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https://hackaday.com/2011/03/21/simple-robot-knows-its-bounds/
|
Simple Robot Knows Its Bounds
|
Mike Nathan
|
[
"Microcontrollers",
"Robots Hacks"
] |
[
"ATiny",
"robot",
"sensing"
] |
The [Dallas Personal Robotics Group] recently put together a set of tutorials for their members, including the build process of a table-top robot, they call
the Tiny Wanderer
. The bot can be constructed pretty easily, and is meant as an introduction to robot building.
The small servo-driven bot uses simple edge sensors to ensure that it doesn’t fall off a raised surface. The sensors were built using a small IR LED and photo transistor, which is partially isolated from the LED by a piece of shrink tubing. An ATiny micro-controller takes two measurements of the amount of IR light entering the photo transistor – one with the LED on, the other with the LED off. The difference of these measurements is compared to determine if the edge sensors are hanging off the side of the table. The logic used here is pretty simple – the difference will be high if the sensors are hovering over a surface, due to reflected light, and low if the sensors are hanging over open space.
The writeup contains templates for building the bot’s structure, as well as source code and schematics for all of the electronic bits.
Be sure to stick around to see a video of the robot in action.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_nPAFHxOYY&2=470]
| 8
| 8
|
[
{
"comment_id": "364094",
"author": "jimbles",
"timestamp": "2011-03-21T15:37:44",
"content": "OK, this is taking a sledgehammer to a walnut!Why would you use a microcontroller for something you can do with an opamp!?!?!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "364107",
"author": "Frits Rincker",
"timestamp": "2011-03-21T15:41:15",
"content": "Never gets old..or does it?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "364259",
"author": "therian",
"timestamp": "2011-03-21T18:03:18",
"content": "line flowers originally was design to teach students about analog logic",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "364400",
"author": "zerobitjack",
"timestamp": "2011-03-21T21:11:59",
"content": "… back in my day we only had negative voltage and the electrons went the wrong way….You carpers are pathetic.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "364563",
"author": "Haydon Ryan",
"timestamp": "2011-03-22T01:14:23",
"content": "It is over-engineering, but what I’d like to see next is mapping the extents of the desk, and cleaning the top of it.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "364587",
"author": "Ralph",
"timestamp": "2011-03-22T02:02:43",
"content": "This is a neat little project.To jimbles, if the end goal was this little robot, you might have a point. But, this is intended to be built upon and the way they did it makes it very easy to tinker with and learn.To therian, this is not a line follower. It ambles around a table and backs off when it finds an edge.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "364812",
"author": "rusty",
"timestamp": "2011-03-22T10:47:24",
"content": "what’s a carper?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "367253",
"author": "PaulB",
"timestamp": "2011-03-25T13:15:15",
"content": "As Ralph says, this is an example project used to illustrate a broader range of maker/hacker techniques, categorized as “how to build stuff that uses mechanics, electronics, and firmware using cheap or free tools”. The DPRG tutorials section has the first of three tutorials along that theme posted:http://www.dprg.org/tutorials/2011-02a/index.htmlKeep an eye on that space for tutorials on how to design with the ATtiny family, and a quickstart for designing schematics and fab boards using KiCad. We’re a robot club, so we chose a robot as an easy example, but the source code and design are easily hacked to other purposes.Have you built your first robot yet?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
}
] | 1,760,377,239.914223
|
||
https://hackaday.com/2011/03/21/people-tracking-orb-demo-makes-us-want-to-build-our-own/
|
People-tracking Orb Demo Makes Us Want To Build Our Own
|
Mike Nathan
|
[
"Kinect hacks"
] |
[
"Kinect",
"orb",
"tracking"
] |
Earlier this week, we came across a video of an orb-based eyeball that would follow you throughout the room, based on data gathered from a Kinect sensor. Try as we might, we couldn’t find much more than the video, but it seems that the guys behind the project
have spoken up in a recent blog post
.
[Jon George] of The Design Studio UK explained that the person-tracking eyeball visualization was built using a PC, a Kinect, and a product called the Puffersphere, which projects a 360 degree image on the inside of a glass orb. A panoramic image is converted for use by the special lens inside the sphere by applying a filter which warps the image into a circular shape.
After the image has been created, a simple Windows app is used in conjunction with the OpenNI framework that allows the image to follow you around the room.
The only problem with this fun little project is the price of the sphere – we’re not sure what it is exactly, but rest assured it is more than we are willing to pay for such a toy. We’re thinking there has to be a way to simulate the orb’s effect to some degree using cheaper hardware. It’s possible that it could be done using a small-scale DIY version of this
spherical mirror projection build
, though it consists of
concave half-spheres
rather than full orbs.
In the meantime, take a look at these two videos of the orb in action. Don’t worry – we know you were totally thinking about the Eye of Sauron, so the second video should not disappoint.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kIjc7DuVo5I&w=470]
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zxr-4z5iWk0&w=470]
| 17
| 17
|
[
{
"comment_id": "364072",
"author": "Mike Bradley",
"timestamp": "2011-03-21T15:08:40",
"content": "Since the kinect features a depth camera, what about making the iris of the eye open based on how close you get, that would give more of a freaky feel :)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "364076",
"author": "Alex",
"timestamp": "2011-03-21T15:14:48",
"content": "Wow, what an awesome display.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "364141",
"author": "andrew",
"timestamp": "2011-03-21T16:32:18",
"content": "That seems like a really niche product. I can’t imagine any practical uses that would warrant such a high price.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "364161",
"author": "Chris Muncy",
"timestamp": "2011-03-21T16:47:18",
"content": "Every Sysadmin needs to put one of these in EVERY user work area. BOFH to the Nth degree!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "364180",
"author": "woutervddn",
"timestamp": "2011-03-21T17:05:08",
"content": "servo’s, a huge pingpong ball and an lcd projector mod?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "364183",
"author": "Todd Grigsby",
"timestamp": "2011-03-21T17:07:48",
"content": "Two things: First, what the hell is a Super Umami lens? I searched for a while and couldn’t find any references to it.Second: Touchscreen? How many orders of magnitude cooler would this be if it were interactive through a multi-touch interface?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "364198",
"author": "Phyro",
"timestamp": "2011-03-21T17:18:22",
"content": "@Mike Bradley:The width of your iris depends on the lightning conditions, not on the focus of your eye.the contraction of your eye´s lense is depth depending ;)@Topic: Creapy!Grat for halloween…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "364230",
"author": "proflt",
"timestamp": "2011-03-21T17:39:55",
"content": "i agree with a previous poster. ptz pico projector in some kind of huge ping pong ball? maybe blow up beachball?at work i have a ptz camera with motion tracking. ive wanted to do the eye form LOtR. it is already creepy having it follow you around the room. but the eye would make it better.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "364274",
"author": "Alex",
"timestamp": "2011-03-21T18:14:26",
"content": "When I first saw it, I thought they just had a sphere with an eye on it that they were moving with rollers, like the reverse of a trackball. That might be the solution to doing this cheaply.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "364301",
"author": "nrp",
"timestamp": "2011-03-21T18:46:56",
"content": "I did something similar last year on the cheap with a pico projector, a USB webcam, and a frosted glass dome from the light in my bathroom:https://eclecti.cc/computergraphics/evil-eye-microvision-showwx-as-a-face-tracking-eyeball",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "364521",
"author": "Wander",
"timestamp": "2011-03-22T00:06:05",
"content": "The first thing I would do if I saw this is run in circles around it as fast as I could and see if a blue coin pops out",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "364523",
"author": "Tyler",
"timestamp": "2011-03-22T00:10:53",
"content": "a cheap alternative to the sphere could be an acrylic globe intended for a lamp:http://www.1000bulbs.com/product/7570/3202-14020-003.html",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "364701",
"author": "Amstrad",
"timestamp": "2011-03-22T05:55:37",
"content": "It’s an Atraxi!http://imgur.com/biA5W",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "364906",
"author": "Jesse Campbell",
"timestamp": "2011-03-22T14:02:49",
"content": "would it be as cool with a POV globe?http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4rEIFGvD4wA",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "364940",
"author": "Frank Münzner",
"timestamp": "2011-03-22T15:39:01",
"content": "hey it’s so nerdy…..i also think how it can work and look at the patent to now what mean the obfuscating description “super unami lens”this should be a good starting point… ;-)http://www.wipo.int/pctdb/en/wo.jsp?WO=2008065400",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "365194",
"author": "Azur",
"timestamp": "2011-03-22T21:03:26",
"content": "if you run around it a few times it will implode and reward you with a blue coin",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "368463",
"author": "tappa",
"timestamp": "2011-03-27T06:34:16",
"content": "MARIO 64 EYEBALLLLLLLLL",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
}
] | 1,760,377,240.157833
|
||
https://hackaday.com/2011/03/21/converting-a-scanner-into-a-touchscreen/
|
Converting A Scanner Into A Touchscreen
|
Mike Szczys
|
[
"Multitouch Hacks"
] |
[
"CCD",
"led",
"scanner",
"touchscreen"
] |
[Sprite_TM] was cleaning up his hacking workbench when he came across an all-in-one device that had seen better days. After a bit of consideration he decided to tear down the scanner portion of the device and ended up
turning it into a multi-touch display
.
The scanner relies on a long PCB with a line CCD sensor. This sensor is read in a similar way that information is passed along a shift register. Tell it to take a reading, and then start a clock signal to pulse out each analog value from the pixels of the sensor. In order to scan color images it uses multicolored LEDs to take different readings under different illumination.
[Sprite_TM] takes advantage of this functionality to turn it into a multitouch sensor. The sensor board itself is mounted below an LCD display along with a shield with a slit in it to help filter out ambient light. Above the screen a series of LEDs shine down on the sensor. When you break the beams with your finger it casts a series of shadows which are picked up by the sensor and processed in software. Watch the clip after the break to see it for yourself. It has no problem detecting and tracking multiple contact points.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Avb23FWcEeU&w=470]
| 17
| 17
|
[
{
"comment_id": "364038",
"author": "Jay",
"timestamp": "2011-03-21T14:23:55",
"content": "Not bad at all! :D",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "364058",
"author": "r_d",
"timestamp": "2011-03-21T14:35:25",
"content": "I have one of these sensors laying around from a dead printer I ripped apart for the stepper motors. I didn’t think it was going to be useful for anything, but I’m suddenly glad I kept it.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "364060",
"author": "Andy Goth",
"timestamp": "2011-03-21T14:37:00",
"content": "Nice Model M keyboard. :^)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "364061",
"author": "Pedro",
"timestamp": "2011-03-21T14:40:37",
"content": "Awesome work, as usual. This is an interesting take on a multitouch implementation.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "364063",
"author": "therian",
"timestamp": "2011-03-21T14:43:52",
"content": "the problem with touchscreens is not in technology but in usefulness",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "364064",
"author": "VintagePC",
"timestamp": "2011-03-21T14:45:39",
"content": "Andy: Was just gonna say that… got one myself, did a double-take when I saw his.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "364085",
"author": "mess_maker",
"timestamp": "2011-03-21T15:25:09",
"content": "Very interesting project… I think I have an old scanner laying around. Could be fun to try this.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "364086",
"author": "Headbonk",
"timestamp": "2011-03-21T15:27:01",
"content": "Really nice idea. At first I thought you’d need two of the sensors to get XY coordinates. Would love to see more about the software that figures out the contact points from the different shadows.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "364089",
"author": "Andy Goth",
"timestamp": "2011-03-21T15:35:01",
"content": "Seriously, this is cool stuff. One of the things I do at work is program an old monochrome plasma IR-matrix touch screen. It’s amazing how a design using far fewer beams can have multitouch and higher resolution!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "364188",
"author": "woutervddn",
"timestamp": "2011-03-21T17:11:46",
"content": "lol, fairly simple and yet no-one else who thought of it.. :) great hack!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "364235",
"author": "Kaijuu",
"timestamp": "2011-03-21T17:41:46",
"content": "As I mentioned to him last weekend, [Sprite_TM] has come full circle: his first hack featured on HaD was a mouse-turned-scanner, now he has made a scanner-turned-mouse. :Dhttp://hackaday.com/2006/01/07/optical-mouse-based-scanner/",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "364532",
"author": "cmholm",
"timestamp": "2011-03-22T00:21:44",
"content": "I agree with [Sprite_TM] that I prefer keyboard/trackball for my *vertical* display. But, for a big, horizontal multi-touch display, using – say – libTISCH (HaD, 10/29/09)? Add a driver, and now we’re getting somewhere.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "364815",
"author": "oosterhagen",
"timestamp": "2011-03-22T11:00:00",
"content": "How does it register “clicks” (ie mouse down/up). As long as you can’t register pressure or forward movement of the pointing-device it’s not very functional.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "364921",
"author": "fantaguy",
"timestamp": "2011-03-22T14:45:57",
"content": "does any1 know if he made a tutorial? i have a couple old scanners lying around and think this awesome! but betting need nix to run… :( im on windows",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "365609",
"author": "Andy Goth",
"timestamp": "2011-03-23T14:30:41",
"content": "oosterhagen: Touches *are* clicks.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "366258",
"author": "Sigg3",
"timestamp": "2011-03-24T11:01:34",
"content": "@Therian: You’re right!I bought an 8\" Lilliput LCD with touch a few years back for a media center project but I always ended up using a USB mouse instead. (Of course, it had a stylus and was not touch in any modern sense.)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "623020",
"author": "Lia Saner",
"timestamp": "2012-04-07T03:28:58",
"content": "I’m getting rid of my iPod Touch 4G and getting an iPod Classic 5.5G 80GB. I miss the good ole days of toting around my black 30GB iPod 5G, and I’m bringing the good times back!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
}
] | 1,760,377,240.331539
|
||
https://hackaday.com/2011/03/21/dont-buy-an-amp-build-one-to-suit/
|
Don’t Buy An Amp, Build One To Suit
|
Mike Szczys
|
[
"home entertainment hacks"
] |
[
"amp",
"amplifier",
"lm4780",
"speakers"
] |
In need of an amplifier for his home entertainment system [Afroman] decided to
build an amp
rather than buying one. If nothing else, doing it himself allowed for a form factor that can’t just go out and buy.
He designed the project on two separate boards, one for the power supply and the other for the amplifier circuit. Both are of his own design, and although he doesn’t share the schematic, we know he’s based his work on a National Semiconductor reference design for the LM4780 audio amplifier chip. There’s a few other clues, like his mention of the toroidal transformer seen at the left in the image above and hi-res photos of the unpopulated board that has component values printed in the silk screen.
The final design allows him to get great performance out of his speakers with a very clean look. You’ll need to be logged to the forum linked above to view all of the images, but we’ve embedded three more of them after the break to whet your appetite.
Oh, and cost? This gets up there, just sneaking past the $500 mark.
[Thanks AB]
| 22
| 21
|
[
{
"comment_id": "363997",
"author": "Gaspard de Coligny",
"timestamp": "2011-03-21T13:27:41",
"content": "No offense… but if there is no BOM or schematics, it should go in the “and we don’t give a frack” category…That’s just some unverified showing off… great, but he can keep it TOTALLY for himself…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "363998",
"author": "Fallen",
"timestamp": "2011-03-21T13:31:19",
"content": "Whoaaa. $500 for a chipamp with a 4780? That’s a lot. I’ve used all the overture series chipamps by national semiconductor. My favourite is by far the 3886(2 of these in a 4780). The pitch is wide enough that you can wire it up P2P. It has mute circuitry unlike the 3875 and 1875. Getting rid of startup pops and clicks is nice. For absolute minimal parts count the LM1875 can’t be beat IMO. And the sound quality is great. It might seem like it’s a little low on the power side at 30W into 8 ohms, but realistically this is plenty of power for most applications.What I I like the most about chipamps is how compact they are. I have a 4780 shoehorned into a 3″x3″x12″ box with 2 little 2″ peerless drivers. It makes a great ipod speaker. I really doubt a discrete amp of the same quality and power capability could be fit in that confined space.But anyways the chips can be had under $10 each and the caps and resistors are well under $5. The power supply can be scavenged. I use 2 24V printer PSUs in series to generate the split rails. For another amp I just use a transformer scavenged from an amp left at the side of the road. I added my own diode bridge and some 15V voltage regulators. That amp probably cost under $20 to build.I can see one getting up to $500, but don’t let that price scare you away. You can build a great sounding chipamp for quite cheap.Just make sure you get the ground lay out correct. Nobody likes a 60Hz(50Hz elsewhere) hum…Star ground is your friend.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "364004",
"author": "darkore",
"timestamp": "2011-03-21T13:49:13",
"content": "@gaspard +1",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "364008",
"author": "alan",
"timestamp": "2011-03-21T13:54:36",
"content": "@darkore -1",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "364024",
"author": "klulukasz",
"timestamp": "2011-03-21T14:03:19",
"content": "“$330 for parts and $168 for pcbs incl tax.”how can anyone pay 168$ for 2 PCBs?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "364031",
"author": "r_d",
"timestamp": "2011-03-21T14:12:49",
"content": "Seconding the whole no schematics, no point posting thing. It’s especially out-of-place if it’s straight from a reference design. There’s certainly nothing wrong with working from the manufacturer’s circuit (the designers probably know best). It’s the practical, pragmatic thing to do, but it is certainly not hacking.Afrotech Mods brings back memories though. It was an endless source of entertainment for me back in the day. There’s some seriously awesome stuff on his site which _would_ be appropriate here. One example beinghttp://afrotechmods.com/cheap/capacitor/digitalcapacitor.htm(not entirely sure where you can buy 128nF 1% tolerance capacitors, though)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "364033",
"author": "mike bradley",
"timestamp": "2011-03-21T14:15:45",
"content": "I don’t think I have ever said anything negative here before, but this one, really? No schematic, no bom, no take a part and tweek, no sharing of tech info?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "364053",
"author": "willow",
"timestamp": "2011-03-21T14:32:52",
"content": "File this under the “I did it because I could” category; just doesn’t seem like HAD material.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "364054",
"author": "mike mike",
"timestamp": "2011-03-21T14:32:57",
"content": "I’ve built a few Nat Semi chip amps and housed them in Hammond boxes for ease (the Makezine chipamp based on the LM1875 is very awesome for the price and you can shop 90% of the parts at Radio Shack). But I’ve been eyeing this one…http://audiosector.com/lm4780.shtmlI’m not sure if I would go as far as to design my own PCBs when you can get the kit out there for such low price and with a small form factor already designed into it, but to each his own.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "364090",
"author": "ejonesss",
"timestamp": "2011-03-21T15:35:55",
"content": "the site requires login to see images.please link to external site like tinypic.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "364113",
"author": "random_jandom",
"timestamp": "2011-03-21T15:55:42",
"content": "Wow, I got all excited as I needed to build an amp. What a let down, no schematic? Useless… :(",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "364142",
"author": "brad",
"timestamp": "2011-03-21T16:33:54",
"content": "newb-type question here…the pcb stuff is just to up the professionalism of the build, correct? am i correct in assuming they do nothing to enhance sound quality over a perf-board benchtop solder job?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "364167",
"author": "mike mike",
"timestamp": "2011-03-21T16:52:09",
"content": "The PCB stuff makes it flatter (more compact), nicer looking, easier to work with (compact, less wires in the way, whatever excuse you like), and massively repeatable. Usually you’re stuck with what you have unless you are into cutting traces and adding jumpers/wires.I have seen some really professional looking point to point wiring jobs on amps before (GIS “vacuum tube amp underside”), so hard to say.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "364176",
"author": "Fallen",
"timestamp": "2011-03-21T17:00:35",
"content": "Guys if you need a chipamp you can easily make one P2P, no PCB required. Just use a LM3875 or 3886.The LM3875 has less pins, so it’s a bit easier to do up.I usually mount my chip to the heatsink, and then hotglue the components in place. Don’t let the parts short to the heatsink.All these amps are is high power OP-Amps. Just design them like you would any other op-amp circuit. So there isn’t much need for a schematic, it’s probably pretty standard fare.Here is an example of a classic chipamp the ‘gainclone’http://sound.westhost.com/project115.htmwhich is a clone of the gaincard amp. IIRC it was quite expensive and was made in Japan or something.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "364213",
"author": "Bob D",
"timestamp": "2011-03-21T17:28:00",
"content": "Why are there not more amp building posts? Just about everyone own an amp (or three) in some form, and yet building it yourself you can almost shave a zero off the cost vs performance.Which is weird because that’s not what this guy did $500 is a lot too much for that amp. I’m not sure why he paid $168 for the PCB unless he bought from someone who buys clad at Radio Shack and the components don’t seem terribly well matched and he way overspent on caps. (Though with out a BOM it’s hard to tell.)But yeah, HAD, if you’re going to link more amp building posts (and please do) link to one that has more meat on it than this project. This guy is simply waving out in the breeze. (Which is no surprise. Its what people in audio forums almost exclusively do.)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "364268",
"author": "therian",
"timestamp": "2011-03-21T18:10:11",
"content": "500$ !!! this is not Afroman I remember, more likely its antiAfroman in disguise",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "364312",
"author": "Afroman",
"timestamp": "2011-03-21T19:04:35",
"content": "Heh… this was meant to be a thing for the forumers – I didn’t expect this to get out there.Anyways. Yeah, the amp is massively overengineered. That was intentional. I wanted it to be as high quality as possible, heat up as little as possible, and last me for decades.It wasn’t $168 for a PCB, it was $168 for five 4.5×9.65″ PCBs with solder mask on both sides and silkscreen with a 5 day turnaround, in Canada (where milk comes in bags and everything costs 25% more). The main reason I opted to get a proper PCB made was safety – there are mains voltages in there as well as some hefty capacitors and solder mask reduces the chance of a cockroach sneaking inside and getting fried, or me zapping myself during the construction and testing phase. Everything is very sturdy now, so I don’t have to worry if it ever gets knocked over. The other reason for a PCB is it allows for a double sided layout with ideal component placement, lower resistance traces, and less susceptibility to noise. Although I don’t have a point-to-point solution to compare it with, I don’t regret this decision. This is the least noisy amp I have ever heard. It freaks me out a little because without any hiss or hum I forget that it is on. I can also build 4 more of these if I want to very quickly.Here’s the BOMhttp://i.imgur.com/NoBIw.jpgThe PSU doesn’t even get warm at normal volumes, but if I ever needed to crank it past 100W it would still stay pretty cool even though there is no ventilation. No heat means the caps will last for many, many years. I ended up not using the heatsinks on the diodes.The main difference between this design and the Natsemi reference design is the use of tighter tolerance components, and the use of massive metalized polypropylene capacitors. They may look expensive, but compared to the ones marketed towards audiophiles they are a fraction of the cost and have a ridiculously low impedance of under 3 milliohms at 10kHz. I’m pretty happy with them.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "364527",
"author": "Dingo",
"timestamp": "2011-03-22T00:15:29",
"content": "Afroman is a hero and should be treated as such",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "364547",
"author": "Afroman",
"timestamp": "2011-03-22T00:46:56",
"content": "Aw shucks",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "367189",
"author": "Phk",
"timestamp": "2011-03-25T10:59:55",
"content": "A Tripath based design (like a tk2050) would be a fraction of the price with a much cleaner sound…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6222695",
"author": "MrLP",
"timestamp": "2020-02-25T10:03:07",
"content": "No way, class D amp vs LM4780. :)",
"parent_id": "367189",
"depth": 2,
"replies": []
}
]
},
{
"comment_id": "1268920",
"author": "Robdeecc",
"timestamp": "2014-03-15T22:40:40",
"content": "Can I build something like this, plus have two mic jacks, and have an import for a video cable coming froma projector",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
}
] | 1,760,377,240.107078
|
||
https://hackaday.com/2011/03/21/tricycle-robot-using-omni-wheels/
|
Tricycle Robot Using Omni-wheels
|
Mike Szczys
|
[
"Robots Hacks"
] |
[
"mechanum",
"omni-wheel",
"RF",
"servo",
"Teensy"
] |
[Markus Gritsch] built this
six-wheeled robot using omni-wheels
. Two wheels are used on each axis in order to ensure perpendicular rotation is possible no matter where the axis rotation stops. The wheels have also been improved by dipping the elliptical components to give them a rubbery coating.
The robot gets its commands wirelessly from a separate controller unit. That controller, as well as the bot seen above, uses a Teensy microcontroller board. Two analog sticks take input from the operator and transmit commands using an inexpensive RF pair. The wheel movement is facilitated by three servo motors which may seem like an odd choice. But we think that it simplifies the electronic side of the build because you do not need an H-bridge to control a servo motors. It’s a bit loud, as you can hear in the video after the break, but it certainly works quite well.
One of the commenters on the thread above asks why [Markus] didn’t use
mechanum wheels
. These would have allowed him to use just one wheel on each axis but the omni-wheels were so inexpensive that he went this route instead.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e3SJlshwl6k&w=470]
| 10
| 10
|
[
{
"comment_id": "363978",
"author": "Brian.Holiday",
"timestamp": "2011-03-21T12:38:19",
"content": "I would lay odds he didn’t ‘dip’ the wheels (He doesn’t say how it is applied). I have tried dipping and it doesn’t give acceptable results for rubberizing wheels. Plastidip has a spray on version of their coating which works quite well.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "363984",
"author": "ino",
"timestamp": "2011-03-21T13:05:33",
"content": "very nice!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "363990",
"author": "eddt",
"timestamp": "2011-03-21T13:18:48",
"content": "Not the first one of these I’d seen –http://the-gadgeteer.com/2001/03/28/palm_pilot_robot_kit_pprk_review/. Back in the day, you could get them as kits fromhttp://www.acroname.com. Still, a really nice build. I wonder if he modded the servos himself.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "363992",
"author": "razorconcepts",
"timestamp": "2011-03-21T13:23:10",
"content": "Uh.. tribot?http://www.geekalerts.com/u/tribot.jpg",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "363996",
"author": "DeadlyFoez",
"timestamp": "2011-03-21T13:26:53",
"content": "I like it. Good job.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "364164",
"author": "Soo-Hyun",
"timestamp": "2011-03-21T16:50:52",
"content": "I’m not sure how he could have used mechanum wheels for this platform, since they are used in pairs to generate movement parallel to the wheel’s axis. I guess it could be done with some careful programming, but mechanums are (afaik) used in pairs.Those are also single wheels even though they have two layers. The rollers are just offset. I’ve used Kornylak Transwheels (http://www.kornylak.com/wheels/transwheel.html) for my triwheel robot.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "364260",
"author": "wosser",
"timestamp": "2011-03-21T18:04:24",
"content": "I like the smoothness of the motion, and the wireless gamepad controller is a cool.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "364747",
"author": "Markus Gritsch",
"timestamp": "2011-03-22T07:55:14",
"content": "@Brian.Holiday: Yes, I used the spray (http://www.conrad.at/ce/de/product/888183/PLASTI-DIP-SPRAY-311G-SCHWARZ/SHOP_AREA_19752&promotionareaSearchDetail=005)@eddt: Yes, modifying servos for continuous rotation is not hard. Just make sure the potentiometer is mechanically not connected to the rotating wheel anymore.@Soo-Hyun: Although you need pairs of wheels, they are sold in single quantities (http://at.rs-online.com/web/search/searchBrowseAction.html?method=getProduct&R=0408536). I glued them sogether using superglue :)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "365133",
"author": "psuedonymous",
"timestamp": "2011-03-22T19:29:43",
"content": "Mecanum wheels require a minimum of four wheels to move omnidirectionally. Their advantage being that they can be mounted in existing chassis with normal wheel placement, where omni-wheels need a triangular arrangement for full holonomic movement.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "396904",
"author": "john_austin_tx",
"timestamp": "2011-05-22T16:42:53",
"content": "Thank you for sharing this wonderful project. It is inspiring to me :-)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
}
] | 1,760,377,240.001883
|
||
https://hackaday.com/2011/03/21/kinect-mouse-and-nerf-gun-combine-for-house-of-the-dead/
|
Kinect, Mouse, And Nerf Gun Combine For House Of The Dead
|
Mike Szczys
|
[
"Peripherals Hacks"
] |
[
"controller",
"faast",
"house of the dead",
"Kinect",
"mouse",
"nerf"
] |
[Tony Blanch] built his own
motion controller for playing House of the Dead
. It should work with any shooter that follows the ‘rail’ type of game play (your character is not free walking, but moves along a set path beyond your control).
Two parts come together to make this happen. The first is the Nerf dart gun that you see above. The circuit board fitted into the top portion of the plastic housing is from a five-button wireless mouse. The buttons are used to sense trigger pulls from the player. The second portion of the controller is a Kinect. It has been set up to work with a Windows 7 machine. [Tony] used the Flexible Action and Articulated Skeleton Toolkit (
FAAST
) to bind and track the gun controller, moving the mouse cursor on the screen to match the movements of the weapon. Check out the video after the break to see how responsive this system is.
This is a very interesting departure from the
gun controllers we’ve seen before
.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=opXT1i9qapw&w=470]
[Thanks Jared via
Kinect Hacks
]
| 5
| 5
|
[
{
"comment_id": "363930",
"author": "pod",
"timestamp": "2011-03-21T11:13:32",
"content": "nice idea, too bad for the nerf gun squeaky trigger!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "364190",
"author": "Kaz",
"timestamp": "2011-03-21T17:13:18",
"content": "Nice hack, well executed and maybe usefull if you have all the parts laying around, but all I can think is “Wiimote done the hard way”… :D",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "364517",
"author": "Tech B.",
"timestamp": "2011-03-21T23:55:20",
"content": "I did something similar. Except I use an IR LED and a webcam to get the motion. The wireless mouse is a better idea than my BTArduino though. A lot cheaper too.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "364554",
"author": "Jack",
"timestamp": "2011-03-22T00:51:13",
"content": "I can’t imagine this being very accurate without a optical marker. Especially if your arm is nearly lined up with the optical axis.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "365154",
"author": "Mathorne",
"timestamp": "2011-03-22T19:58:16",
"content": "@ KazNot only that, but I have the game from the video on the Wii. And when you put the Wiimote in the plastic gun container, you’ll get exactly the same result…And that is the whole point! All the on-rail shooters available already have the ability to play the game with commercial available guns. I was more impressed if the whole system was used in pc FPS games. So the final result would be something like Killzone 3 uses the Playstation Move…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
}
] | 1,760,377,239.954152
|
||
https://hackaday.com/2011/03/20/hackaday-links-march-20-2011/
|
Hackaday Links: March 20, 2011
|
Mike Nathan
|
[
"Hackaday links"
] |
[
"clock",
"gaming",
"projectors",
"science",
"water"
] |
SNES Arcade Cabinet
[Daniel] let us know that he finished up a
SNES arcade cabinet
he has been
working on for awhile
. It looks so good, he says that his wife has even agreed to let him keep it in the house!
DIY Overhead projector beamer
[Liquider] sent us some information about a
DIY beamer he built
using an overhead projector and an old LCD panel. It looks like a great way to get a big-screen wall display set up in no time.
WordClock gets a makeover
[Doug] wrote in to share with us some progress he has made on his
WordClock
. You might
remember our coverage
of this creative timepiece a little while back. This time around, he has built a new control board, and is using vinyl stencils for a much cleaner look.
Interactive water fountain
[Gerry Chu] is well known for his water-based imagery and projects. His most recent project is a
water fountain that interacts with passers by
. There are no real build details as of yet, but we hope to see some soon.
Sixty Symbols explains why glass is transparent
Do you think you know why glass is transparent, but a brick is not? If you looked it up via Google, you are likely mistaken. A professor from the University of Nottingham
explains why the Internet is so, so wrong about this
, as well as how energy gap determines if photons of light can make it through a piece of glass. [via
i09
]
| 21
| 21
|
[
{
"comment_id": "363543",
"author": "roy",
"timestamp": "2011-03-20T20:23:20",
"content": "first lol but i liked the links",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "363547",
"author": "pod",
"timestamp": "2011-03-20T20:29:51",
"content": "missing link for the overhead projector beamer :/",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "363549",
"author": "Mike Nathan",
"timestamp": "2011-03-20T20:35:23",
"content": "@pod, fixed. Thanks for the heads up.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "363554",
"author": "Martin",
"timestamp": "2011-03-20T20:41:01",
"content": "now the beamer link goes to “Making Kinect Work With PS3” ….?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "363557",
"author": "Munch",
"timestamp": "2011-03-20T20:58:31",
"content": "@Mike, wrong link to the beamer, and the site is impossible to navigate. :(",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "363558",
"author": "Mike Nathan",
"timestamp": "2011-03-20T21:03:27",
"content": "Fixed for real this time.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "363563",
"author": "strider_mt2k",
"timestamp": "2011-03-20T21:17:54",
"content": "Love the arcade hack.I seem to recall the joystick part being featured a while back. Cool to see more of the build!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "363568",
"author": "Insipid Melon",
"timestamp": "2011-03-20T21:35:36",
"content": "Regarding the University of Nottingham video: as far as completely explaining why glass is transparent, it leaves a little to be desired. One might envision from the explanation that any photon with more energy (shorter wavelength) than the visible spectrum will pass through glass and any photon with less energy (longer wavelength) would be blocked. But radio waves can pass through glass (and I also believe UV is partially blocked). Why is this?Well, it is not just about exciting electrons to a higher energy state. There are other ways to impart energy to an atom, e.g., vibrating it, rotating it, ionizing it, etc. For glass, visible light happens to fall in between the light which causes vibration (IR) and the light which causes excitation (UV), and since visible photons are too energetic to cause rotations, but not energetic enough to cause excitations (as described in the video) they fail to be absorbed.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "363637",
"author": "Phil",
"timestamp": "2011-03-21T00:24:41",
"content": "Ha, I had to do a double take there. Professor Moriarty was one of my lecturers at Nottingham.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "363686",
"author": "dmo",
"timestamp": "2011-03-21T01:59:44",
"content": "Regarding the University of Nottingham video: I agree with Insipid M. The explanation regarding the photon energy is a little too simplistic. Isn’t there a lot more to it? (adsorption, reflection, refraction, re-emission, multiple energy level changes, etc.)I think an additional explanation about why light gets dimmer as the thickness of the material increases is also warranted. Leaving that out implies thickness wouldn’t matter.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "363687",
"author": "dmo",
"timestamp": "2011-03-21T02:02:12",
"content": "adsorption -> absorption",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "363748",
"author": "Leithoa",
"timestamp": "2011-03-21T03:56:11",
"content": "Sure the vid leaves something to be desired if you’re getting you’re degree in materials engineering or physics, but it was recorded with a target audience for you’re average Joey Bloggs walking down the street.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "363765",
"author": "Joe",
"timestamp": "2011-03-21T04:40:04",
"content": "Having physics degree in optics, I too agree that the light video is over simplified. We just jumped to quantum wave equations and did not play around in the electron ball pit. Throw in a few more integrals, some vector calculus, and Maxwell, and then we’ll be on our way.For example, Germanium lenses are transparent in the infrared, but not in the visible. Hum… the visible has higher energy photons than the IR. Shouldn’t they be transparent Doc?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "363768",
"author": "bob",
"timestamp": "2011-03-21T04:50:12",
"content": "@Joe: Isnt that exactly what the video explained? Infra-red has low energy, so it cant put the ball on the shelf, so continues on its way to the other end of the room.I quite liked the video as I had always wondered why glass is transparent. I know its a simplification, but now knowing that it’s to do with energy levels, and knowing stuff about energy levels, i can infer a lot of other things.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "363813",
"author": "phnx",
"timestamp": "2011-03-21T06:56:27",
"content": "Interactive Fountain – *gerry* chu",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "363851",
"author": "S",
"timestamp": "2011-03-21T08:10:43",
"content": "A few months ago Jeri Ellsworth explained the bandgap, how affects light and why you should give your girlfriend a cubic zirconia instead of a diamond.Making an OLED – Light from Carbon Compounds –http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CAgRF8TibJ0[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CAgRF8TibJ0&w=640&h=390]",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "363892",
"author": "Tachikoma",
"timestamp": "2011-03-21T10:01:20",
"content": "All the youtube channels from Nottingham is quality, especially periodicvideos. Wish more of the internet was like that.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "363955",
"author": "Brian.Holiday",
"timestamp": "2011-03-21T12:32:38",
"content": "There is a problem with the beamer, the heat from the bulb in the projector will burn the LCD causing a ‘bad spot’. I fixed the problem on mine by raising it up a little and ducting airflow from a little fan.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "363999",
"author": "BillyBob",
"timestamp": "2011-03-21T13:32:31",
"content": "@Brian.Holiday did you even read the article? “After installing all the driverboard and powersource i had to build a cooling system in order to prevent the screen from getting damaged through the OH’s lightsource.Cool air gets sucked in at the front and flows under the screen right through the driver board.”",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "364001",
"author": "guffguff",
"timestamp": "2011-03-21T13:38:22",
"content": "@dmo: Surely the reason for glass becoming more and more opaque with thickness is just due to impurities. The light may go through glass, but if there are a few atoms of some element in it, it will cause a slight amount of light reflection. For a piece of glass a few millimetres thick you’d never notice, but as it gets thicker, the chance of meeting an impurity increases and it gets more and more opaque.Maybe…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "364022",
"author": "Brian.Holiday",
"timestamp": "2011-03-21T13:58:15",
"content": "@BillyBob You got me, I missed it.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
}
] | 1,760,377,240.277711
|
||
https://hackaday.com/2011/03/20/gps-enabled-bag-allows-for-carefree-city-roaming/
|
GPS-enabled Bag Allows For Carefree City Roaming
|
Mike Nathan
|
[
"Arduino Hacks",
"gps hacks"
] |
[
"arduino",
"gps",
"navigation"
] |
[Josh] was looking for a way to enjoy exploring the city of Chicago safely, and
hacked together a messenger bag
navigation system to ensure he always knew where he was going.
While riding, he wanted to embrace the
idea of Dérive
, but he felt that he was being too overly conscious of time as well as his location, which took all the fun out of his unplanned excursions. Having recently been “doored” by a car, he was also looking for a way to help him navigate the city streets without being overly distracted with finding his way around.
His “Map Bag” solves both of these problems for him, without being obtrusive. He fit a messenger bag with a LilyPad Arduino and a GPS receiver for keeping track of his location. The Arduino can constantly monitor speed, heading, and location, directing [Josh] to his destination by vibrating one of 8 shaftless motors that are installed throughout the bag’s chest strap. Now while he rides, he can take in the city’s atmosphere while also knowing that he will get exactly where he needs to – on time.
He does not have any source code or schematics on his site as of yet, but we hope to see some in the near future. If you are interested, check out the videos of the bag’s construction embedded below.
[vimeo
http://vimeo.com/21213159
w=470]
[vimeo
http://vimeo.com/21213190
w=470]
| 6
| 6
|
[
{
"comment_id": "363636",
"author": "HaDAk",
"timestamp": "2011-03-21T00:21:53",
"content": "I love this concept. I would love to see more projects that enhance your every day life, without getting in the way, just like this. Bravo.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "363824",
"author": "mike",
"timestamp": "2011-03-21T07:11:01",
"content": "http://hackaday.com/2009/02/05/haptic-compass/",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "363827",
"author": "andreas",
"timestamp": "2011-03-21T07:14:16",
"content": "cool idea with the motors. I’m making myself a gps data logger with arduino, all I can say is that getting data from the gps is not the most difficult part, the difficult part is using the data.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "363854",
"author": "Jax184",
"timestamp": "2011-03-21T08:29:52",
"content": "I’m reminded ofhttp://xkcd.com/407/",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "363939",
"author": "uzerzero",
"timestamp": "2011-03-21T11:55:31",
"content": "I know where I live that there is a website with a Google Maps layer that shows crimes and big crime spots. If there’s one for Chicago (and I wouldn’t be surprised if there were) it’d be worth it to integrate this into his system. Perhaps if he were to parse the site’s GPS coordinates then have it create areas that would trigger an “alarm” in his mapbag, i.e. three buzzes to let him know he’s in a not-all-together safe area. I know downtown Chicago is pretty safe, but I’m not sure how far he’s riding. Also gives it useful expansion in case he takes it to another city (like Atlanta where you’d get three buzzes every 50 feet).",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "364292",
"author": "Josh Billions",
"timestamp": "2011-03-21T18:36:33",
"content": "@uzerzero I’ve been thinking about adding similar functionality in regards to proximity to Chicago’s buses. Being able to talk to the web through the iPhone’s GSM connection makes anything possible!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
}
] | 1,760,377,240.045206
|
||
https://hackaday.com/2011/03/20/third-times-a-charm-512-led-cube-kicks-it-up-a-notch-with-rgb-leds/
|
Third Time’s A Charm – 512 LED Cube Kicks It Up A Notch With RGB LEDs
|
Mike Nathan
|
[
"LED Hacks",
"Microcontrollers"
] |
[
"leds",
"pic32",
"pwm"
] |
In the comments section of our 512-LED cube post from the other day, several people suggested that to take the project up a notch, building a similar cube using RGB LEDS was the next logical step. It seems that Hack-a-Day reader [vespine]
was way ahead of the curve
, as he sent us the build details of his 8x8x8 RGB cube shortly after
the other story
was published.
His cube, which was finished earlier this year, uses 512 10mm RGB LEDs, arranged on top of a simple elevated stand. The stand conceals all of the circuitry he uses to control the cube, the centerpiece of which is a PIC32 MCU. A dozen TLC5940 16-channel PWM drivers are used alongside the PIC in order to adjust the color output of the LEDs, each of which can be addressed and colored individually.
The end result is just about as amazing as you would imagine. He has created several quick demonstration animations, which you can view in the video below. Be sure to stop by his site to see all of his build details – there’s quite a lot there.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6nO3STwoFjY&w=470]
| 25
| 25
|
[
{
"comment_id": "363479",
"author": "bogdan",
"timestamp": "2011-03-20T18:09:09",
"content": "Splendid!I’ve always wanted to see something like this done!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "363480",
"author": "Dino",
"timestamp": "2011-03-20T18:13:36",
"content": "I likes! My favorite part is the expanding sphere effect! Nice job!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "363494",
"author": "locknroll",
"timestamp": "2011-03-20T18:47:03",
"content": "Awesome!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "363518",
"author": "CutThroughStuffGuy",
"timestamp": "2011-03-20T19:32:57",
"content": "Very cool. What is it that nobody who makes these things ever wants to program them :) ?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "363526",
"author": "cafeine",
"timestamp": "2011-03-20T19:54:17",
"content": "super cool!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "363545",
"author": "java",
"timestamp": "2011-03-20T20:25:46",
"content": "i would love to see some 3d images on this thing",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "363548",
"author": "Bill Schweikert",
"timestamp": "2011-03-20T20:31:43",
"content": "I would like to see the parallel planes illuminated, one set at a time. Some planes are parallel to the sides, some are diagonal. Run through the sets of Miller indices.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "363555",
"author": "wosser",
"timestamp": "2011-03-20T20:46:46",
"content": "How do people physically hold the LEDs in place while soldering is in progress? The alignment looks dead-on in all of these cubes. Do they build some sort of jig or what? I’d love to know.Very nice build, although perhaps the colour balance might need some adjustment because to my eyes (or perhaps it’s just the video quality) these leds seem to be brighter for some colours than others.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "363592",
"author": "vespine",
"timestamp": "2011-03-20T22:24:11",
"content": "Hi everyone. Thanks for the kind comments.@CutThroughStuffGuy Trust me, it’s not a lack of “want”. 3d array manipulation is still beyond my newb programming skills, which I pretty much learned from scratch for this project.@wosser google hypnocube instructions, I used just a slight modification of their 4x4x4 construction method.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "363603",
"author": "M4CGYV3R",
"timestamp": "2011-03-20T22:55:21",
"content": "Without looking at any of the writeup, I’m just curious how he addressed all of the LEDs individually. Shift registers? Many uControllers? Looks awesome though.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "363626",
"author": "WestfW",
"timestamp": "2011-03-20T23:41:59",
"content": "On a somewhat larger scale are the giant “Cubatron” displays, perhaps worth a HaD mention of their own…http://www.3waylabs.com/projects",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "363679",
"author": "hekilledmywire",
"timestamp": "2011-03-21T01:49:47",
"content": "Epic!Can you say what was your led source?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "363702",
"author": "Marrob",
"timestamp": "2011-03-21T02:57:19",
"content": "Would love to see a 3d Game of Life through this…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "363757",
"author": "Brennan",
"timestamp": "2011-03-21T04:19:39",
"content": "Having built a 5x5x5 RGB cube myself, I have to give HUGE PROPS to the author of this. Those cubes are so time consuming to make – even 5 across was pushing it for me. I found the software extremely tedious to write. The thing about making these is the effort:reward ratio is extremely high. I was sick of the project by the time I actually had some animations working on it. Great job man.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "363769",
"author": "vespine",
"timestamp": "2011-03-21T04:54:53",
"content": "@hekilledmywire I just got them on fleabay from a seller called topbright88, they’re still around. The ones I got are “10mm Manual Control DIFFUSED RGB LED Common Anode”. They have them listed in various quantities, less then 50c each for quantities over 100. The risk is I did get a few with a faulty blue element (about a dozen out of 550), so you have to make sure you have some spare in your order and test them, but it was still more then worth it considering local sources sell them for $1+ each.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "363933",
"author": "woutervddn",
"timestamp": "2011-03-21T11:20:45",
"content": "LEDgasm :O",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "364079",
"author": "CutThroughStuffGuy",
"timestamp": "2011-03-21T15:16:44",
"content": "Better visualizations:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6mXM-oGggrM",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "364130",
"author": "dan fruzzetti",
"timestamp": "2011-03-21T16:20:36",
"content": "Breathtaking. But until he gets an acrylic housing, just don’t bump it :(",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "364136",
"author": "Alex Grant",
"timestamp": "2011-03-21T16:25:29",
"content": "That is truely brilliant, I am definantly going to have to build one of these at some point. I think going the whole hog and making a 16x16x16 out of 3mm orange LEDs would look awesome, just might get a bit too “dense” in the middle… Only 4096 leds…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "364325",
"author": "nick",
"timestamp": "2011-03-21T19:26:12",
"content": "Yawn. Call me when there’s 4096 LEDs.JUST KIDDING! Jeez. But you’ll totally score super mega EXTRAbonus points when you hook it up to a WiiMote/Kinect and get real-time control workin with this. I’d say go for Kinect and you can have it controlled by a dance floor. And that shit would be tiiiiiight! I mean, even tighter than it already would be up on stage at a rave.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "364361",
"author": "Erik Johnson",
"timestamp": "2011-03-21T20:20:49",
"content": "@nick chineese mfgr does this..http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aj3_v7xCyJ0",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "364574",
"author": "hekilledmywire",
"timestamp": "2011-03-22T01:39:20",
"content": "Sourcing 512 can a bit expensive wow.When I get some funds I will start by making an 4x4x4 or something like that, RGB of course.Thanks for the led source Vespine.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "365774",
"author": "setlahs",
"timestamp": "2011-03-23T17:29:04",
"content": "What about saving on some costs, and doing an 8×8 POV display.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "368319",
"author": "Masterbaker",
"timestamp": "2011-03-27T00:37:19",
"content": "Awesome!quick suggestion for making it even more amazing : grab 3 large mirrors and place the cube inside them. Make animations accordingly, and you wind up with a huge cube!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "719335",
"author": "Gelmer Orsel",
"timestamp": "2012-07-30T23:14:25",
"content": "Hello what i’m missing by all the beautiful cubes is schematics! Of the rgb led 8x8x8’s.Sorry but i’m many our’s to find the schematics",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
}
] | 1,760,377,240.394385
|
||
https://hackaday.com/2011/03/20/gameboy-rom-backups-using-an-arduino/
|
Gameboy ROM Backups Using An Arduino
|
Mike Nathan
|
[
"Arduino Hacks",
"Nintendo Game Boy Hacks"
] |
[
"arduino",
"gameboy",
"rom"
] |
[Alex] collects retro gaming consoles. One day while playing a SNES title, his save games got wiped when he powered off the system. It turned out that the battery inside the game cartridge got disconnected somehow, and it got him thinking. He decided he wanted to find a way to back up his save games from the cartridges for safe keeping.
While cart readers exist, he says that they are hard to find nowadays, so he decided to construct his own using an Arduino. SNES cartridges are relatively complex, so he opted to focus on Gameboy cartridges for the time being. Before attempting to back up save games, he first chose to learn how to communicate with the cartridges in general,
by reading the ROM
.
He breaks the cartridges down in detail, discussing how they are constructed as well as how they can be addressed and read using the Arduino. He was ultimately successful, and offers up code as well as schematics on his site for any of you interested in doing the same. We imagine that save game reading (and perhaps editing) will likely happen in the near future.
Check out the video below to see his cart reader in action.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7u8_dlGbvoA&w=470]
| 23
| 23
|
[
{
"comment_id": "363456",
"author": "CutThroughStuffGuy",
"timestamp": "2011-03-20T17:07:24",
"content": "Two comments.First of all – this is an awesome hack.Secondly – ROM emulators work much better and support far more features, are less prone to hardware failures (such as a dead or disconnected battery) and allow you to carry around tens of thousand of titles on the space of a microSD chip.So I love the idea but I just don’t get the practicality now that ROMs are so widely available.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "363459",
"author": "Steve",
"timestamp": "2011-03-20T17:20:33",
"content": "@CutThroughStuffGuyWhile I, being too young to actually own many of the retro consoles such as a SNES, I can see why he’d rather play the games on the original console.It really is a different experience to play it on the console then on the computer. It just feels more authentic.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "363461",
"author": "Anonymous",
"timestamp": "2011-03-20T17:30:28",
"content": "@CutThroughStuffGuy; nothing beats playing a game on actual hardware.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "363465",
"author": "CutThroughStuffGuy",
"timestamp": "2011-03-20T17:38:52",
"content": "I don’t disagree that you get the most authentic experience with original hardware but you get 99.9999% of the experience with plenty of advantages (save states, rewind, TAS, movies, huge libraries, less bulky, cheaper, various display sizes, open source friendly, ability to hook up authentic controllers, the list just goes on and on) and really almost none of the disadvantages (bulky hardware, batteries, hard to read screens, gigantic games, increased loading times, less portable, etc). Every so often you get emulation artifacts but those are rare already and once we decompile entire chips at the literal physics based gate level and program emulators that can handle literally every single PHYSICS based emulation state then you pretty much have a perfect virtualization at that point – which is almost where we are now with some of the early gaming consoles.Work is underway to do that for the NES’s (and other consoles) MOS 6502 chip (and graphics/sound as well) already. It has been done in Java, now we just need to speed it up by a few orders of magnitude to make it truly useful as a 1:1 virtualization tool.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MOS_6502http://www.visual6502.org/",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "363466",
"author": "baobrien",
"timestamp": "2011-03-20T17:40:32",
"content": "@CutThroughStuffGuy I think the main point was to back up savegames, not get emulator roms.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "363468",
"author": "Tyler",
"timestamp": "2011-03-20T17:41:55",
"content": "Simple, strictly speaking you can only legally have a ROM of a game (Well at least in the US) if:1. You own a physical copy of the game in question2. You dump the ROM YOURSELF from your own cartWhile strictly speakinng I doubt only the most anal retentive judges would care about reason 2 due to the fact that dumping kits are REALLY expensive and the fact that it IS a backup of your game but strictly speaking this is the only legal way of getting ROMs.Besides, if you had a really rare game game you could back it up and have it around forever and if you don’t really give a shit about the specifics of dumping put it on the internet… tthough IIRC I think that the GoodGBC set has all known gameboy games dumped already.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "363472",
"author": "CutThroughStuffGuy",
"timestamp": "2011-03-20T17:56:00",
"content": "It was but in order to do that, he had to back up the ROMs first (to read saves, you have to read the cart).I suppose this would be useful then for backing up saves from physical games to convert them to emulated games as well as ROM dumping. Don’t misunderstand – this is a great hack. I just don[t personally think using older hardware has any advantages over emulated hardware. Your mileage may vary.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "363473",
"author": "XNOR16",
"timestamp": "2011-03-20T18:06:58",
"content": "I did the same thing last year but only used one ATMEGA16 and a FTDI cable. Just goes to show you, using a Arduino is not always the simplest thing. Glad to see he got it working though.http://www.rival-corp.com/2011/03/20/gameboy-rom-dumper/I threw up pictures of mine once I read this.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "363483",
"author": "baobrien",
"timestamp": "2011-03-20T18:18:35",
"content": "I prefer to use the physical game system as opposed to an emulator, but that’s just my preference.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "363569",
"author": "cantido",
"timestamp": "2011-03-20T21:37:22",
"content": "@AnonymousCycle-exact emulators beat playing “on the real thing” because they are a ton easier to just play and accurate enough that you wouldn’t notice the difference.@CutThroughStuffGuyYou don’t have to dump the ROM to dump the save IIRC.. you can look at the ROM to work out what save type it is though.. the main issue is writing code to handle all the different save types.@Thread>>While cart readers exist,>>he says that they are hard to find nowadays,He hasn’t looked hard enough.. I bought readers and flash carts for the gb after about two minutes of google. There are USB carts floating around at the moment.>>We imagine that save game reading (and>>perhaps editing) will likely happen in>> the near future.Yeah, only you’re a decade or so too late.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "363582",
"author": "Shadyman",
"timestamp": "2011-03-20T22:03:39",
"content": "Very cool project :Dthere’s another at:http://www.reinerziegler.de/readplus.htm#GB_Flasher",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "363591",
"author": "CutThroughStuffGuy",
"timestamp": "2011-03-20T22:23:41",
"content": "“You don’t have to dump the ROM to dump the save IIRC.. you can look at the ROM to work out what save type it is though.. the main issue is writing code to handle all the different save types.”You still have to know WHERE to look to dump (the address the save is stored at). Easier to dump it all first then later dumps can dump saves only because you then know where to look.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "363608",
"author": "MistaKD",
"timestamp": "2011-03-20T23:00:52",
"content": "F1 RACE FTW , loved that game.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "363647",
"author": "Anonymous",
"timestamp": "2011-03-21T00:49:51",
"content": "@cantido, from a technical standpoint; yes, but it’s hard–if not impossible–to recreate the nostalgic feel.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "363683",
"author": "CutThroughStuffGuy",
"timestamp": "2011-03-21T01:54:58",
"content": "“but it’s hard–if not impossible–to recreate the nostalgic feel.”Meh. I politely disagree. It quacks like a duck and walks like a duck and improves on said duck. It’s just as good.This isn’t like preferring a real woman over a real doll. It is more like preferring a replicant from Blade Runner over a real woman (or man). When the substitute is just as good or better, the original nostalgia is all that is left.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "363753",
"author": "Phate",
"timestamp": "2011-03-21T04:13:07",
"content": "A bit odd that I find this just after I finish building the reader portion of my own Arduino-based Gameboy flash cart reader/writer. It looks as if have been beaten to the punch.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "363767",
"author": "kris keyser",
"timestamp": "2011-03-21T04:46:14",
"content": "I can think of BIG application for this – musicians using LSDJ and other game boy based music sequencing software would love a DIY solution for flashing the ROMs to their carts. Current solutions are finicky and often require parallel ports in order to write ROMs – implementing ROM writing with this arduino setup would surely be a godsend for many of us who’ve struggled to get the poorly designed transferrers and poorly written code that comes with them to function properly.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "363858",
"author": "strider_mt2k",
"timestamp": "2011-03-21T08:44:52",
"content": "Always like the retro gaming hacks on HAD.Yes, F1 Race FTW. It was a great original Game Boy game.I also collected old handhelds until the growing clutter annoyed me too much.Now all my favorites and many more live on in spirit in the form of emulation.If you had a really good game going it would be outstanding to be able to transfer it from the original system over to an emulated one for archiving or just continuation.I think emulation may be one of the reasons that carts and readers ARE still available on the market.Heck, as long as the hardware works, it’s trade-able, so we’ll see stuff like this for a good long time to come, even if it sinks deeper and deeper into obscurity.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "363880",
"author": "Pup",
"timestamp": "2011-03-21T09:41:08",
"content": "You don’t need to dump the ROM to get the save, but you need access to the same data bus anyway.I’d love to something similar.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "363994",
"author": "abobymouse",
"timestamp": "2011-03-21T13:25:14",
"content": "I love this.My first hack was soldering a ZIF socket to some stripboard, and then soldering a bunch of wires to a GB cart with the cart removed,and then using eproms (with UV erasers and prom blowers to copy the roms).This was really easy for the smaller games, which was most of them.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "365496",
"author": "Vaati",
"timestamp": "2011-03-23T12:25:19",
"content": "@phate: I had a half completed one for about 6 months and just recently decided to rebuild it. I find it a little strange that 3 other people (including yourself and the guy of this article) have suddenly decided to get into gb programming within march 15 thru 21. :SSo, to see my awesome version of a mostly complete gb/nes/snes cart/rom reader, click on my name to look at my blog.[seems that hackaday loves the arduino… The parallax propeller beats it hands-down, at 80MHz to boot]",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "366122",
"author": "error404",
"timestamp": "2011-03-24T03:46:42",
"content": "I’d love to be an Arduino inefficiency tard on this one, I kept thinking OMG this will be so slow.Then I realised that it might actually make the hack work by being slow enough to meet the timing requirements on the bus!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "388698",
"author": "Zachary knoblauch",
"timestamp": "2011-05-01T07:52:51",
"content": "first of all i’ve been playin the emulators cause i can easily go tohttp://www.dopeROMS.comand get games that way.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
}
] | 1,760,377,240.218792
|
||
https://hackaday.com/2011/03/20/rfid-based-htpc-controller-gets-a-wireless-refresh/
|
RFID-based HTPC Controller Gets A Wireless Refresh
|
Mike Nathan
|
[
"digital audio hacks",
"home entertainment hacks",
"Wireless Hacks"
] |
[
"followup",
"music",
"rfid",
"wireless"
] |
[roteno] recently wrote in to let us know that he has completed work on the
RFiDJ Refresh
, a follow up to his 2009 project,
the RFiDJ
.
The concept is pretty simple – he has a set of RFID enabled tiles, which contain references to particular online streaming audio stations. He uses these tiles to tune into audio feeds on his HTPC by placing them on a block containing an RFID reader.
His previous implementation had the RFID reader tethered to his HTPC, which didn’t make it all that convenient to use. The newer version utilizes a 433 MHz transmitter/receiver pair in order to communicate with the PC, so it can be used anywhere through out his house. The reader and transmitter were placed in a shadow box picture frame, along with a rechargeable Li-poly battery that powers the whole setup. He also mentions that he has added a tactile interface that allows him to initiate mobile phone calls from the RFiDJ as well.
It’s a nice update to an already great project. We imagine it’s a bit more fun for [roteno] and his guests to tap a coaster on the transmitter box than fumble with a remote to change radio stations on the HTPC, but that’s just us.
Check out the videos below to see his new setup in action.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3QKfRvmLtYg&w=470]
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oeGls2F_Bgg&w=470]
| 4
| 4
|
[
{
"comment_id": "363448",
"author": "HaDAk",
"timestamp": "2011-03-20T16:42:40",
"content": "I really think I might have to build one of these now. It would be a perfect addition to my HTPC! Think of it – hundreds of tiles, for any movie you could ever possibly want to watch. Some people have DVD or BluRay towers…I’d have tiles!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "363455",
"author": "Munch",
"timestamp": "2011-03-20T17:07:00",
"content": "Hmm…just what the amateur radio community needs: yet ANOTHER source of interference on the 70cm band. ;)Nifty project, though!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "363567",
"author": "Elias",
"timestamp": "2011-03-20T21:27:32",
"content": "If this will interfere with your amateur radio maybe you should take your antenna away from the guys house :)Range is not the point with these.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "367646",
"author": "Rick",
"timestamp": "2011-03-25T22:57:04",
"content": "That is an interesting interface for sure. I think there is a definite limit to the amount of items that it can handle easily.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
}
] | 1,760,377,240.586917
|
||
https://hackaday.com/2011/03/20/smartphone-operated-garage-door-is-beginning-of-arduino-home-automation-system/
|
Smartphone Operated Garage Door Is Beginning Of Arduino Home Automation System
|
Mike Szczys
|
[
"Arduino Hacks",
"home hacks"
] |
[
"garage door",
"php",
"python",
"relay",
"smart phone"
] |
[Tim] is showing off the first step in his home automation projected with
this smart-phone garage door interface
. In the video after the break you can see him open and close the garage door with the touch of a button. There’s also an open or closed indicator that he can check when away from home.
An Arduino takes care of a portion of the control for this project. Like
the post we saw yesterday
, he’s using PHP code on a webpage to manipulate the Arduino via its USB connection in order to open and close the door using a relay. The door status is also monitored by the Arduino and sent to the PC over the serial connection. The computer uses a Python script to monitor the incoming data and update a text file which is merged into the web interface using a PHP include. Future plans for the system include adding control for heating and air conditioning systems.
If you’re looking to do something like this but wirelessly here’s some advice on
ditching the Arduino and using an XBee module instead
.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HfjjA0Gudrg&w=470]
| 15
| 13
|
[
{
"comment_id": "363485",
"author": "Tom Hargrave",
"timestamp": "2011-03-20T18:20:46",
"content": "Great project.But it would be even a better project if it were hosted on its own stand alone web server. This way he would not need to tie up a PC or depend on a running PC to operate the garage door.Another idea would be to use the phone’s GPS to automatically open the garage door when he drove into range.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "699153",
"author": "Mitchell",
"timestamp": "2012-07-10T12:22:33",
"content": "HelloI have done this using a Netduino Plus and a 2GB SD Card.I think it would be more effective to use a Netduino as it has all the features built in.You can link the Netduino using serial to other Arduinos’ and enabling complete control of your house.You can add a pass-code that is needed to be sent wen operating the devices for security.RegardsMitchell",
"parent_id": "363485",
"depth": 2,
"replies": []
}
]
},
{
"comment_id": "363528",
"author": "Tim",
"timestamp": "2011-03-20T19:55:03",
"content": "The reason I didn’t use an ethernet shield or the like is that I was trying to save some money. I had an old PC laying around so I figured I would put it to use.The idea of opening the garage door based on location is a fun one, but probably not practical. I’d need to leave something running on my phone all the time which would eat up my battery. Also, with weak gps signal in the house it might cause problems if it showed me moving around.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "363534",
"author": "UserName",
"timestamp": "2011-03-20T20:12:05",
"content": "You could of also used Python for the web pages by installing WSGI for apache. May of made things a little simpler. Or the web page could just query the arduino each time for the state of the door.But the Ethernet shield would be awesome to be a stand alone project. Be better for electricity bill.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "363561",
"author": "jamen",
"timestamp": "2011-03-20T21:15:37",
"content": "hey Tim, this is awesome to me strictly because i’m working on a similar projecti can control my garage door with a php script, but i can’t get the status via a serial port working for some reason, i was trying to use a loopback method to echo to the serial port and listen for it to determine if the door was open or closed, but it seems unreliable.any more details on that step would be sweet!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "363588",
"author": "Phill Pafford",
"timestamp": "2011-03-20T22:18:59",
"content": "Add some Ajax tO send the status back to the webapp, jquery is pretty easy to pick up",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "363644",
"author": "Bill",
"timestamp": "2011-03-21T00:41:17",
"content": "Looks like one of those Gateway Drug things. First you try using your smart phone to control the garage door, and then you’re making things to turn the hot tub on remotely, or make the front door lights turn on when you’re about to get home, and eventually you’ve got Arduino-controlled detectors playing different theme music when your different kids walk in the room and little robots feeding the cats. Just Say No!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "363796",
"author": "swink",
"timestamp": "2011-03-21T06:28:36",
"content": "The schematic is wrongd1 r4 led1 andd2 r5 led2 have no function what so ever(they are shorted)d1 and d2 have to be // over the relay coiland i doubt if the relay will switch if you putan led an a resistor in series with it",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "363825",
"author": "swink",
"timestamp": "2011-03-21T07:12:02",
"content": "sorry didn’t read the line above the picture",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "363985",
"author": "Fred",
"timestamp": "2011-03-21T13:11:00",
"content": "This uncannily similar to my own setup – a garage door and two sets of lights in the garage.The difference being that I’ve used a Netduino Plus to control it and have the web pages served up directly from there. No need for a PC.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "364458",
"author": "Tim",
"timestamp": "2011-03-21T22:24:00",
"content": "@jamen, I had similar problems with unreliable data when trying to monitor the status of the door contact. I originally wanted to just pass the string directly from the arduino (open, closed, etc) and have it saved in a text file. I ended up just passing numbers and using result.strip in the python script which then writes a text file based on what number it received.@Fred, I originally wanted to control lights too, but I ended up controlling my security system instead. I’d be interested to see how you did your setup. Do you have any information on it?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "364471",
"author": "Tim",
"timestamp": "2011-03-21T22:37:18",
"content": "@swink I removed the LED’s and resistors to prevent confusion, but you were right about D1 and D2, I dropped them on the schematic wrong. Thank you!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "367653",
"author": "tr2628",
"timestamp": "2011-03-25T23:12:02",
"content": "I’m sure Tim has shown this to at least100 people 3 times each week . There for I offer my services free of charge when he needs a new opener installed.Heck I’ve seen it 4 times personal just last week. Maybe a status to tell you yourWife’s Home and you should not wake her up with the door again.",
"parent_id": "364471",
"depth": 2,
"replies": []
}
]
},
{
"comment_id": "683358",
"author": "tropicsigns",
"timestamp": "2012-06-18T09:20:41",
"content": "@Fred (and others) – Is your method broadcasting the webpage over your home network back to the internet,where any computer can access the page?Or is it broadcasting the webpage inside your garage only – meaning your phone has to be in close proximity to view the page?I’m looking for a way to cycle a relay using wifi or bluetooth using a cellphone without requiring an internet connection.Any suggestions would be appreciated,Gaver",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "683359",
"author": "tropicsigns",
"timestamp": "2012-06-18T09:24:02",
"content": "@Fred (or others) – does your netduino system broadcast the page thru a router back thru the internet for all to access?Or is it only broadcasting for a short distance in the garage for your cellphone to view?I’m searching for the ability to cycle a relay using bluetooth or wifi from a cellphone without requiring an internet connection?Any suggestions on where to search for help?Gaver",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
}
] | 1,760,377,240.742991
|
||
https://hackaday.com/2011/03/20/eeepc-touchscreen-retrofit/
|
EeePC Touchscreen Retrofit
|
Mike Szczys
|
[
"laptops hacks",
"Multitouch Hacks"
] |
[
"EeePc",
"touchscreen"
] |
Adding touch screen capabilities to your computer is really not very expensive, but it’s a huge amount of work to get everything looking the way that it should. [Deadbird]
wrote up a step-by-step guide that will help you install touch screen hardware
and
get your netbook put back together just like new.
The hardware comes in two parts. There’s the transparent film that covers the screen and the driver board that reads the inputs. The film itself has an adhesive layer on the back that sticks to the LCD panel. But to install it you first must remove the panel from the bezel. You’re also going to need a place to house the driver board. [Deadbird] somehow found enough room inside the case for the controller, but he had to remove the keyboard and motherboard to set it in place. This translates to a complete disassembly of your eeePC. But if you’re used to touch-sensitive devices, and have ever found yourself touching an LCD monitor and wondering why the computer is not following the link, this may be worth it to you. You can see the final product in a clip after the break.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8K8Q_fybGP4&w=470]
| 24
| 23
|
[
{
"comment_id": "363395",
"author": "Pix3l the B1t",
"timestamp": "2011-03-20T14:16:46",
"content": "Cool, my parents love the idea of a touch-screen pc so I wonder if I could make one like this for them :)Also, if this could be hooked up to an uC it could make for some wicked projects!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "363396",
"author": "mike",
"timestamp": "2011-03-20T14:16:57",
"content": "Eee netbooks have a massive amount of room available between the motherboard and the case. I fit the internals of a magic jack in mine.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "363401",
"author": "John Avitable",
"timestamp": "2011-03-20T14:20:13",
"content": "I’m sorry HaD, but this is wicked old news.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "363705",
"author": "Itwork4me",
"timestamp": "2011-03-21T02:59:45",
"content": "But this hack is for the NEW Eeepc.",
"parent_id": "363401",
"depth": 2,
"replies": []
}
]
},
{
"comment_id": "363405",
"author": "Wes",
"timestamp": "2011-03-20T14:32:23",
"content": "I’ve been wanting to do this, but with an additional screen, both retrofitted as touchscreens. Anyone know if this is possible?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "363406",
"author": "mike",
"timestamp": "2011-03-20T14:33:07",
"content": "I’ll take “old news”, yes quotes, as to the first commenter it was obviously new news, over a site that hasn’t been updated since November 9th, 2010. That site would be yours, by the way.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "363416",
"author": "Omnicrash",
"timestamp": "2011-03-20T14:54:46",
"content": "Did this also about a year ago, it’s really handy to have on a small device as a netbook.Too bad there aren’t any capacitive versions available.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "363425",
"author": "strider_mt2k",
"timestamp": "2011-03-20T15:23:01",
"content": "I enjoy netbook hacks.This one is done very nicely, even if it isn’t the “freshest”.I recently bought a Dell Duo convertible, and while it already has a great capacitive touch display, I’d love to add an internal Xbox 360 Wireless controller receiver to mine for emulation gaming.I’ve already upgraded the wireless card, but that’s pretty standard stuff nowadays too.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "363426",
"author": "mattbed",
"timestamp": "2011-03-20T15:23:18",
"content": "this was a fairly common hack about 4 years ago on the eeepc 701",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "363428",
"author": "deadbird",
"timestamp": "2011-03-20T15:31:06",
"content": "Hi everyone at HaD and everyone who left comments.To reply to John Avitable yes, this is a pretty old trick but somehow not very widely known compared to the amount of EeePC sold.The reason why I published this tutorial is to encourage people to step into.Anyway, feel free to leave comments and/or questions on my website, I always answer if needed.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "363430",
"author": "deadbird",
"timestamp": "2011-03-20T15:35:12",
"content": "And also: the EeePC is a real goldmine for any hacker: it has plenty of space in it to add things, is really well designed, pretty easy to disassemble.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "363441",
"author": "steven",
"timestamp": "2011-03-20T16:18:13",
"content": "Not really as hard as they make it sound, just pay attention to what you are doing and don’t lose and screws. I did this to my acer aspire one back when they came out.Now I have been trying to find a panel for my 16″ laptop, but have been unable to find one at 16″, only 15″ and 17, they seem to have skipped 16′ alltogather :(",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "363454",
"author": "paul",
"timestamp": "2011-03-20T17:03:48",
"content": "did this to my first aspire one. was easy and great except for a few problems.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "363458",
"author": "vtl",
"timestamp": "2011-03-20T17:19:06",
"content": "Nice hack and everything but remember this is resistive screen, which many people may hate.Also over time, your screen will probably look like a scratched up mess because they cant make it out of glass like a capacitive screen.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "363522",
"author": "jim",
"timestamp": "2011-03-20T19:42:38",
"content": "Yeah, the kits have been on eBay forever, and usually have links to installation guides.If you can build Lego, you can do this while watching TV.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "363565",
"author": "Frogz",
"timestamp": "2011-03-20T21:22:34",
"content": ":(i just googled usb touchscreen digitizer9-usb-touch-screen-digitizer-diy-mod-kit-for-asus-eee-pc-900-umpc-laptops-18490-and-might-as-well-add-a-few-extra-dashes-here-because-it-isnt-long-enoughbut i want 1 that’ll work on my big ole’ crt monitorfound some 18.5 inch LCD monitor addons for $130with the prices of these things i might as well get a touchscreen monitor on ebaynice job though on the mod, very clean and professional",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "363625",
"author": "jbotalan",
"timestamp": "2011-03-20T23:41:45",
"content": "@Frogz: this.“Adding touch screen capabilities to your computer is really not very expensive”…err…what’s “not very expensive”? I consider something that’s more than a third of the original cost of the computer to be a little more expensive than “not very expensive”.But then again, I’m pretty middle-class.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "363641",
"author": "Spork",
"timestamp": "2011-03-21T00:32:19",
"content": "@jbotalanI believe they mean cheap compared to the alternative: Buying a tablet vs standard laptop.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "363691",
"author": "rusty",
"timestamp": "2011-03-21T02:10:24",
"content": "applesauce.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "363715",
"author": "Jeditalian",
"timestamp": "2011-03-21T03:17:19",
"content": "XP, that is retro!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "363777",
"author": "deadbird",
"timestamp": "2011-03-21T05:34:20",
"content": "@Itwork4me: I’d say almost any EeePC-like computer would fit. The whole thing is to find enough spzc within the casing to fit the controller.@Jeditalian: indeed :D",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "364803",
"author": "darkarmyofone",
"timestamp": "2011-03-22T10:11:32",
"content": "Anyone have any idea if they make ANY widescreen resistive panels? Trying to mod-out an HP DV900 laptop for my disabled friend. It would greatly help him use his laptop as he is a bit frustrated as it is that he cant solder, and generally “hack and mod” the things he used to. I feel like a hack such as this could benefit him greatly. and what better thing to do than hack AND help :) “PS: a google sarch didnt turn up much”",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "365296",
"author": "Bosnoff",
"timestamp": "2011-03-23T02:49:42",
"content": "@darkarmyofone check out Ebay they have plenty. Just use “widescreen touchscreen” as the keywords. Although most of them are intended for desktop LCDs. This might cause some problems because the ribbon cable would be too short to place the controller board inside the base of the laptop.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "428045",
"author": "vbfixer",
"timestamp": "2011-08-03T19:47:00",
"content": "AwesomeThank you",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
}
] | 1,760,377,240.80848
|
||
https://hackaday.com/2011/03/19/test-your-etching-chops-with-pcb-map-making/
|
Test Your Etching Chops With PCB Map Making
|
Mike Nathan
|
[
"Misc Hacks"
] |
[
"etching",
"pcb",
"toner transfer"
] |
[Martin] had been using standard perf board for most of his electronics projects, but as he was starting to utilize more surface mount ICs, he quickly realized that it was time to start making his own PCBs. Having never etched any PCBs using the toner transfer method, he figured it was as good a time as any to
give it a try
.
Rather than make a board for a particular project, he decided to try his hand at etching a very detailed map of the Paris Metro as a test pattern instead. He grabbed a large image of the subway map, then printed it out on the back of a supermarket flyer. He attached it to his PCB and ran it through a lamination machine to transfer the toner. He figured that the laminator would be easier than an iron to use, and was right for the most part. The only issue he had was that the laminator did not generate enough heat, so he supplemented the its heat output with a hair dryer.
When everything was said and done, he had a pretty good looking PCB on his hands. Most of the Metro tracks and text came out just fine, though he admits there is a bit of room for improvement. It looks nice when mounted in a frame, though we would love to see a functional circuit made out of a PCB map like that. Heck, we’d even settle for a double-sided PCB with a street-level map on one side an the Metro on the other!
| 17
| 16
|
[
{
"comment_id": "362949",
"author": "Avaviel",
"timestamp": "2011-03-19T19:34:07",
"content": "Hm. I think this could be used for printmaking…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "362968",
"author": "Koberg",
"timestamp": "2011-03-19T20:07:04",
"content": "http://mechanicrobotic.files.wordpress.com/2007/07/new-york-subway-map-of-the-internet.gifI’m gunna give this a shot.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "362969",
"author": "The Ideanator",
"timestamp": "2011-03-19T20:07:37",
"content": "Yep, now onto the intaglio printing of US money!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "362994",
"author": "Apexys",
"timestamp": "2011-03-19T20:41:43",
"content": "The most interesting question is:Is it still a useful board for an electronic schematic? Can you build a gadget with it?apexys",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "363000",
"author": "Jeditalian",
"timestamp": "2011-03-19T20:51:40",
"content": "if you actually isolated the overpass/underpasses, i don’t see why not. you could recreate the city, water tower made of capacitor or transistor, depending on what kind of water tower your city has, build your city into a circuit and see what your forefathers had secretly imagined",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "363340",
"author": "mbonnin",
"timestamp": "2011-03-20T10:19:31",
"content": "@Apexys: one idea would be to put surface mount LEDs on stations and light them red/green depending the traffic conditions (yes, there are traffic jams in the subway too…). But then lighting them individually would be difficult. Monitoring the state of a line would be much easier. Also I’m not sure if there is a nice webservice for this so this would require website parsing or such.",
"parent_id": "363000",
"depth": 2,
"replies": []
}
]
},
{
"comment_id": "363006",
"author": "mrshko",
"timestamp": "2011-03-19T21:03:19",
"content": "Does this only work with a laser printer? Or will this work with an inkjet as well?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "363022",
"author": "Hirudinea",
"timestamp": "2011-03-19T21:45:29",
"content": "Sweet, its like hacker scrimshaw.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "363038",
"author": "Roberto",
"timestamp": "2011-03-19T22:25:01",
"content": "Thumbs up on minimizing the amount of copper to etch. Doing so reduces the amount of copper drained on to the sea dramatically (95%+) and keeps etchant solution prices down.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "363052",
"author": "macw",
"timestamp": "2011-03-19T22:41:48",
"content": "@mrshko only a laser printer. The toner they use is a thermoplastic that can be melted off the page and onto another surface using heat — an inkjet uses water-based pigment inks that absorb into the paper and have no chance of working the same way.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "363059",
"author": "silverpalm",
"timestamp": "2011-03-19T22:57:16",
"content": "sublimation ink can be transfered with heat and thats used in inkjet printers that might work just have to backwardsi have sublimaion ink will testthis is my first post but i been vewing this site for a while now",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "363138",
"author": "FightCube.com",
"timestamp": "2011-03-20T01:47:41",
"content": "@Roberto – Most waste water processing plants reclaim the heavy metals from the water. Check with your local township before dumping Ferric Chloride down the drain though. Definitely do not pour it down the drain if you have a septic.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "363141",
"author": "pelrun",
"timestamp": "2011-03-20T02:08:01",
"content": "Standard laminators don’t get anywhere near hot enough to do this properly. You want to perform a mod, like the following:http://ultrakeet.com.au/index.php?id=article&name=superfuserI’ve made one of these, and it’s astonishingly good.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "363374",
"author": "isama",
"timestamp": "2011-03-20T13:04:34",
"content": "Thanks for showing us, i was planning on etching a board for the first time next week. Thank you for confirming the method i had in mind :)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "363439",
"author": "Mike",
"timestamp": "2011-03-20T16:07:40",
"content": "The Paris Metro map is based on that of the London Underground, which was designed by a man called Harry Beck. Guess what – Harry was an electrical engineer. Wiki claims it wasn’t based on circuit schematic diagrams, but pretty much everyone else believes he did.If you have an inkjet printer, just go down the photo-etch route. It produces more detail than toner transfer, and there are fewer gaps. An ordinary haloge or fluorescent lamp can be used as a UV source, or even the sun.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "363566",
"author": "Mrshko",
"timestamp": "2011-03-20T21:26:55",
"content": "thanks @macw! I’m looking forward to trying this… I guess this would work with a xerox/copy then too?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "364021",
"author": "FightCube.com",
"timestamp": "2011-03-21T13:57:51",
"content": "@Mike – The toner transfer method can yield track and clearances down to 0.005″ if you use the right materials and etching techniques ;-) This is the processes I use:http://www.pcbfx.com/main_site/pages/start_here/overview.htmlAll of the info is there, you just need some time to read it all.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
}
] | 1,760,377,240.689992
|
||
https://hackaday.com/2011/03/19/building-a-home-automation-mesh-network/
|
Building A Home Automation Mesh Network
|
Mike Szczys
|
[
"home hacks",
"Microcontrollers"
] |
[
"16f88",
"home automation",
"mesh network",
"nrf2401a",
"pic",
"x10"
] |
[Ian Harris] designed a bunch of home automation for his parents using X10 hardware. He was a bit disappointed by the failure rate of the modules and the overall performance of the system so he set out to replace it with his own hardware. Lucky for use he’s documented the journey in
a four-part series about mesh networks
.
The hardware seen above is his test rig. He’s using a couple of Sparkfun breakout boards to develop for nrf2401a RF transceiver chips. These could be used as slave modules, with a central command device, but due to the home’s architecture wireless signals don’t propagate well from one end of the house to the other. The solution is to build a mesh network that will allow each module to act as a network node, receiving and passing on messages until they arrive at the target device. He’s trying to do this with cheap hardware, selecting the PIC 16F88 which boasts 7 KB or program memory and 368 bytes of ram. In the end it doesn’t take much code to get this running, it’s the concepts that take some time and research before you’ll be comfortable working with them.
[Thanks Oakkar7]
| 12
| 12
|
[
{
"comment_id": "362931",
"author": "echodelta",
"timestamp": "2011-03-19T18:42:34",
"content": "Failure as in small bricks or failure as in ignored commands? Either way the X10 system is a joke.Good luck and hacking.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "362954",
"author": "jukus",
"timestamp": "2011-03-19T19:43:54",
"content": "its a joke? x10 pioneered the way to 500Mbps powerline nodes, that’s a mean feat with the noise off the mains",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "362975",
"author": "brad",
"timestamp": "2011-03-19T20:17:30",
"content": "I only read HaD to see if I can spot the grammar issues.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "362993",
"author": "Stevie",
"timestamp": "2011-03-19T20:41:15",
"content": "Brad, you certainly don’t have to look far.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "363002",
"author": "Dzhus",
"timestamp": "2011-03-19T20:58:59",
"content": "Many people seem to be interested in that sort of things (in-house automation (possibly mesh) networks based on cheap transcievers, since ZigBee are quite expensive). Also see JeeNode + JeeMon.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "363190",
"author": "Jamie",
"timestamp": "2011-03-20T02:30:47",
"content": "Why is everyone so worried about a bit of spelling or gramma mistakes. Let’s all just enjoy the post and what it’s about.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "363206",
"author": "Jason von Nieda",
"timestamp": "2011-03-20T03:20:11",
"content": "This is excellent, but I would point out Insteon for people who don’t want to DIY. Insteon is a commercial system with reasonably priced modules and it’s fast, bi-directional, wireless + powerline and mesh network. I currently have 23 modules thoughout my house; mostly in wall switches and it works great.http://www.insteon.net/Disclosure: I don’t work for or represent Insteon in any way. I’m just a happy customer.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "363355",
"author": "Michael",
"timestamp": "2011-03-20T11:32:48",
"content": "I reckon some form of mesh network combined with a 240V relay and some form of power monitoring could be used to do some clever energy-saving things. Maybe.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "363359",
"author": "jukus",
"timestamp": "2011-03-20T12:00:58",
"content": "@jason what’s the fail rate of your modules?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "363392",
"author": "jukus",
"timestamp": "2011-03-20T14:10:58",
"content": "http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lhx12di09a1qz6l95o1_500.jpg",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "363431",
"author": "Paul",
"timestamp": "2011-03-20T15:36:34",
"content": "X10 signals are somewhat unreliable but they do make repeaters for them. They also make in line filters to place on devices that cause a lot of electrical noise. All of the UPS units at my parents house have filters on them as well as some other devices. They notice very few instances where the signals don’t reach their intended targets. The other thing to help make X10 more reliable is a phase bridge. This will let the signals propagate from one phase of the power in your house to the other.The main problem I see with x10 is that you can’t tell the modules to go to a direct brightness level. You also can’t query them for their current brightness.X10 modules also used to fail a lot. I get the Leviton modules now and they seem pretty reliable.Insteon is a much more reliable product because of the way it handles the transmission of signals. You can tell them what brightness level to go to in discrete levels. And they don’t fail (as in brick) often.Insteon’s serial commands are a little more daunting to get working. X10’s are much easier.My personal favorite is Crestron, though. The only problem is that it’s expensive and requires you to be a dealer (or work for one) to get the equipment and software.X10 however, is a great system for guys like us because it’s cheap and it works when you put a little effort into it (repeaters, bridges, and signal test meters).",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "363432",
"author": "Jason von Nieda",
"timestamp": "2011-03-20T15:37:39",
"content": "@jukus I have not had one fail yet. My oldest module is about 2 years old, and I’d say about 50% of them are around that age, with the rest getting progressively newer.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
}
] | 1,760,377,240.865408
|
||
https://hackaday.com/2011/03/19/hardware-based-security-keypad-keeps-it-simple/
|
Hardware-based Security Keypad Keeps It Simple
|
Mike Nathan
|
[
"hardware",
"Security Hacks"
] |
[
"555 timer",
"hardware",
"lock",
"nand"
] |
Instructables user [trumpkin] recently built an
all-hardware based keypad lock
for a contest he was entering, and we thought it was pretty neat. The lock uses mostly NAND gates and 555 timers to get the job done, which makes it a nice alternative to similar software-based projects we have seen in the past.
The lock has 6 keys on the keypad, which is connected to the main logic board. The keycode is set using a series of headers at the bottom of the board, and you get 10 chances to enter the proper code before the board locks up completely. If this occurs, a “manual” reset via a button built into the main board is required before any more attempts can be made.
As you can see in the video below, the lock works quite well, but suffers from one shortcoming. Any permutation of the key code can be used to deactivate the lock, which is something [trumpkin] says he would like to improve in the future.
If you are looking for some more security-related reading, be sure to check out
these
other
hacks
we have
featured
in the past.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jqqhb-3okMg&w=470]
| 5
| 5
|
[
{
"comment_id": "363025",
"author": "biozz",
"timestamp": "2011-03-19T21:48:45",
"content": "simple and huge XDand probably easier to tamper XD",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "363081",
"author": "Jak_o_Shadows",
"timestamp": "2011-03-19T23:39:25",
"content": "I once designed a reprogrammable sequential combination lock using RS Nor Latches and AND gates. Problem is, when i put it into a simulator the diodes all blew :{Another big problem was that there was no failure condition.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "363347",
"author": "alan",
"timestamp": "2011-03-20T10:55:02",
"content": "Could the author please define “simple”?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "363393",
"author": "bogdan",
"timestamp": "2011-03-20T14:11:17",
"content": "you can make a code lock using a simple counter, like the 4017 that is already used in the schematic. It is very simple. I think the original design comes from Elektor. At least that is where I’ve built it from a long time ago.I’ve managed to find what seems like the original schematic herehttp://www.scribd.com/doc/51140395/Simple-ic-projectsunder ‘security door key 1’.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "363418",
"author": "Ha'KoTH",
"timestamp": "2011-03-20T14:57:46",
"content": "“Any permutation of the key code”? I assume you mean any “n-permutation of the key code of length n”. Otherwise, there wouldn’t be all that much security here whatsoever…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
}
] | 1,760,377,241.051134
|
||
https://hackaday.com/2011/03/19/more-radiation-test-gear/
|
More Radiation Test Gear
|
Mike Szczys
|
[
"Tool Hacks"
] |
[
"Dosimeter",
"geiger counter",
"radiation",
"radiometer"
] |
This is
a multifunction too for measuring radiation
(
translated
). The measurements center around gas discharge tubes that react when ionizing particles pass through them. After reading about the counting circuit for the pair of tubes used in this handheld it’s easy to understand why these are tricky to calibrate. The handheld features a real-time clock as well as a GPS module. This way, it can not only give a readout of the radiation currently measured, but can record how much radiation exposure has accumulated over time (making this a dosimeter). An accompanying dataset records the location of the exposure. An ATmega128 drives the device, which is composed of two separate boards, a series of five navigation buttons, and a salvaged cellphone LCD for the readout. The translated page can be a bit hard to read at times, but there’s plenty of information including an abundance of schematic breakdowns with accompanying explanations of each.
This is certainly feature-rich and we think it goes way beyond
the type of device that Seeed is trying to develop
.
[Thanks Andrew]
| 19
| 19
|
[
{
"comment_id": "362897",
"author": "Knuckleball",
"timestamp": "2011-03-19T17:23:58",
"content": "Does this have to do with Seeeds request? That was fast! Well done. *applause*",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "362903",
"author": "noonv",
"timestamp": "2011-03-19T17:37:42",
"content": "radiocat very cool :)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "362914",
"author": "Will",
"timestamp": "2011-03-19T17:55:05",
"content": "“…multifunction too for…”Good job Mike Szczys.Anyways, I WANT THIS NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "362923",
"author": "snowdruid",
"timestamp": "2011-03-19T18:13:14",
"content": "cool projecti wonder how much the radiation would influence the electronics thought…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "362936",
"author": "macona",
"timestamp": "2011-03-19T18:57:35",
"content": "If there is enough radiation to effect the electronics then you are already dead.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "362942",
"author": "kernelcode",
"timestamp": "2011-03-19T19:19:02",
"content": "@snowdruidYou know this just measures radiation in the environment right?It’s not like a magic radiation magnet lol",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "362986",
"author": "zeropointmodule",
"timestamp": "2011-03-19T20:32:40",
"content": "heh..These Russian Geiger tubes seem to show up on ebay a lot, evidently there are lots in storage from the Cold War.They typically detect hard beta, gamma and X-rays but this makes them useful for measuring background radiation and they respond well to lantern mantles/etc.For detecting alpha and soft (low energy) beta however you need an end window tube or ion chamber.I did have an intriguing idea however, integrate a flat geiger tube inside the PCB itself (!) with an ITO coated mica window on top and rely on the copper to make the thing leakproof.apparently you can make a chip sizd radiation counter using a MEMS based discharge tube, neodymium magnet and radio receiver, there has been some research into this.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "362988",
"author": "uC",
"timestamp": "2011-03-19T20:34:33",
"content": "Impressive little device. GPS data logger is a nice touch.The use of two tubes is interesting. Most of the old detectors I’ve seen have used one tube inside, and one in a external wand. The internal tube was shielded with some metal to reduce its sensitivity to boring old low power radiation.nice toy, very useful for geologists.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "363001",
"author": "grenadier",
"timestamp": "2011-03-19T20:51:44",
"content": "Neat, but useless for anything but gamma and high energy beta.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "363057",
"author": "Rajstennaj Barrabas",
"timestamp": "2011-03-19T22:53:19",
"content": "I’m told that these Russian tubes use hydrocarbon quenching, a little bit of which is used up at every click.The result is that the tubes have a lifetime in terms of clicks – over time the quenching gas is used up and the tubes will stop working.American tubes, such as the 6993 available on eBay and used in those old yellow Civil Defense counters (the ones with the wand) use halogen gas for quenching, which does not get used up.Interfacing a 6993 to a micro is trivial – put a 2pf in series with the tube, a 1 meg to ground, then clamp the resulting voltage with a pair of diodes. This results in a 20 us pulse.You can buy the 6993 tubes for $20 apiece, and an old CDV-700 counter (which already has the HV supply in it) for about $50 on eBay.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "363079",
"author": "Doug",
"timestamp": "2011-03-19T23:39:04",
"content": "A nice project I don’t want to diss it, but using the browser word search function the words calibrate or calibration where not found. IMO any instrument that’s going to attempt to measure the amount of ionizing radiation, calibration is a must. While it to is incapable of piratical calibration for simply indicating an increase of ionizing radiation, the Kearny Fallout Meterhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kearny_Fallout_Meter, that another mention in the comments to the HaD post yesterday, might be the most expedient for a go or stay decision. I say might because AFIK the KFM was apart of cold war propaganda to make the public feel safe. Then again the physicians for civil defensehttp://www.physiciansforcivildefense.org/index.phpfell it worthy of mention, I’ll let you visit their site and judge for yourself.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "363142",
"author": "Doug",
"timestamp": "2011-03-20T02:08:24",
"content": "Having spent some time reading more about the Kearney Fall out Meter, and taking what I’m reading at face value, it may be the most expedient option for concerned Japanese citizens. Constructed per instructions,it’s claimed calibration isn’t necessary. Until I read more on this I did realize how many pro limited nuke exchange warfare supporters there are.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "363187",
"author": "Knuckleball",
"timestamp": "2011-03-20T02:17:53",
"content": "@DougI highly agree. Good find.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "363221",
"author": "Necromant",
"timestamp": "2011-03-20T04:09:18",
"content": "@Doug:http://radiokot.ru/?show=comments&id=783From comments there. The guy has not yet done any calibration, although has that possibility, so it works while now based on datasheet values for the tubes.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "363482",
"author": "juanestrada",
"timestamp": "2011-03-20T18:17:16",
"content": "how about the tool described in this video for measuring radiation levels:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G6Q7VfWdgEg",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "364332",
"author": "Gert",
"timestamp": "2011-03-21T19:32:10",
"content": "Every geiger-counter i’ve seen has tubes filled with gas. Making allmost every version too bulky.Isn’t there a solid-state version?Something i can clip on that start beeping if the levels become dangerous?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "375681",
"author": "Doktor Jeep",
"timestamp": "2011-04-07T19:22:22",
"content": "Hey, if Halogen gas is used in a tube, could a halogen light bulb, such as that used in a flashlight, be used as an improvised tube?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "375832",
"author": "echodelta",
"timestamp": "2011-04-07T23:23:15",
"content": "The tubes are old school but SS has been around since the 60’s. Yes it’s possible but still exotic or expensive.There is argon or some ionizonable gas and then the halogen to quench the discharge, so halogen alone no go. Plus the bulb has two electrodes, center and side. I checked my childhood junk bin and found one in a fiber tube dated 1953, I should have better luck than I did in junior high when I tried to make one, late 60’s",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "376633",
"author": "Evocube",
"timestamp": "2011-04-09T01:32:10",
"content": "Gert yes there is a device that alarms on dangerous levels. I use one often its called a Rate alarm. Look up Radiography equipment. I do not believe the medical field uses them. We use them doing industrial radiography. Along with dosimeter’s and survey meters.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
}
] | 1,760,377,241.149025
|
||
https://hackaday.com/2011/03/19/add-a-shutoff-timer-to-your-bathroom-fan/
|
Add A Shutoff Timer To Your Bathroom Fan
|
Mike Szczys
|
[
"home hacks"
] |
[
"attiny13",
"bathroom",
"fan",
"led",
"light sensor",
"TRIAC"
] |
Adding
this board
(
translated
) to your bathroom fan will turn it into a smart device. It’s designed to automatically shut off the fan after it’s had some time to clear humidity from the room. It replaces the wall switch which normally controls these fans by converting the fan connection to always be connected to mains. The board draws constant power to keep the ATtiny13 running via a half-wave rectification circuit. A single LED that rises from the center of the PCB lights up to signal that the fan is in operation, but it is also used as a light sensor, similar to
the LED communications hack
from a couple of days ago. When the lights go on in the bathroom the microcontroller will turn on the exhaust fan via a Triac. It will remain on until the light level in the bathroom drops.
There’s an interesting timing algorithm that delays the fan startup, and varies the amount of time it will stay on in the dark depending on how long the bathroom lights were on. This way, a longer shower (which will build up more humidity) will cause the fan to remain on for the base of five minutes, plus one minute longer for every two minutes the bathroom was in use. Pretty smart, and quite useful if your bathroom sees high traffic from several family members.
| 17
| 17
|
[
{
"comment_id": "362854",
"author": "Pedro",
"timestamp": "2011-03-19T15:16:53",
"content": "Pretty inter sting but a little overpowered for me I think. My extractor fan has an off the shelf (B&Q, not exactly speciality) timer.I wouldn’t have gone down the microcontroller route, but instead connect the fan to the mains the control board in parallel with the light, then just have a resistor and capacitor driving an SCR/triac or relay. The fan comes on when you switch the light on (capacitor charges/current glows to the triac) and switches off when the capacitor drains. SO your timing is set by the RC time constant. Simple and cheap. I know ATtiny13As are like £1.20, but I do love a simple analogue circuit!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "362855",
"author": "Quvmoh",
"timestamp": "2011-03-19T15:17:45",
"content": "cool build, saw these at our local home storehttp://www.maxximastyle.com/maxxima-800-watt-7-button-timer-switch-p-148.html?gclid=CKrQpYr22qcCFRphgwodsSmIew",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "362882",
"author": "shaeffer",
"timestamp": "2011-03-19T16:34:28",
"content": "I agree with Pedro; I was thinking that this is a good hack but there is way to keep it simple! =)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "362888",
"author": "takeritapart",
"timestamp": "2011-03-19T16:56:23",
"content": "I think a humidity sensor would be a lot better than counting how long the lights have been on.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "362930",
"author": "ARV",
"timestamp": "2011-03-19T18:42:23",
"content": "А humidity sensor is a lot better but much more expensive! :)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "362944",
"author": "echodelta",
"timestamp": "2011-03-19T19:23:12",
"content": "Unless it has a raspberry gas detector it needs to have a manual override both off and on. Switch at the command seat.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "362951",
"author": "Drackar",
"timestamp": "2011-03-19T19:35:45",
"content": "I wouldn’t use it, because I would really HATE to have something that automatically turns on the noisy bathroom fan every time i go in at two am to take a leak waking everyone up.I installed a $12 timer dial from home depot. Works great. Does anything from one minute to a full hour.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "362977",
"author": "Garbz",
"timestamp": "2011-03-19T20:21:04",
"content": "Customise it. You don’t take a dump for less than 2 min and you don’t take a piss for more than 2 min right? So just add some dead time to this all starting.Love the power design. Running the microcontroller directly from mains through a bridge containing a zener. Neat. Dangerous too. Does this circuit have a specific name?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "363134",
"author": "dukeofmuffins",
"timestamp": "2011-03-20T01:40:11",
"content": "@ GarbzI don’t know about you, but I need more than 2 minutes. I rather enjoy taking my dumps.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "363189",
"author": "FightCube.com",
"timestamp": "2011-03-20T02:25:46",
"content": "Just taking the time to say, Cool Project.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "363195",
"author": "mahoney",
"timestamp": "2011-03-20T02:44:54",
"content": "Second what Pedro said. A microcontroller is not the horse for this course. It does look neat though.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "363204",
"author": "Greg",
"timestamp": "2011-03-20T03:02:14",
"content": "Clears the _humidity_ from the room…not sure that is what they are after…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "363288",
"author": "Tyler",
"timestamp": "2011-03-20T07:12:25",
"content": "That’s a cool idea.But practically speaking, for airing out the bathroom after people have gone number two and clearing humidity, I like the off-the shelf timers like this:http://www.amazon.com/Woods-59007-Decora-30-15-10-5-30-Minute/dp/tags-on-product/B002KS1DBUEven though it’s not a hack, I wouldn’t go with out one.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "363676",
"author": "Grod",
"timestamp": "2011-03-21T01:44:45",
"content": "Why bother with the “more minutes for a longer shower” feature? Why not just work out (A) the extraction rate of the fan (usually printed on it, but de-rate what it says to play safe) then work out (B) the volume of the bathroom. The maximum time you’d need is B/A.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "363842",
"author": "kak",
"timestamp": "2011-03-21T07:40:59",
"content": "Needs a fart firmware update",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "363867",
"author": "Aidan H",
"timestamp": "2011-03-21T09:14:11",
"content": "I dont know about every other country but in the UK we’ve had bathroom fans like this for 10 years?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "421208",
"author": "Monty",
"timestamp": "2011-07-22T11:43:45",
"content": "Mike, I’ve been thinking about building something like this myself for a while now. and I think the attiny route is perfect. Dunno why so many peeps have to leave neg replies – most of the fun is in building the thing (at least for me) who cares what makes it tick (I can cure my wife’s insomnia by explaining such things). Big advantage of microcontroller route is you can experiment with the software. The noisy fan at 2am problem is one I planned to overcome by using gradually falling and rising light levels to determine a rough period of night and then pwm the fan to run slower during the times ‘it’ thinks it needs to keep the noise down. Okay – I’m a geek – I need to get a life yada-yada but this is a useful as well as cool project. Well done mate.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
}
] | 1,760,377,240.91817
|
||
https://hackaday.com/2011/03/19/building-a-zoetrope-using-kinect-processing-and-a-laser-cutter/
|
Building A Zoetrope Using Kinect, Processing, And A Laser Cutter
|
Mike Szczys
|
[
"Misc Hacks"
] |
[
"Kinect",
"laser cutter",
"processing",
"zoetrope"
] |
A zoetrope is a device that contains a disk full with a series of images that make up and animation. A couple of different methods can be used to trick the eye into seeing a single animated image. In the past this was done by placing the images inside of a cylinder with slits at regular distances. When spun quickly, the slits appear to be stationary, with the images creating the animation. But the same effect can be accomplished using a strobe light.
The disk you see above uses the strobe method, but it’s design and construction is what caught our eye. The animated shapes were
captured with a Kinect and isolated using Processing
. [Greg Borenstein] takes a depth movie recorded while someone danced in front of a Kinect. He ran it through a Processing sketch and was able to isolate a set of slides that where then turned into the objects seen above using a laser cutter.
You can watch a video of this particular zoetrope after the break. But we’ve also embedded the Pixal 3D zoetrope clip which, although unrelated to this hack, is extremely interesting. Don’t have a laser cutter to try this out yourself? You could always build
a zoetrope that uses a printed disk
.
Kinect recorded, laser-cut zoetrope:
[vimeo=http://vimeo.com/20542749 w=470]
Pixal 3D sculpture zoetrope:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5khDGKGv088&w=470]
| 8
| 8
|
[
{
"comment_id": "362802",
"author": "Stevie",
"timestamp": "2011-03-19T13:45:27",
"content": "Very cool and this is actually something I was thinking of building myself, to compliment my image projector projects. So i’ll definitely be checking out the documentation.For those interested in seeing more types of animation like this, you should visit the Ghibli studio museum in Tokyo. They have some amazing stuff in there!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "362804",
"author": "Stevie",
"timestamp": "2011-03-19T13:46:07",
"content": "Ahaha I have slow internet but the second video finally loaded and I see that they even mention studio ghibli themselves! I went there just a few weeks ago, before the earthquakes hit Japan.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "362819",
"author": "brad",
"timestamp": "2011-03-19T14:33:59",
"content": "pixal…pixar… close enough.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "362847",
"author": "Jonathan",
"timestamp": "2011-03-19T15:04:38",
"content": "I think you mean “make up an animation”",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "362871",
"author": "CristobalGordo",
"timestamp": "2011-03-19T16:23:36",
"content": "I actually just finished a similar project using a 3d printed wheel. The lights are triggered by the passing of the spokes so you can spin it by hand. Here’s a video-http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_profilepage&v=rY73Zb-U69A",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "362893",
"author": "Spork",
"timestamp": "2011-03-19T17:10:22",
"content": "Apparently he didn’t get the memo about shutter speed. Oh well, good effort.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "363088",
"author": "Doug",
"timestamp": "2011-03-19T23:55:11",
"content": "I really knew animation was that difficult to understand, or am I a benefactor of Disney’s explanation of decades ago? Would could be simpler than the flip book to explain animation anyway?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "363219",
"author": "Philippe",
"timestamp": "2011-03-20T04:00:05",
"content": "@Spork For some reason, when I search posts by “Spork”, I get: “No posts found. Try a different search?”",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
}
] | 1,760,377,241.095497
|
||
https://hackaday.com/2011/03/18/512-led-cube-again/
|
512 LED Cube (again)
|
Brian Benchoff
|
[
"LED Hacks"
] |
[
"cube"
] |
We’ve seen LED cubes before, but [nick] upped the ante with his
8x8x8 LED cube
that uses only three pins on his microcontroller.
Previous LED cubes
we’ve covered drove the LEDs with shift registers and latches, but [nick] used STP16CP LED sink drivers to reduce the component count. The STP16CP can control 16 LEDs each, can be cascaded off of each other, and can operate up to 30Mhz. With a component like this, you’re limited by your microcontroller and not your patience or soldering skills.
While he was waiting for his LEDs to arrive in the mail, [nick] decided he would get a head start on the animation code by plunging into MATLAB. After getting an idea of what would look good on the cube, [nick] wrote the code on his PC to send commands to the arduino controlling the sink drivers. To wrap up the project, [nick] put the cube on a very attractive wooden box stuffed with the electronics. All tolled, a very efficient and elegant build.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U0R9AdIxCq0&w=470]
| 37
| 37
|
[
{
"comment_id": "362261",
"author": "Magnet18",
"timestamp": "2011-03-18T21:08:48",
"content": "Someone seriously needs to program 3D game of snake for one of these!!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "362284",
"author": "CutThroughStuffGuy",
"timestamp": "2011-03-18T21:29:36",
"content": "http://www.athenaeum.athenaverse.com/archives/picture_3866.jpgIMHO.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "362286",
"author": "Nippey",
"timestamp": "2011-03-18T21:31:55",
"content": "@Magnet18already did snake on a 5³ cube years ago :D",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "362287",
"author": "Sean Gay",
"timestamp": "2011-03-18T21:32:12",
"content": "Or 3D pong.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "362301",
"author": "AP",
"timestamp": "2011-03-18T21:41:10",
"content": "Wait, there’s a toll?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "362303",
"author": "CristobalGordo",
"timestamp": "2011-03-18T21:42:44",
"content": "Do they make a DIP version of that chip (or something similar)? I would never be able to solder those tiny things.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "362310",
"author": "NatureTM",
"timestamp": "2011-03-18T21:50:21",
"content": "@CristobalGordoA quick digikey search of “STP16CP” returned some LED drivers in DIP packages. They aren’t sold in small quantity, but I bet you can find them somewhere else. Next time search it yourself ;-)I could see myself spending hours over days making one of these and having my cat tear it apart in seconds. I don’t think I have the patience anyway.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "362318",
"author": "kernelcode",
"timestamp": "2011-03-18T21:55:11",
"content": "I heard 3D Tetris can destroy a man’s mind…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "362319",
"author": "slippin",
"timestamp": "2011-03-18T21:55:48",
"content": "really awesome looking effects. nice work.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "362321",
"author": "bootc",
"timestamp": "2011-03-18T21:59:23",
"content": "At first I thought “meh” another LED cube. But the demo video is very, very cool. Pipes ffs! Good job. :-)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "362324",
"author": "Just me",
"timestamp": "2011-03-18T22:07:42",
"content": "Nice Onkyo TX-SR502 there ;)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "362344",
"author": "sneakypoo",
"timestamp": "2011-03-18T22:27:46",
"content": "@CristobalGordo: Have you ever tried? I too was intimidated at first and thought I could never solder tiny little surface mount parts. But, after trying it a few times I’m never going back, in some ways it’s actually easier than through hole. Buy some random super cheap chips and give it a try!DE-soldering is another story though but there are tools for that, both cheap and expensive.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "362347",
"author": "ZeroCool42",
"timestamp": "2011-03-18T22:29:30",
"content": "Anyone else love the idea of this, but have the laziness problem like me?I mean, I love the idea of having one, and the build process for this one seems pretty straightforward, but when it came to programming animations, I just would never be bothered enough to do it :P",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "362364",
"author": "Spork",
"timestamp": "2011-03-18T22:59:36",
"content": "@ZeroCool421) Nice hackers reference with the name. — Great movie.2) I built a 3x3x3 cube and never programmed it, seems like 8x8x8 wouldn’t be any better. The only saving grace of this setup is that you can send serial commands to the driver chips to handle display. Unlike charliplexing which basically takes commands in parallel straight from the registers!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "362380",
"author": "vonskippy",
"timestamp": "2011-03-18T23:26:19",
"content": "Next up, tri-color LED’s.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "362386",
"author": "Erik Johnson",
"timestamp": "2011-03-18T23:34:43",
"content": "@kernelcode It’s not too different, at least on my Virtual Boy@vonskippy and 2048 LEDs at that! Lead poisoning here you come. there are vids on youtube of some chinese co making those…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "362400",
"author": "Nick",
"timestamp": "2011-03-19T00:04:18",
"content": "Cheers For the write up and the comments.@Magnet18I’m glad some one mentioned 3D snake, I am currently working on a windows application with interactive animations. Here is a video of version 1 with me playing (and failing) 3D snake.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZEDCqn64-4",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "362401",
"author": "CristobalGordo",
"timestamp": "2011-03-19T00:13:19",
"content": "@natureTM “Next time search it yourself”- Get off your high horse buddy. If you don’t want to answer don’t answer.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "362411",
"author": "Hitek146",
"timestamp": "2011-03-19T00:42:56",
"content": "It would suck if an LED or two burned out right in the center… LOL! Well done!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "362420",
"author": "Bob",
"timestamp": "2011-03-19T00:52:57",
"content": "The expression is all told, not all tolled.http://www.word-detective.com/2008/04/11/all-told/",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "362477",
"author": "j",
"timestamp": "2011-03-19T02:11:40",
"content": "“Next up, tri-color LED’s.” god yes.3d Equalizer baby.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "362538",
"author": "C",
"timestamp": "2011-03-19T03:20:06",
"content": "How about 3d Conway’s game of life.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "362543",
"author": "Jeditalian",
"timestamp": "2011-03-19T03:35:18",
"content": "all this talk about 3D snake/pong/tetris, makes you think.. real 3dtv’s that would be a giant, smaller version of this, a crystal lattice of nanoLEDs, which would make this kind of 3dtv have depth again, like crt’s at first, then expanding, if they were made in a form factor that could stack like legos and the inputs would link up, you could custom-build your iMAx-sized 3D screen to your specifications, length, height, DEPTH. fixing dead pixels could be as easy as digging down a giant pile of legos replacing a cube as a f.r.u. and swabbing the faulty one’s connections because if they’re stacking like legos some dirt could block connections.. now i await the day when i can stroll down to the optometrist and purchase a brand new, HD3D eyeball. once these displaycubes become lego sized cubes that orient themself magnetically to properly align their connections..-written by John Titor, who was transported back to his home-time mid-sentence. He also said that in AD 2101, war was beginning.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "362564",
"author": "baobrien",
"timestamp": "2011-03-19T04:43:44",
"content": "I would have used TLC9540s instead of STP16CP. PWM is way more awesome than just plain on/off. Oh well, this is still pretty freaking cool and beyond my mechanical skill level.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "362577",
"author": "pRoFlT",
"timestamp": "2011-03-19T05:24:39",
"content": "I tried to put a 3x3x3 together. i think i had one layer, 9 leds, soldered before i gave up. It would be neet to have on your desk or something but i dont think i have the patience to finish a cube.Someone needs to build a SMT cube, with tiny leds. Not sure how you would connect them. maybe small bus wire.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "362645",
"author": "Nextuz",
"timestamp": "2011-03-19T08:39:39",
"content": "Hardcore using the same color on all cables ;)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "362672",
"author": "Stevie",
"timestamp": "2011-03-19T09:42:56",
"content": "Id like to see a 3D head that talks to you. Is this the next best thing to holograms? Yes.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "362694",
"author": "vespine",
"timestamp": "2011-03-19T10:22:19",
"content": "i made a 3d 8x8x8 color cube, but my write up is not so great and I don’t have much code on it at the moment, i keep meaning to program it more before submitting it here but i’m not much of a programmer..check out my site and click on 8x8x8 cube, does anyone think it’s good enough to submit?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "362763",
"author": "Stevie",
"timestamp": "2011-03-19T12:26:44",
"content": "@vespineL YES! It looks brilliant! You should submit it :)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "362765",
"author": "Stevie",
"timestamp": "2011-03-19T12:30:23",
"content": "Oh btw, if you want to see one of the most impressive LED cubes ever (well, it’s a sphere but lets not be anal), you should check out the LED Sphere outside Mall of Asia in the Philippines. I can never help but slow right down when approaching this, to enjoy the impressive view!Here’s a sample video (not mine) –http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yb3puN4RqkQ&feature=player_embedded#at=20",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "362766",
"author": "j",
"timestamp": "2011-03-19T12:31:12",
"content": "@vespine: pretty awesome man.I think the build posted has more amusing animations, but I mean you got color which is pimp.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "362793",
"author": "Ian Tester",
"timestamp": "2011-03-19T13:22:46",
"content": "“With a component like this, you’re limited by your microcontroller and not your patience or soldering skills.”Um, shouldn’t this be the other way around?And yes, the “all tolled” mistake. Do some proof reading or something guys…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "362823",
"author": "ZeroCool42",
"timestamp": "2011-03-19T14:43:48",
"content": "@Spork – Thanks, it’s always good when someone gets the reference ^_^@Stevie – 3D head that talks to you… sounds a bit like Viki from I, Robot to me (http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_3i6ROTVOQZk/SMRMPfFKm_I/AAAAAAAABg8/ZxbpRnmBKr8/s1600/I+robot+Viki.jpg). I mean sure, it’d be fun at first, but when she builds a robot army and quarantines you in your house, then you’re in trouble!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "362857",
"author": "Karen Niemczyk",
"timestamp": "2011-03-19T15:20:40",
"content": "This is remarkably similar to a work I showed in March/April of 2010. I am an artist working in new media – I do interactive light sculptures. “Caged” is an 8 x 8 x 8 cube that interacts with the surrounding sound. Being an artist – the aesthetics of the work were of vital importance to me. Instead of using a stand, I manufactured and incorporated small boards on each of the eight levels. The drivers used were Maxim 7219’s. Processing was via a boarduino using C++ programming, and like in the above project I used three pins to drive it. I used Game of Life programming with a twist – the program wraps side to side to keep things going. For more information and documentation the project page ishttp://interpolations.org/caged_doc.php.[youtubehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RYE1tTtsVbc&hl=en&fs=1%5D",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "363098",
"author": "Frogz",
"timestamp": "2011-03-20T00:14:48",
"content": "http://gizmodo.com/#!5442217/the-invisible-oled-laptop-to-end-all-laptopsstack a bunch of oled screensyou’ll have 1024 by 768 minimum on xy axisand each 1 is probably a minimum of 4 mm thick so call it 80 layers of depth for a 1 foot cube?the 1 problem with all this, its a big fragile heavy block of glass that you can only view from the front and back(i dont THINK it’d be possible to view the sides but maybe can find a way to position all electrical connections at the bottom and use difusers between layers(reducing depth resolution but making it side viewable, especially if the ends fan out to cover the edges of the screens)_ledpanel___/|””””””\\|diffuser/\\but theres better tech than stacking oled displays for a 3d viewable display thats only viewable from front and back",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "416339",
"author": "chris",
"timestamp": "2011-07-11T23:57:03",
"content": "dude , epic upgrade ideaRGB LEDs =D",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "419275",
"author": "Fenaith",
"timestamp": "2011-07-18T21:39:09",
"content": "think the processing speed is fast enough to do a FFT of a soundwave?so play your favourite music, and get the LEDs to bounce like:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mk9Ri_bbXqY",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
}
] | 1,760,377,241.222822
|
||
https://hackaday.com/2011/03/18/automatic-dog-dish-filler-never-goes-dry/
|
Automatic Dog Dish Filler Never Goes Dry
|
Mike Nathan
|
[
"Arduino Hacks",
"home hacks"
] |
[
"arduino",
"automatic",
"dog",
"water"
] |
[Avatar-X] has a Siberian Husky that gets a lot of exercise throughout the day, and as you would imagine, drinks a ton of water as well. We all suffer from memory lapses at one time or another, and while he is normally good about keeping the bowl filled, he occasionally forgets. He has tried a handful of various auto-filling dog dishes, but none of them seemed to work all that well, and they often rapidly built up healthy bacterial colonies.
With the help of some friends, he rigged up an
automatic water dish filler
, that ensures his pup always has a sufficient supply of water. He tapped into his kitchen water supply with a standard refrigerator hookup kit, and ran some tubing up into his cabinets, where he placed a garden irrigation valve. The valve is controlled using an Arduino which senses the bowl’s water level using a pair of wires.
The system looks like it works pretty well if the video embedded below is any indicator. [Avatar-X] provides code and schematics for the water control circuit on his site, free to anyone looking to build a similar system for their pets.
If you are interested in learning more about automating some of your pet’s care, be sure to check out
these
hacks
we
featured
in the past.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I0KnQjQzAF0&w=470]
| 37
| 37
|
[
{
"comment_id": "362205",
"author": "bemis",
"timestamp": "2011-03-18T20:20:55",
"content": "Nice setup.I’m paranoid about water leaks, so I think I would consider a “water alarm” type of feature–put the dishes into a larger but shallow container which contains a water sensor, if water is detected on that sensor you can enter the error condition and stop any new water from entering.I assume the error condition also contains some feedback to you?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "362206",
"author": "Brett",
"timestamp": "2011-03-18T20:25:50",
"content": "What, no 555?!?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "362209",
"author": "fotoflojoe",
"timestamp": "2011-03-18T20:27:54",
"content": "Yeah, this really is a nice setup. Unfortunately, it wouldn’t work for me. I have a Bull Mastiff and an English Mastiff – they’re the two most slobbery dogs you’ll ever meet. Once the water bowl gets down to a low enough level, it’s all doggy backwash, and absolutely MUST be rinsed/wiped out.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "362233",
"author": "fdawg4l",
"timestamp": "2011-03-18T20:42:29",
"content": "I’d be afraid of failure scenarios. The valve not working, the arduino malfuctioning, the feed pipe springing a leak are all possible scenarios leading to a minor disaster after a long day at work.Not to mention the doggy-backwash mentioned above. A clean bowl free of dead bugs, mud, and the random other things I’ve found in the bottom of my dog’s bowl is required.Simple solution- set an alarm clock on your phone and in your house to remind you to change the water. I just saved you a few hours, a few 10s of dollars in parts, and a possibly uncomfortable call to your insurance company. You’re welcome.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "362249",
"author": "Amperand",
"timestamp": "2011-03-18T20:55:28",
"content": "“…and they often rapidly built up healthy bacterial colonies.” should be “…and they often rapidly built up UNhealthy bacterial colonies.”, maybe?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "362256",
"author": "Dax",
"timestamp": "2011-03-18T21:02:01",
"content": "How do you detect that the bowl is actually there before you start pumping?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "362263",
"author": "CRJEEA",
"timestamp": "2011-03-18T21:12:14",
"content": "Makes me wonder what would happen if the dog moved the water bowl across the floor or fliped it over… Flooded kitchen?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "362320",
"author": "Henrik Pedersen",
"timestamp": "2011-03-18T21:58:38",
"content": "Haha I KNEW it was the guy from avbrand.com as soon as I saw the dog… He’s the only guy I know of, who is taking home automation to this level…Even projectjarvis get’s beaten to hell by him ! ;)Anyway, you should check out his other stuff… Like his “car washer” and especially his home automation set up… His touch screen is freaking awesome!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "362349",
"author": "barry99705",
"timestamp": "2011-03-18T22:33:50",
"content": "I used a toilet float valve in mine. That combined with a gravity feeder that would hold a 40 pound bag of dog food made weekend trips a no worry event. Got the “bowl” from a farm supply store, then cobbled together a cover from a bucket so the dogs couldn’t break off the float valve.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "362371",
"author": "XBMC^N",
"timestamp": "2011-03-18T23:07:25",
"content": "@fotoflojoe — Actually, I think this rig could work just fine for you, as there’s no reason to wait for the bowl to get empty before it is refilled. Just have the circuit top off the bowl whenever the water level drops at all.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "362375",
"author": "Jay",
"timestamp": "2011-03-18T23:13:28",
"content": "Regarding doggy backwash: I see water-fountains repurposed for cats. Flowing your water through some simple filtration/sanitation and occasionally automatically topping off your reservoir seems like it’d reduce your need to clean, same as in a pool.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "362501",
"author": "John (Vancouver, Canada)",
"timestamp": "2011-03-19T02:42:38",
"content": "Automatic food and water dispensers always make me nervous. When you’re designing something that helps support life, you have to consider the consequences of a failure situation. Automatic feeders can have lethal results if they fail. And nobody has thought of a way to make this kind of product completely fail-safe. If a timer mechanism breaks down, or a circuit doesn’t have adequate power, what will happen? Either the dog will starve, or if all the food is released during a failure situation it will eat all the food it can, and starve for the following days.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "362574",
"author": "Fark",
"timestamp": "2011-03-19T05:08:31",
"content": "Your dog wants beer.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "362648",
"author": "CRJEEA",
"timestamp": "2011-03-19T08:46:43",
"content": "Perhaps it could email/text you of there is a fault? An uninterruptible powersupply maybe with the option to charge from the mains, a tge main water supply fed through a pump to generate power, solar, wind extra) and if the water presure gets low it uses an 80L barrel untill the supply comes back on(maybe onlyfilling the bowl half way once/twice a day depending on the dogs size/number of dogs)with a ball valve to refill the barrel when the water does return. Only notifying you if things could get critical soon.— sarcastic overkill… (:But some people do take things this far haha",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "362655",
"author": "Stevie",
"timestamp": "2011-03-19T09:06:55",
"content": "You can just train the dog to drink from the toilet bowl. Water will flow back into the bowl from the top reservoir automatically.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "362669",
"author": "echodelta",
"timestamp": "2011-03-19T09:34:24",
"content": "Absolutely must shut off in 2-3 bowl-refill times, and lockout. If vacationing, the bowl must be fixed to hose-tap. I had a washer-flood a month ago. Wet-vac, fans!Automatic filled food ie. endless filled food bowls make me nervous and make for some fat cats and dogs. Uncleaned water bowls and fountains ditto and breed powerful germs and now nanobacteria implicated in tartar and plaque. Nature never concentrated into such a veritable petri-dish such conditions. Bring it on. Bathroom sinks have to have a cloaca from the sewer pipe to the top of the basin. It’s called the overflow safety, but it’s actually been functioning as our germ pool culture along with the common toothbrush holder and glass for more than a century. Somehow kitchen sinks and commercials are exempt from this gag.Keep it clean.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "362731",
"author": "xtremegamer",
"timestamp": "2011-03-19T11:35:30",
"content": "why not make the bottom conical and a hole in it and after 3 hours the whole bowl gets drained and refeshed water , if the stream of water is strong enough it will take most of the filth with it.as such you’ll need to either dig a hole in your floor or raise the bowl , by this eliminating the situation that the dog can flip the bowl over or move it.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "362778",
"author": "av",
"timestamp": "2011-03-19T13:05:30",
"content": "Hi everyone,Wow, thanks for all the awesome comments! To those who say this is unnecessary and silly and I should just get an alarm clock: Take a look at the site you are on :)Doggy backwash: My dog isn’t that slobbery, and he likes to finish the bowl right to the bottom. That combined with the evaporator timer means that any slobber is pretty much gone. I still clean the bowl every few days.Water alarm: The flow rate isn’t very high, so if the dish somehow got knocked over, only a few litres would flow onto the floor before the alarm noticed and stopped it. It wouldn’t be a big deal.Reliability: I’m using industrial gardening valves that are designed to go outdoors, so I’m pretty sure they won’t fail :)Life support: This isn’t designed to sustain the dog over a long weekend or anything, just for when I am home!Toilet: I know I could train him to drink from the toilet, but that’s just gross, I’d rather not :)If I travel, I will simply shut off the water supply. It’s not really a huge deal.Draining: Yeah, draining and refreshing it would be nice, but then I’d need a plumbing hookup to the drain as well!Thanks again for all of your awesome comments! The project was a lot of fun and allowed me to get rid of my “DogIt” water fountain (what a piece of crap)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "362840",
"author": "ehrichweiss",
"timestamp": "2011-03-19T14:55:07",
"content": "@Stevie, no, it won’t unless you have a toilet that is significantly different from most of the toilets sold for the past 50 years. You have to flush to get water from the top reservoir to the bottom bowl. You’re probably seeing some other effect and confusing it.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "362843",
"author": "av",
"timestamp": "2011-03-19T15:01:50",
"content": "@ehrichweiss Yeah you are correct — the bowl will appear to refill because it goes back further into the back of the toilet. But if too much water is removed from the bowl, it will allow sewer gases into the home as the water in the bowl serves as a trap, as well as a siphoning system (this is what actually sucks your waste down).",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "362848",
"author": "mPony",
"timestamp": "2011-03-19T15:05:05",
"content": "@Henrik Pedersen It’s cool that Avbrand has such a big fan in you. I got to hang out with him and Taiga last week and saw the place first-hand. It really is a super cool spot.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "362886",
"author": "rostit",
"timestamp": "2011-03-19T16:41:10",
"content": "I wondered how many avatar-x’s could be out there. Now I know the answer is one.I love UER. I never knew about avbrands, so now I have another way to waste time at work.Great build. Keep it up.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "362984",
"author": "Whatnot",
"timestamp": "2011-03-19T20:30:17",
"content": "About that toilet thing:You also clean your toilet with chemicals, so if you just did that and the dogs goes for a drink you’d have him in trouble.Not to mention the blue stuff or fresheners many people use in it.Also you’d need to keep the lid up and the seat too unless you want to sit on drool and dog-mouth residue.And you’d need to keep the bathroom accessible by the dog, not ideal in many homes.And that’s just what I think of on the spot without pondering on issues.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "363103",
"author": "therian",
"timestamp": "2011-03-20T00:22:21",
"content": "there is more non edible than edible substance in dry food also it grantee to halve you dog life span",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "363153",
"author": "Jeditalian",
"timestamp": "2011-03-20T02:12:57",
"content": "if it were outside, i would have it set to overflow once in a while to pour off the floating bugs",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "363202",
"author": "barry99705",
"timestamp": "2011-03-20T03:00:35",
"content": "I love all the germaphobe comments. Guys, and gals, dogs will eat their own crap. People will wash out a dog bowl because it looks icky, long before it will actually hurt the dog.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "363377",
"author": "Davo1111",
"timestamp": "2011-03-20T13:19:07",
"content": "This seems like overkill. You could design it out of a ball (float) valve similar to a toilet, and it would significantly increase the reliability. Add a tap before the valve, and you can turn it off while washing out the dog bowl.Oh look, people have already done this:http://www.thevetshed.com.au/images/products/YmwjdeyZKg-1.jpgA bit expensive though, make your own.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "363384",
"author": "av",
"timestamp": "2011-03-20T13:37:01",
"content": "@Davo111 : There are several major problems with your suggestion:1. The float valve would keep constant water in the dish, never allowing it to empty and be completely replaced. That would allow bacteria and crap to grow very quickly. Part of what makes my dish work is the “empty and evaporate” cycle.2. Your design is actually extremely unreliable, as if knocked over, it will continually flow onto the floor with no safety.The image you linked is from a dish designed for outdoor use, where spillage or overflow isn’t a problem.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "363611",
"author": "therian",
"timestamp": "2011-03-20T23:11:17",
"content": "@AVyou “empty and evaporate” cycle do nothing more than annoying the dog, Think how all living stuff get into the water in the first place, most bacterias can survive dry for months and its airborne",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "363891",
"author": "Foxdie",
"timestamp": "2011-03-21T10:01:10",
"content": "At it again eh Av? :)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "363928",
"author": "Davo1111",
"timestamp": "2011-03-21T11:05:11",
"content": "@AV1. the “bacteria” would be there with or without the water. dogs lick each others assholes, germs isn’t really a concern over a few days.2. Just place it on a piece of plywood attached it with two small latches.OR Better yet, dont connect the pipe to a tap, just a 2L jug (like a funnel). If the bowl gets knocked over, 2L of water will pour onto the floor, not have a constant stream overnight.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "364002",
"author": "av",
"timestamp": "2011-03-21T13:44:53",
"content": "Heh, 2L of water would be enough to fill the bowl once. My dog empties the bowl maybe 3 or 4 times a day. There are already commercial products on the market that have a large reservoir that refills the bowl. I tried one; after three days there was green stuff growing in the bowl and it smelled really bad.I’ve found that having the bowl empty and then become refilled with clean water simply works. Green stuff does not grow.I’m not sure why all this negativity is here — if you don’t like my design, you don’t have to use it. I’m telling you that I’ve tried the other commercial solutions on the market and they don’t work for me or my dog. My solution is simple and it works, and it was pretty cheap too!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "364051",
"author": "Saccrolux",
"timestamp": "2011-03-21T14:31:16",
"content": "av, I think your water rig is a great solution.Some of the comments regarding failure and the like are more scare mongering than anything else. Your refrigerator’s ice/water pump is just as likely to get “stuck on” as your dish filler is. At least you have some fail-safes built in.As far as the negativity goes, welcome to Troll-a-day, I mean Hack-a-day!It’s good stuff – keep on keepin’ on my friend.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "364124",
"author": "walt",
"timestamp": "2011-03-21T16:15:00",
"content": "cool project! cute dog!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "949241",
"author": "Alectra",
"timestamp": "2013-01-28T20:56:26",
"content": "I think this is a great start even if it is an old post now. I too have had problems with the pet fountains. My cats LOVE the fountains with constantly running water. Unfortunately, the reservoirs on them are tiny compared to actual needs and evaporation rate. I am planning on re-purposing one of these fountains to hook up via the same system as my refrigerator ice-maker/water. Then I can use their filters with it, the running water my cats want, and the fresh water they need. I was thinking something that would drain old water and bring in a fresh supply at a regular interval, maybe once a day. I know from experience how quickly bacteria can build in these systems, so I would probably do a weekly clean on it, but the constant fresh water and the filter should help a lot with that. Anyway, I know this is an old post, but it is helpful to see other people’s work so I can make mine better. If anyone has seen newer trials for systems like this, I would love to hear them.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1557125",
"author": "William L (@WDLKD)",
"timestamp": "2014-06-08T06:16:19",
"content": "I really like this project. There is more to it than i feel comfortable doing, but it’s still amazing. Some of the concerns are valid, but most just seem to be haters. You’ve inspired me to go try to make my own design.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "2879817",
"author": "Dan",
"timestamp": "2016-01-10T16:24:40",
"content": "Hi av this thing is awesome where do I go to see your schematics and such for what you have done here? Thanks",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
}
] | 1,760,377,241.355007
|
||
https://hackaday.com/2011/03/18/reviving-a-broken-hsdpa-modem-with-a-bit-of-clever-investigation/
|
Reviving A Broken HSDPA Modem With A Bit Of Clever Investigation
|
Mike Nathan
|
[
"Repair Hacks"
] |
[
"modem",
"repair"
] |
Hack-a-Day forum member [Necromant] was recently working on a router
when he made a terrible mistake
. He connected the wrong power brick to the router, causing a 2.5v over-voltage. The router itself was just fine, as it contained a good stepdown converter, but the HSDPA modem connected to the router’s USB port was not so lucky. It seems that the USB host is powered directly from the router’s power supply without any conversion – this meant his modem got a nice 7.5v zap when he used the wrong plug.
He assumed the modem was dead, so he figured there was no harm in disassembling it. He examined the modem’s circuit board and found that when plugged in, the onboard stepdown converter supplied 0 volts to the rest of the PCB. He couldn’t find any documentation for the converter online, so he employed a little bit of
trial and error
clever investigation to determine what sort of voltage the stepdown provided before being cooked.
After a bit of testing with his home-built low dropout regulator, he determined that the damaged stepdown provided 3.3v to the rest of the modem (that’s a 4.2v over-voltage for those of you who are keeping track). He added a linear voltage regulator to the board in place of the old stepdown, which worked for about 15 seconds before overheating.
In the end, he decided to add a pretty hefty 3.3v stepdown converter to the modem, throwing aesthetics to the curb. The result is one ugly, but quite functional HSDPA modem.
| 17
| 17
|
[
{
"comment_id": "362171",
"author": "aqua_scummm",
"timestamp": "2011-03-18T19:24:46",
"content": "Be angry. While the USB spec states that bus power should not exceed 5 volts, it also states that devices should be able to survive over 20 volts of power applied to the power rails.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "362182",
"author": "Tom Hargrave",
"timestamp": "2011-03-18T19:44:22",
"content": "Just because the spec reads 20 volts and this one failed with 7.5 volts applied means very little. We don’t know the polarity of the brick, if it is regulated or non-regulated, if it is AC or DC.If it was a non-regulated DC supply and he plugged the brick into the wall first then the initial voltage was quite a bit higher than 7.5 VDC. How high depends on the power supply voltage rating with nothing plugged in and the manufacturers never supply that number. A non-regulated 7.5 VDC, 300 ma power supply will be at 7.5 volts only when 300 ma is drawn from the supply.For that matter the issue could have been under voltage of the supply is rated at 7.5 VDC, 300 ma and the box draws a amp.BTW – I’ve seen more devices destroyed by someone plugging a reverse polarity or AC brick into a device designed for DC or the other polarity. The worse offenders are the non-regulated, multi-voltage supplies from WallyWorld. With one of these, if someone doesn’t understand what the box needs he has a less than 20% chance of getting it right the first time!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "362194",
"author": "bemis",
"timestamp": "2011-03-18T20:08:13",
"content": "@ Tom HargraveI mistakenly plugged the 7.5V DC brick for my router into the 5V DC input of a loaded D-Link 7-port USB hub.The keyboard, mouse and floppy drive connected were fried…Fortunately the two >$300 multi-function printers survived…So I guess the point is, cheaper USB devices will die with relatively low over voltage… but more expensive ones ought to live.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "362196",
"author": "bemis",
"timestamp": "2011-03-18T20:08:44",
"content": "…oh, and the D-Link itself was fried…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "362202",
"author": "rusty",
"timestamp": "2011-03-18T20:17:48",
"content": "you use floppies!?!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "362203",
"author": "hackersmith",
"timestamp": "2011-03-18T20:18:05",
"content": "“…oh, and the D-Link itself was fried…” and nothing of value was lost.I jest, I jest. On a serious note. @bemis Why the big hunking stepdown? Was that the only thing you had on hand or the only thing that would work?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "362228",
"author": "someone",
"timestamp": "2011-03-18T20:40:26",
"content": "I did this once. In my defense, there the power bricks cord WAS located in a cluster fuck of wires.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "362239",
"author": "Josh",
"timestamp": "2011-03-18T20:47:08",
"content": "Pretty clunky, but it gets the job done, I suppose. I would really like to know what the numbers on the original IC were, just for my own curiosity. I always take notes when I do a repair like this (and I’ve done several kludges) so that I can come back to it later to return it to its original design.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "362248",
"author": "bemis",
"timestamp": "2011-03-18T20:55:23",
"content": "@ hackersmithI’m not the OP :)…just pointing out that even though USB spec says devices must survive up to 20V, many will not even survive 7.5V",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "362300",
"author": "Paul Potter",
"timestamp": "2011-03-18T21:39:27",
"content": "Nice hacky repair.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "362329",
"author": "biozz",
"timestamp": "2011-03-18T22:13:05",
"content": "is it legal to open these?my fios 4g connect card says under federal law im prohibited to tamper with the device",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "362341",
"author": "andar_b",
"timestamp": "2011-03-18T22:25:01",
"content": "Some would say that’s a good reason to do it XD",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "362372",
"author": "someone",
"timestamp": "2011-03-18T23:10:50",
"content": "@biozz, I had a cheap calculator that said that once… I opened it anyhow. I thought they put that on a lot of devices, especially RF devices to try and prevent people inexperienced in RF from creating interference, no?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "362459",
"author": "hackersmith",
"timestamp": "2011-03-19T01:29:04",
"content": "@bemis Opps. That was your own personal story. Not a rehashing of what was in the article. Thats what I get for not reading the names very closely.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "362760",
"author": "Necromant",
"timestamp": "2011-03-19T12:22:59",
"content": "Thanks for putting it up here.@bioz: WTF? Illegal? I got this modem from dealextreme, so I guess I’m allowed to do pretty much what I want. Besides I know of no russian federal law, that prohibits tempering with hardware here… Well, the result breaks local radio regulations.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "362761",
"author": "Necromant",
"timestamp": "2011-03-19T12:25:33",
"content": "@Necromant: Well, UNLESS, the result breaks local radio regulations.Sorry for the typo.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "362880",
"author": "egasimus",
"timestamp": "2011-03-19T16:29:59",
"content": "needs moar heatshrink",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
}
] | 1,760,377,241.282714
|
||
https://hackaday.com/2011/03/18/speech-recognition-geocache-se-habla-espanol/
|
Speech Recognition Geocache: Se Habla Español
|
Jason Komp
|
[
"gps hacks"
] |
[
"geocache",
"voice"
] |
Instructables user [jorgegunn] has put a unique spin on
a recent geocache build
by incorporating speech recognition and requiring that the “finder” knows the secret password to access the loot contained within. Although we won’t spoil the fun here, the techie spirit of the build was further bolstered by choosing a password fitting for any trekkie.
Despite utilizing an off-the-shelf speech recognition circuit kit, the majority of this hack was accomplished using parts available at local electronics and hardware stores. [jorgegunn] went to great lengths to make this hack accessible to any amateur hobbyist and even includes links to relevant tutorials, schematics, and online parts vendors where applicable.
The actual speech recognition is accomplished with an
Images Scientific Instruments model SR-06 circuit kit
, capable of recognizing up to 40 different predefined words across multiple languages. Any time a correct match occurs, a value corresponding to the memory slot for that word is displayed on a pair of 7-segment displays. A separate decoder circuit based on a 74LS373 D-Type Latch and 4028 IC Decoder CMOS determines if the value being displayed constitutes a valid response and then drives a solenoid via a Darlington transistor in order to release the latching mechanism. Once opened, the device is simply pushed closed again to await its next finder- we are guessing that finding it might actually be the easiest part as judged by its size!
Although the real-world battery life has not yet been determined, a single coin cell for memory retention and a 9V battery used to drive the circuit and for latch release lasted through a full month of testing without any issues. Battery life could be extended almost indefinitely with a simple solar cell and rechargeable battery setup, but this would also obviously increase the likelihood of vandalism and/or theft.
We can imagine many different applications for such a device as-is including automated door lock mechanisms and even access control to things such as the controls on a computer case. It should also be fairly easy to increase the security by stringing multiple words together into a password or by instituting a “time out” period after a certain number of incorrect guesses.
Let us know of any other applications or build variations in the comments below and make sure to see how it all came together in the short videos after the break.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QqPVJqzKb3E&w=470]
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OvRFG1-tQHY&w=470]
| 8
| 8
|
[
{
"comment_id": "362141",
"author": "Tristan",
"timestamp": "2011-03-18T18:29:34",
"content": "Thats friggen awesome…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "362163",
"author": "Devin",
"timestamp": "2011-03-18T19:08:00",
"content": "Wonder how long it takes for someone to run across this and call in the bomb squad!Awesome mechanism though, especially if it’s able to last a few months in the wild between charges.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "362175",
"author": "rektide",
"timestamp": "2011-03-18T19:30:35",
"content": "“speak friend, and enter”",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "362293",
"author": "oblivion",
"timestamp": "2011-03-18T21:35:19",
"content": "“My voice is my passport. Verify me.”",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "362938",
"author": "kaidenshi",
"timestamp": "2011-03-19T19:09:26",
"content": "“Engage”? “Make it so”? Or is that too Next Generation to be considered Trekkie?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "363470",
"author": "doesithurt",
"timestamp": "2011-03-20T17:52:27",
"content": "I wonder how weather resistant this would be? Any benchmarks would be appreciated!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "363916",
"author": "Doc",
"timestamp": "2011-03-21T10:46:50",
"content": "Beam me up, Scotty.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "364428",
"author": "captain",
"timestamp": "2011-03-21T21:44:52",
"content": "Are these some kind of time-capsules? That is assuming that whoever finds these a 100 years from now can still speak the languages that can open them.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
}
] | 1,760,377,242.212546
|
||
https://hackaday.com/2011/03/18/direct-to-pcb-resist-printing-requires-minimal-additional-components/
|
Direct To PCB Resist Printing Requires Minimal Additional Components
|
Mike Nathan
|
[
"Peripherals Hacks",
"Tool Hacks"
] |
[
"etch",
"inkjet",
"mispro",
"pcb",
"printer"
] |
Printing PCBs using the toner transfer method works pretty well, but there are some downsides, such as incomplete trace transfers and the like. HackHut user [rucalgary]
decided to go the inkjet route instead
, and picked up an Epson printer on clearance at his local electronics shop.
This method is not new
by any means, but his printer conversion is one of the simplest we’ve seen as it does not rely on any
additional sensors to function
.
Once he got home, he tore the printer down immediately, removing the paper input and output trays as well as the scanner bed. After all of the extraneous parts were removed, he got to work raising up the printer head, as well as the printer head rest mechanism. He mentions that the latter component is absolutely crucial to proper functionality down the line. Once the print head and its associated components were relocated, he added a pair of aluminum rails for feeding his print tray into the machine.
With everything complete, he filled up a spare cartridge with ink (he says that MISPRO yellow works best) and ran some test boards through. He is quite pleased with how things turned out, and is more than happy to give you a quick tour of his completed printer via the video below.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y58AIUAJlj0&w=470]
| 10
| 10
|
[
{
"comment_id": "362108",
"author": "denim",
"timestamp": "2011-03-18T17:54:33",
"content": "“This is a fake demo of my PCB printer setup.”",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "362115",
"author": "FightCube.com",
"timestamp": "2011-03-18T18:02:00",
"content": "Great hack! Very useful for making your own PCBs. I have an Epson printer pretty similar to this one and will attempt the hack some day in the future here.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "362119",
"author": "Scott",
"timestamp": "2011-03-18T18:06:41",
"content": "Yeah I don’t get why he did not show blank board going in, then being printed on.I get that this could be slow, but going through the motions and NOT printing live just leaves me scratching my head..",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "362161",
"author": "nave.notnilc",
"timestamp": "2011-03-18T19:01:38",
"content": "check outhttp://techref.massmind.org/techref/pcb/etch/directinkjetresist.htmfor more info on inkjet PCB printing",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "362173",
"author": "Bill D. Williams",
"timestamp": "2011-03-18T19:30:07",
"content": "It seems like the coating the printer leaves would be very, very thin. It’s clever, but I’ve spent so much money on inkjet printers, do I really want to waist more time and money with them?Plus, is this really faster? Don’t you have to let the ink dry forever? (I’ve never done it)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "362361",
"author": "Ryan",
"timestamp": "2011-03-18T22:52:57",
"content": "I am rucalgary from Hack-Hut.Yes, the printer works, I choose my words poorly.I had just printed it off, and forgot to record it, so I figured I might as well explain how it works.I plan on doing some more boards this weekend, so I will be sure to Record the actual process start to finish.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "362366",
"author": "Tony",
"timestamp": "2011-03-18T23:05:29",
"content": "I’ve done something like this, also using an Epson printer with yellow MISPRO ink, but just using the CD printing assembly so I didn’t have to modify the printer at all.My problem was that the ink would sort of pool into tiny droplets, each one about 0.5mm in diameter. Then when I etched, there would often be breaks at some of the droplet boundaries. I guess now that pre-heating the PCB might solve that problem but I wonder if the heat would be sufficient throughout the printing time.Now I’m using PulsarProFx films with a laser printer and cheap laminator. Yeah, it’s more expensive to get set up and really tedious to go through all the steps, but at least it’s consistent and has really good results. 0.2mm traces are no problem.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "362374",
"author": "Tony",
"timestamp": "2011-03-18T23:12:19",
"content": "@Bill D. WilliamsThe direct inkjet process is really fast as long as the bugs are worked out. I now think that pre-heating is critical to get a uniform coating of ink. Maybe some kind of constant heat source under the aluminium plate might be more consistent?Back when I was doing this, I would throw the just printed PCB into an oven for about ten minutes, which set the ink.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "362540",
"author": "salomon",
"timestamp": "2011-03-19T03:28:23",
"content": "i’ve killed 3 printers trying to do something like this, the first was a cx4900, everything was ok until the printer doesnt recognize any cartridges (i was using cartridges with autoreset), then the c92, every was ok until the motor driver literally exploded on the first test (im looking for a c92 main board to replace that), and finally the c110, i dont know why this printer as the cx4900 does not recognize any cartridges after a while. thanks God they were not too expensive to get.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "362592",
"author": "jeff",
"timestamp": "2011-03-19T06:16:04",
"content": "Great idea, I went on to make one after reading the article(w/ broken HP 932c).I just tested a print on a thick MDF clipboard and it works quite well. Need sleep badly now, cant wait to try with copper clad.Thanks for the inspiration!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
}
] | 1,760,377,241.402608
|
||
https://hackaday.com/2011/03/18/diy-camera-dolly-frees-up-your-hands-to-take-care-of-the-important-stuff/
|
DIY Camera Dolly Frees Up Your Hands To Take Care Of The Important Stuff
|
Mike Nathan
|
[
"digital cameras hacks",
"Tool Hacks"
] |
[
"camera",
"dolly",
"hands free"
] |
Documenting your build process can sometimes be an incredible pain, as it’s quite difficult to take pictures or video while you are in the middle of soldering. Professionals who demonstrate things on TV for a living have the benefit of a camera crew and special rigs to catch the action from every angle – the rest of us don’t have that luxury.
[Steve] felt the same frustrations as many of us do, and decided to do something about it. He built a
movable camera dolly
that can be suspended from the ceiling above his work surface for less than $30. The bulk of his camera dolly is built from PVC piping, with assorted bolts and washers holding things together. Skateboard bearings were used as rollers to provide smooth 2-axis motion for the entire rig, then he hung the entire apparatus from the ceiling joists over his workspace.
According to [Steve], the build process seems relatively easy and should take no more than an hour or so, and it can support pretty much any full-size DSLR camera you can find.
Stick around for a quick video tour of his camera dolly build.
[via
Make
]
[vimeo http://vimeo.com/21104683 w=470]
| 11
| 11
|
[
{
"comment_id": "361991",
"author": "random_jandom",
"timestamp": "2011-03-18T16:24:57",
"content": "Nice, I definitely need something like this but dont have the space to permanently set one up.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "362143",
"author": "Mike Bradley",
"timestamp": "2011-03-18T18:31:37",
"content": "I like it, I am thinking about using 1″ aluminum tube for the long stretches to eliminate sag.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "362150",
"author": "hackersmith",
"timestamp": "2011-03-18T18:48:46",
"content": "Hmmm. Just needs a wireless camera shutter trigger and its complete.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "362178",
"author": "FightCube.com",
"timestamp": "2011-03-18T19:35:21",
"content": "The more I look at this the more it makes me want to build one. I would love to build a new work table with this above it, or some version of this. I would want the XY action to be smooth, and bounce free. Most of the time it would just hang there, but if you are going to spend the time and money, it should be a little more solid. Just using larger diameter PVC would help a lot. Also I think I would like to add a remote monitor to see what was on the screen, and if it was in focus. That gets a little harder to do.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "362412",
"author": "hintss",
"timestamp": "2011-03-19T00:45:38",
"content": "make it CNC",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "362484",
"author": "Doug",
"timestamp": "2011-03-19T02:24:11",
"content": "FIW;I tried to leave the following comment at Grathio Labs, but it kept telling me the the required name and email fields weren’t filled out when they indeed where.—————————————————-Nice project. An alternate way to use the tool handle compound if protecting the ball bearings is a concern is to use a mandrill with the same OD as the bearings to make “tires” that could be placed over the bearings. Perhaps RC model car components could be used instead?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "362530",
"author": "Steve Hoefer",
"timestamp": "2011-03-19T03:12:14",
"content": "@doug: It’s a good idea, thanks for sharing it.(Sorry about the comments. MovableType went haywire about the time I posted this project and has been nightmare to figure out. And since I’m moving it over to WordPress within a week I’ve decided to let it be.)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "362756",
"author": "woutervddn",
"timestamp": "2011-03-19T12:07:33",
"content": "This is a neat idea.. Although I think I’ll be mounting mine on an old movable desk light I’ve got laying around.. (It’s an ugly one that’s way to bulky to use as a normal desk light, but mounting it upside down and attaching a camera might make it usefull again)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "362807",
"author": "Quvmoh",
"timestamp": "2011-03-19T13:56:02",
"content": "Adding a work light to this rig would make it useful even when not filming, nice!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "362853",
"author": "Headbonk",
"timestamp": "2011-03-19T15:15:19",
"content": "What did he use to document the build of that?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "371236",
"author": "Hackfox",
"timestamp": "2011-03-31T21:32:45",
"content": "The Geekgroup recently built a big boy version of this for their sets.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FNt0OzXTUc4&",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
}
] | 1,760,377,241.640304
|
||
https://hackaday.com/2011/03/18/seeed-looks-for-help-developing-an-open-source-radiation-detector/
|
Seeed Looks For Help Developing An Open Source Radiation Detector
|
Mike Szczys
|
[
"HackIt"
] |
[
"gieger counter",
"radiation",
"seeed studios"
] |
Seeed Studios, makers of the Seeeduino and fabricators of small-run PCB orders have put out a call to
help develop an open source radiation detector
. Will it be of any help to people in the area of Japan that is at risk? We really can’t say. But if you can lend some expertise with this, it can’t hurt. We’ve already seen
a simple dosimeter project
but this one sounds like it’s more on the level of a DIY Geiger counter. We know it’s possible, but
the hacked together unit
we saw back in 2007 had very little documentation and used parts that may be hard to come by.
The specific information needed is what type of sensor to use, what supporting circuits should be included, and what method is best to calibrate each unit. There’s a discussion going in the comment thread of that post which should be interesting to read even if you think you don’t have anything to add.
[Thanks Michael]
| 68
| 50
|
[
{
"comment_id": "361910",
"author": "cfox",
"timestamp": "2011-03-18T15:19:38",
"content": "Wish I could be of some help.Solid idea though, good luck with finishing it. Hope it turns out to be useful.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "361913",
"author": "Whatnot",
"timestamp": "2011-03-18T15:21:07",
"content": "They should just get one person in every decent sized town to put up a proper geiger counter and have it tweet the measurements every 10 to 15 minutes.Preferably set up on a stable hill with backup power and wifi or radio bursts copying the output too when internet is out, if need be using morse code.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "361930",
"author": "It's kind of redundant",
"timestamp": "2011-03-18T15:32:26",
"content": "Nuclear war survival skills Chapter 10 –http://www.oism.org/nwss/s73p921.htmThe Kearny Fallout Meter is an accurate and well tested device designed for civil defence that can be built by anyone. Let’s not reeinvent the wheel or anything…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "361954",
"author": "It's kind of redundant",
"timestamp": "2011-03-18T15:34:02",
"content": "http://www.oism.org/nwss/s73p938.htmis the appendix which has the actual ‘how to build’ portion.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "361958",
"author": "Andrew",
"timestamp": "2011-03-18T15:41:51",
"content": "essentially a geiger counter is an spark gap with a strong potential difference between the containing wall and the central electrode. the volume is filled with a gas with a cross section of interaction for ionizing particles.when an ionizing radiation splits a given molecule of gas the newly created charged particle pair and are split by the potential difference in the detector and fly towards their respective electrodes. the current generated by the moving charged particles is incredibly small, but measurable.short of growing your own CCDs or adapting units available on the market this is the only method I know of to detect radiation reliably.the main road blocks I can see in getting a decent open source detector would be ensuring the seal’s integrity (there doesn’t have to be a pressure difference, just a known gas), acquiring the selected gas, and most importantly calibration. I don’t know many people who keep known and dated radiation sources on hand.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "361961",
"author": "greg",
"timestamp": "2011-03-18T15:47:26",
"content": "sparkfun has something that could be useful for some inspiration.http://www.sparkfun.com/products/9848",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "361963",
"author": "l|_|GN|_|t",
"timestamp": "2011-03-18T15:52:16",
"content": "Sparkfun sells geiger counters, but they all sold out in the past couple days, predictably",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "361975",
"author": "Joe",
"timestamp": "2011-03-18T16:07:25",
"content": "I’m not sure if many people on hack-a-day know about this website but they sell surplus components for cheap. And oh look, they happen to have Geiger counter kits on sale….http://goldmine-elec.com/",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "361982",
"author": "Eman",
"timestamp": "2011-03-18T16:22:26",
"content": "Andrew> couldn’t someone use a smoke detector as a crude radiation detector, then ?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "362024",
"author": "the_truth",
"timestamp": "2011-03-18T16:33:20",
"content": "Interestingly enough, it may be possible to use the ionization chamber from a smoke detector for this one. The only real modification would be removal of the radio isotope, so that you would be able to detect ionization rather than the neutralization of said ionization due to smoke. for cost efficiency, it would be best to use a resistor/led ladder for your display. The only downside to the devices is the requirement of high voltage to detect the ionization. This is murder on batteries.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "362025",
"author": "Jeff",
"timestamp": "2011-03-18T16:36:22",
"content": "Components for a radiation detector typically include a HV supply, preamp, shaping amp, and comparator (1MHz or better) depending on the detector because radiation events are much faster than the common audio signals. HV can be a simple C-W ladder with a HV filter at the end. Bias of course depends on the detector and how it is applied also. A G-M tube applies bias to the central wire and grounds the outer tube. When a pulse event occurs, the G-M enters a breakdown region where as the ion pairs move toward the respective cathode/anode, a multiplicative effect occurs, causing one large pulse that signifies paralysis of the detector. The pulse leaving the detector needs to be processed by a current sensitive preamplifier, which then needs to output a voltage pulse. An amplifier will then shape and increase the amplitude of the signal so that it will be able to trigger an event in a comparator. A counter then adds the events to a buffer, which can be coupled with a timer to give rate information. Lastly, a display then shows the count rate information either through some bouncing needle meter or some other output means. Calibration will require a radiation source. Cs-137 is the standard calibration source and is available in NRC exempt quantities of 1uCi to 10uCi from Spectrum Techniques in Oak Ridge, TN. There are several IEEE standards pertaining to the calibration and testing (N323 is one of them I think and there are an entire series of these).",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "362030",
"author": "Reaper",
"timestamp": "2011-03-18T16:41:14",
"content": "a DIY rad-hardened Geiger counter? Sounds awesome.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "362032",
"author": "Jeditalian",
"timestamp": "2011-03-18T16:45:06",
"content": "i wanna geiger counter",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "362034",
"author": "SquantMuts",
"timestamp": "2011-03-18T16:48:58",
"content": "About homebrew geigercounters, would it be possible to replace the hard to get vacuum chamber with something more managable?What about an reverse biased large area diode? Like a monocrystalline solar cell? Make it completely dark, then detecting the small pulses of leakage in the PN junction? Every charged particle that would travel trough it would create a small jump in leakage, this could be detected by a high impedance low noise amplifier like a JFET input opamp or a BF862 based amplifier?Problem with such a setup would be to shield it from light but not from radiation. Alpha and beta particles are easely stopped so it would mostly detect gamma radiation.Anybody has any pitchblende uranium ore in their mineral collection to test it out? I think an americium based smoke detector would do it too. Remove the small gold matrix that encapsulates the source.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "362041",
"author": "Necromant",
"timestamp": "2011-03-18T16:57:02",
"content": "They need to ask this guy for help:http://radiokot.ru/circuit/digital/measure/34/(sent that as a tip to HaD but it didn’t come through)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "362043",
"author": "SquantMuts",
"timestamp": "2011-03-18T17:00:03",
"content": "Followup:I found this circuit using a PIN photodiode.http://www.maxim-ic.com/app-notes/index.mvp/id/2236A good sensitive diode would be the BPW34, it is cheap and easy to get.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "362050",
"author": "It's kind of redundant",
"timestamp": "2011-03-18T17:12:42",
"content": "I’m amazed no one even looked/remarked on the kearny fallout meter – which is a circa 1970’s homebrew meter that was tested in a lab to be VERY PRECISE.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "362053",
"author": "HackerK",
"timestamp": "2011-03-18T17:15:50",
"content": "Idea of using CCD and CMOS as sensorshttp://www.hps.org/publicinformation/ate/q8921.htmlFurther research needs to be done here, as it could be a very low cost (and low voltage!) sensor device",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "362055",
"author": "HackerK",
"timestamp": "2011-03-18T17:18:25",
"content": "@Necromant Wow, that’s awesome work that Russia guy did!!!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "362069",
"author": "clnielsen",
"timestamp": "2011-03-18T17:28:18",
"content": "everyone should research the kearney fallout meter",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "362071",
"author": "asheets",
"timestamp": "2011-03-18T17:31:04",
"content": "I agree with the posters pushing The Kearny Fallout Meter — considering what it is made of, it really fits in on HaD well.But if you insist, project #103 of this book:http://www.amazon.com/103-simple-transistor-projects-Kneitel/dp/B0007DWA6M. I’m sure it can be made with modern parts and smaller batteries.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "362072",
"author": "Apexys",
"timestamp": "2011-03-18T17:31:10",
"content": "@ SquantMuts:It’s exactly what I was thinking.But why would you need pitchblende.If it works, you should get the 15-20 counts every minute from the background radiation.You could use an black cd-pen or something like this to cover the diode.I’m pretty sure it’ll work.apexys",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "362082",
"author": "Gema",
"timestamp": "2011-03-18T17:33:43",
"content": "http://www.stm32challenge.com/detail/386",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "362106",
"author": "matthew crenshaw",
"timestamp": "2011-03-18T17:51:21",
"content": "On a related note my geiger counter is on twitter at twitter.com/geiger93933. In marina, california.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "362114",
"author": "featheredfrog",
"timestamp": "2011-03-18T18:00:05",
"content": "“Sensors for the Evil Genius” has a number of radiation detection sensors. Most for indoor use, but certainly a starting point.Not as bad as SOME of that series…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "362117",
"author": "Mike",
"timestamp": "2011-03-18T18:02:33",
"content": "bpw34 will not work. γ radiation is in the pico-meter wavelength range, the spec sheet suggests that bpw34 is good for 1100-430nm. That is an order of magnitude larger. It’s even useless for x-ray radiation with is in 10-0.01nm range.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "362122",
"author": "Beavis1975",
"timestamp": "2011-03-18T18:11:11",
"content": "@It’s kind of redundant:No one’s going to fall for that. There’s no way you can make a radiation detector without a microcontroller and some sort of digital readout! Your hoax was just too obvious this time… Next time, aim just beyond the edge of plausibility!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "362127",
"author": "pheo",
"timestamp": "2011-03-18T18:15:59",
"content": "Radiation detection is no trivial matter.What kind of radiation we trying to detect?I’m guessing that there is the implicit assumption that only ionizing radiation is of interest from a health perspective.The Geiger Tube is really the most robust gamma ray detector.It’s basically a big gas scintillation cavity, but it requires high voltage (so it’s “too dangerous” for the kids)There should be some way to build a low-voltage/solid-state Geiger counter.Maybe a Zener Diode?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "362136",
"author": "Mrshko",
"timestamp": "2011-03-18T18:24:28",
"content": "You’re problem is geiger detector costs. Sparkfun is too expensive, 80+ duckets. Look on ebay. Plethora of geiger tubes for cheap",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "362137",
"author": "Bob",
"timestamp": "2011-03-18T18:25:12",
"content": "This site shows how to build a geiger-muller-counting-tube and circuit to create a complete geiger-muller-counter. This site is full of tube projects. Looks like the author is some engineer of the old school.Google-translated:http://translate.google.com/translate?js=n&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&layout=2&eotf=1&sl=n&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.b-kainka.de%2Fbastel76.htm&act=urlOriginal site in german:http://www.b-kainka.de/bastel76.htm",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "362157",
"author": "Mike",
"timestamp": "2011-03-18T18:55:24",
"content": "@pheo, zener diode you’re referring to seems to be the SiGe Pin diode. do you have a source for those in the correct wavelength range?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "362160",
"author": "SquantMuts",
"timestamp": "2011-03-18T18:59:49",
"content": "@MikeI think photodiodes would not directly absorb the photons to convert into a photoelectric current. But you could measure the ionising path the ray/particle makes trough the junction, seeing a jump in the junction leakage current. That is what the maxim application note tries, and also shows the tradeoff you need to make of noise vs sensitivity.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "362187",
"author": "It's kind of redundant",
"timestamp": "2011-03-18T19:55:50",
"content": "@Beavis1975 well… you could always wire up a mcdonalds free pedometer to show how many times your hands shook in a dosing.Maybe some neon lamps, some stickers, a PIC or two later and you’re ready to market it on newegg.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "362188",
"author": "It's kind of redundant",
"timestamp": "2011-03-18T19:59:30",
"content": "I will say I have an unused circa 1969 victoreen civil defense geiger counter (bought cheap!) and it comes with a full wiring diagram so I’m sure its easily reproducible. Even the ‘detection chamber’ is really similar to the KFM.http://www.vaughns-1-pagers.com/science/victoreen/cdv-715-a1-schematic.jpgAnd of course here’s a whole page dedicated to the DIY digital crowdhttp://www.discovercircuits.com/G/geiger.htm",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "362195",
"author": "daqq",
"timestamp": "2011-03-18T20:08:41",
"content": "There’s a fair amount of homebrew Geiger counters out there the last time I checked. Using a Geiger tube, it’s pretty simple really – as Jeff noted. I believe I read somewhere some guy tried using a neon tube in a similar matter to a Geiger tube. Can’t remember where though.I’d stick with the Geiger counter concept as that is the only reasonably doable approach – scintillation counters require scintillators (a fair amount of materials can be used, even water will do, though don’t expect too good results) and expensive photomultipliers, or twice as exotic adn quite expensive and not half as sensitive special photodiodes – unless the radiation levels are extremely high, you get only VERY LOW light levels (as soon as the scintilation is visible to the naked eye, you’re not running fast enough).Then there are the more exotic ones, like HPGe and that sort of stuff – insanely expensive, big, cryocooled and for lab use only.And there are other smaller designs likehttp://www.amptek.com/oem.htmlwhich cost quad their weight in gold and mithril.So, the Geiger tube approach is the best and cheapest.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "362199",
"author": "zeropointmodule",
"timestamp": "2011-03-18T20:12:52",
"content": "you could try and use a piece of x-ray intensifier film carefully placed downwards onto a ccd chip.a related hack is to use an NORP12 with the same intentifier in a light tight casing,as it is basically linear and predictable so easy to calibrate",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "362200",
"author": "zeropointmodule",
"timestamp": "2011-03-18T20:17:02",
"content": "a related hack is to use the bare CMOS sensor from an optical mouse, some of the older ones let you read the raw values from the registers on the chip.(thanks Sprite_tm!)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "362207",
"author": "Laurenceb",
"timestamp": "2011-03-18T20:27:04",
"content": "Surely this fits the bill quite wellhttp://www.techlib.com/science/ion.html",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "362317",
"author": "alex",
"timestamp": "2011-03-18T21:54:58",
"content": "I think this fits the bill as far as fallout goeshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kearny_Fallout_Meter",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "362352",
"author": "Urza9814",
"timestamp": "2011-03-18T22:39:40",
"content": "Am I the only one who saw that headline and wondered wtf a German reggae band was doing on hack-a-day?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "362362",
"author": "majolsurf",
"timestamp": "2011-03-18T22:55:18",
"content": "There’s guy on twitter who is using his sparkfun geiger counter to send hourly tweets, based out of California. It’s mounted on his roof sending data via Xbee. While the news is reporting an increase is radiation levels his counts have not gone up.http://twitter.com/Geiger93933#",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "362389",
"author": "hubert",
"timestamp": "2011-03-18T23:41:38",
"content": "You can find those pen dosimeters used by medical personal or army cheap at surplus shops or sometimes on ebay, i have seen them for under 5$ each, maybe you could get hands on a batch of them for cheaper if you ask the right institution.here is another german page, the guy describes his long way to build a working geiger tube.http://www.fingers-welt.de/gallerie/eigen/elektro/geiger/geiger.htm",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "362417",
"author": "jarrod",
"timestamp": "2011-03-19T00:49:49",
"content": "Hack a photomultiplier tube from an old, old video camera?still requires a HV supply but these things are super sensitive to radiation, thousands of times more so than geiger counters. or at least the PM tubes designed for it are :Pside note, I’m wishing I picked up the decatron pulse counter rmits physics department was chucking out a couple of years ago",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "362506",
"author": "Jeff",
"timestamp": "2011-03-19T02:46:52",
"content": "Here is a radiation detector I made In 20 min from a smoke detector and Arduino. took longer to make the videohttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4KBgdUi8T5Y",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "362511",
"author": "jimbob",
"timestamp": "2011-03-19T02:49:34",
"content": "The easiest homemade detector would be an unpressurized ion chamber, you can make one with a tin can. I can’t comment on the associated circuitry as I have only seen a hand full of different schematics and they all seem to include pain in the ass power supply schemes. Calibration may be equally painful, I’ve never seen one that reads in counts per minute (CPM.)A system based on a Geiger Mueller tube would be the cheapest to purchase, easiest to design around, and simplest to calibrate.Price:< 100 USDDesign:Start with an oscillator that feeds a regulated voltage multiplication network (diodes and caps), attach to GM anode, ground the cathode, couple the signal to a charge sensitive amp that triggers a multivibrator, and integrate for indication.Calibration:1———–Remove tube from circuit2———–Check Voltages. High volts will depend on particular tube, low volts depends on your silicon3———–Connect some sort of variable frequency input (preferably a pulse with similar width as the dead time of the GM tube you're using).4———–Cal to a particular CPM (CPM = Freq * 60) then check for linearity (if 1.66667 = 100 CPM then 3.33333 = 200 CPM, 33.33333 = 2000 CPM, 666.66667 = 40K CPM…)5———–Once you can determine that the linearity of your meter is reliable it needs to be checked with some reliable source ( a single known source should suffice.)6———–\"scintillation counters require scintillators (a fair amount of materials can be used, even water will do, though don’t expect too good results) and expensive photomultipliers, or twice as exotic adn quite expensive and not half as sensitive special photodiodes – unless the radiation levels are extremely high, you get only VERY LOW light levels (as soon as the scintillation is visible to the naked eye, you’re not running fast enough).\"– To compare a photo multiplier tube to a photodiode and declare the diode as the more sensitive or better suited for this particular application is silly at best. You either have no idea as to to how either of them function or you've experimented with both and failed to consider \"basic rules of thumb\", for one or the other. The PMT will always be able to see light that you cannot. Scintillation/PMT detection circuitry is, as far as I know, the best (most efficient and expensive)way to detect ionizing-radiation.\"The Geiger Tube is really the most robust gamma ray detector.It’s basically a big gas scintillation cavity, but it requires high voltage (so it’s “too dangerous” for the kids\"1st, I could be wrong, But I've never heard of a detector that can reliably detect ionizing radiation with a \"low voltage\".2nd a geiger mueller tube is not a \"big gas scintillation cavity\", it's not a scintillator at all.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "362516",
"author": "jimbob",
"timestamp": "2011-03-19T02:59:06",
"content": "“There should be some way to build a low-voltage/solid-state Geiger counter.Maybe a Zener Diode?”No there is not.“No one’s going to fall for that. There’s no way you can make a radiation detector without a microcontroller and some sort of digital readout! Your hoax was just too obvious this time… Next time, aim just beyond the edge of plausibility!”Rest assured your arduino will handle the “plausibility clause?”",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "362541",
"author": "macona",
"timestamp": "2011-03-19T03:30:21",
"content": "I dont know what the point of this would be, I could see doing it for fun. IF something happens you will know. Most people wouldnt know what to do with the reading of a geiger counter. This is not like fallout 3 where you run away when it starts clicking and shoot up some rad-x.Anyway, for a small power supply to drive a GM tube an inverter for a cold cathode lamp. There is info and schematics on buiding a geiger counter around one here:http://www.coultersmithing.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=244That forum is a good site in general if you are interested in nuclear and other fun stuff.http://www.coultersmithing.com/forums/index.php",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "362607",
"author": "Doug",
"timestamp": "2011-03-19T06:52:17",
"content": "Not that I’m saying not to try to help, nor that the DIY/hacking community is incapable helping, but the phrase a day late a dollar short comes to mind. I take it the product is to be used by people making decisions concerning their well being. Even a simple not safe/safe instrument needs to be accurately calibrated. How that calibration will be done is a major part of such a project. Given the implied urgency the best they can hope for is to find a project that meets all the needs, that doesn’t use obsolete components.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "362610",
"author": "Cameron",
"timestamp": "2011-03-19T07:05:51",
"content": "@majolsurf There is no way that a geiger counter will show any signs of increased radiation level that isn’t just from normal fluctuations in background(background radiation increases after it rains). Students and professors at UC Berkeley’s Nuclear Engineering department myself included are measuring radiation levels in the air and rainwater in 12 hour intervals with state of the art radiation detectors. Updates are posted here:http://www.nuc.berkeley.edu/UCBAirSampling",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "362619",
"author": "WestfW",
"timestamp": "2011-03-19T07:46:08",
"content": "This is fundamentally a lot more difficult than it sounds, especially if you’re trying to give an indication of “health risk” rather than just radioactivity. For example, tritium is much more radioactive than plutonium, but I’d rather be exposed to the former!(All rather complicated by the lack of information in the press about just what sort of radioactive products are being released by the Japanese reactors. Sigh.)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
}
] | 1,760,377,241.59036
|
||
https://hackaday.com/2011/03/18/junkyard-jumbotron-is-begging-to-for-an-open-source-project-clone/
|
Junkyard Jumbotron Is Begging To For An Open Source Project Clone
|
Mike Szczys
|
[
"HackIt",
"Video Hacks"
] |
[
"display",
"jumbtron",
"smart phone",
"web browser"
] |
Idle developers of the world take inspiration from this project and unite to create your own version. It’s called the Junkyard Jumbotron because
it takes many different displays and allows them to be used as one big interactive display
. The image above shows a collection of smartphones displaying a test pattern. The pattern is unique for each device and is used to calibrate the display. Using a digital camera, a picture of these test patterns is snapped, then sent to the server. The server calculates the position of each of the screens, then sends the correct slice of a large image back to each phone.
It’s funny that they use the word Junkyard in the name of the software. Each display needs to be able to run a web browser so you can’t just use junk displays. But one nice side effect of the hardware requirements is that you can still do things like panning and zooming as seen in the video after the break. Here’s the real question: can you make this work as an open source project? How about something that can be easily set up to work with a LAMP server?
[vimeo=http://vimeo.com/20962561 w=470]
[via
Reddit
]
| 17
| 17
|
[
{
"comment_id": "361870",
"author": "CutThroughStuffGuy",
"timestamp": "2011-03-18T14:06:11",
"content": "Try Synergy.Open source. Cross platform.http://synergy-foss.org/Lets you control your cursor across multiple displays. Not exactly the same functionality but in someways better.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "361871",
"author": "Stradenko",
"timestamp": "2011-03-18T14:06:44",
"content": "http://civic.mit.edu/blog/csik/junkyard-jumbotronsays it’s “free and open.” I think my idea of free and open is different from theirs.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "361874",
"author": "CutThroughStuffGuy",
"timestamp": "2011-03-18T14:13:05",
"content": "It also has code to “map out” (albeit manually) screen locations that may be useful.VNC can also allow you to do similar things in terms of remote viewing of desktops but full video probably will not work.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "361879",
"author": "CutThroughStuffGuy",
"timestamp": "2011-03-18T14:18:49",
"content": "You can also achieve this using linux or windows using multiple video cards in a PCI-e machine (or even PCI) and VLC has (had?) provisions to break up a huge video for display on “jumbotron” displays.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "361881",
"author": "Booker T. Worthington",
"timestamp": "2011-03-18T14:20:12",
"content": "Yowza that’s painfully slow. Neat idea though.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "361882",
"author": "CutThroughStuffGuy",
"timestamp": "2011-03-18T14:21:15",
"content": "http://grok.lsu.edu/article.aspx?articleid=14623VLC has the “wall video filter” module and is cross platform and open source as well.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "361904",
"author": "Rick Borovoy",
"timestamp": "2011-03-18T15:00:43",
"content": "The Junkyard Jumbotron is already an open source project. Code is on Github athttps://github.com/c4fcm/Junkyard-JumbotronWe’re very interested in building an open source team to push it forward.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "361929",
"author": "FightCube.com",
"timestamp": "2011-03-18T15:32:14",
"content": "Very cool idea and application! Thanks for the creative input.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "362026",
"author": "Muhammad Dadu",
"timestamp": "2011-03-18T16:37:29",
"content": "It wouldnt be hard to build, if anyone is instrested they can contact me to request an open source development on this which would be compatable with all servers. P.S you wouldnt need to take a picture of the position of the screen. It would just require Javascript, PHP and MySQL.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "362407",
"author": "anti-fanboi",
"timestamp": "2011-03-19T00:25:26",
"content": "VLC? Synergy? Obviously you don’t get the point. Read it again.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "362415",
"author": "hintss",
"timestamp": "2011-03-19T00:47:43",
"content": "does it use openCV?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "363366",
"author": "cb88",
"timestamp": "2011-03-20T12:24:02",
"content": "yah I know right cause VLC, Synergy and X11 are actually useful… unlike this. Cross device as long as it has a browser blah blah blah.. its still soo slow that its useless for anything other than a tech demo and it certainly can’t sync sound and video :/ which is the sort of cool stuff you would want on a jumbotron to begin with.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "363442",
"author": "max",
"timestamp": "2011-03-20T16:19:06",
"content": "The trick is in the web-browser.Each device gets a unique id number, then the location of those id’s are pulled from the picture that gets sent in. The location is set as the center of the picture in the page sent to the device with that id number. A little ajax style action allows the pages to be updated with changes generated by the other pages. The picture itself is never split up, but is sent whole to each device with a different centering.It all came to me when I noticed that the examples were all still pictures and not video, though if devices supported html5 I imagine the same trick would work if the clocks were synced up.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "363756",
"author": "slashsplat",
"timestamp": "2011-03-21T04:16:52",
"content": "Used three different browser windows on my laptop screen and did a print screen of it. Sent that in and it worked peachy. (Except the MS IE piece of cra6 doesn’t scale right, but fixed it.)VNC and multi video cards do it, sure. The brilliance here is the analysis and calibration based on an image of the monitors – this IS rather brilliant.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "363995",
"author": "Rick Borovoy",
"timestamp": "2011-03-21T13:25:19",
"content": "Hey Folks,There seems to be a lot of interest in the Junkyard Jumbotron here. I want to repeat that I really would like to see an open source development community form around this project. Like others, I really want to see this web based, visual calibration approach work with video, games, etc. If anyone wants to help with this, I’ve posted the url for the source on github. Also, please get in touch with me at jumbotron at media dot mit dot edu.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "366078",
"author": "Mad Myche",
"timestamp": "2011-03-24T02:00:23",
"content": "I am thinking similiar to Max, but instead of using Ajax I would go with Comet. Each unit could go to the same page but with a different ID, and the server side Comet pusher would know throw out the partial images simultaneously, but different chunks based on the id of the unit supplied",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "957926",
"author": "Mike C",
"timestamp": "2013-02-10T20:14:09",
"content": "Looks like someone who worked with the original team branched the code and may have gotten video to work:https://github.com/JeremyRubin/Junkyard-JumbotronCan anyone verify, and maybe post this somewhere so the washed up coders (like me) could get a look and see if it does in fact work?Thanks,",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
}
] | 1,760,377,242.263063
|
||
https://hackaday.com/2011/03/18/free-home-phone-method-uses-parts-were-familiar-with/
|
Free Home Phone Method Uses Parts We’re Familiar With
|
Mike Szczys
|
[
"home hacks"
] |
[
"analog telephone adapter",
"asterisk",
"ata",
"google voice",
"linux",
"pbx",
"telephone"
] |
[Headsheez] found
a way to get his home phone service for free
. He’s using a set of tools that we’re familiar with to route service from a typical analog phone system (which involves the extensions wired into your home) through a server to the Internet. On the hardware side of things this starts out with an Analog Telephone Adapter which translates the analog signal for use in a PBX system. He uses a copy of the open source PBX project called Asterisk which we’ve also seen
used on devices like routers
and the
SheevaPlug
. The actual telephone number comes from a Google voice account which for now is a free service but there’s no guarantee that it will remain that way in the future.
This should provide seamless service just like you’re used to with a traditional home phone line. There’s even caller ID for the number – but not the name – for incoming calls. The one big feature that is missing from this setup is the ability to call 911 for emergencies.
[via
Reddit
]
| 19
| 19
|
[
{
"comment_id": "361845",
"author": "alan",
"timestamp": "2011-03-18T13:19:25",
"content": "that’s a pretty big flaw if you can’t dial 911. yet again i’m sure he has a cellphone.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "361846",
"author": "Chris Muncy",
"timestamp": "2011-03-18T13:20:09",
"content": "Nice project. I just completed a VoIP project by using the PBX in a flsah build of Asterisk athttp://pbxinaflash.net/.The current build will use your Google voice account to receive calls and all you need to scrounge up is an ATA or a VoIP phone. THey’ve made it so easy that all you do is download the installer, answer a few questions, and it’s all built.Highly recommended",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "361848",
"author": "Andee",
"timestamp": "2011-03-18T13:22:04",
"content": "I’ve been doing this for a while now. In the UK, sipgate.co.uk provide a free inbound number, and you can dial emergency services by registering your address.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "361854",
"author": "Chris Muncy",
"timestamp": "2011-03-18T13:31:20",
"content": "I was going to use the sipgate route here in the US but they ran out of phone numbers. With the latest build of PBXiaF you no longer need that 3rd party SIP provider.All in all its a great project to be able to run VoIP at the house.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "361869",
"author": "M",
"timestamp": "2011-03-18T14:02:42",
"content": "Is there a regular 10 digit local number for 911? If so he could script asterisk to send 911 to that number instead. (Although some quick googling says that for Fairfax County at least it’s either 911 or the nonemergency line only).http://nerdvittles.com/is also a great resource for this kind of thing. They have their own Asterisk distro and have pretty good guides that are updated frequently.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "361875",
"author": "ejonesss",
"timestamp": "2011-03-18T14:14:14",
"content": "still uses the internet.i would be interested in something that uses credit card codes and colored boxes.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "361876",
"author": "John",
"timestamp": "2011-03-18T14:17:12",
"content": "I have a PBXInAFlash running at home, and it works surprisingly well. The setup was pretty simple as well. I used the guide on nerdvittles and had it up in an evening.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "361883",
"author": "Elias",
"timestamp": "2011-03-18T14:27:10",
"content": "If you need emergengy phones you can always have an old GSM without SIM card available plugged to a charger.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "361885",
"author": "Greg",
"timestamp": "2011-03-18T14:30:17",
"content": "@MThe problem with calling 911 is not a termination issue, rather it’s being identified properly in order to provide a location. Your caller id needs to contain a real number which can be cross-referenced to your address. This issue has become a big problem with nomadic or semi-nomadic services like this one. Even cell phones have some means of providing location (albeit somewhat approximate).",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "361894",
"author": "Whatnot",
"timestamp": "2011-03-18T14:46:23",
"content": "He can just route any 911 call to the number of the local police station.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "361897",
"author": "tbase",
"timestamp": "2011-03-18T14:50:33",
"content": "In most areas the simplest solution to the 911 problem is to install a jack in your house that’s hooked up to the phone company’s line. Everywhere I’ve lived you can still call 911 (and the phone company’s new service line) from a disconnected land line. If you want to get all hackey with it, you could spray-paint that phone red and rig it to automatically dial 911 when the receiver is picked up.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "361898",
"author": "Chris Muncy",
"timestamp": "2011-03-18T14:53:13",
"content": "Should be a non issue dialing 911. All you need to do is set up the correct dialing plan to detect it.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "361909",
"author": "mungewell",
"timestamp": "2011-03-18T15:18:54",
"content": "There are plenty of way of doing this; I recently discovered DD-WRT do a VoIP build with MilkFish (VoIP proxy) built in, good if you have SIP phones or SmartPhones with SIP applications.If you want the whole lot to be open source, there is a hardware project ‘Mesh Potato’ which you should check out.David is currently working on a cheap FXO port done with a micro, rather than using a pre-made ATA board.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "361942",
"author": "blkmgk",
"timestamp": "2011-03-18T15:33:06",
"content": "Did this last nit actually. Zotac MAG\\ION system, PIAF, and the IncrediblePBX script. Up and running quite fast with a softphone. Tonight I move my Linksys ATA off of the old PIAF install that used SIPgate and have handsets. No 911 is a HUGE concern but having to have calls made once a month to retain my SIPgate account was an issue of a different sort. Now I just have to worry about Google starting to charge . I have a cell, and I can even dock that with the Asterisk setup if I want using BlueTooth but it’s nice to have a second line out even if it does rely on the ‘net. Somewhere I’ve got a dedicated BT dock too – this stuff is fun to play with!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "361952",
"author": "Panikos",
"timestamp": "2011-03-18T15:33:27",
"content": "I just useCisco Linksys spa3000and service with callcentric. Not free but really cheap and expandable",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "362423",
"author": "Martin",
"timestamp": "2011-03-19T00:57:48",
"content": "I also use PBXiAF based on the nerdvittles info, very easy, I just run it on a vm for my parents",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "363053",
"author": "Mike",
"timestamp": "2011-03-19T22:43:16",
"content": "PBX in a Flash is certainly one way to do it and I think many readers of this site would enjoy exploring its capabilities. But if ALL you are wanting is to make and receive Google Voice calls for free (at least until the end of 2011) then instead of dedicating a computer or more expensive device to the purpose, in a couple of weeks you’ll be able to buy an Obihai OBi100 adapter for about $44 from Amazon. This is similar to the OBi110 that they’ve been offering for a few months now for about $50, except is has no Line port, which you don’t need anyway if there’s no PSTN line (not even a line that only works for 911) available at your location.Either device will directly connect to one or two Google Voice accounts (no Asterisk required, but if you have Asterisk you can use either device to run an Asterisk extension, and the OBi110 can be used to bring a landline into an Asterisk box). And also, calls between devices are free through the company’s “OBiTALK network. There are a few reviews and how-tos on these devices on the Michigan Telephone blog and on the Voxilla site, and various other places on the web.Note you do have the same limitations with regard to 911 – Google Voice doesn’t provide it, but if you have a landline that provide 911 you could connect it to an OBi110 and then your phone would use Google Voice for all your regular calls and send 911 calls to the landline. And also, in theory Google Voice could possibly do something that makes these devices not function with their service, but even if that happens you can still use the devices to run extensions off of your PBX in a Flash box, or a commercial VoIP provider that lets you “bring your own device.”",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "363108",
"author": "therian",
"timestamp": "2011-03-20T00:35:00",
"content": "About 911 notice that it greed of this generation, street phones do have 911 ability because reasons outweigh false positives and you parents understood that",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "375678",
"author": "Geoff",
"timestamp": "2011-04-07T19:15:53",
"content": "@MikeVery helpful post. I think I will go with the OBi instead of an Asterisk solution, which I think would be overpowered for my use at home.Again, thanks, that’s the solution I’ve been looking for.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
}
] | 1,760,377,242.16345
|
||
https://hackaday.com/2011/03/18/robot-gets-around-on-lopsided-wheels/
|
Robot Gets Around On Lopsided Wheels
|
Mike Szczys
|
[
"Robots Hacks"
] |
[
"angular momentum",
"motor",
"vibration"
] |
This
concept robot uses angular momentum to roll around
. You can see that on either end of the robot there are two discs which have been cut on one side to make them off-balance. For locomotion, two DC motors spin the outer discs which are not in contact with the floor. This spinning action exerts a force in the opposite direction on the body of the vehicle, causing it to move.
It’s not a perfect system and there is one major flaw with using this system. When the forces have equalized acceleration will stop and it will eventually come to a standstill. You can’t just stop spinning the motors because that will act as a braking mechanism. But still, it’s a concept we haven’t seen before and we love the experimentation that’s happening here. Take a look at the test footage after the break and don’t hesitate to let us know if this starts causing light bulbs to flip on above your head.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p4MFSzklKzA&w=470]
[via
Comment
and
Hacked Gadgets
]
| 16
| 16
|
[
{
"comment_id": "361774",
"author": "Stevie",
"timestamp": "2011-03-18T12:03:36",
"content": "I can’t really see any point to it. But interesting to see/know, I guess.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "361780",
"author": "guffguff",
"timestamp": "2011-03-18T12:09:48",
"content": "They should come up with a design for the spinning parts so that you can control the rotational inertia properties of them. That might be quite cool to see.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "361822",
"author": "MJD",
"timestamp": "2011-03-18T12:42:55",
"content": "why do they need to be off-balance? I would think this would work even if they were just circular (slightly better, since there would be a greater mass and thus inertia).",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "361825",
"author": "Stevie",
"timestamp": "2011-03-18T12:47:39",
"content": "@MJD – If they were circular then wouldn’t they simply spin while the device stay sin one place? The off balance wheels is what causes the inertia, right?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "361828",
"author": "JC",
"timestamp": "2011-03-18T12:51:39",
"content": "@Stevie – It will actually spin whether or not it’s off-balance. In the first video segment the wheels are not off-center. It’s the conservation of momentum that propels it, especially in this case.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "361832",
"author": "Stevie",
"timestamp": "2011-03-18T12:57:55",
"content": "Thanks for the info JC. Apart from being kind of interesting, what’s the purpose or point of this? It seems like a pretty inefficient way of moving something around.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "361853",
"author": "JC",
"timestamp": "2011-03-18T13:27:56",
"content": "@Stevie and IJ Dee-Vo – “Just because” is a very good answer. I have an idea for how to use this with something a bit more interesting, but even that is a “just because” device.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "361880",
"author": "IJ Dee-Vo",
"timestamp": "2011-03-18T14:19:38",
"content": "I wonder how many of the posts are “just becauses” which is a pretty good reason for doing anything. What happened to my post?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "361900",
"author": "Stephen Shaffer",
"timestamp": "2011-03-18T14:57:38",
"content": "I want to see him slow down one and not the other, hopefully allowing turning.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "361902",
"author": "GameboyRMH",
"timestamp": "2011-03-18T14:58:49",
"content": "I remember as a kid seeing a “rolling wheel” RC toy, I didn’t get to see it up close but I was fascinated and I assumed this is how it worked: The wheel was the outer body (imagine a hollow cylinder in contact with the ground) maybe 9″ tall, and inside it had an axle to which a motor was attached. The motor was then attached to a weight that extended close to the inner surface of the wheel, so you spin it one way and it pushes the weight forward and rolls the wheel forward, spin it the other way and you get a braking/reversing effect (like a hamster running in a ball, except it transmitted force through the axle instead of the inner surface of the ball). I imagine it shifted the weight left and right to turn.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "362015",
"author": "strider_mt2k",
"timestamp": "2011-03-18T16:25:39",
"content": "I like it.It doesn’t have to have a point beyond the intentions of the builder, who I thank for sharing the project.Building things to explore concepts is totally cool and fun, and hey, someone else could be inspired to take it further. Who knows?I know I’ve built more than a few things based on ideas I’ve gleaned from good ol’ HAD.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "362017",
"author": "andrew",
"timestamp": "2011-03-18T16:26:42",
"content": "Yea, I don’t think the wheels need to be off balance. This seems to be a more primitive version of those radio-controlled balls we’ve seen on hackaday from time to time. Except with a ball, not only can they exert force forward and backward, but they can change their center of gravity from side to side in order to turn.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "362251",
"author": "Allan Ecker",
"timestamp": "2011-03-18T20:55:57",
"content": "Neat, but I feel compelled to mention the magnificent Frisbots at this point:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rlYZt32WybQSame basic principle– nothing but the two wheels touch the ground.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "362355",
"author": "Green",
"timestamp": "2011-03-18T22:45:01",
"content": "Those background vibrations, through my subwoofer, made my stomach tickle but nothing else moved luckily :)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "363136",
"author": "r_d",
"timestamp": "2011-03-20T01:46:34",
"content": "This isn’t particularly interesting to me. Yeah, it rolls around some. The principle of operation is pretty obvious to, I think, most/all HaD readers. It’s a physical force that we’ve all experienced at some point (and probably learned in school).If he somehow found some way to make it _keep_ moving in a straight line instead of just wobbling to a halt, then it would be interesting. Presenting this problem to the reader is kind of ridiculous because it is impossible to solve without bending the rules in some way (i.e. using some principle other than angular momentum alone). It’s almost like saying “oh we found this free energy device that doesn’t quite work, anyone have any ideas?”.I also doubt that using asymmetric weights did anything. IIRC, momentum depends only on angular velocity and moment of inertia (the angular equivalent of “mass” in linear motion). The poster doesn’t seem to provide any reasoning for why asymmetric weights might cause the robot to continue rolling in one direction.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "363901",
"author": "Enrique",
"timestamp": "2011-03-21T10:30:52",
"content": "I think it may be interesting for “sealed” robots, for example, one that needs to “walk” in water. That way all the electronics and motors can be kept inside the body without any external part moving (appart from the whole body).",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
}
] | 1,760,377,241.72771
|
||
https://hackaday.com/2011/03/18/audiophile-quality-headphones-at-a-fraction-of-the-price/
|
Audiophile Quality Headphones At A Fraction Of The Price
|
Mike Nathan
|
[
"Musical Hacks"
] |
[
"headphones",
"orthodynamic"
] |
If you are in the market for a nice pair of Hi-Fi headphones, it is not uncommon to to find price tags in the range of $300-$500. [Stacy] loves her music, but she had no desire to pay that high a price for a pair of good portable cans. Instead, she upgraded a set of cheap, knock-off headphones to near-audiophile quality
for less than $50
.
She starts off by explaining the technology behind the expensive headphones you see in stores, and why the sound quality is so much better. She says the orthodynamic drivers used in these products produce far better sound due to the placement of the voice coils, and their lack of delay when producing sound.
She found a pair of orthodynamic drivers for $30 and fit them into her knock-off headphones with a reasonable amount of effort. A bit of insulation and supporting plastic was added to ensure proper mounting of the drivers, then the headset was painted and reassembled.
[Stacy] claims that the end result is easily comparable to far more expensive headsets, especially when connected to a proper amplifier. If you are looking to step up your audio game on the cheap, here’s your chance.
| 30
| 30
|
[
{
"comment_id": "361770",
"author": "}{itch",
"timestamp": "2011-03-18T11:54:27",
"content": "Those drivers would be pretty sweet for some jackhammer headphones:http://www.instructables.com/id/Jackhammer-Headphones/@Stevie, we need to talk. You’re probably not a stupid guy, I mean, you read pretty technical blogs and you posses the fine motor control necessary to operate a keyboard. But when it comes to trolling comment sections, I have to say, you’re no great master. It was a fair attempt, you might get a few white knights jumping in, and maybe you’ll get a little happy feeling knowing you’ve riled up some strangers thousands of miles away, but all in all it’s probably a D- attempt at best. You lack originality.Here is some reading material that I want you to study:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andy_KaufmanCome back when you at least posses at least modicum of wit or an original idea.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "361771",
"author": "Wisefire",
"timestamp": "2011-03-18T11:56:24",
"content": "He be trollin’",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "361772",
"author": "KanchoBlindside",
"timestamp": "2011-03-18T12:01:09",
"content": "I’m sure she’d beat him with those ‘phones for saying that. I’d back her up with an extra pair of 1979 Realistic (Radio Shack) monster airport-sized headphones (dual 9v batteries, rare model)I love this DIY. I’d have never thought of it, and this is right up my “square peg in a round hole” interest.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "361783",
"author": "Fallen",
"timestamp": "2011-03-18T12:12:06",
"content": "I won’t feed the troll.I won’t feed the troll.I won’t feed the troll.Awesome hack. I’m more of an in ear bud kind of guy (I like the superior noise suppression), but if I ever need some headphones I’ll be looking into this.Great writeup too, well laid out.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "361809",
"author": "Akoi Meexx",
"timestamp": "2011-03-18T12:40:54",
"content": "+1 to Fallen, for resisting the urge to feed trolls.I like the article, though I personally just stick with some Full Metal Jackets for anything but my desktop.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "361839",
"author": "jeff-o",
"timestamp": "2011-03-18T13:07:28",
"content": "My brother in law is big into headphone modding. He’s done several driver-swaps so far, as well as adding or removing damping materials inside the cans to change the sound. You can significantly alter the sound (for the better, with some experience!) by adding foam, blu-tack, felt and other materials. In fact, I’m using a pair of modded JVC HA-RX300 headphones that he gave me as I type this.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "361850",
"author": "Hacksaw",
"timestamp": "2011-03-18T13:24:59",
"content": "Women not capable of hacks? Jeri Ellsworth ’nuff said. Only problem I have with this hack is how ridiculous it is…Spending time to increase the quality of a pair of knock off headphones to play back mp3 that aren’t capable of producing the tones that the original drivers could handle in the first place.At least she didn’t spend $300 on them so I guess it’s worthwhile.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "361866",
"author": "fluidic",
"timestamp": "2011-03-18T13:57:30",
"content": "Orthos are old news. The main problem there has been availability, not quality.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "361878",
"author": "Hattori HANZo",
"timestamp": "2011-03-18T14:18:39",
"content": "@ HacksawGreat post. Maybe you take the time to learn how MP3 actually works.At least we agree that gender’s not a concern…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "361884",
"author": "Rob",
"timestamp": "2011-03-18T14:29:20",
"content": "Any 1337 audiopiles wanna clarify the “delay” thing? Are we talking phase distortion from a frequency-dependent response in the driver? As opposed to “I’m sitting 6 feet from my speaker so the delay is shorter than if I were 12 feet away”?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "361887",
"author": "lwatcdr",
"timestamp": "2011-03-18T14:40:42",
"content": "Where is this post from @stevie?Frankly this persons website is loaded with interesting projects. She seems to me to be a very talented hacker/maker.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "361888",
"author": "Aaron",
"timestamp": "2011-03-18T14:41:05",
"content": "LOL BALEETED",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "361890",
"author": "Aaron",
"timestamp": "2011-03-18T14:42:47",
"content": "Srsly, I like how my calling out the post author got deleted in the same breath as the sexist troll.Original hack is awesome hack. I’ve been looking for a cheap set of decent headphones, and this is probably going to be a lot easier than being lucky enough to find what I’m looking for.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "361892",
"author": "Hacksaw",
"timestamp": "2011-03-18T14:44:51",
"content": "I know very well how mp3 works,it is a lossy compression scheme.Besides that that any digital “sample” of an audio file has the inherent problem of only being able to produce frequencies of 1/2 the sample frequency (cd is 44.1 khz so the MAX frequency you will EVER get is 20,500 hz) The cheap ass “logic” brand ear buds for $4 in the checkout reproduce that.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "361901",
"author": "StacyD",
"timestamp": "2011-03-18T14:58:43",
"content": "Delay thing has to do with the fact that the whole driver is the voice coil instead of the voice coil being attached to the center of the driver. The driver can also be pulled forward and pulled back with the same intensity rather than just back like normal speakers.It is easier to think of orthodynamic as closer to electrostatic in terms of driver movement.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "362042",
"author": "Bob Jones",
"timestamp": "2011-03-18T16:58:38",
"content": "Or, instead of spending $30 on cheap headphones and $30 on drivers, you could just buy a pair of $60 Grado SR-60’s.You don’t need to spend more than $100-$150 TOPS to get cans that are as good as anyone will appreciate.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "362098",
"author": "zapa47",
"timestamp": "2011-03-18T17:37:27",
"content": "@Rob.I think they are referring to transient response of the driver. It has small mass and moves a short distance allowing it to start and stop very quickly and accurately.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transient_response",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "362102",
"author": "}{itch",
"timestamp": "2011-03-18T17:41:59",
"content": "@StacyD Interesting, I always thought that normal speakers could both push and pull.Do you reckon it would be possible to make your own orthodynamic drivers? I was thinking depositing/etching some thin metal leaf on a suitable thin plastic membrane then constructing some kind of neodymium magnet grid might work?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "362132",
"author": "Pavel",
"timestamp": "2011-03-18T18:21:22",
"content": "Here is a similar project using shooting range earmuffs:http://bit.ly/a6rNI5",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "362145",
"author": "Stevie",
"timestamp": "2011-03-18T18:35:36",
"content": "@}{itch: One can but try! Thanks for the link, I’ll read through it in the morning.James, tell us more :)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "362174",
"author": "Miah",
"timestamp": "2011-03-18T19:30:22",
"content": "@hacksaw If you read her blog she clearly states listening to FLAC files and appears to be quite a audiophile. I’m sure she’s well aware of the limitations of lossy mp3’s.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "362181",
"author": "Thinking",
"timestamp": "2011-03-18T19:39:16",
"content": "Philips SHS5200Frequency response: 12 – 24,000 HzSensitivity: 106dbThese ARE audiophile quality and are available for under $30.I wear them 24 hours a day when I’m indoors. Yes I sleep in them. They are light enough to not pinch my ears. Have been using these and earlier successor for about 8 years and since 1980(nineteenhundredandeighty) I haven’t found anything superior.Philips has been making really good electronic equipment since electronics has been.Sure, build your own headphones and have fun. But if you want a good cheap pair, look no further.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "362184",
"author": "Drew",
"timestamp": "2011-03-18T19:48:15",
"content": "Make sure you burn them in first!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "362192",
"author": "pod",
"timestamp": "2011-03-18T20:05:25",
"content": "aww my joke post quoting the Protran sexit comment to one of the latest videos from Jeri got deleted too…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "362204",
"author": "tantris",
"timestamp": "2011-03-18T20:19:17",
"content": "@ }{itch:instead of building jackhammer headphones, i just wear my normal in-ear headphones and that jackhammer hearing protector on top. great for mowing the lawn..",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "362210",
"author": "abobymouse",
"timestamp": "2011-03-18T20:28:31",
"content": "Anyone have any specs for those drivers? They’re sold as tweeters, and the website says they do best over 5 kHz.They also emit sound out of the front and back of the driver.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "362306",
"author": "Brian",
"timestamp": "2011-03-18T21:46:34",
"content": "People that don’t believe in high quality headphones have never heard them. Sure most headphones can produce all the frequencies, but not at the same crispness, distortion, intensity, etc.And MP3s will sound better through higher grade headphones than through cheap ones. My friend hooks up his nice 300 dollar headphones to a nice amp through the LOD of an iPod and it sounds amazing, like being in a different world, lol.For the average reader, stuff in the audiophile community may not make technical sense, but sometimes it produces different audio, or it may all just be bias.For example, people claiming that silver wire is better than copper and offers better sound. Technically it doesn’t really make sense, just like how oxygen free copper supposedly produces better audio, but don’t judge until you try yourself.Cool hack, only thing I’m a little concerned about it is how the enclosure/padding effects sound.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "362603",
"author": "JamesHarrison",
"timestamp": "2011-03-19T06:44:52",
"content": "There’s ‘good’ headphones that makes some music sound better by way of drivers and EQ that makes certain frequency ranges sound louder than others etc. And then you’ve got actual good headphones that have a wide, and most importantly flat frequency response. These are the sort of cans you’ll find any decent audio engineer working with – stuff like Beyerdynamic DT100s are the standard in broadcast and recording in the UK at least.Audiophile stuff is about changing the sound to make it sound better to your ears, not about making things technically better in terms of the faithful reproduction of good audio. And as far as ‘fixing’ MP3 etc with good headphones goes- you can’t polish a turd. If you throw away data via compression you can’t get it back.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "362989",
"author": "Garbz",
"timestamp": "2011-03-19T20:35:50",
"content": "@Brian. Not all audiophile stuff is technical garbage, but a lot of it is.Getting a decent “audiophile” set of speakers, and very nice amp with loads of current capacity rather than a cheap amp who’s definition of 500W 5.1 ch can only be achieved by driving one channel and multiplying by 5 makes a huge difference.For the rest of the claims I will judge before trying it. We live in a world where distortion patterns can be measured in the parts per million range. Voltages down to nanovolts. Frequencies from 0Hz up to 60GHz can be directly displayed. Basically we can measure everything there is about a 0-20kHz signal in the finest detail, yet there has never been a single measurable example of an audiophile cable of any cost being any different to any cable of sufficient size for the job. And let’s not get started on the power cables making a difference on an amp.What you hear in a nice audiophile setup is the result of great electronic design, great speaker design, and a nicely laid out listening space. Nothing more.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "363123",
"author": "therian",
"timestamp": "2011-03-20T01:08:17",
"content": "“What you hear in a nice audiophile setup is” you own guilt and shame try to justify spendings",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
}
] | 1,760,377,241.848359
|
||
https://hackaday.com/2011/03/17/free-energy-is-for-fools/
|
Free Energy Is For Fools?
|
Kevin Dady
|
[
"HackIt"
] |
[
"free energy",
"jeri ellsworth"
] |
In her new element-14 video [Jeri Ellsworth]
explains some concepts about “free to you” energy
and features the LTC3109EUF, an Auto-polarity, Ultra low Voltage Step-Up Converter and Power Manager, along with the LTC3588EMSE a Piezoelectric Energy Harvesting Power Supply.
Using the LTC3109EUF she is able to power a modified Nintendo Entertainment System, and LCD using a small generator and an exercise bike. The LTC3588EMSE is wired up to piezo’s in different applications including being squashed, vibrated, and temperature difference to power low current devices.
All this and a totally 80’s theme, so poof up your hair, get your spiked dog collar, and find those neon green shades because this is a fun and informative video available on element-14.
| 27
| 26
|
[
{
"comment_id": "361386",
"author": "Dino",
"timestamp": "2011-03-17T22:04:04",
"content": "I hope this video gets people really thinking about harvesting energy from the many sources out there. Good hacker inspiration here. I’ve got a project in mind…Also a cool flash back to the 80s. You maniac Jeri! :)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "361404",
"author": "CG",
"timestamp": "2011-03-17T22:16:45",
"content": "The future’s so bright, I gotta wear shades.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "361411",
"author": "ninp0",
"timestamp": "2011-03-17T22:35:07",
"content": "Jeri, your work is the change we want to see in this world…keep it up. :-)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "361412",
"author": "Frogz",
"timestamp": "2011-03-17T22:36:27",
"content": "and just when i was commenting “need more jeri ellsworth” on another topic :D",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "361430",
"author": "dax",
"timestamp": "2011-03-17T23:24:52",
"content": "Last year I characterized one of these LTC energy harvesters designed for a TEC (thermoelectric cooler) run backwards as a generator. The heat from my hand to ambient air was enough power up a 100m wireless transmitter, microcontroller, and temperature sensor to send packets to a host computer. The LTC chips are pretty incredible, and the datasheets are well-written.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "647187",
"author": "Jason",
"timestamp": "2012-05-08T14:39:59",
"content": "Dax,Do you have a link or more information on this concept or your project? I’m interested in anything else you may be able to share.Thanks in advance.",
"parent_id": "361430",
"depth": 2,
"replies": []
}
]
},
{
"comment_id": "361480",
"author": "t&p",
"timestamp": "2011-03-18T00:48:04",
"content": "What degree does Jeri Ellsworth have? She has done enough research for a PhD degree. Maybe 2.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "361509",
"author": "Jeditalian",
"timestamp": "2011-03-18T01:52:38",
"content": "What’s this i hear about a car that runs 700 miles using only 4 ounces of water? so far all i found was the 100miles/4oz but still, i don’t care if you only get 1 mile on 4oz of water, that’s farther than i can get 4oz of water to move anything.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "361511",
"author": "T",
"timestamp": "2011-03-18T01:53:55",
"content": "Jeri has a 6th Degree Black Belt in Awesome.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "361574",
"author": "techartisan",
"timestamp": "2011-03-18T04:12:52",
"content": "I wouldnt really consider building an inefficient bicycle generator scavenged energy…..your body is doing work…your harnessing it.Jeri rocks….but her lunch powered the bike that powered the LED.scavenged energy…..I think of all the 900mhz transmitters pumping energy into the air around us already….sap some of that power and your scavenging.Powercast has been distributing through Future electronics for nearly a year…http://www.futureelectronics.com/en/manufacturers/powercast/Pages/index.aspxand mouser for a few months now…http://www.mouser.com/powercast/",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "361659",
"author": "Max",
"timestamp": "2011-03-18T07:39:56",
"content": "Totally this. I’m really, really sick and tired of people going on and on about “free energy” (“to you” or otherwise) when what they really mean “we’ll make you work harder, and we’ll try to collect some of that energy”. The exercise-bike powered Nintendo is an excellent example of how much harder you have to work to get anything useful. I still remember regretting turning on the dynamo for the headlight on my bicycle as a kid – that was definitely not free.And yes, I am aware that in some cases one can indeed “scavenge” from the environment, what people don’t realize is how little. If all you need to power is an LCD wristwatch, or something small that needs to power up exceedingly rarely, then yes you might make it on scavenged power.I’m not having a problem with Jeri’s video here – she does a great job as always, there’s nothing untrue or exaggerated in there.But you’ll find doing anything actually useful surprisingly hard – the “free energy is for fools” crowd does have a point; unless you’re actually sitting on top of some wasted energy, like heat is in a combustion engine, you won’t do much with it. Able to flash an LED every now and then with harvested RF energy? Good for you; now let’s see someone power, say, a PIR sensor in a similar manner – something that actually requires some non-trivial amount of energy, all the time…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "361669",
"author": "Stian",
"timestamp": "2011-03-18T08:21:32",
"content": "Earthquake power plant?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "361709",
"author": "Don Petispas",
"timestamp": "2011-03-18T09:37:16",
"content": "Man I’m in love Jeri… I find myself watching any of her videos now just to see her!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "361721",
"author": "Pete",
"timestamp": "2011-03-18T09:52:13",
"content": "What I would like to see is a kindle powered by something like this. Either heat from your hand, solar or radio waves i am sure enough power could be trickled to it so it never need be plugged in.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "361732",
"author": "hubert",
"timestamp": "2011-03-18T10:11:02",
"content": "Wow, thats really cool, this is the real free energy. But the electrical generator is somewhat inefficient, i think this low efficiency generator is used to show principles of energy harvesting. When spinning on such a bike one should get 50-200Watt per person, so let us equip all those exercise bikes in fitness centers with a high eff. generator.For the german readers: In the magazine Elektor jan. 2011 you can read more about energy harvesting they use dickson chargepump with old germanium transistors, or casaded MAX1044 chips, and other, for hobbyists easy to get parts.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "361739",
"author": "steaky",
"timestamp": "2011-03-18T10:34:58",
"content": "The thing that gets me is the amount of wasted energy when people exercise. Sure people have to work hard to generate electricity, but they are exercising to burn energy…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "361746",
"author": "Stevie",
"timestamp": "2011-03-18T11:00:31",
"content": "At one gym I used to frequent, you had to pedal a minimum amount to power up the device that allowed you to choose which tv station to listen to and output the audio to your headphones. Good incentive! Wanna listen to the Simpsons? Get pedalling!I often go out riding my bike for no other reason than exercise. I’ve been wondering if it would be possible to create some kind of stand for it, in order to turn it into an indoors exercise bike. The problem would be that the wheels would turn far too freely.If a solution to the above problem could be solved and I could charge some batteries or power my laptop/TV while I’m exercising, that would be great!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "361749",
"author": "Dino",
"timestamp": "2011-03-18T11:17:09",
"content": "@ MaxI think you should get to work on something that will power a PIR sensor.Jeri’s video is meant to inspire… and it seems that it’s working. :)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "361751",
"author": "Stevie",
"timestamp": "2011-03-18T11:18:39",
"content": "Update to my previous post:It seems like a DIY bike roller/trainer would do the job. I wonder how much work it would be to modify a commercial bike headlight that’s powered by your cycling to power something more useful (e.g charging a laptop). Can anyone take a guess at how much work would be involved?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "361769",
"author": "Cap Howdy",
"timestamp": "2011-03-18T11:48:10",
"content": "@Stevie, why not forget about modifying the headlight and hook the generator up to the roller/trainer? That way you can power what you like.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "361802",
"author": "rry",
"timestamp": "2011-03-18T12:27:17",
"content": "@stevie kurtkinetic.com cyclops and a number of other bike manufacturers make home trainers that serve as a mount for the back wheel of a bike that can be ridden. A powertap hub can be purchased and used to measure the wattage output at the chain/wheel interface. There isn’t much as far as power output on a bike that hasn’t been explored. Most professional cycling athletes know how much power they can consistently produce. I recall reading that Lance Armstrong could put out 700W consistently over 6 hours. But I could only find where he averaged 495 W in a race. Most of us would be pressed to do 200W, barely enough to power the CPU box of a 486. The old dynamo lights that rubbed on the wheel have been around for years, but they really really slow you down. With new torch flashlights being mounted on bike handlebars putting out 900 lumens, the power requirements per lumen have gotten much more efficient over time.To answer your question about retrofitting lights for charging, I think the devilish details would be in keeping your power signal conditioned/consistent. You would have to store charge with a super capacitor and then regulate the voltage down for the device. I could not tell you what sort of efficiency to expect.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "361827",
"author": "fartface",
"timestamp": "2011-03-18T12:50:35",
"content": "Free energy is easy to obtain if you dont mind doing it parasitically.A nice huge coil of wire set up on a frame under high voltage power lines gives you free energy quite easily.Plugging a extension cord into the neighbors also gives you free energy easily.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "361857",
"author": "Roberto",
"timestamp": "2011-03-18T13:38:27",
"content": "The peltier wristband calculator is amazing. Way to reduce the world’s entropy!!!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "361858",
"author": "hubert",
"timestamp": "2011-03-18T13:40:58",
"content": "@fartface, nice idea, i know people which powered their fluorescent lamps, in their altoment gardens, nearby a radio transmitting station via a short wire antenna, maybe a tuned (tesla) resonator as power receiver wold do a better job. But it is against the law here in germany, called electrical power theft, so it is not really free energy.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "361868",
"author": "hubert",
"timestamp": "2011-03-18T14:00:10",
"content": "To all those who tries to find free energy, there is so much energy wasted. trying not to waste it is my way of free energy. Last year I saved nearly 20% electrical energy by finding and eliminating wasted energy. ie. writing this on an old laptop, instead turning on my power machine wwich sucks around 400W.not using my tumble dryer. Using an old 400W vacuum instead of my new 2200W cylone vac. But also the tiny thing matters, like plugging of TV and others instead of letting them consume standby current.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "361912",
"author": "Paul",
"timestamp": "2011-03-18T15:20:28",
"content": "fartface:While that is free energy, it is also illegal.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "364147",
"author": "walt",
"timestamp": "2011-03-21T16:36:47",
"content": "to all you pussies who keep bringing up the legality of HACKS, let me remind you; the site is called HACK a day for HACKERS (and general retarded public) to read up on HACKS. the logo is based on a pirates skull n’ crossbones. if the content offends you, please spend your time visiting disney.com and take up a scrap-booking hobby or something.by the way, schwing @ 4:22",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
}
] | 1,760,377,241.927159
|
||
https://hackaday.com/2011/03/17/lcd-twofer/
|
LCD Twofer
|
Kevin Dady
|
[
"Misc Hacks"
] |
[
"lcd"
] |
Inexpensive character LCDs are a popular choice for outputting data on many projects. Easily controlled , often back lit, and compact. If you have not found a reason to get one yet, here are a couple.
First up is a P
rogrammable digital timer switch
. Based around a PIC15f628A micro controller this handy little device allows you to set both on and off times to switch (light duty) devices through its relay. A standard 16×2 LCD , piezo buzzer, and 4 push buttons offer the device’s I / O. The four buttons are assigned to on / off time, select, enter, and start / stop making it easy for anyone to use. All this and sporting a clean perf-board layout which often goes out the window when using jumper wire.
Next for the AVR crowd is a
LCD Name badge
. Powered by a Attiny 2313 and using another 16×2 LCD, this time in blue this large, but functional name badge is ready to give out all the information people need on you while boasting your nerd credit.
Source and schematics are available for both, and yes we know these little gadgets are not exactly earth shattering so that is why we invite you to share your LCD projects on quite possibly the most awesome forum ever, the
Hack A Day forums,
we even have a little spot setup just for project logs.
But first join us after the break for a couple quick videos.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2sqcIDupEhg&w=450]
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qHc7IbYLTcM&w=450]
| 13
| 13
|
[
{
"comment_id": "360985",
"author": "Fallen",
"timestamp": "2011-03-17T14:23:48",
"content": "I found it was a nightmare to get those LCDs to work with my PIC…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "361000",
"author": "Dave",
"timestamp": "2011-03-17T14:52:32",
"content": "The HD44780 interface is kinda quirky and time dependent. Fortunately, it’s been done so many times you can download somebody’s code or library and use that for just about any micro.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "361001",
"author": "SDC",
"timestamp": "2011-03-17T14:56:42",
"content": "A badge like that would be nice for a job fair or such things. Either people will be impressed or repulsed by your geekiness, and you don’t want to work for people in the latter category anyway.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "361002",
"author": "Rob",
"timestamp": "2011-03-17T14:56:43",
"content": "Although probably most everyone here knows, there are several handy plastic cases with LCD cutouts and mounting bosses from companies like pactec and polycase. Very nifty when making a hack more durable/portable/less-scary-to-the-normals.One of my favorite LCD hacks was an Amiga status display. I started but never completed assembling a copy, the project being interrupted by returning to college in the fall and never picked up again. I think I found it in a now defunct Amiga magazine, but haven’t been able to locate either the old mag or any reference on the web.Microchip has a cool ap-note that uses an LCD with an X-10 controller circuit. I’ve been tinkering with a variation on it. Maybe I’ll get that done before something else comes up . . .@Fallen, you probably already figured yours out, but it can help to start with a working design and hack from there.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "361009",
"author": "justme2",
"timestamp": "2011-03-17T15:01:35",
"content": "are there lcds made that don’t require so many connections to the the processor?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "361019",
"author": "bogdan",
"timestamp": "2011-03-17T15:15:46",
"content": "@justme2 yes, there are some that connect via a serial port, but they are expensive due to the lower demand.You can always use a shift register and control the lcd via 3 pins, but that requires another IC.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "361020",
"author": "nate",
"timestamp": "2011-03-17T15:16:11",
"content": "I checked the source code for the first one, and it looks like something is missing (couldn’t find the LCD_x() functions anywhere). I’m not sure exactly how these are being used, since I’ve only worked with 7-seg displays in the past. Is there serial communication between the MCU and the LCD (+ driver???), or is there some kind of multiplexing going on?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "361044",
"author": "mess_maker",
"timestamp": "2011-03-17T15:54:11",
"content": "@justme2 well, you could use a shift register and bring your mcu connections down to three wires… or is it two?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "361045",
"author": "mess_maker",
"timestamp": "2011-03-17T15:55:43",
"content": "sorry, the page sat there unrefreshed for a long while before I replied… didn’t mean to echo bogdan.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "361049",
"author": "alan",
"timestamp": "2011-03-17T16:04:26",
"content": "The Name Badge is an amazing idea. Especially for people looking for intern jobs. I wouldn’t wear it to an interview, but i would wear it to a job fair. being socially inept to starting a convo smoothly can be fixed by them asking what the hell you’re wearing.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "361056",
"author": "Daid",
"timestamp": "2011-03-17T16:14:17",
"content": "At slightly more money you can get one of the Nokia 6610 displays. Which is 12bit color 128×128 graphical in 1×1 inch. It only requires SPI (you could get away with 2 wires if you hardware the chipselect and backlight pins)It’s a bit more tricky to control, but there are quite a few examples on the web.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "361197",
"author": "deathventure",
"timestamp": "2011-03-17T18:40:41",
"content": "@jsutme2,Those LCD’s can be connected using only 4 processor pins. You could connect all 8 data pins, but not necessary.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "361241",
"author": "js",
"timestamp": "2011-03-17T19:20:23",
"content": "@deathventureYou can connect only 4 of the data pins, but you still need at least two other pins (E and RS).",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
}
] | 1,760,377,241.977379
|
||
https://hackaday.com/2011/03/17/writing-python-drivers-for-input-devices/
|
Writing Python Drivers For Input Devices
|
Mike Szczys
|
[
"Linux Hacks",
"Peripherals Hacks"
] |
[
"driver",
"Joystick",
"python",
"usb"
] |
[Stealth] put together a post explaining
how he writes drivers for input peripherals
. He’s using Python which makes the process fairly painless (we’ll get to that in a minute) but the value of his post is in the explanation surrounding how to interpret the data. Once you know how the communications are coming in from a device you can write the driver using any language you want. [Stealth] wrote in to let us know about this post after reading the
PlayStation 3 Sixaxis controller sniffing hack
. He’s pretty much doing the same thing but the background information is much more bountiful.
There are a couple of prerequisites to the process. First, [Stealth] is working in a Linux environment. That’s not to say you couldn’t do this on another OS, but you’re going to need to do some research to find out how to tap into the data stream from the device. Secondly, the input you are working with must already be set up and working on the machine. That means if there isn’t any support at all for the peripheral (in this case a USB joystick) you’re not going to be able to sniff the commands. That being said, a short Python snippet is all you need to dump the raw data coming in from the device. With data in hand it’s time to do some pattern hunting. As you start to figure out the size and scope of the incoming packets you can try out your own code to make sure you’ve got it right. Check out the demo video after the break which features a joystick button mapper written in Python.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WYaSHPWjU_E&w=470]
| 9
| 7
|
[
{
"comment_id": "360941",
"author": "icebrain",
"timestamp": "2011-03-17T13:12:30",
"content": "If you want to develop Python drivers for peripherals which are not support at all, try PyUSB:http://pyusb.sourceforge.net/docs/1.0/tutorial.html",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "360951",
"author": "adam outler",
"timestamp": "2011-03-17T13:34:55",
"content": "I wrote a driver for my bluetooth obd2 dongle in bash. You can use any language.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "361173",
"author": "dan",
"timestamp": "2011-03-17T18:09:49",
"content": "I built one of those for a tv remote, but it looks like I used struct.unpack to unpack the buttons into integers rather than reading them as characters. Pretty cool, I’ve not seen very many other examples of Python drivers.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "362898",
"author": "Zogg",
"timestamp": "2011-03-19T17:30:27",
"content": "This is not a “driver” as it operates in userland and nor in kernel space…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "772279",
"author": "kandy4me",
"timestamp": "2012-09-05T14:12:16",
"content": "In Windows at least, there are both user-mode and kernel-mode drivers — just because it doesn’t touch the kernel doesn’t mean it isn’t a driver! I’d imagine it would be the same for *nix systems too — there are aspects of a driver that do need the nitty-gritty OS to do the dirty work (Kernel), but then you just need to do some parsing, formatting, etc. that can be done anywhere (User space).Always good practice to separate the two, you don’t want to throw bugs into the kernel-side of things!",
"parent_id": "362898",
"depth": 2,
"replies": []
}
]
},
{
"comment_id": "363520",
"author": "Jorg",
"timestamp": "2011-03-20T19:39:22",
"content": "This guy did something like this:http://www.engenhariadequintal.com/2011/03/usb-device-drivers-em-python-parte-1.htmlHe`s trying to control some bogus usb-to-parallel port adaptorvery nice!!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "773861",
"author": "Michael",
"timestamp": "2012-09-06T12:52:43",
"content": "Anyone have a copy of the the article? Getting a 404 error when trying the link.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "776636",
"author": "Mark",
"timestamp": "2012-09-08T17:37:40",
"content": "Try the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine. It has it.Here’s the link.http://web.archive.org/web/20110612181604/http://www.stealth-x.com/programming/driver-writing-with-python.php",
"parent_id": "773861",
"depth": 2,
"replies": []
}
]
},
{
"comment_id": "2828704",
"author": "anjlesh",
"timestamp": "2015-12-08T07:12:17",
"content": "We are not able to recieve patient’s record lab test result done by machine data from the Cobas c311 blood test biochemistry Analyzer (Following ASTM Protocal ) to seperate host machine(pc )using rs232 port .I thing we require one driver program for reading ASTM message coming from analyzer. Now the problem is just to dump the complete ASTM messages (from the Analyser to host) in a single file , ‘automatically’ i.e without user intervention. From that file we can extract out necessary information.1) Setting the serial port parameters i.e baud rate,parity,stop bits etc.2) Wait for the data to come, receive it and dump it in a file in real time.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
}
] | 1,760,377,242.021221
|
||
https://hackaday.com/2011/03/17/researchers-discover-that-cars-can-be-hacked-with-music/
|
Researchers Discover That Cars Can Be Hacked With Music
|
Mike Nathan
|
[
"Security Hacks",
"Transportation Hacks"
] |
[
"automotive",
"mp3",
"security"
] |
In 2009, [Dr. Stefan Savage] and his fellow researchers published a paper describing how they were able to take control of a car’s computer system by tapping into the CAN Bus via the OBD port. Not satisfied with having to posses physical access to a car in order to hack the computer system, they continued probing away, and found
quite a few more attack vectors
.
Some of the vulnerabilities seem to be pretty obvious candidates for hacking. The researchers found a way to attack the Bluetooth system in certain vechicles, as well as cellular network systems in others. Injecting malicious software into the diagnostic tools used at automotive repair shops was quite effective as well. The most interesting vulnerability they located however, was pretty unexpected.
The researchers found that some car entertainment systems were susceptible to specially-crafted MP3 files. The infected songs allowed them to inject malicious code into the system when burned to a CD and played. While this sort of virus could spread fairly easily with the popularity of P2P file sharing, it would likely be pretty useless at present.
The researchers say that while they found lots of ways in which it was possible to break into a car’s computer system, the attacks are difficult to pull off, and the likelihood that they would occur in the near future is pretty slim.
It does give food for thought however. As disparate vehicle systems become more integrated and cars become more connected via wireless technologies, who knows what will be possible? We just hope to never see the day where we are offered an anti-malware subscription with a new car purchase – at that point, we’ll just ride our bike, thanks.
[Picture courtesy of
Autoblog
]
| 32
| 31
|
[
{
"comment_id": "360909",
"author": "wosser",
"timestamp": "2011-03-17T12:14:29",
"content": "So that’s why my Veyron always stalls out when Justin Beiber is on the radio.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "959998",
"author": "Shelly Donowan",
"timestamp": "2013-02-14T10:28:39",
"content": "Yeahhh Awesome xD!",
"parent_id": "360909",
"depth": 2,
"replies": []
}
]
},
{
"comment_id": "360915",
"author": "hekilledmywire",
"timestamp": "2011-03-17T12:28:11",
"content": "Epic fail above…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "360922",
"author": "fartface",
"timestamp": "2011-03-17T12:38:51",
"content": "KEY here is SOME… I’m betting in reality it’s ONE. and a poorly designed one at that.Honestly this is all overhype. It’s a group of researchers trying to keep in the limelight for their “research”… most of us in the car engine and system modding scene have known about their “exploits” for a decade.. and they are not exploits, no matter how “leet” they want to be. Its sending commands on the data bus, nothing more.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "360934",
"author": "holly_smoke",
"timestamp": "2011-03-17T13:00:21",
"content": "Maybe it is just “sending data on the data bus”, but the fact is – downloaded content from the internet, when burned to a CD and plugged into an in car media device should not be able to access the same data bus as key safety devices such as speedo or brakes.Maybe you have known about this for 10 years, but this research in question was carried out on a 2009 vehicle. So obviously the motor manufacturers are not as clued up as yourself.Personally I think that it is a good thing that this research is carried out and published so the manufacturers can design out these bugs before they become a real issue.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "360940",
"author": "Aeros",
"timestamp": "2011-03-17T13:11:24",
"content": "“anti-malware subscription with a new car purchase”..too funny",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "360946",
"author": "jeff-o",
"timestamp": "2011-03-17T13:22:55",
"content": "Let’s see them hack my 98 Mercury Mystique. It’s got about as much electronics as a hair dryer.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "360956",
"author": "La[bRat]",
"timestamp": "2011-03-17T13:38:45",
"content": "It’s not really music though, is it? I mean, most in-car CD players have had a firmware upgrade feature for a while. What’s the easiest way to upgrade the firmware on a CD player? Save the binary file to a CD and let the CD player load it.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "360969",
"author": "h3llphyre",
"timestamp": "2011-03-17T13:52:12",
"content": "I have a lot of doubts of their claims. They’ve been working on exploiting GM’s GMLAN thus far. Having dabbled in this myself (I own a GM vehicle that’s highly connected), the accessory bus is NOT connected to the same bus that the critical systems are. Sure, they can play with the windows, locks, and TPMS (Tire Pressure Monitor System), but the PCM and TCM (what control the engine and transmission) are not accessible through the means they describe.Now, if they figured out how to call in to the onstar box, that’s a different story. OnStar has access to both the GMLAN highspeed (engine/trans) and lowspeed (body control, entertainment) and could wreak some serious havoc.End of the day, nothing to see here, move along.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "360973",
"author": "ChalkBored",
"timestamp": "2011-03-17T14:00:03",
"content": "Sony rootkit on your Civic.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "360979",
"author": "KebertXela",
"timestamp": "2011-03-17T14:11:45",
"content": "Whew, it is a good thing h3llphyre is here to clear everything up. Obviously he is far better versed in this sort of thing than a group of researchers that have PHDs because he “owns a GM vehicle that’s highly connected”.Please.The fact that I own a Hi-Def TV or a microwave doesn’t make me an electrical engineer, even if I have dabbled in a few microwave dinners.You don’t really need access to the engine, just the same bus on which the ignition sits – which is the same as windows, locks, etc. – especially in cars that are keyless.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "360996",
"author": "griffon",
"timestamp": "2011-03-17T14:46:19",
"content": "what they are talking about “specially crafted MP3” means that they have found a buffer overflow exploitation vector in the media system’s MP3 player stack, so they have control over that micro processor, and then they can send data to anything connected to that (over the shared bus).",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "361013",
"author": "yonsje",
"timestamp": "2011-03-17T15:09:15",
"content": "Does this remind anyone else of the X-files episode “killswitch”?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "361014",
"author": "xorpunk",
"timestamp": "2011-03-17T15:09:33",
"content": "Heap overflow and OBD..who cares..let them hack the crypto or GPS and someone might not yawn when reading about their research.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "361023",
"author": "Necromant",
"timestamp": "2011-03-17T15:21:06",
"content": "1. Buy a car2. Install gentoo on it???3. PROFIT!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "361071",
"author": "jim",
"timestamp": "2011-03-17T16:30:27",
"content": "Altering the firmware of a CD player has no effect on the ECU, which in turn is unrelated to the locks. It’s just scaremongering for the sake of it.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "361077",
"author": "jim",
"timestamp": "2011-03-17T16:35:13",
"content": "@griffon: what they most likely found is that how firmware update feature is initiated. My money’s on the CD’s TOC, and that is never uploaded to P2P.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "361140",
"author": "Sodor",
"timestamp": "2011-03-17T17:31:32",
"content": "1.- Hack your car.2.- Add a nokia color LCD.3.- try to run DOOM.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "361171",
"author": "paul",
"timestamp": "2011-03-17T18:08:03",
"content": "i agree. the first time I hear the word mcafee or norton I’m walking",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "361206",
"author": "JB",
"timestamp": "2011-03-17T18:55:28",
"content": "I dare them hack my 1995 Geo Tracker! :P",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "361326",
"author": "ewookie",
"timestamp": "2011-03-17T20:53:13",
"content": "adding all this crap like WiFi to cars is just f|_|cking nonsense. it’s just like computers. a p4 3ghz with windowsxp is all you really needed 4 or 5 years ago. however, the industry wants you to keep buying and they have to have some justification for you to keep buying and for the prices to stay stationary instead of going down…add more sh!t.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "361329",
"author": "ewookie",
"timestamp": "2011-03-17T20:56:56",
"content": "what we really need are light-weight, fuel-efficient cars. if we need cars that are connected to the internet and can park or drive themselves, we should be on a f |_|cking train or bus.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "361429",
"author": "t&p",
"timestamp": "2011-03-17T23:21:07",
"content": "if your cars have OBDII system then you have the same CAN bus system. Its just your cars are old and busted so they don’t have all the nice bluetooth and mp3 playing shit connected to the car’s computer. But your power locks and windows would be in question for an attack vector!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "361498",
"author": "Grayda",
"timestamp": "2011-03-18T01:34:14",
"content": "Sony rootkit in your car? I smell a lawsuit because it’s using Sony products on non-authorized hardware.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "361508",
"author": "Jayson",
"timestamp": "2011-03-18T01:51:17",
"content": "And so Skynet begins….",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "361530",
"author": "Jeditalian",
"timestamp": "2011-03-18T02:26:31",
"content": "where you see a problem, i see potential..GET TO THE BACKTRACKMOBILE!Play ‘slow ride’ and your car is speed governed to like 15mph.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "361536",
"author": "Anonymous",
"timestamp": "2011-03-18T02:40:02",
"content": "This is why I drive a 1967 Dart with the 225 slant six and a two-barrel carb. No Skynet in this car!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "361550",
"author": "zeroTolerance",
"timestamp": "2011-03-18T03:17:45",
"content": "program the car to stall at a given distance, say in the desert, and then you have a sitting duck victim. I for one don’t like the idea of some punk robbing me, literally or “for services rendered,” and I certainly wouldn’t like to die because I couldn’t unlock the doors or roll the windows down in the hot sun.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "361867",
"author": "h3llphyre",
"timestamp": "2011-03-18T13:57:39",
"content": "@KebertXelaI’m actually an electrical engineer, I’ve done professional work with CANBus, I just happen to tinker with my own equipment at home. I’ve read their paper (both of them) and although their results are real, it’s not to the level that the news is sensationalizing it.In GM vehicles, there are two systems that bridge the two buses (Known as GMLAN highspeed and lowspeed). OnStar is one and it’s relatively secure. The other is the DIC (Driver Information Center) which is a display on the dashboard. The DIC can only be reprogrammed by taking it out of the car and connecting to the unpopulated headers on the PCB itself. OnStar is the same way, except the physical box is MUCH easier to access (mounted in the trunk, held on with plastic tabs).The ignition system is NOT part of the body control module (BCM), it is tied to the PCM (Powertrain Control Module). The factory remote start is also tied to the PCM (GMLAN Highspeed bus). The factory remote start actually sends a message over the CANBus to the PCM to initiate a start procedure (the locks are hardwired to the remote start module, not on the bus).All of that being said, what they’ve shown is that if you can get a device connected to the GMLAN Highspeed Bus, you can wreak havoc. It *is* a concern, as 99.99% of people would NEVER notice something plugged into the OBD2 connector (it’s in the driver foot well) and it’s a lot more dangerous than the old tried and true “cut the brake lines” as it’s not noticeable until it’s triggered.Either way, figured I’d give more information, rather than feed the troll.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "362582",
"author": "clay",
"timestamp": "2011-03-19T05:38:36",
"content": "I am assuming that this article has come to light because of this:http://www.reddit.com/r/technology/comments/fj04r/reddit_the_dealership_told_me_that_pirated_music",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "362667",
"author": "mykeyfinn",
"timestamp": "2011-03-19T09:33:36",
"content": "I can see it now, Jailbreak your car and get better gas mileage. I know if I ever get a car newer than 1985 Ill probably be hacking it myself, and who knows play a CD to remove the system governor would be pretty cool.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "368070",
"author": "Malikaii",
"timestamp": "2011-03-26T14:17:13",
"content": "zeroTolerance: You would die before breaking the windows of your car?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
}
] | 1,760,377,242.330278
|
||
https://hackaday.com/2011/03/17/the-basics-of-controlling-an-arduino-with-php/
|
The Basics Of Controlling An Arduino With PHP
|
Mike Szczys
|
[
"Arduino Hacks",
"Linux Hacks"
] |
[
"apache",
"php",
"serial",
"ubuntu",
"usb"
] |
You can easily add Internet-based control for your Arduino if it is close enough to your server to be connected via USB.
This tutorial will give the basics you need
to get it working.
The gist of this method involves a webpage that includes PHP elements. When one of those elements is manipulated, a command is sent via serial connection to the Arduino which then reacts based on what it received. This example uses an Ubuntu box that is running an Apache server. The Arduino sketch sets up the serial connection and then listens for incoming traffic. Whenever it receives a non-zero character an LED will blink. On the server side of things you’ll need to make sure that the system user that runs Apache (www-data) has permission to write to a serial port.
This base example may seem extremely simple, but there’s no end to what you can build on top of it. Different PHP events can be added to push new commands over the serial connection with matching test conditions added to the sketch.
[Thanks Jarryd]
| 23
| 23
|
[
{
"comment_id": "360878",
"author": "Michael",
"timestamp": "2011-03-17T11:06:43",
"content": "Yeah i used this for a project, but abandoned it, because PHP -> Arduino works great, but Arduino -> PHP works really bad. And there’s not really anything else out there that can. Basically, you want Arduino outputted messages to be read by PHP, but that’s not currently possible. I mean if you send out serial.out(“sometext”) in Arduino PHP will nog be able to read it!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "360885",
"author": "hudson",
"timestamp": "2011-03-17T11:25:59",
"content": "Why the heck someone would like to use arduino with php? There is nothing wrong with php(Not a flamebait, really). But I mean I think that for real one should use a bit more robust language? Like C, C++ or JAVA, Python?PHP also limits the maximum script run time and is ment for totally different usage scenes..",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "360891",
"author": "PodeCoet",
"timestamp": "2011-03-17T11:33:28",
"content": "@MichaelI don’t know much about Arduinos, but I’m guessing they work similar to PICs/AVRs code-wise (in the sense that you have access to UART receive interrupts)A work-around for the issue you mentioned would be to make it poll-based; ie: we have an interrupt that waits for a special qualifier or ‘attention word’ to be received on the RX line of your microcontroller. Once the character is received, the microcontroller sends its status update, it becomes like a PING? PONG!, kinda sorta QA session.The PHP script can then occasionally/automagically (say, every few seconds) send the qualifier to the microcontroller, which will then reply with its status or anything else you want to send to the PC…Of course, there’s a default maximum execution time for PHP scripts (30 seconds I believe), so it’s best to call the polling routine from your browser using AJAX/javascript, rather than leaving the script running for so long. If you’re game and there’s no urgency for the responses, you can run the polling PHP script as a scheduled task or cron job, and have the responses stored in a table, etcNot the best solution, but it’ll work!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "360892",
"author": "PodeCoet",
"timestamp": "2011-03-17T11:37:22",
"content": "@hudsenHeh unforutunately PHP is more “n00b friendly’ than the other languages you’ve mentioned, it’s also interpreted. I agree though, there’s alot of potential issues – Python would’ve been a great alternative.That said, I’m guilty of using PHP-CLI for general purpose scripting on occasion, I can be as retardedly inefficient as I bloody well want :P",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "360895",
"author": "Michael",
"timestamp": "2011-03-17T11:38:00",
"content": "@hudson simply because they want something done from the web? for every other kind of project yeah, use a more robust language :)@PodeCoet I understand your solution, thing is, Arduino can’t really ‘send’ anything else then Serial messages. the class used can’t read those, so there’s no duplex communication. get what i mean? so it doesn’t matter what you send, it won’t arrive ‘in’ PHP. At least this is what i found out. If some uber PHP guru can make Arduino tell PHP stuff, please let me know :)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "360910",
"author": "PodeCoet",
"timestamp": "2011-03-17T12:17:23",
"content": "@MichaelForgive me if I’m wrong – It appears as though the PHP class supports both read and write capability – there’s a function called readPort() in the PHP class (line 470), which is able to read a byte of data from the servers serial FIFO (you can chose to read one, many or all characters), Linux only of course.Looking at the Arduino commandset, there’s serial.read() and serial.write()Could one not send ‘something’ to the Arduino using the PHP class, then immediately call readPort() and wait for the Arduinos response or a timeout occurs? Simplex communication, but it’ll workThis is the exact same way Parallax’s one-wire ‘serial’ thermopile sensors work",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "360912",
"author": "Michael",
"timestamp": "2011-03-17T12:21:28",
"content": "@PodeCoet you’re right, I tried that but somehow it didn’t work. Maybe someone else got it to work?Maybe it had something to do with the baud rate but i think i got that right, otherwise the PHP -> Arduino wouldn’t work either right?Maybe i’ll give it a new try later on, to see if i was correct.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "360932",
"author": "fartface",
"timestamp": "2011-03-17T12:58:36",
"content": "Nice, but I prefer rs232 as it’s universal and allows me to hook up 5 arduinos and address them all from the same port. Cant do that with the low grade USB consumer connection.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "360977",
"author": "Daid",
"timestamp": "2011-03-17T14:06:39",
"content": "@fartface: rs232 is NOT multi slave. And just a point to point connection.You’re looking for rs422 or rs485, which support multiple devices on a single bus.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "360981",
"author": "Daniel",
"timestamp": "2011-03-17T14:15:15",
"content": "aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaargh PHP",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "361032",
"author": "rizla",
"timestamp": "2011-03-17T15:38:37",
"content": "Whoever said you can have php read incoming serial and send data via serial clearly hasnt really tried.When i first attempted to use php-cli (Disclosure: i’m more familiar with php than any other scripting language, so i used php-cli for my “scripting”) I tried to to use the php serial library thats floating out there.I found that script if left running ends up going apeshit consuming resources. So i found, a “clever” solution to read data from the arduino.I use linux (ubuntu, yea go figure..) and since you can easily read/write from /dev/ttyUSB* I decided to create a little shell script that runs infinity that cats the output received from ttyUSB* to a flat file ( cat /dev/ttyUSB* | tee file.txt I used tee so i could also see the output that was written to the file in my term)A file gets created in some working dir php has access to. Then i created my php script that loops while true, to check the file, read the contents then parse each line of data. I have a counter that keeps track of what the last line read in the loop was, saves it to a variable so that the next time the loop increments it doesnt read the file from the top again, just the last lines that were written since the loop last checked.Its resource intensive and i have a great way of reading data and acting intelligently on it.For sending data to the arduino from php. Once again, i cheated and used the backtick `//send data`echo “$mydatforduino” >> /dev/ttyUSB*`;There you go. FYI, this works in full duplex. I’ve tested it and use it for one of my projects using 8 xbees talking to one computer running the php parsing script.In summary, is it wise to use php to handle the serial reading/writing. My testing has proven no. Is it ok to use php to do intelligent things once you have the data? Yes, by all means if thats what you are comfortable with go ahead and write a script that does what you want. Is it production worthy? thats up to your target.Also, note if you use xbee’s. You will get flakey comm every now and then. Make sure you configure the xbee’s themselves properly (be mindful of the ATRR, retry rate. It helps make sure no corruption happens). Also, add integrity checking in your script so that you know if you have a bad string of data otherwise you can get junk data.Just use some sort of delimeters for your start of string and end of string. Then parse the string looking for your delimeters.Sorry for the long post, but i figured i’d share what I’ve had pretty good results with.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "361034",
"author": "rizla",
"timestamp": "2011-03-17T15:41:39",
"content": "Crap.. I meant to say that my solution is NOT resource intensive. barely hits the cpu and i’m running this script on an old eeePC netbook.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "361105",
"author": "shorts",
"timestamp": "2011-03-17T17:01:58",
"content": "@PodeCoet, @michaeljust send the information back through the url…GETOr did I misunderstand your situation?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "361112",
"author": "mdonoughe",
"timestamp": "2011-03-17T17:11:11",
"content": "What happens if you get two requests simultaneously?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "361134",
"author": "rizla",
"timestamp": "2011-03-17T17:27:16",
"content": "In my case i was using an xbee for my serial comm. the xbee protocol should take care of multiple requests happening at once. obviously there would be some error checking. Thats why i recommended setting the ATRR setting to something other than zero so that if it fails (if a collision or some other event) it will resend. By default the ATRR is set to zero. I set mine at 2 retries.If you’re using just a straight serial cable i dont see how you would have two requests coming in simultaneously. Since its serial afterall.Another thing that could help preventing corruption (assuming your doing wireless via xbee) is by increasing the baudrate so that the packets get there faster. Default is 9600, i upped mine to 57600 (ATBD 6)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "361136",
"author": "mdonoughe",
"timestamp": "2011-03-17T17:29:59",
"content": "@rizia: Starting to read at a certain line number involves reading the entire file up to that point to look for new line characters. Can you save the offset from the beginning of the file to the end and seek/skip back to that position the next time you read? You could possibly improve it further by waiting for filesystem notifications instead of polling the file(although that means that you’ll timeout if the Arduino doesn’t respond).",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "361147",
"author": "rizla",
"timestamp": "2011-03-17T17:36:23",
"content": "@mdonougheThats a good tip thats possibly worth implementing to help speed things up a bit, but given that its not super time sensitive in nature the current approach works. I’ll have to check to see what sort of seek/skip functions php has built in. Writing the whole contents of a couple hundred k file, then only parsing the last nth string does seem to be the kludgy way. The more i think of it, i’m going to check your approach out.thanks!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "361152",
"author": "mdonoughe",
"timestamp": "2011-03-17T17:40:47",
"content": "Oh, I meant two web requests coming in at once. I’m guessing that a proper serial library will only allow one request to go through, causing the other to return an error instead.With a pipe into /dev/ttyUSB, it’s possible your requests could become mixed like “GET GET a a” instead of “GET a GET a”. The kernel probably (unintentionally) prevents this for small messages so long as you send the entire message using a single echo.Depending on your protocol, you might mix up your responses from the serial port when sending them back to the client.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "361266",
"author": "Taylor Alexander",
"timestamp": "2011-03-17T19:36:26",
"content": "Man, there is a lot of misunderstandings going on on this page!1) The post is not about writing code for an Arduino in PHP, it is about using PHP on a web server to control anything connected to that web server’s serial port. In this case, that is an arduino.2) Whoever said they prefer RS232 over “low grade consumer USB” because “RS232 allows multiple devices on one line” is sorely misinformed. “Low grade consumer USB” is just a (great) data pipe over which anything, including RS232, can be transmitted. RS232 USB adapters are common, and exactly what the article is mentioning.Personally, I never knew you could do this, but it seems like people have had problems. When I needed to do something like this, I wrote a helper program in C# that ran on my windows host. It then sent an HTTP GET (or POST?) request to a PHP script that would take whatever parameters I had and update a database. Finally, I had some AJAX that would update values onscreen. The end result was that I could show sensor data on a web page in real time, without page refreshes. It was pretty slick! Note that I went *TO* the web, not *FROM* the web, but something like that could be tweaked to go both ways.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "361273",
"author": "Taylor Alexander",
"timestamp": "2011-03-17T19:43:00",
"content": "Oh, and I forgot to mention that RS232 doesn’t support multiple endpoints, but someone else mentioned that.More than anything I was just surprised at how many people completely missed the point of this (yes, I know, I must be new here).-Taylor",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "361356",
"author": "digitalfx",
"timestamp": "2011-03-17T21:42:18",
"content": "I could have used this when I was getting stared with arduino a few months ago. I used php to control my arduino from the web, but as many people posted here it passing data back to php was a pain. I ended up using php to send data and python to receive it.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "361695",
"author": "Michael",
"timestamp": "2011-03-18T09:11:05",
"content": "@digitalfx Yes! i’m not the only one :) As i don’t know Python (yet) i used TinkerProxy (actionscript 3) eventually. Although that worked really nicely, you had to have a server running. not the most native kind of solution, but it worked well :)@rizia, that’s a solution indeed. however, it’s not really a nice solution as it should just be possible to actually read serial data from php. But then again, who cares? There’s way nastier solutions to way bigger problems in software-hardware-land. Maybe you could contribute that to the serialphp project? In the end people just need to read that data, they don’t care (in most cases) where it’s coming from.Controlling 8 xbees from the web via PHP is frikking awesome, will check xbees out in the near future for sure!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "965339",
"author": "ilianko",
"timestamp": "2013-02-25T15:26:24",
"content": "There is very nice tool called ser2net. It is daemon that provides a way for a user to connect from a network connection to a serial port. If it is running, serial port can be accessed for write and reading with somethink like this ” $fp =fsockopen(“localhost”, 2000) “.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
}
] | 1,760,377,242.44058
|
||
https://hackaday.com/2011/03/16/laser-light-show-features-full-xy-control-via-homemade-galvanometers/
|
Laser Light Show Features Full XY Control Via Homemade Galvanometers
|
Mike Nathan
|
[
"Arduino Hacks",
"Laser Hacks"
] |
[
"arduino",
"galvanometer",
"laser"
] |
[Rich] over at NothingLabs has put together
a really cool laser light show
that you really must see in an effort to win a laser cutter from Instructables.
His walkthrough discusses the mechanics of laser light shows – specifically how galvanometers are typically used to precisely aim mirrors in order to draw images and write text. Commercial galvanometers tend to be pretty expensive, so he opted to build his own, using relatively cheap and easy to find parts.
The galvanometers were constructed using a pair of old speaker woofers, a few Lego bricks, and some acrylic mirror squares. The mirrors were mounted on the speakers, which were then wired to an Arduino. He removed the batteries from a cheap red laser pointer and permanently wired it to the Arduino, which it now uses as a pulsed power source. Once he had everything built, he positioned the laser using a fog machine for guidance.
As you can see in the video below, the laser show is quite impressive. His homemade galvos provide a somewhat rough quality to the final projected image, and we like that a lot. It looks almost as if all of the text and images were hand drawn, which is a pretty cool effect.
Just as [Rich] mentions, we hope to see some cool hacks based off his work in the future.
If you are interested in some of our previous laser features,
check
these
out
.
| 14
| 14
|
[
{
"comment_id": "360404",
"author": "ferdie",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T22:42:38",
"content": "cool but can be fakeyou see the laser setupthan it cuts to the wall and you see neverthe setup and the laser the same timemake a video that shows the the laser and projection the same time",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "360454",
"author": "jordan",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T23:36:27",
"content": "I have been working on a similar thing for a while and it’s cool to see that implementation working.This person’s project might be reason enough for me to order a development board and try it my own way…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "360513",
"author": "other jordan",
"timestamp": "2011-03-17T01:08:40",
"content": "I’ve been working on a very similar project too, but full color (RGB).@ferdie, why do you think it’s fake? The principles used are the same as those used in professional laser shows. The equipment is just cheaper. Using speakers are commonly used to create cheap DIY galvonometers.http://www.acm.uiuc.edu/iCal/projects/laserline/",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "360515",
"author": "Erik Johnson",
"timestamp": "2011-03-17T01:12:49",
"content": "I’ve been wanting to do the “speaker” galvo method for a while, there no reason they can’t keep up if you keep the weight down (My imagined method would use mylar made rigid with maybe cardstock for the mirror on the center of the cone, pivoted on a toothpick or thin strong rod of some sort to the edge). the rest is just calibrating analog out from your source to the speakers",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "360612",
"author": "J Harton",
"timestamp": "2011-03-17T04:12:03",
"content": "@ferdie While a valid point, I must question the motive of someone making going to the effort of faking a movie and including the obvious effects of their setup (some shake and flicker) and linking to their website. Further the static still picture of the whole thing with the laser on and showing where there appears to be mist and other details being expelled seems much harder to fake.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "360650",
"author": "Stevie",
"timestamp": "2011-03-17T05:40:26",
"content": "I’m not sure that I get it.Two speakers with mirrors attached. In order to move a mirror, he plays audio through the speaker which causes the cone to move and in turn, the mirror. Is that right?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "360754",
"author": "MrX",
"timestamp": "2011-03-17T08:46:36",
"content": "@StevieA speaker is just a device that converts voltage deltas into tiny displacement deltas. That’s exactly what you need for a galvo.For better results one could even remove the speakers diaphragm and replace it with a light mirror.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "360889",
"author": "hubert",
"timestamp": "2011-03-17T11:31:14",
"content": "Hello, if this really works and I believe it does, cool. I have built a system like this years ago, but with parallel port D/A on an old Laptop. As Software eitherhttp://patrick.kolla.de/heathcliff.htmlorhttp://scifi.pages.at/kleiner-onkel/rf_popelscan.html. but i never got the right speed. Seems you have a lot of inertia, so your speed would also not be very high. Better results can be made misusing some tiny steppers as galvos.Some cool experiments and tipps you can findhttp://spt06.chez-alice.fr/00/lasers.htmthis is not my site ha has onlythe same name as my nick",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "361089",
"author": "Tom the Brat",
"timestamp": "2011-03-17T16:50:30",
"content": "Too cool.I used to do this in the late 70’s with a setup about like this, but I had to borrow the High School Physics department’s laser and two “wavetecs” from the Junior College electronics department.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "361106",
"author": "Hanna",
"timestamp": "2011-03-17T17:06:57",
"content": "The Lord of self-made galvos surely is Mr. Chan:http://elm-chan.org/works/vlp/report_e.html(wiffout Arduino. How can that be possible? :))",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "361304",
"author": "hubert",
"timestamp": "2011-03-17T20:21:40",
"content": "Hanna, I fully agree to you, but I failed to rebuild the galvos of Mr. Chan esp. the feedback, so I decided to build open loop galvos with steppermotors, the hardest part was to find the right steppers. I´ve got the my best results with those out of used CD-Rom drives. But that was very long ago. The computer used was an ATARI ST, at that time there was no arduino, lol.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "361337",
"author": "echodelta",
"timestamp": "2011-03-17T21:14:55",
"content": "Toothpicks! This is a bar or bistro hack. Light gauge piano wire under tension, is a better axle for the pivot.How about tiny motors used as galvos, limited angle spring or voltage centered. Vibrator phone sized motors would have low mass. The brushes can be bypassed with speaker flex wires to armature spots directly. I have not tried this, but I have hacked head motors from hard drives for laser display.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "361388",
"author": "gcat122",
"timestamp": "2011-03-17T22:05:22",
"content": "Really fun and pretty good looking for open loop. Some of the distortion may go away if the mirror pivot support is moved away from the center by the length of the mirror and a small post is attached to the center of the cone. The edge of the mirror that was glued to the speaker cone at an odd angle would now be attached to the top of the post where it is parallel to the speaker face and in line with the vertical movement of the center of the speaker. Fewer odd angle strains involved.I played with mirrors, speakers, and a helium-neon laser in 1969 but there was no HAD to post to. Gotta build this!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "2886576",
"author": "Saabman",
"timestamp": "2016-01-15T19:56:15",
"content": "When I was in high school in the 80’s I had a little mobile disco business going. And for a light show I would hang a sheet from the ceiling and shine a helium neon laser into the back of it.To control the laser I used a speaker mounted upside down on of standoffs a small strip of metal was bolted to the cone and attached too mirror , it roughly made the mirror move in the “y” axis the the laser reflected of that onto another mirror mounted on the arm of an electromechanical buzzer wich gave an “X” axis. The resultant image on the sheet was a crude oscilloscope.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
}
] | 1,760,377,242.379721
|
||
https://hackaday.com/2011/03/16/ladyada-to-be-featured-in-wired-magazine/
|
Ladyada To Be Featured In WIRED Magazine
|
Mike Nathan
|
[
"News"
] |
[
"ladyada",
"Makers"
] |
If you haven’t seen the news already, prolific maker [Limor Fried/Ladyada] is
set to grace the cover of WIRED magazine
in the upcoming April edition.
Not only is it a great day for the hacking/maker community as it puts a bright spotlight on the things we do every day, it’s a big day for female engineers as well. While WIRED has been around for 18 years as of this past January, this is the first time a female engineer has been featured on the cover. [Phillip Torrone] put it pretty well when he said, “She’s one of the most talented people in the world, she works harder than anyone else I know, she puts more value in the world than she takes.” – We couldn’t agree more, nor can we think of a better spokesperson to represent the community and inspire budding hackers around the world.
We would like to congratulate [Limor] on her accomplishment, and we encourage everyone to pick up a copy (or at least leaf through it at the bookstore) when it comes out.
If you’re still unconvinced as to how awesome she is, take a gander at some of her work we have featured in the past:
Kinect Open Source driver bounty
Non-lethal weaponry
The Wave Bubble
Minty Boost
| 51
| 50
|
[
{
"comment_id": "360354",
"author": "NatureTM",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T22:00:25",
"content": "Wow! Congrats to her! I wonder if Jeri Ellisworth is jealous ;-)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "360365",
"author": "Jeremy Blum",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T22:06:56",
"content": "It’s about damn time!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "360368",
"author": "captain",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T22:09:13",
"content": "i would like to be one of the first to say that i’m very proud of ms. ladyada of her accomplishments.now that the gender gap in science and engineering has been addressed, now the question of minorities in science and engineering not to mention the lack thereof in the underserved, impoverished communities, i.e. the inner city or ‘ghetto’ that do not have access to facilities, knowledge and equipment to do hacking/DIY.Sorry for that very long sentence, but while the Wired magazine and Hackaday usually focuses on those of European descent and Asians whether female or male.In short, where are the Black folks? There are many African-American scientists and engineers out there. And many of their inventions have contributed to society.The man that created the ‘super soaker’ water gun, Lonnie G. Johnson is Black. The man made chemicals out of peanut butter is Black, George Washington Carver. The man who invented the first video-game system, Jerry Lawson, is Black.Black Hackers where are they? No, I’m not saying that Hackaday and Wired are biased.But, the elephant is in the room, and it’s about time we mentioned he was there.I wish Ladyada all the blessings in the world.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "360370",
"author": "xeracy",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T22:10:22",
"content": "WTF is she holding? Any why am I aroused?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "360373",
"author": "OakTree",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T22:17:54",
"content": "She’s been doing rad stuff for like forever now.Way to go!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "360375",
"author": "Juanito Guanavacoa",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T22:18:31",
"content": "Photoshopped…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "360377",
"author": "sbalazs",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T22:22:21",
"content": "congrats for the magazine cover, but i think she doesn’t need this photoshop makeup..",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "360378",
"author": "Kyle",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T22:22:32",
"content": "WAIT A MINUTE? Is that really her in the picture?No offense to her, of course, but how much makeup and photoshopping did this picture get? I have seen her in videos, she looks nothing like that picture!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "360381",
"author": "Sam Spade",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T22:25:18",
"content": "Wow, as someone who has seen her in person: that photo is absurdly airbrushed. Way to send a great message, Wired; I bet you tried to get her into a bikini first?Also: am I the only one not impressed with her work? It’s like her sole mission in life is to find out new and exciting ways to use electronics to piss off the general populace.Cell phone jammers that almost got her kicked out of MIT (http://www.ladyada.net/pub/research.html), then she progressed to TV-Be-Gone. And then she made one of those nausea-inducing lights.Lady Ada: enabling Aspergers patients since 2004…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "360386",
"author": "Robert Ely",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T22:36:01",
"content": "@KyleYea…thats not exactly what she looks like IRL.(Not thats shes unattractive, Just thats maddd not her)Clearly its a play on “Rosie The riveter” so they more or less applied the Gloss filter till it sort of resembled the original painting.http://www.missfidget.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/rosie_the_riveter.jpg",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "360387",
"author": "Squirrel",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T22:38:27",
"content": "@captainIf you don’t like it, submit something!!HaD features what gets submitted so if its a worthwhile hack, it’ll get posted.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "360388",
"author": "hekilledmywire",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T22:38:59",
"content": "So much photoshop per dot lol",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "360405",
"author": "reboots",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T22:42:40",
"content": "They could’ve gone for the Norman Rockwell version:http://www.friendsofart.net/static/images/art3/norman-rockwell-rosie-the-riveter.jpg",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "360409",
"author": "XiuiX",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T22:45:49",
"content": "Wow, I was unaware that Limor Fried was so hot",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "360411",
"author": "macegr",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T22:51:08",
"content": "That soldering gun does not look ESD compliant.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "360412",
"author": "veneficus",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T22:55:09",
"content": "Wow, where did her lip ring and earrings go?She deserves more than being on the cover of WIRED. She is an inspiration and a great supporter of the maker/hacker community.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "360418",
"author": "dave",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T23:03:45",
"content": "That would be ‘edition’, not ‘addition’.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "360424",
"author": "kimg",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T23:11:01",
"content": "Congrats to Ladyada!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "360453",
"author": "aztraph",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T23:36:25",
"content": "I don’t know which is hotter, her looks or her brains. i mean seriously, she got both, and a sense of humor to boot.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "360468",
"author": "Maxwell Smart",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T23:46:02",
"content": "So Wired has now proven they can “air brush” with the best of them (whoops did I say that?)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "360469",
"author": "Kent",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T23:46:57",
"content": "Limor, if you’re reading this… I heart you!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "360470",
"author": "Bill",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T23:48:28",
"content": "@Kyle, Robert, et al.Apparently, not much airbrush. Here’s PHillip Torrone’s response to the photoshop critics.“hi reece, that’s not accurate. i was at the photo shoot with limor and jill greenberg the photographer uses light and camera unlike anyone i’ve ever seen, her images are amazing and almost glisten – the wired photo is very very close the original, the background was changed to red and the tool in limor’s hand was added (it was a wrench). but other than that – when you have lighting, makeup and really dramatic lighting, this is how photos (can) look – i love it, i think it looks great and captured the moment perfectly.”",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "360488",
"author": "spike",
"timestamp": "2011-03-17T00:20:32",
"content": "thats really cool.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "360489",
"author": "pt",
"timestamp": "2011-03-17T00:20:48",
"content": "@bill – thanks, that’s correct!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "360492",
"author": "WestfW",
"timestamp": "2011-03-17T00:30:21",
"content": ">> thats not exactly what she looks likeAnd now you should be thinking “maybe those models on the cover of the SI swimsuit issue don’t really look like that either.”",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "360500",
"author": "kev",
"timestamp": "2011-03-17T00:45:31",
"content": "Took me until the comments to realize this was Ladyada and not Lady Gaga. Thank goodness.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "360501",
"author": "PeachPit",
"timestamp": "2011-03-17T00:47:33",
"content": "Kinda wish the discussion was not revolving around how she looks on the magazine cover…I guess I missed the Bedazzler that she made! I wonder how hard it would be to make it more into a disco ball and fire the lights randomly? Wrong topic for that I guess ;)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "360504",
"author": "lobster",
"timestamp": "2011-03-17T00:59:29",
"content": "@PeachPit – Yeah that seems to be the only topic even on BoingBoing is about the so called Photoshop and what she looks like.I got my first Arduino *ducks* from her store.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "360512",
"author": "Anonymous Coward",
"timestamp": "2011-03-17T01:08:25",
"content": "@Kyle yes mostly in the neck, but also no glasses/piercings has a bit to do with it…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "360532",
"author": "Kyle",
"timestamp": "2011-03-17T01:38:21",
"content": "To me, the airbrushing/camera&light tricks/makeup/etc is a big deal, I want to see what a girl REALLY looks like, not what she could look like all painted up and altered in every way. Reality is much better IMO. I’m assuming this how everyone else feels too, which is why its such a big topic of discussion.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "360548",
"author": "DMackey",
"timestamp": "2011-03-17T02:02:35",
"content": "Congrats Ladyada, Nice to see you on the cover, I’m one of your customers of all things good. :)Keep up the great work..",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "360588",
"author": "KDrove",
"timestamp": "2011-03-17T03:14:28",
"content": "“the wired photo is very very close the original”Im sorry, but lighting can never make an uneven complexion look like that. I don’t want to be rude to ladyada, but its simply not possible.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "360643",
"author": "Alexandra Wallace",
"timestamp": "2011-03-17T05:19:04",
"content": "“it’s a big day for female engineers as well.”Why? Did a female engineer other than Limor Fried do something exceptional today to justify this comment?Limor Fried not only made the cover of WIRED(a prestigious honor IMHO), but she’s one of very few women engineers to have done so.Is this somehow supposed to mark the end of an era of female engineer oppression or some bullshit of that nature?@captainDo you have a coherent suggestion on how to solve this “problem” that isn’t blatantly racist?Throwing money at the problem has not, and will not fix it.Affirmative action has not, and will not address the issue.If you can make a color and gender blind proposal for how to solve issues of opportunity and self efficacy I will support it whole heartedly.“Leveling the playing field” by handicapping the game is bullshit to the nth degree.The demographic information is deceptive. I grew up in a logging town with 20% unemployment. The statistics on this demographic are equally depressing as inner city schools.Here’s the bonus: since the “minority” demographic(which is based on a genetic fallacy) makes up a disproportionate percentage of people lacking in opportunities, if you target poor people in general, the result will be largely the same without fanning the flames of bigotry.Two wrongs don’t make a right. This animal farm indoctrinated bullshit is double think and I want no part in it. It’s one of the more minor reasons on a long list of why I want to GTFO of this country ASAP.I’m color blind. That’s my only obligation as a human. Every time my taxes start being used against me in the form of protected classes, I become more and more callous about the plight of said classes.Idiots like the OP make unnecessary little quips about equality and then wonder why trolls like Captain come out of the woodwork and stir up shit with their racial/gender politics pet project wedge issues.Meanwhile, the villains who caused this global recession are sailing off in to the sunset sitting on a pile of money with American retirement savings/global investors written all over it.Congressional investigation? Fat chance! Clearly they estimated correctly when they calculated the attention span of the electorate and their ability to get sidetracked by wedge issues.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "360658",
"author": "fontella",
"timestamp": "2011-03-17T05:57:44",
"content": "Very coolMy multimeter and solder wick just came in the mail today, bought off of her recommended list. Since I’m just getting started, her tutorials and hack a day convinced me, yeah I can do that too. Thanks.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "360695",
"author": "Eddie",
"timestamp": "2011-03-17T06:58:03",
"content": "Jeri Ellsworth should be a cover model too.http://www.youtube.com/user/jeriellsworth",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "360725",
"author": "anti-fanboi",
"timestamp": "2011-03-17T07:49:51",
"content": "Since it’s all about how hotz she is and not her achievements; this “chick” is hotter:http://lifehacker.com/?_escaped_fragment_=5481197",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "360760",
"author": "haha",
"timestamp": "2011-03-17T09:01:04",
"content": "little bit to much photoshop",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "360764",
"author": "strider_mt2k",
"timestamp": "2011-03-17T09:02:39",
"content": "It’s a magazine cover photograph.Get over it.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "360786",
"author": "Joao",
"timestamp": "2011-03-17T09:27:16",
"content": "Yeah, this girl is great!but look at the original link, irina shayk :D",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "360901",
"author": "JeremyC",
"timestamp": "2011-03-17T11:48:45",
"content": "@captain – who cares what ethnicity or sex you are? I’ve had things featured on HAD and I’m sure they have no idea what “color” I am.Maybe we shouldn’t be judged by the color of our skin, but by the content of our character… Wait, I think somebody said that before.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "360936",
"author": "Caleb Kraft",
"timestamp": "2011-03-17T13:07:41",
"content": "@all,Lets stay on track here please. Congrats to Ladyada (yes, publications adjust images). All the other stuff about politics and bias are starting to stray a little. The subject of class/race/sex in modern culture is a very complicated issue and deserves to be discussed in detail… elsewhere. Lets just hack some stuff and celebrate fellow hackers.",
"parent_id": "360901",
"depth": 2,
"replies": []
}
]
},
{
"comment_id": "360904",
"author": "IJ Dee-Vo",
"timestamp": "2011-03-17T11:59:27",
"content": "No elephant in the room.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "360930",
"author": "Fallen",
"timestamp": "2011-03-17T12:57:01",
"content": "Congrats Ladyada, that is quite the accomplishment.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "360944",
"author": "blue_carbuncle",
"timestamp": "2011-03-17T13:20:20",
"content": "Why not discuss it here? Sure there will be some negative and I could make a couple of comments about Golden Girl, but for the moment am just glad that unbelievable piece of human dna dumpster, Xeni Jardin isn’t the cover girl :) Ha ha “Jenny”.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "360953",
"author": "jeff-o",
"timestamp": "2011-03-17T13:35:54",
"content": "Cool cover. It would make a great poster!Congrats, Limor!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "360970",
"author": "lwatcdr",
"timestamp": "2011-03-17T13:52:39",
"content": "@captain Who cares? Really I don’t care what ethnic group or gender anybody that posts a hack is. Heck most of the time I have no idea who posts the hack. If Ladyada had used a handle like my wife does of scribbler I would have no clue that she was a she or a he.Frankly I think it shows bias that we make a big deal out Ladyada being a women. I just think it is cool that someone that I have read so much about on Hackaday is on the cover of a mainstream publication even if it is one as bad as Wired.So stop the gender and race war crap.Good show Ladyada you are a good representative of the hacking/making community.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "360993",
"author": "h3llphyre",
"timestamp": "2011-03-17T14:38:10",
"content": "Congrats to Limor!I’m a customer of hers, I’ve heard her talk in person, and she’s inspired me to start my own DIY electronics business. Her continued involvement in the DIY and Open Source community should be highlighted and praised.Regardless of gender, regardless of pictures, she is an inspiration and her accomplishments are outstanding on their own.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "360998",
"author": "xvpower",
"timestamp": "2011-03-17T14:49:29",
"content": "Someone loves their smudge tool, I honestly did not recognize her.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "361092",
"author": "captain",
"timestamp": "2011-03-17T16:52:43",
"content": "@lwatcdr: just because I mention the ‘digital divide’ between the haves and have-nots (most of the have-nots being minorities) in science and engineering, you accuse me of:“gender and race war crap”?Your wife has a really mature spouse.Nuff said.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "361178",
"author": "Miah",
"timestamp": "2011-03-17T18:13:49",
"content": "I’ve known Limor for years, and credit her for introducing me to a intelligent group of people who I learned many things from. I grew in many positive ways thanks to her friendship. Though we don’t talk often these days its great to see her educating and creating.Its fantastic that she made the Wired cover as we need more positive female role models in the Engineering and IT communities.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "361369",
"author": "Frogz",
"timestamp": "2011-03-17T21:53:05",
"content": "need more jeri elsworth!!i wonder how many people have pinups of her on their computer/ataris",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
}
] | 1,760,377,242.525985
|
||
https://hackaday.com/2011/03/16/robotouch-adds-physical-game-controls-to-the-ipad/
|
RoboTouch Adds Physical Game Controls To The IPad
|
Mike Nathan
|
[
"Arduino Hacks",
"Nintendo Hacks",
"Tablet Hacks"
] |
[
"arduino",
"ipad",
"nes",
"servo"
] |
[ProtoDojo] wanted to play a racing game on his iPad, but he was not a big fan of using the touch interface for this particular title. Instead, he put together a
pretty neat little hack
that allows him to play games on his iPad using an old NES controller.
He built a set of custom conductive arms which he mounted on three micro servos. The servos were attached to the iPad screen using small suction cups in the locations where it expects to receive button presses. They are also wired to an Arduino that interprets button presses from the attached NES controller. When the Arduino senses that the D-pad or buttons have been pressed, it triggers the servos, which in turn press the virtual buttons on the screen.
In the video below, you can see that after adjusting the servo positions, the setup seems to work pretty well. You might expect to see some sort of lag with a setup like this, but we didn’t notice any. The [ProtoDojo] web site is currently down due to heavy traffic, but you should be able to find some more build details there, once it becomes functional again.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c9u87WPhVK8&w=470]
| 11
| 11
|
[
{
"comment_id": "360306",
"author": "first",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T21:14:58",
"content": "Brilliant idea. Limited usefulness but still very well set out.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "360333",
"author": "Christian",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T21:34:26",
"content": "redneckish!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "360407",
"author": "jim",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T22:44:53",
"content": "They should make official controllers for these things — not many classic games work well with touchscreen.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "360436",
"author": "Elias",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T23:16:07",
"content": "Well not many games work at all with Apple hw anyway so why bother…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "360499",
"author": "Amos",
"timestamp": "2011-03-17T00:45:29",
"content": "Wouldn’t it be easier to keep the “arms” against the screen and use semiconductor switches to “activate” them? Is that impossible/difficult due to the capacitive nature of the screen? To what are the other ends of the arms (electrically) connected?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "360599",
"author": "Christian",
"timestamp": "2011-03-17T03:44:05",
"content": "wouldn’t it be aeasier to use a bluetooth bridge or – what I am working on – a bluetooth enabled NES-controller?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "360700",
"author": "Nitori",
"timestamp": "2011-03-17T07:09:51",
"content": "Apple does need to make an official hid for BT game pads because very few action type games work well with touch control.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "360785",
"author": "echodelta",
"timestamp": "2011-03-17T09:24:36",
"content": "HID, PC because Aliens and robots don’t want to be included with us. Don’t those i-things all have 3-way motion sensing? How about i-phone to i-pad control link.Give me a joy stick or wheel and pedals, or I might as well play on a watch (not much smaller than I-phone).Still a useful hack for many occasional button presses in certain apps.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "360952",
"author": "Nick",
"timestamp": "2011-03-17T13:35:25",
"content": "Would it not be possible to program a game for the ipod/iphone/ipad platform which uses the device’s headphone mic capability as an input device?These devices all use a microphone integrated into the headphones for sound recording so it should be possible to use the mic port as a communications port for a signal like a game controller input.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "361098",
"author": "capn",
"timestamp": "2011-03-17T16:57:07",
"content": "Why not use some sort of solid state capacitance attachment that is activated when a button is pressed? If you want to not “plug” anything into the ipad, this seems like the easiest solution; other than your hands that is.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "370037",
"author": "bware",
"timestamp": "2011-03-29T20:48:40",
"content": "@Amos To trigger a capacitance touch screen you just need a conducting disc tied to ground. He could have wired the leads from the pads directly to the pad’s buttons.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
}
] | 1,760,377,242.574487
|
||
https://hackaday.com/2011/03/17/bill-hammack-explains-how-led-backlit-lcd-monitors-work/
|
Bill Hammack Explains How LED Backlit LCD Monitors Work
|
Mike Szczys
|
[
"Video Hacks"
] |
[
"lcd",
"led"
] |
We had a basic understanding of how LCD monitors worked, and you may too. But the thing is, [Bill Hammack] doesn’t just explain the basics. Since he’s the Engineer Guy he explains
the engineering principles behind how LED backlit LCD screens operate
. But he does it in a way that everyone can understand.
After the break we’ve embedded his five-minute video. In it you’ll see him strip down a monitor to the back plate and then build it up piece-by-piece. We enjoyed his discussion of how the diffuser panels work together to even out and distribute the light. Theses are made of several layers and, although we knew they were there from
working with salvaged LCD screens
, we never knew quite what they were doing. He also covers how each liquid crystal cell works along with polarizing sheets to either block or allow light passage. And he’ll bring it on home by show how thin-film transistors in each subpixel of the screen work to multiplex the display,
just like we did with that pumpkin
back in October.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jiejNAUwcQ8&w=470]
| 14
| 13
|
[
{
"comment_id": "361343",
"author": "Tony",
"timestamp": "2011-03-17T21:26:21",
"content": "Excellent explanation, tear down, build up and animations. Before I thought that liquid crystal just magically changed between light and dark. The truth that it actually goes from twisting the polarization light between 0 to 90 degrees is much cooler.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "361348",
"author": "Munden",
"timestamp": "2011-03-17T21:36:00",
"content": "Wow! Great explanation. However, I’m still going to answer those who ask me how LCD screens work with, “magic!”",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "361491",
"author": "Nick McClanahan",
"timestamp": "2011-03-18T01:18:32",
"content": "Kind of off-topic, but what program do you think they use to do the animations?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "362285",
"author": "billengineerguy",
"timestamp": "2011-03-18T21:30:15",
"content": "The rotation of the red rods was done by Patrick in maya; the rest I did with still images I drew in gimp then animated in final cut pro.",
"parent_id": "361491",
"depth": 2,
"replies": []
}
]
},
{
"comment_id": "361510",
"author": "Brian",
"timestamp": "2011-03-18T01:53:06",
"content": "As someone who tore apart the guts of an old (damaged) LCD to see what’s inside, I found this video much more informative and very well-done.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "361521",
"author": "FireSokar",
"timestamp": "2011-03-18T02:18:58",
"content": "Excellent, one of the better articles I have seen posted on this website. Please post more when they become available.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "361602",
"author": "SteveO",
"timestamp": "2011-03-18T05:33:27",
"content": "there was some awe in that video.that was the best, most concise, and easy to follow example of led back lighting, fiber optics, diffusion, polarization, RGB, TFT, LCD, refresh rate, and video signal humanly possible in 4 minutes and 53 seconds.completely unbelievably awesome.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "361664",
"author": "Little_Neo",
"timestamp": "2011-03-18T08:02:35",
"content": "This video was really interesting.What I really found awesome is that he is demonstrating on the same piece of crap monitor that I have. It made it even better for me to understand.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "361688",
"author": "xtremegamer",
"timestamp": "2011-03-18T08:56:25",
"content": "we demand a series of all popular technology (lolz!),greetz",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "362031",
"author": "NateOcean",
"timestamp": "2011-03-18T16:43:43",
"content": "Excellent tear down, explanation, and animation.At around 4:30 Hammack mentions that the speed at which rows receive information is “so fast that your brain blends it into a fluid image”. This may require more explanation.Both CRT-based monitors and LCD-based monitors require at least 24 images per second (24 frames per second) for you to perceive continuity of motion (for a motion picture or animation). Much below 24 fps, you you perceive the result as a jerky slide show. This is called Critical Fusion Frequency.However, CRT-based monitors suffer from an additional constraint that does not (for the most part) affect LCD-based monitors. CRT monitors must be continuously refreshed, and rapidly enough to avoid annoying flicker. This is called Flicker Free Refresh Rate.Generally, it’s around 60 flashes per second. 60-hertz is used in America to match the power line frequency. However, in Europe 50-hertz is instead used to match the 50-hertz power mains frequency there, and generally most people still see an annoying flicker.LCD monitors don’t suffer from that same effect. When you turn on the drive transistor at a certain sub-pixel site, you in effect “write” a voltage to that site, and that voltage remains there until a new voltage is written. That voltage determines how much the twisted helix liquid crystal material will be disrupted, and that determines how transparent or opaque that site will be.However, in the absence of a continuous refresh process, the voltage will remain there indefinitely. (Nothing’s perfect, and the voltage will leak away after many seconds.)That’s not true for CRTs. Stop the refresh process, and the image is gone in an instant.People are affected differently by CRT flicker. Younger people perceive it more than older. Women are more annoyed by it than men. You tend to see it more in your peripheral vision than straight on. This can also be a problem for some people with epilepsy.Put another way, for a static image on the screen, with an LCD monitor, each pixel is pretty much an unwavering light source. But for the CRT monitor, even for a static image, each pixel is pulsed to the intended brightness then rapidly fades only to be zapped again 1/60th second later.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "362305",
"author": "Dax",
"timestamp": "2011-03-18T21:43:35",
"content": "Although for all intents and purposes, an LCD screen will still flicker because of two effects:1) A CFL tube for a backlight operates on high voltage AC from a transformer, and will flicker at the rate at which its booster circuit operates.2) A LED backlight will flicker at the frequency of the PWM dimmer that is used to control the brightness of the backlight.Especially early monitors simply ran the backlight from the mains voltage through a simple transformer, so that would make it blink at 50/60 Hz.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "489894",
"author": "chris",
"timestamp": "2011-10-25T01:37:15",
"content": "Wow, im a fan, subscribed…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "2764349",
"author": "Alex",
"timestamp": "2015-10-21T20:40:20",
"content": "Thank you, very detailed and informative! Is it possible that you can do a video on what causes back light bleeding? Almost every LED lit (specifically edge lit) TV/Monitor seems to suffer for BLB / flash lighting / clouding and if there’s anything a end user could do to try to correct it? I just got a UN55JU6500 which is edge lit and has some significant BLB. However, the UN40JU6500 doesn’t have this problem. Does scale play an issue in manufacturing causing BLB in larger screens or is it just a QA issue during manufacturing, maybe the light guides are slightly off during putting the layers together? The panels in both are not IPS/sPLS, I think they are VA/MVA.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6386472",
"author": "Jen Farmer",
"timestamp": "2021-10-03T03:28:46",
"content": "I have an LCD scereen for a computer that has a water stain on the inside of the screen. There’s the velvety screen that covers the actual LCD screen, I think? And between this velvet screen and the actual LCD display screen with its glass there are streaks of dry liquid that has a red color to it when the screen is on but showing black.Is it safe to sake the velvet part away from the LCD screen to clean this?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
}
] | 1,760,377,242.683081
|
||
https://hackaday.com/2011/03/17/pitch-shifter-makes-your-band-sing-higher/
|
Pitch Shifter Makes Your Band Sing Higher
|
Mike Szczys
|
[
"digital audio hacks"
] |
[
"24fj",
"ipod",
"lm386",
"modulate",
"pic"
] |
[Markus Gritsch] tipped us off about this little
module he built to shift the pitch of audio
playback. It uses a PIC 24FJ along with a couple of LM386 amplifier chips to manage the input and output signals. At the push of a button, audio being fed through the device can be modulated to a different key without changing the playback rate. Here it’s being used with a iPod but because this device just sits between an audio source and a signal input we wonder if you can have some fun on the cellphone with this circuit?
Check out the video after the break to hear it in action. We must compliment [Markus] on his layout. We haven’t seen the underside of that protoboard but he’s done a great job of fitting everything into a small area. You can find the schematic for the circuit by following the link at the top of this feature. He took a picture of his hand-drawn plans which saves him time from laying it out with something like
KiCAD
but still gives us the details that we love to see with your projects.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_KwS2qCCGzs&w=470]
| 23
| 23
|
[
{
"comment_id": "361296",
"author": "lgroon",
"timestamp": "2011-03-17T20:07:40",
"content": "this is sooo damn great. i have been searching for a very long time for a diy “whammy” footpedal substitute for my bass guitar. i think this is the solution. have i understood right, that it simply fills a buffer of 20ms and reads it at twice the rate than recording? i think this could be implemented using one of the atmega chips i have lying around.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "361307",
"author": "detectorgadget",
"timestamp": "2011-03-17T20:27:30",
"content": "the pitch drop is nice.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "361314",
"author": "bty",
"timestamp": "2011-03-17T20:39:30",
"content": "are you using ring modulation or phase vocoding to achieve the pitch shift ?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "361319",
"author": "bty",
"timestamp": "2011-03-17T20:43:06",
"content": "ok nevermind, just read the article and he’s using a variable input samplerate and a fixed output samplerate.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "361322",
"author": "bty",
"timestamp": "2011-03-17T20:44:31",
"content": "so technically it’s a resampler, not a pitch shifter.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "361325",
"author": "bty",
"timestamp": "2011-03-17T20:49:36",
"content": "if it’s mean as an effect, adding delay should be peanuts.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "361327",
"author": "ehud42",
"timestamp": "2011-03-17T20:55:15",
"content": "I wonder if this could this be used to reduce stage feedback. Feedback typically occurs at a particular frequency, if the speakers were always outputting audio slightly shifted up, wouldn’t any feedback spin itself out of range and self dampen?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "361335",
"author": "wosser",
"timestamp": "2011-03-17T21:11:46",
"content": "Good looking protoboard layout, no clutter at all. Very organised.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "361363",
"author": "biozz",
"timestamp": "2011-03-17T21:48:31",
"content": "FINALLY i can stop spending billions in buying thoes chipmunk albums!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "361486",
"author": "Josh",
"timestamp": "2011-03-18T01:08:04",
"content": "This may make Justin Beber bearable. lol",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "361490",
"author": "o",
"timestamp": "2011-03-18T01:14:54",
"content": "Couldn’t you use an audio frequency range single-sideband radio circuit to shift the pitch up?A single-sideband radio basically shifts the pitch of your voice into the MHz range, so I think it would work",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "361533",
"author": "Hirudinea",
"timestamp": "2011-03-18T02:34:50",
"content": "David Seville salutes you.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "361556",
"author": "MisterPG",
"timestamp": "2011-03-18T03:29:47",
"content": "This rocks! I would buy one to toy with.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "361687",
"author": "qwerty",
"timestamp": "2011-03-18T08:52:14",
"content": "@o: you don’t need a complete radio to get that effect, just send your voice into a double balanced mixer and a sinewave into its second input, then filter out the frequencies you don’t need at the output. Cost: about 15 bucks, or less if you can recycle some components.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "361690",
"author": "Markus Gritsch",
"timestamp": "2011-03-18T09:00:38",
"content": "I have added two pictures showing the backside of the board, the battery holder and the foam rubber which lies between them. The interconnections are done using some insulated wire from an old relais, which is currently my preferred prototyping method:http://dangerousprototypes.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=56&t=2003#p19687",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "361785",
"author": "Kris",
"timestamp": "2011-03-18T12:13:59",
"content": "I love itWill have to look at making one for my sound gear",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "361911",
"author": "Miroslav",
"timestamp": "2011-03-18T15:20:14",
"content": "@qwertyIn regards to using a (double balanced) mixer, it’s not as straight forward as it might seem – simply said, what mixer does is based on it’s “non-linearity” – output is not a linear function of the input (as what you get from an amplifier where Out=K*Input), but rather a combination of different “exponents” (for example, OUT=K1*Input^2+K2*Input^3…).In an ideal case, and very close in a case of a good balanced mixer, that square component is (very) dominant.How does it help us and how does it screw things up?Let’s say we take two single frequencies as an input, f1 and f2. In a generic case (and I’m oversimplifying the math here, do your homework and google more), they are u1=U1*sin(f1) and u2=U2*sin(f2).When you run those two through a mixer, you getu = (u1+u2)^2 = u1^2 + 2*u1*u2 + u2^2(lets call them A + B + C)Voila! As we all know , sin(f1)*sin(f2) = 0.5(sin(f1-f2) + sin(f1+f2)), so mixer produces four components: two with double the original frequencies from A and C and two with f=f1-f2 and f=f1+f2.And that’s the beauty and curse of the mixer – we got our music shifted by f2, but at the same time, now we have a mish mash of all those products combined together. Here is an example:Our music signal is in the range 100Hz – 10kHz. We want to shift frequency by 1kHz. Running through a mixer, we end up with componentsA … all original frequencies with double the frequency (200Hz – 20kHz)C … pitch on double the shifting frequency (2kHz)B1… f1+f2 – shifted up by 1kHz (1100Hz – 11kHz) (this is what we wanted to get)B2… f1–f2 – 900Hz – 9kHzSo, what did we get here?Problem 1: if f1 and f2 are too close to each other, products of the balancing are too close to filter them out, so you get products overlappingProblem 2: linear pitch shifting works only for relatively small shifts. We hear pitch as a chromatic (logarithmic) scale, where the same tone in higher octave is twice the frequency (tone C is 1046Hz, higher octave C is 2092Hz). If we shift all tones equally (let’s say by 500Hz), you get two new tones that are not octave from each other (1546 (tone G) and 2592 (tone D#))Not to say that [Markus]’ approach solves Problem 2, but it makes Problem 1 a bit less apparent NOTE (again): above s VERY oversimplified. There is much more, if you really want to get to the bottom, Google is your friend!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "362027",
"author": "bty",
"timestamp": "2011-03-18T16:37:56",
"content": "SSB modulation is not an option as explained by Miroslav above.Time stretching/Pitch shifting is usually done in the frequency domain by a phase vocoder.The resampling method used here has the problem that there is a small audible stretching effect.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "363030",
"author": "lgroon",
"timestamp": "2011-03-19T21:59:32",
"content": "my implemention of this running on atmega48 using a simple r-2r dac is working, finally. im still having some trouble with the adc, but i hope to get this solved soon.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "373653",
"author": "crait",
"timestamp": "2011-04-04T20:42:35",
"content": "Dammit! I was doing this!! GRRR… Gonna have stereo output so you can easily change one speaker and some other cool stuff.. :(",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "683207",
"author": "Dr. DFTBA",
"timestamp": "2012-06-18T01:36:20",
"content": "Can this be done with Arduino?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6146906",
"author": "Deane Williams",
"timestamp": "2019-05-03T23:15:22",
"content": "In case anyone is still searching for a digital pitch shifter I found this one using an ATtiny 85. However, I think that maybe an Arduino Nano is capable of the same technique.http://www.technoblogy.com/show?1L02",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6589034",
"author": "Jordan",
"timestamp": "2023-02-01T19:13:09",
"content": "This is too complicated for my needs…I just need to drop the pitch of a microphone output signal by a couple octaves. No adjustment capabilities, etc. Anyone have any links to something similar?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
}
] | 1,760,377,242.630325
|
||
https://hackaday.com/2011/03/17/recycled-sound-an-art-instillation-not-lacking-arduinos/
|
Recycled Sound – An Art Installation Not Lacking Arduinos
|
Jesse Congdon
|
[
"Arduino Hacks",
"Musical Hacks"
] |
[
"arduino",
"art",
"RfRemoteControl",
"sculpture"
] |
[oakkar7] wrote in to show us [Ben Johansen] and [Jonathan Snow]’s interactive art installation, Recycled Sound(Website has a virus). The exhibit will premiere in the
TWU Arts Triangle Walking Tour
March 25th from 5-7pm.
Currently a work in progress, the final plan is for the outdoor installation to feature a podium in the center with a rotating top, and various islands surrounding. As the podium’s top is rotated the surrounding islands come to life with a variety of light and sound displays which vary depending on how the podium is turned. While the electronics are not recycled, the actual sculptures and music making elements themselves consist of scrap yard parts and factory waste.
The whole display runs off of 12.. yes TWELVE Atmel 328s with Arduino boot loaders! The center podium houses a transmitting circuit consisting of
two
atmega 328s with Arduino boot loaders sharing a crystal, an hmc 6532 magnetometer
breakout board
and
two
RF transmitters. The Islands each contain a receiving module with, obviously, an Arduino and RF receiver. The receiving Arduinos connect to opto isolated switching modules for motors and lighting. Check out [Ben]’s
blog
for in progress shots, code, and build information.
If you are looking to control some 12V motors/lights with your 5V Arduino be sure to check out the pictures in the blog. While we here at Hackaday may be quick to jump into soldering [Ben] follows the proper development progression to the letter. Each aspect is bread boarded, then refined, then transferred to a soldered perf board.
update:
His site has some kind of malware going on. None of us noticed it in Firefox, but after complaints we fired up ol IE. Yup, nastyness there. You can go there at the following link
if you dare
.
More after the jump:
Here is a shot of all the hardware, sans microcontrollers:
They have also devised clever way to mount motors in plywood, using an angle iron to anchor the motor and attaching it with a hose clamp. The motors either swing chains to strike recycled xylophone keys or flick cardboard against tuned PVC pipes.
Each of those noise makers (and we assume the lighting) gets one of these switching circuits:
RF communication is achieved using Sparkfun’s
RF Link Transmitter
, and
RF Link Receiver
(which is currently out of stock) in 315 MHz and 434 MHz flavors. We are interested to know where the transmitters are going to be located in the all metal base, as it has the potential to act as a giant RF cage. The pictures seem to indicate that they are using 1/2 wave wire antennas, but are winding it into a coil. After many an RF module headache we would suggest cutting the wire antennae in half (1/4 wave), straightening them out and sneaking them outside the rotating drum to get better reception.
We cant wait to see how the final installation turns out!
| 6
| 6
|
[
{
"comment_id": "361240",
"author": "Faelenor",
"timestamp": "2011-03-17T19:20:10",
"content": "I think you mean an art instAllation.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "361250",
"author": "Jesse Congdon",
"timestamp": "2011-03-17T19:25:45",
"content": "@Faelenor: (facepalm)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "361282",
"author": "CrazyElectroGuy",
"timestamp": "2011-03-17T19:51:22",
"content": "The RF Link Receiver listed in the project has been retired from SparkFun.com D:",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "361295",
"author": "yetihehe",
"timestamp": "2011-03-17T20:06:32",
"content": "As for arduinos – they are not full arduinos, only chips flashed with arduino bootloader. Using full 12 arduinos – now that would be a waste :D",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "361302",
"author": "BloodCoder",
"timestamp": "2011-03-17T20:17:00",
"content": "Seems that this persons blog has a virus on it… dont wonder off the installation page or it will try to install some pcupdate product on your machine. Lovely… I wonder if this person knows about it.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "361735",
"author": "Mrx",
"timestamp": "2011-03-18T10:14:13",
"content": "Who cares about virus? I’m running Linux!Thad a cute project though..",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
}
] | 1,760,377,242.860068
|
||
https://hackaday.com/2011/03/17/av-test-box-meets-the-incredible-shrink-ray/
|
AV Test Box Meets The Incredible Shrink Ray
|
Mike Nathan
|
[
"Tool Hacks",
"Video Hacks"
] |
[
"av",
"pic",
"vga"
] |
[Chris] recently finished building a
miniscule AV Test Box
, capable of fitting inside a standard Altoids tin. It is a revision of a
project he constructed a few years ago
. His previous test box worked well, but was large and cumbersome – definitely not something you would want to carry around from place to place with any frequency.
The new test box does everything its predecessor is capable of, which includes displaying an 800×600 VGA test pattern as well as generating sound signals for testing audio systems. He updated the circuit design a bit, employing a newer PIC processor to run the show, otherwise most of the design details have remained the same, form factor aside.
His build log is full to the brim with details as usual. You will find thorough descriptions of all the components he used, schematics, source code, as well as the theory behind the build.
Be sure to check out the video embedded below of his new AV tester in action.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HLpqeAnONc8&w=470]
| 7
| 7
|
[
{
"comment_id": "361208",
"author": "Sean Gay",
"timestamp": "2011-03-17T18:55:57",
"content": "Neat, except for the porn music.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "361242",
"author": "chango",
"timestamp": "2011-03-17T19:21:08",
"content": "Nice, and it even looks like a prototype for a sub-etha signaling device",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "361247",
"author": "Jim",
"timestamp": "2011-03-17T19:24:52",
"content": "Even more fascinating with the soothing background music.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "361290",
"author": "Erik Johnson",
"timestamp": "2011-03-17T20:01:37",
"content": "As a former tv tech, we used to have Sencore boxes that supposedly were $2000 we used to output test signals – granted they were “officially calibrated”, but we rarely used them for ISF calibration anyway, mainly just setting the proper hue, brightness/contrast and overscan/centering. These functions could easily be done by something like this, just add YCrCb and analog outs and maybe more resolutions. Neat",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "361350",
"author": "Bill D. Williams",
"timestamp": "2011-03-17T21:38:13",
"content": "The creator needs to step up his game in the enclosure department. Just because it’s a hack, doesn’t mean it should look like poo.Come on people, get your stuff together.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "361653",
"author": "Haku",
"timestamp": "2011-03-18T07:08:45",
"content": "Surely I can’t be the only one that thinks the word Altoids sounds like some weird medical condition?“Ow, my altoids is playing up again, best make a visit to the doctor…”",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "362176",
"author": "rj",
"timestamp": "2011-03-18T19:31:19",
"content": "He REALLY needs current limiting resistors on the RGB output. 5V/75 ohms = 67mA, about 2.5x what the PIC is spec’d to output.Also, 5V into some modern monitors analog inputs could damage them.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
}
] | 1,760,377,242.90288
|
||
https://hackaday.com/2011/03/17/lego-minifig-multimeter-makes-resistor-sorting-a-lot-more-fun/
|
Lego Minifig Multimeter Makes Resistor Sorting A Lot More Fun
|
Mike Nathan
|
[
"Tool Hacks",
"Toy Hacks"
] |
[
"atmega",
"lego",
"multimeter"
] |
While there’s typically not much room on our work bench for toys, [David] over at Robot Room has
put together a pretty cool multimeter
for which we would make an exception.
His Lego Minifig multimeter is constructed using mostly standard off-the-shelf Legos, and a pair of Minifigs he modified to suit his needs. Translucent Minifig heads were sourced online to allow the neck-mounted LEDs to shine through, and each of the bodies were drilled out in several places to accommodate the wires he uses to take measurements.
The multimeter will display the resistance of any item from 10 – 10,000,000 Ω, as well as measure the voltage of any battery you can manage to fit under the Minifig’s metal wrench. The multimeter takes measurements using an ATmega168, and relays that data through a serial to USB converter connected to a nearby computer. The computer is host to a .NET application he wrote which displays and speaks both the resistance and voltage values.
Keep reading to see a quick video walkthrough and a demonstration of the multimeter at work.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-Oc3YLc7GM&w=470]
| 21
| 21
|
[
{
"comment_id": "361128",
"author": "Olivier",
"timestamp": "2011-03-17T17:21:43",
"content": "Brilliant project!I’ve never understood why resistances are color coded. Why the value isn’t clearly written on them like every others components?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "361138",
"author": "Koolguy007",
"timestamp": "2011-03-17T17:30:13",
"content": "I think the troll detector blew up on that one.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "361146",
"author": "Jac Goudsmit",
"timestamp": "2011-03-17T17:36:19",
"content": "@Olivier: when companies started producing resistors probably in the early 20th century, printing technology wasn’t nearly as advanced as today. So for “small” resistors it was much easier to just put a couple of rings of colored ink around them. I’ve seen tube radios from the 1950s and 1960s that had big (2 Watt?) resistors with printed values though, and of course many tiny surface-mount resistors nowadays also have the value printed on them, if they are large enough that a normal person can read them anyway (many aren’t!).",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "361157",
"author": "Olivier",
"timestamp": "2011-03-17T17:45:44",
"content": "@Jac Goudsmit: thanks a lot for the explanation!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "361165",
"author": "VEC7OR",
"timestamp": "2011-03-17T17:57:45",
"content": "@Jac GoudsmitWeird, in soviet russia, its was really weird to see resistors *with* color bands, even very very old ones have value printed on them.Big ones:http://content.foto.mail.ru/list/miha11/1/i-82.jpgSmall ones:http://pro-radio.ru/user/uploads/128822.jpgMarkup:http://www.radiant.su/files/images/cod_1.jpgEtc:http://www.erkon-nn.ru/file/r1-43/r1-43.pngGo figure?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "361176",
"author": "VEC7OR",
"timestamp": "2011-03-17T18:13:26",
"content": "http://www.leningrad.su/museum/show_big.php?n=1075More on that – find a weird cookie in a jar.Other thing that pisses me off is weird notation of glue logics that most of us familiar with, like 74HC00, in soviet russia that would be K1564LA3, where numbers show the logic family HC, and letters show the function – 00, single glance on the pcb pretty much tells you what is it made of, counters, registers, glue logics…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "361179",
"author": "Fallen",
"timestamp": "2011-03-17T18:14:59",
"content": "Really cool, but I’d imagine most of here can look at resistors and read them instantly.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "361181",
"author": "wosser",
"timestamp": "2011-03-17T18:15:51",
"content": "A nicely rounded project, which would be a neat little educational toy for kids interested in electronics.If it could all be done in hardware that would be even better – I’m sure I’ve seen text to speech chips somewhere. Perhaps use five RGB leds to display the colour stripes and maybe a 16×2 LCD for text output.I’m a big lego fan, so this caught my eye immediately. Although I find it mildly sacrilegious that you’ve drilled holes in a couple of innocent lego men! :DCool.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "361198",
"author": "Plautus",
"timestamp": "2011-03-17T18:42:36",
"content": "The build is fantastic and looks great, but I also find it hilarious that he spends half the video trying to convince us that this rig is more convenient than learning resistor codes.It’s okay, cool projects do not need to fill gaps in the market or have socially redeeming value!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "361199",
"author": "jamieriddles",
"timestamp": "2011-03-17T18:43:00",
"content": "resistor color codes really suck when your color deficient",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "361201",
"author": "fotoflojoe",
"timestamp": "2011-03-17T18:44:11",
"content": "It’s my understanding that resistors use color bands for value ID so that even after being installed in a board, the value can quickly be read from any angle.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "361218",
"author": "fotoflojoe",
"timestamp": "2011-03-17T19:05:42",
"content": "@wosser:>> Perhaps use five RGB leds to display the colour stripes and maybe a 16×2 LCD for text output.<<This statement jogged my memory. I'm sure I've seen a project on here within the last year or so that does almost exactly this. It was someone's entry for some contest.Found it!http://hackaday.com/2010/01/15/know-your-resistors-tell-the-time/Ok this project is resistor as a clock. But… There's your light-up resistor! :-)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "361278",
"author": "craig",
"timestamp": "2011-03-17T19:47:09",
"content": "Completely, unreservedly badass. I love it.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "361299",
"author": "ernesto",
"timestamp": "2011-03-17T20:13:49",
"content": "sniff… no code share at all ;<",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "361426",
"author": "mjrippe",
"timestamp": "2011-03-17T23:19:36",
"content": "While I am pretty good at reading values from color codes, there are some that are very difficult to make out. In particular 1/8 watt resistors with tiny bands, very old/dirty/overheated resistors, etc. Even with a loupe (magnifier) it can be hard to tell sometimes. Yeah, a multimeter is just as fast as this “toy”, but not as fun!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "361531",
"author": "therian",
"timestamp": "2011-03-18T02:29:03",
"content": "@jamieriddles Im god and I took colors from you for all those kittens you drawn",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "361540",
"author": "JohnBailey",
"timestamp": "2011-03-18T02:52:14",
"content": "@therianAnd what exactly is wrong with drawing kittens?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "362465",
"author": "Chris",
"timestamp": "2011-03-19T01:43:06",
"content": "Lego Bricks, not Legos.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "362562",
"author": "Justin Lee",
"timestamp": "2011-03-19T04:39:24",
"content": "Absolutely love this. To death and skittles.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "366450",
"author": "Peter Enmore",
"timestamp": "2011-03-24T17:12:13",
"content": "This is very creative. However if you already know resistor codes I am not sure if it is that helpful.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "870910",
"author": "RyoTakaba",
"timestamp": "2012-11-12T04:35:21",
"content": "I want to know the reason of why dont you just use multimeter?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
}
] | 1,760,377,242.960736
|
||
https://hackaday.com/2011/03/17/n64boy-advance/
|
N64Boy Advance
|
Brian Benchoff
|
[
"handhelds hacks",
"Nintendo Hacks"
] |
[
"nintendo",
"portable"
] |
[Hailrazer] found a Game Boy Advance carrying case in his closet and thought he could pull off an
N64Boy Advance
in a few weekends. Despite the fast build time, [Hailrazer] built something that wouldn’t look out of place sitting on a shelf at a toy store.
This isn’t the first time we have covered an
N64 Advance portable gaming system
that uses a GBA carrying case, but this hack keeps the original styling of the Game Boy Advance without all the epoxy, bondo and sanding. Inside is a 4.3″ screen, GameCube joystick, N64 expansion pack, and enough Li-ion to get 5-6 hours of play time. The build doesn’t include a D-pad because [Hailrazer] doesn’t use that while playing. It also doesn’t have controller or A/V ports, because he doesn’t, “want to sit around with friends playing N64 on a 4.3″ screen.” A very pragmatic build, indeed.
We love seeing people re-purpose odd bits of plastic they have lying around, so we’re wondering when someone with an
Original Game Boy Carrying Case
will build an NESBoy. Video after the jump.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dgyzuFMfJ4Q&w=470#t=40s]
| 11
| 11
|
[
{
"comment_id": "361053",
"author": "nitori",
"timestamp": "2011-03-17T16:08:23",
"content": "I wish somebody would start manufacturing these things. (Any of the portable N64 systems) I’d buy one in a heartbeat. (My building skills are much too low to pull something like this off)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "361096",
"author": "pod",
"timestamp": "2011-03-17T16:56:45",
"content": "this looks cleaner than the previous featured one",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "361104",
"author": "2-ba:bu",
"timestamp": "2011-03-17T17:01:51",
"content": "Truly amazing – Love it, love everything about it – I wish my hacks would be this neat and professional. Big kudos to Hailraiser.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "361114",
"author": "Brennan",
"timestamp": "2011-03-17T17:14:12",
"content": "@nitori There is pretty decent emulation for N64 on the PSP if all you’re interested in is the games.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "361366",
"author": "Frogz",
"timestamp": "2011-03-17T21:50:18",
"content": "mario 64 without camera control? THIS IS MADNESS",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "361403",
"author": "david m",
"timestamp": "2011-03-17T22:16:33",
"content": "This has been out for a few months… its old.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "361502",
"author": "Nick",
"timestamp": "2011-03-18T01:42:13",
"content": "I guess he doesn’t play Ape Escape.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "361670",
"author": "tanukihat",
"timestamp": "2011-03-18T08:22:45",
"content": "@frogs: Uh, the C and R buttons work fine. He adjusts the camera with them in the video, did you not see that part?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "373667",
"author": "crait",
"timestamp": "2011-04-04T21:25:20",
"content": "Very, very good!! :D",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "375522",
"author": "cns949",
"timestamp": "2011-04-07T15:46:46",
"content": "You have great skills dude. I like it.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "383196",
"author": "Pa55w0rD",
"timestamp": "2011-04-20T05:27:11",
"content": "how can you play ocarina of time?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
}
] | 1,760,377,243.008439
|
||
https://hackaday.com/2011/03/17/quick-and-dirty-film-dosimeter/
|
Quick And Dirty Film Dosimeter
|
Kevin Dady
|
[
"Medical Hacks"
] |
[
"Dosimeter",
"film"
] |
With all the talk of radiation in the media today [freddysam] posted a quick Instructable about using standard
camera film as a radiation dosimeter
. Film is sensitive to other forms of radiation other than visible light, and high speed films are even more susceptible due to their chemistry, which has caused all sorts of headaches to travelers before most people went digital. This uses that headache as a simple way to see if you have been exposed to abnormal amounts of radiation in a 3 step process.
Get some film. Yes they still sell it, it can still be found just about anywhere.
In a dark room unroll a little out of the metal can and put it back in its black plastic container.
Develop it if you think you have been exposed.
The idea is to let a few frames of film to be exposed to normal background radiation and develop it so you have something to compare with in the future, then you can unroll a bit more, and if you think your going into a hot area you can develop that newly exposed film to see roughly how much more radiation there was, maybe helping you sleep better at night.
| 22
| 22
|
[
{
"comment_id": "361027",
"author": "Cameron",
"timestamp": "2011-03-17T15:32:58",
"content": "This is a terrible idea. Millions of dollars go into developing accurate dosimeters because the dose response of something simple like camera film is not linear. This means differentiating between dose slightly above background but not dangerous(flying in a plane for example) and something actually dangerous is not possible. The only thing this does is increase paranoia about radiation.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "361047",
"author": "stunmonkey",
"timestamp": "2011-03-17T16:00:10",
"content": "not only is it not linear, but the fogging from any actual radiation exposure is probably not anywhere near as large as the fogging from simply handling the film.there is a difference between a true darkroom and a ‘dark room’, and people have no idea how easily fogged film is. it also has a spectral sensitivity well beyond the visible in both directions.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "361052",
"author": "lwatcdr",
"timestamp": "2011-03-17T16:08:07",
"content": "Talk about shameful fear mongering. Really HAD this is not only useless but could scare the living crap out of any poor fool that uses it.All it would take is for somebody to have a light leak and mess up the film. Next thing you know they are sure the are sick and are in the ER for no good reason.In the US that would be just an annoyance in Japan it could mean someone that really needs help will not get it!If you want to try this out for fun have at it but if you think it is useful then you are just wrong.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "361055",
"author": "uC",
"timestamp": "2011-03-17T16:13:02",
"content": "Interesting idea. This could be fun to use as a simple experiment on a weather balloon.Any one know of any calibrated (or -able) dosimeters worth of HAD?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "361064",
"author": "asheets",
"timestamp": "2011-03-17T16:19:58",
"content": "The Kearney Fallout Meter is infinitely more reliable as a dosimeter than this film trick, and is more worthy of publishing on HaD since its primary components are drywall, thread, and foil.http://www.ki4u.com/free_book/s60p792.htmOr, if you are lazy like me, grab a hundred or so of CD-era dosimeters off of eBay (along with a charger, of course). This is a good example, though I didn’t pay nearly this much for mine:http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=290546036180",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "361069",
"author": "not_mine",
"timestamp": "2011-03-17T16:23:43",
"content": "I used to work for a major railroad and had to know where we could place carload of dangerous substances.I believe very explosive loads had to be placed more than 4 cars away from an occupied engine or caboose. Couldn’t place these cars next to cars with shiftable loads like a flatcar.Cars with radioactive loads only had one restriction. We couldn’t place them next to a load of undeveloped film.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "361085",
"author": "Cameron",
"timestamp": "2011-03-17T16:45:34",
"content": "I think your best bet would be to find an old civil defense pen dosimeter and make your own charger. With that and a source(maybe Am from a smoke detector) to calibrate it you may be able to make something HAD worthy. I am in no way saying this would work only that it may be possible.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "361119",
"author": "uC",
"timestamp": "2011-03-17T17:18:33",
"content": "@asheets I’d never heard of the “Kearney Fallout Meter”That’s quite a simple design very HAD worth. Charge foil leaves with static and measure separation. Then calculate how fast the charge leaves the foil.Would a weak source such as a smoke alarm be detectable. Sounds like its time to do some science!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "361169",
"author": "JS",
"timestamp": "2011-03-17T18:01:52",
"content": "Am (Americium) is a alpha emitter and alpha particles are easily blocked.In a proper setup the emissions will never reach the film.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "361174",
"author": "Luke",
"timestamp": "2011-03-17T18:12:08",
"content": "Film badge dosimeters used to be quite common – I haven’t worked in the field in ages, so I don’t know about today’s usage.This will work, but realistically, if you don’t have a means of calibrating the exposure, you don’t know what level of radiation you’ve been exposed to. The use of a shield over part of the film will allow you do determine the difference between radiation exposure and other film fogging.Short of a means of determining the proper shielding and a densitometer to read the relative densities of the exposed and non-exposed areas (plus a calibration to know what that difference means) this is a useless toy.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "361213",
"author": "BR",
"timestamp": "2011-03-17T18:59:47",
"content": "I worked as an x-ray tech for many years, the key to the arguments against it due to fogging can be solved very simply. Most badge holders contain a stepped set of shielding so you can see different levels of penetration. You can ignore the fogging because you can compare the overall background color against each steps difference to see the overall exposure and type of exposure. The lowest step consists of an open film area.I believe the steps are made from aluminum but you would have to do some absorption calculations based on the shielding you choose. By measuring the difference between steps you can quickly tell how much actual radiation you have received vs defects on the film or development.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "361216",
"author": "BR",
"timestamp": "2011-03-17T19:04:04",
"content": "I forgot to mention the other nice thing about this type of dosimeter is that it will keep track over a months time. Meaning you can even be sure you are aware of your absorption after you have turned off your device for the night.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "361219",
"author": "BR",
"timestamp": "2011-03-17T19:06:31",
"content": "For those wanting to make stepped shielding there is a nice guide on the attenuation math here:http://www.ehow.com/how_7630142_calculate-xray-absorption.htmlIt would be nice to hear from a radiation physicist if this calculation would compare favorably to attenuation of iodine and cesium isotopes.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "361234",
"author": "Cameron",
"timestamp": "2011-03-17T19:15:16",
"content": "@JS Am also emits 59 keV gammas and yes these are very low energy but it MAY be possible to do some sort of calibration with them.@Luke Film badge != photography film. Photography film is thin film for measuring visible light that also is sensitive to other forms of radiation. A film badge usually contains either multiple films or a specially designed film so that the energy of the radiation is proportional to the exposure of the film. For comparison visible light photons have an energy range of 1.65 – 3.1eV(electron volts). Typical “radiation” that could pose a health threat to people is 50kev-2MeV. This is a much larger range and 4 orders of magnitude higher energy than visible light.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "361236",
"author": "lwatcdr",
"timestamp": "2011-03-17T19:18:40",
"content": "The plastic container will probably block Alpha and possibly low energy beta. As an experiment this is fine but it really is terrible fear mongering to post it at this time IMHO.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "361271",
"author": "Cameron",
"timestamp": "2011-03-17T19:40:05",
"content": "@BR Using attenuators is more complicated than just using the NIST mass attenuation coefficient because one incident Cs-137 decay gamma(for example) can produce several lower energy photons(from compton scatter and subsequent x-ray production) when it interacts in your attenuator. I must stress again that photography film is not designed for measuring nuclear radiation accurately.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "361279",
"author": "zeropointmodule",
"timestamp": "2011-03-17T19:49:51",
"content": "Just had an idea about those itty bitty Russian “mini” geiger tubes.I have two of them + the datasheet here, they are just small enough to fit inside a cheap poundland “step” counter which only needs a simple power supply based on a MPSA42 and two 180V zeners for voltage feedback.If it is built correctly the battery life should be several weeks, and for safety you would want to use a separate battery for the tube.Another related idea is to use a surplus piece of mica or pyrolytic graphite, epoxied into a thin wall metal tube with a length of 40 gauge wire through the centre but insulated from the metal casing, aka homemade Geiger tube.Vacuum down to 0.1atm with 50/50 butane/argon with a drop of alcohol and you should be able to detect alpha and beta particles without major problems at 4-700V input.A related hack is any old surplus B/W CMOS camera with its window removed , edge connectors epoxied in place and a mica sheet coated with lamp black placed over the chip.If you have any surplus x-ray intensifier screen a thin strip can be placed near the edge of the chip to detect the type of radiation.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "361280",
"author": "BR",
"timestamp": "2011-03-17T19:50:19",
"content": "Ahh good point, I forgot about Compton scatter. Plus there is always the control film used that is locked in a lead container at the time the films are sealed and later developed. Without a good control it will be hard to filter as well. I did see quite a few badge companies that supply dental facilities for about $100-$200 which would give you everything you need for a fairly affordable price. But then again, everyone who is going to catch the plume isn’t going to see much in terms of exposure anyway.For fun there are quite a few geiger counter parts available fromhttp://www.goldmine-elec.com/Meuller tubes and the like. This would be a fun project but ultimately everyone in the US who is worried about the “Plume” is going to be very disappointed when nothing happens. It would be far more fun to try and measure a plane ride or another source of common radiation that we all receive regularly.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "361308",
"author": "Whatnot",
"timestamp": "2011-03-17T20:28:34",
"content": "@BR indeed you’d need to take one film and clad half in lead to have a reference.As for geiger counters, those are bulky and will be so distrusted at the airport security I imagine, especially home-made versions, don’t expect to be without delays trying to take that on board.Oh and old geiger counter tubes are fragile I hear, being glass and having a thin glass front.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "361311",
"author": "BR",
"timestamp": "2011-03-17T20:36:29",
"content": "@Whatnot Fortunately I have already been through the hell of bringing a case worth of custom electronics on a plane. I had to do a presentation and brought with me 4 of my experiments. I can say this took about 40 minutes of discussion with TSA and eventually after a small demonstration and a good demeanor I was able to bring the devices on board. It was an AVR Dragon, 10 or so random AVR chips, an arduino, 3 battery packs and a grand assortment of various breadboards and wires. I think it has to do with your showmanship at that point so the key is to bring charm. I expect with a smaller device it may be a bit easier to explain but if you are going to do this it would be best to talk to the stewardess about it since she may see the gieger counter and freak out. Perhaps a nice custom enclosure would make things a bit less exciting for everyone as well. Maybe a sticker or two for authenticity :)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "361517",
"author": "Jeditalian",
"timestamp": "2011-03-18T02:12:31",
"content": "that’s why i never get a good photograph of a UFO?better go digital.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "510049",
"author": "haxwithaxe",
"timestamp": "2011-11-16T14:21:34",
"content": "sorry to raise the dead :Pany reason why you couldn’t just roll up the film with an aluminium strip thus creating an aluminium+film onion which is progressively shielded?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
}
] | 1,760,377,243.249212
|
||
https://hackaday.com/2011/03/16/toothpaste-diode/
|
Toothpaste Diode
|
Kevin Dady
|
[
"chemistry hacks"
] |
[
"toothpaste"
] |
While reading the back of a tube a toothpaste [Underling] noticed that one of the ingredients was hydrated silica, gears turned, sparks flew and he wondered if he could possibly make a transistor out of the stuff. After thinking about it he decided that making a
diode out of toothpaste
would be easier and still prove the idea.
The quick n dirty explanation of this is he smeared some toothpaste on a bit of chrome and set it on fire with a propane torch. When set on fire the result is silica and sodium, heat causes the sodium to bond with the silica and since sodium is negatively charged this forms an n-type semiconductor or half of the diode. Chrome is used for the second half of the diode, for a few reasons, he had some lying around, its positivity charged, and the toothpaste contains a little bit of lye which oxidizes the chrome and burns off, bonding the silica to the metal.
What is left is a thin layer of chrome doped silicon under a layer of sodium doped silicon, which in spots where everything is perfect, acts like a diode, blocking current in one direction but not the other.
| 39
| 39
|
[
{
"comment_id": "359849",
"author": "IJ Dee-Vo",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T13:18:12",
"content": "best use for toothpaste I ever seen!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "359859",
"author": "SRV",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T13:43:12",
"content": "I understand the hard work and theory that went into this, but in the end what do you really have? Bragging rights?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "359861",
"author": "FightCube.com",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T13:44:09",
"content": "Awexome idea! Congrats on getting it working :)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "359863",
"author": "Andy7",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T13:58:36",
"content": "Bragging rights? Yes of course he gets bragging rights – what more do you need?Nice experiment!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "359868",
"author": "SRV",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T14:06:41",
"content": "I don’t understand why reinventing the wheel is considered a ‘hack’, that’s all.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "359878",
"author": "Philippe",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T14:24:03",
"content": "Nice!@SRV: Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz….",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "359879",
"author": "colecoman1982",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T14:28:36",
"content": "@SRV: I’m sorry, I think you have the wrong site. I think you were looking for srvslimitedpersonaldefinitionofhackaday.com",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "359880",
"author": "jaqen",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T14:29:15",
"content": "@SRV: Making a wheel yourself from toothpaste is more “hacky” than buying a wheel from the store I guess :-)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "359885",
"author": "Freax",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T14:31:28",
"content": "If you could get transistors to work, we could use a makerbot or something similar to print our own toothpast-ICs… cool",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "359887",
"author": "ChemE",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T14:36:09",
"content": "umm…Na is used to dope the silica because it is a positively charged ion. You may want to fix that mistake.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "359892",
"author": "IJ Dee-Vo",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T14:47:56",
"content": "@SRV obvious user not a Maker. How is it not a hack? What is wrong with bragging rights, or doing something to see if it can be done or satsify ones curisty? seriosly? Well those that can’t do anything cool, obviosly troll",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "359926",
"author": "s1500",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T15:11:49",
"content": "filed under: Macgyver",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "359934",
"author": "mic",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T15:16:57",
"content": "*A wild troll appears!**Uses Ignore*It’s super effective!Bragging rights? No it is in case MacGyver needs a diode of course…. You didn’t see that episode?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "359944",
"author": "detectorgadget",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T15:20:57",
"content": "this is the best type of hack if you ask me… nothing better than making home-brew components.would love to see this being used as a detector in a crystal radio.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "359973",
"author": "Wolfton",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T15:38:51",
"content": "Okay. Those who think this is not a hack need to be hacked themselves.Without these somewhat-simple hacks, who would ever take things further? To your discerning eyes, must this have been included in a larger build in order to be particularly ‘worthy’ of hackaday?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "359976",
"author": "alan",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T15:45:29",
"content": "those complaining about the people complaining about how it’s not a hack.it was 1 person who said something about it. we don’t need 10 people b****ing him out.kthanks./troll",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "359989",
"author": "Adrian",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T16:14:51",
"content": "If he powers this with a potato, full geek-cred.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "359990",
"author": "yetihehe",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T16:15:11",
"content": "Now – make arduino out of toothpaste :D",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "359991",
"author": "furan",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T16:15:12",
"content": "Excellent! HaD needs more like this, not less! Srv needs to look up the meaning of the word hack…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "360010",
"author": "mike bradley",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T16:35:49",
"content": "Not reinventing, experimenting. Braging rights well deseved. Imagine if it gave off light? What if it was a new form of diode? This is how new technologies are born.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "360031",
"author": "SRV",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T17:05:19",
"content": "Hack = taking something and modifiying it in a way that was not originally intended, no? Making homemade diode = cool, but not hack.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "360032",
"author": "0x4368726973",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T17:09:04",
"content": "Definitely need to encorage this work. I may try picking up some little samples or travel packs of different kinds of toothpaste, and see if I can figure out different properties of different ones. I have a little analyzer for different types. Perhaps my cinnamon toothpaste I currently am using at home will show something interesting…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "360033",
"author": "IJ Dee-Vo",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T17:11:23",
"content": "@srv=instant fail by stating proof that it is indeed a hack, then denying the proof. Tooth paste not intended to be a diode. then used as one.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "360101",
"author": "elcomol",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T17:57:38",
"content": "@srv, dude what the heck, speaking against yourself.Are you joking or what…Very nice Macgyver hack, love this stuff.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "360104",
"author": "Jeri Ellsworth",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T17:59:38",
"content": "The troll factor around is annoying.I’m trying to get my head wrapped around the chemistry, but I have a feeling this might be forming a liquid diode with the moisture in the air.Liquid diode –http://home.earthlink.net/~lenyr/borax.htm",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "360115",
"author": "brad",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T18:14:56",
"content": "[quote]Chrome is used for the second half of the diode, for a few reasons, he had some lying around, its positivity charged, and the toothpaste contains a little bit of lye which oxidizes the chrome and burns off, bonding the silica to the metal.[/quote]holy run-on sentence, batman.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "360118",
"author": "Underling",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T18:18:10",
"content": "@ChemEYour right it does have a positive charge. I dug a little deeper and found a better explanation for how it worked. Next time I’ll do more research before I post my findings.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "360132",
"author": "Underling",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T18:30:46",
"content": "@ bradI disagree for three reasons:1. The breakdown voltage is to low2. There are not enough spots on the metal that act as a diode. Very few spots are actually diode on the metal. I think that a rectifier like that would work over more of the metal.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "360172",
"author": "DanH03",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T19:03:23",
"content": "I agree a toothpaste diode is not a hack, but it is a build, and very notable one. This is innovative. Isn’t innovation and creativity the point behind the HaD site??Congrats for a great project, you’ve got some awesome ideas and projects, not to mention bragging rights!!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "360218",
"author": "zumax",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T19:34:30",
"content": "It may be a hack, and a cool one at that. But the offered theory is utter nonsense. First: you need far more power than that of a torch to reduce silica (SiO_2) to silicon; then sodium as a dopant — forget that. And so on.Most probably some of the multiple metal oxide layers formed in the process have semicouducting properties (many have).",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "360243",
"author": "SRV",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T19:55:07",
"content": "@DanH03Yep, that’s exactly what I said – in all of my posts I recognized the hard work that went into this and said that it’s definitely a cool project, and yet people are jumping down my throat and calling me a troll because I point out it’s not a hack? Making a diode out of alternative materials is still not a “hack”, in the literal sense of the word. Any time you create something from nothing it is not a “hack” as it is defined here.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "360267",
"author": "Andy7",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T20:19:53",
"content": "Rather than powering it with a potato wouldn’t it be better to use the alcohol in MOUTHWASH to build a fuel cell to power his toothpaste IC?Seriously, I want to see someting made from this – it’s GOT to happen.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "360268",
"author": "Pilotgeek",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T20:23:55",
"content": "Wow, some people just need to the hack.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "360290",
"author": "Underling",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T20:45:18",
"content": "@Andy7I’m still working on trying to make a better Cat’s-whisker detector and refining the diode. Once I’ve perfected it I have every intention on building a Cristal radio with one of my diodes. If you check my website in about a week I’ll probably post a photo. If i ever get a transistor working I can use it to amp the radio.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "360340",
"author": "Underling",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T21:39:38",
"content": "@zumaxSodium Hydroxide when reciting with chrome creates heat and combustible grasses. This is what probably created the silicon. If you bothered to look at my sight you would know that after others pointing out that sodium would not work i researched further and revised my theory. You would have also read that I have very little knowledge of chemistry and as such asked people to suggest flaws in my theory not get on another website and bash it without pointing it out them me so I can possibly correct it.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "360347",
"author": "Underling",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T21:56:19",
"content": "@zumaxThats setting aside the fact that propane buns at 1995 °C and silica melts at 1700°C so you can melt small amounts of silica with a propane torch.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "360648",
"author": "Vis1-0n",
"timestamp": "2011-03-17T05:32:33",
"content": "Would I be able to pick up AM radio when I brush my teeth with that brand toothpaste?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "360723",
"author": "snowdruid",
"timestamp": "2011-03-17T07:42:22",
"content": "@underlingwhat zumax was pointing out is that silica and silicon are two different compound. silica is actualy silicon dioxide.while silica might melt at 1700 it wont magicaly become silicon (wich is used as semiconductor not silica). so basically i have no clue how your diode works but its still very nice work :P",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "360955",
"author": "Silicon Alley",
"timestamp": "2011-03-17T13:37:56",
"content": "Freax posted:> If you could get transistors to work, we could> use a makerbot or something similar to print our > own toothpast-ICs… coolGuess the project makers would have a choice as to whether to polish their projects or to brush them up. :)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
}
] | 1,760,377,243.42263
|
||
https://hackaday.com/2011/03/16/motorcycle-sound-effects/
|
Motorcycle Sound Effects
|
Kevin Dady
|
[
"Arduino Hacks"
] |
[
"boot",
"motorcycle"
] |
[Winfred] was thinking one day, of how the world would be a different place if everything we owned had little start up and shut down sounds like our computers. Historically computers would just beep after passing their power on self test, and many PC’s still do, but in the 1980’s as machines became more powerful and home users wanted more flexibility in their hardware, startup chimes started to creep into our lives. And why not extend that little moment of joy to other objects, like adding
Windows XP startup and shutdown sounds to your motorcycle
.
Electronically the bill of materials looks like hobby shop catalog, featuring a Freeduino (Arduino variant), Adafruit wave shield, marine speakers, and a cheap-o mp3 amplifier from ebay. While admittedly not the cheapest way to play an audio clip [Winfred] offers a few suggestions to help drop the 100$ price tag, including just skipping it all together and mimicking the sounds with your voice.
Its a fun idea, its sure to earn some odd looks from his neighbors, and it will probably make you chuckle a little too.
| 12
| 12
|
[
{
"comment_id": "359826",
"author": "sd",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T12:35:18",
"content": "bracing for an onslaught of bad puns about crashing…the video made me lol :)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "359833",
"author": "Delirium",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T12:56:32",
"content": "The idea is kinda cool but the sounds… the startup and shutdown sounds were always the first to go after I installed a fresh Windows.Something like, ‘computer engaged’ or ‘ignition on’ would, imo, be much cooler",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "359852",
"author": "Ian",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T13:23:43",
"content": "Gah, choose better sound effects!I can’t be the only one who has negative associations with the XP startup/shutdown sound clips? I’m not sure what I’d use instead though…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "359875",
"author": "Henrik Pedersen",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T14:21:10",
"content": "The need for XP sounds define som serious problems…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "359950",
"author": "blaze280",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T15:21:58",
"content": "lame…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "359968",
"author": "IJ Dee-Vo",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T15:30:08",
"content": "3pic",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "359974",
"author": "Me",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T15:39:19",
"content": "What horror!Startup and shutdown sounds are the audio equivalent of splash screens and serve no higher purpose than to be needlessly and annoyingly in-your-face.It’s good that you have named this individual, so that he can be dispatched from our collective gene pool post haste.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "360099",
"author": "ds2ktj",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T17:55:39",
"content": "Why not just use the arduio to play the startup sound. Seems a little over the top when the $4 micro is capable of doing it on it’s own. Granted a startup sound will fill most of the memory it’s still better than throwing $100 worth of parts at in instead of reading a little.It took about 15 minutes to convert the sound (following the instuctions here) I wanted to play and then using the simple code here to get it working. Yeah its not going to play a library but a single sound…no problem. Using it to annoy the chickens before opening the coop door.http://www.arduino.cc/playground/Code/PCMAudio",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "360447",
"author": "Winfred",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T23:26:44",
"content": "Love the comments, keep up the asininity. I’m a Windows sysadmin with barely any electronics skills (or understanding), yet I was able to make this project work with two or three hours of my time and $100 (if time=money, total cost about 5 hours after tax – I think the blog post took me longer than the actual project). Not bad by my standards.For those interested in removing me from the gene pool, my kid just told me you’re too late(unless you want to pre-empt him as well?), but if you are still interested, please send me an email and we can meet-up. Look for the 6.5ft, 250lb biker dude with the NRA emblems and prison tattoos :P",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "360482",
"author": "David Carrier",
"timestamp": "2011-03-17T00:03:48",
"content": "A friend of mine has a Kawasaki ZX10 that sounds like a jet engine warming up when you first switch the ignition to “ON”. My EX250, on the other hand, occasionally backfires when I start it, which sounds somewhat like high-caliber gunfire.— David",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "463273",
"author": "LUCAS",
"timestamp": "2011-09-24T09:11:07",
"content": "What a wonderful post! Thank you, have a great day!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "4455805",
"author": "biswajeet",
"timestamp": "2018-04-03T14:33:12",
"content": "i need the circuit diagram and the adriuno code and the whole connection plzz",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
}
] | 1,760,377,243.099874
|
||
https://hackaday.com/2011/03/16/pwm-controlled-led-display-is-truly-a-gift-from-the-heart/
|
PWM-controlled LED Display Is Truly A Gift From The Heart
|
Mike Nathan
|
[
"LED Hacks",
"Microcontrollers",
"Misc Hacks"
] |
[
"led",
"pic",
"pwm"
] |
Instructables user [Simon] admits he addicted to electronics. Lucky for him, his wife of 15 years is pretty cool with, or at least tolerant of his need to fiddle with anything that plugs in. As a gift for their wedding anniversary, he decided it would be neat to combine his love for his wife with his love for electronics. The result is the the
RGB LED “Love Heart”
you see above. He built an RGB LED circuit controlled by a PIC12F683 microcontroller, which shines into a hand-etched plexi-glass panel.
The LED color is controlled using PWM, as you would expect. What you might not expect however, is the lengths [Simon] would travel to ensure nearly perfect color and brightness matching across the 5 LEDs he used in his project. Since RGB LEDs do not have a uniform output brightness, he used a Lux meter to precisely measure the white balance of each LED. He then plotted the results in Excel before coding the PWM driver. Now that’s devotion! Once the LEDs were settled, he went about constructing the rest of the LED panel.
If you are interested in building one for your sweetheart, [Simon] has you covered – he provides all of the schematics, templates, and source code required to get the job done.
Continue reading to see a video of his heart panel in action.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bgqvyfl-Fv4&w=470]
| 7
| 7
|
[
{
"comment_id": "359791",
"author": "Dirk",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T11:10:46",
"content": "This is sweet. Hm, I wonder if my girlfriend would like this as a present…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "359795",
"author": "addidis",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T11:28:17",
"content": "This is pretty awesome. I hope she likes it.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "359800",
"author": "Pedro",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T11:39:39",
"content": "I would have finished it off with a picture frame, otherwise it’s a nice build.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "359850",
"author": "Delirium",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T13:21:52",
"content": "@Pedro, that’s a good idea!I thought that the heart would become boring to look at so adding a picture would be a good idea.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "360025",
"author": "ino",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T16:53:07",
"content": "Meeehh , I would have cut out the heart shape and stick the leds around the edges.This way you can mix different colors in the center of the heart.Much more eye pleasing than the current design (quite boring to me).",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "360519",
"author": "Che",
"timestamp": "2011-03-17T01:21:10",
"content": "Spin it…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "361720",
"author": "doh",
"timestamp": "2011-03-18T09:52:05",
"content": "Hmm, combined with access to a LASER cutter/engraver, this concept can be used for some other pretty awesome displays.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
}
] | 1,760,377,243.350286
|
||
https://hackaday.com/2011/03/15/cooking-up-piezo-crystals-at-home/
|
Cooking Up Piezo Crystals At Home
|
Mike Nathan
|
[
"chemistry hacks",
"Misc Hacks"
] |
[
"crystals",
"piezoelecricity"
] |
[Collin] loves piezos – and why not?
According to him, they are about as close to magic as you can find in the world. We can’t really disagree on that one – there’s something
oddly enchanting about piezoelectric materials
.
Most commercially used piezoelectric devices that you find today are constructed out of man-made ceramic materials such as Lead zirconate titanate, and can be found in grill starters, gas-powered water heaters, etc. While they are common, it’s not exactly easy to synthesize these sorts of ceramic materials at home.
You can however, create piezoelectric crystals in your kitchen, using just a few simple ingredients. In his video, [Collin] shows us how to create Rochelle Salt, one of the first known materials found to exhibit piezoelectricity. The recipe calls for three ingredients, cream of tartar, sodium carbonate (soda ash), and water – that’s it. The procedure is quite simple, requiring you to heat a solution of water and cream of tartar, adding the soda ash a little at a time once it reaches the proper temperature. The solution is filtered after it turns clear and then left to sit overnight while the crystals form.
Take a look at the video embedded below to see how his Rochelle Crystals turned out, and be sure to try this out with your kids if they are interested in electronics. Making crystals that generate electricity when tapped is far cooler than making rock candy any day, trust us on this.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K3G2QM5a-9U&w=470]
| 56
| 49
|
[
{
"comment_id": "359353",
"author": "Dunky",
"timestamp": "2011-03-15T22:11:00",
"content": "Nice crystals :)prob going to make one myself",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "359356",
"author": "Spork",
"timestamp": "2011-03-15T22:16:37",
"content": "I’m assuming that you can you standard crystal forming procedures (such as very slow cooling) to make uniform, “pretty” looking crystals.Looks like we’ll have to become magicians now!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "359360",
"author": "wosser",
"timestamp": "2011-03-15T22:21:43",
"content": "This guy could present a video in his sleep and it would be entertaining and informative. As always, brilliant stuff.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "359370",
"author": "strider_mt2k",
"timestamp": "2011-03-15T22:44:32",
"content": "It also looks like he’ll be able to store our planet’s knowledge to teach his son after our star explodes.just sayin…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "359378",
"author": "mjrippe",
"timestamp": "2011-03-15T22:53:15",
"content": "Can’t wait for my nephews to visit – I get to be the “Mad Scientist” uncle!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "359382",
"author": "hajma",
"timestamp": "2011-03-15T23:08:06",
"content": "would that crystal make noise when connected to AC ?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "359393",
"author": "Hirudinea",
"timestamp": "2011-03-15T23:38:21",
"content": "Cooler than rock candy? Hell, add sugar to this stuff and it IS rock candy!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "359408",
"author": "Fallen",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T00:03:12",
"content": "Nifty. I’d imagine to produce sound with it you would want to attach it to a diaphragm. It’ll probably take a fairly high voltage to be audible.Because the excursion is very limitted it’s probably only good from 1kHz up too. IE don’t hook it up to a wall socket and expect much.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "359411",
"author": "andar_b",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T00:10:10",
"content": "That’s cooler than when I ‘discovered’ that Epsom Salts are mostly water, and you can literally toss them on a hot stove element and they’ll boil away to a white powder. I may have to try it, I’m wondering how resilient they are, and stuff like that.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "359413",
"author": "Lewis",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T00:18:38",
"content": "You need to make sure that the neighbors and the cops know that you’re cooking piezo crystals and not the meth kind. Just owning a few of the components to make the crystals is enough to be charged with precursor chemicals. Just as long as you have documentation, you should be ok.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "359454",
"author": "Erik Johnson",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T01:15:07",
"content": "@Lewis do you also keep your papers in order when baking cookies?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "359457",
"author": "Bob Jones",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T01:23:46",
"content": "Repeat after me: PYE-ZO. Not pee-ahy-zo",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "359472",
"author": "kpetoh",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T01:45:33",
"content": "Rough Science",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "359486",
"author": "Thomas Wrobel",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T02:05:24",
"content": "Would the impact of a foot on it generate much current? Wonder if you could do something silly with these in shoes….",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "359513",
"author": "Frogz",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T02:43:14",
"content": "i’ve wanted to make 1 of these since i was like 5(i wanted to make sparks like the commercial piezo devices) but i was never able to find Rochelle salts",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "359528",
"author": "Munch",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T02:57:41",
"content": "I’m curious to know of any dopings one could do at home to make this a home-brew semiconductor of some kind. (e.g., home-made transistors and the like)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "359560",
"author": "Thopter",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T04:06:12",
"content": "@Lewis: “a few of the components”? Which ones?Cream of Tartar? Used in bakingWater? Please…Sodium Carbonate? As stated in the vid, it’s commonly used in arts & crafts.I don’t see how purchasing/using any of these items would be suspicious as they’re pretty common.Just don’t make these piezo crystals when you’re taking cold meds, and you should be fine.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "359576",
"author": "LyleHaze",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T04:38:46",
"content": "Piezo discs are often used as impact sensors in electronic drums. I wonder if I could use this to “grow my own” drumkit?Of course, they would only be useful as “rock” drums. :)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "359581",
"author": "Volectorus",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T04:48:03",
"content": "He was wanting to make a microphone, i wonder if a jewelers saw would do the trick to make a thin wafer./not sure how brittle these crystals are.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "359589",
"author": "Jeditalian",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T04:53:17",
"content": "methinks you’d be better off growing the wafers",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "359632",
"author": "Underling",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T05:48:46",
"content": "If you suspended a piece of sheet metal so one side was submersed then you might be able to get a thin crystal to grow on it. you might have to seed it with some ground up crystal to get it to grow too the metal.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1051875",
"author": "eric",
"timestamp": "2013-09-03T18:30:15",
"content": "Maybe you could grow long crystals by using a small starter seed and suspend it into the top of the solution and slowly raise it out of the solution as it solidifies like they grow semiconductors, it might work",
"parent_id": "359632",
"depth": 2,
"replies": []
}
]
},
{
"comment_id": "359665",
"author": "Stevie",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T06:51:58",
"content": "I’m guessing the electricity giving off is too minute to actually power anything?If he were to connect an LED, would have see it light up with each strike?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "359708",
"author": "Quin",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T08:13:22",
"content": "@LewisYou are partially right. There are police who monitor the sale of certain chemicals that are precursors to common drugs. Most of the chemicals that are monitored require a signature in order to purchase them.For this, most of the ingredients should already be in a well stocked kitchen; or the kitchen and cleaning closet. Not sure about the rochelle salt, but I am sure there is a good use for it around the house as well.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "966585",
"author": "RoadWarrior222",
"timestamp": "2013-02-27T17:39:16",
"content": "It is getting damn ridiculous what’s regarded as a meth precursor now though.",
"parent_id": "359708",
"depth": 2,
"replies": []
}
]
},
{
"comment_id": "359710",
"author": "biozz",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T08:19:58",
"content": "who is he fooling with that hair cut? XDnice … is try pulsing hv in to that and try and produce some noise!@Lewisnothing here can be used to produce anything illegalpolice many lookout for large purchases of baking soda, cough medicines, anti allergy medications, acids, salt peter and salpher and recently lithium batteries",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "444076",
"author": "Joe",
"timestamp": "2011-08-30T04:19:49",
"content": "And alcohol… don’t forget the distilled liquers! Seriously though, WTH. Next thing, you’ll tell me that they break into peoples homes just for having a high electric bill. Oh wait! ;)",
"parent_id": "359710",
"depth": 2,
"replies": []
}
]
},
{
"comment_id": "359719",
"author": "Analog",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T08:42:38",
"content": "i’m wondering just how much these put out… if carved into keys would they be enough to trigger a pic or atmega looking for voltage changes? If so I can see a crystal keyboard in my future. Buahahaha",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "359734",
"author": "Ducky",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T09:21:06",
"content": "Tapping that thing with a oscilloscope connected is all well and good, but what else can you do with it?Like, those little piezo igniters? Can this be modified in such a way to make cool sparks at night?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "359783",
"author": "elektrophreak",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T10:45:15",
"content": "if only we could “cook up” some diamonds as easy as this :)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "359815",
"author": "guffguff",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T12:05:31",
"content": "How brittle is this material? Would it be possible to crush it into a powder? I was reading on Wiki that Rochelle Salt has a melting point of only 75 degress C. I was thinking that you could grind up the crystals, sieve the powder onto some form of teflon coated/non stick tray, and put them in an oven just over 75. Wait until they’ve melted together and it should form a sheet. I’m not sure if that would actually work, all I know is that it works with caramel.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "982969",
"author": "Klippies Rennie",
"timestamp": "2013-03-22T06:53:14",
"content": "Right to start with yes you can melt these crystals but no they do not make one big crystal when it all cools down. “Well not with my experiment anyway” It becomes a white brittle powder-like-substance”Solving the Soda ash problem; well not really a problem depending where you live I suppose but I found my ready-made Soda Ash among the swimming pool cleaners in our local Store. My Cream of Tartar was a problem as there are many synthetics with the same name. Go to your local bakery supplier, they will sell you the proper Cream of Tartar.I used demineralised water to help with saturation. The solution is crystal clear when done.My processes is still experimental at this stage but my results are golf-ball size crystals but they are very brittle indeed. “useless” any idea to solve this Brittle effect? I am thinking because I force cool them that they become so brittle?",
"parent_id": "359815",
"depth": 2,
"replies": []
}
]
},
{
"comment_id": "359837",
"author": "Mark VandeWettering",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T13:08:38",
"content": "Loved the video, so I went to Google Books and tried to find references on Rochelle Salt as used in microphones. It turned up this link with at least a hint of a microphone design. There was also a Life article that showed some potential applications.http://books.google.com/books?id=bCEDAAAAMBAJ&lpg=PA190&dq=rochelle%20salt%20microphone&pg=PA193#v=onepage&q=rochelle%20salt%20microphone&f=false",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "359853",
"author": "IJ Dee-Vo",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T13:25:05",
"content": "@Lewis. None of the compents are apperatuses, or methods are illegale as susch what you do in your own property is all good. No excuse me while I get myself registered so I can make purchases at the hardware store",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "359856",
"author": "GR0B",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T13:35:36",
"content": "Thats cool, Going to go cook me a batch of crystal now ;)I was wondering would it be hard to get the crystals to form around wires dipped into the mix or by melting them to a desired shape and embedding wires?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "359947",
"author": "Ken Quast",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T15:21:29",
"content": "Sodium Carbonate is also available in the grocery store which may be easier than finding an art store. Look for Borax washing soda in the detergent aisle. It can also be made using Sodium Bicarbonate by heating in an oven at 350F for two or three hours. Heating and melting Rochelle Salt will try to recrystallize as a crystal, and not a sheet.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "360035",
"author": "uzerzero",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T17:13:31",
"content": "The link for the recipes that he posted is the one that I’ve used previously- it gives great results.http://www.seawhy.com/xlroch.htmlOther links on there include ways of creating different colors, shapes, seed crystal growing, etc.For those of you more interested in the mechanics of piezoelectrics, check this out:http://rimstar.org/materials/piezo/rochelle1.htm. He shows how the voltage produced by a crystal varies with force, pretty interesting for those of us that prefer to have empirical explanations rather than “it just works” or “it’s magic”.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "360188",
"author": "Adam P.",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T19:16:29",
"content": "I tried this out last weekend after watching the video, and I did find that the first time the solution crystalized it was really more of a sticky salt, I didn’t get crystals until I re-dissolved it (into VERY little VERY hot water) and let it sit again, I got a couple of nice (albeit small) crystals out of it.And yes – washing soda is much easier to find, for me, than soda ash, and they’re the same thing.I have a thought for a microphone, I may try to tackle it this weekend. Bear in mind the super-high impedance of crystal mics may make them complicated to amplify without some extra electronics.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "364308",
"author": "Ryo",
"timestamp": "2011-03-21T18:54:34",
"content": "Cold the solution be poured into small moulds to make simple shapes?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "364739",
"author": "Wraithleader0",
"timestamp": "2011-03-22T07:32:40",
"content": "Another place to get sodium carbonate other then art stores is in the pool chemical areas of stores. Soda ash is used as a pH increaser in swimming pools and hot tubes.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "367543",
"author": "JB",
"timestamp": "2011-03-25T20:01:49",
"content": "couldn’t you grind up the crystals and compress them into a bar then cut the bar into waffers?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "440958",
"author": "jk",
"timestamp": "2011-08-24T16:12:38",
"content": "You want a single crystal for this to work. The crystals need to be cooled gradually after being heated to past their melting/annealing point.",
"parent_id": "367543",
"depth": 2,
"replies": []
}
]
},
{
"comment_id": "367939",
"author": "Neuroflux",
"timestamp": "2011-03-26T08:10:55",
"content": "“It’s only waffer thin!”Excellent, I gave this a shot – works like a charm. Now to hook it all up to my Arduino finger drums! :D",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "418015",
"author": "DJPantheris",
"timestamp": "2011-07-15T16:34:04",
"content": "Gave me an idea to use this stuff as a crystal trigger for an LED helmet.Trigger: switch messages/animations.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "434378",
"author": "plumbing",
"timestamp": "2011-08-14T12:57:29",
"content": "So ho much Electricity i can generate through peizo? Can this help me to run my home equipment? is this be an alternate to solar or ind power?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "475991",
"author": "pd",
"timestamp": "2011-10-09T06:19:49",
"content": "Do the crystals produce any sound when forming?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "476313",
"author": "DJPantheris",
"timestamp": "2011-10-09T20:23:27",
"content": "No, they don’t, but they would generate a voltage, maybe, from the forces of actually forming. *scratches head* not sure.",
"parent_id": "475991",
"depth": 2,
"replies": []
}
]
},
{
"comment_id": "636801",
"author": "Jen",
"timestamp": "2012-04-24T09:46:31",
"content": "I will give this a try",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "694702",
"author": "Hal",
"timestamp": "2012-07-04T12:40:12",
"content": "Does anyone know if this type of crystal could be used in a Piezoelectric Motor?http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piezoelectric_motor",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "836657",
"author": "sahil",
"timestamp": "2012-10-26T04:28:33",
"content": "good experiment for pizo crystal at home",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "900128",
"author": "Frank Carney",
"timestamp": "2012-12-09T10:44:04",
"content": "What if you passed current through the solution while it is cooling? Can the direct the crystal growth?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "966126",
"author": "R",
"timestamp": "2013-02-27T03:42:55",
"content": "Just tried to use this for an AP Physics project. I was totally convinced it would be easy and I’d have one of the coolest projects. Instead I botched two batches of crystals, let down my group, lost $30 on ingredients, and pretty much threw my entire project off track. I don’t even know what I did wrong! I’ve talked to several chemistry teachers and we came to the conculsion that the first time I burned it, but we have no idea what happened the first time. Two days after the fact, the first burned solution has solidified to the consistency of a slightly melted slushy, but I really just am confused beyond belief about what’s going on. HELP!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "966569",
"author": "Ken Quast",
"timestamp": "2013-02-27T17:27:05",
"content": "I have made many of these crystals and discovered that the quality of the cream of tartar is more important than most folks think. I find that recrystallizing the cream of tartar leads to really nice crystals. I posted an entry on my web site on the procedure (easy) and a link to Dom’s crystal growing page that is a very good site on crystallography. Good luck, Ken.http://www.observationsblog.com/4/archives/12-2012/1.html",
"parent_id": "966126",
"depth": 2,
"replies": []
}
]
},
{
"comment_id": "966578",
"author": "RoadWarrior222",
"timestamp": "2013-02-27T17:32:00",
"content": "Ooooh, missed this one, good stuff for making micro-actuators I hope…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "975040",
"author": "Rahul jadhav",
"timestamp": "2013-03-10T18:31:59",
"content": "on which material power or (voltage) is dipend & any diff in home made crystel and market avlable",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1047808",
"author": "roank",
"timestamp": "2013-08-26T11:17:01",
"content": "help me i had tryed it cant changes into crystal it is in the liquid form",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
}
] | 1,760,377,243.512271
|
||
https://hackaday.com/2011/03/15/the-evil-genius-simulator-kinect-controlled-tesla-coils/
|
The Evil Genius Simulator: Kinect Controlled Tesla Coils
|
Jesse Congdon
|
[
"Hackerspaces",
"home entertainment hacks",
"Kinect hacks"
] |
[
"Kinect",
"openframeworks",
"tesla coil"
] |
The London Hackspace crew was having a tough time getting their Kinect demos running at Makefair 2011. While at the pub they had the idea of combining forces with Brightarcs Tesla coils and produced
The Evil Genius Simulator
!
After getting the go ahead from Brightarcs and the input specs of the coils they came up with an application in Openframeworks which uses skeletal tracking data to determine hand position. The hand position is scaled between two manually set calibration bars (seen in the video, below). The scaled positions then speeds or slows down a 50Hz WAV file to produce the 50-200Hz sin wave required by each coil. It only took an hour but the results are brilliant, video after the jump.
There are
all
these
previously
featured
stories
on the Kinect and we’ve seen Tesla coils that
respond
to music, coils that
make
music, and even MIDI controlled
coils
, nice to see it all combined.
Thanks to [Matt Lloyd] for the tip!
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aNN4Oo0KhZo&w=470]
| 18
| 18
|
[
{
"comment_id": "359319",
"author": "Tech B.",
"timestamp": "2011-03-15T21:17:56",
"content": "“… While at at pub…”",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "359324",
"author": "wosser",
"timestamp": "2011-03-15T21:32:22",
"content": "Kinect can be emulated in this situation by a 19th century invention called the “switch”.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "359328",
"author": "Tom",
"timestamp": "2011-03-15T21:39:16",
"content": "That is amazing :’D",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "359333",
"author": "Mike",
"timestamp": "2011-03-15T21:44:56",
"content": "Wosser: You sir are an idiot. The tesla coils are responding separately depending on which arm is raised. Also, the frequency raises as the arms is raised and lowers when the arm is lowered, etc. Please explain how you can do that with a switch you dumbass?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "359336",
"author": "wosser",
"timestamp": "2011-03-15T21:50:42",
"content": "Granted, I am a idiot.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "359341",
"author": "wosser",
"timestamp": "2011-03-15T21:57:29",
"content": "Wait, maybe two switches… no?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "359389",
"author": "Tim",
"timestamp": "2011-03-15T23:29:32",
"content": "Cool idea.. I wonder if the kinect can track as good as to create a duophonic theremin.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "359405",
"author": "Spork",
"timestamp": "2011-03-15T23:58:05",
"content": "WOOOHAHAHAHAH!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "359452",
"author": "dbear",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T01:13:24",
"content": "They are one chainmail suit away from a homemade version of Arc Attack!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "359468",
"author": "ellindsey",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T01:36:15",
"content": "Now they just need a device to make thunder crash every time he says something dramatic.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "359516",
"author": "Frogz",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T02:46:27",
"content": "install this in a doorwaywith a sign “do not reach up” if people disobey the sign….MWAHHAHAHAHAHAHAalso, this can be fully emulated with 2 switches(and 2 pots to change freq)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "359534",
"author": "Nick Short",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T03:14:47",
"content": "Hey Frogz, why don’t you just throw a couple of 555s in there, too!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "359630",
"author": "anti-fanboi",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T05:45:56",
"content": "if you want to go down the “emulated” path, keep it simple and have two people standing behind the subject who, on cue, hold up placards with a zig-zag lightning bolt motif on them while a third person turns the room lights on and off quickly.Think what you could do with fluro paint and a uv light :oI think the real thing is a tad cooler ;)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "359648",
"author": "WestfW",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T06:14:53",
"content": "That’s very cool. Some ideas just resonate with the psyche, even if they’re relatively easy. In some sense, that’s what Maker Faire is about (IMO, of course.)Among other things, this probably allows random spectators to control tesla coils in an electrically isolated way that even an insurance adjuster would approve of! (the “world’s most complicated opto-isolator :-)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "359667",
"author": "Nate B",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T06:57:07",
"content": "I’m still laughing. That is hilarious, and my hat is off to all involved! If only we all had the followthrough to execute when struck by a similar inspirational spark.;)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "359865",
"author": "Gavan",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T14:05:06",
"content": "I had a go at playing this like a theremin. It’s possible, kinda, but rather tricky to get anything musical out of it.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "359904",
"author": "IJ Dee-Vo",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T14:59:20",
"content": "@ the switch freaks…not the point of this! Oh no how dare someone do something one way that could be done another way! How dare he used his own time and money!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "360737",
"author": "Thief^",
"timestamp": "2011-03-17T08:24:23",
"content": "I was there when they rigged this up, it was definitely a highlight of the Maker Faire. Not only was it something home-made and awesome, but they came up with it and rigged it up *while at the faire*.There was also an incredible number of Arduinos and clones on show. Playing “spot the Arduino” was a game in itself!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
}
] | 1,760,377,243.308492
|
||
https://hackaday.com/2011/03/15/automated-harmonica-plays-simple-tunes/
|
Automated Harmonica Plays Simple Tunes
|
Mike Nathan
|
[
"Musical Hacks"
] |
[
"harmonica. automation",
"pic"
] |
It seems that nearly everything is automated these days. Everywhere you look, people are being removed from processes in order to make them more efficient and less prone to mistakes. [Jon] however, saw one process that automation has yet to touch in a significant way –
playing the harmonica
.
He constructed a harmonica-playing machine that can play a handful of simple songs with a few button presses. The machine was constructed using three PIC controllers, an air compressor, and a pair of harmonicas. A master PIC controller manages the whole operation, taking input from the PIC driving LCD, then handing off playing instructions to the PIC that manages the harmonicas.
Once the machine is started and a song is selected, the machine plays away, prompting for a new song once it has finished. The machine doesn’t quite play the harmonica like a human does, however. The reeds of one harmonica were reversed so that the player only needs to blow air, rather than require a vacuum to provide suction for the drawing motion typically used in harmonica playing.
As you can see
in this video
, the rig works decently, though it probably needs a bit more work to achieve that “human” feel.
[Thanks, Ben]
| 14
| 14
|
[
{
"comment_id": "359264",
"author": "wosser",
"timestamp": "2011-03-15T20:05:15",
"content": "Needs more advertisements.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "359265",
"author": "The ThunderBird",
"timestamp": "2011-03-15T20:11:35",
"content": "Needs to play The Wizard.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "359277",
"author": "Ren",
"timestamp": "2011-03-15T20:22:09",
"content": "If it would “look ahead” to the next note to be played, the motors could begin moving the air “ports” to the next note before the current note was finished, I think that would make it sound more “human”.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "359337",
"author": "Hirudinea",
"timestamp": "2011-03-15T21:52:22",
"content": "When I think of harmonica playing I think of a black and white film set in a ’30s prison, this thing is more like prison rape.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "359377",
"author": "Lee",
"timestamp": "2011-03-15T22:52:46",
"content": "Needs to play “Bad to the Bone” for it to earn a spot in my heart… my gramps would play it for me and my cousins before bed RIP gramps!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "359430",
"author": "Jimmy",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T00:50:09",
"content": "I didn’t need to see their smug little faces.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "359432",
"author": "Jimmy",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T00:51:11",
"content": "I didn’t need to see their little faces.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "359505",
"author": "specs",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T02:30:44",
"content": "Needs to be tuned.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "359612",
"author": "medwardl",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T05:22:24",
"content": "Not bad although I was expecting air lines to go to each note with actuators controlling valves to each air line.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "359731",
"author": "dwan",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T09:14:29",
"content": "Hum… Somebody should learn music.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "359784",
"author": "echodelta",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T10:50:27",
"content": "Automation 1870’s style. Organettes were the first use of the punched paper over heavy cardboard stock for automatic music. They are small tabletop reed organs. Pneumatic valves and relays weren’t made yet. The feeble air of suction with a reed was easily controlled with just a thin sheet of paper.Also a big german company that has made harmonicas for more than a century has somewhere on it’s site an example of a real harp with a cardboard tunesheet. It looked prewar, there’s one shaped like the Hindenburg.Lastly you can’t blow a harp well with a hose or lack of a cavity between the air source and the port of the reed.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "359810",
"author": "mknghorn",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T11:50:51",
"content": "very cool. john popper is still not scared.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "359986",
"author": "thekanester",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T16:07:24",
"content": "Given that they modded the harmonica so vacuum was not required, it makes the whole endeavour slightly bogus in my mind.If they’ve gone to the trouble of moving the air port with a printer head then they should have got the basics of the suck and blow mechanism sorted.Otherwise, it would have been easier, and sounded way better to just make an organ-style reed blowing mechanism.I’m not knocking their effort, but it’s just not finished yet. Show it when it’s done.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "360855",
"author": "James",
"timestamp": "2011-03-17T10:29:17",
"content": "I thought about this before, and the problem is that you not only need to blow AND suck to get all the notes, but you need a cavity of changing volume to replicate the shape of the person’s mouth. This is how notes are bent – you make your mouth and throat smaller from a larger size and the note bends due to changing the resonant property of the whole system.Unless they can make the system do all of this, they will not be able to play the harmonica the way a human does. The notes played in the video are way off because they can’t bend the notes.There are also subtle techniques such as using the tongue or throat to do vibrato. Also, you use the tongue to make a an airtight seal before releasing and making a note, to give more attack to the notes. Not possible with this compressor setup.It would be way better to have a compressor channel for all the reeds and make an automated reed organ.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
}
] | 1,760,377,245.666243
|
||
https://hackaday.com/2011/03/15/electronic-diaper-bag-reminds-you-to-pack-everything-but-the-baby/
|
Electronic Diaper Bag Reminds You To Pack Everything But The Baby
|
Mike Nathan
|
[
"home hacks",
"Lifehacks"
] |
[
"arduino",
"led",
"lilypad"
] |
[jnorby] knows what it’s like to leave the house with her baby in tow, only to realize that she has left something she needs at home. Instead of relying on a paper checklist, she decided to
craft her own diaper bag
that alerted her if she had forgotten to pack a particular item.
She built her bag from scratch, wiring small circuits into each of the pockets she created on the inside of the bag. Wires were run to each half of a snap fastener, so that they would complete the circuit when the snaps touch. The LEDs and snaps were then connected to a LilyPad Arduino, which checks the status of the snap circuits, lighting the appropriate LED once the proper item has been packed.
While we like the idea of a bag that uses functional indicators that remind you to pack items, we do think that the use of the Arduino, or any microprocessor for that matter, is massive overkill. We would ditch the LilyPad and snap fasteners for reed switches or perhaps normally closed micro leaf switches that turn the LEDs off once the proper item has been packed, rather than the other way around.
| 15
| 15
|
[
{
"comment_id": "359211",
"author": "razor",
"timestamp": "2011-03-15T19:23:11",
"content": "Actually I would think using a LilyPad with some sort of RFID combination would extend this capability pretty well. Overkill perhaps, certainly for a diaper bag, I agree. But to use a similar approach with RFIDS would be a military use (they already do this with pallets of supplies for inventory), or paramedical, or any number of other fields where your field- or ready-bag contains “ABSOLUTELY MUST HAVE” items.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "359228",
"author": "Robot",
"timestamp": "2011-03-15T19:33:17",
"content": "I am unsure as to why this necessitates a microcontroller?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "359229",
"author": "bunedoggle",
"timestamp": "2011-03-15T19:35:35",
"content": "Don’t ditch the micro-processor, just add functionality to justify it :)Perhaps add a thermal monitor to make sure the milk stays cold. Maybe tag the pacifier with RFID, that way if it’s missing from the bag for more than 20 minutes an alarm goes off to keep you from loosing the precious “binky”.Maybe add bluetooth so you can check the bag inventory from your cell phone?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "359244",
"author": "Charlie",
"timestamp": "2011-03-15T19:39:34",
"content": "Can we stop telling people that their choice of platform isn’t right? Telling someone their choice of microcontroller or whatever is “massive overkill” is just a way of fraturing the hacker/maker community by implying that there are ‘cool’ choices they must make to win approval. It’s saying that simply choosing a platform they are comfortable with isn’t good enough — to get complete approval, they have to do it the ‘cool’ minimalist way.Is this going into mass production? No? Then I think the Lilypad is a fine choice. Let’s stop stigmatizing beginners for sharing the projects they are learning on.[jnorby]’s bag is sweet. I wish I’d thought of that when my kids were still using diaper bags!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "359250",
"author": "Medic",
"timestamp": "2011-03-15T19:51:55",
"content": "Reed switches would require you to put magnets on everything you pack, and I feel like leaf switches would be prone to false negatives as to whether or not something was packed. I find a certain amount of irritation in calling the use of a microprocessor overkill simply because the project doesn’t take full advantage of it’s uses or features. LilyPads are $22, for all intents and purposes the things are almost disposable. Though I agree about the LEDs turning off instead of on, I feel as though this is a pretty reliable solution as is, and at the price it was made at, having a microprocessor on board is just a reason to find more cool things for your bag to do.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "359298",
"author": "Brian",
"timestamp": "2011-03-15T20:50:30",
"content": "Coming from someone without a lot of component-level experience I can say that sometimes it’s easier to write code than it is to find good information on how to use analog circuits to perform simple tasks. I really like the HaD posts that feature a particular component and describe how to use it as it gives me a chance to broaden my component knowledge.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "359313",
"author": "Ivan",
"timestamp": "2011-03-15T21:06:39",
"content": "Oh God… $25 for a LilyPad when he/she could have used a simple NOT gate. That’s exactly what I don’t like about the Arduino: keeps beginners on a little bubble. I may use one, if I want rapid prototyping, but for anything permanent or sellable I would just keep it far away from my circuits.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "359365",
"author": "Chalkbot",
"timestamp": "2011-03-15T22:26:40",
"content": "I think the project is cool, regardless of whether or not it was done perfectly or to everyone’s personal standards. A project represents an idea, and that idea can be good no matter how it was accomplished.Ideas can be improved for sure, not everyone can crank out flawless projects like the typical HAD comment thread poster… oh wait…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "359401",
"author": "vonskippy",
"timestamp": "2011-03-15T23:53:11",
"content": "Is the human race now so completely stupid they can’t remember to pack a few simple items to manage a baby’s needs without a microcontroller?How did the human race ever survive before the advent of the digital age?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "359456",
"author": "birdmun",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T01:19:45",
"content": "Just a suggestion if this were to be revamped or someone was to do something similar. Use bicolor LEDs so you can see that everything is there, or, as the article mentions invert the logic so the lights are out when it is full.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "359623",
"author": "anti-fanboi",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T05:33:33",
"content": "@Charlie: Constructive critism is valid and respectful – even if you cant handle the truth :)Ever heard of the terms “elegance” or “finesse”? You didn’t explain/reason why the lillypad was a good choice… just stating it means nothing.Individual lights activated by individual switches on a 1 to 1 basis? Am I missing something?Battery, current limiting resistors, switch, LED.Done.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "359668",
"author": "macw",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T06:57:34",
"content": "so all this does is light up LEDs when the snaps are closed, right? that doesn’t actually guarantee that you remembered anything at all. it just checks that all the pockets are closed..useful for avoiding pickpockets I guess but totally pointless for ensuring that you’ve packed things.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "359884",
"author": "Lunpa",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T14:31:03",
"content": "I think any excuse to wire up a micro controller to something is a good excuse to wire up a micro controller to something.I want to make something like this for my messenger bag, and all of the crap I lug to work every day. I have an arm7 development board that I’m not using for anything. I hope it annoys someone if I put it to work in my messenger bag =)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "364957",
"author": "Charlie",
"timestamp": "2011-03-22T16:11:07",
"content": "What Lunpa said.Constructive criticism is one thing. But seemingly every time a project pops up using an Arduino to do something simple, the eye rolling and chiding starts. The complaints are getting so common and predictable that Mike feels that he needs to preemptively apologize for posting a hack that features an Arduino being wired to some lights. That’s a pretty good indication things have moved beyond the level of constructive criticism. Sometimes the beauty of a good hack is its flawless execution, but sometimes it’s just someone had the moxie to make their idea a reality. I mean really — where’s your diaper bag with indicator lights?Why is a Lilypad a good choice for this project?It’s a good choice, because if you insist on rigid standards of design for every single project you do, most of them will never get done. And a LED-enabled diaper bag built with a Lilypad is better than no LED-enabled diaper bag at all.It’s a good choice, because maybe jnorby likes using a Lilypad. Or maybe she wanted to know how to use a Lilypad and needed a project to experiment on. Or she had a Lilypad lying around.It’s a good choice, because when jnorby decided to add reminder lights to a diaper bag, maybe she didn’t know how, but found some easy examples to follow using a Lilypad, and then made it work.I don’t know why she chose a Lilypad. Certainly every choice comes with pros and cons. But the fact that she ended up with a diaper bag with functioning reminder lights is all the proof you need that it was a good choice for this hack.If you want to offer constructive criticism, try something along the lines of, “Hey, did you know that you could use really cheap NOT gates and get the same results? If you change it, you’ll have an extra Lilypad lying around for your next project” instead of “Massive overkill” and “That’s what I hate about Arduinos.”",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "365677",
"author": "Malikaii",
"timestamp": "2011-03-23T15:02:20",
"content": "The first thing I thought when I read this is exactly what the first poster said: this would be awesome with some RFID tags on each important item. That would be simple to implement, but the power source may become an issue of weight.–How would you implement NOT gates for this? Is the NOT gate just used to invert the status of the LED? Or does it somehow identify the items in the bag and help with tracking? This is a legitimate question.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
}
] | 1,760,377,245.263978
|
||
https://hackaday.com/2011/03/15/picaxe-using-leds-to-communicate/
|
PICAXE Using LEDs To Communicate
|
Mike Szczys
|
[
"LED Hacks"
] |
[
"bidirectional",
"pic-08",
"PICAXE"
] |
[Relwin] has being working on
using LEDs as bi-directional devices
. The setup above allows him to use each LED as an input, looking for a bright light source and then syncing up with the activity it receives. It is the most basic of communications using the components. The hardware at the heart of the system is a PICAXE development board on the left. The blinking light to the right causes the LED on the left of the picture to blink, but moving the blinking source over to that side will reverse the effect. The chip is programmed to play a tune on a piezo buzzer whenever a connection is lost. What is interesting to us is that these green LEDs will not detect a red LED flashing because the voltage threshold is different on the detector side of things.
He’s got some code available, but we’re really looking for the ideas of what to do with this concept. Maybe something along the lines of
LED matrix video puzzles
, or a variation on
this laser-pointer LED game
. Watch the demo video after the break and then let us know what you would use it for by leaving a comment.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sXNebej_zlg&w=470]
| 16
| 16
|
[
{
"comment_id": "359189",
"author": "fotoflojoe",
"timestamp": "2011-03-15T18:55:20",
"content": "I was going to say: Didn’t the “Le Dominoux” guy already do this very thing? Then the video finished loading, and I see that it’s him!Ha!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "359192",
"author": "Alistair",
"timestamp": "2011-03-15T18:56:56",
"content": "what’s interesting to me is that you obviously don’t have a clue how LEDs work. I learnt that in school physics lessons",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "359204",
"author": "justDIY",
"timestamp": "2011-03-15T19:07:44",
"content": "Green led won’t respond to red led because of the junction band-gap. It can only be excited by photons of the same (as emission) or higher energy level. for example, a yellow or green emitter led will stimulate a red ‘sensor’ led.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "359245",
"author": "medix",
"timestamp": "2011-03-15T19:42:09",
"content": "@justDIY: That is true in ‘most’ situations. If you have a high enough energy, you can start phenomena such as multi-photon absorption, in which case the band gap is less of an issue.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "359282",
"author": "wosser",
"timestamp": "2011-03-15T20:27:55",
"content": "Alistair, you obviously went to a well funded school that had money to spend on stuff like LEDs. You’re either very VERY old or you’re still there.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "359283",
"author": "wosser",
"timestamp": "2011-03-15T20:28:58",
"content": "And by very I mean like 35 or something.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "359309",
"author": "therian",
"timestamp": "2011-03-15T21:00:24",
"content": "@wosser photoelectric effect is in public school curriculum",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "359321",
"author": "wosser",
"timestamp": "2011-03-15T21:25:12",
"content": "We couldn’t afford curricula in my day.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "359323",
"author": "Njay",
"timestamp": "2011-03-15T21:31:47",
"content": "Here’s a classic document on the subject:http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.69.1570&rep=rep1&type=pdf",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "359335",
"author": "J-Dog",
"timestamp": "2011-03-15T21:49:18",
"content": "You could use this as a key to unlock a secret door/display/whatever. Is that just another status LED? Why, no, it’s a secret code receiver! Just point a key-fob LED flashlight at it and tap out the code to open it.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "359416",
"author": "flashingleds",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T00:31:23",
"content": "Unfortunately I’ve forgotten the name, but I remember seeing a microcontroller platform which was reprogrammed by holding it up to your computer screen. It would blink a section of the screen (center of a flower from memory?) to communicate data to an LED receiver on the board… slow, but elegant and quite a cool idea.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "359433",
"author": "MrRoboto",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T00:52:02",
"content": "Is it just me, or does the alarm sound like the “communication” they used in close encounters of the third kind?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "359436",
"author": "Jeditalian",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T00:57:34",
"content": "I’ll accept this as proof that the TV is watching you.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "359700",
"author": "Nathan Zadoks",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T07:57:38",
"content": "A while ago there was a paper about this, but I can’t find it.I once built a similar device… and left it in my pocket. The washing machine dstroyed it =(Anyway, nice to see others are working on this.Should rebuild my original prototype :>–Nathan",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "359772",
"author": "INquiRY",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T10:15:48",
"content": "Why does it have to be the commenters (herehttp://hackaday.com/2011/03/15/picaxe-using-leds-to-communicate/#comment-359323and there:http://relwin.hackhut.com/2011/03/10/19/#comment-content-36) to point out the references?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "361292",
"author": "Mantech1",
"timestamp": "2011-03-17T20:03:25",
"content": "Now thats interesting. The first idea that occured to me involved putting a cheap plastic fiber optic thread between the leds (if that would work) then you could use this as a different way to network devices….sort of like USB (have to check and see how fast a led can blink on and off)…add a couple of wires and you could supply power as well, perhaps using modified power jacks and connectors for the data/power.Or…you might be able to turn that status led on your next project into a easy access diagnostic port.Have to give this some more thought….",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
}
] | 1,760,377,245.157404
|
||
https://hackaday.com/2011/03/15/tilt-and-pivot-camera-base-uses-just-two-servos/
|
Tilt And Pivot Camera Base Uses Just Two Servos
|
Mike Szczys
|
[
"cnc hacks",
"digital cameras hacks"
] |
[
"arduino",
"panorama",
"servo"
] |
[Caled] shows us
how to build a tilt and pivot camera base
. One of these can be quite handy for taking precisely aligned images that can later be stitched together into panoramic, or even spherical images. We have grand visions of being able to produce something along the lines of
these stunning interactive images
with hardware that is cheaper and easier to build than
this other motorized rig
.
The design utilizes just two servo motors. In the image above you can just make out a pair of discs that serve as the base for the rig. In the center of the upper disc is the first servo, pointing downward, which rotates the camera. Two upright supports on either side of the point-and-shoot provide the framework for the tilt feature. The camera is mounted in a frame whose center is a threaded rod on the near side, and the second servo motor on the far side. An Arduino with a servo shield controls the movements along with a button pad and LCD screen as a user interface. The last step in the project log points to
software options for combining the captured photos
.
| 19
| 19
|
[
{
"comment_id": "359149",
"author": "dave",
"timestamp": "2011-03-15T18:01:30",
"content": "Of course it uses just two servos.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "359157",
"author": "Pete Prodoehl",
"timestamp": "2011-03-15T18:11:42",
"content": "For proper panoramas you need to rotate the camera at the nodal point, so you’d want the bracket that hold the camera to be adjustable, as it’s going to be different for different cameras, lenses, focal lengths, etc.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "359168",
"author": "GameboyRMH",
"timestamp": "2011-03-15T18:25:11",
"content": "How would you set one up with *more* than two servos?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "359174",
"author": "G",
"timestamp": "2011-03-15T18:30:50",
"content": "Yeah it’s PAN and TILT… how many servos would you expect? :S",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "359176",
"author": "zing",
"timestamp": "2011-03-15T18:33:46",
"content": "Actually, it uses 3 servos, 2 medium and 1 micro.The micro servo presses the shutter button.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "359177",
"author": "Steve Pomeroy",
"timestamp": "2011-03-15T18:37:38",
"content": "In fairness, this particular build actually uses *three* servos: one extra to actuate the shutter mechanically.It’s somewhat sad that such a simple thing such as “take a picture” often requires such an obtuse interface. A digital interface would be so simple and so much more reliable.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "359354",
"author": "Reggie",
"timestamp": "2011-03-15T22:12:39",
"content": "Neat hack :) motorised Alt/Az mounts are relatively cheap ($250-300) these days but nowhere near as cheap or cool as doing it yourself like this :) The advantage that the commercial ones have is a handset and tripod.Actually dave, a 4th servo to tilt the base would be a very neat addition, turning it into an Eqauatorial mounted camera, if the tilt angle was set to his latitude and if he could regulate the speed of what was the AZ axis to the sidereal rate (1 revolution per day roughly) he’d be able to track stars, nebula galaxies etc.As for digitally interfacing the camera, you could wire the button contacts to be fired by an MCU but not all hackers want wires hanging off their point and shoot camera.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "359359",
"author": "andrew",
"timestamp": "2011-03-15T22:19:34",
"content": "ZOMG A TWO-AXIS DEVICE THAT ONLY USES TWO SERVOS?? WHOA!!!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "359384",
"author": "Myke",
"timestamp": "2011-03-15T23:21:14",
"content": "Two servos and an overpriced, overpowered POS.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "359394",
"author": "Tomasito",
"timestamp": "2011-03-15T23:38:32",
"content": "I’ve done this when i was 12, with two steppers from 5” floppydrives and a couple of bc337, directrly to the parport =)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "359613",
"author": "Pilotgeek",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T05:22:29",
"content": "Tilting along 2 axis with only 2 servos??? What sort of black magic is this?!?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "359663",
"author": "macw",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T06:50:34",
"content": "for each (p:project in hackaday) {if (p.complexity reader.knowledge) {print(“this is FAKE! TOTALLY FAKE!!”);}else if (p.complexity == reader.knowledge) {print(“this is USELESS! Who would ever need this trash??”);}}I think that about sums it up, right?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "359666",
"author": "macw",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T06:53:09",
"content": "ok, well, something about hack-a-day’s comment parsing broke my code! the point I was trying to make wasif project complexity is less than the reader’s experience: “This is stupid and wasteful! I could have made this with cat-whisker diodes and hand-wound resistors!”if project complexity is greater than the reader’s experience: “This is FAKED!!!”if project complexity is exactly equal to the reader’s experience: “This is totally USELESS! Also DANGEROUS! They should be locked up for building it!!!”",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "359718",
"author": "Dids",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T08:41:57",
"content": "Been there, done that!http://spaceb.org/post/505258916/remote-controlled-camera-project",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "359727",
"author": "strider_mt2k",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T09:02:04",
"content": "It’s a cool enough hack.I don’t get the “two servo” hype, but okay.I also have made a similar setup, but much simpler in the form of gluing a servo horn to the side of another servo and attaching a small black and white video camera to the topAfter attaching the second servo and fashioning a mounting bracket, I ended up with an extremely workable pan/tilt navigation camera for my wheeled ROV.There are all kinds of really cool possibilities.Cool hack",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "359729",
"author": "strider_mt2k",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T09:04:37",
"content": "@ Dids: I just described your first example!Nice!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "359773",
"author": "INquiRY",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T10:19:20",
"content": "Another thumbs up for the “Tilt and pivot .. just two ..”. Come on guys. You’ve been doing this for .. a couple of years now?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "359867",
"author": "kichimi",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T14:05:33",
"content": "well this sucks, me and my friend were building this and after seeing this have no motivation to complete it. at least we have half a tripod!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "360338",
"author": "Olivier",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T21:38:18",
"content": "For those using Canon cameras, instead of using a servo to take pics, it’s probably better to use CHDK.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
}
] | 1,760,377,245.101072
|
||
https://hackaday.com/2011/03/15/pic-based-frequency-counter/
|
PIC Based Frequency Counter
|
Mike Szczys
|
[
"Microcontrollers"
] |
[
"16F628",
"frequency counter",
"pic",
"rs232"
] |
Here’s
a PIC based frequency counter
that outputs the count via an RS232 serial connection. [Oakkar7] tipped us off about it after seeing
the AVR based counter
we featured yesterday. This project is a bit older and a bit dirtier.
Inside the metal DB9 housing you’ll find just seven parts. The most important is a PIC 16F628 which handles both the counting and the serial communications. We’re not quite sure how it’s managing to talk to that USB-to-Serial converter without some type of level conversion. Since this microcontroller is not a dedicated counter chip a little bit of trimming must be done to bring the accuracy into spec. There’s also some physical trimming involved. In order to get everything to fit into the small enclosure the circuit was free-formed without a PCB or protoboard and the case of the DIP chip had to be ground down just a bit. As for the readout, a simple script can grab the data and display it in a terminal.
[via
Piclist
]
| 6
| 6
|
[
{
"comment_id": "359130",
"author": "arfink",
"timestamp": "2011-03-15T17:18:26",
"content": "Heh, probably he doesn’t have any level conversion for the RS-232. You’d be surprised how many serial ports are not picky at all about levels, especially USB to Serial adapters. I have found that alot USB to Serial adapters which use a chipset by Prolific will accept just about any voltage level, including TTL, with no conversion at all.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "359133",
"author": "mcclanahoochie",
"timestamp": "2011-03-15T17:20:13",
"content": "now you’re one step closer to make a digital speedometer for your car…http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UYnWSjvXJPY",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "359134",
"author": "DarwinSurvivor",
"timestamp": "2011-03-15T17:22:19",
"content": "Correction, he used a PIC16F648A, not a PIC16F628.As for serial “level conversion” 99% of usb-serial adapters work perfectly fine with a 5V vs 0V incoming signal, I’ve done it myself with a 16F628 and the only thing I had to do was invert the 1’s and 0’s. I personally did the inversion with hardware (transistor or logic gate works fine). I’m assuming he just did it in the asm code.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "359314",
"author": "therian",
"timestamp": "2011-03-15T21:08:03",
"content": "@Mike Szczysthe rs232 standard requires the transmitter to use +12 V and −12 V, but requires the receiver to distinguish voltages as low as +3 V and -3 V.so in most projects level converter serve as isolation and nothing more",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "359339",
"author": "Bill",
"timestamp": "2011-03-15T21:53:44",
"content": "95% of serial adapters today are not really RS232, but EIA-232 which is only +/- 5V. They can ‘tolerate’ receiving the 12V, but don’t produce it.That’s why some of the old PIC serial programmers tell you not to use USB to Serial adapters.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "359347",
"author": "Bill",
"timestamp": "2011-03-15T22:04:40",
"content": "Err, maybe I mean EIA-562 instead of EIA-232. I forget. I had this problem a while ago when I discovered my USB to serial chip wasn’t really using 12V logic levels for serial. But I can’t find my notes right now.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
}
] | 1,760,377,245.410085
|
||
https://hackaday.com/2011/03/15/co2-powered-pinewood-derby-car-is-definitely-cheating/
|
CO2 Powered Pinewood Derby Car Is Definitely Cheating
|
Mike Szczys
|
[
"Toy Hacks"
] |
[
"carbon dioxide",
"co2",
"cub scouts",
"pinewood derby"
] |
The Pinewood Derby is a classic Cub Scout competition where dads and sons come together to build a small-scale race car. You start with a kit that includes a block of wood for the body, as well as four plastic wheels and four nails to act as axles. Most innovations in the ‘sport’ center around reducing friction between the wheels and the axles, and making the body as aerodynamic as possible.
This year [Sliptronic] grabbed an extra kit and threw the rules out the window by
powering the car with compressed carbon dioxide
. He used a 3D printer to make a housing for two CO2 cartridges that mounts on the center of the chassis. An official Pinewood Derby race track is on an incline and has a wooden gate that keeps each car in place until it is dropped to start the race. [Sliptronic] is using this gate as the triggering mechanism. Springs on either side of the car pull against an arm at the back of the vehicle. This arm is held in place by a rod protruding out the front of the vehicle. When the start gate is dropped that rod releases the trigger, which is pulled up by the springs to pierce the CO2 cartridges. You can see an overview of how that mechanism works in the video after the break.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Emn66TDCSoc&w=470]
| 37
| 35
|
[
{
"comment_id": "359058",
"author": "brad",
"timestamp": "2011-03-15T16:04:17",
"content": "our setup was never quite so elegant, but we used to do that to our derby cars. one guy i know mounted a model rocket engine to his…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "359069",
"author": "Peter",
"timestamp": "2011-03-15T16:18:29",
"content": "Great idea but I question the safety of doing this in front of a lot of kids not wearing any protection.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "359077",
"author": "Hellmark",
"timestamp": "2011-03-15T16:25:24",
"content": "My old middle school had a CO2 powered derby every year. We’d spend 6 weeks designing, building, testing, and then racing our cars. Each car was attached to a cable as it went down the track, to prevent it from flying off the table. I always enjoyed it, because you had to put some real thought into building a car as light as possible, while still being strong enough to withstand the force from the CO2 cartridge. Our cars always ended up looking more like drag racers than your normal pinewood derby cars.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "359079",
"author": "Chris in NC",
"timestamp": "2011-03-15T16:26:42",
"content": "We made C)2 racers in middle school shop class in 1981. The teacher had a rig to mount both cars in that he hit with a hammer to launch them. Fishing line for a guide wire and a pile of blankets to stop them at the end of the hallway. It was a lot of fun, no one got hurt, and I don’t believe I ever saw a pair of safety glasses once in the whole year in there. His idea of safety was “Don’t cut your finger off!!”",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "359080",
"author": "Donovan",
"timestamp": "2011-03-15T16:26:52",
"content": "I’ve seen both cub scouts and high school shop classes do this. For safety they typically have a guide line attached to the car by an eye screw so the car doesn’t go completely ballistic.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "359081",
"author": "Chris in NC",
"timestamp": "2011-03-15T16:27:22",
"content": "C02. Sorry.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "359084",
"author": "Mike",
"timestamp": "2011-03-15T16:29:43",
"content": "CO2 was SOP a our races, but we only had one per car.Awesome! Let’s see a video of the race :)p.s. Peter, you’re a wuss.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "359086",
"author": "feedayeen",
"timestamp": "2011-03-15T16:30:07",
"content": "And this is why engineers make the best dads.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "359098",
"author": "supershwa",
"timestamp": "2011-03-15T16:47:39",
"content": "The best (legal) pine derby cars were always cut to about 1/4 inch thick (just enough to get the wheel axles/nails in). Slim little cars with weights on top of them always whupped the fancy cars.This one’s pretty cool — too bad no judge would let you near a track with one. ;)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "359102",
"author": "Dakota",
"timestamp": "2011-03-15T16:49:46",
"content": "i did the same thing in middle school. but just like a few others who posted we had a track with a guide wire and and a sort of nozzle that forced the car down the track. i got a little clever and got some rc car gas shock lube and lubed up my axle’s.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "359103",
"author": "Fred",
"timestamp": "2011-03-15T16:50:52",
"content": "I remember doing this in an engineering class in high school. I took a cardboard box outside on a breezy day with sticks shoved in its side, lit them where they would smolder, and conducted crude wind tunnel tests. I won by roughly .5 seconds over everybody else.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "359114",
"author": "Life2Death",
"timestamp": "2011-03-15T17:02:36",
"content": "Too bad even if it made OFFICAL weight, it wouldnt fit into the OFFICAL box for size. FAIL.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "359124",
"author": "Ryan",
"timestamp": "2011-03-15T17:14:13",
"content": "We also did the CO2 powered cars in my middle school. We also had a mini wind tunnel in the shop for testing our designs. Mine ended up being the most aerodynamic the teacher has ever measured and the lightest weight in the current class. The shop teacher didn’t follow the standard rules and set up a reaction-based drag system which I false started on and was disqualified in the single elimination tournament :(",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "599541",
"author": "dimitri schreiber",
"timestamp": "2012-03-10T09:34:39",
"content": "In my junior high in 8th and 9th grade I did co2 races. 8th grade I build a relatively simple hollowed out car. I cut my model in half hollowed i out, fiberglassed the top and only had it half fiberglass. I won that year. 9th grade I went overkill. I build a fiberglass one athirst, then I designed one in solid works, cnc machined it, and build it out of carbon fiber. The teacher let me race both, but he disqualified my first one for being “too flexible” It weighed 13grams and you could fold it in two.",
"parent_id": "359124",
"depth": 2,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "997189",
"author": "caleb",
"timestamp": "2013-04-24T14:53:05",
"content": "the wheels and axils weigh 32 grams buy themselves how could u have had a “13 gram car",
"parent_id": "599541",
"depth": 3,
"replies": []
}
]
}
]
},
{
"comment_id": "359125",
"author": "arfink",
"timestamp": "2011-03-15T17:14:58",
"content": "Heh, looks good. :) I suspect the design won’t be too prone to tipping or flailing because of the way the CO2 tanks are oriented, but if I was doing a CO2 car event with kids I’d be sure to use the guide line too because with kids you never know…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "359131",
"author": "JoJoG",
"timestamp": "2011-03-15T17:18:42",
"content": "we did this in High school too, we also mad mouse trap powered cars in 2 categories, speed and distance",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "359132",
"author": "Oren Beck",
"timestamp": "2011-03-15T17:19:11",
"content": "NOS?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "359140",
"author": "Brennan",
"timestamp": "2011-03-15T17:36:13",
"content": "As a side note, I absolutely hated pinewood derby races in cub scouts, because my dad and I were the only people who actually did it the right way where I built the car and he assisted. I always ended up in last place for not having my dad build the car for me.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "359155",
"author": "bent-tronics",
"timestamp": "2011-03-15T18:08:04",
"content": "Same thing as a lot of posters – we did this in middle school shop class in ’88/’89. Only one cartridge though. In fact the blank came pre-drilled with the hole for the cartridge, so I don’t think “cheating” is quite the right term, just a different set of rules.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "359156",
"author": "GameboyRMH",
"timestamp": "2011-03-15T18:09:28",
"content": "If you’re gonna cheat, you might as well use some super-magnets from the LHC :D",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "359158",
"author": "bent-tronics",
"timestamp": "2011-03-15T18:12:29",
"content": "In fact, here’s an article about it:http://www.science-of-speed.com/science.asp?id=25",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "359159",
"author": "Tim",
"timestamp": "2011-03-15T18:13:39",
"content": "How is this a hack? I made these in 8th grade.. There are kits for “CO2 Dragsters”",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "359161",
"author": "bent-tronics",
"timestamp": "2011-03-15T18:14:44",
"content": "… and:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CO2_dragster",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "359163",
"author": "asheets",
"timestamp": "2011-03-15T18:18:20",
"content": "@Brennan — I’m with you on that one… my dad would point me to the workshop and say “Don’t cut off any fingers, or your mom will get pissed with the mess.” That would be the extent of his involvement.As a side note of my own… isn’t the objective to limit friction, wind resistance, and zero-velocity inertia as much as possible? Why is it, then, that every guide to making these things recommends getting the car’s weight as close as possible to the legal limit?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "359197",
"author": "lonlaz",
"timestamp": "2011-03-15T19:01:15",
"content": "In my area there’s an Outlaw face after the main derby race, there are very few rules. We raced against a Dual C02 car, that thing was dangerous and shouldn’t have been allowed on the track. It didn’t trigger properly and hurdled off the track more often than not. My kid an I won with a car with most of the body built from thin balsa, an electric ducted fan engine, and a couple of Air Hog Lipos I got on clearance.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "359248",
"author": "wosser",
"timestamp": "2011-03-15T19:45:25",
"content": "C’mon, it’s not rocket scie… oh wait yeah it is!Win :)I’m wondering if it might be better to have a single gas capsule mounted centrally. The thrust would be less but it would be a bit easier to manage. I reckon the twin canister model would suffer because the thrust would be off-centre on average and would cause instability. A single can would save some weight too.Man I wish I had the gear to do this myself, looks like huge fun. And there’s not a bloody Arduino to be seen, bonus!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "359427",
"author": "XiuiX",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T00:47:52",
"content": "This Post reminds me of my youth, My friend’s dad was a Aero space engineer. so when the Raingutter Regatta came around he designed a boat with a very fancy well designed hull. although for the record they lost.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "359449",
"author": "Jeditalian",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T01:03:06",
"content": "Mine runs on N2O, it’s a real crowd pleaser.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "359567",
"author": "Oren Beck",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T04:27:06",
"content": "thrust-to weight. plastic bottle from whatever comes in pet bottle fits in the hole.fill with enough liquid co2/dry ice plug? Frangible tipped, glass? tubefrozen in dry ice @ thrust end. darwinbait yeah, but certain to be memorable if survived.art requires danger? sometimes i do show a bit of old school bet yer fingers hackart.disclaimer:if anyone’s suicidal enough to attempt my “joke” they may be a hacker.and this is stupidly risky, don’t EVER try it ok ?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "359618",
"author": "Noah Smith",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T05:30:42",
"content": "In HS I was part of an organization called TSA (Technology Student Association,http://www.tsaweb.org/)in Montana. There was a yearly meeting for competitions between the enrolled students from schools across the state, including CO2 car racing.You were given a regulation block of balsa with a hole cut in the back for the cartridge, two axles and four wheels. Then you had to shape it down to the car you wanted, by whatever means you had. Well our school was one of the only in the state with CNC mills, and I’m pretty sure the only one with the jig that held and rotated the block, allowing a perfect cut on both sides.Unsurprisingly, our CAD designed streamline designs won all the top spots every year.But also because we were able to get our cars so light while still maintaining structural integrity they would often turn from cars into planes, destroying themselves on the blockade at the end of the trackFun times all around",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "359657",
"author": "hack cell phone",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T06:33:36",
"content": "Lol jeditalian! I think the n20 should work just as well, except most of the canisters are shorter and 8gm? instead of 12gm.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "359680",
"author": "Erik J",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T07:25:58",
"content": "dad and sons, yey for stereotypes!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "379708",
"author": "boarder2k7",
"timestamp": "2011-04-13T21:21:10",
"content": "@asheetsThe reason you want the car as close to the weight limit as possible is because the track isn’t strictly downhill. The large flat section at the bottom requires inertia to keep the car moving at a reasonable speed.The best option that I’ve found is to put as much weight as you can on the BACK of the car, because this weight will stay on the incline for the longest time, maximizing your acceleration time. Also, wear in each wheel/axle combination with a power drill and graphite lube and leave them together as matched sets. If you’re being really crazy, wear them in in the direction they’re going to travel on the car. Also be sure to de-burr all surfaces of the wheel that come into contact with the track, so the outer rim and the inside edge that keeps the car centered.When setting the wheels, try to make the car run on only three. If you’re feeling ambitious try to balance it across two, but I find that its easier to just get one of the front wheels lifted off the ground a little bit. No sense dragging it along behind you. Also make sure that the wheels are pointed completely straight ahead (even if the car body is crooked relative to them, make sure all the wheels are dead straight relative to each other) so that way you won’t be bouncing from one side of the containment rail to another.Believe it or not there are actually websites that will sell you lightened and balanced wheels, polished/plated axles and all sorts of other questionably legal (and by that I kinda mean fun) stuff. Just remember folks, stepping up the level of competition is fun, just make sure you aren’t being the cheating asshat. Get everyone in on the fun, or play by the (letter and spirit of the) rules haha.As far as air resistance goes, I agree it can be important, BUT, you have to make sure you have your wheels and axles in good standing first. You could have a CD of 0.01 and crap for wheels and you’re gonna lose.-B",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "470267",
"author": "bill",
"timestamp": "2011-10-03T00:42:38",
"content": "I would like to know how to get one of these or whot to contact. Sounds like a nice light weight way to make a real rocket ship of a pine wood derby car",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "997181",
"author": "caleb",
"timestamp": "2013-04-24T14:47:39",
"content": "use baby powder to lube your axil it works realy good better than any lube ive used before",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "997185",
"author": "caleb",
"timestamp": "2013-04-24T14:49:34",
"content": "we are making co2 pinewood derby cars right now in shop class at school i used baby powder for lube on the wheels and it wnet down the track like lightning",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
}
] | 1,760,377,245.527973
|
||
https://hackaday.com/2011/03/15/animated-paper/
|
Animated Paper
|
Kevin Dady
|
[
"HackIt",
"Misc Hacks"
] |
[
"duct tape",
"memory wire"
] |
What if you could make paper react on physical input. Maybe you want it to shy away and close up if someone reaches for it too fast, or maybe you want some realistic paper flowers? Moving on to that great first step is
Animated Paper
, which is simply nitinol memory wire bonded to paper via our favorite tool, duct tape.
Memory wire is first bent to its desired shape, and in order for it to hold that shape it needs to be heated to about 540 degrees Celsius, which is a easy task for a propane torch. Once it has its memory shape the wire can be bent into any shape desired, and when heated to about 70 degrees Celsius will return to its original set shape.
Taped down to a sheet of paper and letting some current from a battery run though it the wire quickly warms up and animates the paper, which could be exactly what one needs in a more artsy robot or electronic display. Join us after the break for a short video.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IWi74bct81I&w=450]
| 8
| 8
|
[
{
"comment_id": "359017",
"author": "Grovenstien",
"timestamp": "2011-03-15T15:24:54",
"content": "How about automated Origami? Flapping Bird here i come!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "359019",
"author": "nate",
"timestamp": "2011-03-15T15:29:13",
"content": "Really cool! I’ve never played with memory wire before, but now I want some. I’m sure this could have plenty of interesting applications, but the first thing that comes to mind is animatronics. The movement looks so natural.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "359034",
"author": "Gilliam",
"timestamp": "2011-03-15T15:46:53",
"content": "Flags that wave themselves in the deadest of wind… no.. flags that wave themselves INTO the wind.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "359036",
"author": "Hirudinea",
"timestamp": "2011-03-15T15:47:29",
"content": "Hey I can have a “Magic Tome” turning its own pages for Halloween!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "359190",
"author": "Steve Pomeroy",
"timestamp": "2011-03-15T18:55:22",
"content": "@Grovenstien: Some researchers at the MIT Media Lab’s High-Low Tech group have done just that – electronically-actuated origami:http://hlt.media.mit.edu/?p=865",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "359822",
"author": "Halexander",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T12:13:26",
"content": "What about flags waving in no wind at all, without air all together, in space, on the moon. That would be interesting to see… just like E-book readers shaped like books.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "364944",
"author": "FKeeL",
"timestamp": "2011-03-22T15:43:48",
"content": "Hehe… now this would explain all the traffic :-)Thanks for posting about our little project. There should be an update sometime next week and we will be excibiting the final result at an excibit at queens university, kingston in in the first week of april.Thanks for the link to the cranes, those are cool :-)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "370851",
"author": "FKeeL",
"timestamp": "2011-03-31T05:51:29",
"content": "check out this link as wellhttp://fkeel.blogspot.com/2011/03/animating-paper.html",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
}
] | 1,760,377,245.455651
|
||
https://hackaday.com/2011/03/15/no-pcieslot-just-add-one/
|
No PCIE Slot? Just Add One
|
Kevin Dady
|
[
"Netbook Hacks"
] |
[
"pci express"
] |
[Leslie] likes his little Samsung N150 Plus netbook. While it packs enough punch for almost everything, it lacks in High Definition video power. That is where a Broadcom Crystal HD mini PCI express card comes in, as these little video decoders are made just for netbooks needing some HD love, but the problem is, his netbook only has one PCI express slot in it, and its occupied by the 802.11N card.
Not being bummed out by this, and not wanting to use a USB dongle device he just ripped open his netbook and
added a second pci express connector
to the pads on the motherboard. Sourcing the header from mouser, the install seems quick n easy, especially since Samsung was nice enough to have the pad’s tinned already, so just a little flux and a steady hand you’re good to go.
Unfortunately, there are some hidden gotcha’s as the newly installed slot is not “full featured” that both the Broadcom card and the stock wireless N card require, but he had a wireless G card that ran just fine in the newly added slot, so now its time to rock some full screen HD Hulu.
| 23
| 23
|
[
{
"comment_id": "358974",
"author": "sp00nix",
"timestamp": "2011-03-15T14:10:21",
"content": "Reminds me of the pass through MPEG cards of the past",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "358985",
"author": "Tony",
"timestamp": "2011-03-15T14:29:17",
"content": "What does he mean by “full featured”? I would have thought any PCI-e card would be compatible, unless it was blacklisted in BIOS.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "358990",
"author": "IJ Dee-Vo",
"timestamp": "2011-03-15T14:34:17",
"content": "Modding, adding features, voiding warrenties. yep, a hack!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "358995",
"author": "Ed Marshall",
"timestamp": "2011-03-15T14:48:16",
"content": "I’m not quite sure what he means by “full-featured”; do the cards he’s trying to use require a second PCI lane? USB?Looking at the pads, it looks like the necessary wiring is there for a second PCI-e lane (but perhaps not the underlying components)? USB appears to be wired up as well. So physically, the plumbing for everything should be there.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "359008",
"author": "Bill",
"timestamp": "2011-03-15T15:14:08",
"content": "My guess is it was only a x1 slot, and the cards one something more.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "359087",
"author": "ravyne",
"timestamp": "2011-03-15T16:30:42",
"content": "There’s also a USB channel on (mini?) PCIe, which is often used for things like wireless cards, and sometimes the expansion slots only have the USB routed, which sounds like the case here.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "359094",
"author": "Mike",
"timestamp": "2011-03-15T16:38:01",
"content": "Mini PCIe slots have both PCIe signals and USB signals going to them. A lot of these netbooks have slots that only have USB signals going to them and not PCIe, since the addons that come in those slots from the factory only use USB (cellular cards, etc).",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "359106",
"author": "addidis",
"timestamp": "2011-03-15T16:53:15",
"content": "Nice work. thanks for sharing.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "359109",
"author": "D34ler",
"timestamp": "2011-03-15T16:55:00",
"content": "Can anyone guess what im doing with my N150 this weekend ;)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "359113",
"author": "landon greer",
"timestamp": "2011-03-15T17:00:19",
"content": "could i achieve a similar goal but by adding an mxm card to this slot on my acer 5315?http://i62.photobucket.com/albums/h101/sk8boy204/IMG_20110315_124641.jpg",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "359126",
"author": "Liam",
"timestamp": "2011-03-15T17:15:08",
"content": "Has anyone tried anything similar with the eee1000h?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "359137",
"author": "ArtForz",
"timestamp": "2011-03-15T17:25:32",
"content": "Slot probably only works in USB mode.The PCIe data/clock lanes are there, but I bet a few passives are still missing.CLKREQ# (4th pad from bottom at the right) is only connected to what looks like a unpopulated 0402 location.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "359138",
"author": "nexis",
"timestamp": "2011-03-15T17:25:42",
"content": "Did something like this a few years back with my toshiba laptop. Seems most laptop and netbook makers put in nice little extras for a 2nd pcie slot, or a 2nd hdd connector, but never populate the connector on the lower end models, but everything needed is there.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "359152",
"author": "Pseudolobster",
"timestamp": "2011-03-15T18:05:43",
"content": "landon greer: No, probably not. It looks like the components leading to the slot are unpopulated. Even if the only component missing was the slot, you’d still need to disable your onboard video card.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "359194",
"author": "Sean",
"timestamp": "2011-03-15T18:58:20",
"content": "Word to the potential modders, a few folks have tried this with Inspiron 1012s, and the added slot hasn’t worked. Speculation is that a few other components need to be added in addition to the slot itself.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "359196",
"author": "Jaguarius",
"timestamp": "2011-03-15T19:00:00",
"content": "This is an interesting upgrade – I wasn’t aware of the extra header on my acer as 1410 until now. Does anyone know the mouser part number for the slot? A preliminary search seemed to only turn up items purchasable in quantities of 350+",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "359281",
"author": "thlip",
"timestamp": "2011-03-15T20:27:02",
"content": "@Jaguariushttp://ca.mouser.com/Search/ProductDetail.aspx?R=MM60-52B1-E1-R650virtualkey65610000virtualkey656-MM60-52B1-E1-RThat looks like the part that he sourced from his list of parts.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "359373",
"author": "Spork",
"timestamp": "2011-03-15T22:46:54",
"content": "Wonder if you could test each passive from the other slot and place each one… sounds like a fun weekend project, if only I had a netbook to hack.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "359752",
"author": "s3rious_simon",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T09:34:41",
"content": "that second Slot seems to be common in the whole Samsung N-Series. Wonder if I could add 3G-Connectivity to my N130 :)…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "367124",
"author": "Sam",
"timestamp": "2011-03-25T07:57:10",
"content": "LOL. It’s not really a “second slot”. He may have added a second physical connector, but that doesn’t mean he can have two PCIe devices running at the same time. It looks like his hack makes two Mini PCIe connectors share the same set of signals.He’s lucky he didn’t mess up his original connector. Well, there goes his warranty.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "455808",
"author": "pazsion",
"timestamp": "2011-09-15T11:48:37",
"content": "mpci-e is mxm gen 1the schematics state mpci-e multi. So i’m guesing only mxm 1 and mpci-e 1x-4x supporting hardware will be able to work. Like dells old agp 1x-4x…pcwizard reports there is pci-e headers four of them. and 2 occupied ports for my system. That means there is 1 open port and 1 possibly used by the onchip gfx. on the hav1us model.It may be possible to run gfx cards if you install the drivers first, then un-install the onboard. Be ready to do a complete restore if this fails.If it does install the card properly, you should be able to re-install the onchip/onboard gfx again at that point and run both. Just like the 865-965 chipsets.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "493631",
"author": "Steve Haggerty",
"timestamp": "2011-10-28T22:42:10",
"content": "It appears that the Acer Aspire One 722 has PCI Express pad on the motherboard but no slot. Has anyone tried hacking a PCI Express slot for the 722?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "639470",
"author": "BishopLord",
"timestamp": "2012-04-27T16:01:26",
"content": "I have an Acer Aspire One 722 and it comes with the PCI-E slot (thank God). Now all I need to do is buy the Broadcom HD decoder so the streaming video will not play so choppy. I bought my 722 around Christmas 2011, so it’s probably a newer model.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
}
] | 1,760,377,245.369268
|
||
https://hackaday.com/2011/03/15/weather-station-turned-data-logger/
|
Weather Station Turned Data Logger
|
Kevin Dady
|
[
"Arduino Hacks",
"Beer Hacks"
] |
[
"homebrew"
] |
Home brewing the perfect beer (or root beer in this case) requires a watchful eye and stable temperature, but [Gregory] has a house that is 120 years old. While we are sure it is a beautiful home, it does have its usual historical issues including temperature fluctuations.
[Gregory] suspects this to be the reason why his root beer is not carbonating, but to be 100% sure he grabbed a weather station (and atomic clock) with a
wireless remote thermometer and got hacking
. After popping the station apart he was able to quickly isolate the radio receiver and figure out the signaling, a few connections to an arduino, and now he can keep track of the temperature as its logged on to his PC.
Hopefully he can find out if this is his issue or not. Join us after the break for a quick video.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TzqY5HxrZyM&w450]
| 10
| 10
|
[
{
"comment_id": "358984",
"author": "1337",
"timestamp": "2011-03-15T14:28:12",
"content": "decodeTime(int time) //millis?0-3 seconds is a 03-5 seconds is a 111111111 – 255 = 24 seconds to send?this can’t be right.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "358986",
"author": "1337",
"timestamp": "2011-03-15T14:31:05",
"content": "decodeTime(int time) //uS is more believable",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "358991",
"author": "1337",
"timestamp": "2011-03-15T14:35:29",
"content": "from his website…“THE RED wire is the data wire. This is where a series of pulses (long for 1, short for 2, LONGEST for data break) is transmitted. This is the data coming from the wireless thermometer.”“short for 2” should read “short for 0”.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "358994",
"author": "Gregory Strike",
"timestamp": "2011-03-15T14:44:05",
"content": "Yup, It’s μs. I’ll update the comment.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "359011",
"author": "Bill",
"timestamp": "2011-03-15T15:15:42",
"content": "Well, scratch one of my back-burner projects off the list. Good job.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "359212",
"author": "john",
"timestamp": "2011-03-15T19:24:49",
"content": "good job but bad video, my stomach is upside down, next time please put your cam on a stand or dont drink beer before making a video :)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "359407",
"author": "1337",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T00:01:57",
"content": "Gregory,Also, I do not know anything about the arduino library. Is pulseIn() provided by it? If not, you left it out.Good job.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "359636",
"author": "aaron",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T05:57:14",
"content": "just what i’ve been waiting for..will also be good for a cheesemaking cave data logger..",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "359819",
"author": "Kade",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T12:11:30",
"content": "I want to do something similar with my wireless weather station so that I can monitor the wind speed trends and know when to go to fly my rc plane.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "360085",
"author": "Gregory Strike",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T17:39:35",
"content": "@John Yeah, sorry about that. I hate people with shakey videos… Now I’m one of them! Next time I’ll ask someone to film for me and I won’t use my Evo. I just wanted to get something out there before I found some other shiney object to work on.@1337, Yes, pulseIn() is part of the Arudino library (seehttp://www.arduino.cc/en/Reference/PulseIn). It’s purpose is to monitor a a pin and measure how long it stays HIGH or LOW depending on what you’re looking for.In my code the values are thrown into an array to be converted to 1’s or 0’s after the pinTrigger line goes LOW.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
}
] | 1,760,377,245.311767
|
||
https://hackaday.com/2011/03/16/adding-digital-storage-to-an-analog-scope/
|
Adding Digital Storage To An Analog Scope
|
Mike Szczys
|
[
"digital cameras hacks",
"Tool Hacks"
] |
[
"analog",
"digital",
"oscilloscope"
] |
This is a hack in the finest sense of the term. It not only allows you to capture data from an analog oscilloscope for later analysis, but provides you with a great tool if you’re posting on the Internet about your projects. [J8g8j] used an empty cashew container to
add a camera mount to the front of his scope
. This is possible because the bezel around the display has a groove in it. A bit of careful measuring helped him make an opening that was just right.
You can see that the red cap for the jar holds the camera and gave him a bit of trouble in the original prototype. This version has a tray where camera sits, which replaces the Velcro with didn’t hold the camera level the first time around. He’s also painted the inside of the clear plastic to reduce glare on the oscilloscope readout. Black and white images seem to come out the clearest, but it can be difficult to make out the grid lines. The addition of LEDs to help them stand out is one of the improvements we might see in the future.
| 14
| 14
|
[
{
"comment_id": "360265",
"author": "alan",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T20:18:52",
"content": "you have got to be kidding me…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "360272",
"author": "Bob Spafford",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T20:28:47",
"content": "My GAWD, what a trip down memory lane! In my earlier electronic design days I went through seemingly endless rolls of Polaroid film capturing asynchronous one shot pulses. Ah, the smell of the coating you had to smear on the ones which were kept! Until now, I had not thought of this particular misery-made-nice by our affordable high tech. Does your pocket camera allow a time exposure? I’m guessing not. The Tektronix scope had a manual shutter and a very light tight housing and scope mounting, such that long open shutter times were no problem as you waited for the elusive one shot (nuclear decay event) to happen. Even with Giga Hz sample rates (at Giga $), sometimes an analog scope with a camera can outperform with single fast pulse capture.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "360278",
"author": "xorpunk",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T20:34:37",
"content": "arduino for oscilloscopes xDoh I forgot your a troll if you insult lazy ‘hacks’..",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "360280",
"author": "veneficus",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T20:37:12",
"content": "Love the simplicity! :)Obviously, it has some limitations! :P",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "360285",
"author": "spiritplumber",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T20:39:55",
"content": "Very Zen!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "360305",
"author": "salomon",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T21:12:28",
"content": "Can`t stop laughing!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "360330",
"author": "Gregg C Levine",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T21:33:13",
"content": "@spiritplumber:Oh definitely.@at all:I have one of those scopes here. It has been very helpful despite being retired from normal business for this many years. Perfect for watching TTL logic at work, even better for managing analog things.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "360341",
"author": "Slipster",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T21:40:37",
"content": "I think the title should have been “Taking clear photos of your analog scope screen”.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "360382",
"author": "Kyle",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T22:25:39",
"content": "Uhhh.. I have photographed MANY analog oscilloscope/spectrum analyzer/network analyzer screens in my day, and I never needed anything like this!To reduce the glare, just dim the lights in the room, or use a dark cloth above the camera.The creator must have REALLY shaky hands, I take it? Hehe :D",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "360472",
"author": "Ren",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T23:49:49",
"content": "I think I have a couple of those scopes,I certainly have a couple of digital cameras that are not prime…Nice combo.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "360521",
"author": "Jeremy BP",
"timestamp": "2011-03-17T01:24:16",
"content": "I still use one of the old tektronix scope cameras. I rather like it.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "361041",
"author": "Tachikoma",
"timestamp": "2011-03-17T15:53:37",
"content": "I like it! I only have an old scope, as I can’t afford anything else. Capturing good quality waveforms with enough exposure to see the grid lines is quite hard, especially on a cheap camera. I might actually build something like this and perhaps add a handful of diffused led in a ring for better illumination. Hopefully that gets the screen exposure right and without the glare. Besides, green phosphor looks cooler. :P",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "361183",
"author": "KanchoBlindside",
"timestamp": "2011-03-17T18:20:46",
"content": "Believe it or not, this EXACT method was used at General Electric up until about 2001 or 2002 for FDA compliance in their MR body coil tests.We had a Polaroid camera and a black plastic “funnel” that clipped on to the B&W screen. The computer didnt even have a mouse, it had a knob and 4 F keys and a keyboard (I cant remember what model it was).",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "362466",
"author": "j8g8j",
"timestamp": "2011-03-19T01:49:22",
"content": "@All: Thanks for the feedback! It is an honor to be featured on Hack-A-Day. I appreciate all the comments. I know it is not mind-blowing. I is fun (and easy). I am glad to see that some have found it inspiring.FWIW, some comment-specific replies:@Slipster: I’m sorry if this tongue-in-cheek title put anybody off and wasted a click from your day. I find it funny.@Kyle: The flash on my chosen digital camera is broken. So a timed exposure is a must… until I get a new camera. Even if/when I do, I will probably just keep this digital cam as my “scope cam” In case you had not guessed, I’m no brain surgeon. So, with >0.5 sec exposures, shaking happens.@Bob Spafford: I like the idea of using a longer timed exposure. I think it will help deal with the single-shot capture challenge I’ve run into with some IR protocols. I will give it a try. Thanks!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
}
] | 1,760,377,245.214807
|
||
https://hackaday.com/2011/03/16/beginner-project-super-cheap-magnetic-mixer/
|
Beginner Project: Super Cheap Magnetic Mixer
|
Jesse Congdon
|
[
"home hacks",
"Tool Hacks"
] |
[
"magnets",
"mixer",
"stir"
] |
[wesdoestuff]’s mother needed a clean way to mix together fragrance oils. Being the stand up kinda guy he is, [Wes] threw together a few spare parts to make this
Magnetic Stir Plate
.
The whole setup is amazingly simple. Pry the fins off of an old computer fan, glue a couple magnets to the fan’s hub. Drill a hole for a DC connector, find some sort of cover and.. Bob’s your uncle! [Wes] advises that you test the spacing of the magnets on the hub before gluing them permanently, as they can be a bit tricky to align.
The stir bar for non food items is a magnet bar from one of those crazy magnet and ball bearing
toys
, it is basically just a solid magnet covered in plastic. Food safe bars can be
acquired
, though they are not as cheap. With all that room under the hood we would love to see him throw in some kind of a
PWM
speed
control
but that could be a
bit
complicated
. Most of us could throw this together from spare parts. Video after the jump!
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bQ13tkgoAHg&w=470]
| 23
| 23
|
[
{
"comment_id": "360194",
"author": "Dan Kinsley",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T19:23:13",
"content": "A lot of folks in the homebrewing community do something similar to make stir plates to make yeast starters for their beers:http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/my-stirplate-cheap-easy-build-86252/",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "360196",
"author": "xeracy",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T19:24:35",
"content": "surprisingly simple…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "360231",
"author": "adam outler",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T19:44:37",
"content": "Ingenious. We use ones in the medical field that cost thousands of dollars.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "360242",
"author": "Andy",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T19:54:02",
"content": "Stick it under a griddle and you have a hot plate/stirrer.http://www.instructables.com/id/DIY-StirrerHot-Plate/#",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "360245",
"author": "veneficus",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T19:58:50",
"content": "He doesn’t even need a PWM, he can control the speed with a simple pot.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "360251",
"author": "grep",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T20:04:12",
"content": "Using slower motors, the fishing rod building community has been using hacked stir plates for years to mix epoxy.Generally built with a steel ball bearing (as the paddle), an AC timing motor, and something to hold your cup still (the viscosity of the epoxy would spin the cup).",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "360286",
"author": "Thopter",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T20:40:21",
"content": "I was contemplating this very thing just a few nights ago, and came to the same conclusion of using a computer fan with magnets glued on it.I was going to go a little further with the stir-bar though. I have some Alumilite casting resin that I was going to use to coat a small bar magnet or something. Not sure how food-safe Alumilite is though.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "360309",
"author": "Frogz",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T21:20:19",
"content": "bravo!i have atleast 10 unused muffin fans atm, wonder what kinda stupidly simple things i can do with them that are effective/cool as hell like this",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "360328",
"author": "mjrippe",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T21:31:19",
"content": "@Frogz – That might be a good suggestion for the next Buy, Break, Build!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "360351",
"author": "Terry",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T21:59:32",
"content": "Those magnetix toys are $20+ on amazon for a set of 60. Is there a cheaper stirrer that would still be food-safe?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "360400",
"author": "andrew",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T22:42:10",
"content": "I think you could make it food safe by coating it in silicone, right?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "360437",
"author": "Cool!",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T23:16:46",
"content": "Yep, stir plate. Very easy. You can even skip the potentiometer if you find a wall wart that undervolts the fan such that you get the desired speed.@andrew, others – don’t try to make cheap metal “food safe” by coating it in silicone. You’ll have so many bubbles and pits that food and bacteria will collect in… you’ll never have a sanitary stir bar. Instead just get a purpose-made stirbar off ebay.With these homemade stir plates, I find the 1 to 2 inch stir bars work best.Beakers and drinking glasses work well, but most bottles will not as they have convex floors and that makes the stir bar spin off to the side easily.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "360441",
"author": "Rachel",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T23:23:39",
"content": "I’d like to see someone design a stirrer without the extra motor. It’s silly to convert magnetic fields to rotational motion, back to magnetic fields, and back to rotational motion again. With a properly designed electromagnet, it could spin the stirrer bar directly. It would be solid state, and very thin too.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "360476",
"author": "David S",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T23:57:59",
"content": "I second Rachel’s idea.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "360490",
"author": "thouton",
"timestamp": "2011-03-17T00:22:24",
"content": "I second Rachel’s idea too…(or is that a third?). Computer fan motors tend to have a single four pin package that handles both driving the motor and sensing rotation speed – maybe someone could salvage that part for use in a solid state stirrer; otherwise inertia and viscosity will mean you will need some smart code, sensors and such to be able to spin up to speed and correct for slow down events if/when the air bubble interacts with the stirrer.D.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "360520",
"author": "bob",
"timestamp": "2011-03-17T01:23:00",
"content": "just remove the whole fan blade, put magnet on top. no magnets are necessary.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "360524",
"author": "brian",
"timestamp": "2011-03-17T01:26:50",
"content": "I made one of these when i was in highschool with pretty much the exact same materials except i scrounged some magnets out of an old HDD. Also learned that playing with high strength magenets for long periods of time can make you feel like crap because the magnets can attract the iron in your blood.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "360536",
"author": "Fallen",
"timestamp": "2011-03-17T01:44:06",
"content": "Although I agree with Rachel, I don’t know how feasible it would be. Or cost effective. This may not be elegant but it is cheap and easy to source the parts.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "360553",
"author": "thouton",
"timestamp": "2011-03-17T02:18:22",
"content": "@bob I tried this; the position detector can’t detect where the magnet is. The other problem is that even if you fix the sensor problem, the stator cannot exert enough force to move even very strong magnets at anything above a very low speed/torque when that magnet is above the plane of the motor. The stator is designed to exert an EM field in the wrong direction, so the only solutions are either a custom stator or a hacked stator with magnetic material added on to bring the focus of the EM field into the right plane, I think. The latter would probably be easiest, as you could imagine that the relatively thin arms of a pancake stepper stator could be bent upwards, or bolts welded to a cooling fan stator.@Fallen good point.D.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "360775",
"author": "Tomski",
"timestamp": "2011-03-17T09:18:37",
"content": "@brianIron in your body is not ferromagnetic so can’t be attracted by Magnets…. maybe you were having an off day;)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "360917",
"author": "wosser",
"timestamp": "2011-03-17T12:31:59",
"content": "I like the simplicity of this, just about anyone could throw this together in ten minutes!You could use this for mixing stuff in a test tube too, just drop a ball bearing or a small magnet in there and hold it over the device.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "360918",
"author": "wosser",
"timestamp": "2011-03-17T12:34:17",
"content": "ps, wonder how long it will be before someone builds an inductive iPhone charger out of this :)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "361310",
"author": "Whatnot",
"timestamp": "2011-03-17T20:35:49",
"content": "@Rachel They did, it’s called a blender :D",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
}
] | 1,760,377,245.724112
|
||
https://hackaday.com/2011/03/16/giving-sight-to-the-visually-impaired-with-kinect/
|
Giving “sight” To The Visually Impaired With Kinect
|
Mike Nathan
|
[
"Arduino Hacks",
"Kinect hacks",
"Wearable Hacks",
"Xbox Hacks"
] |
[
"accessibility",
"arduino",
"Kinect"
] |
We have seen Kinect used in a variety of clever ways over the last few months, but some students at the [University of Konstanz] have taken Kinect hacking to
a whole new level of usefulness
. Rather than use it to
control lightning
or to
kick around some boxes
using Garry’s Mod, they are using it to develop Navigational Aids for the Visually Impaired, or NAVI for short.
A helmet-mounted Kinect sensor is placed on the subject’s head and connected to a laptop, which is stored in the user’s backpack. The Kinect is interfaced using custom software that utilizes depth information to generate a virtual map of the environment. The computer sends information to an Arduino board, which then relays those signals to one of three waist-belt mounted LilyPad Arduinos. The LilyPads control three motors, which vibrate in order to alert the user to obstacles. The group even added voice notifications via specialized markers, allowing them to prompt the user to the presence of doors and other specific items of note.
It really is a great use of the Kinect sensor, we can’t wait to see more projects like this in the future.
Stick around to see a quick video of NAVI in use.
[via
Kinect-Hacks
– thanks, Jared]
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l6QY-eb6NoQ&w=470]
| 27
| 27
|
[
{
"comment_id": "360158",
"author": "fluidic",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T18:55:43",
"content": "Good show. I would have gone for belt-mounted myself to get more of the camera’s FOV across the space the person will be passing through – it looks like you lose a lot of near-field vision as a result which could lead to the user tripping over or colliding with objects. But the helmet mount was probably easiest to build and wear. The ARTK fiducials are a nice touch, giving an absolute reference versus a known space for navigation purposes.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "360160",
"author": "macegr",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T18:56:15",
"content": "Well, I guess now we know why an accelerometer is in the Kinect (though I don’t think they use it in this project).",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "360173",
"author": "Gdogg",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T19:05:02",
"content": "It’s a good thing the blind can’t see how ridiculous they look with a Kinect on their head.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "360190",
"author": "Brian",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T19:18:22",
"content": "I wonder if adding prisms to modify the FOV would work so that the kinect looked down and forward or if it’d totally ruin how it works.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "360193",
"author": "IJ Dee-Vo",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T19:21:39",
"content": "Voice or something like that translated one or two web cam images into sounds. sent to the ears. Pretty cool set up, the kinect hacks keep on comming",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "360217",
"author": "INquiRY",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T19:34:15",
"content": "While it’s not your mother tongue, you share the same alphabet and so should be able to get “University of Konstanz” right! :-)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "360222",
"author": "Klaus",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T19:38:18",
"content": "Thumbs up for the t-shirt.¡Viva Sankt Pauli!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "360223",
"author": "JackMehoffer",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T19:38:39",
"content": "Nice idea. Great use of a toy technology for something good.@INquiRY: I think it was likely a fat finger on this guys part – notice how the “A” is right next to the “S” on a keyboard.Nice use of the internet though bro! Where would we be without you??",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "360232",
"author": "Rick",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T19:45:16",
"content": "From what I understand, the human brain in general and the visual cortex in particular are highly adaptable and ready to incorporate new data.It seems a shame to take this enormous amount of useful data from the Kinect and reduce it down to three motors.For example, this project uses the tongue to convey the visual information. People using the device and learn to “see” objects around them like doors, silverware, and elevator buttons.http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=device-lets-blind-see-with-tonguesThe estimated cost of this referenced device that uses the tongue is a substantial $10000. I suspect that the technology in the Kinect could slash the cost of a device this type by an order of magnitude or two. I also suspect that less sensitive but more discreet body parts could be used.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "360258",
"author": "Necromant",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T20:09:27",
"content": "Holy crap, 3 arduinos for 3 vibros…. one tiny2313 can be used to drive 10 or even more with pwm. That’s why I hate arduino…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "360260",
"author": "Necromant",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T20:11:11",
"content": "Oh, and btw, I guess using range sensors on the belt coupled with vibros should prove to be somewhat easier to make with the same effect, kinect is an overkill here. 2d code recognition can be done with a cheap android phone with a usb camera.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "360274",
"author": "CalcProgrammer1",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T20:29:04",
"content": "I did not see 3 Arduinos anywhere, from the video they have one Arduino Duemilanove with three sets of motors connected to output pins.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "360277",
"author": "nikescar",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T20:32:07",
"content": "This may not be the coolest Kinect hack but it is the best.Take the cameras and light source of the boards and put them on a medallion the user could wear around their neck. Rig up one of those fancy new dual-core Android to do all the computing and to provide GPS for outdoor use.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "360282",
"author": "Necromant",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T20:38:35",
"content": "@CalcProgrammer1: Read carefully: The computer sends information to an Arduino board, which then relays those signals to one of three waist-belt mounted LilyPad Arduinos. The LilyPads control three motors, which vibrate in order to alert the user to obstacles.This is insane overkill, damn it. Much like the way arduinoers like it to do.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "360289",
"author": "dmcbeing",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T20:43:56",
"content": "I just love the “debuging backpack”!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "360322",
"author": "Jonathan",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T21:30:32",
"content": "@Necromant, others.The description says:“three waist-belt mounted LilyPad Arduinos”Via and source say:“three pairs of Arduino LilyPad vibration motors”Based on the pictures, the wires, and the size of the devices, I expect it means:“three pairs of LilyPad vibration motors”http://www.sparkfun.com/products/8468There’s nowhere there to hide 3 lilypads, and no wires going to any.All 3 sites need fixing though….",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "360342",
"author": "Jonathan",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T21:41:15",
"content": "And by “hide 3 lilypads” I mean “hide 3 LilyPad Arduinos” of course, Doh!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "360348",
"author": "Necromant",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T21:57:59",
"content": "@Jonathan. Hm… Well, that’s better, but I’d still be of using a tiny2313 though. Or through away kinect&laptop and use proximity sensors and vibros with a mega8 do control everything. AFAIK a project like that was already featured here.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "360426",
"author": "Kris Lee",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T23:12:46",
"content": "Would it possible to create a sound field based on the Kinect information?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "360446",
"author": "Rudeface",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T23:25:21",
"content": "i really like the idea of this build. very bulky beginnings but i think it’s a good idea. if they write the program as an app for a smartphone and had bluetooth webcam and headset it would bring down the size of the project if they can get the cam to connect with the phone also. great job though.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "360510",
"author": "Drew",
"timestamp": "2011-03-17T01:05:47",
"content": "I really hope the NAVI gives audio directions, like “HEY”, “LISTEN” or “WATCH OUT”.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "360625",
"author": "marks256",
"timestamp": "2011-03-17T04:37:04",
"content": "I love hacks like this.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "360631",
"author": "birdmun",
"timestamp": "2011-03-17T05:06:37",
"content": "No mention of Geordi LaForge yet. I know it is a number of generations from him, but, still. :)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "360704",
"author": "Katie",
"timestamp": "2011-03-17T07:18:18",
"content": "@Rick“I also suspect that less sensitive but more discreet body parts could be used.”Eww…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "360770",
"author": "hans",
"timestamp": "2011-03-17T09:11:44",
"content": "What if two blind people meet? The Kinect is projecting an image, would it get scrambled by the other kinect?And about the overkill: as it is a proof of concept, I don’t really mind about the bloat. This can easily be cut out in a later version.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "360983",
"author": "hospadar",
"timestamp": "2011-03-17T14:23:29",
"content": "Wire that mother straight into their brain!!!I know that visual neural prostheses have been attempted and I’ve heard they aren’t all that good. I wonder if it would be easier to pipe in something like the kinekt depth map instead of a full camera image.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "360990",
"author": "colecoman1982",
"timestamp": "2011-03-17T14:31:04",
"content": "@birdmun: Actually, we’re much closer to that than you think. High end medical researchers (who, unlike this hack, can implant devices directly into a person’s head) have been able to interface digital camera technology with the optic nerve at the back of the eye. The resolution is pretty low (originally just enough to tell light from dark, but newer generations can, supposedly, be used to read oversized text) but it has been able to give vision to people thagt are completely blind.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
}
] | 1,760,377,246.497351
|
||
https://hackaday.com/2011/03/16/cellphone-charger-has-a-usb-port-forced-upon-it/
|
Cellphone Charger Has A USB Port Forced Upon It
|
Mike Szczys
|
[
"Cellphone Hacks",
"ipod hacks"
] |
[
"7805",
"charger",
"ipod",
"linear regulator",
"usb"
] |
We still can’t figure out why a standard charging scheme hasn’t been developed for handheld devices (other than greed). Certainly we understand that many devices have different electrical needs as far as voltage and current are concerned, but we still long for the ability to use one charger for many different doodads. [Rupin] is trying to narrow down the number of dedicated chargers he uses by
adding a USB charging port to his Nokia cellphone charger
. Since the USB standard calls for regulated 5V a hack like this can often be done just by patching into the power output coming off of the voltage regulator in the plug housing of the device. [Rupin’s] charger had 5V printed on the case, but when he probed the output he found well over 8 volts. He added a 7805 linear regulator to get the stable output he needed, then cut a hole in the case to house the connector.
Since [Rupin] wants to use this as an iPod charger he couldn’t just let the two data lines float. Apple uses
a specific charger verification scheme
which requires some voltage dividers to get the device to start charging.
| 21
| 19
|
[
{
"comment_id": "360142",
"author": "Brian",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T18:38:54",
"content": "I think I would just buy a USB 5V wall adapter for 1 dollar off amazon…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "360145",
"author": "fred",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T18:41:15",
"content": "@Brian, good for you. the article said he wanted to charge his Nokia and ipod from the same adapter.We would appreciate if you would keep your negative comments to yourself.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "360155",
"author": "murkanovic",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T18:53:30",
"content": "http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=IP/11/136<- Manufacturers deliver the common mobile phone charger",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "360162",
"author": "_Matt",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T18:57:42",
"content": "if it’s a dollar, probably isn’t regulated, just like Rupin’s.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "360169",
"author": "bogdan",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T19:02:21",
"content": "The output is regulated, but not unloaded. If you add a few mA of load to that charger it will stay at 5V. It’s a common problem with smps chargers when unloaded.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "867000",
"author": "eeks",
"timestamp": "2012-11-09T17:22:26",
"content": "yep, just what I was thinking reading the post. I’ve added a resistor dummy load of 200 Ohm to save that spike of paranoia when pluggin in a $700 mobile to a nokia charger piece of ****",
"parent_id": "360169",
"depth": 2,
"replies": []
}
]
},
{
"comment_id": "360170",
"author": "Tim",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T19:03:02",
"content": "Did this already to the charger for my nokia bluetooth headset, I can charge it in the car with a usb charger or at home with a usb cable in the charger.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "360192",
"author": "José Xavier",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T19:21:41",
"content": "Use the 7805 it is a waste of energy. The source is regualted but need some ammout of load!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "360195",
"author": "Leif - KC8RWR",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T19:23:32",
"content": "@Brian – “…just buy a USB 5V wall adapter for 1 dollar off amazon…”He’s combining two functions into a single charger. That’s not the same as buying a second charger for the second function. From the summary “[Rupin] is trying to narrow down the number of dedicated chargers he uses”",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "360198",
"author": "Leif - KC8RWR",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T19:26:22",
"content": "@bogdanEven if it is regulated (with a load) are you sure that particular charger is 5V? For example, 7.5 volts regulated isn’t going to do him any good.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "360200",
"author": "Leif - KC8RWR",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T19:27:26",
"content": "Sorry, just RTFA… yup, it’s 5V.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "360269",
"author": "veneficus",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T20:25:29",
"content": "You just cannot trust anything you see on Instructubles and this is a good example. Would it work? Yes. Is it efficient? No. 7805 has 2V dropout voltage, so he is actually generating less voltage to charge his iPhone (and a lot of unnecessary heat).",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "360270",
"author": "veneficus",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T20:26:08",
"content": "considering the input voltage is 5V, that is…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "360291",
"author": "bogdan",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T20:45:44",
"content": "@veneficus you are right. The minute he adds load to it, the voltage will drop.It would be more expensive to make the charger regulate when it is unloaded and pointless. It has to charge the phone, and the phone probably provides minimum load anyway.In fact, if you look at some datasheets for these kinds of adapters, you will see that the voltage is said to be x +/- 5% (or whatever) for load 10% to 120% of rated or something like this.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "360379",
"author": "Steveeeee",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T22:24:19",
"content": "I did something similar a while and found only one of my various Nokia chargers actually put out the promised 5V (model AC-4X). I cut the cable, adding a pair of USB sockets in place of the original plug, then added a USB socket onto the cut end of the remaining cable so I could plug it back in and keep the original charging function. The thing puts out 890mA which is just enough to charge 2 USB devices.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "360385",
"author": "Kyle",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T22:32:16",
"content": "First of all: Old linear regulator = Bad idea. I would be interested to see the output voltage of his charger under load – My guess is that under load, the thing will drop out due to the minimum voltage differential between the input and output pins of that IC. Much better to use a small switch mode converter.Better idea: Make a USB-to-nokia adapter, and get a small generic USB adapter.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "360491",
"author": "ac",
"timestamp": "2011-03-17T00:26:18",
"content": "Voltage is always higher than indicated on those cheap wall warts. You need to load them. Some are nothing more than a transfo with a diode.A problem I see is if the load ‘that was meant for it’ takes it from 8V to 5V, loading it further might continue this linear relation.I also suggest you scope Vout because it might not be as flat as you think. Newer iphones for example are sensible to a shaky usb charging voltage (ie: square wave inverters).",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "360558",
"author": "Mc",
"timestamp": "2011-03-17T02:32:55",
"content": "The wall adapter of cellphones in China is already standardized to 5V USB. They can simply use the same adapter for different devices as long as the current is enough.BTW the factories there can make a $0.5 regulated USB adapter using 13001. Current will be 300mA max.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "360692",
"author": "Rupin",
"timestamp": "2011-03-17T06:55:46",
"content": "Thanks for your comments.One update- I tried charging both the Nokia phone and my iPod, and the iPod stopped charging.This might throw light on the concerns people have on the design.It could probably be because of the drop in the voltage at the input of the 7805.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "997231",
"author": "Harman Singh",
"timestamp": "2013-04-24T16:14:42",
"content": "i also make usb charger form nokia only at 0.4$ cost, explained athttp://screwdesk.com/charge-usb-devices-with-nokia-charger/",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "2246645",
"author": "Harman Singh",
"timestamp": "2014-12-14T14:53:11",
"content": "above link transferred tohttp://khalsalabs.com/charge-usb-devices-with-nokia-charger/",
"parent_id": "997231",
"depth": 2,
"replies": []
}
]
}
] | 1,760,377,246.109866
|
||
https://hackaday.com/2011/03/16/usb-man-in-the-middle-adapter/
|
USB Man-in-the-middle Adapter
|
Mike Szczys
|
[
"Tool Hacks"
] |
[
"man-in-the-middle",
"prototyping",
"stm32",
"usb"
] |
The module works as a pass through, providing
access to data and power lines for a USB device
. [BadWolf] built it in order to sniff out communications between peripherals and the Universal Serial Bus. For now it just provides access to the different signals, but we think there’s quite a bit of usefulness in that. First off, the power rail is mapped out to a jumper, making it dead simple to monitor the voltage stability or patch in a multimeter to get feedback on current consumption. But you can also see in the foreground that a pin socket makes it easy to tap into the board using jumper wires. We think it would be a great breadboard adapter for USB work that would continue being useful after you’ve populated your first PCB for the prototype.
[BadWolf] has other plans in store for it though. He wants to intercept and decipher the communications happening on the data lines. In the video after the break he mentions the possibility of using a Bus Pirate for this (we have our doubts about that) but plans to start his testing with an
STM32 discovery kit
. We can’t wait to see what he comes up with.
| 21
| 21
|
[
{
"comment_id": "359985",
"author": "Kyle",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T16:05:24",
"content": "This is good for USB 1.1 at the very best. Have you heard of impedance mismatch? Signal reflections? You will not be reliably pushing data through this.No offense, but there are a ton of actual USB breakout adapters out there that are much better than this. Kudos to a beginner, but read up on the concepts above to understand why you should not do this.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "359996",
"author": "BadWolf",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T16:19:11",
"content": "@ KyleMy aim is to interpret and discover how USB works,not injection (for now).",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "359997",
"author": "Tom",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T16:19:14",
"content": "Agree with the impedance mismatch problem and also as the USB host is usually a PC, data can be captured with a freeware (software) protocol analyser running on the host.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "360009",
"author": "StacyD",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T16:34:34",
"content": "Easiest way to do this interceptor is to….. use some diodes! The impedance mismatch is almost inevitable, but you do want to isolate your one directional signals for analyzation. Get some small 1n4128/4 or 1n4004 from radioshack for about a $1 and you will have less issues when you go to look at the data. It works better for sipping serial, but should help you get closer to a USB2.0 spec without messing the signals up much as they pass by. BTW – a short mismatch in impedance will not be too bad for the USB 2.0 spec as long as your cables are short; its much more critical for USB 3.0.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "360018",
"author": "BadWolf",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T16:47:33",
"content": "@StacyDThanks for the tip!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "360021",
"author": "Keith",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T16:48:35",
"content": "Radio Shack … Booo",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "360026",
"author": "cooldemo",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T16:53:46",
"content": "This is a joke right ? The USB is differential, no use for the diodes also. There is no point in doing this, the USB is so complex that it is way easier to sniff the software part in the OS of your choice.anyway, if you HAVE to do this, then try putting an op-amp at the D+ D- lines to create 0-1 signaling. The opamp will not push the impedance too much if put directly on the PCB. You can then mess with the signal.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "360028",
"author": "hpux735",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T16:55:57",
"content": "USB isn’t really like serial in that you cant just look at TXD and RXD and infer what’s happening. D+ and D- are differentially signaled, and shared for communication in each direction. Therefore, it requires much more work to know who is saying what on the bus. I’m not saying it’s not possible, but it will take a lot of work. There was a kickstarter project about this a while ago:http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/bushing/openvizsla-open-source-usb-protocol-analyzer?ref=livegood luck",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "360034",
"author": "Paul",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T17:12:53",
"content": "sounds like there is a lot of room for improvement but its a great start! I think BadWolf would appreciate everyone’s ideas on how to improve his design so I for one suggest sending him them with as much detail as possible.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "360070",
"author": "BadWolf",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T17:24:53",
"content": "@PaulThanks a lot!@the othersI do know it’s differential,but as soon as you are able to read both states without interfering,there’s no doubt on who say what since all comms are started by the host except for a few special things. If I succeed in reading the D lines states faster than they go (should work with an AVR-look on the page,a guy did it with an ATtiny) then a simple code do compute the resulting char being sent and then transmit that to another Serial port and there ya go,live feed of 0s and 1s.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "360128",
"author": "Kyle",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T18:28:53",
"content": "Ummmmm…. Send the sniffed data to a serial port? There’s a little difference in speed there. You aren’t going to be sending USB data to a serial port without some extreme data loss.Also, StaceyD, what are you talking about!?!? Diodes? Really?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "360133",
"author": "bty",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T18:31:02",
"content": "@BadWolf aboveAnd at what baudrate are you going to run that UART ?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "360168",
"author": "Paul",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T19:02:00",
"content": "It might be worth mentioning USB protocol analyzers have existed for a very long time.They’re not cheap, and probably the most affordable is the Beagle from Total Phase ($400 for 12 Mbit/sec, $1200 for 480 Mbit/sec). These wonderful hardware devices can sniff everything that happens on the USB, with 20-some ns timestamp accuracy.It’d be awesome if someone made a cheap, open source version. But the commercial ones have existed and worked very well for a very long time.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "360221",
"author": "w0rl4ck",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T19:38:08",
"content": "paul and hpux735 are right you need some power to catch usb 2.0, however usb 1.1 is do able and i think the Open Workbench Logic Sniffer can do usb 1.1 or they were working on it.i am waiting to see openvizsla projectif you need to get in to usb comuncation read “USB Complete” to become a complete ninja also ladyada has some tutshttp://www.ladyada.net/learn/diykinect/I hope I have helped",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "360339",
"author": "Bob Spafford",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T21:39:12",
"content": "http://cgi.ebay.com/USB-EXTENSION-CABLE-6-MALE-FEMALE-6FT-A-A-6-FT-/120573706525?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item1c12c0c11d#ht_2091wt_901Sells an A type USB M/F 6′ (extension cord) from San Diego for $2.87 postage paid. You could remove several inches of sheath and tap into the conductors without cutting them (the ultimate in reliable connection). If you separate them appropriately, it is impossible for them to short, so no insulation needed. Just slit the sheath you removed and tape it back in place, a band between each wire out. I’ve tapped many data (and 1 or 2 power) cables this way without incident. Of course, you can still just cut the cable and wire up your breakout board.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "360481",
"author": "Jochen Goerdts",
"timestamp": "2011-03-17T00:02:51",
"content": "i see your good intentions but it simply doesn’t work this way.cant’t you do this in software?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "360507",
"author": "hekilledmywire",
"timestamp": "2011-03-17T01:02:35",
"content": "Do you really know how USB works?So you want to sniff USB data and then said data over a usb cable to the computer in form of 1’s and 0’s?At least make use of the full 8 data bits per serial packet and send 8bits at a time, and this will only work if you are sniffing a usb1.1 cable with a usb2.0 device capable of using its bandwidth.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "360617",
"author": "StacyD",
"timestamp": "2011-03-17T04:25:11",
"content": "Yes, USB does work much differently than serial. However, I am expecting this guy really to just want to be hooking it up to the Open Logic Sniffer or similar.http://dangerousprototypes.com/2010/02/25/prototype-open-logic-sniffer-logic-analyzer-2/Just saying that the diodes might help him not blow something up by sending off-data back through the line or messing with the signal structure. Cmon guys, willing to bet that he was just curious! Whenever you try something new that you may not know a lot about, always a good idea to use protection!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "360668",
"author": "Terry",
"timestamp": "2011-03-17T06:26:34",
"content": "This prior article was a pretty good one on USB sniffing.http://hackaday.com/2009/03/19/usb-sniffing-in-linux/If you want to check out your voltage drop on the supply lines or measure the current use an arduino.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "360686",
"author": "ian",
"timestamp": "2011-03-17T06:33:51",
"content": "“he mentions the possibility of using a Bus Pirate for this (we have our doubts about that)”I have my doubts too – with a 115200bps serial interface it’s going to be tough to sniff even low-speed USB.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "4502580",
"author": "adlerweb",
"timestamp": "2018-04-24T17:04:34",
"content": "Aaaand it’s gone. Link is dead :(",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
}
] | 1,760,377,246.168718
|
||
https://hackaday.com/2011/03/16/tokyo-hackerspace-helping-disaster-victims/
|
Tokyo Hackerspace Helping Disaster Victims
|
Mike Szczys
|
[
"Hackerspaces",
"LED Hacks"
] |
[
"disaster",
"earthquake",
"japan",
"light",
"solar"
] |
We, like the rest of the world, have watched in horror as footage of the recent earthquake-caused disaster has been reported from northern Japan. It’s easy to watch video and see nothing but distruction, however, life goes on and [Akiba] is looking for a way to help the recovery efforts. He mentions that one of the big needs in the disaster area right now is for light, as the power infrastructure has been heavily damaged. The mason jar seen above is a Kimono Lantern that was meant to accent a garden at night. It has a solar cell – one NiMH rechargeable battery – and one bright LED along with a charging circuit. It was designed in the Tokyo Hackerspace and
they released the build files in hopes that a large number can be donated to those in need
. With a reasonable amount of daylight, the single cell battery can be charged enough to provide 10 hours of light from the little device.
How can our hacks help others? That question has been on our minds for the last few days. Light is a great first step. But we’ve also wondered about information networks to help coordinate rescue and cleanup workers. There are hacks that bring WiFi using
wind power
or
solar power
. What other hacks do you think would be useful to aid in the recovery process?
| 36
| 36
|
[
{
"comment_id": "359918",
"author": "dan fruzzetti",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T15:07:26",
"content": "Fantastic cause. Who’s going to coordinate the shipping over there and will they arrive BEFORE infrastructure starts being restored?I could make at least sixty of these with my buddies over the weekend if I knew they’d get to their destinations in time to be helpful.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "359920",
"author": "Life2Death",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T15:08:27",
"content": "What a BRIGHT idea!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "359921",
"author": "poiso",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T15:08:45",
"content": "This is a great simple idea, I wish I had the resources to be able to contribute :(",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "359929",
"author": "Mark",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T15:15:29",
"content": "@dan fruzzettiYou can take them along to your local red cross center or police station, they should beable to move them along to the correct destination for you sharpish.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "359936",
"author": "Mike Szczys",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T15:17:44",
"content": "@Dan Fruzzetti: Wow, sixty is a huge commitment, good for you!It looks like they’re using donations to buy the electronics and the hackerspace is supplying the jars. So I would think if you can assemble the hardware module and ship it to the hackerspace that would be fantastic.Your best bet is to us [Akiba’s]contact formand see what he says.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "359965",
"author": "Jack",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T15:28:31",
"content": "Replace the led light with a bright enough UV led so that it kills bacteria in the water stored in the jar.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "359970",
"author": "Volectorus",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T15:32:51",
"content": "Very cool device. But I just have to say, Japan probably has a bunch more solar tech then we do and a decent economy, I would focus more on what they really need right now: food, water, and rescue at this point.This would have been perfect for Haiti.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "359979",
"author": "colecoman1982",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T15:51:57",
"content": "@Volectorus: The guys that created this hack are members of the Tokyo hackerspace. I think they may be more qualified than you or I to say what the Japanese people do, or don’t, have available to them at the moment…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "359993",
"author": "Karamoon",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T16:16:35",
"content": "We now have a webpage about what we are doing in the short term. Please donate if you can:http://www.tokyohackerspace.org/en/japan-in-crisis– Karamoon, Tokyo Hackerspace",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "360001",
"author": "emilio",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T16:27:41",
"content": "water.properly purifying polluted water can be a difficult thing, but there are numerous hacker-friendly ways to pre-process water. contraptions made of cloth, sand, buckets, stone, charcoal, etc. can make the actual purification easier, or even clean up slightly polluted water enough for bathing.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "360002",
"author": "CGoDuk",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T16:27:48",
"content": "an amazing idea that shows the determination and innovativeness that the Japanese have, is there a site where people can donate to have these sent out? I imagine they are extremely cost effective to produce too which is good because its a good way of recycling an old jar.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "360003",
"author": "xqtr",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T16:28:57",
"content": "What about foxhole radios (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=skKmwT0EccE) and solar projects like solar water purifier, solar water heater etc?…also DIY Geiger Counters would be helpfull… youtube is full of them…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "360004",
"author": "Kubikiri1of587",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T16:29:01",
"content": "Seal off the LED from the main jar, and fill it with water, you’ll amplify your light emission bu quite a bit. Along the same lines as thouse 2litre water filled plastic bottles people are sticking through their roofs.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "360011",
"author": "dan fruzzetti",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T16:36:54",
"content": "I just ripped all the solar light fixtures out of my front and back yards — who the hell really needs accent lights anyway. It worked out to 32, which was sadly shy of 60; I still expect to be able to talk my nerdy friends into the same thing. I think we could make it happen.I’m noticing the panels on my models are covered in an acrylic that hasn’t held up well to the sunlight. I’m wondering, should I remove it, exposing the solar panel to damage, or should I attempt to buff it with some low-speed, high-grit polishing compound, to get the best effect?Do these need to work forever or just help people feel more in charge of their own lives for now? How is the current weather over there — do they get a lot of sunlight? We could also ship our windup flashlights and flashlight-radios over there, too.Would anyone want to send printed plans for the simplest possible exercise-bike-generators?Now just to change bulbs and call my local red cross; THANKS for the suggestions, hackaday and readers!!!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "360012",
"author": "Volectorus",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T16:37:11",
"content": "@colecoman1982 Its still very obvious what should be priority. It does not matter that they are in Tokyo or not… PRIORITY! Food and water, then the luxuries.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "360017",
"author": "mst",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T16:39:26",
"content": "Has anyone thought about combining this with the Soda Bottle Skylights?http://hackaday.com/2011/03/08/soda-bottle-skylights/",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "360019",
"author": "Mozglubov",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T16:48:02",
"content": "It’s winter right now, so heat generation is a critical requirement. Although I don’t know of any good ‘heater hacks’, anything that can help people keep warm could be of huge help.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "360023",
"author": "Neo",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T16:49:01",
"content": "change the white led for a UV led and you’ll have a small water sanitiser.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "360083",
"author": "wosser",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T17:38:41",
"content": "This is a brilliant idea.However I’d be concerned about quality control of those units supplied by hobbyists – there would need to be a testing frameork in place to ensure that faulty units didn’t get sent out there.Anyway, this is terrific and very generous.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "360096",
"author": "svofski",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T17:50:30",
"content": "@Jack, Neo: UV leds only emit UV-A light and they are not very efficient at that, whereas for killing bacteria you need “germicidal” UV-C only available in mercury vapor lamps.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "360112",
"author": "darksim905",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T18:09:12",
"content": "Must have been a rushed post. Some spelling errors.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "360117",
"author": "Fred",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T18:16:08",
"content": "While well intentioned, this effort will be too little too late and shows utter ignorance of how aid is best distributed in a disaster area. Send money through an organized charity instead.By the time any of these easily broken (shipping glass to Japan, are you kidding me?) make it to the area of need, professional disaster workers will have long filled the need for light at night with far more robust solutions.If you feel you must send a solar rechargeable light, just send the garden light itself, that is already securely packaged for shipment and made of safer materials.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "360120",
"author": "Volectorus",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T18:20:45",
"content": "maybe frost the jar a bit, that or the water idea.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "360139",
"author": "Drew",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T18:37:06",
"content": "This is such a stupid idea. Why would you send them these when a shake flashlight would be cheaper and more useful?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "360199",
"author": "Roger",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T19:26:23",
"content": "Camping stuff? in freezing winter! No they should all flee to Tokyo! I think you should work at evacuation centers which need electricity & satalite dishesA scrap van/boat engine needs to be hacked together with a mains electric motor to improvise a generator.Work out how to hack into lamp posts either to make them work or to extract electric (with permission)If folks send U money, you could buy kit satalite dishes from an electrical store. either for TV or internet conectivity with WiFi hotspots.Wood burners can be improvised with a metal veg oil container cut open. A length of flexy flue or metal drain pipe as a chimley. Theres plenty of fire wood but they might need a wood saw.car or mobile phone GPS could be really useful for finding precise locations when walking over huge piles of rubble.kit out a vehicle with tech and get out there.Make a mobile shower for decontamination?info on radiationhttp://www.geigercrowd.net/Some of the foreign rescue crews might need tech support in Tokyo, or some work space.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "360249",
"author": "KD8EDR",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T20:01:53",
"content": "Ham radio is set up for exactly the purpose of disaster communications. Its sad, amateur radio is a dieing art, but when something like this happens and nobody’s cell phones work anymore, HAM’s can still comunicate.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "360264",
"author": "nap",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T20:16:05",
"content": "Somebody make a homemade dosimeter, they’re going to need them.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "360390",
"author": "Kris Lee",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T22:39:59",
"content": "There were 600 000 men mobilized to clean up the mess in Chernobyl.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "360473",
"author": "Daedalus",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T23:50:59",
"content": "geiger counters atached to ham radios and or wifi solar powered will be a good option we need to track were the nuclear pollution is going.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "360516",
"author": "DMF",
"timestamp": "2011-03-17T01:14:25",
"content": "@Roger: The big problem with tapping into lamp post here is that 90% of all power here in Japan is supplied by overhead power cables. In my town lamp post are connect only by overhead cables which would have been destroyed in the disaster.Batteries only have a finite life and generators need fuel, so having solar lighting is a great idea. It will keep the generators powering rescue equipment longer.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "360535",
"author": "Akiba",
"timestamp": "2011-03-17T01:43:28",
"content": "Hi all. Sorry, I’ve been so busy with everything that didn’t even see that this made it on Hackaday. We’re mobilizing a lot of efforts right now.Reuseum (www.reuseum.com) sold us two nuclear facility grade geiger counters from his stock. We also bought 10 geiger tubes from eBay. We’ll be setting up a radiation monitoring network around Tokyo soon.We’ve also stockpiled 6 Wi-Fi routers and I have some high power antennas that we’ll be using. We’ll be running tests this weekend to see the longest link we can make. Another member will be setting up an Asterisk server and VoIP connection and we’ll be testing to see how it works. If we get it going, we’ll be buying up all the used routers we can find in Akihabara and training relief workers on how to deploy them. We’re probably going to start going up there next month as well when civilians are allowed back in.The lanterns will be needed for a while. Power won’t be restored in the area for at least a few months, and will probably be very limited at best. Utility resources are spread very thing right now. We currently have parts for 50 complete sets coming in about a week and a half. We have another 100 coming in about 2.5 weeks. We’re targeting getting supplies out in about 3-4 weeks. That will be when search and rescue start leaving and the news vans go away. At that time, the people up there will really need a lot of help. It’s very similar to Katrina and we have a few members in the space that worked on Katrina relief as well.Thanks for posting this on HackADay and hopefully this and other designs that we’ll be making will be helpful in the next crisis that occurs in the world.Stay safe everyone!AkibaFreakLabs",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "360552",
"author": "MRE",
"timestamp": "2011-03-17T02:18:17",
"content": "As a fellow member of ths, Id like to add that we dont intend to send glass up there. Also, keep in mind that many undamaged rural areas with high concentrations of elderly staying in their homes are without power. Japan will be under rolling blackouts for may months to come.And finally, the most immediate threats are food, water, clothing, blankets, and temporary shelters. Also, we dont often think of children’s needs in long term shelter life. We tend to treat everyone as an adult. Small simple toys, diapers, and feeding bottles will be needed.Donate all of the above to reputable charities asap.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "360621",
"author": "Fuz Vulf",
"timestamp": "2011-03-17T04:29:06",
"content": "What never ceases to amaze me is the keyboard hecklers. Some good hearted individuals make an honest effort to help, whether a perfect solution or not and instead of saying things like “You need to use plastic jars instead of glass ones.” The utter social ineptitude of persons with nothing nice to say and not even a base skill level in positive criticism spews forth.The light jars are not a bad Idea. If they were plastic it would improve it a lot. Then before that jar is shipped take up local donations and fill that bottle with things like a water filter straw, some camping toilet paper, female sanitary supplies, travel size antiseptic(make sure to squeeze all the air out) and a couple of energy bars. Walgreens occasionally has plastic drinking bottles already filled with much of this for less than 3 US $ each. We pass them out to homeless people and they generally love them.Oh, BTW,most of the “shaker” flashlights are BS. Take one apart some time the coil usually isn’t even connected past the edge of the circuit board and most of the time the metal slug in them has less magnetism than a 90 year old bar fly. We put the little dynamo flashlights in the bottles we give out to the homeless. They actually work.If anyone had reasonable amounts of cash adding a few Potassium Iodide tablets to each bottle also wouldn’t be a bad idea.Further proof that hackers have heart…Keep up the good work.Don’t listen to individuals who know how to type but not how to think.Fuzzy",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "361318",
"author": "Whatnot",
"timestamp": "2011-03-17T20:42:17",
"content": "Every damn garden store and dollar store has the solar cell gardenlights, wtf do they mean they ‘released’ build files? And japan is near china so they can get them even cheaper than the US/EU and can ship boatloads.And trust me those gardenlights are the cheapest way, in fact to get the parts to build that jar you’d probably have to gut a gardenlight right?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "361821",
"author": "space",
"timestamp": "2011-03-18T12:42:07",
"content": "@Akiba you could probably DIY build one of these feeds for parabola and offset dish antennas:2.4GHz:http://www.qsl.net/yu1aw/fid24ghz.pdf5.8GHz:http://www.qsl.net/yu1aw/3d_corn_refl_feed.pdfBoth of these designs are proven to work good for long range Wi-Fi links.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "368235",
"author": "reS",
"timestamp": "2011-03-26T21:01:49",
"content": "Perhaps some aluminum foil would help. If jar sits on table, it would help redirect the light outward. Perhaps some taped at a 45 degree angle above jar bottom. Even just wrapped 1/3 the way around the jar on the outside, shiney side inward, and taped or held in place with a rubberband if on outside. {wanted to say ‘rubberbanded in place’ but it just sounds wonky :) } Many candleholders were made more “efficient” with simple reflectors- kept light where you wanted it and out of your eyes to preserve vision in dim light.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
}
] | 1,760,377,246.051476
|
||
https://hackaday.com/2011/03/16/dspic-based-spectrum-analyzer/
|
DsPIC-based Spectrum Analyzer
|
Mike Nathan
|
[
"Microcontrollers",
"Tool Hacks"
] |
[
"dsPic",
"frequency analyzer"
] |
[Debraj] wrote to us describing a project he recently completed – a simple, compact
spectrum analyzer using a 16-bit dsPIC microcontroller
.
The analyzer is fed an analog signal, which is passed through a large resistor followed by an opamp. A DC offset is then applied to the signal, after which it is passed through a software-programmable gain amplifier before being fed into the dsPIC’s analog input. A Fast Fourier Transform calculation is done using code provided by the PIC’s manufacturer once 128 samples have been collected. The results are then displayed on the attached LCD in real-time.
If you get a chance, take a look at the video embedded below for a walkthrough and demonstration of his analyzer. [Debraj] says that the analyzer was built to measure harmonics in his home power lines, but for demonstration purposes, he has used a simple function generator instead.
If you’re interested in seeing some other spectrum analyzers, be sure to check out
these items
we featured
in the past
.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5PXJZYuQ6eE&w=470]
| 6
| 6
|
[
{
"comment_id": "360022",
"author": "joe hosman",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T16:48:51",
"content": "very cool!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "360508",
"author": "hekilledmywire",
"timestamp": "2011-03-17T01:03:40",
"content": "I need to finish my avr based spectrum analyzer eheh.Nice work",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "361529",
"author": "ANDY-MAN",
"timestamp": "2011-03-18T02:25:38",
"content": "You sound like an ENGG2800 student?What im interested in is the hardware? Can anyone explain the power supply setup? is it getting a DC in and splitting it with a virtual ground?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "419447",
"author": "Muhammad Shahbaz Khan",
"timestamp": "2011-07-19T05:34:32",
"content": "I need to implement FFt in ATmega32.can anyone help ?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1287649",
"author": "prapti",
"timestamp": "2014-03-21T12:07:14",
"content": "Nice work,n nice presentation in all respect.speed,sound quality, and to the point .I am trying to implement FFT for power line with freescale controller. IF you have any idea,suggestions it will be great help for me.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "3459680",
"author": "ashima",
"timestamp": "2017-03-18T05:06:49",
"content": "It’s a very good work , it really helped me for my project since it is a part of it . So if you don’t mind could you please send me the code used for it.Thank You",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
}
] | 1,760,377,246.437778
|
||
https://hackaday.com/2011/03/15/automatic-ball-launcher-is-for-the-dogs/
|
Automatic Ball Launcher Is For The Dogs
|
Mike Nathan
|
[
"home hacks",
"Toy Hacks"
] |
[
"automatic",
"dog",
"launcher",
"toy"
] |
A while back, [Dino] built an automatic ball launcher for his dogs, but he wanted to revise it to make it smaller and a bit more user-friendly. While watching an episode of “Prototype This”, he came across a great idea to improve his launcher,
so off to the workshop he went
.
He repurposed a power window motor from a car, and mounted it to some wood-reinforced aluminum sheeting in his garage. He added a piece of aluminum tubing to serve as a spring-loaded launch arm, which is drawn back by a small lever attached to the window motor.
When a ball is dropped onto a switch at the bottom of the launcher, the window motor starts turning, which pulls the launch arm back into place. Once the arm reaches the tipping point, the spring snaps it forward, launching the ball across the yard. The lever attached to the window motor eventually makes its way back under the launch arm, and is stopped by a switch that is also attached to the motor.
After the prototype was finished, he added some more wood to protect the mechanism from his dogs and vice versa. A hopper was added to the top of the structure to allow the dogs to load the launcher themselves, after a bit of training.
Now, some of you might wonder what is wrong with [Dino’s] arm. Truth be told, it works just fine. If you are a frequent Hack-a-Day visitor, you know that he spends plenty of time in the workshop, so this is an easy way to let the dogs entertain themselves until their owner is ready to play.
Check out the video embedded below for a demonstration of the launcher, as well as a detailed walkthrough of how the mechanism works.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IgyK0C_oHPI&w=470]
| 24
| 24
|
[
{
"comment_id": "358923",
"author": "Erik J",
"timestamp": "2011-03-15T12:28:15",
"content": "I love springs, there are too few of them in hacks..The 2nd part of the video was amusing and full of suspense.. :-)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "358925",
"author": "BoKu",
"timestamp": "2011-03-15T12:31:38",
"content": "Ah the things that could be launched with that :-D",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "358927",
"author": "Delirium",
"timestamp": "2011-03-15T12:34:53",
"content": "Nice project, simple robust design.I think the ‘hopper’ is too high for the dogs too drop the ball easily.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "358929",
"author": "mattc",
"timestamp": "2011-03-15T12:35:11",
"content": "I think the chute just needs to be shorter so it isn’t as hard for the dog to get the ball over it, otherwise an amazingly simple project",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "358938",
"author": "mesoiam",
"timestamp": "2011-03-15T12:58:00",
"content": "Cool idea, just to save everyone the dissapointment:SPOILERthe dog doesn’t figure it out in the end/SPOILER",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "358940",
"author": "Drake",
"timestamp": "2011-03-15T13:10:35",
"content": "I think a chain with a freewheel clutch would allow for harder kicks so you are not fighting a worm gear …",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "358959",
"author": "cj",
"timestamp": "2011-03-15T13:23:20",
"content": "I’m sure we have all seen the other ball launcher on youtube from years ago. According to the writeup, the dachshund that it was built for used it a grand total of 2 or 3 times when no humans were around. Unlike this dog, he had the ball-loading precedure *down*. In fact, when it failed to launch, the dog even picked the ball up and reloaded it.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4PcL6-mjRNk",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "358963",
"author": "st2000",
"timestamp": "2011-03-15T13:39:41",
"content": "“…is read to play.”?More coffee please :)!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "358992",
"author": "zing",
"timestamp": "2011-03-15T14:37:37",
"content": "The dog did figure it out, just couldn’t get its mouth open wide enough to let go while having its head over that rim. If the rim was a bit lower, it might got it.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "358999",
"author": "Necromant",
"timestamp": "2011-03-15T14:57:20",
"content": "If only the dog figured that out… I guess the dog would then enter an endless loop…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "359028",
"author": "Drake",
"timestamp": "2011-03-15T15:42:39",
"content": "Also to fix the height issue couldn’t he have the kicker rotate about a vertical axis rather then a horizontal one?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "359035",
"author": "Drake",
"timestamp": "2011-03-15T15:46:56",
"content": "@NecromantI had a lab that used to take a ball to the top of the steps and put it by the edge. Then she would lay down and slowly nudge the ball tell it started to fall. When it hit the second step she would chase after it and repeat.She eventually fell asleep at the top of the steps with the ball touching her nose!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "359091",
"author": "Dino",
"timestamp": "2011-03-15T16:37:04",
"content": "I’ve lowered the height of the hopper and she got the ball in there a few times last evening. She’s smart… she’ll eventually figure it out. :) I’ll post another video when she does.@ Drake, that is a GREAT idea! AND, when the arm gets past center, it whips around freely. It’s not directly coupled to the worm gear.@ Boku, now you’ve got my wheels turning. Old cell phones, Barbie dolls, Apple products… lol",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "359154",
"author": "Keith",
"timestamp": "2011-03-15T18:07:47",
"content": "Very cool!Use a three-sided hopper on the side after adding a hole to the plywood. Ball will end up in the same place and without the bounce.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "359181",
"author": "JamieWho",
"timestamp": "2011-03-15T18:44:01",
"content": "@Drake, the worm gear only moves one piece of it, the arm is free to kick the ball when it passes the halfway points. watch the video and notice the limit switch which resets the launcher portion. The kicking force is determined by the spring, not the motor.I love this. Agree about the chute/funnel height being to tall. He could get rid of the bouncing problem by making it a side loader instead of a top loader. That way, you only need 3-6 inches of fall from the drop to the switch for it to get there. That would also get the dog to the side instead of the front where the ball exits.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "359276",
"author": "Drake",
"timestamp": "2011-03-15T20:20:03",
"content": "@JamieWhoDidn’t catch the pivot the first time I watched the vid!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "359301",
"author": "Steve",
"timestamp": "2011-03-15T20:53:32",
"content": "What happens when the dog learns to drop the cat in the hopper?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "359338",
"author": "Dino",
"timestamp": "2011-03-15T21:53:40",
"content": "@ Kieth & JamieWho … another good idea. I think I’ll try that and yes it would keep her to the side upon loading.This is the kind of feedback that I love when I post a project! I almost always make a few mods based on community input so thanks for your comments! :)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "360908",
"author": "Tim",
"timestamp": "2011-03-17T12:09:50",
"content": "A bit late to the party here, but back in high school our FIRST robotics team built a 8″ ball launcher based off the same throwing concept. We used a one way roller bearing as we were continuously firing to catch the arm in the maximum position it slung to after release of the ball.http://marsbot.org/files/shooting.wmvAnyways, really like what you’ve made here, very clean and clever and gave me a bit of a throwback :). Thanks for sharing!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "361323",
"author": "bitflusher",
"timestamp": "2011-03-17T20:45:57",
"content": "First time EVER my grilfriend new a project before I did!she is a dog person i am the geek, this was featured on a dutch dog forum before.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "397065",
"author": "Bill",
"timestamp": "2011-05-23T04:26:38",
"content": "Wondering if you could elaborate on the spring type and positioning. My son built a launcher using your design. All worked perfectly (he substituted a large plastic funnel for the hopper and inserted rails on the ramp to cause the ball to better trigger the launcher switch). He could not, however, get much kick out of the arm. The spring he used would either bind the window motor if stretched too tight or simply roll the ball out of the launcher if relaxed. How did you achieve your results.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "404270",
"author": "Keoni Sitar",
"timestamp": "2011-06-11T03:51:52",
"content": "Can you make a video that is a step by step build for this???",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "506482",
"author": "igor",
"timestamp": "2011-11-12T08:17:03",
"content": "easiest workaround for the hopper being to high… mount it on the side. bonus of having it on the side the dog is never in the way of the launched ball. wanna built one of these for my friends overactive dachhund.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1590079",
"author": "Bonnie",
"timestamp": "2014-06-22T19:10:37",
"content": "I would favor the hopper being at the dog’s nose level or lower (your dog really can’t simply drop it; she needs to hoist it over, which is unnatural for a dog), and off to the side with a right-angled ramp in to get the dog and eyes out of the way of the outbound ball trajectory. Ramp off to the side also could give more stability to the base.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
}
] | 1,760,377,246.228423
|
||
https://hackaday.com/2011/03/15/wireless-weather-station-obsessively-reports-the-temperature/
|
Wireless Weather Station Obsessively Reports The Temperature
|
Mike Nathan
|
[
"home hacks",
"Wireless Hacks"
] |
[
"weather station",
"wireless"
] |
[nuumio] has been hard at work
building a Tweeting weather station
, which he recently got up and running. The weather station is built from three major components, a Linux PC for data storage and Tweeting, a main weather sensor unit, and a remote unit.
The remote unit sits outside and includes includes both a pressure and humidity/temperature sensor. The sensors are polled every 20 seconds, reporting the data back to the main unit via a 434 MHz RF transceiver. The remote sensor also records the ambient light level and the remaining battery voltage, sending that data to the main unit for good measure.
The main unit sits inside his house and records the same temperature and humidity data as the external unit. The main unit adds its data to the packets sent by the remote unit and transmits them to the PC via USB. The PC calculates the minimum and maximum temperatures for the last 12-hour and 24 -hour periods before sending that data back to the main unit to be displayed on its LCD panel. Every 10 minutes, the computer also posts the weather data on Twitter.
If you are looking to build your own weather station, [nuumio] has provided all of the source code for his project on his web page. However, he does admit that he was too lazy to draw up a schematic, so you are on your own in that department.
| 11
| 11
|
[
{
"comment_id": "358928",
"author": "Olivier",
"timestamp": "2011-03-15T12:35:04",
"content": "Why does he have a pressure sensor inside and outside?AFAIK, only one is needed.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "358933",
"author": "Olivier",
"timestamp": "2011-03-15T12:42:44",
"content": "Well, after reading the project page, he really has only the pressure sensor outside.Hackaday, please correct your “The main unit sits inside his house and records the same pressure, temperature, and humidity data as the external unit”.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "358968",
"author": "mess_maker",
"timestamp": "2011-03-15T13:59:47",
"content": "I think they mean that it is recording the data sent to it from outside…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "358988",
"author": "James",
"timestamp": "2011-03-15T14:32:51",
"content": "26% RH?! Christ, must be like living in a desert!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "359000",
"author": "juice",
"timestamp": "2011-03-15T14:58:29",
"content": "James: 20-40% RH is quite typical for a Finnish block of flats in winter (50-60% RH in summer). You’ll get used to it pretty fast, although the mucosae will easily become irritated and dry.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "359060",
"author": "Kris Lee",
"timestamp": "2011-03-15T16:05:09",
"content": "@JamesYes, it is a bit low but this is what you get when it is cold outside and you want to have 22 C inside (it is just physics). European homes (usually) do not have any humidity control and people just get used to it.Still some people do add some moisture into the rooms by putting wet towels over the radiators.Though adding additional humidity does create another problems because when walls are not properly insulated then the humidity in the air will condense into the walls and will create mold (specially in the corners).",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "359062",
"author": "matt",
"timestamp": "2011-03-15T16:08:11",
"content": "sell this to the MET office in the UK, get them to give them to people around the UK so met has loads more data, especially nice with twitter as you could hashtag postcode areas and anyone could look up really fresh weather data on twitter.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "359203",
"author": "zet",
"timestamp": "2011-03-15T19:07:40",
"content": "he should post his data on Pachube instead of twitter , thus it could be easily shared.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "359307",
"author": "tomski",
"timestamp": "2011-03-15T20:59:16",
"content": "agreed – why not send the data to pachube? i really don’t get the point of sending data to twitter, which makes it really hard for anyone to make sense of it… you have to read tweets rather than graphs? can’t get the data in different formats? there are already weather stations on pachube, join the crowd!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "360702",
"author": "error404",
"timestamp": "2011-03-17T07:12:19",
"content": "Postgres >>> MySQL. Good choice. Your friend doesn’t know what he’s talking about :PNice build. I’ve been considering something similar myself. But, well, how many times have we all said that…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "383774",
"author": "cns949",
"timestamp": "2011-04-21T07:05:14",
"content": "Nice idea. Has its uses.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
}
] | 1,760,377,246.273779
|
||
https://hackaday.com/2011/03/14/pi-phone-lulls-you-to-sleep-with-the-digits-of-pi/
|
Pi Phone Lulls You To Sleep With The Digits Of Pi
|
Mike Nathan
|
[
"News",
"Phone Hacks"
] |
[
"asterisk",
"pbx",
"Pi",
"SIP"
] |
As you well know, today is March 14th – aka “Pi Day”.
Celebrated in math classrooms around the country, this truly is a celebration that belongs to the geeks. Here at Hack-a-Day, we too love Pi day, though we might not outwardly celebrate it with as much gusto as expressed by some of our readers.
[Chris Poole] is one Hack-a-Day fan who
knows how to make the most of this mathematical holiday
. He has put together a neat SIP-based phone service that reads Pi aloud to anyone who calls. He is running Asterisk in combination with Perl to read off the numbers, and is using a free SIP DID number to accept the calls. We gave it a shot earlier today, and were greeted by a gentle synthesized voice reading off the numbers of Pi. We’re not sure how many digits it is programmed to handle, as we stopped after about 20, so give him a call and let us know how many digits you make it through.
As a parting note, no Pi Day would be complete without a few obligatory Pi-related (albeit old) web comics and pastry concoctions, so here you go!
XKCD – Pi Equals…
XKCD – e to the Pi Times i
XKCD – E to the Pi Minus Pi
Spherical Pi Pie
| 21
| 21
|
[
{
"comment_id": "358378",
"author": "yapel",
"timestamp": "2011-03-14T22:08:29",
"content": "tagged: asterisk, pbx, Pi, SIP – WHAT?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "358389",
"author": "l0l",
"timestamp": "2011-03-14T22:17:30",
"content": "14.3.2011, just a day like every else.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eaMWEz-jaHE",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "358397",
"author": "Christopher Poole",
"timestamp": "2011-03-14T22:32:22",
"content": "I think I have about 500 million digits loaded, but I think IPKall cuts off calls after 2 hours. (At least based on the 2 calls coming in for almost exactly 2 hours)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "358398",
"author": "Bryan Price",
"timestamp": "2011-03-14T22:32:50",
"content": "I listened to it for about 16 minutes (Google voice FTW…)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "358400",
"author": "M4CGYV3R",
"timestamp": "2011-03-14T22:39:42",
"content": "すごく長い動画。。。まったく",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "358401",
"author": "tehgringe",
"timestamp": "2011-03-14T22:40:43",
"content": "I think I can see a pattern…just another 35 minutes to go…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "358403",
"author": "M4CGYV3R",
"timestamp": "2011-03-14T22:42:57",
"content": "Also…三。一四一五九二六五。。。",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "358441",
"author": "Lenny",
"timestamp": "2011-03-14T23:40:25",
"content": "Free SIP DID number… Color me uninformed, but where do I get one of those??",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "358442",
"author": "Lenny",
"timestamp": "2011-03-14T23:41:34",
"content": "nvm.. before anyone says it I’ll say it to myself: RTFA",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "358452",
"author": "ReKlipz",
"timestamp": "2011-03-15T00:10:06",
"content": "http://www.halftauday.com/",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "358455",
"author": "notmyfault2000",
"timestamp": "2011-03-15T00:21:38",
"content": "There was an ad in the local paper about a restaurant (a steak house, IIRC) giving away free key lime pie today in celebration. I was surprised that anybody other than mathematicians and geeks celebrated. Alas, I did not go and get any.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "358477",
"author": "Adam Outler",
"timestamp": "2011-03-15T00:56:43",
"content": "Thank you for the video. I am at 2000 and have a good grasp of how to count in Japanese. Is that Japanese or Chinese?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "358613",
"author": "Renee",
"timestamp": "2011-03-15T03:37:07",
"content": "All the cool people use tau!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "358628",
"author": "Trollicus",
"timestamp": "2011-03-15T03:51:20",
"content": "Hmm… so where is the vicious Tau Vs Pi debate?I expected the Mathematicians version of the Israeli Palestinian conflict to erupt.http://tauday.com/ding ding dingIn this corner weighing ~ 3.141592653589793238462643383279502884197169399375105820974944592307816406286208998628034825342117067982148086513282306647093844609550582231725359408128481117450284102701938521105559644622948954930381964428810975665933446128475648233786783165271201909145648566923460348610454326648213393607260249141273724587006606315588174881520920962829254091715364367892590360011330530548820466521384146951941511609 etc etc is the reigning champ PiThe challenger weighing twice as much: TauLet’s get ready to number!Come out and shake and remember to stay in the bounded set of geometric points. and no hitting below the posulate.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "358668",
"author": "Alex",
"timestamp": "2011-03-15T05:06:31",
"content": "@l0l:Good god. Over an hour of that? I would go insane 15 minutes in.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "358673",
"author": "RP",
"timestamp": "2011-03-15T05:15:45",
"content": "Interestingly, if you call back it asks if you’d like to resume or start over.Maybe it’s using caller ID to recognize and remember callers?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "358748",
"author": "Gues7",
"timestamp": "2011-03-15T08:14:04",
"content": "It was also Steak and Blowjob day… my personal favorite holiday :)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "358993",
"author": "Blastar",
"timestamp": "2011-03-15T14:43:48",
"content": "Hatsune Miku !!!!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "359694",
"author": "Isa",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T07:43:16",
"content": "Let it run for a good 10 minutes..",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "502041",
"author": "Thor",
"timestamp": "2011-11-07T11:14:17",
"content": "In my world Pi is calculated with this formula: Pi=4/sqrt(Phi) where Phi is the golden ration, therefore4/sqrt(1.61803399..)=3.1446055098149202857483080831971635640926971699773107943065…the result “new Pi” will change the last digits every time you add more digits to the phi in the formula.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "602621",
"author": "Christopher Poole",
"timestamp": "2012-03-14T02:20:51",
"content": "The Pi Phone has a different number this year. (253)785-0990",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
}
] | 1,760,377,246.394544
|
||
https://hackaday.com/2011/03/14/battery-capacity-tester-lifts-the-veil-on-manufacturer-capacity-claims/
|
Battery Capacity Tester Lifts The Veil On Manufacturer Capacity Claims
|
Mike Nathan
|
[
"Tool Hacks"
] |
[
"battery capacity",
"discharge",
"Teensy"
] |
[Nick] was tasked with building a
battery capacity tester
by one of his teachers in order to test some aftermarket batteries that were purchased for their Vex robotics lab. The batteries were cheaper than the official version, but boasted more than twice the capacity. Fairly skeptical of the rating, he got to work designing his circuit.
He originally planned on discharging the battery through a resistor and measuring the voltage with a PIC microcontroller. After prototyping the circuit, he found that the PIC did not have enough storage space for the data he was collecting, and that there were issues with fluctuating current as the voltage decreased.
Undeterred, he built a new tester using a Teensy microcontroller and a different discharging circuit using a LM317T. This second version not only included an LCD screen to track the discharging process in real-time, but it also dumps all of the data and calculations to a spreadsheet on the computer connected to the Teensy.
The capacity tester works pretty well, according to [Nick]. He says that most batteries overestimate their capacity, and that his meter is getting readings within an acceptable variance when testing known good batteries. What about those knock-off batteries from China? He discovered that they can hold about half the charge that they claim – it’s a good thing he decided to test them out!
While he provides the software he used for the tester, there are no schematics to be found. Check out
some
of the
other
battery capacity testers we have featured in the past for tips on building one yourself.
| 24
| 23
|
[
{
"comment_id": "358306",
"author": "bogdan",
"timestamp": "2011-03-14T21:11:13",
"content": "The project is great, just shows what you are buying for less money is not always as advertised.Still, I found some flaws: the LM317 does not work well as a constant voltage source of 2.5V from a single lithium cell and that may be seen from the graph that shows the current variation. Since it is not a true constant current load there is no point for the LM317.The simplest approach would have been to use a resistor as a load in series with a resistor for measuring the current. The current measuring resistor should have a better precision, like 1%. That way the current could be calculated better.If things would have been pushed further, there could be a simple way to make the circuit as a constant current load, using a comparator and a transistor and sense resistor. The current could be set from a reference voltage which could be a filtered PWM. But then…that might complicate things too much.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "358308",
"author": "Nick Hartman",
"timestamp": "2011-03-14T21:12:17",
"content": "The circuit is really simple. It’s just a 317T regulating the voltage down. The output is then run through a power resistor. This allows the drain current to remain relatively stable. Then, I used two A/D converters to measure current and voltage.The voltage reading is dropped down using a simple 1:3 divider.The other wiring is just for the LCD, which isn’t really necessary, but there are tons of resources available if you want to add one to a project. I made a mess out of the wiring, but it works.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "358314",
"author": "therian",
"timestamp": "2011-03-14T21:17:32",
"content": "“After prototyping the circuit, he found that the PIC did not have enough storage space for the data he was collecting, and that there were issues with fluctuating current as the voltage decreased.Undeterred, he built a new tester using a Teensy microcontroller a”is it a joke,? do you realize it equal to saying “PC didn’t have enough storage so he use Alienware”",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "358327",
"author": "Nick Hartman",
"timestamp": "2011-03-14T21:31:08",
"content": "therian – Actually, a Teensy is an Atmel microcontroller. There’s a difference. The PIC that I was originally using was a 12F675 which really doesn’t have much data storage ability. The Teensy worked much better because I could use its built in USB functionality to enter data directly into a computer, eliminating any need for internal storage and allowing me to collect as much data as I wanted.bogdan – Thanks for the ideas. I originally wanted to make this project more accurate, but I ended up running into some issues. I was going to PWM a MOSFET to get a constant current, but I couldn’t get some things working. I needed to get the project finished pretty quickly, so I just simplified it. The 317T is just to keep the current a bit more stable over most of the voltage range, and it does work pretty well until the battery gets too low to sustain it. Hopefully I’ll be able to improve the circuit a bit more and make it more accurate, but I think this project turned out pretty well for the minimal cost (I only used stuff I had lying around).",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "358343",
"author": "bogdan",
"timestamp": "2011-03-14T21:36:03",
"content": "@Nick Hartman, indeed the circuit is really simple, but a regulator like LM317 requires minimum about 3V difference between output and input to operate properly. That is, for 2.5V output you need 5.5V input minimum, which is higher than a lithium cell.This is why your 2.5V output doesn’t stay at 2.5V the whole time, so this is not better than using another resistor in place of the LM317. If you look at your graphs you can see that the current varies just like the battery voltage. If you had a true constant current load, then the current would vary much less when the voltage on the battery.Do note that I am trying to give some constructive criticism here, your project is very good and simple.@therian you do realize that it is about a PIC and not a PC ???",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "358352",
"author": "Nick Hartman",
"timestamp": "2011-03-14T21:46:54",
"content": "@bogdan, I’m not using single cells. I’m using lithium battery packs that are 9.6V and 7.2V. They’ll maintain the voltage needed during most of the discharge. Thanks a lot for the comments. The reason that I wanted this posted was so that I could be corrected. I’m still pretty new to this stuff, so I knew someone would point out something that needs to be fixed.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "358361",
"author": "ac",
"timestamp": "2011-03-14T21:55:12",
"content": "I think therian means that he could have streamed to the PC with the PIC, demonstrating that the issue is not about the best internal storage but the best serial comms available.indeed the lm317 has a minimum Voltage it needs to work with.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "358383",
"author": "M4CGYV3R",
"timestamp": "2011-03-14T22:09:56",
"content": "It’s odd to say the PIC didn’t have enough storage because PIC chips can be obtained with huge amounts of storage and external memory can be added.You could also increase the interval between measurements/storage to reduce the amount of data needing storage.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "358410",
"author": "addidis",
"timestamp": "2011-03-14T22:57:04",
"content": "I also found that line about the pic failing misworded. He picked the wrong chip. Thats what therian is saying. If your harddrive runs out of space you dont buy a new computer, well unless your incapable of figuring out what kind of drive you need to get .On another note, some of the china cells require a cycle threw a conditioning charger before they will meet their specs (maybe). These chargers (when i was racing electric RC cars) were 600 – 1000$ or more. Usually the cells that require this note it and are sold as unmatched cells. These chargers also match the cells. You would probably know it if you bought these type of bulk unmatched cells.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "358412",
"author": "Weaver",
"timestamp": "2011-03-14T23:03:12",
"content": "Capacity will vary with discharge current so it is normal to quote capacity based on a discharge rate that is part of the specification of the battery. Also the terminal voltage per cell for will also be specified for the battery type. For lead acid batteries a 10 hour rating and 1.75v terminal potential is a typical standard but you will also find batteries for sale with a higher capacity as the base on a 20 hour rating. For a fair test you should really use an hour rating and a predetermined terminal voltage.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "358439",
"author": "Whatnot",
"timestamp": "2011-03-14T23:37:22",
"content": "Hmm, china bashing in the write-up? He said:“The Chinese battery, rated at over 6000mAh came out to be a little over 3000mAh,which was better than the official Vex batteriesand cheaper, so that is what we are going to be using in the future”So half what is claimed but still better.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "358447",
"author": "Nick Hartman",
"timestamp": "2011-03-14T23:51:45",
"content": "The main reason for not using the PICs wasn’t because of storage. I could have fit all the data onto it and I did have larger ones available, but I thought it would be easier to have a system where I wouldn’t have to retrieve the data from the uC after every test. I had a Teensy too, so I decided to put its USB keyboard function to use. I know it’s way overpowered and I could have used the PIC, but it was just so much easier and more convenient to use the Teensy. Also, I only used stuff that I had lying around. I didn’t want to purchase anything new for this project.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "358476",
"author": "pod",
"timestamp": "2011-03-15T00:56:16",
"content": "nick, are you sure about you lithium battery pack voltage?they usually come in multiples of 3.7V",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "358482",
"author": "Nick Hartman",
"timestamp": "2011-03-15T01:04:40",
"content": "Actually, they aren’t lithiums, they’re NiMH and NiCd. Sorry about that, the quick demonstration run was a lithium. The actual tests were done on the nickel batteries.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "358502",
"author": "rit",
"timestamp": "2011-03-15T01:38:48",
"content": "have you considered making the discharge rate something you can change? rate of discharge has a large influence on how many watt hours you can obtain from a given battery, with lower amperage loads giving higher overall capacity and high amperage loads giving lower overall capacity.if you look at datasheets for commercial primary (non rechargable) cells like AA batteries, they rate the total capacity as a function of the rate of discharge, for example 0.2C where C is the ampere hour capacity of the cell; a 2Ah cell discharged at .2C would be 400mAh discharge rate. if you know what type and size of cells are in the third party packs, you can determine the correct discharge rate for analysis; this will give results that can be more directly compared to the original cells.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "358509",
"author": "Nick Hartman",
"timestamp": "2011-03-15T01:46:34",
"content": "@rit – I have actually considered the idea. I was thinking of using a potentiometer to adjust the output voltage of the 317T which would allow me to adjust the current easily. I haven’t actually looked for datasheets for any of the cells though. That does sound like a good idea.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "358733",
"author": "rasto",
"timestamp": "2011-03-15T07:16:58",
"content": "Visit eevblog.com site wand look qat video about batteries. There is a lot of usefull information. Also video about current laod could be of some use to you.",
"parent_id": "358509",
"depth": 2,
"replies": []
}
]
},
{
"comment_id": "358531",
"author": "eric",
"timestamp": "2011-03-15T01:58:59",
"content": "This is a cool project – It would be great if you ran some tests on common battery types/sizes so people could reference them. This would be especially helpful if you changed the circuit (as someone mentioned) so that the output current is adjustable.I have worked with Alkaline batteries quite a bit for projects at work and I’ve done something like this manually. From my experience, battery datasheets are often lacking in details.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "358547",
"author": "ejacob",
"timestamp": "2011-03-15T02:12:14",
"content": "Hi Nick, have you seen these videos by Dave Jones.http://youtu.be/R8hTQXqURB4http://youtu.be/uT4hKd66UY4He works through some of the details here.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "358638",
"author": "phnx",
"timestamp": "2011-03-15T04:02:58",
"content": "other than failing at advertised quality, how do they compare as their real-world specs?HaD post says “twice the capacity for a lower price” but were actually “same capacity for a lower price”…… so how do they rate as far as cheap replacement batteries? Poor materials and construction quality? All things considered would it be better to just go with the “official version”… how official is official? branded?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "358773",
"author": "Microchip",
"timestamp": "2011-03-15T08:54:23",
"content": "LIES!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "358919",
"author": "Nick Hartman",
"timestamp": "2011-03-15T12:22:42",
"content": "@phnx – The official batteries were the Vex branded ones. The other ones were unbranded Chinese batteries. The Chinese ones were both cheaper and had a slightly higher capacity from my measurements.As for the quality of the batteries, they seems to be pretty good for their price. I’ll see if I can get a link to the battery. I don’t know exactly where my physics teacher got them. He says that he’s going to be buying the cheaper ones now instead of the Vex ones in case you wanted to know.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "359395",
"author": "Myke",
"timestamp": "2011-03-15T23:43:34",
"content": "LOL. Arduino. That’s a nice way to show you don’t know nothing… ’bout anything.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "361554",
"author": "Nick Hartman",
"timestamp": "2011-03-18T03:27:24",
"content": "I know I shouldn’t feed the trolls, but…@Myke – Calm down. I used it because it was there and it was easy. I had a working prototype on the PIC, but I wanted to expand my project and did so on the Arduino platform. You can complain all you want, but just because I used the Arduino system doesn’t mean you can make the assumption that I don’t know anything about other micros. I’ve used PICs, ARMs, MSP430s, and regular Atmel micros. Sure, I’m not an expert in any of the systems, but I’m 17 and have learned everything I know about microcontrollers and electronics in about two years.Don’t bother commenting if you’re going to make pointless assumptions that don’t help anyone.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
}
] | 1,760,377,246.336908
|
||
https://hackaday.com/2011/03/14/guide-for-working-with-avr-microcontrollers/
|
Guide For Working With AVR Microcontrollers
|
Mike Szczys
|
[
"Microcontrollers",
"News"
] |
[
"AVR",
"guide"
] |
[Q] wrote in to let us know about
the AVR-Guide he’s been working on
. It looks like he’s finished posting about 80% of the content he planned for in his initial draft outline. We read through several of the sections and found them to be concise, yet able to present information in a way that’s easy to grasp. The screenshot above shows the most basic block of information to get started with AVR microcontrollers. We’ve covered the same information in
our AVR tutorial series
and think that reading through both will give you a strong understanding of the knowledge needed to work with 8-bit microcontrollers with confidence. But this resource doesn’t stop after the basics. If you’re looking to bolster your knowledge of all the features the AVR line has to offer there’s also sections explaining Digital I/O, Interrupts, Timers, Analog I/O, Communications, and Miscellaneous topics.
The site is called QEEWiki. We logged in using a Google account (this is hosted as a Google site) but didn’t see a way to edit the information. If this truly is a Wiki and you know how to edit pages please leave a comment about it after the break.
| 8
| 6
|
[
{
"comment_id": "358258",
"author": "Apexys",
"timestamp": "2011-03-14T20:28:12",
"content": "Hmm.Cool.But I think, some people are just working on translating this german tutorial:http://www.mikrocontroller.net/articles/AVR-GCC-Tutorial(Google-Translated Version:http://translate.google.de/translate?js=n&prev=_t&hl=de&ie=UTF-8&layout=2&eotf=1&sl=de&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.mikrocontroller.net%2Farticles%2FAVR-GCC-Tutorial&act=url)Do you really need two tutorials?apexys",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "358277",
"author": "Gdogg",
"timestamp": "2011-03-14T20:40:59",
"content": "Definitely worth a bookmark",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "358326",
"author": "knuckles904",
"timestamp": "2011-03-14T21:30:49",
"content": "If youre wanting to try your hand at PIC instead, I HIGHLY recommend the gooligum tutorial series.http://www.gooligum.com.au/tutorials.html",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "359544",
"author": "CH",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T03:40:39",
"content": "The tutorials on AVR-Freaks are good too.The interrupt tutorial is great, for example.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "359858",
"author": "Q",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T13:42:27",
"content": "Hi guys its Q.Just bouncing off the walls for having been posted on the site thank you all.I haven’t enabled the wiki editing part of the site yet due to … well to be honest I haven’t figured it all out yet. Right now all my energy has gone into writing the tutorials.Aside from the AVR guide I plan to put another series of tutorials up called “Electrical Engineering for Techs” which will cover the basics of electronics starting form V=IR to common components in a way that everyone can understand (not just some egghead working for TI).Thanks againCheersQ",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6487048",
"author": "Chayan",
"timestamp": "2022-06-26T10:03:04",
"content": "Hi Q, At first thanks for your great content on QEEWIKI. It was the best content about AVR Microcontroller. But recently I am not able to access your site. I’m requesting you to fix the site.ThanksChayan",
"parent_id": "359858",
"depth": 2,
"replies": []
}
]
},
{
"comment_id": "6511354",
"author": "Chayan Mistry",
"timestamp": "2022-09-10T06:54:07",
"content": "Unfortunately, AVR GUIDE – QEEWiki was removed from Google Sites after Feb 2021.I’m able to restore it using Wayback Machine. Now it’s live on :-https://chayanforyou.github.io/avr-guide/",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6599199",
"author": "Chayan",
"timestamp": "2023-02-14T19:26:39",
"content": "Now its move to this domainhttps://avr-guide.github.io/",
"parent_id": "6511354",
"depth": 2,
"replies": []
}
]
}
] | 1,760,377,246.545241
|
||
https://hackaday.com/2011/03/14/diy-digital-pinball-console-plays-hundreds-of-games/
|
DIY Digital Pinball Console Plays Hundreds Of Games
|
Mike Nathan
|
[
"computer hacks",
"home entertainment hacks",
"Toy Hacks"
] |
[
"lcd",
"pinball"
] |
Pinball machines, while likely considered pretty retro technology by most, are still a fun and engaging way to waste a little time. The problem with pinball machines is that they take up a lot of space, making the hobby of collecting them pretty prohibitive unless you have tons of spare room in your house.
[tbarklay] loves pinball machines but doesn’t have to room for an elaborate collection. Rather than purchase one machine, he opted to
build his own pinball table
that can be used to play any number of games. He repurposed an old PC to power his table, connecting it to a 24″ LCD panel for the main display board. A custom cabinet was built to contain the large LCD panel as well as the computer. A 19″ LCD screen was mounted on top of the cabinet to serve as the backglass display. A set of arcade buttons were also added to the console to provide realistic paddle control.
While we don’t have a video of his particular table in action, check out this video we found of a pinball machine that uses the same setup.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SUBTwUSFFJ0&w=470]
| 23
| 23
|
[
{
"comment_id": "358216",
"author": "mikey",
"timestamp": "2011-03-14T19:44:10",
"content": "Ekaj: i hear ya. kudos to the designer, but nothing will ever replace the old mechanical pinball machines. want digital pachinko? plinko? pinball?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "358223",
"author": "IJ Dee-Vo",
"timestamp": "2011-03-14T19:47:25",
"content": "3p1c",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "358227",
"author": "Paul",
"timestamp": "2011-03-14T19:52:12",
"content": "oh jeri isn’t gonna like this ;)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "358235",
"author": "Robert Ely",
"timestamp": "2011-03-14T19:57:15",
"content": "@PaulOh, i don’t think shes going to mind. LCDs are never going to take place of the real thing.I would love to see some weighted solenoids added to the case for some haptic feed back, but i guess your limited by the software",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "358246",
"author": "pod",
"timestamp": "2011-03-14T20:11:39",
"content": "@paulheh I was going to say that myself :D",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "358281",
"author": "zing",
"timestamp": "2011-03-14T20:45:49",
"content": "@PaulConsidering she developed a LED driver to make LEDs look like lamps and a tilt-sensor replacement, she probably doesn’t have a huge problem.She’d probably be all for it, if you could add haptics.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "358319",
"author": "t&p",
"timestamp": "2011-03-14T21:22:57",
"content": "I still don’t understand how pinball machines are “retro technology.” Or how they are not placed in places like those go with friends bar and play pool places. They have those shitty midway CRT touchscreen games in every place I have been at. People play those all the time. I would think pinball would be better.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "358362",
"author": "Ruud",
"timestamp": "2011-03-14T21:56:46",
"content": "This build looks also very nice:http://www.hyperspin-fe.com/forum/showthread.php?t=6103",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "358363",
"author": "ryanmercer",
"timestamp": "2011-03-14T21:57:04",
"content": "That’s pretty cool",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "358395",
"author": "Emil",
"timestamp": "2011-03-14T22:25:28",
"content": "Funny how this pops up here the same day I found a very interesting build-log of a virtual pinball machine. The builder has also added some haptic feedback and other mechanics.The page is in swedish, but there are many good pictures that cover the build very well.Here’s the link:http://www.sweclockers.com/galleri/6710-virtual-pinball-hemmabygge",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "358409",
"author": "Busketeer",
"timestamp": "2011-03-14T22:56:04",
"content": "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UltraPinFTW",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "358416",
"author": "HGee",
"timestamp": "2011-03-14T23:10:10",
"content": "The HyperPin forums have a tonne of these setups.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "358527",
"author": "Hirudinea",
"timestamp": "2011-03-15T01:57:28",
"content": "Hey whatever you say you have to admit its the most space saving way to have dozens of pinball machines in your house.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "358616",
"author": "Aaron",
"timestamp": "2011-03-15T03:41:21",
"content": "not to rain on the proverbial parade but another Pin enthusiast has two versions of this. One is called mini pin and the other is medium pin, there is an article in gameroom mag about it and I think if you search for medium pin you can see his latest build. The creator of the pin cabinet is Rob Craig. check the october 2008 mag for the write up, below is a link to the articlehttp://www.popbumper.com/tots.html",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "358619",
"author": "Kyle",
"timestamp": "2011-03-15T03:44:45",
"content": "I’ve played with classic pinball machines since I was a kid, and there is no way I would be cool with this. If I had never been exposed to the “real thing”, I might be able to tolerate it, but because of my experience, there is just no way. Real thing >>>>>> bland substitute. The same goes for splenda. Sweet my ass!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "358660",
"author": "apothus",
"timestamp": "2011-03-15T04:48:34",
"content": "Cool setup. Haptic feedback would be great, at least on the flippers. It shouldnt be that hard to add, you could simply wire a solenoid into the buttons for that classic thud feel and sound.We have a “road-show” pinball machine at home and i wouldnt call it retro. Granted new ones are not coming out as often and there is more silicone in the backboard than most californian women. The opperation is still relatively advanced, especially when you consider the extensive diagnostics these machines have.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "358709",
"author": "jasonpctech",
"timestamp": "2011-03-15T06:22:20",
"content": "Easiest way to add haptic is a diy bass shaker and a small 15watt T-amp visit parts express. all the flipper presses and bumpers have sound and will provide a great haptic response I have tried it here using a old Aura Interactor. Done all diy with a recycled powered speaker should run less than $20 or just buy new parts.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "358811",
"author": "cotmm68030",
"timestamp": "2011-03-15T09:52:45",
"content": "Here’s a similar project done that included the feedback by using solenoids:http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=98252.0Lots of build pictures.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "359112",
"author": "jabbyjim",
"timestamp": "2011-03-15T16:58:44",
"content": "Does anyone know the emulation program used for these pinball games? I know that HyperPin is being used for the front end, but what about the meat-and-potatoes emulation?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "359119",
"author": "jabbyjim",
"timestamp": "2011-03-15T17:07:12",
"content": "oops.. found the answer to my own questionVisual Pinball",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "359431",
"author": "Noah Fentz",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T00:50:17",
"content": "This type of machine is now currently available, fully built and ready to go!http://virtuapin.net:)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "360119",
"author": "Aaron",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T18:20:21",
"content": "Future Pinball by Blindmankind pinball is an amazing emulator/dev kit for the home brew crowd.http://www.blindmankind.tecnopinball.org/",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6511895",
"author": "Steve",
"timestamp": "2022-09-11T20:04:50",
"content": "This is a necropost of more than a decade, but I’m curious: can an old PC motherboard be used to create an actual pinball machine? Like one analogous to a Williams System 7, or thereabouts?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
}
] | 1,760,377,247.293531
|
||
https://hackaday.com/2011/03/14/beginner-concepts-595-shift-register-simulator/
|
Beginner Concepts: 595 Shift Register Simulator
|
Mike Szczys
|
[
"Microcontrollers"
] |
[
"595",
"shift register",
"simulator"
] |
[Aaron] just finished building
an online 595 shift register simulator
. These inexpensive chips let you extend the number of devices that can be controlled by a single microcontroller. You see them in quite a few LED multiplexing projects, included the
Ping Pong Clock
that we recently built. But they can be a bit tricky to fully grasp if you’re not familiar with the hardware.
This simulator gives you a point-and-click interface for the five possible control lines on a 595 shift register. There are three pins that must be manipulated to use the device; the serial in, clock, and latch pins. The other two are for clearing the register, and enabling output and can be considered optional. You can choose to control these with a microcontroller in your own projects for more flexibility, but often they are tied to either VCC or GND (depending on the chip) when these features are unnecessary. Give this simulator a try and then take what you learned over to a solderless breadboard and see if you can write some firmware to produce the same results. If you’re still having trouble you can take a
look at this 595 tutorial
for further information.
| 7
| 7
|
[
{
"comment_id": "358168",
"author": "Gregory Strike",
"timestamp": "2011-03-14T19:02:00",
"content": "Very nice. Just learned something!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "358189",
"author": "CalcProgrammer1",
"timestamp": "2011-03-14T19:23:52",
"content": "Awesome, the 74HC595’s are very nice and inexpensive chips for microcontroller projects. They’re easy to use and can control many devices from only 3-4 pins. With a standard ATMega168 at 20MHz I was able to get software-PWM out of 3 595’s chained together to drive 8 RGB LED’s. It took pretty much every bit of power the chip had but it was decent PWM. I also use 595’s when connecting parallel LCD’s to save a few pins.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "358241",
"author": "JimSocks",
"timestamp": "2011-03-14T20:05:26",
"content": "Love it!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "358392",
"author": "acomputerdog",
"timestamp": "2011-03-14T22:23:09",
"content": "omg i now i finally get how shift registers work!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "358652",
"author": "walt",
"timestamp": "2011-03-15T04:38:33",
"content": "this is great!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "359001",
"author": "Ford",
"timestamp": "2011-03-15T15:05:23",
"content": "I love this. There should be more interactive tutorials like this! Actually, I just remembered that there’s a site that has all sorts of logic tutorials like this: play-hookey.com.Is there a standard way to use several 595 chips to drive a multi-digit seven segment display (e.g., common cathode)? I would guess the /OE pin would come into play there. Or maybe when using 595s it’s just better to have separate digits…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "3291011",
"author": "JamesLit",
"timestamp": "2016-11-28T04:41:38",
"content": "pożyczka pozabankowaMore info!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
}
] | 1,760,377,247.602748
|
||
https://hackaday.com/2011/03/14/commandeering-public-video-screens-real-or-fake/
|
Commandeering Public Video Screens: Real Or Fake?
|
Mike Szczys
|
[
"Video Hacks"
] |
[
"iphone",
"real or fake",
"repeater",
"times square",
"transmitter",
"video"
] |
It’s time for everyone’s favorite comment thread game: Real or Fake? This week’s edition comes in from a tip that [Phil] sent about a way to
take over video screens in Times Square
. Watch the video after the break to see the hackers using a two-part solution to rebroadcast video from an iPhone onto a screen in the busy urban setting. The first part is a transmitter that plugs into the iPhone, the second is a signal repeater that, when held close to a video screen, overrides the clip currently being displayed with the video from the handheld. The image above shows the repeater being floated up to the big screen using a giant red balloon which you can make out in the black bar to the left of the replayed video.
Our first thought is that someone just watched Tron: Legacy and wanted to have a little Sci-Fi fun with the Internets. We can’t imagine a hardware solution that would actually make this work, but please do share your thoughts about that in the comments. We’d suspect this is more of a video hack that uses After Effects, similar to how
the stopped motion candle video
of the
eyelid shutter glasses
videos were faked. But apparently there is a follow-up video on the way that will show how the prototype was made so we could be wrong.
update:
[Phil Burgess] points out that the “repeater” looks awfully familiar.
Fake for a variety of already-stated reasons (e.g. video out the headphone jack?). But the smoking gun, watching the 720P video on YouTube, is that I plainly recognize the hardware they’re using as the “repeater”: it’s simply the internals from a Digipower JS1-V3 cell phone USB boost charger (having torn apart a few myself):
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s_HUYi9aVvI&w=470]
| 66
| 50
|
[
{
"comment_id": "358117",
"author": "bencoder",
"timestamp": "2011-03-14T18:03:33",
"content": "Clearly fake. It doesn’t work like that.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "358119",
"author": "AnonymousCoward",
"timestamp": "2011-03-14T18:05:05",
"content": "And they got the balloon controlled so that the video is cut just over the CNN banner? Oh c’mon…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "358120",
"author": "fred",
"timestamp": "2011-03-14T18:05:21",
"content": "Fake. No need to argue.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "358123",
"author": "Stuck",
"timestamp": "2011-03-14T18:07:17",
"content": "Until there’s a little theory to go along with this I smell a viral video. There’s something weird here.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "358127",
"author": "Sci",
"timestamp": "2011-03-14T18:12:15",
"content": "Fake. Nicely done, but no way all those different makes of screen would use the same video format, or for that matter be receiving video from outside sources. Advertisers wouldn’t want to risk interference damaging the visual appeal. The videos are loaded on to local data storage.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "358129",
"author": "Greggawatt",
"timestamp": "2011-03-14T18:14:37",
"content": "If this is real they need to post schematics, otherwise it might as well be fake.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "358132",
"author": "Parcanman",
"timestamp": "2011-03-14T18:18:51",
"content": "I’d like to believe that no advertiser would be caught dead driving a screen live over an unencrypted/unprotected wireless network with no buffer that can easily be overpowered by a µC, but theoretically…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "358134",
"author": "AndrewNeo",
"timestamp": "2011-03-14T18:19:07",
"content": "Didn’t Engadget have a thing where they went in and checked out the backend of some of those huge displays? The resolution is unreal, there’s no way they’d be sending it over a wireless signal.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "358136",
"author": "Kruug",
"timestamp": "2011-03-14T18:20:03",
"content": "IMO, faked. The video should be able to either hold it’s aspect ratio, or it would rely on what the screen already is set at. Also, why would the quad-screen set up not show the same video on each screen?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "358137",
"author": "Per Jensen",
"timestamp": "2011-03-14T18:20:58",
"content": "FAKE, FAKE, FAKE, Did i mention FAKE ? – IF it even was possible to inject a signal from a transmitter into the display electronics it would only be noise in the picture, or even shutting down the computer controlling the display (the software locks) so no way of this happening, ever.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "358141",
"author": "M4CGYV3R",
"timestamp": "2011-03-14T18:26:34",
"content": "I would wager it’s fake, since only induction would work with ‘holding something near the tv’.Since TV signals don’t work by induction in that way, especially the giant hard-wired Times Square screens, the best you could do is a TEMPEST attack and READ by induction the signal from the screen.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "358143",
"author": "Gosh",
"timestamp": "2011-03-14T18:26:56",
"content": "Obviously fake, no debate required. Really nicely done fake though!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "358144",
"author": "rusty",
"timestamp": "2011-03-14T18:27:09",
"content": "yeah! what they said!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "358145",
"author": "M4CGYV3R",
"timestamp": "2011-03-14T18:28:04",
"content": "More importantly, does the sign to the left say “I am an umbrella”?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "358146",
"author": "jonzilla",
"timestamp": "2011-03-14T18:28:10",
"content": "Let’s start with the most obvious bit of fakery. How do you get video out from an iPhone’s headphone jack?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "358147",
"author": "Matthias Welsh",
"timestamp": "2011-03-14T18:28:45",
"content": "Fake… this is what it takes to get into a digital billboard:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i5yscBNJjlk",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "358148",
"author": "Jeannot",
"timestamp": "2011-03-14T18:29:23",
"content": "looks fake, why a repeater when a directionnal antenna would do the same?very good ae skills, no need to argue on that.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "358149",
"author": "Casplantje",
"timestamp": "2011-03-14T18:30:25",
"content": "Nicely edited, but obviously fake. There is no way such device can inject its signal in any random display, if even possible at all.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "358151",
"author": "Luke",
"timestamp": "2011-03-14T18:34:33",
"content": "I think what they are doing physically happened because the lighting on the balloon and on the presenters jacket match what is happening on the screens. From a CG standpoint this would be pretty expensive and time consuming to fake (but not impossible). Though the transmitter on the balloon is questionable to me.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "358165",
"author": "r3",
"timestamp": "2011-03-14T19:00:06",
"content": "Am I the only one who believes that there is no freakin way that such ads are broadcasted wirelessly ?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "358172",
"author": "Gdogg",
"timestamp": "2011-03-14T19:04:02",
"content": "Fake for sure.They can send the data wirelessly up to the balloon, but whatever’s attached to the balloon needs to be close to the screen?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "358175",
"author": "chemist dood",
"timestamp": "2011-03-14T19:08:15",
"content": "Looking at all the comments, the prevalent (though welcome) geek mindset has blinded you all to the obvious.Reason it’s fake A: the supersynaptic hypoplexy could not decombobulate the flux capacitors.Reason it’s fake B: Tie a penny to a balloon, see if it lifts. Not really? Tie two… yeah. Balloon isn’t going to lift the coin cell let alone the components.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "358187",
"author": "veneficus",
"timestamp": "2011-03-14T19:19:02",
"content": "As the CarTalk hosts would say: Boooooogus!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "358192",
"author": "Jok3r098",
"timestamp": "2011-03-14T19:25:14",
"content": "its fake but i think it could be done. i dont think it would look like that though, firstly you would have to know how the video signal was being sent. if it was at a different speed one might get image tearing. and of course heavy noise too.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "358193",
"author": "Mr. Blue Eyes",
"timestamp": "2011-03-14T19:28:47",
"content": "Everyone is debating whether you can hack a screen but my first thought was if it is even possible to send video via the iphone headphone jack..?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "358194",
"author": "ZeUs",
"timestamp": "2011-03-14T19:28:59",
"content": "“HEY GUYZ WE KNOW WE HAD THIS COOL VID BUT IT WAS FAKE. WE ACTUALLY KINDA MEANT THAT SO NOW IT’S SOMETHING WE’RE GOING TO DO MORE OFTEN. THNKX FOR VISITING US.”",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "358196",
"author": "luke",
"timestamp": "2011-03-14T19:30:13",
"content": "towards the start of the video, they do it with 4 screens, what makes it sync to the middle of them so perfectly?FAKE",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "358199",
"author": "DigitalKlepto",
"timestamp": "2011-03-14T19:31:32",
"content": "Am I the only one that noticed that the picture on the phone, and the picture on the display are not the same? IE, the picture on the display shows more at the top and bottom than the picture on the phone.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "358202",
"author": "Drew",
"timestamp": "2011-03-14T19:33:06",
"content": "“We’d suspect this is more of a video hack that uses After Effects”ROFL, okay, film editing using After Effects is apparently a hack now, thanks Hackaday.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "358208",
"author": "Bob",
"timestamp": "2011-03-14T19:36:51",
"content": "How hard is it to override the DTV broadcast? If they did do something like that, I’m sure the FCC would enjoy watching this youtube clip.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "358213",
"author": "Shorin",
"timestamp": "2011-03-14T19:42:02",
"content": "One tough thing about their video editing… I’m wondering how they blended the baloon with the large billboard… unless it’s just a 3d sphere in the video effects. That’s most likely it. Also notice the nice little glow on the sphere.Nicely done, I don’t believe it though. Would be nice to try it.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "358221",
"author": "IJ Dee-Vo",
"timestamp": "2011-03-14T19:46:39",
"content": "@Greggawatt if its real its real regaurdless",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "358230",
"author": "JF",
"timestamp": "2011-03-14T19:54:24",
"content": "A few years ago they were holding some anti-smoking thing in Times Sq. Basically, they would stop smokers in the street, get them to pledge to quitting smoking on camera and broadcast it on one of the bigger screens. The point of the story is, it is 100% possible to broadcast a wireless signal to at least one of those screens.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "358232",
"author": "Adam",
"timestamp": "2011-03-14T19:55:17",
"content": "Isn’t the way they output data with the audio cord to change it into sound pulses? There is no way that you could get the bit-rate to output video. And seeing that the bottom connector has video out why didn’t they just use that?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "358234",
"author": "macketyshg",
"timestamp": "2011-03-14T19:57:01",
"content": "I’m not an engineer or computer scientist by any means, but that ‘transmitter’ looks like what a three year old would put together if I asked him to make me a wireless video transmitter.It’s a generic piece of a motherboard with fancy bits glued on it. Why the need for the little red light? Why keep it uncased and prone to elements/dust/unexpected hits? What’s the power source?Started watching it as entertainment after the first 20 seconds. Nice idea, less-than-perfect fake.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "358237",
"author": "Olivier",
"timestamp": "2011-03-14T19:59:16",
"content": "The Russian way is so much better, because at least they replace the ads with cool stuff (NSFW) :http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=ca2_1263729266",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "358238",
"author": "viperware",
"timestamp": "2011-03-14T20:00:09",
"content": "Those screens use a separate processor loaded with a map of how the screen is daisy chain wired for signal. You have to get a video signal hard wired into the processor, and it is usually HD-SDI. If you were to hack into the device feeding the HD-SDI signal, then you could change the content, but it is pretty dependant on physical access.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "358242",
"author": "ftk",
"timestamp": "2011-03-14T20:06:25",
"content": "How many AE “four-points tracking” and artificial white balance/color matching tutorials are floating around the net already ?…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "358254",
"author": "Gregory Owen",
"timestamp": "2011-03-14T20:18:36",
"content": "first thing i noticed was that when he holds the camera up to take the initial video of him standing there on the street, he is already in frame on the phone before the it’s even pointing at him",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "358276",
"author": "Adam",
"timestamp": "2011-03-14T20:40:34",
"content": "Reverse Van Eck phreaking = dubious at best. Viral marketing.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "358280",
"author": "00Dog",
"timestamp": "2011-03-14T20:44:38",
"content": "Small point that everyone seams to have missed, none of the public react to seeing the video suddenly flicker and change to a video of the guy stood in front of it. Also the balloon seams to go to and stay in a very convenient place…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "358289",
"author": "Matt",
"timestamp": "2011-03-14T20:56:34",
"content": "@00Dog: that was also my first thought. They all just walk around like normal. And noone seems to see anything weird on the screen(s).",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "358316",
"author": "Gilliam",
"timestamp": "2011-03-14T21:22:03",
"content": "this reply isn’t about real/fake, but answering some other comments about the screens and iphone video.iphone/ipods current generations can output video through the headphone jack on a 4th contact(MS zune can do it too).the quad-screen one is connected to a controller computer that already knows which screen is 1 2 3 and 4 and outputs a larger image as though they are all one. if it were to display a tiny picture it would either center it or fullscreen it, whatever the controller is set to do.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "358318",
"author": "tokamak",
"timestamp": "2011-03-14T21:22:32",
"content": "Not again, non hack-related viral on HaD ;(",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "358329",
"author": "Phil Burgess",
"timestamp": "2011-03-14T21:32:14",
"content": "Fake for a variety of already-stated reasons (e.g. video out the headphone jack?). But the smoking gun, watching the 720P video on YouTube, is that I plainly recognize the hardware they’re using as the “repeater”: it’s simply the internals from a Digipower JS1-V3 cell phone USB boost charger (having torn apart a few myself):",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "358342",
"author": "t&p",
"timestamp": "2011-03-14T21:34:03",
"content": "I think it’s realTony Stark did it to the government! The fucking GOVERNMENT MAN!Plus I have seen this done with an old CRT NTSC TV picking up NTSC noise coming from a DS and showing it in fuzzy black and white.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "358344",
"author": "ENKI-][",
"timestamp": "2011-03-14T21:36:21",
"content": "Back in the days of analog tv this might have worked (it’s famously how the max headroom prank was pulled off). But, I very much doubt that you can jam the times square displays because it would make no sense to let them be wireless in the first place.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "358346",
"author": "t&p",
"timestamp": "2011-03-14T21:37:19",
"content": "nintendo DS to clear thingsI could see someone reading that and be like WTF is a DS",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "358406",
"author": "Leithoa",
"timestamp": "2011-03-14T22:52:14",
"content": "Somebody has been watching ‘The Recruit’ with colin farrell",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "358413",
"author": "anonymous",
"timestamp": "2011-03-14T23:07:18",
"content": "Fake, no doubt.HOWEVER, it would be possible to output a video signal from the headphone jack. The headphone jack outputs a continually varying DC signal produced by a Digital-to-Analog-Converter (DAC). On an iPhone, you could encode your video signal by packing it into audio data which is played out of the headphone jack. The plugged-in device could then decode the audio signal back into a video signal (if it weren’t a cell phone charger, that is).Doing this would, of course, be one of the stupidest things you could ever waste your time on, because it would support a very low image resolution and be incredibly error-prone, thanks to the digital-to-analog-to-digital conversion process. But it’s technically possible.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
}
] | 1,760,377,246.998121
|
||
https://hackaday.com/2011/03/14/frequency-counter-for-10-worth-of-parts/
|
Frequency Counter For $10 Worth Of Parts
|
Mike Szczys
|
[
"Microcontrollers",
"Radio Hacks"
] |
[
"7 segment",
"74lv8154",
"atmega16",
"frequency counter"
] |
[Scott]
built this frequency counter
using less than $10 in parts. It’s set up to meter frequencies in megahertz which is fitting since he’s planning to use it with
his radio hardware experimentation
. But we would find it useful too because our cheap multimeter only reads up to around 4 MHz.
He’s using an ATmega16 that he had on hand but it has features way beyond the specs for the device. He speculates that an ATtiny2313 would easily work in its place. The microcontroller is mostly used to drive the multiplexed 7-segment display after reading the frequency values from the 74LV8154 counter chip that he is using. He doesn’t have a full schematic for the device, but there is a hand drawn diagram for using the frequency counter; the rest should be easy to piece together. Looking at that circuit we don’t think it would be too hard to make this a manual-ranging frequency counter to give you more use out of the dedicated device. Check out [Scott’s] demonstration video which is embedded below the fold.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KduEGjvXaeY&w=470]
| 10
| 10
|
[
{
"comment_id": "358066",
"author": "Chris Muncy",
"timestamp": "2011-03-14T17:12:36",
"content": "Very nice!This would be perfect for using as a readout on a VFO, re like my Kenwood TS-520.Thanks for sharing.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "358069",
"author": "Scott",
"timestamp": "2011-03-14T17:16:04",
"content": "Haha wow I never even thought of adapting this for adigital readout for an old rig. What a cool application! It should be trivial to do too…My original plan was to use this as the readout for some homebrew transmitters/receivers I’m working on. I wanted a device that would be cheap and easy to replicate that I could slap into RF projects as I make them. … but I like the idea of adapting them to older commercial rigs as well. I have a TenTec Century 21 (what a classic radio!) that would LOVE a digital readout like this…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "358071",
"author": "Chris Muncy",
"timestamp": "2011-03-14T17:23:04",
"content": "IIRC on my 520 there is an IF out on the back that you could use to trigger the counter. Then all you’d need to do is add your multiplier and bada boom bada bing!Have you figured out how high you can read with what you have? I imaging that you would need some isolation and some interstage shielding if you really wanted to get higher in freq.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "358131",
"author": "Oren Beck",
"timestamp": "2011-03-14T18:17:22",
"content": "VERY good work to do this so affordably. and it was done well in all other respects.Be very careful with what you connect and how -to those IF ports. IIRC several of them were not too buffered internally. If a radio’s “Pre-Digital” be even more careful. If it’s a Transceiver, the RF field coming back in can be not fun to diagnose.Ferrites are your friend..Same with shielded cables having multiple braids like Triax. “signal and signal ground runs on center conductor/innermost braid, Outermost braid is chassis ground, being wary of Ground Loops.Let’s just say- Having built repeaters from used cab radios etc teaches how grim it gets if we overlook such design elements. 99 out of a hundred work on any coax or even zip cord in some RX only setups. That one build that tolerances stack against us can be so exasperating as to defy description. I’d also consider some screen mesh across the display if you cannot kill hash noises any other way. Placing a cheap AM radio near older “non-radio” LED clocks demonstrates the reason for my comments. Look at scan rate harmonics Vs that IF freq:>",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "358142",
"author": "Chris Muncy",
"timestamp": "2011-03-14T18:26:49",
"content": "Now Oren you bring back some good old memories. Motorola Micors and turning them into repeaters. And yes on the ferrite beads!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "358185",
"author": "Murray",
"timestamp": "2011-03-14T19:13:50",
"content": "Nice. For an even cheaper option check outhttp://opend.co.za/hardware/freqmeter1/index.htm90 mhz, a 4060, 3 resistors, 3 capacitors and 2 diodes.Murray.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "358205",
"author": "Scott",
"timestamp": "2011-03-14T19:34:32",
"content": "@Murray I like the link! Very clever! $2 in parts plus $200 for a PC lol@Ekaj You caught me! This device measures and displays frequency of an AC signal, as others have done in the past. I’m a copycat! Dang, I almost got away with it too ;)Similar hackaday posts worth glancing at:http://hackaday.com/tag/nixie-tube/(an actual frequency counter gutted and turned into a clock)http://hackaday.com/2007/07/29/diy-frequency-meter/(DIY, 500kHz max)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "358607",
"author": "FightCube.com",
"timestamp": "2011-03-15T03:13:39",
"content": "Very nice project Scott! I used those RCA connectors on just about all of my early projects. They are cheap, easy to mount and I had tons of cables already :) Plus they are actually good for keyed applications, i.e., you won’t be plugging in your laptop power supply to one of them accidentally. Keep up the good work, and try to build and scavenge whatever you can, and then when you get the money buy better stuff and your skills will improve 10 fold.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "387576",
"author": "Jaton",
"timestamp": "2011-04-28T20:01:07",
"content": "How would one get it to sample frequencies up into the gigahertz range?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "387979",
"author": "Brett W. (FightCube.com)",
"timestamp": "2011-04-29T15:20:06",
"content": "@Jaton – you need some high speed Flip-Flops to divide the signal down to something your microcontroller can measure.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
}
] | 1,760,377,246.866744
|
||
https://hackaday.com/2011/03/14/cnc-etch-a-sketch-draws-on-itself/
|
CNC Etch-a-Sketch Draws On Itself
|
Mike Nathan
|
[
"cnc hacks",
"Toy Hacks"
] |
[
"cnc",
"etch a sketch",
"reprap"
] |
Having never been any good with an Etch-a-Sketch, [Ben] decided it was time to
tame the children’s toy
that had taunted him for so long. He received one in a gift exchange a few years back and hung onto it, recently digging it out again to fit it with some CNC components.
Using his RepRap, he printed a set of mounting plates and gears to drive the Etch-a-Sketch’s dials. He installed a pair of Airpax steppers to the gears and wired them up to an ATmega AT90 USB board he had sitting around. He installed RepRap firmware on the microcontroller, since it has a built-in gcode interpreter, making it easy for him to upload any gcode file to the Etch-a-Sketch for drawing.
You can see a quick demonstration of the device in action below. He converted a spiral image to gcode, then uploaded it to the Etch-a-Sketch – the machine does the rest. It draws pretty quickly as well – [Ben] even suggests that he could probably get it moving fast enough to melt the stylus!
It would be great to see the Etch-a-Sketch configured to support an online interface. That way he could allow people to upload images to the device, later showing off the artwork in a web gallery not unlike the
LOL Shield Theatre
we featured last week.
[via
Make
]
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6UV05jmrK7k&w=470]
| 9
| 9
|
[
{
"comment_id": "357936",
"author": "Phil",
"timestamp": "2011-03-14T15:08:51",
"content": "Finally you´ve got a vector display :).",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "357943",
"author": "Karl",
"timestamp": "2011-03-14T15:14:57",
"content": "Now, just add a pair of encoders on the gears so that it can capture a drawing, and you’ve got it made!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "357974",
"author": "Keith",
"timestamp": "2011-03-14T15:58:08",
"content": "Nice work. Sounds like a lot of backlash in the gears.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "357977",
"author": "Dan",
"timestamp": "2011-03-14T16:01:44",
"content": "It’s amazing how he hacked the driver PCB together, I think that is more impressive than the hack itself",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "358020",
"author": "Bjonnh",
"timestamp": "2011-03-14T16:39:57",
"content": "Nice work !With the help of some 555, you could also have drawn a spiral ! (and maybe some other funny shapes) :)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "358021",
"author": "svofski",
"timestamp": "2011-03-14T16:42:05",
"content": "It would be great to see the Etch-a-Sketch configured to support an online interface.do hackaday readers read hackaday?http://hackaday.com/2009/05/13/massive-etch-a-sketch-from-tv-screen/",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "358023",
"author": "svofski",
"timestamp": "2011-03-14T16:43:58",
"content": "correction, i meant writers :)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "358186",
"author": "Tux320",
"timestamp": "2011-03-14T19:17:42",
"content": "@DanIt’s called deadbug-style, a fast protyping technique for when you need something more robust than a breadboardhttp://opencircuits.com/Dead_bug_style",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "358256",
"author": "szefski",
"timestamp": "2011-03-14T20:22:46",
"content": "It would be neat if he made the spirals without cnc software on a computer. You would need a VCF Sine generator circuit, signaled by a slow ramp function. The output sine signal can either be used to power a very linear transistor, or another vcf to control pwm/steps – this is one of the knob motors. If you plot sine against cosine against each other, you will notice it creates a perfect circle, so the other knob will need to be powered by the sine signal shifted by 90 degrees (a capacitor before a buffer stage might cut it). The ramp function is used to steadily increase the frequency of both signals so the circles gradually become smaller – creating a spiral.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
}
] | 1,760,377,246.911553
|
||
https://hackaday.com/2011/03/14/3d-modeling-out-of-thin-air/
|
3D Modeling Out Of Thin Air
|
Mike Nathan
|
[
"Arduino Hacks",
"Kinect hacks",
"Multitouch Hacks"
] |
[
"3d modeling",
"Kinect",
"open source"
] |
It seems that with each passing day, the Kinect hacks that we see become exponentially more impressive. Take for instance
this little number
that was sent to us today.
[sonsofsol] has combined several open source software packages and a little electronics know-how to create one of the more useful Kinect hacks we have seen lately. His project enables him to manipulate 3D models in GEM simply by moving his hands about in front of his Kinect sensor. Using OpenNI and Ubuntu, all of his actions are tracked by the computer and translated into actions within the GEM 3D engine.
To make things easier on himself, he also constructed a pair of electronic gloves that interface with the system. Using an Arduino, the gloves send different complex commands to the 3D modeling software, just by touching different pairs of fingers together.
You really need to take a look at the video embedded below to get a feel for how complex [sonsofsol’s] “simple” mesh modeler really is.
Looking for more Kinect fun? Check out
these
previously
featured
stories
.
[Thanks, Jared]
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LBpfYuVN0bI&w=470]
| 14
| 14
|
[
{
"comment_id": "357879",
"author": "Grovenstien",
"timestamp": "2011-03-14T13:48:18",
"content": "add Bluetooth or other wireless connection to the gloves for more awesomeness,Perhaps use two wiimotes instead of gloves for even more control.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "357893",
"author": "Khai",
"timestamp": "2011-03-14T14:39:17",
"content": "I’ve been saying to friends this is what I want to do with a kinect… so I’m grinning here.I can’t wait to see this taken further and to have the ability to “wear” the models….(think that scene in Iron Man when Stark “puts on” the arm design to test it out…)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "357961",
"author": "threedee",
"timestamp": "2011-03-14T15:38:42",
"content": "I know it’s all about the technology, but that really is the most horrible 3D topology I’ve ever seen in a model.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "358078",
"author": "wosser",
"timestamp": "2011-03-14T17:28:42",
"content": "“The rest was a piece of cake”.It must be nice to be that clever.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "358118",
"author": "dmcbeing",
"timestamp": "2011-03-14T18:04:25",
"content": "I am geuessing he has seen Iron Man 2?Excelent, now make a suit plz.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "358135",
"author": "OldVamp",
"timestamp": "2011-03-14T18:20:02",
"content": "Now we need some good holographic projection so you can be inside the model while you are manipulating it.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "358138",
"author": "OldVamp",
"timestamp": "2011-03-14T18:21:05",
"content": "Or at least a really big 3D TV",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "358139",
"author": "M4CGYV3R",
"timestamp": "2011-03-14T18:21:09",
"content": "I did this years back with a WiiMote, Maya, IR LEDs, and a pair of neoprene wetsuit gloves.Because the WiiMote tracks up to four points, I used one constant-on IR LED on each glove to track position and another that would turn on if you pinched fingers together.It wasn’t quite as complex, but it was wireless and worked just fine.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "358158",
"author": "Doug",
"timestamp": "2011-03-14T18:43:11",
"content": "Amazing project. Now someone needs to take the next step and mix the Kinext with Microsoft Surface and set up a Minority Report style interface.I am very impressed. Great job.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "358161",
"author": "hacky",
"timestamp": "2011-03-14T18:50:08",
"content": "haha! kudo’s to the lego technic + CD-rom casing house for the arduino. Arduino must really feel at home there…I love 3D modeling and arduino. It’s cool to see them combined. However the kinect stays a toy. I notice the application is too bad in sensing the depth of the limbs. It’s very coarse, although better than nothing.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "358419",
"author": "sneakypoo",
"timestamp": "2011-03-14T23:11:30",
"content": "I see good things in the future. The Kinect is a first generation device and all of these projects are made by tinkerers in their spare time. With newer generations of the Kinect (or it’s competitors/derivatives) and more bodies behind the projects the potential is immense.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "358451",
"author": "XiuiX",
"timestamp": "2011-03-15T00:02:04",
"content": "The brilliant people of hack-a-day make me feel like a simpleton.Kudos to the Hack, Very impressive.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "359317",
"author": "mindbleach",
"timestamp": "2011-03-15T21:16:58",
"content": "If the RGB camera resolution is high enough, you could replace the datagloves with ‘dumb’ gloves that have fiduciary markers on the fingertips.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "359497",
"author": "Thomas Wrobel",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T02:18:30",
"content": "As a 3D modeleer/artist myself I’m just dieing to try this sort of tech out.I have also been wondering if eye-tracking could be done accurately enough to pinpoint the 3d point they are looking at – that might also be a good way to model or at least have a 3d cursor.“Now we need some good holographic projection”Or, more realisticly, some Augmented Reality specs :)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
}
] | 1,760,377,247.919429
|
||
https://hackaday.com/2011/03/14/control-your-home-theater-from-anywhere-in-the-world/
|
Control Your Home Theater From Anywhere In The World
|
Mike Nathan
|
[
"home entertainment hacks",
"home hacks"
] |
[
"ethernet",
"home theater",
"ir"
] |
Using IR repeaters for larger home theater setups is not uncommon, but they usually are quite simple. A series of IR receivers are placed throughout a home, all wired to repeat the signals in a central closet where all of the AV equipment is located. [Bill] constructed a solution that works much like a standard IR repeater setup, however his requires no receivers, and it can be used anywhere in the world, provided you have Internet access.
His project, called
Ether IR
, is an Internet-enabled IR repeater. It consists of an Ethernet-connected module with an IR LED mounted on it, capable of controlling your AV equipment. The board is hooked up to your LAN, and relays commands to your home theater via a simple web page. The equipment can then be controlled from any Internet-connected device, such as a mobile phone or tablet PC.
The entire project is open-source, so [Bill] has included schematics, instructions, and a bill of materials so that you can construct your own. The only issue at this point is the software portion of the project. The software is free, but the distribution method is in question – once things are sorted out, he will ensure that you can obtain the software for your Either-IR from him or directly from the Ethernet chip’s manufacturer.
| 21
| 21
|
[
{
"comment_id": "357806",
"author": "Bernard Kerckenaere",
"timestamp": "2011-03-14T12:11:16",
"content": "For people who’d rather buy than build:http://www.irtrans.de/en/",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "357828",
"author": "SelfSilent",
"timestamp": "2011-03-14T12:18:34",
"content": "Why would need to be able to control your home cinema from anywhere in the world?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "357846",
"author": "elektrophreak",
"timestamp": "2011-03-14T12:54:45",
"content": "wow, those PCB traces are poking my eyes out when I look at them :)great project btw.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "357849",
"author": "Kemp",
"timestamp": "2011-03-14T12:59:55",
"content": "Are those traces hand-drawn?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "357852",
"author": "tuxfool",
"timestamp": "2011-03-14T13:01:28",
"content": "This seems horribly roundabout. Many media centers accept commands via a webserver port. At least xbmc and decedents (eg plex and boxee) accept it.Either way how is one able to see what is on the screen? Vnc?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "357859",
"author": "Brennan",
"timestamp": "2011-03-14T13:14:11",
"content": "I have to agree with SelfSilent on this one. It’s a cool project but I can’t see myself ever needing something like this. Heck, I don’t even need to control my home theater from another room, let alone another entire location. The only thing I could see this being used for is turning off equipment if you are gone and forgot to turn something off, but even that’s a stretch. Maybe if your whole house was wired for sound you could control where music is playing and the volume, but I doubt most people have that.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "357860",
"author": "Pouncer",
"timestamp": "2011-03-14T13:17:57",
"content": "Cool!! but if I’m not in front of my home theater system then there’s really no need for control, unless I plan to turn it on randomly and have it entertain my furniture.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "357865",
"author": "SalGovernali",
"timestamp": "2011-03-14T13:24:53",
"content": "I think you guys are missing the point by a mile. It’s not really to control your home theatre from across the globe – I think that was an exaggeration to demonstrate the potential range of the device.If any of you actually had whole-home entertainment system where there is a single DVR/Stereo/etc wired to play throughout the entire house with built-in wall speakers, this can be useful. Why shell out for an expensive remote and (sometimes) custom programming of said remote when you can just use your phone or iPad?With something like this, I can sit on my back patio and change the channel on my TV, which is wired to my stereo, which provides music to my outdoor speaker system. No extra remote needed.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "357873",
"author": "Kris Lee",
"timestamp": "2011-03-14T13:38:21",
"content": "So you are putting your gear below the TV? You have separate remote for every device you have and you kind of like it? Then this project is not for you.People who have separate rack for AV gear in the living room or even in the basement will find it usuful.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "357874",
"author": "Sophist",
"timestamp": "2011-03-14T13:39:58",
"content": "Is it just me, or are y’all missing the point? The goal isn’t to control one’s AV equipment from anywhere in the world, but to control the equipment with any Internet enabled device.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "357876",
"author": "Thor",
"timestamp": "2011-03-14T13:45:28",
"content": "This might be just what I’m looking for. Not for controlling my system from around the world, or even from a different room, but from a wifi device like a smartphone or tablet. With this device translating wifi to IR, combined with the right software on the smartphone, you could control all the components in your home theater much like a Logitech Harmony remote – but better and cheaper!I have a Logitech Harmony remote and it is cool, but is clumsy for controlling my Logitech Squeezebox (arrow keys only). I have an iPad and a nifty app that can control my Logitech Squeezebox music player with a full GUI, but it can not turn on my receiver. This board with the right software could allow me to control everything from the one device (iPad).",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "357883",
"author": "Chad",
"timestamp": "2011-03-14T14:17:26",
"content": "I agree with Thor, I’d love to use my Android smartphone as a universal remote except it has no IR capabilities. I always have my phone with me and it could be way more powerful than a clumsy universal remote (that costs as much as my phone).",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "357979",
"author": "Kim",
"timestamp": "2011-03-14T16:05:14",
"content": "I actually had a similar idea using an arduino.. I just don’t have the skills to do it :)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "357989",
"author": "Bob",
"timestamp": "2011-03-14T16:17:02",
"content": "*I* don’t need to move large quanties of stuff from place to place. Why the hell would someone build a truck?Seriously. This project would be useful to a number of people for various solutions. A number of commercial systems already do this. Just because it is not immediately useful to you does not make useless in general.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "357991",
"author": "Bob",
"timestamp": "2011-03-14T16:18:45",
"content": "PS. Pretty sure they won’t get release of the microchip stack.Other projects simply link to where you can get it and instructions on integrating it into the project. Distribution of a pre-compiled .hex is fine too.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "358072",
"author": "Brennan",
"timestamp": "2011-03-14T17:24:08",
"content": "If you guys read my previous post I covered the idea of controlling audio from different rooms, and I also said it’s unrealistic that people have their whole house wired for audio. But I suppose if you are one of the select enthusiasts that do have your house wired, this hack might be applicable to you.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "358124",
"author": "BitMage",
"timestamp": "2011-03-14T18:07:28",
"content": "On the last line it says “Either-IR” instead of “Ether IR”.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "358155",
"author": "M4CGYV3R",
"timestamp": "2011-03-14T18:35:34",
"content": "I just do this with Remote Desktop Connection, since my home entertainment system runs Windows and is internet-connected on its own.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "358317",
"author": "Max",
"timestamp": "2011-03-14T21:22:30",
"content": "I would sure like to see some Picus projects.http://www.openpicus.com/cms/Maybe it will catch-on. I wish I had time towork on something with the development kit.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "358998",
"author": "James",
"timestamp": "2011-03-15T14:56:12",
"content": "Can’t imagine a use for it. But well done anyway!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "360091",
"author": "mike bradley",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T17:43:55",
"content": "I am reading this on my droid x, and my first thought is a webpage that I can pull up on my phone as a virtual remote.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
}
] | 1,760,377,247.150909
|
||
https://hackaday.com/2011/03/14/mini-sata-power-adapter-does-away-with-hdd-docking-stations/
|
Mini SATA Power Adapter Does Away With HDD Docking Stations
|
Mike Nathan
|
[
"computer hacks",
"Peripherals Hacks"
] |
[
"docking",
"power",
"sata"
] |
[Marc] is pretty unsatisfied with hard drive docking stations as a whole. He says they are typically slow and unreliable, causing him all sorts of grief while he is troubleshooting a questionable hard drive. He decided to take some of the mystery out of the troubleshooting equation and built a
standalone SATA power module
.
Aware that SATA drives require 5v and 12v for operation, he disassembled one of his docking stations to see how it provided both voltages. He discovered that it used a simple PWM buck converter and decided to replicate it in the smallest space possible. His plan was to use a standard 12v wall wart to power the circuit, passing that 12v straight to the drive. A simple voltage step-down circuit would be built to provide the required 5v.
[Marc] reports that the power adapter is performing nicely, and he is quite happy with the size as well. He says that one major benefit of this sort of adapter is that it can be used to power any SATA drive, not just hard drives. He does mention that if he built another one, he might consider regulating the 12v output as well, so that he can power the adapter with a laptop power supply instead of a separate dedicated wall wart.
| 30
| 30
|
[
{
"comment_id": "357792",
"author": "Michael Nielsen",
"timestamp": "2011-03-14T11:27:42",
"content": "A wall adapter directly to a hard drive’s 12V line? Sounds more unstable than the dock to me – what about noise and is the power supply regulated or switched?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "357793",
"author": "elektrophreak",
"timestamp": "2011-03-14T11:32:25",
"content": "great! i could use this to power my external HDD for LG TV!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "357797",
"author": "ReKlipz",
"timestamp": "2011-03-14T11:49:43",
"content": "s/regulating/bucking\\/boosting/Hopefully the 12 volt wall wart is more than just a transformer and rectifier; I sure hope it has at least some form of regulation.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "357804",
"author": "mrb",
"timestamp": "2011-03-14T12:00:11",
"content": "I copied the design of the docking station (which feeds the 12V straight to the drive), so I deducted that the wall wart has a regulated output.-Marc",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "357832",
"author": "Paul",
"timestamp": "2011-03-14T12:29:24",
"content": "I am a nearly 50 yr old beginner that knows next to shit about computers but I get the feeling that this power adapter would sell bigtime.Go 4 it and good luck.Paul",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "357851",
"author": "Scott",
"timestamp": "2011-03-14T13:01:04",
"content": "The need for a regulated 12V power supply was implied, then commented on but can not be overstated. (For other’s benefit) Most cheap ACDC transformers only guarantee 12V, but will deliver up to 18V and harm your electronics… unless what it is connected to has a power regulator.I think most HAD-ers will know this issue, but a reminder can’t hurt. If you build this as a gift – please pair it with a power supply (and label it!).Alternatively – you can add a 12V regulator to your board (about $1-$2 cost) but leave space for a small heatsink. Actually not a bad idea to do anyways… You don’t want uncle bob toasting 5 years worth of unbacked photo memories…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "357885",
"author": "Bill",
"timestamp": "2011-03-14T14:20:49",
"content": "I’m a little put off by one thing in this otherwise simple hack.He shuns the commercial products for there ‘brick adapter’ and calls his a small “coin sized” power module, completely ignoring the fact you still need to carry around a large wall-wart to power it.I’ll argue that’s one in the same, whether it’s a brick or a wall wart. It’s still a big heavy box you gotta carry around.I’m ok with ‘do it yourself and learn’ to avoid COTS products, but this isn’t better then COTS.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "357891",
"author": "xorpunk",
"timestamp": "2011-03-14T14:35:31",
"content": "I’ve been meaning to pair my usb to sata/ide/fide converter with something like this for a long time",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "357892",
"author": "Ekaj",
"timestamp": "2011-03-14T14:36:42",
"content": "WTF, he duplicates the circuitry inside a commercial docking station, and you tards call it a hack?FURTHERMORE, why the hell would you do this? If you are running a SATA cable out of your case, then why not run a power connector out as well?…Seriously? Did you not think of this? Why would you need a commercial product for this?This site never ceases to amaze me, and not in a good way.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "357896",
"author": "RobSchrab",
"timestamp": "2011-03-14T14:43:08",
"content": "Ekaj, ever heard of eSATA?What if, and stop me if this is too far over your head, he had a laptop with eSATA? Holy crap, can you imagine?He could power the hard drive externally AND have reasonable speeds since he would not be stuck using USB. That is, unless you are fond of somehow jiggering your laptop to have SATA cables dangling from it all day. I for one would rather carry around a tiny wall wart, this thing, and an eSATA cable instead of a HDD dock when I go on site to do troubleshooting.Simple hacks that work are sometimes the best ones out there. If you are so underwhelmed, go troll somewhere else.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "357933",
"author": "rew",
"timestamp": "2011-03-14T15:03:56",
"content": "I’m hesitant to use chips that have errors in their datasheet. Page 6, “switching frequency” claims that the switcher switches at 240-260 Hz. That probably should be kHz as around 300kHz switching is quite common.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "357934",
"author": "third",
"timestamp": "2011-03-14T15:04:26",
"content": "@EkajDown boy, down!This guy made a nice little voltage converter which fits his needs. He already said that he would build a better one. The reason why he doesn’t just pull a power connecter out of his case is because he probably doesn’t run a sata cable out of it either. Modern motherboards have got these nice eSATA ports, which is SATA, only external, hence the name. The stability and speed limitations he talks about are in regard to the bridge logic in the docking station, not the power adapter or the eSATA bridge on his motherboard.The annoying whiny little commentators on this site never cease to amaze me, and not in a good way. If you don’t like a hack, just ignore it and move on. Or provide some useful criticism and help the hacker improve his/her work.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "357940",
"author": "Michael Nielsen",
"timestamp": "2011-03-14T15:12:38",
"content": "@third agreed +1 ..anyways sorry Mark, didn’t read that you just copied the board layout. That should (hopefully) be okay then. If you would ever want to, a new modified model would be very nice with a switching 12V regulator – because if the lines are too long from the power adapter, they could increase the noise on the 12V line also. Maybe your hard drive runs nicely, but in 6 months it might be clicking and saying funny noises :-)If you are building a 12V regulator/filter, be comprehensive to choose the right components – you might not be able to use a 12V wall adapter as it would just regulate it to ~11V :-)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "357980",
"author": "AC",
"timestamp": "2011-03-14T16:05:17",
"content": "http://www.google.com/search?q=Ekaj+site%3Ahackaday.comWe usually learn from mistakes, but Ekaj does not… and goes out of his way to insult and antagonize hackers and posters. See URL. Anyone who responds to Ekaj telling him to calm down is just feeding the troll.I wouldn’t mind if tomorrow’s HAD was a proxy service that filtered out Ekaj’s comments. Seriously. :-)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "358198",
"author": "mrb",
"timestamp": "2011-03-14T19:31:06",
"content": "Bill: both my power module and a docking station need a wall wart. This not where I claim to save space.I claim to save space by having replaced a brick-sized docking station with a coin-sized module.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "358219",
"author": "Decius",
"timestamp": "2011-03-14T19:45:48",
"content": "He still made something, and it worked for him. Not every hack is going to please you or be as complex as you want it to be. It was still a modification although small it worked.There’s no need to cry about it in the comments, don’t like it move on. Welcome to life.What is this I don’t even.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "358222",
"author": "Bill",
"timestamp": "2011-03-14T19:46:52",
"content": "@mrb:“I would be very happy to see a commercial product like mine. I found only one on Newegg but it is still too bulky and clumsy to my taste (separate thick IEC power cord, brick adapter, 4-pin molex power cable, 4-pin molex to SATA power adapter).”your hack and a wall wart or the the product you linked with a brick are both a heavy mess of wires in your bag. Though it’s harder to find a place on a power strip for your wall wart.And why in the heck were you carrying around a whole docking station to begin with? I have had one of these for years:http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812156102and covers all types of hard drive interfaces.Still doesn’t address your speed concerns, but the one adapter can cover 3 types of HD interfaces. and power without a massive dock.I’m not trying to belittle your work, you took something you had, built a little extra to modify it’s purpose and got something more useful for little investment. Great job! That’s what we are here for.It’s just not something fantastically better then any COTS products and the way you word it sounds a little deceiving IMHO.‘DIY Coin-sized SATA Power Module’, more like coin sized power ‘adapter’ that still requires a big wall wart to run. That’s all.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "358236",
"author": "IJ Dee-Vo",
"timestamp": "2011-03-14T19:58:00",
"content": "@Ekaj Hack, definatly a hack. I guess it is eaiser to be a user and troll Makers who make things for their own needs and desires then to make something and post it.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "358251",
"author": "mrb",
"timestamp": "2011-03-14T20:16:34",
"content": "@BillAre you linking to the right product? I clicked on the pictures and it is definitively a bigger mess of wires than mine:http://images10.newegg.com/NeweggImage/productimage/12-156-102-13.jpg",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "358286",
"author": "Bill",
"timestamp": "2011-03-14T20:55:14",
"content": "@mrbThat is, arguably but it also does 3 times as much as what your setup can do. I keep it in a pouch and it’s no problem. Only 3 pieces of wire, to your three pieces of wire(adapter, power cord, sata cable).However, what you linked in your blog as similar but “too bulky and clumsy” however is identical to what you did. The only addition is the power cord from the brick, which I prefer over wall warts as easier to use and welcome the addition of the 2 feet of cord.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "358291",
"author": "Scott",
"timestamp": "2011-03-14T21:04:10",
"content": "@Bill – I have one of the dock-less connectors. The wires tangle in my backpack.Wouldn’t it be nice to forget the AC cable and 5V/12V power supply, and just run this off your existing laptop supply? Provided I only need the SATA drive for a little while, I can run the laptop off it’s battery. Or I could run the SATA drive off the spare laptop battery.But that’s just my situation… anyone could adapt this to support whatever power they find to be commonly available (heck, using 9V batteries if you use a 9V to 12V booster).It might not seem like much, but anything you can do to reduce laptop bag clutter and weight is a great hack indeed.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "358380",
"author": "Bill",
"timestamp": "2011-03-14T22:08:58",
"content": "@ScottI guess it’s all in the cable management skills. I love my adapter, great for portable computer work.And again, what I linked is different then what is featured here, as my link provides the data interface for 3 HD types when the hack is only involving power.My point is what the blog links to as a COTS comparison is 95% the same as the hack, if not better depending on user preference.And I always said this was a good hack, just not better then what’s COTS, which is what the blog post leads you to believe.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "358384",
"author": "mrb",
"timestamp": "2011-03-14T22:10:00",
"content": "@BillI do agree it does 3x more, but it is USB which is a deal-breaker for me (1/3rdthe throughput of SATA).Also, maybe I didn’t take good pictures of my device, but I really want toinsist that size was one of my primary design factors, and the size of that IECpower cord and power brick is twice the volume of my elements (thin 12V cord ¬ice how the wall wart is horizontal on a wall outlet meaning it would notobstruct outlets on a power strip). Yes the 12V cord is short but that is whatI want.To each his own. You are happy with yours, I am happy with mine :-)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "358626",
"author": "Kyle",
"timestamp": "2011-03-15T03:49:09",
"content": "I don’t get it… Did he not realize that there is such thing as a USB-powered eSATA enclosure? Also, what’s with just copying the circuit and building it on a piece of perf board? Was this supposed to accomplish something in particular? He even used the factory wall wart. I am confused…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "359332",
"author": "curado",
"timestamp": "2011-03-15T21:44:21",
"content": "Would like to see a regulated 12/5v sata power adapter that plugs inline with the laptop power connector. That would be useful.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "359363",
"author": "Cool!",
"timestamp": "2011-03-15T22:25:21",
"content": "@Kyle –“Did he not realize that there is such thing as a USB-powered eSATA enclosure?”Did you not realize that USB ports will not provide 12V? Try googling for “USB powered SATA adapter and you will see…”Perhaps you meant to say there was “no such thing”?Even tapping 2 USB ports for power and using a 12V boost circuit, you are not going to have enough 12V power to run SATA drives.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "359698",
"author": "Frogz",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T07:51:03",
"content": "cool, i have a little usb adaptor that does just thatand it does a rather good job of failing on 90% of the drives i try it on(gives a nice clicking though)also,http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812232002i got 1 of these on sale at microcenter for $10(it sucks, the ide isnt even keyed… i got a much better 1 as well as 1 i ripped out of a dead external cdrom) but the power supply gives 2.5 amps on 12 and 5 fairly relyably(although 1 supply died on me sofar, using a old scsi enclosure in it’s place, if you want relyable power get a old scsi enclosure)er what was i saying again?something about commercially made products doing probably much better than a wallwart powered minicircuitBUTbefore you jump on me for saying thisit has one MAJOR use, using a cat battery jump starter(ie, portable 12 volt supply) you can effectivly power any drive you want anywhere you want with a laptop to plug it into",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "359999",
"author": "Kyle",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T16:20:57",
"content": "@Cool!I don’t think I was specific enough for you – 2.5″ SATA drives don’t require 12 volts, so USB power would be perfect. Full size enclosures come with the necessary adapter, and many are only slightly larger than the drive (for example, a rosewill unit that measures 7.6×4.45×1.22″)Comparison:This “hack”: Requires power adapter + home built power dongle + eSATA->SATA drive cable + hard drive which sits exposed to the world. Lots of wires, exposed circuit board on hard drive, etc.Commercially built 3.5″ enclosure: Requires enclosure (many of which are hardly larger than the drive itself) + eower adapter + eSATA cable. Drive is protected from the world.As you can see, the commercial solution is the better one. Carrying around a bare drive is not a good idea!!!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "360544",
"author": "mrb",
"timestamp": "2011-03-17T01:54:53",
"content": "Your confusion about the utility of my hack is that you think I aim at solving the need of people who need to permanently carry a drive with them (in that case I do agree the enclosure is superior.) My usage scenario is for the traveller with a laptop who needs to travel very light while always being able to connect a drive to its laptop (in that case I hope you realize carrying an empty enclosure would be a waste of space compared to my hack.)PS: there is a better solution for 2.5″ drives than USB: power over eSATA, which allows you to replace a docking station/enclosure/my hack with a simple passive cable. I will post pictures about this tonight.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "398266",
"author": "good job",
"timestamp": "2011-05-26T17:58:10",
"content": "1) sata speed > than those usb crap adapters2) “commercial” solutions for bays are stupid with their cost, max cost for a 4 drive bay should be $20 out the door, until that happens, bare drives all the way, or in recycled bays from old computersuse your minds instead of paying too much for crap…quality component arguments are FAIL",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
}
] | 1,760,377,247.985875
|
||
https://hackaday.com/2011/03/13/cd-phonograph-brings-old-time-charm-to-modern-music/
|
CD Phonograph Brings Old-time Charm To Modern Music
|
Mike Nathan
|
[
"classic hacks",
"digital audio hacks"
] |
[
"cd player",
"phonograph"
] |
[Jozerworx] had always wanted to build a
CD player that looked like an old-time Victrola Phonograph
player, though he never seemed to be able to find the time to do it. With all of his other projects out of the way, he decided to finally get started on building his phonograph.
He went garage sale hunting and found the perfect base for his project – an old wooden box adorned with tarnished brass hardware. He started in on the project immediately, dismantling a cheap CD player and mounting the motor/laser assembly on the top of the box. The CD player internals were installed inside the wooden box, along with a small audio amplifier stripped from a portable iPod speaker.
A brass horn was fashioned out of an ornament, in order to complete the phonograph feel, but also to act as a passive amplifier. He then mounted a series of switches on the top of the box to allow him to control the CD player’s basic functions.
[Jozerworx] says that it sounds decent, though there are some things he would change. He plans on switching out the audio amplifier and possibly the speakers at some point in the future. He is also still keeping his eye out for a larger, and more effective horn.
| 23
| 23
|
[
{
"comment_id": "357324",
"author": "vasskk",
"timestamp": "2011-03-13T21:58:15",
"content": "this was totally one of my goals too, awesome work man.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "357330",
"author": "Per Jensen",
"timestamp": "2011-03-13T22:09:20",
"content": "Would have been nice if he was able to put green felt in the sled assembly too, but i guess the disc will hit it then…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "357333",
"author": "katsmeat",
"timestamp": "2011-03-13T22:12:29",
"content": "He could make his own horn from paper-mache. That’s what the original ones were made from.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "357363",
"author": "Brian",
"timestamp": "2011-03-13T23:04:45",
"content": "A work of art! Like records for the digital age ;)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "357370",
"author": "Hirudinea",
"timestamp": "2011-03-13T23:16:40",
"content": "Very nice, but you need to add a crank to power it to make it really authentic.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "357376",
"author": "Bill D. Williams",
"timestamp": "2011-03-13T23:22:21",
"content": "CD player. Wow – that really is an antique",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "357435",
"author": "PJN",
"timestamp": "2011-03-14T00:43:23",
"content": "What about eye safety? You should put the box very low on the ground so that no stray reflections from the exposed laser could hit anyone in the eye.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "357448",
"author": "Richard Ballard",
"timestamp": "2011-03-14T01:01:14",
"content": "Add a CD with a picture of a record on it to top it off.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "357459",
"author": "Rebel",
"timestamp": "2011-03-14T01:10:43",
"content": "Didn’t verbatim used to make some CD-R’s that look like a small record? I think they just called the Vinyl. That would be the perfect finishing touch.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "357460",
"author": "Rebel",
"timestamp": "2011-03-14T01:12:22",
"content": "Wow, I should really proof-read my posts before sending them.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "357471",
"author": "Surplus-Addict",
"timestamp": "2011-03-14T02:02:50",
"content": "Here are the Verbatim records CDs! They would look awesome on that thing!http://www.google.com/products/catalog?q=vinyl+looking+cd&um=1&ie=UTF-8&cid=9846487129198390374&sa=X&ei=93Z9TYv3KdT5rAGrtPH8BQ&ved=0CDYQ8wIwAg#",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "357528",
"author": "J Harton",
"timestamp": "2011-03-14T03:50:22",
"content": "Needs one these horns ->http://www.badabingrecords.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/Gramophone_19141.pngOh, and get some music on laserdisc! (might need a tinted glass/plastic cover to keep out the dust in that case though (at least for two-sided ones).",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "357559",
"author": "MS3FGX",
"timestamp": "2011-03-14T04:32:35",
"content": "@RebelYeah, they were called something like that, “Vinyl CD-R” I think. They actually looked really good from the top, even had the paper label around the spindle hole.The bottom side was blue though, which always bothered me.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "357668",
"author": "Max",
"timestamp": "2011-03-14T07:31:33",
"content": "Not to knock a maker, any maker – this is a nicely done project; and an absolutely horribly mimicked phonograph.For a decent one, there should be a proper shaped and sized horn and no visible “controls” – knobs or connectors, that would not be there on a period item. Also, possibly a DSP audio filter to “phonography” the sound (great opportunity to go beyond the Arduino) before it goes to the speaker. Yes, the one speaker. Preferably mounted to the mouth of the horn. If you insist, it could have a concealed headphone jack and/ar A2DP module built-in, for the times you actually want to hear music. And if you really want to go the extra mile, possibly a way to conceal the CD head slot until it’s actually playing…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "357721",
"author": "echodelta",
"timestamp": "2011-03-14T09:51:45",
"content": "I love the concept of a naked CD player, to see the disc spinning is way cool. The safety nurds had to do the door interlock crap and spoil the fun. In drawer types the little rubber drive belt fails, and bricks the unit for most. I hacked mine when the slide failed. The motor spindle and optics was moved to the front inside of the removed drawer hole, tilted out slightly. The spindle is changed with one from a portable. Relays make the load button read the ToC and then you can hit play.Look at the first gen Berliner disc players for copy ideas, the discs were about the same size.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "357795",
"author": "darkore",
"timestamp": "2011-03-14T11:39:16",
"content": "Hands up if you first read that as “CD pornograph brings…”",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "357796",
"author": "IJ Dee-Vo",
"timestamp": "2011-03-14T11:43:04",
"content": "@Max Then make it!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "357798",
"author": "Jim",
"timestamp": "2011-03-14T11:51:17",
"content": "Here is an idea on similar lines…Something to play MP3s instead of CDs;Use a real record, an old 78 maybe and pick up arm, perhaps hack a real turntable. Use sensors/ switches on the arm to detect changes in the angular position, perhaps a small nudge one way would skip forward, a larger displacement skips to the next track and likewise the other way skips back. Putting the arm ‘home’ stops play back. That should be quite easy to connect up in place of buttons on a hacked (cheap) MP3 player. A really ambitious version might try to slow down playback if the turntable is slowed or might think up a way of selecting artist or genre based on which specific vinyl disc is on the turntable, concealed magnets, optical code…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "358014",
"author": "jim",
"timestamp": "2011-03-14T16:28:52",
"content": "Nah, just record digital vinyl and run it through a DAC. Should be good enough for like dictaphone quality…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "358064",
"author": "mindbleach",
"timestamp": "2011-03-14T17:08:33",
"content": "Vaguely disappointing (though understandable) that it doesn’t play with the data side up. If you mounted the read head on an arm, would it have to stay parallel to the spiral track’s tangent, or is the read area close enough to a point that orientation is irrelevant?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "358070",
"author": "Jozerworx",
"timestamp": "2011-03-14T17:20:03",
"content": "Hey, thanks for all the feedback, a couple of responses:The laser is not dangerous. Its less than 1mW (laser pointers are up to 5mW), and its focal length is something like 1mm above the lens. Laser mice are actually more dangerous.You don’t need a DSP to get the low fidelity phonograph sound. Using a horn as a mechanical amplifier actually does the trick, it takes all the bass out of the sound and makes it sound tinny and retro. The only things it is missing are the “pops” of a dirty record, and the tremolo caused by variations in rotational speed of a crappy speed regulator.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "358669",
"author": "Jack Dedert",
"timestamp": "2011-03-15T05:09:05",
"content": "One small gripe…not with the project itself, that’s very cool. But the white on black page is difficult to read. I could only make it out by selecting the text as I read it.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "358922",
"author": "madis_l",
"timestamp": "2011-03-15T12:27:36",
"content": "I had something similar in my mind. Luckily, if you wait long enough someone will do everything instead you.My 0.02€ would be idea to use needle assembly as part of user interface. So to jump to next song You have to lift “needle” and lower it another on position. If You do it without list DSP wil generate some nastiness. Of course, i would use tiny wheel instead of actualneedle.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
}
] | 1,760,377,247.798197
|
||
https://hackaday.com/2011/03/13/diy-laser-light-show-is-sure-to-please/
|
DIY Laser Light Show Is Sure To Please
|
Mike Nathan
|
[
"Laser Hacks"
] |
[
"laser",
"light show"
] |
[Pete] had some spare time on his hands over his spring break, and he was itching to build something. He settled on
a laser light show
since, after all it was spring break, and what says “Party” better than a laser light show?
He glued three hobby mirrors to three small motors, mounting the motor assemblies on the lid of a wooden cigar box he bought for next to nothing. When the laser is pointed at the mirrors, they reflect the beam off one another, and finally against a projection surface, creating interesting shapes and motion. He programmed an Atmega328 to control the laser light show when in automatic mode, and added 4 pots to control the mirrors’ spin rate when set in manual mode.
The visuals are pretty cool, as you can see in the videos below. We love the laser light show concept, and [Pete] definitely gets extra points for his cigar-box casing as well.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C7U4SZhPL3I&w=470]
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eTItwBvmH-Y&w=470]
| 12
| 12
|
[
{
"comment_id": "357164",
"author": "Tim",
"timestamp": "2011-03-13T19:43:14",
"content": "A while ago i built something similar, but i glued mirrors to two speakers and played music through them, the vibration from the speakers moved the mirrors and made cool patterns with the laser.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "357186",
"author": "Nomad",
"timestamp": "2011-03-13T20:07:24",
"content": "@Tim: Vids, or it never happened ^^",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "357192",
"author": "Colonel Moutarde",
"timestamp": "2011-03-13T20:08:47",
"content": "Nice. I remember doing something like this when I was teenager for parties. I bought a HeNe laser and built a kind of track containing RC servo with mirrors. I was cutting the light beam with the mirrors to reflect the beam to different places in the room where motors mounted mirrors where placed (I was using tape deck motors). Cool tunnel effects were achieved form different places, especially with my home made smoke machine ;-) I still have the HeNe tube but I thing the PS capacitors must be dry as it doesn’t lights anymore (it was nearly 30 years ago ;-) ! )",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "357195",
"author": "Brad",
"timestamp": "2011-03-13T20:12:43",
"content": "youtube is not for slideshows",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "357199",
"author": "strider_mt2k",
"timestamp": "2011-03-13T20:21:38",
"content": "My brother made a similar hack years ago.He used a couple of old speakers as well, hinging the mirror mounts on different axis to get more movement.As I recall he hooked some guitar effects pedals up for some more interesting effects.-then we pointed the laser at our neighbor’s Harley and made him think it was still turned on for a minute until he blocked the beam.GOOD TIMES!!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "357346",
"author": "Jimmy",
"timestamp": "2011-03-13T22:26:12",
"content": "That is a very cool effect for such a simple setup.Has anyone come across similar reflected laser projects that do more than just spirograph / beat visualization?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "357380",
"author": "Bill D. Williams",
"timestamp": "2011-03-13T23:25:07",
"content": "Pfff. You should be at a bar *enjoying* a laser light show for spring break – not building one. Silly nerds – go get drunk like a normal person.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "357410",
"author": "anon",
"timestamp": "2011-03-13T23:58:01",
"content": "@Bill – respect the nerd, one day a nerd will be your boss",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "357538",
"author": "DUI STEVE",
"timestamp": "2011-03-14T03:58:22",
"content": "(not trolling, just ramblin’) i stuck a laser module on a pipe cleaner, hooked to an 18650, instant transfunctioner. some of the functions include: cat toy, seismo-oscilliscopythingamajig, and more! spinning angled mirrors is cool, even more awesome if you can make it spell out words, make a sign! mine operates on the vibration of whatever it’s mounted on, and does stuff like the spinny-mirror-machine, and amplifies the magnitude of a wave via leverage, or something. mine:n00b pre-K ‘hack’, less power consuming, but more random. with the right sensors, it could be a scientific instrument, so.. bring back gilligan’s island, the professor and his more modern electronic junkpile to work with, attempting to aim an überdirectional WiFi transponder at Hawaii so he can check into facebook lol imma ramblinman and i’ve got a hack for you, it’s some nanotransistors for your brain and it’s called Dimethyltryptaminehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mYKw_W0mh4I",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "357606",
"author": "Bill D. Williams",
"timestamp": "2011-03-14T05:22:20",
"content": "@anon. I’m my own boss. And nerds don’t move up to management – they lack the people skills. Most likely ’cause they sat home during spring break and played with lasers.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "357704",
"author": "Matt H",
"timestamp": "2011-03-14T09:00:58",
"content": "This is pretty cool!Theres another project on the net that connects a custom built scanner to a pc. Then a linux program runs and creates the movement in the servos, the guy does some neat stuff with them.Check it out:http://marcansoft.com/blog/openlase/hardware-mark-1/",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "357705",
"author": "Matt H",
"timestamp": "2011-03-14T09:02:14",
"content": "sorry thats the hardware, this post has videos of it in action:http://marcansoft.com/blog/2011/01/openlase-hardware-and-simulator/",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
}
] | 1,760,377,247.201725
|
||
https://hackaday.com/2011/03/13/reverse-engineering-the-playstation-move/
|
Reverse Engineering The Playstation Move
|
Mike Nathan
|
[
"Microcontrollers",
"Playstation Hacks"
] |
[
"move",
"playstation 3",
"ps3",
"reverse engineering"
] |
[Kenn] is working on building a quadrocopter from the ground up for a university project. Currently, his main focus is building an Inertial Measurement Unit, or rather
re-purposing a PS3 Move
controller as the IMU for his copter. He previously considered using a Wiimote Motion Plus, but the Move has a three-axis magnetometer, which the Wii controller does not.
The ultimate goal for this portion of his project is building custom firmware to run on the Move’s STM32-Cortex microcontroller, allowing him to obtain data from each of the controller’s sensors. Through the course of his research, he has thoroughly documented each sensor on his site, and dumped a full working firmware image from the Cortex chip as well. Recently, he was even able to run arbitrary code on the controller itself, which is a huge step forward.
[Kenn’s] project is coming along very nicely, and will undoubtedly be a great resource to others as he continues to dig through the inner workings of the Move. Be sure to swing by his site if you are looking for information, or if you have something to contribute.
| 12
| 12
|
[
{
"comment_id": "357123",
"author": "h_2_o",
"timestamp": "2011-03-13T18:05:10",
"content": "insert comment about sony coming after you if you do this now. Sounds silly but i wonder how many will scrap the idea of working on sony content considering their current actions.All that said hopefully he will be able to get his project done.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "357137",
"author": "Reggie",
"timestamp": "2011-03-13T18:43:38",
"content": "Really good work by the guy :)I can see about zero people changing their attitude towards hacking sony kit given that sony will try and hit them up with a law suit. What I can see is people not necessarily publishing the inner workings of how others may achieve what they’ve done but don’t bank on that either.I can see hackers and hacker groups doing what they always do, getting organised, becoming anonymous (again) and carrying on as usual.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "357193",
"author": "strider_mt2k",
"timestamp": "2011-03-13T20:11:22",
"content": "Can we hack a decent windows driver together for the stupid PS3 controllers while we’re at it?-please?Too many hoops to jump through for Windows users to make it work with a standard Bluetooth connection at the moment.It’s regoramdiculous when you think of how many they’d sell with a simple driver release.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "357197",
"author": "strider_mt2k",
"timestamp": "2011-03-13T20:16:03",
"content": "I’m actually planning the internal installation of yet another Xbox 360 wireless receiver into a netbook because the hardware mod/driver install is ultimately less hassle than that BT mess over the long haul.It shows where my skillset resides, but still…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "357198",
"author": "strider_mt2k",
"timestamp": "2011-03-13T20:17:55",
"content": "In for a penny… sorry for the multiples.This guy’s work is clever, and anything that hacks Sorny stuff is cool with me.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "357339",
"author": "Kenn Sebesta",
"timestamp": "2011-03-13T22:15:44",
"content": "It’s interesting that so many comments seem to focus on me getting sued. I can’t really say I understand the attitude that completely reprogramming something bought at a profit, without EULA, without any contract etc.. should attract a lawsuit.I would see this the exact same as the people on motioninjoy.com reading the Move reports and doing arbitrary things. Or even just using the WiiMote for other fun and cool projects. I’m just taking it a step further (back) from the PS3 and reprogramming the firmware.I suppose Sony’s war on hackers really _has_ scared a lot of people. Stand tall, guys, this is our future at stake!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "357402",
"author": "Pencilneck",
"timestamp": "2011-03-13T23:33:57",
"content": "Waiting for Sony’s lawyers to respond with another pointless lawsuit.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "357630",
"author": "Drone",
"timestamp": "2011-03-14T06:07:23",
"content": "Lawyer bait. Sony makes me hate Sony.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "357652",
"author": "xorpunk",
"timestamp": "2011-03-14T06:54:11",
"content": "didn’t they have crypto on dualshock3 controllers protocol?yep lawyer bait..they’ll get scared away from it the second lawyers threaten..",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "357886",
"author": "Shorin",
"timestamp": "2011-03-14T14:22:58",
"content": "He should beware of posting something like a firmware dump, especially if he doesn’t know whether or not sony owns that firmware. Its like posting a console’s bios file or rom on the internet. Might be able to get away with it if it was developed using open-source software though.Who knows. Sounds cool though.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "359225",
"author": "Kenn Sebesta",
"timestamp": "2011-03-15T19:29:03",
"content": "For all those wondering about firmware, I have now posted a sample firmware where I show how to access all the sensors, LEDs, and buttons.Note that there is still no bluetooth support.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1161303",
"author": "John Galt",
"timestamp": "2014-01-12T02:38:01",
"content": "Hi. Nice work so far. You might be interested how those guys hacked the Bluetooth protocol used by Wii U Gamepad, in this video. I have the feeling that PS is using the same weird (and stupid) +3 “encryption”, that can be easily hacked.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m8YgVVtNRjg",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
}
] | 1,760,377,247.391351
|
||
https://hackaday.com/2011/03/13/reverse-engineering-the-psp/
|
Reverse Engineering The PSP
|
Chris Nelson
|
[
"PSP Hacks"
] |
[
"bga",
"psp",
"reverse engineering"
] |
The original PSP may be old news but there is an
interesting relic of a website
(
translated
) dedicated to the reverse engineering of a PSP (and exploring Saturn?). To determine the true capabilities of the PSP they desoldered most of the ball grid array chips and then hand soldered 157 jumper wires to allow for direct memory access. In later pictures it shows the PSP hooked up to external hardware for on the fly memory modification. Unfortunately the details are sparse and it doesn’t appear as if they will be updated anytime soon because the website has been “deleted and freezed because of spam. may ineffaceable curse prevail on the spammers.” Still this doesn’t detract too much some very impressive soldering.
| 14
| 14
|
[
{
"comment_id": "357078",
"author": "iToast",
"timestamp": "2011-03-13T15:40:22",
"content": "Even thought im sick of the horrible administration here, ima say this. This is kinda pointles… Since we can read and write to all hardware throught a kernel exploit.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "357084",
"author": "andrew",
"timestamp": "2011-03-13T15:54:14",
"content": "I’m guessing this was done before that was possible.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "357085",
"author": "iToast",
"timestamp": "2011-03-13T15:59:41",
"content": "@andrew homebrew was out before this, psps OFW 1.0 allowed homebrew… Proding and poking of the hardware through homebrew… it was insecure",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "357087",
"author": "Alex",
"timestamp": "2011-03-13T16:06:45",
"content": "@iToast:What you are seeing is one way those kernel exploits were developed. These are the guys who do the real work. So unless you have something useful to add, get over it.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "357093",
"author": "addidis",
"timestamp": "2011-03-13T16:26:41",
"content": "This is a glimpse into what sony used to be. A company who literally sent pre-release psp to the hackers doing this stuff. They used the communities code, and added the functionality the community added to OFW. It was a good time to own a psp.Now rather then free hardware , they send court summons. It makes me sad.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "357099",
"author": "arfink",
"timestamp": "2011-03-13T17:00:15",
"content": "Holy cow, now that’s some amazing soldering. O.o",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "357121",
"author": "Robert Ely",
"timestamp": "2011-03-13T18:01:57",
"content": "@iToast;REALLY? If your not posting useless crap in the forums, your hating in the forums? If you dont like the site, GTFO….I can easily speak for every one when i say, I’m fucking tired of you…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "357127",
"author": "iToast",
"timestamp": "2011-03-13T18:24:51",
"content": "@alex Seriosly? The kernel exploits started with buffer overflows. Unused signing. Yes, they did somthing like this, dark_alex did. But HENS were released that didnt need the hardware hacking EVER. And this meathod was stoped. Now its based off kernel hacks.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "357151",
"author": "Gilliam",
"timestamp": "2011-03-13T19:04:50",
"content": "toasty, i will diverge from topic as well; take a deep breath and put on a shit-eating smile. it will help you get through the day :)on topic: that chip looks like a monkey brain with all those wires coming out of it.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "357201",
"author": "strider_mt2k",
"timestamp": "2011-03-13T20:25:57",
"content": "I really didn’t appreciate the PSP until it was properly hacked.I don’t play mine all the time, but I keep it well taken care of and still use it occasionally.It’s because of pioneers like these we can take these things for granted.I salute you!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "357364",
"author": "Jim Atchue",
"timestamp": "2011-03-13T23:05:46",
"content": "@iToastThis is how all the exploits came to be, these are the real workers. Stop your bitching.@everyone elseIf you need me to translate any specific part of this website let me know, I will be glad to translate it. Just put the page url in a comment.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "358577",
"author": "anon",
"timestamp": "2011-03-15T02:32:29",
"content": "Nem and his group Saturn Expedition Committee were the ones who did all this stuff back in 2004. Their efforts paid off and were the first to run a Hello World application on the PSP on firmware 1.0.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "358587",
"author": "anon",
"timestamp": "2011-03-15T02:36:20",
"content": "Oops, meant 2005.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "476349",
"author": "charliex",
"timestamp": "2011-10-09T21:59:56",
"content": "its pretty epic work regardless of the age. i’ve hand soldered wires to chips like this to do RE , its a lot of work.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
}
] | 1,760,377,247.696066
|
||
https://hackaday.com/2011/03/13/bristlebot-mod-never-rubs-you-the-wrong-way/
|
Bristlebot Mod Never Rubs You The Wrong Way
|
Mike Nathan
|
[
"Robots Hacks"
] |
[
"bristlebot",
"steering"
] |
[Underling] sent in his bristlebot project that aims to put a
new spin on controlling bristlebot movement
. We have seen
several
attempts
at bristlebot directional control in the past, but none of these methods really fit what he wanted to do. His goal was to use a single brush rather than two, and be able to aim the bot in any direction at will.
He tried several different designs, but settled on what you see in the picture above. The large brush head is fitted with a vibrating motor on the front as well as a cell phone battery near the midsection. These pieces are placed in the center plane of the brush as to not influence the direction of movement. A separate servo-like motor is placed on the back of the brush, and each side of the motor’s arm is attached to a paddle that extends down the sides of the brush. When the motor is activated, one paddle is pressed in towards the bristles, while the other paddle is pulled away. This causes an immediate shift in direction, and should provide for a relatively tight turn radius. It should be noted that he also took the time to remove bristles from the center of the brush where the steering paddles are located in order to improve turning performance.
Unfortunately [Underling] does not currently have a video camera with which to show off his work, but we hope to see some action footage in the near future.
| 6
| 6
|
[
{
"comment_id": "357059",
"author": "derwin",
"timestamp": "2011-03-13T15:03:46",
"content": "i wonder how he controls the robot.do both the drive and steer motors run at the same time causing the robot to move in a sine wave-like pattern?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "357207",
"author": "strider_mt2k",
"timestamp": "2011-03-13T20:31:59",
"content": "The picture doesn’t show anything attached to the control motor, so I’m going to hazard a guess that it uses a wired control, at least for now.Pretty clever. I like bristle bot hacks!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "357335",
"author": "twopartepoxy",
"timestamp": "2011-03-13T22:14:28",
"content": "i don’t want to sound too critical here but,without video, i’m not really feeling it.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "357361",
"author": "Underling",
"timestamp": "2011-03-13T22:54:50",
"content": "@ derwinAt the moment the steering runs with jumpers connected to a battery. I’ve designed a wireless controller for it but don’t have the funds to build it right now.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "357688",
"author": "Max",
"timestamp": "2011-03-14T08:29:27",
"content": "@Underling: If cash is an issue, you might consider using IR control – any TV remote control could be used as a sender (my preferred one is the good old RC5 protocol), and the receiving end costs literally pennies (IR receiver + literally any MCU – I’ve done it with the venerable PIC16F84). But hey, it’s your brush… ;)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "357706",
"author": "strider_mt2k",
"timestamp": "2011-03-14T09:03:45",
"content": "One could modify cheap remote control vehicle guts with some relays to get the basic control you need for that thing.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
}
] | 1,760,377,247.644845
|
||
https://hackaday.com/2011/03/13/sleek-numitron-clock-tells-the-time-and-temperature/
|
Sleek Numitron Clock Tells The Time And Temperature
|
Mike Nathan
|
[
"clock hacks",
"Microcontrollers"
] |
[
"atmega",
"clock",
"numitron"
] |
Instructables user [janw] is a big fan of nixie clocks, but he had never built one before. He decided he would rather start small and
build a clock using numitron tubes
first, before moving to nixies. He preferred the simpler tubes due to their much lower voltage requirements and the fact that he would not have to use any specialized power supply for his project.
His clock serves double-duty, functioning as a thermometer as well. Timekeeping is regulated with a DS12307, and temperature is monitored using a DS18B20 single wire sensor – both of which are pretty common in these sorts of projects. Both are wired to an Atmega48 MCU which serves as the brain of the clock.
The numitrons were mounted in a handsome 5-layer milled acrylate stand with a pair of buttons mounted on the bottom which allow him to set the time. It really is a spectacular looking timepiece, and a great first effort on [janw’s] part.
Be sure to stick around to see a video of the clock in action.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZesR6_ZZ9pA&w=470]
| 6
| 6
|
[
{
"comment_id": "357049",
"author": "wouter",
"timestamp": "2011-03-13T13:55:21",
"content": "very nice build.. I like it. Also I understand why he chooses numitron tubes instead of nixies. Without a doubt nixie are nicer but their requirements are corresponding..",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "357111",
"author": "ss",
"timestamp": "2011-03-13T17:40:19",
"content": "Nice clock. Too bad I can’t read well about the project because of the stupid Instructables space. Requires a password (I know, register is for free but why do I have to give my personal info?) and is anyway annoying to use and read. Why people don’t use a free blog space where you can upload plenty of material and make it much nicer to read?Anyway, very nice project",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "357209",
"author": "strider_mt2k",
"timestamp": "2011-03-13T20:34:36",
"content": "VERY elegant.Nice project.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "357313",
"author": "echodelta",
"timestamp": "2011-03-13T21:43:21",
"content": "Great look. Real modern time, not medieval time.It’s 21:40 UTC but I still don’t know what time is is now. We just went thru the Bush early summertime change.Lets do the time warp again!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "359100",
"author": "dan fruzzetti",
"timestamp": "2011-03-15T16:48:40",
"content": "That clock is seriously awesome until you bump it with the bottom of your beer mug :(",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "359101",
"author": "dan fruzzetti",
"timestamp": "2011-03-15T16:49:10",
"content": "Thus it would be the shit if it were made taller and capable of “sucking the tubes in, turtle style” when it sensed imminent danger.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
}
] | 1,760,377,247.741864
|
||
https://hackaday.com/2011/03/12/usb-dongle-hack-tethers-dsr-cameras-at-a-fraction-of-the-price/
|
USB Dongle Hack Tethers DSLR Cameras At A Fraction Of The Price
|
Mike Nathan
|
[
"digital cameras hacks",
"Wireless Hacks"
] |
[
"remote",
"usb",
"wireless"
] |
[Neal] wanted to tether his DSLR to his computer, but he wasn’t about to fork out the $1,000 Nikon was asking for their wireless adapter. Instead, he opted to
construct his own solution
using two separate camera accessories which cost him less than $200 when finished.
The two components he purchased were a wireless USB transmitter/receiver pair and an external battery grip. The battery grip allows him to use a pair of batteries to power his camera, while providing just enough space to wedge in the USB transmitter. He stripped the casing off the transmitter and connected it to a mini USB plug that he wired into the battery grip. He then added a small voltage regulator to step down the Nikon battery voltage from 7.2v to the 5v required by the USB transmitter.
The battery grip and transmitter were then hooked directly into his camera using the weatherproof plug built into the grip. Once he powered on his camera, it was connected to the PC immediately.
It’s amazing how the simplest hacks can save incredible amounts of money. Nice job!
Be sure to check out the video embedded below to see the wireless adapter in action.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y7urjotFElo&w=470]
| 33
| 32
|
[
{
"comment_id": "356513",
"author": "strider_mt2k",
"timestamp": "2011-03-12T21:07:15",
"content": "DUDE!WELL DONE!Agreed. Sometimes the simple hacks bring it home.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "356533",
"author": "Lenny",
"timestamp": "2011-03-12T21:31:55",
"content": "That is awesome. I probably would’ve never thought to even try thatbtw theres a type-o in the title “dlsr”",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "356536",
"author": "Ekaj",
"timestamp": "2011-03-12T21:38:33",
"content": "Sooooo….. He plugged two commercially available devices together, and you guys are calling it a “hack”???Wow.Hey, I plugged my phone in to the USB port on my TV to charge it… Can I get a “hack” write-up too?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "356545",
"author": "Philippe",
"timestamp": "2011-03-12T21:58:47",
"content": "http://homebrewusb.com/",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "356547",
"author": "Josh C",
"timestamp": "2011-03-12T21:59:11",
"content": "The point is that he worked around a very expensive commercially available fix by figuring it out himself.Plus he’s on youtube. :P",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "356559",
"author": "Cricri",
"timestamp": "2011-03-12T22:21:10",
"content": "Great hack, thumbs up!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "356581",
"author": "Thopter",
"timestamp": "2011-03-12T22:41:38",
"content": "I wonder what kind of hacks Ekaj has performed that do not involve commercially available devices connected in some fashion.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "356582",
"author": "Fuzzcraft",
"timestamp": "2011-03-12T22:42:10",
"content": "So he essentially made the wired USB tether wireless with a wireless USB kit. Gee. Why didn’t I think of that?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "356599",
"author": "Sizzerp",
"timestamp": "2011-03-12T23:37:32",
"content": "I think the idea was that he performed a beginner hack. He used commercially available parts. But then, he built a voltage regulator, and removed the case from the dongle swap a plug to mini b and crammed(aka “fit”) it into the other device.! voila a “hack” beginner level maybe,but still a hack i say nice job! It was neat when finished looked factory pretty.",
"parent_id": "356582",
"depth": 2,
"replies": []
}
]
},
{
"comment_id": "356610",
"author": "22gunsonfire",
"timestamp": "2011-03-13T00:19:02",
"content": "What really constitutes a “beginner” hack? Would I have thought to do this? Possibly not. Would you have thought to shorten the control linkage to the anti-ice control on a T700-GE-401C to reduce rumble and increase fuel delivery? Possibly not.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "356611",
"author": "Raf",
"timestamp": "2011-03-13T00:19:06",
"content": "Very nicely done…I wonder what kind of range this thing can get?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "356621",
"author": "Rich Decibels",
"timestamp": "2011-03-13T00:43:02",
"content": "Unless I’m missing something isn’t this what the Eye-Fi is for? and it’s $50…http://www.eye.fi",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "356625",
"author": "woutervddn",
"timestamp": "2011-03-13T00:53:51",
"content": "@richthe eyefi just enables you to transmit the photo’s once you took them. This makes your camera remotely operatable (that is, shutter etc is triggered from the computer)nice hack.. honestly I’ve never seen a wireless usb transmitter in belgium. I wonder how hard it would be to make one of those yourself..",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "356636",
"author": "Piku",
"timestamp": "2011-03-13T01:20:41",
"content": "I think the point is … He actually did it, rather than complaining it wasn’t a l33t enough hack, or that it was just a bunch of commercially available stuff plugged together.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "356638",
"author": "jasong",
"timestamp": "2011-03-13T01:27:18",
"content": "“It’s not a hack” posts are almost as lame as the ones correcting spelling.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "356642",
"author": "biozz",
"timestamp": "2011-03-13T01:34:25",
"content": "nikon does NOT ask for $1000 for Camera Control Pro 2its only $120 so you spent MORE than necessaryif you want to make it wireless get a wireless USB doggle for $50 more",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "356646",
"author": "joeblow",
"timestamp": "2011-03-13T01:41:08",
"content": "Actually the Nikon accessory the post refers to is the nikon wt-4a wireless transmitter.The wireless dongle you mention is ugly and what is the watt hour rating of AA batteries vs. two Nikon EN-EL9a batteries?I’m familiar with the usb dongles this guy used and they draw one watt an hour.You do the math.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "356790",
"author": "DurrDeeDurr",
"timestamp": "2011-03-13T04:20:01",
"content": "biozz, maybe it would help if you actually read the guys build log. He links to the WT-4A, which is $1000. The software might be $120 but the 2-way wireless transmitter/controller is $1000.RTFA next time, slick.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "356794",
"author": "Wes",
"timestamp": "2011-03-13T04:31:09",
"content": "@Lenny: What the hell is a “type-o”?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "356803",
"author": "OrganGrinder",
"timestamp": "2011-03-13T04:48:29",
"content": "@biozzReading is fundamental, dude.1. Read post.2. Comment.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "356829",
"author": "Keiichi969",
"timestamp": "2011-03-13T06:02:49",
"content": "Bah, they’re just whining because he didn’t use an arduino.I can honestly say that this is ingenious for some photographers, especially astro-photographers like myself.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "356831",
"author": "Neal",
"timestamp": "2011-03-13T06:13:00",
"content": "@Keiichi969This is perfect for digiscoping, using a program like camera control pro, lightroom, or if you want to use an iPad the DSLR remote control pro to trigger the shutter.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "356843",
"author": "Jeditalian",
"timestamp": "2011-03-13T06:40:08",
"content": "very nice, this reminds me of that one time, at band camp....i stuck a usb transmitter in my battery grip!ok, i didn’t because i’m too cheap for a DSLR, but this is somewhere along the lines of: integrating flash memory into your computer mouse, or more likely to be done by myself: building an external battery pack for your cellphone while still allowing for the connection of a charger/headphone cable(or both). so not a n00b hack, a useful hack. a n00b hack is like.. sticking a bluetooth headset inside a standard(obsolete)landline telephone. my personal n00b hack: tearing the shield metal off the male end of a male-female (why did they make it in the first place?) usb adapter, so that it can function as a female-female. then discovering that my phone doesnt supply power through the mini-usb port, hence the necessity of building the external power-pak, so i can experiment with getting it to use a standard usb keyboard.‘beginner hack’ would be: download “wifi keyboard” and call that a hack",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "356874",
"author": "Lenny",
"timestamp": "2011-03-13T07:29:31",
"content": "@wes a typographical error.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "356897",
"author": "Stevie",
"timestamp": "2011-03-13T08:40:15",
"content": "Pretty cool. Everything seems obvious and simple once someone else has already done it.Hell, I look at old cars and think their construction/idea/build is so simple, I could do it. But tell that to the guy who came up with the idea X years ago.Good job Neal :)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "356917",
"author": "Garbz",
"timestamp": "2011-03-13T09:52:29",
"content": "@biozz read before posting.Camera Control Pro costs $120. But the hardware in the form of the Nikon WT-4a is listed for $700 on B&H.Yeah he saved a shitload of money.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "357086",
"author": "Cool!",
"timestamp": "2011-03-13T16:04:07",
"content": "I call it a great hack if it either adds new functionality or simply replaces a much more expensive part.I am not sure why @Ekaj would post negative comments because we are too cheap to spend $1000 on the “commercially available part”. Really, if you are not interested in hacks I do not get why you are here Ekaj, except to troll.Hackaday – Perhaps it is time for community moderation of comments, or at least giving accounts the ability to block trolls by username (which I know isn’t bulletproof, but it’s at least something).",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "357601",
"author": "Wes",
"timestamp": "2011-03-14T05:20:21",
"content": "@Lenny: That would be a “typo.”",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "357800",
"author": "JamieWho",
"timestamp": "2011-03-14T11:52:21",
"content": "Love it. This is a great hack. Good job on fitting everything inside of the grip.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "359066",
"author": "kpharck",
"timestamp": "2011-03-15T16:15:41",
"content": "Kudos from the developer of the original Nikon WLAN adapter !",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "383777",
"author": "cns949",
"timestamp": "2011-04-21T07:10:40",
"content": "Wireless USB Nikon digital camera adapter. Great hack! Good on you sir!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "546631",
"author": "HyperXP.com",
"timestamp": "2011-12-29T16:10:15",
"content": "Great Mod!I have been looking to do exactly this with a canon grip for a 50d.I have all the parts on order at the moment. This article was pointed out to me when I described exactly this on a forum. I had been searching for canon specific info and didn’t get a hit here. Doh!.As mentioned this is a simple hack and looking forward to performing it. Seeing as the Canon WFT grip is over £600, The parts cost me less than £50 to make one.I’m looking to add other options also like making the dongle switchable to disable it when not in use and to add a USB pass through to the grip for when I have the grip tethered to the camera but not using the dongle.I want to avoid plugging the USB in and out too often. I have some polymorph melting plastic which I intend to use to mold a nice and flush fitting USB plug to rather than have the bulky plug as shown.On the question someone asked of range. The dongles I’ve found say 30m but I believe that most are just 10m. I don’t expect to get anywhere near to 30m. I just hope it doesn’t interfere with my wireless flash triggers.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "626286",
"author": "gregallenphoto",
"timestamp": "2012-04-11T04:04:37",
"content": "Pardon my ignorance but will this system work with the Mac OS?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
}
] | 1,760,377,247.86861
|
||
https://hackaday.com/2011/03/12/protei-articulated-backward-sailing-robots-clean-oil-spills/
|
Protei: Articulated, Backward Sailing Robots Clean Oil Spills
|
Mike Szczys
|
[
"green hacks",
"Robots Hacks"
] |
[
"boat",
"boom",
"oil spill",
"sail"
] |
The Protei project aims to develop
a robotic solution for oil-spill cleanup
. [Cesar Harada] quit what he calls his dream job at MIT to work toward a solution to the ecological disasters that are oil spills. He had previously been working on Seaswarm,
a swarm of robots that use conveyor belts of absorbent material
to leech oil from seawater. But Protei doesn’t use legions of drones. It aims to use better design to improve the effectiveness of a small number of units.
The whole idea is well described in the video after the break. If a long trailing boom of absorbent material is towed in a serpentine pattern perpendicular to the flow, starting down current and moving upward, it can be quite effective at halting the spread of crude. Initial experiments have shown that a robotic vessel can do this efficiently with just a few improvements. First, to counteract the drag of the tail the rudder of the boat was moved to the bow. Secondly, the hull has been articulated as you can see above. This allows the robot to better utilize wind power to sail, making turns without losing the push of the wind.
The project is raising money through Kickstart as an open hardware project. Let’s hope this becomes a cheap and effective way to fix our costly drilling mishaps.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vmZ_uy2Ehi4&w=470]
| 15
| 15
|
[
{
"comment_id": "356440",
"author": "M4CGYV3R",
"timestamp": "2011-03-12T20:06:21",
"content": "They had me at open source…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "356442",
"author": "caleb",
"timestamp": "2011-03-12T20:07:08",
"content": "nice shoes!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "356457",
"author": "Paul",
"timestamp": "2011-03-12T20:21:45",
"content": "something that really irks me with the whole mini-robot fleet mentality which applies both here and with the miniature power generation cases is that there is a degree of maintenance that seems unachievable when dealing with such a huge number of ultimately fragile ‘bots.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "356476",
"author": "Seshan",
"timestamp": "2011-03-12T20:43:28",
"content": "@M4CGYV3R They turned me off at open source. The only way this will ever go anywhere is if it’s picked up by a multi million/billion dollar company, and they won’t want a it opened so competition can copy it. People seem to think open source is godly and is the best thing in the world, it’s not.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "356478",
"author": "xorpunk",
"timestamp": "2011-03-12T20:51:57",
"content": "@Seshan: It’s less salaries to pay..good for executives bad for guy who has to pay rent off said salary..Oh I forgot ‘charge for support’ solves all these real problems in open source..",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "356515",
"author": "echodelta",
"timestamp": "2011-03-12T21:13:06",
"content": "Looks like a slug, ugh. Quick, where’s the salt.If you want to eat oil, look to nature. It’s already been done.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "356634",
"author": "Jonathan",
"timestamp": "2011-03-13T01:18:55",
"content": "The boat is interesting, but the serpentine boom dragging seems flawed to me: The boom will simply drift downcurrent at the same rate as the oil, so won’t actually intercept much of it (unlike the graphic at 0:45 suggests)Now, two of these pulling a boom by both ends and sailing upwind (by small zigzags) might have a chance",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "356699",
"author": "UltimateJim",
"timestamp": "2011-03-13T02:27:00",
"content": "Now this is just a surface skimmer?What about the undercurrent?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "356788",
"author": "SK",
"timestamp": "2011-03-13T04:18:21",
"content": "Funny how the ad right below the video is for BP cleanup efforts in the gulf.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "356896",
"author": "anti-fanboi",
"timestamp": "2011-03-13T08:38:22",
"content": "@Seshan:“People seem to think open source is godly and is the best thing in the world, it’s not.”how is it bad? at all?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "356900",
"author": "tylerturden",
"timestamp": "2011-03-13T08:49:44",
"content": "@anti-fanboi“It drives down wages by reducing demand for paid software engineers & diluting the perceived value of their services.”That’s the argument. I don’t agree with it.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "356995",
"author": "Kodman",
"timestamp": "2011-03-13T11:19:01",
"content": "@echodelta:Ok, granted it doesn’t go very fast, I wouldn’t go as far as to call it, Slugish! *teehee*",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "357056",
"author": "anti-fanboi",
"timestamp": "2011-03-13T14:49:47",
"content": "@tylerturdenI disagree also: the greed of a few DOES NOT out way the need of the many.Open Source always lifts the bar! One software system I produce/sell has an OSS compettitor, and that’s a good thing! My paid solution is way better, as it should be ;)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "357062",
"author": "space",
"timestamp": "2011-03-13T15:12:22",
"content": "@SeshanI had an idea that companies are all about capitalism and “free” market. I can see now I was wrong.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "358089",
"author": "IJ Dee-Vo",
"timestamp": "2011-03-14T17:41:04",
"content": "open sourse=3p1c",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
}
] | 1,760,377,248.03829
|
||
https://hackaday.com/2011/03/11/lol-shield-theatre-brings-online-video-to-the-pixelated-screen/
|
Lol Shield Theatre Brings Online Video To The Pixelated Screen
|
Mike Nathan
|
[
"Arduino Hacks",
"LED Hacks"
] |
[
"arduino",
"charlieplexing",
"lol shield"
] |
[FallDeaf] bought a Lol Shield, and after making all sorts of blinky displays, he thought to himself, “What in the world can I use this thing for?”
In a really slick fusion of hardware, software, and the power of the Internet, he has created what he calls, “
Lol Shield Theatre
”.
The idea goes something like this:
You visit his site, and create your own “movie” by drawing on his
virtual Lol Shield
. Add as many frames as you would like, set the frame rate, then submit your creation. From there, you can download an Arduino sketch that contains your entire animation so you can play it on your own Lol Shield. You can also visit his Lol Shield gallery, where you have the ability to watch, download, and vote on movie submissions from other visitors.
He has also provided the source code to drive your Lol Shield, as well as created an API through which you can stream the various animation feeds from his Lol Shield gallery directly to your Arduino via a USB cable.
Be sure to check out the video demo we have embedded below, and show off your pixel cinematography skills over in the theatre.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4l6iCcLerbs&w=470]
| 4
| 4
|
[
{
"comment_id": "355729",
"author": "falldeaf",
"timestamp": "2011-03-12T00:11:12",
"content": "Hi Hackaday!Thank you for the post and the cool write-up. There’s already been a bunch of great animations! And the signal/penis ratio is really good, must be a good crowd around here. :)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "355756",
"author": "frankfurter",
"timestamp": "2011-03-12T01:02:01",
"content": "Cool hack and playing wit hthat software is fun. Doing my best to raise the signal/penis ratio.Please score + if you like my movie:http://falldeaf.com/lolshield/show.php?anim=111",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "355995",
"author": "vasskk",
"timestamp": "2011-03-12T07:37:18",
"content": "nice interface",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "356300",
"author": "falldeaf",
"timestamp": "2011-03-12T15:48:38",
"content": "If you want to see a really awesome mind-blowing animation, check this!http://falldeaf.com/lolshield/show.php?anim=118@frankfurter Haha… I have to admit, I laughed when I saw your movie. I thought about taking down the penis animations but I just can’t bring myself to do it.. your’s and some others are really well done :P",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
}
] | 1,760,377,248.080199
|
||
https://hackaday.com/2011/03/11/the-traveling-terabyte-project-helping-those-who-protect-us/
|
The Traveling Terabyte Project – Helping Those Who Protect Us
|
Mike Nathan
|
[
"News"
] |
[
"armed forces",
"multimedia",
"soldiers"
] |
Though some people differ on what exactly a “hacker” is, there is one thing that can be said for certain – this global community of tinkerers, experimenters, and hobbyists we belong to is one of big hearts. Through our various projects and tutorials, we lead by example – sharing knowledge and offering help whenever we can. You would be hard pressed to find something that could exemplify this more than the
Traveling Terabyte Project
.
Started in the summer of 2006 by [Deviant Ollam], the goal of the project was to provide informational content from DefCon 14 to those friends and acquaintances who were deployed overseas in the service of the U.S. Armed Forces and their associates. This was originally done by outfitting durable cases with large portable hard drives stuffed with movies, music, and publications in order help those stationed far from their friends and family enjoy their down time a little bit more.
The project has grown by leaps and bounds while the storage mediums have shrunk accordingly. The project has recently entered a new phase, where they are migrating over to flash drives instead of hard drives, which should help spread the distribution of media immensely.
The Traveling Terabyte Project did not approach us soliciting money or publicity in any way, so by no means should you feel obligated to support the project. Regardless of our individual political leanings and views on war, we believe that helping out people who are subject to extreme amounts of stress while stationed far away from their home, friends, and family is a noble cause.
[Thanks, RenderMan]
| 75
| 50
|
[
{
"comment_id": "355479",
"author": "Whatnot",
"timestamp": "2011-03-11T19:19:51",
"content": "All good and well, but count me as one that does NOT support US troops.I’m not sure it’s appropriate to come with political crap let alone war and murder and kidnapping and torture and such nastiness on this site, I rather would have you keep it clean, TIA.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "355482",
"author": "Gary",
"timestamp": "2011-03-11T19:27:27",
"content": "It’s supporting the troops, NOT supporting the war.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "355483",
"author": "Lucas Boucher",
"timestamp": "2011-03-11T19:28:55",
"content": "I support our troops completely. This is an awesome thing to share on HackaDay.The only reason Whatnot is allowed to say that in this country is the many lives of soldiers that fought for his right to do so.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "355485",
"author": "raidscsi",
"timestamp": "2011-03-11T19:29:26",
"content": "Its a novel idea, but members of the armed forces intentionally signed up, their need for a care package of ripped DVDs is less than those still displaced in Haiti from the earthquake, or Australia from the flooding. Those people didn’t sign up to become homeless.Also see today’s XKCD, relevant to this post and my reply.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "355491",
"author": "fartface",
"timestamp": "2011-03-11T19:32:37",
"content": "YOu must hate poor people then, because 99% of all American troops are the poor. They do what they are told, they dont go out as roaming thugs Unlike the Muslims in Egypt or the middle east.The American troops are the poor who are doing what they are told to do. “murder and kidnapping and torture” are being done by the president, the generals, the admirals, and everyone on down the line who gives the orders.But then we are fighting the most uncivilized people on the planet. They are ok with killing women and children for any reason. War sucks when you are fighting savages.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "355493",
"author": "oSPANNERo",
"timestamp": "2011-03-11T19:34:14",
"content": "I can understand what you are saying Whatnot but please keep in mind that synonymizing the US Soldier/Sailor/Airman/Marine with “war and murder and kidnapping and torture and such nastiness” is a mistake we made during and after Vietnam.The important differentiation here is that the Soldier/Sailor/Airman/Marine doesn’t choose to go to war, her or she it told to go and they say “Yes Sir.”Now I am not saying there aren’t bad apples out there but in most cases the average GI is just some guy/gal in his 20’s – 30’s who is standing watch for 12-18 hours a day and hoping to hell nothing bad happens so they can come home to their families. And packages like the one above make a hell of a difference at the end of that day when you are missing home, family, safety, and control of your life.And while I respect your opinion, your request to “keep it clean”, and your right to express those things, my mother taught me something a long time ago that I would rather have respected in this thread:“If you can’t say anything nice don’t say anything at all.”",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "355494",
"author": "Whatnot",
"timestamp": "2011-03-11T19:34:35",
"content": "@Lucas Boucher: we aren’t all in the US you know, and this kind of thing not only polarizes between pro-US force and not-so-pro and the american reader and the non american one.Also the one making the freedom possible are all in care homes or dead, the current crop doesn’t do shit for freedom of speech.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "355502",
"author": "arfink",
"timestamp": "2011-03-11T19:41:49",
"content": "“Also the one making the freedom possible are all in care homes or dead, the current crop doesn’t do shit for freedom of speech.”That’s true, because they are routinely silenced themselves. I imagine it’s little different in other country’s armies. Oh, and if this project makes you see red, start one for your home troops. After all, US citizens kinda have no way to send such care packages to people “on the other side.” It’s just not possible.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "355504",
"author": "oSPANNERo",
"timestamp": "2011-03-11T19:43:52",
"content": "@raidscsiYou make an interesting point when you compare/contrast a US Service Member to a Haitian or Australian displaced person. However, we could extense that argument to compare a Haitian displaced person and a child with cancer… or any other comparison of which of two bad situations is worse.In the end, when I received care packages, it was less about “charity” and more about “Thank You”. The letters and cards and pictures were all a theme around thanking a Service Member for making the conscious sacrifice of their safety and comfort to, at least in theory, protect the other 91% of the US population. (http://www.census.gov/main/www/popclock.html)However, as you pointed out the XKCD from today, I feel like this is a discretionary and personal choice for each individual and they should not be criticized for their choice of how they “donate” or if they do at all.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "355505",
"author": "Lucas Boucher",
"timestamp": "2011-03-11T19:48:42",
"content": "@WhatnotYep realized i misread that after I posted. Happy to continue your hateful characterization of Americans.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "355510",
"author": "Aero",
"timestamp": "2011-03-11T19:52:43",
"content": "Stop giving turds like Whatnot attention.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "355519",
"author": "anon",
"timestamp": "2011-03-11T20:02:29",
"content": "With all the due respect for troops of any country, I do not support any war or other forms of murder.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "355521",
"author": "Deviant Ollam",
"timestamp": "2011-03-11T20:02:50",
"content": "Thank you to Hack-A-Day for expressing support for the project. (And thank you to renderman and all others who have helped spread the word so that the TTB can try to touch more lives.)It’s a shame to see the comments thread so littered with political nonsense (so much of it is very childish bluster and the most hollow of regurgitated talking points, from both sides) but i hope that those who truly support the project as well as those in uniform will rise above it and ignore all this cable-news-style yammering.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "355522",
"author": "Lucas Boucher",
"timestamp": "2011-03-11T20:04:23",
"content": "Your right, hate breads hate.I am sitting hear thinking about what I would think about a program like this supporting the troops of other nations, even ones that are really bad. Iran, N. Korea, etc… I can honestly say I wouldn’t think one way or the other about it, definitly no hate. Its a human thing to do, to support your countrymen.One thing that does make US troops/military stand out though, is the shear mass by which they can mobilize to help in disasters, aka Haiti. Maybe we didn’t rebuild the country brick for brick, but we definitly did the most.So i will leave with this, Even if you don’t support the current wars, remember that the typical US troop is ready to help when a natural disaster happens anywhere in the world. So at least look on this as citizens supporting troops whom are ready to help the world.(Anybody hear how we have offered any help we can give to Japan today…)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "355524",
"author": "Whatnot",
"timestamp": "2011-03-11T20:06:19",
"content": "See, now we have hate and politics on a tech site, good job all around huh.And to answer some remarks: The US army is voluntary, they joined – and most of them joined when it was abundantly clear what BS the politicians were up to.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "355525",
"author": "Joe Bonasses",
"timestamp": "2011-03-11T20:12:07",
"content": "I’ve never understood that whole “you can support the troops even if you don’t support the war” argument. I get enraged when I see people in uniform, actually. If you don’t want to murder people, don’t join the military, it’s really quite simple. And my right to speak my mind on this issue has nothing to do with vestiges of the post cold war defense industrial complex trying in vain to sustain themselves.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "355526",
"author": "Dannyoats",
"timestamp": "2011-03-11T20:15:27",
"content": "In defence of whatnot…>”The important differentiation here is that the Soldier/Sailor/Airman/Marine doesn’t choose to go to war.””Beg to differ. They choose to join up and after well over 10 years of various permanent semi-legal wars they know exactly what joining up entails.“>The only reason Whatnot is allowed to say that in this country is the many lives of soldiers that fought for his right to do so. ”You have to go back a long way to find anyone that died and fought for our freedom. The current batch of wars certainly arent about protecting our freedom.I stopped supporting ‘poppy day’ (veterans day? a fund raising exercise for ex soliders) simply because they’ve rebranded as supporting the iraqi/afghan troops. It used to be about supporting the (aging) conscripted guys that risked life actively protecting us in two world wars. These days its aboutsupporting guys that made an active decision to join mostly illegal wars that have little to do with protecting our freedom.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "355541",
"author": "bones",
"timestamp": "2011-03-11T20:28:49",
"content": "I’ve been lucky enough to receive the travelling terabyte project come to me! I was extremely grateful since the location I was in was such a sh*thole in afghanistan it helped pass the time and actually proved people back home DID support the troops!It’s about supporting the troops not the war!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "355543",
"author": "cliff",
"timestamp": "2011-03-11T20:34:09",
"content": "@Joe Bonasses, really you can’t figure out that you appreciate that there is someone out there that say tomorrow crap really does hit the fan big time (and there is allot of crap that can hit the fan) is willing to not only to fight the enemy, whomever that is, but also die for you. Wars are started by politicians, wars are fought by soldiers. If you don’t like the war, don’t hate the warrior hate the politician. While for some reason it has been popular to personify soldiers as stupid, or poor that had no other choice, I have met very few that that is actually true for. Most just have a incredible sense of civic duty. Also don’t forget that the military isn’t just for fighting wars. After Haiti, we had boots on the ground 8 hours after it occurred. We provided security for the people that were being killed in the streets for no reason than they looked like they had food. We coordinated the supply aircraft that were backed up because the ATC personnel there had no experience running an operation that size. We stepped in and took over because it was falling apart. Then handed it back when it was (sorta) stable again.If you don’t like wars, don’t vote politicians in that want to go to war. But don’t demonize the soldier for wanting to serve his countrymen.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "355581",
"author": "James",
"timestamp": "2011-03-11T20:45:08",
"content": "“If you don’t like wars, don’t vote politicians in that want to go to war. But don’t demonize the soldier for wanting to serve his countrymen.”Oh yeah, the soldiers that have the completely blind faith that when they join they’ll be sent on only good and just missions… curious. I’m not exactly against the current war situations, but I certainly don’t think that the soldiers out there chose that career with no incling of what they may be asked to do and are all somehow now aghast at the missions they’re given, all just saying “well we have to follow orders…”",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "355584",
"author": "MRC",
"timestamp": "2011-03-11T20:46:27",
"content": "oh boy. a political crapfest on hackaday.if you hate war, complain to Congress and the Senate. they are the ones holding the leash.do you blame the sword, or the hand that wields it?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "355590",
"author": "Joe Bonasses",
"timestamp": "2011-03-11T20:58:43",
"content": "@Cliff – You’re certainly not “dieing” for me. Maybe for G.E., Honeywell, Northrop Grumman, a dozen other multi-trillion dollar firms, and their shareholders. P.S. Please try harder not to kill civilians, thanks….",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "355609",
"author": "Ranger Joe",
"timestamp": "2011-03-11T21:19:05",
"content": "Speaking from experience, serving in the US Army for 13 years as a Drill Sgt/Grunt/Infantryman. Serving your country is not about taking up arms to kill, torture, or rape someone. That is not what we are about. Armys that support such tactics eventually collapse from the inside out and that behavior is never tollerated in the US. I have no problems taking orders or killing someone that is attempting to take my life, that is war. At the same time once the battle is over I can show compassion to my enemy, and hope one day I can call him a friend. You are a fool if you make a judgement without being in the trenches personally. I’ve been there I’ve seen the blood, I’ve lived in the dirt with the roaches. I wish good will to those forces who oppose me. In fact I often think about their wives and family’s and hold every life sacred. The military is for grown-ups, you are given an order and you follow it. If it is un-ethical you have the right to refuse to follow the order. Only fools make assumptions about a few bad apples. I encourage you to support your community who have the misfortune of having to fight in a war. No one wants to have to kill another person even if you are good at it. It is unsettling to onese sole. At the same time to oppose war you might as well just live on the street because that is where you’d be if your country suddenly said no more wars, here come take my land. Get a brain whatnot, maybe the great OZ will provide you with one.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "355615",
"author": "DrAltaica",
"timestamp": "2011-03-11T21:29:33",
"content": "> The important differentiation here is that the Soldier/Sailor/Airman/Marine doesn’t choose to go to war, her or she it told to go and they say “Yes Sir.”First thing: (“Befehl ist Befehl”, literally “orders are orders”) this is a legal defense that essentially states that the defendant was “only following orders” and is therefore not responsible for his or her crimes.One of the most noted uses of this plea, or “defense,” was by the accused in the 1945–46 Nuremberg Trials, such that it is also called the “Nuremberg Defense.” The Nuremberg Trials were a series of military tribunals, held by the main victorious Allied forces of World War II, most notable for the prosecution of prominent members of the political, military, and economic leadership of the defeated Nazi Germany. It was during these trials, under the London Charter of the International Military Tribunal which set them up, that the defense of “Superior Orders” was no longer considered enough to escape punishment; but merely enough to lessen punishment.Second thing: US doesn’t use Conscription. so US troops did decide to go war.Third thing: “we believe that helping out people who are subject to extreme amounts of stress while stationed far away from their home, friends, and family is a noble cause.”So you are for getting the Traveling Terabyte to Hans Thomas Reiser?P.S. Forth thing, because I know someone will being it up: Bhai Kanhaiyahttp://www.sikhiwiki.org/index.php/Bhai_KanhaiyaDuring the frequent sallies and skirmishes between the Sikhs and the enemy around Anandpur, Bhai Kanhaiya was often seen carrying a mashak (a goatskin water pouch), serving water to anyone who was thirsty, quenching the thirst of the dying and wounded soldiers. He did this sewa (selfless service) with love and affection without any discrimination, giving water to both friends and foe. His acts of compassion stirred up stern criticism amongst his fellow Sikhs, who complained to Guru Gobind Singh Ji, pointing out that Bhai Kanhaiya Ji was even serving the fallen Hindu and Mughal attackers. They were especially annoyed because the city had been surrounded, stopping the supply of food and water, and here was Bhai Kanhaiya sharing what little water they had. They had tried to stop him many a time, but he would not pay them any heed.Bhai Kanhaiya’s benevolent actions eventually led to a summons by Guru Ji who explained that he had received a complaint about his actions on the battlefield.Guruji said, “These brave Sikhs are saying that you go and feed water to the enemy and they recover to fight them again – Is this true?”Bhai Kanhaiya Ji replied “Yes, my Guru, what they say is true. But Maharaj, I saw no Mughal or Sikh on the battlefield. I only saw human beings. And, … Guru Ji, .. they all have the same God’s Spirit? – Guru Ji, have you not taught us to treat all God’s people as the same?”The Guru was very pleased with the reply. Bhai Kanhaiya Ji had understood the deep message of Gurbani correctly. Guru ji smiled and blessed Bhai Kanhaiya. Guru Ji said, “Bhai Kanhaiya Ji, you are right, you have understood the true message of Gurbani”. He then told the Sikhs who had complained that Bhai Kanhaiya had understood the deeper message of the Gurus’ teachings correctly and that they all would have to strive to learn lessons from the priceless words of Gurbani.Guru also gave Bhai Kanhaiya Ji some medical balm and said, “From now on, You should also put this balm on the wounds of all who need it”’",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "355617",
"author": "Whatnot",
"timestamp": "2011-03-11T21:30:14",
"content": "Even though I do not support US troops, nor want to, I do think that there are a number of them that naïvely (my words) join and earnestly think they are doing good.But still, that does not mean you need to get a tech site involved since we know it’s polarizing.You can just as easily ask people to support the republican or democratic party, and then argue that some people in the party you picked are filled with nothing but good intentions, but you did then create a rift between the visitors, and a tired political discussion when you do that and it’s just better to avoid it IMHO.And what rubs me a bit in this article is that it seems to force a view that “no matter what you must support the wonderful (US) troops” and that’s why I posted my statement that I do not, and yeah I threw up some loaded remarks to go with it, but damn it I didn’t start it it was pulled out of me by that in my eyes disgustingly blind patriotism.And I might point out that in the US patriotism is generally seen as a virtue, but there are other views on the matter, every damn enemy the US fought in the WW’s was also patriotic, the germans were, the japanese were. (And the soviets were too.) It’s not a virtue to be blindly patriotic in my and many non-american’s eyes. ( note the word blindly.)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "355627",
"author": "Squirrel",
"timestamp": "2011-03-11T21:58:47",
"content": "one of my favorite opinion comics was one that said something along the lines of “If america is the ‘home of the brave’, then why are the brave homeless”I’m an American citizen who is for our troops but against our wars. Don’t hate on the troops, hate on the politicians who got them where they are now…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "355629",
"author": "Seamus Ruah",
"timestamp": "2011-03-11T22:07:59",
"content": "How about supporting the troops by bringing them home?Nah too simple, and it wouldn’t stimulate the earnings of defense contractors.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "355635",
"author": "smizzmar",
"timestamp": "2011-03-11T22:15:47",
"content": "@HackadayThanks for posting this. You’re correct that politics has no bearing on the fact that men and women in uniform willingly endure hardships that many (most?) others would not.It is evident from the messages your posting has prompted, who among your readers lives in the adult world and who still lives in their parents’ basement.To the latter, I suggest the purchase of a calendar. It’s not 1967 any more.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "355641",
"author": "Whatnot",
"timestamp": "2011-03-11T22:29:13",
"content": "You ask “don’t hate on the troops” but the point was that we are asked to “love on the troops” and how do you argue that? We can love who we please surely.Also once again, people join voluntarily and politicians are chosen.@Ranger Joe you are chuckfull of BS, you don’t engage an enemy thinking ‘oh I hope he’s alright and his family is alright’ soldiers think – and shout – ‘fuck you motherfucker’.If you actually are or ever have been in the army (and I doubt it) you must have been on drugs, but perhaps you can consult your colleagues to find out about reality.And when was the last time somebody even for a sec had the vaguest notion of taking american land? As I said – chuckfull of it.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "355653",
"author": "Mark429",
"timestamp": "2011-03-11T22:38:08",
"content": "please don’t lump all soldiers into one big group of rapist murdering rednecks… There are ALL kinds of different people in the armed forces. Most of them are decent hard working people who care about the well being of the world around them and are willing to put their ass on the line to do the hard jobs most average people would scoff at. I won’t go into how they protect your freedom and all that but let’s just say I sleep alot better at night knowing that they are out there trying to make the world a safer place. If you don’t support the troops that’s fine, don’t contribute. but would you please shut the ^&* up and let the rest of us know about this cause so if we feel inclined we may participate and bring a little bit of home & joy to people who most assuredly are having a worse &*&*ing day/week/month/year than you. Go Army Hooah",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "355683",
"author": "Joe Bonasses",
"timestamp": "2011-03-11T23:21:15",
"content": "@Mark429 – I actually sleep a lot worse at night knowing that our soldiers are out there making new enemies that will we have to spend billions on to kill in the future. Now, do these soldiers get paid to do all this killing? Are they there involuntarily, I thought they signed up for this? Do you think many of them regret enlisting? You are aware that more soldiers have taken their own lives than died at the hands of the enemy, right? Please, do enlighten me on how they are “protecting my freedom”?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "355692",
"author": "grelfod",
"timestamp": "2011-03-11T23:35:32",
"content": "So much of this conversation reminds me of when I was a kid. back in the ‘duck and cover’ cold war days. We were lead to believe that the Russians were going to kill us and take our stuff. I was in one of the first ‘laboratory schools’ we were one of the first to have exchange students. One kid was from Poland (then part of USSR) and being kids we just asked…His reply – My folks don’t have time to come and kill you and take your stuff, they have to work so we can afford bread and toilet paper.OMG we thought so do our folks!!The realization that we had been lead to believe something that was not accurate (being 7 – 9 years old) made us wonder what else the 5 o’clock news was propaganda? but this is America not USSR we wouldn’t do that right?At that moment a small group of kids could see clearly that it must happen everywhere. you are told what ‘they’ (the people in power) want you to believe. We would never believe at the 5 o’clock propaganda *news* again.The same has been for the Vietnam war era – the guys I knew who were there had totally different version that the evening news.The sheeple just blindly believe what they are told. Stop being sheeple, look for hard the truth and end the hate!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "355695",
"author": "andar_b",
"timestamp": "2011-03-11T23:38:36",
"content": "Unfortunately, Joe, I have to agree that the “protecting our freedom” line is a fallacy that many soldiers MUST convince themselves of in order to survive out there.A good friend of mine served in Iraq, he endured months on the streets with his peers because headquarters couldn’t decide where his unit was supposed to be stationed. He calls himself a murderer, because he accidentally shot a little girl while trying to take out a gunman shooting at their camp. He hates to be thanked for anything, because he came home to the thanks of many supportive people in his town, who later were the very same ones shooting at the soldiers when water rationing wasn’t to their liking.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "355725",
"author": "Volfram",
"timestamp": "2011-03-12T00:00:12",
"content": "@Whatnot:“See, now we have hate and politics on a tech site, good job all around huh.”Yes. Thank YOU very much. You don’t get moral high-ground for condemning an argument you started.@Joe Bonassas:If you hate soldiers so much, why don’t you quit being a ball-less coward moping about it on the ‘net like an emo middle-schooler and go tell THEM that to their face. If you really want to get the point across, you oughtta start throwing punches as well as words.Or are you just another mindless coward?@Mike Nathan:I like Hack-A-Day and you’ve got some pretty good write-ups under your belt, but I think the comments on this one make it pretty clear you were dead-wrong about the hacking community having a big heart. We’re just as foul as the rest of humanity, but those of us who do have a generous streak at least seem to have it a mile wide.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "355727",
"author": "anti-fanboi",
"timestamp": "2011-03-12T00:06:47",
"content": "I do wonder what percentage of people who advocate this “unquestioning support for the troops” are athiest?I also wonder how the (ex)serviceman comes to terms with the reality of their actions being in direct conflict with their stated ideals?The US military seems to be able to anything it wants. Since Binladen is still at large, is he in fact Golstein(1984)?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "355728",
"author": "Harvie",
"timestamp": "2011-03-12T00:09:26",
"content": "Don’t forget to add shitloads of PORN!!!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "355735",
"author": "1000100 1000001 1010110 1000101",
"timestamp": "2011-03-12T00:21:01",
"content": "Hooah",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "355748",
"author": "Joe Bonasses",
"timestamp": "2011-03-12T00:46:36",
"content": "@Volfram – Cheney would be so proud of you. I’m actually quite active in my local community in my opposition to the war. As far as advocating violence, this is one of the things I’m opposed to in my opposition to the war and individuals who take money in exchange for killing people under the guise of “protecting freedom”. Exactly how does my opposition to death and human suffering make me small-hearted?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "355755",
"author": "Volfram",
"timestamp": "2011-03-12T01:01:29",
"content": "@Joe Bonasses:“I can save ten lives by taking one.”Diplomacy is a good way to solve problems. When it works, it is the best way.Diplomacy doesn’t always work, though. And when it doesn’t, I am never opposed to using violence when necessary. Calm and measured when possible, swift and decisive at all times, merciless when necessary. Contrary to popular opinion, sometimes genocide is the answer.What kind of alternative do you offer?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "355788",
"author": "Deuterous",
"timestamp": "2011-03-12T02:20:24",
"content": "I have several friends from Iraq and Iran.The Iraqis were tortured and had family members killed by being boiled alive in a large vat of oil Saddam kept for that purpose.The Iranians fled because they were Christian and persecuted.In the 1980’s I worked for the CDC in a lab that kept samples of deadly viruses for vaccine research. Under international agreement we were required to provide samples to legitimate researchers. A sample of live smallpox virus was delivered to Iraq.Smallpox is 99% contagious and 90% deadly, if you don’t die you are disfigured for life. It’s airborn and has a short incubation period and a long contagious period. In my opinion it’s the single most lethal thing on the planet. It ravaged the world repeatedly until wiped out by a worldwide effort led by the United states to eradicate it by universal vaccination.Todays population is NOT immune has NOT been immunized and lacks the protection provided by large numbers of people who have already been exposed. There are no stockpiles of vaccine. With modern transportation this virus could explode across the world and kill millions perhaps Billions Before we could even start to immunize the population.The Smallpox sample was never recovered.For those outside the USA there was a broadcast interview of “Dr. Germ” the woman who headed Iraq’s Biological weapons program. She proudly and unapologetically stated that she was in charge of developing Biological weapons including anthrax and you guessed it Smallpox.A vial smaller than your pinky finger has the potential of ending human civilization the chances of finding it in Iraq are less than winning the lottery then being eaten by a polar bare while scuba diving in HawaiiI was loudly opposed to the War in Iraq, Not because Saddam wasn’t a brutal dictator who posed a danger to the world, but because of the chances of an accidental or deliberate release of Smallpox by Iraq well known Biological weapons program.The thought still gives me nightmares.A little first hand information to cut through the BS.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "355826",
"author": "Hacksaw",
"timestamp": "2011-03-12T03:18:19",
"content": "@ Whatnot…Sir you are a jackass. @ Joe Bonehead fuck you.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "355830",
"author": "barry99705",
"timestamp": "2011-03-12T03:38:20",
"content": "@all the hatersThe world is a fucked up place at the moment. It is the US’s fault, maybe some of it, would it be worse if we just pulled out of every host country we currently have troops in? Most definitely. Yea, the Middle East is a fucked up situation, made worse by the fact that the people who attacked us are too cowardly to wear a uniform. Makes it awful damn hard to determine friend or foe when they all look the same, at least until they gun down the guy standing beside you, or send a 5 year old up to your platoon with 10 pounds of explosives and nails in their backpack. When was the last time you read in the paper “US car bomb kills 30 stock traders, injures 20 more”? We’re not the ones blowing up our own citizens! Yea, our soldiers are killing people, but 99% of the time those people shot first. Personally I’d love to pull our troops home. All of them. Then we could watch the Mid East tear itself apart trying to figure out who’s god’s dick is bigger. We might even get to see that crazy fuck in charge of North Korea pop a nuke off somewhere, that would be cool. Then you’ve got the crazies in Africa chopping people’s heads off, or the dudes in dingies who have seen a few too many Johnny Depp movies taking over cargo freighters, and private sail boats. Lets not forget about the drug cartels in Mexico, Central, and South America. Those guys aren’t handing out puppy dogs and candy bars either.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "355894",
"author": "Volfram",
"timestamp": "2011-03-12T05:14:16",
"content": "barry, I am in 100% agreement. I think part of the reason the world is in as bad a shape as it’s in is because US foreign aid has been holding it together like duct tape on a rotten house.I think we should pull everyone home, close the borders, and watch as the rest of the world destroys itself financially and tears itself apart with wars. Most of them don’t want our help anymore anyway, why should we give it to them?Do a real number on the deficit, too, given how much tax money is spent on foreign aid.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "356026",
"author": "XBMC^N",
"timestamp": "2011-03-12T08:17:07",
"content": "Wow. Quite the thread.I respect the intentions of anyone who is willing to selflessly offer themselves in service of others. I’m sure this applies to the initiators of the Traveling Terabyte project, as well as to many of the people who have placed themselves in harm’s way in the armed forces.Respecting intentions is one thing. Respecting results is quite another. These wars fought in the name of “Freedom” and “Protection of the Homeland” have done nothing to advance either one of these goals.Operation Iraqi freedom has decimated Iraq. At home, Americans have to be groped or porno-scanned to travel by air, and are constantly bombarded with messages about how unsafe they are.Which brings us to the second point – protection of the homeland. Terrorism is not a problem that can be stopped by starting a war. When you kill someone’s family and they have nothing else to live for, they become easy to radicalize. Even if you killed every citizen of a country that supported terrorism, all you’d end up doing is creating such ill will that someone from a different country would rise up and resist you.America is less free and less safe due to the war on terror. I get that this is almost an unthinkable fact for people who have gone through hell and who have quite unintentionally made things worse for their country.So yeah, sending pirated movies to them seems as good a way to help as any.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "356034",
"author": "anufaq",
"timestamp": "2011-03-12T08:43:40",
"content": "War/Army aside, i do like the idea of a ‘sneakernet’ style file sharing system. With the isolation, the people are grateful and are far more likely to pass the USBs on, rather than just format it and keep it.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "356040",
"author": "smizzmar",
"timestamp": "2011-03-12T08:53:45",
"content": "@Joe BonassesSo you’re “enraged” when you see a soldier?I wonder how you feel about doctors… Since Roe V Wade, they have murdered 52 MILLION naked, unarmed, defenseless “civilians.”In order to garner the support of the left, I propose that the U.S. military start characterizing their operations as “ulta-late-term abortions.”Most people would celebrate the 216th trimester abortion of Osama Bin Laden.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "356041",
"author": "anufaq",
"timestamp": "2011-03-12T08:55:06",
"content": "Oh, on a practical note, he could have done this for half the price.Pelican cases? just use generic ones 1/3 of the price at most hardware stores.Aluminum enclosures? Way pay $30 USD for these ones, just buy laser branded aluminium ones for $10DVDs instead. For $10, you can buy a 50pk of blank DVDs, and CD mailing cases are pretty cheap. Make a stamp with the web address on it. Just stamp and post. The troops can pass the dvd around until it gets scratched up and throw it out.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "356060",
"author": "Whatnot",
"timestamp": "2011-03-12T09:51:26",
"content": "It’s funny how much delusional views are presented here, including projection of views.I made some statements, those you can attribute to me and question me on, but to infer the most ridiculous caricatures upon me is just insane.I’m not against the concept of having an army to defend yourself for instance, nor do I think all soldiers are raving lunatics, I just think that the US policy is seeking conflict where there is none, and seeking to extend chaos either by some (often hidden) agenda that has nothing to do with defending the US or simply by retarded interpretation of reality, and I think that’s clear and visible before you sign up.As for moral highground, that too I do not lay claim on, I never said I was better or more moral, hell I know I’m not, but that does not mean I can’t dislike something else that isn’t.And to those that call me jackass, see now that’s fair, you give your view, we know it’s a view, fair enough. And I probably am a jackass in many ways actually :/And as for the guy asking the other guy if he would say that to the face of army guys.. well that argument is beyond retarded, did jewish shopkeepers in germany dare to question the armed trained SS to their face? No? So they are wrong and ‘cowards’ eh… Such tripe.And you can be the biggest coward in the universe anyway and guess what? You can then still be right about something (even when it’s frustrating to the trained violent armed target of criticism that they can’t ‘argue’ by attacking that person).",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "356077",
"author": "strider_mt2k",
"timestamp": "2011-03-12T10:23:04",
"content": "http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5gr1p_Pp0U",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "356151",
"author": "Chuck Simmons",
"timestamp": "2011-03-12T12:06:53",
"content": "The ability to challenge and question authority has always been the hallmark of a “free” society, and those here and elsewhere that question the validity and purpose of America’s wars are certainly free to do so.That being said, I think that some commenters here are forgetting the fact that without American soldiers, they would be living under a totalitarian regime and likely not speaking English. It is important to keep in mind that comments of these types are common from those that have never met a soldier (American or otherwise) and/or who have never served their country in any capacity. Living at Mum’s house while on the dole does not count as “serving your country”.I have known numerous American warriors and can attest to the fact that the vast majority are intelligent and do what they do with honor. Yes, there are some “bad apples” but they are largely few and far between.The biggest point that opponents of this project are missing is this: those soldiers are sons, daughters, husbands, wives, fathers, mothers, uncles, aunts, and so on. In short, many are people who have opted to be away from their families. Don’t they at least deserve a little taste of home?I for one am proud of and grateful for American soldiers. I do not always support their missions or actions, but at least I am intelligent enough to differentiate between the politics and the people.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
}
] | 1,760,377,248.212889
|
||
https://hackaday.com/2011/03/11/microsoft-points-algorithm-cracked-theyre-out-1m/
|
Microsoft Points Algorithm Cracked… They’re Out $1M
|
Mike Szczys
|
[
"Security Hacks",
"Xbox Hacks"
] |
[
"algorithm",
"microsoft",
"points"
] |
Looks like
someone figured out the algorithm that Microsoft uses
to generate unique codes for their alternative currency: Microsoft Points. We were always a bit baffled by the need to do this sort of thing (Disney dollars, tokens at arcades, etc.) but figured it’s just a grift to get you to spend more dough. Looks like this time it may have come back to bite them in the ass with early loss projections somewhere in the $1-$1.2 million range.
But as most of you know, it’s not just an algorithm that can cause this kind of havoc. Whomever figured out how to crunch the numbers apparently packaged the method into a nice GUI and distributed it over the Internet. Check out the video after the break to see that not only will it give you a code, but you can verify that it works at the click of a button. Microsoft is taking steps to invalidate all of the ill-gotten redemption codes, but we wonder how effective they can be at it. Surely they already had contingency plans for this and we wonder if the company didn’t also carry insurance against this kind of loss.
Try as we might, we couldn’t turn up a
press release
on the subject. If you know of any, please be kind and leave a link in the comments.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_U7Pw4DsGdY&w=470]
[
Reddit
via
Geek
]
| 44
| 43
|
[
{
"comment_id": "355430",
"author": "Nick McClanahan",
"timestamp": "2011-03-11T18:19:56",
"content": "I’m not sure if they’re ‘out’ $1M – that’s kinda like music industry math. Unless you can buy physical things with Microsoft points…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "355438",
"author": "Lee",
"timestamp": "2011-03-11T18:29:29",
"content": "According to some comments it wasn’t the algorithm that was cracked, but rather the way they exploited the system that sent out promotional codes for points. Big difference. Here’s the url for the forum where it supposedly originated:http://www.thetechgame.com/Forums/viewtopic/t=954941.html",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "355439",
"author": "Anthony Thornton",
"timestamp": "2011-03-11T18:30:45",
"content": "They could be out upto $1m if people use the ill-gotten points to purchase the games off of xbox live marketplace. You are able to purchase some full games “on demand” through the market place which i’m assuming microsoft then forwards on to the game’s publisher.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "355442",
"author": "mrasmus",
"timestamp": "2011-03-11T18:33:05",
"content": "As far as tokens in arcades go, they end up having multiple advantages for the location. The first of which is the short-term loan (“scam/grift”) aspect — you have an investment with the company that they “pay back” when you use all your tokens up, but it’s 0-interest and non-liquid. As soon as you’ve bought the tokens, they have your money, even though they haven’t rendered services to earn it yet (aka, you haven’t played the games yet). This is the same for Microsoft Points, as well as any other virtual currency like this. You usually end up with a virtual balance that you can’t spend, and can’t liquidate back into real money, so you end up giving them a free loan until you buy *more* of their currency, and spend it.The other advantage, for arcades, is significantly more legitimate: Tokens provide an easier-to-authenticate form of currency. It’s fairly easy to buy slugs online that will look to most coin authentication devices like quarters. Tokens for arcades, in many cases, are specific densities/weights/thicknesses that make them unique, and easier to automatically authenticate. It’s often cheaper, therefore, on a per-machine basis to reliably authenticate tokens than quarters, and the proper high-end currency authentication mechanisms can be invested in for the currency exchanging stations (rather than having to be redundant across all your machines). You also get the added bonus of, at the end of the day when you need to collect all the real money made by the machines (as to not leave it in them overnight), you only have to collect from your 2-4 currency exchanging stations.This problem isn’t had by these online services, but another parallel problem is introduced — one of microtransactions. As you want to sell things for low prices online (<$5, for instance), the credit card fees become a significant portion of the money that comes in. If you have to pay $0.20 per transaction fee, on a $20 item that's not a huge deal… on a $2, however, now you're talking about 10% of the item cost. By forcing the purchase of virtual currency, you're bundling what could be a series of transactions into one, saving significant money on the credit card processing fees.Not saying whether any of these systems are good or bad, just providing some facts about why they exist. There are more elements in play than I've listed here, as well, but these are basically the major ones (as I understand it).",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "355446",
"author": "H3xx",
"timestamp": "2011-03-11T18:39:46",
"content": "Anonymous FTW",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "355447",
"author": "mrasmus",
"timestamp": "2011-03-11T18:42:15",
"content": "To Nick’s comment: Yes, these are virtual goods. However, just because they reside on MS’s servers, and it’s a MS currency, that doesn’t mean it’s no cost. If you were to buy a game with this currency, it actually *does* cost Microsoft money — they have to honor their currency, and pay the developer of that game for that “sale”. This is unlike the argument used by some music pirates that “just because I torrented the music doesn’t mean I would have bought it, so a pirated song doesn’t mean a lost sale” — there is a tangible cost to Microsoft for each download that uses these points. Now, Microsoft gets a percentage of each sale on their service, so $1M points ends up being whatever their % of the sales is in “lost revenue”, and then the rest in actual money they have to back (give to the developers).",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "355462",
"author": "xeracy",
"timestamp": "2011-03-11T18:56:58",
"content": "I would feel sorry for microsoft if their point system was 1:1 currency… I never liked buying 1000 points increments for some arbitrary price and then have to choose games/downloads that perfectly add up to that quantity or else have spare points that i dont want. This is karma, plain and simple.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "355463",
"author": "Nick McClanahan",
"timestamp": "2011-03-11T18:58:05",
"content": "@mrasmus – good point, I didn’t think about that. It probably still didn’t cost them $1M, but maybe it cost them $800k in transfer payments to license holders.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "355469",
"author": "biozz",
"timestamp": "2011-03-11T19:04:09",
"content": "i am a big fan of microsoft and im sad to see them cracked but god damnit if you use a randomly generated code the algorithm will eventually be cracked! you should change it up a bit!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "355472",
"author": "j",
"timestamp": "2011-03-11T19:07:30",
"content": "With tokens in arcades I have noticed typically they charge 1$ for 3 tokens, They then have games which cost 4 tokens. So to play said game you have to spend 2$ and you end up with 2 extra tokens. So if you only want to play one game you have to spend 4$ so you don’t walk away with extra tokens. Games which cost 2 tokens leave you with one extra – and most arcades don’t have a 1 token game. It’s a way to make you pay just slightly more for a game which should cost 1$ to play, and usually you end up walking away with a token which you either lose or forget to bring next time.I wouldn’t be so bothered by tokens if it was 1$ for 4 tokens. But it’s annoying getting 3 for 1$ and having games cost even amount of tokens to play.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1161760",
"author": "FTW",
"timestamp": "2014-01-12T20:03:58",
"content": "Microsoft probably will loose a considerable amount of money in the percentage they take off the top, and what with all the people that buy movies, games, avatar items, subscription fee’s, ect.. I’d say that 1MIL might be possible and I could believe it. Microsoft will probably make an update or a new algorithim, they might just patch it but it will take time and within that time they may loose a good percent of their revenue. And to the person that cracked the algorithim BRAVO!",
"parent_id": "355472",
"depth": 2,
"replies": []
}
]
},
{
"comment_id": "355474",
"author": "Brennan",
"timestamp": "2011-03-11T19:10:47",
"content": "@xeracyMicrosoft’s point algorithm has nothing to do with the way they handled currency conversion – they would have gotten hacked either way. And am I honestly the only one who doesn’t care if I have a few points left over in my account after store purchases? Don’t be an impulse buyer and just leave those points for your next purchase. The most money you’ll ever be out is the few points left in your account if you ever sell your xbox.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "355477",
"author": "wosser",
"timestamp": "2011-03-11T19:17:46",
"content": "I don’t think MS will be able to recover from the loss of such a gigantic sum of revenue. I mean that’s a MILLION dollars, people! Maybe now that they are facing inevitable bankruptcy, it’s a good time for Atari to start up again. Their games were better anyway.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "355478",
"author": "xeracy",
"timestamp": "2011-03-11T19:18:56",
"content": "@Brennan – first, I made no claim as to the reason/method for the hack being related to the point quantities they offer. Your justification for being ok with the extra points makes sense on a person-to-person basis. However, if you add up all the unspent points in EVERY SUBSCRIBER’S ACCOUNT, I can assure you MS is making a boat load of money on those unspent points. Their system is designed to ensure that users will likely carry a balance so they can make extra income without having to actually provide a service or good. It’s a business model that, in my opinion, is unethical.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "355495",
"author": "cigawoot",
"timestamp": "2011-03-11T19:35:04",
"content": "The description of the Youtube movie is asking me to download and run an executable as local administrator.Sorry, I’m not that stupid.Why is this on Hack A Day? This garbage doesn’t belong here, especially a youtube video that is an obvious scam to install malware on your PC.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "355496",
"author": "Drake",
"timestamp": "2011-03-11T19:35:53",
"content": "@AnthonyMicrosoft points cannot purchase games on demand. . . which is one of my gripes with the “points” system. Stick to one currency or another or both but don’t mix the two for the same media.eg don’t charge a dollar for a loaf of bread and charge 3 euros for some Bologna.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "355498",
"author": "fartface",
"timestamp": "2011-03-11T19:37:52",
"content": "@Anthony Thornton so if I buy a game then someone else cant buy that game? I deprive someone of that copy of a game?Nope. It’s free, $0.00 cost to them. all it represents a potential loss of profits. Stop spreading the lies they Copyright cartels programmed you to spread.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "355499",
"author": "wilfite",
"timestamp": "2011-03-11T19:39:36",
"content": "@wosser:Uh…you’re kidding, right? MS made $4.52 BILLION dollars in profits last quarter. A mill here or there is just an annoyance.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "355506",
"author": "JSqrt",
"timestamp": "2011-03-11T19:49:22",
"content": "“varify”?I guess it really must have been easy.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "355511",
"author": "mrasmus",
"timestamp": "2011-03-11T19:54:34",
"content": "@fartface: You’re a bit mistaken on this — Your argument is legitimate (though I wouldn’t agree that it’s justification, the point is sound that downloads represent only a potential loss of sales) for torrented/downloadable titles, it’s no longer true when you’re talking about virtual currency, as each sale using the duped virtual currency costs Microsoft actual money that they have to pay to the developers of whatever content was purchased. But I’ve already detailed this — see my second comment (the sixth to the article).",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "355520",
"author": "hackersmith",
"timestamp": "2011-03-11T20:02:39",
"content": "Easy now. Ars Technica is reporting that it is likely not “ONE MILLION DOLLARS” (touches pinky to lips) but more like a couple of thousand. Not good but they are looking at maybe invalidating them. Here read it all:http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2011/03/xbox-live-points-hack-cost-microsoft-thousands-not-millions.ars",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "355527",
"author": "bunedoggle",
"timestamp": "2011-03-11T20:15:52",
"content": "After the hell MS put me through to cancel my Gold subscription I’m inclined to agree with the karma theory.A multi-billion dollar software company that doesn’t allow you to cancel through the website? Instead required hours of time on hold with a live operator? An operator who asks you to hold and hangs up, repeatedly? Sleazy MS. Serves you right.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "355580",
"author": "kwajkid",
"timestamp": "2011-03-11T20:44:16",
"content": "Anyone who used this is an idiot. You have to apply these credits to your Xbox Live account, and those accounts will definitely get banned once they inevitably figure out how to prove who gamed the system.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "355585",
"author": "Stu",
"timestamp": "2011-03-11T20:47:50",
"content": "@ff: I would be inclined to agree with you if the issue in question was simple piracy. If you download a pirated game from an unauthorized source and run it on modified hardware, that represents a loss of potential money. However, if you walk into McDonald’s and buy a soda with counterfeit money, that’s a loss of real money. McDonald’s still has to pay the soda vendor for the product you consumed, but it doesn’t affect anyone else’s ability to purchase a drink.Now let’s say that everyone who purchased a drink at McDonald’s used counterfeit money. The drink vendor still wants to get paid, but McDonald’s isn’t making money from the drinks anymore. They have three options — raise drink prices in case they get a legitimate customer, stop offering drinks for sale, or give the drinks away and raise prices on the other items they sell to compensate.This is also why piracy doesn’t represent a perpetual loss. If someone steals a drink container and starts selling or giving those drinks away for free, there is a singular, fixed loss for McDonald’s that doesn’t change regardless of how many drinks the thief provides. There’s no indication that thirsty people would buy a drink from McDonald’s even if someone else wasn’t giving the product away for free…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "355587",
"author": "Spork",
"timestamp": "2011-03-11T20:49:24",
"content": "Easy to catch them…M$ obviously tracks all the codes they themselves produce… Write a script to kill all codes that you haven’t produced and you’ve got an easy fix…. until you want to sell new codes. :)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "355588",
"author": "Tux320",
"timestamp": "2011-03-11T20:51:24",
"content": "@wilfiteI believe he was employing that old, trustworthy form of humour, sarcasm. i.e. exaggerating the importance for humorous effect",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "355596",
"author": "Spork",
"timestamp": "2011-03-11T21:10:41",
"content": "@HaDThey didn’t figure out the algorithm. They simply changed a URL… there were only ~10,000 ‘codes’ and they were only worth ~$2 USD to purchase.No million dollar losses… but lots of inaccuracies on HAD.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "355601",
"author": "Peanut",
"timestamp": "2011-03-11T21:15:45",
"content": "Nobody seems to be addressing the important questions here:Does it still work?Is it traceable?And how do we do it??! :-D",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "355614",
"author": "jsngrimm",
"timestamp": "2011-03-11T21:26:16",
"content": "HACKERS: 1 MICROSOFT: -1,000,000 I got it ill tell you guys if it works =D",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "355618",
"author": "jsngrimm",
"timestamp": "2011-03-11T21:35:46",
"content": "it says the points will be put in my account in 12-24 hrs… when i put the code i just generated in my xbox it said invalid so i guess well see",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "355632",
"author": "Jeditalian",
"timestamp": "2011-03-11T22:10:51",
"content": "i think this is the first time i’ve ever seen something on Hackaday that is anywhere near my initial expectations of a site named ‘hack-a-day’",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "355636",
"author": "polossatik",
"timestamp": "2011-03-11T22:15:51",
"content": "the 160 points “freebies” generated with this script seam to be blocked now by Microsoft. The real Q is if the algorithm is capable of generating other codes who are less traceable.It might be this script was simply put online to see how easy it was to block/find counterfeit codes. aka use all the free tards as Guinea pigs :)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "355684",
"author": "Spork",
"timestamp": "2011-03-11T23:25:19",
"content": "@polossatikIf you bothered to read the forums all they did was modify a URL.. there IS no algorithm. [Mike]’s post was just sadly misinformed.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "355702",
"author": "Sam",
"timestamp": "2011-03-11T23:53:57",
"content": "@JeditalianIt’s Hack-A-Day, not Crack-A-Day. Please learn your terminology.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "355736",
"author": "John",
"timestamp": "2011-03-12T00:23:10",
"content": "It’s supposed to be whoever, no whomever.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "355743",
"author": "Steve",
"timestamp": "2011-03-12T00:37:29",
"content": "There is no crack and this is just a scam to get people to sign up for that damn promotions site. Do better research before posting a news item or don’t try and play add based revenue systems as a news item. This is like the full page ads that look like news stories in the paper.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "355771",
"author": "polossatik",
"timestamp": "2011-03-12T01:53:26",
"content": "@spork ha ok, I did noticed the url was in a MS site (don’t have/use a xbox),I thought it was some kind of keygen script or so they used.By the way, I alsways wanted a Sprok to ask this: do you feel more spoon or more fork? :)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "355828",
"author": "BadCoding",
"timestamp": "2011-03-12T03:30:11",
"content": "Just had to add to this: Those claiming they dont like it because it isnt a 1:1 currency conversion – there is more than the US $. There are pounds, euros, yen… A microsoft point in any denomination is still 1 point. So this one currency works the same worldwide.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "356097",
"author": "MoJo",
"timestamp": "2011-03-12T10:51:33",
"content": "@mrasmus, are you sure they have to pay the game devs for the sale? I wouldn’t be surprised if there is a clause in the XBL contract that says the developer is liable for any fraud just as much as Microsoft is. I doubt it will actually cost an developers money but I would be surprised if they get paid for illegitimate purchases.After all that is how credit cards work. If someone makes a fraudulent purchase in a shop with a stolen card and the real owner reverses the transaction then the shop loses.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "356891",
"author": "edonovan",
"timestamp": "2011-03-13T08:22:29",
"content": "@MoJoI don’t think Microsoft can prove that any of the purchases are fraudulent, so they’ll still have to pay the developer for the sale.I’m sure most of the points just got applied to XBoxLive subscriptions, anyway.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "357731",
"author": "Pup",
"timestamp": "2011-03-14T10:09:46",
"content": "Looks like they won’t be able to buy that ivory backscratcher after all.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "358633",
"author": "PocketBrain",
"timestamp": "2011-03-15T03:56:31",
"content": "Video removed.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "359520",
"author": "dan fruzzetti",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T02:50:07",
"content": "Microsoft doesn’t strike me as a company that’s ever felt the need to prepare contingencies — they just rest on their huge mass and inertia; every time I see them bested by some horny teenager, they just backpedal and say “ok ok hack our shit”",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "384200",
"author": "xYORKSHIREx",
"timestamp": "2011-04-21T21:31:17",
"content": "@ BadCodingIts not a universal currency because points purchased in America do not work in the UKIts just microsoft trying to make more money",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
}
] | 1,760,377,248.538699
|
||
https://hackaday.com/2011/03/11/bitbang-ir-remote/
|
Bitbang IR Remote
|
Kevin Dady
|
[
"LED Hacks"
] |
[
"ftdi",
"lirc"
] |
[Albert] has made a few PC IR transmitters and receivers using the traditional connection of RS232 serial, and that is fine, but as we are all aware, not every computer has serial ports standard. Searching though normal USB <> RS232 dongles didn’t meet his requirements. Deciding on making it himself, he whipped up this
FTDI bit-bang IR receiver / transmitter
.
While FTDI makes a range of chips most (if not all) support a bit-bang mode where you can manually control the IC’s pins. The FTDI chip handles the timing, and when paired up with
libFTDI
makes it pretty painless to control. The software is a work in progress, but [Albert] already has a driver that connects to
LIRC
, which lets you control a wide array of remote devices and a test program for carrier generation.
Schematics, source, and a few pages of good information are available on his site.
| 4
| 4
|
[
{
"comment_id": "355437",
"author": "Paul Potter",
"timestamp": "2011-03-11T18:28:16",
"content": "Very neat.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "355451",
"author": "chango",
"timestamp": "2011-03-11T18:45:25",
"content": "Nice. I love FTDI for making such a flexible chip cheap and abundant.There’s an old trick where you can use a UART at the right baud rate (115200 usually works) to demodulate the carrier. You time the characters coming in rather than sampling the incoming demod’d signal. I think lirc uses this for their RS232 dongle driver. The integrated IR module probably provides much better filtering, but there would be style points in trimming the BOM down to a phototransistor and an LED.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "355487",
"author": "Whatnot",
"timestamp": "2011-03-11T19:31:09",
"content": "Almost all computers do actually have serial port hardware, it’s in the health monitoring chip, the motherboard makers just stopped supplying headers to it.So there’s a hack possibility for you although with SMD and tiny feet and multilayer PCB’s it gets hard to get at it.I wish mobo makers would just put at least a dumb header on the board when it’s already in the chips, dammit.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "355664",
"author": "lwatcdr",
"timestamp": "2011-03-11T22:41:57",
"content": "@What not. I would be great if they would do that. Maybe even include the I2C bus and maybe even a parallel port for digital IO. It would make the boards so much more hackable.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
}
] | 1,760,377,248.460241
|
||
https://hackaday.com/2011/03/11/phillip-torrone-makes-case-for-next-gen-public-libraries/
|
Phillip Torrone Makes Case For Next-gen Public Libraries
|
Mike Szczys
|
[
"Hackerspaces"
] |
[
"hackerspace",
"public library",
"techshop"
] |
[Phillip Torrone] has started
a discussion about a possible upgrade to the public library system
in the US and wants to know what you think. His name should be familiar (Hackaday founder, Open Source hardware advocate, and
Tron costume model
) and he’s definitely got his finger on the pulse of today’s electronics enthusiasts. He poses the question, could we upgrade libraries to become public techshops?
As a frequenter user of my own library system here in Madison, Wisconsin I like to think that they’re not going anywhere anytime soon. I find it nice to be able to borrow books, as it seems wasteful to buy a book I will only read once. Sure, I do buy and sell books at the used book store, but that doesn’t diminish how I value the library system and often
suggest in posts that our readers should go check out books
they’re interested in.
But I must agree with [Mr. Torrone] that, a least to some extent, reserving large buildings to house collections of books may be an outdated concept. It’s not just the books that make the library. These buildings provide computer time and Internet access to the community. I’ve occasionally written posts from public libraries instead of paying the ‘coffee tax’ to get on WiFi in a coffee shop. Libraries also serve as community meeting spaces, and polling places. And what [Phillip] is talking about aims to offset some of the stacks in order to augment the functionality of the institution.
What if it were a repository of knowledge in the written form as well as a place to use tools and learn new skill? It’s an intriguing question and I’m glad he asked it.
| 48
| 48
|
[
{
"comment_id": "355338",
"author": "Roberto",
"timestamp": "2011-03-11T16:56:38",
"content": "Enterprise strives where government fails.If government provides all the services it is able to provide, is private enterprise doomed?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "355345",
"author": "Philip",
"timestamp": "2011-03-11T17:02:19",
"content": "Honestly, its a silly idea. Initial tooling costs, maintenance, training, replacements etc will cost alot more than a library. Not to mention the insanely high insurance premium.Sure most people would love a hacklab funded by the government but its never going to happen like this. Librarys are a good idea and will still be here in 100 years.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "355347",
"author": "Brian",
"timestamp": "2011-03-11T17:10:58",
"content": "I love Toronne, a true visionary. But let’s call this what it is. This is an attempt to build support for the American taxpayer funding Hackerspaces. I go to the library regularly. People aren’t there to build. Libraries are serving as community centers.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "355365",
"author": "VV",
"timestamp": "2011-03-11T17:39:54",
"content": "Libraries are certainly important services to ensure access to knowledge, and in more modern times, computers and the internet for everyone. I do hope Libraries continue to be a fixture in towns and cities across the world going into the future.However, as e-books and e-readers claw more into the reading market, we may not be far away from making the book irrelevant. Libraries may have to move into new areas again.However I do not think this is that area. It would be great if everyone had access to the types of equipment we are talking about, but we have to consider that *most* people do not want that. Perhaps that is the place of Colleges and Universities to provide access and training for these specialist devices.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "355384",
"author": "Chris W",
"timestamp": "2011-03-11T17:49:50",
"content": "I can see the lawsuits now. Letting people of questionable technical and mechanical skills access a government funded hacker space is a bad idea. Libraries are already adapting to the e-book movement by allowing you to check out e-books on your readers. And while I would love to have a hacker space in my community, I would rather it be funded by the people that are going to use it and not the entire community. There is too much wasteful spending as it is.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "355394",
"author": "jgunn",
"timestamp": "2011-03-11T18:04:23",
"content": "Although I think adoption of Torrone’s idea would be a hard sell as most people don’t “get” concepts like hackerspaces – I spend 30min explaining it one time at a community artist studio open-house and got nothing but blank looks, even though they already were, in essence, the art equivalent of a hackerspace – I think the idea of merging an important but aging institution like public libraries with other more forward-looking community resources makes sense.I live in the least-rural part of a very rural state (NH) and its hard to have really good community access resources because people are so spread out. The library in my town is tiny; the nearest “good” hackerspace, I believe, is still fledgeling and 45min south in Lowell, MA.I could easily see a visionary, tied to the public library system, starting a community center that merged the library with…I dunno, after school programs, a hackerspace, a low-cost rehearsal space for bands, a vocational program for teens that fall outside the normal college-directed curriculum or out-of-work adults, and any number of other ideas. The down economy leaves us with no lack of empty rentable space. There’s a recently closed community college building sitting vacant down the road that could house it all. And most of those programs – with the exception of staffing, which admittedly would be tricky to provide – could be started and maintained by people volunteering equipment and supplies like people do with startup hackerspaces. Heck, I could probably start up a decent workshop and a band practice space with the equipment in my basement alone.That was more of a rant than I intended – but part of me suspects that libraries will continue down a slope of being less relevant to the average person until funding gets cut sharply and by then it will be too late to evolve them or convince people why they need to be preserved. Rolling them into a larger community center concept in areas where there is a real lack of that sort of thing is pretty appealing to me.-Jeff",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "355432",
"author": "CutThroughStuffGuy",
"timestamp": "2011-03-11T18:21:53",
"content": "I somehow don’t see libraries buying $75,000 Omax waterjets (as shown in the lower left corner of the graphic) and allowing the public to use them given the nozzles alone are $100 or so and they cost at least $40 per hour to operate – as well as needing hearing protection and industrial level capability (forklifts, 480V power, etc).They are less dangerous than many tools but 60,000 PSI water isn’t exactly safe for kids. Plus, OMAX pumps are rotary and require rebuilds fairly frequently compared to intensifier designs (that can go 600+ hours between HP seal rebuilds).I like the concept of libraries as hackerspaces. But lets not glaze over the practical implications either.That said, the Zcorp 3d printer shown on the left of the graphic would be largely ideal for a hackerspace type setup.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "355434",
"author": "pt",
"timestamp": "2011-03-11T18:25:48",
"content": "gang, the goal of the article (and for the comments here) is to talk about what a library *can* become – they once just had books, now they have computers, DVDs and net access. what will they become in 10 years, 20 years from now.this is not about getting tax funded hackerspaces, so please read the article before you say that.this is about what a library can be as books go all digital and communities want to re-tool and rebuild for the future.does the public library have a role?some cities have tool lending libraries at their public libraries, again – read the article :)thanks–",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "355436",
"author": "bhtooefr",
"timestamp": "2011-03-11T18:26:06",
"content": "Myself, I’ve been advocating replacing schools with a library-meets-hackerspace-meets-unstructured-school type of facility – people hanging out, sharing knowledge, maybe teaching the occasional class, mentoring one another, etc., etc.We see this kind of thing online, but there are some things that work better in real life, and some people that learn better in real life.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "355443",
"author": "CutThroughStuffGuy",
"timestamp": "2011-03-11T18:35:16",
"content": "Another thing. I liken hackerspaces to the BDSM or other kink communities. They require a certain type of person. A mature person who is respectful and doesn’t break things or use them inappropriately. A person who is willing to learn and who gives and doesn’t just take. A person who, quite honestly is intelligent and loves solving problems.Libraries have to let the public in. That means anybody. Kids. Felons. Idiots. Careless people. Homeless people. Think of the average person. Half of them will be dumber than that. I mean no disrespect by these statements and I do not believe in stereotyping a person but my point is – you don’t trust $100k machines to the public at large. Darwin and lawsuits are not fun. A shop is NOT a place where you can tolerate horseplay or nonsense or stupidity. Learning can and should take place but some mistakes can be fatal and swift. Not every machine is as dangerous or expensive but some can be very much so in the hands of an untrained operator. Machines do what you tell them to do and none that I know of have any ability to prevent you from doing stupid stuff (with the exception of limit switches and such). In short, they are designed to be used by experienced operators.Back to the BDSM analogy –While the BDSM community is highly inclusive and respecting of people, I still don’t know of any BDSM play parties that let anybody in. It is always a friend of a friend type of arrangement. The BDSM community, for all of its acceptance (and I know of no other group as accepting as they are) has to draw the line somewhere. And honestly, there are people the BDSM community DOES NOT WANT showing up to its events or private parties. A public, taxpayer funded enterprise has no such ability to restrict who attends or joins.For this reason, I see the library hackerspace concept/argument to be fundamentally flawed. But not a useless concept. I love my local hackerspace (and I know quite a few local BDSM people do as well). I just don’t know if opening it up to the public at large (without at least doing a comprehensive analysis of costs, risks, operating procedures, training, security? etc) is an idea that is as good as it may appear at first glance.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "355444",
"author": "CutThroughStuffGuy",
"timestamp": "2011-03-11T18:35:40",
"content": "Sorry the Omax is on the lower right.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "355459",
"author": "pt",
"timestamp": "2011-03-11T18:53:55",
"content": "@CutThroughStuffGuy – this is about what a library can evolve in to, i’m sure there was a lot of debate about “felons” and “dumb people” using computers and the internet when libraries adapted to provide tech and access starting 10 years ago or so.maybe it starts out by offering electronic’s workshops and how to use CAD, maybe it’s have FIRST robotics meet at public libraries, maybe it’s something else – what can the library become in 5 or 10 years from now? surely more than an empty room filled with ebook readers, right?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "355468",
"author": "CutThroughStuffGuy",
"timestamp": "2011-03-11T19:03:37",
"content": "I don’t recall people having an issue with letting the public use computers.Using a computer isn’t the same though. My point was not that certain people should not be allowed access. My point is that the consequences aren’t the same when it comes to some (much?) of the gear. You can break a computer but it can’t hurt you. Mills, lathes, waterjets and lasers CAN hurt you.So maybe the approach is to start small as you suggest. Workshop space, ardunos, social space, CAD, robotics. Start the ball rolling and let it build but don’t jump in head first.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "355475",
"author": "pt",
"timestamp": "2011-03-11T19:13:47",
"content": "@CutThroughStuffGuy – there was a complete freak-out and melt down about “allowing” internet access in libraries – but it was such a long time ago, no one remembers. i’m sure there will be a time when people look back and not recall when libraries were “just books”.the goal of all of this is to think about what libraries can evolve to, some already have started: there are over 25 tool lending libraries at public libraries in the USA, they even loan out chain saws – imagine that.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "355492",
"author": "john personna",
"timestamp": "2011-03-11T19:33:44",
"content": "Some of our local high school shop classes flip to adult education “classes” that are much like hacker spaces. The instructor says hello, gives a safety lecture, and says feel free to ask me for help.Give that so many high schools and junior colleges have the equipment, that seems the path to take.That and … libraries are already disrespecting books (in favor of internet carrels) way too much.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "355503",
"author": "Scott",
"timestamp": "2011-03-11T19:42:17",
"content": "Maker shops are in part a reaction to a -lack- of state sponsored vocational education.How about we work to restore vocational schools, which are seriously underfunded and have a reputation of being places where flunkies and delinquents go to float through the system?Existing vocational schools could get extra revenue by hosting after-school make workshops. I’d certainly pay.The nearest make workshop to me is 2 cities away (30 miles), and that is a bigger deterrent than the $50-$100 per month membership.I like Phillip’s idea as a conversation starter, but I would agree with others that it is impractical except for a few really tight-knit communities. The money would be better spent on the children, by improving school workshops. My idea of renting them out at night could make the departments self-funding… which is very important as workshops take second priority to books and football.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "355507",
"author": "pt",
"timestamp": "2011-03-11T19:49:38",
"content": "@scott – these are all good ideas, and that’s the point – to get ideas and people thinking about how the library can evolve. please do not think i literally mean put $2m of laser cutters and tools in a library next week.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "355508",
"author": "CutThroughStuffGuy",
"timestamp": "2011-03-11T19:51:53",
"content": "As Scott pointed out, vocational learning, when I was in school and perhaps still today, was deeply frowned upon. It was where the misfits, the not college bound, and the generally “unsuccessful” people went or did. It was seen as akin to manual labor. Easily replaceable. Why learn to fix cars or become a seamstress when who knows where that will be 10 years from now and who will want to employ you? For some strange reason, nobody said the same thing about art history majors or religious study majors either….. hmm.The other kids were seen as being management or at least college bound and on their way to get a higher education. Which they then paid $100,000 – $200,000 for and are now still in debt a decade later. So maybe the joke was on them all along?Anyway, that perception is starting to change, I think. But it is still deeply ingrained. I think something like this could potentially change this – along with other private, for profit local hackerspaces (that perhaps have the big toys and such)?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "355513",
"author": "jgunn",
"timestamp": "2011-03-11T19:57:28",
"content": "Staring small is more what I imagined – yes, you can hurt yourself with a soldering iron, but you’re not likely to lop off a limb. If a public space can grow to the point that it can have laser cutters and bandsaws, great, but hopefully they’ve worked out a staffing solution by then.I don’t think the fact that making laser cutters available to unsupervised kids might be unwise is a reason to discard the whole concept of rolling libraries into a larger community resource center.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "355517",
"author": "CutThroughStuffGuy",
"timestamp": "2011-03-11T20:00:28",
"content": "Lets talk about the practicalities of cost for a moment.To properly equip a serious, industrial level hackerspace, you honestly need at least $1,000,000 and can easily go up to $2,000,000 or more if you really wanted to. Not counting the real estate or employee time. I expect that number to drop to a point but only so far. Running it is also not extremely cheap either. Things break. Expensive things sometimes. I would target a MINIMUM of $500,000 of direct out of pocket costs to start up a true hackerspace.You can get by with much, much less if you are only doing soldering or other neat but low cost stuff or are willing to put a HUGE amount of time and experience into building things (generally with other, expensive tools). You can make $15,000 plasma tables for $5,000 if you are willing (and able) to spend 300 – 400 hours doing fabrication.Plasma cutters, welders, CNC machines, mills, lathes… you are looking at $3,000 to $15,000 and up – EACH. Then we get into the true industrial level items. HD plasma tables at 20 – 80k, industrial grade 3d printers at 50 – 150k, waterjets at 75 – 200k, laser cutters at 100 – 300k, laser engravers at 15 – 40k. It adds up faster than you think. You of course don’t need all of these toys and many hackerspaces don’t have or need them. But they certainly do help and the “cheaper versions” often times can wind up being anything from just as good to smaller envelope to absolutely frustratingly useless and everything in between.Are libraries of today equipped to deal with this? What does a library of books truly cost? They don’t buy them all at retail.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "355523",
"author": "CutThroughStuffGuy",
"timestamp": "2011-03-11T20:04:24",
"content": "“I don’t think the fact that making laser cutters available to unsupervised kids might be unwise is a reason to discard the whole concept of rolling libraries into a larger community resource center.”I agree and that was the point I was trying to convey. I urged caution not an absolute disregard for the idea. It is legally a bit tricky though to just let anybody have at machines and part of the learning process is screwing up.Books don’t hurt people. Industrial machines can be operated safely but I think we will agree have more potential to injure an unwise and untrained operator.60 watt laser “cutters” are generally safe as they have interlocks. Mills can be quite dangerous but many (but not all) have interlocks. Most manual ones do not. It all depends on the equipment, the vintage, the safety features, the operators, the tolerance for horseplay, etc.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "355530",
"author": "Brian",
"timestamp": "2011-03-11T20:16:39",
"content": "@PT I did read it, twice. With respect, yes it is.You begin with: “… represent the collective commitment of a community to their future.”Translation. Tax revenue pays for libraries. It is mentioned, 8% percent is paid for by more direct means. I would think the majority of this 8% falls into interest,fees,and grants. Unless we are speaking of private grants, almost all of these are involuntary, they are essentially ‘use’ taxes.The proposal, morph the library into something more useful to us as a community, shift those funds into our model. But you assume this will provide a benefit for ALL. I do not think you support that argument in what you have written.Hacker spaces are standing on their own. They will grow organically to meet the needs of their communities. Tech Shops are surviving in those communities that have enough interested people to support them. Our country is hurting, we are in debt up to our eyeballs, what we should be identifying is what we can shift to the private sector. If libraries aren’t serving their communities they should be closed.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "355534",
"author": "pt",
"timestamp": "2011-03-11T20:20:04",
"content": "@CutThroughStuffGuy – tool lending libraries lend out thousands of tools that can do more damage than a book or computer. they’ve managed to pay for those tools, the seattle public library got tens of millions from private donors, it’s really just a matter of what is considered valuable to a community. somehow shop classes have been part of many US school with giant table saws, it’s all possible, not instant – but with work and vision.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "355537",
"author": "nanomonkey",
"timestamp": "2011-03-11T20:24:30",
"content": "Oakland and Berkeley, CA both have tool lending libraries. I see this as a start. You can check out all sorts of tools that you would normally only use once or twice in a decade. This is very convenient and allows people of the community to share resources.While retooling can be expensive, it is not impossible to foresee a means to get useful tools into the hands of the public.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "355539",
"author": "jgunn",
"timestamp": "2011-03-11T20:26:53",
"content": "“To properly equip a serious, industrial level hackerspace, you honestly need at least $1,000,000 and can easily go up to $2,000,000 or more if you really wanted to. Not counting the real estate or employee time. I expect that number to drop to a point but only so far. Running it is also not extremely cheap either. Things break. Expensive things sometimes. I would target a MINIMUM of $500,000 of direct out of pocket costs to start up a true hackerspace.”Hmm. I respect what you’re saying here, but where I am, the only way a hackerspace would get rolling is for a group of like-minded individuals who were already struggling to support their own efforts to band together and pool tools and resources. They get a little money together to rent a workshop space, one guy brings his welding kit, another guy brings his wood shop tools, a third person brings electronics tools and parts, another brings in their scrap pile. As membership grows, so does the pool of tools and resources.I think if a library evolved itself into a community center that sought to provide space for many community groups – library services, book clubs, youth groups, a hackerspace, the other ideas I floated above – then you’re not trying to convince your townsfolk to pony op half a million dollars to start a hackerspace that might not succeed anyway due to lack of interest. You’re one more interest group of many that is trying to benefit from, and give back to the community.The community provides the space for free or cheap; tools, supply, and membership comes from interested individuals.I feel like several people in this thread are putting a lot of brain cycles toward thinking of reasons why it won’t work. Why not redirect them to identifying the potential issues and suggesting how they might be resolved?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "355583",
"author": "pt",
"timestamp": "2011-03-11T20:45:58",
"content": "@jgunn – “I feel like several people in this thread are putting a lot of brain cycles toward thinking of reasons why it won’t work. Why not redirect them to identifying the potential issues and suggesting how they might be resolved?”exactly. everyone here can likely come up with at least a dozen ways their communities can become better and more interesting for science, electronics and engineering. maybe the library is part of that, maybe it’s not – but i think everyone has some good ideas, this is a safe place to post them :)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "355592",
"author": "CutThroughStuffGuy",
"timestamp": "2011-03-11T21:02:13",
"content": "Just for the record, I would LOVE to see this idea take seed and blossom into a wonderful entity. My only reason to “be so negative” here is simply to try to avoid potential problems that I see that are possible (likely?) to come up that I have personally myself seen in the course of setting up my own makerspace.So please don’t take my words as anything other than another datapoint of information to consider.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "355593",
"author": "CutThroughStuffGuy",
"timestamp": "2011-03-11T21:04:58",
"content": "“As membership grows, so does the pool of tools and resources.”Who owns the hackerspace once everybody owns a small part of it? Who decides what happens to it from the big picture standpoint? What if the guy who lent the saw wants his saw back? What happens when the guy who lent his $20,000 of welding gear feels like his contribution is more valuable than the guy who lent his $100 saw? Who pays for the upkeep of said tools? The consumables? Not every machine costs the same to run.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "355594",
"author": "CutThroughStuffGuy",
"timestamp": "2011-03-11T21:06:59",
"content": "Also – how do you define success of a hackerspace? Profit? That isn’t how you value a library. What is the “point” or “worth” of a hackerspace in this context?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "355606",
"author": "jgunn",
"timestamp": "2011-03-11T21:17:23",
"content": "Those are operational variables that can change from space to space – club rules defined in a charter. A space started by an independently wealthy individual or a retired engineer will operate differently from a space started by 10 college kids.I would suggest talking to existing spaces and see how they do it, but I am positive that many exist, all with different operational models. And that’s an issue to be sorted out by hackerspaces in general, not specific to the concept we’re talking about here.How would YOU address these questions?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
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},
{
"comment_id": "355671",
"author": "Graybeard",
"timestamp": "2011-03-11T22:59:45",
"content": "When I was a bit younger (over 60 years ago) my high school opened its wood shop for community use on selected evenings. Not only was woodworking done but other craft projects were presented. I enjoyed it then and I’d sure like to have something using the advanced technology available today I’d like some classes as well. I might add that in our junior high metal shop we used soldering irons heated on blowtorches to complete soldering projects. Safety was emphasized. Graybeard Growing older is mandatory. Growing up is optional",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "355701",
"author": "macona",
"timestamp": "2011-03-11T23:48:10",
"content": "A one who helped run the Portland TechShop (Which folded Feb 2010) I cant see how the for profit business model can sustain itself, and in the case of the Portland one, did not. The TechShop model pretty much requires constant infusion of money from “investors” to keep the places running. The original techshop business model centered around investors giving techshop money in $25,000 increments. In exchange for this they get lifetime membership and paid back over 10 years with a 10% return on top of that.As of the closing of the Portland location our local investors had gotten word from investors at Menlo Park that none of them had received payments at that time. Yet the location claimed to be in the black.Some of us from TechShop, Equipment owners, and investors looked at opening up a techshop like entity after the Portland location closed. We had three people try to put together a business plan, all of who ran businesses and none could come up with a sustainable plan.The Portland location ran differently than the other two locations. We did not have the amount of investors that the other two had so we ended up relying on equipment donated or lent to the operation. This had one major advantage, less initial outflow of cash. Also it had a side benefit of having much higher quality equipment (Virtually nothing Chinese) although some was rather old. But everything did work.But in the end, it all fell apart. Many factors contributed to the demise which I will not get into here.But in the end I still have friends who were members and investors so it was not all bad.I think the Hackerspace model is the way to go. I cant see it running like a Library, especially if the government has anything to do with it. I have a friend who works in the County library system and the bureaucracy is unparalleled. Keep the government out of your lives if you can!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "355733",
"author": "pt",
"timestamp": "2011-03-12T00:18:45",
"content": "@macona – it’s a little confusing, you’re saying all the private enterprise efforts failed “I cant see how the for profit business model can sustain itself,” – so what would work?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "355750",
"author": "Brian.Holiday",
"timestamp": "2011-03-12T00:51:42",
"content": "@PT You attack costs on two fronts. Renting space and the donation of tools. Each tool has a value, that counts as a contribution. The tool is insured and held in trust by the organization. If you don’t contribute enough value in a tool, you contribute a fee. I haven’t run the numbers, but I would say a once a year flat fee paid for in installments. Now you have revenue covered, provide value. You have tools for people to use, but you haven’t addressed all the needs of the customer. You need to appeal to a family. You want somewhere to put the kids, a treadmill or stationary bike for bored spouses, TV’s, basically a social area for the ‘widows and widowers’ to hang out.Now the ‘icky’ part. You charge for materials, snacks, soda’s, everything based a little lower than the prevailing market. You buy in quantity and pocket the difference. All that cash goes into the ‘business’. You rent space to other groups, you teach classes. People with skills get a break on use fees. I think with an ‘all of the above’ approach this could be self sustaining.If you want to discuss it further, I will send you an email at make.com.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
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},
{
"comment_id": "355775",
"author": "macona",
"timestamp": "2011-03-12T02:02:52",
"content": "Something like Hackerspaces. Get in with a non-profit status and hopefully find a small building and get real cheap rent. Of course with a non-profit status there are whole new hoops to jump through. But the one downfall of most of the hackerspaces I have seen is the tooling is crap. Some have decent electronics equipment but ones promoting their “Full Machine Shops” are a joke.There are a lot of semi industrial areas with lots of empty spaces that need filling. I had been contacted by someone after TS failed about opening something in a space he had but it never panned out.Location is also a big issue. Especially Portland. People here seems so tight with their money and (to me) seem like they want things handed to them. There is also a definite anti-profit, anti-establishment vibe around and people turn their noses up if you want to make a profit at something. We also had an issue with the physical location of the building. It was located in a Suburb of Portland, Beaverton. Surrounded by a lot of High Tech businesses there was a lot of interest in that area. We had carless people who lived downtown that wouldnt make the “trek” out to Beaverton to use the place. Of course this would have been the same issue had it been located in downtown Portland, people from surrounding communities would have not wanted to try and find parking downtown.The whole idea of TechShop is nothing new. There have been several iterations of this concept in the past 50 year or so. One place used coin op machines. There is a place in Australia that has a similar concept where you pay per hour for machine use. I think they have people there that can run the machine for you at one rate and another rate for you running it.In the end the best approach may be shops with specific interest groups. One for motorheads, one for machining, one for electronics, and so on. There are some that will “cross-train” but most people have a pretty specific interest. You could have membership based on what shop you were interested in and a general membership that covered all.Shops that have specific interests could be located in a location that would benefit the members the best. For example a Auto shop could be located further from city center where rent is cheaper since most of these guys will be willing to drive.Well, I think that enough of my rambling for now.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
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},
{
"comment_id": "355829",
"author": "pt",
"timestamp": "2011-03-12T03:35:15",
"content": "@macona – you said… “I have a friend who works in the County library system and the bureaucracy is unparalleled. Keep the government out of your lives if you can!”but now you’re saying the best thing to do is for a hackerspace to apply to be a non-profit?have you ever applied to the IRS for tax exempt status?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "355875",
"author": "macona",
"timestamp": "2011-03-12T04:59:15",
"content": "It seems many Hackerspaces are already non-profit. Becoming a non-profit does not mean government is supporting you. It just means you dont need to pay taxes to them.But the paperwork involved could employ a person full time. We had looked into it.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "355905",
"author": "pt",
"timestamp": "2011-03-12T05:32:10",
"content": "so you haven’t applied to the IRS for tax exempt status, but you’re still suggesting the best thing to do is for a hackerspace to apply to be a non-profit?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "355914",
"author": "macona",
"timestamp": "2011-03-12T05:45:26",
"content": "I have no reason to as the reason no longer exists. And we had someone that was supposed to handle that for us. But things fell apart before that happened.The non-profit status has other benefits than just tax exemption. It allows money and equipment to be donated and the donator can write these off as deductions. We had several opportunities to get equipment this way if we were one, but we were not.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "356214",
"author": "Neckbeard",
"timestamp": "2011-03-12T13:00:17",
"content": "Phil makes some good points. I don’t think a library is the medium required for this to happen though. Maybe a funded version of techshop.ws in a dedicated facility explicitly designed for the purpose.That however is idealistic thinking and as big as the hacker community has become it is still relatively minor. What is needed (initially) is a school initiative to educate the next generation on the stuff possible.After that has been achieved then you will have a solid argument. Keep up the good work though Phil and thanks for keeping the movement fresh/relevant.NB",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "356228",
"author": "therian",
"timestamp": "2011-03-12T13:19:30",
"content": "who need libraries or knowledge for cotton picking ? dont forget we all be enslaved by 2012",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "356310",
"author": "addidis",
"timestamp": "2011-03-12T16:13:35",
"content": "Seriously this is one of the best ideas ever. In history libraries were reserved for kings and queens. Then the common man got access. This is the best idea i have seen in a long time. I compare it to when the library got music cds by me and I found my self there weekly.Hackerspaces are currently /trying/ to fill the void, but for cash poor hackers the fees can still limit participation.This could be a step to renew our industrial status in the world as it grows our creative abilities as a country, putting 10k $ tools in the hands of the masses.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "356617",
"author": "Brian Neeley",
"timestamp": "2011-03-13T00:36:39",
"content": "I like the ‘idea’ of library to tech shop, but I can’t see the ‘reality’ of such a transformation. Many of the public libraries I have seen have a certain “feel” that is distinctly different from what you would find in a shop, be it electronic, wood, or metal. From a strictly visceral standpoint, a hackerspace or tech shop has more in common with a gym than it does a library.Don’t get me wrong, I think tech shops and hackerspaces are intellictually very similar to libraries, in that they are both places where lots of learning can and does take place. But I think it would be easier to co-opt vocational schools and community colleges into this type of thing than the public libraries.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "356819",
"author": "bubub",
"timestamp": "2011-03-13T05:36:25",
"content": "The libraries could offer classes where you are trained on the varies tools first, maybe.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "357808",
"author": "Thomas Wrobel",
"timestamp": "2011-03-14T12:16:22",
"content": "I don’t see it as a tech shop, but I certainly think libaries should transform a bit.Knowledge distribution is vitial, but can be done at a fraction of a space. Some of us might still like physical books, but, honestly, in a few generations that will go. Its just what we are used too.However, a public area to get knowledge, internet access, and purhapes even to exchange skills would be very usefull.Also photocopyiers, 3D Printers, recycleing points, and various other usefull tools should be on site.I’m not sure of a full tech shop, however.If we could turn them into a skill-exchange area though it would be nice. Purhapes with a list of things that can be done in the local community (fixed/improved/invented), and when the tech is ready, the 3D printers neccessery to produce parts needed to help solve those local problems safely. (ie, a printers easy to keep safe, a bunch of serious tools and you have to worry about children playing in the same area…)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "357897",
"author": "Ekaj",
"timestamp": "2011-03-14T14:47:22",
"content": "Phillip has been smoking too much reefer, and has too much faith in local/state/federal government.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "358077",
"author": "macona",
"timestamp": "2011-03-14T17:26:36",
"content": "3D printers are still a long way from being ready for prime time in such a setting. The home made ones suffer from pretty crummy output and the commercial ones that do have nice output are terribly expensive to run and maintain.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "358630",
"author": "Kyle",
"timestamp": "2011-03-15T03:54:35",
"content": "I have never heard of this philip guy, but it sounds like he needs to get out in to the real world more often. We have an administration in the white house that spent like 4 TRILLION in a year, and have nothing to show for it. I wouldn’t trust them any further than I can throw them, and I don’t have any arms!I understand, he’s trying to say things that are “far out” with the hope that one of his crazy statements will come true, and he can point and say “see? see? I said that would happen!”. I believe it’s called carpet bombing, or something like that.I say meh, whatev. The creativity in this country continues to dwindle. High School graduates are less and less skilled every year. This country isn’t going anywhere but in China’s pocket!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
}
] | 1,760,377,248.798451
|
||
https://hackaday.com/2011/03/11/zigbee-powered-wireless-scale/
|
Zigbee-powered Wireless Scale
|
Noah Dunker
|
[
"Medical Hacks",
"Microcontrollers",
"Wireless Hacks"
] |
[
"scale",
"weight",
"wireless",
"xbee"
] |
[joe] wanted to make it easy to record his weight every day, and added a few bits to decode the weight and send it to his computer. The end result is a
ZigBee-powered wireless scale
. Additionally, his scale can track more than one person’s data simply by knowing whose previous weight the new measurement is closest to. Now [joe] and his family can spend more time working out, and less time messing with spreadsheets and data entry.
[joe]’s build is not only elegant, but well-documented, too. He walks through the reasons he chose this specific floor scale, reverse engineering it to decode the weight, then provides links to his schematics, source code, and pretty much everything else you would need to play along at home.
| 5
| 5
|
[
{
"comment_id": "355343",
"author": "Gravis",
"timestamp": "2011-03-11T16:59:16",
"content": "looks a little sloppy but if it works, that’s cool. i would have just put the wireless on the pcb (no zigbee module) and used a ribbon cable for the LCD connection but that’s just me.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "355359",
"author": "JordanLTR",
"timestamp": "2011-03-11T17:28:48",
"content": "Would’t it be a balance and not a scale?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "355368",
"author": "VSack",
"timestamp": "2011-03-11T17:43:23",
"content": "I’m looking to get into Arduinos but I have a question: If I wanted to build two units that communicate at low range between one another (2 Meters) is Zigbee a good choice?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "355638",
"author": "grant",
"timestamp": "2011-03-11T22:21:16",
"content": "Awesome! I have been thinking something like this would be extremenly useful in my “geek” house but had no idea how to accomplish it.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "355685",
"author": "Ropsch",
"timestamp": "2011-03-11T23:26:56",
"content": "I wonder if there is a proper analog signal on the board to tap on to, to read out the pressure sensor directly.That would save most of the wires.If the 10 bit resolution of the XBee module’s ADC is sufficient, there’s not even need for a controller.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
}
] | 1,760,377,248.581252
|
||
https://hackaday.com/2011/03/11/build-your-own-vertical-axis-wind-turbine/
|
Build Your Own Vertical Axis Wind Turbine
|
Mike Szczys
|
[
"green hacks"
] |
[
"generator",
"stator",
"turbine",
"wind"
] |
You can build a copy of this vertical wind turbine in a weekend and it won’t cost you all that much. Applied Sciences developed the hardware and
they’re sharing all for the build details
. You will be taken through every part of the build starting with the fin assembly which is made from stove-pipe material. This is a perfect raw material because it is already curved and suited for aerodynamic use in much the same way that
PVC pipe is for making fins
and we would expect it to be a bit lighter in weight. You will also need to turn your own coils when assembling the stator. This particular build process uses nine coils embedded in fiberglass. They remain stationary while two different discs, each containing a dozen rare earth magnets, rotate in close proximity to induce a current. It outputs three-phase AC current which can be turned to DC using a bridge rectifier and then further regulated for storage in batteries.
[Thanks Miguel]
| 26
| 23
|
[
{
"comment_id": "355284",
"author": "Adam",
"timestamp": "2011-03-11T15:20:34",
"content": "Looks like a nice project, and well presented. My gut reaction was “I want to build one!”However, they don’t even try to make an estimate of power output. No calculations, no empirical data. With all the work that went into making the PDF describing the build look pretty, I’m surprised that they don’t address performance at all.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "355361",
"author": "Ron Proctor",
"timestamp": "2011-03-11T17:32:21",
"content": "I’d like to see some numbers too. Output is a factor I consider when taking on a project. That said, I suppose I could build n 1 if one isn’t enough. :)",
"parent_id": "355284",
"depth": 2,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "355869",
"author": "Ron Proctor",
"timestamp": "2011-03-12T04:48:52",
"content": "That’s n plus one. It stripped out the plus sign for some reason. :|",
"parent_id": "355284",
"depth": 2,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6228362",
"author": "Dennis L Kennedy",
"timestamp": "2020-03-16T19:37:59",
"content": "from what ive seen out there it looks as if the motor and blades fit together and give you the power output based on your area and the wind you get as well exsposure to that wind then you can estimate the size. looks like i see alot of 250-1000 watt hour little home owner specials. I like the way you descrfibe the interest you base this on.",
"parent_id": "355284",
"depth": 2,
"replies": []
}
]
},
{
"comment_id": "355295",
"author": "anon a mouse",
"timestamp": "2011-03-11T15:24:00",
"content": "the real question… who is going to mod it into a bird house?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "355296",
"author": "Whatnot",
"timestamp": "2011-03-11T15:26:03",
"content": "Handy unidirectionality.Most challenging bit is smoothing the power and buffering it in a cost-effective way I expect.PDF is very slow in loading so I don’t know the details.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "355300",
"author": "cole",
"timestamp": "2011-03-11T15:31:24",
"content": "I’m thinking that one of the motorcycle stators and regulator/rectifier that I have laying around would be perfect for this",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "355303",
"author": "David",
"timestamp": "2011-03-11T15:40:09",
"content": "Here are some mirrors for the 27MB pdf file:http://dl.dropbox.com/u/12006908/zoetrope-wind-turbine.pdfhttps://docs.google.com/leaf?id=0B1opB37XdjBeNjZmNjQ2YmQtNmJmOC00MDAxLTg3MTAtMzc1Y2UyNjA4Yzgy&hl=en",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "355448",
"author": "Duane",
"timestamp": "2011-03-11T18:42:24",
"content": "In looking at a couple of the reference sites, a 4 foot tall turbine with 2 foot diameter appears to be about 50 watts.It is a nice build, but you need at least 10x that to make a dent in power usage and 50-100x for an off-grid solution.None the less, this is very nice system and would be a great way to get started before committing to a major 1KW+ system and all of the tower/mounting work that it entails.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "355516",
"author": "Ragnar",
"timestamp": "2011-03-11T19:58:27",
"content": "@Sonkan: remind me to never put you into my scheduling team.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "355698",
"author": "obviously",
"timestamp": "2011-03-11T23:44:38",
"content": "For optimum efficiency you’ll want several cascades of these, all of which converting the mechanical rotation in to different forms of energy.#1 Stored Water Pressure Turbine:Mechanical energy can pump a working fluid to store energy as pressure.->Energy stored as pressure can be accessed by converting it to mechanical rotation in a turbine.–>Pumps can be replaced with CD-ROM tesla turbines, which can also be used as the generator turbines.further reading:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rankine_cyclehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carnot_cycle#Efficiency_of_real_heat_engines#2 Compressor Driven Heat Pump->Thermal energy can be generated from pressure through the use of a heat exchanger immersed in a material with desired heat capacity(molten salt, paraffin, etc.).–This same Heat Pump can be used in reverse to refrigerate a gas via the Siemens cycle.Conclusion: By using low cost turbine materials and bearings(such as skateboard bearings & PVC) -> You get the benefits of economies of scale, and drastically reduce your costs allowing you to cascade the system.High tension wires & turnbuckles can be used to further reduce the costs of building elevated turbine blades. This concept is known as “tensegrity”.All of this combined, the only questions which remain are:1. Where are the lowest cost electric motors/alternators2. How can differences in temperature be maximized in a Rankine Cycle to improve efficiency.I expect scrap yards and starter motors are the best answer to the first question, unless Hobbyking reduces their shipping costs.Digging holes to use soil as a heat sink is a proven method of achieving cooler than air temperatures, and by digging even deeper, geothermal energy can be tapped to achieve the opposite. Another source of warmer than air temperatures is black trashbags, Mylar solar collectors, and ETFE green houses.You mission is to combine these tools in the most efficient way possible. There’s no reason not to.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "355699",
"author": "obviously",
"timestamp": "2011-03-11T23:45:33",
"content": "Ebay is a cheap source of car parts.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "355700",
"author": "obviously",
"timestamp": "2011-03-11T23:47:31",
"content": "Their DIY alternator looks cool, but is terribly documented. All I see is a blurry picture and no BOM.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "355738",
"author": "cyplesma",
"timestamp": "2011-03-12T00:26:08",
"content": "when you want to get serious about diy wind/solar/hydro may I suggesthttp://www.otherpower.com.8 )",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "355757",
"author": "Peanuts",
"timestamp": "2011-03-12T01:03:12",
"content": "I just have grown tired of all the comments on almost every article that aims at knocking down others projects, when a lot of readers use what use this to learn more about electronics and what can be done for themselves.Could it have been done better? Sure. But didn’t we all learn from some “easy” “project” somewhere?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "355859",
"author": "Thebes",
"timestamp": "2011-03-12T04:27:21",
"content": "Re; DuaneI don’t see how you figure you’d need 50 to 100 of them to go offgrid, at 50 watts each- that would be up to 5kw for the wind array! My wife and I live in an offgrid solar cabin with 30 amps of pv array at 12v nominal, and we have a (very efficient) electric refrigerator, both use laptops 8+ hours a day, long distance wireless internet link, and both run sufficiently bright lights until 2 or 3 am, plus a blender, sewing machine and other moderate draw appliances.The big issues with wind are energy storage and long term survivability (for example, dust devils are highly electrically charged, and ice loading can lower high wind survival, etc). Often its best to have both wind and solar since cloudy times tend to be windy and vice versa. My experience is that solar panels are much more reliable.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "356375",
"author": "Space",
"timestamp": "2011-03-12T17:56:30",
"content": "Three phase coil configuration with even number of permanent magnet pairs will produce incoherent voltages across the coils in series connection reducing the available power at low wind speeds.It might be better to use half-bridge on every single coil and common pair of capacitors to reduce voltage drop across rectifiers and double the voltage.This clip has nice tutorial and important safety tips about making / assembling the rotor:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ahs2pM10xQU",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "356620",
"author": "sarahssweeties",
"timestamp": "2011-03-13T00:42:13",
"content": "I’ve seen this design before. See the original and some of the performance calculations here:http://www.windstuffnow.com/main/lenz2_turbine.htmThe guy calls it a Lenz Turbine. Good design and good information on his site.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "357773",
"author": "bbsux",
"timestamp": "2011-03-14T10:31:46",
"content": "Nope, its NOT a Lenz turbine. The lenz2 is a combination lift and drag design where this is a drag design (ie: the wind hits the curved surface and causes the hawt to turn, like a water wheel)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "357880",
"author": "Duane",
"timestamp": "2011-03-14T14:13:31",
"content": "RE: ThebesThis is a great project to learn on. What I meant about the 50-100x is that currently, my lowest usage in a month is about 30KWH/day (about 60WKH/day in the summer). I currently have a small solar array (1KW grid-tied), but there are no rebates or incentives in this area, so I am essentially “pre-buying” 23+ years of electricity.Wind is a much better source here (SE Kansas). My estimate was based on the fact that while we do get a lot of wind, often, the wind quits blowing at night or slows significantly. I need about 10 hours of generation time at 3KW to meet my full needs.To that end, as I move to more self-sufficiency, we are reducing our electrical needs. Currently, we have 3 computers, 2 laptops, a PS3, and LCD TV that run much of the day as we homeschool our 3 children. We downsizing everything from house to cars to computers, etc.I really applaud this article as it is very complete and has some really nice suggestions. I always find the magnets vs coils to be confusing. I have read a number of articles, but I haven’t really seen a definitive definition of what it takes to make a decent generator with minimal cogging. There seems to many opinions but little in the way of testing.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "357889",
"author": "Duane",
"timestamp": "2011-03-14T14:34:09",
"content": "PS – yeah, my power usage is pretty high. When I started looking at alternate power six years ago, my lowest usage was 100KWH/day and nearly 180KWH/day in the summer for a 5000 sq. foot house. Down sizing the house cut our usage to 1/3 the original. A new house would do more as our current house (that we just moved into this month) is a 110 year old farm house with numerous remodels and only 1 outlet in each room).",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "360007",
"author": "BigChopper",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T16:32:32",
"content": "I do not have much “hacking” experience, but I really enjoyed this wind turbine manual because it was easy for me to understand. I think it will have a wider appeal than many of the hacks on this site because it is pretty user friendly even for people who do not have a lot of electrical or engineering experience. The part list was a little long and intimidating, but the pictures and graphics were well used to help make the directions easy to follow.Thanks for the post!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "407006",
"author": "ohm",
"timestamp": "2011-06-17T08:00:42",
"content": "I found this from Thailandhttp://natee2007.thaiza.com/blog_view.php?blog_id=1875",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "878244",
"author": "jackulele32",
"timestamp": "2012-11-14T21:48:32",
"content": "Hey, great job man! i am gonna try and build one.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1397836",
"author": "shivu",
"timestamp": "2014-05-01T05:12:28",
"content": "i want vertical wind turbine full report",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "3725283",
"author": "creektilghmank45",
"timestamp": "2017-07-04T03:23:56",
"content": "do it yourself , go to inplix page and learn how .",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
}
] | 1,760,377,248.857127
|
||
https://hackaday.com/2011/03/12/personal-soundboard-recounts-years-of-clever-one-liners/
|
Personal Soundboard Recounts Years Of Clever One-liners
|
Mike Nathan
|
[
"digital audio hacks",
"Misc Hacks"
] |
[
"soundboard"
] |
[Antibore’s] friend was just wrapping up his Ph.D. Degree and he wanted to build him something special to commemorate the accomplishment. After thinking about it awhile, he realized that his friend was quite gregarious and known to make off-the-wall comments at parties and such. A ton of these one-liners were documented on video over a span of 10 years, so [Antibore] got the idea to make his friend
a soundboard featuring his own witticisms
.
He found a breakout board capable of playing back OGG files and got to work loading it up with his friend’s random sayings. The board was connected to a small amplifier and speaker, then everything was installed into a black plastic case. Four arcade-style buttons were mounted on the front of the case, along with a picture of his friend. Up to 16 different sayings can be played, depending on which combination of buttons are being held at a particular time.
It’s sounds like a really cool project, and certainly makes for a one of a kind gift. Currently there is no video or audio of the box in action, but here’s hoping we’ll see some soon.
| 7
| 7
|
[
{
"comment_id": "356368",
"author": "UserName",
"timestamp": "2011-03-12T17:38:36",
"content": "4 buttons? so 2^4 = 16. But how can you press the combination of pressing no buttons at all?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "356374",
"author": "Antibore",
"timestamp": "2011-03-12T17:51:27",
"content": "@UserName – Good point, there’s only 15 clips =) Updated post.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "356388",
"author": "nate",
"timestamp": "2011-03-12T18:20:44",
"content": "UserName is right. The article even says there are 15 unique samples.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "356392",
"author": "UserName",
"timestamp": "2011-03-12T18:31:30",
"content": "The blog did Say 16 when I viewed it. But looking at the source code It sends Ascii characters 0-14 to the sound chip. not [1-15]At least that’s the the line does below:buf[i]=keys+47where keys is a value between 1-15, char representing the input of the 4 buttons. 0 being non pressed.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "356778",
"author": "Rob",
"timestamp": "2011-03-13T03:59:38",
"content": "I did the super-cheapskate version of this a while back with an ISD chip — purchased under-the-radar on a larger order, a PC speaker — “salvaged”, a mini-breadboard, a cardboard business card box — for resonance, and a Radio Shack PIR detector. Since there was no controller used, the sound played twice — with a little delay — on each trigger of the PIR (detect and ‘clear’).To keep from being startled by visitors, I mounted the thing at the entry to our office ‘bull pen’, and made virtue of the double-triggering of the PIR by using a ST:TOS pocket door sound. Once for ‘open’, once for ‘close’.I’ve got to assume that ISD has made some progress in the years, and might be an interesting alternative architecture for this sort of project.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "357008",
"author": "Hash",
"timestamp": "2011-03-13T12:14:03",
"content": "Is it possible to reverse engineer one of those ‘Mr T in my pocket things’ to accept your own custom audio soundbites? I tried to do it a while ago, but couldn’t turn anything up on the board, what format the sounds were in, or how you would load custom audio onto the boards. Any ideas?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "358996",
"author": "Ian",
"timestamp": "2011-03-15T14:54:38",
"content": "Just a nitpick – Ogg isn’t an acronym, so don’t upper-case all of its letters.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
}
] | 1,760,377,248.663599
|
||
https://hackaday.com/2011/03/12/nba-hangtime-pinball-display/
|
NBA Hangtime Pinball Display
|
Mike Szczys
|
[
"home entertainment hacks"
] |
[
"arduino",
"i2c",
"led",
"pinball",
"scoreboard",
"shift register"
] |
[Ed Zarick] continues work on his NBA Hangtime pinball machine with
the completion of the scoreboard and backglass
. You should remember this project as we already covered
the layer audio he developed for the system
. Now he’s proving to be a protoboard master, using point-to-point techniques to build a pair of two and a half digit LED displays for team scores, as well as a shot clock timer and other status indicators.
The lighting board that controls it all is commanded via the i2c protocol, just like the three audio modules. It uses shift registers along with MOSFETs and [Ed] has taken the time to add pin headers and sockets for board interconnects. As is true with the audio system, one Arduino Mega acts as the master on the i2c bus and you’ll notice in the video after the break that the display works in perfect harmony with the sound effects.
We can’t wait to see what he comes up with for the play field!
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1aa-4a376jE&w=470]
| 1
| 1
|
[
{
"comment_id": "356451",
"author": "Max",
"timestamp": "2011-03-12T20:16:26",
"content": "It would be more cool if the playing field wasactually a gym floor or parking lot. Using Wiistrapped to the two players. Pinball games aresort of a dying breed … so it’s cool to seesomeone spend this much time on creating one.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
}
] | 1,760,377,248.618592
|
||
https://hackaday.com/2011/03/12/building-your-internet-radio-empire/
|
Building Your Internet Radio Empire
|
Mike Szczys
|
[
"Radio Hacks"
] |
[
"radio",
"streaming"
] |
It all starts with one station in your home office but who knows where it can go from there? If you’ve got dreams of being an Internet radio jockey you can
get some ideas about equipment startup
from this setup that [Viktor’s] built for a friend.
He started out with a plan to have a station that offers twenty-four hour streaming but also supports live broadcast. Two computers are used in the setup. The first handles automated music broadcast and live mixing. This box has two sound cards, one is used for the automated music by feeding the output into a sound mixer that is a separate piece of hardware. The output of that mixer feeds back into the second sound card on the box. This secondary card outputs the final mix to the computer speakers.
The second computer is where a lot of the live broadcast work is done. Any steaming guest (using VOIP or Skype, etc.) come in through this box as well as jingles and sound effects used during the feed. Its sound card is also connected through the external mixer and joins the final feed headed into one of the sound cards on the primary computer.
In the end the Internet connection for the system isn’t beefy enough to reliably support a streaming station. For this a dedicated streaming service is used. It receives the live feed and then uses its increase bandwidth to propagate the signal to listeners anywhere in the world.
Want to listen to this radio station? Build your own
streaming radio module
, or
outfit classic hardware
to work with your computer.
| 19
| 19
|
[
{
"comment_id": "356291",
"author": "BoKu",
"timestamp": "2011-03-12T15:28:14",
"content": "Steaming guest? Ooh lala",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "356307",
"author": "xorpunk",
"timestamp": "2011-03-12T16:02:50",
"content": "ITX+Mic+Simple 2-channel mixer..doneBandiwidth for that is a nightmare though even at 32kbps..",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "356313",
"author": "nimitzbrood",
"timestamp": "2011-03-12T16:19:40",
"content": "@xorpunk – Agreed. The bandwidth is the killer really. Unless you’re using something like a business cable or FIOS system you’d have to stream at something horribly weak like 8k audio.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "356326",
"author": "svofski",
"timestamp": "2011-03-12T16:33:30",
"content": "There are not enough 8k audio internet radios. Yes, it’s awesome to have good audio quality, but I like to listen to internet radio from my phone while commuting and flat data rates are too expensive here. There are a few 24-48kbps radio stations, but there could be more. They are mostly talk oriented of course.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "356334",
"author": "therian",
"timestamp": "2011-03-12T16:54:07",
"content": "@svofskiI feel so sorry for you I download movies on the go and watch them in train while stealthy vaping",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "356395",
"author": "Zehn",
"timestamp": "2011-03-12T18:40:19",
"content": "actually, the shoutcast transcoder can do all that WITH METADATA, which is really key for an internet radio station. I created plur.fm with the transcoder and it runs on a hosted server constantly playing the files I uploaded in a 24/7 way. it also allows me to stream to it like it’s a stream host, so I bring my laptop to the live music, input it via soundcard, and stream it via the shoutcast DSP plugin for winamp. the transcoder also outputs multiple streams, so I’ve got 56k and 96k mp3 and 56k aac streams.@svofski if you find that you like plur.fm it would be trivial for me to set up an 8k stream for you, just email me (contact info is on the website)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "356405",
"author": "OhNoMyArduinoBroke",
"timestamp": "2011-03-12T18:52:06",
"content": "Bandwidth ain’t such a problem. 20$/month gets you a dedicated server where you can relay the stream (not such good hardware, but only the network connection matters). The real killer is the copyright maffia.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "356406",
"author": "psuedonymous",
"timestamp": "2011-03-12T18:52:22",
"content": ">Two sound cards & separate mixerUse Jack (http://jackaudio.org/), save a whole pile of money. Unless you rally want a physical mixer, in which case: Jack, a microcontroller, a sheet of wood and some linear pots.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "356414",
"author": "Jen",
"timestamp": "2011-03-12T19:12:39",
"content": "That sounds like a lot more headache than simply buying a proper multichannel audio interface. I just use a Focusrite Saffire with FFADO and Jack. No need of a physical mixer at all – if I want mixing controls, I can always tie one of my MIDI devices to a software mixer. Plus it has much lower noise than any internal sound card. And why use two computers when all you really need are multiple monitors?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "356443",
"author": "M4CGYV3R",
"timestamp": "2011-03-12T20:11:40",
"content": ">Bandiwidth for that is a nightmare though even at 32kbps>I don’t know what sort of service you get, but I have better than 1Mb up speed even on my phone tether.If you’re planning on having more than a couple listeners, you need a relay server. That’s not optional. With the relay you have exactly one stream leaving your house and going to some hosting center with oodles of bandwidth.The real station-killer is ASCAP, the **AA and the copyright nazis of all types.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "356446",
"author": "xorpunk",
"timestamp": "2011-03-12T20:13:44",
"content": "@OhNoMyArduinoBroke and nimitzbrood: SomeFM which is like the gold standard in internet radio barely survives and they spend enough to buy a house monthly in licensing and bandwidth..A $20/month hosting plan doesn’t get you but like 10 low quality streams worth at most. It works over efficient playlist up-streaming though.shoutcast NSV(TV) is also a really good protocol that suffers from bandwidth costs. It does better than flash and mp4 with compression etcI’m guessing this guy is doing political, sports, or talk. He won’t rake in many listeners because of the mediums obscurity and interests in talk radio these days..",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "356447",
"author": "M4CGYV3R",
"timestamp": "2011-03-12T20:14:04",
"content": "And if you have two computers running, you should use one with Serato or another badass DJ software package, and just use the second to stream.You can do this on a 10-year-old computer using WinAmp Shoutcast DSPs and the linein:// option. It doesn’t take much to push audio.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "356510",
"author": "ben",
"timestamp": "2011-03-12T21:05:49",
"content": "The way we do it is completely different we have 4 machines. The first is a macbook pro with a m-audio fast track pro sound card which has 2 large diaphragm condenser mics which goes into ableton live 8 to add effects(verb/gate/compressors) ableton also handles samples/jingles. ableton is controlled by a korg microcontrol. The sound card then goes out to a dj mixer. The second laptop which is a asus runs traktor for the music which has an audio 2 dj soundcard which also goes out to the mixer. The third laptop is an old machine that runs the chat from the stream and also handles the script/news. The final computer is a desktop that i built which takes the output of the mixer into the line in for the stream. It also has another 4 line in’s for a mixing desk if we have other dj’s/ bands in. The mixer has the master out going to the computer and the booth out to a set of speakers in the room and thats the set up",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "356512",
"author": "ben",
"timestamp": "2011-03-12T21:06:58",
"content": "oh i forgot to mention what we stream with. We use ustream producer which has 2 options the free version or the producer pro which is $99 one time fee but we dont really use video so we dont need it",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "356584",
"author": "Eric",
"timestamp": "2011-03-12T22:49:20",
"content": "@therian, have we met?Vape on, friend, vape on.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "356648",
"author": "svofski",
"timestamp": "2011-03-13T01:43:06",
"content": "Not sure what do you mean by vapping, but you guys remind me of my favourite webcomic called sexylosers.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "358627",
"author": "Kyle",
"timestamp": "2011-03-15T03:50:46",
"content": "The words “internet radio” and “empire” don’t belong in the same sentence, hahahaha",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "387012",
"author": "TM101Radio",
"timestamp": "2011-04-27T20:14:17",
"content": "This is an awesome post.. Exactly what i was looking for!!!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "571900",
"author": "Merle Enmon",
"timestamp": "2012-01-31T21:28:21",
"content": "Not sure you buy this one? Really? And so the way you figure it, because Jobs brought up a ton of music on his Ipod he couldn’t ALSO have, appreciate and luxuriate in a ton of vinyl? How will you think almost all of it caused it to be onto the Ipod-and on CDs before that- to start with! Why is there this rush to always try to replace mediums rather than allowing them to coexist? Because we invented the wheel didn’t mean we do not ever want to walk again and may cut off our legs. Simply because we can fly in a airplane doesn’t mean we don’t wish to drive places too. Hello. Neil Young realizes that better than most. He embraces progress in technology because it applies to recorded mediums (his Archives, natch) without eschewing the strengths and quality of vinyl. Why always look for a side, choose a team, select a medium? Maybe I prefer having and ultizing more than one option. Why individuals who fancy themselves so progressive can’t have that is beyond me. It’s really a terribly short sighted attitude and it ultimately does considerably more harm than good both business wise and artistically.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
}
] | 1,760,377,248.913604
|
||
https://hackaday.com/2011/03/11/passcode-protected-laser-tripwire-alarm-system/
|
Passcode Protected Laser Tripwire Alarm System
|
Mike Nathan
|
[
"Arduino Hacks",
"Laser Hacks",
"Security Hacks"
] |
[
"alarm",
"arduino",
"laser",
"security",
"tripwire"
] |
Sometimes security doesn’t need to be overly complex to be effective. Instructables user [1234itouch] recently built a
simple laser tripwire alarm
that can be mounted virtually anywhere, complete with a keypad for disarming the device.
He mounted a photo cell in a project box, along with an Arduino and a 12-button key pad. A laser pointer is aimed at the photo cell from across a gap, which results in a steady voltage being read by the Arduino. When the laser beam is broken, a drop in voltage is detected, and the alarm sounds until you enter the proper pre-configured passcode. Entering the passcode triggers a 15 second grace period during which the the alarm cannot be tripped again.
It might not be built with triple-thick steel doors and thermo-sensors, but it’s a simple device for simple needs. In its current form it could be pretty useful, and with a little reworking, there are a wide range of things it could be used for.
Continue reading to see a demo video of the tripwire alarm, and be sure to check out these other
tripwire-based
security systems
.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vIzUUX8hrEI&w=470]
| 13
| 13
|
[
{
"comment_id": "355688",
"author": "andar_b",
"timestamp": "2011-03-11T23:30:22",
"content": "I remember playing with ‘security’ devices as a child, using one of those ‘100 in 1’ Radio Shack boxes. The only thing I thought of right off for this project is: Why not mount a mirror opposite the laser, and keep the optical sensor in the package with the keypad?With interesting mirror placement, one could create a “Mission Impossible” style laser maze with no electronics modification, right?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "355696",
"author": "TokyoDrift",
"timestamp": "2011-03-11T23:40:21",
"content": "Including the laser in the device would add WAY more security! The way it is I could just use a second laser pointer, light at the sensor while I pass the thing and unplug it or something…With the laser in the device you could send a clock or even a random sequence of 1s and 0s, that way if you’d light at it with a second laser there are two possibilities:– the laser is not strong enough to cover the signal of the internal laser, if you break the laser beam it’ll give you an alarm– the laser is strong enough, covers the internal laser’s signal and it’ll give you an alarmWhat do u guys think?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "355754",
"author": "andar_b",
"timestamp": "2011-03-12T00:57:44",
"content": "That reminds me of a neat trick I read about in that same kit, transmitting sound using a laser and a light detector. It works the same as an optocoupler but at a distance.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "355764",
"author": "Mrx",
"timestamp": "2011-03-12T01:29:59",
"content": "@tokyodriftI believe the trick of pointing a secondary laser won’t work because two lasers will increase the voltage of the photocell – which ends up being detectable by the uC.@andar_b for transmitting sound in a laser the easiest way is to do amplitude modulation. It is very prone to background noise though..Btw: is there anything preventing a thief of disconnecting the device from power? Like someone said, the whole security of a system is given by the weakest point in the system.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "355778",
"author": "Jeditalian",
"timestamp": "2011-03-12T02:07:40",
"content": "i was thinking of building one of these, Dealextreme has red laser modules for the low, low price of $0.90 (if you buy in bulk) i bought 1 at full price and a green 20mW, which i broke. (was going to extend the diode away from the driverboard, Tip: don’t try to solder on that brass, it doesn’t stick and if you keep trying, you burn up the diode) red one still kickin’ running on an 18650 cell @ 4.11v, so i’m thinking of buying 10 of them, and integrating them into various projects, such as: ..laser tripwires. i would say laser sights, but green lasers are amazing, and would be much more intimidating, if you were the target.Any tips on how to get solder to attach to that brass-type stuff that lasers are made of? (sure, i could wrap a wire around it and electrical tape, zip-tie, etc.. and i wish i had, but there’s gotta be a way to solder to it. maybe i should have tried sanding it first.)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "355813",
"author": "FightCube.com",
"timestamp": "2011-03-12T03:03:23",
"content": "@Jeditalian – regular old tin/lead solder should work.. make sure you clean the surface and use flux. Also, if it’s a large chunk of brass you might just not be getting enough heat into it. Use a larger soldering iron tip so that when you touch it to the brass you don’t suck all of the heat immediately out of the iron (heat sink effect). You could also preheat your brass housing with a heat gun, but be careful of the heat. If you can remove any electronics first, do so. Here’s a video of soldering brass tubing… not quite the same but it shows that it can be done:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vfSzrMB-aMw",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "355896",
"author": "Ryan",
"timestamp": "2011-03-12T05:17:32",
"content": "…You don’t need to solder to the brass, the laser diodes ground pin is connected to the case. You can solder to the ground pin directly or through the PCB which is undoubtedly already connected to ground in some way.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "355913",
"author": "Gues7",
"timestamp": "2011-03-12T05:44:59",
"content": "1325?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "355994",
"author": "nick",
"timestamp": "2011-03-12T07:35:58",
"content": "@Tokyo Drift: Put the Lazer and Sensor on an Serial IO lines.Then do:Serial.Print(randomString); Serial.Read(returnString);if(randomString1 != returnString2) { //OH SNAP }Then just push MD5 sums all day long at 9600baud.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "355996",
"author": "nick",
"timestamp": "2011-03-12T07:38:41",
"content": "TTL powers line driver / fet switch on output of TX to drive laser source.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "356152",
"author": "Max",
"timestamp": "2011-03-12T12:09:36",
"content": "The problem with any tripwire system is that it only works if a trespasser is not expecting it to be there. Otherwise, be it laser or physical wire, it can be easily stepped over. If you manage to conceal the two devices on the wall, fine. But if you’ll have two small gizmos on the wall with wires running into (at least on of them), the only thing the setup might catch is a cat or dog. Unless of course it cannot be avoided (like a door opening into it), but there are simpler ways to sense that sort of thing. Oh, and modulation is compulsory, period.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "356285",
"author": "Whatnot",
"timestamp": "2011-03-12T15:01:54",
"content": "Hmm, but now the hackaday fans will come to steal his arduino won’t they?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "356311",
"author": "nimitzbrood",
"timestamp": "2011-03-12T16:13:51",
"content": "@Max – what about modifying a barcode reader so the laser scans a range several times a second?Those, IIRC, produce a fan shaped area. You could mount that on the top of the doorway and put the reflector at the bottom. Provided the laser is strong enough of course.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
}
] | 1,760,377,248.714905
|
||
https://hackaday.com/2011/03/11/bench-top-laser-engraver-does-some-cutting-too/
|
Bench-top Laser Engraver Does Some Cutting Too
|
Mike Szczys
|
[
"cnc hacks",
"Laser Hacks"
] |
[
"arduino",
"cutter",
"dvd-r",
"engraver",
"laser",
"optical drive"
] |
Grab that stack of old optical drives you have in the corner and
get to work building this laser engraver
. [Groover] is taking a no-nonsense approach to the build and we think it is just simple enough to be accessible to a very wide audience.
The physical assembly uses sleds from two optical drives. These are mounted some angle bracket. Since lasers cut at one specific focal length, there is not need for a Z axis (simplifying the build greatly). In fact, we think the hardest part of the assembly is retrieving the laser diode from a DVD-R drive and packaging it for use with this setup.
The electronics are a combination of a couple of consumer products. Two pre-fab motor drivers are used to command the stepper motors on the optical sleds. These receive their commands from an Arduino. A package called
GRBL
reads in G-code ([Groover] shows how to generate this from Inkscape) and in turn sends commands to the Arduino.
The results are quite remarkable. It can engrave wood with great resolution and contrast. The video after the break even shows it cutting out shapes from construction paper. Now we still want our own
full-size laser cutter
, but this project is much more fiscally possible for us.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BLAEMLuRJSo&w=470]
| 25
| 25
|
[
{
"comment_id": "355631",
"author": "CutThroughStuffGuy",
"timestamp": "2011-03-11T22:10:32",
"content": "“Since lasers cut at one specific focal length, there is not need for a Z axis (simplifying the build greatly).”So you have to cut the exact same thickness then with this machine? Or put in shims? How hard would a Z axis be to add – probably not too bad.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "355633",
"author": "CutThroughStuffGuy",
"timestamp": "2011-03-11T22:11:24",
"content": "What is the power of this device? Could it be used to strip off colored anodizing or is it limited to burning wood and plastic?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "355634",
"author": "CutThroughStuffGuy",
"timestamp": "2011-03-11T22:14:28",
"content": "If this can eventually cut through what looks to be construction paper, the wattage has got to be in the 1 – 3 watt range, tops. It cuts but *awfully* slowly.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "355639",
"author": "Ol Crustacean",
"timestamp": "2011-03-11T22:24:34",
"content": "I’m searching for an affordable option for branding/making small logos for bottlecaps for my homebrewing set up. Anyone have any idea how feasible something like this would be?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "355665",
"author": "CutThroughStuffGuy",
"timestamp": "2011-03-11T22:47:38",
"content": "Have you looked into silicone pad style silkscreening? That might be an inexpensive method and is readily DIY friendly.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "355666",
"author": "Nathan Zadoks",
"timestamp": "2011-03-11T22:48:24",
"content": "Totally awesome! But, didn’t I see this somewhere else before? Like, a year ago?Oh, yes.http://builders.reprap.org/2010/08/selective-laser-sintering-part-8.htmlThe reciprocating laser cutter made of optical drive parts.Which even has a Z axis and keeps the cut at the focal length of the laser, needing much less laser power for cutting.But, whatever, have fun =)–Nathan",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "355812",
"author": "Hacksaw",
"timestamp": "2011-03-12T03:00:55",
"content": "For the bottlecaps look at an etch-o-matic it is infinitely easier and faster.Using a Z axis would be somewhat useful for going from a cut to etch operation but that could be achieved electrically much more reliably.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "355883",
"author": "macona",
"timestamp": "2011-03-12T05:09:23",
"content": "This thing really needs to be in an opaque enclosure to be safe. Even specular reflections at this power can damage your eyes.For the bottle caps you will really need a CO2 laser. This will not do the job.Cutting and etching are dont at the same focal length, right at the top of the material. So for different thicknesses of materials you will need to be able to adjust something in Z so the beam waist is the smallest at the top of the material. For a laser cutter there is no real point in making the z controller. You can use something as simple as threaded rod and a gear motor to move a work table up and down.The one I am building:http://www.buildlog.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=264",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "355965",
"author": "Jake",
"timestamp": "2011-03-12T06:41:43",
"content": "Will it cut mylar? SMT stencil…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "356029",
"author": "pRoFlT",
"timestamp": "2011-03-12T08:24:01",
"content": "will it burn copper? make PCB boards?I saw this and thought damn someone already made a tiny pcb board machine. I guess i can still make one.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "356038",
"author": "macona",
"timestamp": "2011-03-12T08:51:45",
"content": "Jake, No. You will need CO2. Virtually no absorption at the 650nm wavelength.pRoFlT, No. Almost everything reflects off of copper. Combined with the high thermal conductivity its not going to do anything. Heck, high power CO2 lasers use mirrors made from polished copper. Best you could do is use it to etch away resist and use a regular chemical etch.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "356100",
"author": "Whatnot",
"timestamp": "2011-03-12T11:04:13",
"content": "Pretty nice, keeps it basic enough to be approachable instead of the many projects that require access to stuff only a few lucky ones do have access too, or that are so expensive that you might as well buy a brand new CNC machine.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "356135",
"author": "h3po",
"timestamp": "2011-03-12T11:34:55",
"content": "does anyone know where to get suitable collimator lenses from junk parts? i don’t want to buy an aixiz module and throw away the included laser and driver just to get a tube and a plastic lens…btw, i just ripped apart an lg drive and it seems to me that the stepper driver controller can be reused. there are 4 control lines and 1 line for the endstop switch. all active high, 3,3v.i captured the drive initialisation (drive to endstop, then home) with buspirate in LA mode, but i can’t make sense of the protocol just yet.to get a relationship between control and movement, i recorded the drive init:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ukcl4lfg5Z8will post in the forum if i get the controller working. preassembled driver boards are way to expensive for my taste…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "356146",
"author": "Drake",
"timestamp": "2011-03-12T11:51:48",
"content": "@h3popull the driver from a printer. Or worst case get a bunch of NPN and PNP transistors and make your own driver. 4 lines per motor that way",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "356337",
"author": "therian",
"timestamp": "2011-03-12T16:56:19",
"content": "i recognize the plant ;)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "356419",
"author": "compukidmike",
"timestamp": "2011-03-12T19:24:16",
"content": "@h3poHarbor Freight sells a laser line for mounting on power tools. It’s only $5 and gets you not only the collimating lens, but also a line generating lens! I used the line lens for my llp multitouch table.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "356453",
"author": "CutThroughStuffGuy",
"timestamp": "2011-03-12T20:18:13",
"content": "pRoFlT, No. Almost everything reflects off of copper.Not entirely true. You *CAN* cut copper with 1000+ watt laser cutters but will need 2000+ to go through thicker stuff. Cutting copper or aluminum with a laser cutter is not likely to work very well. But you could paint the surface of copper with a resist and then selectively laser it off to get an etch.Waterjets or CNC mills are suggested to cut thicker than 1/8″ copper sheets. Thinner stuff you can get away with using industrial lasers but we aren’t talking Epilog 60 watters here.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "356528",
"author": "freak",
"timestamp": "2011-03-12T21:25:24",
"content": "@therianyeah… i can confirm the nice plant as well",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "356606",
"author": "h3po",
"timestamp": "2011-03-13T00:04:13",
"content": "compukidmike: thanks, but i asked for a salvage solution since i’m in europe and the market is pretty small here for such things, therefore the prices are not in my budget.to address the reuse-controller idea:it seems all three controllers on my lg board here are from renesas, and they provide no datasheets at all. comparing to a similar renesas ic for optical drives, i found out that the control signal is not digital but an analog waveform controlling only the current going through the motor, so reusing that driver ic is not really an easy thing to do without also hacking and reusing the controller.to throw in some part numbers:board: “jr6-mp k”, motor driver “r2s30202fp”, controller “r8j32007fpv”",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "356987",
"author": "Jeditalian",
"timestamp": "2011-03-13T10:36:35",
"content": "lol @therian&freak, as do i.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "356989",
"author": "Jeditalian",
"timestamp": "2011-03-13T10:49:00",
"content": "luv me sum ‘maters",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "357029",
"author": "t&p",
"timestamp": "2011-03-13T12:43:46",
"content": "is that a pot plant?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "359830",
"author": "Shadow",
"timestamp": "2011-03-16T12:49:05",
"content": "Why not whack a RepRap head on it and make a little extruder :)Probably more viable for the pen version of a while back",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "365874",
"author": "Spork",
"timestamp": "2011-03-23T19:34:46",
"content": "@therian,freak,and jeditalianIt’s too tall, looks light deprived…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1037829",
"author": "Akshay",
"timestamp": "2013-08-09T03:41:49",
"content": "A very nice tutorial :)Could you please give me the List of Components used in the laser driver Circuit.I couldnt exactly figure out the components from the schematic.Please just gv the list, it would be a great help.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
}
] | 1,760,377,248.974295
|
||
https://hackaday.com/2011/03/11/async-firefly/
|
ASync-Firefly
|
Noah Dunker
|
[
"LED Hacks"
] |
[
"555",
"fireflies",
"firefly",
"led",
"phototransistor",
"synchronized"
] |
[dev_dsp] wanted to try his hand at creating a purely
analog implementation of multiple synchronizing fireflies
powered by a single battery and built from off-the shelf, through-hole components on inexpensive protoboard. In theory, even your local Radio Shack should still carry all of this stuff. He was obviously inspired by
[alex]’s fireflies
that we’ve covered in the past, but he wanted to see how far it could be taken without the use of a microprocessor.
In the end, [dev_dsp] relied on one crucial piece of digital ware, the ever-popular 555 timer IC, but he’s using analog discrete components to do the grunt work of adjusting the phase of each firefly by feeding a little extra current to the trigger capacitor whenever the flash of a nearby firefly is detected. After the jump, you’ll find schematics and a video demo of three ASync-Firefly modules in various stages of assembly playing with one another while [dev_dsp] discusses their operation.
| 8
| 8
|
[
{
"comment_id": "355616",
"author": "jeremiah",
"timestamp": "2011-03-11T21:29:58",
"content": "I don’t see a video after the jump… not trying to nitpick, I just wanna see it. :)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "355622",
"author": "HARaaM",
"timestamp": "2011-03-11T21:44:22",
"content": "Link server overload, The video is great !",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "355855",
"author": "Adrian",
"timestamp": "2011-03-12T04:19:40",
"content": "A 555 is digital now?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "355930",
"author": "devdsp",
"timestamp": "2011-03-12T06:08:24",
"content": "Adrian: The 555 has an SR latch in it which technically makes it at least partially digital, so I can’t claim that the whole thing is analog, just the synchronising part.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:NE555_Bloc_Diagram.svg",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "355991",
"author": "catzburg",
"timestamp": "2011-03-12T07:31:11",
"content": "Yeah I know eh? A 555 is definatly analog electronics. Just because it tends to have a discrete response doesn’t make it digital.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "356304",
"author": "Phil",
"timestamp": "2011-03-12T15:57:02",
"content": "I wonder if this could have been done all-analog with a ujt instead of the 555.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "357165",
"author": "collin",
"timestamp": "2011-03-13T19:43:57",
"content": "Just an aside… This was a project in Scientific American’s Amature Scientist column back 15ish years ago. You don’t see a lot of love for that column on hack/make sites. I’m not that old, but if you look at the projects from the 60s/70s there’s some amazing stuff: CO2 laser, NMR, electro staticparticle accelerator…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "357396",
"author": "steve",
"timestamp": "2011-03-13T23:29:04",
"content": "The 555 isnt really a digital chip… yeah it outputs square waves but that doesnt make it “digital.” its a completely analog circuit inside",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
}
] | 1,760,377,249.127804
|
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