Items Tag › RIT Make Club Idea Stream

I posted to hackaday.com

CrossCanada: a biking documentary

http://hackaday.com/2009/06/09/crosscanada-a-biking-documentary/

[Mike] was going to be biking across Canada. He really wanted to document the trip, so he began planning ways to get still images taken at intervals along the way. After a bit of brainstorming, he ended up setting his goals a bit higher. He was going to film the entire trip. He really didn’t want a simple helmet cam, he wanted himself and the entire bike in the frame. To do this he had to build a long arm on which he mounted a bullet cam. On his handlebars, he has a simple control where he can turn the system on and off as well as initiate recording.

No single piece of this project was too complicated, but taken all together, the final result is quite nice. You can watch the video for yourself after the break.
- Tags:
- wearable hacks
- daily
- camera
- digital cameras hacks
- bicycle
- bike
- canada
- documentary
June 9 2009, 9:29am | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

2 axis joystick from VCR parts

http://hackaday.com/2009/06/07/2-axis-joystick-from-vcr-parts/

[eric] has found that he can build a pretty nice 2 axis joystick out of some VCR parts. Specifically, he’s using the idler wheel. When you disassemble the idler wheel, you’ll find that it has a bevelled washer in the perfect location to help with smooth joystick operation. Add a spring and a hole in some wood and you’ve got the basics. All you need to add now are the switches. This is a fantastic example of recycling parts, you never would have guessed that it was made from trash.
- Tags:
- daily
- tool-hacks
- Joystick
- vcr
June 7 2009, 10:30am | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

Phototransistor multitouch with a twist

http://hackaday.com/2009/06/04/phototransistor-multitouch-with-a-twist/

[Alex] sent us this project he’s working on where he’s building a phototransistor based multitouch input system. Though many people have built systems with phototransistors, most of them are quite large and very sensitive light and dark variances. [Alex] has done some fancy background subtraction through software. He believes his is the first to do this. As you can see in the video after the break, it seems impervious to the lamp he is moving around, and still fairly sensitive to his hand. We’re curious to see where he takes this one.
- Tags:
- daily
- multitouch
- multitouch hacks
- nui group
- phototransistor
June 4 2009, 1:48pm | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

Gesture controlled tetris

http://hackaday.com/2009/06/03/gesture-controlled-tetris/

Look at this awesome glove. This awesome glove is used to control tetris. Yes, you read that right, it controls tetris. This was a final project at Cornell in the summer of 2008. They built this glove to do gesture controlled tetris. With all the announcements of the PS3 motion device and Microsoft’s project Natal, it’s nice to look back to our very recent past and see some alternative user input. These people are using accellerometer data only, sent to the computer wirelessly.
- Tags:
- daily
- peripherals hacks
- pcs hacks
- tetris
- xbox
- ps3
- final projects
- natal
June 3 2009, 4:27pm | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

Stereo microphones in an MSI Wind

http://hackaday.com/2009/06/01/stereo-microphones-in-an-msi-wind/

[Matt] wrote in to tell us about this project. He plans on travelling with his MSI Wind and wanted better audio recording capabilities. He decided to install an additional microphone and a preamp. He made a custom preamp and wired it directly to the motherboard. The microphone was then mounted in the laptop screen. The second microphone is placed opposite of the first, about 18cm apart which [Matt] claims gives it a binaural effect. We think that this might just classify as stereo though. Wouldn’t you have to seperate them with a barrier or dampening device for binaural? It doesn’t really matter though, stereo mics are a great addition to the MSI Wind, and he did it very well. He does point out that it picks up a lot of noise though. There’s always room for improvement.
- Tags:
- daily
- peripherals hacks
- portable audio hacks
- laptops hacks
- netbook
- microphone
- binaural
- stereo
June 1 2009, 10:34am | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

CATaLOG: RFID cat tracking

http://hackaday.com/2009/05/27/catalog-rfid-cat-tracking/

Like many pet owners, [Pete] was curious about his little furry friend’s habits while he was gone. He decided to build an RFID tracking system to monitor their positions. This data would then be available on the web. An Arduino handles the communication of the data, both to twitter and his personal cat tracking site. We were a bit surprised to see that the only data transmitted on the final project was whether the cat was inside or out. We’d like to see a heat map of the cat’s activity in the house.
- Tags:
- daily
- arduino
- cat
- rfid
- twitter
- monitor
- arduino hacks
- pet
May 27 2009, 1:40pm | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

Simple motion detector and alarm

http://hackaday.com/2009/05/25/simple-motion-detector-and-alarm/

[John] sent us this nice little project. He shows us how to create a motion activated alarm that plays the Mario Brothers theme and flashes some lights. He’s using an ATTiny13a for the brains, and a cool mario mushroom candy tin for the body. You can see it in action after the break.
- Tags:
- daily
- attiny
- security hacks
- mario
- motion alarm
May 25 2009, 11:07am | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

USB GPS

http://hackaday.com/2009/05/24/usb-gps/

[Florin] was given the task of repairing a GPS unit that wouldn’t boot up. What he found was unfortunately a bad processor. Fortunately, he was able to make a project out of it. After scavenging the good bits, the GPS module and the LCD, he set about making it a USB device. He now has an EEEpc with GPS.
- Tags:
- daily
- usb
- EeePc
- gps
- gps hacks
- garmin
May 24 2009, 3:57pm | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

Weather canvas

http://hackaday.com/2009/05/22/weather-canvas/

Another Cornell final project, Weather Canvas aims to make watching the weather a little more pleasant. Data is captured via a thermometer, humidity sensor, anemometer, and a Hotwheels radar gun turned precipitation sensor. Once it’s captured, it’s transmitted to the LED matrix inside which displays pretty patterns to convey the weather conditions. They have set images, like icons, that mean different things.
- Tags:
- daily
- led
- solar hacks
- led hacks
- weather
- meteoroglogy
May 22 2009, 2:13pm | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

Wireless portable USB tether

http://hackaday.com/2009/05/21/wireless-portable-usb-tether/

[Pete] has put together a fairly simple writeup on building a wireless USB tether for your DSLR. He’s basically using a pair of USB wireless adapters and a battery pack. In his original version, he did some slight modification to the dock that powers the USB dongle, adding his own battery pack too. He notes that this whole project can be done without the effort he put into it, at a little more expense. The only improvement we think would be nice would be a better way to package it to keep it out of the way while you shoot.
- Tags:
- daily
- wireless
- wireless hacks
- digital cameras hacks
- usb
- digital camera
- dslr
- eye-fi
May 21 2009, 12:47pm | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

Digital Dice

http://hackaday.com/2009/05/20/digital-dice/

There have been several attempts at bringing Dungeons & Dragons up to date with modern technology. Most attempts have been in the form of computer games that somehow fail to capture the essential experience. This attempt, however seems to add some techie flair to while keeping the game the same. [Itay] has built some digital dice. Simply choose how many sides you want your dice to have, then give it a shake. OK, a random number generator isn’t that groundbreaking, but he did have to do some pretty intense soldering. The LED matrix is pretty cool, but we like looking at the back. You can see it in the video after the break.
- Tags:
- daily
- led
- led hacks
- dd
- dice
- dungeons
May 20 2009, 3:17pm | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

HVACMonitor: web enabled monitoring

http://hackaday.com/2009/05/19/hvacmonitor-web-enabled-monitoring/

[Marc] submitted this project he’s been building. It’s a web enabled HVAC monitoring system. He’s using a pic-web development board with a custom I/O daughter board to control the HVAC system. The project allows for the system to be monitored and controlled via the web. It should be able to interface with most commercial and residential systems. As usual, schematics and source files are available on his site.
- Tags:
- daily
- home hacks
- pic
- web enabled
- hvac
May 19 2009, 4:45pm | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

Magic wands for Disney

http://hackaday.com/2009/05/17/magic-wands-for-disney/

[NRP] sent us a few of his projects. The most notable of the bunch was a school project funded by Disney. They were to make some kind of interactive entertainment for people waiting in line for rides. They decided on a wand style interface. Each wand has an accelerometer, an IR LED for tracking, an XBee unit, and a few buttons for interaction. They wrote some custom games and a multi person white board to test it all out. You can see those in action, along with a space themed pong game in the video after the break. Even though this was funded by Disney, you can still find all the source code and schematics, available for free.
- Tags:
- daily
- wireless hacks
- ir
- wiimote
- infrared
- accellerometer
- led hacks
- disney
May 17 2009, 10:30am | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

Unique Li-Ion battery tester

http://hackaday.com/2009/05/15/unique-li-ion-battery-tester/

[moris_zen] found himself with a hand full of Li-Ion batteries and no good way to see what their capacities were. He built a this unique tester really quick to get the job done. He’s using off the shelf components and a cheap pocket watch which he bought in Taiwan for $1. You hook the circuit up to your battery, click the button and the watch starts working. When it stops, you multiply that number by .38 to get your amp/hour results. Sure, he could have just used a counter, but this is an interesting approach. All he needs to do now is make a nice container to hide all of the circuitry. How could he change the circuit to make the end multiplication unnecessary?
- Tags:
- daily
- tool-hacks
- battery
- Li-ion
- pocket watch
- tester
May 15 2009, 9:29am | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

Antique phone doorbell

http://hackaday.com/2009/05/13/antique-phone-doorbell/

[Bryan] sent in this cool doorbell he made out of an antique phone. After seeing similar phones for $150 to $399, he picked one up on ebay for $10. After some cleaning and polishing, it was looking fantastic, but fairly useless. At this point, he broke it open and started hacking to turn it into a wireless doorbell. He picked up a cheap wireless doorbell and proceeded to gut it. The transmitter side got an aesthetic overhaul, a big fancy button and nice LED in a 50’s style were added. The receiver side got hacked up as well. It was incapable of pushing the required voltage to ring the phone’s bell, so he had to do some searching for a better circuit. Since his knowledge of electronics was limited, he was looking for something that could be plugged in and work without much modification. Eventually, he found the Silvercom AG1170-s5. At $7, he swiped it up quick. It may be a bit of overkill, but he’s using an arduino to trigger the whole thing when it receives the signal. You can download the Arduino sketch on the site.
- Tags:
- daily
- home hacks
- phone
- arduino hacks
- door bell
- doorbell
- ringer
- transmitter
May 13 2009, 9:46am | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

OBD-II Automotive data logging

http://hackaday.com/2009/05/12/obd-ii-automotive-data-logging/

[Avi Aisenberg] sent us his final project for ece 4760. His team built and OBD-II data interface. Even though OBD-II is an industry standard, each manufacturer has implemented it differently. This is where this project shines. They have built it to be capable of talking to any of them. Not only that, but it has a nice backlit LCD screen for diagnosing issues without having to go back to your computer and downloading the data. If you really don’t need all the bells and whistles, you can make one for roughly $15. They even have an OBD-II app for the iPhone.
- Tags:
- daily
- Automotive
- transportation hacks
- car
- obd-ii
May 12 2009, 1:35pm | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

GPS logger with wireless trigger

http://hackaday.com/2009/05/10/gps-logger-with-wireless-trigger/

[Matthew] sent us his group’s final project, where they built a nice GPS logging system. Not only can it simply log the GPS coordinates on a predetermined interval, it can also be triggered to make an entry by a wireless device. In this example, they use a camera. This allows them to then upload all the GPS information and pictures to places like Google Earth.

They are using an ATmega644, with an LCD, SD card, and GPS unit. They had to do a little hacking on their camera to add the wireless transmitter, which triggers the logger. You can see not only the cost break down and source code for the project, but also a map with lots of geotagged photos. This is the kind of thing we can almost see as a standard item in the future.
- Tags:
- google
- daily
- wireless
- wireless hacks
- digital cameras hacks
- transportation hacks
- gps
- final project
- geotag
May 10 2009, 10:36am | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

Fart intensity detector

http://hackaday.com/2009/05/08/fart-intensity-detector/

When we ran the story about the office chair that twittered your flatulent activity, many people commented on the fact that it had no method of determining intensity. Well, here’s the solution to that problem(is this really a problem?). These students built a fart intensity detector for their final project in ece 476. It measures the sound and temperature, as well as the composition of each fart. They really added some bells and whistles on this project. Not only will it display your statistics on and LCD screen after a reading, it will beep and, if your fart was intense enough, blow it away with a little fan. You even have the option of playing back the audio recording of your most recent glory.
- Tags:
- daily
- home hacks
- fart
- final project
- ece 476
May 8 2009, 3:34pm | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

An amazingly professional LED bike light

http://hackaday.com/2009/05/07/an-amazingly-professional-led-bike-light/

[Tom] sent us a link to this very professionally done project. He built a bike light that is a 540 lumen Luxeon light with a custom case. The LED, Lens, and driver were purchased first. Everything else was designed around it. The design is compact and good looking. You can download the CAD files on the site if you want to make your own. He is using an Atmel AVR ATTiny13 to control brightness.
- Tags:
- daily
- led
- bicycle
- bike light
- led hacks
May 7 2009, 3:23pm | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

Modular POV final project

http://hackaday.com/2009/05/06/pov-final-project/

[Jonathan] sent us his final project for ECE 476. His group built an LED POV display that can be updated wirelessly from a computer. They built it in a somewhat modular fashion, with the LED strip being a simple to replace module. This goes along with their plan to build a 3D version of the display. They have made it able to switch easily from it’s internal programming to direct computer control, allowing them to leave it alone in clock mode, or take control to play with it. The updates seem really quick, you can see them in effect in the video after the break. All source code and schematics are available on the site. We love these final projects, they usually have tons of data and great pictures. Keep them coming.
- Tags:
- daily
- led
- POV
- led hacks
- final project
May 6 2009, 9:51am | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

Weather monitoring

http://hackaday.com/2009/05/05/weather-monitoring/

This weather monitor can track pressure, temperature, and humidity and last several months on a pack of AA batteries. It has a PIC18f452 to control all the bits, as well as some fancy power management to get the most out of the batteries as possible. The screen displays the highest and lowest temperatures of the last 42 hours as well as having options to display all other sensor input, updated every minute or so. You can get the full schematic and parts list on the project site.

[via YourITronics]
- Tags:
- daily
- home hacks
- wireless
- pic
- lcd
- weather
May 5 2009, 10:25am | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

LED buttons

http://hackaday.com/2009/05/04/led-buttons/

For their final project in ECE 4760 at Cornell, [Christina] and [Joe] made a small single octave keyboard using LEDs as the input. They used a total of 63 LEDs to make the keys. Each key consists of 9 LEDs, with the center one acting as a sensor. When you lay your finger on it, the light reflects off of your finger and is picked up by the center LED. An ATMega 664 runs custom code to play a sound. You can find out more details about the construction as well as download the source code on the site. You can also download an example movie of it in action ( 7MB .mp4)
- Tags:
- daily
- led
- portable audio hacks
- Music
- digital audio hacks
- final project
- piano
May 4 2009, 12:58pm | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

WaitLess bus tracking system

http://hackaday.com/2009/05/03/waitless-bus-tracking-system/

Bus systems on campus can often be frustrating. You’re standing at the stop waiting and you don’t know if it would just be faster to walk. If you have a WaitLess tracking system at your stop, you can see exactly where the bus is and make that decision much easier. The unit is self contained, solar, and equipped with wireless internet. With an Arduino at it’s core, it displays the current location of the bus by lighting an LED on a map. You can see a video of it in action after the break.
- Tags:
- daily
- bus
- arduino hacks
- campus
- tram
- trolley
May 3 2009, 10:43am | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

iPhone controlled TV lift

http://hackaday.com/2009/05/02/iphone-controlled-tv-lift/

[William] sent in this project where he’s using his iPhone to control his TV lift. He’s made a custom PCB with a pic18f122 microprocessor to communicate with the lift. He says it connects to the lift controls via a serial port. You can see a video of it in action after the break. We really think the shadow turning into an arrow is cool. That was a lucky accident.
- Tags:
- daily
- home hacks
- home entertainment hacks
- tv
- iPhone
- pic
- iphone hacks
May 2 2009, 8:59am | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

Cell phone glove

http://hackaday.com/2009/05/01/cell-phone-glove/

Sometimes you find yourself thinking “this cell phone is far to compact and unobtrusive.” [Trotmaster] had this thought and did something about it. Ok, well actually he’s trying to have some fun and build a glove phone, inspector gadget style. There really doesn’t seem to be a good reason to do this other than it would be cool, so we’ll proceed on those grounds. He has disassembled the phone and extended all the buttons. When wearing the glove, you can dial by pressing the finger tip buttons with your thumb. The screen is located on the back of the hand and can be lifted and rotated for easy viewing. Can anyone think of an application where this would be a beneficial layout, assuming you refined it a bit?

[via instructables]
- Tags:
- cellphones hacks
- daily
- cell phone
- glove
May 1 2009, 10:22am | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

Human powered electric instruments

http://hackaday.com/2009/04/28/human-powered-electric-instruments/

[Noah] tipped us off to his work with Physically Engaged Electronic Instruments. He is building instruments, that while being electronic, require physical action to drive them. In the video after the break, you can see an example, in the form of a polka. The part that they’re holding (print head?) is attached to a generator which powers the instrument. The effect makes the instrument much more like a traditional stringed instrument that must be strummed. We can easily also imagine an interface similar to a concertina or accordion being functional. There are schematics available on his site in the research reports section, but you’ll have to dig through a pdf or two to find them. We would love to see a breakdown of the instruments and their components in a more accessible form.
- Tags:
- daily
- home entertainment hacks
- peripherals hacks
- digital audio hacks
- mit
- instrument
April 28 2009, 3:38pm | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

Ipod GPS

http://hackaday.com/2009/04/27/ipod-gps/

[Benjamin] was working for a GPS company called Nemerix about two years ago and decided to hack together this iPod accessory GPS unit. He is using an Atmel ATmega324 and a Nemerix GPS unit, though he says the GPS unit shouldn’t matter. He is taking advantage of the AiR mode on the iPod which allows a 4 color image to be sent to the screen. There was little information on how to utilize this, but BMW and Alpine had made some car audio that featured this. [Benjamin] picked up an Alpine with this function and sniffed the data stream to get what he needed. He says there is good documentation out there now though.

He says that the source code is available if you ask.
- Tags:
- daily
- apple
- digital audio hacks
- iPod
- ipod hacks
- gps
- gps hacks
April 27 2009, 8:31am | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

Exercising to space invaders

http://hackaday.com/2009/04/26/exercising-to-space-invaders/

[Matt] sent in this cool final project he did for his Computer Engineering course. They built a space invaders clone, where the player has to physically move back and forth to move the ship, and jump to fire. The game is projected on the wall, with a camera mounted below it, facing the player. The player, wearing an orange vest, is tracked for the movement and the firing. They also included a blue tooth heart rate sensor with the ultimate goal of using this data to vary the game difficult, but didn’t end up getting the code in. You can see a video of them testing it out at the end of his post.
- Tags:
- daily
- video game
- camera tracking
- space invaders
April 26 2009, 10:29am | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

Analog audio recorded on a floppy

http://hackaday.com/2009/04/24/analog-audio-recorded-on-a-floppy/

[Jeri ellsworth] of fatmanandcircuitgirl.com has made an audio recorder out of a floppy disk and an old tape recorder. She’s able to record 15 seconds of audio directly to floppy disk. In the video after the break, she explains how it works, and why you hear the creepy reverb effect. The next step is to run this as a pedal effect for stage music, and she even mentions doing a larger hard drive version with the ability to seek tracks.
- Tags:
- daily
- peripherals hacks
- digital audio hacks
- floppy drive
- record audio
April 24 2009, 2:20pm | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

Autonomous tank terrorizing campus

http://hackaday.com/2009/04/23/autonomous-tank-terrorizing-campus/

As a senior design project for ECE4007, [Nate], [An], [Chris], and [Wink] built an autonomous toy tank. It is using a Panasonic IR motion sensor to find targets, then once it’s facing the target it switches to visual motion tracking through it’s web cam. If it can get close enough, it will stop and begin rotating the turret for more accuracy. Finally it fires a pellet. It’s brains are an ICOP technology eBox-2300 running windows CE. All of the programming is available on the site, as well as a breakdown of the various sensors and hardware. As you can see in the video after the break, it does a decent job. Given some more time, we’re sure they could speed up the target acquisition process. Maybe we should add a category for Georgia Tech final projects.
- Tags:
- daily
- robots hacks
- autonomous
- robot
- tank
- airsoft
- senior project
April 23 2009, 8:15am | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

Condenser microphone building

http://hackaday.com/2009/04/22/condenser-microphone-building/

Browsing around today, this project caught our eye. Mainly due to the visual similarity to, well, personal massagers. As it turns out, it’s a home made studio condenser microphone. We would generally prefer to link directly to his personal page, that has a slightly more in dept write up, but it has popups and pop unders, so enter at your own risk. Generally condenser mics require phantom power to make the magic happen, but he has included a circuit to run them off of 9v batteries. We’ve done condenser mics before, but this seems a bit quicker and dirtier.
- Tags:
- daily
- peripherals hacks
- digital audio hacks
- condenser
- microphone
April 22 2009, 12:46pm | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

Making cool looking PCBs

http://hackaday.com/2009/04/21/making-cool-looking-pcbs/

[Mike] has posted an instructable on making cool looking PCBs. He does it a little differently than we do. He uses soda cans for the stencils and combines the solder mas and silk screen steps. Also, a bit of extra cooking gives him this cool gradient of color. He has managed to get some really fine etching. It isn’t as fine as a laser etching, but this should be able to handle the smallest stuff you can throw at it. We’re a bit curious what exactly he’s building. There’s a color picture after the break to show you what we mean.
- Tags:
- daily
- misc hacks
- smd
- pcb
- colorful
April 21 2009, 1:30pm | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

High speed book scanner from trash

http://hackaday.com/2009/04/20/high-speed-book-scanner-from-trash/

[Daniel] sent us his entry to the Epilog laser cutter challenge on instructables. He made a book scanner, mainly out of found parts. The bulk of the project was salvaged from dumpsters, though if you’re not comfortable with that, the free section of craigslist might be able to do the job. The cameras are loaded with CHDK, using StereoData maker, and custom software to compile the images into PDFs. They did a fantastic job of documenting every step of the construction, including helpful tips for some of the more complicated parts. There are several videos in the instructable, so be sure to check them out. We’re particularly amused by the extra step of making the photo captions visually interesting. At 79 steps, it’s a long read, but well worth it.
- Tags:
- daily
- digital cameras hacks
- ocr
- chdk
- epilog
- book scanning
- dumpster diving
- stereodata maker
April 20 2009, 8:38am | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

3D Printing at home

http://hackaday.com/2009/04/19/3d-printing-at-home/

We’ve seen a lot of 3d printing lately, with the RepRap and Cupcake, both the fused deposition modeling type. We don’t often see the Inkjet method. This is a great example of one, built in someones home. Instead of laying down layers of molten plastic, he uses the inkjet system to deposit glue like substances into layers of plaster. This project is much higher resolution than the other two, as you can see in the video of it making an RC engine case below. He is currently rebuilding it to be even better and larger.

[thanks Luke]
- Tags:
- daily
- rapid prototyping
- cnc
- mill
- printer
- 3d printing
- cnc hacks
- inkjet
- rep rap
April 19 2009, 11:05am | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

Wiitar, a build log

http://hackaday.com/2009/04/17/wiitar-a-build-log/

[Ozan] sent in this build log from when he made a Wiitar. As you can probably guess from the title, it’s a guitar combined with a wiimote. He has completely gutted the Wiimote and installed the internals in the guitar. Some toggle switches were mounted to control the button states on the Wiimote. This is a pretty useful setup as you can use the Wiimote data to control effects on the guitar. We’ve actually seen a very similar setup before. [Ozan] has included the build log, as well as a simple glovepie script and a sample effect patch.
- Tags:
- daily
- home entertainment hacks
- Music
- wii hacks
- wiimote
- guitar
- wiitar
April 17 2009, 8:30am | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

SPDIF switch

http://hackaday.com/2009/04/16/spdif-switch/

When [linux-works] found himself needing a switch that could convert coax to opto, he made one. The main chip is a cd4052 cmos analog switch, which he says is really cheap. The rest is pretty self explanatory. This setup can switch between 4 different inputs as well as do the coax to opto conversion.
- Tags:
- daily
- video
- switch
- video hacks
- conversion
- opto
- spdif
April 16 2009, 3:08pm | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

Mini arcade cabinets

http://hackaday.com/2009/04/15/mini-arcade-cabinets/

[Pocket_Lucho] has really done a fantastic job on this one. He’s making miniature arcade cabinets(translated) from old consoles. This post is mainly talking about a Sega genisis version, but he’s also done one for the PC engine(aka turbografix 16). He takes us through pulling RGB video strait from the chip as well as harvesting buttons from a cheapo all in one arcade controller. For the screen he’s using a PSone portable LCD, pretty much un modified. What really stands out is the final layout. He has built tiny arcade cabinets, about a foot tall, to house them. These are amazingly awesome and we want one. No, we want an entire mini arcade of them. You can see a video after the break.

[thanks Keith]
- Tags:
- daily
- home entertainment hacks
- sega
- arcade
- video game
- console
- mini cabinet
- turbografix
April 15 2009, 8:33am | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

Controlling spykee via web cam using your fingers

http://hackaday.com/2009/04/14/controlling-spykee-via-web-cam-using-your-fingers/

[epokh] sent in this cool project where he wrote some custom code to control the Spykee robot using gestures. He filters out everything but green through his web cam, then wraps his fingers in green tape. He then runs a series of filters to clean it up a little bit. The resulting “blobs” are tracked and converted to motor commands. You can see the setup in action in the video after the break. This guy might look familiar, as we posted a super quick head tracking rig he did with legos recently. Some of you mentioned, in the comments, that the legos were a waste, you’ll find that he thought so too, and ended up fabbing a simple rig to take the place of the legos.
- Tags:
- daily
- robots hacks
- pcs hacks
- LEGO
- blob
- finger tracking
- spykee
- web cam
April 14 2009, 2:30pm | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

Dell mini 9 3G install

http://hackaday.com/2009/04/13/dell-mini-9-3g-install/

[Rob] sent in his Dell mini 9 3G install. He bought the Dell without the 3G option, but found that he really wanted it. He installed a mini pcie bracket and found a sim connector that matched the specs he needed. Apparently they use one that it rare as it uses the first pin to indicate whether or not there’s a card loaded. He pulled the mini pcie 3G card from a cheap USB adapter. After soldering it all in place and firing up OS X, he was able to connect, without issue. He says the reception wasn’t great, so he’ll need to add an antenna. This is similar to the process seen on the Acer aspire one 3G hack. Since you’re already in there, you might as well add a GPS while you’re at it.
- Tags:
- daily
- laptops hacks
- 3g
- dell mini 9
- netbook
- acer aspire
April 13 2009, 12:39pm | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

Spatialized umbrella

http://hackaday.com/2009/04/12/spatialized-umbrella/

Reader [Joe Saavedra] sent in his latest project: the spatialized umbrella. The base of each umbrella rib features an LED, speaker, and distance sensor. These are connected to an ATMega168 microcontroller running the Arduino environment. The IR sensor triggers a rain drop sound based on proximity. Shorter distances mean more droplets are played. The sounds are generated using a lookup table and the digital pins. You can see the demo video embedded below.

Using the Arduino environment without the associated board is part of another idea that [Joe] is working on. The MapDuino Project uses the standard Arduino hardware for programming, but then transfers the chip to a more barebones circuit in target project. They based their initial work on the ITP breadboard Arduino.
- Tags:
- wearable hacks
- daily
- video
- led
- arduino
- ATmega168
- vimeo
- itp
- arduino hacks
- joe saavedra
- mapduino
- umbrella
April 12 2009, 8:47pm | More »

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