BuffaloFeeds » Hack A Day » April 30, 2010

Hack A Day (6 unread)

Adding reset to an FTDI cable

Posted: April 30th, 2010, 3:00pm MDT by Mike Szczys

Hackaday alum [Adam Harris] hacked an FTDI cable to use for programming his Arduino. After cracking open the plastic case he found the FTDI chip used is the same as the one in the SparkFun programmer. The only real difference was that his cable wasn’t resetting the Arduino, he had to do that manually. The [...]
Using A/C frequency as a clock signal

Posted: April 30th, 2010, 2:00pm MDT by Mike Szczys

A while back we saw a logic clock that used the alternating current frequency from the power grid to keep time. We asked for information on your projects that use this method and we got a lot of comments and tips. Today we’re sharing [Doug Jackson's] method which he used in his word clock. The [...]
Ball inverted pendulum

Posted: April 30th, 2010, 1:00pm MDT by Caleb Kraft

We’ve seen several different balancing bot styles over the past few years, but this one is new to us. The BallP, short for Ball inverted Pendulum, balances on top of a ball. We’re not sure what the advantages are to this layout though. Anyone care to enlighten us? Even though we hadn’t seen this style, [...]
Optiboot makes your Arduino faster, sleeker

Posted: April 30th, 2010, 11:46am MDT by Mike Szczys

Tired of waiting for that Arduino sketch to upload? Find yourself limited by code space? Optiboot eases both of these problems. The package is an alternative bootloader that runs at a higher baud rate (115200 versus 57600) and it takes up 1.5 KB less space than the stock version. This means your sketches can be [...]
Perfect spiral, every time

Posted: April 30th, 2010, 9:00am MDT by Jakob Griffith

[Carmine] let us know about his team’s Automated Football Launcher. Their goal was to combine a football launcher with motion tracking, to allow a player to practice running and catching with the perfect throw. Unfortunately, and we’re not quite sure when, they ended up changing out the Jugs machine for an air cannon, which resulted [...]
9 digit pulse counter

Posted: April 30th, 2010, 7:20am MDT by Caleb Kraft

At roughly $20 to build, this 9 digit pulse counter is an excellent example of home built tools. The builder, [Josh] found himself repairing a device and in need of a pulse counter. With the components cheaply available, he just built his own. He says that it has a few limitations, like display brightness, but [...]