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https://hackaday.com/2010/03/22/snega2usb-changes-name-learns-new-tricks/ | Snega2usb Changes Name, Learns New Tricks | Mike Szczys | [
"classic hacks"
] | [
"emulator",
"retrode",
"snega2usb",
"virtual boy"
] | [Matthias Hullin], the creator of the snega2usb let us know that its
name has been changed to the Retrode
. We
watched this device
go through the development cycle and learn to read SNES and Sega Genesis cartridges via a USB connection. Now it’s seeing some hacking to extend those capabilities. [Jon] managed to
rig the Retrode up to read Virtual Boy cartridges
. The
Virtual Boy
was a Nintendo console from the mid ’90s that used two different screens in a glasses format to produce a 3D gaming experience. Now that the cartridges can be easily dumped you have a chance to replay the titles using an emulator. | 18 | 17 | [
{
"comment_id": "131341",
"author": "djrussell",
"timestamp": "2010-03-22T19:25:27",
"content": "ahhh virtual boy. i still have mine in box. looks like it’s worth more than i paid now. :)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "131349",
"author": "L... | 1,760,377,475.1982 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2010/03/22/gpu-cooling-to-fix-rrod/ | GPU Cooling To Fix RRoD | Mike Szczys | [
"Repair Hacks",
"Xbox Hacks"
] | [
"repair",
"rrod",
"xbox 360"
] | [Rbz]
fixed his friend’s Red Ring of Death stricken Xbox 360
by improving the GPU cooling. Because an overheating GPU is a
common cause of the failure
, he first tried to replace the thermal compound for better heat conductivity between the chip and the heat sink. This helped a bit but within two hours the problem was back. Troubled by the heat discoloration on the bottom of the DVD drive, he removed it and screwed a cooling fan to the GPU heat sink. That did the trick, so he moved the drive to the outside of the case with the aid of a longer SATA cable. It’s not pretty, but it worked. | 64 | 50 | [
{
"comment_id": "131313",
"author": "Xeracy",
"timestamp": "2010-03-22T18:08:53",
"content": "Could have used this info before i tore apart my roommates xboxes…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "131314",
"author": "Mikey",
"timestamp": "20... | 1,760,377,475.684594 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2010/03/22/light-up-your-ride-with-an-led-mohawk/ | Light Up Your Ride With An LED Mohawk | Mike Szczys | [
"LED Hacks"
] | [
"bike",
"helmet",
"lithium iron phosphate",
"mohawk"
] | [Garrett Birkel’s] weekly ride usually features some pretty wild costumes. He wanted something to step up his own look so he make this
LED mohawk bike helmet
. He had an
LED strip
to start with and found a way to use acrylic and clear plastic tubing to fold the lights into the appropriate shape. From there he designed a PCB for some DC-DC converters to provide regulated power. The juice comes from Lithium Iron-Phosphate cells, the same kind we saw in
the electric bike assist battery
a few days ago. We find it a bit wild that you can pick out the PWM of the LEDs in the lens effect of that photograph. | 21 | 21 | [
{
"comment_id": "131292",
"author": "Greg",
"timestamp": "2010-03-22T16:59:09",
"content": "Can someone give a brief, sensical description of PWM. How it works and its application. One paragraph like you are talking to a 2nd grader. :-)Thanks.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies... | 1,760,377,475.364617 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2010/03/18/ditch-the-lps-and-build-your-own-3d-scanner/ | Ditch The LPs And Build Your Own 3D Scanner | Mike Szczys | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"3d",
"blender",
"laser level",
"python",
"scanner"
] | Find yourself an old record player, a laser level, and a digital scanner and you can
build a 3D scanner
. That’s what [Rob] did. The camera and laser level are mounted on the turntable for steady rotation. The camera captures the vertical laser line traveling around the room by recording 30 fps at a resolution of 640×480. This data is then translated into a
Blender 3D
file via a Python script and the
Python Image Library
. You can scan a whole room or just a small object. The face above is the result of this image capture after a bit of processing. [Rob] found this worked best in the dark and when scanning surfaces that are not reflective.
Make sure you also check out
the camera-and-projector scanning method
. | 22 | 22 | [
{
"comment_id": "130672",
"author": "colecoman1982",
"timestamp": "2010-03-18T17:11:40",
"content": "This has been done a number of times, but is still a cool project. One suggestion I’ve seen, for scanning shinny objects (as the summary implies, shinny objects cause the laser line to scatter and m... | 1,760,377,475.548594 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2010/03/18/google-summer-of-code-2010/ | Google Summer Of Code 2010 | Mike Szczys | [
"News"
] | [
"2010",
"google",
"summer of code"
] | Today’s the day the Google announces this year’s participant organizations in the
Google Summer of Code
. If you’re not tied down to a job this summer we hope you’ll take advantage of this opportunity to learn by doing and contribute code to a great open source project all at the same time.
A lot of our favorite software has benefited from GSoC in the past. XBMC
has participated
before, as well as WordPress,
Asterisk
,
MySQL
,
Bluez
,
Natural User Interface Group
, and
many more
.
Student applications are accepted between March 29th and April 9th. If you’re accepted in the program and excel at your work with passing grades at mid-term and final project dates, you’ll see your pockets grow by $5000. Get out there and put your mad coding skills to good use while you have the chance. | 8 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "130661",
"author": "wifigod",
"timestamp": "2010-03-18T16:35:47",
"content": "“March 18:~12 noon PDT / 19:00 UTC”They’ve still got a couple hours. ;-)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "130732",
"author": "domonoky",
"times... | 1,760,377,475.592619 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2010/03/18/led-lighting-a-learning-experience/ | LED Lighting, A Learning Experience | Caleb Kraft | [
"LED Hacks"
] | [
"led",
"lighting"
] | [Joel] has a very specific color temperature of lighting he wants in his home. So specific, he’s decided to
build his own LED lighting to get it
. Actually, he’s still searching for that perfect shade of white, but doing so has learned a lot. He initially made some very pretty PCBs, but then found that hand soldering them made quite a mess. What better time to delve into reflowing? He shares his positive initiation to the skillet method in his
latest update
. The search still continues for that nice warm glow he’s desiring. We’ve actually seen [Joel] before, he
likes smoked meat
. | 18 | 18 | [
{
"comment_id": "130646",
"author": "AS",
"timestamp": "2010-03-18T15:35:40",
"content": "Think his site is, uh, hackaday-ed?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "130649",
"author": "Bhima",
"timestamp": "2010-03-18T15:55:56",
"content": ... | 1,760,377,475.305921 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2010/03/18/pcb-drill-press-on-a-budget/ | PCB Drill Press On A Budget | Phil Burgess | [
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"board",
"circuit",
"dremel",
"drill",
"pcb",
"press",
"salvage",
"scrap"
] | An accurate drill press is an essential tool for making your own through-hole printed circuit boards at home. Reader [Josh Ashby] offers up
a solid design using scrap bin materials
.
A major issue with PCB drilling is that even the slightest horizontal play will snap the delicate carbide drill bit. Hobbyist-grade tools such as Dremel’s drill press attachment are usually too sloppy for this task, while
a more precise instrument
might set you back a couple hundred bucks.
[Josh’s] design uses a nylon “sled” moving vertically in an aluminum u-channel track. Most of these materials were
salvaged
or were acquired inexpensively from a local hardware store, and assembled in less than a day. Surprisingly, this low-tech approach has proven sufficiently smooth that he’s yet to break a bit while drilling. And the entire setup,
including
the knockoff Harbor Freight rotary tool, cost less than the wobbly name-brand accessory alone. | 21 | 21 | [
{
"comment_id": "130636",
"author": "BlackCow",
"timestamp": "2010-03-18T14:31:55",
"content": "This is perfect, last time I took a shot at PCB etching I broke my dremel bit and had to buy an entire pack for one bit to finish it >_<Thanks hackaday!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"repli... | 1,760,377,475.491187 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2010/03/17/woot-how-to-let-there-be-light-for-your-rovio/ | Woot How-to: Let There Be Light! (for Your Rovio) | Nick Caiello | [
"how-to"
] | [
"headlight hack",
"led",
"roborealm",
"rovio",
"woot",
"wowwee"
] | Before we get into the how-to, we felt it would be appropriate to explain a little bit about how this came to be. As many of you may remember, a couple of months ago
we attended CES 2010
. While there, we also attended the
It Won’t Stay in Vegas Blogger party
and ended up
meeting the guys from Woot
. After all of us spent a little bit of time appreciating the open bar, a group of us stood ended up standing around and talking shop for a while. All of a sudden, a member of our group,
Jeremy Grosser
, proposed the idea that Hackaday and Woot form a partnership. Basically, they would give us a heads up on what they are going to sell and we would write up a how-to on how to do something cool or useful with that product. Then, when the day came for Woot to sell the product, we would post our how-to. What you are reading right now just so happens to be that idea in action,
the first official partnership between Hackaday and Woot
. In this how-to, we’ll be taking apart the Wowwee Rovio mobile webcam robot, adding some super-bright LEDs for better see-in-the-dark action, and see how some software called
RoboRealm
can give it a little bit of artificial intelligence.
If don’t have a Rovio yet, you should probably head over to
Woot
and pick one up so you can follow along. Also, be sure to pick up a copy of RoboRealm at
deals.woot
while you’re at it. It is important to note that while writing this how-to, we used a modified design of the
Rovio Head-Mounted LED hack
, posted to RoboCommunity by [Rudolph].
Parts
– 6 super-bright white LEDs (Ours were rated for 3.3v with an intensity of 7000mcd.)
– 1 2N2907 PNP Transistor (We found ours in a 15 transistor combo pack from RadioShack.)
– 1 22ohm resistor
– 1 2.2k ohm resistor
– 22g solid hookup wire
–
RadioShack 3x2x1″ Project Enclosure
(We used the plastic back panel as a place to mount our LEDs.)
– 5mm LED holders (Optional. We ended up using them to mount our LEDs in their poorly drilled holes.)
– Heat-shrink tubing (Optional, but recommended.)
– A small strip of perfboard
We picked up most of our parts from RadioShack, but these parts are so common that you should be able to pick them up from any electronics components store.
Disassembly
The first step towards giving our Rovio some much needed extra light is, of course, to disassemble it. After turning the Rovio upside down, remove the six phillips-head screws and carefully remove the top shell to gain access to the Rovio’s internals. While you won’t be able to fully detach the top shell, you should be able to lay it next to the bottom part of the Rovio as seen above.
Inside of the Rovio, there are two main PCBs, the control board and the power supply board. For the purposes of this how-to, we will only need to modify the power supply board. To gain access to the power supply board, simply remove the two phillips-head screws that secure the board vertically. After you gain access to the board, you will then need to identify the ground and positive pads on the PCB. We will be tapping into these pads later to power our array of LEDs. One other item of interest to us is the white wire leading from the control board to the LED headlight board. This wire will allow us to control our new headlights through the Rovio’s web interface.
After firing up your soldering iron, you’ll need to solder two wires onto the power supply board. As you can see above, there are two areas with tiny little holes, allowing for easy access to both GND and VCC. After you have soldered both of these wires, screw the board back in and then turn your attention towards the white wire mentioned previously. After cutting the white wire, solder a length of hookup wire to the end of it and insulate it with appropriately sized heat-shrink tubing. Also, it’s probably a good idea to remove the LED headlight board entirely. This gives you three openings to run your wires out of from the Rovio to our new headlight panel. After you’ve removed the board, you can cut the wires leading to both the infrared LED and receiver. These function as a forward facing “radar” to alert the user if there are any obstacles ahead. We decided to salvage ours by placing them both in the new panel that we will soon be creating. If you choose to salvage your infrared “radar” as well, then remember to solder extension wires between the appropriate leads and the LED and receiver. We actually used some telephone tap connectors (from RadioShack) to extend the three wires leading to the infrared receiver, but soldering should work just fine. Now that you’re finished with all of the internal modifications to the Rovio, we can move on to the circuitry behind this hack.
The Circuit
In order to make sure that we can control our replacement LED headlights through Rovio’s web interface, we need to build a circuit that will detect when the headlights are triggered via the web interface and activate our headlights accordingly. To do this, we’ll use a PNP transistor to switch the ground of our headlight circuit. As you can see from the schematic above, the white wire that we mentioned earlier will be connected to the base of the transistor via a 2.2k resistor, the ground from the power supply board will be connected to the collector of the transistor, and the emitter of the transistor will be connected to the ground of the parallel array of LEDs. If you want to, you could probably add a few more LEDs to this design. Just remember, if you change the number or type of the LEDs, you will have to recalculate the value of the current-limiting resistor between VCC and the positive pin of the parallel LED array. After we’ve reviewed our schematic and we’re comfortable with it, we should be ready to breadboard.
As you can see, there really isn’t that much to our circuit as far as components go. The black and red wires come directly from the power supply board. Our voltage reading was right around 6.5v. Please note that your voltage may vary depending on the charge of your Rovio’s NiMH battery. The green wire was soldered to the white wire inside of the Rovio, and controls whether the transistor lets the ground flow to the LEDs. We found that the best way to test this circuit while breadboarding was to turn on the Rovio and turn on and off the headlights using the web interface. After confirming that the circuit works consistently, you can go ahead and solder the circuit onto some perfboard and connect to the Rovio.
The circuit really doesn’t take up much space on the perfboard. We decided to use the extra space on our board as a makeshift terminal block to extend the infrared LED. While soldering the circuit onto the perfboard, be sure to remember the orientation of your transistor. If you accidentally put it in backwards, you could switch the collector and emitter, burning out the transistor. We mention this only because we actually did it the first time we assembled our board, and we ended up having to swap in a new transistor before reassembling the board. After you’ve assembled and verified that your circuit works, we can move on to assembling our headlight panel.
Drilling and Wiring
On your blank panel, carefully drill 8 holes in any configuration you would like. When drilling your holes, be sure to use a 3/16″ drill bit. While it is actually slightly smaller than a 5mm LED, you can rotate the drill once or twice around to widen the hole. The main thing is that you don’t want to make the holes too large for the LEDs, which, incidentally, we ended up doing. One of them was so wide that we had to change the placement of our LEDs to make sure that they all more or less fit.
I don’t think that I need to get into too much detail here, but the major thing to remember is that the LEDs need to be wired in parallel. Also, be sure that you are connecting cathode to cathode and anode to anode, otherwise the whole circuit just won’t work. After you’ve completely assembled the panel, attach the wires the ground from your perfboard and the VCC from the power supply board to the circuit, and use the web interface to test that the LEDs get switched on when they’re supposed to be. If you decided to salvage the infrared “radar”, don’t forget to attach the infrared LED and receiver to the board in the two holes left over.
After you’ve finished with the drilling and wiring, you should be ready to attach the panel to the Rovio. While it was a little tricky for us, we were able to epoxy the panel to the underside of the front of the Rovio so that it looked like it was vertically mounted.
Now that your Rovio can see better in darker situations, lets take a look at RoboRealm.
RoboRealm
While investigating all of the different things that we could do with our Rovio, we stumbled upon a piece of software called
RoboRealm
. RoboRealm allows you to take video input from any webcam, including the Rovio, and run it through any number of different modules to process the images. After the images are processed, the software can even see if any pre-defined conditions are met, and if they are it will instruct the robot to act accordingly. Combine that visual input with the audio input/output on the Rovio, and you can do some pretty cool stuff. The interesting part about this software is that it
officially supports the Rovio
out of the box. We’ve had a chance to mess around with it a little bit, and as far as we can tell, it seems like pretty powerful software.
We already know all of the cool things that we want to do with this software and our Rovio, but we’re curious, what would you do with it? Leave us your answer in the comments, and if we see something that we find truly inspiring, we’ll do some research, write it up, and post a how-to explaining how to do it. Who knows, there might even be a brand new Rovio and a free copy of RoboRealm in it for the winner too… | 96 | 50 | [
{
"comment_id": "130556",
"author": "elude107",
"timestamp": "2010-03-18T05:20:19",
"content": "Awesome! As if I needed more reasons to buy cool junk from Woot!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "130557",
"author": "prem",
"timestamp": "201... | 1,760,377,475.777659 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2010/03/17/arm-cortex-m3-prototyping-on-a-budget/ | ARM Cortex-M3 Prototyping On A Budget | Mike Szczys | [
"Reviews"
] | [
"arm",
"blueboard",
"cortex-m3",
"LPC1768",
"NGX"
] | NGX Technologies
sent us this Blueboard LPC1768-H
to play with. It’s basically a breakout board for an NXP LPC1768 ARM cortex-M3 microcontroller (
datasheet
). The board adds a few extra goodies, such as a choice of mini-USB connector or barrel-jack to provide regulated power to the chip. There’s also a clock crystal for the internal RTC and an Atmel 256kb EEPROM chip. This chip has 70 I/O ports, accessed through the pin headers on top and bottom of the board. The 20-pin header to the left is for a JTAG programmer (yes, you’ll need
a separate programmer
). Coming in at only $32.78 this is a very accessible route for projects that require more power than some of
the traditional hobby controllers
. The shipping seems to have come down since
NGX’s last offering
, now it would be under $10 to ship to the States.
The LPC1768 is the same controller from the
mbed that we reviewed
. What’s missing is some of the interface hardware and the boot-loader, but the tradeoff comes with a $66 savings. This is to mbed what an AVR board is to the Arduino, a way to get even closer to the hardware.
There are a few things we think are missing. Most notably, there isn’t a datasheet or user guide for the board itself. The only information available is
a schematic (PDF)
, but that should be enough for those already well versed in working with microcontrollers. There is also a 12MHz clock crystal on the board but it doesn’t seem to be jumpered in case you wanted to use a different frequency. We’re not sure if this is much of an issue, the internal RC oscillators offer a lot of flexibility including operation up to 100MHz.
We feel this is a solid platform that will help to get more people into ARM development because of its low price. Let us know your thoughts in the comments. | 38 | 36 | [
{
"comment_id": "130461",
"author": "alex",
"timestamp": "2010-03-17T20:14:06",
"content": "As a purchaser of an mbed, I’ve been playing with it for two months now and there are some definate pros, but some definate conspros-easy c style development environment is easy to pick up and there are lots ... | 1,760,377,475.438379 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2010/03/17/arduino-balloon-tracking/ | Arduino Balloon Tracking | Mike Szczys | [
"Arduino Hacks"
] | [
"balloon",
"fm",
"gps",
"high-altitude"
] | The Ferret is a
high-altitude balloon tracking hardware package
. Created by [Adam Greig] and [Jon Sowman], it uses an Arduino to gather
NMEA
data from a GPS unit, format the data into a string, and transmit that string on narrow-band FM. The project, built in one afternoon, is a tribute to the prototyping simplicity the Arduino provides.
The unit was powered by four AA batteries, using the Arduino’s on board voltage regulator. This provided a bit of heat which helps in the frigid reaches of the upper atmosphere. The bundle above was put in a project box and attached to the outside of the balloon’s payload, then covered with foam for warmth and moisture resistance. This tracking is a lot less complicated than some of the
photography setups
we’ve seen for balloons. It’s also more versatile because it broadcasts the GPS data so that many people can track it, rather than just
logging its location
. | 20 | 20 | [
{
"comment_id": "130443",
"author": "deyjavont",
"timestamp": "2010-03-17T18:49:49",
"content": "I find that the best part of this build is the antenna! Great way to hack it up quickly and quite safely as well",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "130... | 1,760,377,475.254667 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2010/03/17/quad-copter-controlled-with-voice-commands/ | Quad-copter Controlled With Voice Commands | Mike Szczys | [
"Robots Hacks"
] | [
"natural language",
"quad copter",
"voice"
] | [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7nUq28utuGM]
In the video above you’ll see two of our favorite things combined,
a quad-copter that is voice controlled
. The robot responds to natural language so you can tell it to “take off and fly forward six feet”, rather than rely on a cryptic command set. The demonstration shows both an iPhone and a headset used as the input microphone. Language is parsed by a computer and the resulting commands sent to the
four-rotor
UAV.
This makes us think of the Y.T.’s robot-aided assault in
Snow Crash
. Perhaps our inventions strive to achieve the fiction that came before it.
[Via
Bot Junkie
] | 25 | 25 | [
{
"comment_id": "130416",
"author": "Greg",
"timestamp": "2010-03-17T17:09:54",
"content": "Well it looks like we are well on the way to having another hobby ruined. This will remove all fine motor skill and practice from flying, the way that software has ruined the club DJ. It used to be an art, ... | 1,760,377,475.944941 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2010/03/17/im-me-spectrum-analyzer/ | IM-ME Spectrum Analyzer | Mike Szczys | [
"classic hacks",
"Wireless Hacks"
] | [
"im-me",
"spectrum analyzer"
] | [Michael Ossmann] rolled out some firmware that makes his
IM-ME into a Spectrum Analyzer
. He met up with [Travis Goodspeed], who authored
the IM-ME flashing guide
, at SchmooCon and spent some time hacking wireless doo-dads in the hotel bar. Once he arrived home the new firmware was just a few coding sessions away from completion. It scans one frequency at a time, displaying the results in a 132 column graph on the screen. He also added a ribbon cable and header to the debug contacts so that future hacking would be as simple as plugging in the GoodFET.
[Thanks
Jared
and Travis] | 27 | 27 | [
{
"comment_id": "130413",
"author": "nubie",
"timestamp": "2010-03-17T17:00:20",
"content": "Why for girls?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "130414",
"author": "nubie",
"timestamp": "2010-03-17T17:00:56",
"content": "Why not a spy ver... | 1,760,377,476.756174 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2010/03/17/make-your-own-oleds/ | Make Your Own OLEDS | Caleb Kraft | [
"LED Hacks"
] | [
"light emitting diode",
"oled",
"pure awesome"
] | The University of Wisconsin is hosting a tutorial on how to
make your own Organic Light Emitting Diodes
. This is so amazingly awesome. We want you guys to make some. Someone make your own matrix and display some patterns on it and submit it. Please. Though we’ve seen lots of uses for OLED screens, we never really delved into the process of creating them. It looks much less complicated than we would have imagined.
[via
MakeZine
] | 31 | 30 | [
{
"comment_id": "130369",
"author": "medix",
"timestamp": "2010-03-17T14:55:14",
"content": "Looks messy.. I like it.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "130370",
"author": "monkeyslayer56",
"timestamp": "2010-03-17T15:05:53",
"content":... | 1,760,377,476.448229 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2010/03/17/bill-paxton-pinball/ | Bill Paxton Pinball | Caleb Kraft | [
"home entertainment hacks",
"News"
] | [
"ben heck",
"bill paxton",
"jeri ellsworth",
"pinball"
] | No, your eyes do not deceive you, you are looking at a
[Bill Paxton] pinball machine
. [Ben Heck], commonly known for his portable gaming system modifications has finally finished his pinball machine build. We’ve had our eye on it ever since
[Jeri Ellsworth] challenged him
to see who got theirs done first. As you can see, he’s done a fantastic job on the machine itself. He has also documented it fantastically, there’s a build log, a gallery, demonstration videos etc.
[thanks Matt] | 23 | 22 | [
{
"comment_id": "130352",
"author": "Lorems",
"timestamp": "2010-03-17T13:29:45",
"content": "Very interesting machine…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "130355",
"author": "blizzarddemon",
"timestamp": "2010-03-17T13:49:07",
"content"... | 1,760,377,476.905573 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2010/03/16/adding-an-automotive-cold-air-intake/ | Adding An Automotive Cold Air Intake | Mike Szczys | [
"Transportation Hacks"
] | [
"air intake",
"cavalier",
"filter",
"PVC"
] | [Thomas] and a buddy were sucking down a few brews when they decided to
hack their 2001 Chevy Cavalier for a bit better performance
. If they could find a way to bring cooler air to the engine they speculated that they’d see an increase in efficiency. Instead of routing the air intake to a hood scoop, they took off the factory air filter and mounted a cold air filter in its place. PVC pipes were then used to create a delivery path from the front of the vehicle with the output in close proximity to the new filter. They tested their work and discovered a drop in intake temperature from 101 to 48 degrees Fahrenheit at 60 mph, and from 109 to 54 degrees Fahrenheit at 45 mph. Now the sedan runs better and generates more horsepower, all for around $35 in parts. | 118 | 50 | [
{
"comment_id": "130161",
"author": "Bob",
"timestamp": "2010-03-16T22:15:16",
"content": "I like this modification, however I would like to see some measurements of the performance and efficieny with and without the hack.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comm... | 1,760,377,476.845935 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2010/03/16/electric-assist-bicycle-uses-lifepo4-batteries/ | Electric-assist Bicycle Uses LiFePO4 Batteries | Mike Szczys | [
"green hacks",
"Transportation Hacks"
] | [
"battery",
"LiFePO4"
] | This
bicycle add-on uses an electric motor
to help you out. This way the motor takes advantage of the gearing normally available to the cyclist. What interests us most about the system is the
DIY battery
work they’re doing. The cells are using
Lithium Iron Phosphate
technology. The li-ion cells you’re used to seeing in consumer electronics are actually Lithium Cobalt Oxide. The Iron Phosphate flavor offers longer overall lifespan, better operation between charges over that life, and improved cold-weather performance. The drawbacks include a 20-cycle break-in period and an affinity for trickle-charging versus faster charging methods.
The 48V cell seen above will provide 30-40 miles of travel between charges. We feel that getting the power plant out of our vehicles is an important step toward energy overhaul but it can only happen if the battery technology makes it possible. Then again, perhaps we’re barking up the wrong tree and should have placed our bets on
compressed air
.
[Thanks Tom] | 36 | 36 | [
{
"comment_id": "130148",
"author": "pookey",
"timestamp": "2010-03-16T21:47:17",
"content": "Holy cow… have you priced those batteries?!!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "130149",
"author": "colecoman1982",
"timestamp": "2010-03-16T21:49... | 1,760,377,477.178038 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2010/03/16/pure-ttl-based-clock/ | Pure TTL Based Clock | Jakob Griffith | [
"clock hacks"
] | [
"7400",
"button",
"clock",
"crystal",
"divider",
"microcontroller",
"multivibrator",
"oscillator",
"signal",
"ttl"
] | We’ll just say, [Kenneth] really likes clocks. His most recent is a
pure 7400 series TTL based one
, ie no microcontroller as seen in
the past
,
here
,
here
, and
here
. The signal starts out as a typical 32,768 crystal divided down to the necessary 1Hz, which is then divided again appropriately to provide hours and minutes.
As far as TTL clocks go, this is nothing too original; until it comes to his creative button interface. By using a
not as sexy as it sounds
multivibrator, he can produce a clean square wave instead of the figity signals produced from buttons to advance and set the time. Like always, he also provides us with a thorough breakdown of his clock, after the jump.
[youtube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rzDe7GBJ0V8%5D | 28 | 28 | [
{
"comment_id": "130120",
"author": "razor",
"timestamp": "2010-03-16T20:20:23",
"content": "I had to build one of these for my electronics class in high school. This is a sheer test of will when it comes to the wiring and debugging :-S pull your hair out looking for the one wire or gate that’s not... | 1,760,377,476.518552 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2010/03/16/xbox-360-laptop-more-laptop-y-than-ever/ | Xbox 360 Laptop More Laptop-y Than Ever | Mike Szczys | [
"Xbox Hacks"
] | [
"fans",
"laptop",
"xbox 360"
] | [TheTwoJ] and his friend built a laptop-form-factor Xbox 360. Their
extensively documented process
was inspired by
[Ben Heckendorn’s] work
. The result is a brick when folded up but a good-looking (albeit loud with 8 fans) gaming rig. There’s everything you would expect; LCD screen, integrated WiFi, camera, optical drive, and a full keyboard. These poor saps seem to have spent a portion of their student loan on the build but we understand how easy it is to let your budget get out of hand. They’re trying to recoup through eBay auction.
Take a look at the walk through after the break. If you’ve got the spare dough, you can try your hand at this with our
three
part
series
on building an Xbox 360 laptop.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m5pWtuTchVk]
[Thanks Palmer] | 30 | 28 | [
{
"comment_id": "130104",
"author": "Gert",
"timestamp": "2010-03-16T19:31:21",
"content": "Great… if only one could make the large battery of the controller integrated and add bluetooth, instead of proprietary bs.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id":... | 1,760,377,477.029925 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2010/03/16/tax-exempt-geek-group-hit-with-huge-tax-bill/ | Tax-exempt Geek Group Hit With Huge Tax Bill | Mike Szczys | [
"HackIt"
] | [
"501c3",
"non-profit",
"tax exempt",
"The Geek Group"
] | Non-profit hackerspace
The Geek Group has been hit with a hefty tax bill
despite their tax-exempt status. We featured a
boom camera
built by the organization back in November. It is the goal of The Geek Group to fulfill the thirst to explore and create by providing facilities, peer group, and camaraderie that make knowledge and learning not only acceptable, but desirable. In the video after the break you can hear a bit about the organization’s role in servicing donated computers and putting them out into the community, as well as its role in education through groups like the Boy Scouts of America.
This is all done without the goal for profit and accordingly they have attained
501(c)(3) status
with the federal government (we’ve seen
their 990 forms
stating this). To the best of our knowledge this doesn’t mean that they don’t need to pay property taxes, but it does make property taxes ridiculously low (we’ve heard of one cent per acre for non-profit land holdings before). That’s why it comes as quite a surprise when the township slaps a sticker on the doors giving notice of seizure and demanding payment for $47,652.78 in back taxes or the assets will be auctioned off. The entire story, from The Geek Group’s point of view, unfolds in a
video of the quarterly Board of Directors meeting
from last Saturday.
We’re hoping this is just a mistake and can be remedied. That being said, it’s not easy to run this type of operation. It’s unfortunate that the Board of Directors needs to deal with a tax battle in addition to fulfilling the mission of the organization. Good luck to them in navigating the road ahead.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aGOBR5Z4fSM]
[Thanks Jeremy] | 75 | 50 | [
{
"comment_id": "130090",
"author": "Anon",
"timestamp": "2010-03-16T18:17:42",
"content": "Saw it coming…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "130091",
"author": "Skitchin",
"timestamp": "2010-03-16T18:23:00",
"content": "It sounds like ... | 1,760,377,476.695593 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2010/03/16/follow-up-hacking-onstar/ | Follow-up: Hacking OnStar | James Munns | [
"Android Hacks",
"Wireless Hacks"
] | [
"follow up",
"followup",
"GM",
"obd-ii",
"onstar"
] | Reader [regulatre] has provided us with his furthering of
hacking the OnStar system
in GM cars.
Previously
, we wrote about some initial attempts to gain access to the system that OnStar uses to monitor and control cars called GMLAN. [regulatre] has managed to create an adapter between the GMLAN connector and a standard OBD2 plug, which should allow a number of standard readers to be able to retrieve data.
This method details using a bluetooth OBD2 reader, and passing the data onto a linux machine. It looks as though the writer of this method is looking to integrate OnStar reading and writing into an Android App which currently is an OBD monitor.
We love seeing follow-ups like this, because it puts everyone one step closer to full control of closed devices. As always, let us know if you take any of this in a new direction. | 22 | 20 | [
{
"comment_id": "130067",
"author": "blizzarddemon",
"timestamp": "2010-03-16T16:00:47",
"content": "I can imagine what would happen if you activated it the wrong way and the cops show up thinking your stealing your car. lol",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"co... | 1,760,377,476.96463 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2010/03/16/keep-tabs-on-your-car-without-obd-ii/ | Keep Tabs On Your Car Without OBD-II | Jakob Griffith | [
"Arduino Hacks",
"Transportation Hacks"
] | [
"arduino",
"boost",
"car",
"computer",
"multidisplay",
"obd-ii",
"pressure",
"processing",
"sensor",
"temperature",
"throttle"
] | [Steve] let us know about his
MultiDisplay car monitoring system
. Unlike
traditional systems
that rely on interfacing with the OBD-II protocol and existing car computer, the MultiDisplay uses an Arduino and
custom shield
with a combination of sensors; including temperatures, pressures, throttle, Boost, and etc. The data collected can then be displayed on a 20×4 LCD or streamed to a PC with visualization and event recording.
It’s nice to see half a years worth of work finally be complete and presented in such a clean and professional manner, keep up the good work [Steve] | 37 | 31 | [
{
"comment_id": "130050",
"author": "James",
"timestamp": "2010-03-16T14:23:54",
"content": "Just hook up a megasquirt in piggyback configuration for a couple of hundred dollars, you get the same output options and then get the added bonus of beign able to control your cars tuning should you wish to... | 1,760,377,477.107199 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2010/03/15/mondo-spider/ | Mondo Spider | Mike Szczys | [
"Transportation Hacks"
] | [
"burning man",
"hexapod",
"hydralic",
"spider"
] | This vehicle is aptly named
the Mondo Spider
. It’s not from some apocalyptic movie, but seen here at Burning Man. Like a lot of
Burning Man
exhibitions
, it was built for the joy of the build and with a rather extreme budget: $15,000. We’ve embedded one of the many videos after the break, as well as a few of the hardware details.
Weighing in at about 1600 pounds this eight-legged horror is much more massive than the
rideable hexapod
we saw a while ago. A Honda 24 horse power V-Twin engine provides the power needed to run the hydraulic legs. It’s designed to turn on a dime, but as you can see in the video, traction can be a bit of a problem. For night-time operation the legs have been outlined in glowing read, as if this wasn’t already frightening enough to terrify the weak-at-heart.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=40debSRrAOw]
Editorial Note:
There was so much work and time put into this project by
a lot of different people
. We searched around for a picture of the entire team with this bad boy but couldn’t find one. If you’re working on an insane team build, don’t forget to take a group picture that will let you relive the fun times. That’s what
the Copenhagen Suborbitals
did.
[Thanks László Monda]
[Thanks also to Danny Mal who
shared the link back in 2008
] | 27 | 27 | [
{
"comment_id": "129930",
"author": "mrgoogfan",
"timestamp": "2010-03-15T21:11:09",
"content": "I really wish i could go to burningman.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "129931",
"author": "djrussell",
"timestamp": "2010-03-15T21:22:19",
... | 1,760,377,477.239622 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2010/03/15/thermos-temperature-meter/ | Thermos Temperature Meter | Mike Szczys | [
"Lifehacks"
] | [
"temperature",
"thermometer",
"thermos",
"vacuum"
] | [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UXsxtEmKgbw]
We’re always a little surprised by how well a vacuum thermos works, but eventually the contents will cool down (or warm up depending on what’s in there). [Gamesh_] added a temperature meter to his thermos using an Arduino and a temperature sensor. The
original post is in Portuguese
but [Bruno]
republished it in English
.
The temperature sensor has been repurposed from a digital thermometer meant for taking your temperature. Holes for the LEDs making up the indicator bar were melted in the side of the plastic housing. When the hot liquid is poured out at about 0:45 into the video you can glimpse the Arduino hanging our on the other side of the pot and a power cord running off behind the laptop. It would be nice to see this migrated over to a less powerful chip and run from a small coin cell, but we like the concept. | 22 | 22 | [
{
"comment_id": "129908",
"author": "jeff-o",
"timestamp": "2010-03-15T20:20:01",
"content": "Well heck – you can buy a battery-operated thermometer for less than 10 bucks that will do the trick. Carve out a space for it, run the cable, and you’re done!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
... | 1,760,377,478.105744 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2010/03/15/3d-printing-on-a-much-larger-scale/ | 3D Printing On A Much Larger Scale | Mike Szczys | [
"cnc hacks",
"HackIt"
] | [
"3d",
"epoxy",
"printer",
"reprap",
"sand",
"stone"
] | The end goal of this
giant rapid prototyping machine
is to print buildings. We’re not holding our breath for a brand new
Flintstones
-esque abode, but their whimsical suggesting of printed buildings on the moon seems like science fiction with potential. The machine operates similar to a
RepRap
but instead of plastic parts, it prints stone by binding sand with epoxy. This method is not revolutionary, but hasn’t really been seen in applications larger than a square meter or so. It’s fun to see the things we dabble in heading for industrial production applications.
[Thanks Juan] | 44 | 44 | [
{
"comment_id": "129873",
"author": "lowlysoundtech",
"timestamp": "2010-03-15T18:11:25",
"content": "Very cool. I’m sure it’s very far off, but I love the idea of every household having a smaller unit than this, but bigger than a traditional reprap. Use it to make furniture, dinnerware, cubicle w... | 1,760,377,477.599767 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2010/03/15/eat-your-heart-out-ipad/ | Eat Your Heart Out IPad | Mike Szczys | [
"Mac Hacks"
] | [
"ipad",
"msi wind",
"tablet",
"touchscreen"
] | We don’t remember where we read it, but our favorite criticism of the iPad is that is does the same things a lot of other Apple devices do. So why wait until April to get your hands on that functionality? [Alexbates] built his own
iPad clone using existing hardware and software
. This started with an MSI wind that he used as a
hackintosh
. A touchscreen was added to the display, the keyboard removed, and the LCD flipped around. Boom, a tablet running OS X was born. This is different from
others
because [Alexbates] took the time to alter the UI to look like the iPad. Sure, it doesn’t automatically flip the display when rotated and there’s no pinch-zooming. But it does have more processing power and storage space.
We’re more likely to hack our own like this rather than purchase
a device we’re not all that enthusiastic about
.
[Thanks Jadon via
Engadget
] | 44 | 44 | [
{
"comment_id": "129862",
"author": "J",
"timestamp": "2010-03-15T17:14:50",
"content": "Awesome job!!!!!! Love all the hacks on here!!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "129864",
"author": "Justin",
"timestamp": "2010-03-15T17:19:14",
... | 1,760,377,477.680224 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2010/03/15/soil-moisture-sensing/ | Soil Moisture Sensing | Mike Szczys | [
"classic hacks"
] | [
"gypsum",
"moisture",
"plaster of paris",
"sensor",
"soil"
] | These plugs are cheap, easy to make, and work well
for measuring the moisture content of soil
. The Cheap Vegetable Gardener came up with this method in order to add automatic watering to
an automated grow system
. Plastic tubing is used as a mold for Plaster of Paris. Once the plaster has been poured, two galvanized nails are inserted. These are won’t rust and work as probes, measuring the resistance of the dried plaster (gypsum). When inserted into the soil, the moisture content within the gypsum will fluctuate along with the soil. As moisture rises, the resistance between the probes falls, which can be monitored by a microcontroller and used to trigger or stop a watering system.
[Thanks Juan] | 31 | 26 | [
{
"comment_id": "129838",
"author": "Polymath",
"timestamp": "2010-03-15T15:16:12",
"content": "Hmm, could be used in green houses and or orchards for a point specific watering system. Might make for a more efficient watering system. Course that would mean installing a rather complex solenoid valve ... | 1,760,377,478.048893 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2010/03/15/jeenode-development-platform/ | JeeNode Development Platform | Caleb Kraft | [
"Misc Hacks",
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"arduino",
"jeenode"
] | It is basically a nice compact layout for an
Atmel Atmega 328 with a wireless module
. Fully compatible with the Arduino IDE. The JeeNode is available in kit form, but also all schematics and CAD files are available to download. It looks like they are mainly using it for home monitoring and control. So far we’ve seen them put a temp sensor, power metering, and IR LED modules on their
flickr set
. | 15 | 15 | [
{
"comment_id": "129837",
"author": "Simmers",
"timestamp": "2010-03-15T15:06:30",
"content": "What about just using a Zigbit module? They’re basically ATMEGA chips with a built-in Zigbee radio + AMP. In the UK they cost about £25 from Farnell. Maybe this JeeNode is cheaper?",
"parent_id": null,... | 1,760,377,477.922279 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2010/03/14/intense-kit-turns-wacom-tablet-into-cintiq-clone/ | Intense Kit Turns Wacom Tablet Into Cintiq Clone | Mike Szczys | [
"Peripherals Hacks"
] | [
"acrylic",
"cintiq",
"kit",
"tablet",
"wacom"
] | [Lesa Wright] just started selling enclosure
kits used to convert a Wacom tabet into a Cintiq clone
. You need to start with your own Wacom tablet, there are
kits for four different models
. You’ll also need to
track down some other parts
: a compatible laptop LCD screen, controller kit, and some cable extenders. From there, the kit takes over, with several pieces of laser-cut acrylic needing to be glued together properly, then a surprising number of spacers need to be cut from foam board in order to mount everything..
The kits come in at around $225. That might seem a bit steep since you need to bring your own electronics to the party, but have you checked out the price of
the original Cintiq
? You can expect to drop about twelve-hundred bones on a ready-to-use model. Before you take the dive, you should
watch their collection of assembly videos
, it’s quite a process. | 36 | 29 | [
{
"comment_id": "129758",
"author": "drawingdude",
"timestamp": "2010-03-14T22:14:50",
"content": "I’ve thought about converting an intous4 and a laptop into a Cintiq tablet pc, however I have no idea what the dimensions of the electronics in the intous4 are, hopefully far from as large as the table... | 1,760,377,477.870826 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2010/03/14/flip-top-gamecube-portable/ | Flip-top GameCube Portable | Mike Szczys | [
"handhelds hacks",
"Nintendo Hacks"
] | [
"flip",
"gamecube",
"mirror",
"portable"
] | Here’s another home console made into a portable. [Techknott] built this
shiny GameCube handheld
. You may remember him from his work on
a portable Dreamcast
and the
wireless Xbox 360 interface
. This time around he’s mirrored the finish; a good idea in concept but even his demo images are already plagued by smudges. But if you can keep your digits on the plastic buttons this makes for an eye-catching design. One part that we love is the flip-top screen that hides the optical drive. This is a much better solution than the exposed lens we saw on
[Hailrazer’s] GC portable
. As always, video after the break.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UnPzaUNtEPg]
[Thanks Dave] | 27 | 26 | [
{
"comment_id": "129737",
"author": "correnos",
"timestamp": "2010-03-14T19:34:41",
"content": "Good job. Even if we do all know that with the gamecube’s performance, it should’ve been that size in the first place…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id":... | 1,760,377,477.982371 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2010/03/14/rfid-reader-for-iphone/ | RFID Reader For IPhone | Mike Szczys | [
"iphone hacks"
] | [
"mifare",
"openframeworks",
"rfid",
"serial"
] | [Benjamin Blundell] built
an RFID reader for the iPhone
. A
jailbroken iPhone
connects to this project box by patching into a standard iPhone USB cable. Like in
past iPhone serial projects
, [Benjamin] is using openFrameworks for the software interface. Right now this reader only detects low-frequency tags but he’s working on the code to read
MIFARE tags
as well. See the magic of a tag ID displayed on the screen in the video after the break.
[vimeo=http://vimeo.com/10133832]
[Thanks Andrew via
Recombu
] | 13 | 12 | [
{
"comment_id": "129731",
"author": "mrgoogfan",
"timestamp": "2010-03-14T18:45:45",
"content": "but why?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "129736",
"author": "Eirikur Hrafnsson",
"timestamp": "2010-03-14T19:25:46",
"content": "Most pe... | 1,760,377,478.277542 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2010/03/14/storage-for-your-hacking-needs/ | Storage For Your Hacking Needs | Jakob Griffith | [
"Misc Hacks",
"Peripherals Hacks"
] | [
"bus pirate",
"hdd",
"non-volatile",
"pata",
"pic",
"ram",
"rom",
"sd card"
] | Sometimes your project needs a lot of non-volatile ROM, right on cue [Matthew] let us know how to not only connect, interface, read, and write to
SD cards with a PIC
over serial, but also how to do the above mentioned with
an old PATA HDD
. For those without a PIC/serial connection don’t fret, [nada] let us know about his
Bus Pirate SD card hack
, of which our personal favorite part is the creative use of an old 5.25″ floppy connector as the SD card socket. | 18 | 18 | [
{
"comment_id": "129717",
"author": "mrgoogfan",
"timestamp": "2010-03-14T16:57:28",
"content": "Happy π Day",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "129719",
"author": "Georgio",
"timestamp": "2010-03-14T17:23:37",
"content": "Cheers Happy p... | 1,760,377,478.160446 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2010/03/12/beach-stereo/ | Beach Stereo | Mike Szczys | [
"digital audio hacks"
] | [
"beach",
"cooler",
"rain",
"sand",
"stereo"
] | [Adam] wanted a stereo that could stand up to rain and keep sand out. He ended up building this
beach stereo out of a cooler
. The cooler’s already made to be water tight. He cut holes in the front and back for marine speakers and added a water-tight bezel and cover for the controls on the deck. Inside you’ll find a marine battery to power the unit. Now he and his friends can rock-out even in poor weather thanks to this portable and rugged unit. | 36 | 35 | [
{
"comment_id": "129531",
"author": "osgeld",
"timestamp": "2010-03-12T23:09:45",
"content": "I wouldn’t put too much faith on that cover, yes they can handle some water and maybe some sand, but it was really designed to be on the dashboard IN a boator in other words don’t get beered up and decide t... | 1,760,377,478.230094 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2010/03/12/easy-im-me-flashing/ | Easy IM-ME Flashing | Mike Szczys | [
"classic hacks"
] | [
"flashing",
"GoodFET",
"im-me"
] | [Travis Goodspeed] wrote
a guide to firmware flashing for the IM-ME
. He’s using a
GoodFET open-source JTAG adapter
that he designed to do the programming. This is really taking [Dave’s]
work on the device
and running with it. The end goal being to develop an operating system for the device. If you haven’t read the past articles, once hacked this becomes a development board for the
Chipcon CC1110
processor with keyboard, LCD screen, and wireless communications included. | 19 | 19 | [
{
"comment_id": "129525",
"author": "ZigZagJoe",
"timestamp": "2010-03-12T22:09:40",
"content": "Pity it’s pink.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "129526",
"author": "Dennis Booth",
"timestamp": "2010-03-12T22:36:35",
"content": "Let m... | 1,760,377,478.334847 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2010/03/12/steam-powered-tank/ | Steam Powered Tank | Mike Szczys | [
"Toy Hacks"
] | [
"rc",
"steam",
"tank"
] | This
steam-powered tank
is really something of a steam-electric hybrid. Steam provides the locomotion, but an electrical system provides the remote control and steering. A full boiler will provide 10-15 minutes of operation which you can see in the video after the break. Before you leave a nasty comment: Yes, we realize this project is from several years ago. It’s new to us and the completion date doesn’t diminish the novelty of this well-executed build. This is
the quality
and
uniqueness
we’re used to seeing from [Crabfu].
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XULoKbEHqVE]
[via
Gizmo Watch
] | 38 | 37 | [
{
"comment_id": "129504",
"author": "regulatre",
"timestamp": "2010-03-12T20:47:25",
"content": "That is so badass!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "129505",
"author": "Caleb Kraft",
"timestamp": "2010-03-12T20:50:12",
"... | 1,760,377,478.730828 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2010/03/12/sponge-music/ | Sponge Music | Mike Szczys | [
"Arduino Hacks",
"digital audio hacks"
] | [
"emf",
"music",
"sponge",
"stochasticity"
] | [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k4cYpf9zwkg]
[Aaron] calls
this project
“Stochasticity”. It uses two sponges as a musical interface. The performer wears a wrist strap and then draws on the table with water from the sponge to play different notes. You really need to watch the video to fully understand what’s going on here.
We’re guessing that this is Arduino based since some of his other projects are as well. You can try out another quick project of his,
an Arduino electromagnetic field detector
. Check out video of that after the break.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rf-FbK8ieHY]
Arduino EMF detector
[Thanks Juan] | 23 | 23 | [
{
"comment_id": "129499",
"author": "Loadlawl",
"timestamp": "2010-03-12T20:31:35",
"content": "Pretty noisy but nice.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "129501",
"author": "Erik",
"timestamp": "2010-03-12T20:42:28",
"content": "The spo... | 1,760,377,478.862356 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2010/03/11/diy-scratch-controller/ | DIY Scratch Controller | Mike Szczys | [
"Peripherals Hacks"
] | [
"dj",
"mouse",
"optical",
"scratch controller"
] | [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eHI2q-x0ke0]
There’s something viscerally pleasing about simple solutions. [Kip] came up with one in the form of
a scratch controller
. The spindle from an optical drive is used to hold a CD in place, which acts as the LP for scratching. The sensor from an optical mouse is mounted upside down below the CD and detects the rotation of the disc. From there it’s just a matter of setting up your software to get the reading from that mouse. He’s had some trouble finding disc surfaces that the mouse sensor will read reliably. We’d recommend trying some of those stick-on inkjet CD labels.
This is similar to
a scratch controller we saw in 2008
. That one was actually repurposing the IR encoding from inside of a mouse. We’re not sure which method would work better, but either controller will make a nice addition to a
Flexi Knob
setup. | 38 | 38 | [
{
"comment_id": "129295",
"author": "vonskippy",
"timestamp": "2010-03-11T20:08:22",
"content": "Breaking News Folks!!!!!!!We have a new champion for the dumbest, dullest, stupidest video here on Hack-a-Day.This one rushes to the top in a category all it’s own.So good work “scratcher guy” you’ve mad... | 1,760,377,479.045273 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2010/03/11/update-nintendo-ds-camera-control/ | Update: Nintendo DS Camera Control | Mike Szczys | [
"digital cameras hacks"
] | [
"Nintendo DS",
"open camera control",
"open source"
] | All of the juicy details needed to control a camera from your Nintendo DS are now available at
the Open Camera Control project
. This is the descendant of [Steve Chapman’s]
setup from a few years ago
. The system has been polished up and has seen many feature additions. It’s been used in movie production and works with a wide range of cameras.
Start by
building your own interface cable
using an AVR microcontroller running the Arduino bootloader. Finish up by
loading some open source software
onto the DS to add a cornucopia of shot options.
[Thanks Pops Macgruder] | 14 | 14 | [
{
"comment_id": "129283",
"author": "BiOzZ",
"timestamp": "2010-03-11T19:09:44",
"content": "last night i made a timelapse rig with an arduino for my D90 … its taking shots now XD",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "129286",
"author": "BMW-Ibus"... | 1,760,377,478.658543 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2010/03/11/hardware-jailbreak-eases-reboot-pains/ | Hardware Jailbreak Eases Reboot Pains | Mike Szczys | [
"iphone hacks"
] | [
"blackra1n",
"ipod touch",
"jailbreak",
"Tether"
] | This
device can jailbreak an iPhone
. It doesn’t require a computer and it can either reboot a phone that was one-time-boot jailbroken using the blackra1n exploit, or jailbreak a factory fresh unit. We wouldn’t say this solves the tethering problem caused by blackra1n (needing to return to a computer to reboot the phone), but it certainly does ease the pain. We saw some info about the board layout but no parts list or firmware. See the demo after the break and leave a comment if you have more information on the parts or code.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0BK_FCXcyrk]
[Thanks Juan] | 43 | 43 | [
{
"comment_id": "129271",
"author": "Jeff",
"timestamp": "2010-03-11T18:04:26",
"content": "So… what’s with the gloves? I initially thought, he’s trying to hide who he is, but he kinda blew that with the reflection in the screen…Otherwise, kinda cool, kinda sad.Cool: yeah you made something that doe... | 1,760,377,478.807802 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2010/03/10/coffee-powered-car-puccino/ | Coffee Powered Car-puccino | Jakob Griffith | [
"Transportation Hacks"
] | [
"burn",
"car",
"coffee",
"conversion",
"efficient",
"expensive",
"smells great"
] | We can only imagine how amazing
this coffee burning car
smells at it speeds down the highway at a maximum of 60mph. Don’t jump out of your seat so quick to get your own, while the idea sounds fantastic, the mileage will bring you back to earth rather quick. At 3 miles per kilo of coffee, it can turn that £36 210 mile trip into one between £910 and £1,820 with a stop to re-bean-fill every half hour!
Still, the Car-puccino is an amazing conversion, and we’re getting closer and closer to Back to the Future’s
Mr. Fusion
[Thanks Tim] | 44 | 44 | [
{
"comment_id": "129113",
"author": "nfo",
"timestamp": "2010-03-10T23:38:53",
"content": "Technically this is just a very inefficient coal powered car, since the coffee is gasified by a 700C charcoal furnace in the trunk.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comm... | 1,760,377,479.276073 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2010/03/10/50mhz-to-100mhz-scope-conversion/ | 50MHz To 100Mhz Scope Conversion | Mike Szczys | [
"classic hacks",
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"100MHz",
"oscilloscope"
] | [Ross] is the proud owner of a 50 MHz Rigol DS1052E oscilloscope. He’d like to have the 100 MHz version but the $400 difference in price puts it out of his reach. After some extensive poking around on the PCB and pouring over datasheets, he managed to
reverse engineer the design and upgrade to a 100 MHz version
. This is as easy as desoldering one capacitor to deactivate a high-pass filter present in the lesser model of scope, unlocking the faster potential of its bigger brother. | 96 | 50 | [
{
"comment_id": "129083",
"author": "poiso",
"timestamp": "2010-03-10T22:09:06",
"content": "that is pretty damn snazzy!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "129085",
"author": "mrgoogfan",
"timestamp": "2010-03-10T22:18:19",
"content": "... | 1,760,377,479.132794 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2010/03/10/jeri-makes-integrated-circuits/ | Jeri Makes Integrated Circuits | Mike Szczys | [
"classic hacks"
] | [
"home",
"ic",
"jeri ellsworth",
"silicon"
] | [Jeri Ellsworth]
made this silicon inverter at home, by hand
. It took her two years to get the process figured out and achieve something we didn’t think was possible. The complexity of manufacture, and the wide range of tools and materials needed seem insurmountable but she did it anyway. Her
home chip fab Flickr set
is well commented and details her work area and part of the processing. If you’re hurting for more check out her 40 minute Metalab talk which we’ve embedded after the break.
If her name sounds familiar but you just can’t place it you may know her from
The Fatman and Circuit Girl
. We’ve also featured some of her hacks, such as
her Pinball challenge
against [Ben Heckendorn], and
her giant Etch-a-Sketch
.
[vimeo=http://vimeo.com/2423528]
[Thanks Deyjavont] | 38 | 38 | [
{
"comment_id": "129062",
"author": "cooperised",
"timestamp": "2010-03-10T20:41:58",
"content": "Amazing. Actually amazing.(drops in awe)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "129063",
"author": "klulukasz",
"timestamp": "2010-03-10T20:46:14... | 1,760,377,479.200414 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2010/03/10/noisy-super-8/ | Noisy Super 8 | Mike Szczys | [
"digital audio hacks"
] | [
"camera",
"super 8",
"synthesizer"
] | [vimeo=http://www.vimeo.com/9196943]
[Matt Kemp]
remade this super 8 film camera into a synthesizer
. Inside you’ll find a light sensor pointed through the lens. This way, zooming, focusing, and pointing the lens elsewhere will change the sound. He also refit the original controls to monkey with the output. Turn your speakers up when you watch this, your co-workers will love you for it. | 9 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "129054",
"author": "sneakypoo",
"timestamp": "2010-03-10T19:31:22",
"content": "I will never understand what people see in these things. Seems like 95% of the time all they do is create horrible horrible noises. The remaining 5% are handled by people that can actually tame the devic... | 1,760,377,479.315001 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2010/03/10/game-glove-learns-your-weakness/ | Game Glove Learns Your Weakness | Mike Szczys | [
"Arduino Hacks",
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"glove",
"paper",
"rock",
"scissors"
] | [Steve Hoefer] pulled together a great hack for the friendless. This
glove will play a heated game of rock-paper-scissors
against you. [Steve] realized that the middle and fourth fingers are all that need to be monitored to decide which of the three signs you are making. He used flex sensors on the back of these fingers as an input. There is also an accelerometer to judge the three shakes that lead up to the shoot.
The small screen you see displays what the glove chose and is a hack in itself. This idea adapts from
an Evil Mad Scientist project
, using three sheets of acrylic etched with the different icons and edge-lit with LEDs. All of this, along with a speaker and scoreboard, connect to an Arduino. The icing on the cake? [Steve] coded an adaptive learning algorithm that observes your playing style to gain an advantage.
See this in action after the break. Once you’ve mastered rock-paper-scissors you should consider building
other glove-based
peripherals
.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GwvRWdWMy_E]
[Thanks Zokier] | 13 | 13 | [
{
"comment_id": "129023",
"author": "monkeyslayer56",
"timestamp": "2010-03-10T16:51:29",
"content": "alsome project i particularly like how it learns as u play",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "129028",
"author": "Johannes",
"timestamp": ... | 1,760,377,479.361079 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2010/03/10/r2d2-build-video/ | R2D2 Build Video | Caleb Kraft | [
"Robots Hacks"
] | [
"r2d2",
"star wars"
] | [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rb1Mc0cQ7ck]
Follow along with [Victor] through the journey of building a
life size replica of R2D2
. While you may not be able to scrape too many specific details from the video, it is still great to see the project progress from his first cut to the finished product as well as some fun little outings. His R2 looks absolutely impeccable and he deserves dome credit for taking it to places to show kids. We would have probably just found interesting ways for it to
bring us beers
.
[via
Makezine
] | 21 | 21 | [
{
"comment_id": "129014",
"author": "Chris",
"timestamp": "2010-03-10T15:49:36",
"content": "Impressive!Makes me wanna clean out the garage and start a similar project myself!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "129016",
"author": "monkeyslayer5... | 1,760,377,479.49982 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2010/03/09/will-this-mouse-get-me-kicked-out-of-the-coffee-shop/ | Will This Mouse Get Me Kicked Out Of The Coffee Shop? | Mike Szczys | [
"Peripherals Hacks"
] | [
"creepy",
"mouse",
"taxidermy"
] | This [Dwight Shrute]-esque project will let you
try out your taxidermy skills
. Apparently you can acquire a ‘wetware’ mouse fresh or frozen from pet stores. We just need to wait until fall when our pantry is visited by the less-domesticated variety.
A travel-sized optical mouse acts as the replacement guts. Some creative dremeling brings the plastic housing down to a more acceptable shape. The furry bits need to be processed using
the mouse taxidermy guide
before they are fit over the electronics. What you end up with is a creepy peripheral that nobody wants to use. | 109 | 50 | [
{
"comment_id": "128856",
"author": "Brandonman",
"timestamp": "2010-03-10T01:06:49",
"content": "W.T.F. Is that even a hack? Ugh, distasteful, IMO. :\\",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "128858",
"author": "Michael Bradley",
"timestamp": "... | 1,760,377,479.447769 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2010/03/09/one-minute-review-of-your-wasted-time/ | One Minute Review Of Your Wasted Time | Mike Szczys | [
"Lifehacks"
] | [
"movie",
"screenshot",
"waste time"
] | [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GuvR98k5KBU]
It’s easy to throw around the accusation that you waste time throughout the day. Now you can prove it by reviewing everything you did on your computer, all in just one minute. [Dan Paluska] ground out some
code to take screenshots and assemble them into a video
.
His script
ties together the open source tools
FFmpeg
,
ImageMagick
, and
scrot
. It takes a snap every 15 seconds in a 10 hour period for a total of 2400 frames. He even outlines the process to automatically upload these clips to YouTube. Just remember, if you’re doing
something naughty
, there’ll be a record of it. | 16 | 16 | [
{
"comment_id": "128834",
"author": "Matt",
"timestamp": "2010-03-10T00:15:23",
"content": "Hope my boss never finds this script, but could be interesting to see your habits change over time.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "128835",
"author"... | 1,760,377,479.660206 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2010/03/09/add-a-clean-room-to-your-workshop-2/ | Add A Clean Room To Your Workshop | Mike Szczys | [
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"clean room",
"mdf",
"shelving"
] | I Heart Robotics has posted
a guide for building your own clean room
. They’ve been clever with their materials, starting with heavy-duty shelving to provide the framework. We like that idea, it allows you to position your workspace at whatever height you desire.
The side walls are MDF painted with white enamel. Light, power, and tools are mounted to these walls. To keep things clean, a ventilation system uses a vacuum filter and 12V fans to keep filtered air moving in and dirty air out.
Maybe now we’ll be able to
pull off that window hack without killing our hard drive
.
[Thanks Mawitö and Ciric] | 28 | 27 | [
{
"comment_id": "128809",
"author": "tehrm",
"timestamp": "2010-03-09T22:49:47",
"content": "Neat.I’m lost on how one might get his hands into the unit, though. Is the user supposed to lift the curtain while the clean room is being used?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
... | 1,760,377,479.562966 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2010/03/09/lego-sequencer-builds-sound-in-3d/ | LEGO Sequencer Builds Sound In 3D | Mike Szczys | [
"digital audio hacks"
] | [
"lego",
"sequencer"
] | [Yoshi Akai] built
a sequencer that is part steampunk, part injection molded plastic
. The LEGO sequencer MR II has eight steps in a loop that is manipulated by adding the colorful blocks to a green base plate. Each color corresponds to one particular sound which can be modified by building skyward. On the other side of things he’s added a beautifully crafted control area for knobs and switches. We didn’t see much info about what is inside the device so, watch the clip after the break and then feel free to start the speculation in the comments.
This is a similar concept to the
coin sequencer
. From the picture above it seems the blocks have been altered and perhaps
use light to identify the different blocks
.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3AontRDPQj0]
[Thanks Fuzzthed via
Westword
] | 15 | 15 | [
{
"comment_id": "128788",
"author": "bitflusher",
"timestamp": "2010-03-09T21:51:38",
"content": "the sounds are absolutely horrible! i could not hear the full length of the movie, skipping though it was ok.the idea is nice, i think is was more fun to do i project like this than listen to the result... | 1,760,377,479.613103 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2010/03/09/tube-clock-database/ | Tube Clock Database | Caleb Kraft | [
"clock hacks"
] | [
"clock",
"nixie",
"numitron",
"tube",
"vfd"
] | [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=75Yl9hyPFRE]
[Brian] wrote in to show us a site he’s been working on for a while. He’s been building a
tube clock database
. We didn’t realize there was actually a big enough draw for such a site, but we have to admit that we spent more than a few minutes browsing through the different clocks. There isn’t a ton of data for each clock, but there are links to individual project pages wherever available. There is also a growing amount of information on the different components themselves, so submit any data you have that he’s missing to help flesh it out.
The video above wasn’t chosen for any reason other than it is quite stylish. | 16 | 16 | [
{
"comment_id": "128747",
"author": "troll",
"timestamp": "2010-03-09T16:21:37",
"content": "the clock in the vid. is absolutely awesome!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "128748",
"author": "sd",
"timestamp": "2010-03-09T16:31:41",
"... | 1,760,377,480.093198 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2010/03/08/cardboard-androids/ | Cardboard Androids | Jakob Griffith | [
"Android Hacks",
"Arduino Hacks"
] | [
"android",
"arduino",
"cardboard",
"robot",
"servo"
] | Who needs expensive acrylic based, microcontrolled robots with only a few sensors available when cardboard and an Android cellphone will work much better for much less in cost! The team over at Cellbots have
done just that
. While they did cheat a little by using a laser cut cardboard for exact measurements and including an Arduino to control the servos, they certainly attained their goal of “cheap” (assuming the already had the cellphone). We’re just wondering why it took them
4 weeks
for a little
CAD
and
code
.
Regardless, one idea that immediately comes to mind is
thousands
hundreds
a few little cardboard
swarm bots
ravaging homes everywhere, just don’t step on them.
[Thanks
Mashable
] | 26 | 26 | [
{
"comment_id": "128599",
"author": "Ryan",
"timestamp": "2010-03-09T00:57:35",
"content": "It took 4 weeks because we only met twice a week :)This was our first time using CAD and the laser cutter. Plus figuring out the serial output from the G1 phone wasn’t easy.Anyone repeating this could do it i... | 1,760,377,479.987202 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2010/03/08/leds-invade-coffee-table-crevice/ | LEDs Invade Coffee Table Crevice | Mike Szczys | [
"home hacks",
"LED Hacks"
] | [
"8x8",
"coffee table",
"ikea",
"led",
"sure electronics"
] | That’s a lot of LEDs, and a little bit of glass cleaner. [Tobias]
spiced up his IKEA coffee table by adding 6144 LEDs
. This is a larger realization of
SparkFun’s LED coffee table
which used 64 8×8 modules. [Tobias] sourced three
display boards from Sure Electronics
for a total of 96 8×8 modules. These boards are addressed through a serial interface; four serial lines for each board but a shared data bus for each of the row select pins and the data/latch/clock pins. This method uses 19 of the 20 pins on the Arduino that drives the display. After the break you can see a demonstration. If this is more than you need there’s always the
112-LED
and
81-LED
table projects that can produce a full color range.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x7-wtJGhpzE]
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kXHrMa2NvqM]
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Bu621bRCZ8] | 34 | 33 | [
{
"comment_id": "128571",
"author": "macegr",
"timestamp": "2010-03-08T22:50:36",
"content": "Truly epic…always wanted to do something awesome with those Sure LED panels!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "128573",
"author": "funkja",
"time... | 1,760,377,481.977176 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2010/03/08/dr-boardmans-color-conundrum/ | Dr. Boardman’s Color Conundrum | Mike Szczys | [
"Toy Hacks"
] | [
"atmega8",
"color conundrum",
"led",
"rgb"
] | We feel like trumpets should be sounding. Someone took the overused project of connecting RGB LEDs to a microcontroller and produced something useful. [Paul] created
Dr. Boardman’s Color Conundrum
which works much like a simple mechanical coin-op game you might find at a carnival. When switched on, a random color is displayed by the ping-pong ball covered LED on the left. The player then manipulates three knobs to color-match the two lights.
Inside you’ll find a minimalist set of hardware. An ATmega8 polls the three potentiometers and uses them to mix the appropriate user color. Everything is wired-up using prototyping board and draws power from two AA batteries. He’s using a random seed stored in EEPROM and increments it every time the uC boots up. This keeps the input color different for every game.
Fun and simple, it’s not going to
make your guests marvel at the complexity
but [Paul’s] come up with a unique game that we think has marketing potential. | 19 | 19 | [
{
"comment_id": "128550",
"author": "mrgoogfan",
"timestamp": "2010-03-08T21:25:19",
"content": "we need a mini skiball",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "128557",
"author": "NatureTM",
"timestamp": "2010-03-08T21:40:34",
"content": "Ve... | 1,760,377,482.236865 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2010/03/08/give-1984-mac-a-leopard-makeover/ | Give 1984 Mac A Leopard Makeover | Mike Szczys | [
"Mac Hacks"
] | [
"1984",
"hackintosh",
"mac",
"mini-itx"
] | [Jake Howe] brought his 1984 Mac up-to-date by
cramming new guts inside of the classic case
. The goal from the start was to run OS X Snow Leopard on the machine without altering the externals. He heated and formed acrylic around the original CRT screen to make a bezel for the replacement LCD screen. The floppy drive slot was used to hide an SD card slot and USB port. The original serial port openings were even outfitted with their own USB ports. In the end he did a brilliant job of hiding the
Hackintosh
mini-ITX board and components inside this iconic enclosure. | 33 | 33 | [
{
"comment_id": "128529",
"author": "Ciric Tech",
"timestamp": "2010-03-08T19:37:45",
"content": "We use those as door stops in our CS department, lol. But very nice work.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "128535",
"author": "salsa",
"time... | 1,760,377,482.304828 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2010/03/08/lava-lamp-centrifuge/ | Lava Lamp Centrifuge | Caleb Kraft | [
"Cellphone Hacks",
"home hacks"
] | [
"centrifuge",
"lava lamp"
] | [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8-i9iI0ZA4M]
Like many projects, this one started with a harmless question. “Will lava lamps work in a high-gravity environment such as Jupiter?”. Well, as it turns out, this harmless question was not so easily answered. The only real solution was to test and prove for sure. To do this, [Neil Fraser]
built a centrifuge in his living room
. At 10 feet across and roughly 50 kilograms, this is no small toy. The end with the lava lamp is set to pivot, so at a stand still, it is positioned vertically and at full speed it is positioned horizontally. The whole process is recorded on video for proof. So, does a lava lamp work in high gravity? Watch the video or read the article to find out.
[via
Makezine
] | 72 | 50 | [
{
"comment_id": "128487",
"author": "SB",
"timestamp": "2010-03-08T17:19:16",
"content": "Why would anyone like to know :P",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "128488",
"author": "thenuyguy",
"timestamp": "2010-03-08T17:19:48",
"content":... | 1,760,377,482.184376 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2010/03/07/dont-worry-occifer-there-is-no-blood-in-my-alchohol/ | Don’t Worry Occifer, There Is No Blood In My Alcohol! | Jakob Griffith | [
"Arduino Hacks"
] | [
"alcohol",
"breathalyzer",
"drink",
"mq-3",
"quick",
"simple",
"sparkfun"
] | [Daniel] wrote up a quick tutorial on
interfacing with the MQ-3
, or better known
Breathalyzer from SparkFun
with Arduino. While we would have used perhaps an
op-amp/comparator
based system and kept it in a much
smaller package
, the idea was so quick and simple and enjoyable we hoped an article might keep some hackers from drinking and driving.
[Thanks CletustheYokel for pointing out our silly category mistake.] | 28 | 28 | [
{
"comment_id": "128420",
"author": "sneakypoo",
"timestamp": "2010-03-08T01:02:31",
"content": "If you feel you need to use a breathalyzer to see whether or not you should drive then alarm bells should really be going off in your head already.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies":... | 1,760,377,481.72897 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2010/03/07/137-years-of-popular-science-online-free/ | 137 Years Of Popular Science Online Free | Caleb Kraft | [
"Hackaday links"
] | [
"magazine",
"popular science"
] | 137 years of the magazine Popular Science
are now being hosted online by Google. You can peruse at your leisure, though you’ll have to search by keyword. We don’t see a date or issue browsing option. The cover art alone is worth your time, even if you’re not a fan of the articles. Many of us have fond memories of our childhood being influenced by the contents of these pages.
[via
BoingBoing
] | 31 | 31 | [
{
"comment_id": "128365",
"author": "Ned",
"timestamp": "2010-03-07T17:46:33",
"content": "http://books.google.com/books/serial/ISSN:01617370?rview=1&source=gbs_navlinks_s",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "128371",
"author": "Maave",
"time... | 1,760,377,482.37155 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2010/03/06/time-delay-door-alarm/ | Time Delay Door Alarm | Caleb Kraft | [
"classic hacks",
"home hacks"
] | [
"alarm",
"security"
] | Ever accidentally left your front door ajar and had a pet escape? [BlackCow] came up with a
simple solution
to this problem. The circuit is fairly rudimentary but a great example of using the basics to get the job done. Now, instead of having an alarm that sounds as soon as the door is open, he has a 30 second delay. This helps avoid the “boy who cried wolf” effect also known as the “vista security warning” effect of being bothered too many times for a non issue. We also have to say that we like his taste in blog layouts.
[via
Hacked Gadgets
] | 21 | 21 | [
{
"comment_id": "128283",
"author": "sM10sM20",
"timestamp": "2010-03-07T02:18:07",
"content": "“also known as the vista security warning”Proud Vista user but I got a good chuckle out of that, thank you.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "128285",
... | 1,760,377,482.036699 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2010/03/06/strobeshnik-an-hdd-clock/ | Strobeshnik, An HDD Clock | Caleb Kraft | [
"clock hacks"
] | [
"clock",
"hard drive",
"hdd",
"strobe"
] | Strobeshnik
is a somewhat different twist on the
hard drive clocks
we’ve seen in the past. Though still technically using a POV effect, the Strobeshnik displays the numerals instead of a line. By altering strobe timing of an LED behind a platter with the numbers cut into it, he can display whichever number he wants. We think this is pretty slick. | 22 | 22 | [
{
"comment_id": "128272",
"author": "dai1313",
"timestamp": "2010-03-07T01:05:42",
"content": "Niiiiice. I want one now.Also… first.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "128275",
"author": "pwrx",
"timestamp": "2010-03-07T01:18:03",
"cont... | 1,760,377,481.908325 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2010/03/06/lucid-dreaming/ | Lucid Dreaming | Jakob Griffith | [
"Android Hacks"
] | [
"analyze",
"arduino",
"blink",
"dreaming",
"ecg",
"electrode",
"graph",
"led",
"light",
"lucid",
"parallel port",
"sound card",
"unconcious"
] | When we saw [merkz]
use of an Arduino
to produce
lucid dreaming
we were quite shocked. Unlike typical setups that just flash a light through sleep, his system monitors eye movement through electrodes and is able to send the data to a computer for graphing and analyzing. The only problem being we couldn’t find a circuit diagram or code.
Not ones to be shot down so quickly, a Google revealed
this thread
on making ‘Dream Goggles’, which was really a
Brain-Wave Machine
based on the parallel port. Some modifications of an
ECG collector’s electrodes
using sound cards, and you could have your own lucid dreaming.
[Thanks Phil] | 28 | 28 | [
{
"comment_id": "128196",
"author": "localroger",
"timestamp": "2010-03-06T16:21:41",
"content": "I hope if anyone tries this they are at least using a laptop computer.I say this because he doesn’t appear to be using any voltage isolation between the PC and the headband. Most desktop PC power suppl... | 1,760,377,482.102087 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2010/03/04/diy-projector-collection/ | DIY Projector Collection | Mike Szczys | [
"classic hacks",
"home entertainment hacks"
] | [
"projector"
] | Reader [Jan] came across a website all about
building your own video projector
. We’ve linked to five of the best projects for 2010 but there’s a ton more information if you dig a little deeper. Our favorite so far is the
GohtanBox v3
and it’s giant LED panel that serves as the projection light. | 31 | 30 | [
{
"comment_id": "127807",
"author": "Jason",
"timestamp": "2010-03-04T21:25:07",
"content": "why must all the good links be in another language…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "127810",
"author": "bigbob",
"timestamp": "2010-03-04T21:33:... | 1,760,377,482.438619 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2010/03/04/google-unveils-api-to-powermeter/ | Google Unveils API To PowerMeter | Mike Szczys | [
"green hacks",
"HackIt"
] | [
"api",
"electricity",
"google",
"PowerMeter"
] | Google’s tentacles continue to wrap around every portion of our lives with the addition of an
API for their PowerMeter software
. The
PowerMeter tool
works with smart electricity meters to monitor and display power usage in the home. This will allow manufacturers (and hackers alike) to design new devices with the Google interface in mind.
We’ve got an old-fashioned power meter with a spinning dial and no blinking LED. This means we can’t
monitor that blink
to add our own PowerMeter interface. But if you do have an easy way to grab data from your meter you can
design a home system
that takes full advantage of Google’s tools.
Ok, who’s going to be the first to
have their Google PowerMeter-compatible hack featured on Hackaday
?
[Thanks Juan] | 33 | 32 | [
{
"comment_id": "127788",
"author": "derp",
"timestamp": "2010-03-04T20:22:16",
"content": "there’s nothing i hate more than the digital power meter on my house. granted an analog one could be built to skew data as well, but a digital one so much more and so much more invisibly.getting billed based... | 1,760,377,482.509661 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2010/03/04/using-mindflex-to-shock-the-heck-out-of-people/ | Using Mindflex To Shock The Heck Out Of People | Mike Szczys | [
"Toy Hacks"
] | [
"game",
"mindflex",
"shock"
] | We love to see eloquent hacks but this isn’t one of them. [Aaron] and his fellow sadists are
using a Mindflex game with an electric shocker
. If your brain is idle you’ll be fine, but too much activity inside the noggin and you’re in for nasty shock to the arm. Take a look at the video (bleeped but probably NSFW) after the break.
We’ve seen the
Mindflex
before, they’re using its interface in the same ways we’ve seen the Force Trainer used, by
tapping into the LEDs
. The
shocks are provided by a Qkit
, so hopefully there’s enough engineering behind it to keep the ‘contestant’ safe.
Hey, isn’t that
the Tron Guy
?
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kofSYRB-vh4] | 29 | 28 | [
{
"comment_id": "127768",
"author": "Peter",
"timestamp": "2010-03-04T19:24:46",
"content": "Whatever…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "983516",
"author": "Raijin",
"timestamp": "2013-03-23T18:18:58",
"content": "I know,... | 1,760,377,482.569082 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2010/03/04/home-cinema-3d-or-just-tick-off-theatergoers/ | Home Cinema 3D (or Just Tick Off Theatergoers) | Jakob Griffith | [
"News"
] | [
"3d",
"glasses",
"home cinema",
"ir",
"projector",
"theater",
"tick off movie goers"
] | After a visit to the local theater and discovering the use of IR 3D glasses (for films such as Avatar), the team over at Furrtek
wondered how they worked
, and more importantly, how the glasses could be manipulated to tick off audience members. While the original intentions seem a bit childish, they did mention that their final setup could also be used for a home cinema with IR 3D glasses.
Onto the good stuff: the glasses receive IR light pulses timed with the movie to black out the appropriate eye with the appropriate frame and producing a 3D effect. With the use of
IR Investigator
the team grabbed said timings; it was then simply a matter of building
their own IR projector
, and
bringing it back to the theater to annoy the crowd
setting it up for their 3D home cinema. | 55 | 50 | [
{
"comment_id": "127747",
"author": "DeadlyFoez",
"timestamp": "2010-03-04T18:36:08",
"content": "Awesome, just awesome. I always loved pissing off a crowd, like using my Sony Clie to turn off tv’s in sports bars during big game and put it to dora instead. Gotta love screwing with people.",
"par... | 1,760,377,482.652445 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2010/03/03/monocle-fixes-webcam-farsightedness/ | Monocle Fixes Webcam Farsightedness | Mike Szczys | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"dollar store",
"reading glasses",
"webcam"
] | [Vik Oliver] came up with
a webcam focus fix
that is so quick and simple we never would have thought of it. He received the webcam as a gift and mounted on an articulated lamp so that it could easily be positioned around his projects. The problem is the camera lacks a focus adjustment so the close-up shots were blurry.
In what we consider a
eureka moment
, he sourced a pair of dollar store reading glasses to fix the optics. The glasses came with their own mounting bracket. He clipped them in half and wrapped the wire ear support around the camera body. Great hacks
don’t have to be complicated
, and we need to do a better job of looking at the
dollar store for project parts
! | 36 | 36 | [
{
"comment_id": "127595",
"author": "NatureTM",
"timestamp": "2010-03-03T22:34:24",
"content": "A brass framed monocle????Does that make the webcam steampunk???You should really fix the article so it says it’s steampunk.Thx",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"com... | 1,760,377,483.220441 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2010/03/03/build-your-own-lightweight-flash-tripod/ | Build Your Own Lightweight Flash Tripod | Mike Szczys | [
"digital cameras hacks"
] | [
"flash",
"poles",
"tent",
"tripod"
] | [Peter Karlsson] is a commercial photographer who wanted some ultralight, portable supports for multiple flashes.
What he came up with
meets those goals; measuring 16 inches long when folded and weighing just 14 ounces. They set up just like a tent because they’re made from tent poles. Like the portable habitats, the tripods have bungee cords running through each section which holds them rigid but allows them to fold for transport. This is a great sister project to
the flash synchronizer
from yesterday. See the demo and the
building instructions
after the break.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xnySj16NWdg]
Demo video
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y1xECdgZfPw]
Building instructions
[Thanks Juan] | 8 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "127588",
"author": "PsyKotyk",
"timestamp": "2010-03-03T22:13:51",
"content": "I got excited… I thought it was build your own fleshlight… oh well, this is cool too.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "127652",
"author": "Simbo",... | 1,760,377,483.439936 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2010/03/03/iphone-case-rehabilitation/ | IPhone Case Rehabilitation | Mike Szczys | [
"iphone hacks"
] | [
"3m",
"case",
"iphone",
"rehabilitation",
"restoration"
] | [Richard Cabrera’s] iPhone was scratched from years of use. A big part of the appeal of Apple products is the dose of sexy that comes with them, so he set out to remedy this abomination. His
iPhone case rehabilitation
guide walks you through the miraculous transformation. One of the tools he uses is a headlight lens restoration kit from 3M because its polishing pads include graduated levels of grit for the transition from rough sanding to buffing. As you can see, the logo and text have been buffed off but that’s a small price to pay for what looks like a shiny new device. | 42 | 42 | [
{
"comment_id": "127549",
"author": "DJcrayon",
"timestamp": "2010-03-03T19:11:54",
"content": "Some would say the logo being polished off is an added plus!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "127550",
"author": "Asuraku",
"timestamp": "2010... | 1,760,377,483.143332 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2010/03/05/diy-diodes/ | DIY Diodes | Devlin Thyne | [
"classic hacks",
"hardware"
] | [
"Cuprous oxide",
"diode",
"radio"
] | [H. P. Friedrichs], the creator of the
Static Bleeder
has created his own
diodes
. Using household chemicals, a film of
cuprous oxide
was made on a copper pipe cap. Cuprous oxide has been one of the first known semiconductor substances, has a low forward drop but is an otherwise asymmetrical conductor, odd V-I curves, and some neat photovoltaic action. The apparatus seen above is used to bring a piece of lead (in this case, solder) into contact with the salmon-colored cuprous oxide while electrical connections can be made to the binding posts at the front. What are your thoughts on this device? | 47 | 43 | [
{
"comment_id": "128102",
"author": "HSLD",
"timestamp": "2010-03-06T00:15:13",
"content": "I think that is one of the coolest things I have ever seen…..",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "128105",
"author": "Stephen",
"timestamp": "2010-03... | 1,760,377,483.392842 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2010/03/05/rc-truck-source-for-robotics-platform/ | RC Truck Source For Robotics Platform | Mike Szczys | [
"Robots Hacks"
] | [
"arduino",
"ftdi",
"processing",
"rc",
"sparkfun",
"xbee"
] | [Michael] sent us a link to his
RC robotic platform
. He started with the same RC toy as the
iPhone Robot (CAR)
but ended up with a blank slate waiting for more features. What he has is an Arduino with a motor driver, three bump switches for the front and rear, and a XBee module. On the other side of things he used a SparkFun USB to FTDI connector to interface another XBee module with a PC in order to use
Processing
.
In the clip after the break you can see the motor control needs to have more fine-tuning done so the beast isn’t just out of control when running. But there’s a ton of potential here. It should not be a problem to add at lease rudimentary video feedback from the device. The Arduino is currently only being used marginally, leaving plenty of space to add on-board sensing such as IR, proximity, or light.
It’s a clean start, we expect to see updates!
[vimeo=http://vimeo.com/8937750] | 15 | 15 | [
{
"comment_id": "128081",
"author": "goldscott",
"timestamp": "2010-03-05T22:29:22",
"content": "The XBEE data rate is so low I doubt video feedback would be manageable. A couple years ago I streamed low quality audio across it; I think that about maxed out the bandwidth.Granted, 802.15.4 isn’t suit... | 1,760,377,483.272244 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2010/03/05/usb-oscilloscope/ | USB Oscilloscope | Mike Szczys | [
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"attiny45",
"c++",
"oscilloscope",
"usb"
] | Here’s a
USB oscilloscope project
from a few years back. It’s easy to build on a single-sided PCB and very cheap because it uses just a handful of parts. At the center, an ATtiny45 microcontroller uses its ADC capabilities for the two traces and also handles the USB connectivity. The internal oscillator is used and trimmed up for accuracy by referencing the USB clock. On the PC side of things, a program written in C# displays the data coming over the serial bus. Quick, small, and useful; a schematic, board layout, firmware, and PC software sources are all available for download.
[Thanks Shri] | 21 | 21 | [
{
"comment_id": "128066",
"author": "macegr",
"timestamp": "2010-03-05T21:22:44",
"content": "It’s more of a USB voltmeter than an oscilloscope (in the 100-200Hz range) and it’s using an ATtiny45 instead of an ATmega45 which doesn’t exits.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
... | 1,760,377,483.496871 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2010/03/05/space-invaders-clock-6-years-ahead-of-pong-clock/ | Space Invaders Clock 6 Years Ahead Of Pong Clock | Mike Szczys | [
"clock hacks"
] | [
"adafruit",
"ks0108",
"pong",
"space invaders"
] | Space Invaders came out in 1978, six years after Pong. That means
this Space Invaders clock
uses newer technology, right? Nope, it’s the same hardware as
the Adafruit Pong Clock
with some updated firmware. Still, as you can see after the break, the effect is pretty nice. Pong was cool, but having a clock that scrolls through several classic games would be cooler.
[Dataman], the guy responsible for this firmware hack
shared his code
. It should be easy enough to alter it for
any clock using a KS0108 graphic LCD screen
. So what’s next? Can someone pull off a black and white
Ms. Pac-Man
that looks decent on the 128×64 display?
[flickr video=4408647041 w=800]
[Thanks PT] | 10 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "128062",
"author": "googfan",
"timestamp": "2010-03-05T21:04:21",
"content": "oops, ascii fail… try agin············⌂·······▲·▲·▲·▲·▲·▲·▲·▲·▲··▲·▲·▲·▲·▲·▲·▲·▲·▲··♥·♥·♥·♥·♥·♥·♥·♥·♥··♥·♥·♥·····♥·♥·♥·♥··●·●·●·····●·●···●··●·●····|····●···●······················╔╗··╔╗|··╔╗··╔╗··········... | 1,760,377,483.313065 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2010/03/05/a-vu-meter-for-your-psp/ | A VU Meter For Your PSP | Mike Szczys | [
"PSP Hacks"
] | [
"lm324",
"psp",
"VU meter"
] | [Christian Doran] wanted some blinky goodness to go along with the tunes on his PSP. He
built a VU meter circuit
around a couple of LM324 op-amp chips and fit it into the UMD space on the back of the PSP. Using surface mount LEDs and some fine wire he lined up a string of indicator lights round the circle on the clear UMD cover. As you can see in the video after the break, the back of the case now pulses along with the music.
[Christian] notes that
building the VU circuit around an LM3915
would have been much easier but he’s working with what he has on hand. Looks like he achieve the effect he was after. If you want to learn a bit more about
how the op-amps work
, take a look at the tutorial from our links post.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ePNwQOe-FbI] | 10 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "128056",
"author": "googfan",
"timestamp": "2010-03-05T20:08:42",
"content": "how do you play umd’s?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "128058",
"author": "osgeld",
"timestamp": "2010-03-05T20:12:53",
"content": "you do... | 1,760,377,483.541143 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2010/03/05/google-your-home-with-a-roomba/ | Google Your Home With A Roomba | Caleb Kraft | [
"Robots Hacks"
] | [
"google",
"ocr",
"roomba"
] | [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bKRH6uQwOgg]
Meet GåågleBot.
GåågleBot is a modified
roomba
that will not only vacuum your home, but collect data while it does it. While it is carrying out its normal duties as a floor cleaner, it will take pictures, collecting and analyzing all the data for later searches. With built in OCR, you can actually search for things using text strings.
Aside from just carrying out its normal job, you can also remote control it via the web. You can even control theirs!
[via
Boing Boing
] | 12 | 12 | [
{
"comment_id": "128021",
"author": "alex",
"timestamp": "2010-03-05T17:04:01",
"content": "lol time to spy on them with their vacuum",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "128034",
"author": "dread",
"timestamp": "2010-03-05T18:02:46",
"co... | 1,760,377,483.589973 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2010/03/04/is-gek-a-modern-day-mr-fusion/ | Is GEK A Modern-day Mr. Fusion? | Mike Szczys | [
"green hacks"
] | [
"DeLorean",
"gasification",
"gek",
"generator",
"mr. fusion",
"syngas"
] | [Nanomonkey] spent the weekend building generators that run off of syngas.
All Powers Lab produces Gasifier Experimenter Kits
to convert raw material to energy. The kits use
Gasification
to make a “
natural gas like
” fuel from materials such as wood chips, walnut shells, construction debris or agricultural waste.
So is this the
Mr. Fusion
that powered the DeLorean?
This Honda fitted with a GEK
sure makes it look that way. But all joking aside, this looks like a great way to turn waste in heat or electricity. There’s tons of info on the site to dig through. The controllers are open source which would make it easier to interface with the
Google PowerMeter
when the system is used as a generator. | 42 | 40 | [
{
"comment_id": "127819",
"author": "michael",
"timestamp": "2010-03-04T22:10:19",
"content": "This looked like voodoo until I saw this idea run a generator on a stupid discovery reality show.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "2770883",
... | 1,760,377,483.666468 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2010/03/03/led-and-fan-controller/ | LED And Fan Controller | Mike Szczys | [
"classic hacks",
"LED Hacks"
] | [
"com2",
"fan",
"led",
"rgb",
"serial"
] | Needing a front fan to keep his hard drive cool, [CalcProgrammer1] found he was unhappy with a single LED color for the fan. He swapped them out for a set of four RGB LEDs and
whipped up his own controller board
for the unit. It is based around an ATmega168 and patches into the COM2 header on the motherboard, providing a serial interface. [CalcProgrammer1] wrote a GUI to control fan speed, and individual LED color settings. You can take a look at and enthralling, edge-of-your-seat demonstration of how slider controls work after the break. Wouldn’t it be great if the
HDD LED clock
could be adapted to use a fan so that the front panel had a colorful analog dial on it?
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4J4vlAMgQDQ] | 11 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "127545",
"author": "N8Sayer",
"timestamp": "2010-03-03T18:35:07",
"content": "Gotta say, that’s a pretty sweet fan mod. I’m personally not a fan of LED fans (apologies in advance) but I feel like I wouldn’t mind if they were all that nice.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
... | 1,760,377,483.714336 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2010/03/03/vacuum-pick-and-place-for-smd-parts/ | Vacuum Pick And Place For SMD Parts | Caleb Kraft | [
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"smd",
"vacuum"
] | [Pete] has written up this in depth how-to on building a vacuum pick and place from an
aquarium pump
and a pen
. The pump conversion to vacuum is extremely simple, with a slight modification to a valve being all that is necessary. The pen is only slightly more involved, but still extremely simple. This entire project could be done in an evening for less than $30. If you’re doing a ton of SMD work, it could be a no-brainer.
[thanks Drone] | 20 | 20 | [
{
"comment_id": "127525",
"author": "ino",
"timestamp": "2010-03-03T17:00:24",
"content": "Or you can just use a sharp tweezer. It does the job for me everyday at work, even on 603.Nice hack tho…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "127526",
"aut... | 1,760,377,484.15665 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2010/03/02/automatic-telephone-recorder/ | Automatic Telephone Recorder | Mike Szczys | [
"Cellphone Hacks",
"classic hacks"
] | [
"recorder",
"telephone",
"usb"
] | [James Bond] types and those suffering from a hefty dose of paranoia can now record all telephone conversations. [Trax] built
this module that monitors the phone line and starts recording
when a handset is picked up. A computer does the actual recording, triggered by the microcontroller via a USB connection.
We like the use of an old PCB for a faceplate, we’ve certainly got some duds of our own sitting around. The three cords are a bit confusing though. One for the phone line, one for the USB, but what does the third do? Is it an audio-out connection?
We’ve asked [Trax] to post a schematic and source code if possible so that might clear up the mystery.
Update:
[Trax] let us know that there is a red button with white lettering at the bottom labeled “download”. This contains schematic, code, pcb layout, and PC software. We just missed it the first time around. | 40 | 40 | [
{
"comment_id": "127349",
"author": "Eddie",
"timestamp": "2010-03-02T23:26:55",
"content": "External power maybe?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "127352",
"author": "Saydrah",
"timestamp": "2010-03-02T23:32:19",
"content": "I’m pret... | 1,760,377,484.464511 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2010/03/02/fanwing-is-like-a-harvester-in-the-sky/ | FanWing Is Like A Harvester In The Sky | Mike Szczys | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"aircraft",
"fanwing",
"plane"
] | The
FanWing aircraft concept
has been around for a while but this is the first time we’ve seen working models. It gets rid of the propeller and adopts a rotating cylinder for propulsion. The look reminds us of a
combine harvester
and in a way it does reap the air, pulling the craft through the sky. We’re not holding our breath for the decommission of jet propulsion in the wake of this method, but we’d love to see some
fun-loving death from above
whenever you can get your own off the ground. Check out the video clips after the break to see, and hear, this in action.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uscW9RLcBpw]
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=asJqvrikQSA]
[Thanks I] | 44 | 44 | [
{
"comment_id": "127332",
"author": "googfan",
"timestamp": "2010-03-02T22:30:05",
"content": "commenting on epic post.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "127336",
"author": "derp",
"timestamp": "2010-03-02T22:39:43",
"content": "neat d... | 1,760,377,484.238966 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2010/03/02/hacking-space-without-profit-or-secrecy/ | Hacking Space Without Profit Or Secrecy | Mike Szczys | [
"Transportation Hacks"
] | [
"copenhagen suborbital",
"rockets",
"space"
] | Reader [Jacob] tipped us off about a
project the aims to make the final frontier open source
. The
mission
of the Copenhagen Suborbitals is to launch a man into space. What they’re not interested in is turning a profit, carrying
hazmat
or weapons, or keeping what they learn to themselves.
Surprisingly enough, isn’t this the next logical step after
hobbyists send cameras into space
? This team thinks so and they’ve been hard at work building and testing rockets. With the last round of successful tests behind them, they’ve paved the way for a launch of the first round of
the campaign
on June first.
Da duh daaaah da duh duh da daaaaa | 46 | 46 | [
{
"comment_id": "127293",
"author": "strider_mt2k",
"timestamp": "2010-03-02T20:33:48",
"content": "Manned schmanned, I want robotic telepresence!It’s so much easier, and, uh…first ups on the controls.SO CALLED!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1... | 1,760,377,484.743629 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2010/03/02/smart-flash-synchronization/ | Smart Flash Synchronization | Mike Szczys | [
"digital cameras hacks"
] | [
"arduino",
"flash",
"nikon",
"trigger"
] | [Max] designed this
circuit to add smart flash synchronization
to his photography arsenal. He did this because ‘dumb’ TTL based flashes won’t play nicely with more sophisticated systems like the
Nikon Advanced Wireless Lighting
. By building a microcontroller into the mechanism, he’s added functionality for several different scenarios, ensuring that he’ll never again have problems with early flash triggering. Now that the kinks have been ironed out in the prototype, the code and hardware can be migrated over to whatever microcontroller suits you. | 7 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "127277",
"author": "dmitrygr",
"timestamp": "2010-03-02T19:48:34",
"content": "Duemialonove?This can be done with a Pic12…..what a waste of a perfectly good part…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "127283",
"author": "Dan",
... | 1,760,377,484.101539 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2010/03/02/portable-squeezebox-with-serial/ | Portable Squeezebox With Serial | Jakob Griffith | [
"digital audio hacks",
"home entertainment hacks"
] | [
"battery",
"extended",
"linux",
"logitech",
"sensor",
"Squeezebox",
"tempurature",
"wifi"
] | The Squeezbox media streaming systems are compact Linux WiFi enabled radios that let you stream your collection anywhere,so long as you have an AC or USB outlet nearby. But [Achim Sack] wanted to stream his collection from anywhere
with no wires attached
(
translation
). Some poking and prodding revealed a connector actually designed for a battery and serial, but no commercially available battery yet.
The system requires a temperature sensor and if you want serial,
a USB converter
, but overall a simple process that could be done in an afternoon. Giving your box ~10 hour of life and even fits inside of a back compartment.
[Thanks Thomas] | 14 | 14 | [
{
"comment_id": "127238",
"author": "LeJupp",
"timestamp": "2010-03-02T15:36:35",
"content": "Aside from the wonderful hack, isn’t it incredible how usable those google translations have become?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "127244",
"auth... | 1,760,377,484.391064 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2010/02/28/112-led-coffee-table/ | 112-LED Coffee Table | Mike Szczys | [
"LED Hacks"
] | [
"atmega328",
"coffee table",
"matrix",
"tlc5940"
] | [Joe] tipped us off about his
112 LED coffee table
. This 12-ups
the LED matrix
from Friday and 31-ups the
Shiftbrite table
. Driving
this grid
is an ATmega328 in i2c slave mode. It listens for display data from a second ATmega328 and uses that to set the array of
TLC5940
driven LEDs appropriately. Separating the processing microcontroller from the display microcontroller allows for fast and smooth display changes that can be seen after the break. [Joe’s] table exhibits exquisite cable management, clean code, and an amazing amount of flexibility. Maybe [
Caleb Kraft
] will finally pony up the dough and make this project for his own home.
[Joe] waited until he saw some other LED tables to send us a link to his hack. This is obviously an awesome project, one that we want to see just as much as our readers do. So please, don’t wait for someone else to stumble upon your project,
send us a tip
once you’re done
sharing the details
.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tj1j1-dIX6k] | 30 | 30 | [
{
"comment_id": "126813",
"author": "kirov",
"timestamp": "2010-03-01T00:11:28",
"content": "honestly hackaday how many times do you need to keep posting this LED table thing.So if tomorrow i make a 113 LED table you will post it? How about a 114 LED table after that?",
"parent_id": null,
"d... | 1,760,377,484.805731 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2010/02/28/extreme-piano-transplant/ | Extreme Piano Transplant | Mike Szczys | [
"digital audio hacks"
] | [
"korg",
"piano",
"triton",
"upright"
] | We always wondered what happens to ancient pianos when the internals can no longer be kept in a playable condition. [Jean Philippe Roch]
gutted his elderly upright and fit a Korg Triton inside
. After the break you can watch a few videos including a slide show of the work log. [Jean] separates the Korg keyboard from its case and places it in the empty upright piano rank. He then mounts the Korg’s controls in the front panel and adds motorized control to reveal this hidden secret. The project is finished with speakers in the bottom portion of the upright and blue LED lighting effects.
The result is a pretty nice show-piece. It’s not as hacky as
vocoding
, but we really love the finished look.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0N4XacwfD5Y]
Construction log
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bJhPJaRRcns]
Case automation
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TNwd5P2LrTM]
Playing demonstration
[Thanks poisoMike] | 29 | 29 | [
{
"comment_id": "126793",
"author": "Freax",
"timestamp": "2010-02-28T22:40:18",
"content": "The blue leds look sooo tacky… If he painted the whole thing white (or black) it would look ok maybe, but with the dark wood?!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment... | 1,760,377,484.527137 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2010/02/28/fix-0lba-and-bsy-hdd-errors/ | Fix 0LBA And BSY HDD Errors | Jakob Griffith | [
"Peripherals Hacks"
] | [
"0lba",
"2700.11",
"error",
"firmware",
"hard drive",
"seagate",
"Thermite"
] | One of the worst moments almost every hacker has experienced is a hard drive inexplicably dieing. And of course, its at the most inopportune time and you’ve had no chance to backup!
Recently there has been an influx of Seagate hard drives (specifically the 2700.11s) kicking the bucket with firmware errors
0LBA
and
BSY
. The good news is [Gradius2] has made guides to unbrick your drive without having to match serials.
The procedure is lengthy, complicated, can easily become expensive, and there is the possibility of losing your data so it’s not recommended if you’re only getting those pictures of Mr.Fluffykins back. In such a case,
Thermite
might be a bit better solution.
[Thanks Calvin] | 21 | 20 | [
{
"comment_id": "126782",
"author": "Mr Dan",
"timestamp": "2010-02-28T21:31:02",
"content": "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dieing",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "126784",
"author": "lancet01",
"timestamp": "2010-02-28T21:32:18",
"con... | 1,760,377,484.583757 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2010/02/28/thwart-robbers-with-an-old-smoke-alarm/ | Thwart Robbers With An Old Smoke Alarm. | Mike Szczys | [
"Security Hacks"
] | [
"burglar alarm",
"fire alarm",
"smoke detector"
] | [Anders] tipped us off about his hack that
re-purposes a smoke alarm as a burglar alarm
. Unfortunately, he came home in the middle of a burglary but wanted to be ready the next time someone tries to break in. By cleverly patching into the test button on an old smoke detector he created a circuit-trip alarm. One side of each piece of wire is secured to the frame and jam of a window. A paper clip completes the circuit by pinching the two bare conductors. If the window is opened the connection is lost and the alarm sounds.
We see a few problems with this system. First off,
never hack your ONLY smoke detector, you are putting lives at risk by doing so
. But [Anders] says he’ll have a replacement detector and since these things need to be replace every ten years or so, chances are you can find an old one kicking around. We’d recommend disguising the case so that people aren’t confused about it being a smoke detector. Secondly, he’s mounted the alarm right in the window frame so most likely an invader will just smash the thing to bits.
Anyway, it’s still an interesting reuse of these ubiquitous, and life-saving, devices. | 50 | 50 | [
{
"comment_id": "126730",
"author": "Dan",
"timestamp": "2010-02-28T15:47:34",
"content": "“most likely an invader will just smash the thing to bits”Or switch it off, since the switch is right there. It might scare off really really dumb intruders, but a decent alarm system would be a better deterre... | 1,760,377,484.668395 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2010/02/27/two-input-devices-made-with-common-items/ | Two Input Devices Made With Common Items | Mike Szczys | [
"classic hacks"
] | [
"foam",
"keypad",
"matrix",
"potentiometer",
"tape",
"variable"
] | Here’s two input devices you can easily build with materials you already have on hand.
To the left, [John] built a 3×3
keypad matrix from paper and tinfoil
. The rows and columns are made up of strips of tin foil on the front and back layers of paper. The layers are separated by spongy double-stick tape. A ‘keypress’ results when the gap between the conductors is compressed with your finger.
In much the same way, [Dave Fletcher]
built a touch potentiometer
. He made two resistance plates by scribbling pencil lead on sheets of paper. When the two plates face each other, separated by the same type of foam tape as before, they can be pressed together to form a circuit with a variable resistance. This results in a crude version of the
SparkFun softpot
. | 19 | 19 | [
{
"comment_id": "126658",
"author": "therian",
"timestamp": "2010-02-27T19:16:49",
"content": "and this keypad will last for full phone number or two, capacity keys are as cheap but much more durable",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "126660",
... | 1,760,377,484.917606 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2010/02/27/wrt54gl-meet-alice/ | WRT54GL, Meet Alice | Jakob Griffith | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"alice",
"debian",
"gate2 plus wifi",
"parallel",
"serial",
"unlock firmware",
"usb",
"webcame",
"wrt54gl"
] | When it comes to routers, there is one that is hacker’s favorite, the WRT54GL. But a slightly lesser known company, Pirelli with their “Alice Gate2 plus Wi-Fi”, seems to be a popular choice among our Italian friends.
[Esteban] has done everything from installing
serial and parallel ports
, to
unlocking firmware
while installing
Debian
. Our personal favorite is the creative wiring of an
additional USB port
, where he had to custom create a power circuit to run his webcam and external drive.
[Thanks Marco]
[Update: It would appear Roleo, Beghiaro, and Zibri did the actual grunt work at
ilpuntotecnicoeadsl
and Esteban simply wrote the guides. Thanks for your hard work and hacking skills guys!] | 22 | 22 | [
{
"comment_id": "126649",
"author": "googfan",
"timestamp": "2010-02-27T17:53:24",
"content": "who doesn’t like usb?also, 1st",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "126651",
"author": "sm10",
"timestamp": "2010-02-27T17:56:45",
"content": "... | 1,760,377,484.86276 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2010/02/26/yet-another-pong-clock/ | Yet Another Pong-clock | Mike Szczys | [
"clock hacks"
] | [
"adafruit",
"atmega328",
"ks0108",
"pong clock"
] | [PT] let us know that
Adafruit Industries has just release a pong clock kit
. The $80 price tag might seem a bit steep but it does come with a custom-ordered KS0108 display in order to get white on black like the classic video game, as seen after the break. Also included is the laser-cut case, an ATmega328 microcontroller, RTC, and all the other bits needed to get this working.
We just saw a
pong clock built on a breadboard
using a KS0108 display but that one used a PIC processor.
Adafruit
always open-sources their designs and code so you can head over to the
kit details page
if you already have the hardware on hand to throw this together.
[vimeo=http://vimeo.com/9749504] | 19 | 19 | [
{
"comment_id": "126537",
"author": "Stu",
"timestamp": "2010-02-27T00:45:31",
"content": "Nice, I’m loving the retro gaming style to these things.Lets just hope AdaFruit don’t f**k up the part availability like they did the Ice Tube Clock Kit – was meant to be fully available since November, wasn’t... | 1,760,377,485.093737 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2010/03/01/steampunk-sequencer/ | Steampunk Sequencer | Mike Szczys | [
"digital audio hacks"
] | [
"sequencer",
"steampunk"
] | [Moritz Wolpert] built this gem of Victorian hardware by hand. It is a sequencer and features beautiful detail work as shown in
its MySpace gallery
. Other than that we don’t know a lot about it. You can also take a look at
[Moritz’s] main page
, but prepare to be annoyed by the hideous web-styling that really undercuts the beauty of his physical product.
[Thanks Freax via
Schaltzentrale
] | 26 | 25 | [
{
"comment_id": "127096",
"author": "tehgringe",
"timestamp": "2010-03-02T00:11:35",
"content": "3 things.1. Epic looking piece of kit – but I am not reading your ‘site’, here is for the why:2. MySpace is for children3. No backdrop, please, for the love of all that is made of brass get rid of the ba... | 1,760,377,485.21277 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2010/03/01/hacker-finds-better-use-for-a-windows-machine/ | Hacker Finds Better Use For A Windows Machine | Mike Szczys | [
"computer hacks"
] | [
"aquarium",
"betta",
"fish",
"glass block"
] | [Patrick Becker] had an ancient PC on his hands with a blown PSU. He converted this into
a stylish home for his
Betta splendens
.
The aquarium itself is fashioned from a piece for construction glass block with the top cut off. This allows for a window that looks through the tank and shows off the motherboard on the other side. He patched into the AC connector so that the original power cord can be used to control the pump. A lighted pump button was added to the front panel and a fancy bezel fitted to the viewing portal in the side of the case. He finished off the project with a PVC pipe for air and food. His blue screen of death now features water and a real fish. | 34 | 33 | [
{
"comment_id": "127065",
"author": "kirov",
"timestamp": "2010-03-01T23:02:52",
"content": "+10 internets to whomever links to the completed .pdf of the hack so we don’t have to use that abortion of a site.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "12706... | 1,760,377,485.284014 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2010/03/01/doombox-classic-keys-meet-tiny-screen/ | DoomBox: Classic Keys Meet Tiny Screen | Mike Szczys | [
"classic hacks",
"digital cameras hacks"
] | [
"dc290",
"digita os",
"doom",
"kodak"
] | The
doomBox is a dedicated gaming rig
for lovers of ID Software’s classic title. [JJ] built this from an old Kodak DC290 camera that had a broken lens. Since this runs the
Digita OS
, he was able to use the Doom port that already exists. But the camera’s factory buttons were not well suited as controls. By whipping up his own button board, and using the traditional keyboard keys for the button caps, he achieved a much more comfortable (yet squint-inducing) gaming experience. The finished project resides in an all-too-familiar black project box. See him fire it up after the break.
The original Doom for Digita OS pages seem to be down so
here’s an alternate
if you’re interested.
Update:
Looks like
the original website is back up
.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uk7z-RIo07k] | 24 | 24 | [
{
"comment_id": "127040",
"author": "kirov",
"timestamp": "2010-03-01T22:03:13",
"content": "this is the *SNIFF* doom box *SNIFF SNIFF* *click* *click* *monster groan* *SNIFFF*",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "127045",
"author": "Fallen",
... | 1,760,377,485.153502 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2010/03/01/phonewebapp-written-in-ploy-to-appear-more-popular/ | Phone/webapp Written In Ploy To Appear More Popular | Mike Szczys | [
"Cellphone Hacks"
] | [
"cell phone",
"tornado",
"twilio"
] | That title’s not really fair to [Evan], but he did write a
cellphone tetris game that causes your handset to automatically telephone him
if you win. He’s using two applications that we’re not very familiar with,
Twilio
and
Tornado
. The former handles control input from the cellphone via their simple API. The latter is a web server and web framework that runs the actual game.
If you’re interested in how he put the two together you can
poke around in the code
. If you really don’t care about how it is done, you might just want to win
the game
, automatically giving [Evan] a call, running up his wireless bill in the process.
Help us add some value to this article by leaving a comment. We’d like to know how Twilio compares to Google Voice which doesn’t seem to have a published API (but there is
some work in that area
). We also think web-based cell phone interactivity, already
popular in hacks
, is just beginning to build some steam. What are the tools you use to make cellphone interfaces easier and quicker to implement? | 20 | 20 | [
{
"comment_id": "127030",
"author": "Anders",
"timestamp": "2010-03-01T21:48:52",
"content": "Why would his wireless bill be affected by people calling him?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "127034",
"author": "MS3FGX",
"timestamp": "2010-... | 1,760,377,485.517859 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2010/03/01/batchpcb-pays-you/ | BatchPCB Pays You | Devlin Thyne | [
"News"
] | [
"batchpcb",
"pcb",
"Printed Circuit Board",
"PWB",
"sparkfun"
] | SparkFun’s
BatchPCB
has been a well-known service to get your PCBs fabbed, and now it is sporting a new feature. It has just come out of its downtime chrysalis with the ability to pay you for making your designs. If you have designed a PCB and want people to pay you to use it, BatchPCB will now do that for you. [Patrick] says “We want engineers to benefit from the low-cost production for prototypes and have the ability to sell their work, conveniently.” There are a few caveats. First of all, each seller must be a resident of the United States and send BatchPCB a W-9. Secondly, PCBs are only warranted against manufacturing defects, so buyers should make sure the PCB they are buying is a working design. Finally, the sellers must only be selling designs of their own or with proper permission. We are big fans of free, open-source designs, but we can see how this would help an engineer recover some of their costs to develop a board and might lead to some interesting brokering of designs. What do you think of this new service? | 80 | 50 | [
{
"comment_id": "126992",
"author": "David",
"timestamp": "2010-03-01T20:01:17",
"content": "Great idea but sucks for us Canadians!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "126993",
"author": "Snow",
"timestamp": "2010-03-01T20:05:42",
"conte... | 1,760,377,485.687285 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2010/03/01/biped-walks-with-eight-servos/ | Biped Walks With Eight Servos | Mike Szczys | [
"Robots Hacks"
] | [
"atmega8",
"biped",
"servo"
] | [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iLUeQ1SkhK0]
This tiny biped
shows a lot of coordination in its movements. As you can see, eight servo motors account for the locomotion with an ATmega8 as the brains of the operation. Posts for the
first
and
second
generation of this little guy feature several videos. We gather that a spreadsheet is being used to tweak the preprogrammed movement sequences. Trial and error, that’s how humans learned to walk, right?
[Thanks Lazas] | 34 | 34 | [
{
"comment_id": "126949",
"author": "markii",
"timestamp": "2010-03-01T16:12:26",
"content": "wow i really love this little thingy :) looks and walks great!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "126951",
"author": "markii",
"timestamp": "2010-... | 1,760,377,485.821228 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2010/02/28/open-source-logic-analyzer-2/ | Open Source Logic Analyzer | Mike Szczys | [
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"logic analyzer",
"OpenBench Logic Sniffer"
] | Hackaday alum [Ian Lesnet] has been working in cahoots with a dedicated team of developers to produce the
OpenBench Logic Sniffer
. This caseless logic analyzer can operate at 100MHz and sample 32 channels at once. Better yet, a
digital oscilloscope add-on
is in the works. The
pre-order
comes in at $45, that’s a lot of functionality for just a few greenbacks. We’ve embedded a demo video after the break that details installing and using this device under Ubuntu.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CQ1lHrEnVFU]
[Thanks Drone via
Dangerous Prototypes
] | 88 | 50 | [
{
"comment_id": "126819",
"author": "Alpha",
"timestamp": "2010-03-01T01:19:09",
"content": "this looks badass",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "126824",
"author": "ehrichweiss",
"timestamp": "2010-03-01T01:27:27",
"content": "I defini... | 1,760,377,485.602675 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2010/02/26/lower-productivity-by-using-a-rotary-num-pad/ | Lower Productivity By Using A Rotary Num Pad | Mike Szczys | [
"Peripherals Hacks"
] | [
"10-key",
"num pad",
"phone",
"rotary"
] | [vimeo=http://vimeo.com/9618204]
[Maximilian Ernestus] sent us a quick little demo that shows him using
a rotary phone dial as a num pad
. We’re often frustrated when notebooks and netbooks prohibit us from using our mad 10-key skills (alternate key mapping doesn’t count). This makes coding and using
GnuCash
undesirable on small form factor portables.
Instead of fixing the problem, [Maximilian] made it worse by interfacing a rotary phone as a num pad. An Arduino counts the pulses and feeds them to the computer via a serial connection. From there it’s just a bit of software handling to issue a keypress. He mentions that a future version should register as a USB keyboard. This is a great opportunity to ditch the Arduino and use the
V-USB library
.
Want to dig a bit deeper into this old technology? Don’t miss out on the information available from the
Magic Phone hack
. | 30 | 29 | [
{
"comment_id": "126511",
"author": "googfan",
"timestamp": "2010-02-26T23:38:23",
"content": "hmm…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "126515",
"author": "osgeld",
"timestamp": "2010-02-26T23:42:40",
"content": "cute, I can imagine tryi... | 1,760,377,485.884704 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2010/02/26/10x10-led-matrix/ | 10×10 LED Matrix | Mike Szczys | [
"LED Hacks"
] | [
"atmega8",
"led",
"lemmings",
"matrix"
] | [KopfKopfKopfAffe] just finished a 3-year labor of love resulting in this
10 by 10 LED Matrix
. This trumps the
Shiftbrite table
from earlier today by bringing an actual 100 LEDs to the display. These LEDs cost much less than the Shiftbrites, but since they don’t have their own on-board controller this project requires much more back end work. A total of 25 ATmega8 microcontrollers drive this display, in turn controlled via an RS-232 connection to a computer.
We love the
Lemmings
animations. It made us realize that this would be a great candidate to play
Super Pixel Bros
on. Check out the video after the break for snapshots of the hardware as well as videos of the matrix at play. You may also want to peruse the
translated work log
.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MrWIMeGqr9E] | 33 | 33 | [
{
"comment_id": "126462",
"author": "octel",
"timestamp": "2010-02-26T20:20:16",
"content": "25 Atmega8 microcontrollers?!Seems a bit overkill…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "126465",
"author": "Olivier",
"timestamp": "2010-02-26T20:26:... | 1,760,377,485.757845 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2010/02/26/drilling-perfectly-centered-holes/ | Drilling Perfectly Centered Holes | Jakob Griffith | [
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"bolt",
"center",
"dowel",
"drill",
"hole",
"metal",
"perfect",
"press",
"rod",
"shaft"
] | If you’ve ever been caught in the situation of needing to drill a clean straight hole down the center of a bolt or rod, you’ve probably tried and ended up with a broken bit or tilted hole, and a ton of cursing to boot.
[Vik] let us know about this
nifty trick
for drilling ‘down the middle’ using a simple
hobby drill press
and vice. He claims it’s ‘physics guiding the bit’ but in reality its just crafty use of a chuck. Either way the quick trick works, and will hopefully save a lot of hackers some headaches in the future.
Let us know in the comments if you have any simple quick tips that you use when you’re out in the shop. | 38 | 33 | [
{
"comment_id": "126450",
"author": "gs88",
"timestamp": "2010-02-26T19:35:29",
"content": "Or, in other words, use your drill press as a lathe.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "126451",
"author": "Alan",
"timestamp": "2010-02-26T19:39:29... | 1,760,377,485.952558 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2010/02/26/cooling-leds-by-heating-the-water-saves-on-electricity/ | Cooling LEDs By Heating The Water Saves On Electricity | Mike Szczys | [
"green hacks",
"LED Hacks"
] | [
"aquarium",
"flourescent",
"lamp",
"led",
"light"
] | [Matthias]
swapped out his twin-tube florescent aquarium lights for LEDs
. By running tank water through the aluminum LED mounts he’s transferring excess heat into the water in the tank, in turn saving some of the electricity that would have been used to heat the tank. Couple this with roughly 35 Watts saved by moving away from fluorescent tubes and he’s got a great energy-saving hack. The LEDs used in
the last aquarium light conversion
were cooled by heat sinks and fans. We’d love to see this concept incorporated into that design. | 32 | 32 | [
{
"comment_id": "126431",
"author": "Chris",
"timestamp": "2010-02-26T18:01:30",
"content": "Cool and simple idea! Do the LEDs really generate that much heat?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "126432",
"author": "Greg",
"timestamp": "2010... | 1,760,377,486.01872 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2010/02/25/nokia-usb-cable-is-usb-to-serial-in-disguise/ | Nokia USB Cable Is USB-to-Serial In Disguise | Mike Szczys | [
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"nokia",
"ttl",
"usb"
] | [Jethomson] worked out a way to
use a Nokia USB cable at a USB to Serial cable
. He was able to pick up one of these cables for less than $3 delivered. A little probing worked out which conductors go with the appropriate signals and from there he developed a way to protect the 3.3v signal levels with a voltage divider.
It’s not surprising that this works, having seen [Will O’Brien’s]
post covering serial communications on Nokia phones
. In that post we learned that the Nokia phones are using TTL communications. Once you’ve completed [Jethomson’s] modifications to the cable you can follow his examples for using this in conjunction with an Arduino. | 43 | 43 | [
{
"comment_id": "126324",
"author": "osgeld",
"timestamp": "2010-02-25T23:10:36",
"content": "another good place to source these are old pda stands, I had (evil laugh) a Compaq areo (or whatever) and I noticed that the “usb” connection was only transfering serial speedsin the little catalog I notice... | 1,760,377,486.096552 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2010/02/25/python-ir-tracking-for-the-handicapped/ | Python IR Tracking For The Handicapped | Mike Szczys | [
"Peripherals Hacks"
] | [
"handicapped",
"ir",
"mouse",
"tracking"
] | [Techb] had a friend who was paralyzed after an accident and could no long use a computer. He rigged up an amazingly
simple mouse interface using python to implement infrared tracking
. The controller was built from an old hat by adding an IR LED and wireless mouse modified so that the button could be clicked by the user’s mouth. A
webcam with exposed film used as a filter
can track the IR LED and take input from the wireless mouse buttons.
This setup, which draws inspiration from
Wii Remote white boards
, is much simpler than
the Eyewriter
(and doesn’t shine an IR LED into your eye). Although [Techb] wants to add facial recognition to the system, there’s something to be said for such a simple implementation.
[Thanks Wolfmankurd] | 18 | 18 | [
{
"comment_id": "126314",
"author": "UKSci",
"timestamp": "2010-02-25T22:10:30",
"content": "“Works only with IR filter on camera”?I thought webcams came with an IR filter already in them and film negative was used as a pseudo visible light filter?I may be wrong",
"parent_id": null,
"depth":... | 1,760,377,486.150522 |
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