BuffaloFeeds » Hack A Day » October 19, 2009

Hack A Day (9 unread)

Dresser tool chest isn’t as ghetto as you’d think

Posted: October 19th, 2009, 3:00pm MDT by Phil Burgess

A dedicated rolling chest for one’s tools is among the most indulgent yet worthwhile acquisitions. Having everything mobile and organized for quick access improves efficiency and keeps the shop tidy. But holy living crap, have you priced these things? Even a mediocre setup costs more than the gross national product of some small nations! Here’s a project that tarts [...]
CNC hot wire cutter from scanners

Posted: October 19th, 2009, 2:00pm MDT by Mike Szczys

[Raul] built a CNC hot wire cutter that he uses for cutting shapes out of foam. His device uses two flat bed scanners to provide two planes of motion. One scanner arm has the foam mounted on it and provides the Y-axis movement. The other scanner has the hot wire mounted on it and provides [...]
10gui: multi-touch for all ten digits

Posted: October 19th, 2009, 1:00pm MDT by Mike Szczys

The race for the next revolutionary input design is an ongoing event. [Clayton Miller's] newest offering in the contest is a multitouch concept that separates the display from the screen and is meant to utilize all fingers. His video explanation includes a description of the physical input device, a software implementation, and a demonstration of [...]
DSO nano oscilloscope reviewed

Posted: October 19th, 2009, 12:09pm MDT by Phil Burgess

We’ve been eyeing Seeed Studio’s DSO nano digital storage oscilloscope with a mix of intrigue and skepticism. A pocket-sized $89 storage ’scope? This is a joke, right? Hack a Day reader [Blair Thomson] has written a thorough review based on his experience with one of the beta test units, and it might be a winner [...]
Awesome robots love Fanta

Posted: October 19th, 2009, 11:00am MDT by Caleb Kraft

What you are seeing above is not a commercial for Fanta, though we think it would have been a good one. It also isn’t being played at an accelerated speed. That is a real time demonstration of the accuracy and speed the ABB robots achieve. We were surprised, even shocked, when we clicked play. We don’t know [...]
Shift powered pumpkins

Posted: October 19th, 2009, 10:08am MDT by Jakob Griffith

[Garret] and a couple of friends totally stole our idea wanted to light up their pumpkins a bit differently this year. They used some ShiftBrites and all the corresponding shift hardware (who knew there was so much shift out there) to bring their carved orange minions to life. Yes, this could be done a lot [...]
Build your own wristwatch

Posted: October 19th, 2009, 9:06am MDT by Mike Szczys

[rgbphil] has done a great job detailing how he built his Microdot wristwatch.This project is a lot more approachable than the pong watch we saw last month. If you’ve made a few printed circuit boards, but haven’t yet tried working with surface mount component, this is a great way to give it a try. The parts [...]
Lunar auto repair depends on the sticky stuff

Posted: October 19th, 2009, 8:06am MDT by Mike Szczys

When you’ve got problems with your lunar rover you can’t just “trust the Midas touch”. Every unexpected repair that happens outside of the Earth’s atmosphere is a hack and it seems the common ingredient in each one is Duct tape. If you’ve seen the movie Apollo 13 you know it was used in making a [...]
Reverse geocache puzzle

Posted: October 19th, 2009, 7:00am MDT by Zach Banks

[Mikal] wanted to create an awesome electronic wedding gift for his friend who was moving to France. After experimenting with a few things, he settled on creating a puzzle box that would only open in a certain location. Since his friend introduced him to the Arduino, he fittingly used one in the design, along with [...]