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|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
https://hackaday.com/2010/06/09/distributed-flight-array/ | Distributed Flight Array | Caleb Kraft | [
"Robots Hacks"
] | [
"copter",
"flying",
"quad",
"robot",
"swarm"
] | [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7iHZKMDvdNI&w=470]
Though it is in the beginning stages of development, the
Distributed Flight Array
is already looking very interesting. Each unit can scuttle across the ground using the down force from its prop, but when 4 or more join forces, they can take off and fly. The documentation shows that they should be smart enough to fly in random configurations, though in the video we only see the standard 4 prop layout. This is being worked on by the same people who produced the
balancing cube
.
[via
BoingBoing
] | 17 | 17 | [
{
"comment_id": "148663",
"author": "monkeyslayer56",
"timestamp": "2010-06-09T13:21:45",
"content": "great next they’ll learn to think on their own and then they will try to be our robotic overlords… other then that its cool :)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
... | 1,760,377,430.680944 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2010/06/08/duo-128-elite-4-bit-cpu/ | DUO 128 Elite, 4 Bit CPU | Jakob Griffith | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"4",
"architecture",
"bit",
"cpu",
"duo",
"duo elite",
"nyckles",
"pong",
"ttl"
] | We’re not sure how we missed [Jack Eisenmann’s]
4 bit TTL CPU
when we were tipped off the first time, but we’re glad it was sent in again for us to feature it.
41 different ICs (mostly TTL) come together to comprise the DUO 128 Elite. While
the architecture
is a little different than what we’ve seen before, using “nyckles”, the DUO 128 Elite still works perfectly. Catch a video of some example programs, including pong, after the divide.
[Thanks Marc G-C]
[youtube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4IxWSvlcP3c%5D | 36 | 36 | [
{
"comment_id": "148487",
"author": "Decepticon",
"timestamp": "2010-06-08T23:15:46",
"content": "That is rawesome! Yes, I said rawesome.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "148509",
"author": "Garret",
"timestamp": "2010-06-08T23:17:36",
... | 1,760,377,430.383391 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2010/06/08/an-arduino-watch-you-would-actually-want-to-wear/ | An Arduino Watch You Would Actually Want To Wear | Jakob Griffith | [
"Arduino Hacks"
] | [
"128x128",
"arduino",
"pixel",
"steampunk",
"trakball"
] | Leather work, copper tubing, small easy to use package. Now
that
is a beautiful
Arduino Watch.
[Matthew Garten] has retrofitted his old Arduino Watch and given us
the details
that we crave.
Previously
, all we had was a video and a few pictures of a quite uninviting watch. But now we know it has temperature, range finding, and trackball input while displaying time, games, and more with its 128 by 128 pixel OLED 16 bit display. And did we mention the much more enticing
steampunk case
? | 37 | 37 | [
{
"comment_id": "148466",
"author": "vonskippy",
"timestamp": "2010-06-08T22:08:25",
"content": "“An Arduino Watch you would actually want to wear”No, no it’s not. And I’m not bashing the Arduino part, or the craftsmanship, it’s just majorly butt ugly and steampunk in general ranges somewhere betwe... | 1,760,377,430.062544 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2010/06/08/getting-your-message-across-at-commencement/ | Getting Your Message Across At Commencement | Mike Szczys | [
"LED Hacks"
] | [
"commencement",
"graduation",
"matrix",
"mortarboard"
] | [Yomagaocho] is graduation from Northwestern University on June 18th (wow that’s late in the year… they must be on quarters). He decided to
spice up his mortarboard
for the commencement ceremony. A normal message wasn’t good enough, and even
a solar-powered diorama
wasn’t going to suit him. Instead he added 256 addressable LEDs to the top so that he can get his message across without being limited to a couple of words. See it demonstrated after the break.
He was nice enough to give us
the technical details
. The matrix is a 16×16 grid mounted in some laser-cut black acrylic. We immediately wondered about the display working in sunlight (a June graduation will probably be outside). He didn’t use any current limiting resistors with the LEDs, dangerous to the longevity but this should provide maximum brightness. It’s certainly a geeky concept, but having the ribbon cable that controls it trailing down into your robe might make those graduation photos a bit embarrassing a few years down the road.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iWsQ9ynFW5Y] | 33 | 30 | [
{
"comment_id": "148449",
"author": "tehgringe",
"timestamp": "2010-06-08T21:13:33",
"content": "[Yomagaocho] is graduation[Yomagaocho] graduates[Yomagaocho] is graduatingNeat idea.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "148455",
"author": "mess_ma... | 1,760,377,430.312469 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2010/06/07/did-that-table-just-move/ | Did That Table Just Move? | Mike Szczys | [
"Robots Hacks"
] | [
"chair",
"ikea",
"legs",
"motor",
"table"
] | [vimeo=http://vimeo.com/11674851]
A
table and chair that can move
around by themselves? What’s next,
suicide booths
,
self-replicating robots
, and Star Trek styled
tablet computers
? It seems that [Adam Lassy] is moving in that direction. He took this furniture from Ikea and made some neat modifications to give it mobility. Each of the four legs has wheels on them and the legs themselves rotate in unison to change the direction of travel. We could see the table as a more practical drink delivery system than
the Bar2d2
. It certainly would make for some great late-night pranks but the chair motors need to be silenced before that can happen.
[Thanks Balbor via
Ikea Hacker
] | 20 | 20 | [
{
"comment_id": "148118",
"author": "Ben Wright",
"timestamp": "2010-06-07T19:26:43",
"content": "That is the loudest moving chair I have heard besides a racing barstool. I would like to see the table walk rather than roll. That would be more table like.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
... | 1,760,377,430.733703 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2010/06/07/usb-hub-used-for-in-system-programming/ | USB Hub Used For In System Programming | Mike Szczys | [
"Peripherals Hacks"
] | [
"74hc00",
"AVR",
"hub",
"isp",
"programmer",
"usb"
] | Did you order that 4-port USB hub because it was almost free but now it’s just sitting in your junk box? Why not
turn it into an In System Programmer for AVR chips
? [Paul] came up with HUB ISP as an answer to the chicken-or-egg problem we’ve seen with
other diy programmers
. It uses the data wires from four different USB cables to program AVR chips, enlisting the help of a 74HC00 NAND gate along the way. You do not need to have a programmed microcontroller as all the magic happens on the software end of things. The one caveat is that [Paul’s] method currently only works on Linux machines. | 37 | 36 | [
{
"comment_id": "148072",
"author": "baobrien",
"timestamp": "2010-06-07T16:20:10",
"content": "Woah… This may be of some use.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "148076",
"author": "DrF",
"timestamp": "2010-06-07T16:40:36",
"content": "... | 1,760,377,430.246727 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2010/06/07/had-store-update-new-stickers-shirts-new-logo/ | HaD Store Update: New Stickers, Shirts, New Logo | Caleb Kraft | [
"News"
] | [
"logo",
"shirt",
"sticker",
"store"
] | The Hack a Day store is still going strong. We’re really enjoying the fact that when you buy a Hack a Day item, it was made by one of us. We hope we can keep this up. It makes our merchandise mean so much more, we think.
We’ve been getting tons of requests for other colors of stickers as well as other products. Other colors of stickers is easy enough, we now have black, white, both gloss and matte, light grey, and just starting today, glow in the dark. We’ll be updating the store as we run out, or buy new colors. We only have a little bit of the glow in the dark right now, so if you don’t want to have to wait for more to come in, you better place your order quick.
We have also received a steady flow of requests for T-shirts. Unfortunately, we just don’t have all of the equipment yet. So, we’ll begin taking pre-orders for t-shirts today. As soon as we have roughly 30 pre-orders, we should be able to start making the shirts. To begin with, we’ll be doing white logo on black shirts. There’s also a Custom shirt option that gets your name placed on the front of the shirt as well, though that does come at some additional cost. Maybe after he gets all the kinks worked out, [Jakob] will grace us with
shirts to sell
as well.
There is also a product that has been the source of a lot of discussion between the staff. A new logo, designed by [Caleb]. You can see it above. Some feel that we should adopt it as our new logo, since the old one is kind of a
generic biker symbol
. The new one reflects a little more what we do. [Phillip Torrone], the founder of Hack a Day and designer of the old one likes it and says ” love it … i say go for it – evolve or die :)”. What do you guys think? Even if it never becomes the site logo, it will be for sale in the store.
[update: Judging by the feedback, we’ll be sticking with our original logo. Custom designs will be available in the store though. Email me directly(caleb@hackaday.com) to discuss getting your design on there. ] | 46 | 45 | [
{
"comment_id": "148015",
"author": "Fredrik",
"timestamp": "2010-06-07T13:53:47",
"content": "Awesome new logo, love the “barcode” mouth…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "148020",
"author": "AndyT",
"timestamp": "2010-06-07T14:01:53",
... | 1,760,377,430.632146 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2010/06/07/intelligent-ground-vehicle-competition-2010-day-two-report/ | Intelligent Ground Vehicle Competition 2010 Day Two Report | Gerrit Coetzee | [
"Robots Hacks"
] | [
"2010",
"AX3500",
"Culture",
"CultureShockII",
"igvc",
"II",
"lasers",
"Lawrence",
"robot",
"Roboteq",
"router",
"shock",
"Stereo Vision",
"Tech",
"zigbee"
] | Culture Shock II, a robot by the Lawrence Tech team, first caught our eye due to its unique drive train. Upon further investigation we found a very well built robot with a ton of unique features.
The first thing we noticed about CultureShockII are the giant 36″ wheels. The wheel assemblies are actually unicycles modified to be driven by the geared motors on the bottom. The reason such large wheels were chosen was to keep the center of gravity well below the axle, providing a very self stabilizing robot. The robot also has two casters with a suspension system to act as dampers and stabilizers in the case of shocks and inclines. Pictured Below.
The next thing we noticed were the strange semi-circles mounted above the casters. Upon further inquiry we found that the robot uses 10 lasers to project cross-hairs on the ground so that it can use its stereo vision at night.
The robot has two stereo vision cameras from
Videre
, a brand that has been very popular at this year’s IGVC. The cameras overlap and provide the AI with a pixel-associated 3d point map. The team also came up with a clever way to adjust the camera to different lighting situations with two “candy canes” sticking out into the robot’s field of vision. The robot can look at these and use an algorithm to adjust the colors according. This helps greatly with white line detection. (The robots must stay within two white lines painted about 10 feet apart on the grass.)
Along with the stereo vision the robot also features an Omnistar-VBS enabled gps capable of sub meter accuracy and a
digital compass
. Aside from the driver software for the cameras, the robot is written completely in Java. The AI uses frame-by-frame mapping. Each frame the robot sets an objective out in the distance and moves towards it. In the next frame the robot checks to see if that objective is still reachable and moves towards it, otherwise it changes its path. To get around objects the robot hugs the obstacle until it is behind it. The system is a hybrid of mapping and reactive AI.
The robot’s brain is a 2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Quad running 32bit windows. It has a solid state drive and 4GB of ram. One cool thing to note is that all of the sensors and micro-controllers run off the ATX power supply for the computer. Instead of using an inverter they found a suitable 12V ATX supply.
The rear control panel is pretty neat too. It has a touch screen, switches for all the main components, and status LEDs. Below it you can see the very back of the computer, housed in a shuttle style thermaltake case.
If you take the panel on the front off you are greeted with a view of the robot’s power and signal distribution. The green board is a
Roboteq AX3500
which runs the motors and manages the PID feedback. The robot has 70lbs of sealed lead acid batteries in its base which allows it to run for approximately two hours. The remote E-stop (required by the rules) for this robot is actually a remote garage door opener hacked into turning the robot on and off.
We’ll finish with a shot of happy* engineers working away on their robots.
*depending on the state of their robot
Day One Report | 11 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "148025",
"author": "Min",
"timestamp": "2010-06-07T14:10:04",
"content": "It’s dampers not dampeners unless you’re talking about sprinklers.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "148033",
"author": "Gerrit Coetzee",
"timestamp... | 1,760,377,430.115262 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2010/06/07/color-clock-makes-telling-time-impossible/ | Color Clock Makes Telling Time Impossible | Mike Szczys | [
"clock hacks"
] | [
"atmega8535",
"binary",
"ds3232",
"led",
"rgb",
"rtc"
] | [Bogdan] set out to build the all-too-familiar binary clock. But, he didn’t want to be ordinary, and set the goal of making the clock as hard to read as possible.
What he ended up with is a clock
that is almost impossible to read correctly.
He’s using colors to tell the time. We immediately thought this might make use of
resistor codes as the display
but it doesn’t. Red shows the hours, green for minutes, and blue for seconds. Now stack all of them on top of each other in binary and you’ve got the time. That means you’ve got to know all of your color combinations, plus read the binary value correctly, to decipher the time. Add to that the display changing every second and we’re in trouble.
Aside from the user difficulty level, this is a really clean build. It uses an ATmega8535 in conjunction with our favorite DS3232 RTC chip. The etched board is nice and clean, making for an aesthetically pleasing clock. | 22 | 21 | [
{
"comment_id": "148008",
"author": "flatr0ze",
"timestamp": "2010-06-07T13:16:46",
"content": "wtf with all this scientology crap on this website?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "148011",
"author": "walt",
"timestamp": "2010-06-07T13:26... | 1,760,377,430.451991 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2010/06/06/drawbot-produces-portraits-very-slowly/ | Drawbot Produces Portraits… Very Slowly | Mike Szczys | [
"Arduino Hacks"
] | [
"drawbot",
"gravity",
"portrait",
"stepper",
"stylus"
] | This robot artist,
the Drawbot
, produces images using an Arduino and Processing. A piece of paper is attached to a wall as a stylus connected to a couple of stepper motors scribbles out patterns that gradually become the image seen above. Each drawing is different and can take several weeks of constant operation to finish. That must have made debugging a real problem for [Harvey] during development. We wonder if this would work with
homemade pencils
? | 13 | 13 | [
{
"comment_id": "147791",
"author": "kirov",
"timestamp": "2010-06-06T17:49:30",
"content": "i don’t understand why it would take several weeks to do this… regular plotters don’t take nearly as long.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "147796",
... | 1,760,377,430.166498 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2010/06/06/fake-nixie-clock/ | Fake Nixie Clock | Mike Szczys | [
"clock hacks"
] | [
"7 segment",
"led",
"nixie",
"tube"
] | [Barry] didn’t want to deal with the voltages involved in using a Nixie display so
he built this clock to look like it has Nixie tubes
. He’s made 7-segment LED displays using some channel material, and mounted them so they look like they’re hovering above the clock base. Once everything was hooked up he added small glass jars over the top of each digit, completing the look. | 16 | 16 | [
{
"comment_id": "147762",
"author": "matbed",
"timestamp": "2010-06-06T16:03:37",
"content": "he would hve been better off using some el wire, it wouldve given the tubes a more authentic look, but still a good job",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": ... | 1,760,377,430.84427 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2010/06/08/wimax-antenna-with-auto-positioning-system/ | WiMax Antenna With Auto-positioning System | Mike Szczys | [
"Wireless Hacks"
] | [
"antenna",
"attiny2313",
"stepper",
"WiMax"
] | [Andrew] certainly brings a bit of a James Bond feel to connecting to your WiMax base station. He built this
antenna along with an auto-positioning system
to get the strongest signal possible. The device, which appears a bit fragile, breaks down into a nice little case. When you get to your next checkpoint you can set it up and the stepper motor along with an ATtiny2313 will rescan to get you on with your mission as fast as possible. This is one of our favorite antenna builds so far, and we’ve seen
a lot of hacked antennas
. Don’t miss the action-packed trailer after the break.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2-D0_2KB7A8] | 13 | 13 | [
{
"comment_id": "148424",
"author": "hellbringercid",
"timestamp": "2010-06-08T20:28:11",
"content": "ha ha, yes very fragile, would not want to take that outside on a mission.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "148425",
"author": "Michael L.",... | 1,760,377,430.78676 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2010/06/08/simple-way-to-fix-that-broken-ethernet-cable/ | Simple Way To Fix That Broken Ethernet Cable | Mike Szczys | [
"Repair Hacks"
] | [
"cable tie",
"connector",
"ethernet",
"rj45"
] | Chances are you’ve come across an Ethernet cable where the small plastic tab that holds the plug in place has broken off. We have a crimper on hand and usually just throw on a new RJ45 connector but [Laxap] found
a simple alternative to fix Ethernet plugs
. By using a couple of correctly sized cable ties you can secure the damaged connector without replacement. The boxy locking mechanism on the end of the cable tie is used as the catch, slimmed down with the help of an
X-Acto knife
or razor blade. Once you’ve got the right fit, use a second cable tie to secure it to the Ethernet cable. Simple is brilliant.
[Thanks Password] | 51 | 49 | [
{
"comment_id": "148383",
"author": "octel",
"timestamp": "2010-06-08T18:22:30",
"content": "http://lifehacker.com/5414106/repair-a-broken-ethernet-plug-with-zip-ties",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "148392",
"author": "HMBurgers",
"times... | 1,760,377,430.933979 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2010/06/08/windows-7-tablet-in-a-carbon-fiber-case/ | Windows 7 Tablet In A Carbon Fiber Case | Mike Szczys | [
"laptops hacks"
] | [
"ipad",
"msi",
"tablet",
"windows 7",
"x320"
] | If you’re not one of Apple’s devoted following the iPad means little more than new hardware you won’t use. Tired of being left out in the cold, [Slampana]
built himself a Windows 7 tablet
. He grabbed the motherboard and 13.4″ screen from an MSI X320, added a resistive touch screen, USB hub, internal WiFi and Bluetooth, then wrapped it up in a custom-built carbon case. It’s small, sleek, and comes in at around $600-$700. Start your drooling as you watch the demo after the break.
[youtube=
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c7W_AuspKls
]
[Thanks Rich via
Gizmag
] | 17 | 17 | [
{
"comment_id": "148360",
"author": "Mikey",
"timestamp": "2010-06-08T17:12:23",
"content": "Video is broken.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "148364",
"author": "Haku",
"timestamp": "2010-06-08T17:17:24",
"content": "http://www.youtu... | 1,760,377,431.09267 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2010/06/08/nexus-one-as-usb-host/ | Nexus One As USB Host | Caleb Kraft | [
"Cellphone Hacks"
] | [
"nexus",
"root",
"usb"
] | [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3-bLOc1qnMM]
[Sven Killig] Has managed to get his
Nexus One into USB host mode
. This allows him to plug in all kinds of peripherals such as web cams, keyboards, even a displaylink unit. This is fantastic as it really opens up the possibilities of this device. You can see that he now has an amazingly functional and portable system running. He mentions that it is pretty stable unless he runs big programs, we wonder if he has
added any RAM to it
. It is worth noting that the
Droid can be USB host
as well. | 11 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "148349",
"author": "Fry-kun",
"timestamp": "2010-06-08T16:18:29",
"content": "N900 next, please!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "148356",
"author": "jc",
"timestamp": "2010-06-08T16:54:41",
"content": "My Neo Freerun... | 1,760,377,431.181961 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2010/06/08/compound-eyes-for-your-robot/ | Compound Eyes For Your Robot | Caleb Kraft | [
"Robots Hacks"
] | [
"infra red",
"ir",
"motion sensing"
] | [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iKYCob7getU]
In this writeup, you can see how to
build a cheap compound eye system for your robot
. Using 4 IR LEDs and 4 phototransistors, [oddbot] gave “Mr General” the ability to follow movement in objects fairly well, assuming that they are within 200 mm. Being IR, it has the typical drawbacks such as sensitivity to light or overly reflective surfaces, but we like the idea. It is perfect for a nocturnal or low light robot.
[via
Hacked Gadgets
] | 10 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "148332",
"author": "Whatnot",
"timestamp": "2010-06-08T14:52:00",
"content": "Weird how such a thing can make it seem alive.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "148334",
"author": "Potato",
"timestamp": "2010-06-08T14:56:17"... | 1,760,377,431.139648 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2010/06/07/augmenting-a-cheap-android-mid/ | Augmenting A Cheap Android MID | Mike Szczys | [
"Android Hacks",
"handhelds hacks"
] | [
"android",
"eken",
"m001",
"mid"
] | We’ve been on the prowl for a low-cost Android MID that, you know,
works well
. We were originally excited by the Eken M001 but early reports about poor battery life, coupled with the fact that it only runs Android 1.6 soured our interest. [Carnivore] didn’t let those things turn him away, instead he
modified the M001 to meet his needs
. He added a USB hub and flash drive inside as well as a few additional connectors for external devices. He’s also inserted a front-facing camera and improved battery life from a 1600 mAh capacity up to 5200 mAh. This means he can now depend on 7-12 hours of use depending on the power saving features he chooses. This does come at a cost, he had to add room inside the case so he annexed a project box for the back cover. As you can see above, he did a beautiful job of making it look right, but it’s lost that thin-sexiness it once had. See [Carnivore’s] feature walk through after the break.
[vimeo=http://www.vimeo.com/12354659] | 20 | 20 | [
{
"comment_id": "148160",
"author": "Paul Klemstine",
"timestamp": "2010-06-07T21:10:46",
"content": "Can anyone recommend some good sub $100 Android devices? I just got burned by CherryPal.com, that is a scam!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "14... | 1,760,377,431.317459 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2010/06/07/furniture-bots-transform/ | Furniture Bots, Transform | Mike Szczys | [
"home hacks"
] | [
"expandable",
"table",
"transform"
] | This
mechanized table
automatically expands from seating for six to seating for twelve. We tried to capture the action with the three images above but don’t miss the transforming goodness in the video after the break. Alas, we’ll never see something like this in real life because it resides on a yacht worthy of
Robin Leach’s
attention. We wouldn’t have a problem copying the geometry of the tabletop pieces, but there’s got to be some serious design work to pull off the structure controlling the movement. No solid price is listed, but the creators note that construction costs are in the tens-of-thousands of British Pounds. We’ll stick to our
Ikea furniture hacks
for now.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VQ_AwFSWIPU]
[Thanks Luke] | 34 | 34 | [
{
"comment_id": "148145",
"author": "Hackius",
"timestamp": "2010-06-07T20:14:09",
"content": "There was a version some time ago that rotated to and transformed instead of using motors. Using motors it doesn’t look so complicated.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
... | 1,760,377,431.450701 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2010/06/04/superprobe/ | Superprobe | Mike Szczys | [
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"logic analyzer",
"multimeter",
"pic",
"Superprobe"
] | The Superprobe
is a logic analyzer, multimeter, and much more rolled into a fun to build project. [Ben Ryves] didn’t come up with
the original idea
, but he definitely took a good thing and made it better. You can use it to test logic, inject logic into a circuit, read capacitors and resistors, test frequency, read the device address from 1-wire devices, and more. Interchangeable probes, choice of internal or external power, simple two-button operation, and a powerful PIC microcontroller at the heart of it all make this a fantastic tool for your electronics workbench. Check out the quality video after the break that [Ben] put together to show off the results of his tinkering. | 30 | 30 | [
{
"comment_id": "147165",
"author": "Spork",
"timestamp": "2010-06-04T16:46:06",
"content": "Wow, added to my To-Do list. This sounds like a very useful tool.I’d opt for a less blinding display, but otherwise I love it, great work!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
... | 1,760,377,431.381224 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2010/06/04/printing-with-pressure/ | Printing With Pressure | Mike Szczys | [
"Peripherals Hacks"
] | [
"arduino",
"carbon paper",
"pressure",
"printer",
"processing"
] | The video of
[Thibault Brevet’s] printer
makes it look like he’s actually designed a vinyl cutter (watch it after the break). But at the end of the printing process you see that the top layer was actually a piece of carbon copy paper and the magic was happening underneath. The print head applies enough pressure to transfer the blue-ish printing ink onto the paper giving the result seen above. He’s driving this with an Arduino and feeding data using Processing.
[Thibault] left this link in the comments from
the LEGO printer post
. Shame on him for not
tipping us off
as soon as he posted info on this hack. Don’t underestimate yourselves, if you hack it we want to hear about it!
[vimeo=http://vimeo.com/7852806] | 17 | 17 | [
{
"comment_id": "147150",
"author": "Mythgarr",
"timestamp": "2010-06-04T14:52:42",
"content": "It’s unfortunate that there’s no information on the build cost, parts list, time required, etc. It looks like it could be easily adapted to be a knife plotter – would love to give it a shot!",
"parent... | 1,760,377,431.504743 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2010/06/03/usbasp-avr-programmer-based-on-atmega8/ | USBasp: AVR Programmer Based On ATmega8 | Mike Szczys | [
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"atmega8",
"AVR",
"dapa",
"dragon",
"programmer",
"usbasp"
] | We love our AVR Dragon programmer but it can be nice to have a cheap and simple in system programmer on hand too. The
USBasp
is one such programmer that uses and ATmega8 as its only IC. It requires just a handful of components and can be purchased as a kit, or etched and assembled at home. If you source your own parts the chip does need to be programmed which makes for a
chicken-or-egg
scenario. We’ve used the Parallel-port dongle (
schematic
) from Adafruit’s
Spoke POV
before. It’s basically just
a DAPA cable
and a few resistors, a ribbon cable (use and old IDE cable if you have to) and a parallel port connector can have you up and running in no time. This is also a great way to get a friend into working with embedded systems. Order parts for a few of these and give them away to your buddies. | 28 | 28 | [
{
"comment_id": "147035",
"author": "Jake",
"timestamp": "2010-06-03T20:30:53",
"content": "Cool. For an easy parallel (or serial) programmer, have you guys ever seen PonyProg?Just google PonyProg, its the first site that comes up. There are schematics for various programmers on the site. It is very... | 1,760,377,431.719801 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2010/06/03/nixie-display-brings-more-wiring-madness/ | Nixie-display Brings More Wiring Madness | Mike Szczys | [
"Arduino Hacks"
] | [
"display",
"nixie",
"tube"
] | [Tim Anderson]
whipped up this nixie tube display
using epoxy-coated wires. He’s certainly giving the
wire-wrapped LED display
a run for its money. He ground the epoxy off the end of each wire using a Dremel before soldering them. We thought you could solder right through the epoxy but maybe not. Was this easier than wire wrapping would have been? We’d bet that because of the voltages wire wrapping wasn’t an option here. That board on the left is the 180V power supply for the tubes with an AVR chip running the Arduino bootloader to the right. After the break there’s a brief demo of data being pulled down over a serial connection. [Tim] also has some plans to add an atomic clock module to this setup sometime down the road. | 20 | 20 | [
{
"comment_id": "146977",
"author": "osgeld",
"timestamp": "2010-06-03T16:08:57",
"content": "sure does look purdy",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "146978",
"author": "furan",
"timestamp": "2010-06-03T16:17:56",
"content": "I think by... | 1,760,377,431.779987 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2010/06/03/wire-wrapping-an-led-matrix/ | Wire-wrapping An LED Matrix | Mike Szczys | [
"LED Hacks"
] | [
"8x8",
"arduino",
"marquee",
"matrix",
"shift register",
"wire wrap"
] | Regular reader [Osgeld] built
a 1024 LED display matrix
. This is a proof-of-concept design and he admittedly has overloaded the components. Most notably, the 595 shift registers (
featured over the weekend
) are sourcing too much current if all eight pins are active. That’s easy enough to fix in the next design by moving up to cascading LED drivers. Instead of
soldering every connection in the display
, [Osgeld] soldered the components in place and then used wire wrapping to make the point-to-point connections. This must have saved him a ton of time and frustration. We can’t wait to see what comes out of this first prototype. | 20 | 20 | [
{
"comment_id": "146951",
"author": "Mythgarr",
"timestamp": "2010-06-03T15:16:13",
"content": "Wait – wire wrapping is suspected of saving him time and frustration?Either I missed the sarcasm or it’s been a while since the author did any wire wrapping!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"... | 1,760,377,431.565077 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2010/06/02/hid-crafting-with-a-pic-and-a-joystick/ | HID Crafting With A PIC And A Joystick | Mike Szczys | [
"Peripherals Hacks"
] | [
"hid",
"Joystick",
"pic",
"usb"
] | [Amr Bekhit] converted his
gameport joystick to use as a USB joystick
. Much like a
universal USB joystick interface
, this uses an additional microcontroller to talk to the serial bus while monitoring the controls on the stick. [Amr’s] discussion about creating HID descriptors is clear and easy to understand. What he’s laid out can be translated to any custom HID your heart desires. Give it a try with
that old peripheral
that’s been gathering dust in the corner. | 15 | 15 | [
{
"comment_id": "146800",
"author": "SheeEttin",
"timestamp": "2010-06-02T22:22:17",
"content": "Hot glue: adhesive of champions. :)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "146810",
"author": "3L_S4N70",
"timestamp": "2010-06-02T23:04:14",
"... | 1,760,377,431.834092 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2010/06/02/easy-data-input-for-labview/ | Easy Data Input For LabVIEW | Jakob Griffith | [
"Arduino Hacks"
] | [
"arduino",
"data",
"labview",
"modules",
"national instruments",
"potentiometer"
] | [youtube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9cKBdn4uHyY%5D
Props go to [Michael Nash] for
establishing an interface
between
National Instrument’s labVIEW
and an Arduino (an example video using a potentiometer is above). Personally, from the one
time we were forced
to use labVIEW, we hated every second of it.
One reason it’s so terrible, is the
Data Acquisition Modules
cost well into the hundreds of dollars, yet the documentation and help resources are very scarce. By using an Arduino instead of the modules, the price and difficulty decrease a considerable amount. Which begs the question why has it taken so long to get a decent (and so simple) of a setup working? | 62 | 50 | [
{
"comment_id": "146767",
"author": "kennypu",
"timestamp": "2010-06-02T20:19:19",
"content": "I hated every second of it too when I was trying to learn it for robotics…I just went with c++.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "146772",
"author":... | 1,760,377,432.08194 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2010/06/06/how-to-diydtg/ | How-to: DIYDTG | Jakob Griffith | [
"Featured",
"how-to"
] | [
"aluminum",
"direct to garment",
"diy",
"dtg",
"how-to",
"jakob",
"motor",
"paper",
"paper feed sensor",
"platen",
"print",
"printer",
"screws",
"shirt",
"wood"
] | For those unaware, the little acronym above stands for Do-It-Yourself-
Direct-To-Garment
printing. In layman’s terms, printing your own shirts and designs.
Commercial DTGs
can cost anywhere from $5,000 to $10,000 which for the hobbyist who only wants a few shirts is ridiculous. So you would think this field of technology would be hacked to no end, but we’ve actually only seen
one other fully finished
and working DIYDTG. So we took it upon ourselves to build a DIYDTG as cheaply and as successfully as possible.
We would like to take this moment to thank [makemygraphix] for his original designs, as ours is heavily
based off his
. And
Tshirt Forums
, for their valuable input.
For your own DIYDTG you’ll need a few parts, (we honestly just used what we had lying around)
-3/4 inch particle board/plywood/MDF
-1/2 inch particle board/plywood/MDF
-1/4 inch plywood
-1 and 1/2inch wood screws
-24inch ball bearing drawer track
-scrap aluminum (1/16″ thick)
-Epson printer (more on this below)
The printer you choose is the most absolutely crucial part of this hack. We took apart an HP DeskJet 3845, Canon iP1500, Brother MFC420CN, Epson Stylus Photo 820 and an Epson Stylus c40. Why so many? We literally purchased every printer the local thrift store had (at $6 a printer, it’s not that bad actually), that way the reader wouldn’t have to. Our findings were thus; the HP and the Canon both had rotary encoders on the paper feed shaft and ended up being a total peta to try to align and get working, both not recommended. The Brother was an all-in-one that would not function unless every part was connected, making it too large and bulky for our needs. Both Epsons used stepper motors, were very easy to take apart, and only had one easy to manage paper sensor. Go with Epson! (We ended up using the C40 because it had the 3 ink CYM system instead of the 5 CYMLCLM system the 820 did).
As for the ink you will be using in your printer, we found
DTGinks.com
to be a good resource.
For software for your Epson, we found the default drivers worked well enough. There is RIP software out there, but we couldn’t find any that supported the c40. We will recommend the
SSC Utility program
though. Allowing you to quickly and easily lie to the printer about how much, what kind, and replaced ink cartridges (for Epson only).
For tools we recommend the following
-measuring tape
-square
-pen/chalk line
-table saw
-circular saw
-jigsaw
-Dremel
-drill press/drill (and an assortment of bits)
-sand paper/file
We started off by taking apart the printers. Every printer is different, so we can’t give you details but its relatively simple process. By the end you’ll only need the head and its carriage, the paper feed motor and its shaft, and the power supply.
You’ll need to cut the wood as follows, (it should be noted, these are slightly different then what we actually used)
For the 3/4 inch,
1 x 26inch by 11 and 1/2 inches.
1 x 26inch by 10 inches.
For the 1/2 inch,
2 x 26inch by 5inch,
2 x 26 inch by 1 and 3/4 inches.
First clamp the two 26″x5″ boards together. Now 6″ from the end and 2″ and 3/8″ from the bottom drill a 5/8″ hole through both boards at the same time. This is where your paper feed shaft will go.
Here is a tricky part, the metal track. We mounted the outer part 3/4″ from the top on one of the 26″x5″(doesn’t matter which you choose) pieces and made the stop/back/end of the track flush with the end of the board (this isn’t very high priority) . And the inner part of the track goes 1″ and 1/8″ from the top on one of the 26″x1 and 3/4″ pieces.
Normally we do recommend that you use metal “L” brackets to attach corners of wood, but as long as you pre-drill a hole slightly smaller than your screws, you’ll be fine (we also counter sunk most of our screws, but that’s optional). Attach the two 26″x1 and 3/4″ to the 26″x10″. Do the same with the two 26″x5″ and the 26″x11 and 1/2″ pieces.
All that was a little tricky, so here is a picture to help out. For those wondering, the top tray rolls “towards” you in this image.
And a shot without the top tray, as you can see our shaft wasn’t long enough, so a simple 2″x3″ piece was put in place. Make sure the shaft spins freely and without binding, with and without the top tray in.
The next interesting part is mounting the drive motor. It needs to be snug against the gear of the shaft, yet not too tight to make it grind against the wood. It also needs to have a way of preventing the shaft from “popping out”. We solved both problems relatively simply.
Take your assembly, remove the top shelf, and prop it on its side. Position your motor where it will be mounted on top/inside the 26″x5″ piece. Drop in the shaft, get everything aligned and draw a circle around the motors base. Using a straight edge and tangent lines you can approximate the center of your circle.
Use a large hole saw cut it out (it doesn’t have to be perfect). Sand/file it so the motor easily fits in without bending any pins. We pop riveted a 1″x3″ piece of aluminum to the motor to make mounting a little easier.
Drop in your shaft and make sure everything lines up. Finally, to prevent the shaft from slipping in, we used the washers and C clamp from the extra printer parts (you didn’t throw away, right?) on the other 26″x5″ piece. And to avoid the shaft from slipping out we took a 1″x10″ piece of aluminum, bent it in a “_n_” shape, drilled a hole for the shaft, and used a cut up spring from the extra printer parts. A picture is worth 1000 words,
Bare with me, we’re almost done!
You’ll need to modify the printer carriage now, simply cut off the slot that paper used to come through,
You’ll want to mount it on-top of the two 26″x5″ pieces about 6″ back. We were lucky and found two of the previous mounting screw holes on the carriage fit perfectly, however other printers you might need to bend or make your own. (This picture taken before we made our nifty “_n_” bracket).
Now we made our platen, this is the thing your shirt goes on. It’s really up to you how its made, and we’re not even totally happy with our design, so play around and find what works best. Ours is 24″x9 and 1/2″ piece of 1/4″ plywood mounted to the top of two 20″x2 and 7/8″ pieces of 1/2″ plywood. The height measurement completely depends on the height of your head. For those wondering, we never got an answer for how far the shirt should actually be from the head, but we’ve found about 1/8″ works well enough. (The “legs” you see on our platen were later taken off.)
Mount your power supply and solder it, alongside your motor, to the driver board.
Now there is one part we’ve neglected to mention until now. And that is the paper feed sensor (remember that one sensor we mentioned earlier?). Well it’s because we spent 3 days trying to get that sucker to work with our platen. We tried everything, different timings and positions of the platen, even programming an MCU to try to trick the printer into thinking the platen was paper. In the end, we just broke it off.
By accident.
And it worked (no really!) It takes a little timing on our part but by hand to trigger the sensor, but we’ve never had a misprint like we did with the platen. (Pictured below, one of our “tape” attempts at triggering the paper feed sensor, this one worked about 1 out of 50 times).
Powered on,
Send a print job, hand trigger the paper feed sensor, and we have a print!
Here is just a short video if it in action, most notably you can see us hand triggering the paper feed sensor. The orange was a test print, as you can see if your platen isn’t 100% flat and level relative to the head, you’ll get some smudging and general print errors. The white shirt was a perfect (well, test) print that we did a little earlier.
[youtube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qxYG-ZiyfF8%5D
(Yes, we know the video was blocked earlier. We have re-uploaded it, thank you for your patience; it should work now.)
*Disclaimer, using tools without proper ear and eye protection can result in a visit to the hospital. And HaD is in no way responsible for any damages. Be smart, be safe.* | 130 | 50 | [
{
"comment_id": "147727",
"author": "bencoder",
"timestamp": "2010-06-06T13:06:21",
"content": "The youtube video appears to have been blocked on copyright grounds. Perhaps a music track? Looks like a great project though. good work.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
... | 1,760,377,431.935151 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2010/06/05/intelligent-ground-vehicle-competition-2010-day-one-report/ | Intelligent Ground Vehicle Competition 2010 Day One Report | Gerrit Coetzee | [
"Arduino Hacks",
"Nintendo Hacks",
"Robots Hacks"
] | [
"2010",
"Green Lightning",
"igvc",
"ir",
"motor commander",
"parallax",
"robot",
"router",
"sabertooth",
"sonar",
"webcam",
"York College",
"zigbee"
] | The Intelligent Ground Vehicle Competition (
IGVC
) is the precursor to the DARPA Grand Challenge, and in many ways it is just as difficult. We have the pleasure of being at the competition this year with the Tennessee Technological University Autonomous Robotics Team. The teams at the competition pull off some amazing home-brew robotics, so we’ve decided to do a short section on some exemplary robotic hacking each day of the competition.
Today’s robot comes from the York College of Pennsylvania. The robot, dubbed “Green Lightning”, features an impressive set of custom made hardware.
We interviewed the team, and got a pretty thorough rundown of their robot with pictures after the jump.
The spinal cord of the robot is this custom built beauty.
It consists of six layers, each with a specific function. The boards were designed by the team and fabricated by
Sunstone Circuits
. Each layer except for the top has its own
teensy++
unit, programmed in C, providing an SPI interface to the hardware it’s designed to connect to. The first layer has an Arduino Mega programmed in C on it. The layers communicate with the Mega through an SPI bus running at 500Kbaud. The Mega processes the information and then communicates to a computer through a 1Mbaud usb serial connection.
The remaining five layers are each designed to interface with a specific section of the robot’s hardware. The second layer communicates with a
Wheel Commander from Nubotics
, simplifying the robot’s motion controls.The third layer is the interface to the robot’s emergency stop. The rules require that there be a visible hardware e-stop on the back of the robot and a wireless remote e-stop. They solved their wireless e-stop problem with a zig-bee module that connects to the robot through this layer.
The fourth, fifth, and sixth layers all connect to the robot’s sensor groups. The fourth layer is the interface to their gps, mounted at the top of the robot. Most gps units communicate with simple serial and it’s pretty elegant that they managed to save a usb port by adding a board. The robot has nine
Sharp 2Y0A710 distance sensors
acting as a short-range bumper for obstacle avoidance which all connect to the fifth layer. The final layer is the interface for 10
long range sonar sensors
located at compass points around the robot.
The robot also has two USB Web Cams for line and object detection mounted on the mast. The AI and computer side hardware interface is programmed in a mix of C and Java. The AI follows a reactive model instead of a mapping/planning one which has been proven to be very effective in this competition for many teams.
The frame, track, and drive train were custom built by the team as well.
Here you can see the back of the robot where the drive train, Wheel Commander, and two
SaberTooth motor drivers
are.
A side shot shows their track system. They modeled it in SolidWorks first and then fabricated everything including the belt in house.
In the end the robot cost them around $5,200 after discounts which is pretty impressive considering its capabilities and that some of the robots at this competition easily break $50,000 dollars. It’s a prime example of what good engineering and home-brew magic can accomplish. We’ll finish with a shot of their manual control system. | 19 | 19 | [
{
"comment_id": "147704",
"author": "Sammy",
"timestamp": "2010-06-06T09:08:27",
"content": "Sound like fun",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "147705",
"author": "Sammy",
"timestamp": "2010-06-06T09:08:47",
"content": "Sounds like fun",... | 1,760,377,431.997929 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2010/06/05/adding-compact-flash-to-an-old-sequencer/ | Adding Compact Flash To An Old Sequencer | Mike Szczys | [
"digital audio hacks"
] | [
"akai",
"cf",
"classic",
"compact flash",
"ide",
"mcp-2000",
"scsi"
] | [Shoji] has a beloved sequencer that went out of production ten years ago. Unfortunately the storage options are also 10 year out-of-date as SCSI is the stock option for storing his loops. Using a series of adapters he
added Compact Flash storage to his Akai MPC-2000 Classic
. The board has a connector for 25-pin SCSI which he wired to a 25-pin to 50-pin SCSI adapter. From there he connects a SCSI to IDE board, and then an IDE to CF.
Subsequent versions of the
Akai
Classic have floppy drives in the front left corner so he used this method to mount he CF slot. Now he’s got plenty of storage with very little change to the appearance of the looper. | 32 | 28 | [
{
"comment_id": "147507",
"author": "Osgeld",
"timestamp": "2010-06-05T17:21:11",
"content": "old mac and other vintage computer people do this frequently, and it sounds good to me, until I start adding up the prices of everything needed",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
}... | 1,760,377,432.147826 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2010/06/05/3d-printed-makerbot/ | 3D Printed MakerBot | Devlin Thyne | [
"cnc hacks",
"News"
] | [
"3d printer",
"3d printing",
"cnc",
"makerbot"
] | [Webca] has made a
3D printed MakerBot
with his MakerBot. Using five pounds of plastic, the design replaces all of the plywood used to create a regular MakerBot. This complements the existing designs for the 3D printed extruders, dinos, and other parts already on
Thingiverse
. An interesting mile marker in the history of 3D printing. We might make one after we make a Mendel and tons of
Hack a Day Badges
. We also look forward to improvements people will contribute to the design such as using less plastic or a parameterized design to make a really big (or small) MakerBot. | 12 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "147483",
"author": "crazy Bitch",
"timestamp": "2010-06-05T16:11:26",
"content": "yeeeah well done",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "147509",
"author": "nave.notnilc",
"timestamp": "2010-06-05T17:26:10",
"content": "ug... | 1,760,377,432.193675 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2010/06/05/bp-oil-blunders/ | BP Oil Blunders | Jakob Griffith | [
"News"
] | [
"british petroleum",
"experts",
"jonny dryer",
"liquid nitrogen",
"oil",
"rig",
"spill"
] | We received a very interesting “hack” today from our good friend [Jonny Dryer] that really got us thinking, but first a little background.
For those that live only inside of a box on top of a mountain (we know who you are), there was an
explosion of a British Petroleum oil rig
about 40 miles southeast of Venice, LA. Being proclaimed by Carol Browner as “probably the biggest environmental disaster” – stated a month
after the accident
.
And the oil is
still spewing
. Now, we’re not ones for criticizing how this event is being handled; no, we left it
to the
experts.
Back to our point, [Jonny Dryer’s] sent us
his plan for slowing the oil spill
, by using liquid nitrogen, pretty genius if you ask us. And we were wondering what possible solutions other readers had come up with? Share your thoughts on this situation in the comments. | 255 | 50 | [
{
"comment_id": "147392",
"author": "MrG",
"timestamp": "2010-06-05T13:06:42",
"content": "It’s BP, and not British Petroleum.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "147395",
"author": "Hip",
"timestamp": "2010-06-05T13:20:05",
"content": "... | 1,760,377,433.115888 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2010/06/04/motorcycle-current-gear-indicator/ | Motorcycle Current Gear Indicator | Mike Szczys | [
"Transportation Hacks"
] | [
"7 segment",
"ATtiny25",
"gear",
"indicator",
"motorcycle"
] | [Vassilis Papanikolaou] just finished building
a gear indicator for a motorcycle
. This quite a simple implementation compared to some of the
other vehicle information displays
we’ve taken a look at. You should be able to build and install your own without breaking the bank. An ATtiny25 microcontroller reads data from a couple of hall effect sensors and the neutral switch, then displays the current gear on a 7-segment display.
There’s a magnet on the shifter and two hall effect sensors at the position for ‘gear up’ and ‘gear down’ shifting. The AVR chip keeps track of these and even stores the last position in EEPROM when you shut the bike off. If the device somehow gets off track, it will automatically recalibrate itself next time you shift into neutral, thanks to the bike’s neutral sensor switch. | 42 | 41 | [
{
"comment_id": "147228",
"author": "Cynyr",
"timestamp": "2010-06-04T20:45:25",
"content": "Anyone have a working video link? the one at the bottom is broken.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "147230",
"author": "lucy_in_the_sky",
"timest... | 1,760,377,432.336289 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2010/06/04/1000w-induction-heater/ | 1000W Induction Heater | Mike Szczys | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"burn",
"heater",
"induction",
"magnetic",
"melt"
] | [Tim Williams] likes to heat things up with
this induction heater
he built. At peak it can use 1000W and as you can see in the video, that’s more than enough power to heat, burn, and melt a plethora of different objects. The case design uses a center divider to isolate switching noise from the magnetic field with the whole unit housed in aluminum because it won’t heat up from stray magnetic fields. He’s selling plans and kits in case you want one, but we just don’t know what we’d use it for.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ro6Dt9g7Ohw]
[Thanks Arcen] | 63 | 50 | [
{
"comment_id": "147198",
"author": "lefty",
"timestamp": "2010-06-04T18:30:53",
"content": "he buildi buildyou buildwe build:P",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "147200",
"author": "Mike Szczys",
"timestamp": "2010-06-04T18:34:45... | 1,760,377,432.43128 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2010/06/02/partkam-produces-cam-related-files-online/ | PartKAM Produces CAM Related Files Online | Mike Szczys | [
"cnc hacks"
] | [
"cam",
"flash",
"gcode",
"partkam",
"svg"
] | PartKAM is a
Flash-based CAM production package
created by [Jack Qiao]. There are a ton of computer aided manufacturing suites out there, this one is simple and requires nothing more than having your browser open. We played with it for a few moments and found it useful but still a bit buggy. Most notably, it lacks a ‘undo’ option. That being said, you can export as SVG or gCode for use when you just need to
hammer out a few parts
with that
CNC mill you threw together
. | 6 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "146769",
"author": "compukidmike",
"timestamp": "2010-06-02T20:24:57",
"content": "Messed with it for a few minutes. I have to say I’m impressed. Much better than I could hope to accomplish! One suggestion would be the ability to delete toolpaths. I couldn’t find a way to do that. O... | 1,760,377,432.471878 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2010/06/02/six-digit-led-clock/ | Six Digit LED Clock | Mike Szczys | [
"clock hacks",
"LED Hacks"
] | [
"atmega328",
"ds1307",
"led",
"rtc"
] | Got a bag of LEDs handy? Why not build a display with them? We’ve seen a lot of clocks that make use of LED modules but soldering your own is a fun pastime. [Vadim Suhovatih] did just that using
130 LEDs to build this clock
. Each segment of the 7-segment digits consists of three LEDs in parallel which are switched by some 2N4401 transistors. An ATmega328 in the form of an Arduino controls the device with the aid of a DS1307 real-time clock for timekeeping and a 4017 decade counter to assist with scanning the display. Check out the demo after the break.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KHH1BDeHmBw] | 13 | 13 | [
{
"comment_id": "146728",
"author": "juancubillo",
"timestamp": "2010-06-02T17:44:14",
"content": "I have 10K LEDs @ home. lol . Maybe I should do something like this.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "146729",
"author": "TheFish",
"timest... | 1,760,377,432.520889 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2010/06/02/lego-printer-built-without-nxt-parts/ | LEGO Printer Built Without NXT parts | Mike Szczys | [
"Peripherals Hacks",
"Toy Hacks"
] | [
"lego",
"pen",
"plotter",
"printer"
] | [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zX09WnGU6ZY]
[Squirrelfantasy]
built a printer using LEGO
pieces. It’s not a Mindstorm project but instead depends on some type of development board and some auxiliary components on a protoboard. We couldn’t get a good enough look to tell exactly what makes up the electronics so start the debate in the comments. We feel this is a printer and not a plotter because the stylus moves on just one plane while the paper feeds past it but that’s open for debate as well.
Guess this answers the question of
why aren’t we building our own printers
? Some folks are.
[Thanks Haxorflex and many others, via
DVICE
] | 28 | 28 | [
{
"comment_id": "146704",
"author": "jacubillo",
"timestamp": "2010-06-02T16:03:26",
"content": "brilliant",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "146708",
"author": "Stevetronics",
"timestamp": "2010-06-02T16:10:14",
"content": "Just a head... | 1,760,377,432.926816 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2010/06/02/hdsps-and-playstation-2-controllers-on-arduinos/ | HDSPs And Playstation 2 Controllers On Arduinos | Caleb Kraft | [
"Arduino Hacks"
] | [
"arduino",
"arm"
] | There were a couple short Arduino tips in the mailbox this morning. We’ve combined them in this post since both are fairly short and sweet.
Over at Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories, they’ve posted a quick breakdown of
how to interface those neat little HDSP LED displays with an Arduino
. This specific instance is for
Mr. Stabby
. Source code and schematic are included.
For those who would like a nice familiar input device for their Arduino,
how about a Playstation2 controller
? [Bill Porter] has written up the code and shown how to wire it up. This even includes the ability to read the analog stick correctly. Source code and schematic are available on the project page.
[via
Littlebird electronics
] | 5 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "146705",
"author": "rallen71366",
"timestamp": "2010-06-02T16:06:47",
"content": "Yes! I’ve been wanting to interface a PS2 controller into my CNC controller as a pendant to jog the spindle around. My Arduino-fu isn’t strong enough, yet. But this helps! Thankyou!",
"parent_id": ... | 1,760,377,432.561746 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2010/06/02/rc-car-taunts-mans-best-friend/ | RC Car Taunts Man’s Best Friend | Mike Szczys | [
"Toy Hacks"
] | [
"arduino",
"bluetooth",
"camera",
"car",
"rc",
"xbox 360"
] | [Arkos] gutted an RC car from his childhood and made it into
a dog-taunting remote platform
. An Arduino replaces the original circuitry with a Bluetooth module for connectivity. He uses an Xbox 360 controller and has added a small speaker to act as a siren. But for our money it’s the camera that makes this hack. It streams video back to a laptop and because it’s mounted on a couple of servos the left stick controls where the lens is looking. The next evolution should replace the Arduino for
a standalone microcontroller
but what he’s come up with as a first prototype is delightful. See Fido run in terror after the break.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BstbG4UrVfQ] | 18 | 17 | [
{
"comment_id": "146694",
"author": "Nomad",
"timestamp": "2010-06-02T14:41:15",
"content": "This is pretty nice if you want to do some “spy-work” in your house and i think its a lot easier to control such a vehicle with an xbox360 controller.But it’s a bit of an overload to let the PC read the data... | 1,760,377,432.801881 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2010/06/01/modern-recordings-on-wax-cylinder/ | Modern Recordings On Wax Cylinder | Mike Szczys | [
"digital audio hacks"
] | [
"edison cylinder",
"wax cylinder"
] | If you thought you’d never have a chance to release your hit single on the wax cylinder think again. A band obsessed with the Victorian era did just that, having a DIY’er produce the cylinders for them. The
story was covered by the BBC
and includes a lousy attempt to build a phonograph to play back the recording. The video shows their craftsmanship (or lack of it) but it’s not even in the same realm as
the masterpiece we saw last September
. You do, however, get to see the production equipment used at about 2:45 into the clip.
[Thanks Charles] | 16 | 16 | [
{
"comment_id": "146544",
"author": "neodux",
"timestamp": "2010-06-01T19:07:59",
"content": "Sorta reminds me of this epic moment on TechTV:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pnsizkVjGm8“One of a kind piece, there is no other one like this particular one in the world…”",
"parent_id": null,
"dep... | 1,760,377,432.85768 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2010/06/01/stomp-box-synthesizer/ | Stomp Box Synthesizer | Mike Szczys | [
"Musical Hacks"
] | [
"feedback",
"loop",
"stomp box. synthesizer"
] | [Brian McNamara] fed the output of his guitar pedal back into its input creating
a looped synthesizer
. He started with an effects pedal he made but now we think he’s ended up with an electronic
stomp box
. Check out the results in the video after the break. Now he needs to make the knobs foot-friendly so he can monkey with this while playing guitar.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-bX4TORO-Q] | 8 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "146532",
"author": "Paul",
"timestamp": "2010-06-01T18:17:50",
"content": "plane sound @ 1:11that could be potentially awesome in some sort of electronic guitar solo :Palthough it looks like he had to “pop” it into making lots of noise. Perhaps it needed a little reverb-type input t... | 1,760,377,432.971919 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2010/06/01/jtag-programming-over-a-network/ | JTAG Programming Over A Network | Mike Szczys | [
"Linux Hacks"
] | [
"jtag",
"programmer",
"router",
"serial"
] | [Matt Evans] was running up against the common programming gotcha caused by disappearing parallel ports. For years he had used a JTAG parallel cable when working with FPGAs but recently realized he no longer owned any machines with that interface available. Instead of shelling out $50 for a USB programmer
he a programming interface from an old router
.What he’s doing is
bit-banging
using Linux. In this case it’s a router running a version of Linux which makes his setup Internet friendly but this could be done in the same basic manner on any Linux device with enough available I/O to connect to the device you are programming. | 18 | 18 | [
{
"comment_id": "146482",
"author": "Colin",
"timestamp": "2010-06-01T16:10:16",
"content": "He a programming interface?! Whoa!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "146489",
"author": "Brad Hein",
"timestamp": "2010-06-01T16:24:20",
"con... | 1,760,377,433.028106 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2010/06/01/irobot-gets-awesome-exploding-rope-thingy/ | IRobot Gets Awesome Exploding Rope Thingy | Caleb Kraft | [
"Robots Hacks"
] | [
"explosion",
"irobot",
"military"
] | [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A3jab7rnIL0]
The
iRobot Warrior 710
is shown here touting a new toy called an APOBS or Anti-Personnel Obstacle Breaching System. The system is comprised of an explosive rope pulled by a rocket. We know that sounds pretty awesome, and you can see in the video that it is, in fact, pretty awesome. We don’t condone violence, or war. We do, however, love
blowin’ stuff up
. This footage was just so pretty, we thought we had to share it. What’s even more amazing is that these guys aren’t battling Apple over the name iRobot.
[via
botjunkie
] | 40 | 39 | [
{
"comment_id": "146462",
"author": "Aron Figaro",
"timestamp": "2010-06-01T15:07:12",
"content": "Why is a million dollar military derp a “hack”? I thought there were plenty of places to post this crap.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "146466",
... | 1,760,377,433.35341 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2010/06/01/switchmode-led-flashlight-upgrade/ | Switchmode LED Flashlight Upgrade | Caleb Kraft | [
"LED Hacks"
] | [
"flashlight",
"led",
"recycle",
"reuse",
"torch"
] | When [Neelandan]’s cheap flashlight’s internal rechargeable battery died, he scrounged for a replacement. Ultimately, the brightness of the light suffered with his new battery, taken from an old cell phone since he had dropped the voltage a bit. Upon inspection he saw that he would have to swap the individual resistors for each lamp to get the desired brightness again. This wasn’t really acceptable as he would have to repeat the process if he used another re-purposed battery with different specs. Instead, he
added a new circuit to supply constant brightness until the voltage drops below 2.7 volts
. We love to see hardware resurrected, even if it is just a cheap LED flashlight. | 11 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "146461",
"author": "Digital",
"timestamp": "2010-06-01T15:07:04",
"content": "I wonder if that would save money for manufacturers? it would certainly reduce parts used.I’d be interested to have answers to my questions…. Someone answer me dammit!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth":... | 1,760,377,433.22938 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2010/05/31/may-the-phorse-be-with-you/ | May The Phorse Be With You | Jakob Griffith | [
"LED Hacks"
] | [
"ATtiny25",
"code",
"entry",
"led",
"light",
"morse",
"phorse",
"POV"
] | The
PhorsePOV
by [Julian Skidmore] almost slipped by, but we thought it was a nice easy hack for your Memorial Monday. The gadget uses an ATTINY25 to drive 6 LEDs
aren’t standard characters 7 units high
? Which when
waved in the air
produces a readable message. What we were really interested in is the use of a single button for text entry, called Phorse code, or an “easier to learn and remember” version of
Morse code
. While it seemed silly at first, most of us here could enter messages within a few minutes of trying. | 23 | 23 | [
{
"comment_id": "146307",
"author": "osgeld",
"timestamp": "2010-05-31T20:31:54",
"content": "too bad there is not an action shot",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "146361",
"author": "localroger",
"timestamp": "2010-06-01T00:02:57",
"c... | 1,760,377,433.179899 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2010/05/31/beginner-concepts-cascading-shift-registers/ | Beginner Concepts: Cascading Shift Registers | Mike Szczys | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"beginner concepts",
"hc595",
"shift register"
] | There’s a million tutorials out there describing how to use shift registers. If you’re just getting into embedded systems you should know how to use them as they allow you to take three microcontroller pins and expand them virtually without limits. This is due to the serial-in parallel-out nature of these integrated circuits. A key feature of these chips is the ability to overflow, or cascade to the next chip which is what provides the expansibility.
Protostack just published a tutorial that uses this hardware to
interface sixteen LEDs using two shift registers
. The explanation is short and to-the-point with easy to understand code examples. There’s also something to be said for their crisp and clean breadboarding work.
Take a look at how they do it and then use the concept to
make a fancy clock
or reduce the pins needed to
drive a display
. | 12 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "146293",
"author": "bluewraith",
"timestamp": "2010-05-31T19:57:10",
"content": "Nice tutorial. I’ve been messing around with an 8 bit shift register to control my quad half H bridge chip which in turn controls the motors of my little pet robot. To drive just 2 motors I didnt gain a... | 1,760,377,433.277488 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2010/05/31/bluetooth-boombox/ | Bluetooth Boombox | Mike Szczys | [
"digital audio hacks"
] | [
"bluetooth",
"boom box",
"dc800",
"streaming"
] | [Nathan] took this boombox and
outfitted it for Bluetooth streaming
. He took a Motorola DC800, which is meant to make headphones wireless, and connected it to the stereo inputs. The controls for the Bluetooth module were routed to the stock tape deck controls and a little bit of frosted spray paint adds a blue glow to the cassette window. Now he can stream music from his phone, including internet radio, which he’s done in the video after the break.
Did he find the most annoying demo video music ever? You be the judge.
[vimeo=http://vimeo.com/12116024] | 23 | 23 | [
{
"comment_id": "146270",
"author": "Joshua",
"timestamp": "2010-05-31T18:07:44",
"content": "Most annoying? No, but damn close. This kind of reminds me of old Star Trek music and sound effects.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "146278",
"au... | 1,760,377,433.419382 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2010/05/31/lego-pick-and-place/ | LEGO Pick And Place | Mike Szczys | [
"Robots Hacks"
] | [
"brick",
"lego",
"pick and place",
"robot",
"sort"
] | [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YoXCn4Gh_HA&w=470]
Turn your volume down and take a look at the
brick sorting robot
in the video above. It’s built using LEGO and powered by four different NXT modules. It sorts differently colored bricks on the intake conveyor and places them on three output conveyors. The build is solid and was [Chris Shepherd’s]
impetus for starting a blog
. We appreciate the pneumatic tricks that he detailed in some of his earlier posts such as
a compressor
,
pressure switch
, and
air tank system
. His advice is “build, build, build” and that’s what you’d have to do to perfect a monster of this size and scope. | 8 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "146258",
"author": "James",
"timestamp": "2010-05-31T16:52:01",
"content": "I like! Pretty neat! Some serious backlash in the gearing of those motors/joints though – maybe an eye-in-hand camera system to remove the vibrations?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": ... | 1,760,377,433.845539 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2010/05/31/flight-simulator-but-youre-the-plane/ | Flight Simulator But You’re The Plane | Mike Szczys | [
"Wearable Hacks"
] | [
"flight simulator",
"google earth",
"ironman",
"wii remote"
] | [Rafael Mizrahi] built
a flight simulator that lets him fly like Ironman
. As you can see in the video after the break, the hardware involves an automotive crane, hang gliding harness, plus the wings and tail from a UAV. A giant fan pointed at the wearer allows him to use the wings and tail to maneuver while the Wii remote strapped to his chest tracks the movement and feeds it to Google Earth Flight Simulator which is seen through the head-mounted display. We’re used to seeing
intense flight simulators
but this is something completely different.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pNXJLQmx-OE] | 26 | 23 | [
{
"comment_id": "146234",
"author": "Seth",
"timestamp": "2010-05-31T14:46:11",
"content": "I have always wondered why someone hadn’t made something like this…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "146237",
"author": "cpmike",
"timestamp": "20... | 1,760,377,433.595153 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2010/05/30/child-sized-cocktail-cabinets/ | Child-sized Cocktail Cabinets | Mike Szczys | [
"home entertainment hacks",
"Netbook Hacks"
] | [
"arcade",
"cocktail cabinet",
"mame"
] | [Sam Seide] dropped us a line about
his new arcade creation
. We loved his Punch-Out build that used
a punch dummy as a game controller
. This time around he’s made some mini-cocktail style MAME cabinets. He removed the screen from a netbook and placed it face-up underneath the acrylic bezel. There are controls on either side for two players as we would expect from any
quality cocktail cabinet
. The control panels are interfaced through the now familiar iPac boards and are a bit unfinished on the underside but that doesn’t decrease our need to see one of these on the coffee table at home. Check out demo and an outline of the parts inside after the break.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1N5rII07TEs]
Demonstration
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DuT_CHWoQ_M]
Guts walk-through | 22 | 20 | [
{
"comment_id": "146109",
"author": "greycode",
"timestamp": "2010-05-30T20:49:22",
"content": "I’ve always thought the cocktail cabinets were already child sized, I hated them. These are more like back seat of the car sized. Slap some batteries in them, market them portable.Problem is that not ma... | 1,760,377,433.65208 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2010/05/30/crossfade-curve-tweaking/ | Crossfade Curve Tweaking | Mike Szczys | [
"digital audio hacks"
] | [
"crossfade",
"mixdeck",
"numark",
"trimpot"
] | Tired of the disappointing performance from the crossfader on his Numark MIXDECK, [dj JD] cracked it open and
made the crossfade curves adjustable
. It’s a super-simple hack that just introduces two 100k trimpots to the crossfade slider. The change led to a higher volume level on the current channel until the slider was much nearer to the center. The added adjustment feature might be nice to have as two more knobs on the board but [JD’s] method leaves his equipment with a stock appearance. Is this a more refined version of
circuit bending
? | 18 | 14 | [
{
"comment_id": "146096",
"author": "Sprite_tm",
"timestamp": "2010-05-30T18:53:53",
"content": "Nope. Unless the guy got the two resistors to where he has ’em now by just randomly putting Rs and Cs all over the place, this has nothing to do with circuit bending.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth"... | 1,760,377,433.704159 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2010/05/30/brighten-up-your-pcb-drilling-station/ | Brighten Up Your PCB Drilling Station | Mike Szczys | [
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"dremel",
"drill",
"light ring",
"pcb"
] | Being able to see what you’re doing can be the hardest part of drilling the through holes in those freshly etched printed circuit boards. We don’t know why we didn’t come up with this, but [Markus Gebhard] solved his shadowy woes with his
20-LED Dremel light ring
. Honestly, how many times have we seen
lights rings in photography
without putting it together that a light ring is perfect for this purpose. So kudos to [Markus], now we’ve got to go and dig up some surface mount LEDs and
uncork the copper chloride
. | 15 | 15 | [
{
"comment_id": "146076",
"author": "Chris99",
"timestamp": "2010-05-30T17:10:54",
"content": "Now that is useful. Going to make one for my beloved Dremel.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "146079",
"author": "pascal",
"timestamp": "2010-0... | 1,760,377,433.898272 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2010/05/30/moving-speakers-to-mix-audio-tracks/ | Moving Speakers To Mix Audio Tracks | Mike Szczys | [
"digital audio hacks"
] | [
"mixer",
"processing",
"rfid",
"speaker"
] | These speakers
play different audio tracks depending on which orange square the sit atop. They’re RFID aware and the orange tiles are tags. If you get tired of a track just move the speaker to a different one, or place the speakers next to each other to play the same song. We’re sure there’s a project for us here, it’s just going to take some thinking to figure out what we want to do with it. But the concept is certainly intriguing. Check out the video demonstration after the break.
[vimeo=http://vimeo.com/10481179]
[Thanks Ferdinand] | 11 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "146046",
"author": "TheFinder",
"timestamp": "2010-05-30T15:23:32",
"content": "What is it good for?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "146047",
"author": "Comrade",
"timestamp": "2010-05-30T15:27:42",
"content": "Why n... | 1,760,377,435.762545 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2010/05/29/parallax-rfid-reader-for-ten-bucks/ | Parallax RFID Reader For Ten Bucks | Devlin Thyne | [
"News",
"Parts",
"Wireless Hacks"
] | [
"parallax",
"rfid",
"sale"
] | We received a tip about Radio Shack putting
Parallax’s RFID reader
on clearance for around $10. The only reference we could find that indicated Radio Shack sold the reader was a
review page
. The reader originally sold for around $50 in the stores, so getting it for $10 made it worth a curiosity trip to a local Radio Shack. The store we visited did not have the reader marked down in the drawer, but it rang up for $9.97. It is too bad that the reader was so expensive in the first place, otherwise Radio Shack might still be selling them at full price. This is by no means a promotion, we just though we would share the information in case you were interested in getting one yourself. If Radio Shack is out, you could always
build your own reader
.
The reader we purchased only came with one tag, perhaps that is why the they have been on clearance. Hooked up to an FTDI USB to serial cable, it would repeatedly send out the tag’s number whenever it was in range. We tried an HID-labeled card and a tag of the kind that can be found in books and DVD cases. Neither worked with the reader, but we’ll keep looking.
Thanks to [bluewraith] for the tip. | 102 | 50 | [
{
"comment_id": "145956",
"author": "AJ",
"timestamp": "2010-05-30T01:50:13",
"content": "Hey can you guys ammend this posting if you find anything that works with the reader?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "145957",
"author": "Ken",
"ti... | 1,760,377,435.84496 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2010/05/29/sprime-controlled-ac-outlets/ | SPRIME Controlled AC Outlets | Jakob Griffith | [
"home hacks"
] | [
"120v",
"ac",
"monitor",
"outlet",
"power",
"sprime"
] | Reader [Tim Upthegrove] sent in a novel take on powering and monitoring AC outlets and devices called
SPRIME
, or Simple Powerline Remote Interactive Monitor and Enforcer. Compared to previous hacks, such as
120v switching
or
Quick cheap remote outlets
, that only turned an outlet on or off; SPRIME allows not only control over outlets via the internet, but also power usage of devices currently plugged in.
We really liked their idea of giving power companies
access to SPRIME
outlets to reduce power consumption during peak hours, but sadly we don’t see it being implemented in homes any time soon. Catch a video of SPRIME after the rift.
[Thanks Chris McClanahan and Jeff Starker for the project, and deyjavont for pointing out our silly mistakes]
[youtube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uFRgc2QtA54&feature=player_embedded%5D | 37 | 37 | [
{
"comment_id": "145871",
"author": "nab",
"timestamp": "2010-05-29T17:11:58",
"content": "Nice project. I’m trying to do something similar with my house, but for much cheaper. It looks like their device cost $100 per outlet. Maybe replacing the Arduino with a custom pcb and the bluetooth with a che... | 1,760,377,435.649385 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2010/05/27/commercial-webcam-multi-touch-coming-soon/ | Commercial Webcam Multi-touch Coming Soon | Mike Szczys | [
"Multitouch Hacks"
] | [
"photo",
"Toshiba",
"webcam"
] | [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sBgg33J695I]
It looks like Toshiba has
a webcam-based multi-touch display on the way
. The video shows an iPod-esque photos album interface where the user stands in front of the display and manipulates it with both hands. The difference between this and some of the
other multi-touch
displays we’ve seen
is that there is no touching necessary (goodbye fingerprints!). The user’s image is superimposed on the screen in a way that reminds us of the original Playstation Eye. Obviously this is much more refined, making us wonder if it’s the better camera, better processing, or both.
[Thanks Risingsun] | 16 | 16 | [
{
"comment_id": "145452",
"author": "Brad",
"timestamp": "2010-05-27T19:53:41",
"content": "Anyone think about how stupid it sounds saying ‘multitouch’ as a buzzword when this is obvious it it not a touch input at all?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_... | 1,760,377,436.024874 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2010/05/27/gsoc-takes-on-xbmc-on-the-beagleboard/ | GSoC Takes On XBMC On The Beagleboard | Mike Szczys | [
"HackIt"
] | [
"beagleboard",
"gsoc",
"xbmc"
] | Imagine a tiny little device that you velcro to the back of your TV that delivers all of the media found on your home network. We’ve been dreaming about that since we saw early working examples of
XBMC running on a Beagleboard
. We’ve heard little about it since then but now there’s cause for hope. XBMC optimization for the Beagleboard has been
approved as a Google Summer of Code project
. The fruits of these projects tend to take a year or so to ripen, but we don’t mind the wait.
[Topfs2] is the student coder on the project and will be posting
weekly updates
as well as idling in IRC so if you’re interested in lending a hand with testing or words of support you should drop him a line.
[Beagleboard photo:
Koenkooi
] | 22 | 22 | [
{
"comment_id": "145442",
"author": "MWeekley",
"timestamp": "2010-05-27T18:52:47",
"content": "I remember when we had issues getting xbmc to run on pc’s and it was just considered a ‘skinning tool’ for the xbox side,its come a long way this is wonderful. Good luck guys.",
"parent_id": null,
... | 1,760,377,435.711702 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2010/05/27/bamf2010-look-sir-droids/ | BAMF2010: Look Sir, Droids! | Phil Burgess | [
"cons",
"Robots Hacks",
"Roundup"
] | [
"2010",
"b9",
"costume",
"fan",
"lost in space",
"maker faire",
"makerfaire",
"pixar",
"prop",
"r2d2",
"reproduction",
"robby",
"robots",
"star wars",
"wall-e"
] | Ask any engineer what originally sparked their interest in technology, and almost universally the response will be a Hollywood film or TV robot —
Star Wars’
R2-D2, the B9 robot from
Lost in Space,
or
Short Circuit’s
Johnny 5
, to name a few. Engineers need a creative outlet too, and some pay homage to their inspirations by building elaborate reproductions. At this year’s
Maker Faire
, droid-builders had their own corner in the center hall, their work ranging from humble craft materials to ’bots surpassing their film counterparts in detail and workmanship.
Probably the most beloved film robot of all time would be
R2-D2
, and probably the best-known reproductions originate from the
R2-D2 Builders Club
, who’ve been profiled in
Make
and
Servo
magazines, among others. Every kid’s dreamed of building their own R2, perhaps from a wastepaper basket and scrap, but the club’s astromech droids are anything but kid stuff, with machined aluminum domes and intricate motor and sound systems. The club doesn’t sell robots — that would infringe on trademarks — but they do share techniques and component plans. The finished droids (are they ever
really
finished?) put in appearances at
fan
conventions and charity events.
Danger Will Robinson! Career inventor [Andrew Filo] has been engineering practical everyday items for three decades, but he
cuts loose by bringing his early inspirations to life
. His carefully-researched reproductions include an Apollo-era NASA spacesuit and a talking, walking…er, rolling…B9 robot.
Self-described recluse [ELS] is a builder and collector of film props and reproductions. Though he insists his Robby and B9 aren’t perfectly canon, you’d never know by looking; the detail and finish on these two was
amazing.
Robby is wearable, and periodically through the weekend he’d climb into the suit and
entertain a new generation
who otherwise might not be acquainted with this Hollywood classic.
[Matthew Ebisu] is obsessed with all things Pixar. As one of the younger makers exhibiting, [Matthew’s] materials may be simpler, but his enthusiasm more than fills the gap. He’s built — and launched — Carl Fredricksen’s house from
Up
in miniature form. It didn’t quite reach South America, but did net him a pen pal in Nevada. His Autopilot and Eve droids from
Wall-E
are more craft than tech, so his latest project, along with a gaggle of like-minded friends on his
D.I.Y. Pixar fan site
, is to develop a working Wall-E robot.
So readers — is there a favorite Hollywood ’bot to credit for your passion for this hacking madness? And have you built one yet? A
HAL-9000 in your kitchen
? Tell us about it in the comments, or if you have a build log posted online somewhere, drop us a link at
tips@hackaday.com
. | 7 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "145464",
"author": "mowcius",
"timestamp": "2010-05-27T20:30:53",
"content": "Soooo much spam on that DIY pixar site forum it’s kinda funny.On another note. Very nice droids :)Lots of patience needed to make an R2-D2!Mowcius",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []... | 1,760,377,435.513561 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2010/05/27/usb-morse-code-keyboard/ | USB Morse Code Keyboard | Mike Szczys | [
"Peripherals Hacks"
] | [
"arduino",
"keyboard",
"morse code"
] | Looking for motivation to practice morse code [BenB] built this
morse code keyboard
. It uses USB and is recognized as a standard keyboard thanks to the V-USB stack running on the ATmega168. The project is rounded out with a clean look thanks to the chewing gum container that serves as an enclosure.
His design is simple enough that any morse key you have on hand can be used. You could even adapt that
glove coder you built a couple of years back
. | 24 | 23 | [
{
"comment_id": "145407",
"author": "Hirudinea",
"timestamp": "2010-05-27T15:59:38",
"content": "Cool, 19th century meets 21st! And this could be useful, imagine a laptop with 1 touchpad, buttons and no keyboard! The only question left is what is Alt-F3 in morse code?",
"parent_id": null,
"d... | 1,760,377,435.575975 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2010/05/27/bamf2010-diy-electroluminescent-displays/ | BAMF2010: DIY Electroluminescent Displays | Phil Burgess | [
"classic hacks"
] | [
"CLANG CLANG CLANG",
"custom",
"display",
"el",
"electroluminescence",
"electroluminescent",
"phosphor",
"printing",
"silkscreen"
] | [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jPclj5lbz48]
In this video from Maker Faire, [Jon Beck] of CLUE — the Columbia Laboratory for Unconventional Electronics — demonstrates the unexpected ease of
creating custom electroluminescent (EL) displays
using materials from DuPont and common t-shirt screen printing tools. Eagle-eyed reader [ithon] recognized the
Hack a Day logo
among the custom shapes, which escaped our notice at the time. Sorry, Jon! Very cool project, even if the setup is a bit steep. You’ll find links to materials at the project site.
If the interviewer seems especially sharp, that’s because it’s none other than [Jeri “
Circuit Girl
” Ellsworth], who
makes transistors from scratch
and designed the
C64 DTV
. We’re not worthy! | 14 | 14 | [
{
"comment_id": "145391",
"author": "rbz",
"timestamp": "2010-05-27T14:09:41",
"content": "This is a cool little method of making displays! can see it bieng handy for number displays/pictures etc.would love to have a go myself.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
... | 1,760,377,436.076981 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2010/05/26/unlocking-the-crippled-potential-of-an-unmanaged-switch/ | Unlocking The Crippled Potential Of An Unmanaged Switch | Mike Szczys | [
"Misc Hacks",
"News"
] | [
"ATmega88",
"AVR",
"RTL8366SB",
"sprite_tm",
"switch",
"TL-SG1005D"
] | [Sprite_TM] outgrew the features of the cheap unmanaged TL-SG1005D switch he was using on his home network. Instead of buying a new and much more costly switch
he cracked the cheap one open
and found that the RTL8366SB chip inside possessed the ability to work harder but was crippled for sale as a low-end model. It wasn’t as easy as that
oscilloscope firmware upgrade
we saw a while back. He had to add an AVR ATmega88 to send I2C commands to the switch. Turns out that the I2C protocol wasn’t standard and after much head scratching he found some Linux drivers for the chipset that gave him enough info to send the configuration commands he needed. Now he’s go the managed switch he needed for his VLAN for the cost of a microcontroller and some wire. | 35 | 31 | [
{
"comment_id": "145261",
"author": "Matthew Lucas",
"timestamp": "2010-05-26T21:33:41",
"content": "Now he’s go the managedshould beNow he’s got the managed",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "145264",
"author": "ino",
"timestamp": "2010-05... | 1,760,377,435.975627 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2010/05/26/plcc-replaces-game-boy-cartridge-rom/ | PLCC Replaces Game Boy Cartridge ROM | Mike Szczys | [
"classic hacks",
"Nintendo Game Boy Hacks"
] | [
"cartidge",
"flash",
"game boy",
"plcc",
"rom",
"wire porn"
] | [Gerry] sent us pictures and a few details on replacing the Game Boy cartridge chip with a flash chip. For the prototype he used a PLCC and a little
wire porn
to interface a flash chip with the cartridge’s PCB while still having access to it for programming. In retrospect he plans to use a 32-pin ZIF socket on the next version to make things easier. It does work and he’s had some success loading his own code and getting it to run. There are
other cartridge hacks
that let you load code onto a cartridge but if you have the knowhow and the parts this makes for a fun weekend project. We’ve posted the rest of the photos that [Gerry] sent us after the break.
Update:
Gerry is working on a video and a pinout. We’ll post info once we get a hold of it. | 26 | 26 | [
{
"comment_id": "145224",
"author": "Mikey",
"timestamp": "2010-05-26T20:05:09",
"content": "These are always the coolest mods. Very nostalgic.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "145232",
"author": "azog",
"timestamp": "2010-05-26T20:24:39... | 1,760,377,435.909138 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2010/05/25/mass-storage-business-card/ | Mass Storage Business Card | Mike Szczys | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"24fj64gb002",
"business card",
"mass storage",
"pic",
"usb"
] | Just snap off the corners and this
business card can be used as a mass storage device
. Well sort of. The tab left over has four traces on the back to make it USB compatible. The PIC 24FJ64GB002 microcontroller on the card registers as a storage device and launches [Ramiro’s] resume and a cover letter loaded as an HTML file. He’s made it as useful as possible by including access to the SPI and I2C bus connections but he’s also included some firmware to act as a data logger or an oscilloscope. At about 5 euros a piece you won’t be distributing these willy-nilly but it’s not too much more than
handing out breakout boards
with your name all over them. | 28 | 28 | [
{
"comment_id": "144913",
"author": "JB",
"timestamp": "2010-05-25T17:18:44",
"content": "“The world of the business software (for banking, insurance, services…) is boring, monotone and it is not challenging enough for me. I would like to redirect my labor situation toward a field more related with... | 1,760,377,436.138784 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2010/05/25/aircraft-carrier-is-moving-target-for-autonomous-quadcopter/ | Aircraft Carrier Is Moving Target For Autonomous Quadcopter | Mike Szczys | [
"Robots Hacks"
] | [
"atmega644",
"autonomous",
"carrier",
"landing",
"quadcopter",
"uav",
"wii remote"
] | [Karl-Engelbert Wenzel] developed
a UAV capable of taking off and landing on a moving platform
autonomously. The platform operates aircraft-carrier-style by driving around the room in circles. The quadcopter tracks a grid of IR LEDs at the front of the landing deck by using the IR camera from a Wii remote. The best part is that the flight controls and processing are all done by the copter’s onboard ATmega644 processor, not requiring a connection to a PC. The landings are quite accurate, achieving a maximum error of less than 40 centimeters. In the video after the break you can see the first landing is slightly off the mark but the next two are dead on target.
So build yourself a mobile platform and pair it up with
your newly finished quadcopter
to replicate this delightful hack.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XpUdW_U2KJ8] | 26 | 26 | [
{
"comment_id": "144879",
"author": "dustin",
"timestamp": "2010-05-25T15:05:53",
"content": "hell yeah. that is very awesome. easy docking station idea: one of those wireless charging pads. put the battery or at least the connections on the bottom and the other half paint like the landing strip. vi... | 1,760,377,436.412696 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2010/05/25/poor-mabel/ | Poor MABEL | Caleb Kraft | [
"Robots Hacks"
] | [
"biped",
"mule",
"robot"
] | [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/v/IlWIWf4daNs]
At first, watching this video of
MABEL, a bipedal robot for studying dynamic gaits
, we didn’t know if we should be scared or feel sad. By the end, we know that sadness prevailed. Poor MABEL, forced into a grueling routine, is not even allowed to rest when her leg breaks.
To be serious though, MABEL is quite impressive. Instead of using a direct drive on the legs, motors are attached to springs that act like tendons. This helps compensate for variances in the walking surface, hopefully allowing for smoother transitions between gaits as well. As you can see, MABEL handles the height differences quite well, albeit a bit slowly. It is worth noting that there are no visual sensors on MABEL and everything is done through feedback from her gait. | 23 | 23 | [
{
"comment_id": "144875",
"author": "Max",
"timestamp": "2010-05-25T14:41:43",
"content": "One day, it will be us made to march in circles till our legs break, with our overlords throwing rocks and glass at our feet. D:",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment... | 1,760,377,436.884071 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2010/05/24/bay-area-maker-faire-2010-in-pictures/ | Bay Area Maker Faire 2010 In Pictures | Phil Burgess | [
"cons",
"Roundup"
] | [
"2010",
"bay area",
"faire",
"make",
"maker",
"maker faire",
"makerfaire",
"Makers",
"san mateo"
] | Just when you think it couldn’t possibly get any bigger and crazier, they manage to outdo themselves
again.
The
Bay Area Maker Faire
wrapped up Sunday evening, but we have so many story leads that we’ll probably be busy until next year’s event. In the meantime, here’s just a tiny, random sampling of the countless delights that greeted visitors this past weekend.
Setup day was the only time we could get a clear shot of the
Hermes space shuttle
, [Morris Jarvis’] entry in the suborbital tourist space race.
Early Saturday morning, the line stretches to infinity and beyond.
At the other side of the fairgrounds, scads of locals took advantage of the free bike valet service and scored a $5 admission discount to boot. And this view shows only about
half
of the bikes present! We only spotted one
recumbent
parked out here, but quite a few inside as maker exhibits.
So much walking! This kid had the right idea, scooting around in luxury.
It’s not a Bay Area party until the original
Doggie Diner heads
show up!
Robots
were
everywhere
this year. Of course the
R2 Builders Club
was on hand…
…but there were no Wookiees present to play
chess
against this robotic arm.
A row of
Anybots
, all ready to take up their
overlord
duties.
Our favorite giraffe joined the rave, replete with his
new animatronic head
.
The
Mondo Spider
, like its smaller biological inspiration, manages to be simultaneously fascinating and potentially deadly. It is, however, anything but silent.
Back outside, this
MIDI
-controlled
pneumatic
dinosaur
alternately entertained and terrified children. We were hoping to witness a one-on-one battle against…
…Saphira, the
fire-breathing dragon
!
Rar!
Nearby, [Haley Duke’s]
Swamp Kirin
puppet loomed over fairgoers. Kirin, we just discovered, appear to be mortal enemies of efficient JPEG compression.
[Todd Williams’]
Land Shark
is an animated EL wire-framed skeleton atop a large
radio controlled car
chassis — a great effect in the dark!
We seem to be on a bitey creature kick. Here, have a
Velociraptor
head popped out of a commercial ABS extrusion 3D printer.
We
posted about the DIYLILCNC mill
late last year. What struck us when finally seeing it in person is how it’s anything
but
li’l. This thing bullies
RepRaps
and takes their lunch money!
They were even making something in the Maker Shed store. What exactly? We’ll give you a hint: it’s printed with green ink on the back. Man, they got us
good.
Went in needing just one Parallax
RFID
reader, and somehow couldn’t leave before spending the equivalent GNP of Guam.
This is here
just for blog cred
.
Our hats are off —
again
— to SparkFun Electronics. These guys could’ve easily brought enough merchandise to bankroll their retirement from this one show. Instead, they taught kids how to solder. How cool is that?
FPGA pr0n from
Art Magnitude’s ORB v.2
, a
persistence-of-vision globe
on a grand scale.
There was always a line waiting to play with Tangile interaction’s
digital graffiti wall
.
This way to the egress!
If we’ve overlooked or glossed over your favorite subject or display, it may be that we’re expecting to cover it in more detail in the future. Keep your eyes peeled for more wild stuff here! | 12 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "144696",
"author": "Nick McClanahan",
"timestamp": "2010-05-24T22:02:39",
"content": "Good photos – it’s especially nice to see the egress in the light.But it was really crowded this year! I hope they move to a larger venue for next year because it was too packed to stop and check ... | 1,760,377,436.564457 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2010/05/24/maple-r3-now-shipping/ | Maple R3 Now Shipping | Mike Szczys | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"arm",
"cortex-m3",
"maple",
"r3"
] | Leaf Labs is now shipping
the Maple R3 boards
. [Phil Burgess]
gave the platform a look
just before launch last fall and the high-powered prototyping board is now even better. New features come in both hardware and software varieties. The bootloader can now be upgraded without additional programming hardware, there’s hardware SPI and I2C interfaces, and a newly-polished IDE for Linux and Windows. At $50 it’s a good way to get access to the power of the ARM Cortex M3 processor at the center of the board. We’ve seen several projects that use
the mbed
, which is in the same class as the Maple, but we’re waiting to see what you’ve accomplished with this little devil. | 15 | 15 | [
{
"comment_id": "144666",
"author": "NatureTM",
"timestamp": "2010-05-24T20:57:11",
"content": "I want one! Looks like it can even charge a LiPo — nice!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "144670",
"author": "osgeld",
"timestamp": "2010-05-... | 1,760,377,436.679409 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2010/05/24/db9-form-factor-usb-rs232-replacement/ | DB9 Form Factor USB-RS232 Replacement | Mike Szczys | [
"Parts"
] | [
"db9",
"ftdi",
"rs232",
"usb"
] | If you’re attached to that favorite DB-9 interfaced device you should look into this part. FTDI is selling a
USB-RS232 adapter as a replacement for DB-9 connectors
. They come with USB male or female connections depending on the application and have the same serial footprint and pinout to which you’re accustomed. Using converter cables is just fine but this simplicity requires a few minutes of desoldering, rather than redesigning, etching, and populating a board in order to give that older design built-in USB connectivity.
[Thanks Juan] | 31 | 29 | [
{
"comment_id": "144625",
"author": "biozz",
"timestamp": "2010-05-24T19:08:51",
"content": "very nice drop in replacement! but for close to $22 each its not to cheap",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "144627",
"author": "K313k",
"timestamp... | 1,760,377,436.63034 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2010/05/24/build-hal-into-your-kitchen/ | Build HAL Into Your Kitchen | Mike Szczys | [
"computer hacks",
"home hacks"
] | [
"bar code",
"computer",
"kitchen",
"weight watchers"
] | Instead of building a $500 iPad into a cabinet [Gojimi] used the old hardware he had lying around to building this
kitchen computer
. He did buy a few items such as a used touchscreen and a bar code scanner but the 2 GHz computer was just collecting dust. It’s running Windows XP, talks to you like
HAL
or
KITT
, and scans the bar codes on food as you add it to the pantry or using it for meals. The lengthy video after the break covers all of the features, such as Weight Watcher’s calculations, food information, recipe book, unit converter, weather forecast, browser, and digital picture frame. It seems to have more features than
the iPhone kitchen lookalike
but it also looks dauntingly complicated. But we still want one.
[vimeo=http://vimeo.com/11757390] | 31 | 31 | [
{
"comment_id": "144614",
"author": "Mahoney",
"timestamp": "2010-05-24T18:43:31",
"content": "I concur that I totally want one.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "144616",
"author": "sm10sm20",
"timestamp": "2010-05-24T18:45:50",
"cont... | 1,760,377,436.750346 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2010/05/26/one-armed-coding-using-a-half-qwerty-hack/ | One-armed Coding Using A Half-qwerty Hack | Mike Szczys | [
"Peripherals Hacks"
] | [
"diabled",
"half-qwerty",
"one hand"
] | [Matthew Daughtrey] is going to have one of his paws out of service for a while following some hand surgery. Making a living as a coder seems a bit harder with one hand but he was able to find some solutions online only to balk at price tags reaching $600. He came up with a way have similar functionality on a standard keyboard
with creative key mapping and a few auxiliary buttons
.
The product he’s trying to mimic is
the half-qwerty keyboard produced by Matias Corporation
. It sounds crazy, but you can easily use your right hand to type all of the letters the left hand normally would just by mirroring the key locations. That big gray thing you store in your mellon and
frequency put at risk
handles this automatically. You should
give the demo a try
. We found that we’re quite good at it and only get confused when switching between the two halves of the keyboard.
But we digress. [Matthew] wrote a script that will mirror all the key mappings when he holds down the Windows key. He then hacked a second keyboard to extend momentary push sensors as seen above. He plans to use them with a partially mobile thumb after the surgery, or to build a foot pedal (we say build the pedal). An elegant hack that is a pittance compared to the official hardware. | 44 | 44 | [
{
"comment_id": "145203",
"author": "Juan Cubillo",
"timestamp": "2010-05-26T19:05:27",
"content": "Use Sepllcherks",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "145206",
"author": "tulcod",
"timestamp": "2010-05-26T19:22:32",
"content": "or you c... | 1,760,377,436.830175 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2010/05/26/sound-card-driven-servo-motor/ | Sound Card Driven Servo Motor | Mike Szczys | [
"computer hacks"
] | [
"pwm",
"servo",
"sound card"
] | [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1LG2Ecsk13Q]
[Darrell] is
using a sound card to drive this servo
motor. The motor draws power from a cellphone battery with the control signal coming from one of the audio channels. It’s not too surprising that this works since the motor just needs
a PWM signal
to operate and that’s what is used to create the different frequencies of sound on electronic speakers. We’re not sure what [Darrell’s] got planned for this system but he mentions that two servos can be used, one on each audio channel. If you’re not using your sound card this would be a way to stop using the Arduino for that
mail checker
and just use a little flag attached to a servo. When mail comes in the appropriately engineered sound raises the flag. | 14 | 14 | [
{
"comment_id": "145169",
"author": "loans",
"timestamp": "2010-05-26T17:09:55",
"content": "Two channels? Why not implement this with a cheapy 7.1 channel card, and get all kinds of little flags? That would be pretty cool.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"com... | 1,760,377,437.000918 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2010/05/26/32-bit-arm7-gaming%c2%a0rig/ | 32-bit ARM7 Gaming rig | Mike Szczys | [
"classic hacks",
"home entertainment hacks"
] | [
"arm",
"Atmel",
"gamesphere",
"n64",
"pic",
"video game"
] | Are you hardcore enough to build your own 32-bit ARM powered gaming console AND use point-to-point soldering to accomplish this? [Craig Bishop] did just that when building his
GameSphere console project
. First thing’s first, click through the jump and watch the game play video. He wrote that game in the C language in less than a day which in itself is quite remarkable. On the hardware side of things he’s got an interesting mix; an Ateml AT91R40008 chip drives this system with PIC 18F4682 for VGA signal generation and a PIC 18F2685 to interface with the N64 controller. We like what he’s done so far and would love to see this end up in its own
game cabinet
.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9C9PPWGfP-Y] | 30 | 30 | [
{
"comment_id": "145148",
"author": "Jim",
"timestamp": "2010-05-26T16:12:51",
"content": "Needs more LEDs to be a true hack.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "145150",
"author": "Steven",
"timestamp": "2010-05-26T16:17:10",
"content":... | 1,760,377,436.949956 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2010/05/26/the-story-of-mr-stabby/ | The Story Of Mr. Stabby | Caleb Kraft | [
"Arduino Hacks",
"Robots Hacks"
] | [
"gouge",
"nycresistor",
"robot",
"stab",
"stabby"
] | [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XHvXPOSaNbg]
Mr. Stabby was once a broken down bum
, sitting on the curb, waiting for an eternity in the city dump. Luckily, someone found him and brought him to the NYC Resistor hacker group. They promptly performed some modifications and brought him back to life.
He’s now a happy go lucky stab-bot with a twinkle in his eye and a skip in his step. His repitoir includes gouging, slashing, and of course stabbing. He can be controlled via a cell phone and has a nifty voice interface.
The video above is from when Mr. Stabby was runner up at the tech crunch hackday. | 24 | 23 | [
{
"comment_id": "145130",
"author": "Darksmurf",
"timestamp": "2010-05-26T15:35:18",
"content": "photos?What happened to photos on the front page. Those of us browsing from non-Froyo phones don’t have flash!How I miss the blackandwhite photos.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": ... | 1,760,377,437.053526 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2010/05/26/bay-area-maker-faire-2010-video/ | Bay Area Maker Faire 2010 Video | Phil Burgess | [
"cons",
"Roundup"
] | [
"2010",
"bay area",
"faire",
"make",
"maker",
"maker faire",
"makerfaire",
"Makers",
"san mateo"
] | [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lliJ1vLoAoU]
Since the
previously-posted stills
can’t quite convey the chaos of last weekend’s
Maker Faire
, here’s some video from the event to help get you through
hump day
. It’s like three liters of Jolt Cola in a two liter bottle.
One thing even video can’t adequately capture is our
gratitude
toward our readers at the show who took time to express their appreciation for the blog. You guys and gals rock our world. Thank you! | 15 | 15 | [
{
"comment_id": "145117",
"author": "John",
"timestamp": "2010-05-26T14:24:56",
"content": "Very nice vid of the major attractions! What’s up with the subliminal Arduino promotion? :)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "145118",
"author": "Caleb... | 1,760,377,437.256096 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2010/05/25/head-mounted-camera-tracks-with-your-eyes/ | Head Mounted Camera Tracks With Your Eyes | Mike Szczys | [
"digital cameras hacks",
"Medical Hacks"
] | [
"eye",
"eyeseecam",
"tracking"
] | The
EyeSeeCam
is a rig that attaches to your noggin and points a camera wherever your gaze falls. There’s actually four cameras involved here, one to track each eye via a reflecting piece of acrylic, one as
your third eye
, and finally the tracking camera above that. There are some legitimate medical uses for this type of technology, but we enjoyed seeing some of the videos that [Johannes Vockeroth] put together showing everyday activities. We’ve embedded several clips after the break including an example of reading a book while wearing the apparatus. The third eye camera provides the wide shot with close-ups of the wearer’s visual focus.
[vimeo=http://vimeo.com/3067345]
Eye tracking camera
[vimeo=http://vimeo.com/2883380]
Read a book with the EyeSeeCam
[vimeo=http://vimeo.com/6417870]
Opthalmologic applications
[Thanks The Ideanator] | 44 | 44 | [
{
"comment_id": "144944",
"author": "IceUck",
"timestamp": "2010-05-25T19:07:27",
"content": "I see a day not too far off when everyone will be wearing these spiffy looking things.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "144952",
"author": "sm10sm20... | 1,760,377,437.400942 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2010/05/25/cool-yourself-with-a-cpu-cooler-and-beer-fridge/ | Cool Yourself With A CPU Cooler And Beer Fridge | Mike Szczys | [
"Beer Hacks"
] | [
"air conditioning",
"cooler",
"cpu",
"fridge"
] | We have arrived once more at the time of year when penniless (or bored) hackers try to figure out how to keep the place cool without buying an air conditioner. [Paul Stacey] sent us his solution of pairing up a
CPU cooler kit with a beer fridge
. The CPU heat sink is cut out of a liquid cooling kit and discarded. In its place a loop of plastic tubing enters the freezer of the beer fridge where it exchanges salt water from a reservoir. The cold liquid circulates through the radiator of the fan kit and gives up it’s cool goodness through the fan unit seen above. This method puts a cold-air fan right in front of you with a digital temp and fan speed readout on the LCD.
Our biggest concern here is that this might heat up the beer in the fridge. Still, it’s more automatic than using
a homebrew swamp cooler
. Then again, we’ve always had a soft spot in our hearts for
our favorite gravity fed cooling method
. Anyway, check out [Paul’s] build methods after the break where he makes it look quick and easy.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UTQ9r_rGNkg] | 38 | 38 | [
{
"comment_id": "144924",
"author": "Rattigan",
"timestamp": "2010-05-25T18:15:10",
"content": "Unless the beer cooler is located outside the room, the net effect will actually be to warm the room! The heat energy removed at the CPU cooler will just get dumped back into the room at the condenser co... | 1,760,377,437.324254 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2010/05/29/hoverboard-comes-to-life/ | Hoverboard Comes To Life | Caleb Kraft | [
"Toy Hacks"
] | [
"art",
"hover",
"magnet",
"useless"
] | [vimeo=http://vimeo.com/11968215]
This
installation by artist [Nils Goudagnin]
is a recreation of the hoverboard from
Back to the Future II
. We would like to see inside that plinth. We’ve seen levitating magnets before, but this is particularly stable. He says he is using lasers and a control system of some kind to stabilize it. Just to guess, we’d say that the lasers determine the distance of the board and an array of electromagnets below is adjusted to keep it level. Then again, we might be over thinking this. Even though it can’t be ridden, we’d love to have one around the office just to look at. | 57 | 50 | [
{
"comment_id": "145844",
"author": "matbed",
"timestamp": "2010-05-29T14:23:31",
"content": "The fubiz.net website says that there is an array of electromagnets in the base so your probably correct with your guess",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id":... | 1,760,377,437.480867 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2010/05/28/home-dna-lab-tools/ | Home DNA Lab Tools | Mike Szczys | [
"News"
] | [] | [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zrejvnVfZJE]
[Jeri Ellsworth] stopped by Pearl Biotech’s booth at Maker Faire and took a look at their
open source DNA sequencing work
. It is by no means a grab-and-go solution for anyone, but from what we’ve seen in the video they’re breaking down those laboratory walls and letting us in to dabble at this work (assuming you’ve got a few hundred bucks to burn). There is a community for info and help that you can check out at
BioCurious
, and
Pearl Biotech
has
gel box kits
available (or
the details
if you care to source parts yourself), traditionally an extremely expensive part of the process. You’ll still need a centrifuge and a heating/cooling device to separate the strands but as you can see in the video, these can be hacked together rather easily.
We’re glad that [Jeri] shot and posted this clip. She does a great job of explaining projects, whether it’s someone else’s like this or her own, like the
transistor fabrication method
.
[Thanks Shazzner] | 22 | 22 | [
{
"comment_id": "145724",
"author": "shazzner",
"timestamp": "2010-05-28T21:00:49",
"content": "Thanks for digging up the links, I couldn’t find any to the Gel Box kit.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "145726",
"author": "zerth",
"timesta... | 1,760,377,437.810428 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2010/05/28/2010-sees-new-lock-impressioning-speed-record/ | 2010 Sees New Lock Impressioning Speed Record | Mike Szczys | [
"lockpicking hacks"
] | [
"competition",
"impressioning",
"Jos Weyers",
"ssdev"
] | [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bj9KEmLWRek]
[Jos Weyers] tipping us off about this
lock impressioning video
. It shows his final round of the lock impressioning championship at this year’s SSDev conference. Even though he shaved about fifteen seconds off of his 87-second single-lock
record from last year
he came in third overall because the competition averages times over several rounds.
This method of opening locks uses a file to create the correct teeth after examination of tiny marks on a key blank from trying to open the lock. We’ve seen
foil impressioning
as well as
electronic impressioning
, but
video of the competitions
makes this our favorite method. | 11 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "145719",
"author": "Nick McClanahan",
"timestamp": "2010-05-28T20:40:08",
"content": "That record was meant to be broken! badum ching.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "145721",
"author": "Cynyr",
"timestamp": "2010-05-28T... | 1,760,377,437.851692 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2010/05/28/quadcopter-acrobatics-like-nothing-weve-seen/ | Quadcopter Acrobatics Like Nothing We’ve Seen | Mike Szczys | [
"Robots Hacks"
] | [
"acrobatics",
"quadcopter"
] | The University of Pennsylvania has churned out some
impressive moves with a quadcopter
. Perching on a vertical landing pad with some help from Velcro is impressive, but single and double flips combined with navigating through tight spaces at an angle makes this just amazing. We expect to see it in the next Bond film if it doesn’t show up in one of this summer’s action flicks. Kind of makes
previously awesome quadcopters
look a bit pedestrian. Video after the break.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MvRTALJp8DM]
[Thanks Ideanator via
Engadget
] | 37 | 37 | [
{
"comment_id": "145671",
"author": "Matt Turner",
"timestamp": "2010-05-28T17:27:12",
"content": "How many of these things do they have? At 41 seconds you can see at least 4 more on the ground!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "145672",
"aut... | 1,760,377,437.700224 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2010/05/28/russian-roulette-for-eeprom/ | Russian Roulette… For EEPROM | Mike Szczys | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"destroyer",
"eeprom",
"flash"
] | There’s a loaded gun but its got only one bullet. Spin the cylinder, point at head, and pull the trigger. The game’s not over until the bullet is used and a player is done. This game’s got a twist though, the cylinder has at least one million chambers.
The
Flash_Destroyer is testing the limits of EEPROM rewrites
. It fills that little eight-pin chip with data, then verifies what has written. When it finds and error the game is over. The chip is rated for one million rewrites but while we were writing this it was already well over two and quarter million. We usually prefer to be creators and not destroyers with our hacks but there’s something delightful about running this chip into the ground. See the startup of this device after the break and click through the link above to see a streaming feed of the progress.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y1k4DchdziI]
[Thanks Drone] | 38 | 37 | [
{
"comment_id": "145633",
"author": "PocketBrain",
"timestamp": "2010-05-28T15:13:19",
"content": "2346777 and counting… Might be a good tool to sample a batch of EEPROM chips for quality, or to see the effects of environmental conditions on the lifespan of the chips.",
"parent_id": null,
"... | 1,760,377,437.626348 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2010/05/28/embedding-an-accelerometer-and-xbee-in-a-guitar/ | Embedding An Accelerometer And XBee In A Guitar | Mike Szczys | [
"Musical Hacks"
] | [
"accelerometer",
"arduino",
"guitar",
"wii remote",
"xbee"
] | [JP Carrascal] hacked his guitar by
adding motion control while removing the need for wires
. He’s using a dual-Arduino system with an Mini Pro inside the guitar and a Duemilanova for the receiver connected to a computer. Wireless is provided by the XBee module seen above and a gutted Wii remote accelerometer is in there for motion sensing. Check out the artfully blurry demonstration of the motion effects after the break.
While he added some potentiometer-based controls there is also an automatic power-down feature. [JP] replaced the mono pickup with a stereo one and used the extra conductor as a switch to activate the additional electronics. We wonder if he also
winds his own pickups
or
builds his own effects pedals
.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xiHNXDWhBQc] | 19 | 19 | [
{
"comment_id": "145618",
"author": "mowcius",
"timestamp": "2010-05-28T14:07:13",
"content": "Duemilanova?Tut tut…The arduino lovers won’t be happy…EVIL HACKADAY!:Doh btw. In b4 arduino overkill",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "145619",
"aut... | 1,760,377,437.757072 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2010/05/27/adding-scart-to-a-cheap-crt-television/ | Adding SCART To A Cheap CRT Television | Mike Szczys | [
"classic hacks",
"home entertainment hacks"
] | [
"crt",
"rgb",
"scart",
"television"
] | [133MHz]
cracked open a cheap tube television to add a SCART connector
. He knew he had a chance at success when he discovered all of the knock-outs on the back of the connector panel because one of them was exactly the right size for the connector. But it wasn’t quite as easy as soldering in one component. He ended up injecting his own RGB data from the SCART connector directly into the onscreen display, making an end run around the missing feature. [133MHz] removed some resistors in the circuit and used the empty lead holes to patch in his own circuit, feeding the RGB data from the SCART connector to the OSD chip in the format it needed.
This one takes you way down the rabbit hole. We’re glad he provided so much background about the hack but it’s going to take us a little while to fully wrap our heads around how he figured it out.
[Thanks Victor] | 46 | 44 | [
{
"comment_id": "145475",
"author": "tehgringe",
"timestamp": "2010-05-27T21:02:43",
"content": "Bareback CRT monitor, and live. That scares the sh*t out of me.Am I correct in thinking that scart is not seen much in the US? I remember my Monster Cables training. One of their ‘audiophiles’ made lots ... | 1,760,377,437.933128 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2010/05/24/prison-tattoo-machine-made-from-playstation/ | Prison Tattoo Machine Made From PlayStation | Mike Szczys | [
"Playstation Hacks"
] | [
"ballpoint",
"pen",
"prison",
"tattoo"
] | Prison inmates have a history of being gruesomely resourceful hackers. The toothbrush shiv comes immediately to mind. One such inmate in the UK wanted to offer tattoos to his fellow convicts so he came up with
a tattoo gun using a PlayStation
for parts. The crude setup involves a sharpened ballpoint pen and the use one of the motors from the optical drive to move it up and down. The inmate didn’t document his work for us but there are
other examples of this method available
. Even with modern hardware, ink seems a little 20th century when compared to
laser tats
.
[Thanks Memmy T] | 25 | 25 | [
{
"comment_id": "144592",
"author": "brandon",
"timestamp": "2010-05-24T17:27:47",
"content": "talk about being branded by the game, and having it leave a impression.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "144594",
"author": "Aaron",
"timestamp... | 1,760,377,437.993708 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2010/05/24/bamf2010-spy-trakr-no-lasers-14861-cheaper/ | BAMF2010: Spy TRAKR – No Lasers, $14,861 Cheaper | Phil Burgess | [
"Robots Hacks",
"Toy Hacks"
] | [
"audio",
"car",
"maker faire",
"makerfaire",
"radio control",
"rc",
"remote",
"spy gear",
"tank",
"toy",
"transmit",
"video"
] | Maybe $15K for an elaborate
balancing telepresence robot
is a bit out of one’s league. In that case, another Bay Area Maker Faire exhibitor — Wild Planet — has you covered. Faire attendees got a hands-on sneak preview of the upcoming
Spy Video TRAKR
, a video-transmitting radio-controlled toy that’s programmable and extensively hackable.
The TRAKR has an impressive pedigree. It’s a collaborative effort between three successful and creative technology companies: Wild Planet, makers of the
Spy Gear
toy line; MOTO Development Group, designers of the
Flip Video
camera; and Making Things, software designers for the
Make Controller
.
So just how hackable are we talking? The Spy Video TRAKR is intended right out of the box to use downloadable apps, and allows development of new programs in C. The controller and vehicle each contain their own ARM9 processor, and the ’bot features 8 megs of RAM, an SD card slot and USB client and
host
(yes,
host
) ports. And that’s all with the cover still on. Pop the lid, and you’ll find links to online schematics and neatly-labeled breakout headers for deeper exploration.
The Spy Video TRAKR is expected to ship in October with a target price of $139 or less. Additional photos after the break. | 43 | 43 | [
{
"comment_id": "144568",
"author": "walt",
"timestamp": "2010-05-24T16:26:35",
"content": "how was that other one ever worth 15k in the first place?(1st)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "144569",
"author": "osgeld",
"timestamp": "2010-05... | 1,760,377,438.321099 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2010/05/24/sun-tracking-solar-panel/ | Sun Tracking Solar Panel | Caleb Kraft | [
"home hacks",
"Solar Hacks"
] | [
"solar",
"tracking"
] | As we all know, a solar panel must be exposed to the most amount of sunlight possible to reach full efficiency. A solid mount limits the amount of time that the panel is fully exposed to direct sunlight. The solution is to
build a pivoting mount that automates the process of aiming at the sun
.
[bwitmer] takes us through the process of building one out of some wood and old bicycle rims. He bought a
pre made tracking unit
to control his actuator, but we think
many of you
here could
rig something up
on your own.
[via
HacknMod
] | 17 | 15 | [
{
"comment_id": "144553",
"author": "Don Kiddick",
"timestamp": "2010-05-24T15:17:17",
"content": "Kind of reminds me of the light seeking “beam bots”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B4gwU4APHvU",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "144555",
"author... | 1,760,377,438.123443 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2010/05/24/bamf2010-qb-goes-to-meetings-shoots-lasers-from-eyes/ | BAMF2010: QB Goes To Meetings, Shoots Lasers From Eyes | Phil Burgess | [
"Robots Hacks"
] | [
"2010",
"balance",
"maker faire",
"makerfaire",
"robot",
"segway",
"telepresence",
"videoconference"
] | No, it’s not an extra from
Wall-E.
“QB” is the latest telepresence robot from Silicon Valley firm
Anybots
. QB combines two-way videoconferencing with a
Segway
-style self-balancing platform. The idea is to provide mobility and more natural interaction than desktop-tethered conferencing can provide.
The 35 pound robot’s battery runs for six to eight hours, and the telescoping head allows the eye level to be adjusted to match the user’s natural viewpoint. What looks like
stereo
vision is actually a single camera on the left eye and a steerable
laser pointer
on the right.
Shipping this October for $15,000, QB will appeal mostly to businesses with specific
telepresence
needs. This is half the price of their prior
QA
model — and in time the technology may reach the mass-market level. Until then, we’ll just have to amuse ourselves by remotely attending meetings with our ankle-nipping
Rovio
robots. | 13 | 13 | [
{
"comment_id": "144543",
"author": "yay",
"timestamp": "2010-05-24T14:49:27",
"content": "pizza!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "144550",
"author": "osgeld",
"timestamp": "2010-05-24T14:58:00",
"content": "1) wall-e is a short circu... | 1,760,377,438.07114 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2010/05/23/bamf2010-cmt-380x-blackbird/ | BAMF2010: CMT 380X Blackbird | Phil Burgess | [
"News"
] | [
"automobile",
"car",
"custom",
"electric",
"hybrid",
"maker faire",
"maker faire 2010",
"makerfaire",
"makerfaire 2010",
"plug in",
"plugin",
"turbine"
] | Okay, we lied, we totally want one of these too. The
CMT 380X Blackbird
is one
wicked
hybrid car!
Looking like it just rolled off the set of the next
Batman
film, the Blackbird is the brainchild of Electronic Arts Chief Creative Director [Richard Hilleman]. Starting from a kit car base — the Factory Five Racing GTM chassis — [Hilleman] created a unique 230 horsepower drive train combining a 30 kilowatt diesel
turbine
and 24 KWh
lithium polymer
battery pack.
As a purely plug-in
electric car
, the Blackbird has a range of 85 miles. In
hybrid
mode, range is extended to 500 miles. The car can accelerate from 0 to 60 in about 7 seconds. Come decelerating, the car makes use of regenerative braking.
It’s strictly a one-off for the time being, but several companies have approached [Hilleman] about possibly commercializing the design. A couple more choice pics follow the break… | 44 | 42 | [
{
"comment_id": "144405",
"author": "Itwork4me",
"timestamp": "2010-05-23T22:34:16",
"content": "I need a napkin.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "144406",
"author": "Alex M.",
"timestamp": "2010-05-23T22:39:26",
"content": "Looks awe... | 1,760,377,438.242779 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2010/05/23/spark-plug-music/ | Spark Plug Music | Jakob Griffith | [
"digital audio hacks",
"Musical Hacks"
] | [
"accident",
"car",
"dj sures",
"flare stack",
"ignition controller",
"instrument",
"music",
"sound",
"spark plug",
"teflon",
"velcro"
] | [youtube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=92qql941DM4%5D
This is
(video above) perhaps the most abstract way of playing sounds…ever. Yes, we’ve heard
Hard Drive music
and
Obsolete technology bands
, but [DJ Sures] brings us the first ever, spark plug instrument.
Much like
Velcro and Teflon
, the musical spark plug is claimed to be an accident. After testing energy use vs. spark power with his flare stack ignition controller, [DJ Sures] noticed that different frequencies could be produced. It was only a matter of reprogramming before
death metal
Twinkle Twinkle Little Star is heard. Now he just needs to refine it a bit and build a
full stereo cabinet
. | 20 | 20 | [
{
"comment_id": "144388",
"author": "MS3FGX",
"timestamp": "2010-05-23T20:24:54",
"content": "Wait, that is supposed to be Twinkle Twinkle?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "144389",
"author": "alankilian",
"timestamp": "2010-05-23T20:33:4... | 1,760,377,438.80553 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2010/05/23/bamf2010-solarpump-charging-station/ | BAMF2010: SolarPump Charging Station | Phil Burgess | [
"green hacks",
"Solar Hacks"
] | [
"charging",
"green",
"solar",
"urban",
"vintage"
] | Amidst the noise of a bazillion robots and Tesla coils at the 2010 Bay Area Maker Faire, we located a bubble of usable WiFi, and got a nearby power charge to boot. If nothing else here, we want
this:
The
SolarPump Charging Station
is a self-contained oasis of free power for laptops, cel phones and even
electric bikes
. This charging station is one of several designs created by Sol Design Labs of sunny
Austin
, Texas. No bigger than a bus stop (and
way
cooler looking), it’s like the ultimate
case mod
, repurposing a vintage Citgo gas pump and recycled metals for more modern needs. Three large Sanyo
solar panels
provide power for devices and shade for users, while topping off the internal 24V 100AH battery for nighttime use (with LED lighting) or cloudy days. The end result transcends “green” — the SolarPump is simply appealing at a visceral level, managing to be simultaneously fun, attractive and practical. Did we mention wanting one? We
totally
want one. | 18 | 18 | [
{
"comment_id": "144371",
"author": "Darksecond",
"timestamp": "2010-05-23T18:46:33",
"content": "i so want one :o",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "144372",
"author": "cyrozap",
"timestamp": "2010-05-23T18:54:18",
"content": "You migh... | 1,760,377,438.499469 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2010/05/23/talking-clock-sounds-just-like-you/ | Talking Clock Sounds Just Like You | Mike Szczys | [
"clock hacks"
] | [
"clock",
"propeller",
"talking"
] | [vimeo=http://www.vimeo.com/10852914]
We’d bet a large portion of our readers don’t remember when you could call the phone company and get the time of day. Gadget Gangster is bringing back the tried and true method with this
talking clock
. Just press the button and the ‘operator’ will read the time of day to you. Record your own voice and place the WAV files on an SD card, from there a Propeller chip takes care of the rest.
As a side note, we’re big fans of the method used to
breadboard the power supply
using the TO-220 package leads as their own jumpers. We’ve always been partial to using
a breadboard regulator on a PCB
but this method is simple and takes almost no space at all. | 18 | 17 | [
{
"comment_id": "144346",
"author": "jc",
"timestamp": "2010-05-23T16:32:06",
"content": "I remember. I also remember when Atlanta had an “atomic clock” you could dial and listen to an advert, and then the time. I think it was shut down finally about 3-4 years ago.",
"parent_id": null,
"de... | 1,760,377,438.645923 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2010/05/23/composting-to-create-hot-water/ | Composting To Create Hot Water | Mike Szczys | [
"green hacks"
] | [
"compost",
"hot water",
"jean pain",
"methane"
] | Want nature to supply you with 130-150 degree hot water? [Onestraw] shows you how to get just that by
building a compost heap that heats water
. Finding himself the proud owner of a dump truck of green wood chips [Onestraw] went about building his own version of
Jean Pain’s thermal compost pile
. The idea is to produce and store methane generated from the compost pile but in order to do so, the temperature must be kept fairly low. The microorganisms in the compost generate a lot of heat trying to break down that matter and running water through the system will keep the temperature low enough for the methane-producers to be happy. The side effect of this cooling system is hot water coming out the other end. [Onestraw] even has plans to use salvaged car radiators to turn the hot water into a heating system for his home. Granted you’re not going to add this to your apartment, but
if you have space and waste plant matter and need hot water
this is a great way to get it.
[Thanks Joel] | 33 | 26 | [
{
"comment_id": "144333",
"author": "mrgoogfan",
"timestamp": "2010-05-23T14:50:40",
"content": "That’s pretty cool. It probably smells though.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "144336",
"author": "BennyM",
"timestamp": "2010-05-23T15:06:0... | 1,760,377,438.44606 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2010/05/22/open-source-stm/ | Open Source STM | Jakob Griffith | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"atomic",
"electron",
"microscope",
"molecular",
"open source",
"scanning-tunneling"
] | We hope you paid attention in advanced theoretical and quantum physics classes, or making your own Open Source
Scanning-Tunneling Microscope
might be a bit of a doozy. We’re not even going to try to begin to explain the device (honestly we slept through that course) beyond clarifying it is used for examining the molecular and atomic structure of surfaces; but for those still interested there is a nice breakdown of how
Scanning Tunneling Microscopy works
.
[Thanks Rich] | 22 | 22 | [
{
"comment_id": "144205",
"author": "bothersaidpooh",
"timestamp": "2010-05-22T21:39:38",
"content": "Whoa..had no idea it was possible to homebrew one of these.Now what would be neat is to improvise some sort of rotary surface (cpu fan?) so that the entire sample can be scanned without moving the h... | 1,760,377,438.752571 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2010/05/22/z80-emulated-on-pic-hardware/ | Z80 Emulated On PIC Hardware | Mike Szczys | [
"classic hacks",
"computer hacks"
] | [
"32mx795f512h",
"emulator",
"pic",
"z80",
"zork"
] | [Jaromir Sukuba] built a very portable, low power consumption
Z80 emulator using a PIC microcontroller
. Looking through his build photos we love the clean and resilient construction which includes a breakout board for the PIC 32MX795F512H that interfaces with the main board via pin headers and sockets. He’s using a
home-built keyboard
and a 4×40 character display but there is also the option to communicate with the device over an RS232 connection. Oh, and yes it plays
Zork
, which seems to be the benchmark whether you are emulating
a Z80 with AVR hardware
, or if you
built one from transistor-transistor logic
. | 18 | 17 | [
{
"comment_id": "144192",
"author": "hackme",
"timestamp": "2010-05-22T20:21:43",
"content": "I was impressed. Until I read “PIC 32″… that’s a heavy MIPS-beast, that’ll happily run C-Code. Anyway, nice job!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "144196... | 1,760,377,438.696054 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2010/05/22/hack-a-day-store-now-open/ | Hack A Day Store Now Open | Caleb Kraft | [
"News"
] | [
"schwag",
"sticker",
"store"
] | Since the beginning of the universe we’ve been getting requests for stickers, shirts, coffee mugs, etc. Well, several of the writers have the ability to produce this stuff in their homes. The boss liked that and gave us his blessing to
start selling Hack a Day stuff
.
In the interest of keeping the cost as low as possible, right now the store is located inside of my personal online store. The only products we have right now are stickers, since I make them myself. Though if enough of you pester him, maybe [Devlin] will make up a batch of those
Hack a Day badges
.
Please be patient with the store. It is fairly untested and tossing this many people at it at once is somewhat frightening. If you have any problems at all, please contact me (caleb@) and I’ll take care of it. You can get to the store by clicking the new button on the right of the screen, labelled “store”. You can see a few more pictures after the break.
Note: Thos of you who are outside of the US, please just contact me directly. I have to figure out your shipping outside the system. Don’t go fill out an order. | 53 | 41 | [
{
"comment_id": "144132",
"author": "djoog",
"timestamp": "2010-05-22T14:21:35",
"content": "Mind if i ask what (tools/mark) do you use to make these ?They seem very neat !",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "144134",
"author": "Caleb Kra... | 1,760,377,438.951194 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2010/05/21/bay-area-maker-faire-blasts-off-saturday/ | Bay Area Maker Faire Blasts Off Saturday | Phil Burgess | [
"News"
] | [
"maker faire",
"maker faire 2010",
"makerfaire",
"makerfaire2010"
] | It’s crunch time at California’s San Mateo Event Center, where crews are busily assembling rocket ships,
singing Tesla coils
and animatronic
giraffes
and dragons in preparation for the
2010 Bay Area Maker Faire
, taking place this weekend.
Returning for its fifth year, Maker Faire, if you’ve not had the pleasure, could be described as 50 percent science fair, 50 percent county fair and 50 percent
Burning Man
reunion. And if that doesn’t seem to add up, you’re right — it’s sensory overload, a hands-on, warranty-voiding explosion of futuristic technology, down-to-earth crafts and nine dollar pulled pork sandwiches.
If you’re planning on attending,
hit up their web site
for all the information on tickets and hours, recommendations for parking or — perhaps most importantly — public transit options. The event has been growing every year, even disrupting traffic on nearby U.S. Route 101, so you’ll want to set out early or research
alternative
options
. We’ll be posting goings-on from the event as it unfolds, connectivity permitting. | 22 | 19 | [
{
"comment_id": "144046",
"author": "Nick McClanahan",
"timestamp": "2010-05-21T22:40:16",
"content": "I recommend the funnel cake. But a warning to 1st time attendees – it can get crowded and parking is like $15. I can’t recall if the caltrain is close by…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,... | 1,760,377,438.863782 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2010/05/21/power-drill-solder-spooler/ | Power Drill Solder Spooler | Caleb Kraft | [
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"arduino",
"coil",
"spool",
"wind"
] | [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cF4cw41SMvY]
[Scott] over at curiousinventor.com has posted an instructable detailing
how to use an Arduino and a power drill to spool solder
. The Arduino senses the speed that the drill is going via an opto interrupter and a laser and adjusts with a servo hooked to the trigger. While we don’t think many people will be dying to spool some solder, this system might be useful for all kinds of things, like
winding yarn
or
making coils
. | 21 | 20 | [
{
"comment_id": "143982",
"author": "AlanKilian",
"timestamp": "2010-05-21T15:49:39",
"content": "That’s really nice.Well crafted and an excellent example of aworking control system.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "143983",
"author": "Cmboyl... | 1,760,377,439.05779 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2010/05/19/shredding-to-street-fighter/ | Shredding To Street Fighter | Mike Szczys | [
"Peripherals Hacks",
"Playstation Hacks"
] | [
"guitar",
"openchord",
"ps3",
"street fighter"
] | Strumming to punch and changing frets to move, [Alan Chatham]
plays Street Fighter using his guitar
. It’s been modified to use
OpenChord
, an open source guitar controller package he developed. This was originally meant to be used with Guitar Hero and the like but as he mentions in the video after the break, it is open source so you can do whatever you want with it. In this case, he’s patched into a PS3, showing yet another way to use your own hardware on that console. Unlike
alternative guitar-like interfaces
you won’t have to relearn how to play. You just need to adapt your favorite songs to fall in line with butt-kicking controller combos. For the adventurous
you can build your own
but [Alan’s] got kits available too.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JLUZwqRv3OE] | 14 | 14 | [
{
"comment_id": "143503",
"author": "Nick McClanahan",
"timestamp": "2010-05-19T18:37:15",
"content": "Very clever. I’m not sure if it would improve my Street Fighter performance (I’m already bad enough), but it looks like a fun project and would be cool to show off.",
"parent_id": null,
"d... | 1,760,377,439.007706 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2010/05/19/cramming-more-pixels-into-a-thinkpad/ | Cramming More Pixels Into A Thinkpad | Mike Szczys | [
"laptops hacks"
] | [
"qvga",
"resolution",
"t60",
"thimkpad"
] | Not willing to settle for 1400×1050 on his Thinkpad, [Lawrence Sheed] set out to
upgrade the LCD screen
. He ordered a 15″ replacement screen that brought the eye candy up to an impressive 2048×1536 QXGA format. The replacement fits perfectly for a nice factory look. Other than some delicate disassembly you might need to flash the EDID but in [Lawrence’s] case it wasn’t necessary. If you’re going to haul around a full-blown laptop it might as well have some killer resolution and now you know how to make that happen. | 50 | 46 | [
{
"comment_id": "143471",
"author": "NatureTM",
"timestamp": "2010-05-19T17:21:59",
"content": "I’ll bet it looks great with all those pixels crammed in a 15″ display. According to google currency conversion, the lcd only cost $118. Not too shabby!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"rep... | 1,760,377,439.375784 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2010/05/19/solder-station-hack-adds-temperature-control/ | Solder Station Hack Adds Temperature Control | Mike Szczys | [
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"16f88",
"hd44780",
"max6675",
"solder station",
"soldering iron",
"temperature"
] | Take that cheap fire stick you call a soldering iron and turn it into a real tool. [Giorgos Lazaridis] turned his 30 watt soldering iron into
a temperature controlled soldering station
by adding a thermistor just above the tip to monitor how hot things are getting. A MAX6675 takes care of the thermocouple and shoots a digital temperature value off to the PIC 16F88 which controls the unit by taking user input from a potentiometer and displaying the settings on an HD44780 character display. His use of a dissected ‘wall wort’ inside of the ATX power supply carcass used as the case for the station is a clever hack. See it melt some metal in the clip after the break.
This makes a nice upgrade to
our solder station guide
, which had a temperature controlled iron but lacked the sensor and automation seen here. | 20 | 20 | [
{
"comment_id": "143458",
"author": "JBot",
"timestamp": "2010-05-19T16:20:51",
"content": "That is really slick. I may have to build one myself!Yes, you can get a temp-controlled station for not too expensive, but this is just plain sweet!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
... | 1,760,377,439.210527 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2010/05/19/32-led-pov-globe/ | 32 LED POV Globe | Caleb Kraft | [
"LED Hacks"
] | [
"globe",
"led",
"POV"
] | [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bt1UEGD3BDk]
Here’s a
slick version of a POV globe
(
google translated
). Created by [Riko], this globe has 32 LEDs and is powered by a rotating coil. The layout looks fairly solid in operation, with the POV effect showing up very nicely on camera. You can get the schematics and source code from the project page.
We found this project, just like the previous
fantastic LED globe
on
HackedGadgets.com
. Apparently someone linked to this project in the comments. That is fantastic, that is what the comments should be for. Please help keep our comments polite and helpful as well, even if you are just linking to a project that you think is better. | 26 | 24 | [
{
"comment_id": "143450",
"author": "Ron",
"timestamp": "2010-05-19T15:31:57",
"content": "The comments have become a little hostile it seems like on here. People just aren’t satisfied these days.Very nice project, looks pretty cool and futuristic.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"repli... | 1,760,377,439.432347 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2010/05/19/mister-gloves-gesture-input/ | Mister Gloves, Gesture Input | Jakob Griffith | [
"handhelds hacks",
"Peripherals Hacks",
"Wireless Hacks"
] | [
"3d",
"gesture",
"input",
"portal",
"tony stark",
"two handed"
] | This
two handed glove input
setup, by [Sean Chen] and [Evan Levine], is one step closer to achieving that [
Tony Stark
] like workstation; IE, interacting with software in 3D with simple hand gestures. Dubbed the Mister Gloves, the system incorporates accelerometer, push button, and flex sensor data over RF where an MCU converts it to a standard USB device, meaning no drivers are needed and a windows PC can recognize it as a standard keyboard and mouse. Catch a video of Mister Gloves playing portal after the jump.
While amazing, we’re left wondering if
gesture setups
are really viable options considering one’s arm(s) surly would get tired?
[youtube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=guslOmc6bbI&feature=player_embedded%5D | 8 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "143439",
"author": "Tha_Messiah",
"timestamp": "2010-05-19T14:17:33",
"content": "Thats nice… But not quite handy as a gaming-device, it seems a little out of control for fps, but it could be handy for a robot-hand programming device, we just need someone to make a programming-inter... | 1,760,377,439.260722 |
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