BuffaloFeeds » Hack A Day » September 29, 2009

Hack A Day (11 unread)

Batcave-style entrance (on a budget)

Posted: September 29th, 2009, 7:05pm MDT by Jacob Woj

Want to enter your hidden lair in style? Well [Jimmy] simply wanted to create a cool prop for his school’s homecoming dance. This project includes some obvious inspiration from Wayne Manor. [Jimmy] wired up the automated entrance with a 12VDC motor. In order for it to be able to push the door , the motor had to be attached to [...]
Build a Google-style panorama rig for $300

Posted: September 29th, 2009, 5:57pm MDT by Phil Burgess

As part of a “disruptive technologies” course at the United States Military Academy, [Roy D. Ragsdale] produced a working prototype of a Google Street View-like system called PhotoTrail. Like its corporate-backed inspiration, the system captures georeferenced 360-degree panoramas that can be viewed interactively in a web browser…but at a hardware cost of only around $300. [Ragsdale’s] [...]
Jet powered hijinks

Posted: September 29th, 2009, 3:15pm MDT by Caleb Kraft

This jet powered carousel is brought to you by the Madagascar Institute. They convene, or collide, to create large scale art, sculptures, and rides. This one seems to fit the last definition. The two gentlemen are strapped to a jet powered carousel. It actually looks pretty fun, but we would have been needing some fresh [...]
How to generate font and picture header files

Posted: September 29th, 2009, 2:00pm MDT by Mike Szczys

Displaying custom fonts or images on an LCD screen using a microcontroller usually requires quite a bit of work. We’ve used some readily available tools to make this a bit easier for your next project. Our python script will convert BMP files into a header file ready for use with AVR microcontrollers. We’ll walk you [...]
Noise box synth lays down some beats

Posted: September 29th, 2009, 1:00pm MDT by Mike Szczys

[Tim] sent us his Noise Box Synth. The box is a sixteen step synthesizer that can generate sine, square, triangle, and sawtooth waves as well as a collection of sound effects (video after the break). The hardware is simple; an Arduino, four potentiometers, four buttons, a switch, a speaker, and some LEDs. This was a [...]
Connect a PS/2 keyboard to a microcontroller

Posted: September 29th, 2009, 12:00pm MDT by Caleb Kraft

The guys at Nerdkits have put together this tutorial on connecting a PS/2 keyboard to a microcontroller. Though this tutorial is written for one of the kits they sell, you should be able to apply this to pretty much any microcontroller. It is also a lesson in using interrupts instead of polling. They have several [...]
Make an Arduino talk to you

Posted: September 29th, 2009, 11:00am MDT by Mike Szczys

One of the highlights from the Music Hack Day in Berlin was the Arduino singing “Daisy Bell”. If you don’t know, this is an homage to the HAL 9000 in the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey; an artificial intelligence that was taught the song in its first steps toward self awareness culminating in an attempt [...]
Ball catching bot

Posted: September 29th, 2009, 10:00am MDT by Caleb Kraft

Who needs a robot that can catch a tennis ball? We do. What would we do with it? Probably just throw tennis balls at it, that’s the only use we can think of. The work of University students in Kunzelsau and Vienna, it is actually a prototype for new transport systems for industrial robots. Though [...]
Touchscreen picture frame

Posted: September 29th, 2009, 9:00am MDT by Mike Szczys

Circuit Ideas Design has posted a digital picture frame project based on their 240×320 16-bit color QVGA display. We made our own digital frame from a smaller screen a while back and this is pretty much the same implementation except with a larger screen and built around the AVR family of microcontrollers rather than PIC [...]
Add IR control to your WiFi router

Posted: September 29th, 2009, 8:00am MDT by Mike Szczys

[Craig] wanted to use Boxee on his TV but his computer was in a different room. He rigged up a rather dubious method of delivering the A/V signal (this is a hack in the most guttural sense). More interesting to us is his solution for a remote control interface. We’re familiar with building USB connected [...]
PSP Go gets butchered (teardown)

Posted: September 29th, 2009, 7:22am MDT by Jacob Woj

Not due to be released until the beginning of October, a PSP Go demo unit (shipped to G4TV) has already earned itself a teardown from [iFixit]. Among what was discovered: - Once a few screws are removed, the battery is user replaceable (as-in: no soldering iron required) - Wireless connectivity is only supplied through a 802.11b chip (no [...]