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https://hackaday.com/2011/06/17/a-simple-diy-solar-tracker/ | A Simple DIY Solar Tracker | Jeremy Cook | [
"green hacks",
"Solar Hacks"
] | [
"dish network",
"solar"
] | The sun is a great source of energy, however, efficiently collecting this energy can be hard to do. One thing that can improve the results of solar use is to actually track the sun’s movement. [fanman1981] hooked up his own
homebrew solar tracker
using some pretty clever techniques.
For this hack he used two Harbor freight
45 Watt solar kits
, some struts on the bottom, and a Dish Network satellite dish bracket hooked up to an “old school” antenna motor. Although one might think this device tracks the sun using some sort of sensor, it’s actually just a matter of hooking up the device to rotate at timed interval with a remote control. This interval is figured out with the benefit of some charts on
livingonsolar.com
.
To see it in use, check out the video after the break. He gives a good explanation about how everything was put together, but if you just want to see it move, fast forward to around 5:26, really quite impressive.
[youtube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UufteaRhnPI&w=470%5D
[via
hackedgadgets
] | 40 | 33 | [
{
"comment_id": "407089",
"author": "pegel",
"timestamp": "2011-06-17T12:56:35",
"content": "Quite clever with the antenna rotor.For maximum efficiency you would also want to rotate the panels on a second axis to have them adjusted 90 degrees towards the sun both horizontally and vertically.",
"... | 1,760,377,164.577209 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/06/17/homebrew-ttl-logic-computer/ | Homebrew TTL Logic Computer | Brian Benchoff | [
"classic hacks"
] | [
"74xx",
"homebrew",
"homebrew computer",
"ttl",
"ttl logic"
] | Although [Jack] just graduated High School and doesn’t have much experience with electronics, that didn’t stop him from building the DUO Adept, a
homebrew computer
built entirely out of TTL logic chips.
The DUO Adept has 64k of memory, 6K of which is dedicated to the video ram that outputs a 240×208 black and white image onto a TV. Bootstrapping the computer to it’s current state was quite a challenge, as an entire OS was put into th system one bit at a time though DIP switches. After the OS was written to the computer, [Jack] was able to connect a keyboard and started programming. [Jack] programmed a hex editor and a few games of his own design. If all that wasn’t impressive enough, [Jack] also programmed an
assembly compiler and emulator
for his homebrew system.
We’ve seen a a few homebrew computersbefore, but not many of them are laid out on
17 breadboards
like the DUO Adept. With skills like these, we can’t wait to see what [Jack] comes up with next. Check out the video after the break for a walk-through of the build.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qYvr0b8jqbg&w=470] | 48 | 47 | [
{
"comment_id": "407063",
"author": "spiritplumber",
"timestamp": "2011-06-17T11:15:13",
"content": "Dear Jack:You’re epic.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "407065",
"author": "a.d",
"timestamp": "2011-06-17T11:16:43",
"content": "OK,... | 1,760,377,164.32123 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/06/16/making-your-own-lab-instruments/ | Making Your Own Lab Instruments | Mike Szczys | [
"chemistry hacks"
] | [
"bike pump",
"buchner flask",
"filter",
"funnel",
"pump",
"vacuum"
] | [Andrey Mikhalchuk] is trying to gather a base set of lab instruments. Specifically, he’s looking for
hardware that will let him quickly filter solids out of a liquid
. He first started by adding a cotton disk to a plastic funnel. It does the job, but when left to gravity it’s quite slow. He needed a way to speed up the flow even when the filter is heavily clogged with particulates.
There’s already a solution to this problem. It’s a glass container called a
Büchner Flask
. These feature a glass tube coming out from the neck. By hooking a vacuum pump up to this tube, reduced pressure inside the flask will pull the liquid through the filter in no time. Rather than purchase the specialty item, [Andrey] altered a rubber stopper to accept both the funnel, and a glass tube. This is a cheaper version because it uses a common conical flask but it works just as well. To create the vacuum,
an altered bike pump
was used. Check out videos of both hacks after the break.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H3jjBv6968I&w=470]
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7lrAcJ67b78&w=470] | 31 | 31 | [
{
"comment_id": "406849",
"author": "strider_mt2k",
"timestamp": "2011-06-16T23:08:42",
"content": "They better not be filtering the solids out of bong water for re-smoking, because that’s gross.Don’t ask me how I know that…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"co... | 1,760,377,164.77743 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/06/16/360-degree-photography-uses-very-easy-post-processing/ | 360 Degree Photography Uses Very Easy Post-processing | Mike Szczys | [
"News"
] | [
"360 degree",
"christmas",
"gimp",
"ornament",
"panorama",
"sphere"
] | [Pixel_Outlaw] has been working on
a method to capture 360 images with his camera
. He’s using a shiny Christmas ball ornament to reflect the entire room into the lens of the camera. In the unwrapped image you can make out the three legs of his tripod. In that snapshot he laid the ornament on the floor and pointed the camera straight down from above.
What catches our attention is the post processing he used to unwrap the image. He loaded up
The Gimp
, an open source image manipulation program, and used just three steps to unwrap the image. First he cropped the picture so that it was square and the spherical ornament was perfectly centered. Then he ran the polar coordinates filter. Finally he scaled the image, setting the width to be Pi times the height. Works pretty darned well for something that doesn’t take much fiddling.
The ornament wasn’t perfectly smooth (or maybe it was a bit dirty) but you can get a much better starting image if you use a bulb with a silver reflector like we saw in
this older hack
. | 25 | 25 | [
{
"comment_id": "406822",
"author": "chango",
"timestamp": "2011-06-16T22:15:00",
"content": "From what I understand, this is exactly how the pros do environment mapping onto composited 3d objects. A silvered ball is placed where the object is to appear in the scene, then the resulting image used t... | 1,760,377,164.434114 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/06/16/antenna-cannon-for-amateur-radio/ | Antenna Cannon For Amateur Radio | Brian Benchoff | [
"Cellphone Hacks",
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"antenna",
"antenna launcher",
"spud gun"
] | As an amateur radio enthusiast, [Andrew] sometimes has to set up impromptu antennas up to 160 meters in length. The easiest way to get these antennas off the ground is to drape them over trees, a feat normally accomplished by lofting fishing line into the air with a slingshot or bow and arrow. [Andrew] thought slings were
so
last century, so he came up with a
spud gun inspired antenna launcher
.
The launcher is built out of PVC and launches a foam filled tennis ball that can reel out 150 yards of Spectra line. In a moment of brilliance, [Andrew] decided to add
an augmented reality HUD
. The display is actually [Andrew]’s phone running an app called
Geocam
that provides him with a display of elevation and azimuth overlaid on the phone’s camera feed. The
results
of [Andrew]’s build are fairly impressive. The cannon was able to lob a tennis ball over a 110 foot tree at half the pressure rating of the PVC. The grouping was pretty tight as well, more than sufficient to run a line over a tree.
[Andrew]’s antenna cannon is an awesome piece of work and unlike most french fry cutters, it’s a useful tool. If you’re interested in seeing 160 meter antennas heaved over the tops of trees,
amateur radio field day
is next
month
week, June 25th and 26th. | 33 | 28 | [
{
"comment_id": "406797",
"author": "Brian",
"timestamp": "2011-06-16T21:07:26",
"content": "Next month June 25 & 26th? Is it next month or next week? #corrections",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "406798",
"author": "Roman Dulgarov",
"tim... | 1,760,377,164.243224 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/06/16/official-kinect-sdk-released/ | Official Kinect SDK Released | Brian Benchoff | [
"Kinect hacks",
"Software Development"
] | [
"Kinect",
"programming"
] | Microsoft just released the beta of the
Kinect for Windows SDK
. Although, “
Microsoft does not condone the modification of its products
” it appears Microsoft have changed their tune and released APIs for C++, C# and Visual Basic seven months after the Kinect was officially hacked.
We’ve seen libraries being developed
since the launch of Kinect
, culminating in the
OpenKinect
project. The Microsoft release covers the same ground as the OpenKinect project, and will hopefully improve on
attempts to get audio out of the Kinect
.
We’ve seen Kinect hacks run the gamut from
telepresence
, to
robotics
, to
3D modeling
, so the Kinect seems like a great tool in the builder’s arsenal. The Kinect is a wonderful tool, and even though most of the functionality has already been replicated by the open-source community, it’s nice to know there’s official support for all the great projects we’ve seen. | 21 | 21 | [
{
"comment_id": "406792",
"author": "Alex Parting",
"timestamp": "2011-06-16T20:55:36",
"content": "This is brilliant.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "406809",
"author": "Naed",
"timestamp": "2011-06-16T21:23:03",
"content": "Roll on... | 1,760,377,164.16702 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/06/16/tripod-cnc-plotter/ | Tripod CNC Plotter | Jeremy Cook | [
"cnc hacks"
] | [
"cnc",
"tripod"
] | Although some may have heard of a machine like this, the
CNC tripod
remains an unknown machine to many in the engineering word. This particular machine is set up as a plotter, drawing incredibly straight lines, shapes, and letters.
The machine appears to have 6 servo motors, 3 working as pairs. This would simplify control and allows the pen to be held at a perpendicular angle to the paper. Once could envision this being used with, instead of a pen, a spindle and mill. Instead of the traditional movement of a CNC mill or router, this could be used to cut out complex shapes.
Additionally, if the servos were not driven in 3 tandem pairs, but were all controlled independently, it should be possible to twist the tool in a controlled angular direction. This would add an extra axis of control to an already robust CNC setup. It will be exciting to see how this technology develops in the future. Until then, check out the video after the break:
[youtube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJYhz5aTMnA&w=470&h=349%5D
Also, for another alternate machining method, check out this
“CNC hexapod.”
Really cool as well. | 26 | 26 | [
{
"comment_id": "406769",
"author": "herbdean",
"timestamp": "2011-06-16T20:10:43",
"content": "Sweet!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "406771",
"author": "Morbious Stone",
"timestamp": "2011-06-16T20:14:26",
"content": "WOW very Cool... | 1,760,377,164.496536 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/06/16/beginner-concepts-using-a-low-pass-filter-to-smooth-pwm-output/ | Beginner Concepts: Using A Low-pass Filter To Smooth PWM Output | Mike Szczys | [
"Microcontrollers"
] | [
"arduino",
"beginner concepts",
"low pass filter"
] | Microcontrollers are digital devices at heart. They can do fancy things like convert analog signals into a digital value but going the other direction is a bit tougher. Pulse-Width Modulation is used to approximate an analog output but what you’re actually doing is turning the operating voltage on and off very quickly to achieve an average value somewhere in between. This is the method most commonly used to dim an LED. But generating a smooth voltage in this way takes just a few more parts.
[Scott Daniels] spent some time discussing the process of
smoothing a PWM output by using a low pass filter
. This is a compilation of digital and analog circuitry to produce a smoother signal than PWM can achieve on its own. As you can see above, the low pass filter is made up of one resistor and one capacitor. The theory is not hard to understand, and with [Scott’s] help you’ll become much more comfortable with choosing the component values for your own filters. His examples center around an Arduino using the analogWrite() function but the techniques can be applied universally. | 21 | 21 | [
{
"comment_id": "406729",
"author": "fritoeata",
"timestamp": "2011-06-16T18:06:35",
"content": "As a (primarily) self taught n00b to electronics, i find this VERY helpful!frito",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "406733",
"author": "TiagoC",
... | 1,760,377,164.373915 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/06/16/mouse-and-hdd-combo-show-off-your-data-gluttony/ | Mouse And HDD Combo Show Off Your Data Gluttony | Mike Nathan | [
"News",
"Peripherals Hacks"
] | [
"feedback",
"haptic",
"hard drive",
"mouse",
"physical"
] | So we know you’ve got a lot of porn on your computer, but just how much is a lot?
This concept mouse and hard drive combo
aims to show you just how much digital junk you have acquired through physical feedback.
The DataBot mouse looks like a typical run of the mill scroll mouse that you might get with a new computer. Inside however, the designers have added a small servo which alters the ease with which the ball moves. The more files you have stuffed into the folder you are moving around, the more the mouse resists, giving you a sense of the physical “weight” of your computer’s contents.
The DataBot hard drive gives you a sense of how full your computer is by growing and shrinking based on space usage. During file transmissions the hard drive blinks its LEDs to indicate how fast or slowly your files are moving. When the inevitable file access error occurs, the LEDs switch to a bright red hue and the drive shakes to indicate there is a problem afoot.
With the price of data storage decreasing by the day, it’s easy to get lost in a glut of information without realizing just how much data you have. This is definitely an interesting way to get a different look at your data consumption.
Check out the videos below to see the pair in action.
[via
Dvice
]
[vimeo http://vimeo.com/24741148 w=470]
[vimeo http://vimeo.com/24744756 w=470] | 24 | 24 | [
{
"comment_id": "406689",
"author": "Brennan",
"timestamp": "2011-06-16T16:54:21",
"content": "Giving the mouse more resistance when you have a ton of files in a folder seems self-defeating because then it would be harder to scroll through all of them…unless you are trying to punish yourself or some... | 1,760,377,164.708202 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/06/16/watch-out-segway-here-comes-tilto/ | Watch Out Segway, Here Comes Tilto | Mike Nathan | [
"Transportation Hacks"
] | [
"accelerometer",
"balance",
"gyro",
"segway",
"Tilto",
"transportation"
] | While the Segway enjoyed a few years of fame before falling off the radar, [Marcelo Fornaso] is hoping
his creation has quite a bit more staying power
. Inspired by the Segway’s ability to balance itself, he started thinking about how the concept could be improved. He felt that one of the Segway’s shortcomings arose out of the fact that the base platform was rigid and required the user to lean back and forth outside the device’s frame in order to turn it. He thought that this made the riding experience uncomfortable as well as risked causing the rider to fall over.
His creation, the Tilto, aims to both improve on the turning ability of the Segway while eliminating the need for handlebars. Based on a tilting mountain board design he had been tossing around for a while, the Tilto uses accelerometers and gyros to keep its balance, much like the Segway. His goal was to keep the vehicle balanced while traveling forwards and backwards, but also allowing the device to tilt from side to side without tipping over. This design keeps the rider mostly upright, allowing the user to direct the vehicle by leaning much like you would on a bicycle.
As you can see in the video below, the Tilto works pretty well, even in its prototype form.
Finally, a people mover that lets us get our gangsta lean on!
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y1dbYXfPunQ&w=470] | 30 | 30 | [
{
"comment_id": "406644",
"author": "marks256",
"timestamp": "2011-06-16T15:43:49",
"content": "That’s cool! But looks terribly uncomfortable.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "406647",
"author": "juice",
"timestamp": "2011-06-16T15:48:22"... | 1,760,377,164.645449 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/06/14/simple-clock-uses-rtc-chip-and-character-display/ | Simple Clock Uses RTC Chip And Character Display | Mike Szczys | [
"clock hacks"
] | [
"16f1937",
"ds1307",
"pic",
"rtc"
] | [Giorgos Lazaridis] just finished building
a simple clock on a breadboard
. It uses a common real time clock chip, the DS1307. This is less expensive that its full-featured older brother, the
DS3232
. The difference between the two is that the 1307 requires an external 32.768 kHz crystal and it is not temperature compensated. This means it will not be quite as accurate over the long-haul (it may wander as much as one minute per month), but it still blows the accuracy of using a microcontroller as an RTC out of the water and includes a backup battery which will keep time when the rest of the circuit is switched off.
This design uses a PIC 16F1937 to display the time and date on a 16×2 character LCD screen. Six buttons are dedicated to incrementing one specific chunk of data (ie: one button changes the year, another the day, etc.). A seventh button can be held down when using the other six in order to decrement the setting. We’re always interested in how the button code is written. [Giorgos] did share his code, but he wrote it in assembly so it’s of little use to us as we tend to stick to C code.
See the walk through video after the break.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fnpLzQwNQco&w=470] | 13 | 13 | [
{
"comment_id": "405721",
"author": "Sprite_tm",
"timestamp": "2011-06-14T18:25:04",
"content": "Seriously? You’re going to run an article about someone connecting a RTC and an LCD to a PIC? Good for the maker, no doubt, everyone has to begin somewhere, but why feature an article about something 99%... | 1,760,377,164.829465 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/06/14/disappearing-kitchen-island/ | Disappearing Kitchen Island | Mike Szczys | [
"home hacks"
] | [
"ikea",
"iphone",
"kitchen island",
"scissor lift"
] | [Tim Thaler] has been redoing his home, adding some fancy automation here and there. But when it came to the kitchen, he went all-out by
installing an iPhone controlled disappearing island
. In the video clip after the break you can see [Tim] dial up some extra counter and storage space from his smart phone. One click causes it to slowly rise from the depths, shedding the carpet tiles as it goes.
Directly beneath the kitchen is an unfinished storage room. [Tim] framed a hole in the floor above, and sourced a used scissor lift for about $380 to do the heavy lifting. It operates smoothly and isn’t all that loud. It sure makes for an interesting feature if he ever decides to sell the place.
We thought it was a nice touch that the storage room hiding the mechanical parts of the hack has a hidden entrance. You must travel through the billiards room in the basement to access it, turning the ball rack to unlatch the entrance.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x3nVeBMwkGY&w=470]
[Thanks Mallie] | 31 | 31 | [
{
"comment_id": "405683",
"author": "Ben",
"timestamp": "2011-06-14T16:46:17",
"content": "Given the quality of the build otherwise (it is AWESOME), I’m a little surprised that a trapdoor wasn’t used. I’d just as soon have a food preparation surface that people DIDN’T walk on. The floor pad things a... | 1,760,377,165.747408 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/06/14/thirty-year-old-pachinko-machine-meets-an-arduino/ | Thirty Year Old Pachinko Machine Meets An Arduino | Nick Schulze | [
"Arduino Hacks"
] | [
"arduino",
"pachinko"
] | When [Jim’s] thirty year
old Pachinko machine
started to freeze up and shorted out his computer’s graphics card he decided it was time to replace the old electronics with an Arduino. Originally the
Pachinko machine
ran off a 48 volt supply and control was achieved using about 20 relays, the random numbers were generated using some complex mechanical reels which we hope will find their way into a new project in the future.
All of this and the daunting amount of wire inside the machine have been replaced with an Arduino and an MP3 Shield for the sound effects, powered from a much safer 12 volts. The new machine runs just as you would expect a thirty year old machine to run, with all the grinding sounds and flickering lights. Check out the video after the break to see an overview of the project.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ZneGZ0V8Ts&w=470] | 8 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "405663",
"author": "jentulman",
"timestamp": "2011-06-14T15:49:55",
"content": "+1 for including Jonathan Coulton :)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "405678",
"author": "Beat707",
"timestamp": "2011-06-14T16:22:05",
"... | 1,760,377,165.391434 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/06/14/blox-that-play-back/ | Blox That Play Back | Nick Schulze | [
"Toy Hacks"
] | [
"arm",
"Blox",
"zigbee"
] | I’m sure most of us remember playing with blocks when we were kids, well now this age old children’s toy has been
crammed full of electrical goodness
by a team of Electrical Engineers from the University of Texas. The Blox, which are about the size of a standard Rubiks Cube each contain 16 IR sensors, 4 touch panels, a 3-axis accelerometer, a ZigBee Wireless Module, a 2″ OLED display and a battery, all controlled using an ARM Cortex processor.
The Blox show their full potential when used together as an interactive distributed computing system. Blox is an open source project so all of the build details, schematics and code can be found on the website. For an overview and demonstration of the Blox check out the video after the break.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W5IlfugSRKA&w=470] | 3 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "405630",
"author": "Laurens",
"timestamp": "2011-06-14T14:05:10",
"content": "Reminds me of sifteo cubes…http://sifteo.com",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "405831",
"author": "Aviator747",
"timestamp": "2011-06-14T22:07:2... | 1,760,377,165.847297 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/06/14/bikinis-of-the-future/ | Bikinis Of The Future! | Mike Nathan | [
"Wearable Hacks"
] | [
"bikini",
"clothing",
"laser sintering",
"nylon",
"shapeways",
"solar"
] | It’s always interesting to see what happens when hacking meets clothing – check out this pair of bikinis, for instance.
This first item, called
the N12 bikini (mildly NSFW)
, comes from Continuum Fashion and is composed entirely from Nylon 12, hence the name. Shapeways uses 3D Selective Laser Sintering (SLS) to create the tiny circles that make up this piece of swimwear. The suit is held together by tiny stretchy strings made of the same nylon, and the bikini can be printed to order. It seems like an interesting idea, but we wonder how it would hold up against some big waves or a game of beach volleyball.
The second item
is a bit more functional
. Designer [Andrew Schneider] has put together a bikini that can solve all of your energy needs while sitting by the pool. His solar bikini is covered with hand-sewn flexible solar cells that work together to produce up to 5v, available via a USB connection. He claims that you are free to go swimming in the suit, so long as you dry out the USB port before using it again. For all the guys out there crying foul, don’t worry – he’s got a suit for you too. He’ll be putting together a men’s suit in the near future that powers a 1.5 amp Peltier cooler to keep your beer cold – we just don’t want to know where the hot side of the Peltier goes… | 14 | 14 | [
{
"comment_id": "405636",
"author": "EFH",
"timestamp": "2011-06-14T14:21:56",
"content": "Continuum N12 is some kind of awesome.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "405647",
"author": "bronk",
"timestamp": "2011-06-14T15:06:18",
"conten... | 1,760,377,165.29694 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/06/14/puppy-pov-four-legged-persistence-of-vision-display/ | Puppy POV: Four-legged Persistence Of Vision Display | Mike Nathan | [
"Arduino Hacks"
] | [
"arduino",
"lilypad",
"persistence of vision",
"POV"
] | We see lots of persistence of vision projects around here, but we can’t recall any that involve a POV display
facilitated by a living, breathing animal
(humans aside, if you want to picky). [Michael] has a Miniature Pinscher that just loves to run and run…and run…in circles. Since she generally runs very fast and in large curves, he thought she would make a great POV device.
He has a small fleece “jacket” for his dog, and on it, he mounted a Lilypad Arduino, the associated power supply, and five bright white LEDs. Naturally, conductive thread was used to wire up the circuit, and after a bit of trial and error, things came together nicely.
With the vest complete, [Michael] unleashed his dog at the park, letting her run to her heart’s content. All the while, her vest was writing out [Cory Doctorow’s] “
Makers
” while he snapped some pictures.
We can’t think of a more appropriate text to write with LEDs in the night, but in the spirit of the book, we were hoping to see a circuit diagram or the project’s code posted. If he shares it, perhaps we could convince [Cory Doctorow] to run about the park in a vest, writing out [Michael’s] code in bright white LEDs! | 7 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "405604",
"author": "Paul",
"timestamp": "2011-06-14T12:15:23",
"content": "*want to BE picky",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "405606",
"author": "Bogdan",
"timestamp": "2011-06-14T12:19:15",
"content": "I highly doubt... | 1,760,377,165.343499 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/06/14/gps-without-gps/ | GPS Without GPS | Brian Benchoff | [
"Cellphone Hacks"
] | [
"cellphone",
"gps",
"gsm",
"localization"
] | Open Electronics just released a neat little board that
can place you on a map without using GPS
.
The board works on the basic principles of a cellphone network – the ‘cell’ network is a series of towers that are placed more or less equidistant to each other. Save for the most desolate parts of the country, a cell tower usually communicates with a phone one or two miles away. Usually, several cell towers can be seen, so the position of a cellphone can be pinpointed to within 200-350 feet. Translating cell towers to latitude and longitude is easily done by querying a Google database that was created for the mobile version of Google Maps.
The board itself is a PIC18 microcontroller and a SIM900 GSM module. The firmware available at Open Electronics is pretty impressive – all communication to the board is handled through SMS and the phone can report it’s location to 8 other phones.
It’s pretty impressive to think the same technology that caught
[Kevin Mitnick]
is now available to the masses. We’re wondering what Hack a Day readers would use this for, so if you have an idea leave a comment. | 32 | 30 | [
{
"comment_id": "405591",
"author": "Cracknel",
"timestamp": "2011-06-14T11:28:59",
"content": "Vodafone has something similar in Romania. They use the “cell broadcast” (“cell broad”, “broadcast”, “cell info”, cell info display”) function of the phone.You get the name of the town you are in, or the ... | 1,760,377,165.616633 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/06/16/pvc-boombox-is-not-a-potato-cannon/ | PVC Boombox Is Not A Potato Cannon | Brian Benchoff | [
"Musical Hacks",
"Portable Audio Hacks"
] | [
"boombox",
"ghettoblaster",
"lithium",
"PVC"
] | After [Luke] built a suitcase mini-ITX rig for LAN parties he was left with one problem: he didn’t have any speakers and he didn’t want to use headphones. Not wanting to do something boring like a USB-powered speaker setup, he built a
PVC Boombox
.
Built around 3 inch PVC pipe, the boombox houses an off the shelf 15 W amplifier, bluetooth receiver, and charge controller. [Luke] found a deal on a dozen 1400mAh lithium ion batteries and despite the standard, “if you don’t know what you’re doing, don’t use lithium” trope commonly given as advice, he forged ahead anyway. [Luke] picked up a power converter that charges the batteries and provides some protection. The batteries are charged though wall power with a transformer and a huge cap scrounged from an ATX power supply.
[Luke] is pretty pleased with his boombox. Not only does it put out some decent quality sound, the battery life should be tremendous. It’s not a ground-up build, but we think it’s a pretty nice project. [Luke] will be taking the ‘boomtube’ to the
Detroit Maker Faire
next month, so if you see him make sure to say hi. | 14 | 14 | [
{
"comment_id": "406622",
"author": "lwatcdr",
"timestamp": "2011-06-16T14:29:40",
"content": "Okay it took me a while to find the details of the build. If you missed it look for the very hard to read white menu items on the yellow bar. Nice build but never take up UI design. Really white letters on... | 1,760,377,165.545442 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/06/16/weve-got-a-real-bone-to-pick-with-this-mouse/ | We’ve Got A Real Bone To Pick With This Mouse | Mike Szczys | [
"Peripherals Hacks"
] | [
"mold",
"mouse",
"skull",
"taxidermy"
] | Finally, there’s a way you can feel like a real bad-ass while you’re formatting those TPS reports. It’s all thanks to this
computer mouse built inside the skull of a dog
. [Shannon Larratt] dug through his collection of skulls and came up with this one because it fits nicely in the palm of your hand.
Before you get too grossed out, this is not actually part of an animal’s body
like another notable mouse hack
that comes to mind. [Shannon] started with the skull of a small dog, making a mold for the pieces used in the finished version above. He was quite creative when fitting the electronic parts inside of his reproduction. He pulled the PCB from a $10 Logitech mouse and had no trouble getting it to fit into the base of the skull. But when it came to the buttons he ended up engineering a couple of rockers and used a belt to reposition the scroll-wheel. Not wanting to lose the middle-click feature there’s an additional lever for that functionality. We’d also like to compliment him on the quality of his write-up. Fantastic! | 19 | 19 | [
{
"comment_id": "406578",
"author": "FoxxCommand",
"timestamp": "2011-06-16T11:40:11",
"content": "Wow this came out quite nice, been following him for a while now and it’s nice to see him featured here <3",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "406579"... | 1,760,377,165.677787 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/06/15/libyan-rebels-turn-toys-into-weapons-of-war/ | Libyan Rebels Turn Toys Into Weapons Of War | Mike Nathan | [
"Weapons Hacks"
] | [
"Libya",
"military",
"rebels",
"scrap",
"weapons"
] | They say all’s fair in love and war – trust us,
you don’t have to tell these guys twice
.
With the war in Libya raging on, the rebels have turned to anything and everything to help give them the upper hand. Engineers and engineering students have put aside their work and studies to become the architects of the Libyan revolution. In a school playground-cum-weapons facility people from all walks of life work together creating powerful weapons from scrap parts.
[Rajab], the group’s chief weapons engineer, used to drive trucks for a living. Now he is directing his fellow fighters on how best to re purpose scrap materials and recovered military weaponry into effective killing machines. As you can see in the video below, everything is fair game. Their creations range from pickup trucks fitted with recovered fighter jet machine guns, to a Power Wheels chassis that has been converted into a remote controlled machine gun turret.
It’s amazing the things that can be produced with some scrap materials and a bit of ingenuity.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jCyRBUAEneM&w=470] | 66 | 50 | [
{
"comment_id": "406286",
"author": "Drake",
"timestamp": "2011-06-15T20:25:11",
"content": "I’m a Barbie gun in the Barbie warFighting in plastic, it’s fantasticYou can shoot my guns, drive me everywhereImagination, war is your creation",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
}... | 1,760,377,165.935544 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/06/15/homebrew-heat-gun-from-scrounged-parts/ | Homebrew Heat Gun From Scrounged Parts | Brian Benchoff | [
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"diy heat gun",
"heat gun",
"homebrew heat gun",
"smd",
"tool"
] | A Hack a Day reader needed a tool to solder a lot of SMD parts, so he built a
DIY heat gun
, and we’re impressed with the results.
After trawling the internet looking for ideas for his heat gun, [MRGATZ85] found that most builds used the ceramic element from cheap soldering irons. Experiments in this direction didn’t go very well because the ceramic element in these irons tends to fall apart very easily. In a moment of inspiration, [MRGATZ85] realized he had an old vaporizer lying around and decided to take it apart. To his surprise, the vaporizer element was a great size, self-contained, and most importantly free. After fabricating a case out of high-temperature foam, aerosol cans, and deadbolt parts, [MRGATS85] was left with a very nice build.
Aside from SMD work, a heatgun can be a very valuable tool for
PCB stripping
and being used for
solder reflow
. We’re a little surprised we haven’t seen a homebrew heat gun in quite a while. Even though the element is surrounded by high-temperature foam, the gun still gets a little hot to the touch. We’re hoping that will eventually be under control; it’s a very useful build otherwise.
Check out the
image gallery
, or the video demo after the break.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cojjhthZKjo&w=470] | 20 | 20 | [
{
"comment_id": "406229",
"author": "Pölsa",
"timestamp": "2011-06-15T18:51:17",
"content": "reminds me of my first vaporizer => an aoyue 852 smd hot air soldering station for 80 USD",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "406254",
"author": "macegr... | 1,760,377,165.804312 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/06/15/an-instrument-that-plays-along-with-you/ | An Instrument That Plays Along With You | Mike Nathan | [
"Musical Hacks"
] | [
"arduino",
"instrument",
"music"
] | The crew over at Teague Labs was talking about musical instruments and how digital music creation seems to get bogged down under user interfaces littered with increasing numbers of buttons, knobs, and sliders. They decided to build a musical device that has its own musical inclinations and personality, while also allowing for two-way interaction with the user.
The resulting creation is Muze
, a simple musical instrument with only a single user input. Muze has been programmed with a palette of notes that it can combine and remix into a nearly infinite number of musical combinations. Muze is perfectly happy composing on its own, and will create music that evolves over time, if left alone long enough.
As with all musicians, not every tune is a hit, so Muze can be gently nudged away from cacophonous melodies with a simple twist of a knob. Each of the device’s knobs represent a blend of functions, which are used to influence Muze when placed on the board. The interaction does not send Muze flying into a completely different direction, rather it tells Muze to shake things up a little bit, much like you would ask your guitarist to pick up the tempo during a jam session.
It’s a neat little instrument, and we can imagine it would be a big hit with kids and adults alike. Keep reading to see a video demonstration of Muze in action.
[vimeo http://vimeo.com/25106513 w=470] | 16 | 16 | [
{
"comment_id": "406192",
"author": "SynthShoppingDotCom",
"timestamp": "2011-06-15T17:21:55",
"content": "Hey very nice sounds and concept!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "406195",
"author": "Tel",
"timestamp": "2011-06-15T17:31:26",
... | 1,760,377,165.989517 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/06/15/modifying-a-cheap-robot-arm-for-arduino-control/ | Modifying A Cheap Robot Arm For Arduino Control | Gerrit Coetzee | [
"Robots Hacks"
] | [
"arduino",
"arm",
"h-bridge",
"larry",
"processing",
"robot"
] | Many a hacker has put together one of those cheap $30 robot arm kits you can get in just about any store with a section labeled, “science”. In an ongoing search for a cheap robot arm, [Larry] decided to modify one of them to be controlled with a
PC through an Arduino
. The article doubles as a really basic tutorial on dc motor control. On the site he gives a brief explanation of how to use H-bridges and a good explanation of how he wired them up for this purpose. He eventually goes on to add a
processing interface
to the project. The next step would be figuring out how to add some kind of position feedback, such as encoders. Though, if modifying an arm is not your style, [Larry] has another cool article on rolling your own
robot arm cheaply
with some foam board and hobby servos. | 12 | 12 | [
{
"comment_id": "406134",
"author": "Joe",
"timestamp": "2011-06-15T14:16:06",
"content": "Bring on the douchebag Arduino haters in 3…2…1….",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "406141",
"author": "haltux",
"timestamp": "2011-06-15T14:39:50",
... | 1,760,377,166.250818 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/06/15/an-even-simpler-smartphone-garage-door-opener/ | An Even Simpler Smartphone Garage Door Opener | Nick Schulze | [
"Cellphone Hacks",
"classic hacks"
] | [
"bluetooth",
"garage door opener",
"smartphone"
] | We have seen smartphone garage door openers in the past, but [Lou’s]
Hack is beautiful in its simplicity
. His door opener tackles the problem without using computers, Arduinos, wireless modules or even any smartphone based applications. For this project all that is needed is a Bluetooth headset and a single transistor. The door opener uses the Samsung HM1100 Bluetooth headset, which [Lou] has done significant testing on to show that his creation is quite secure and will not open the door unexpectedly.
When this headset connects to a phone it produces a beep from the earbud, so [Lou] removed the speaker and replaced it with a transistor. Now he can use the voltage spike produced by the amplifier before the beep as his switching signal. By wiring the transistor in parallel with the door button inside his garage he is able to open the door wirelessly by connecting then right away disconnecting from the headset. This setup is apparently perfectly secure as the only way to initially link your phone with the headset is to be inside the garage. Check out the video after the break for build instructions and a demonstration.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6cAtso2tzMo&w=470] | 39 | 36 | [
{
"comment_id": "406119",
"author": "mrasmus",
"timestamp": "2011-06-15T13:30:47",
"content": "I’d think that hacking it would be a pretty simple matter of sniffing the Bluetooth pairing as it happens, and looking at the BT Mac Address of the “trusted” phone, and spoofing it with your own device; my... | 1,760,377,166.3237 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/06/13/reverse-engineering-wireless-weather-stations/ | Reverse Engineering Wireless Weather Stations | Mike Nathan | [
"home hacks"
] | [
"lacrosse",
"temperature sensor",
"TX29-IT+",
"wireless"
] | [Fred] got a La Crosse wireless weather station as a gift and thought the LCD display was great, but he was dismayed that there was no means of extracting the temperature data for use on a computer. He thought that the modular design of the system would make it great for use in his home automation project
if he could only get his hands on the data
.
He tore into the base station and started looking around for easy places to get at the data he was looking for. He thought about tapping into the bus that controls the LCD in hopes of finding an easy to decode signal, but the weather station used a proprietary chip with an integrated LCD controller, making it all but impossible. Instead, he started sniffing the data coming across the wireless link, and while he didn’t quite yet know what he was seeing, it was a start.
He sniffed the signals using Audacity, and eventually found that the base station received 40-bit data bursts from each sensor. He dug further, and with the help of some data he found online, he was able to decode the data packets. The last hurdle he ran into was figuring out how the system’s CRC encoding worked. It took a bit of work but he eventually got it, and can now record data packets knowing that the data has come over the air intact.
So far, it looks like his temperature monitoring system is working quite well, though he has several improvements planned for the near future. If you have a similar unit and are interested in extending its capabilities, [Fred] has posted plenty of code on his site. | 26 | 25 | [
{
"comment_id": "405423",
"author": "giacomo",
"timestamp": "2011-06-13T22:13:33",
"content": "Nice work reversing that CRC. It might be interesting to try the reverse hack – build/repurpose a transmitter to send arbitrary temp readings to the base station. You could use it to, say, monitor the temp... | 1,760,377,166.203479 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/06/13/flashing-arduinos-with-a-zipit/ | Flashing Arduinos With A Zipit | Mike Nathan | [
"Arduino Hacks"
] | [
"arduino",
"debian",
"flash",
"serial",
"sketch",
"z2",
"zipit"
] | [Giacomo] finds that every once in awhile,
he needs to flash a sketch to an Arduino while on the go
. While he doesn’t always carry his laptop with him, he almost certainly has his Zipit Z2 on hand. He prefers to use the Zipit because it’s tiny, it uses Debian, has built-in WiFi, and can run for about 5 hours before requiring a recharge. The only shortcoming is that the device lacks a serial port.
Following instructions we featured last year
he added a serial port to his device, then built a small converter cable that allows him to connect it to virtually any Arduino. He says it only takes a moment to get avrdude up and running on the Zipit via apt-get, and once that’s done, he is in business. He wrote a short script that saves him from entering the flash command over and over, so the process couldn’t be simpler.
He does mention that since the Zipit does not have a DTR line, Arduino resetting must be done manually. For the convenience of flashing sketches from the palm of our hand, we can deal with that.
Check out the video below for a quick demonstration of his setup.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vQoZqqiEE6o&w=470] | 17 | 17 | [
{
"comment_id": "405293",
"author": "DeAuthThis/Corrosion",
"timestamp": "2011-06-13T17:07:56",
"content": "yay, another zipit hack :D",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "405301",
"author": "fartface",
"timestamp": "2011-06-13T17:33:02",
... | 1,760,377,166.42809 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/06/13/the-wall-e-robot/ | The WALL-E Robot | Nick Schulze | [
"Arduino Hacks",
"Robots Hacks"
] | [
"ping",
"robot",
"wall-e"
] | [Dino’s] latest Hack a Week project, the
WALL-E Robot
shows quite simply what you can create from a few dollars worth of toys from garage sales and cheap stores. When he found the WALL-E toy at a garage sale, Dino decided that he had to give it a brain. Using the geared motors from some Rumble Robots, the H-bridges from some $5 remote control cars (after his own H-bridges cooked themselves), an ultrasonic sensor and an Arduino, WALL-E was brought to life.
The WALL-E Robot might not be the brightest bot, or the most stable, but the project definitely demonstrates some effective scrounging for parts that would have done WALL-E proud. It also shows how even the most simple projects can cause the most headaches when they don’t go right. Check out the video after the break for the build details, a demonstration and to see a man talk to a toy robot.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i_pWCUh3b0E&feature=player_embedded&w=470] | 11 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "405232",
"author": "danman1453",
"timestamp": "2011-06-13T15:03:28",
"content": "Nice work. Maybe a digital gyroscope and a moveable counterweight would help with the balance issues.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "405240",
... | 1,760,377,166.373477 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/06/13/hackaday-links-monday-june-13/ | Hackaday Links: Monday June 13 | Jeremy Cook | [
"Hackaday links"
] | [
"art",
"bmw",
"led",
"motherboard"
] | Tim wrote in to tell us about this simple hack where he replaced the stock button lights with some really cool Blue LEDS on an ’87 BMW. He uses some capacitors, to achieve the effect that it takes a bit for the charge to drain out so the lights stay on for a bit after being turned off. The lights themselves look really nice, so check out the pic.
Here’s an awesome coffee
Table
built using a large electrical board. It definitely would look good in anyone’s den, although it most likely has a low wife approval factor (WAF). This is actually based on a “motherboard wall that HAD
covered before
, but the “coffee table” form probably looks even better.
Finally, after the break is a video of
someone washing
an interactive art exhibit. Not sure if it qualifies as a hack, but it looks pretty cool to see lights following someone around when he’s washing the screen/window.
[youtube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4IPTcTC9bkY&w=470&h=349%5D | 46 | 46 | [
{
"comment_id": "405198",
"author": "M4CGYV3R",
"timestamp": "2011-06-13T13:29:05",
"content": "Most interesting window washing job ever.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "405204",
"author": "John",
"timestamp": "2011-06-13T13:40:02",
... | 1,760,377,166.860488 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/06/13/an-autonomous-car-using-a-webcam/ | An Autonomous Car Using A “Webcam” | Jeremy Cook | [
"Robots Hacks",
"Toy Hacks",
"Transportation Hacks"
] | [
"autonomous",
"cornell",
"R/C car"
] | This autonomous
remote control-style car
from Cornell students was designed for a senior level engineering course there. It’s main “sensor” is a low-res webcam style camera. As shown in the video after the break, this car does quite well staying within two black lines on a white surface using it’s vision processing. It also has an IR sensor to detect objects in front of the car and stop without crashing.
All “vision” computations are handled by an Atmel Mega644 MCU, an 8-bit processor. Because of the processing limits of this chip, much work had to be done to make this process computationally efficient. These students go through an incredibly detailed account of their project, focusing on the code and electrical design. Check out the video of their car in action after the break.
[youtube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s4di_hl58ug&w=470%5D | 8 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "405191",
"author": "auspiciousTactician",
"timestamp": "2011-06-13T12:42:31",
"content": "That “Webcam” looks like a gameboy camera!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "405197",
"author": "Gravis",
"timestamp": "2011-06-13T1... | 1,760,377,166.471769 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/06/13/wifi-sniffing-digital-picture-frame/ | Wifi Sniffing Digital Picture Frame | Brian Benchoff | [
"Wireless Hacks"
] | [
"digital picture frame",
"wifi sniffing"
] | [AUTUIN] sent in a tip for his
wifi sniffing digital picture frame
.
A soon-to-be-trashed Pentium II laptop was rescued from
Free Geek Vancouver
. A lot of coffee shops around Vancouver feature local art and free wifi, so [AUTUIN] decided to combine the two. The project is designed to hang on the wall of a cafe and sniff images transmitted on the wireless network – an invasion of privacy, but as [AUTUIN] says, “that’s kind of the point.”
After gutting the laptop and putting it in a custom picture frame,
Driftnet
, a program that listens network traffic and picks out images from TCP streams, was installed. [AUTUIN] tested his build with an open wireless connection in his building. The results provided a wonderful narrative that started with pictures from news sites than slowly devolved to pictures from a hot-or-not style website, an online dating site and finally pictures from the inevitable conclusion of that browsing session.
[AUTUIN] is now looking for either a brave or foolish local coffee shop in Vancouver to feature his wifi sniffing picture frame. We think this would be very amusing if we weren’t using that network, not that we have something to hide or anything. | 20 | 20 | [
{
"comment_id": "405167",
"author": "neorazz",
"timestamp": "2011-06-13T11:09:22",
"content": "it needs to have a content filter of sorts then great job",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "405176",
"author": "kenny",
"timestamp": "2011-06-13... | 1,760,377,166.632979 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/06/12/hacking-cakes-with-leds-the-sequel/ | Hacking Cakes With LEDs, The Sequel! | Phil Burgess | [
"Arduino Hacks",
"cooking hacks",
"LED Hacks"
] | [
"7 segment",
"arduino",
"baking",
"blinkm",
"cake",
"cooking",
"food",
"led",
"leds",
"shiftbrite"
] | A few weeks back we ran a piece about the convergence of
making
and
baking
in an attempt to
create a cake festooned with working LEDs
. The moral was that not every creative idea ends in victory, but we applauded the spirit it takes to post one’s goofs for the whole internet to see and to learn from.
[Craig]’s LED matrix proved unreliable…and the underlying cake didn’t fare much better, resembling that charred lump in the toaster oven in
Time Bandits
. The cakes-with-lights meme might have died right there if not for a fluke of association…
At the time the story ran, some of us were working on an unrelated LED project which involved experimenting with light
diffusers
, trying to spread distinct points of LED light to a more soothing glow. Drafting vellum and frosted acrylic both worked well, but small pieces of upholstery foam had proven especially effective.
Between seeing the cake project and handling squares of foam, an idea was jokingly tossed out: backlight a cake from below, using angel food cake as a light diffuser much like the foam we’d been experimenting with. The density, optical properties (and taste) do seem remarkably similar!
(On the left: polyurethane upholstery foam, the sort used in sofa cushions. On the right: angel food cake. Or…wait…is it the other way around?)
In the creative afterglow of
Maker Faire
(or more likely it was just exhaustion), this idea somehow made the jump from
tongue-in-cheek
to
demo-or-die.
The concept would look something like this:
A custom pedestal would secure the LEDs in place while providing a more prominent perch for the cake. A layer of glass or clear acrylic separates the two, so the LEDs would remain clean for future projects and the cake would not be sullied with any sort of flux or
lead
or other electronic residue. RoHS compliant cake!
Two questions then remained:
What sort of display would we make? Static lighting would be boring, we knew this
had
to be animated. As a first crack at this sort of thing, we settled on a
single seven-segment display
, counting down.
What type of LEDs to use? Instead of wiring up a pile of discrete LEDs, for the sake of a quick prototype we instead opted for serial addressible LEDs. Even then, there are decisions to be made:
(Left: BlinkM "smart LED." Right: MaceTech ShiftBrite. Top: RGB “pixels” available in various types from Adafruit, Bliptronics and Cool Neon.)
The choice of what type to use was based more on availability than on engineering: our
Adafruit RGB pixels
were tied up in another project, and we didn’t have enough
BlinkMs
or
ShiftBrites
on hand to build our prototype and didn’t want to wait around for shipping. We’d just bought a string of
Cool Neon’s
new “Total Control Lighting” LEDs at Maker Faire and were eager to try them in something, so they won by default. Looking back, these proved less than ideal for this particular project due to the diffuse bulbs, but we give them kudos for being among the easiest to program. Over the years we’ve messed with many different addressable LEDs, and have found that there is no One LED to Rule Them All — every one of them has unique and desirable attributes for different tasks.
We then fashioned an LED-holding template in Adobe Illustrator, sized to fit a single page:
This was printed and glued to a sheet of mat board, then the holes for the LEDs were laboriously cut out with a hobby knife. A
laser cutter
or even just a
drill press
would have made this much easier. For scale reference, each of the segments is about 1.5 inches wide, and with this just being a first prototype we didn’t bother with fancy beveled corners.
After cutting LED holes, the sidewalls and some supports were cut from
foam core
board and assembled using a hot glue gun. These added about two inches of height to the pedestal, to accommodate the bullet-shaped LED housings and the wires underneath. Then we punched each LED into place:
And there’s photographic proof of our first goof. Aside from the whole absurd idea, that is. These LED strings have connectors on both ends for daisy-chaining, with a distinct “in” and “out” end to each string. In our enthusiasm to attach a microcontroller, not thinking this through, we cut the “in” end and soldered our own breadboard wires. Electronically speaking this works just fine, but a better idea would be cutting the “out” connector, making that into our chip-to-LEDs adapter. Then this string would still work fine at the end of any chain, as well as with Cool Neon’s own driver circuits (which use the plug), and we’d have an adapter dongle for future applications with these strings. Lesson learned.
The string has 25 LEDs. Our display has
seven segments
, with three LEDs each. The last four LEDs were just wadded up under the pedestal and aren’t used here, but could have been made into ground effects lighting or something suitably corny.
After physical installation of the LEDs, we wrote and tested the code, which runs on an
Arduino
, natch. We’ll delve into the source later.
This pic shows the order in which the LEDs were installed and are addressed by the code. Also, the small boxes around each segment (more mat board and hot glue) restrict the diffuse outward glow from the lights and support the top acrylic for the cake:
We added contact paper to the bottom side of the acrylic, to further control stray light. This was probably overkill, but did help in positioning the cake segments later, as a sort of template. We’re not certain if acrylic is food-safe, so it’s possible that our eventual offspring may be born with tails or something. A small price to pay for
SCIENCE
!
Thus began the baking. And hilarity ensued…
(Devil’s food and angel food. In the same cake. You know this can’t end well.)
It was already determined that the segments would be angel food cake. The non-segment parts of the cake needed to be opaque…not just to contain the light, but as a vehicle for frosting, because a cake without frosting is no cake at all! We opted for chocolate, but most anything will do…red velvet, carrot cake, you name it. Not fruitcake though, it has an
intense gravitational field from which not even light can escape
.
The chocolate cake proceeded without incident. After baking and cooling, we trimmed down the risen center portion of the cake to give it a more uniform cross-section…this also provided essential sustenance to carry us through the next phase.
You’ll notice there are no photographs of the angel food cake being made. Oh, sure, [Craig] may be man enough to show his failures, but not us. We usually take umbrage to those television ads that depict the “man of the house” as an imbecile when confronted with domestic tasks, as if all males are HULK SMASH! brutes who can’t so much as feed or
dress
themselves. We’ve seen some
awesome cooking hacks
around here and know it’s simply not true. Then we tried baking an angel food cake…
Angel food cake (the name being an obvious conspiracy of marketing to lure us in) is a strange and alien thing, no doubt a product of NASA research that also brought us
aerogels
and space shuttle thermal tiles. The box contains what looks like diatomaceous earth, to which water is added. No eggs or oil or anything resembling, y’know,
food.
This is frothed in the mixer and poured in a pan, baked (during which it swells to over 6,000 times its original volume) and then, removed from the oven and allowed to cool (very important that it’s on its side, for whatever alien agenda reason) it proceeds to mock you for all eternity as an impenetrable sticky mass that defies all attempts at cutting or removal, like a loaf-pan version of the Blob from
X-Men.
We could actually hear the garbage disposal
chewing
as it worked on this. For
five minutes.
After that experience, we’re officially declaring a one week moratorium on manly pride. If you see a guy washing his colors and whites together, or
microwaving
Hot Pockets and calling it “dinner,” he is
totally
fair game for mockery. You have our permission.
So, another trip to the grocery store, returning with a pre-made angel food loaf cake (day old, for extra durability)…which, we’ll note, would have been cheaper than buying the mix in the first place…and we can proceed…
Both cakes were carved into suitably-sized segments and arranged on the acrylic base/template. To help keep the angel food segments spotless and clean of frosting, we pre-frosted the top of the chocolate cake before carving it up, and would touch up the seams after the fact. Had to get creative with the last few rectangles of chocolate cake, but frosting hides all sins. The angel food cake should have been trimmed a bit thinner to match the height of the chocolate cake, but we were getting hungry after the whole emasculating fiasco and just wanted to see if this thing would work or not.
A quick test with the cake atop the LED pedestal showed a problem: the white cake picked up all diffuse light in the room, entirely washing out the
backlighting
. But we’d seen this problem before…of all things, a
SparkFun capacitance meter kit
, which suffers the same issue where its red LED segments are washed out by the white diffusers in a bright room. The fix there is to add a piece of smoked acrylic atop the display. So we applied a similar principle here, but wanting to keep everything edible we used fruit roll-ups instead of acrylic. Reflecting on it now, fruit jelly would have tasted better and would slice well with the rest of the cake.
The fruity fix didn’t address the problem completely, and it was still necessary to operate the cake in
near-darkness
for best effect, which may or may not be a problem since programmers normally thrive in
low-light conditions
. The photo above shows how the number “6” looks under normal room lighting…washed out and nearly indistinguishable from the full “8”. Using brighter, more directional LEDs (but still using the fruit topping) would probably help with this…BlinkMs or ShiftBrites or their
higher-lumen
equivalents
. Not
too much
though, or you’ll go all Easy Bake Oven on it.
Here’s a video of the completed countdown cake in action:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_o7c2cz0nU&w=470]
So the idea does…kind of…work. Would we try it again? Probably not. It was a fun idea to mess around with –
a hack
– and any day you get to
eat cake and call it your job
is a good day indeed, but the effect ultimately wasn’t worth the effort. Like the original article, we hope this one can be filed under “heroic failure.” It’s progress though, and might give someone
food for thought.
Maybe third time’s the charm.
A closing thought is that this could be combined with a
Wave Shield
or the
chipKIT digital audio technique from a prior article
to play the Happy Birthday song, creating a cake that’s both fattening
and
incredibly annoying!
Finally, here’s the Arduino sketch that drives the LED display:
// 7-segment LED Cake Sketch for Arduino.
// Uses Cool Neon's "Total Control Lighting"
// addressible LEDs. Data issued on Arduino
// digital pin 11, clock on pin 13.
#include <SPI.h>
// 7-segment bitmask for each digit.
// Bit-to-segment mapping is as follows:
// 1
// 2 0
// 6
// 3 5
// 4
// This corresponds to the order in which LEDs
// are mounted in the physical template.
byte segmask[] = {
B0111111, B0100001, B1011011, // 0 - 2
B1110011, B1100101, B1110110, // 3 - 5
B1111110, B0100011, B1111111, // 6 - 8
B1110111, B1111010, // 9, ersatz 10
B0100001, B0110000, B0011000, // Spinny thing
B0001100, B0000110, B0000011
};
#define N_PIXELS 25
#define GAMMA 2.4
byte gamma[256];
void sendPixel(byte r, byte g, byte b)
{
SPI.transfer(~((r >> 6) |
((g >> 4) & B00001100) |
((b >> 2) & B00110000)));
SPI.transfer(b);
SPI.transfer(g);
SPI.transfer(r);
}
void sendLatch()
{
for(byte i = 0; i < 4; i++) SPI.transfer(0);
}
void setup()
{
int i;
// Initialize SPI communication:
SPI.begin();
// The following 3 lines can normally be
// left out - Arduino's default SPI config
// appears to be MSB, Mode 0 and runs at
// 4 MHz (instead of 8 as is done here,
// but still plenty quick). But for
// posterity, here's the full config:
SPI.setBitOrder(MSBFIRST);
SPI.setDataMode(SPI_MODE0);
SPI.setClockDivider(SPI_CLOCK_DIV2); // 8 MHz
sendLatch(); // Wake up!
// Set all pixels to initial "off" state:
for(i = 0; i < N_PIXELS; i++) sendPixel(0, 0, 0);
sendLatch();
// Calculate gamma correction table.
// Provides a perceptually more linear
// fade between brightness levels.
for(i = 0; i < 256; i++) {
gamma[i] = (byte)(255.0 *
pow((float)i / 255.0, GAMMA));
}
}
byte digit = 10,
prev = 10;
void loop() {
byte i, bit, x;
int fade;
// Fade from previous to current digit:
for(fade = 0;fade < 256; fade++ ) {
// For each of 7 segments:
for(bit = 0x01; bit < 0x80; bit <<= 1) {
x = 0; // Assume segment is off by default
if(segmask[digit] & bit) { // On, or fading on
x = (segmask[prev] & bit) ? 255 : gamma[fade];
} else if(segmask[prev] & bit) { // Fading off
x = gamma[255 - fade];
}
// 3 LED "pixels" per segment
for(i = 0; i < 3; i++) sendPixel(x, x, x);
}
// Last 4 pixels are unused and stay off
for(i = 0; i < 4; i++) sendPixel(0, 0, 0);
sendLatch(); // Update LEDs
delay(1); // ~1000 updates/sec
}
// Hold last image for remainder of ~1 sec.
delay(1000 - 256);
if(digit > 0) { // Still counting down
prev = digit;
digit--;
} else { // Done counting, reset...
// But show spinny animation first
for(int n = 0; n < 5; n++) {
for(digit = 11; digit <= 16; digit++) {
for(bit = 0x01; bit < 0x80; bit <<= 1) {
x = (segmask[digit] & bit) ? 255 : 0;
for(i = 0; i < 3; i++) sendPixel(x, x, x);
}
for(i = 0; i < 4; i++) sendPixel(0, 0, 0);
sendLatch();
delay(100);
}
}
digit = prev = 10;
}
}
A couple of notes on using the Total Control Lighting LEDs:
Red wire = +5V. White = data (Arduino pin 11). Green = clock (Arduino pin 13). Blue = ground.
The datasheet suggests issuing 32 consecutive zero bits to mark the start of a full frame of data, but we’d sometimes see a stray first or last pixel on the initial image. A more reliable approach has been to issue the 32 zeros at the program’s start, then
after
each full frame. Rock steady. | 27 | 27 | [
{
"comment_id": "404903",
"author": "Chris",
"timestamp": "2011-06-12T20:26:44",
"content": "Why would you want to do this? It’s cool but it seems very pointless…What could I change to make one of these actually useful?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment... | 1,760,377,166.710225 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/06/12/how-canonical-automates-linux-package-compilation/ | How Canonical Automates Linux Package Compilation | Mike Nathan | [
"Linux Hacks",
"Software Development"
] | [
"arm",
"compiler",
"linux",
"pandaboard",
"server",
"ubuntu"
] | What do you do when it’s time to port the most popular Linux distribution to a completely different architecture? Canonical employee [David Mandalla] works on their ARM development team and
recently shared the answer to that question
with his fellow
Dallas Makerspace members
.
Canonical needed a way to compile about 20,000+ packages for the ARM platform, however they did not want to cross-compile, which is quite time consuming. Instead, they opted to build a native solution that could handle the load while ensuring that all packages were compiled securely. To tackle this immense task, [David] and his team constructed a 4U server that runs 20 fully-independent ARM development platforms simultaneously.
The server is composed of 21 PandaBoards, small OMAP development boards featuring a dual-core ARM cortex processor with just about all the connectivity options you could possibly ask for. One board operates as the server head, keeping track of the other 20 modules. When someone requests server time to build a package, the main board checks for unused server, triggering a relay to reboot it before the server is automatically reimaged. Once the pristine, secure environment is ready to go, it’s handed off to the customer who requested it.
If you’re interested in learning more about the build process, [David] has put together
a blog with additional details
.
[Thanks Leland] | 25 | 25 | [
{
"comment_id": "404878",
"author": "third",
"timestamp": "2011-06-12T19:13:03",
"content": "Cool project, I always love seeing massive ARMaments. ;)I’m a bit confused about the speed issue though. Why would cross-compiling take longer than native compiling? You have the same input, the same output,... | 1,760,377,166.775995 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/06/12/crosshair-aiming-system-for-your-laser-cutter/ | Crosshair Aiming System For Your Laser Cutter | Mike Nathan | [
"cnc hacks",
"Laser Hacks"
] | [
"aiming",
"cnc",
"laser cutter"
] | [Rich] was having quite a bit of fun with his newly-acquired laser cutter, but
was not impressed by the stock aiming laser
that came with it. The problem with the built-in laser is that it did not actually follow the cutting laser’s path – instead, it has to be calibrated for a fixed focal length. This becomes problematic when engraving and cutting since they require different focal lengths, so it becomes a guessing game as to where the cutting laser will actually end up in respect to the aiming laser.
An additional optic module that solves this problem can be had for about $300, but after sinking $2500 into the laser setup, [Rich] was not inclined to purchase one. Instead, he bought a pair of cheap laser levels online and scavenged the line lens from one module, which was mounted on the laser cutter’s existing aiming laser. The second module was epoxied to the top of the cutting head, to create a set of cross hairs on the work surface.
As you can see in the video below, the hack works quite well, and the lasers are accurate at a variety of different focal lengths.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IAcZ7tL-ZpY&w=470] | 13 | 13 | [
{
"comment_id": "404852",
"author": "ss",
"timestamp": "2011-06-12T18:19:14",
"content": "Nice job. Cleverly solved! The FSLaser guys should incorporate this fix in their design.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "404859",
"author": "Ryan",
... | 1,760,377,166.912344 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/06/12/rescuing-surplus-blinkenlights/ | Rescuing Surplus Blinkenlights | Brian Benchoff | [
"LED Hacks"
] | [
"blinkenlights",
"Connection Machine",
"x10"
] | Because
surplus LED panels
from an early 1990s supercomputer is a completely reasonable thing to own, [William Dillon] set to work displaying them on his wall.
The LED panels came from a surplus
CM-5 Connection Machine
, best known from it’s role as the mainframe in Jurassic Park (only an empty case with LED panels were used in the movie). When not on Isla Nublar, the Connection Machine was a fabulous piece of engineering from the 1980s Artificial Intelligence revival. With some machines having 65,536 processors, it was used for AI research using Lisp (although we were never very good at Lisp.
[William] built a wooden frame out of 1×2 inch maple and installed an X10 module behind the panels as a remote switch. The panels themselves aren’t controlled by a computer, so the only thing left to do was to mount the power supplies. It’s impressive to see the massively over-engineered power supplies that were designed to source 5V @ 30A when the panels only draw 7 Amps. [William] says it was a design feature of the Connection Machine to spare no expense.
[William]’s next plan is to reverse engineer the panels to display custom messages, and we can’t wait to see what he comes up with. We can’t explain why, but we really want to build one of these panels. Check out the
pictures
of [William] decommissioning the CM-5. | 18 | 18 | [
{
"comment_id": "404840",
"author": "Avaviel",
"timestamp": "2011-06-12T17:23:51",
"content": "http://xkcd.com/859/Please. Complete the parentheses!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "404841",
"author": "David",
"timestamp": "2011-06-12T17:... | 1,760,377,167.039345 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/06/12/a-suitcase-for-all-your-wardriving-needs/ | A Suitcase For All Your Wardriving Needs | Brian Benchoff | [
"Portable Video Hacks",
"Radio Hacks",
"Security Hacks"
] | [
"bluejacking",
"bluesniffing",
"portable",
"sniffing",
"wardriving",
"warviewing",
"wifi"
] | [Corrosion] sent in a tip about the
Weaponised Auditing Response System
he built inside a suitcase that, “has all the tools (and then some) for a wireless assault”.
The WARS is equipped with two WiFi adapters and two bluetooth adapters for all the wardriving and bluejacking anyone could ever want. [Corrosion] also included a 4 channel, 2.4GHz video scanner for
warviewing
. Everything runs off of a 12 inch netbook that will eventually run linux, and we’re really liking the 1970s suitcase aesthetic the WARS has – it looks like [Corrosion] is about to step into the set of a Beastie Boys video.
We were wondering about including a
long range RFID sniffing antenna
(PDF warning) behind the monitor of the suitcase’s monitor and asked [Corrosion] about it. He said it sounded doable, but is out of funds at the moment, so if you know how to build a cheap RFID antenna with a 50 foot range, drop [Corrosion] a line.
There’s a video demo with some stills of the build included after the break.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-YjKhjkTLE&w=470] | 39 | 38 | [
{
"comment_id": "404784",
"author": "addidis",
"timestamp": "2011-06-12T15:10:14",
"content": "Instantly made me think of the dash of one of the bond cars, any one else?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "404792",
"author": "anon",
"timesta... | 1,760,377,166.987316 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/06/12/fixing-motorized-window-shutter-battery-problems/ | Fixing Motorized Window Shutter Battery Problems | Mike Nathan | [
"home hacks"
] | [
"atmega",
"batteries",
"nimh",
"ozroll",
"sla"
] | Living in a brushfire-prone area, [Erich] had a set of roller shutters installed to protect his home. Mains power can be spotty in emergencies, so the shutters are powered by NiMH batteries which are housed inside the shutters’ remote control units. After encountering a good handful of dead batteries,
he decided it was time to search around for a better means of powering the shutters
rather than pay another $80 AUD for batteries that he knew would fail in short order.
After disassembling the shutters and the remotes, he found a litany of problems. The remotes are ATMega-based, so he assumed the programming was robust, but he found that the charging algorithm was quite poorly implemented. The batteries were allowed to get extremely hot while charging, a result of the fact that charging was done for a set period of time rather than monitoring battery voltage. Additionally, the shutter motors required a 4 amp instantaneous current when activated, something that seemed to contribute to the quick draining of the 1500 mAH battery packs.
To remedy his issues, he upgraded to a much larger sealed lead acid battery pack, which he mounted in a wall cavity. The remotes were tweaked to add a modular power plug, enabling him to easily connect and disconnect the remotes as needed. Not only did he save a ton of money on constantly replacing batteries, he’s got a nice 12v power supply in the wall that he can tap into at will. | 4 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "404815",
"author": "MH",
"timestamp": "2011-06-12T16:12:58",
"content": "Very creative.Although,I’d have pause about concealing a battery*behind* drywall.Especially in a manner that renders it notreadily accessible.Falls into the “Harry Homeowner” mods I’veseen over the years.Grante... | 1,760,377,167.084296 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/06/11/the-jazari-robotic-jazz-enesmble/ | The Jazari Robotic Jazz Enesmble | Jeremy Cook | [
"Musical Hacks"
] | [
"band",
"Jazari",
"jazz",
"music"
] | As anyone who’s been to Chuck E Cheese’s knows, robotic bands have been under development for years. Patrick Flanagan’s cyborg percussion ensemble,
Jazari
seems to take things to a new level.
As Patrick describes it, Jazari “fuses African rhythms,
algorithmic composition, computer music, and electro-mechanics into
beat-driven steamfunk.” The controls are quite unique as well. Originally, the controller was simply a Wiimote. This was limited, since one needs three fingers to hold on to it, so a new
“springbok”
device was born allowing all five fingers to be used to play music. The vocal part of the music is created using an Android program called “voloco”.
The video after the break should explain everything a little better, and the music itself is pretty cool. Patrick will be doing more programming and hardware work over the summer rather than touring much, but “they” should give an awesome concert once all the bugs are worked out.
[youtube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f5DgC-SOXmU&w=470&h=349%5D | 11 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "404540",
"author": "bandling",
"timestamp": "2011-06-11T22:24:27",
"content": "… And he does all that with just those controler things??? That’s insane!!!!!!!!!!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "404554",
"author": "aztraph",
... | 1,760,377,167.132028 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/06/11/a-prosthetic-arm-that-doesnt-cost-an-arm-and-a-leg/ | A Prosthetic Arm That Doesn’t Cost An Arm And A Leg. | Nick Schulze | [
"Medical Hacks"
] | [
"Prosthetic arm"
] | After a motorcycle accident that cost him is arm [Martin] and his son [Luke] chose not to give up. They used their considerable mechanical skills to create a replacement robotic arm which allowed Martin to start doing some of the simple things he had been unable to do with the prosthetic he was originally fitted with. There are not a lot of details but it seems the arm has 2 degrees of freedom with a claw manipulator, controlled via chin controls to free up his other arm. For anyone interested in similar projects you should check out the
Open Prosthetics Project
. There is a short video after the break which tells Martin’s story. If you don’t have an arm, build one, seems perfectly reasonable to us. Nice work guys! We look forward to seeing the next version.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SKmiSf_IKcc&feature=youtu.be&w=470] | 32 | 31 | [
{
"comment_id": "404509",
"author": "pod",
"timestamp": "2011-06-11T20:54:55",
"content": "“It also has a light built in!”I lol’d",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "404513",
"author": "Slanderer",
"timestamp": "2011-06-11T21:00:56",
"co... | 1,760,377,167.197524 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/06/11/the-breech-loaded-paintall-shotgun/ | The Breech Loaded Paintall “Shotgun” | Jeremy Cook | [
"Weapons Hacks"
] | [
"gun",
"paintball"
] | Although this isn’t the first pneumatic air cannon to be featured on HAD, this
“paintball shotgun”
is certainly one of the coolest. While most air cannons have little practical use besides looking awesome and being cool to play with, this cannon, according to it’s maker, has actually been used successfully in actual paintball competition.
The system works by preloading a sabot full of paintballs into a section of barrel that can be removed. The barrel is then slid forward and the sabot/barrel section is then inserted and the gun is loaded. This configuration is known as a “floating barrel” and seems to work quite well.
The author is quick to point out that this device is not designed to be used against human competitors, but against tanks and such in scenario games. Used properly or not, we can’t vouch for the safety of this device. One should take extra caution when working with CO2 tanks as they can reach a maximum pressure in the thousands of PSI.
For other pneumatic cannon ideas, check out this other
bolt-action
miniature potato gun or this
“water blob launcher”
. | 14 | 13 | [
{
"comment_id": "404501",
"author": "Hackerspacer",
"timestamp": "2011-06-11T20:35:06",
"content": "“The cannon itself is made mostly of PVC pipe.”Might as well remove all of the red words and put a single one on it labeling this thing a bomb.Not a very violent one – but PLEASE STOP USING PVC WITH C... | 1,760,377,167.25068 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/06/11/satellite-tracking-by-shining-a-laser-into-space/ | Satellite Tracking By Shining A Laser Into Space | Brian Benchoff | [
"Arduino Hacks",
"Laser Hacks"
] | [
"android",
"iss",
"object tracking",
"space station"
] | [Shingo Hisakawa] sent in a tip for a for a neat little box called the Levistone that tracks the Internation Space Station with a laser. His
video log
goes though all the steps for this great little project.
[Shingo] originally planned to pull orbital data down from
NORAD
and send that to an ArduinoBT board with ethernet, GPS and compass modules. In the original plan, the Arduino would do the orbit calculations and point the laser using a few servos. There wasn’t much success with making an Arduino do all the work, so the an Android phone stood in for the GPS, compass and connection to the web. The duty of calculating the location of the ISS using GPS and orbital elements was moved onto the Amazon EC2 cloud. The final product looks great, even if it’s impossible to record the beam for the video.
With the ability to calculate the azimuth and elevation of the ISS from any point in the world, [Shingo] came up with
SightSpaceStation
, a neat mashup of his data and Google Maps. There are also iOS and Android apps for a nice piece of work in augmented reality. It’s a great project that would really compliment the
ISS desk lamp
we covered a few days ago. | 36 | 34 | [
{
"comment_id": "404418",
"author": "nnx",
"timestamp": "2011-06-11T15:52:54",
"content": "cue to the haters warning that you will get to jail if a plane accidentally flies over it in 3, 2, 1…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "404424",
"author... | 1,760,377,167.482784 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/06/11/3d-printer-looks-factory-made/ | 3D Printer Looks Factory Made | Brian Benchoff | [
"cnc hacks",
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"3d print",
"3d printer",
"cnc",
"makerbot",
"reprap"
] | [Richard Sum] came up with a great looking 3D printer and put his project up as a
campaign on IndieGoGo
.
[Richard]’s ‘SUMPOD’ is based off the reprap like a lot of other 3D printers, but the SUMPOD has a look of professionalism to it; the printer looks like something that would come from a factory. We think a lot of thought went into the design and fabrication of this printer.
The specs of the machine aren’t too bad either. It’s build area is 150x150x100 mm, or nearly 2 inches than the Makerbot Thing-O-Matic. We asked [Richard] about the drive system of the machine, and he told us there is a linear bearing/belt setup for the x and y axes with a screw drive for the z axis. The electronics are standard NEMA 17 motors and reprap
RAMPS
fare, so everything electrical is tried and true.
[Richard] plans on adding a Dremel attachment for pcb and
lithophane
milling. We hope that some design files of the SUMPOD released, but in the mean time we’re really looking forward to seeing the progress of this project. | 22 | 21 | [
{
"comment_id": "404396",
"author": "Foamy",
"timestamp": "2011-06-11T13:49:50",
"content": "You should mention that he’s offering it really cheap. £300 plus £60 postage in UK for everything you need to assemble it. There are other versions too with soldering done or without the electronics.",
"... | 1,760,377,167.538119 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/06/10/avrcam-for-small-robot-machine-vision/ | AVRcam For Small Robot Machine Vision | Gerrit Coetzee | [
"News",
"Robots Hacks"
] | [
"avrcam",
"machine vision",
"robot"
] | It’s neat how a project from 2004 can still be relevant if it’s done really well. This is the case with
AVRcam
. It uses an Atmel AVR mega8 and can do some pretty impressive things, like track up to eight objects at 30fps. The hardware and software is also open source, so it should be possible to build one yourself. There are
many projects like it
on the internet, though often they require much beefier hardware. Although, these days you can fit a computer inside a match box, so we see more and more projects just throwing a full USB camera on a robot to do simple things like
line following
. It’s debatable which solution is more elegant, but maybe not which one is more impressive. | 7 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "404176",
"author": "Boricua",
"timestamp": "2011-06-10T22:32:15",
"content": "Great and interesting.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "404205",
"author": "nes",
"timestamp": "2011-06-10T23:34:29",
"content": "Neat. I t... | 1,760,377,167.415305 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/06/10/forearm-mounted-gps-uses-leds-to-light-the-way-home/ | Forearm-mounted GPS Uses LEDs To Light The Way Home | Mike Nathan | [
"Arduino Hacks",
"gps hacks"
] | [
"arduino",
"compass",
"gps",
"lilypad",
"navigation"
] | While some people can rely solely on memory and landmarks to find their way home, others need a bit more help. Consider
Instructables user [_macke_]
for instance.
Like other
screenless GPS navigation devices we have seen
, his “Find Home Detector” uses a GPS module to obtain his location, guiding the way home via a set of alternate indicators. In this case, he uses LEDs which are laid out like a compass rose. When [_macke_] is aimed toward his destination, the LED nearest to his fingertips lights up, letting him know he is on the right path. As he turns away from home, the other LEDs light, indicating the direction in which he should turn.
His forearm-mounted GPS navigator uses a LilyPad Arduino to control the system, much like others we have seen. It is connected to a GPS sensor and a compass module that work in concert to guide him home. The compass is responsible obtaining his heading information, and while it might look as if the LEDs that surround the module are pointing North, they are in fact indicating the heading of his destination instead.
It’s a cool little creation, and we can imagine it would be quite helpful if you happen to be walking home after a long night of drinking.
Be sure to check out the video below for a quick demonstration.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sKmZI0tL5UA&w=470] | 17 | 17 | [
{
"comment_id": "404147",
"author": "Aaron",
"timestamp": "2011-06-10T21:23:41",
"content": "Oh now that’s just awesome.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "404154",
"author": "Crsh_ovrdrve",
"timestamp": "2011-06-10T21:55:46",
"content"... | 1,760,377,167.731506 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/06/10/spherical-military-drone-coming-to-a-sky-near-you/ | Spherical Military Drone Coming To A Sky Near You | Mike Nathan | [
"Robots Hacks"
] | [
"camera",
"drone",
"military",
"quadrocopter",
"surveillance"
] | We’re always fascinated by flying drones around here, and
this latest creation by Japan’s Ministry of Defense
is no exception. The spherical drone, which looks far simpler than
this drone we saw several months back
, looks pretty benign at first glance. Once it starts moving however, you can see just how slick it is.
Reports say that it can hit a top speed of 40 mph, but it seems that the fun is relatively short-lived, as the drone runs out of juice after about 8 minutes. While it is flying, the drone appears to be incredibly agile and fairly easy to control. The built-in camera isn’t top end, but it looks more than sufficient for general surveillance use.
While
we love quadrocopters
and all of the cool acrobatics they pull off, there’s something awesome about a drone that can hit the ground at speed, roll, and take off again without incurring any serious damage.
Anyone care to start work on a civilian prototype with a longer battery life? | 51 | 50 | [
{
"comment_id": "404033",
"author": "Grabbydad",
"timestamp": "2011-06-10T18:21:17",
"content": "Put some needles on it and it would look like the interrogation droid in Star Wars IV.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "404035",
"author": "Polym... | 1,760,377,167.896683 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/06/10/magnetism-makes-silly-putty-fun-again/ | Magnetism Makes Silly Putty Fun Again | Mike Szczys | [
"chemistry hacks"
] | [
"iron oxide",
"magnetic",
"rare earth magnets",
"silly putty"
] | The image above is a screen capture from a video clip where the black ooze gobbles up that rare-earth magnet. It’s actually a blob of
Silly Putty which was slightly altered to add magnetic properties
. [Mikeasaurus] grabbed some ferric iron oxide powder from an art supply store and donned gloves and a dust mask while massaging it into
the silicone polymer
. If you get the right mix of the two materials you end up with a flowing substance that performs mysteriously when exposed to a magnetic field.
Check out the video after the break to see some of the tricks that [Mikeasaurus] can do. The putty really looks like it has a life of its own. It will stretch a remarkable distance to get close to the magnets (amorphous stretch). If left in contact with one it will fully engulf it and then form an orb.
Now, is there any way to use this with electromagnetic fields to build
a morphing robot
?
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UlCm9Pni6ME&w=470] | 36 | 34 | [
{
"comment_id": "403957",
"author": "brad",
"timestamp": "2011-06-10T15:11:12",
"content": "first thought: i need to go buy silly putty and iron filings right now.second thought: does this remind anyone of the evil blob from fern gully?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
... | 1,760,377,167.810365 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/06/10/virtual-reality-with-a-pico-projector/ | Virtual Reality With A Pico Projector | Jeremy Cook | [
"Peripherals Hacks"
] | [
"head tracking",
"pico projector"
] | Although virtual reality was the wave of the future in the early 90’s, it hasn’t really taken off the way we would have liked. Sometimes a great idea just takes time for the technology to catch up to it (
Aeolipile
anyone?). Now that tiny projectors, realistic FPS games, and eye tracking systems have come down in price,
this head-tracking projection system
engineered by students at University of Texas at Austin could be the start of something really neat.
Although we’ve seen some cool
FPS/pico projector hacks
before, most of them use the “gun” as the controller. This approach offers a a different experience as one isn’t required to carry a “gun” around. It simply tracks one’s eye movement and moves the projector automatically. Check out the video after the break to see this device in action.
[youtube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z629I7tQUh0&w=470%5D | 12 | 12 | [
{
"comment_id": "403932",
"author": "Hackerspacer",
"timestamp": "2011-06-10T14:16:15",
"content": "Sounds a bit like a C.A.V.E.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "403937",
"author": "blarghmaster",
"timestamp": "2011-06-10T14:35:54",
"... | 1,760,377,167.951184 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/06/10/autodesk-enters-the-hobby-market/ | Autodesk Enters The Hobby Market | Gerrit Coetzee | [
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"123d",
"3dModeling",
"autodesk",
"cad",
"sketchup"
] | Autodesk aims to enter the hobby market with its offering of
Autodesk 123d
. If you’ve ever been spoiled by a nice CAD suite like Solidworks, Pro-E, or Inventor it becomes readily apparent that the free offerings don’t come anywhere close. At first Autodesk 123d seems to be entirely a Google Sketchup clone, and in some ways it is. Though, after a bit more exploring, the software offers some pretty advanced features, such as
assemblies and constraints
. All worries about it being windows only and closed source aside, it’s pretty cool that a big name in the CAD industry is taking a look at the hobby market, and overall it is worth testing out to see if it fits into your toolbox.
[via
Thingiverse
] | 34 | 34 | [
{
"comment_id": "403902",
"author": "michael",
"timestamp": "2011-06-10T13:17:49",
"content": "From the ‘spoiled by pro-e’ department, i can say that things like this have inherent benefits.for one, in proE you really need to know what you’re making and have a pretty good idea of how it all fits tog... | 1,760,377,168.072066 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/06/10/14-swarm-robot-kilobot-is-extremely-cool/ | $14 Swarm Robot, Kilobot, Is Extremely Cool | Gerrit Coetzee | [
"Robots Hacks"
] | [
"atmega328",
"Atmel",
"bristle",
"bristlebot",
"harvard",
"robot",
"swarm"
] | Reader, [Michael Rubenstein], sent in a
project he’s been working on
. Kilobot, as stated in the
paper
(pdf), overcomes the big problems with real world swarm robotics simulations; cost, experiment setup time, and maintenance. The robot can be communicated with wirelessly, charged in bulk, and mass programmed in under a minute. Typically, robots used for swarm research cost over a $100, so large scale experiments are left to software simulation. These, however, rarely include the real world physics, sensor error, and other modifying factors that only arise in a physical robot. Impressively enough, the kilobot comes in far under a hundred and still has many of the features of its costlier brothers. It can sense other robots, report its status, and has full differential steer (achieved, surprisingly, through
bristle locomotion
). There are a few cool videos of the robot in operation on the project site that are definitely worth a look. | 13 | 13 | [
{
"comment_id": "403879",
"author": "nes",
"timestamp": "2011-06-10T12:45:52",
"content": "That is rather good. I like the way they measure proximity and communicate via a single infra red transceiver. Very neat.Only suggestion I have is that they could potentially “feed” (charge) autonomously if th... | 1,760,377,168.003458 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/06/10/displaying-graphics-on-an-oscilloscope/ | Displaying Graphics On An Oscilloscope | Brian Benchoff | [
"classic hacks"
] | [
"graphics",
"oscilloscope"
] | [Andrew Rossignol] was curious one day and decided that he wanted to display
graphics on an oscilloscope
after playing around with the X and Y inputs.
[Andrew] started out with a resistor ladder on the DAC of his AVR Butterfly. He was able to to draw a line on the oscilloscope’s screen but bandwidth limitations forced him to reconsider his approach. A friend wrote a Python script to generate C code so the ports of the Butterfly can be toggled. After getting the Butterfly to generate a voltage for every non-white pixel, [Andrew] was impressed with the results so the code was modified determine the brightness of each pixel. The setup managed 10 shades of gray and careful selection of what graphics to post on the build log assured the project a little bit of blog cred.
There are a few ways to display a picture on an oscilloscope, like
plugging the Hsync and Vsync into the inputs
of a scope. Except for a few
music visualizations
, we haven’t seen a scope display generated from a microcontroller. Great work [Andrew], but we’d like to mention there’s a
grayscale Hack a Day logo
from way back when.
Check out a video of [Andrew]’s oscilloscope after the break.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uYMxPjOw0gA&w=470] | 6 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "403907",
"author": "Andrew Rossignol",
"timestamp": "2011-06-10T13:25:45",
"content": "Well isn’t this nice. Thanks for the post!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "404129",
"author": "masdr krafdr",
"timestamp": "2011-06-1... | 1,760,377,168.114302 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/06/09/pick-and-place-at-home/ | Pick And Place At Home | Mike Nathan | [
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"pick and place"
] | [Erv’] wrote in to share a manual pick and place he recently constructed. He builds a lot of circuits using SMD parts, and after looking at commercial pick and place systems, he decided
it would be far cheaper to build his own
. Using some components he had sitting around the house, along with a few store-bought pieces, he put the pick and place together for about $50, which is pretty cheap when you think about it.
The base is made from wood he had left over from another project, which has a sliding rail and a movable arm rest built into it. A rotating TV stand is used to hold workpieces, allowing PCBs to be repositioned at will while parts are being laid out. A square furniture leg is used as a support arm, holding the pick and place vacuum pen in place at the end of a small accordion hinge. As in most DIY pick and place installations, a small aquarium pump has been used to provide the suction needed to pick up SMD parts.
It’s a great build with plenty of useful features, and comes in far cheaper than any commercial system you’ll find out there. | 13 | 13 | [
{
"comment_id": "403734",
"author": "madcows",
"timestamp": "2011-06-10T00:41:35",
"content": "Not ready for prime time? I didn’t see any action flicks.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "403757",
"author": "Ciritech",
"timestamp": "2011-06... | 1,760,377,168.166776 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/06/09/ubuntu-laika-an-android-phone-pen-testing-platform/ | Ubuntu Laika – An Android Phone Pen Testing Platform | Mike Nathan | [
"Android Hacks",
"Security Hacks"
] | [
"android",
"linux",
"pentest",
"security",
"ubuntu"
] | Once [Ruan] over at AndroidClone heard that Android devices were capable of running a full Linux environment, he started contemplating all of the things he might be able to do with a full Linux OS in his pocket.
He decided that
a portable penetration testing platform
would be great to have on hand, so he got busy installing Ubuntu 10.10 on his Lenovo LePhone. Once he had it up and running, he stripped out all of the unnecessary fluff and added some common tools such as Wireshark, Nmap, and Kismet, among others. He says it easily runs side by side with Android, allowing you to switch between the Ubuntu install and your standard Android applications with ease.
While this all started out as a proof of concept, he has continued to refine the project, releasing several new versions along the way. If you are interested in giving it a try, he has
installation instructions
available in the AndroidClone forums.
[thanks Stephen] | 11 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "403711",
"author": "BaconZombie",
"timestamp": "2011-06-09T23:44:03",
"content": "How is this any different from BackTrack 5 ARM edition {http://www.backtrack-linux.org/downloads/} ?This is not installing a ” Real ” Linux onto the phone since you are only chroot’ing into it, thats e... | 1,760,377,170.103556 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/06/09/gigantic-ball-manipulating-binary-computer/ | Gigantic Ball-manipulating Binary Computer | Brian Benchoff | [
"classic hacks"
] | [
"analog computer",
"calculator"
] | The folks at Evil Mad Scientist Labs just put up a post on the
giant mechanical binary computer
they brought to last month’s Maker Faire.
As a faithful reproduction of the
Digi-Comp II
from the 1960s, every operation is powered by balls falling onto levers. Unlike the original, the larger version is powered by billiard balls instead of half-inch marbles. The Digi-Comp II is able to count, add, subtract, multiply, divide, get the 1s or 2s complement and zero all of it’s bits. With a 7-bit accumulator, the Digi-Comp II is able to calculate anything where the result is less than 127, so we wouldn’t recommend doing your taxes on it. In the demo video, it took the Digi-Comp II about two minutes and twenty seconds to multiply 3 by 13. We’re not going to venture a guess on the equivalent seconds per cycle for an electronic calculator, but it’s an impressive build
The Digi-Comp II is a great way to show the process of binary arithmetic in a computer and we were wondering why there aren’t any educational toys like the Digi-Comp II out today. A site linked from the build page tells us
there will be kits available this summer
, we’re hoping the kit doesn’t fill the bed of a pickup truck.
Check out the video after the break for the multiplication demo.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fLuvopVjAWg&w=470] | 23 | 20 | [
{
"comment_id": "403678",
"author": "abobymouse",
"timestamp": "2011-06-09T22:16:14",
"content": "It’s not analogue computer, surely? It’s implementing digital logic.It’s really cool; I love stuff like this. It’s a nicer analogy for teaching logic than lightbulbs.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth... | 1,760,377,170.318924 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/06/09/iss-lamp-tells-you-when-to-look-up/ | ISS Lamp Tells You When To Look Up | Brian Benchoff | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"arduino",
"space station",
"Teensy"
] | [Nathan Bergey] came up with a really neat
desk lamp
that provides a visualization of when the International Space Station is overhead.
The lamp uses a Teensy board to light a few LEDs on the edge of a piece of plexiglass. Because the orbit of the ISS decays over time, the time that overhead passes will occur is unpredictable after a few months. A stand-alone satellite tracking lamp will eventually lose it’s accuracy, so [Nathan] needed to parse tracking data the internet. Since he couldn’t find an API to track the ISS, [Nathan] wrote a Python script to parse the data he found on
Heavens Above
. Everything on the computer runs in the Gnome panel and is passed to the Teensy over the USB connection. [Nathan] posted all of the code is posted on
github
.
It’s a really great build that provides a reminder that there are
people
in
space
, and we think this would be a great way to provide some notification of upcoming
Iridium flares
, or when it’s most likely to pick up some
APRS packets
.
Check out [Nathan]’s demo of his ISS lamp after the break.
[vimeo
http://vimeo.com/24859969%5D | 5 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "403696",
"author": "IcYhAwK",
"timestamp": "2011-06-09T22:53:40",
"content": "i love this build. im thinking of trying to make a couple of these for gifts.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "403714",
"author": "Daniel Mackey",
... | 1,760,377,169.982457 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/06/09/tablet-controlled-disco-droid/ | Tablet-controlled Disco Droid | Mike Nathan | [
"Android Hacks",
"Toy Hacks"
] | [
"adk",
"android",
"droid",
"google",
"robot"
] | We have seen a few neat Google ADK projects pop up since its announcement a few weeks back,
and this one is already on the list of our favorites
.
YouTube user [chrisjrelliot] has put together a great hack demonstrating the ADK’s power and how easy it can be to control devices in real time with an Android-powered device.
He hacked apart an Android figure (naturally) and fitted it with some LED eyes as well as four servos. The servos are used to rotate the head, body, and arms of his Disco Droid, all of which can be controlled via his Android-powered tablet. As you can see in the video below, he is able to control the Droid’s actions in real time with a few simple swipes of his finger. One thing we did notice is that his tablet is not connected to anything via wires, so we are assuming that there’s a Bluetooth module hidden away somewhere in the mix.
While the video is a bit short on details, [Chris] promises that source code and build plans will be published in short order.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jwvkJVUECrg&w=470] | 13 | 13 | [
{
"comment_id": "403629",
"author": "Nomad",
"timestamp": "2011-06-09T20:13:18",
"content": "Not available in my country -.-Could someone upload it somewhere else? Like Viddler or something?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "403634",
"author":... | 1,760,377,170.368677 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/06/09/rfid-shower-time-logger/ | RFID Shower Time Logger | Jeremy Cook | [
"green hacks"
] | [
"arduino",
"rfid"
] | Paul
, as he describes himself, is “a student without a big budget,” which might have been part of the inspiration for this hack . Paul wanted to see how much time he was spending under the shower each day, so came up with this monitoring device using the ever-awesome Arduino processor and a RFID tag that many of you are certainly familiar with. One simply waves the tag in front of the reader to start the timer, and waves it again to stop it.
One may not, however, be familiar with “
thingspeak
” and “
weatherspark
“, two other important elements of this hack. Thingspeak is “an open application platform designed to enable meaningful connection between things and people,” and was used to interface the weather data on weatherspark with the shower monitor. This was to help figure out if there was a connection between outside temperature and the length of showers taken.
The results of this experiment should be interesting, so hopefully some will be published soon!
[via
hackedgadgets
] | 17 | 17 | [
{
"comment_id": "403597",
"author": "veneficus",
"timestamp": "2011-06-09T19:07:35",
"content": "I’d love to see the results of this experiment. I think I take longer showers when it is cold outside.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "403603",
... | 1,760,377,169.881597 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/06/09/another-smarter-water-heater-timer/ | Another Smarter Water Heater Timer | Nick Schulze | [
"classic hacks",
"green hacks"
] | [
"arduino",
"timer",
"water heater"
] | When notes stuck to the water heater failed [Ryan] decided to whip up “
the world’s most expensive 240V relay
” using a servo, a real time clock and of course an Arduino. All in an attempt to save a buck or two thanks to LA’s “Time-of-Use program”.
Using a protoshield Ryan soldered up a RTC module using the DS1307 chip. On board he added some LED’s and switches including a holiday switch keep the heater off, a next cycle button when you need some hot water and to hell with the expense, and a pulsing blue LED.. for no reason at all. The board flips the mechanical switch using a servo and piano wire, simple but effective. We wonder how many days/weeks it will take for it to offset its expense? | 28 | 28 | [
{
"comment_id": "403562",
"author": "macegr",
"timestamp": "2011-06-09T18:05:11",
"content": "Probably a negative payoff date…doubt it will make much difference in power costs, and that switch is not likely intended for continuous cycling and may cost a lot to replace.",
"parent_id": null,
"... | 1,760,377,170.168899 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/06/09/hacking-into-your-routers-administrative-interface/ | Hacking Into Your Router’s Administrative Interface | Mike Nathan | [
"hardware",
"home hacks"
] | [
"firmware",
"router",
"serial",
"telnet",
"ZXDSL"
] | [Arto] recently upgraded his home Internet subscription from an ADSL to VDSL, and with that change received a shiny new ZTE ZXDSL 931WII modem/wireless router. Once he had it installed, he started to go about his normal routine of changing the administrator password, setting up port forwarding, and configuring the wireless security settings…
or at least he tried to
.
It seems that he was completely unable to access the router’s configuration panel, and after sitting on the phone with his ISP’s “support” personnel, he was informed that there was no way for him to tweak even a single setting.
Undaunted, he cracked the router open and started poking around. He quickly identified a serial port, and after putting together a simple RS232 transceiver, was able to access the router’s telnet interface. It took quite a bit of experimentation and a good handful of help from online forums, but [Arto] was eventually able to upload an older firmware image to the device which gave him the configuration tools he was looking for.
Aside from a few Ethernet timeout issues, the router is now performing to his satisfaction. However, as a final bit of salt in his wounds, he recently read that the admin panel he was originally seeking can be accessed via the router’s WAN interface using a well-known default password – frustrating and incredibly insecure, all at the same time! He says that he learned quite a few things along the way, so not all was lost. | 21 | 20 | [
{
"comment_id": "403556",
"author": "Topper",
"timestamp": "2011-06-09T17:52:09",
"content": "And why the heck is needed – there is ssh/telnet interface trough the Ethernet :)Lost of time",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "403557",
"author": "x... | 1,760,377,170.423814 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/06/09/compaq-portable-iii-rises-again-for-a-noble-cause/ | Compaq Portable III Rises Again For A Noble Cause | Gerrit Coetzee | [
"computer hacks",
"Retrocomputing"
] | [
"antuin",
"compaq portable III",
"free geek",
"serial",
"vancouver"
] | [Autuin]
found a Compaq Portable III
destined for the scrap bin at
Free Geek Vancouver
. Upon seeing it he realized that
it still had some fight left in it
— perfect to go up against the tyranny of hipsters and their shiny Macbook Pros at his local coffee shop.
Unfortunately, being a 286, the computer couldn’t do much. He could take the
usual route
; which is to remove all the internals, and use the vast amount of space to fit a more modern computer inside. However, he decided to go a different path and save the internals, leaving it in original working order. The computer didn’t have enough power to browse the web, but it had just enough room to fit a
small single-board computer
inside, to which he could connect through serial. He hasn’t taken it down to the coffee shop yet, but we’re hoping for a few horrified hipsters and a full mission report when he does.
Thanks to [Alec Smecher] for the tip. | 36 | 34 | [
{
"comment_id": "403504",
"author": "Munch",
"timestamp": "2011-06-09T16:24:22",
"content": "Are you sure that an 80286 isn’t powerful enough to browse the web, when web browsers exist for the humble 6502? OK, they lack Javascript support, but to suggest the 286 isn’t “powerful enough” to browse th... | 1,760,377,170.053227 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/06/09/turning-a-router-into-an-aprs-gateway/ | Turning A Router Into An APRS Gateway | Brian Benchoff | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"amateur radio",
"APRS",
"packetradio",
"wrt54g"
] | [Chris Kantarjiev] is an amateur radio enthusiast (call sign K6DBG) and does a lot with the APRS. We think his build,
turning a WRT54gl router into an APRS gateway
will be very useful for the
APRS tracker builds
we’ve been covering.
Setting up an Internet Gateway, or igate, on APRS usually requires a ‘real’ computer. [Chris] didn’t like that idea, so he took
aprs4r
, igate software for embedded devices, and pruned it down to fit on the 4MB of flash and 16MB of RAM in the WRT.
The actual APRS hardware is connected though headers soldered onto the WRT54gl’s board which go to a small
PIC-Based TNC
. [Chris] argues that the APRS ‘backbone’ is great, but there aren’t enough nodes on the network for full coverage. We thing this would be a great way to put cheap hardware out in the wild to cover those gaps in the APRS network.
Check out the video for a rundown of the modded WRT54g after the break. If you’re interested amateur radio,
Field Day
is coming up in just 2 weeks.
Find a local club
and check out what’s possible with amateur radio.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VZS0bdYmtik&w=470] | 15 | 15 | [
{
"comment_id": "403472",
"author": "Chris Breish",
"timestamp": "2011-06-09T15:19:34",
"content": "I apologize for the shameless self promotion, but I’ve written a blog post about APRS that covers some of the basics for those who are not familiar with it. You can find it here:http://shambl.es/4",
... | 1,760,377,169.936527 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/06/08/tiny-transforming-beer-can-robot/ | Tiny Transforming Beer Can Robot | Mike Nathan | [
"Robots Hacks"
] | [
"beer",
"embed",
"robot",
"servo",
"transformer"
] | The next time you reach for a cold one, you might want to take a look at the can to ensure that your beer won’t suddenly
sprout legs and start skittering across the table
.
You might remember [Ron Tajima] from some of his previous creations, including this
Roomba-based baby cradle
and the
PacMan Roomba mod
. This time around, he has created a cool little transforming robot that fits inside a beer can.
The robot’s brains are stored just underneath the top of the beer can on a custom-built board. On one side of this board, you will find an mbed controller which is used to manage all of the robot’s functions, and on the other side, four batteries provide all of the device’s power. The robot’s three legs are controlled by six servos, allowing for movement in several different planes. The beer-bot’s movements are controlled with a Wiimote, so we’re assuming he has crammed a Bluetooth module somewhere in there as well.
[Ron] mentions that it moves a bit slowly when standing on end, but we think the robot is pretty awesome as is, and we can’t wait to see what improvements the next version might bring.
Stick around to see a video demonstration of the robot in action.
[Thanks Sascha]
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7hag6Zgj78o&w=470] | 22 | 22 | [
{
"comment_id": "403101",
"author": "Ray",
"timestamp": "2011-06-08T19:10:56",
"content": "That was awesome!I’m eager to see the next revision. ^_^",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "403103",
"author": "Droose",
"timestamp": "2011-06-08T19:... | 1,760,377,170.486194 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/06/08/machine-precisely-methodically-arranges-water-droplets/ | Machine Precisely, Methodically Arranges Water Droplets | Mike Nathan | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"art",
"cnc",
"machine",
"water"
] | While some projects we feature are meant to perform a useful function or make life easier, others such as
this art installation by [Pe Lang]
are far less functional, but amazing nonetheless.
Taking a cue from CNC-style machines, his creation is an experiment in falling objects and the properties of water. The machine methodically moves along a small 370 x 330 mm plate that is constructed out of a special omniphobic material. A syringe full of water travels along with the machine’s arm, depositing a single 3.3 mm wide drop of water on the board every few seconds as it moves along. Due to the surface tension of the water, each droplet forms a near perfect sphere on the plate without disturbing any of its neighbors.
Once the machine is finished, it leaves the matrix of water droplets to evaporate, after which the machine starts its careful process once again. It really is amazing, regardless of the fact that it doesn’t exactly “do anything”.
Be sure to check out the video below to see the exhibit in action.
[via
Make
]
[vimeo
http://vimeo.com/24491037
w=470] | 31 | 31 | [
{
"comment_id": "403082",
"author": "Tom",
"timestamp": "2011-06-08T18:15:24",
"content": "If the droplets are close enough together I bet you could trigger a chain reaction by over filling one of the droplets, would be cooler than waiting for it to evaporate, lol.",
"parent_id": null,
"dept... | 1,760,377,170.686426 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/06/08/android-controlled-labyrinth/ | Android Controlled Labyrinth | Mike Szczys | [
"Android Hacks"
] | [
"accelerometer",
"adk",
"arduino",
"labyrinth",
"marble",
"servo"
] | [Pcdevltd] pulled an all-nighter to get his first Android Developer Kit project up and running. Basing the project off of the example that Google used when unveiling the new accessory development hardware, he set to work
controlling a marble labyrinth game using his smart phone
. What began at 7pm was wrapped up by 5am to produce the results seen in the video after the break.
These ball mazes use two knobs to pivot the playing surface, changing gravity’s pull on the ball to get it to go where you want. [Pcdevltd] pulled off the bottom on his labyrinth and installed two small servo motors. These connect to the
Android Open Accessory Development Kit
via a small cable. Connect that to the phone and you can then use the internal accelerometer to play the game. If you have an Android phone and an Arduino this should be pretty easy to replicate since we know you can already
use the ADK with Arduino
. Get to work on your own projects and don’t forget to
send us a link to your project log
.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uhzg4uAzLQg&w=470]
[Thanks David] | 2 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "403453",
"author": "John",
"timestamp": "2011-06-09T14:23:03",
"content": "I want to see it playback a previous run.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "403671",
"author": "Oscar Puertas",
"timestamp": "2011-06-09T21:57:18",... | 1,760,377,170.624802 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/06/08/diy-earthquake-detector/ | DIY Earthquake Detector | Jeremy Cook | [
"green hacks"
] | [
"arduino",
"earthquake",
"earthquake detector",
"hall effect"
] | Some animals seem to be able to detect earthquakes. Some animals also navigate using the earth’s magnetic field. From the idea that there may be some relationship with these two things, this
experimental earthquake detector
was born.
[Bob Davis]
built this device, which uses an Arduino and several Hall effect sensors to detect and record magnetic fields. Possibly after enough data is recorded, a correlation can be found between the two phenomena.
The sensors in this device are arranged to measure magnetism in four directions as well as in the vertical axis. Part of the idea behind this is that before an earthquake the quartz in the ground moves producing a magnetic field.
In the video after the break, Bob gives some background on the theory behind this device and talks about the first version (built way back in the year 2000) which uses a PC for control and recording. Really interesting stuff so be sure to listen to Bob’s explanation after the break.
[youtube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fz7FeHCkpOM&w=470%5D | 20 | 20 | [
{
"comment_id": "403043",
"author": "Mike",
"timestamp": "2011-06-08T16:09:08",
"content": "Um, are the animals that navigate using the earth’s magnetic field the same ones that can detect earthquakes? I hope so, for the sake of his experiment…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies":... | 1,760,377,170.741304 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/06/08/chipkit-sketch-mini-polyphonic-sampling-synth/ | ChipKIT Sketch: Mini Polyphonic Sampling Synth | Phil Burgess | [
"Arduino Hacks",
"digital audio hacks",
"Featured",
"how-to",
"Microcontrollers",
"Musical Hacks"
] | [
"arduino",
"audio",
"chipkit",
"digital",
"drums",
"filter",
"Kraftwerk",
"max32",
"music",
"pic32",
"piezo",
"sound",
"uno32"
] | In our
hands-on review of the Digilent chipKIT Uno32
, we posed the question of what the lasting appeal might be for a 32-bit Arduino work-alike. We felt it needed some novel applications exploiting its special features…not just the same old Arduino sketches with MOAR BITS. After the fractal demo, we’ve hit upon something unique and fun…
So just what are the chipKIT’s unique features over a stock Arduino? Until the expected Ethernet shield ships this summer, a few ideas are on hold. Let’s see then…there’s no shortage of MIPS, of course…but there’s also heaps of RAM and flash storage. And with the latter, sampled audio came to mind. There are Arduino shields for just this sort of thing — the
Adafruit Wave Shield turns up in many projects
, using an SD card for sound storage — but if one’s needs are modest, the chipKIT’s PIC32 is perfectly capable of storing brief audio samples in its own flash program space, no cards, adapters or added expense required. We estimate the Max32 can hold nearly a full minute of voice-quality audio.
Playing with the idea, we found we could do one better. Actually, several better. A limitation of SD card-based players like the Wave Shield is that they can only play one sound at a time. Dealing with the FAT filesystem and buffering audio data off the card takes nearly everything the Arduino’s little ATmega chip can muster…polyphonic sound requires
kludges
. But our flash-resident audio samples on the chipKIT are trivial to access. With the fast 32-bit CPU, many samples can be processed simultaneously…and then, with gobs of RAM, time-based effects such as reverb can be added. And before we knew it, there was a toy synthesizer sitting on the table:
Having previously dabbled with the PIC32 using Microchip’s tools, we were surprised by the simplicity with which this went together. A few early rough spots aside, the chipKIT and MPIDE environment show major promise for being every bit as simple as Arduino. In fact, the whole build was completed faster than the documentation phase. And then a second surprise, even to us: everything in the parts list, aside from the chipKIT board itself, is common stuff that could be found at
RadioShack
. No funky special ICs, components or mail-order shields. Most of the “magic” is in software, thanks to this fast microcontroller.
Here’s a demonstration of the finished mini-synth in action:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hdpQ8LEku90&w=470]
Please excuse the demonstrator’s tragic lack of rhythm and coordination. This is why professional musicians get paid millions while amateurs lead sad lives as technology bloggers. Be thankful that we spared you the blooper reel.
Input is via five
piezoelectric
transducers (RadioShack #273-0073, $2.19 each) attached to analog inputs A0 through A4. We could have just used pushbuttons, sure, but we wanted something that could sense the pressure of each hit, and these were cheaper than force-sensitive resistors. Piezo sensors have a specific polarity, and the positive side (red wires) should connect to the analog inputs, and black to ground. There’s also a 2000 Ohm resistor added across each element:
Input for the reverb effect is straightforward. Two 10K potentiometers on analog inputs A6 and A7 (these are on the second row of analog inputs on the chipKIT Uno32, not present on Arduino). One controls the amplitude, the other controls the delay:
Finally, sound output uses high-speed PWM output on digital pin 3, passed through a simple low-pass filter to a headphone jack:
On our breadboard we’re using a handy little
headphone breakout board
from SparkFun, but one could just solder the appropriate wire leads onto a bare jack from “The Shack” (ugh). You may want to optionally add a 1 Meg pot just before the headphone jack. The circuit worked fine as-is with headphones or an amplified iPod speaker, but totally saturated our camera’s microphone input when fed directly.
This demo uses 16 KHz sound samples. As per
Nyquist theory
, the low-pass filter is then designed for an 8 KHz (-ish) cutoff frequency. For purely voice applications, half those rates should be sufficient (saving flash space and allowing longer samples), and the two resistor values should then be doubled.
And that’s it for parts. Can you believe it? On to the code…
To begin, we need something that can convert sound files into a format the C compiler can use. An ugly little UNIX command-line utility converts WAV files from a very specific format (8-bit mono, uncompressed) into C header files that can be #included by the MPIDE project. Arduino normally would use the PROGMEM directive to put these tables into the code flash space, but that’s not required here. Surprisingly, the much-loved
Audacity
program wouldn’t export 8-bit WAVs, but we found it possible to batch convert sounds using iTunes.
const signed char sample_drum[] = {
0x02,0x03,0x01,0x00,0x00,0x00,0x00,0x01,
0x01,0x01,0x01,0x01,0x01,0x01,0x01,0x00,
...HUNDREDS OF LINES OF STUFF...
0xff,0xff,0xff,0xfd,0xfd,0xff,0x00,0x00,
0x00,0x00,0x00,0x00,0x02,0x00 };
We’ll spare you the horror of looking at that code or doing the conversion. You can
download the complete set of project files here
, and then adapt it to your own needs. The remainder of this article deals only with the MPIDE code.
But first, one fix is required: in our
prior article
, we encountered an issue with the chipKIT’s analog read speed, and a fix was discussed in the comments. This involves scrounging among the MPIDE source files for “wiring_analog.c” and changing a few lines. The old code resembles:
delayMicroseconds(99);
while ( ! mAD1GetIntFlag() ) { }
analogValue = ReadADC10(0);
mAD1ClearIntFlag();
This should be changed to:
delayMicroseconds(2);
mAD1ClearIntFlag();
while ( ! mAD1GetIntFlag() ) { }
analogValue = ReadADC10(0);
We’re told this change will be incorporated into later releases of the toolkit and this won’t be necessary for much longer. If you’re just ripping out the digital audio code from this project and ignoring this drum pad stuff, you can skip the change altogether.
And then there’s our sketch code:
// Mini sampling synthesizer for chipKIT Uno32.
#include "sounds.h" // N_SAMPLES and data are here
#define PWM_PIN 3 // OC1 PWM output - don't change
#define SAMPLE_RATE 16000 // All samples fixed at 16 KHz
#define MAX_SOUNDS 10 // Polyphonic limit
#define MAX_ECHO 4000 // 1/4 sec fits in Uno32 RAM
short
echo_data[MAX_ECHO]; // Circular buffer for echo
int
echo_delay = 0, // Duration of echo effect
echo_vol = 0, // Echo effect volume (0-1023)
echo_pos = 0; // Current position in echo buffer
volatile int // May change during interrupt:
n_sounds = 0; // Number of sounds currently playing
struct soundStruct {
int sample; // Index of corresponding audio sample
int pos; // Current position within sample
int vol; // Playback volume, 0-1023
} sound[MAX_SOUNDS];
#define N_PADS N_SAMPLES // One pad for each sample
struct padStruct {
short max; // Max pressure during press (0-1023)
short count; // Timer for filtering out noise
byte triggered; // If set, currently reading a press
short add; // If >0, begin sound at next interrupt
} pad[N_PADS];
void setup()
{
memset(pad, 0, sizeof(pad)); // Clear drum pad data
memset(echo_data, 0, sizeof(echo_data)); // Clear echo
pinMode(PWM_PIN, OUTPUT); // Enable PWM output pin
// Open Timer2, 1:1 w/256 tick interval (for 8-bit PWM)
OpenTimer2(T2_ON | T2_PS_1_1,256);
OpenOC1(OC_ON | OC_TIMER2_SRC | OC_PWM_FAULT_PIN_DISABLE,
0,0);
// Open Timer1 with interrupt for sample mixer (16 KHz)
ConfigIntTimer1(T1_INT_ON | T1_INT_PRIOR_3);
OpenTimer1(T1_ON | T1_PS_1_1, F_CPU / SAMPLE_RATE);
delay(1); // Slight delay avoids false trigger at start.
}
// Piezo transducers as input pads are fussy.
// To avoid false positives, a bit of hysteresis is used:
#define PRESS_MIN 20 // Must read at least this force
#define PRESS_COUNT 3 // for this many samples, then...
#define RELEASE_MAX 8 // Must read less than this force
#define RELEASE_COUNT 15 // for this many samples.
// Still imperfect; there are occasional double-triggerings
// and false triggers on adjacent pads. Could be addressed
// with better mounting and isolation of pads and/or with
// improved input filtering in code or in hardware.
// The loop() function just reads pad and dial inputs; all
// audio work is done in the subsequent interrupt function.
void loop()
{
int i, a;
for(i = 0; i < N_PADS; i++) { // Sample each pad...
a = analogRead(i);
if(pad[i].triggered) { // Previously pressed?
if(a <= RELEASE_MAX) { // Yes, released now?
if(++pad[i].count >= RELEASE_COUNT) { // Really?
// Sounds aren't added to play list here, just
// flagged; they're added to the mix in the
// interrupt. This avoids a race condition
// where this code may be trying to add a sound
// while the interrupt is removing one.
pad[i].add = pad[i].max;
pad[i].triggered = 0;
pad[i].count = 0;
}
} else { // Still pressed...watch for new max
if(a > pad[i].max) pad[i].max = a;
pad[i].count = 0; // Reset release counter
}
} else if(a >= PRESS_MIN) { // Untriggered; new press?
if(++pad[i].count >= PRESS_COUNT) { // Really?
pad[i].triggered = 1; // Flag to watch for release
pad[i].count = 0;
pad[i].max = a;
}
} else { // Untriggered and below press threshold
pad[i].count = 0; // Clear press counter
}
}
// Echo parameters come from potentiometers on A6 and A7
echo_vol = analogRead(6);
echo_delay = map(analogRead(7), 0, 1023, 0, MAX_ECHO);
}
// This is the mixing/sample-playing interrupt,
// invoked at 16 KHz to match the audio sample rate.
// With guidance from Mark Sproul's PIC32 port of
// Brett Hagman's Tone library for Arduino.
extern "C"
{
void __ISR(_TIMER_1_VECTOR,ipl3) playSample(void)
{
int i = 0, sum = 0;
mT1ClearIntFlag(); // Clear interrupt flag
while(i < n_sounds) { // For each sound playing...
// Waveform is cumulative, NOT averaged
sum += (int)sample[sound[i].sample].data[sound[i].pos] *
sound[i].vol;
sound[i].pos++; // Advance counter. If end hit...
if(sound[i].pos >= sample[sound[i].sample].size) {
n_sounds--; // Decrement number of sounds playing:
// Move sound at end of list to the slot currently
// occupied by the vacating sound (unless the same)
if(i < n_sounds) {
memcpy(&sound[i], &sound[n_sounds],
sizeof(soundStruct));
continue; // Sound moved; dont advance index
}
}
i++;
}
sum /= 1024;
// Add in echo effect (if enabled) from circular buffer.
// This takes place before audio level clipping so that
// any clipping distortion won't be repeated in echo.
if((echo_delay > 0) && (echo_vol > 0)) {
sum += echo_data[echo_pos] * (echo_vol + 1) / 1024;
echo_data[echo_pos] = sum;
if(++echo_pos >= echo_delay) echo_pos = 0;
}
// Clip audio to 8-bit range. This may cause distortion
// when multiple sounds or echo exceed the 8-bit range.
// Invoking the "quick & dirty" alibi again.
if(sum < -128) sum = -128;
else if(sum > 127) sum = 127;
SetDCOC1PWM(sum + 128); // Set PWM output value 0-255
// Check for any new sounds flagged by loop().
// Done last because sounds finished above will
// free up polyphonic slots.
for(i = 0; i < N_PADS; i++) {
if(pad[i].add) {
if(n_sounds < MAX_SOUNDS) {
sound[n_sounds].sample = i;
sound[n_sounds].pos = 0;
sound[n_sounds].vol = pad[i].add + 1;
n_sounds++;
}
pad[i].add = 0; // Clear flag even if not added
}
}
}
} // end extern "C"
Explanation:
The setup() function initializes two timers:
Timer 2 and Output Compare 1 (hardware features of the PIC32 chip) are used for pulse width modulation (
PWM
). In conjunction with the filter previously described, this positions the speaker for each audio sample (Google for “PWM DAC” for explanations and examples). The PWM input clock is set to the chip’s full speed of 80 MHz, with an interval of 256 “ticks” (for 8-bit resolution), yielding a PWM waveform at 312,500 Hz. For this sort of DAC filtering it’s recommended that the PWM frequency be at least ten times the sample rate, so this is more than adequate for our needs. This is also why the code bypasses the native Arduino analogWrite() function for PWM, which operates on a much slower clock. Lastly, using Output Compare 1 dictates that we
must
use digital pin 3 for the audio output; this is one of the five native hardware PWM lines on this chip.
Timer 1 operates at our audio sample frequency (16 KHz) and has an
interrupt
function attached. This function mixes audio samples and changes the PWM duty cycle of Timer2/OC1. The rates on both of these timers are set up once and never need to change, just the one duty cycle is varied.
This section of the code (and one line in the interrupt function) is admittedly not very Arduino-like, directly accessing hardware features in a non-portable manner. A more formal implementation would abstract these details into a library to which the novice programmer could just pass data. But for the sake of a simple, single-file demo, there it is, warts and all. In many ways, this is just a starting point to work from.
The loop() function reads the state of the piezo sensors and marks sounds to be played (received by the interrupt, later). There’s some crude
debouncing
of the piezo inputs…this really could use some more sophisticated filtering (which the PIC32 could easily handle), but it was skipped for brevity. The code generally detects varying pressure, but there’s still a fair bit of false triggering going on. In this function the reverb controls are also read: just two analogRead() calls, with the second one then mapped to the full length of the reverb buffer.
The interrupt handler is where all the fun stuff happens, and it’s surprisingly simple.
The extern “C” declaration makes the C++ compiler happy with the interrupt function declaration.
The program is designed for up to ten concurrent sounds, the details of which are held in the “sound” structure array (there’s more than enough CPU performance for greater polyphony, but it’s mostly just a matter that the input pads aren’t terribly practical for this). When a pad hit is sensed, a new item is added to this array (up to the maximum). Structure elements indicate which audio sample is used for this sound, the current playback position within the sample, and the volume level.
Audio samples are stored as signed values (rather than unsigned) because this makes them easier to mix (just add together) and easier to adjust gains (just multiply). Every opportunity is taken to use fixed-point math. From the prior fractal demo, we saw what a massive performance difference this can make — sometimes orders of magnitude. Most of our analog readings (returned as 10 bit integers from 0 to 1023) correspond to a gain (relative volume) value of 0.0 to 1.0 (or 0% to 100%). To perform this scaling in fixed-point units, add 1 to the reading, perform the multiplication (one instruction on the PIC32), then divide by 1024 (a simple shift operation, also one instruction). There’s no loss in accuracy vs. converting to floating-point; the source and destination values are going to be quantized anyway.
// Floating-point, slow:
// scale = float 0.0 to 1.0
out = (int)((float)in * scale);
// Fixed-point, crazy fast:
// scale = integer 0 to 1023
out = in * (scale + 1) / 1024;
Along these lines, note that where the audio samples are summed, this division is skipped until the end. This saves some cycles and the result works out the same. Algebraically speaking, (A/X)+(B/X)=(A+B)/X, and so forth. The interim 32-bit sum isn’t likely to overflow.
Fixed-point math happens again when applying reverb. The echo volume, in the integer variable echo_vol (10 bit again, from one of the analog knobs) is in the range 0 to 1023, corresponding to 0% (no reverb) to 100% (echo is as loud as the original sound). Reverb (in echo_data[] array) is a circular buffer — as sounds are played, the contents here (scaled by echo_vol) are first added to the output, then the result is placed back in the same position in the array and the position counter is incremented by one. When the end of the array is reached (or a shorter limit indicated by echo_delay) we “wrap around” back to the beginning.
The final resulting audio value is clipped to an 8-bit range. This may introduce clipping distortion when many loud sounds are used simultaneously. For brevity again, bells and whistles have been omitted, but courageous programmers could opt to add “soft clipping” here to limit such distortion. There’s ample CPU muscle.
The final 8-bit signed value is then transposed into the unsigned range and fed into the OC1 duty cycle for PWM output.
Lastly, the interrupt checks for any sounds that the loop() function flagged as being “hit,” and adds these to the concurrent play list. This flag-and-add behavior, rather than adding items directly in loop(), avoids a potentially nasty race condition whereby loop() could be in the midst of adding a sound just as the interrupt is removing others, throwing off the counter.
And that’s all there is to it. This demo only uses about one fourth of the storage on the Uno32, which itself has one fourth the capacity of the Max32…and we’ve yet to exploit any sort of
compression
. There could be some fun applications here, maybe adding
better Super Mario sounds to toilets
or voice prompts to other chipKIT projects (“Your door is ajar”). What other ideas could you see happening here? | 20 | 18 | [
{
"comment_id": "403027",
"author": "Gomiboy99",
"timestamp": "2011-06-08T15:28:59",
"content": "Nice demo. Now, where did I leave my pocket calculator?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "403031",
"author": "Jakob",
"timestamp": "2011-06-08... | 1,760,377,170.805508 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/06/08/extending-the-usability-of-touchscreens/ | Extending The Usability Of Touchscreens | Mike Szczys | [
"Multitouch Hacks"
] | [
"ipad",
"stylus",
"thesis",
"touchscreen"
] | Fanboys may be in shock from seeing duct tape applied to the screen of an iPad, but we can assure you it’s in the name of science. [Michael Knuepfel] is working on his thesis for the ITP graduate program at the Tisch School for the Arts. He managed to
augment the usability of touchscreen devices by adding hardware to them
.
What he’s come up with are devices for both input and output. The output devices generally rely on light and color of light displayed on the screen itself which is picked up by a light sensor. The input devices use conductive material to complete a path between your hand and your screen. This lets the capacitive sensing screen detect the presence of your hand, through the conductor. Some of his example devices include gaming controller overlays, encoder rings, and multiple stylus designs.
After the break we’ve embedded [Michael’s] teaser trailer which jumps through several demonstrations. It’s plenty to get your mind rolling, but if you want to know more you must watch his thesis presentation. It’s available as
an MP4 download on this page
. Just search for his name, [Michael Knuepfel] for the proper link.
[vimeo
http://vimeo.com/23507405
w=470]
[via
Make
] | 16 | 16 | [
{
"comment_id": "403009",
"author": "addidis",
"timestamp": "2011-06-08T14:10:43",
"content": "The game controller was especially interesting . This is going to be huge.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "403018",
"author": "James",
"timest... | 1,760,377,170.9707 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/06/08/experimenting-with-a-permeability-tuned-oscillator/ | Experimenting With A Permeability Tuned Oscillator | Mike Szczys | [
"Radio Hacks"
] | [
"oscillator",
"pto",
"RF",
"variable capacitor",
"variable inductor"
] | [Scott Harden] has been working through a design for a variable inductor to use as a PTO, or permeability tuned oscillator. What you see above is
the most recent fruit of these efforts
. The variable inductor is made up of the green coil of wire with a threaded bolt in the core. Turning that bolt moves the tip in or out of the coil, affecting its inductance.
Traditionally, tuning RF oscillator circuits has been a function of an adjustable capacitor. But capacitance is only part of the circuit, with inductance being the other important portion. Since variable capacitors that are capable of affecting a large change on the frequency of a circuit can be quite expensive he set out to find another way. This is what prompted the development of
his first PTO project
.
[Scott] produced a demo video of the hardware seen above which we’ve embedded after the break.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jm3a1OqNFVI&w=470] | 10 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "402997",
"author": "Bogdan",
"timestamp": "2011-06-08T13:32:09",
"content": "This reminds me of my first FM microphone transmitter. I couldn’t get the frequency right by moving the coil turns, but i was able to fix it by putting a screw near it.Anyways, wouldn’t it be better if the ... | 1,760,377,171.120926 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/06/09/repairing-a-broken-microwave-keypad/ | Repairing A Broken Microwave Keypad | Mike Nathan | [
"home hacks"
] | [
"fix",
"keypad",
"matrix",
"microwave",
"repair"
] | [Alexandre Souza] needed a microwave pretty badly, but he didn’t have a lot of cash on hand. He located one for a great price, but once he got home he found that
things weren’t working quite like they should be
(
Google translation
).
After some investigation, he narrowed the problem down to a bad keypad membrane. Unfortunately for him, this model of microwave was never sold in Brazil (who knows how it got there) and the only membrane he could track down had to be shipped in from the US at a cost of $80.
Rather than pay such a high price for a simple membrane, he opted to fix the microwave himself. He dismantled the control panel and thoroughly traced the keypad matrix to get an understanding of which pins toggled which functions. With a piece of protoboard and almost two dozen push buttons in hand, he built his own keypad and wired it directly into the microwave’s control board.
With labels written in marker it might not be the nicest looking thing you have ever seen, but it works a treat and is a great money-saving hack. | 41 | 41 | [
{
"comment_id": "403451",
"author": "anon",
"timestamp": "2011-06-09T14:16:28",
"content": ">(who knows how it got there)You thought recycling was done in the US?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "403452",
"author": "Hackerspacer",
"timest... | 1,760,377,171.202556 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/06/09/experimental-music-ipad-dock/ | Experimental Music IPad Dock | Mike Szczys | [
"ipod hacks"
] | [
"audio",
"input",
"ipad",
"jacks",
"output"
] | You can buy nice audio breakout equipment for your iPod if you don’t mind breaking the bank. This is partly because the demand is not incredibly high so commercial breakout hardware doesn’t benefit from volume discounts. But it’s also because Apple charges licensing fees for third-party accessories (often referred to as the “Apple Tax”). [Reed Ghazala] decided to side-step the whole situation by building his own accessory which he calls
the iPad Audio Desk
.
It all starts with a breakout board. The
PodBreakout Mini
provides an easy to solder interface for the iPad, and ensures that the repetitive act of plugging and unplugging the connection doesn’t break a solder connection. From there [Reed’s] enclosure finishing skills take over. The shape and curve of the aluminum sheet give the look befitting an expensive tablet device. Along the back you can see the jacks for line-in, line-out, video, mic/guitar, and headphones that make the dock useful. It wouldn’t be hard to make one… but it might be hard to make one look this great. See for yourself after the break.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hgZer4_CKwQ&w=470] | 14 | 14 | [
{
"comment_id": "403439",
"author": "Hackerspacer",
"timestamp": "2011-06-09T13:24:33",
"content": "“The shape and curve of the aluminum sheet give the look befitting an expensive tablet device.”So all it takes to look like an expensive tablet is a piece of press braked aluminum :) ?It does look qui... | 1,760,377,171.070501 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/06/09/diy-cnc-touch-probe/ | DIY CNC Touch Probe | Mike Nathan | [
"cnc hacks"
] | [
"cnc",
"delrin",
"sieg sx3",
"tormach",
"touch probe"
] | [Dennis] recently invested some money in the Tormach Tooling System for his CNC’d Sieg SX3 mill in order to make his tool changes easier. While the kit allows him to easily account for height offsets while changing tools, he has no quick, reliable means of locating the spindle in relation to his workpiece. Tired of manually finding the edges of his workpiece for each axis,
he built himself a DIY touch probe to automate the process
.
The theory behind the probe’s operation is pretty simple. In the probe’s housing, three conductive rods are mounted perpendicular to the probe tip. Each rod rests between two metal balls forming a complete circuit. When the probe touches the edge of his milling material, the circuit is broken, sending a signal to his CNC control box.
The probe is comprised of several different parts, milled from either aluminum or black delrin. [Dennis] says that after everything was assembled, the runout on the probe was unacceptable, so he made a few tweaks, and now the runout has been reduced to about 0.00025” – well within acceptable tolerance limits for any work he will be doing.
Be sure to check out his site, as there are plenty more pictures of the probe’s construction, as well as additional video.
In the meantime, continue reading to see a quick video of the finished probe in action.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_m4quM9Lvog&w=470] | 8 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "403421",
"author": "Hackerspacer",
"timestamp": "2011-06-09T12:20:08",
"content": "Awesome!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "403430",
"author": "James",
"timestamp": "2011-06-09T12:58:17",
"content": "Oh for a CNC mac... | 1,760,377,171.020813 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/06/09/ioio-now-supports-android-open-accessory/ | IOIO Now Supports Android Open Accessory | Brian Benchoff | [
"Android Hacks",
"Cellphone Hacks"
] | [
"adb",
"android",
"ioio",
"openaccessory"
] | After the announcement of the Android Open Accessory ADK, [Ytai] decided he should get the
the ADK
running on the IOIO Android breakout board.
The first batch of Android ADK boards sold for about $400. While that price has come down
considerably
, the IOIO is still
cheaper and smaller
. [Ytai] put the source and all the technical info
on his wiki
.
Interestingly, this beta build is a little more capable than the Google offering. The IOIO supports the Android Debug Bridge, so it’s able to work with any Android device made since the beginning of time. The IOIO will try to communicate with the device using the Open Accessory standard because of the much better throughput and latency, but will seamlessly fall back to ADB if the device doesn’t support Open Accessory. Open Accessory boards are only comparable with devices running Android 2.3.4 and higher, so it looks like we’ve got a standard breakout board for the $99 Android tablets that fly off the shelves during Christmas.
[Ytai] has gotten a few of his projects on Hack a Day, like his
PICMAN prototyping setup
and his awesome
2 foot POV globe
, so we’re happy to see this very skilled builder finally get his Hack a Day hat trick and enters the ranks of giants like [Sprite_tm]. If you’ve got a great build,
send it in
and you might be able to join the pantheon of great builders. | 9 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "403410",
"author": "max",
"timestamp": "2011-06-09T11:36:56",
"content": "i guess this is the right wiki linkhttp://codaset.com/ytai/ioio/wiki",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "403412",
"author": "Brian Benchoff",
"timesta... | 1,760,377,171.253772 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/06/08/designing-and-building-a-bench-supply/ | Designing And Building A Bench Supply | Mike Szczys | [
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"bench supply",
"psu",
"transistor",
"voltage reference",
"zener diode"
] | [Scott’s] been digging around the back issues of the Internet to find this project. He blew the dust off and sent us a link to an
article that traverses the design and build process of a bench power supply
.
[Guido Socher] does an excellent job of presenting his bench supply project. So many others show of the final product, but he has gone out of his way to make sure we understand the design principles that went into it. He starts off by talking about the simplest possible supply design: a transistor and Zener diode which generates a reference voltage. He goes on to discuss the problems with this simplified circuit and how to address them, covering the gotchas that pop up at each step in the process.
Once he designed the circuit and laid out some boards he began building an enclosure. We love his tip about using a stick pin and an unpopulated through-hole PCB to mark button locations on the front bezel of the case. The final design is shown above, and includes a laptop brick to translate mains power into a 24V 3A DC feed for his custom circuitry. | 13 | 13 | [
{
"comment_id": "403184",
"author": "Willy",
"timestamp": "2011-06-08T22:11:03",
"content": "Uh, wasn’t this posted two days ago?http://hackaday.com/2011/06/06/diy-digital-bench-power-supply/",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "403191",
"author"... | 1,760,377,171.30535 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/06/08/create-and-conflagrate-giant-modeled-sculptures-with-kinect-and-cnc/ | Create And Conflagrate Giant Modeled Sculptures With Kinect And CNC | Jesse Congdon | [
"cnc hacks",
"Kinect hacks"
] | [
"burning man",
"Kinect",
"sculpture"
] | Summer has hit, and with it a bunch of crazy people going to crazy festivals and (often) burning crazy sculptures to crazy music! In that vein [Matthew Goodman] recently got involved in the burning flipside community down in Texas for his first
big effigy build
. The project called for a gigantic archway flanked by two human shaped figures, since he had been working in Kinect [Matt] decided to try his hand at physically modeling the figures from Kinect mesh data.
After co-registering the depth and image cameras, setting up a capture routine to record, getting .ply based meshes from the depth camera, and making a keypoint detector [Matt] was ready to start getting real world data from the Kinect. Armed with a ghetto steadycam built from his local
Austin Hackerspace
‘s spare parts bin, [Matt] proceeded to collect three 1.5 gigabyte scans of the charming [KT], who served as a model for the sculpture.
Once the meshes were imported to sketchup they could be merged and smoothed into a coherent form. The figure was split into CNC-able parts (known as the “lady bits” by [Matt] and his crew) and sent to
local makers
[Dave Umlas] and [Marrilee Ratcliff]’s
ShopBot
CNC mill. The 400 some odd bits of wood were then carted to flipside, methodically set up, and promptly set aflame the end of the event.
We have seen a
couple
of
really
interesting
burning
man
projects
, but this is possibly the shortest lived end result. Stay tuned this summer for more insane Black Rock City bound creations as well. Also don’t forget to check out [Matt]’s
site
for more details. | 7 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "403203",
"author": "tim",
"timestamp": "2011-06-08T23:13:48",
"content": "Hell yes! I was there, my first time at Flipside. What a beautiful effigy, and what an awesome burn!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "403255",
"author"... | 1,760,377,171.439639 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/06/08/vu-meter-lives-in-a-linksys-housing/ | VU Meter Lives In A Linksys Housing | Mike Szczys | [
"digital audio hacks"
] | [
"an6884",
"linksys",
"VU meter"
] | [Dillon] just finished his first project of the summer. It’s a
volume units meter for his sound system
and it has a few tricks up its sleeve.
He’s driving the rows of LEDs using an AN6884 LED driver chip. It has an integrated amplifier circuit which makes it the perfect part for building a VU display. He had a broken Linksys 5-port switch sitting around which he used as the enclosure for the project. It has just enough room to incorporate a speaker in case he wants to take the meter on the road with him. But when at home he can choose to use his stereo system instead with the flip of a switch. To ensure he’s making the most out of the 5-bit precision he’s included a voltage divider that can be adjusted with a potentiometer. We’ve embedded a video after the break which shows how well it works.
Looking for a bit more inspiration for your own VU meter project? Check out
this RGB version
.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kHFHZt35ubc&w=470] | 5 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "403183",
"author": "MRC",
"timestamp": "2011-06-08T22:08:19",
"content": "toast",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "403342",
"author": "anonymousjoepie91",
"timestamp": "2011-06-09T06:29:34",
"content": "looks alright ex... | 1,760,377,171.480032 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/06/07/capturing-video-with-an-arduino/ | Capturing Video With An Arduino | Brian Benchoff | [
"Arduino Hacks",
"Video Hacks"
] | [
"arduino",
"video capture"
] | [Carlos Agell] sent in a tip where he
captured images from an analog camera
with an Arduino.
We’ve seen
a few
AVR/Arduino hacks that
generate
video, although
overclocking
is necessary if you want to do anything beyond a Breakout clone. [Carlos]’ hack bucks that trend and now he can capture video with an Arduino.
The project captures individual frames from NTSC video at a resolution of 128×96. Although the Arduino isn’t powerful enough for real-time capture, [Carlos] managed this by capturing only thresholds and sending them over to a computer running a program coded in LabVIEW. The PC program reassembles the images of the thresholds and produces a tiny image in 3-bit grayscale.
[Carlos] used the
Video Experimenter
shield which is impressive in it’s own right. The Video Experimenter is able to do object tracking and edge detection, so we’re wondering when we’ll see robots with computer vision running off an Arduino. Check out a demo of the nootropic design video experimenter shield after the break.
UPDATE: Carlos wrote a
sketch in Processing
that does the same thing as his LabVIEW program.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TGy70XxhpMY&w=470] | 10 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "402730",
"author": "Rob",
"timestamp": "2011-06-07T18:56:44",
"content": "I wonder if something like the Video Experimenter would be possible with component video",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "402761",
"author": "GCL",
... | 1,760,377,171.525621 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/06/07/cleaning-flux-from-pcbs-the-easy-way/ | Cleaning Flux From PCBs The Easy Way | Mike Nathan | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"cleaning",
"flux",
"pcbs",
"soldering"
] | While we’re all for building circuits on protoboard or constructing a deadbug circuit for a last minute project, it’s always nice to see a proper PCB now and again. We think that leftover flux can sometimes make even the nicest of circuit boards look a bit dingy, and
Hackaday reader [RandomTask] wholeheartedly agrees
. He wrote in to share
a method he found online
that he uses to get his PCBs squeaky clean after soldering.
The secret to his clean PCBs is a product called Poly Clens. It’s essentially a paint brush cleaner that does a great job at removing flux without having to resort to using a brush to scrub it off the board. [RandomTask] simply submerges his newly assembled board in a small container filled with Poly Clens, agitating it for about half a minute or so. After the flux has been removed he rinses it with water, pats it dry, then ensures the board is moisture-free with a few passes of his heat gun.
He says that the entire process takes him less than 5 minutes per board, which is far better than the old alcohol and stiff brush method he used in the past.
What tips or tricks do you have for getting your new projects cleaned up? Be sure to share them with us in the comments. | 77 | 50 | [
{
"comment_id": "402688",
"author": "Eugene",
"timestamp": "2011-06-07T17:18:00",
"content": "Be sure to use DI water and compressed air to blow out trapped water before the hot air or desolved minerals and salts will be left behind hidden under components.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
... | 1,760,377,171.764158 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/06/07/hard-drive-teardown/ | Hard Drive Teardown | Nick Schulze | [
"Teardown"
] | [
"Engineer Guy",
"hard drive",
"teardown"
] | Do you know how a modern
hard drive works
? If you don’t you should have a pretty good idea after watching this video. In only five minutes [Bill Hammack] manages to describe a hard drive in awesome detail without using any unnecessary scientific jargon.
The video teardown explains how the flying head “flies” how voice coil motors work and provides a basic introduction to how the binary data is stored and processed in the disk. The way the flying head maintains the miniscule distance from the plate is particularly clever. You may remember the
LCD monitor teardown
by the Engineer Guy, equally as detailed and interesting. The video after the break is definitely worth a watch.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wiy_eHdj8kg&w=470] | 6 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "402692",
"author": "Bogdan",
"timestamp": "2011-06-07T17:25:13",
"content": "The video is nicely done, he explains some concepts that are interesting(like the floating head) but the real tech behind it is on some totally higher level…I’d call it good for those that are totally paral... | 1,760,377,171.67445 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/06/07/diy-bolt-together-cnc-router/ | DIY Bolt Together CNC Router | Nick Schulze | [
"cnc hacks",
"hardware"
] | [
"DIY CNC",
"router"
] | Before I decided to build my own
CNC machine
I had seen a few bolt together machines on the internet, usually constructed using 80/20 aluminum extrusion. My write up describes my attempt at a completely DIY bolt together machine made from 25mm aluminum SHS, 50mm shelving brackets and lots and lots of gutter bolts.
Building the machine involved drilling and tapping about 400 holes (if I can still count) and assembling the machine over a 3 month period. I designed it mostly on the fly which lead to a few headaches, but in the end a machine that works quite well (if slowly and noisily). I go through each major component of the machine and describe how and why I would have changed it if I had followed the normal plan-design-build methodology.
I have tried two versions of stepper motor drivers and you can find the schematics for the DIY version on my site. The entire thing runs from a Linux PC running EMC2, check out a video after the break to see it in action and
here
are some photos of a few of my machined items.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kIR-DbXkclY&feature=player_embedded&w=470] | 12 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "402661",
"author": "Tim",
"timestamp": "2011-06-07T16:07:03",
"content": "This is awsome!How much did the parts cost to build the machine?keep up the good work",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "402779",
"author": "Morbious Sto... | 1,760,377,171.622775 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/06/07/working-with-i2c-port-expanders/ | Working With I2C Port Expanders | Mike Szczys | [
"Microcontrollers"
] | [
"i2c",
"mcp23008",
"microchip",
"port expander"
] | There are times when you don’t need much processing power for your project but you do need a lot of I/O pins. It often doesn’t make economic sense to choose a larger microcontroller just to get extra pins so the answer is to use a port expander chip. [Raendra] posted
a guide for using one of these chips
, it’s a Microchip MCP23008 chip that uses the I2C protocol for communications.
You are probably already familiar with
using shift registers like the 595 series
for port expansion. There can be benefits to using an I2C device instead. One of them comes when using multiple port expander chips. With cascading shift registers you must always shift in the data for the entire chain of chips. But I2C devices are individually addressable, so you only need to push data over the I2C bus for the chips that need to be changed, the others will remain unaffected. It is especially easy to use these if you already have another I2C device in your project design as the addition only requires the connection of the SDA and SCL lines. Keep them in mind for future undertakings. | 4 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "402674",
"author": "KanchoBlindside",
"timestamp": "2011-06-07T16:45:38",
"content": "Great info here too.http://focus.ti.com/lit/sg/sszc003c/sszc003c.pdf?HQS=hpa_i2cguide_050611I love this stuff…so much better than the TAFFE rubber-stamp “Try Arduino First For Everything” logic.",... | 1,760,377,171.806914 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/06/07/arduino-hits-the-battlefield-for-real/ | Arduino Hits The Battlefield — For Real | Mike Szczys | [
"Arduino Hacks",
"gps hacks"
] | [
"arduino mega",
"artillery",
"compass",
"gps",
"range finder",
"us army"
] | We’re not sure if this is the first time, but here’s some pretty solid proof that
Arduino has found its way into the weapons of war
. The creators, [Derek Wales], [John Eischer], and [George Hopkins] are all Electronics Engineering majors at West Point. They came up with this idea after seeing video footage of a firefight in Afghanistan where combat soldiers were calling in artillery strikes using a compasses and GPS devices. It’s an all-in-one unit that can provide the same information quickly and accurately. The prototype above,
which they call the DemonEye
, contains a laser range finder, digital compass, and a GPS module. The article also states that it contains a mini-computer but we recognize that as an Arduino Mega (thanks to Miguel over at
Areopago 21
for noticing this first and sending in the tip about it).
The prototype apparently comes in at $1000. Okay, it seems a bit high but not out of the ballpark. What we can’t understand is how the second generation of devices was billed out at $100,000 for five more units. What’s the going rate for laying out military-grade PCBs? | 68 | 50 | [
{
"comment_id": "402606",
"author": "Randy",
"timestamp": "2011-06-07T13:20:27",
"content": "My guess is that the military version can be dropped from a helicopter, into freezing water, thawed, buried in sand, kicked around for good measure… and still work.Or, at least, break into a manageable numbe... | 1,760,377,171.894479 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/06/07/fpga-mandelbrot-fractal-engine/ | FPGA Mandelbrot Fractal Engine | Mike Nathan | [
"Software Development"
] | [
"fpga",
"mandelbrot",
"Nexus 2"
] | [Mike Field]
has always been interested in the Mandelbrot Set
since he first read about it back in the ‘80s. Having coded it on a Commodore VIC20 back int he day, he always returned to the Mandelbrot set when he wanted to try out some new programming technology.
He wanted to delve deeper into the world of FPGAs, so [Mike] figured the best way to do so would be to use one to program a Mandelbrot fractal engine. He started out with a goal of creating a 640×480 Mandelbrot display, but over time, he found that he could push his Nexus 2 FPGA to 800×600. He didn’t stop there, and after tweaking a few things, he was amazed to find that he could push a 1024×768 display from the small board.
He kept a pretty detailed log as he went along, should you be interested in trying your hand at the process as well. Though there is no video of the FPGA in action, there are a few cool pictures showing off his handiwork. | 24 | 21 | [
{
"comment_id": "402608",
"author": "Charlie",
"timestamp": "2011-06-07T13:22:47",
"content": "Ok.. How about showing us how we can port this to our PC’s so that we can enjoy the work you’ve done. I love fractal Art and would love to have this just run on a nice big screen.",
"parent_id": null,... | 1,760,377,172.008176 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/06/08/vintage-peripheral-hacks-roundup/ | Vintage Peripheral Hacks Roundup | Mike Nathan | [
"classic hacks",
"Peripherals Hacks"
] | [
"Atari STM1",
"BBC Master Compact",
"keyboard",
"mouse",
"usb",
"ZX Spectrum"
] | A few days ago,
we featured an Apple ][ USB keyboard mod
, and several readers chimed in sharing their own retro conversions in the comments section. We had no idea that many of you had made similar modifications of your own, so here’s a quick roundup of what your fellow Hackaday readers have put together.
Optical Atari STM1 Mouse
[JJ] had a 25-year old Atari STM1 mouse sitting around
and was wondering how to get it to work with his new computer
. Instead of interfacing the old mouse with his computer via a custom circuit board, he gutted the STM1 and replaced the innards with those of a much newer optical mouse. He did a bit of trimming to get the new PCB to fit, aiming the optical sensor through the now-empty “ball hole”. According to [JJ] it works just as good as it looks.
ZX Spectrum USB keyboard conversion
[Lee] is a sucker for vintage hardware, and with the help of his friend [LanceR],
resurrected an old Sinclair ZX Spectrum computer
into a working USB keyboard. After replacing the deteriorated membrane, the pair mapped out the keyboard to figure out how the matrix was wired. With that done, they built a prototype USB interface board, which they later replaced with a proper PCB.
BBC Master Compact USB keyboard conversion
A friend of [MoJo’s] had a BBC Master Compact computer from back in the day and
wanted to have the keyboard converted to USB
in order to use it with certain emulators. [MoJo] gladly took on the project, stripping some of the old motherboard components out to make room for his new circuitry. He built a USB interface board around an ATMega162, and even got the old built-in speaker working properly. From the outside, the keyboard looks like it has never been touched – nice job! | 13 | 13 | [
{
"comment_id": "402983",
"author": "sp00nix",
"timestamp": "2011-06-08T12:19:48",
"content": "My insides hurt. I hope these were un repairable",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "402992",
"author": "twopartepoxy",
"timestamp": "2011-06-08T1... | 1,760,377,171.945535 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/06/08/wifon-is-back-and-better-than-ever/ | Wifon Is Back And Better Than Ever | Mike Nathan | [
"Security Hacks",
"Wireless Hacks"
] | [
"jasager",
"la fonera",
"openwrt",
"pentesting",
"stm32",
"wireless"
] | Hackaday forum member [Emeryth] recently posted
his newest creation, the Wifon 2.0
, which is an update to
a project we featured last year
. The second iteration of the device looks to make several improvements on the already solid concept.
Ditching the simple 16×4 LCD, version 2 sports a full color 320×240 touch panel LCD. A faster STM32 micro controller replaces the Atmega88 he used the first time around, allowing him to create a much more advanced user interface. The micro runs the ChibiOS/RT real time operating system, which enables multitasking, making the entire project a lot easier. Like the first version, an original Fonera performs all of the pen testing, though this time around he has ditched the vanilla DD-WRT distro for Jasager, which is purpose-built for running the Karma attack.
The project is coming along nicely, and [Emeryth] says he has a few simple apps running on the device already. He has found that running several applications on the device simultaneously is testing the practical limits of the Foneras capabilities, though he may add more memory to the router in order to squeeze a little more life out of it.
[via
Hackaday forums
] | 0 | 0 | [] | 1,760,377,172.048713 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/06/07/solar-powered-cellphone-a-true-hack/ | Solar Powered Cellphone A True Hack | Mike Szczys | [
"Cellphone Hacks",
"green hacks"
] | [
"photovoltaic",
"solar electricity",
"solar panel"
] | The polished quality of this hack isn’t quite there, but we love the ingenuity and exploration exhibited. [Paulie1982] shows us
how to make an old cellphone work with the rays of the sun
.
You can see above that he’s added photovoltaic solar cells to the back case of what looks like an old smart phone. He grabbed the cells from two inexpensive solar landscaping lights and inserted them by cutting holes in the case and using black silicone sealant to glue them in place. Each can pump out about 3V and together they get above the 5V threshold that he needs to do some charging. See the build process in the video after the break.
From what we’ve seen there’s zero consideration of current in this hack and that’s what makes us skeptical. Still, we love the idea of trickle charging and we’d love to see some speculation in the comments about how to improve upon this. Surely the additional hardware necessary for proper regulation, etc. could be fit in a custom case cover like the one used for
this inductive charger hack
.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CrbyPeS-RQw&w=470] | 34 | 34 | [
{
"comment_id": "402835",
"author": "Pat O'Brien",
"timestamp": "2011-06-08T00:10:15",
"content": "I love this concept. 2 questions though.I know cell phones take 5v, but he’s got 6v in the sun. So I’m assuming that this is safe?Secondly, is it doable to take 4 of these and put them on a separate bo... | 1,760,377,172.173271 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/06/07/trobot-kickstarting-the-6-axis-minature-robot-arm/ | Trobot: Kickstarting The 6-axis Minature Robot Arm | Mike Szczys | [
"Robots Hacks"
] | [
"abb",
"android",
"arm",
"Crowd Funding",
"mbed",
"RobotStudio"
] | Having already made it to three hardware development versions, [Toby Baumgartner] is looking for some financial backing to
make version four of this robot arm possible
.
He’s modelling the arm after much larger ABB industrial robots. Like those, it mounts on a stationary base, and features movement along six axes. The first couple of iterations even used
ABB Software’s RobotStudio
for control. This is the same software used by the full-sized robots, and features a special design language to integrate the robots into just about any production facility.
We don’t think the need for high-end software used with these small manipulator arms is very great, but we could see the finished product used for small-scale assembly line work some day. In the mean time these might be useful in your own projects. [Toby] has been using an mBed microcontroller board as the hardware driver. It communicates with the computer via an Ethernet connection and he’s even working on an Android interface right now.
Check out a video demonstration of version 2 and 3 embedded after the break.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yKBx3fmdeH0&w=470] | 10 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "402849",
"author": "Sariel",
"timestamp": "2011-06-08T00:57:47",
"content": "I wanted to do this about a year ago when i worked at a automated factory. I was going to use the money I was making there to finance the foray into the R&D for it, but the automotive market crashed. God ... | 1,760,377,172.100732 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/06/07/stripping-drm-from-overdrive-media-console-ebooks/ | Stripping DRM From OverDrive Media Console EBooks | Mike Nathan | [
"how-to",
"News",
"Security Hacks"
] | [
"ADEPT",
"adobe",
"drm",
"ebook",
"epub",
"ineptepub",
"ineptkey",
"OverDrive"
] | [Armin Tamzarian’s] local library recently started lending eBooks via the OverDrive Media Console system. He checked out a couple of books, which got him thinking about how the copy protection scheme was implemented. He wondered what recourse users had if they wanted to view a book they have already checked out on a different, or unsupported piece of hardware.
His research centers around Adobe’s ADEPT digital rights management scheme, which is used to protect the books offered on loan by OverDrive. The topic is broken down into three parts,
starting with an introduction to the EPUB file structure
, the OverDrive Media Console, as well as the aforementioned ADEPT DRM scheme.
The second part takes a close look at the OverDrive Media Console itself
, where he uses the ineptkey and ineptepub utilities written by [I♥CABBAGES] to pull the RSA cipher keys from the EPUB data he uncovered. When he then tries to strip the ADEPT DRM layer from his books however, he discovers that OverDrive is using a non-compliant version of the ADEPT standard, which renders existing tools useless.
The final part of [Armin’s] discussion digs even deeper
into the OverDrive Console’s inner workings, where he finds that the OverDrive Media Console stores quite a bit of information in an SQLite database. After a bit of digging, he finds all the data he needs to strip the DRM from his books. [Armin] also took the time to wrap all of his findings up into a neat little tool called OMCStrip, which as you may have guessed, strips the DRM from ADEPT-protected eBooks with ease. | 18 | 15 | [
{
"comment_id": "402790",
"author": "noko",
"timestamp": "2011-06-07T22:31:56",
"content": "hells yea! I love checking out ebooks from my local lib but the Overdrive Media Console is shit.Thanks Armin!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "402818",
... | 1,760,377,172.236733 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/06/07/automatic-espresso-loader-for-those-late-night-hack-sessions/ | Automatic Espresso Loader For Those Late Night Hack Sessions | Jeremy Cook | [
"cooking hacks"
] | [
"espresso",
"propeller",
"servo"
] | For [Roy’s] graduate electronics class, he decided to make something that many in and out of the hacking world would certainly love,
an automatic espresso loader
. One can choose from three flavors available. In order to accomplish this, a Parralax Propeller board is used to control three servos that regulate the amount of coffee dispensed, chosen by a handy LCD HMI (human machine interface).
After the coffee is dispensed, the chute swings out of the way. A modified inkjet cartridge carrier (from a dead printer) is then used to compact the beans. Check out the video of this machine in action after the break.
[youtube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Poe8Jqmq5BY&w=425&h=349%5D
Not only is this machine well built with what appears to be a clear polycarbonate shell, It uses other standard hacker fare, including: servos, recycled printer parts, a Parallax processor, and a LCD display. This machine has only been tested with salt so far, and the “valves” are only simple flat plates attached to servos. This machine is still somewhat of a prototype, but it’s a really neat hack nonetheless. | 10 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "402766",
"author": "brad",
"timestamp": "2011-06-07T21:18:35",
"content": "i’m a fan! now, where’s the rest of the automated process? when will it make me a nice americano? :)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "402777",
"author... | 1,760,377,172.285577 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/06/07/the-kinect-controlled-zombie-skeleton/ | The Kinect Controlled Zombie Skeleton | Jeremy Cook | [
"Kinect hacks"
] | [
"animatronic",
"Kinect",
"servo",
"skeleton"
] | Although there is no shortage of Kinect hacks out there, this one from
Dashhacks
seems especially cool. According to them, the software part of this design uses a “modified OpenNI programming along with GlovePIE to send WiiMote commands to the cyborg such as jaw and torso movement along with MorphVOX to create the voice for the cybernetic monstrosity.” As pointed out in the video, this robotic zombie also has a “pause” feature, and a feature to loop movements like what would be done at an amusement park.
The other great thing about this hack is how well the skeleton is actuated via servo motors. Although it’s difficult to tell how many servos were used for this robot, it certainly has 10 or more degrees of freedom between the head, both arms, and the torso. To control all of this a hacked Wiimote and Nunchuck is used in conjunction with the Kinect. Check out the video after the break.
[youtube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZEZuvCUOOdE&w=425&h=349%5D
This robot should have a bright future ahead of itself this Haloween or possibly at Disney World. For another nice Kinect hack, check out this
“psudo-3d orb”
or for some simpler animatronics, this
“remote control box”
might be interesting. | 11 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "402764",
"author": "Scott",
"timestamp": "2011-06-07T21:12:57",
"content": "This is just plain cool",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "402768",
"author": "grovenstien",
"timestamp": "2011-06-07T21:38:30",
"content": "Ge... | 1,760,377,172.489488 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/06/07/building-a-one-ton-linear-servo/ | Building A One-ton Linear Servo | Mike Nathan | [
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"jack",
"servo",
"tools"
] | A while back, [Windell] from Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories wrote up an article for Make Magazine detailing
how he built a one-ton, servo-controlled scissor jack
for under $100. He dropped us a line to let us know that
the project details have been released for free
at Make Projects, so we stopped by to take a look.
The project starts out by pulling apart an electronic scissor jack to get access to the solder pads for the up and down buttons. Once wires are added there, a servo is the next victim. [Windell] recommends using an old servo with a busted motor, but you can use a good one just the same. The servo’s pots are replaced with 10 turn pots, and then wired up to a controller board, to which the jack is also connected. Then, to provide feedback to the servo, a string is looped around the top of the jack, which is used to turn the pots added in the previous step.
[Windell] says that the setup works quite well, though we imagine the duty cycle might be a bit short before adjustments are required. Regardless, it’s a quick way to get a heavy load lifted with servo precision. | 13 | 13 | [
{
"comment_id": "402579",
"author": "wardy",
"timestamp": "2011-06-07T11:29:11",
"content": "Where’s the video of this thing flipping a small French car onto it’s roof?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "402583",
"author": "henry",
"timesta... | 1,760,377,172.440579 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/06/06/mini-cannon-built-from-a-bbq-lighter-fires-airsoft-pellets/ | Mini-cannon Built From A BBQ Lighter Fires Airsoft Pellets | Mike Szczys | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"airsoft",
"bbq",
"igniter",
"lighter"
] | [Nighthawkinlight] has
made his own palm cannon to shoot Airsoft pellets
. His process, which he guides us through step-by-step in the video after the break, definitely invokes MacGyver buy using commonly available parts in a way they were not intended.
He starts with a barbecue lighter, removing the screws and plastic housing to get at the clear plastic butane reservoir which serves as the body of the cannon. The butane is carefully released from the tank, and the output valve is modified to receive the barrel. In this case the barrel from an old Airsoft gun was used, but a metal pen housing could do the trick as well. The spark igniter from the lighter is also reused, but two bolts have been screwed into the reservoir and are used as probes for the igniter wires. In order to fire this one-shot-wonder, a cotton swab soaked in 90% alcohol is inserted through the bolt on the left side. After inserting an Airsoft pellet the trigger is pulled to ignite the vapors.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QGj8xMDRSQ0&w=470] | 24 | 24 | [
{
"comment_id": "402429",
"author": "Hackerspacer",
"timestamp": "2011-06-07T00:05:45",
"content": "The only way to make this cooler would be for it to actually shoot pellets *AND* flame.Shame the butane had to go to waste.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"com... | 1,760,377,172.713352 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/06/06/apple-converted-into-usb-keyboard/ | Apple ][ Converted Into USB Keyboard | Brian Benchoff | [
"classic hacks"
] | [
"apple II",
"ASCII",
"keyboard",
"teensyduino",
"usb"
] | Sometimes it’s apparent that there is no practical use for something featured on Hack a Day, but we don’t know if [Andrew Filer]’s
Apple ][ USB keyboard
qualifies for this.
After reading through the
very thorough documentation
available in electronic and dead tree formats, [Andrew] decided that Apple ][ would make a great USB keyboard. Unlike modern keyboards, vintage computers like the TRS-80, Commodore 64, and the Apple ][ return the 7-bit ASCII value of the key instead of a scan code. The ASCII codes generated by the keyboard were sent through a Teensyduino running [Andrew]’s
keyduino
sketch.
Modern PS/2 keyboards
use MAKE and BREAK scan codes sent from a microcontroller that reads the keyboard matrix. For example the MAKE code for the letter ‘A’ is 1C, while the BREAK code is F0 1C. There is a reason for this design, but for the DIYer, interfacing a keyboard becomes a challenge without a separate microcontroller. We’re thinking [Andrew]’s keyduino could be a great way to put a keyboard in a project, but we’re not about to tear up our Apples and C64s to get a keyboard. | 15 | 13 | [
{
"comment_id": "402418",
"author": "daniel_reetz",
"timestamp": "2011-06-06T23:14:40",
"content": "yay andrew filer! we have a long, long history of hacking keyboards together.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "402423",
"author": "David Ander... | 1,760,377,172.5442 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/06/06/wireless-mouse-li-poly-retrofit-with-usb-charging/ | Wireless Mouse Li-Poly Retrofit With USB Charging | Mike Nathan | [
"News",
"Peripherals Hacks"
] | [
"batteries",
"Li-Poly",
"lithium polymer",
"mouse",
"rechargeable",
"wireless"
] | It’s no secret that wireless mice can eat through batteries pretty quickly. Rather than keep a fresh supply of AAs on hand at all times, [Phil] decided he would
convert his mouse to use a rechargeable lithium polymer battery instead
.
This isn’t the first time
we’ve seen a cell phone battery crammed into a mouse to increase capacity, but we think this one has been done quite nicely. [Phil] managed to fit a 2.7 – 4.2v Li-Poly battery in the mouse’s palm rest, where there was a little extra empty space. The battery can be charged from any USB port via a custom-built charging module, which he constructed using a MAX1555 charge controller. Another custom-built circuit resides in the space previously occupied by the AA batteries, which uses an MC340063 DC to DC converter to drop the battery’s voltage down to the 1.25v required by the mouse.
The only part of the build that [Phil] is not pleased with is the power switch on the bottom, but since you rarely see that, we could care less. We think it is quite well done, and with a second version already in the works, we anticipate that it will get even better.
Be sure to check out [Phil’s] video tour of the hack, which you can see below.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kpf-XYT0LFE&w=470] | 22 | 22 | [
{
"comment_id": "402411",
"author": "abobymouse",
"timestamp": "2011-06-06T22:57:52",
"content": "“could care less” is common, and acceptable (for US English), usage.There are plenty of other nonsense idioms in everyday use. It’s pointless to complain about them.Nice Hack BTW!",
"parent_id": nul... | 1,760,377,172.646605 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/06/06/open-hardware-summit-2011-call-for-submissions/ | Open Hardware Summit 2011 Call For Submissions | Mike Nathan | [
"cons"
] | [
"call for submissions",
"conventions",
"open hardware",
"oshw"
] | The Open Hardware Summit is gearing up for
their second annual conference
, which is to be held on September 15th, 2011 in New York City. The summit aims to be a venue where users can present, discuss, and learn about open hardware of all kinds. Hot on the heels of the Open Hardware definition announcement, the summit is bound to be an exciting gathering of hackers, makers and hobbyists of all kinds.
The organizers are looking to you, the hacker community, to help put make the event a memorable one. They have put out an official call for submissions in several broad formats. They are interested in talks, breakout sessions, and project demos on topics such as manufacturing, diy technology, open hardware in the enterprise, and more.
If you think you have something interesting to share with the open hardware community, make your voice heard, and be sure to get your submissions in before the June 24th deadline!
[via
NYC Resistor
] | 1 | 1 | [
{
"comment_id": "402372",
"author": "syvic",
"timestamp": "2011-06-06T21:39:48",
"content": "There will be a similar event in Europe just one week after OH Summit. From 23 to 25 in Madrid, Spain. Just take a look athttp://oshwcon.org/enIt will be nice to share some common resources and experience.",... | 1,760,377,172.583255 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/06/06/the-complete-avr-programmer-that-fits-in-your-pocket/ | The Complete AVR Programmer That Fits In Your Pocket | Nick Schulze | [
"hardware",
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"AVR programmer",
"uProg"
] | We have seen a few very nice and polished AVR based projects from [Manekinen] over the last few years. Now he has just finished his latest project, the
µProg
, a super tiny complete AVR programmer with a bunch of features. The µProg completely eliminates the need for a computer to program your embedded AVR chips.
The programmer fits entirely behind an LPH7779 graphics display, and accepts any FAT16/32 formatted microSD cards. Some features include, reading, writing or verifying flash, eeprom, fusebits and lockbits, it also shows amusing animations after every operation. The device is controlled with the use of 4 tactile buttons and operates on a couple of CR2032 batteries.
For an amazingly detailed write up including pictures, eagle files and firmware check out his website. The video embedded after the break has a nice demonstration of the µProg in action, showing off a few of the features and animations. You should also check out his
PSU monitor
and a
spectrum analyser
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tg67HWwBRlY&w=470] | 13 | 13 | [
{
"comment_id": "402353",
"author": "Reaper",
"timestamp": "2011-06-06T20:10:26",
"content": "So no HV programming? :\\",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "402354",
"author": "mess_maker",
"timestamp": "2011-06-06T20:11:46",
"content": "... | 1,760,377,172.809323 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/06/06/building-an-electromagnetic-pendulum-clock/ | Building An Electromagnetic Pendulum Clock | Mike Nathan | [
"clock hacks"
] | [
"clock",
"electromagnetic",
"gears",
"pendulum"
] | [Stephen Hobley] has been experimenting with an electromagnetic pendulum in order to
build himself a clock
. Through the course of his experiments, he has learned quite a bit about how pendulums function as well as the best way to keep one moving without the need for chains and weights, which are typically associated with these sorts of clocks.
His first experiments involved
driving a simple pendulum with a pulse motor
. He discovered that the easiest way to keep the pendulum moving was to use a coil to detect when the it reached the equilibrium point, pushing it along by sending a small pulse to that same coil. He noticed that he could keep the pendulum moving at a pretty good tick if he triggered the magnetic coil every third pass, so he implemented an Arduino to keep count of passes and apply the appropriate force when needed.
He has been making pretty decent headway since his first experiments and now has nearly all of the clock works assembled. Crafted out of wood, he uses a 15-tooth primary drive ratchet, which powers two 60-tooth gears responsible for keeping track of seconds, as well as a pair of larger gears that track the minutes and hours.
It’s looking good so far, we can’t wait to see it when finished.
Stick around to see a quick video demonstration of the clock with all of its gearing in action.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ekqBGOcKuJM&w=470] | 9 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "402395",
"author": "Tony",
"timestamp": "2011-06-06T22:16:00",
"content": "When in doubt, use an Arduino…He doesn’t need the Arduino, or the Hall effect sensor either.The coil he’s using to give the pendulum a kick can also be used as a sensor, electromagnetism goes both ways.",
... | 1,760,377,172.760879 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/06/06/rfid-record-player/ | RFID Record Player | Brian Benchoff | [
"digital audio hacks"
] | [
"digital audio",
"mp3",
"rfid"
] | Like most of us at Hack a Day, [Bertrand Fan] has a huge collection of digital music that was all obtained through legal channels. Missing the physical process of choosing and playing an album, [Bertrand] built an
RFID record player
to get rid of the paradox of choice that arises when thousands of albums are at your fingertips.
The records are repurposed Christmas ornaments with
RFID disk tags
pasted under the label. These records are read by a
RedBee RFID reader
and sent to a Popcorn Hour media server, but we’re guessing this could be easily adapted to any HTPC.
The only limitation we see is the fact that the RFID chip is hard coded to individual songs. We think it would be easier to have the RFID chip store an album’s
CDDB
discid, but feel free to leave a comment and say how you would catalog thousands of albums on RFID tags.
We’re a little tired of skipping though our music collection like a portable CD player from 1990, so we’re pretty impressed that [Bertrand] came up with something that would get us to sit down and listen to our Terabytes of FLAC-encoded music. Check out the video after the jump for a demo of the RFID record player.
[flickr video=http://www.flickr.com/photos/bertrandom/5326032127/ w=470] | 16 | 16 | [
{
"comment_id": "402324",
"author": "Bogdan",
"timestamp": "2011-06-06T18:03:43",
"content": "simply brilliant!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "402328",
"author": "minipimmer",
"timestamp": "2011-06-06T18:07:58",
"content": "Cool ide... | 1,760,377,172.86312 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/06/06/million-volt-guitar-rocks-the-house-for-science/ | Million Volt Guitar Rocks The House…for Science! | Mike Nathan | [
"Arduino Hacks",
"Musical Hacks"
] | [
"electricity",
"guitar",
"guitar hero",
"science",
"tesla"
] | [Bill Porter] and his friend [Dan Flisek] work together to put on a science-related educational stage show called “Science Brothers”, in which the pair try to convince school children that their field of expertise is the cooler science. While the two are competitive on stage, the main goal of the program is to get kids interested in science, no matter what the specialty.
The pair currently finance the project out of pocket, so they are always looking for ways to make things interesting while also keeping costs in check. With that in mind [Bill] came up with an awesome way to show off the Tesla coil he built a while back. His most recent educational creation is
a little something he calls “Tesla Hero”
.
Since he already had a solid state Tesla coil hanging around, he dug up a PS2 Guitar Hero controller and got busy getting the two acquainted. The guitar connects to the coil via a fiber optic isolator board, playing one of five notes as he strums along. A series of Arduino-driven LED strips adorn the guitar, flashing various colors while he plays, as you can see in the video below.
It’s quite a cool project, and we’re sure that his audience will be impressed!
Stick around to see a video of Tesla Hero in action, and if you’re interested in learning more about the Science Brothers, be sure to
check them out here
.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uDovAB9pM0w&w=470] | 16 | 16 | [
{
"comment_id": "402275",
"author": "Hackerspacer",
"timestamp": "2011-06-06T16:03:22",
"content": "I laughed at “[s]ince he already had a solid state Tesla coil hanging around.”Wonder if he could make it play an actual song while he pretended to play it? Would wow the kids – unless he is already qu... | 1,760,377,172.917651 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/06/06/diy-digital-bench-power-supply/ | DIY Digital Bench Power Supply | Brian Benchoff | [
"classic hacks",
"Microcontrollers"
] | [
"bench supply",
"power supply"
] | [Guido Socher] built himself a great little
bench power supply
that’s able to put out 30 Volts at 2 Amps.
Instead of taking the easy way out by putting a few taps on an ATX power supply, this project was built around a generic 24 Volt laptop power brick. An ATmega8 generates a PWM signal that is sent though a low-pass filter, allowing everything to be very precisely controlled. This DC signal is then sent through a BD245 power transistor to bring everything up to the desired output. [Guido Socher] included a USB port for computer control of everything, and the final project is something we’d be happy to have on our bench.
We’ve seen a few
computer power supplies
converted into a bench power source, but we’re impressed with [Guido Socher]’s build log. It’s not often we see a hack that goes over the theory of operation, and the end product is very nice (and functional) too. | 30 | 30 | [
{
"comment_id": "402260",
"author": "Slanderer",
"timestamp": "2011-06-06T15:14:45",
"content": "Without any specs on the noise that this produces, I’m hesitant, at the very least, to say “good job”. Also no idea on accuracy, load recovery times, temperature compensation, etc…",
"parent_id": nul... | 1,760,377,173.016499 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/06/06/retro-video-games-sounds-for-your-toilet/ | Retro Video Games Sounds…for Your Toilet | Mike Nathan | [
"home hacks",
"Nintendo Hacks"
] | [
"mario",
"nintendo",
"triboelectric"
] | After reading about a Super Mario Brothers themed bathroom, [Jonathan] decided that it would be pretty cool to
have his toilet play the “warp pipe” sound
whenever anyone flushed.
He grabbed a small sound drop key chain on eBay and disassembled it to see how things worked. Once he figured out which solder pads corresponded to the warp pipe sound he added a few wires that, when shorted, trigger the sound effect.
He debated as to how the sound generator should be wired to the toilet, and was pretty reluctant to place the key chain inside the tank due to concerns about sound volume and water damage. He ultimately decided to trigger the sound effects using triboelectric charge, much like those touch lamps from the ’80s. He rigged up a simple circuit that is connected to both the toilet handle as well as the water intake valve on the wall. When someone touches the handle, the small charge that is present in their hand triggers the sound effect as you can see in the video below.
Instead of using a standard project box, he opted to build a small warp tube replica from cardboard and paper, which really brings everything together nicely.
While he says that the circuit is pretty sensitive, triggering at odd times or not at all, we still think it’s awesome.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DdcI_0e8Da0&w=470] | 10 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "402251",
"author": "Bob Joylove",
"timestamp": "2011-06-06T14:23:17",
"content": "An alternative trigger would be two wires dangled in the water making a circuit. When the water level drops the wires become disconnected; triggering the sound. Current drain would be an issue though... | 1,760,377,173.062083 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/06/06/converting-a-laptop-computer-into-a-desktop-machine/ | Converting A Laptop Computer Into A Desktop Machine | Mike Szczys | [
"laptops hacks"
] | [
"acrylic",
"bezel",
"Case mod",
"desktop"
] | [Michael Chen] found himself in possession of a thoroughly broken laptop. The hinges connecting the screen to the body of the computer were shot, and the battery was non-functional. After a bit of thinking he decided that it wouldn’t take much to resurrect the hardware by
turning it into a desktop machine
.
At the core of this hack is the hardware that you must keep for the computer to function. That is, the LCD screen, the motherboard, hard drive, and the AC/DC brick that powers it. [Michael] ditched everything else; the case, keyboard, trackpad, webcam, etc. Next he started building his own enclsure out of acrylic. First he sandwiched the LCD screen between a full sheet of acrylic and a bezel that was one inch wide on each side. Next, another full sheet was used to mount the motherboard and hard drive. You can see how the three sheets are connected by nuts and bolts in the image above. It looks like the only other alteration he made was to relocate the power button to a more convenient spot.
Once a USB keyboard and mouse are added he’s back up and running. We’ve got our eye on an old XP laptop that might end up seeing this conversion to become a dedicated shop computer. We just need to build in some more dust protection. | 21 | 21 | [
{
"comment_id": "402226",
"author": "Coligny",
"timestamp": "2011-06-06T13:13:36",
"content": "hackaday…running out of steam…But still the comment on instructable aboot this hack being creative made me weep even more for mankind…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
... | 1,760,377,173.15263 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2011/06/06/beginner-concepts-designing-transistor-control-circuits/ | Beginner Concepts: Designing Transistor Control Circuits | Mike Szczys | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"beginner concepts",
"transistor"
] | Need to switch something on or off using a microcontroller? Using a transistor is one of the best ways to do this, but how exactly do you design properly for transistor switching? [Ben Krasnow] put together a tutorial in which he does an excellent job of
explaining the ins and outs of designing transistor control circuits
.
We’ve embedded his twenty-minute video after the break. In it he talks about the use of transistors, the difference between NPN and PNP transistors, and the design specifics you need to know when working with them. We think that beginners will find [Ben’s] demonstration of how to calculates Hfe, which is the base current necessary to fully switch the transistor. If this is gibberish to you, have no fear. [Ben’s] instruction is clear and easily understandable.
The one thing we missed in the video is clarification about base current protection for PNP transistors. [Ben] mentions that there’s no easy circuitry that can be used on the base of a PNP to regulate flow from the emitter to the base, but he doesn’t elaborate. Otherwise, it’s everything we could have wanted on the topic.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8DMZSxS-xVc&w=470] | 18 | 18 | [
{
"comment_id": "402219",
"author": "Phik",
"timestamp": "2011-06-06T12:40:43",
"content": "Ok, so even after doing transistor theory at uni, this guy explains transistor switching SO much clearer than was taught to me. Great video. Much of the DC stuff makes so much more sense. He’s right about the... | 1,760,377,173.213627 |
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