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Hack A Day (22 unread)

Spin Peggy, get 3D POV

Posted: August 9th, 2010, 6:59am MDT by Jakob Griffith

We put a temporary ban on posting POV projects after receiving several LED spheres back in May. But we had to lift the injunction after seeing this superb Volumetric 3D POV display by [Wes Faler] and [Don Smith]. Their creative use of several readily available components adds to the alluring setup; the central elements being [...]
Behind the scenes of a 1K graphics demo

Posted: August 8th, 2010, 1:00pm MDT by Phil Burgess

Programmer/designer [Steven Wittens] has posted a fantastic write-up on the black art of producing compact demo code, dissecting his own entry in the 1K JavaScript Demo Contest. The goal is to produce the best JavaScript demo that can be expressed in 1024 characters or less and works reliably across all standards-compliant web browsers. [Wittens] details several techniques [...]
Adding a microphone jack to a HAM radio handset

Posted: August 8th, 2010, 11:00am MDT by Caleb Kraft

[dajjhman] wrote in to show us how he added a microphone jack to the handset of his Yaesu radio while retaining the DTMF functions. He states that there were some adapters available on the market, but they are non standard and didn’t really fit his needs. The modification itself is pretty simple, especially with his [...]
Chainsaw/flashlight overkill

Posted: August 8th, 2010, 8:19am MDT by Caleb Kraft

[Robbtoberfest] has earned our admiration with this crazy chainsaw powered spot light. It looks horribly dangerous, extremely inefficient, and woefully under engineered. We absolutely love it. This could be plucked from a video game or a movie and seems to be one UV bulb away from being the ultimate post apocalyptic zombie vampire Armageddon weapon. [...]
Solar panel charger analysis with Ladyada

Posted: August 7th, 2010, 9:18am MDT by Caleb Kraft

[Phillip Torrone], one of the original crew of HackaDay, now working with [LadyAda] tipped us off to this video of her explaining the device they built for configuring the charging circuits to be used with their solar panels. Unlike most of their tutorials, this one is not intended to be a final product sold on [...]
Texas Instruments watch claims it’s a computer mouse

Posted: August 7th, 2010, 6:13am MDT by Jakob Griffith

[Jack Toole] and his team [Aaron King] and [Libo He] sent in their computer interface dubbed the Chronos Flying Mouse. The video above explains the concept very thoroughly, but we’ll reiterate some of the highlights here. The project uses a Chronos EZ430 with its accelerometers to wirelessly transmit delta positions of the user’s wrist. Add [...]
Open graphing calculator: Beagleboard + R

Posted: August 6th, 2010, 12:46pm MDT by Mike Szczys

It looks like we missed the boat on this one but just in case you missed it everywhere else on the Internet, last Saturday [Matt Stack] introduced the world to a completely open source calculator. This marries two heartily tested open source projects; the R Project for Statistical Computing and the Beagleboard. The hardware side [...]
Miniscule intervalometer

Posted: August 6th, 2010, 11:00am MDT by Mike Szczys

Calling this intervalomemter small would be a glaring understatement. It’s tiny enough to fit inside the plastic cover for a 2.5mm jack for use with a Canon DSLR camera. We should point out that the image we put together is a bit misleading. The picture of the jack is version 1 of this circuit and [...]
Dummy loads and heat sinks

Posted: August 6th, 2010, 8:54am MDT by Mike Szczys

In [Dave's] latest episode of the EEVblog he takes a look at constant current dummy loads. These are used to test power supply designs and instead of just chaining resistive loads together every time he’s decided to look into building a tool for the job. What he ends up with is a reliable constant current [...]
Make your own Mindstorm sensors

Posted: August 6th, 2010, 7:29am MDT by Mike Szczys

[Stewart Allen] acquired a Mindstorm kit about a month ago and he’s already building his own sensors for it. He wanted a more accurate range finder with a narrower measurement field than the stock sensor. Mindstorm has the option to communicate with sensors via an I2C bus. [Stewart] set up an ATtiny45 to act as [...]
Bluetooth multimedia remote

Posted: August 5th, 2010, 4:00pm MDT by Mike Szczys

[Mathieu] spent three months developing this multimedia remote control. It connects to a PC via USB or Bluetooth and communicates with Winamp to pull down track information for display on a Nokia LCD screen. It can also be used as a wireless headset via the two on-board jacks. [Mettieu] thinks it’s just a small hop [...]
RGB VU meter

Posted: August 5th, 2010, 3:00pm MDT by Mike Szczys

[Simon Inns] turned out this VU meter with a 16 RGB LEDs. He’s using three 16-bit TLC5940NTG LED drivers for the project. They’re not cheap chips but they do a great job. If you were looking to save on parts [Simon] found there’s more than enough brightness and any loss due to multiplexing would not [...]
txtBomber

Posted: August 5th, 2010, 1:00pm MDT by Mike Szczys

The txtBomber is a high-tech graffiti printer developed by [Felix Vorreiter]. Details are a bit scarce but the video clip after the break proves that this works quite well. [Felix] admits this is Arduino powered but we’re going to have to guess at the rest of the setup from the pictures. He says there are [...]
Using Makerbot for dishwasher repair

Posted: August 5th, 2010, 12:00pm MDT by Mike Szczys

[Daryll Strauss'] dishwasher had some problems that he traced to a worn out part on the upper spinning arm. The hackerspace he belongs to has a Makerbot and he though this would be the perfect opportunity to print his own replacement part. He picked up some inexpensive digital calipers and set to work mapping out the dimensions [...]
Android Development 101 – Part 5:DroidDraw & Information Tracker Completed

Posted: August 5th, 2010, 11:00am MDT by Greg R. Jacobs

In this tutorial we are going to cover completing the Information Tracker using DroidDraw to design the layout of this project. This will give you insight into an alternative to the stock layout manager in the eclipse environment and how DroidDraw functions. DroidDraw can be your best friend when designing Android applications or your [...]
Hardware hack 3D, software still needed

Posted: August 2nd, 2010, 9:00am MDT by Jakob Griffith

If you’re on the fence about 3D TV and related technologies [Anton B.] might be able to help you decide. No, he’s not going to shove pamphlets in your face and explain why its the wave of the future. Rather, by showing the hack-ability (its a word) of 3D shutter glasses. A simple bridge of [...]
Jailbreak your Apple products

Posted: August 2nd, 2010, 8:00am MDT by Jakob Griffith

It’s finally here, after being declared completely legal to jailbreak your iPhone, JailbreakMe 2.0 is released. Now, any and all iDevices can be jailbroken by simply visiting the URL above; however, before you start your devious adventure in the land of apps not approved by big brother Apple, there are a few issues. The webpage [...]
Doorbell combo lock can open your garage door

Posted: August 2nd, 2010, 7:00am MDT by Mike Szczys

Sometimes I get enough away from writing about other people’s accomplishments long enough to actually do my own hacks. Most recently I developed a combination lock that opens the garage door. The idea isn’t original, it is based on [Alan Parekh's] button code project, but I did develop my own hardware and software. A four digit [...]
Update: Custom cellphone induction charging

Posted: August 1st, 2010, 2:00pm MDT by Mike Szczys

This is a custom back plate with induction charging circuitry that [Derek Hughes] build for his HTC HD2 cellphone. When we checked in with him last week he showed us how to add an inductive charger without voiding the warranty but it wasn’t very pretty because the stock back plate blocked the inductive field and [...]
Hackaday links: August 1, 2010

Posted: August 1st, 2010, 12:00pm MDT by Mike Szczys

PCB Group Orders [Phil] wrote in to let us know about the DorkbotPDX group orders. The site makes group PCB orders until a cutoff date or the panel is full. You get three copies of your design with no setup fee for just $5/square inch including domestic postage. Not a bad price. We aren’t affiliated [...]
Multi-purpose welding cart

Posted: August 1st, 2010, 10:54am MDT by Mike Szczys

[Todd Harrison] put together a welding cart that has all kinds of tricks built-in. The carcass is a cheap rolling cart that has been reinforced with steel plate and beefier wheels. The top tray can be loaded up with fire brick for oxygen-acetylene welding or with a grate for cutting. That grate lets the slag fall [...]
Save a baby, nursery temperature monitor

Posted: August 1st, 2010, 9:19am MDT by Jakob Griffith

Yes, you could argue this Nursery Room Temperature Monitor is simply an LED and an Arduino with a temperature sensor, but [Jay] really did put more thought into the process. For instance he stuck with AVR, built a wooden base and sanded globe, and even included schematics and source code. Plus, SIDS is no laughing [...]