "Just a speculation but I’d guess this wouldn’t work as well if you had more modern metal conduit around all of your wiring. Unless the plugged in appliances could gather enough RF and pass it back into the ou... | 1,760,376,992.523628 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/12/31/zombie-jackson-bot-dances-to-thriller/ | Zombie [Jackson] Bot Dances To Thriller | Mike Szczys | [
"Robots Hacks"
] | [
"animatronic",
"arduino",
"servo"
] | [Marc Cryan] built this little bugger which he calls
Wendell the Robot
. But what good is an animatronic piece like this unless you do something fun with it? That’s why you can catch the movements matching [Michael Jackson’s] choreography from the music video Thriller in the clip after the break.
This is a ground-up build for [Marc]. He started by designing templates for each of the wood parts using Inkscape. After printing them out, he glued each to a piece of 1/4″ plywood and cut along the lines using a band saw. We don’t have a lot of adhesive spray experience, but he mentions that the can should have directions for temporary adhesion so that the template can be removed after cutting.
During assembly he makes sure to add servo horns for easy connection when adding the motors. All together he’s using five; two for the wheels, two for the arms, and one for the neck. A protoboard shield makes it easy to connect them to the Arduino which is used as a controller.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dc6llGSKB0k&w=470] | 2 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "548245",
"author": "macona",
"timestamp": "2011-12-31T20:16:01",
"content": "Does it follow boys around too?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "548451",
"author": "thelackey3326",
"timestamp": "2012-01-01T08:13:46",
"co... | 1,760,376,992.773608 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/12/31/full-color-laser-tv/ | Full Color Laser TV | Brian Benchoff | [
"Laser Hacks"
] | [
"laser",
"projector"
] | Back in 2001, [Helmar] made an awesome monochrome video display out of a red laser pointer and a spinning 18-sided mirror. Blue and green lasers are much less expensive than they were a decade ago, so [Helmar] decided to go
full color
with his laser projector. (In German, so fire up Chrome or get the
Google translation
)
The
ancient website
for [Helmar]’s green-only projector goes over the principles of operation. A single laser shines onto a multi-faceted polygonal mirror. This is reflected onto another mirror that provides the reflection for each line in a frame of video. Earlier this year, [Helmar] hacked up a red and blue laser to complement the preexisting green laser. The end result is an RGB projector powered by friggin’ lasers.
As far as we can tell, the projector only has composite input; the attached DVD player provides all the signaling for that. Amazingly, [Helmar] didn’t use a microcontroller for the circuitry. All the electronics are simple logic gates. Really amazing if you ask us.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FeevMGqWNc8&w=470]
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NJbGVEfDbwY&w=470]
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dZHFFpJoeyA&w=470] | 23 | 15 | [
{
"comment_id": "548194",
"author": "Will",
"timestamp": "2011-12-31T17:35:08",
"content": "Holy crap that’s awesome!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "548195",
"author": "jediMMX²",
"timestamp": "2011-12-31T17:35:35",
"content": "been... | 1,760,376,992.887271 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/12/31/homebrew-on-the-rigol-ds1052e-scope/ | Homebrew On The Rigol DS1052E ‘scope | Brian Benchoff | [
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"homebrew",
"oscilloscope",
"rigol"
] | We love our little Rigol 1052E oscilloscope. It’s seen us through some perplexing problems and loved being upgraded from 50 MHz to 100 MHz. We’ve always been pleased with its role dictating waveforms for us, but we never thought we’d see
homebrew apps
for our little ‘scope.
We’re not exactly sure who [Krater] is, but he’s been working on some
homebrew development
for the Rigol DS1052E oscilloscope. Right now the capabilities are somewhat limited; all programming is via PEEKs and POKEs. Still, this is a fairly impressive development.
This wonderful little ‘scope has already had some time in the limelight by being
easy to upgrade
to 100 MHz. Hopefully with the new capabilities (Tetris, somebody make Tetris), this scope will become a staple in workshops around the world.
A tip ‘o the hat goes to [Rainer Wetzel] for sending this one in. Check out the video after the break to see an almost-working game of Pong playing on the 1052E
EDIT: [krater] dropped into the comments to tell us about his
blog entry
. Keep up the good work.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vepLEhrALzo&w=470] | 15 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "548152",
"author": "Bob",
"timestamp": "2011-12-31T16:25:40",
"content": "With Tetris, you hope “this scope will become a staple in workshops around the world”?What, so that EVERYONE’S productivity can go down the tubes? :-)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []... | 1,760,376,992.826691 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/12/30/printing-with-clear-polycarbonate/ | Printing With Clear Polycarbonate | Brian Benchoff | [
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"3d printer",
"polycarbonate"
] | Those of us with 3D printers have had two major choices when selecting a material to print with – ABS, a very hard plastic, and PLA, a more brittle plastic with a lower melting point. [Alex] and [Luke] have been experimenting with
printing polycarbonate
and creating clear crystalline objects on a standard 3D printer.
The first foray into printing polycarbonate didn’t go so well for [Luke]. Objects came out looking very milky and there was a bit of popping during filament extrusion. The guys solved this problem by putting the polycarbonate filament in a food dehydrator overnight to get rid of the moisture. Polycarbonate has a higher melting temperature than other plastics – around 260 degrees Celsius – which can cause some problems with Teflon insulators in the hot ends of extruders. The guys didn’t have any problems with fumes, though.
If you’ve ever wanted to print something clear, it looks like it’s now possible. Check out the video after the break to see a Makerbot Thing-O-Matic printing with clear polycarbonate.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?&v=AnmTjoua1gI&w=470] | 13 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "547678",
"author": "Regulus",
"timestamp": "2011-12-31T03:30:09",
"content": "I would not call ABS a “very hard plastic,” particularly when the alternative to compare it to is PLA!PLA is hard and brittle, ABS is more malleable, and flexes rather than snap.Other engineering plastics ... | 1,760,376,992.936379 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/12/30/doomsday-keg-of-radness-helps-ring-in-the-new-year/ | Doomsday Keg Of Radness Helps Ring In The New Year | Mike Nathan | [
"Holiday Hacks",
"LED Hacks"
] | [
"beer",
"holiday",
"keg",
"led",
"New Year's Eve"
] | Lots of people buy noise makers for New Year’s eve, others opt to sing Auld Lang Syne –
then there’s these guys.
The crew at Stone Brewing Company throw an annual bash at their brewery in celebration of New Years, and while
[Dino’s] countdown timer
is great for intimate settings, they needed something bigger to wow the crowd. A busted half barrel was all the inspiration they needed to build the “Doomsday Keg of Radness”.
[Mike Palmer], the Creative Director at Stone handed the keg off to the maintenance crew for some remodeling, and got ready to fit it with all sorts of lights and other goodies. Holes drilled in the keg were fitted with bright pulsing LEDs, while additional LED light strips were laid out around the perimeter. The bottom was cut out to accommodate a Moonflower LED module, and a 24” monitor was strapped to the side in order to display a countdown timer. An old Macbook jammed inside the keg runs the video display, while the rest of the lighting is remotely controlled with an RF transmitter.
Now mind you this all went down last year, but since the display was such a hit, they will be busting it out again for the 2011 celebration.
Check out the short demo video below to get a look at the Doomsday Keg in action.
[vimeo http://vimeo.com/18100621 w=470] | 3 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "547630",
"author": "Taylor Alexander",
"timestamp": "2011-12-31T01:29:20",
"content": "Uh wow, this is so awesome! Stone is one of my favorite breweries and I’ll actually be drinking some Arrogan Bastard to ring in the new year! Or some Double Bastard if I can find it…",
"parent... | 1,760,376,992.979329 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/12/30/so-you-wanna-learn-fpgas/ | So You Wanna Learn FPGAs… | Brian Benchoff | [
"hardware",
"how-to"
] | [
"fpga",
"tutorial"
] | FPGAs are the bee’s knees. Instead of programming a chip by telling it what to
do,
FPGAs allow you to tell a chip what to
be.
Like everything though, a new skill set is needed to fully exploit the power of FPGAs. [Mike Field] decided to give back to the internet community at large and put up a
crash course
in FPGA design.
Right now, [Mike] has a couple of modules up that include subjects like binary math, busses, counting, and of course setting up the FPGA hardware. The recommended hardware is the
Papilio One
, although the
Digilent Nexys2
is what [Mike] has been using so far.
We’ve seen a ton of awesome stuff that uses FPGAs, like the
emulated Mac Plus
,
breaking HDCP
, and an
Ocarina of Time
. [Mike]’s tutorials look like a great starting point for some FPGA work. [Mike] is also looking for some feedback on his tutorials, so if you’ve got an idea of what he should cover be sure to drop him a line.
EDIT:
The server was running on an FPGA and we can’t find a cache anywhere. If you’ve found a mirror, send a
message
.
Apparently Amazon’s EC2 runs on an FPGA. | 44 | 23 | [
{
"comment_id": "547534",
"author": "Alex Rossie",
"timestamp": "2011-12-30T21:52:20",
"content": "Wish I had something like this when I started out. I used books, found some great ones along the way.Here’s my top 3 :)Contemporary Logic Design Randy H. KatzDigital Logic Design PrinciplesComputer Org... | 1,760,376,993.115881 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/12/30/programming-an-arduino-using-an-audio-file/ | Programming An Arduino Using An Audio File | Mike Szczys | [
"Arduino Hacks",
"Microcontrollers"
] | [
"audio",
"bfsk",
"binary frequency-shift keying",
"korg",
"monotribe"
] | This proof-of-concept is just waiting for you to put it to good use. [Mike Tsao] wrote an Arduino sketch that lets him
decode incoming audio data
which could be used to program the device. He’s calling the project TribeDuino because it decodes an audio file which is actually the firmware update for a Korg Monotribe.
Earlier in the month [Mike] read our feature on a project that
reverse engineered the audio-based firmware update
for the Korg hardware. He wanted to see if he could write some code to read that file on his own hardware. All it took was an audio jack and two jumper wires to get the Arduino ready to receive the audio file. His firmware reads the Binary Frequency-Shift Keying encoded data as the audio is played, then echos a checksum to prove that it works.
This would be a fantastic addition to your own projects. Since the audio connection only needs to be mono, it only takes just one Arduino pin to add this jack (the other is a ground connection). Having just played around with
alternative ways to push data to a microcontroller
ourselves, we might give this a try when we have some free time. | 19 | 12 | [
{
"comment_id": "547504",
"author": "tristan",
"timestamp": "2011-12-30T20:29:40",
"content": "Wow, can we finally say iPhone remote arduino programming?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "547505",
"author": "chris",
"timestamp": "2011-12-3... | 1,760,376,993.036626 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/12/30/focus-fix-for-non-reflex-35mm-camera/ | Focus Fix For Non-reflex 35mm Camera | Mike Szczys | [
"digital cameras hacks",
"Repair Hacks"
] | [
"3.5mm",
"camera",
"film",
"focus",
"reflex"
] | For camera fanatics the acquisition of an old camera is a thrilling event. But if you’re going to collect them, you’d better have some repair skills so that you can also use them. [Fernando’s] latest find was this Minox 35mm camera. The aperture needed cleaning, and after reassembling the unit he realized the he had not marked the focus ring when taking it apart. This is not a reflex camera, so you can’t look in the view finder to adjust focus. He came up with
his own method to get the focus ring calibrated
.
The focal point needs to focus on the film. He simulated this plane using some magic tape, which removes easily without leaving a residue. When the shutter is open, you can see the image projected on this translucent surface. He then set up the camera with the lens 90 cm from a bright light bulb. By adjusting the focus to create a sharp image on the temporary screen, he knows the focus is calibrated, and can reset the focus ring to the 0.9m mark.
Need some help developing that exposed film? You could always give
the coffee and vitamin C hack
a try. | 5 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "547615",
"author": "Vonskippy",
"timestamp": "2011-12-31T00:44:21",
"content": "Clever.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "547618",
"author": "Vonskippy",
"timestamp": "2011-12-31T00:46:17",
"content": "Ch... | 1,760,376,993.182664 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/12/30/spring-clamp-tripod-mount-has-potential/ | Spring Clamp Tripod Mount Has Potential | Mike Szczys | [
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"iphone",
"spring clamp",
"third hand",
"tripod"
] | Admittedly this post is flirting with flamebait, but we think the concept of
using a spring clamp as an iPhone tripod mount
has a lot of hacking potential. Hear us out, and if we havn’t made our case you can rant about it in the comments.
[Joe] wanted an easy way to mount his iPhone on a standard tripod. We’ve seen some creative solutions for this, like
using Sugru to make a removable bracket
. But he went a different route, using a cheap spring clamp to grip the phone body. These plastic clamps are like over-powered clothespins, and use a screw as the pivot point. [Joe] replaced the stock screw with a longer one, then used a coupling nut which will attach to the tripod. A bit of foam on the pads of the clamp protect your device from the plastic teeth.
It’s a fine solution (if you don’t mind putting that pressure on your smart phone). But we think this would be a great way to build your own heavy-duty third hand. It would be right at home with
this modular solder platform
. See [Joe’s] how-to video embedded after the break.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j8Vjyw63YR4&w=470] | 17 | 13 | [
{
"comment_id": "547466",
"author": "AllThatJazz",
"timestamp": "2011-12-30T18:36:51",
"content": "Waitaminit! Where’s the arduino?!? ;p",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "547468",
"author": "Reggie",
"timestamp": "2011-12-30T18:38:53",
... | 1,760,376,994.155655 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/12/30/build-your-own-mini-ball-drop-for-new-years-eve/ | Build Your Own Mini Ball Drop For New Year’s Eve | Mike Nathan | [
"Arduino Hacks",
"Holiday Hacks",
"LED Hacks"
] | [
"arduino",
"ball drop",
"leds",
"New Years"
] | [Dino] wanted to make this New Year’s celebration a bit more interesting, but he can’t make it to New York for the ball drop. Instead, he decided to
make his own mini display
in his workshop. Obviously he’s working with a slightly smaller budget than the folks at Times Square, but we think his display is pretty neat. If anything, [Dino] can at least guarantee that his New Year’s is 100% Seacrest-free.
The ball drop is made up of five ping pong balls, each backlit by a 10mm LED. The LEDs and ping pong balls were mounted on the electron gun from a broken oscilloscope, giving it a cool look. The balls are lit one at a time by an Arduino, which illuminates each one for 15 seconds while the final minute of 2011 is counted down. Once midnight hits, a flashing “2012” sign illuminates while Auld Lang Syne plays from a tiny speaker.
The musical part of this build is something that [Dino] spent a lot of time on. He thoroughly explains how he translated the song from sheet music into its digital form, a process that would be helpful for beginners to watch.
Continue reading to see how the display was built, and if you’re just antsy to see the ball drop in action, a short demo can be found at 12:13. | 6 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "547410",
"author": "adamoutler",
"timestamp": "2011-12-30T16:52:54",
"content": "i would do this but my balls already dropped.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "547600",
"author": "Dino",
"timestamp": "2011-12-31... | 1,760,376,993.473731 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/12/30/a-floppy-drive-orchestra/ | A Floppy Drive Orchestra | Jeremy Cook | [
"Musical Hacks"
] | [
"floppy drive",
"led",
"music"
] | With 8 drives working in concert, this
“floppy drive array orchestra”
takes drive music to a whole new level! As if that wasn’t enough, [SileNT] decided to use the16x64 LED array that he’s been working on in concert with the drives.
For those that remember, we’ve actually featured [SileNT], AKA [Pawel]’s, work before, where we were impressed that he was able to
play the Imperial March
from Star Wars on 2 floppy drives. He’s planning more information about his floppy drive music making in the future and maybe even instructions on building your own personal disk drive orchestra. Apparently [SileNT] has an abundant supply of 3 1/2 inch drives, so maybe even this feat can be topped…
Be sure to check out the video after the break of these 8 drives in action. In the video, more tunes are promised “soon”, so be sure to check back or subscribe to him on Youtube for more sweet melodies.
[youtube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bWwhsAYFSRI&w=470&h=315%5D | 16 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "547387",
"author": "Tom the Brat",
"timestamp": "2011-12-30T15:29:14",
"content": "Pretty cool, but it probably won’t go gold :D",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "547391",
"author": "Jon",
"timestamp": "2011-12-30T15:38:38... | 1,760,376,993.393831 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/12/29/a-chink-in-the-armor-of-wpawpa2-wifi-security/ | A Chink In The Armor Of WPA/WPA2 WiFi Security | Mike Szczys | [
"Security Hacks",
"Wireless Hacks"
] | [
"access point",
"brute force",
"wi-fi protected setup",
"wifi",
"wpa",
"wpa2",
"wps"
] | Looks like your WiFi might not be quite as secure as you thought it was. A paper recently published by [Stefan Viehböck] details
a security flaw in the supposedly robust WPA/WPA2 WiFi security protocol
. It’s not actually that protocol which is the culprit, but an in-built feature called
Wi-Fi Protected Setup
. This is an additional security protocol that allows you to easily setup network devices like printers without the need to give them the WPA passphrase. [Stephan’s] proof-of-concept allows him to get the WPS pin in 4-10 hours using brute force. Once an attacker has that pin, they can immediately get the WPA passphrase with it. This works even if the passphrase is frequently changed.
Apparently, most WiFi access points not only offer WPS, but have it enabled by default. To further muck up the situation, some hardware settings dashboards offer a disable switch that doesn’t actually do anything!
It looks like [Stephan] wasn’t the only one working on this exploit. [Craig] wrote in to let us know he’s already released
software to exploit the hole
. | 59 | 23 | [
{
"comment_id": "546791",
"author": "NatureTM",
"timestamp": "2011-12-29T21:31:44",
"content": "Oh good you had me worried for a second there. I don’t use that junk anyway. :-) I’ll bet most of us readers actually enjoy setting up our new networking hardware and never bothered with WPS. It is a l... | 1,760,376,993.781535 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/12/29/knockoff-game-controller-makes-a-fine-remote-shutter-release/ | Knockoff Game Controller Makes A Fine Remote Shutter Release | Mike Nathan | [
"digital cameras hacks",
"News",
"Nintendo Hacks"
] | [
"canon",
"dslr",
"nunchuck",
"remote shutter release",
"wii"
] | [Duncan Murdock] received a Canon DSLR camera for Christmas and wanted
a remote shutter release
to go along with it. Since nary a store was open on Christmas, he was pretty much out of luck. Scrounging around in his parts drawer, he found all sorts of goodies waiting to be reused, including a knockoff Wii nunchuck.
He pulled the original cable from the nunchuck and replaced it with an old telephone wire, attaching a 2.5mm plug to the end. The plug goes directly into his camera’s control port, allowing him to trigger the auto focus and shutter mechanisms with the push of a button.
We like the idea of a junk controller being recycled for use in a camera, though we think it has far more potential than being used as a simple wired trigger. If both the nunchuck and camera were fitted with some sort of wireless interface (
Bluetooth
,
IR
,
etc
), we think it would make a great addition to any hobby photographer’s kit. | 3 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "546797",
"author": "mcfly",
"timestamp": "2011-12-29T21:56:55",
"content": "Car horn stalks from scrap cars make a handy button in a pinch when you snap one off.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "546814",
"author": "aztraph",
... | 1,760,376,993.436043 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/12/29/bob-shows-us-how-to-make-diy-calendars-for-vintage-computer-geeks/ | [Bob] Shows Us How To Make DIY Calendars For Vintage Computer Geeks | Mike Nathan | [
"classic hacks",
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"calendar",
"computers",
"vintage"
] | [Bob Alexander] wrote in to share a hobby of his that we thought was pretty timely considering the new year is quickly approaching. For several years now he has
put together a custom calendar for himself
, including both dates he finds important along with sweet pictures of vintage computer equipment. Friends and family found his calendars so intriguing that they asked him to make some for them as well.
Each year his stack of calendar requests grew, and he found that no outlet – online or otherwise could produce exactly what he wanted. Instead of settling,
he wrote a small application
that lets him customize and print calendars to his heart’s content.
We think this is much cooler than buying one at your local bookstore, and we’re guessing that our readers likely agree. If you were creating your own custom calendar, what cool vintage computer hardware would you choose to display? What if you were designing a Hack-a-Day calendar? Let us know in the comments – we’re itching to find something interesting to look at while we count down to New Year’s Eve! | 1 | 1 | [
{
"comment_id": "548064",
"author": "elektrophreak",
"timestamp": "2011-12-31T12:39:18",
"content": "mmmmm, nixie tubes :-)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
}
] | 1,760,376,993.515049 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/12/29/relighting-a-gauge-cluster/ | Relighting A Gauge Cluster | Brian Benchoff | [
"Repair Hacks"
] | [
"automotive",
"car",
"dashboard"
] | When a few lights in the dashboard of [Garrett]’s truck burned out, he was looking at a hefty repair bill. The repair shop would have to replace the huge PCB to change a few soldered light bulbs, so he was looking at a $500 repair bill. Lighting up a LED is everyone’s first project, so [Garrett] decided to
change out the bulbs with LEDs
and save a few dollars.
The repair was very simple – after removing the dials and needles, [Garrett] found a huge PCB with a few burnt out bulbs on board. He took a multimeter to each bulb’s solder pad and replaced each one with an LED and resistor. The finished project looks like it came out of a factory and is a huge improvement over the ugly amber bulbs originally found in his truck. [Garrett] also posted a nice
Instructable
of his build showing the
nicely soldered
lamp replacements. | 36 | 20 | [
{
"comment_id": "546606",
"author": "NATO",
"timestamp": "2011-12-29T15:13:58",
"content": "I’ve been doing this for decades. A lot of the GM’s have dropping resistors for the heated elements in the fluorescent screens. The resistors get hot, and the solder eventually fails – The resistors fall ri... | 1,760,376,993.590423 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/12/28/solar-powered-cnc-woodburning/ | Solar-powered CNC Woodburning | Brian Benchoff | [
"cnc hacks"
] | [
"cnc",
"fresnel",
"wood burning"
] | [Johnie] built himself a CNC woodburner
powered by the sun
. Like the
solar 3D printer
we saw last summer, [Johnie]’s build uses a giant Fresnel lens to focus sunlight onto a piece of wood. To get some control out of his build, a 2-axis bed was made from scrounged and junked parts.
The lens in [Johnie]’s build looks to be about a foot square – more than hot enough to burn a few holes in things from our experience. The bed (hopefully) gets around this problem by being built entirely out of clear acrylic. The idea behind the acrylic bed is that the focused light will pass through harmlessly, and not melt the entire thing.
Now that we think about it, we couldn’t come up with a better project to enter in the
Buildlounge laser cutter contest
. For everybody else working on their laser cutter projects, the deadline is January 1st. Better get those wrenches out and irons hot, because we’ve seen a
few
awesome
projects
for the Buildlounge build off already. | 19 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "546139",
"author": "insapio",
"timestamp": "2011-12-28T22:26:41",
"content": "THIS is exactly what I needed to find. Now I just need to find a fresnel lens…Also, with a large solar panel, this could be made completely solar powered.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"repl... | 1,760,376,993.95397 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/12/28/augmented-reality-ex-nihilo/ | Augmented Reality Ex Nihilo | Brian Benchoff | [
"Peripherals Hacks"
] | [
"augmented reality",
"Kinect",
"webcam"
] | [David] sent in a nice project to
demonstrate augmented reality
with ARtoolkit and discuss the deep philosophical underpinnings of the meaning of nothingness. The good news is he was able to create a volume control button on a sheet of paper with a marker. The bad news is the philosophical treatment is a bit weak; [David] built something cool, so we’re able to let that slide for now.
This build was inspired by the
Impromptu Sound Board
made using a Kinect and a piece of paper. The idea behind the sound board is simple – draw some buttons on the paper, and use them to play short sound clips. [David] took this idea to make a small tutorial on augmented reality for
Occam’s Razor
.
The hardware is very simple – just a webcam, a piece of paper, and a marker. After [David] draws a large square on the paper, the code recognizes it as a volume control. Rotating the paper counterclockwise increases the volume, and clockwise turns the volume down. It’s a neat build to get into the foundations of augmented reality.
Check out the video demo of [David]’s build after the break.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?&v=CX5H2rRdWuI&w=470] | 13 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "546119",
"author": "Jon",
"timestamp": "2011-12-28T21:55:00",
"content": "That was so cool!!! I’m trying to think of a good and *useful* application for this, but none come to mind.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "546157",
... | 1,760,376,993.8327 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/12/28/repairing-a-commercial-grade-pick-and-place-machine/ | Repairing A Commercial-grade Pick And Place Machine | Brian Benchoff | [
"Repair Hacks",
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"cnc",
"null space labs",
"pick and place"
] | It looks like Null Space Labs has a new
pick and place machine
. This immense repair job
began
when [Charliex] and [Gleep] found a JukiPlacemat 360 pick and place machine. The idea of having their very own pick and place machine proved intoxicating, possibly too much so because the didn’t return the machine when they found out it wasn’t working.
After a ton of work that involved
adding a camera
, [Charliex] and the rest of the builders at Null Space Labs finally have their own pick and place machine that works. This was a complete rebuild from the ground up. So many things didn’t work on the machine, they might have been better off building one from scratch. Aside from the massive effort that went into turning the shell of a machine into a working unit, we really have to commend everyone who worked on it.
The team added a nice
GUI
to control the machine. The guys have already run a successful test and ovened a few boards, so everything works as it should have at purchase. It’ll be great for making next year’s
LayerOne conference badges
. | 12 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "546084",
"author": "fartface",
"timestamp": "2011-12-28T20:20:37",
"content": "Kind of neat, and an excellent lesson in robotics….But, unless they are mass producing boards, It’s kind of a waste.In the time it takes to program a pick and place machine and tweak it right, I can hand... | 1,760,376,993.897062 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/12/28/phone-controlled-light-display-is-simple-and-fun/ | Phone-controlled Light Display Is Simple And Fun | Mike Nathan | [
"Android Hacks",
"LED Hacks"
] | [
"android",
"bluetooth",
"ioio",
"led"
] | [Ytai Ben-Tsvi] wrote in to share a little holiday project that he and friend [Al Linke] put together,
a dynamic light display
that takes its cues from his Android-powered smartphone.
The display fits in a vase that sits in [Ytai’s] family room, and while it wasn’t exactly cheap to build, it sure looks nice. The vase is full of feathery decorative bits which help hide an addressable RGB LED strip. The lights are controlled by an IOIO board which the pair tucked away inside the vase as well.
The IOIO board was also fitted with a USB Bluetooth dongle, allowing it to communicate with just about any handset running a relatively recent flavor of the Android OS. When connected, the phone samples its surroundings with the onboard camera, commanding the vase to mix the colors seen by the phone into its twinkling display.
As you can see in the video below it works pretty well when used with solid, brightly colored objects. While just a fun toy in its current form, [Ytai] and [Al] have more than a few ideas on how to expand its usability.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=B3mKUUg9wGs&w=470] | 0 | 0 | [] | 1,760,376,994.270845 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/12/23/animated-led-buckyball/ | Animated LED Buckyball | Mike Szczys | [
"LED Hacks"
] | [
"buckyball",
"pic10",
"rgb"
] | This
animated LED buckyball
has little to do with modeling a carbon molecule but a lot to do with adding some excitement to your party decor. [Tim] felt that the LED cube hacks had run their course, so took on the challenge of a sphere made out of pentagonal and hexagonal components instead.
As with many LED projects, finding a good diffuser is paramount. [Tim] decided to go with hot glue sticks, which do a great job of both diffusing, and piping the light from RGB LEDs. The unintended consequence of this choice is that the shape sags under the weight of 90 glue cylinders.
At the end of each glue segment you’ll find a tiny surface-mount RGB LED and controller combo. This is [Tim’s]
own design
and in bulk it gets the cost of each node down to about one dollar. With the help of a soccer ball as an assembly jig he finished off the construction and wrote some code to produce the eye-pleasing animations seen after the break.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DpFe_dAlME4&w=470] | 2 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "543308",
"author": "bobmonkey07",
"timestamp": "2011-12-24T01:35:15",
"content": "am i the only one that sees this being used for some sort of game? get from point a to b, or something?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "543794",
... | 1,760,376,994.102719 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/12/23/make-any-scrap-of-paper-sticky-with-2000-volts/ | Make Any Scrap Of Paper Sticky With 2000 Volts | Mike Szczys | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"bulletin board",
"electrostatic",
"post-it note",
"sticky note"
] | Who needs chemistry when a little bit of physics will do? Instead of brewing up a batch of weak adhesive to make his own post-it notes, [Valentin] built this
handheld device to add an electrostatic charge to bits of paper
. Just give them a couple of seconds to charge and they’ll stick to the wall with ease.
The charging circuit is pretty simple, involving a transformer, transistor, resistor, and four diodes for rectification. He walks us through the build process, free forming the circuit using the transformer housing as a base. Once the circuit is fully assembled, a 9 volt battery connector is added and the fragile parts are hot-glued in place. It boosts the output voltage all the way up to 2 kV, but it’s still safe because it’s at a very low current.
The concept is akin to
the high-voltage bulletin board
seen last month. We wonder how long the notes will stay in place without an active electrical connection to keep the charge? | 22 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "543086",
"author": "Keith",
"timestamp": "2011-12-23T17:39:32",
"content": "Don’t taze me bro!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "543106",
"author": "YS",
"timestamp": "2011-12-23T18:26:34",
"content": "Interesting. But... | 1,760,376,994.371542 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/12/23/bitbuf-delivers-some-of-the-best-chiptune-effects-around/ | Bitbuf Delivers Some Of The Best Chiptune Effects Around | Mike Szczys | [
"Musical Hacks"
] | [
"ATmega88",
"chiptune",
"midi",
"sequencer",
"synthesizer"
] | Wow. And furthermore, WOW! Just looking at that clean prototype you know that a lot of work has gone into the project, but
when you hear this chiptune MIDI device
you’ll really be impressed. We know what you’re thinking, but really, you’ve got to hear this to appreciate the quality [Linus Akesson] achieved in this synthesizer. You can catch it after the break.
He does a great job of showing off the different waveforms that can be produced by the ATmega88 on this board. But there’s much more. It also serves as a 16 frame, 16 channel sequencer for creating and layering your own loops.
He mentions that eight oscillators are used for the waveform generation. We don’t see hardware for this on the board. Either we’re missing it, or these oscillators are being created with software? If you have an idea of how this works please clue us in by leaving a comment.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NV6IFOVY-go&w=470]
[Thanks 7e] | 32 | 26 | [
{
"comment_id": "543033",
"author": "cpmike",
"timestamp": "2011-12-23T16:39:35",
"content": "Me tune? No, [Linus] tune.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "543037",
"author": "TVHeadedRobots",
"timestamp": "2011-12-23T16:46:53",
"conten... | 1,760,376,994.230928 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/12/23/xbee-wireless-servo-control/ | Xbee Wireless Servo Control | Jeremy Cook | [
"Wireless Hacks"
] | [
"servo control",
"wireless controll",
"xbee"
] | Servo control is good, but wireless control is even better. This hack by [PyroElectro Tutorials] shows you
how to do this wirelessly using two Xbee modules
. There’s also a great example in the video after the break of this “hacking platform” used to control an animatronic head’s eyes. (we’ve featured
the eyes
here before).
In this control scheme, communication is one way only. An Xbee module is used as the transmitter, and the other as the receiver. The tutorial does a great job of explaining the
parts used
and gives links for purchasing the components if needed. It even goes over some very basic servo theory and gives schematics as well as assembly pictures. Transmitter and receiver firmware files are also available to download, so there’s nothing keeping you from trying it! Join us after the break to see the working example.
[youtube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6YMLF5bDmYo%5D
This head was reminiscent of
[Boxie the Creepster]
, which, although not wireless, had some creepy moving eyes like in this video (in addition to a weird flapping top). | 5 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "542981",
"author": "theorifice",
"timestamp": "2011-12-23T15:37:01",
"content": "Doesn’t the XBee module have some PWM outputs that are directly addressable?http://www.digi.com/support/kbase/kbaseresultdetl.jsp?id=2202Not sure if you can set the timebase, but I can’t see why you wou... | 1,760,376,994.31265 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/12/22/mameing-a-cnc-router/ | MAMEing A CNC Router | Brian Benchoff | [
"cnc hacks"
] | [
"cnc",
"mach3",
"mame"
] | [Ed] is pretty old school. He loves the functionality of old industrial shop tools that have their own dedicated systems. With huge candy-like buttons, who wouldn’t? [Ed] decided to replicate this aesthetic by building a MAME controller for his
Mach3 controlled
router.
[Ed] had a bunch of MAME buttons and joysticks sitting around from a forgotten project. With his vinyl plotter, it was relatively easy to make a very nice looking control panel. To connect the buttons to the Mach3 computer, a disused
I-Pac
was brought into the mix. The I-Pac reads the state of the buttons and sends keyboard codes over USB to the computer.
Because the very popular
Mach3 CNC software
responds to hotkeys, it was very simple to make the buttons do as they say. [Ed] has full control over the X, Y, and Z axes as well as the spindle speed. It seems like this would be interesting to do some ‘free form’ CNC work on [Ed]’s router.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KvhJj1yzqks&w=470] | 31 | 17 | [
{
"comment_id": "542438",
"author": "Trav",
"timestamp": "2011-12-22T23:12:01",
"content": "Sweet!Instead of naming it “Shopomatic” you should have used “Binford”",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "542439",
"author": "MooglyGuy",
"timestamp... | 1,760,376,994.673975 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/12/22/keeping-christmas-present-hunters-guessing-with-qr-code-gift-tags/ | Keeping Christmas Present Hunters Guessing With QR Code Gift Tags | Mike Nathan | [
"Holiday Hacks",
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"Christmas gifts",
"holidays",
"QR codes"
] | [Thadd Brooks] is
a geeky dad of the highest degree.
His kids are constantly trying to figure out what mom and dad bought them for Christmas, while he continues to think up ways to stymie their progress. He certainly could have
put a few prank presents under the tree
, but he opted to go a different route, confusing his smartphone-wielding kids with QR codes.
Each gift under the tree bears no name tag, rather they are adorned with a single QR code sticker which [Thadd] printed out. When scanned, the code brings his children to a page on his web server stating who the gift is for.
The catch? Well, the codes bring up a random page each time, attributing the gift to every member of the family along the way. There’s no chance that any of the kids will be able to correctly identify their gifts before Christmas Eve, when [Thadd] flips a switch on the server and reveals the actual gift recipients.
It’s certainly a clever, yet frustrating, way to keep his family on their toes, and we think it’s a pretty awesome idea.
If you’d like to see some of the pages he has created to confuse his kids, just click the “Search” button on the link above. | 31 | 23 | [
{
"comment_id": "542277",
"author": "brad",
"timestamp": "2011-12-22T19:10:27",
"content": "Eh, it would be fun for about 2 minutes till you figured out what’s going on.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "542298",
"author": "Thadd",
... | 1,760,376,995.000176 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/12/22/microcontroller-comm-with-a-computer-monitor/ | Microcontroller Comm With A Computer Monitor | Brian Benchoff | [
"Microcontrollers"
] | [
"ATmega168",
"manchester encoding",
"microcontroller",
"photoresistor"
] | Prolific Hack a Day author [Mike S] has been playing in his lab again and he’s come up with a neat way to
talk to microcontrollers
with an LCD monitor. The basic idea behind [Mike]’s work isn’t much different from the weird and/or cool
Timex Datalink
watch from the 1990s.
Despite the fancy dev board, the hardware is very simple – a
photoresistor
is pointed at a computer monitor and reads bits using
Manchester encoding
. The computer flashes a series of black and white screens thanks to a simple Javascript/HTML page, and data is (mostly) transmitted to the micro. [Mike] says he has about a failed message about 60% of the time, and he’s not quite sure where the problem is. He’s looking into another kind of Manchester encoding that uses samples instead of edges, so we hope everything works out for him.
This build is very similar – and was inspired by – an earlier post about microcontroller communication
with flashing lights
. Still, [Mike]’s build reminds us of the strangely futuristic Ironman watch we had in ’97. Check out [Mike]’s demo of his computer/micro comm link after the break and his code on
github
.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NGbpC91oZJ4&w=470] | 16 | 14 | [
{
"comment_id": "542243",
"author": "svofski",
"timestamp": "2011-12-22T18:39:42",
"content": "A few suggestions:– start sending with a sync sequence of known chars that would permit the micro to tune the timers/counters to sender’s frequency– use FSK like in old computers: basically it translates t... | 1,760,376,994.778216 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/12/26/stripinvaders-puts-colored-lights-everywhere/ | StripInvaders Puts Colored Lights Everywhere | Brian Benchoff | [
"Arduino Hacks",
"LED Hacks"
] | [
"arduino ethernet",
"led",
"led strips",
"RGB LED",
"≥l;"
] | There’s not much to be gained by living in a discotheque but colored lights are awesome, especially when they’re as well implemented as [michu]’s
StripInvaders
.
The StripInvaders project takes a gigantic 5 meter
LED strip
with WS2801 controllers and turns it into an Ethernet-enabled 24 bit display with the new Arduino Ethernet. While the Ethernet-enabled may seem a little superflous, [michu] implements it quite nicely. The entire 5 meter LED strip can be controlled from a tablet or smartphone.
Apart from a tablet/smartphone interface with OSC, there’s also mDNS support so we’re sure the StripInvaders could make for an interesting LAN party with the appropriate scripts. While the cost of the LED strip itself is fairly high, we’re sure some Hack a Day commenter will come up with a cheaper solution.
The firmware for StripInvaders has been posted on
Github
, but for a real treat, check out the demo after the break.
[vimeo=33992255] | 13 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "544731",
"author": "furiousd",
"timestamp": "2011-12-26T19:27:09",
"content": "Meritline has a 16′ RGB controllable LED strip for less than $50. By the time you make your own controller, buying the Arduino and Ethernet shield, you could do it at about half price",
"parent_id": ... | 1,760,376,994.524704 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/12/26/ammo-tin/ | Ammo Tin ][ | Brian Benchoff | [
"classic hacks"
] | [
"apple II",
"casemod"
] | Ammo crate PCs have been around since Unreal Tournament LAN parties, but this one goes further back than that; [Simon] put an
Apple II in an ammo crate
. It’s a fitting anachronistic build from the same guy that built the
TARDIS MAME cabinet
.
Thankfully, [Simon] didn’t tear apart an Apple IIc for this build. A bare-bones Celeron motherboard was acquired for this project to run the
AppleWin
emulator. Instead of shoving all the parts into the box and calling it a day, [Simon] did it right and fabricated a
very nice frame
for the computer. With a wimpy CPU and no expansion cards, the Ammo Tin ][ can run very cool without drawing a lot of power.
We really have to hand it to [Simon] for this build. The metal work on this build looks great (it should for someone who is rebuilding an
Austin 7
), and we’ve got to respect the love for the Apple II. Now all that’s needed is a real
Apple II keyboard
on that USB port. | 10 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "544711",
"author": "GameboyRMH",
"timestamp": "2011-12-26T18:13:04",
"content": "Cool build, it gave me an idea for a more practical application of an ammo box: A real ammo box is sealed. Imagine building a PC inside one that can withstand rain, dirt etc when closed, and when opened... | 1,760,376,994.719789 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/12/26/ip-over-lego-train-carrier/ | IP Over LEGO Train Carrier | Brian Benchoff | [
"Toy Hacks"
] | [
"lego",
"legos",
"networking"
] | [Maximilien] sent in a
networking protocol
built out of a LEGO train set. Unlike
IP over Avian Carrier
this system won’t be killed by plate-glass windows or birds of prey, but we’d hate to step on [Max]’s work in bare feet.
The system uses a USB flash drive to carry data around to different nodes. At each node, [Max] removed the power from the tracks and added a relay to start the train up again. A mechanical switch detects the presence of the train, and an Arduino makes the link to the Linux boxes via serial-over-USB.
The physical connection of the flash drive is with four wires and aluminum foil contacts. To send data, the system waits for the train to arrive at the ‘station’, mounts the drive, checks if there is data for it, and sends what needs to be sent. After unmounting the drive, power is applied to the local rail and the train continues on its journey.
[Max] admits that the latency on his network is terrible, but the bandwidth should be fairly good. As the old saying goes, ‘
Never underestimate the bandwidth of a station wagon full of tapes.’
We’re not quite sure how that applies to LEGO trains, but there you go. Check out the gallery of [Max]’s work after the break.
[slideshow] | 16 | 15 | [
{
"comment_id": "544660",
"author": "DrMelon",
"timestamp": "2011-12-26T16:34:23",
"content": "I’d love to see a video of this in action!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "544667",
"author": "Steve Pomeroy",
"timestamp": "2011-12-26T16:57:... | 1,760,376,994.832964 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/12/26/counting-down-to-the-new-year/ | Counting Down To The New Year | Mike Szczys | [
"LED Hacks"
] | [
"countdown timer",
"New Year's Eve",
"seven segment"
] | [Rod] is in a position to provide a community service on New Year’s Eve. He spends the evening at a relative’s house next to the beach. There are fireworks at midnight, but the crowd has no communal way to count down to the deadline. This year,
he build his own count-down display
so that everyone can join in during the last few seconds.
This is a temporary build so each digit is housed in a cardboard box. [Rod] first drew the outline of the seven segment digit on the front, then added holes for three LEDs in each segment. He’s feeding the segments with 12V and therefore is able to run the LEDs in series, along with a resistor, switching each segment with one transistor. He chose an Arduino to drive the display, and since he had two sitting around, used both instead of grabbing a shift register as port expander.
If you’re looking for a more permanent solution, we really like the
digit displays designed for this scoreboard
. But you’re going to have to etch the boards yourself if you want them done in time for the festivities. | 12 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "544599",
"author": "aztraph",
"timestamp": "2011-12-26T14:07:13",
"content": "Cool, run it up a flag pole and make a ball too!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "544608",
"author": "bakamoichigei",
"timestamp": "2011-12-26T... | 1,760,376,995.245646 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/12/25/using-an-atmega8-to-program-pic24fj-chips/ | Using An ATmega8 To Program PIC24FJ Chips | Mike Szczys | [
"Microcontrollers"
] | [
"atmega8",
"bootloader",
"bus pirate",
"pic",
"pic24f",
"programmer",
"rs232"
] | [Fezoj] likes to play around with microcontrollers and decided that he wanted to try a Bus Pirate as a new tool in his adventures. Since it’s open hardware he had his own board made and populated it himself. The trouble is, he works only with AVR chips and doesn’t have a PIC programmer. No problem, he figured out
how to flash the PIC24FJ using an ATmega8
.
To get started, he grabbed a copy of the flash programming specifications from Microchip. Once he had implemented the protocol in the AVR code, it was just a matter of getting the downloaded PIC firmware to the AVR. An RS232 chip gives him the serial connection he needs, with the help of his own programming software written with Visual Studio.
It’s not a robust solution for prototyping on the PIC platform, but maybe it could be developed for that purpose. For now, all he needed was a bootloader so that he could flash the Bus Pirate via a USB connection.
[via
Dangerous Prototypes
] | 18 | 13 | [
{
"comment_id": "544296",
"author": "Microguy",
"timestamp": "2011-12-25T20:43:29",
"content": "I like Visual Studio, I have an old version. But would not have thought to use it for programming Microsoft, cool!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "5... | 1,760,376,995.15033 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/12/25/one-way-to-reuse-your-christmas-lights-post-holiday/ | One Way To Reuse Your Christmas Lights Post-holiday | Mike Szczys | [
"Arduino Hacks"
] | [
"arduino",
"christmas lights",
"relay",
"shopbot",
"sign"
] | [Andrew] shows us one way to reuse all those strands of Christmas lights you used for decoration this year. He had a friend that was helping with stage props for a local musical and ended up
using his skills to build a lighted sign
with some animation capabilities.
The original plan was to cut out letters for a sign by hand and ring them with white Christmas lights. It is possible to
hand cut parts reasonably well
, but [Andrew] knew he could get a much better result in less time using a CNC ShopBot to make them. He didn’t know the spacing for the lights so waited and drilled holes for them by hand. Each strand is connected to a relay, then driven by an Arduino. They turned out great as you can see in the clip after the break.
This is a timely hack, because it uses plain old while incandescent bulb strands which will be going on sale in the next few days. Usually you can get them on clearance for a dollar or less so plan ahead and hit the big box store early.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ann0Kh1x2Ws&w=470] | 7 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "544224",
"author": "Zee",
"timestamp": "2011-12-25T16:43:09",
"content": "He took down the xmas lights before xmas is over?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "544291",
"author": "Hirudinea",
"timestamp": "2011-12-25T20:18:5... | 1,760,376,995.096397 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/12/25/hackaday-links-december-25-2011/ | Hackaday Links: December 25, 2011 | Brian Benchoff | [
"Hackaday links"
] | [
"acrylic",
"Doctor Who",
"galvanic skin response",
"hat",
"laser cutter",
"led",
"light piping",
"merit badge",
"multimeter",
"ornament",
"pcm",
"vacuum tube"
] | Ah, Christmas. That wonderful time of year when you can roll out of bed to the screams and wails of children, grab a hot cocoa, and spend several hours arguing with an 8-year-old about which LEGO set to build first. Simply magical. While you’re waiting for the Doctor Who Christmas special to come on, settle down with these wonderful Christmas-themed builds that came in over the last few weeks.
One step closer to Robot Santa
Here’s an interesting way to
spice up your seasonal headwear
. [Mark] took a Santa hat and added a string of multicolored LEDs to the brim. The lights were picked up at a drug store for a dollar. Control is through a simple push button connected to an ATtiny13. Press the button, the lights cycle in a different pattern. Very cool, so check out
the video
.
A holographic holiday tree
[Auger] posted this very cool
light up Christmas tree decoration
on Instructables. This tree is made up of three pieces of acrylic. Different designs were laser cut into each piece of plastic – candy canes for the ‘red’ piece, stars and tinsel for the ‘yellow’ piece, and the tree for the ‘green’ piece. LEDs of the respective colors are cemented to the bottom of each bit of plastic. It’s called light piping and is used everywhere. This is the first time we’ve seen three colors, though.
This is what nerds do, and it’s awesome
[Rickard Dahlstrand] was playing around with his phone trying to take deliberately fuzzy pictures of his tree. He noticed the dashes produced from the LED Christmas lights must be produced from PCM dimming. Going through the EXIF data in the picture, he found the exposure time was 1/17th of a second. 1/17 of a second = ~ 58 ms / 5 (cycles on the picture) = ~11 ms per cycle = ~100 Hz frequency on the PCM dimming. Of course this is just about 2 times the line frequency in [Rickard]’s native Sweden, so we’ll call this confirmed. There’s no blog post for this, but we’ve never seen a clearer example of applied geekery. Simply awesome.
Yeah, we measured [Rickard] on a nerd meter
In the spirit of giving, [Johannes] decided to tell the entire world exactly how nerdy he is. He built a ‘Nerd Alert’ meter out of an old 1950s Japanese multimeter. The old guts of the meter were chucked, and a simple amp made out of a transistor amplifies the current flowing through the user’s fingers. A neat scale ([Johannes] measures somewhere between Amiga Workbench and Space invaders) replaces the old, boring, number-based one. Again, no write-up, but
here’s
some
awesome
build
pictures
.
Finally a use for all those old radio tubes
[AUTUIN] took apart a vacuum tube with a
blow torch and a diamond cutting wheel
. Surprisingly, he was able to put it back together, but not before making a wonderful Christmas ornament. There are two copper wires inside the envelope that are the leads to a single orange-red LED. The whole thing is powered by a watch battery. We’ll be sure to reference [AUTUIN] next time we have to take apart a glass bulb, because he managed not to burn, cut or blind himself.
Six things in a links post? It’s a Christmas miracle!
[Darryl] sent in a
nice tool
to select and display all of the hacker/maker
merit badges
available from Adafruit. Oh, we’re still trying to figure out who to give
10 badges to
. We’re giving away skull ‘n wrench badges to the top ten hacks
ever
featured here. Leave a note in the comments, or
tell us
who should win.
Holiday wishes
Now put the computer down and go spend some time with your families, or failing that, strangers. Of course there’s an all day Doctor Who marathon, and that thing isn’t going to watch itself… | 13 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "544194",
"author": "J. Peterson",
"timestamp": "2011-12-25T15:51:26",
"content": "Actually, the 100hz blink on the led lights is probably a design that’s too cheap to rectify the AC line current.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "... | 1,760,376,995.051466 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/12/22/tannenbaum-ticker-even-though-the-markets-close-for-christmas/ | Tannenbaum Ticker, Even Though The Markets Close For Christmas | Brian Benchoff | [
"Holiday Hacks"
] | [
"propeller",
"stock ticker"
] | Maybe we’re a little bitter because we held on to our pumpkin futures well into November, but we’ve got to respect [Nick]’s
stock ticker ornament
. It’s an Internet-connected Christmas ornament that queries stock prices and displays the change with an RGB LED.
The build uses a
Propeller Platform USB
and the Propeller
E-Net Module
to pull stock quotes down from Google. With the attached source, selecting any traded company is easy enough; all that’s needed is to select a company is changing a line in the code. The Propeller pulls the quote every 30 seconds during the trading day, and parses it into a ‘percent changed’ format. The ornament glows red if the change is more than a 4% negative change, green for within 0.2% of open, and blue if more than a 4% positive change.
[Nick] is more of a ‘set it and forget it’ investor, so this ornament is a handy, passive way to keep an eye on his investments. Check out the demo vid after the break.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QbyvZmrN8Ns&w=470] | 6 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "542308",
"author": "lochnessduck",
"timestamp": "2011-12-22T20:00:47",
"content": "Very cool. It’s always nice seeing a complete package, instead of being tied to a laptop to pull in the data.It would be cool to see the device control several ornaments, each one for a different stoc... | 1,760,376,995.192736 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/12/22/how-to-grow-your-own-el-wire-dna-helix-lamp/ | How To Grow Your Own EL Wire DNA Helix Lamp | Mike Nathan | [
"chemistry hacks",
"home hacks",
"LED Hacks"
] | [
"acrylic",
"dna",
"el wire",
"helix",
"lamp",
"led"
] | [LucidMovement] was looking for some crystal-based artwork and just couldn’t seem to find anything that fit the bill,
so he decided to build something himself.
The inspiration for his desk lamp came from something we’re all familiar with, a DNA double-helix. To grow the crystals he built a helix-shaped growing substrate out of nichrome and EL wires, submerging them in a warm alum solution. Once he had a nice set of crystals, he mounted it in an acrylic tube, filling the air space with clear silicone to seal off the display. He then mounted the silicone-filled tube on top of a rotating acrylic stand that he had cut for the project. The stand is made from several sheets of acrylic and contains both the gearing for movement as well as RGB LEDs to light the display from the bottom.
The lamp looks great when sitting idle, but when he powers it on it really shines (no pun intended). [LucidMovement] put a ton of work into the lamp, and offers up all sorts of tips, tricks, and considerations for anyone looking to build their own. Be sure to check out his writeup for plenty more details, and stick around to see a short video of the lamp in action.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fxVoBpBYn_c&feature=player_embedded&w=470] | 11 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "542083",
"author": "Jeremy",
"timestamp": "2011-12-22T15:20:57",
"content": "Too cool. It looks like something out of a mad scientists laboratory in a scifi flick.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "542089",
"author": "Eirinn"... | 1,760,376,995.492423 |
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