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Hack A Day (7 unread)

HID crafting with a PIC and a joystick

Posted: June 2nd, 2010, 3:00pm MDT by Mike Szczys

[Amr Bekhit] converted his gameport joystick to use as a USB joystick. Much like a universal USB joystick interface, this uses an additional microcontroller to talk to the serial bus while monitoring the controls on the stick. [Amr's] discussion about creating HID descriptors is clear and easy to understand. What he’s laid out can be [...]
Easy data input for LabVIEW

Posted: June 2nd, 2010, 2:00pm MDT by Jakob Griffith

Props go to [Michael Nash] for establishing an interface between National Instrument’s labVIEW and an Arduino (an example video using a potentiometer is above). Personally, from the one time we were forced to use labVIEW, we hated every second of it. One reason it’s so terrible, is the Data Acquisition Modules cost well into the [...]
PartKAM produces CAM related files online

Posted: June 2nd, 2010, 1:00pm MDT by Mike Szczys

PartKAM is a Flash-based CAM production package created by [Jack Qiao]. There are a ton of computer aided manufacturing suites out there, this one is simple and requires nothing more than having your browser open. We played with it for a few moments and found it useful but still a bit buggy. Most notably, it lacks a ‘undo’ [...]
Six digit LED clock

Posted: June 2nd, 2010, 11:32am MDT by Mike Szczys

Got a bag of LEDs handy? Why not build a display with them? We’ve seen a lot of clocks that make use of LED modules but soldering your own is a fun pastime. [Vadim Suhovatih] did just that using 130 LEDs to build this clock. Each segment of the 7-segment digits consists of three LEDs [...]
LEGO printer built without NXT parts

Posted: June 2nd, 2010, 10:00am MDT by Mike Szczys

[Squirrelfantasy] built a printer using LEGO pieces. It’s not a Mindstorm project but instead depends on some type of development board and some auxiliary components on a protoboard. We couldn’t get a good enough look to tell exactly what makes up the electronics so start the debate in the comments. We feel this is a [...]
HDSPs and Playstation 2 controllers on Arduinos

Posted: June 2nd, 2010, 9:00am MDT by Caleb Kraft

There were a couple short Arduino tips in the mailbox this morning. We’ve combined them in this post since both are fairly short and sweet. Over at Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories, they’ve posted a quick breakdown of how to interface those neat little HDSP LED displays with an Arduino. This specific instance is for Mr. [...]
RC car taunts man’s best friend

Posted: June 2nd, 2010, 8:02am MDT by Mike Szczys

[Arkos] gutted an RC car from his childhood and made it into a dog-taunting remote platform. An Arduino replaces the original circuitry with a Bluetooth module for connectivity. He uses an Xbox 360 controller and has added a small speaker to act as a siren. But for our money it’s the camera that makes this [...]