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January 15, 2010

Lift heavy things with a modded servo

Spotted in the Make: Forums:

Need to do some heavy lifting of the physical kind, but only have some wimpy servo motors on hand? Why not follow Antonb's directions to Hack your Servo, and turn it into a powerful linear actuator. The instructions are a little tricky to follow, however the basic idea is to use the servo motor as a high-torque gearbox, which is then used to turn a screw to raise or lower your load. Using this method, he claims to be able to lift a 10kg load, which is pretty impressive!

Bending the Kaossilator

GetLoFi posted this demo of a hacked Korg Kaossilator with a variable clock, resulting in some sweet time/pitch stretches -

Sometimes newer devices get overlooked for purposes of circuit bending. Two main reasons are price and abundant use of SMT components almost too small to work on. The Kaosillator is one such device. However once the novelty of the factory sounds wears off it is necessary to explore other possibilities and Kaosillator is no exception.

The first modification is an addition of the LTC precision module in order to control the pitch. Wiring is very simple with only Ground, Positive, and the Output connection. Nothing needs to be cut or removed. The Output from the LTC module can be patched directly to the Crystal leg that controls the Kaossilator CPU.

A well placed LTC1799 certainly seems able to spice up the stock sounds on this one. Check out the full how-to for more on circuit bending the Kaossilator.

Hacking Pizza with PizzaHacker

Earlier this week I was exiting an event in San Francisco's Potrero Hill neighborhood when I bumped into PizzaHacker and his amazing Franken-Webber portable wood burning pizza oven.

Drive-by guerilla street food is some of the best food out there. Just glancing at the prep table I noticed the choicest ingredients. Fresh basil, buffalo mozzarella, smoked salt? Further investigation finds that PizzaHacker uses sauce made exclusively from organic heirloom tomatoes and hand kneads his naturally leavened sourdough for what some say rivals the most trendy pizza establishments in the area.

Part of what makes this open air culinary spectacle work is the heavily modded Webber 22.5" grill that's been outfitted with fireproof blocks and a domed top comprised of refactory cement and perlite that's been molded in the original Webber top. Using chunks of wood and charcoal, the Franken-Webber quickly reaches 1000F (the ideal temperature for cooking authentic Neopolitan-style pizza).

Here's a video from PizzaHacker's site:

More:

January 14, 2010

GameBoy Advance universal remote

This morning's post about remote controls prompted Austrian maker Markus Hirsch to send a link to a project he's working on: a GameBoy Advance remote control.

The project, which is still in development, calls for adding an ATMEL AVR tiny44 microcontroller, an IR diode and an IR receiver to a GameBoy. Basically, the tiny44 and IR diode/receiver would be soldered to a card and the card is inserted into the unit's game port.

The ATtiny44 converts the received IR data into serial data that can be read by the GameBoy Advance. And vice versa the GameBoy can send data to the module. The data is converted into pulses and modulated to the carrier frequency of 37KHz. This is compatible with all 38 and 36 KHz devices.

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January 13, 2010

Secret bar in office

Vgvmj
I love these makeshift hidey-bars people make in offices...

Make a scroll saw from a sewing machine

Here's an interesting, if possibly questionable idea. The folks over at Flowering Elbow converted a sewing machine into a scroll saw. If you've got an old sewing machine, it could be just what you need for cutting thin pieces of wood!

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January 12, 2010

Solar charging station on a dog

The Solar Dog prototype charger from Erik Schiegg is a solar panel attached to a dog sweater. I'm not sure how efficient it is, but I could see this being handy. [via recombu]

My Android phone is charged in no time... The dog feels good and I'm feeling good and planet mud is turned a little bit more into planet earth. But this idea would be interesting for farmers around the world, letting their animals collect electricity, too.

January 11, 2010

Wii Wand of Power watchdog circuit

Have you ever been in a situation where you needed to get up to go do something, but didn't want to leave a game for fear your system would go to sleep while you were away and you couldn't use a software hack to nudge the system? Maker Todd Harrison had a similar issue and decided to build a device that closes a circuit every 25 seconds inside a Wiimote shaped candy tin.

It's just a simple timing circuit made of discreet elements that engages a reed relay ever 25 sec. This relay in turn closes a circuit in my keyboard for the left arrow key. Being this external circuit is self powered I can simply turn it on when I want a game or application to think I'm at my computer when I'm not. I know there are software hacks that can do this and I did try a lot of them but this particular on line game I play had a way to block such software hacks. I had to go old school, which is not hard for an old guy, and do it with hardware.

January 9, 2010

Tor Bridge on chumby One

C1 Tor
Cool project - Bunnie (designer of the Chumby) writes -

Tor is an open-source project that is dear to me for many reasons. For those who are unfamiliar with it, in a nutshell, Tor can enhance your anonymity on the internet: it obscures who you are, and what sites you are visiting. This is important, especially for people who live and work in oppressive regimes where direct access to on-line social networking is restricted, and where your opinions can put your life at risk. Protecting free speech is important to me.

Recently, Jacob Appelbaum pinged me and asked if it would be possible to make a Tor Bridge Relay client for the chumby One. Bridge relays are needed because policy-making entities can “filter” Tor by querying the list of public Tor exit and entrance nodes, and consequently direct the country’s internet authorities to block all Tor nodes. In other words, once you enter Tor, you have enhanced anonymity, but Tor itself has a clear and public footprint on the internet. Because of its well-defined footprint, someone with sufficient authority can “cut it out” by simply ripping out all of its connections to the rest of the world.

January 8, 2010

Toy train used to calibrate fusion reactor

While Princeton University's National Spherical Torus Experiment was shut down for improvements over the winter break, scientists and engineers availed themselves of the opportunity to recalibrate the reactor's neutron sensors. To do so, they assembled a circular toy train track around the torus and ran a toy locomotive carrying a chunk of neutron-emitting californium-252 along it for three days. The New York Times explains:

A stationary neutron source was previously used for the calibration, but that did not fully capture how the neutrons bounced around. Putting the californium on the moving train improved the accuracy by about a factor of 10, Dr. Ono said.

[Thanks, Pete!]

January 7, 2010

How-To: Sled from wooden pallet

Wooden pallets are easy to come by and can be made into a neat sled (or sledge) using Stiffey's Instructable.

January 2, 2010

Make your own Wii smartboard

In these budget conscious times, schools who want to integrate modern interactive technologies have a choice, buy a SmartBoard , or build your own for a fraction of the cost. Johnny Chung Lee has done some of the groundbreaking work with the Wii, the build instructions and downloads can be found on his site. In addition to the Wiimote, you'll need an infrared light emitting pen, which you can build yourself for short money.

Since the Wiimote can track sources of infrared (IR) light, you can track pens that have an IR led in the tip. By pointing a wiimote at a projection screen or LCD display, you can create very low-cost interactive whiteboards or tablet displays. Since the Wiimote can track upto 4 points, up to 4 pens can be used. It also works great with rear-projected displays.

Rather than spending thousands of dollars per classroom, students and faculty could make them in-house while helping to transform the school into a more technology-rich learning environment. With a project like this in your school, it could be a great way to do some electronics, system design and get a taste of mass production of the components. While this may not fit in to your current curriculum to have students build these systems, it could be a great way to collaborate across subject areas, or it could provide a great after school club activity.

Has your school built one of these $40 smartboards? How well do they work in comparison to other interactive display systems? Let us know about your experiments and experiences in the comments. [Thanks Rachel!]

December 30, 2009

Use your N900 as a PS3 controller

Using BlueMaemo, the Bluetooth multi-tool for Maemo, you can turn your Nokia N900 into a PS3 controller. Install the latest alpha via the application manager with extras-devel enabled. The above video is in Italian. [via Maemo Central]

December 28, 2009

How-To: Composite video output for Chumby One

Bunnie's blog points out a rather sweet hack by xobs which swaps Chumby's LCD display for TV output. It requires new firmware + minimal hardware modding - def seems worth it for those looking for bigger display options. Read more in the Chumby wiki.

In the Maker Shed:

Chumby Guts

Bluetooth keyboard hack for jailbroken iPhones

If you've got a jailbroken iPhone and want to use a bluetooth keyboard with it you can now download BTstack Keyboard in the Cydia Store. [via theiphoneblog]

More:

December 23, 2009

Knock out those RFID tags with rfiddler

Knock out those extraneous RFID tags with the rfiddler, which uses the circuit from a camera flash and a homemade coil to fry unwanted RFID tags. The shape of the device and sound effects seem a bit gratuitous, however the concept is sound. As always, use responsibly. [via technabob]

December 16, 2009

Wiimote as Scientific Sensor

Researchers from Delft University of Technology have assembled inexpensive alternatives to costly scientific sensors using the Nintendo Wiimote.

Luxemburg's team aimed the Wiimote at a problem that can be very tricky for hydrologists: measuring evaporation on a body of water. The easiest way to measure evaporation is to place pans of water near the lake, or whatever water is being studied, and put pressure sensors in them. The sensors record the drop in pressure as more and more water disappears. But this equipment can run $500 or more, and still the measurements aren't accurate because the water in the pan gets warmer on land than it would in the lake. Alternatively, measuring the level of water in a pan that is floating in a lake is also tricky because the pan will inevitably be moving.

Hacked Wiimote Makes Super Scientific Sensor [via Slashdot]

December 14, 2009

Holding round-head screws for trimming

Neil sent me this link to a cool trick for holding round-head screws while you cut the threads shorter. Cut a thin slit in a correspondingly-threaded nut, through one of the points. A rotary tool with an abrasive disk is probably a good tool for this. Then you can thread the screw in and grip the nut across the flats with pliers or a vise. Compression across the width of the slit will hold the screw firmly in place, and you can use the flat side of the nut to guide the saw.

December 12, 2009

Coins to Frequent Flier miles "hack"

2009-Native-American-Coin
Coins to Frequent Flier miles "hack" via DF.

Enthusiasts of frequent-flier mileage have all kinds of crazy strategies for racking up credits, but few have been as quick and easy as turning coins into miles.

At least several hundred mile-junkies discovered that a free shipping offer on presidential and Native American $1 coins, sold at face value by the U.S. Mint, amounted to printing free frequent-flier miles. Mileage lovers ordered more than $1 million in coins until the Mint started identifying them and cutting them off.

Coin buyers charged the purchases, sold in boxes of 250 coins, to a credit card that offers frequent-flier mile awards, then took the shipments straight to the bank. They then used the coins they deposited to pay their credit-card bills. Their only cost: the car trip to make the deposit.Richard Baum, a software-company consultant who lives in New Jersey, ordered 15,000 coins. "I never unrolled them," he says. "The UPS guy put them directly in my trunk." Patricia Hansen, a San Diego retiree who loves to travel, ordered $10,000 in coins from the Mint. "My husband took them to the bank," Ms. Hansen says, and she earned

December 3, 2009

Wii remote for MAME on iPhone

Mobile gaming mastermind ZodTTD has updated his mame4iPhone app to use BTStack, allowing the use of a Wii remote as a controller. I could see using this with the iPhone app video out hack as a low-cost casual gaming console. It would be pretty cool to go from playing a mobile game directly to playing the same game on a large screen with a controller. It's no Xbox, but give it a few years.

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