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https://hackaday.com/2007/12/08/super8-automatic-film-scanner/ | Super8 Automatic Film Scanner | Will O'Brien | [
"digital cameras hacks",
"home entertainment hacks"
] | [
"bluetooth",
"lego",
"mindstorm"
] | [edocronian] sent in
this
interesting mindstorm hack. [Harri] had several Super8 reels that he shot during the 80s. His kids put together this mindstorm NXT transport mechanism, and he did the rest with linux. The lego’s pull the reel across an Epson scanner, and some linux hacks run the scanner, identify the frames, and reconstruct the film. Unfortunately, [Harri] didn’t release any of the software hacks he used to pull it off.
permalink | 18 | 17 | [
{
"comment_id": "30209",
"author": "Dave Eaton",
"timestamp": "2007-12-09T09:45:17",
"content": "The results are pretty stunning, too. He has some examples on his blog, and I am amazed.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "30210",
"author": "abun... | 1,760,377,856.971309 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2007/12/07/open-an-axa-bike-lock-with-a-blank-key-doh/ | Open An AXA Bike Lock With A Blank Key (Doh) | Will O'Brien | [
"Misc Hacks",
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"AXA",
"bike locks",
"BikeLocks",
"lock picking",
"lockpicking",
"Netherlands"
] | [Barry] sent in his
writeup
and
video
about a serious vulnerability in the AXA bike lock. (One of the most popular locks in the Netherlands.) It turns out that quite a few of them can be opened with a blank key. [Barry] demo’s the hack, and has some comments about the lame efforts of the manufacturer. If you enjoy interesting reading, check out his
blog
covering lock picking and physical security.
permalink | 18 | 16 | [
{
"comment_id": "30196",
"author": "vr4",
"timestamp": "2007-12-07T19:58:10",
"content": "Why did this make it to hack a day?thoes locks are just for show anyway.From what i remember about my trip to amsterdam – (and it isnt too much) I think they are designed to be held on with plastic zip ties.oh ... | 1,760,377,857.423213 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2007/12/06/obfuscate-your-power-switch/ | Obfuscate Your Power Switch | Will O'Brien | [
"Playstation Hacks"
] | [] | Just in time to keep your friends from sharing your toys, [l0rdnic0] brings you
this
simple mod: replace your power switch with a reed switch. Of course, now you’ll need a magnet every time you want to use your PSP. Of course, if my older brother did this, I’d build a big electromagnet and start firing it whenever he started playing games.
permalink | 15 | 15 | [
{
"comment_id": "30181",
"author": "AndrewNeo",
"timestamp": "2007-12-07T07:32:19",
"content": "That would be nice for a computer. My friend’s dad would always turn off his computer while it was still running, by holding the power button down.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": ... | 1,760,377,857.129209 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2007/12/05/cornell-final-projects-2007/ | Cornell Final Projects 2007 | Will O'Brien | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [] | The latest crop of
final projects
from Cornell Universities ECE576 course went up a while ago. This round focuses on FPGAs. They’re all fairly impressive projects. My favorite is this
real time spectrograph
. With the decreasing cost of FPGAs, this
Digital Oscilloscope
could become a popular one. Putting this
UDP network stack
on a capture the flag network would probably freak out some people. Lately I’ve noticed a trend of replacing ASIC chips with FPGAs – these projects could be just the thing to get some people started with them.
permalink | 11 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "30170",
"author": "twistedsymphony",
"timestamp": "2007-12-06T17:24:19",
"content": "I’d love to learn more about FPGAs, I’ve never used one but I see them used in lots of cool projects and they seem like quite powerful tools. I seehttp://fpga4fun.comreferenced a lot and it seems li... | 1,760,377,857.01401 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2007/12/04/silence-your-mouse-no-clicky/ | Silence Your Mouse: No Clicky. | Will O'Brien | [
"computer hacks",
"Peripherals Hacks"
] | [
"clicky",
"mouse"
] | [PaulJ] sent in this older, but excellent little hack to
silence your mouse
. Don’t like the click that your mouse makes? If your mouse has the right kind of switch inside, it can be quieted down with a quick soldering job. Just remove it, turn the upper half around and re-assemble.
permalink | 27 | 25 | [
{
"comment_id": "30146",
"author": "Wolf",
"timestamp": "2007-12-05T07:39:41",
"content": "With or without the sound, I’d think the lack of tactile feedback would be extremely annoying.If he could find a way to maintain the clicking threshold of the mouse button, but remove the associated noise he’d... | 1,760,377,857.077738 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2007/12/03/day-o-guitar-hero-mods-with-a-bonus/ | Day O’ Guitar Hero Mods (with A Bonus) | Will O'Brien | [
"cnc hacks",
"home entertainment hacks",
"Misc Hacks"
] | [] | I’ve already gotten a pile of tips on Guitar Hero controllers today, so here we go. The
first one
is already making the rounds. [Mark] replaced strummer with a touchscreen LCD and a magnetic switch. [Mark]s ultimate goal is to add some optical sensing and make the guitar self playing. For details, hit the
acidmods thread
or just
watch the proof of concept demo
.
[Johan] sent in the
second controller
of the day, and it’s probably my favorite for guitar bling. The original mushy switches were replaced with micro-switches and CNC milled replacement buttons. Each button is individually lit with LEDs and a cold cathode lights up translucent panel in the body. A PIC controller controls the lights and provides some input options for button tapping. The
video
is actually pretty entertaining to watch.
For a little bonus, check out [Mastershake916]’s cast
Hack-A-Day pendant
. | 20 | 20 | [
{
"comment_id": "30127",
"author": "Patrick",
"timestamp": "2007-12-03T20:54:56",
"content": "LAMELAMELAMERetards who play Guitar Hero are just LAME.I’ve got an idea – How about playing a real Guitar !!!Do you remember the game – Simon?Thats what Guitar Hero really is – Simon on a stick.LAMELAMELAME... | 1,760,377,857.368321 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2007/12/02/wireless-keyboards-easily-cracked/ | Wireless Keyboards Easily Cracked | Eliot | [
"Peripherals Hacks"
] | [
"27mhz",
"crack",
"encryption",
"keyboard",
"mouse",
"wireless"
] | We first covered breaking the commodity 27MHz radios used in wireless keyboards, mice, and presenters when [Luis Miras]
gave a talk at Black Hat
. Since then, the people at Dreamlab have managed to crack the encryption on Microsoft’s Wireless Optical Desktop 1000 and 2000 products (and possibly more). Analyzing the protocol they found out that meta keys like shift and ALT are transmitted in cleartext. The “encryption” used on each regular keystroke involves XORing the key against a random one byte value determined during the initial sync with the receiver. So, if you sniff the handshake, you can decrypt the keystrokes. You really don’t have to though; there are only 256 possible encryption keys. Using a dictionary file you can check all possible keys and determine the correct one after only receiving 20-50 keystrokes. Their
demo video
shows them sniffing keystrokes from three different keyboards at the same time. Someone could potentially build a wireless keylogger that picks up every keystrokes from every keyboard in an office. You can read more about the attack in the
whitepaper
(pdf).
[via
Midnight Research Labs
]
digg_url = ‘
http://digg.com/hardware/Wireless_keyboard_encryption_easily_broken’
;;
permalink | 69 | 50 | [
{
"comment_id": "30085",
"author": "alex",
"timestamp": "2007-12-03T03:48:06",
"content": "unsurprising, but nice work and cool demoobviously this could be fixed with better encryption… but in most cases why even bother?? just use a damn wire, its not the end of the world. you have to be close enoug... | 1,760,377,857.514019 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2007/12/01/reader-how-to-wiimote-horse-controller/ | Reader How-To: Wiimote Horse Controller | Will O'Brien | [
"how-to"
] | [] | I linked the Wiimote horse controller in yesterdays extra, but today [Mark] sent us a short and sweet How-to. Essentially, he’s using the Wiimote taped to the horse as a joystick to play Need for Speed on the laptop connected to his big screen. Hit the read link for his write up.
Here’s how to but together your own Wiimote racing horse:
1. Buy, Beg, Borrow Steal a Spring Horse
2. Install Blue tooth adapter HW & SW Drivers
3. Sync WiiMote with PC
4. Affix WiiMote to Horse (I used painter’s tape to Horse’s hind quarters (See 00:27 in video)
5. Install
GlovePie
6. Load joystick script in GlovePie (included in GlovePie)
7. Load Need for Speed (PC Game)
8. Configure the controls in NFS by moving the Horse when assigning keys for:
1. Accelerate
2. Brake
3. Left
4. Right
5. Change View (Optional)
9. Hook up to Large Display (Optional but preferable)
10. Move Furniture out of the way
11. Start Game
12. Lean forward, Elbows in, hands tightly gripping handle
13. Have Fun
Note: I will post a detailed How-to/Video at the first available opportunity.
Back Story – Idea:
My sister-in-law, K., keeps her house pretty organized, no clutter, nothing out of place, no messing with the
Feng shui
. My wife and I thought we would mess with her. So we placed a spring hobby horse outside her house at midnight. The next morning as her kids opened their front door they saw the spring horse staring at them from their front yard. You would have thought it was Christmas by their reaction.
Two or three weeks later, though her kids loved the horse, K. could not take the clutter of a horse in her living room, so she paid my two sons a dollar each to carry the horse back across the street to my house.
When I walked into the house after work one day the spring horse was sitting in my foyer. I had been playing with the Wii Remote a lot with the PC lately, and the idea just came to me. I discussed it with co-workers then next day, during a network outage, as we were just sitting around chatting.
Then that night it took about 5 minutes to modify the
GlovePie
– Generic Joystick Driver script. I haphazardly taped the Wii mote to horse’s rear. I then made the following poor quality
video
with my phone.
permalink | 5 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "30080",
"author": "CalcProgrammer1",
"timestamp": "2007-12-02T08:41:59",
"content": "Lol…Nice! It looks like a very unique idea for making use of Wiimote/PC control. I haven’t found many “good” uses for it, but this looks promising…now if you could convert the horse into a more “c... | 1,760,377,857.312685 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2007/11/30/friday-i-want-a-ball-pit-extra/ | Friday I Want A Ball Pit Extra | Will O'Brien | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [] | [rmunroe] of the notorious xkcd made
his own ball pit
. I’m now completely, totally jealous.
[-] sent in this
Commadore 64 Guitar Hero
project.
[Jock] sent in
this
uh, marriage of a Wiimote and a rocking horse. It’s actually a great idea if you’ve got a kid and some duct tape handy.
[warthox] sent in this
XBox 360 tilt
controller project. These have been popping up a bit, but you might like this one. The board is all surface mount, and was routed to make the prototype. I kind-of like the surface pads that were used to mount the wires to avoid doing thru hole mounts.
We’ve been digging the EeePC – [Paul] wrote up
his tricks
to get Ubuntu working on the thing.
[Jock] sent in this
huge
set of music hacks. Mostly circuit bent, but they make for interesting reading. | 9 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "30071",
"author": "Colin",
"timestamp": "2007-12-01T02:05:19",
"content": "that ball pit is awesome. I’m looking forward to his scalable method of ball cleaning… lolif only it weren’t so damn expensive",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment... | 1,760,377,857.271047 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2007/11/30/diy-scuba-tank-boost-pump-for-mixing-gases/ | DIY SCUBA Tank Boost Pump (for Mixing Gases) | Will O'Brien | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [] | No love for that sweet old NES controller? Fine, here’s a bonus hack for you.
This
home-built boost pump is designed to take in a volume of gas (like oxygen) and compress it with a hydraulic style air powered cylinder to raise the pressure. With the increased pressure, the O2 can be added to a SCUBA tank that contains high pressure air to create what’s known as
NITROX
. The idea is to increase the percentage of Oxygen in order to reduce Nitrogen absorbtion in the blood – increasing a divers safe time at depth underwater.
The compression cylinder is built entirely of brass with Sirvon seals. The drive cylinder and 2:1 lever produces 3,000 lbs of pressure on the pump cylinder, all from 120psi of pressure from a standard shop air compressor.
permalink | 46 | 37 | [
{
"comment_id": "30039",
"author": "JimXugle",
"timestamp": "2007-11-30T10:21:30",
"content": "I thought Hackaday adopted a no DIY-Scuba gear policy a while back?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "30040",
"author": "Chemikal",
"timestamp":... | 1,760,377,857.227794 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2007/11/29/nes-inside-a-controller-with-cartridge-compatibility/ | NES Inside A Controller With Cartridge Compatibility | Will O'Brien | [
"home entertainment hacks"
] | [] | [Tony] sent in
this
Nintendo hack. It’s a fully functioning NES with Composite output inside an old school controller. On the back it’s got a cartridge connector, so you can play normal games, there’s a port for a second player/light gun, and for extra bling, the Nintendo logo is backlit. To pull it off, he stuffed a Super Joy III – A.K.A. famiclone inside the controller, did a marathon of soldering for the cartridge connector, and used the now unused controller wires to carry the video and second controller signals.
Yes, this has been around for a while, but I dig it.
permalink | 10 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "30029",
"author": "war6763",
"timestamp": "2007-11-30T07:57:39",
"content": "Man, this hack is a couple months old, at least!!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "30030",
"author": "thethirdmoose",
"timestamp": "2007-11-30T0... | 1,760,377,857.559766 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2007/11/28/mic-preamp-in-an-ipod-touch-dock-connector/ | Mic Preamp In An IPod Touch Dock Connector | Will O'Brien | [
"ipod hacks"
] | [] | [Marian] sent in his sweet little
Mic preamp
that he built for his iPod touch. He built
the circuit
on the legs of a TLC272 OP-Amp with SMD components. The whole thing actually fits inside the cover of a standard iPod dock connector.
Bonus: [tnkgrl] added a
USB bluetooth adapter
to her eeePC after her
circuit tracing efforts
.
permalink | 29 | 28 | [
{
"comment_id": "30019",
"author": "frank",
"timestamp": "2007-11-29T07:53:39",
"content": "What’s the point of this? I don’t have an ipod touch – is it anything different to the plug-in mics you could get for the older ipods?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
... | 1,760,377,857.622673 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2007/11/27/pen-size-polonium-detector/ | Pen Size Polonium Detector | Will O'Brien | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [] | [cartufer] sent in this sweet little
Polonium detector
. It’s fundamentally similar to the Geiger counter the other day, but the circuit is simpler by several orders of magnitude. No exotic parts for this one, just some basic metal working skills. (This might be handy when I visit my in-laws.) The
page
is loaded with several ion detection designs, from
simple
to
very complex
.
permalink | 13 | 13 | [
{
"comment_id": "30007",
"author": "jose lope",
"timestamp": "2007-11-28T08:04:49",
"content": "hmmm.. I wonder if you could get this through airport security…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "30008",
"author": "andrew",
"timestamp": "200... | 1,760,377,858.100335 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2007/11/26/python-web-based-serial-control/ | Python Web Based Serial Control | Will O'Brien | [
"Cellphone Hacks",
"Misc Hacks",
"Robots Hacks"
] | [] | [Benjamin] sent in
his efforts
to use Python to provide a web interface for his Aurdino. Python is usually pretty easy to manipulate, so it might be just the thing for someone looking to add a web control to a project with an open serial interface.
If you’ve got a hack you want to share, use the
tips line
.
permalink | 7 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "30000",
"author": "Aten",
"timestamp": "2007-11-27T08:46:43",
"content": "Wow I was just talking to a friend about doing something of this sort",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "30001",
"author": "Mike",
"timestamp": "200... | 1,760,377,857.96586 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2007/11/26/google-as-a-password-cracker/ | Google As A Password Cracker | Will O'Brien | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"cracker",
"hacked",
"haha",
"password"
] | Usually we’re into hardware hacks, but once in a while I run across something that’s just too good. [Steven]’s blog was cracked a while back, and while he was doing forensics, he was trying to crack the md5 hashed password for the unauthorized account. Eventually he slapped the hash into Google, and guess that it was ‘Anthony’ based on the results that came up. Thanks to [gr] for pointing it out.
(Yes, I know it was on Slashdot a few days ago, but I don’t care.) | 24 | 24 | [
{
"comment_id": "29976",
"author": "Jeroen Domburg",
"timestamp": "2007-11-26T19:20:12",
"content": "And this is why you should salt your hashes.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "29977",
"author": "Skyler Orlando",
"timestamp": "2007-11-2... | 1,760,377,858.305555 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2007/11/25/slr-lenses-on-your-digital-video-camera/ | SLR Lenses On Your Digital Video Camera | Will O'Brien | [
"digital cameras hacks",
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"analog slr",
"AnalogSlr",
"camera",
"canon ae-1",
"CanonAe-1",
"SLR",
"video"
] | Considering all the attention we give digital cameras, I wanted to find an interesting hack for those old school analog SLR cameras. (I spent a fair share of time behind one; I’m fond of the classic Canon AE-1) [Joshua]
mated
his Sony VX-2000e video camera with a Canon FD lens mount and created this monster. With the new lens mount, he’s got a full selection of lenses without the huge investment of specialized lenses.
permalink | 10 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "29969",
"author": "Terry",
"timestamp": "2007-11-26T08:34:41",
"content": "Hmm… It’s been a while since I’ve used a 35-mm camera. Are digital cameras pushing the costs down on the older film-based camera lenses or does this create some expensive niche?",
"parent_id": null,
... | 1,760,377,858.503945 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2007/11/24/loooong-weekend-extra/ | Loooong Weekend Extra | Will O'Brien | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [] | It’s been one long holiday weekend for me. I’ve got a few interesting tidbits on the tips line, and it’s time to clear em out. (Thanks to my Father in Law who came to visit and re-painted my kitchen while I hauled no less than 800 lbs of scrap lumber from my driveway)
If you’re a Nintendo DS fiend, you might dig
this app
that [xfiles.fan] sent in. It’s an IP based clone of the DS’s built in chat program. The upshot is that you can chat with anyone on the internet. (I just use IRC, but this is good if you can’t get to a server.)
[Aaron] sent in the
lastest
version of his olympus E10 remote cable. Good for those shots that require some distance or just hands free to eliminate the shakes.
[theprojectmaker] has an interesting writeup on making
water color effects
on digital photos using analog (post printing) techniques. It looks like you can do some things that even PhotoShop can’t accomplish, since you’re not limited by the pixel.
[Dean] sent in his
aluminum iBook picture frame
after he noticed a mention in our
Laptop HackIt
asking for it. | 4 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "29965",
"author": "t0ny",
"timestamp": "2007-11-25T10:32:12",
"content": "Crap, the remote cable does not work for the E-500 even thou it has the same cables. :(I was hoping that would be easer to build for an trigger for my time lapse project. Off to buy a cheap rm1 remote to wire ... | 1,760,377,858.005664 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2007/11/23/rio-receiver-slimp3-emulator/ | Rio Receiver SLIMP3 Emulator | Will O'Brien | [
"home entertainment hacks"
] | [] | [Roo] sent
this
in, and it took me a few minutes to see what’s so interested about a deprecated digital audio player. The Rio Receiver originally sold for about $350. Today it’s a dead product, but thanks to some software mods, it can be hacked to acquire the abilities of the SLIMP3(A.K.A.
Squeezebox
) player. So score one of these puppies on ebay and thanks to a combination of a modified kernel for the player and some software on a linux box, you you turn that old Rio Receiver into a SLIMP3 emulator.
permalink | 10 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "29955",
"author": "medix",
"timestamp": "2007-11-24T09:56:37",
"content": "Nice hack.. it’s good to see that there’s a way around having an old 386 chugging away just to play music..However..Does this mod allow for streaming of Pandora radio stations? That has been my main interest ... | 1,760,377,858.14282 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2007/11/23/roboexotica-highlights/ | Roboexotica Highlights | Eliot | [
"Robots Hacks"
] | [
"cocktail",
"roboexotica",
"roboexotica2007",
"robot",
"vienna"
] | After the break are some of our favorite bits of machinery from
Roboexotica
so far.
To us the BF Ice Cube Gun, you first place your glass below the the target.
Then you load your ice chunk into the CO2 powered cannon and fire. When it strikes the target the ice shatters and falls into the glass. If you hit the target accurately, it will also pour alcohol into the glass as well.
Robomoji
is a perennial favorite. The bot is incredibly ponderous but fun to watch as it makes mojitos. It squeezes limes, measures brown sugar, muddles everything, and even has a combination ice maker/crusher.
The conference even embraces bar food bots as evidenced by the Perpetual Popper. The machine pops popcorn on single kernel at a time by placing it a the focusing point of a concave mirror. The whole unit acts as a heliostat orientation itself to the sun.
Although not a robot, the most impressive shenanigans came from The Provider. monochrom decided to use a cement mixer to mix and serve screwdrivers. Sean Bonner provides us with videos of its first and last runs (you’ll see why).
More photos are being added
all the time to Flickr
. | 4 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "29951",
"author": "Attackula",
"timestamp": "2007-11-23T22:52:48",
"content": "Thanks for the great pics. Wish I were closer to Vienna. Also, thank God for *color*! I appreciate the dark aesthetic, but I just",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
... | 1,760,377,858.048398 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2007/11/22/hackit-cocktail-robotics/ | Hackit: Cocktail Robotics | Eliot | [
"HackIt",
"Robots Hacks"
] | [
"cocktail",
"HackIt",
"roboexotica",
"robot"
] | Here is a special edition Hackit in honor of
Roboexotica
. Ever since making the decision to attend Roboexotica we’ve been speculating on the type of machines we’d like to see at such an event. Here are a handful of ideas:
Iceware via rapid prototyping: As we type this post, [
Bre
] is in the background attempting to build a
RepRap
style rapid prototyping machine that will construct shot glasses on demand. We were thinking it would be neat to cut beverage glasses out of blocks of ice using a milling machine, but why stick with normal milling equipment? It’s ice right; you could be doing something stupid like using a butane torch for your working tool. We then began to wonder “Has anyone built an ice based rapid prototyping machine?” You could just deposit water on a frozen surface to create your glassware. A group at the University of Missouri has been investigating “
rapid freeze prototyping
“. Since they’re using water, they only have to create the frozen shell of the part and then fill in the empty cavity with water to create a solid.
Industrial flare bot: Use two large industrial arms to perform cocktail flare moves. This is a similar idea to the
juke_bots
, industrial DJ bots. The goal would be to put on a good performance while attempting to appear
less robotic than Tom Cruise
; shouldn’t be too hard.
The separator: There are a few cocktails out there that are carefully poured so that they appear layered when served. We’d love to see a bot that clumsily mixes all of the ingredients together and then runs it through a centrifuge to create the desired product.
Those are three of our ideas. Leave your cocktail robotics ideas in the comments-this whole discussion reminds me of those
garbage disposal based margarita machines
we saw a couple years ago. | 19 | 19 | [
{
"comment_id": "29933",
"author": "zawen32",
"timestamp": "2007-11-23T03:20:27",
"content": "ice? so much work for something that’ll melt away within minutes? youd have to make RAPID prototyping a lot more rapid. anyways Roböexotica was great. unfortunately i had to leave before i saw any of the r... | 1,760,377,858.363696 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2007/11/22/roboexotica-2007/ | Roboexotica 2007 | Eliot | [
"Robots Hacks"
] | [
"cocktail",
"roboexotica",
"robot",
"vienna"
] | Tonight marks the kickoff of
Roboexotica
in Vienna. It’s the world’s leading festival for cocktail robotics. The event aims to explore the role of cocktail robotics as an index for the increasing integration of technological innovations into human lives. It also explores the explosion of radical hedonism in man-machine interaction.
…or it’s just an excuse for a bunch of smart people to get together, build robots, and drink.
The word ‘robotics’ seems to always imply ‘efficiency’, but that’s definitely a no-no at Roboexotica. Fine tuned manufacturer grade cocktail production is not the goal; personality, charm, character, all of these qualities are important in machinery destined for Roboexotica. You can already see some
photos from the event setup
on Flickr and we’ll be bringing you more posts on the individual machines as we get more information/drinks. | 5 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "29929",
"author": "ed",
"timestamp": "2007-11-22T18:48:35",
"content": "first",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "29930",
"author": "zawen32",
"timestamp": "2007-11-22T19:50:43",
"content": "hey, thats like 20 minutes fr... | 1,760,377,858.407301 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2007/11/21/real-robots-from-movie-designs/ | Real Robots From Movie Designs | Will O'Brien | [
"Robots Hacks"
] | [] | Thanks to
Star Wars
, Plenty of people have
built their own
R2 units. Pixar’s
next movie
has been running trailers for a while, and there’s already
a group
(free membership required) devoted to building real versions of the SGI robot star: WALL-E. I guess I’ll have to call it reverse-forward engineering. WALL-E has some interesting design ideas – it compacts trash into cubes, but it can also retract its treads into the same compacting area. (Pictured is a WALL-E style waste cube, by [Jawa Lunk]) Thanks to [Shannon] deserves the credit for turning me onto this one.
permalink | 12 | 12 | [
{
"comment_id": "29917",
"author": "phunkphish",
"timestamp": "2007-11-22T10:44:50",
"content": "Nice. This shows up my, everything pretty much. 1st comment, so fresh",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "29918",
"author": "Michael",
"timestam... | 1,760,377,858.456535 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2007/11/20/asus-eee-pc-trace-hunting/ | Asus Eee PC Trace Hunting | Will O'Brien | [
"laptops hacks"
] | [] | There isn’t anything hacked into it yet, but [tnkgrl] spent some time
hunting
around her
Eee PC
for some handy hackable extras. I’d been ignoring them, but now I want one. Oh yes, I do. Hit the writeup for details, but [tnkgrl] identified some semi un-used USB connections, an accessible 5v supply and a spare mini-pcie slot that seems to disable the SSD when it’s in use. The currently unusable mini-pci slot is actually pretty intriguing.
permalink | 16 | 16 | [
{
"comment_id": "29901",
"author": "M1st3rG0n3",
"timestamp": "2007-11-21T18:23:25",
"content": "Man, i really need to get one of these… then just figure out how to mod so the evdo card will work….oh, yeah, first post–WOOT!!!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"c... | 1,760,377,858.598522 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2007/11/19/digital-geiger-counter/ | Digital Geiger Counter | Will O'Brien | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"diy",
"geiger counter",
"GeigerCounter"
] | Worried about radiation levels? I’m not, but I still want to build one of these.
Mr. Fission
here was built by the same guy that’s behind the
OpenTracker
project. [Scott] based it on the
Bargraph Geiger counter
built by [Russel E. Cliff]. Both use a standard Geiger tube like the LND712. The tube works with high voltages – easy enough with older electronics, but it’s a slightly tougher challenge with todays low voltage gear. [Scott] used the high voltage power supply from the original project, and built the rest around a good ol’ Motorola HC86 series processor. [Scott]’s idea of using an inverter supply designed for a cold cathode lamp is definitely an interesting one.
permalink | 12 | 12 | [
{
"comment_id": "29891",
"author": "steve diraddo",
"timestamp": "2007-11-20T07:40:54",
"content": "sites down",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "29892",
"author": "Peter Walsh",
"timestamp": "2007-11-20T08:40:06",
"content": "There’s l... | 1,760,377,858.671633 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2007/11/18/hackit-frsgmrs-portable-radios/ | Hackit: FRS/GMRS Portable Radios | Will O'Brien | [
"HackIt",
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"frs",
"gmrs radios",
"GmrsRadios",
"HackIt"
] | FRS
and
GMRS
radios have the performance that we wished walkie talkies had when we were kids. I find them interesting because they aren’t quite as tied down as amateur radio bands. (They’re freaking cheap and you can give them to unlicensed users.) I’ve been surprised by the lack of hacks for these little guys. Garmin married them with a GPS unit to create a sort of hand held APRS device called the Rhino. Since I’ve got a couple of kids, I’m thinking that smacking a GPS into one of these little wrist radios with a modified
opentracker
(PIC based APRS encoder) would be great for tracking the family on hikes and ski/snowboard trips.
The response to Hackit has been fantastic! Each week I’m going to bring up some hardware. You guys get to pick your brains and suggest new, interesting projects. Look for a round-up and bounty post in the next week or so.
So, got a better idea? Let’s hear it! | 98 | 50 | [
{
"comment_id": "29855",
"author": "jaded",
"timestamp": "2007-11-19T09:38:52",
"content": "Just a correction, transmitting on GMRS radio frequencies does require a license. It’s not a “proof of competence” license like a ham license; the only test is whether or not the FCC can cash your check.Ther... | 1,760,377,858.92473 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2007/11/18/morse-code-usb-slide-keyboard/ | Morse Code USB Slide Keyboard | Will O'Brien | [
"Peripherals Hacks"
] | [
"ham radio",
"HamRadio",
"morse code",
"MorseCode"
] | Today, I stumbled across
this
morse code keyboard. I couldn’t find any sign on the promised schematics or code, but I like the design. It’s not that hard to train yourself in Morse code, and it’s nearly impossible to send an erroneous code thanks to the unique slide=dash tap=dot physical interface.
permalink | 20 | 18 | [
{
"comment_id": "29823",
"author": "VonSkippy",
"timestamp": "2007-11-19T07:46:25",
"content": "Wow, I can’t wait for you to stumble across a USB powered Butter Churn, or perhaps a article on repairing buggy whips with old Cat 5 cable.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
... | 1,760,377,858.784793 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2007/11/17/spread-spectrum-freq-hopping-usb-rf-modem/ | Spread Spectrum Freq Hopping USB RF Modem | Will O'Brien | [
"computer hacks",
"Misc Hacks",
"Peripherals Hacks"
] | [] | Since I mentioned
Sparkfun electronics
in the
parts finding how-to
, I started poking around their forums and stumbled across
this
interesting USB RF modem. It uses an off the shelf Semtec DP1205 RF module that’s controlled by a PIC 18F2550. The really interesting thing is that it uses spread spectrum frequency hopping – which means that by FCC rules, it can transmit up to 1 watt at 900Mhz.
permalink | 17 | 17 | [
{
"comment_id": "29807",
"author": "Joshua",
"timestamp": "2007-11-18T07:21:11",
"content": "FHSS actually isn’t too uncommon a feature in COTS 900 MHz transceivers, precisely because of the FCC rule. Still, that’s an awesome little project. Handy, too. Who needs the wireless USB standard when we’ve... | 1,760,377,858.723356 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2007/11/16/friday-night-pyro-extra/ | Friday Night Pyro Extra | Will O'Brien | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [] | Well, not quite so much a pyro, but this setup rocks for cooking some good steaks.
[Tony] sent in this
mp3 doorbell hack
. I’m thinking… Star Wars theme song.
[Joey] let me know about this odd hack that adds
guitar foot pedals to every button on a gameboy
. (It makes sense if you remember that they’re popular for 8-bit sound production)
[Chris] sent in his
wooden robot arm
. It’s a simple servo based design, but it might be a good place to start if you’re leaning in that direction.
This already got plenty of attention, but [Billy] took his
iPod apart and encased it in a block of resin
. It’s still works, via a dock cable.
[D.G.] sent in this cheap
ring-light tutorial
. It’s based on a cheap LED light that’s got a set of ring mounted LEDs from the factory.
[Eliot] noted this
interesting take
on finding slingboxes using geographical IP addresses to set up your target search.
Finally, if you enjoyed
[Eliot]’s visit
to [Mr. Jalopy]’s garage, you might want to check out the
video version
on BoingBoingTV. | 6 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "29801",
"author": "eldorel",
"timestamp": "2007-11-17T09:23:48",
"content": "The link to the mp3 doorbell isn’t working. Use this one instead:http://popsci.typepad.com/how20blog/2007/11/build-it-hack-y.html",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"com... | 1,760,377,858.967492 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2007/11/16/how-to-where-to-find-parts-for-your-projects/ | How-To: Where To Find Parts For Your Projects | Will O'Brien | [
"cnc hacks",
"how-to"
] | [
"digikey",
"feature",
"howto",
"mouser",
"parts",
"radioshack",
"salvage",
"sparkfun"
] | Hunting down the right parts usually takes more time than soldering everything together. I can’t count the number of projects that I tried to build and couldn’t find some key component that’s no longer made. You can help put together a list of suppliers at the end, but the idea is to have a quick reference to get your projects rolling (saving your money for important things, like espresso). Even if you’re familiar with the usual electronics parts shops, chime in to help me create a list of the best suppliers to fuel those hardware hacking projects.
If you want to keep your money, I’d avoid
RadioShack
as much as possible. When you’re stuck because you can’t find a freaking 10kohm resistor, it’s fine, but the markup on their low quality parts is insane-their clearance prices aren’t too bad. As much as people bag on RadioShack, just remember that nobody else bothers to sell electronic parts in the middle of nowhere.
Shipping can eat your project budget quicker than anything else. It’s the reason that I’m sometimes willing to pay $1 for $.05 in resistors at RadioShack. When I’m buying parts, I try to buy from a single supplier if possible to maximize my parts budget.
Stocking up on parts in bulk can help make projects extra affordable later on. Buying a quantity of resistors, capacitors, PNP and NPN transistors and a decent supply of linear voltage regulators will save you a fair amount of money later on. I love it when I can build a $30 project for the cost of a proto-board and an odd capacitor.
Just about every electronics component manufacturer will provide free samples on request. That’s right – free. It’s usually just a matter of creating an account on the manufacturers web site and selecting the components you need. As a rule, I don’t mention when I’ve sampled parts for a project. Seriously, they’ll get a little suspicious if 100 people suddenly sample the exact same parts. Samples aren’t limited to semiconductor companies. [ladyada] has a
nice list
of sample providers, including enclosures and connectors.
Digi-Key
carries just about every part you can think of. These guys prefer to sell large quantities, but they’re happy to take small orders. Orders are shipped out fast, but they’ll tack on an extra $5 fee if your order is under $25. Even if you’re not ordering, they usually have data sheets linked for every part they carry online. If you’re wiling to jump through the hoops, you can even create a parts order that’s linkable from your website – it can make it much easier to share a project with others, but I usually find that a few part numbers get deprecated as time goes by. Oh, and they’ll send you a massive parts catalog that’s handy for parts hunting and brain storming.
Mouser Electronics
is one of my favorite suppliers these days. They have reasonable shipping options and are fast with UPS ground orders showing up at my house within two days. Their inventory isn’t always the best, but substitution parts are usually easy to find because the online catalog links to web enabled PDF pages from their print catalog. It makes cross-referencing very easy. Like Digi-Key, they’ll send you a massive parts catalog to shove under your monitor.
Futurlec
is a great place to get incredibly cheap parts, but you won’t be seeing your order for about a month (ok, so my last order showed up after three weeks). I suggest stocking up on connector headers and resistors. I haven’t had to make a late night resistor run in a couple of years thanks to these guys.
Sparkfun electronics
is like a candy shop for Hack-A-Day readers. They carry higher end parts like GPS units, GMRS modules and micro controller programmers. Pricing varies a bit, but I can always find something interesting there. If you prefer professionally made PC Boards, they even put together an
inexpensive PC Board service
.
ebay
is one of my favorite places to shop for parts. It’s a great place to buy brand new $150 stepper motors for $20 or hunt down funky, hackable hardware. People certainly try to sell single components, but it’s usually not worth the effort.
Salvaging parts is the absolute cheapest method for parts shopping. Thanks to custom ICs and SMD parts, newer electronics don’t normally have much in the way of salvage value. On the other hand, older hardware is a great source for parts. My current favorite salvage source is the dot matrix printer. They’re easy to take apart, have nice power supplies, and they’re loaded with quality heat sinks, wiring, connectors, hardened steel rods, and stepper motors. The bigger the dot matrix printer, the bigger the stepper motor. If you can score a few of the same model, you’ll end up with a few matched sets. People hate throwing them away, so they’re easy to get for free.
Lack of availability can be a problem, but obsolete parts are another way to keep costs down. Originally, the UCN5804B stepper driver I used for the
cutting board CNC machine
cost about $16 each. Now that they’re deprecated, they can be had for about $5 each.
Grab bags are another good way to save money. They’re usually full of loose parts that’ll have to be identified, but they’re cheap. The guys over at uchobby put together
a nice how-to
on sorting them.
Thanks to the movement from mail order to internet suppliers, the parts company scene is huge. There are loads of production part and surplus companies around. Here’s a quick list of shops that’ll probably be useful if you’re looking for parts.
Digi-Key electronics
Mouser electronics
Futurlec
Sparkfun electronics
eBay
All Electronics
BG Micro
American Science & Surplus
Goldmine Electronics
MPJA Online
MCM Electronics
Parts Express
Got a favorite shop? Drop the link in the comments and I’ll add it to the list. | 78 | 50 | [
{
"comment_id": "29742",
"author": "Chris J",
"timestamp": "2007-11-17T06:22:55",
"content": "For discontinued or hard to find parts contacthttp://www.unicornelectronics.com. I use them for the MM5314 clock chip that hasnât been made in 15 years as well as discontinued 74 series logic.",
"pare... | 1,760,377,859.188364 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2007/11/15/automatic-projector-calibration/ | Automatic Projector Calibration | Will O'Brien | [
"home entertainment hacks",
"Portable Video Hacks"
] | [] | [Johny Lee] sent in
his
(pdf) awesome projector calibration project. By adding embedding some optical fiber that feed into a set of USB connected light sensors, his groups software can determine the exact pixel position of each sensor. Once the positions are determined, the projected image can be dynamically adjusted to fix the screen. The technique can be used to stitch together multiple projectors, and even calibrate an image to project onto a three dimensional model. I know some home theater nuts that would love to have this system for calibrating their CRT projectors.
This is such an excellent project, that I want to give credit where it’s due – it was developed by [Johnny C. Lee], [Paul H. Dietz], [Dan Maynes-Aminzade], [Ramesh Raskar] and [Scott E. Hudson].
Be sure to check out the video demo after the break!
permalink | 40 | 40 | [
{
"comment_id": "29707",
"author": "simon",
"timestamp": "2007-11-16T02:06:57",
"content": "That is bloody amazing, especially the demo with the car! Great Job!!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "29708",
"author": "Jake",
"timestamp": "200... | 1,760,377,859.092464 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2007/11/14/toilet-terror-level-indicator/ | Toilet Terror Level Indicator | Will O'Brien | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"haha",
"terror level",
"TerrorLevel",
"toilet"
] | Normally,
this
wouldn’t quite make my radar, but [sprite_tm] built it, and it’s funny as hell. He created a Terror Level indicator for… his toilet. Rather than create an exotic smell detector, he simply uses a photo diode to measure the amount of time that the light has been on in the ol’ water closet. As time progresses, so does the Terror Level indicator. To make an audible indicator, he used the PWM generator in the ATTiny231to create a sort of ping sound when the level escalates. (I can definitely think of someone I need one of these things for.)
permalink | 11 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "29696",
"author": "entropy",
"timestamp": "2007-11-14T21:36:52",
"content": "a motion sensor of some kind combined with some fancy code could be used to determine if someone was in the bathroom too. it would have to determine the difference between motionless(room empty) and motionl... | 1,760,377,859.01545 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2007/11/13/simple-vga-test-box/ | Simple VGA Test Box | Will O'Brien | [
"Portable Video Hacks"
] | [] | Sometimes it may seem like I suffer from goldfish memory. [Chris] sent
this
in a while back and I’d almost forgotten about it. He built a simple VGA test box using a PIC 18F452. I’d probably be more interested in using it to add simple VGA output to another project than use a test box, but it can definitely be handy if you need a small portable video test signal.
permalink | 6 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "29690",
"author": "werejag",
"timestamp": "2007-11-14T09:21:49",
"content": "this needs to be in a small vga hoodie. way to big for what it does",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "29691",
"author": "skot",
"timestamp": "200... | 1,760,377,859.227267 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2007/11/12/blowable-computer-interface/ | Blowable Computer Interface | Will O'Brien | [
"computer hacks",
"Peripherals Hacks"
] | [] | Remember
Christopher Reeve’s
blow controlled wheel chair? [
Shwetak
] sent in his blowable computer interface. It doesn’t require anything but an on-board microphone and a decent set of lungs. It works by taking audio fingerprints to determine the location on the screen that you’re exhaling on. The
demo video
(avi) shows off some surprisingly accurate location detection. You can get a few more details from his
research paper
. (If you need a decent avi video player, check out
VLC player
.)
permalink | 18 | 18 | [
{
"comment_id": "29674",
"author": "thethirdmoose",
"timestamp": "2007-11-13T07:56:42",
"content": "arrrrghwhy is his site so sloooooowwwwwww…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "29675",
"author": "Dean Putney",
"timestamp": "2007-11-13T08:3... | 1,760,377,859.388766 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2007/11/11/hackit-new-life-for-old-laptops/ | HackIt: New Life For Old Laptops? | Will O'Brien | [
"contests",
"HackIt",
"Misc Hacks"
] | [] | Last time
, I challenged everyone to shout out with new ideas for those old TiVo boxes. The response was fantastic. I’m not feeling too exotic tonight, so I’ll make it easy: The laptop. Years ago I found an article on using old laptop screens to make an electronically dimmed window. At tie time, LCD panels were $1000 items. Today, screens and old laptops can be picked up for a song.
Since ‘Hackit’ is a new idea, I’m still working out just how I’m going to handle it. Each week I’m going to bring up some hardware. You guys get to pick your brains and suggest new, interesting projects. Every so often, I’ll tally up some of the best ideas and put up a bounty for pulling one of them off. Maybe it’ll be cash, maybe some spiffy hardware – I’ll let you know when we get to it.
So, got a better idea? Let’s hear it. | 161 | 50 | [
{
"comment_id": "29523",
"author": "Davse Bamse",
"timestamp": "2007-11-12T09:49:42",
"content": "The old laptops, depending on the age of the laptop can be used as:Install linux, and you got a cheap web/print/ftp/file serverOr, to play the games from the old times, before the dark times, before the... | 1,760,377,859.472421 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2007/11/11/upgrade-your-in-ear-headphones/ | Upgrade Your In-ear Headphones | Will O'Brien | [
"ipod hacks",
"Portable Audio Hacks"
] | [
"apple",
"etymotic",
"headphones",
"ipod"
] | I’m a fan of my Etymotic er6i (which have mysteriously vanished…) headphones, so
this
simple hack caught my eye. [James C] sent in this simple method of upgrading the more affordable apple in ear headphones. The idea is simple, use a small hole punch to cut out the center of some cheap foam earplugs. Then replace the soft surrounds on the headphones with them. I’m guessing that this trick would work for quite a few in ear headphones that I’ve seen lately.
permalink | 25 | 24 | [
{
"comment_id": "29501",
"author": "Babau",
"timestamp": "2007-11-12T06:17:15",
"content": "Great idea, and like all great ideas I can’t believe I didn’t think of it already. Looks especially handy for motorcyclists. Blocks out more wind noise than the default rubber and makes for a more secure fit ... | 1,760,377,859.528808 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2007/11/10/laser-camera-tracking/ | Laser Camera Tracking | Will O'Brien | [
"computer hacks",
"digital cameras hacks"
] | [] | [ashish] is still having fun with his lasers. His latest hack is a
dual laser based tracking camera
. He mounted his camera to a simple
parallel port controlled stepper motor
. Essentially, if the camera loses track of either laser, it tracks to locate the lost edge of the object. I’d probably go with IR to reduce the chance of retina damage…
permalink | 15 | 15 | [
{
"comment_id": "29488",
"author": "Jeroen Domburg",
"timestamp": "2007-11-11T03:39:00",
"content": "I wouldn’t. Red lasers make you look away if they shine into your eyes. IR ones just burn away your retina without you noticing. I know which one I’d prefer…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
... | 1,760,377,859.581271 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2007/11/09/wiimote-ir-finger-tracking/ | Wiimote IR Finger Tracking | Will O'Brien | [
"Nintendo Hacks",
"Nintendo Wii Hacks"
] | [] | Just in case you needed another way to pretend that you’re in
Minority Report
, [Johnny Lee] sent in
this video
showing how to track your hands using the Wiimote’s IR camera,an infrared LED array and a bit of reflective tape to improve the gain.
permalink | 17 | 17 | [
{
"comment_id": "29473",
"author": "John",
"timestamp": "2007-11-10T02:18:55",
"content": "Anyone have any more info on this? Wiimote software for PC’s and the like? This could lead to alot of cool stuff",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "29474",
... | 1,760,377,859.722583 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2007/11/08/how-to-replace-a-mini-usb-port-on-your-cellphone/ | How-To: Replace A Mini USB Port (on Your Cellphone) | Will O'Brien | [
"Cellphone Hacks",
"how-to"
] | [] | At some point, just about everyone manages to mess up their precious electronics. In this case, someone (not me) somehow managed to totally demolish the mini USB port in their new Motorola cell phone. Surface mount repairs can be challenging without some serious tools, but it’s possible to replace parts without a re-work station. (Guess what I’m getting for Christmas this year.) Today I’ll show you that’s it’s possible to repair a surface mount part with some fairly inexpensive tools.
To do this repair, you’ll need just a few tools:
fine tip soldering iron (Weller 15 watt)
Dremel tool with cut off wheel
De-soldering Braid
Torx T5 screwdriver
small flat bladed screwdriver (optional)
Diagonal cutters
small hemostat or fine tweezers
Panavise, helping hands or similar bench top holding device.
I already had all the soldering gear, but I had to track down a new T5 driver since mine vanished. I picked up a decent quality, iron oxide coated T5 driver at Sears for a little over $3. Sears actually has these individually, so you don’t need to buy a set.
To get started, take off the back cover and remove the battery.
Next, whip out that Torx T5 and remove the screws holding the phone together. On this one, there were only four to remove.
With the screws out, gently pull the phone apart. The lower half of this Motorola clips together, so I gently worked around the edges with a small flat screwdriver until it came apart.
The SIM card board easily separates from the phone via the flat SMD connector. Just gently apply pressure near the connector and it comes right off.
Next, the flat ribbon cable needs to be detached in the same manner, and the main PC board removed from the phone. It should pull right out once the cable is disconnected.
As you disassemble the phone, put each of the pieces into a parts bin. Any sort of container will do, but I’d avoid a static generating plastic Tupperware container.
Carefully place the board in your clamp/Panavise/whatever – I had to line up the buttons with the slots in the vise, or I probably would have damaged them when I clamped the board.
You’ll need a new connector before you can fix anything. I ordered this new SMD mini USB port from
Mouser electronics
(Part #538-67503-1020). It’s very nearly the exact same part, down to the yellow tape on top.
In order to check the condition of the pins, clip the two tabs that hold the rear shielding on to the connector with a pair of diagonal cutters (optionally, you can use a Dremel/rotary tool).
With the rear shield removed, we can access the rear pins – Unlike the front, everything looks pretty good. The advantage of surface mount parts is that they don’t require much solder to hold together. Unfortunately, when you’re replacing a surface mount part, a small amount of solder can keep you from removing the part without damaging the board.
To keep from burning this foam seal, peel it back and stick it off to the side.
Enter the rotary tool. Sliced the top off of the connector by cutting the sides lengthwise.
The damage to the pins was pretty amazing once the top was off. Ouch! I went ahead and peeled off that foam seal when I started cutting. Note that the fourth pin is actually shoved inward and upward just a bit.
Next, cut across the center of the connector. The bent pins should be gently cut loose and the upper half of the plastic connector will probably fall apart. The shielding on the sides should be cut to allow each leg to be removed individually. (Be careful not to cut the PC board below!)
Working from one side to the other, heat up the solder pad on each pin. Then use some tweezers to grip each pin of the connector. (I used a small pair of alligator forceps) If the solder is hot enough, the surface mount pin should come loose with little to no force. It’s vitally important to be as gentle as possible with each one. The solder pads on the PC board are very delicate, and easy to pull up if you’re not careful. Unfortunately, overheating the pads can also cause them to pull up. So be quick about it!
With the delicate pins out of the way, I carefully cut apart the remaining plastic and removed it.
Finally, the remaining legs of the shielding were heated and removed from the board.
After that, I used de-soldering braid to remove the excess solder from the pads. Not everything came out perfectly. The second to last pad didn’t make it through the removal process. In this case, I’m pretty sure that that pin took some impact when the connector was trashed. I was careful not to torque the pins as I removed them, but I’m not surprised that one pad didn’t make it considering the amazing amount of damage to the port.
The pin in question is numbered X on
this
Motorola charger pin-out. It’s shorted with a resistor to pin 2 to indicate that a charger is connected. Unfortunately, the phone will never charge from a wall charger again (unless the board is swapped out.) It’s possible that the trace could be rebuilt with a conductive pen, but I’m doubtful that it would be that successful.
Now we’re ready for the new port. There’s one difference between the original and the replacement: two pins that are designed to align the port on the board. They’re plastic, so it’s an easy fix.
Grind them off with your ro
tary tool so that the connector is smooth on the bottom. After that, clip the tabs on the new port and remove the rear shielding as before.
After the new port is aligned (double check the pins in the rear!) solder one of the shielding legs to the board. Double check the pin alignment again, and solder the other legs. Now the port should be solidly mounted.
Next, the pins on the new port need to be soldered. The super fine tip on my 15 watt Weller pencil made this easy. Alternatively, you can use a wider tip to solder things and go back over the pins with de-soldering braid to remove any solder bridges. If you forgot to remove the rear shield, you’ll have one hell of a time soldering the pins. On this particular phone, the metal shielding behind the port made it impossible to access the pins without removing the rear shielding.
Despite the missing pin, the phone started up just fine when we plugged it in. One more cell phone saved from the recycle bin. | 53 | 50 | [
{
"comment_id": "29456",
"author": "Dane",
"timestamp": "2007-11-09T06:08:50",
"content": "i did the same thing on an external hard drive my younger brother broke, awesome writeup!http://rpi.edu/~kouttd/03/fixing%20an%20external%20HD.html-Dane",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies":... | 1,760,377,859.672453 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2007/11/08/gyro-controlled-video-via-rc-plane/ | Gyro Controlled Video Via R/C Plane | Will O'Brien | [
"Misc Hacks",
"Portable Video Hacks"
] | [] | [Mark] couldn’t resist sending
this
in, and I can see why. It turns out that this is made from off the shelf parts, but the functionality is awesome. The pilot wears a video headset – igoggles, etc, and has a gyro/accelerometer sensor mounted on it that outputs commands to the R/C transmitter. On the plane, a
servo pan tilt camera
matches position based on the viewers head motions. Just about all the components are listed in the credits at the end, but you can use any RF camera and a transmitter with enough channels to run the extra servos.
permalink | 21 | 21 | [
{
"comment_id": "29436",
"author": "Carl Trott",
"timestamp": "2007-11-08T23:30:29",
"content": "That is quite possibly one of the coolest things that I have seen in quite some time. rather simple, but breathtaking.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id"... | 1,760,377,859.778853 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2007/11/07/inexpensive-pic-based-obd-2-interface/ | Inexpensive PIC Based OBD-2 Interface | Will O'Brien | [
"Transportation Hacks"
] | [] | OBD-II became the mandatory I/O
diagnostic port
on cars starting around 1996 in the US. Considering that the interface consists of a couple of I/O lines, serial/usb adapters have been ridiculously expensive for quite a while – especially newer USB versions. [Renan] sent in
this
PIC18F2450 OBD-II interface. The designer says he can provide boards for just over $6 and programmed PICs if there’s interest. The chip is a few dollars, and everything else is pretty cheap too. Need to work on your car? This thing will cost $15 or so. I think I just might have to burn out a board on my mill later.
permalink | 48 | 45 | [
{
"comment_id": "29399",
"author": "jimmythecow",
"timestamp": "2007-11-07T23:05:51",
"content": "wowzers!!! if only this worked for cars in 94/95 when they had “hybrid” data ports. Id be down to buy one if there was a link, not because I need one, but to help this guy out and say thank you for the ... | 1,760,377,859.856204 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2007/11/06/gvif-prius-display-hacking/ | GVIF (Prius) Display Hacking | Will O'Brien | [
"Transportation Hacks"
] | [] | This is almost a lack of hack, but it bugs me. In 2006, Toyota changed the video interface on the Prius LCD display. The new system uses
GVIF
(Gigabit Video InterFace) rather than RGBs as before. So far success has been limited to some early commercial devices. Considering the number of guys that like to hack their cars, I’m hoping to see some diy solutions developed. The industry seems to be pushing GVIF in the same manner as HDMI for home theater – it even supports
HDCP
. Unfortunately, it seems that
multiple displays
are still the best option for now.
permalink | 19 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "29391",
"author": "ThatMonkey",
"timestamp": "2007-11-07T08:31:54",
"content": "I’d really like to know what the screen unit the guy used at that spasalon link. He’s sparse on details. Anyone recognize it?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comm... | 1,760,377,859.908431 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2007/11/05/rfid-guardian-v3-released/ | RFID Guardian V3 Released | Will O'Brien | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"major malfunction",
"MajorMalfunction",
"rfid",
"security"
] | [fbz] wanted to make sure that everyone knows that
RFID Guardian
has released the
latest version
of their design. I had a hard time finding a good shot of the hardware, so I went with the Nokia phone
control application
. There’s a short explanation of the project
here
. I’d point at the
use examples
on the site, but it seems that their MYSQL server is running out of memory. After seeing
this talk
at
shmoocon
last year, and a bit more reinforcement at defcon, there are definitely some good uses for the guardian. (Once you get past the slow start, Major’s intro is funny as hell. – jump past the first 8 minutes or you’ll be bored.)
permalink | 5 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "29386",
"author": "Frogz",
"timestamp": "2007-11-06T06:44:52",
"content": "http://english.chosun.com/w21data/html/news/200711/200711060005.htmlhttp://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9028763http://gigaom.com/2006/12/17/google-phone/http://ww... | 1,760,377,859.946161 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2007/11/04/presenting-hackit-got-a-better-idea/ | Presenting Hackit – Got A Better Idea? | Will O'Brien | [
"HackIt",
"home entertainment hacks"
] | [] | I came back from a quick road trip with a trunk full of hackable hardware. After grabbing a little caffeine this morning, I thought we’d try something different for those slow Sundays. I’m going to come up some interesting hacking kit, point out a few classic hacks for it, and challenge you guys to come up with something better. Every so often, we’ll be sending some of said hardware to the most worthy of commenters. Read on to check out our first ‘Hackit’ challenge.
Let’s start things off with a classic: The TiVo. TiVos got some major interest as soon as the words ‘Linux’ and ‘TiVo’ were uttered together. The hacking scene for the hardware has some odd quirks. Pretty much everything you ever wanted to know about hacking them is buried in the forums at
deal database
. Most of the hacks are geared toward video extraction or adding features like networking or on screen caller ID.
Today, older TiVo’s are dirt cheap. Just about every sattelite/cable/fiber company will provide a DVR for a small fee. So, what can we do with all that nice, integrated video hardware? Make a cheap disguised file server? Roll your own security DVR? Use them to stream video feeds from inexpensive cameras? Re-work the faster one’s into networked media players? Or is there a better way to slave them into a MythTV network? (I’ve never been into the latter since my local cable is junk and the dual tuner sattelite units are cheaper per tuner.)
So, got a better idea? Lets hear it. | 56 | 50 | [
{
"comment_id": "29331",
"author": "Monkeyman8",
"timestamp": "2007-11-05T07:30:37",
"content": "you could use two cheap TIVOs for VOIP/Video chat, or 3 or more for a conference call",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "29332",
"author": "Will O\... | 1,760,377,860.295682 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2007/11/04/simple-usb-plug/ | Simple USB Plug | Will O'Brien | [
"computer hacks",
"Peripherals Hacks"
] | [] | I’m more into
this
one just for the simple USB plug than the joke that it’s used for. I’ve seen similar on extra small USB flash drives, but those are generally pre-etched. The idea is to use a piece of proto board to make a USB plug an mount a superbright LED on it. Pie indeed.
permalink | 19 | 19 | [
{
"comment_id": "29312",
"author": "Jay",
"timestamp": "2007-11-05T05:32:24",
"content": "you gotta love bored people with a soldiering iron. Something is going to get melted or built.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "29313",
"author": "Bird6... | 1,760,377,860.213224 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2007/11/03/sms-pin-sentry-reader/ | SMS PIN Sentry Reader | Will O'Brien | [
"Cellphone Hacks"
] | [
"cell phones",
"CellPhones",
"pin sentry",
"PinSentry",
"sms"
] | [Mr G] in London sent in
his pin sentry hack
. He wasn’t pleased that the device looks like an old calculator, so he rigged up a SMS board to send him his pin on demand. He multiplexed the output of the display driver to the SMS board. When he authenticates from his phone, the board sends a message with the latest code.
permalink | 39 | 39 | [
{
"comment_id": "29284",
"author": "crapface",
"timestamp": "2007-11-04T04:17:55",
"content": "Wow, great write-up!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "29285",
"author": "bazginge",
"timestamp": "2007-11-04T04:20:13",
"content": "That wa... | 1,760,377,860.158989 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2007/11/02/pysight-post-halloween-entertainment/ | PySight Post Halloween Entertainment | Will O'Brien | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"halloween",
"homestarrunner",
"marshie"
] | [John] sent in this setup that he hacked together for Halloween. He used a MacBook Pro with built in camera, a projector, a bed sheet, a kid friendly laser pointer and a hacked together combination of PySight and PyGame. The result was a fairly easy game of shoot
Marshie
. Nice!
permalink | 10 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "29274",
"author": "alex mccown",
"timestamp": "2007-11-03T05:58:30",
"content": "that is so simple yet so cool also the use of the macbooks camera is nice thinking i cant afford a projectors so i gota try something like this next year but hell if he could afford a macbook he could a... | 1,760,377,860.626995 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2007/11/01/investigating-the-leopard-firewall/ | Investigating The Leopard Firewall | Eliot | [
"Mac Hacks"
] | [
"apple",
"firewall",
"leopard",
"mac",
"software"
] | Our friend [Rich Mogull] has been flipping the switches on Leopard’s new firewall and scanning it to see
what’s actually going on
. There is some good and some bad. The new application signing is a mixed bag. It
breaks Skype
and a commenter pointed out that automatically trusting Apple installed apps like NetCat isn’t a good idea either. You can roll your own firewall using user friendly tools like
WaterRoof
since ipfw is still included.
permalink | 5 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "29269",
"author": "TechPagan",
"timestamp": "2007-11-02T06:33:55",
"content": "Software firewalls yuck!First post W00t!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "29270",
"author": "cde",
"timestamp": "2007-11-02T09:08:09",
"co... | 1,760,377,860.426775 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2007/11/01/diy-servo-motor-controller/ | DIY Servo Motor Controller | Will O'Brien | [
"Robots Hacks"
] | [
"encoder",
"overlords",
"robots",
"servo",
"sweet"
] | [Jim Fong] sent in this demo of
his version
of the
UHU servo motor controller
. [Uli Huber] has actually shipped over 2500 controllers for the servo. He doesn’t charge much for the chips, and only asks for something like a token beer in return for his work. I used [Jim]s boards in
my mini mill controller
, so I know he does good work. This servo controller really is a big deal. It can handle high power, and servo motors are *the* way to build a fast milling/robotics setup.
If you’re into Cons, you might be interested that the first round of
Shmoocon tickets
went up for sale today – looks like they’re already out, so keep your eyes open if you want to go. It’s a decent con that takes place in DC. I know that I’m planning to be there.
permalink | 12 | 12 | [
{
"comment_id": "29258",
"author": "Johnny B. Goode",
"timestamp": "2007-11-02T00:13:10",
"content": "That’s pretty stylin’.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "29259",
"author": "Alex McCown",
"timestamp": "2007-11-02T01:17:05",
"conten... | 1,760,377,860.473198 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2007/10/31/happy-halloween-extra/ | Happy Halloween Extra | Will O'Brien | [
"LED Hacks",
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"led",
"photo",
"pumpkin",
"scanner",
"thad"
] | Happy Halloween! I’m in the mood for an extra, and I’ve got some stuff that’s been turning to zombies from the
tipline
.
Pictured above is a nice simple
LED pumpkin
sent in by [John]- perfect for the hacker with less than stellar art skills.
Let’s not forget [mastershake]s Hack-A-Day pumpkin from last year. Where’s the THAD pumpkin you promised? [Wolfgang] sent in these
mini pumpkin bots
– they look like toys, but they’re made from XBox parts and radio control cars.
Last year Max sent in his
talking Halloween basket
. (I always wanted to strap that voice module to a co-workers chair…)
[Brandon] built a budget (~$150)
guitar hero controller
out of a Gibson Epoch guitar from target.
This
scanner cam has been around for a while, but I admire how he keeps fine tuning and tweaking the design. Thanks to [Loopymind] for passing it along.
I keep getting emails telling me that Google Earth has a
flight simulator
. Yes. We all know about it. | 6 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "29252",
"author": "Mindbleach",
"timestamp": "2007-11-01T06:36:11",
"content": "Is “budget” really the right word when it costs 50% more than the controller + game bundle?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "29253",
"author": "B... | 1,760,377,860.51542 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2007/10/30/ion-cooler-30-return-of-inventgeek/ | Ion Cooler 3.0 (return Of InventGeek) | Will O'Brien | [
"computer hacks"
] | [
"ion cooler",
"IonCooler",
"silent pc",
"SilentPc",
"wookie"
] | [Jared]s been taking a bit of a hiatus, but he assures me that he’s gearing up for a bunch of new projects. The first sign that he’s awakened from his slumber is his
latest take
on the Ion Cooler. This time he’s built a CPU specific version. The cooler is made from off the shelf materials – heap pipe heat sink, copper pipe, tack nails, acrylic and even the ion generator are easy to get. It’s an interesting way to cool your PC if your comfortable with 10,000 volts or so next to your CPU.
permalink | 30 | 30 | [
{
"comment_id": "29222",
"author": "Tom Needer",
"timestamp": "2007-10-30T18:38:07",
"content": "I have all the parts lying around right now to build this! i will jump on it and see how well it performs!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "29223",
... | 1,760,377,860.581539 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2007/10/29/diy-ultra-wide-band-radar/ | DIY Ultra Wide Band Radar | Will O'Brien | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [] | [Andy] sent in
this
pdf (
mirror
) describing a simply diy UWB Radar project. It’s not intuitive, but by using a wide frequency range for low power, short distance purposes, the system should avoid interfering with other radio systems. The paper has a complete circuit schematic, and offers some suggestions for adding communications to the signal. Unfortunately, to really tune the thing, you’ll need a kick-ass oscilloscope.
permalink | 27 | 25 | [
{
"comment_id": "29203",
"author": "Dennis",
"timestamp": "2007-10-30T06:43:07",
"content": "Hmmm… I *do* have a kick-ass oscilloscope.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "29204",
"author": "Aten",
"timestamp": "2007-10-30T06:46:03",
"c... | 1,760,377,862.693411 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2007/10/28/usb-gameboy-cartridge-project/ | USB Gameboy Cartridge Project | Will O'Brien | [
"Nintendo Game Boy Hacks",
"Nintendo Hacks"
] | [] | [Jose] thinks that the
Little Sound DJ
is too expensive and hard to find. Now he’s
trying
to build an inexpensive USB programmable GameBoy cartridge. Currently he’s working with a
LPC2148 development board
. It’s not quite clear where he’s going with this. He certainly wants to add USB programming, but it seems that he’s trying to hack a mp3 decoder in there as well. [update: yes, I know how to spell cartridge!]
permalink | 12 | 12 | [
{
"comment_id": "29192",
"author": "andrew",
"timestamp": "2007-10-29T04:26:30",
"content": "I’ve built a couple of GB carts for development, but they were all EPROM based (not EEPROM, EPROM). Combined with a little logic, I could make the thing scroll down whatever image I wanted, then flip to the... | 1,760,377,862.359922 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2007/10/28/followup-soldering-how-to/ | Followup: Soldering How-To | Will O'Brien | [
"how-to"
] | [] | The response to the
soldering How-To
was fantastic. You guys seem to want more and we’re looking forward to bringing you more How-Tos in the near future. If there’s a specific topic you’d like to see,
let us know
and I’ll see what we can do.
[justin] suggests picking up a flux pen with your next electronics order. I’ll probably take him up on that idea. [xrazorwirex] suggests using a pure form of alcohol like everclear for cleaning boards. I keep a few bottles of tape head cleaning solution – it won’t leave residue like rubbing alcohol and you don’t have to be 21 to buy it. [MattS] suggests cutting your leads and then soldering to prevent corrosion later on. This usually isn’t a problem for small projects, but it’s a good idea for anything that’ll see a less than ideal environment later on. [
Josh Malone
] is fond of his
Hakko 936 soldering iron
. I have to agree with everyone that a temperature controlled iron is the way to go. I was very happy with my
Tenma
which lasted well over 10 years. [
David Moisan
] suggests buying purpose made soldering sponges from
MCM
to preserve the plating on your soldering tip. Considering the varied contents of kitchen sponges, this is definitely a good idea. [
Forrest M. Mims III
] freaked me out a bit when he commented on the post – he notes that he taught his son to solder when he was 4 years old! I’m a bit more conservative, but lets be honest – I learned how to solder from his books when I was a kid. | 30 | 30 | [
{
"comment_id": "29165",
"author": "Bones",
"timestamp": "2007-10-29T01:19:53",
"content": "I’m a fan of metcal soldering stations myself. Used them for years at work. Also wanted to mention using distilled water in your sponge vs. tap water. It will help your tips last longer.",
"parent_id": nu... | 1,760,377,862.582611 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2007/10/27/speaker-as-a-microphone/ | Speaker As A Microphone | Will O'Brien | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [] | [Nathan] sent in his
speaker microphone project
. Speakers and microphones are physically similar – usually mics are much smaller to allow decent high frequency response. In this case, [Nathan] wanted something to pick up kick drums or bass guitars, without the cost of a commercial version like the
subkick
. It’s built around a dual coil 6.5 inch subwoofer. The passive circuit design allows the coils in the speaker to be configured for differing impedance, phase and isolation.
permalink | 24 | 21 | [
{
"comment_id": "29147",
"author": "lonas",
"timestamp": "2007-10-28T05:53:29",
"content": "i once saw a guy from Shure re-wire an sm58 as a tiny speaker as a demonstration of this very concept.I especially like that he’s wired it up to be more than just a mic.Doing cool shit with junk is awesome.",... | 1,760,377,862.417384 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2007/10/26/stroboscope-led-fan-clock/ | Stroboscope LED Fan Clock | Will O'Brien | [
"computer hacks",
"Misc Hacks",
"Peripherals Hacks"
] | [
"clock",
"stroboscope"
] | [sprite_tm] sent in one of his
latest
little adventures – and I love it. To create his
stroboscope
fan clock, he put a couple of red and green clock hands onto a standard PC fan(I love Panaflo fans), then he built a circuit to strobe a RGB LED to create a set of virtual clock hands on the spinning fan. An ATTiny2313 does all the work, with the help of some transistors to drive the LEDs.
permalink | 7 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "29140",
"author": "pelrun",
"timestamp": "2007-10-27T07:22:17",
"content": "That is one nifty hack – I think I’ll have to replicate this one… :D",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "29141",
"author": "hitch",
"timestamp": "20... | 1,760,377,862.455466 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2007/10/26/how-to-introduction-to-soldering/ | How-To: Introduction To Soldering | Will O'Brien | [
"how-to"
] | [
"amp",
"breadboard",
"circuit",
"headphoneamp",
"howto",
"solder",
"soldering",
"solderingiron",
"wire"
] | It’s been a while since we’ve had a fresh How-To on the Hack-A-Day, and frankly we’ve missed them. To get things rolling, [Eliot] and I wanted to build a good knowledge base to help you hack your own stuff. I know that soldering won’t be new to many of our readers, but everyone has to start sometime. Our hope is simple: that this new series of How-To’s will help inspire new and experienced hackers alike.
Having the right tools and workspace are key to successful soldering. The actual technique is pretty simple. We will cover all the basic tools you need, the key to good soldering, and how to undo your mistakes or harvest components from old hardware.
The first thing you’ll need is a decent soldering iron.
Weller
makes a decent product, but
RadioShack’s
are dirt cheap if you’re in a hurry. My favorite iron was a temperature controlled
Tenma
with LED temp display (sadly lost from a crappy storage unit along with my oscilloscope).
Most soldering stations come with a sponge; they get lost and they tend to hold onto bits of solder. I actually prefer to use a paper towel instead. Either way, wet it down and give it a squeeze so it’s not sopping wet. If it dries out, it’ll burn when you wipe your iron on it.
Buying the right kind of solder is just as important. It comes in various thicknesses, metal alloys, and core types. I won’t get very deep into the alloys. Generally, you want 60/40 (60% tin, 40% lead). Most modern electronics are lead free, but for hobby work lead is fine. Just wash your hands when you’re done! The solder produced for plumbing work is usually very thick (left hand side) and has a solid metal core (or worse: acid core). For electronics work, you’ll definitely need rosin core. The rosin acts as flux for the solder, allowing it to flow onto and attach to the metal. You can certainly use liquid flux/rosin, but it’s usually not easy to find locally. For thickness, I always buy the thinnest rosin core I can find. To sum up: you want thin, rosin core, 60/40 solder.
Not all iron tips are created equal. For fine work, I always reach for my 15 watt Weller pencil iron. It has the smallest tip I could find, and I ground an even finer point on the tip with my rotary tool. The bigger iron is an inexpensive RadioShack station that I keep in my office to handle favors for coworkers.
Every so often, the tip of a soldering iron needs a little maintenance. If the end of the iron isn’t tinned, as in bright and shiny when you wipe it down, you’ll have a hard time getting solder to melt. Think of this stuff as a sort of pumice stone for your iron. Heat the iron up and rub the tip in the cleaner. The cleaner will melt a bit and your soldering iron should work better than ever.
Securely holding the work piece is important, but your hands will be busy with the iron and solder. My current favorite tool is this
Panavise Jr.
which runs about $25. Props to
Ladyada
for unknowingly turning me onto Panavise products. If you need something cheaper, you can score a set of helping hands – it’s set of alligator clips connected to a weighted base. They work great and I still use them for smaller soldering projects.
Some projects require extra fine attention to detail. A giant magnifying glass lamp comes in handy when visually inspecting for shorts and dealing with surface mount problems (I inherited this one one from my grandmother). You’ll be fine without one, but they’re great when you need to work on really small components or when your eyes are getting tired.
For one-off projects, prototyping boards from RadioShack are handy. They’re cheap, easy to get, and making a connection is as simple as bridging your solder across the copper pads.
Before investing your time soldering parts together, it’s a good idea to prototype your circuit. Breadboards like these are great for preventing frustration later on. When I tried to buy my first one, I was about 10 years old. Nobody knew what the hell I was talking about and the local RadioShack apparently didn’t keep them in stock. People at RadioShack kept trying to sell me kitchen cutting boards. After about a year of wondering if [
Forrest Mims
] was insane, I finally visited another RadioShack that actually had them.
Don’t bake your bits. Passive components like resistors or small ceramic capacitors don’t usually suffer any problems from being heated up, but you should still pay attention to how long you’ve been cooking them with your soldering iron. If you’re having problems getting a solder joint just right, let the parts rest for a few minutes so they have a chance to cool off between soldering rounds.
Integrated circuits like this logic chip are usually far more sensitive to heat and static than passive components. Sockets are cheap insurance against blowing a chip.
RadioShack sells the small red handled clip as a heat sink. It’s okay, but a generic hemostat like the one above works and holds on even better. They’re also great for saving your finger tips from burns by holding wires in place while you solder them.
To successfully solder a component, don’t melt the solder on the iron. Put the iron against the copper on the board (solder pad) and the component you want to attach. Give the iron a moment to heat up both of them. Then melt the solder on the component and, if needed the copper pad.
Do not melt the solder on the tip of the iron. Sometimes it’s necessary to melt a small amount on the iron to facilitate heat transfer, but to achieve a good connection, you want the solder to melt and flow onto the component leads.
Heat up the component with the iron just before applying solder!
Once the joint is good, the soldering iron can be used to remove small amou
nts of excess solder from the joint.
Wipe the solder and burn rosin off by pulling the tip across your wet sponge or paper towel.
The joint should be good if the solder flowed onto both the copper pad and the wire lead of the component.
Now you’ll need to trim down the excess wire lead of the component. If you use diagonal cutters, the piece you cut off will probably fly through the air. These flat cutters are my favorite: the metal wire stays still and the resulting edge isn’t nearly as sharp.
Nobody’s perfect. Sometimes we need to remove a bad component or undo a mistake. Desoldering braid works sort of like a sponge for excess solder.
To desolder something, just place the braid over the target and apply your soldering iron over the top. The heat should transfer through the braid and the melted solder will flow onto the the copper like oil though a wick. For larger amounts of solder, I normally pull out my bigger iron. For small amounts, even the pencil iron does the trick.
For larger desoldering jobs, like recovering components, a desoldering iron works wonders. The hotter the better, so let it warm up for a while before using it.
Compress the bulb with your thumb before you touch the board with the iron.
Once it’s in position, give it a moment the heat the solder and release the bulb. The bulb with suck up the solder through the hollow tip. Larger components might take a few hits, but smaller ones usually only take a single pull.
We’ve covered all the basics: the tools, soldering and desoldering. If you’re looking for a good starter project, I highly suggest taking a shot at making your own headphone amplifier. I built
this one
from RadioShack parts (I had some high end opamps in my parts bin). It’s a rewarding, low cost project. If you want an even more illustrated guide, check out these basic
videos from NASA
or even this
collection of videos from Solder.net
. | 54 | 49 | [
{
"comment_id": "29091",
"author": "Eaterofpies",
"timestamp": "2007-10-26T18:46:16",
"content": "If you can’t get something decent to hold the PCB / things keep dropping out when you’re trying to solder them in place I recommend using blue tack to hold the components in place.Just put the component... | 1,760,377,862.876458 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2007/10/25/high-power-tvbgone/ | High Power TVBGone | Will O'Brien | [
"home entertainment hacks"
] | [] | [Ladyada]’s been busy lately. [bladdo] wrote in to tell me that she put together an extra powerful
kit version
of the TVBgone. This one’s supposed to be good for over 100 feet. If you really, really want to get your ass kicked during the super bowl, this baby in a sports bar should do the trick. There’s an optional programming header, so you could program it to turn every TV onto the SciFi channel.
Remember, I want to hear about your hacks! Use the
tips line
to send ’em in.
permalink | 20 | 20 | [
{
"comment_id": "29072",
"author": "alex mccown",
"timestamp": "2007-10-26T07:43:44",
"content": "its a bit oldu can also replace the ir led of a ninja remote with a transistor and have that trigger like 50 ir leds and have a fucken huge one",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []... | 1,760,377,862.633674 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2007/10/24/1-wire-thermostat-control/ | 1-wire Thermostat Control | Will O'Brien | [
"home hacks"
] | [
"1-wire",
"pc thermostat",
"PcThermostat"
] | For some reason, computer controllable thermostats are
pretty
freakin’ expensive. I found a reference to a 1-wire thermostat in
this
(
mirror
) sample senior project on home automation. It turns out that Dallas Semiconductor put one together a while back as an application for their
TINI platform
. (web-application server on a chip). The write-up has since vanished from their site, but I
found it
thatnks to archive.org. The thermostat used to run about $50, and a
similar model
still seems to be produced. The 1-wire
interface
is pretty simple – Maxim’s TINI board to control it: not so much. Just using the 1-wire interface with an inexpensive thermostat and controlling from a PC seems pretty viable to me. Just in case, I mirrored the 1-wire interface schematics
here
.
permalink | 10 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "29064",
"author": "Calvin",
"timestamp": "2007-10-25T10:18:57",
"content": "Great… I love the web archive wayback machine. It is so helpfull for finding old stuff.. you might want to know that othe pages (such as the cell phone jammer) are also on there (death to the 404 :) )",
... | 1,760,377,862.509227 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2007/10/23/cell-phone-taser/ | Cell Phone Taser | Will O'Brien | [
"Cellphone Hacks"
] | [] | I’m not going to reccomend it, but [cameron]
modded
his Sony Ericsson k800i to tase people as well as take pictures. Apparently, the k800i has a xenon flash – meaning that it’s got a high voltage potential available to drive the flash. He added a pair of 16uf caps and scored a good 300 volts to share with the unlucky.
permalink | 27 | 27 | [
{
"comment_id": "29039",
"author": "Metalwolf",
"timestamp": "2007-10-24T07:07:21",
"content": "I sorry, I just have to do this. anyone who has read digg the last few weeks will understand the joke.“Dont taze me, Bro!”(Woot, first post, havent had that in a while :3)",
"parent_id": null,
"de... | 1,760,377,862.787794 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2007/10/23/toorcon-9-retrieving-wep-keys-from-road-warriors/ | ToorCon 9: Retrieving WEP Keys From Road Warriors | Eliot | [
"Wireless Hacks"
] | [
"toorcon",
"toorcon9",
"wep",
"wifi"
] | [Vivek Ramachandran]’s Cafe Latte attack was one of the last talks we caught at ToorCon. I’ve found quite a few articles about it, but none really get it right. It’s fairly simple and deals with cracking WEP keys from unassociated laptops. First your WEP honeypot tells the client that it has successfully associated. The next thing the client does is broadcast a WEP encrypted ARP packet. By flipping the bits in the ARP packet you can replay the WEP packet and it will appear to the client to be coming from an IP MAC combo of another host on the network. All of the replies will have unique IVs and once you get ~60K you can crack it using
PTW
. The bit flipping is the same technique used in the
fragmentation attack we covered earlier
, but Cafe Latte requires generation of far fewer packets. You can read about the
Cafe Latte attack on AirTight Networks
.
permalink | 0 | 0 | [] | 1,760,377,862.726024 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2007/10/22/tengu-clone/ | Tengu Clone | Will O'Brien | [
"Portable Audio Hacks"
] | [] | [Alex] sent in
his clone
of [Crispin Jones]’ tengu. The tengu is essentially a funky visual sound meter that looks like it’s lip syncing. [Alex]’s version is built around an ATMega48 microcontroller, an electric mic with a LM386 audio circuit and the required LED matrix display. There’s an example tengu video
here
– but I’m not sure what to say about the song in the demo. It’s not dependent on USB – it actually works better with the clean power provided by batteries anyway.
permalink | 3 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "29036",
"author": "davr",
"timestamp": "2007-10-23T10:03:49",
"content": "Thatâs pretty neat use of a LED matrix. I might see about doing something like that myself. I currently have a 8Ã8 bicolor LED matrix hooked up to an AVR, so far Iâve written a simple pong game.A video is... | 1,760,377,863.228142 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2007/10/21/fiber-optic-flash-ring/ | Fiber Optic Flash Ring | Will O'Brien | [
"digital cameras hacks",
"LED Hacks"
] | [
"ccfl",
"inverter",
"led",
"photography"
] | Ring lights that surround the lens are generally used for macro photography – they’re not cheap, but they’re one of the few ways to get shadowless photos.
This
fiber optic flash diffuser is based on the same ideas of
this
one. Rather than use a few large optic strands, [Joris] is using many, many more to decrease shadows as much as possible. His previous efforts are even more interesting. He built a
LED version
– with serial connected LEDs and a step up switching power supply to drive them. Then he moved on to
cold cathode fluorescent
before moving onto the
fiber optics
.
permalink | 6 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "29030",
"author": "gj",
"timestamp": "2007-10-22T18:27:03",
"content": "Offtopic: could you guys give some more explanation about some hacks like the toorcon, i didnt understand what it was at all. So make it a little understandable for noobies like me.",
"parent_id": null,
... | 1,760,377,863.338718 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2007/10/21/toorcon-9-uri-use-and-abuse/ | ToorCon 9: URI Use And Abuse | Eliot | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"toorcon",
"uri"
] | [Nathan McFeters] and [Rob Carter] gave a presentation on the problems with URI handling. URIs are used to send commands to external applications from a web browser. itms:// for iTunes for example. Any application that registers a URI has the potential to be abused through this route. For their first example they showed a stack overflow in Trillian’s AIM handling. The next demo created a “Critical Update Available” button on Picasa’s interface. When the user clicked it, their photos would be uploaded to the attacker’s server. They even display a “download progress” bar to encourage the user to keep the connection open. You can read about the attack on
cocontributor Billy Rios’s blog
.
permalink | 1 | 1 | [
{
"comment_id": "29029",
"author": "Napul",
"timestamp": "2007-10-24T15:09:27",
"content": "Informated Article… Appreciated!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
}
] | 1,760,377,863.507025 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2007/10/21/toorcon-9-cdma-unlocking-and-modification/ | ToorCon 9: CDMA Unlocking And Modification | Eliot | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"cdma",
"evdo",
"unlock",
"verizon"
] | [Alexander Lash] gave a short overview of what you need to unlock a CDMA phone. He strongly recommended
Howard Forums
for finding most of the info you need. You’ll probably need
BitPim
and the Qualcomm PST (product support tools). Using the PST you can flash your new carrier’s firmware and then activate the phone on their network.
Verizon offers two ways to get unlimited EVDO data. $59 for a data plan or $15 for VCast. You’re not supposed to be able to use your VCast phone as an EVDO modem and it sends a different network access identifier (NAI) if you tether the phone. Using the PST you can change the NAI and use the cheaper VCast plan for data access. Here is a
forum post detailing the process
.
permalink | 9 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "29024",
"author": "Drew",
"timestamp": "2007-10-22T06:31:28",
"content": "what is that a picture of?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "29025",
"author": "hal hockersmith",
"timestamp": "2007-10-22T18:26:07",
"content":... | 1,760,377,863.47349 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2007/10/20/drive-bay-poe-adapter/ | Drive Bay PoE Adapter | Will O'Brien | [
"computer hacks",
"Misc Hacks",
"Wireless Hacks"
] | [] | Sure, we’ve seen Power over Ethernet
before
– I even whipped up a
simple adapter
for my
modded wrt54gs
.
This
is a nice clean setup, and it’ll save you from yet another power brick. (I’ve got a power strip dedicated to the things in my tiny home data center.)
permalink | 8 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "29016",
"author": "Urlax",
"timestamp": "2007-10-21T13:44:23",
"content": "why did he run the cable back to the front?he’d better let it run trough the pc, so it’s connected to the NIC at the back.. now its a cable just from the front to the back of the same pc!why didn’t he inserte... | 1,760,377,863.587982 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2007/10/20/toorcon-9-real-world-fuzzing/ | ToorCon 9: Real World Fuzzing | Eliot | [
"Cellphone Hacks",
"iphone hacks",
"Uncategorized"
] | [] | We dropped in on [Charlie Miller]’s
fuzzing
seminar at the end of the day yesterday. Fuzzing become a fairly popular topic in the last year and essentially involves giving a program garbage input, hoping that it will break. If it can’t handle the fake data and fails in a non-graceful fashion, you could have found a potentially exploitable bug. Fuzzing is a fairly simple idea, but as Charlie points out, without some thinking while you’re doing it it’s unlikely to be very productive.
Say you wanted to fuzz a PDF reader. You take a random good PDF file and use a fuzzing program iterate through multiple mutations of that file. This brings up the question of how long do you fuzz something? Do you let it run 24hrs, is that enough time? Charlie applies the principles of
code coverage
to determine exactly how much of the code his fuzzing is actually testing. He used the PNG library as an example. He picked a random PNG to mutate from and it tested a small percentage of the code. Studying the PNG spec he found that there are 21 different chunk types possible in a PNG file so he grabbed 1600 random PNGs and mutated off of those. These many different seed files gave him a lot more code coverage because the files feature almost all the different chunk types. The principle idea being if you don’t execute a line of code you’ll never find the bug in that line of code.
Charlie was part of the team that’s credited for finding the
first iPhone exploit
. They used code coverage to determine where to start working. Apple’s WebKit is open source and there is a note that says to use Mozilla’s test suite to test modifications the JavaScript core. Using gcov, which is part of gcc, they ran the test against the code. The tool showed what code was executed by the test suite. They ignored that code and started poking at the large block of untested code they found since that was more likely to contain a bug. That’s where they found the Perl RegEx parser which was eventually exploited.
This isn’t just for programs with the source; you can also use code coverage tools like Pei Mei with IDA Pro to determine what part of a binary file the specific code you’re looking for lives. Then you can write smarter generators that will hit more of that particular code. | 5 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "29012",
"author": "alex mccown",
"timestamp": "2007-10-21T02:24:06",
"content": "i thought fuzzing was dead but wow",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "29013",
"author": "link",
"timestamp": "2007-10-21T05:12:47",
"conte... | 1,760,377,863.633225 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2007/10/19/toorcon-9-crypto-boot-camp/ | ToorCon 9: Crypto Boot Camp | Eliot | [
"computer hacks"
] | [
"aes",
"crypto",
"des",
"rsa",
"sha"
] | [Rodney Thayer] gave a 2 hour seminar on cryptographic technology. It was designed to give the audience a working knowledge for dealing with vendors. He gave some rules of thumb for choosing encryption. In order of preference, when doing symmetric key crypto: use
AES
with a minimum 128bit key, if not that 3-key Triple-DES, or last RC4 with 128bit key. For hashing:
SHA
256 preferred, SHA 1 if you can’t do any better, and MD5 if you can’t SHA. For public key:
RSA
using at least a 2048bit key. The top choices in these lists were picked because they’ve stood up to years of scrutiny. One major theme of talk was to never roll your own crypto algorithm or buy someone elses. Proprietary algorithms get broken all the time, like the
GSM A5 crypto
we talked about earlier this year. | 3 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "29009",
"author": "Dom De Vitto",
"timestamp": "2007-10-20T12:42:57",
"content": "What about ECC ? ECC384 or larger, is stronger than 3DES and RSA1024, and is now getting old enough to be trustworthy….",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment... | 1,760,377,863.547877 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2007/10/19/optical-headphone-amp/ | Optical Headphone Amp | Will O'Brien | [
"Misc Hacks",
"Portable Audio Hacks"
] | [
"amplifier",
"audio"
] | It looks like
this one’s
been out there for a while, but it doesn’t make it any less awesome. [Andrija] built this combination portable DAC/headphone amp. It takes optical audio input, feeds it through an analog devices AD1866 16bit/96khz decoder. After that, the audio is brought up to volume by an op-amp style headphone amp circuit.
Side note: I wrote up a few short notes on the
Sidekick LX
I got today, if you dig that sort of thing.
permalink | 8 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "29002",
"author": "aleex mccown",
"timestamp": "2007-10-19T20:53:26",
"content": "whats the point?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "29003",
"author": "Wolf",
"timestamp": "2007-10-20T00:52:11",
"content": "I can’t hel... | 1,760,377,863.674366 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2007/10/18/speaker-power-detection-circuit/ | Speaker Power Detection Circuit | Will O'Brien | [
"home entertainment hacks",
"Misc Hacks"
] | [] | This is an interesting way to monitor your speakers. [Keith] put together
this
speaker line monitor after a commenter requested it on his blog. It’s designed to check for power on the speaker line and drive a logic/led output. Apparently there’s some risk of shorting your amp, so he’s planning to redesign the input stage. Still, it’s neat little hack to keep an eye on things. Personally, I’d just put em on their own class A amp and automate the power switching, but there are plenty of situations where this could be useful.
permalink | 7 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "28995",
"author": "HeBD",
"timestamp": "2007-10-19T08:32:12",
"content": "now if it could determine the max power the speaker could handle and adjust the amp power to match…. well its not what i thought it was :(does anybody know how to do that?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth":... | 1,760,377,863.767187 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2007/10/18/toorcon-9-this-week/ | ToorCon 9 This Week | Eliot | [
"News"
] | [] | We’re sitting in Chris and bunnie’s awesome
silicon hacking workshop
at
ToorCon 9
right now. It’s going really great and we’ll be posting updates from the conference through the weekend. Let us know if the comments if your going to be here too. | 14 | 14 | [
{
"comment_id": "28981",
"author": "Jonathan",
"timestamp": "2007-10-18T23:34:54",
"content": "Is that Glenda the /cylon/ Plan 9 from Bell Labs Bunny?-Jonathan",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "28982",
"author": "pedro",
"timestamp": "2007... | 1,760,377,863.72417 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2007/10/17/quarter-shrinker-can-crusher-follow-up/ | Quarter Shrinker (can Crusher Follow-up) | Will O'Brien | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"dimes",
"high voltage",
"highvoltage",
"money hacks",
"MoneyHacks",
"quarters",
"toroid"
] | [
Paul Anderson
] sent in
this
classic quarter shrinker after seeing the can crusher the other day. It’s another high powered pulse shot into a coil system, but uses a solenoid actuated spark gap switch to swith those sweet high voltages. The results are quite
impressive
.
permalink | 11 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "28971",
"author": "CaliRaisin",
"timestamp": "2007-10-18T07:56:21",
"content": "50,000-100,000 amps… 3.5-6.3kJ dissipated in 20us… i think the “danger” sign is an understatement :P",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "28972",
"au... | 1,760,377,864.158079 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2007/10/16/home-brewing-beer-brewery/ | Home Brewing Beer Brewery | Will O'Brien | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"beer",
"homebrew"
] | I saw
this
last month in Popular Science, but it wasn’t online for a while. This (nearly) all-in-one brewery was built by [John Carnett]. It does everything but requires malt extract for now. It boils wort, cools it for fermenting, delivers the brew to the kegs and most interestingly to me – uses cold plate cooling to cool the beer just before it exits the tap. I’m pretty sure they’re using peltier junctions, but I’d like to know for sure. Props to [Nate] for inadvertently reminding me of the thing when he sent in this effort to brew beer
inside
a pumpkin!
permalink | 16 | 16 | [
{
"comment_id": "28957",
"author": "Brian",
"timestamp": "2007-10-17T08:17:41",
"content": "Awesome stuff..props to this one.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "28958",
"author": "strider_mt2k",
"timestamp": "2007-10-17T14:39:11",
"cont... | 1,760,377,864.209503 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2007/10/15/electromagnetic-aluminum-can-crushing/ | Electromagnetic Aluminum Can Crushing | Will O'Brien | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"awesome",
"electromagnetic",
"weapons"
] | This has been around for a while, but we never covered it – and it’s friggin’ awesome. [jesse] sent in
this
crusher, but I featured
this one
due to a sort of draconian copyright notice on the former. The latter also uses some easier to find, hackable parts. They’re both built on similar concepts – use a large bank of capacitors to store up the energy needed, and deliver it in one large pulse to a coil electromagnet. The resulting force lasts for a short time, but is enough to physically crush an aluminum can inward without touching it. Yet another one has some more dramatic
examples
of crushed cans.
permalink | 15 | 15 | [
{
"comment_id": "28942",
"author": "Peter",
"timestamp": "2007-10-16T06:59:11",
"content": "Your comments: My personal favorite can crusher is Peters (a different peter) athttp://tesladownunder.com/CanCrushing.htmAltair’s doesn’t really have enough energy to give the full effect if a crushing can, a... | 1,760,377,864.301459 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2007/10/14/usb-driver-hacking/ | USB Driver Hacking | Will O'Brien | [
"Peripherals Hacks"
] | [
"game",
"software",
"usb"
] | [qDot] sent in
his
efforts to hack the oddest USB interface I’ve seen. The game is played by relaxing, so the controller senses biometrics. His notes on his adventure in hacking a driver are a bit entertaining, and definitely interesting if you’ve considered doing a little USB driver hacking of your own. If there’s enough interest, maybe he’ll post some more code to get things rolling.
permalink | 11 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "28932",
"author": "PHilip Freeman",
"timestamp": "2007-10-15T09:03:45",
"content": "YOu know…. you could turn this into a lie detector as well, if only you know how, as i dont, if anyone figures it out, let me know i think that would be real cool.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth... | 1,760,377,864.251973 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2007/10/14/3d-video-with-consumer-cameras/ | 3D Video With Consumer Cameras | Eliot | [
"digital cameras hacks"
] | [
"3d",
"camera",
"crystal",
"sony",
"sync",
"videocamera"
] | While perusing our photos from the
Hooptyrides, Inc. tour
you may have noticed [Eric Kurland]’s two handed stereoscopy rig. It’s constructed from two consumer grade Sony DV cameras. The problem with using two separate cameras to make stereo images or video is that a lack of clock sync will make objects appear out of their true position because of differences in framerate. To solve this problem Damir Vran?i? developed the
3D LANC Master
. It reads the crystal frequency from one of the cameras and writes to the ram of the other camera using Sony’s LANC protocol. This constant monitoring keeps the clocks within +/- 3ms. The control box also has buttons to power on, zoom, and record in sync. The
3D LANC Master
plans are completely open source and work with a large number of Sony cameras. We have more photos of Eric’s rig after the break.
permalink | 14 | 14 | [
{
"comment_id": "28918",
"author": "Andrew",
"timestamp": "2007-10-15T03:27:53",
"content": "No example video? :(",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "28919",
"author": "David",
"timestamp": "2007-10-15T06:32:16",
"content": "yes example ... | 1,760,377,864.352367 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2007/10/14/side-project-cncbadges/ | Side Project: CNCBadges | Will O'Brien | [
"cnc hacks",
"News"
] | [] | Want something different for your latest PC? I’m starting to offer
custom CNC cut case badges
made on my mill. I’m starting off with 1″ x 1″ badges made from .125″ thick 6061 aluminum alloy. The test cuts above should give you a decent idea of what I’m talking about. (The edges are a bit rough because I need to order some proper engraving bits.) I’ve just about gotten the kinks out, so I’m going to start accepting orders now. Engraved badges are $6 and shipping’s just $1 in the US. Everything is very, very beta – let me know if you have any questions.
Eliot said that I could pimp my little venture if I give away some Hack-A-Day badges. So drop a comment – I’ll pick five or so at random (unless you’re a tool) to receive a free badge with the Hack-A-Day logo. I *might* consider offering Hack-A-Day badges to raise money for the EFF, but it’s still up in the air.
permalink | 114 | 50 | [
{
"comment_id": "28804",
"author": "Weclock",
"timestamp": "2007-10-14T23:43:00",
"content": "This sounds really friggin’ cool, if I wasn’t strapped for cash right now, I’d get one.Also, this is my first comment here, at hackaday.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
... | 1,760,377,864.518515 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2007/10/14/hooptyrides-inc-open-house/ | Hooptyrides, Inc. Open House | Eliot | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"dyno",
"hooptyrides",
"ipod",
"make"
] | We didn’t even pause for a second when offered a chance to tour Mr. Jalopy’s studio. Even if it meant a 600 mile roundtrip, we’d be there. You’ll probably recognize Mr. Jalopy as the author of
Hoopty Rides
and as a frequent
Make Magazine
contributor know for his
giant iPod
and
guerilla projector
.
Dorkbot SoCal
organized a studio tour so that fellow hackers could pick up some of the Hoopty Rides secret sauce.
Mr. Jalopy spent a long time searching for his shop. He wanted a site that he could work in, but was self-sufficient. The location is paid for by a small retail shop upstairs plus a freeway visible billboard. It’s and old car repair shop with two bays and some interesting quirks like 400hp water break dynamometer (gauges at top) and an
old hydraulic lift
designed just for cars with solid rear axles. He got a unused second Clayton 200hp dynamometer (above) for cheap and plans on combining the two to hopefully get a nice functional unit.
He pointed out the boombox TV he had built stating that it was the subject of an upcoming article. It won’t be about the construction of the boombox though; the article is about Boombox: The Platform. He’s quite fond of picking up boomboxes at garage sales because of what you get: an AC/DC converter, a battery holder, amplifier, speakers, lots of switches, buttons, and knobs, all for $1 and a nice box to boot. The monitor for this one was the cheap PSOne flip up screens we’ve mentioned before. The tuner is a fairly versatile and is designed for car use.
A common theme was was that Mr. Jalopy doesn’t feel he knows how to do a lot of stuff, but that doesn’t matter because he can manage by doing things he does know. Take the giant iPod for example. The big attraction is that the old console radio’s buttons actually control the iPod. He didn’t get hung up wondering how he was going to send the iPod commands over the serial interface; he just bought an
AirClick
and soldered wires directly to the board. Other good advice: Don’t half-ass, build it so it lasts. Also, build in adjustment since you won’t get it perfect the first time.
A minor attraction that I found very interesting was his
Curta calculator
. The Curta was invented by Curt Herzstark during WWII while he was a prisoner in a concentration camp and was popular up to the 70s. The side has 11 single digit sliders on screw shafts. Turning the crank on the top a full rotation adds the side number to the top result display. It also subtracts and does many more complex operations. Here’s a
flash demo
of the device.
I’ll add photo links as the come in, but for now you can view
Garnet Hertz’s
,
COOP’s
, and
mine
. Also, look for the tour on a future episode of
BoingBoingTV
(not
Make:TV
, I don’t think that’s been announced yet ;-)
We’d like to thank Dorkbot SoCal, Mr. Jalopy, and all the people we met for the wonderful experience.
UPDATE
:
Tim Odell’s
photos.
permalink | 6 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "28799",
"author": "Nate",
"timestamp": "2007-10-14T17:45:23",
"content": "OMG Finally, pictures that are in color (Please keep color)! Very interesting writing by the way. The stuff in the pictures is very neat.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
... | 1,760,377,864.606688 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2007/10/13/diy-coil-winding-machine/ | DIY Coil Winding Machine | Will O'Brien | [
"Misc Hacks",
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"hack",
"mod",
"pedometer",
"tools"
] | This
will probably be more useful to custom speaker builders, but coil winding has always been a bit tedious. [iwicom] put together a simple coil winder using a hand drill, a magnet, a reed switch that triggers a pedometer. Aside from the coil winder, I love the idea of using the pedometer as a cheap event counter.
permalink | 12 | 12 | [
{
"comment_id": "28789",
"author": "tony",
"timestamp": "2007-10-14T08:47:05",
"content": "great device, probably will make one myself if i can get around to it. also, i think you spelt Pedometer wrong the second time.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_... | 1,760,377,864.436242 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2007/10/12/computer-controlled-lawn-defender/ | Computer Controlled Lawn Defender | Will O'Brien | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"visual processing",
"VisualProcessing",
"water cannon",
"WaterCannon"
] | I found this thanks to [Mark
Frauenfelder] on
BoingBoing
. The ‘
Waterhobo
‘ is a computer controlled sprinkler that fires upon anyone who’s cutting across the owners lawn. The
video
is pretty amusing. An infrared camera is mounted up top, and the computer measures motion in the image to determine if it should start firing.
permalink | 13 | 13 | [
{
"comment_id": "28776",
"author": "smilr",
"timestamp": "2007-10-13T10:26:07",
"content": "Now the neighbor needs to ask him to build a second of these to put on the other side – full coverage of the grass between the houses = no more kid problems.Although if it was me I’d got with a standard PIR d... | 1,760,377,864.562295 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2007/10/11/nobel-prize-hard-drive-hacking-roundup/ | Nobel Prize Hard Drive Hacking Roundup | Will O'Brien | [
"computer hacks",
"Misc Hacks",
"News"
] | [] | Ironically, high end gear is moving toward solid state hard drives, but I think it’s time for a hard drive hacking roundup in honor of the
Nobel prize for physics
being awarded for the technology behind todays magnetic hard drives.
We recently saw this awesome
hard drive clock
– which uses the actual drive hardware to show the time. Then there’s the now classic
hard drive window
– the trick is to create a clean room/box so you can swap out the cover. Let’s not forget the
hard drive oscilloscope
– made from a laser mounted on the oscillating drive arm. Sometimes drives die, so a bit of
resurrection
may be in order. Locked out? Maybe you should built a
lock-picking gun
from a junk drive. Some people just like to
hide the things
. | 5 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "28771",
"author": "Dids",
"timestamp": "2007-10-12T08:15:02",
"content": "Yay! Hack A Day now has 100 pages of hacks, sweet job guys!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "28772",
"author": "waggy",
"timestamp": "2007-10-12T10... | 1,760,377,864.389038 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2007/09/26/make-your-own-jacobs-ladder-and-other-hv-fun/ | Make Your Own Jacobs Ladder And Other HV Fun | Will O'Brien | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [] | We’ve covered a few
tesla coils
, but somehow we never hit this classic – making your own
jacobs ladder
. The spark climbing the increasing gap between a pair of electrodes is easy enough to create – just get a high voltage transformer (like a neon sign transformer), make a set of insulated electrodes and wire things up.
Now that I’ve mentioned a couple of HV sources, I can point to this set of awesome
high voltage photos
from the same guy that put together the
portable tesla coil
.
permalink | 16 | 16 | [
{
"comment_id": "28533",
"author": "alex mccown",
"timestamp": "2007-09-27T09:49:32",
"content": "FINELY more hv fun i love hv and have several Tesla Coils",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "28534",
"author": "Scott",
"timestamp": "2007-09-... | 1,760,377,864.890428 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2007/09/25/convert-a-dvd-r-drive-into-a-lab-scanner/ | Convert A DVD-R Drive Into A Lab Scanner | Will O'Brien | [
"Laser Hacks",
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"cdr",
"dvdr",
"laser scanner",
"LaserScanner"
] | [bodiby] was first to send in
this
New Scientist article about converting a DVD drive into a lab scanner. I did some digging and came up with the details. Here’s
the paper
describing the process and results. Here’s a basic
schematic and description
of the mod. A set of samples is placed onto a CDR. A photo sensor is used to locate the samples on the CD, while the laser is fired through each sample. A planar photodiode is used to measure the attenuation of the laser as it’s transmitted through each sample. Sadly, I couldn’t find any details on the custom control electronics.
permalink | 17 | 17 | [
{
"comment_id": "28521",
"author": "Tony",
"timestamp": "2007-09-25T22:29:07",
"content": "Now that’s a nice hack.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "28522",
"author": "michael mcwilliams",
"timestamp": "2007-09-26T00:52:07",
"content":... | 1,760,377,864.841559 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2007/09/24/serial-output-for-your-weather-station/ | Serial Output For Your Weather Station | Will O'Brien | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"AVR",
"serial",
"weather"
] | I spent part of my weekend with some sort of stomach virus, so Eliot stepped in for me yesterday. I’m taking next week off, so we’ll have a special guest starting Friday – but I’m not revealing who just yet.
[Fickara] sent in his
AVR interface
(in Italian) for an Oregon Scientific remote weather station. Thanks to the AVR, data is output via RS232. There are quite a few less expensive weather stations – usually PC output models are over $100, so this could be pretty handy. His page has several other projects including an oscope clock, POV on a stick, etc.
permalink | 8 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "28514",
"author": "strider_mt2k",
"timestamp": "2007-09-25T15:31:29",
"content": "“…we’ll have a special guest starting Friday – but I’m not revealing who just yet.”please be Ben Heckendorn!!highest profile hacker I could think of.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"repli... | 1,760,377,865.076885 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2007/09/23/fon-mp3-streaming-router/ | FON Mp3 Streaming Router | Eliot | [
"Wireless Hacks"
] | [
"fon",
"fonera",
"router",
"wireless"
] | I was looking for streaming solutions the other day. Little did I know that [John] would be sending in a hack for
adding an mp3 decoder board to the La Fonera
. The final device has both a web and command line interface which let you connect to any shoutcast/icecast streaming server. John has even gone so far as to provide the Openwrt image for the router with all of the software components you need.
permalink | 6 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "28509",
"author": "atrain",
"timestamp": "2007-09-24T07:41:40",
"content": "can’t get to the site, but looks like a great idea!Missed out on all the fon fun, had one originally before people started doing really cool hardware hacks with them. Had mine running DD-WRT through a serial... | 1,760,377,865.031514 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2007/09/22/timing-attack-xbox-360-kernel-downgrade/ | Timing Attack XBox 360 Kernel Downgrade | Will O'Brien | [
"Xbox Hacks"
] | [] | [Xantium] let me know about the latest from the XBox Scene. The attack that was just a
proof of concept
is now a fully released hack. [Robinsod] released
details
on how to perform the ‘Timing Attack’ in order to downgrade the 360s kernel to a hackable version. The hack requires an infectus mod chip, a
PIC interface
built around a 16F876A and a software package to get things rolling. The big deal is that you can now downgrade your 360 from any kernel to an exploitable version. Considering the previous limitations, this is pretty exciting news for the homebrew crowd.
permalink | 15 | 15 | [
{
"comment_id": "28499",
"author": "dave",
"timestamp": "2007-09-23T19:01:03",
"content": "I have a modded xbox (not 360). I love it, xbox media center allows me to put games, videos, emulators, anything I want on it. With a 250 gb hard drive upgrade, it is a home media pc.I’d buy a 360 immediatel... | 1,760,377,865.132936 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2007/09/21/hybrid-robot/ | Hybrid Robot | Will O'Brien | [
"Robots Hacks"
] | [
"hybrid",
"hybrid robot",
"HybridRobot",
"jetpack",
"overlords",
"robots"
] | [Coley] sent in
this
port of jetpack for the propeller uc, but when I started poking around I discovered this sweet
hybrid robot
platform. A four stroke Robin/Subaru 35cc motor drives a car alternator, providing virtually unlimited (in the robot world) power on demand. Hit the video after the break for a quick R/C demo and an idea of how loud the engine is. Offhand, I recognize the lovejoy coupler that was used to connect the engine to the alternator.
By the way, this bot is featured in the latest
Robot magazine
, so you can get details there if you hate reading forums.
permalink | 20 | 20 | [
{
"comment_id": "28479",
"author": "Frogz",
"timestamp": "2007-09-21T23:05:49",
"content": "hmm… i wonder what i can do with that 4 hp engine i have…suggestions? maybe it’ll be the next cool hackits a 4 hp briggs and stratton upright 4 cycle lawnmower engine",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
... | 1,760,377,865.261159 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2007/09/20/in-bag-usb-cable/ | In Bag USB Cable | Will O'Brien | [
"laptops hacks",
"Mac Hacks"
] | [] | Ever had a USB cable sticking out of your laptop bag? I’ve done it many time while I’ve been traveling. James built a
simple right angle USB cable
so he could keep things tucked away and damage free. He epoxied a connector to some proto board, then soldered things back together.
permalink | 29 | 29 | [
{
"comment_id": "28452",
"author": "Adam",
"timestamp": "2007-09-21T00:04:21",
"content": "What passes for hacks these days sure is weak",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "28453",
"author": "twistedsymphony",
"timestamp": "2007-09-21T00:44:... | 1,760,377,865.200871 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2007/10/03/breathing-walls-with-shape-memory-alloy-wire/ | Breathing Walls With Shape Memory Alloy Wire | fabienneserriere | [
"home hacks",
"Misc Hacks",
"Robots Hacks"
] | [
"architecture",
"flexinol",
"interactive",
"movement",
"shapememoryalloy",
"sma"
] | When you need something quietly bending or moving, don’t underestimate SMA’s (or
Shape Memory Alloys
). The Living Glass project by architects [David Benjamin] and [Soo-in Yang] catalogs an experiment in building interactive, flexible, “breathing”, walls out of SMA wire and microcontrollers. Although they use Basic Stamps, the project could easily be extended to more cost-effective microcontrollers for large surfaces. The project is well documented with
videos
(AVI) of each prototyping step and even includes the ideas that were ultimately scrapped. Even if you don’t build a wall of interactive gills, this project should give you plenty of ideas for uses of SMA wire embedded in semi-flexible materials.
permalink | 8 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "28606",
"author": "Mike Witt",
"timestamp": "2007-10-04T02:38:01",
"content": "For anyone that wants some Flexinol(TM) Wire (that’s the SMA wire) you can find it at Jameco.I had seen it in their catalog before, and now I might just have to get some.",
"parent_id": null,
"dep... | 1,760,377,865.307411 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2007/10/02/interactive-textile-construction/ | Interactive Textile Construction | fabienneserriere | [
"Arduino Hacks",
"Misc Hacks",
"Peripherals Hacks"
] | [
"arduino",
"buechley",
"e-textile",
"etextile",
"leah buechley",
"leahbuechley",
"lilypad",
"microcontroller",
"sparkfun",
"wearable"
] | The e-textile construction kit by [Leah Buechley] consists of stitch-able sensors and microcontrollers. Stitch-able refers to the fact that these parts can be sewn with a needle and thread into wearable clothing or other fabric-based housings. A
paper
(PDF) on the e-textile construction kit project contains the first version. The second version of the e-textile construction kit, the LilyPad Arduino, is
available this month
through SparkFun’s site. Especially interesting are
her instructions
for modifying the clock speed on the
Arduino
to make it suitable for battery powered wearables.
We’ve
covered
[
Leah Buechley
]’s work
twice
in 2005 for her wearable led matrix work.
Update: [Leah] updated her site since we posted this and
added this new how-to
.
permalink | 4 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "28603",
"author": "hsvsunshyn",
"timestamp": "2007-10-02T18:59:50",
"content": "-obligatory-All fine and good, just do not go to Boston wearing it. Especially the wearable LED stuff…This is pretty cool, though.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
... | 1,760,377,865.391813 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2007/10/01/openbeacon-active-rfid-platform/ | OpenBeacon: Active RFID Platform | fabienneserriere | [
"Uncategorized"
] | [
"ccc",
"openbeacon",
"OpenSource",
"privacy",
"rfid",
"sputnik",
"tracking"
] | The OpenBeacon project is an open source hardware and software active RFID device. OpenBeacon tags consist of 2.4GHz transceivers and a PIC16F684. One use of the project was to create
CCC Sputnik
to show the downsides to information culled using data mining from large tracking systems. People who chose to participate and wear the Sputnik tags did so voluntarily to create a database of material for further study. The hardware
schematics
(PDF) for the first version tags as well as the
firmware
for all versions has been released. Further creative uses of the OpenBeacon project are strongly encouraged.
As a reminder, the 24C3, the 24th Chaos Communication Congress,
call for participation
ends on October 12th. The theme this year encompasses all hardware projects and more specifically, steampunk themed submissions. Check out the
CCC events
blog for more information.
permalink | 10 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "28593",
"author": "CaptainQueeg",
"timestamp": "2007-10-01T18:53:16",
"content": "A question for you RFID’ers out there….Are RFID ping response times consistent enough to use the total round trip time of a ping and reply as a measure of distance, good to an inch or so?",
"parent... | 1,760,377,865.353663 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2007/09/30/read-every-bit-on-a-dvd/ | Read Every Bit On A DVD | fabienneserriere | [
"Misc Hacks",
"Peripherals Hacks",
"Xbox Hacks"
] | [
"bit",
"bits",
"cypress",
"data",
"dvd",
"raw"
] | If you are curious about reading all the bits on a DVD, [tmbinc] has
devised a hardware hack
that uses a Pioneer DVD drive with leads soldered onto it and a Cypress FX2 microcontroller board to grab the flow of bits and push them over USB2.0. My favorite part of this tutorial is when you slow the spinning DVD down very slightly with your finger with a scope hooked up over what you believe to be the raw data stream from the disk. If the data rate slows when you physically slow down the disk, you probably are grabbing data from the correct pin. [tmbinc] even put together a software tool to process the resulting raw DVD data.
permalink | 16 | 15 | [
{
"comment_id": "28580",
"author": "james",
"timestamp": "2007-10-01T01:19:47",
"content": "hmmmmmm this could help in making xbox 360 backups",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "28581",
"author": "steve",
"timestamp": "2007-10-01T02:45:32",... | 1,760,377,865.827327 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2007/09/29/automatic-jtag-pinout-detection/ | Automatic JTAG Pinout Detection | fabienneserriere | [
"Cellphone Hacks",
"handhelds hacks",
"Misc Hacks",
"Wireless Hacks"
] | [
"automatic",
"firmware",
"jtag",
"jtag finder",
"jtag tools",
"JtagFinder",
"JtagTools",
"pinout"
] | Figuring out the JTAG pinout on a device turns out to be the most time consuming hardware portion of many hacks. [hunz] started a project called
JTAG Finder
to automatically detect the JTAG pinouts on arbitrary devices using an 8bit AVR ATmega16/32L microcontroller. Check out the
slides
(PDF) from the talk as they break down how one finds JTAG ports on an arbitrary device, with or without a pinout detection tool. [hunz] is looking for people to pick up the project where he left off.
Once you determine the correct pinout, you will need a JTAG cable: there are two main types, buffered and unbuffered, both of which I have soldered up and tested from
these
circuit diagrams (image of completed buffered cable
here
). The software most hardware people use today are the
openwince JTAG Tools
. To get the JTAG Tools to compile, grab the latest source directly from
their CVS repository
.
The last time we featured JTAG was
with regards to Linksys
devices, but the tools listed above can be applied to any device with JTAG.
permalink | 11 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "28570",
"author": "Myself",
"timestamp": "2007-09-29T19:00:20",
"content": "ABOUT DAMN TIME, is all I can say! (and that would be all caps, if this infernal site didn’t make all my first-person pronouns improper along with slaughtering my grammar!)Seriously, good job, guys! I’ve tos... | 1,760,377,865.874151 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2007/09/28/fnordlicht-rgb-mixing-led-light/ | Fnordlicht: RGB Mixing LED Light | fabienneserriere | [
"LED Hacks",
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"color",
"colormixing",
"fnord",
"fnordlicht",
"led",
"light",
"mixing",
"rgb"
] | While [Will] goes and hides in his offshore datashelter, Hack-A-Day is happy to welcome back our veteran foreign correspondent [fbz]. She promises future posts will have far less ‘German by example’. -[Eliot]
The
Fnordlicht
is a color mixing LED platform with free hardware schematics and open source firmware initially started by [fd0]. The system is dynamically controllable (via
RS-485
) and can also work as a standalone with pre-loaded color mixing. I have one of these soldered up and working at home; the circuits come in a stack of three boards with an optional serial level shifter board add-on. There are
project pages
in German about the Fnordlicht as well, which include some photos of the
first prototype
. Full kits (“
Fnordlicht Bausatz
” means “Fnordlicht kit”) and printed circuit boards (“
Fnordlicht Platinensatz ohne Bauteile” means “Fnordlicht circuit board set without parts”
) can be purchased from their
shop
, but be sure to ask them first about shipping prices to your location. I love this project, I fire it up and stick it in a corner of my hack room to add some color-changing atmosphere.
A while ago [Eliot] covered
the MoMolight
, a color changing led project controlled by the colors playing on your monitor.
permalink | 14 | 14 | [
{
"comment_id": "28556",
"author": "steve",
"timestamp": "2007-09-28T22:57:23",
"content": "leds are rubbish get some decent hacks on this site for god sake",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "28557",
"author": "twistedsymphony",
"timestamp"... | 1,760,377,865.980548 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2007/09/27/usb-20-fpga-based-24-channel-logic-analyzer/ | USB 2.0 FPGA Based 24 Channel Logic Analyzer | Will O'Brien | [
"computer hacks",
"Misc Hacks",
"Peripherals Hacks"
] | [
"awesome",
"fpga",
"logic analyser",
"logicanalyser"
] | [lekernel] sent in his USB logic analyzer. I might just have to build this one for my work bench. It’s based on an Altera Cyclone 2 FPGA and he’s provided full schematics, source and a quick and dirty Linux driver to get things going. The board is nearly all surface mount, but he points out that the entire thing was soldered with a standard iron and de-soldering wick. If you’re looking for a good starter FPGA project, this looks like a good one.
I started writing for Hack-A-Day a little over a year ago. I’ve barely taken a break, but for the next week I’m going to be taking some serious time off on a Caribbean island. Thanks for a great year guys! While I’m gone, [fbz] has kindly consented to take over the reins. I’m looking forward to another year when I get back, but right now I’ve got to finish packing my dive gear.
permalink | 13 | 13 | [
{
"comment_id": "28544",
"author": "Eddy A",
"timestamp": "2007-09-28T06:56:16",
"content": "sounds like you’re going to Grand Cayman. I’m living there right now for Medical School (i’m from S. Fl). Great diving here.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_i... | 1,760,377,865.927802 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2007/10/10/joule-thief-led-driver/ | Joule Thief LED Driver | Will O'Brien | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [] | [Bird603568] sent in
this
sweet little LED hack that’ll drive a white LED from just 1.5 volts. The circuit consists of a pair of coils wound on a ferrite core, a resistor and a NPN transistor. He notes that the circuit still functions even at .35v. The version pictured is even small enough to fit inside a normal flashlight bulb base.
permalink | 30 | 29 | [
{
"comment_id": "28753",
"author": "Ben Jackson",
"timestamp": "2007-10-11T09:02:28",
"content": "I made one of those (from the linked instructions) a long time ago, and it didn’t work for me. In fact, I just found it on my desk in a cleanup and threw it away.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": ... | 1,760,377,866.040641 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2007/10/09/pulse-soldering-iron/ | Pulse Soldering Iron | Will O'Brien | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"diy",
"pulse soldering",
"PulseSoldering",
"soldering",
"transformer"
] | I’m always interested in
new ways
to solder. [SPman] sent in this diy pulse soldering iron. It heats up in 5 seconds on demand, then cools in about 15. The writeup is a bit terse (since it’s translated from Russian), but it would definitely be handy for larger wiring jobs. The transformer is hand wound, and an oscillation driver forms a sort of crude frequency modulation to run the MOSFETS that drive the heating elements. I’d keep it away from delicate electronics unless you’re confidant of the temperature stability. It was designed for 220V, so you’d need to modify the transformer a bit to get similar performance on a 110V circuit.
permalink | 28 | 28 | [
{
"comment_id": "28715",
"author": "FlyingAvatar",
"timestamp": "2007-10-10T06:40:43",
"content": "Isn’t this the same as those “Cold Heat” soldering irons which pretty much suck for real soldering?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "28716",
"a... | 1,760,377,866.364334 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2007/10/08/build-your-own-car-from-scratch/ | Build Your Own Car… From Scratch | Will O'Brien | [
"Transportation Hacks"
] | [
"builld your own",
"BuilldYourOwn",
"diy car",
"DiyCar"
] | Most of us settle for modding the latest car we’ve bought. [Steve Graber] took another approach and
built his own
car from scratch. [John] sent in this impressive project. The original was built around Toyota MR2 parts and
the body
was made from fiberglass after the design was hand made from a wooden support frame, foam and drywall mud that was sanded down to create the shape. After that, molds were made from the slug to allow the panels to be cast from fiberglass. [Steve] is actually offering the car up as a
build-it-yourself kit
. Personally, I’d like the see the price come down a bit – the 1,500lb street weight would make a sweet basis for an electric car.
Bonus: If you’d doing EVs, bots or R/C toys, you might like
this comparison
of the latest breed of Lithium Iron Phosphate batteries by [Ian Hooper].
permalink | 42 | 42 | [
{
"comment_id": "28682",
"author": "Steffen Hunt",
"timestamp": "2007-10-09T06:13:09",
"content": "I was looking at the battery charger circuit and I saw it had a 7805 which if my memory services right, is a linear voltage regulator. I avoid those now, because they are typically very inefficient. ... | 1,760,377,866.442825 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2007/10/07/25-head-mounted-display/ | $25 Head Mounted Display | Will O'Brien | [
"Misc Hacks",
"Portable Video Hacks"
] | [
"eyeglasses",
"headset",
"vr"
] | [Jake] sent in his source for a
cheap head mounted display
. In his writeup he notes that the
spy video car
comes with quite a pile of handy electronics – video tx/rx, camera and this simple black and white monocle head mounted display. (Which happens to be available as a replacement unit for a mere $20) The screen is a
Kopin 300M
(Black and white, 300×240 pixels) The display is actually somewhat usable out of the box, but he takes the time to note some simple mods that’ll improve the displays performance.
If you ever bought a virtual boy just to gut the display, then you know you want one. In fact, I’ve got a perfect project in mind for this particular toy.
permalink | 29 | 29 | [
{
"comment_id": "28658",
"author": "Weirdguy",
"timestamp": "2007-10-08T07:08:56",
"content": "Do you know what this means? Crap, I can think of about 100 ideas for this off the top of my head! Let me buy this buy a beer!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comme... | 1,760,377,866.161894 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2007/10/06/back-from-belize-extra/ | Back From Belize Extra | Will O'Brien | [
"computer hacks",
"handhelds hacks",
"Misc Hacks",
"Nintendo Game Boy Hacks",
"Nintendo Hacks",
"Peripherals Hacks",
"Portable Audio Hacks"
] | [
"audio recorder",
"AudioRecorder",
"gameboy",
"hackaday tatoo",
"hackaday tattoo",
"HackadayTatoo",
"HackadayTattoo",
"preamp",
"tattoo",
"usb flash",
"UsbFlash"
] | Yesterday, I was standing on a tropical island off the coast of
Belize
. Vacation rocked with lots of SCUBA diving, spearfishing and snorkeling. I’m back home, shaking off the jet lag and clearing up my inbox. Thanks to [fabienne] for filling in and letting me unplug for a while!
[Darkrom] has set a
new standard
for Hack-A-Day readers… I haven’t seen it in person, but that looks like a legit Hack-A-Day tattoo.
[null] sent in a new use for a frequency generator, a spare car amp, a sub-woofer and a plastic coffee can –
brass cartridge polishing
.
[LoopyMind] sent in this Game Boy Advanced Movie Player
IDE hack
. It’s pretty much a direct CF to laptop drive cable with an external battery supply.
[Dingolishious] sent in a POE UPS/remote power
control solution
. Could be handy if you’re using many POE devices, or if you’re having power issues. He added an inexpensive remote power monitor/switch solution behind his UPS. It senses power outages and kicks out an email – and allows remote power cycling of his POE devices. Of course, if you’ve got a linux box behind the UPS, it can monitor the output from the UPS and send notifications.
[William]
added
a preamp stage to his
iKEY usb recorder
. looks like an interesting toy – it’ll record audio directly to a USB flash key. The pre-amp allows him to record in more challenging environments.
[Andrew] noted a simple mod to
increase
the deadly fire power of the ubiquitous airsoft pellet gun. It’s just a matter of reducing some extra space in the spring compression area.
Last but not least, [VIPER] modded his projector to use a
12v halogen headlight bulb
. Not a bad idea – at one point I was pondering a 550 watt source four halogen as a possible replacement. | 12 | 12 | [
{
"comment_id": "28646",
"author": "Peter",
"timestamp": "2007-10-07T04:10:46",
"content": "man, I say we get posts like this every day!I particularly like the cartridge cleaner hack. Guess everything does look like a hammer when you have a nail ;-)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"rep... | 1,760,377,866.207953 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2007/10/05/roasting-pan-audio-amplifier/ | Roasting Pan Audio Amplifier | fabienneserriere | [
"home entertainment hacks",
"Misc Hacks",
"Portable Audio Hacks"
] | [
"amp",
"amplifier",
"audio",
"cooking",
"pan",
"roasting"
] | When you need a rigid, vibration-free chassis for your amplifier, look no further than a
roasting pan
. I’ve used cast cement for subwoofers, but using a cooking pan bolted to a heavy wooden chopping board is a cheap way to get a rigid surface on which to build audio gear. The amp circuitry used by [Mark] is not complex, but it gets the job done. The “oxygen free copper cable” and “pure silver wire” are not needed, just make sure you have a solid mechanical connection. In other words, just tin your wires, bend small “u” shapes at each end, hook them together, and apply solder to the heated ends. Alternatively, hold the ends of stranded wires parallel to each other and twist the ends together before tinning, then solder. Test everything with a multimeter while moving wire joints to make sure you have no weak connections. Now you won’t waste your money on hyped-up cabling materials.
Thanks to [Gio] (who seems to have some personal
audio projects
as well) for the tip.
permalink | 17 | 17 | [
{
"comment_id": "28630",
"author": "...",
"timestamp": "2007-10-06T01:54:44",
"content": "I fail to see how a solid state amp could be affected in any way whatsoever by vibrations that would be stopped by using a beefy chassis… Seriously, are you worried about getting voltages induced by minute vib... | 1,760,377,866.09364 |
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