url stringlengths 37 208 | title stringlengths 4 148 | author stringclasses 173 values | publish_date stringclasses 1 value | categories listlengths 0 12 | tags listlengths 0 27 | featured_image stringlengths 0 272 | content stringlengths 0 56.1k | comments_count int64 0 900 | scraped_comments_count int64 0 50 | comments listlengths 0 50 | scraped_at float64 1.76B 1.76B |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
https://hackaday.com/2008/05/13/cold-boot-encryption-attack-video/ | Cold Boot Encryption Attack Video | Eliot | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"bbtv",
"boingboing",
"boingboingtv",
"coldboot",
"encryption",
"hack"
] | We haven’t made a regular habit of watching BoingBoing TV, but lately they’ve been covering topics we’ve been interested in… not the dolphin pr0n. In
yesterday’s episode
they talked to Jacob Appelbaum and members of the EFF about the
cold boot encryption attack
. The attack involves dumping the contents of memory to a storage device by power cycling the system. Cooling the memory chip with compressed air helps preserve the integrity of the data. The attacker can then search the data to find encryption keys protecting the contents of the hard drive. A fool proof solution to mitigate this attack hasn’t been developed yet. You can
read more about cold boot attacks
at the Center for Information Technology Policy. The BoingBoing TV episode, bizarre editing and all, can be
downloaded directly here
.
permalink | 18 | 18 | [
{
"comment_id": "35172",
"author": "SleighBoy",
"timestamp": "2008-05-13T21:30:23",
"content": "I’ve got a fool-proof fix for this attack, it is the #1 rule of system security.Restrict physical access to all sensitive boxes.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"co... | 1,760,377,836.325043 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2008/05/13/pocket-hitchikers-guide-to-the-galaxy-wikipedia-style/ | Pocket Hitchikers Guide To The Galaxy (Wikipedia Style) | Will O'Brien | [
"classic hacks",
"handhelds hacks"
] | [
"Galaxy",
"hitchhikers",
"linux",
"Pocket Hitchikers"
] | [PKM] decided to
breathe new life
into a Psion 5mx handheld. He slapped
linux
on it, added a wikipedia dump to a CD card, and voila: pocket wikipedia. It’s the closest thing to an actual hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy I’ve ever seen. So long and thanks for all the fish!
permalink | 12 | 12 | [
{
"comment_id": "35162",
"author": "silic0re",
"timestamp": "2008-05-13T18:32:02",
"content": "haha that’s a kind of cute project!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "35163",
"author": "Malcolm Parsons",
"timestamp": "2008-05-13T18:37:37",
... | 1,760,377,835.856097 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2008/05/12/charter-screwing-with-dns/ | Charter Screwing With DNS | Eliot | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"billyhoffman",
"charter",
"chartercommunications",
"dns",
"hoffman",
"memstreams"
] | Charter Communications
seems to be
pulling some sort of crap with their DNS servers
. While working on a new project our friend Billy Hoffman, discovered that Charter was reporting absolutely every domain as resolving. They do offer a solution by
providing an opt-out cookie
, which isn’t useful at all if you’re not using a web browser… and I’m guessing most of Charter’s subscribers aren’t looking for a bastardized version of the net. We’ve seen recently that messing with DNS like this can actually
open up new security holes
.
permalink | 35 | 35 | [
{
"comment_id": "35131",
"author": "AndrewNeo",
"timestamp": "2008-05-13T06:14:54",
"content": "Their ‘search’ redirection was bad enough. I make sure to tell all my friends (the few that don’t know any better) to set manual DNS on their routers to OpenDNS.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
... | 1,760,377,836.226678 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2008/05/12/xbmc-for-your-mac/ | XBMC For Your Mac | Eliot | [
"Mac Hacks"
] | [
"360",
"frontrow",
"leopard",
"lifehacker",
"mac",
"xbmc",
"xbox",
"xbox360"
] | XBMC
(formerly Xbox Media Center) has always been a popular choice for
retiring an original Xbox
. Maybe people install it for lack of something better to do or maybe it’s the pride in having better media support than the 360. The XBMC team has found another device that has a pretty weak television experience, the Mac.
Lifehacker took the latest XBMC for OSX beta build for a run
now that it supports remote controls. It seems like a much more functional than Apple’s built in Front Row. There are a few things that don’t quite work yet, which you can
find in the FAQ
. We’re definitely going to try this on our old Mac mini… once we upgrade it to Leopard, which is an unfortunate caveat that might prevent people from running XBMC on legacy hardware. There is no Apple TV support planned because of limited horsepower and the hacking hurdles that might be required. If you’re interested in repurposing your old Xbox with XBMC, check out
Lifehacker’s install guide
.
permalink | 7 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "35125",
"author": "AndrewNeo",
"timestamp": "2008-05-13T01:53:36",
"content": "Actually putting this on an AppleTV would make it even more awesome.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "35126",
"author": "mevans",
"timestamp":... | 1,760,377,835.979757 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2008/05/12/smart-car-sensing-with-rf/ | Smart Car Sensing With RF | Will O'Brien | [
"classic hacks",
"home entertainment hacks",
"home hacks"
] | [] | In order to tell his home automation system that he’s home, [Jim]
mounted
a RF transmitter in each of his cars. When the car is on, the transmitter is powered up. The house picks up the transmitter signal when the car arrives or departs. With that information, he was able to set up some stateful rules that can be activated when people arrive or depart. Some people prefer to use
APRS
and read vehicle location from the transmitted GPS coordinates, but this is a bit cheaper and doesn’t transmit your position to the entire world all the time. The useful range is about 100 feet, so this can work even if you have to park in the street.
permalink | 8 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "35117",
"author": "fartface",
"timestamp": "2008-05-12T21:45:05",
"content": "Done that. People that have Crestron home automation have enjoyed that kind of setup for at least 10 years now.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "35118... | 1,760,377,835.899983 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2008/05/11/human-sync-optical-tachometer/ | Human Sync Optical Tachometer | Will O'Brien | [
"classic hacks",
"Misc Hacks"
] | [] | [Jared] sent in
this
optical tachometer by [Mike Freeman]. The write-up and code requires a free registration, but if you’ve got a use for it, it’s probably worth the hassle. The zip archive includes a nice writeup in PDF format, and the code needed for the pic controller. The tach was built specifically for model helicopters. The user looks through the viewfinder and adjusts the pot on the side until the spinning helicopter blade visually stops turning.
permalink | 1 | 1 | [
{
"comment_id": "35116",
"author": "joelanders",
"timestamp": "2008-05-13T07:18:37",
"content": "i didn’t rtfa…i wonder how feasible it would be to make one without a microcontroller? 555 timer with a potentiometer to adjust the led blink speed. dial + arrow on the potentiometer to read the rpms.i... | 1,760,377,835.936811 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2008/05/11/the-future-of-the-internet-and-how-to-stop-it/ | The Future Of The Internet And How To Stop It | Eliot | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"jonathanzittrain",
"video",
"wikipedia",
"youtube",
"zittrain"
] | Yes, even we were getting tired of that Indiana Jones marathon on TV. So, we ventured online to find something entirely too geeky for a Sunday afternoon.
The Future of the Internet and How to Stop It
is a presentation Harvard Law School professor Jonathan Zittrain gave at Princeton near the end of March.
He begins by covering early 20th century “sterile” technology like tabulation machines that were rented by the census bureau. The machines didn’t encourage any sort of innovation. Next he talks about “generative” technology like the internet and modern OSes where anyone can build whatever they want. The final step is the more recent move to what he calls “tethered” technology. These are the systems with upgradeable firmware where devices can ship with unfinished features and remove features after the consumer has already purchased the device. He uses the iPhone as an example of this walled garden that could hurt innovation. Watch the video for his thoughts on this new world and how he thinks it could be fixed.
permalink | 15 | 15 | [
{
"comment_id": "35101",
"author": "Jack",
"timestamp": "2008-05-12T01:58:45",
"content": "that pretty awesome dude, neat look at the future",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "35102",
"author": "Skyler Orlando",
"timestamp": "2008-05-12T03:... | 1,760,377,836.272645 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2008/05/01/how-to-make-a-digital-synthesizer/ | How-To: Make A Digital Synthesizer | loganwilliams | [
"how-to"
] | [
"digitalsynth",
"digitalsynthesizer",
"feature",
"howto",
"lfo",
"lowfrequencyoscillator",
"oscillator",
"synth"
] | This week’s How-To comes from our newest contributor: Logan Williams.
This simple guide will show you how to build a digital synthesizer that generates and manipulates square waves. Your synthesizer will have one oscillator, which produces a variable pitch controlled by a potentiometer, as well as an LFO which modulates that pitch at a variable frequency. The part count for this project is quite low, and it can be built for under $20.
Finding the Parts
The first step in building this digital synthesizer is to
procure the parts
that you will need. Most of these can be bought at
RadioShack
, but RadioShack’s prices are often much more expensive than ordering online. All of the parts for this project can be purchased at
Jameco
,
Digi-Key
, or
Mouser
. We’ve provided Jameco part numbers below. If you don’t mind waiting, this is the best way to order parts.
Item
Name
RadioShack
Jameco
9V Battery Clip
270-325
$1.99
11280
$0.30
100K Linear Potentiometer
R2
271-092
$2.99
255696
$1.35
1M Linear Potentiometer
R3
271-211
$2.99
255582
$1.35
50K Linear Potentiometer
R4
271-1716
$2.99
255549
$1.35
10K Linear Potentiometer
R5
271-1715
$2.99
255522
$1.35
9V Battery
IRF 510 MOSFET Transistor
Q1
276-2072
$1.99
209234
$0.69
3.5mm Audio Connector
274-333
$2.99
109496
$0.53
7805 5V Voltage Regulator
IC1
276-1770
$1.59
51262
$0.20
0.1 uF capacitor
C1
272-135
$1.49
151118
$0.20
1.0 uF capacitor
C2
272-1055
$1.59
544956
$0.20
40106 Hex Inverter
IC2
Fairchild
$0.00
785071
$0.47
47K Resistor
R1
271-1342
$0.99
690540
$1.00
1N4148 Diode
D1
276-1620
$2.59
1537969
$0.27
Solderless breadboard
276-002
$14.99
20723
$9.85
Not Pictured
Item
Name
RadioShack
Jameco
22AWG Solid-core
278-1221
$5.99
36792
$6.59
Amplified speakers
Tools
Wire strippers
Note
: The potentiometers and audio jack must be either taped or soldered to 22 AWG solid core wire.
Soldering
is highly recommended, as it produces a more secure connection.
Creating an oscillator
Before we can begin with the digital synthesizer, we must generate the correct voltage. Most of you will be familiar with using a 7805 5V voltage regulator. It is very simple; connect the +9V from the battery to the left hand pin, ground the middle pin, and the right hand is +5V.
The most basic circuit in any synthesizer is the oscillator. A square wave oscillator constantly alternates between two voltages, in this case +5V and 0V. We have a logic inverter to create this, which operates quite simply; if it is given +5V in (a logic 1), it give
s 0V out
(a logic 0) and if it is given a logic 0, it gives a logic 1 as output. When the input and output are connected together, it will oscillate rapidly between those two values: a 0 goes in, comes out as a 1, goes in, comes out as a 0, and so on.
The problem is that it oscillates much too fast. A resistor capacitor (RC) delay circuit can be added to slow it down. This forces the output current to charge the capacitor before it can pass through to the input. The resulting brief delay slows the oscillations to audible frequencies.
To build the oscillator, assemble the schematic below on a breadboard.
When done, the oscillator should look something like this:
Connect one side of the audio jack to 0V and the other side to the output, and it will sound like this:
Controlling the oscillator
We can make things more interesting by allowing the user to change the frequency. We replace the constant resistor R1 with a potentiometer, such as the 100K R2. This is a simple change to do, and is reflected in this altered schematic.
Now the oscillator sounds like this:
Much more interesting. Try playing an actual song, if you dare.
Duty cycle adjustment
We can add some basic timbre control to make the oscillator more interesting. The duty cycle of a square wave is how long it spends at logic 1 vs. at logic 0. For example, a wave that spends 1 ms at +5V and 1ms at 0V per cycle would have a 50% duty cycle. 1.5 ms at +5V and 0.5 ms at 0V would be a 75% duty cycle. To adjust the wave’s duty cycle, we can add another potentiometer and diode to the circuit. When the input is high and the output is low, current will be able to flow through both potentiometers, decreasing the amount of time it takes to charge the capacitor, and increasing the duty cycle.
It should sound like this when completed:
Creating an LFO
A low-frequency oscillator (LFO) is an oscillator that oscillates very slowly, from 1 to 100 cycles per second. We will use an LFO to alternate the pitch of our oscillator between two different frequencies. This can be used for siren like sound effects, timbre control, or musical sequences.
The circuit to control the LFO is slightly more complex than the ones we have used before. Because it uses a capacitor with 10x the capacitance, and a potentiometer with 10x the resistance, the oscillations are 100x slower than our first oscillator. The LFO connects to the gate of the IRF 510 MOSFET transistor. When the output of the LFO is +5V, the transistor connects its source and drain pins. With these pins connected, current can flow through the second potentiometer, increasing the pitch. When the LFO returns to 0V, the potentiometer is disconnected, and the pitch drops back to its original level.
There are quite a number of sounds that can be produced with the LFO, such as this:
and this:
Conclusion
You have now made your own simple digital synthesizer. Keep experimenting with different control methods. The frequency is adjusted with just resistance, so almost anything can be used for an input. Try a
photocell
, or a
flex sensor
. Try combining the LFO and the duty cycle adjustment. Try using it to actually make music! We’d love to see what you come up with. | 105 | 50 | [
{
"comment_id": "33207",
"author": "Adrian",
"timestamp": "2008-05-01T19:48:46",
"content": "Excellent article, this is something I have always wanted to try but never had the time to figure out how to do it myself. Now I can finally get some hacks in!Are we going to see follow up articles dealing w... | 1,760,377,836.160677 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2008/04/30/two-degrees-of-ben-heck-how-tos/ | Two Degrees Of Ben Heck How-To’s | Will O'Brien | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"games",
"jamma",
"nes"
] | [Ryan] sent in [Bill]’s
project
to build his own JAMMA arcade game console. It’s actually a take off from one of [Ben Heck]’s
how-tos
, but I thought it might interest people who think that they can’t pull off any of the projects we feature on their own. We definitely like to show off some original, complex hacks, but success stories can be just as inspiring.
permalink | 7 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "33200",
"author": "Jack",
"timestamp": "2008-05-01T07:23:26",
"content": "thats what i’m talking about dude, i mean i suck at this whole stuff, i’m stupid when it comes to electronics but i still like to visit hack a day, i like to read about stuff i can attempt on my own",
"par... | 1,760,377,836.066715 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2008/04/29/arduino-beer-brewing/ | Arduino Beer Brewing | Will O'Brien | [
"Arduino Hacks",
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"arduino",
"beer",
"uc"
] | [Yuri] spent some time building a computer controlled, arduino interfaced beer brewing rig. A cooler serves as a mash tun, while the arduino controls a steam source that’s used to raise the temperature of the mash as desired. A java app talks to the arduino to set the temperature parameters and monitor the steam boiler. You can catch a nice
video walkthrough
of the setup, see some
screen shots
of his java interface.
permalink | 13 | 13 | [
{
"comment_id": "33187",
"author": "Solenoidclock",
"timestamp": "2008-04-30T06:36:04",
"content": "I’m so modifying this for mead production.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "33188",
"author": "mike",
"timestamp": "2008-04-30T06:49:01",
... | 1,760,377,836.025418 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2008/04/28/remote-control-whiteboard/ | Remote Control Whiteboard | Will O'Brien | [
"Misc Hacks",
"Peripherals Hacks"
] | [
"awesome",
"online",
"web",
"whiteboard",
"wiki"
] | Whenever [sprite_tm] sends in his
latest project
, it’s like getting a Christmas present and a night off. He put together a whiteboard, x/y stepper system, serial interfaced microcontroller and added a webcam with perspective correction for the online view. Me? I’m tempted to build one of these for leaving notes for the wife when I’m out.
permalink | 9 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "33176",
"author": "andrew",
"timestamp": "2008-04-29T05:40:04",
"content": "whoa, that is *really* cool!!!btw heres the (better) video:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oTm3BrsSpGE&feature=related",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "33... | 1,760,377,836.521482 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2008/04/27/efi-your-motorcycle/ | EFI Your Motorcycle | Will O'Brien | [
"Misc Hacks",
"Transportation Hacks"
] | [] | This one’s
In honor of my
new project bike
. [wildwestsyndey] converted his Suzuki DR 350 from the stock carbs to EFI using the
megasquirt
EFI controller and a custom machined throttle body. You can find a few pictures of the conversion
here
. To handle the ever annoying need for a high pressure fuel pump, he adapted an in-tank scooter pump with a machined mini-reservoir to fit in-line with the original tank. For more motorcycle builds, check out the megasquirt
success stories forum.
permalink | 16 | 14 | [
{
"comment_id": "33164",
"author": "dax",
"timestamp": "2008-04-28T08:27:09",
"content": "megasquirt rules! i’m working my way up to learning enough to install a system in my buddy’s car (built for drifting) this summer.mixing microcontrollers, sensors, actuators, and performance engines is excellen... | 1,760,377,836.480852 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2008/04/26/ghost-external-vga-display-hack/ | Ghost External VGA Display Hack | Will O'Brien | [
"laptops hacks",
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"EeePc",
"mac",
"OsX",
"paperclip"
] | Certain OS installers cough*osx*cough don’t like the on-board displays on some machines. [Ziddan]
posted
a paperclip based work around for them on the eeeuser forums (originally posted by [mugan] on insanelymac). Apparently by shorting the pins, the video card will report that there is an unknown external display attached.
permalink | 10 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "33154",
"author": "Johnny B. Goode",
"timestamp": "2008-04-27T06:29:16",
"content": "But the question remains, why on earth would you want to install OSX on anything but a mac anyway? Hell, for that matter, why would you install it on a mac? Then again there’s always “Because I can.... | 1,760,377,836.950448 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2008/04/26/weekend-links/ | Weekend Links | Eliot | [
"News"
] | [] | Friend of Hack-A-Day, [Dan Kaminsky], started off last weekend right by putting Rick Astley everywhere on the internet. ISPs routinely hijack mistyped URLs and [Dan] showed that an attacker could
inject code into any unresolved subdomain
, essentially taking over every site the ISP’s customer tried to reach. I doubt many companies would be happy to know their websites were being misrepresented.
The week wasn’t going so well for another friend of ours as he found himself back in court for allegedly
inventing the entire satellite piracy industry
.
BoingBoing TV
featured the Graffiti Research Lab
this week as they prepare for the
New York premier
of GRL: The Complete First Season. GRL encourages you to
pick up your copy today
… before they’ve even started selling it.
While you’re over at The Pirate Bay you might as well ask them where to get the
leaked copy of Grand Theft Auto IV
… or you could just wait a few days and buy it like a normal person. We do recommend you bide your time by checking out the
GTA 4 leaked gameplay videos
,
GTA 4 walkthrough
, and
GTA 4 cheats
.
Don Hodges has been carefully analyzing an patching old arcade games to fix their
kill screens
. His latest fix was
Ms. Pac Man
, but he’s fixed
Pac Man
and
Donkey Kong
previously. [via
Waxy
]
We know most people prefer Rock Band to Guitar Hero, but has it really gotten so bad that only robots play it now? Just this week alone we saw both
AutoGuitarHero
and
Slashbot
[via
Hacked Gadgets
]. Of course, doing that one useful thing makes them completely ineligible for Japan’s
Annual Stupid Robot Contest
[via
Neatorama
].
Finally, for all of you that have trouble interacting with other organisms, here’s An Engineer’s Guide to Cats. | 14 | 14 | [
{
"comment_id": "33140",
"author": "oscinis",
"timestamp": "2008-04-27T06:53:20",
"content": "I love Hack a Day. I visit this site daily. And this is the first time I’m complaining about it.I am very upset that this article links to a leaked, illegal download for GTA IV. It misrepresents our standar... | 1,760,377,837.161697 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2008/05/05/maker-faire-2008-stribe-music-controller/ | Maker Faire 2008: Stribe Music Controller | Eliot | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"controller",
"makerfaire",
"makerfaire2008",
"max",
"monome",
"msp",
"music",
"stribe"
] | We saw a lot of interesting gear at Maker Faire last weekend and thought we’d highlight some of those projects this week. [Josh Boughey]’s
Stribe
was originally inspired by the
monome 40h
. It features of 16 columns of 64 LEDs for a total of 1024 individually addressable lights. Even with all those LEDs, PWM control means it can run off of USB power. 8 spectrasymbol
softpots
are used between the columns for user input. It’s really quite an amazing feat for being [josh]’s first board design. All of the circuit designs and firmware are available. Check out Flickr for
more photos from this weekend
. | 4 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "33377",
"author": "max",
"timestamp": "2008-05-06T06:02:58",
"content": "your uhh pix link is borked links to softpots",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "33378",
"author": "Buzzkill",
"timestamp": "2008-05-06T06:30:32",
... | 1,760,377,836.798583 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2008/05/05/cornell-ece-final-projects-spring-08/ | Cornell ECE Final Projects: Spring 08 | Will O'Brien | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"automotive",
"car",
"green",
"microconroller",
"midi",
"power",
"uc"
] | I was starting to wonder when [Bruce] would send in
this years final projects
from the Electrical and Computer Engineering students at Cornell University. The
first project
looks like a great one for the green geek – a controllable power usage monitoring power outlet. The music geeks should dig
midi trumpet interface
, but the car geeks might have problems keeping away from the soldering iron after they see the
CAN bus SD card data acquisition system
. There are plenty more, so go check
em out
.
permalink | 4 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "33374",
"author": "Jerome",
"timestamp": "2008-05-06T09:54:11",
"content": "why not using PIC µC including a CAN interface ? they are cheap, fast and not limitated by the SPI linknice project :-)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": ... | 1,760,377,836.842997 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2008/05/04/hacking-harmony-for-linux/ | Hacking Harmony For Linux | Will O'Brien | [
"home entertainment hacks"
] | [] | A while back, [Phil]
got ticked off
and started working on linux support for the Logitech Harmony remotes for quite a while. Having owned one of these sweet remotes, I can honestly say that yes, they rock, and yes, the driver software can be pretty freakin’ annoying. If you’ve got a Harmony remote and would like an alternative to the usual fare, check out
[Phil]’s project
. | 14 | 14 | [
{
"comment_id": "33359",
"author": "theRIAA",
"timestamp": "2008-05-05T08:01:44",
"content": "I returned that harmony remote and got a $99 universal unifier. not as sexy, but way more practical, easy to use and durable.that harmony remote is made for people that know nothing about technology, and wo... | 1,760,377,836.899678 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2008/05/03/add-bluetooth-audio-to-your-gpsetc/ | Add Bluetooth Audio To Your GPS/etc | Will O'Brien | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"bluetooth",
"gps"
] | [sudija] wrote up a nice
instructable
on adding bluetooth audio output to a tomtom gps unit. It’s not too technically advanced, but you’ll have to add an audio jack if your gps lacks one. This looks like a great way to turn a cheaper unit into something suitable for a motorcycle rig.
permalink | 4 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "33355",
"author": "Weirdguy",
"timestamp": "2008-05-04T07:23:24",
"content": "This is one of those “really obvious” hacks that you totally wish you had thought of before. I can see myself using something like this for a few different things…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
... | 1,760,377,837.110712 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2008/05/03/hackit-ironmanmovie-inspirations/ | Hackit: Ironman/movie Inspirations? | Will O'Brien | [
"HackIt"
] | [] | I got a chance to see the new Ironman movie last night, and it’s exactly the kind of film that kick-starts my brain into considering new projects. I’m opening up today’s hackit in a few directions:
1) Get any project ideas from Ironman?
2) Got any projects that were inspired by movie/tv/comic tech?
3) What’s your favorite source of inspiration? | 65 | 50 | [
{
"comment_id": "33295",
"author": "Leif902",
"timestamp": "2008-05-03T21:38:46",
"content": "I get a lot of ideas for projects from the Doctor Who series.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "33296",
"author": "Emperor",
"timestamp": "2008-0... | 1,760,377,837.294492 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2008/05/02/usb-temperature-logger/ | USB Temperature Logger | Will O'Brien | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [] | [Ned] sent in his
USB temperature sensor
. This little guy has a PIC controller, FTDI usb serial interface and a dallas temperature sensor. He managed to keep the cost very low – including the PCB.
permalink | 15 | 15 | [
{
"comment_id": "33280",
"author": "phil0083",
"timestamp": "2008-05-03T04:43:53",
"content": "Maybe you could take the temp sensor and put it on the end of some wire and collect valuable temperature data on internal components of the pc or anything else.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
... | 1,760,377,837.209514 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2008/05/01/solar-lamp-to-led-projector/ | Solar Lamp To LED Projector | Will O'Brien | [
"LED Hacks",
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"led",
"projector",
"solar"
] | Despite the resemblance to an alien robot that might rebuild your house from scratch,
this
is actually the first mod for a solar yard lamp that I’ve seen. By adding a brighter LED, a couple of tubes, a laser printed transparency and a lens, you end with with a relatively inexpensive image projector that can project custom graphics from odd locations. [
via
]
permalink | 11 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "33268",
"author": "tjhow",
"timestamp": "2008-05-02T09:16:56",
"content": "that’s really clever, and you don’t have to waste power ^_^",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "33269",
"author": "strider_mt2k",
"timestamp": "2008-... | 1,760,377,837.343986 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2008/04/25/simple-serial-servo-controller/ | Simple Serial Servo Controller | Will O'Brien | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"microcontroller",
"pic",
"servo"
] | There’s nothing quite like a nice, simple hack.
This
serial servo controller uses a PIC12C671 and a pair of resistors. Leaving out the power supply, that’s the lowest part count I’ve ever seen.
permalink | 13 | 13 | [
{
"comment_id": "33128",
"author": "Bullwinkle Jones",
"timestamp": "2008-04-26T08:15:05",
"content": "“There’s nothing quite like a nice, simple hack. This serial servo controller uses a PIC12C671 and a pair of resistors. Leaving out the power supply, that’s the lowest part count I’ve ever seen.”..... | 1,760,377,837.392022 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2008/04/25/buy-bens-ps3-laptop/ | Buy Ben’s PS3 Laptop | Will O'Brien | [
"computer hacks",
"laptops hacks",
"Peripherals Hacks"
] | [] | Just a little public service message: If you’ve been drooling over [Ben]’s work and have plenty of loose change, his PS3 laptop is
up for auction
to benefit the National Cancer Coalition.
permalink | 10 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "33121",
"author": "Alex McCown",
"timestamp": "2008-04-25T20:36:02",
"content": "wow %100 of the sale price goes to support National Cancer Coalition nice job ben",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "33122",
"author": "dash",
... | 1,760,377,837.436511 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2008/04/24/simple-fan-controller/ | Simple Fan Controller | Will O'Brien | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"fan",
"fet",
"simple",
"temp"
] | When I built
my
LumenLab projector, I used a thermal switch to run the fan.
This
simple control circuit looks like a nice alternative. The circuit is a simple adjustable temperature triggered Fet. If you know the resistance needed, you can replace the potentiometer with a cheap resistor. (You’ll want to use a DC fan)
permalink | 3 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "33118",
"author": "MadEngineer",
"timestamp": "2008-04-25T07:53:13",
"content": "I wonder, in the state that the fan doesn’t spin where the voltage is too low for it to start rotating, will it slowly burn out?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"... | 1,760,377,837.477839 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2008/04/24/make-your-own-ps3-laptop-part-1/ | Make Your Own PS3 Laptop (part 1) | Will O'Brien | [
"handhelds hacks",
"home entertainment hacks",
"Playstation Hacks"
] | [
"ben heck",
"benheck",
"gaming",
"laptop",
"ps3",
"sony"
] | Let the how-to’s begin: [Ben Heck] put up the
first installment
of his how-to series on making your own PS3
laptop
. Since this one is all about the tear down, you might dig the
PS3
design even if you’re not interested in making your own portable.
permalink | 8 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "33110",
"author": "Mike",
"timestamp": "2008-04-25T00:37:43",
"content": "I’m afraid I would screw something up and render my precious $600 ps3 useless.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "33111",
"author": "Grant Kohler",
"... | 1,760,377,837.74874 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2008/04/23/24-core-ikea-cluster/ | 24 Core Ikea Cluster | Will O'Brien | [
"computer hacks"
] | [
"cluster",
"dual core",
"DualCore",
"ikea",
"intel",
"quad core",
"QuadCore",
"render farm",
"RenderFarm"
] | [Janne] does freelance animation and wanted something with
a bit more CPU
to get his rendering jobs done. He picked up an Ikea ‘Helmer’ cabinet and refitted it to hold six Intel quad cores, six Gigabyte motherboards with 8GB of ram each and six 400 watt power supplies. He seems happy with it – I think it just needs some custom power wiring and an integrated Gig-E switch to achieve perfection. What? I’m not jealous at all.
permalink | 43 | 43 | [
{
"comment_id": "33068",
"author": "Wolf",
"timestamp": "2008-04-24T05:34:29",
"content": "The site seams to be running pretty slow, anyone got a recent mirror?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "33069",
"author": "andrew",
"timestamp": "20... | 1,760,377,837.824956 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2008/04/22/diy-x-men-flame-throwing-wrist-guard/ | DIY X-Men: Flame Throwing Wrist Guard | Will O'Brien | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"fire",
"fire fire",
"FireFire",
"robotics"
] | [everett] sent in
his
final project for his mechanisms class. In an attempt to create his own bolt on X gene, he built a wrist mounted hand activated flame thrower: The Pyro System. The wrist mount has an igniter and a nozzle for dispersing fuel. When he flexes his hand back, a switch actuates a servo on the fuel and fires the igniter. Quick disclaimer: Don’t try replicating this one! If you want to skip the movie clip, skip 33 seconds into the video.
permalink | 30 | 30 | [
{
"comment_id": "33041",
"author": "Alex McCown",
"timestamp": "2008-04-23T06:16:10",
"content": "not bad try replacing that arisol thing with a solenoid valve hooked up to a mini torch propane tank thing that can also take care the servo controller (what ever it would be)",
"parent_id": null,
... | 1,760,377,837.941881 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2008/04/22/toorcon-seattle-2008-lightning-talks/ | ToorCon Seattle 2008: Lightning Talks | Eliot | [
"cons"
] | [
"asterisk",
"con",
"convention",
"hackercon",
"hackerconvention",
"phreak",
"phreaking",
"seattle",
"toorcon",
"toorconseattle",
"toorconseattle2008"
] | The second ToorCon Seattle got off to a quick start last Friday with a round of
Lightning Talks
at the Public Nerd Area. Each talk was limited to 5 minutes and covered a broad range of topics. Some talks were just supplying a chunk of information while others were a call to action for personal projects. Here are a few of the talks that we found interesting.
[I)ruid] opened with an explanation of his handle, since he catches a lot of flak for it being l33tsp34k (that’s supposed to be a capital ‘I’). The name has actually proven to be quite fun since it has broken a few systems that aren’t sanitizing input properly. Registering at Black Hat 2006 caused a database error. At the ShmooCon hacker arcade, he entered his player name and was dropped directly to a root shell. It’s also rather hellish on many webapps. His point was: why not choose a l33t name and have the fun of fuzzing all the time and breaking stuff even when you aren’t trying?
[nous] gave a quick plug for Ninja Network’s phreaking contest. Last year at Defcon was the first event they held. The first task was to use a
butt set
on a 25 pair block to find usable line. Once the random line was found they were dropped into a voice mail system to explore. The backend for the contest is
Asterisk
plus some custom Perl scripts. You can catch a preview version of
this contest next month at LayerOne
.
[jrandom] talked about how scratch-off cards can be gamed. Using a bright light or a resurfacing pen can help you with games that require a certain scratch order. Other cards can be identified by telltale signs they pick up during their production. Winners and losers are usually produced in two separate batches. Cards from each group will have the same cut quality, alignment flaws, printing color, and even the font could change. Sometimes the cards even have coding on them to indicate the winners (could be a simple as a W and L). All this is great, but the manufacturer might be doing this intentionally just to get attention.
[Travis Goodspeed] gave a brief introduction to reversing the
Econolite ASC/3 traffic light controller
for compatibility. It’s a PowerPC box running VxWorks 5.x and has snmp and FTP support. The FTP provides simple anonymous access. All of the control values are stored in the ASC3.DB binary file that’s checksummed. [Travis] built a way to
describe a binary file structure as XML
and generate libraries for reading the binaries natively in multiple languages.
We also thought [Dean Pierce]’s
network pentesting visualization framework
was interesting. [Joel Voss] was attempting to write a softphone for the IAX2 protocol and ended up DOSing Asterisk. 30kB from the attacker could cause a massive amount of packets from Asterisk. He now has a
framework for testing all aspects of the protocol
. | 5 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "33036",
"author": "deoryp",
"timestamp": "2008-04-23T02:17:55",
"content": "Hey guys, i was wondering if you could tell me how to find these cons in my area… how do you find out about them? do they cost money?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"... | 1,760,377,837.873474 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2008/04/21/modchip-your-xbox-360-controller/ | Modchip Your XBox 360 Controller | Will O'Brien | [
"home entertainment hacks",
"Peripherals Hacks",
"Xbox Hacks"
] | [
"mod",
"modchip",
"xbox"
] | [CyberPyrot] and [l0rdnic0] released their
spitfire mod
on acidmods for XBox 360 controllers. It involves some fine wiring, but a relatively low parts count. The heart of the mod is a PIC16F84A, a crystal for the clock and a few passive parts. It took me a little while to find it, but the code for the pic hiding under the parts list. For a lengthy demo of the mod in action, you can check out this
video
.
Related:
Xbox 360 Hacks
,
Xbox Hacks
permalink | 28 | 28 | [
{
"comment_id": "33014",
"author": "chupa",
"timestamp": "2008-04-22T06:26:20",
"content": "use a PIC16f88 or similar with internal osc and eliminate the need for the xtal, caps and pcb.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "33015",
"author": "Con... | 1,760,377,838.000093 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2008/04/20/autonomous-catamaran/ | Autonomous Catamaran | Will O'Brien | [
"gps hacks",
"Misc Hacks"
] | [] | [
Gabriel
] put together an impressive writeup of his autonomous catamaran,
Atlantis(PDF)
. It was certainly done as an academic project, but there’s a thorough explanation of the math logic behind the control systems. The heart of the boat was a waterproofed Pentium laptop with a CAN bus parallel interface used to talk to everything on-board. Sensors included GPS, wind, hull speed and rudder angle. In case the site can’t handle the load, I’ve mirrored the 1.4MB PDF
here
. | 7 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "33007",
"author": "HeBD",
"timestamp": "2008-04-20T15:41:23",
"content": "SWEET!!!! Just what I need to move my goods from malaysia to australia ;)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "33008",
"author": "strider_mt2k",
"times... | 1,760,377,838.077618 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2008/04/19/tiller-autopilot-for-small-sailboats/ | Tiller Autopilot For Small Sailboats | Will O'Brien | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"solar"
] | [Dennis] sent in
the glider
that [Art] built, but I had to feature his
dinghy autopilot
. It runs on solar power, takes GPS data via serial and maintains the heading using a servo motor to drive the line. It’s an excellent solution for the hardware hacking boater.
permalink | 7 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "33000",
"author": "RT (Panzer Time!)",
"timestamp": "2008-04-20T08:21:04",
"content": "As one who enjoys sailing, I have to say that this is one project that rocks. High five.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "33001",
"author... | 1,760,377,838.040533 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2008/04/18/diy-midi-pedalboard/ | DIY Midi Pedalboard | Will O'Brien | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"midi",
"music"
] | [Nick] sent in this sweet midi pedal organ. [Seffan] modded an old set of organ pedals with the cheapest midi keyboard he could find. Each pedal was equipped with a switch mechanism, so it was just a matter of patience and wiring. To come up with enough wire for the job, he sacrificed some IDE cables. If you’ve ever played with some organ pedals, you know that these things can really add another dimension to music – especially with the newly added MIDI interface.
permalink | 11 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "32998",
"author": "Kaine",
"timestamp": "2008-04-19T05:38:42",
"content": "I’m in the works of the same thing right now!!!!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "32999",
"author": "brian",
"timestamp": "2008-04-19T18:13:59",
... | 1,760,377,838.305279 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2008/04/17/sony-xel-1-oled-teardown/ | Sony XEL-1 OLED Teardown | Eliot | [
"home entertainment hacks"
] | [
"bravia",
"oled",
"sony",
"teardown",
"tv",
"xel-1"
] | [bunnie] just happened to be at the Embedded Systems Conference in San Jose on exactly the right day to witness the live teardown of a Sony XEL-1 OLED TV. The XEL-1 is Sony’s flagship OLED panel that’s only 3mm thick… and $2500 for just an 11-inch screen. [bunnie] was able to take
quite a few shots of the components
as they were passed around. He pointed out a few interesting bits about the construction. There seems to be quite a bit of thermal material on the display to prevent “avalanche thermal failures” (which I’m guessing doesn’t look as cool as it sounds). OLED displays are completely transparent and their legendary contrast ratio is just a result of the dark backing material. The mainboard seems to be a bit of overkill for this TV and [bunnie] concludes that it’s just the standard image engine architecture from Sony’s Bravia line put into a smaller package.
permalink | 13 | 13 | [
{
"comment_id": "32986",
"author": "PocketBrain",
"timestamp": "2008-04-18T06:10:06",
"content": "OLED’s are quite sexy. Just really expensive now. LCD panels finally got into the sane range of price; can we expect oled’s to fall thusly in the coming decade? I hope they solve the short lifespan p... | 1,760,377,838.12637 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2008/04/16/soekris-laser-guided-squirrel-trap/ | Soekris Laser Guided Squirrel Trap | Will O'Brien | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [] | Got a bit of a pest problem? [Chad] built a
better squirrel/rabbit/thing trap
using a soekris box, a laser pointer, serial controlled relay and a small motor. When the laser beam is broken, the Soekris activates the relay, pulling the door pins. Then it take a picture with a webcam and send him a page.
permalink | 10 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "32976",
"author": "frank",
"timestamp": "2008-04-17T06:53:23",
"content": "“Then it take a picture with a webcam and send him a page.”Bahahahah! That makes this hack funny :)*click* BUSTED!!! :)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "3... | 1,760,377,838.256607 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2008/04/15/electric-off-road-skateboard/ | Electric (off-road) Skateboard | Will O'Brien | [
"Misc Hacks",
"Transportation Hacks"
] | [] | [
Joe
] sent along
this
sweet little instructable on making an electric skateboard. I like this one especially for the how-to nature of the build. [Vurp] used an off the shelf mountain board with a brake addition, a 300w scooter motor/controller and a pair of 12v SLA batteries. Now that I’m
back on campus
, I might just be tempted to build something along these lines. Just in time for this electric vehicle post, [Darin] sent in the
forkencycle
.
permalink | 13 | 13 | [
{
"comment_id": "32963",
"author": "mattm",
"timestamp": "2008-04-16T06:30:45",
"content": "sweet stuff. i’ve been thinking about this for some time now.obligatory xkcd:http://xkcd.com/139/http://xkcd.com/409/",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "329... | 1,760,377,838.357318 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2008/04/15/apple-iigs-laptop/ | Apple IIGS Laptop | Will O'Brien | [
"laptops hacks",
"Mac Hacks",
"Misc Hacks"
] | [] | I may hit my limit on DIY laptops soon, but [Ben Heck] has been extra quiet for a while. Now we know why. Just after the release of his
PS3 laptop
comes his
Apple IIGS laptop
. Thanks to [Ed] for the tip. It features original Apple hardware and even uses the original keyboard PC board. A CF drive adapter replaces the hard drive and a 15 inch screen shows off the true power of 8 bit computing.
permalink | 15 | 15 | [
{
"comment_id": "32950",
"author": "Tyco",
"timestamp": "2008-04-15T20:30:10",
"content": "Hey, that’s 16-bit computing; don’t sell the poor little apple short! :P(The IIgs actually does use a 65816).",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "32951",
... | 1,760,377,838.520374 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2008/04/14/diy-imac-mini/ | DIY IMac Mini | Will O'Brien | [
"computer hacks",
"laptops hacks",
"Mac Hacks"
] | [] | [Phyro-Mane] sent in
his
home built iMac mini. He based it on an old laptop with an install of
OSX86
XP with a mac theme. The forum is in German, but the photos in the thread speak for themselves.
permalink | 16 | 16 | [
{
"comment_id": "32937",
"author": "Lucas",
"timestamp": "2008-04-14T12:38:43",
"content": "That’s not osx86. it’s just a mac theme for Windows XP, but I guess only someone speaking german could have got that from the text.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"com... | 1,760,377,838.469792 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2008/04/13/arduino-nunchuck-espresso-awesome/ | Arduino + Nunchuck +espresso = Awesome | Will O'Brien | [
"Arduino Hacks",
"Misc Hacks",
"Nintendo Hacks",
"Nintendo Wii Hacks"
] | [] | Remember the voltage detector that I mentioned a while back? [Tim] hasn’t put up quite enough info to make me happy, but definitely enough to make me jealous. He
updated
his NES controlled Silvia to become a Wii nunchuck controlled (via Arduino) Silvia. That said, his last couple of blog posts have me questioning just how much espresso he’s been drinking. Theoretically, he could actually program the Silvia to refuse shots to people who are too jittery.
permalink | 7 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "32930",
"author": "chr0n1c",
"timestamp": "2008-04-14T05:59:29",
"content": "put down the tiny coffee cup and step away from the machine before someone gets hurt. this is no kinda place to be swinging around ninja weapons.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
... | 1,760,377,838.648016 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2008/04/12/quick-and-easy-cnc-setup-tricks/ | Quick And Easy CNC Setup Tricks | Will O'Brien | [
"cnc hacks",
"Misc Hacks"
] | [] | [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oc-9gTFj-y4&hl=en]
I was considering a laser cross-hair for my mill and found this video of some great setup hacks that [Greolt] put on his mill. The video is pretty short, but I’ll fill you in just in case you don’t want to play/load it. A laser cross-hair is mounted at a known offset to align the X and Y axis. A PC board is wired to a sensor to zero in the Z axis. When the bit makes contact, the machine knows that it’s at 0 + the PCB thickness. A shuttle pro controller adds jog controls and a macro takes care of moving the bit to the zero that was measured with the laser cross-hair. You can find more details on his zero touch setup
here
. | 5 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "32925",
"author": "David",
"timestamp": "2008-04-13T06:35:06",
"content": "I wish I had something like that when I was using the CNC machine at my school. Zeroing by eye/shim is a pain to do.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "329... | 1,760,377,838.734608 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2008/04/11/dual-core-arduino/ | Dual Core… Arduino? | Will O'Brien | [
"Arduino Hacks",
"Misc Hacks"
] | [] | [John Ryan] posted his dual core Arduino rig on the
Arduino forums
. These two ATMega168 chips share the same 16Mhz resonator and I2C bus – allowing them to run in semi-parallel. The uC’s don’t actually communicate with each other, but they run rather nicely as concurrent circuits. It’s a pretty interesting method of adding I/O pins to a project for a minimal cost.
permalink | 11 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "32916",
"author": "morcheeba",
"timestamp": "2008-04-12T08:56:35",
"content": "He wired the chips in parallel – this doesn’t seem to be a good idea. Resonators are usually driven by a not gate – one pin is an input, the other is an output. It’s wired so that the two outputs are dri... | 1,760,377,838.69431 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2008/04/10/diy-pc-gaming-gun/ | DIY PC Gaming Gun | Will O'Brien | [
"computer hacks",
"home entertainment hacks",
"Peripherals Hacks"
] | [
"fps",
"games"
] | [rustlabs]
put together
an interesting looking gaming gun for FPS games. He wrote up his build and how to use a webcam to provide gun tracking for games like Half Life 2. He gutted a keyboard to provide the button interface, and infrared LEDs on the gun body are tracked by the cam. Surprisingly, no USB game pads were sacrificed in the build, just a USB keyboard and mouse.
permalink | 8 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "32908",
"author": "Matt D",
"timestamp": "2008-04-11T08:51:43",
"content": "Awesome build, I’ve been trying to get my hands on a wiimote (broke college student) to do the same thing.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "32909",
"... | 1,760,377,838.610241 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2008/04/10/ben-hecks-ps3-laptop/ | Ben Heck’s PS3 Laptop | Will O'Brien | [
"Playstation Hacks"
] | [
"ben heck",
"benheck",
"console",
"laptop",
"ps3"
] | [Ben]’s been at it again. This time he’s whipped up a PS3 laptop. He built this one just for
engadget
… and there will be how-to’s on it, oh yes, there will. For now, you can wet your appetite for console modding with
the picture gallery
. It’s pretty big, but It’s actually thinner than the original console.
permalink | 18 | 18 | [
{
"comment_id": "32892",
"author": "vorin",
"timestamp": "2008-04-11T08:03:14",
"content": "and it only weighs in at a feathery 16 lbs!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "32893",
"author": "lorddef",
"timestamp": "2008-04-11T13:06:11",
... | 1,760,377,838.895559 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2008/04/10/hack-a-day-is-hiring/ | Hack-A-Day Is Hiring! | Eliot | [
"News"
] | [
"blog",
"blogging",
"blogs",
"job",
"jobs",
"news"
] | It’s true, as much as [Will] and I like being a scrappy two person shop with a ‘never say die’ attitude, and penchant for fist pounding after successful compiles, we need more people (MOAR even). We’re looking for a few more contributors to help out with the daily posting, digging up the extra obscure, and especially the how-tos we’ve started to get back into.
This is a paid, freelancing position that requires professionalism, consistency, and reliability. We want to hear from people that are passionate about software/hardware hacking and growing Hack-A-Day. To apply, send the following to jobs@hackaday.com
A short bio about yourself
3 example daily posts written in the style of Hack-A-Day
3 how-to ideas you could personally execute. For examples of work we’ve done in the past, look
here
,
here
,
here
, and
here
.
A couple sentences on how you would improve the site either through features or content
Any additional reasons why you would make a good fit for Hack-A-Day
Please do not send any attachments, especially not pictures of your sweet ride. An aversion to capital letters is not required, but definitely encouraged.
[picture courtesy of fbz] | 34 | 34 | [
{
"comment_id": "32858",
"author": "Alex B",
"timestamp": "2008-04-10T23:20:27",
"content": "I don’t want to apply for a job, but I have an idea of how you can improve your site. I read the feed because I like to see what’s going on with gadgets and because I like DIY projects, but most of this stuf... | 1,760,377,838.968838 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2008/04/09/thermal-testing-electronics-for-outer-space/ | Thermal Testing Electronics For Outer Space | Will O'Brien | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"boom",
"colder than hell",
"ColderThanHell",
"outer space",
"OuterSpace",
"robots",
"rockets",
"sattelite"
] | [3ricj] wrote up how to build your own
low temperature test chamber
to verify that electronics will function at the edge of the atmosphere/outerspace. He needs this for the
edge of space project
he’s working on. A large cooler serves as the test chamber. It’s cooled down to about
0c
-42C with dry ice, then a supply of liquid nitrogen is fed into a copper heat exchanging coil to bring the chamber down to -70C.
permalink | 9 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "32850",
"author": "3ricj",
"timestamp": "2008-04-10T01:27:26",
"content": "Quick correction to the above post: the LN2 cools it down to -70C or colder; with dry ice alone you can get down to -42C",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": ... | 1,760,377,839.052748 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2008/04/08/chumby-hacking-by-bunnie/ | Chumby Hacking By Bunnie | Will O'Brien | [
"handhelds hacks",
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"bunnie",
"chumby",
"lcd",
"sniffer",
"wifi"
] | [bunnie] is one of the main people behind the Chumby, and even he can’t resist modding the things. He decided to outfit one with a
larger LCD
– using a stereo microscope to do the really fine pitch work – and a laser cutter to create a custom bezel for the finished piece. The new LCD is still a touchscreen and allows the Chumby to display 640×480 resolution over the stock 320×240. The mod requires a few parts, but the ultimate difficulty is caused by the surface mount connectors. If you’d rather have some software fun, you might want to check out [bunnie]’s Chumby
wifi sniffer
.
permalink | 8 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "32843",
"author": "joey y",
"timestamp": "2008-04-09T16:23:54",
"content": "I may be missing something here. Are Chumbys still $200? [bunny] says in his wifi blog post ” itâs cheap enough that you donât mind dedicating it to that application.”Is there a way to get them cheaper... | 1,760,377,839.010037 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2008/04/08/notacon-2008-dropping-humanity-in-non-places/ | Notacon 2008: Dropping Humanity In Non-places | Eliot | [
"cons"
] | [
"bike",
"graffiti",
"notacon",
"notacon2008",
"notacon5",
"sms"
] | [
Nate Graham
] gave a presentation on what he considers ‘new media art’, the convergence of art and technology. He covered quite a few great examples of what new media art is from many categories: a mower that
creates pixel art
, Cory Arcangel’s famous
Super Mario Clouds
hack, a whale hunt whose photo capture rate depended on
the participant’s heart rate
, the
bike based SMS printer
for protests.
Non-places are areas that lack any history or monuments: a McDonald’s looks essentially the same no matter where it is. Like a hotel, supermarket, or airport it no one expects it to have any sort of historical significance to the local population. He had examples of how some of these spaces are being humanized. The project
We Tell Stories
uses a Google Maps hack to give a fictional story locational awareness.
GRL’s lasertagging
work turns single purpose items like bridges and buildings into giant canvases. There are even location based gaming like
Plundr
which gives purpose to spaces that are generally ignored.
The video above is Nate’s personal project ‘
Invisible Narrative
‘, adding a hidden story to a nondescript elevator car. An audience member asked if GRL giving away their techniques might increase the amount of annoying ‘guerilla’ ad campaigns. His response was that releasing any type of technology could result in people implementing it in a bad way, but it’s important to get free technology into the hands of people who will use it for good. | 1 | 1 | [
{
"comment_id": "32842",
"author": "Solenoidclock",
"timestamp": "2008-04-09T00:02:18",
"content": "cool, now we just need a buff-proof ultraviolet ink.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
}
] | 1,760,377,839.299745 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2008/04/07/h2o-spectrum-analyser/ | H2O Spectrum Analyser | Will O'Brien | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"fountain",
"fpga",
"water"
] | [Ray] noted that spectrum analyzers have become a favorite project for FPGA evaluators and sent in
his groups
version from 2004. His team used a combination of MatLab, an Altera FPGA and sixteen pumps to produce real-time sound spectrum output.
permalink | 9 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "32833",
"author": "Rich",
"timestamp": "2008-04-08T06:15:40",
"content": "the effect is less than desirable due to water physicsmy fave remains the flaming spectrum analyzerhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RyIphO4Ypoo",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{... | 1,760,377,839.259231 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2008/04/07/notacon-2008-circuit-bending-will-get-you-laid/ | Notacon 2008: Circuit Bending Will Get You Laid | Eliot | [
"cons"
] | [
"bentfestival",
"circuit",
"circuitbending",
"notacon",
"notacon2008",
"notacon5",
"speaknspell"
] | [
Pete Edwards
] and [
Fred Owsley
] openly admitted that the title was the most thinly veiled audience-bait ever constructed. Nevertheless, they poured through a great talk covering the basics of
circuit bending
and some of the pieces they had built over the years. Fred said that what attracts him to circuit bending is the hands on approach to something very scientific i.e. he can figure out how to construct an interesting circuit by rubbing his finger along the back of the board. As far as where to start: always a battery powered device and use the toy store as a last resort. You’re going to tear the thing apart so why pay for it? Dumpster diving, garage sales, swap meets, and flea markets are all places to look. Parts don’t need to be anything better than grab bag either. They suggested an easy first step is dropping the operating voltage of your device and seeing how it reacts. Pete and Fred had several examples of devices they’ve modified:
Speak & Spells
,
Casio SA keyboards
,
Barbi karaoke machines
, and the
voice changing gas mask
pictured above.
The
Bent Festival
for circuit bending is coming up soon if you’d like to see more. You can also check out these links for more information on circuit bending. | 9 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "32824",
"author": "TheKhakinator",
"timestamp": "2008-04-08T05:56:00",
"content": "Circuit bending is pretty cool, did a little myself.Pics and info here:http://khakindustries.com/?p=8",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "32825",
... | 1,760,377,839.344356 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2008/04/06/wii-nunchuck-arduino-pan-and-tilt-camera/ | Wii Nunchuck Arduino Pan And Tilt Camera | Will O'Brien | [
"Arduino Hacks",
"Misc Hacks",
"Nintendo Hacks",
"Nintendo Wii Hacks"
] | [] | [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MD_-YnFZFP8&hl=en]
I found this while looking for a teardown of a Wii Nunchuck remote since they’re cheap and include a
3 axis accelerometer
. I mentioned an interface board
the other day
, but the responsiveness of the interface in this video grabbed my attention. If you like it, you should check out
this
[
via
] Nunchuck Arduino RF controlled robot. You can find details on that bot
here
. The accelerometer itself only runs
about
$10, but it’s a pretty small SMD part. | 11 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "32813",
"author": "John Berube",
"timestamp": "2008-04-07T07:57:28",
"content": "Nice, i love how well it responds. I’m gonna have to try this out.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "32814",
"author": "sarsface",
"timestamp... | 1,760,377,839.396772 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2008/04/06/notacon-2008-last-mile-wireless/ | Notacon 2008: Last-mile Wireless | Eliot | [
"cons"
] | [
"80211",
"isp",
"notacon",
"wireless",
"wisp"
] | [Mark Doner] presented on how the
WISP
he works for near Toledo is set up. His most important point was that 802.11 is garbage when it comes to the type of installations WISPs do. 802.11 expects the clients to adjust based on the traffic from other clients, but when all your clients are directional they won’t see each other. Mark uses
Motorola’s Canopy
equipment, but he also mentioned
Trango
and
Redline
as other vendors. The radios operate in the 5.7GHz band which doesn’t have any power restrictions so they can use refurbished Dish Network dishes when they’re doing long shots. For customers that are nearly at the edge of service, they have 900MHz equipment as well. Heavy fog and freezing rain have proven to be the only weather that really affects the service. For back-haul between their towers they use
Dragonwave
equipment. Each of the radios costs ~$350 and features GPS to determine distance and maintain sync with the AP. It was interesting to see how a good WISP operates as opposed to the flakey ones we’ve had to deal with in the past. | 3 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "32811",
"author": "Doug",
"timestamp": "2008-04-07T23:06:04",
"content": "Yeah, WISP has become a term that is tossed around too lightly. Inexpensive off the shelf wifi has persons creating outdoor networks with out researching what makes a good network and with dis- regard for the ... | 1,760,377,839.447147 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2008/04/06/notacon-2008-the-tsa-bagcam/ | Notacon 2008: The TSA Bagcam | Eliot | [
"cons"
] | [
"baggage",
"camera",
"dvr",
"luggage",
"notacon",
"swanngaurd",
"TSA",
"video"
] | [algormor] gave one of the more controversial talks at
Notacon
. After receiving a few too many inspection slips and destroyed baggage he decided to find out what was going on behind the scenes. First, he purchased a cheap bag from Walmart with a zipable liner. To record the video, he purchased a
SwannGUARD MicroDVR
. It’s a palm-sized device that records 128×128 15fps video. It comes with a plastic cover that he mounted to the inside of the bag. A hole was cut for the video camera right above the badge holder. Since the camera is motion triggered, he could slide the badge up, covering the hole, to deactivate the camera. He’s taken the bag on at least four trips. So… what did the footage show?
Well, lots of conveyor belts, conveyor belts, and conveyor belts. Nothing really damning. It did show the the bag spend an uncomfortable amount of time in public after being checked and before security. It also spent time traveling through certain segments multiple times, being pulled off the belt for random periods of time, and then getting put back on. Audience members were concerned that he might run afoul of federal law because he was recording audio without people knowing. Surprisingly the bag has yet to be searched. | 15 | 15 | [
{
"comment_id": "32797",
"author": "William Munns",
"timestamp": "2008-04-06T14:09:00",
"content": "really would like a link to this video",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "32798",
"author": "John Taylor",
"timestamp": "2008-04-06T16:37:52... | 1,760,377,841.296235 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2008/04/06/notacon-2008-circuit-bending-intro/ | Notacon 2008: Circuit Bending Intro | Eliot | [
"cons"
] | [
"atari",
"ataripunkconsole",
"AVR",
"casio",
"circuit",
"circuitbending",
"guitarhero",
"notacon"
] | The first talk we went to at Notacon was [
Sam Harmon
]’s great introduction to
circuit bending
, the process of modifying sound generating electronics to create new musical instruments.
Reed Ghazala
is considered the father of circuit bending for his pioneering work starting in 1966. Sam pointed out that a “
prepared piano
” could be considered the non-electric precursor to circuit bending. It involves the musician placing different types of material on the piano’s components. Sam presented many different examples of where to start with circuit bending: the
Casio PT-10
,
PAiA Theremax
,
Atari Punk Console
. He also mentioned a couple AVR projects:
AVRSYN
and
todbot’s Arduino work
.
The session ended with [Thom Robertson] showing off the
Weird Sound Generator
he built and his
GHX software
for playing real music with a Guitar Hero controller. | 1 | 1 | [
{
"comment_id": "104496",
"author": "michael jones",
"timestamp": "2009-10-28T18:33:42",
"content": "I really like the look of your template. Did it cost a lot to buy or did you build it yourself?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
}
] | 1,760,377,841.192359 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2008/04/05/frs-foxhunting-for-model-rockets/ | FRS Foxhunting For Model Rockets | Will O'Brien | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [] | Since we had a
FRS radio hackit
a while back, [Weirdguy] sent
this
in. [Scott] gutted a frs radio and added it to his rocket chassis. It’s powered on for the flight, and he can listen to the rockets progress. To locate the rocket once it’s on the ground, he built a 462Mhz
Yagi antenna
to use with a Radio Shack hand held scanner. This is old hat for most Ham Radio guys – they do ‘
Fox Hunts
‘ for hidden transmitters just for fun.
permalink | 10 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "32787",
"author": "samuel gamlin",
"timestamp": "2008-04-06T03:00:43",
"content": "ive gotta get one of thoseSGArts-design.blogspot.com",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "32788",
"author": "wackyvorlon",
"timestamp": "2008-... | 1,760,377,841.024151 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2008/04/04/beer-30-oled-style/ | Beer-30, OLED Style | Will O'Brien | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [] | [Matt] built
this
OLED display based clock for his electronics class. He used an ARM7 processor, designed a nice custom board for it and got busy. The clock face is actually a picture of the watch, and the hands are drawn on top as the time changes. Here’s to the first OLED project on Hack-A-Day.
permalink | 12 | 12 | [
{
"comment_id": "32775",
"author": "alex mccown",
"timestamp": "2008-04-05T00:14:24",
"content": "THAT IS NICE but sorta a waste of a color lcd",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "32776",
"author": "Matt",
"timestamp": "2008-04-05T00:50:14",... | 1,760,377,841.3376 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2008/04/03/custom-mounting-manual-minoltasony-lenses/ | Custom Mounting Manual Minolta/Sony Lenses | Will O'Brien | [
"digital cameras hacks"
] | [] | We usually get
Canon mods
, but [polossatik] sent in
some
interesting Sony/Minolta lens modding work by [Shaocaholica], who’s been really been taking lens modding to a new level of quality. He picked up several old Rokkor F1.2 lenses and swapped parts around to make four decent lenses. Then he had [Pete Ganz]
turn down
some new mounts on his lathe. Finally, a quick round of epoxy to add a lens id chip activates the on board image stablization and focus confirmation. Be sure to check out the photo build log
here
. | 11 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "32764",
"author": "strider_mt2k",
"timestamp": "2008-04-04T14:04:52",
"content": "Holy crap, _optics hacks_!Super sweet!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "32765",
"author": "dirk",
"timestamp": "2008-04-04T14:46:58",
"... | 1,760,377,841.383129 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2008/04/02/midi-controlled-xmas-bells/ | MIDI Controlled Xmas Bells | Will O'Brien | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [] | This video is [Jim]’s 12 year old [Adam] describing a modded a set of electronic christmas bells that take midi input thanks to a propeller controller. Looks like [Jim] helped a bit, but it looks like a great way to introduce young minds to hardware hacking. You can grab details on the board design
here
. | 11 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "32753",
"author": "JCF-Maynard",
"timestamp": "2008-04-03T07:21:54",
"content": "Wow his mom and/or dad did a good job.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "32754",
"author": "Dokument",
"timestamp": "2008-04-03T07:53:02",
... | 1,760,377,841.523292 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2008/04/01/random-usb-caps-locker/ | Random USB Caps Locker | Will O'Brien | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"Atmel",
"attiny",
"caps lock",
"CapsLock",
"haha",
"usb"
] | This
is one of the most original April fools gags I’ve seen. [Garrett] sent in his USB caps locker. It’s built from an ATTiny45 and puts out an intermittent signal to set the caps lock key. Considering what day it is, it appears to be legit. After you’re done screwing with your co-worker for the day, you might be even more interested in the
easylogger project
that it’s based on.
permalink | 20 | 20 | [
{
"comment_id": "32735",
"author": "Bullwinkle Jones",
"timestamp": "2008-04-02T05:59:56",
"content": "I love it! How does one make the Attiny show up as an HID device though? I suppose google is my friend, and I’ll go look now!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
... | 1,760,377,841.478913 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2008/04/01/upcoming-events-2/ | Upcoming Events | Eliot | [
"cons"
] | [
"blackhat",
"blockparty",
"con",
"convention",
"defcon",
"hope",
"notacon",
"siggraph",
"thelasthope"
] | We’re headed to Cleveland at the end of the week (we’ve heard rumors it rocks) and thought it would be good to list the events we’re planning on hitting in the next five months.
Notacon
/
Blockparty
April 4-6 Cleveland, OH – This will be a first for us, but we’re definitely excited, especially for the
demoscene
madness at Blockparty (like
Trixter’s MONOTONE
PC speaker tracker).
ToorCon Seattle
April 18-20 Seattle, WA – In its second year, this small gathering is sure to be a blast
just like last year
.
The Last HOPE
July 18-20 New York, NY – Our first HOPE and the last one ever.. since the hotel is being torn down.
Black Hat US
August 2-7 Las Vegas, NV – If anything gets released this year, it’ll be here.
DefCon
August 8-10 Las Vegas, NV – The first con we ever went to. It’s not the best con, but it’s always interesting.
SIGGRAPH
August 11-15 Los Angeles, CA – SIGGRAPH is where you need to be if you want to see cutting edge graphics and interaction projects. It’s a favorite of ours and a nice break from computer security.
Anything we’re missing?
UPDATE:
Maker Faire
May 3-4 San Mateo, CA – Can’t believe we forgot it. Thanks [pt]! | 11 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "32724",
"author": "Don",
"timestamp": "2008-04-01T23:41:54",
"content": "I don’t understand- the second HOPE was not held at the Pennsylvania Hotel so why do future ones have to be held there? I suspect that there will be another HOPE conference at some point in a new location. If t... | 1,760,377,841.426466 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2008/03/31/diy-heated-vestclothing/ | DIY Heated Vest/clothing | Will O'Brien | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"burn",
"diy",
"fire",
"heated",
"vest",
"warm"
] | [Jared] sent in
his
experiment in building his own heated vest for motorcycle riding. He used some of the ever so common enamel coated wire and some surplus teflon tape in place of Teflon coated wire. So far he’s been testing things out with a bench power supply, but it seems to be working. Despite my love of building my own stuff, I’d probably just pony up for a commercial product. His site is hosted on his DSL, so I’ve put up a mirror
here
. (with some tweaks to the thumbnails to make them load faster.)
permalink | 19 | 19 | [
{
"comment_id": "32706",
"author": "mattm",
"timestamp": "2008-04-01T07:47:31",
"content": "hmm, great idea. i’ve thought about trying something like this for snowboarding, except i’m not sure what i’d do for a power supply…backpack power supply?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies... | 1,760,377,841.159736 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2008/03/30/pcb-milling-hell-sunday-extra/ | PCB Milling Hell Sunday Extra | Will O'Brien | [
"Arduino Hacks",
"cnc hacks",
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"arduino",
"cnc",
"laser",
"radio",
"wii"
] | I’ve spent about 18 of the last 24 hours working on milling a PC board for my upcoming how-to. So far I’ve murdered several copper clad boards, built a hold down table, redesigned the board in eagle at least five times and snapped off a $15 half round engraving bit.
If you’re wondering, my new board milling table is a piece of MDF that I laser etched a .25″ grid onto, then added some aluminum strips to act as hold-downs. On the side of the strip opposite the board, I put thin slices of PC board to level out the hold downs. As usual, I’m building the board in
eagle
. To turn the board into something the mill can handle, I’m using
pcb-gcode
, a nice little g-code generation tool for eagle. I may switch methods later, but if I can get the settings tweaked, it’ll make my design to board milling process very fast.
[Scott] sent in the beginning of his attempt to build a frequency detector. He’s
started out
with just simple LCD matrix. Nothing intensely interesting just yet, but I like it when people send in stuff they’re working on.
If you haven’t checked out the
Arduino
yet, do it. It’s the easiest micro controller dev platform I’ve seen. If you’ve got one, now you can hook up a
Wii-Nunchuck to it
. If you like smaller and cheaper, check out [ladyada]’s
boarduino
.
[eliot] wanted me to mention
this
video on hacking drive through speakers. It’s a bit cheesy – and all I could think of was
Thunder Run
– where the geek character swapped the crystals in the CB radios. (Warning, The FCC might have some expensive words for you if you get caught.) Update:
this
is what you get if you don’t watch the entire video and catch the joke about taking apart toasters.
Tomorrow I should be picking out some winners for my laser etched laptop (or whatever) offer. You can still win some free etching time! Just send in a
tip
! The winners are selected from the ones that get published on Hack-A-Day. | 18 | 18 | [
{
"comment_id": "32688",
"author": "Adam",
"timestamp": "2008-03-31T09:23:49",
"content": "wow. that cb to fast food hack seems very tempting… but verrry bad.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "32689",
"author": "Dev",
"timestamp": "2008-03... | 1,760,377,841.246262 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2008/03/29/in-cable-guitar-preamp/ | In-cable Guitar Preamp | Will O'Brien | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"guitar",
"music",
"preamp"
] | [Bryan] sent in
this
old but excellent guitar cable hack. [J. Donald Tillman] managed to fit a fet based pre-amp inside the 1/4″ connector of a guitar cable. It’s phantom powered – so it’ll leach power from the sound board/mixer. I’m just impressed that he fit the thing inside there.
On a side note,
This
is the kind of crap that gives hackers a bad name. I hope the jerks behind it end up as Soylent Green.
permalink | 25 | 25 | [
{
"comment_id": "32663",
"author": "tjhow",
"timestamp": "2008-03-30T08:06:13",
"content": "sweet hackit is really a shame, about the epilepsy forums incident..",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "32664",
"author": "arkangel",
"timestamp": "... | 1,760,377,841.666138 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2008/03/28/reverse-engineering-the-novint-falcon/ | Reverse Engineering The Novint Falcon | Will O'Brien | [
"home entertainment hacks",
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"controller",
"haptic",
"robotics"
] | [qDot]’s been
spending alot of time
with the
Novint Falcon
haptic controller. He’s put together a ‘brain dump’ of everything he know about the device – and some notes on his efforts to put together his own software library for the thing. I’m definitely interested in the parallel robotics platform that it appears to be based on.
permalink | 5 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "32659",
"author": "adam",
"timestamp": "2008-03-29T19:24:26",
"content": "This is super cool as I was working on a usability study for my human-computer interaction class with the same product. I always wanted to get a second one and mess with it. Haptic controllers in general are... | 1,760,377,841.860204 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2008/03/27/nixie-tube-vu-meter/ | Nixie Tube VU Meter | Will O'Brien | [
"home entertainment hacks"
] | [
"amplifier",
"audio",
"ipod",
"itunes",
"tubes"
] | [Daniel] sent in
his
Nixie tube VU meter. It uses 14 Russian IN-13 Nixie bar-graph tubes. He built a custom circuit to amplify, filter, smooth and feed a voltage divider to assign signal levels to segments and finally some high voltage transistors to drive the tubes. The circuit looks pretty big, but it’s repeated for each tube – so he worked hard to keep the cost down as much as possible. Now this just needs to live on the front of a massive tube amplifier.
permalink | 15 | 15 | [
{
"comment_id": "32644",
"author": "Sp`ange",
"timestamp": "2008-03-28T07:54:17",
"content": "Are Russian nixie tubes in a massive surplus or something?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "32645",
"author": "camel",
"timestamp": "2008-03-28T... | 1,760,377,842.605988 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2008/03/26/cat-5-ethernetserialpoe-to-your-wireless-router/ | Cat-5 Ethernet/Serial/PoE To Your Wireless Router | Will O'Brien | [
"Misc Hacks",
"Wireless Hacks"
] | [
"cat5",
"ethernet",
"PoE",
"router",
"wireless"
] | Adding
PoE
(Power over Ethernet) just
wasn’t good enough
for [steve]. Not only does he have power running over his Cat-5, he shared the ground wire and used the remaining pair to add a serial console to his rooftop mounted wireless router. Nice.
permalink | 29 | 29 | [
{
"comment_id": "32616",
"author": "Matt_",
"timestamp": "2008-03-27T00:01:09",
"content": "I thought of passing my own power through cat5 once. It would be nice if you had “tap-out” plugs, to where you could plug any old cat5 into them and it will move those 4 wires out for access.",
"parent_id... | 1,760,377,842.334508 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2008/03/25/wiimote-headtracking-fps-laser-gaming/ | Wiimote Headtracking FPS Laser Gaming | Will O'Brien | [
"home entertainment hacks",
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"dork",
"laser",
"python",
"wii",
"wiimote"
] | Remember [John]’s
Halloween laser tracking game
? He’s been busy since then. After building his own version of multi-player missile command based on his laser interaction game, he added head tracking (using the same method as [
Johnny Lee
] . Check out the video after the break, and grab the
full source
for Mac or Linux.
permalink | 12 | 12 | [
{
"comment_id": "32604",
"author": "EllisGL",
"timestamp": "2008-03-26T05:01:54",
"content": "Now throw in a 3D Goggles and extra IR points for 3D tracking…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "32605",
"author": "tbare",
"timestamp": "2008-03... | 1,760,377,842.023265 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2008/03/24/wireless-fireworks-controller/ | Wireless Fireworks Controller | Will O'Brien | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"explosive",
"fireworks",
"july",
"remote",
"wireless"
] | [Tuckie] sent in his
wireless fireworks controller
. The electronic parts are off the shelf – a 12 channel relay board and remote provide the guts. He used a rock tumbler to mill the black powder needed to make the detonators. A combination of the fine ground black powder, nichrome wire and ping pong balls makes up the business end of each detonator. When a channel is selected with the remote, the relay is activated, current is sent to the detonator which is taped to the firework fuse.
permalink | 27 | 24 | [
{
"comment_id": "32583",
"author": "dax",
"timestamp": "2008-03-25T08:45:10",
"content": "I’m all for the e-match style of remote detonator, but wireless?! You must be mad! Still a freaking awesome and sleek creation.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_i... | 1,760,377,842.133984 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2008/03/23/make-your-own-aerogel/ | Make Your Own Aerogel | Will O'Brien | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"aerogel",
"gel",
"jpl",
"nasa",
"sciencefair",
"silicon"
] | Our own [Eliot] dug this one up from the grave. While
the recipe
has been online for a while, do you know many 10 year olds who made their own
Aerogel
, that wonderful insulator that’s essentially gelled air? [William]
made some
(
cache
) for his science project in 2002. He started with Silbond H5, a combination of ethyl alcohol and ethyl polysilicate. You can get the MSDS after a painless email registration on the
Silbond website
. After the gel is formed you have to soak it in an alcohol bath to make sure all water has been removed from the structure. Then the gel is placed in a drying chamber. Liquid CO2 is forced into the chamber to displace all the alcohol in the chamber and the structure. Once the the alcohol is gone the supercritical drying phase begins. The temperature is raised to 90degF and the pressure is regulated to 1050psi. At this point the liquid CO2 in the gel structure takes on gas properties (looses surface tension) and leaves the silica structure. All that remains in the chamber is your new Aerogel which is 99% empty space and 1000 times less dense than glass.
Of course, if you’re lazy, you can buy some
here
.
permalink | 43 | 40 | [
{
"comment_id": "32560",
"author": "tim",
"timestamp": "2008-03-23T15:00:02",
"content": "I guess I am not smarter than a fifth grader",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "32561",
"author": "Carpespasm",
"timestamp": "2008-03-23T15:25:22",
... | 1,760,377,842.272974 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2008/03/22/semi-duplicate-post-extra/ | Semi-duplicate Post Extra | Will O'Brien | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [] | [bgugi] was the first to notice that yesterday’s post had been seen before, tucked away in an extra last year. (I do check for these things, but it slipped through.) I honor of my little lapse, here’s a fully loaded extra.
[Matt] scored some
interesting hardware
next to one of the local dumpsters. He also just put up part one of
his coil gun
based on ten $1 disposable cameras.
[Darren] sent in
this
USB webcam that was mounted in a Canon FX SLR body. Now the cam can be fitted with old (inexpensive) lenses for better performance.
[Brandon]
really
likes his XBox live – enough to set up access via Sprint EVDO and install everything in his Mini Cooper with a set of VR glasses and controller in the glovebox for instant access.
These were all over the place this week, but I wanted to put them out there. [Pablos]
showed BoingBoing
how completely lame RFID enabled credit cards are. And it’s way to much fun to watch this dog play with his own
robotic ball tosser
.
[Jason] sent in his
altoid tin guitar
– he slapped a piezo inside the tin to get signal out of it.
[David] sent in his older, but still awesome
Segbot
. It’s a balance bot that’s controlled via wireless modem with camera feedback.
Last and definitely not least, [Basil] sent in his
Midistrip
guitar mod. He added a capacitive touch strip to the body of a guitar and uses it to create midi output. Check out the demo vids
here
,
here
and
here
. | 10 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "32550",
"author": "dirk",
"timestamp": "2008-03-22T22:14:34",
"content": "i wish there were videos of the midistrip doing more than just a lame pitch shifting noise-making session.the altoids tin guitar looks interesting, he actually got a surprisingly usable tone out of it, if you’... | 1,760,377,842.519697 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2008/03/21/usb-gaming-arm-band-o-pain/ | USB Gaming Arm Band O’ Pain | Will O'Brien | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"evil",
"gaming",
"shock",
"usb"
] | [Nuri] sent in
his
rather interesting gaming feedback device. The TrakonyaMutatorUSB is a USB based armband that’s designed to shock you when you get shot or killed in your game. I can’t comment on the safety of this thing, but I guess it could be a good gift for your enemy gamer.
Update: Just to clarify a bit, This is built by [Nuri]. He offers them for sale (via paypal I see), but it is his work. It would be nice to see the design, but I can see some reasons why he might not want to release it to the public.
permalink | 15 | 15 | [
{
"comment_id": "32535",
"author": "Pedro",
"timestamp": "2008-03-22T06:18:06",
"content": "Lame!!! Is Hack-A-Day losing its purpose? This is not a hack.. And the idea is very lame…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "32536",
"author": "vampyre"... | 1,760,377,842.069803 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2008/03/20/recycle-those-old-rf-modulators/ | Recycle Those Old RF Modulators | Will O'Brien | [
"home entertainment hacks"
] | [
"RF",
"tv"
] | [Shadow] sent in
this
handy idea. For many, it’s sort of a captain obvious hack, but I’m hoping that this might keep a few of these things out of the trash. He needed to send video around the house from a media PC, and happened to have an old XBox RF modulator sitting around. He popped it apart and located the audio and composite video inputs. To get the signal to the rest of the house, he plans on installing a distribution amplifier that’ll amplify and split the signal to each TV set.
permalink | 23 | 23 | [
{
"comment_id": "32515",
"author": "atrain",
"timestamp": "2008-03-21T07:08:15",
"content": "Simple, but brilliant. Does he have existing cable serice, and wouldn’t this mess it up? If not, can you use 2 diff feeds at once? (eg: 1 modulator on ch3, other on ch4)Rather than hack up a RF modulator, ma... | 1,760,377,842.19879 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2008/05/08/maker-faire-2008-shiftbright-rgb-led-module/ | Maker Faire 2008: ShiftBright RGB LED Module | Eliot | [
"cons",
"LED Hacks"
] | [
"daisychain",
"garrett",
"led",
"leds",
"macetech",
"makerfaire",
"makerfaire2008",
"serial",
"shiftbrite"
] | We made a point to stop by [garrett]’s booth at Maker Faire to to see what he had been working on. You may remember him from his
random caps locker
shenanigans. He’s just recently released the
ShiftBright RGB LED module
which makes it easy to implement a string of individually addressable LEDs. The module is based on the Allegro A6281 3-Channel Constant Current LED Driver. The driver chip is capable of displaying a billion colors using an RGB LED. The 3x3mm package is mounted to the backside of the board while a bright common-anode RGB is mounted to the front. The modules are designed to be daisy chained together and are individually addressed using a serial interface. You can find
Arduino example code
on the site and more info on
how the item was developed
. Read on for close up images.
permalink | 11 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "33436",
"author": "Mojo",
"timestamp": "2008-05-09T04:09:27",
"content": "Wow that looks sweet, the kinda thing case mod freaks would kill for on thier pc (I know I would lol).",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "33437",
"author... | 1,760,377,842.476469 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2008/05/08/mechanical-white-board/ | Mechanical White Board | Eliot | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"dryerase",
"instructables",
"makerfaire",
"makerfaire2008",
"plotter",
"whiteboard"
] | [Romado12187] just posted a walkthrough of his
mechanical dry erase board
project on Instructables. It was on display in the Microsoft booth last weekend at Maker Faire. Unlike [sprite_tm]’s version
we covered earlier
, this one is built more like a traditional pin plotter. The construction was done entirely in [Romado12187]’s dorm room and uses plywood and PVC pipes for the majority of the frame. The mechanical components were purchased from
SDP/SI
and the controller hardware are
Phidgets
. He included a joystick, but it also has a C# command line program for control. [Romado12187]’s write up also has a lot of improvements to help make your first attempt better than his; buying a premounted board and being very exact in calculating motor power are recommended. Catch a video of the plotter in action after the jump.
permalink | 5 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "33431",
"author": "SleighBoy",
"timestamp": "2008-05-09T01:34:09",
"content": "This project is screaming for a LOGO interpreter.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "33432",
"author": "Frollard",
"timestamp": "2008-05-09T02:4... | 1,760,377,842.555562 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2008/05/07/hack-your-prius-with-prius-batteries/ | Hack Your Prius With Prius Batteries | Will O'Brien | [
"Transportation Hacks"
] | [
"batteries",
"battery",
"bms",
"ev",
"nimh",
"prius"
] | Adding extra battery capacity to hybrids is becoming pretty common, but
this one
is better than the average lead acid trunk fest. The pack was built from three prius NiMH packs picked up from salvage yards. These batteries can’t simply be bolted together, but with some research and effort you can save some nickel from the junk yards and cut your fuel bill.
permalink | 10 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "33427",
"author": "thegimpster",
"timestamp": "2008-05-09T02:17:13",
"content": "Im suprised no one has commented on this, so I will. Ya the prius is ok, it looks like a blunt end turd but oh well. I’m a big vw guy so I’m use to getting made fun of liking ‘ugly’ vehicles. Extending ... | 1,760,377,842.648343 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2008/05/07/maker-faire-2008-electric-motorcycles/ | Maker Faire 2008: Electric Motorcycles | Eliot | [
"Transportation Hacks"
] | [
"ac",
"electric",
"electricmotorcycle",
"ev",
"fire",
"justingray",
"makerfaire",
"makerfaire2008",
"motorcycle"
] | Builder [Justin Gray] brought a pair of electric motorcycles to Maker Faire last weekend. Pictured above is the
R84
, which has 28 LiFePo cells and an 84v AC induction drive providing 54HP. All of that is stuffed in a 2000 Yamaha R1 frame. You can buy it now for $14,000.
The second bike is dubbed the
R144
. It’s a144v DC system with 48cell lithium power supply driving a 60kw series motor.
[Justin]’s other passion is building fire robots like
Libby
pictured below. | 7 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "33422",
"author": "elliott",
"timestamp": "2008-05-08T05:30:01",
"content": "where were those, i seem to have missed them while i was there.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "33423",
"author": "Eliot",
"timestamp": "2008-0... | 1,760,377,842.75689 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2008/05/07/gpl-vs-skype-back-in-court/ | GPL Vs. Skype Back In Court | Eliot | [
"Wireless Hacks"
] | [
"gpl",
"haraldwelte",
"munich",
"openmoko",
"skype",
"smc",
"violation",
"welte",
"wifi"
] | UPDATE:
Skype has
withdrawn their appeal
and accepted the original judgment.
Tomorrow the High District Court of Munich will hear
Skype argue against the validity of the GPL
. Last June, the court
issued an injunction against Skype
for selling the
SMC WSKP 100
, a Linux-based WiFi VoIP phone. After the initial GPL violation, a flier with the URL for the source was added to the package. The GPL wasn’t provided and the court found this insufficient for fulfilling the
requirements of the GPL
.
Skype
is appealing and claims that
the GPL as a whole violates anti-trust regulation
. The case against Skype was brought by
OpenMoko
‘s original system architect,
Harald Welte
, as part of his work for
gpl-violations.org
.
permalink | 18 | 18 | [
{
"comment_id": "33404",
"author": "Johnny B. Goode",
"timestamp": "2008-05-08T04:41:39",
"content": "This isn’t the first time a corporation has challenged the validity of the GPL, and I doubt it will be the last. Hopefully Mr. Welte and company come out on top, either way this will definitely be s... | 1,760,377,842.808793 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2008/05/06/teach-your-robots-to-cook/ | Teach Your Robots To Cook | Will O'Brien | [
"Robots Hacks"
] | [] | The
nitty gritty details
are a little bit hidden, but [Sylvain]’s work is awesome enough that I just don’t care. He’s been doing research on robot learning with some
tasty results
. After all, who doesn’t want a robot to make breakfast for em? He’s taken the time to publish some
source code
, so robot made breakfast isn’t that far out of reach. mmmm.
permalink | 8 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "33396",
"author": "Mike",
"timestamp": "2008-05-07T10:58:40",
"content": "Well it would definitely be nice to wake up to breakfast! Now if only I could afford a robot =\\",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "33397",
"author": "Di... | 1,760,377,842.87687 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2008/05/06/maker-faire-2008-swarm/ | Maker Faire 2008: SWARM | Eliot | [
"Robots Hacks"
] | [
"makerfaire",
"makerfaire2008",
"orb",
"orbswarm",
"swarm"
] | SWARM
is a large scale kinetic art project. The electrically powered spheres move by shifting the batteries around the center axle. By tilting the central ring, th orb can steer as well. The SWARM members are currently radio controlled, but the plan is for them to eventually receive commands from a mother node. More information about the orbs’ design is available on the
project wiki
. A video of the wobbly buggers in motion is embedded after the break. | 15 | 15 | [
{
"comment_id": "33381",
"author": "Abbott",
"timestamp": "2008-05-07T05:16:55",
"content": "holy crap, its not a black and white photo!!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "33382",
"author": "Binome",
"timestamp": "2008-05-07T05:17:31",
... | 1,760,377,843.03726 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2008/03/13/contactless-voltage-detection/ | Contactless Voltage Detection | Will O'Brien | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [] | [Tim], builder of that sweet
NES pad controlled Silvia
espresso machine put up an
interesting idea
for
voltage
current
monitoring – at least, for AC circuits. In a nutshell, he created a mini transformer by wrapping some wire around the outside of one wire of an insulated AC power cord. Espresso machines use 120/220VAC actuated solenoids, so that’s why he’s so interested. I love the idea, since the detection circuit is just a piece of wire.
permalink | 17 | 17 | [
{
"comment_id": "32417",
"author": "pc486",
"timestamp": "2008-03-14T07:47:56",
"content": "he built a clamp multimeter. simple and effective!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "32418",
"author": "chupa",
"timestamp": "2008-03-14T08:36:34",... | 1,760,377,842.987737 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2008/03/13/underwater-gps-sorta/ | Underwater GPS (sorta) | Will O'Brien | [
"gps hacks"
] | [] | Since water blocks the radio frequency used for GPS triangulation, GPS is considered pretty useless for SCUBA divers. Apparenlty some of them are
finding it useful
to waterproof off the shelf units for tracking the beginning and end of dives. (Dives in open water often involve currents that can really move you along.) To avoid any wiring, a floating case is used. When the diver wants to grab a waypoint, he/she lets the gps surface for a short while to acquire a fix. Then the diver can pull it back down and mark the waypoint or record the coordinates.
permalink | 25 | 25 | [
{
"comment_id": "32401",
"author": "Abbott",
"timestamp": "2008-03-13T09:33:26",
"content": "As a scuba diver myself, i think that this is an excellent idea… a way to know where you are in relation to your surroundings (although you really should know already, but nobody is perfect).",
"parent_i... | 1,760,377,843.113378 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2008/03/12/ablative-power-on-my-doorstep/ | Ablative Power On My Doorstep | Will O'Brien | [
"Laser Hacks"
] | [] | After months of waiting, emailing and waiting some more, I took the afternoon off to stay home and wait for this special delivery. (I had to wait an extra day due to a shipping issue!) I received three huge boxes in my workshop. Not only did I receive this (not so mini) Epilog mini 24, I put together a stand and unpacked a monster air filter.
Read on for the obligatory Hack-A-Day logo and my first impressions of this sweet piece of kit.
First off I had to unpack and put things together. Assembling the stand was pretty easy – but my electric screwdriver made everything much easier. The laser has an I/O board with a test socket, USB interface and a network interface. Once I connected it to my network, I decided to be lazy and look up the dhcp address on my server – and failed. Surprisingly, the system doesn’t support DHCP. This isn’t a deal killer, but it meant that I had to wade through the setup instructions to manually set the interface. (Epilog just leaves it setup for the usual private lan: 192.168.x.x.)
I took a quick look inside the box – and was surprised by just how small the servo motors are. They’re about the same size as a 1/10 scale model car, plus encoder. The X/Y assembly only moves a small aiming mirror, air gun and auto focus tool, so it doesn’t need to be very large.
Once I got a feel for using the print driver, I grabbed some scrap pine and got to work. I loaded up some Hack-A-Day logo vector art, filled in the areas with some color and sent the job off to the machine. The laser doesn’t do anything until you’ve pushed the go button on the device, so you can send a few jobs to it at once if you like. (The buffer holds 64, I believe.)
On the whole, I’m pretty impressed with the machine. It’s built like a tank, uses servo motors to actuate the X/Y axis, and allows you to use a Mac or windows PC to drive it. If you’re doing multiple runs, you simply select the job, line things up and hit go.
I haven’t picked a winner for
the Hackit
just yet, so keep on sending up ideas if you’ve got em. We’ll be offering more chances at getting your gear etched as time goes by, so stay tuned! | 22 | 22 | [
{
"comment_id": "32380",
"author": "Jordan Horwich",
"timestamp": "2008-03-13T06:12:35",
"content": "Looks pretty nice! I hope I win! This must be AWESOME to use…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "32381",
"author": "Man On Fire",
"timest... | 1,760,377,843.215324 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2008/03/11/laser-writing-via-vnc/ | Laser-writing Via Vnc | Will O'Brien | [
"computer hacks",
"Laser Hacks"
] | [] | Writing with a laser pointer has been done, but [Chris]’s
roll your own version
feeds the data the display pc using VNC. He’s got some speed issues, but I’m giving him points for most original use for remote desktop software.
permalink | 8 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "32374",
"author": "Morpheus",
"timestamp": "2008-03-12T01:43:52",
"content": "Maybe concider using Synergy instead of VNC the transition could be alot more smoother.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "32375",
"author": "Tom",
... | 1,760,377,843.157869 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2008/03/10/leatherman-punch-down-tool/ | Leatherman Punch-down Tool | Will O'Brien | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [] | I just spent a little time dropping in some
new ethernet jacks
in my workshop tonight and stumbled on this handy little leatherman mod. I used the real thing, but I don’t usually keep one on me. [bluebomb] modded the giant redundant screwdriver on his wave to
become a non-impact punch down tool
.
permalink | 13 | 13 | [
{
"comment_id": "32361",
"author": "Aaron Andrusko",
"timestamp": "2008-03-11T09:49:29",
"content": "Stunning!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "32362",
"author": "ex-parrot",
"timestamp": "2008-03-11T10:02:38",
"content": "putty knive... | 1,760,377,843.263619 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2008/03/10/hackit-laser-cutters-with-a-prize/ | Hackit: Laser Cutters – With A Prize! | Will O'Brien | [
"contests",
"HackIt"
] | [] | I’m going to have a special guest in my workshop for a while: an
Epilog Mini 24
45 watt laser cutter. This is entirely thanks to
Epilog Laser
down in Golden Colorado. Here’s today’s hackit: If you had access to your own 45 watt laser cutter – with a 12″ x 24″ work surface, what would you make with it?
Oh, and there’s a prize on this one. Whoever comes up with the best idea will get a free laptop engraving session. (You can always just ship me the display cover.) You can have your own art put on, or we can always tattoo your machine with the Hack-A-Day logo.
(Pictured is Ladyada’s laser cutter. Mine’s coming tomorrow!) | 169 | 50 | [
{
"comment_id": "32203",
"author": "stuart",
"timestamp": "2008-03-10T19:35:14",
"content": "Probably not the most creative idea but I know my first order of business would be labeling all my tools! Not only with my name, but also sizes on things like hex wrenches and drill bits.Hopefully then I cou... | 1,760,377,843.34633 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2008/03/09/ipod-laser-pointer/ | IPod Laser Pointer | Will O'Brien | [
"ipod hacks",
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"ipod",
"laser"
] | If you thought there wasn’t anything else to shove on the end of your iPod, [Alex] is here to set you straight. He used the DC power that’s available on the iPod’s dock to drive a cheap laser pointer. It’s pretty easy to do – just get a dock connector (
sparkfun
has em) and add a laser pointer module. If you’d rather access everything else, check out the
super dock
I put together a while back. Hit the
read link
if you’d rather see the picture in color.
permalink | 7 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "32196",
"author": "sumguy",
"timestamp": "2008-03-10T08:05:37",
"content": "It would be cool if someone did this with a mirror, a small magnet, and some coils to make a portable ipod laser projector. Put the mirror on a pivot then connect one channel to one axis and the other to the... | 1,760,377,843.661253 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2008/03/19/spectrum-zx-laptop/ | Spectrum ZX Laptop | Will O'Brien | [
"handhelds hacks",
"laptops hacks",
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"laptop",
"matrix",
"spectrum"
] | [Jim] sent in
this
interesting
laptop
modding project. He started with a Spectrum ZX and a Toshiba Libretto 110. The libretto kept its brains, but the lower case and keyboard was replaced with the ZX hardware. Since both machines use matrix style keyboards (but different matrix layouts) he was able to create a passive adapter circuit to match things up.
permalink | 13 | 13 | [
{
"comment_id": "32502",
"author": "atrain",
"timestamp": "2008-03-20T07:34:04",
"content": "Awesome mod… Do you have the libretto running a zx emulator though? :PWhy must every pic on this site be greyscale – with the only exception (atm) being the laser etcher?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth"... | 1,760,377,843.534987 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2008/03/18/low-voltage-coil-gun/ | Low Voltage Coil Gun | Will O'Brien | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"coil gun",
"CoilGun",
"microcontroller"
] | [Andrew] sent in
his
low voltage coil gun. He used some control hardware that most hardware hackers probably don’t have on their shelf, bit it’s still a good proof of concept. Each coil is driven by a dedicated relay, and a PC power supply feeds the system juice, while a programmable logic controller does the work. Since it’s just a matter of triggering the coils in order, the PLC could be easily replaced by a micro controller.
permalink | 20 | 20 | [
{
"comment_id": "32483",
"author": "Johnny B. Goode",
"timestamp": "2008-03-18T19:35:33",
"content": "Very interesting project. I had an idea for a similar system several years ago but never built it. Glad to see somebody built one with at least some degree of success.",
"parent_id": null,
"... | 1,760,377,843.489848 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2008/03/17/avr-led-game-project/ | AVR LED Game Project | Will O'Brien | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [] | [David]’s been building his own
game platform
based on an ATMega chip and an eight by eight LED matrix. Looks like he’s used the project as an excuse to get familiar with eagle and doing his own PC board design. Even if the game doesn’t really interest you, future project designs can probably benefit from his roadmap.
permalink | 4 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "32479",
"author": "kaelb",
"timestamp": "2008-03-18T09:18:14",
"content": "I like how he managed to fit breakout on such a small screen.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "32480",
"author": "Jay Vaughan",
"timestamp": "2008... | 1,760,377,843.698353 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2008/03/17/no-laser-get-your-laptop-etched-for-free/ | No Laser? Get Your Laptop Etched For Free! | Will O'Brien | [
"contests"
] | [] | Want to get your laptop custom etched… for free? During the next couple of months, I’ll be giving away some free etching sessions. How do you get one? Just submit a fresh new hack via the
tips line
. If it makes the cut and gets published, you’ve got a chance to get your laptop or gadget etched in this 45 watt epilog laser cutter. Here are a few guidelines to help you win:
Make sure it’s fresh. Use google for 10 seconds to make sure it hasn’t been published on a major blog already.
Make sure it’s got a picture – everybody likes a good visual aid.
You’ll be more likely to win if you’re submitting your own work.
Good luck! | 28 | 28 | [
{
"comment_id": "32452",
"author": "drew",
"timestamp": "2008-03-18T05:59:45",
"content": "what would you get etched into it? and yay 1st comment",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "32453",
"author": "McCheese",
"timestamp": "2008-03-18T06:3... | 1,760,377,843.761087 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2008/03/16/plumb-in-your-espresso-machine-cheap/ | Plumb In Your Espresso Machine (cheap) | Will O'Brien | [
"home hacks",
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"espresso",
"plumbing"
] | A while back, I wrote up
a how-to
on some mods I made to my ECM Giotto espresso machine. After giving it some break-in time, I finally wrote up my cheap plumbed in espresso trick. Plumbing kits use a $50 solenoid that requires special plumbing.
My version
uses a $12 fridge solenoid, easily adds on to my previous mods, and only requires some tubing size adaptation.
permalink | 3 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "32450",
"author": "CoffeeNut",
"timestamp": "2008-03-17T15:05:33",
"content": "This is an excellent “mod”. Cheap, quick, and most importantly tied to a very essential Computer peripheral. A+ yet again guys.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"com... | 1,760,377,843.799402 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2008/03/15/li-ion-for-your-roomba/ | Li-ion For Your Roomba | Will O'Brien | [
"Misc Hacks",
"Robots Hacks"
] | [
"battery",
"roomba",
"soldering"
] | [gim]
gutted
some li-ion laptop batteries to replace his roomba’s battery pack. He had to pick up a li-ion charger and add a protection circuit to deal with the li-ion cells, but ended up with a new lighter pack for his roomba. If you head this way, the protection circuit is a vital component to prevent fires/explisions/etc. Looks like a great resource for robot power or even R/C projects.
permalink | 10 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "32444",
"author": "Dowser",
"timestamp": "2008-03-16T09:38:00",
"content": "The common way to do this, because it’s not a new thing for Roomba owners, is to use a bunch of mobile-phone power-packs. Then yo get the protection-circuit built in and can use the normal charger.Complete k... | 1,760,377,843.839678 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2008/03/14/m3-headphone-amp/ | M3 Headphone Amp | Will O'Brien | [
"home entertainment hacks",
"Laser Hacks"
] | [] | If you’re serious about your headphone amps, you probably already know about the
M3 headphone amplifier
. Instead of going for the extra tiny, they’re going the ‘screw the size, it’s all about the sound’ route. Thsi thing needs a 24v .5amp power supply. Boards are available, and the discussion has gotten so long on headwize that they exceeded the
maximum thread length
.
I got busy with the laser last night and came up with
something new
: a custom etched track pad. It still works, with a bit of added texture where I introduced it to the warm glow of the laser. Hit the link for pics and a walk through.
permalink | 11 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "32434",
"author": "Jerb",
"timestamp": "2008-03-15T02:08:52",
"content": "I gotta say, your a little behind the times on this one. this was a big hit on Head-fi like two years ago.However I gotta say, this is a sweet project for anyone serious about headphones. be wary, what this po... | 1,760,377,843.884664 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2008/03/08/desktop-soldering-press/ | Desktop Soldering Press | Will O'Brien | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [] | [kruser495] put up
this
interesting instructable on making a desktop soldering press out of a sewing machine pedal. It uses a big chunk of carbon to create a diy high power cold-heat style soldering surface. It doesn’t work until the top is pressed down to complete the circuit. Looks like it’s only useful for wire joins, but still pretty interesting.
permalink | 6 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "32190",
"author": "Airmann",
"timestamp": "2008-03-09T08:41:35",
"content": "Must have been inspired by the soldering press in the vacuum tube construction video by the old guy in france.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "32191",
... | 1,760,377,843.921545 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2008/03/07/playstation-controller-interfacing/ | Playstation Controller Interfacing | Will O'Brien | [
"Playstation Hacks",
"Robots Hacks"
] | [
"playstation",
"robots"
] | This is an older set of hacks, but I’m surprised we haven’t covered them before. The playstation controller is an interesting alternative to normal robotic controls.
This
PS1 controller to serial interface is based on a Motorola HC68 series micro-controller. This even
simpler version
only needs some diodes to interface with a parallel port. Probably more interesting is
this
how-to on using a wireless PS2 controller with a basic stamp II. | 14 | 14 | [
{
"comment_id": "32179",
"author": "theblunderbuss",
"timestamp": "2008-03-08T07:34:07",
"content": "Excellent! I can use that controller i found on my lawn, one morning.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "32180",
"author": "Basic A.",
"tim... | 1,760,377,843.969311 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2008/03/07/first-robotics-regional-kc-2008/ | FIRST Robotics Regional – KC – 2008 | Will O'Brien | [
"News"
] | [] | When you’re issued safety glasses at the door, you know it’s going to be interesting. As promised, I’m checking out the FIRST robotics regional in Kansas City today. The competition is pretty fierce – not quite flame throwing battle bot action, but the kids have put together some pretty serious robots.
Read on for more pics from the competition.
Most of the bots share the same basic design features – mainly because each team is issued a kit of stock parts to start out with. I spent most of my time visiting the teams in the pits – checking out their designs and asking them what the favorite part of their bot was.
[Team 2385] – Wright Christian Academy was one of my first visits. They built their own high torque steering system (and winch drive) using some power door motors from a van. They look about the same as older windshield wiper motors. They added a linear potentiometer to the linkage to create their own super servo. I’ll probably re-create this on one of my future projects.
[Team 1996] came up with this interesting gripper for their bot. The arms lever up and down, but the gripper has a static chain drive to keep it level the entire time.
[Team 1108] built one of the most entertaining bots to watch compete. The arm is a catapult, but it’s tipped with a trash can lid with a hand sewn rubber seal. Just underneath is a fan assembly from a shop vac – but the AC electric motor was replaced with a DC unit. It did a fantastic job of picking up the giant ball – and launching it with the arm.
A while later I caught them tuning the catapult. It just launched the ball, just about nailing the guy standing directly in the path.
[Team 1775] put together this sweet control board for their bot. The controls are standard fare, but most of the teams settle for mounting them on a piece of wood.
[Team 1981] had to scrap their pneumatic arm at the last minute, so they settled for making their bot short and solid. Last time I checked, they managed to score pretty decently by just pushing the ball with their bot and making around the track as fast as they could.
For the autonomous round, one team needed a bit more range for their IR remote. Commands 1-3 tell the bot which slot is needed for the target ball. Sending a 4 kills everything. (off, not all humans.)
[Team 2164] built this aluminum hand shaped gripper. It looks fantastic, but I haven’t seen it in action yet, but it looks awesome.
I liked this little construction trick. The frame is built by pop-riveting aluminum plates to join the structure. I’m not sure how durable it will be, but it looks like a nice way to speed up construction.
I didn’t get a chance to talk to every team I wanted to – they’ve all been working pretty hard. When they’re trying to solve a problem or get the bot ready to roll, you can’t miss the activity. If you get a chance to check out a FIRST competition, take advantage of it. | 40 | 40 | [
{
"comment_id": "32142",
"author": "Ptr",
"timestamp": "2008-03-07T22:08:24",
"content": "Awsome, can’t wait for NY/NJ Regionals.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "32143",
"author": "Tim Foreman",
"timestamp": "2008-03-07T23:01:49",
"c... | 1,760,377,844.503379 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2008/03/06/fpgas-rock/ | FPGAs Rock | Will O'Brien | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"fpga",
"how-to"
] | I was doing some project window shopping today, and FPGA’s came up on my list. [John Kent] put together a pretty impressive
documentation set
. He’s written up some of his own projects, some how-to’s and linked plenty of good information for the budding FPGA programmer.
permalink | 16 | 16 | [
{
"comment_id": "32127",
"author": "Edenist",
"timestamp": "2008-03-07T10:12:27",
"content": "Fantastic, just what I’ve been looking for!Thanks!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "32128",
"author": "Dave an den Eynde",
"timestamp": "2008-03... | 1,760,377,844.427069 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2008/03/05/bad-ass-modular-snake-robot/ | Bad-ass Modular Snake Robot | Will O'Brien | [
"Robots Hacks"
] | [] | [Andrew] sent in this sweet snake robot video. The
snake bots
are all about 36 inches long and built from lots of hitech servos and 6061 aluminum. The guys/gals at Carnegie Mellon have built quite a few of these, and I’d say that their work is paying off. They haven’t published much in the way of details, but it appears that the snakes are being computer controlled for faster behavioral development than an on-board mictrocontroller would allow. When I saw the snake motion I was reminded of the winner of the latest
Tresser robotics contest
–
Phoenix
. It’s a spider like bot based on servos, but with some very impressive motion programming that was designed with an excel spreadsheet.
permalink | 17 | 17 | [
{
"comment_id": "32110",
"author": "tyler",
"timestamp": "2008-03-06T07:05:38",
"content": "dang, that’s amazing. imagine a fleet of those crawling into your house sometime soon… it gave me the creeps.but really though, thats a good idea to start with a tethered robot, as you can always change thing... | 1,760,377,844.552456 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2008/03/05/visiting-the-first-robotics-regional-this-friday/ | Visiting The FIRST Robotics Regional This Friday | Will O'Brien | [
"News"
] | [
"high school",
"highschool",
"robotics",
"robots"
] | Just a quick heads-up. I’ll be checking out the
FIRST robotics competition
in Kansas City this friday. It’s a robotics comp between teams of high school students – and the prizes include quite a few scholarships. I know we’ve got some readers who are in the competition. If you see a guy with a Hack-A-Day sweatshirt/T-shirt on, say hi and I might hook you up with some stickers. My day job will be providing
real-time video streaming
of the event, so feel free to check that out.
permalink | 37 | 37 | [
{
"comment_id": "32073",
"author": "Travis",
"timestamp": "2008-03-05T21:41:43",
"content": "“Streams listed on this page require Internet Explorer and Windows Media Player 10 or above.”You are in some way responsible for this?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
... | 1,760,377,844.378041 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2008/03/04/arduino-blimp/ | Arduino Blimp | Will O'Brien | [
"Arduino Hacks",
"Robots Hacks"
] | [
"arduino",
"robotic overlords",
"RoboticOverlords",
"robots",
"ted"
] | Here’s a good rule of thumb: “Don’t update your firmware five minutes before you’re going to fly an autonomous robot ten feet away from a former Vice President of the United States.”
That was one of
the afterthoughts
of [Chris Anderson] after presenting his Arduino controlled blimp at TED. (I might have to squeeze TED into my con schedule next year.) The project itself is somewhat documented here, with some hi-res photos, parts list, and some firmware. Apparently the blimp was overcome by the A/C in the auditorium, but I still dig it.
permalink | 8 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "32065",
"author": "Skyler Orlando",
"timestamp": "2008-03-05T05:27:07",
"content": "That’s a shame that the AC had to go and ruin it in front of all those high-caliber individuals. Ah well, such is life, I suppose. [philosophical babbling removed]It looks like a cool blimp, though, ... | 1,760,377,844.596006 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2008/02/26/lego-nxt-cnc-mill/ | Lego NXT Cnc Mill | Will O'Brien | [
"cnc hacks",
"Misc Hacks"
] | [] | [btopley]
built
his own micro mill out of Lego NXT parts. The construction details are a bit light, but it looks like a great way to try things out without all the actual machine work.
permalink | 8 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "31996",
"author": "Jose Diaz-Gonzalez",
"timestamp": "2008-02-27T09:21:16",
"content": "the video in that link is down. A cursory glance finds nothing.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "31997",
"author": "däniel",
"timest... | 1,760,377,844.683467 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2008/02/25/cnc-mini-lathe/ | CNC Mini-lathe | Will O'Brien | [
"cnc hacks",
"Misc Hacks"
] | [] | Given my obsession of CNC projects, I’m surprised that we haven’t mentioned
this
project before. [Dave] put together an excellent site about his CNC converted mini-lathe. (The same on that
I’ve got
) He built a pretty simple stepper controller to drive it. Since the lathe only needed two axis motors, he drove the steppers with some mosfets that he triggered from a parallel port. The site has been around for a while, but I thought you guys would enjoy a classic hack like this one.
permalink | 7 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "31990",
"author": "Tom",
"timestamp": "2008-02-26T17:23:15",
"content": "Dave also makes one of the best CNC driver software packages (TurboCNC) available for the hobby/home-shop machinist, and it’s affordable at $65 with complete source code.robotic regards,Tom",
"parent_id": n... | 1,760,377,844.636019 |
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.