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Hack A Day (30 unread)

Tilt and pivot camera base uses just two servos

Posted: March 15th, 2011, 11:45am MDT by Mike Szczys

[Caled] shows us how to build a tilt and pivot camera base. One of these can be quite handy for taking precisely aligned images that can later be stitched together into panoramic, or even spherical images. We have grand visions of being able to produce something along the lines of these stunning interactive images with [...]
PIC based frequency counter

Posted: March 15th, 2011, 11:01am MDT by Mike Szczys

Here’s a PIC based frequency counter that outputs the count via an RS232 serial connection. [Oakkar7] tipped us off about it after seeing the AVR based counter we featured yesterday. This project is a bit older and a bit dirtier. Inside the metal DB9 housing you’ll find just seven parts. The most important is a [...]
CO2 powered pinewood derby car is definitely cheating

Posted: March 15th, 2011, 10:01am MDT by Mike Szczys

The Pinewood Derby is a classic Cub Scout competition where dads and sons come together to build a small-scale race car. You start with a kit that includes a block of wood for the body, as well as four plastic wheels and four nails to act as axles. Most innovations in the ‘sport’ center around reducing [...]
Animated Paper

Posted: March 15th, 2011, 9:02am MDT by Kevin Dady

What if you could make paper react on physical input. Maybe you want it to shy away and close up if someone reaches for it too fast, or maybe you want some realistic paper flowers? Moving on to that great first step is Animated Paper, which is simply nitinol memory wire bonded to paper via [...]
No PCIE slot? Just add one

Posted: March 15th, 2011, 8:01am MDT by Kevin Dady

[Leslie] likes his little Samsung N150 Plus netbook. While it packs enough punch for almost everything, it lacks in High Definition video power. That is where a Broadcom Crystal HD mini PCI express card comes in, as these little video decoders are made just for netbooks needing some HD love, but the problem is, his [...]
Weather station turned data logger

Posted: March 15th, 2011, 7:05am MDT by Kevin Dady

Home brewing the perfect beer (or root beer in this case) requires a watchful eye and stable temperature, but [Gregory] has a house that is 120 years old. While we are sure it is a beautiful home, it does have its usual historical issues including temperature fluctuations. [Gregory] suspects this to be the reason why [...]
Automatic ball launcher is for the dogs

Posted: March 15th, 2011, 6:05am MDT by Mike Nathan

A while back, [Dino] built an automatic ball launcher for his dogs, but he wanted to revise it to make it smaller and a bit more user-friendly. While watching an episode of “Prototype This”, he came across a great idea to improve his launcher, so off to the workshop he went. He repurposed a power [...]
Wireless weather station obsessively reports the temperature

Posted: March 15th, 2011, 5:04am MDT by Mike Nathan

[nuumio] has been hard at work building a Tweeting weather station, which he recently got up and running. The weather station is built from three major components, a Linux PC for data storage and Tweeting, a main weather sensor unit, and a remote unit. The remote unit sits outside and includes includes both a pressure [...]
Pi phone lulls you to sleep with the digits of Pi

Posted: March 14th, 2011, 4:00pm MDT by Mike Nathan

As you well know, today is March 14th – aka “Pi Day”. Celebrated in math classrooms around the country, this truly is a celebration that belongs to the geeks. Here at Hack-a-Day, we too love Pi day, though we might not outwardly celebrate it with as much gusto as expressed by some of our readers. [...]
Battery capacity tester lifts the veil on manufacturer capacity claims

Posted: March 14th, 2011, 3:00pm MDT by Mike Nathan

[Nick] was tasked with building a battery capacity tester by one of his teachers in order to test some aftermarket batteries that were purchased for their Vex robotics lab. The batteries were cheaper than the official version, but boasted more than twice the capacity. Fairly skeptical of the rating, he got to work designing his [...]
Guide for working with AVR microcontrollers

Posted: March 14th, 2011, 2:15pm MDT by Mike Szczys

[Q] wrote in to let us know about the AVR-Guide he’s been working on. It looks like he’s finished posting about 80% of the content he planned for in his initial draft outline. We read through several of the sections and found them to be concise, yet able to present information in a way that’s [...]
DIY Digital pinball console plays hundreds of games

Posted: March 14th, 2011, 1:30pm MDT by Mike Nathan

Pinball machines, while likely considered pretty retro technology by most, are still a fun and engaging way to waste a little time. The problem with pinball machines is that they take up a lot of space, making the hobby of collecting them pretty prohibitive unless you have tons of spare room in your house. [tbarklay] [...]
Beginner Concepts: 595 shift register simulator

Posted: March 14th, 2011, 12:45pm MDT by Mike Szczys

[Aaron] just finished building an online 595 shift register simulator. These inexpensive chips let you extend the number of devices that can be controlled by a single microcontroller. You see them in quite a few LED multiplexing projects, included the Ping Pong Clock that we recently built. But they can be a bit tricky to [...]
Commandeering public video screens: real or fake?

Posted: March 14th, 2011, 12:00pm MDT by Mike Szczys

It’s time for everyone’s favorite comment thread game: Real or Fake? This week’s edition comes in from a tip that [Phil] sent about a way to take over video screens in Times Square. Watch the video after the break to see the hackers using a two-part solution to rebroadcast video from an iPhone onto a [...]
Frequency counter for $10 worth of parts

Posted: March 14th, 2011, 10:55am MDT by Mike Szczys

[Scott] built this frequency counter using less than $10 in parts. It’s set up to meter frequencies in megahertz which is fitting since he’s planning to use it with his radio hardware experimentation. But we would find it useful too because our cheap multimeter only reads up to around 4 MHz. He’s using an ATmega16 that he [...]
Passcode protected laser tripwire alarm system

Posted: March 11th, 2011, 3:20pm MST by Mike Nathan

Sometimes security doesn’t need to be overly complex to be effective. Instructables user [1234itouch] recently built a simple laser tripwire alarm that can be mounted virtually anywhere, complete with a keypad for disarming the device. He mounted a photo cell in a project box, along with an Arduino and a 12-button key pad. A laser [...]
Bench-top laser engraver does some cutting too

Posted: March 11th, 2011, 2:00pm MST by Mike Szczys

Grab that stack of old optical drives you have in the corner and get to work building this laser engraver. [Groover] is taking a no-nonsense approach to the build and we think it is just simple enough to be accessible to a very wide audience. The physical assembly uses sleds from two optical drives. These [...]
ASync-Firefly

Posted: March 11th, 2011, 1:15pm MST by Noah Dunker

[dev_dsp] wanted to try his hand at creating a purely analog implementation of multiple synchronizing fireflies powered by a single battery and built from off-the shelf, through-hole components on inexpensive protoboard. In theory, even your local Radio Shack should still carry all of this stuff. He was obviously inspired by [alex]‘s fireflies that we’ve covered [...]
Bounce flash in multiple mediums

Posted: March 11th, 2011, 12:30pm MST by Mike Szczys

[Nigel's] been trying out a series of designs and materials to make his own bounce flash. He set out on this mission because most of the images he used flash on ended up washed out with dark shadows. The flash add-on seen above seeks to curb the harshness of the direct light but shielding the [...]
Lol Shield Theatre brings online video to the pixelated screen

Posted: March 11th, 2011, 11:45am MST by Mike Nathan

[FallDeaf] bought a Lol Shield, and after making all sorts of blinky displays, he thought to himself, “What in the world can I use this thing for?” In a really slick fusion of hardware, software, and the power of the Internet, he has created what he calls, “Lol Shield Theatre”. The idea goes something like [...]
The Traveling Terabyte Project – Helping those who protect us

Posted: March 11th, 2011, 11:00am MST by Mike Nathan

Though some people differ on what exactly a “hacker” is, there is one thing that can be said for certain – this global community of tinkerers, experimenters, and hobbyists we belong to is one of big hearts. Through our various projects and tutorials, we lead by example – sharing knowledge and offering help whenever we [...]
Microsoft Points algorithm cracked… they’re out $1M

Posted: March 11th, 2011, 10:15am MST by Mike Szczys

Looks like someone figured out the algorithm that Microsoft uses to generate unique codes for their alternative currency: Microsoft Points. We were always a bit baffled by the need to do this sort of thing (Disney dollars, tokens at arcades, etc.) but figured it’s just a grift to get you to spend more dough. Looks [...]
Bitbang IR Remote

Posted: March 11th, 2011, 9:30am MST by Kevin Dady

[Albert] has made a few PC IR transmitters and receivers using the traditional connection of RS232 serial, and that is fine, but as we are all aware, not every computer has serial ports standard. Searching though normal USB <> RS232 dongles didn’t meet his requirements. Deciding on making it himself, he whipped up this FTDI [...]
Phillip Torrone makes case for next-gen public libraries

Posted: March 11th, 2011, 8:45am MST by Mike Szczys

[Phillip Torrone] has started a discussion about a possible upgrade to the public library system in the US and wants to know what you think. His name should be familiar (Hackaday founder, Open Source hardware advocate, and Tron costume model) and he’s definitely got his finger on the pulse of today’s electronics enthusiasts. He poses [...]
Zigbee-powered wireless scale

Posted: March 11th, 2011, 8:02am MST by Noah Dunker

[joe] wanted to make it easy to record his weight every day, and added a few bits to decode the weight and send it to his computer. The end result is a ZigBee-powered wireless scale. Additionally, his scale can track more than one person’s data simply by knowing whose previous weight the new measurement is [...]
Build your own vertical axis wind turbine

Posted: March 11th, 2011, 7:01am MST by Mike Szczys

You can build a copy of this vertical wind turbine in a weekend and it won’t cost you all that much. Applied Sciences developed the hardware and they’re sharing all for the build details. You will be taken through every part of the build starting with the fin assembly which is made from stove-pipe material. [...]
Water droplet sculpture using LEDs and Arduino

Posted: March 11th, 2011, 6:04am MST by Mike Szczys

This water sculpture can stop drops of water in mid-air. This is accomplished by flashing LEDs to illuminate the droplets at just the right time. But it’s not limited to blinky lights alone. The top of the frame has eight nozzles, each fed by its own pump. An Arduino controls the pumps and the lights making [...]
All about PS3 SixAxis controller USB communications

Posted: March 11th, 2011, 5:03am MST by Mike Szczys

[Austyn] is currently working on reverse engineering a PlayStation 3 SixAxis controller’s USB communications. You may be thinking that this has already been done but [Austyn] was unable to find useful source code so he’s started his own project called libopenaxis. The process he used to sniff out USB communications makes for an interesting read. [...]
DIY flower bouquet guaranteed to get you dumped on Valentine’s day

Posted: March 10th, 2011, 3:27pm MST by Mike Nathan

[Erik] is a broke engineer. When this past Valentine’s day rolled around he didn’t have any cash to buy a gift for his girlfriend, so he had to get creative. Every girl likes flowers, but unless he was going to give his lady some day old daises from the grocery dumpster, he would have to [...]
Kinect hacked to work with Garry’s Mod means endless hours of virtual fun

Posted: March 10th, 2011, 2:20pm MST by Mike Nathan

[John B] is a software engineer and had some spare time on his hands, so he started messing around with his Kinect which had been sitting unused for awhile. He wanted to see what he could create if he was able to get Kinect data into a virtual environment that supported real-world physics. The first [...]