BuffaloFeeds » Hack A Day » November 21, 2011

Hack A Day (9 unread)

Tracking satellites with an Arduino

Posted: November 21st, 2011, 2:01pm MST by Brian Benchoff

The guys over at brainwagon just finished up ANGST, the Arduino n’ Gameduinio Satellite Tracker, a build that displays 160 different satellites in Earth orbit on any SVGA monitor. The build is of course based off an Arduino and Gameduino shield. A real-time clock is always needed for a satellite tracker, so a DS1307 RTC [...]
Think you can take Kinect to the next level? Check out Kinect Accelerator

Posted: November 21st, 2011, 1:01pm MST by Mike Nathan

If you’ve got a crazy ingenious idea for Microsoft’s Kinect peripheral, but don’t have the means to make your dream a reality, the Kinect Accelerator just might be the opportunity you’ve been waiting for. Microsoft, having performed a complete 180-degree turnaround from their initial stance on Kinect hacking, is embracing developers more than ever with [...]
Power strip hack reduces standby electricity consumption

Posted: November 21st, 2011, 12:01pm MST by Mike Nathan

For years, [Rasmus] has left his computer connected directly to the mains power so that he can turn it on via Wake on Lan. While powered down, it would still continuously consume about 6W of electricity, but now that he didn’t need it to be on standby so often, he wanted to make it more [...]
Simple touch sensors with the Arduino CapSense library

Posted: November 21st, 2011, 11:01am MST by Mike Szczys

Ever thought of using touch sensors on your projects but didn’t because it would be too much work? [Paul Stoffregen] proves that it can be pretty easy if you use the CapSense library for Arduino. Here he’s created three touch sensors, connecting them to the Teensy microcontroller with two resistors each. The larger resistor (looks [...]
Siri proxy adds tons of functionality, doesn’t require a jailbreak

Posted: November 21st, 2011, 10:01am MST by Mike Nathan

[Pete] has an iPhone 4s and loves Siri, but he wishes she had some more baked-in capabilities. While the application is technically still in beta and will likely be updated in the near future, [Pete] wanted more functionality now. Since Apple isn’t known for their open architecture, he had to get creative. Knowing how Siri’s [...]
Black Friday deals and Contest Giveaways

Posted: November 21st, 2011, 9:01am MST by Mike Szczys

Winter is coming, and it’s a great time to start accumulating parts and tools to keep you occupied with projects during the dark and cold days ahead. Black Friday We got a tip from Pololu about their planned Black Friday deals, and thought we’d check with some of the other parts suppliers that cater to [...]
Stroboscope project uses optical drive motor and Arduino

Posted: November 21st, 2011, 8:01am MST by Mike Szczys

In the quest for a diy laser cutter made from DVD burner parts (that hack’s still in the works) this guy ended up with a junk box full of optical-drive leftovers. He put some of that surplus to good use by building this stroboscope. As the media spins, the white LED just out of focus [...]
Experimenting with an air muscle and sensor feedback

Posted: November 21st, 2011, 7:01am MST by Mike Szczys

Check out this setup that [Ruenahcmohr] is using in his air muscle experiments. The orange mesh contains an air bladder that is connected to a hose on the right side. The bladder can be filled, or emptied with two solenoid valves not seen here (but you can get a good look in the video after [...]
TI Launchpad adds computer control to a robot arm

Posted: November 21st, 2011, 6:01am MST by Mike Szczys

[Eric Gregori] had an OWI535 toy robotic arm. Although cheap (coming it at around $30) the arm is only set up to be used via a wired control box. [Eric] knew he could do better by adding computer control via a TI Launchpad and motor driver peripheral. The arm has shoulder, elbow, and wrist joints, [...]