Items Tag › RIT Make Club Idea Stream

I posted to hackaday.com

LEDs invade coffee table crevice

http://hackaday.com/2010/03/08/leds-invade-coffee-table-crevice/

That’s a lot of LEDs, and a little bit of glass cleaner. [Tobias] spiced up his IKEA coffee table by adding 6144 LEDs. This is a larger realization of SparkFun’s LED coffee table which used 64 8×8 modules. [Tobias] sourced three display boards from Sure Electronics for a total of 96 8×8 modules. These boards are addressed through a serial interface; four serial lines for each board but a shared data bus for each of the row select pins and the data/latch/clock pins. This method uses 19 of the 20 pins on the Arduino that drives the display. After the break you can see a demonstration. If this is more than you need there’s always the 112-LED and 81-LED table projects that can produce a full color range.
- Tags:
- home hacks
- led
- ikea
- led hacks
- coffee table
- 8x8
- sure electronics
March 8 2010, 3:44pm | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

Dr. Boardman’s Color Conundrum

http://hackaday.com/2010/03/08/dr-boardmans-color-conundrum/

We feel like trumpets should be sounding. Someone took the overused project of connecting RGB LEDs to a microcontroller and produced something useful. [Paul] created Dr. Boardman’s Color Conundrum which works much like a simple mechanical coin-op game you might find at a carnival. When switched on, a random color is displayed by the ping-pong ball covered LED on the left. The player then manipulates three knobs to color-match the two lights.

Inside you’ll find a minimalist set of hardware. An ATmega8 polls the three potentiometers and uses them to mix the appropriate user color. Everything is wired-up using prototyping board and draws power from two AA batteries. He’s using a random seed stored in EEPROM and increments it every time the uC boots up. This keeps the input color different for every game.

Fun and simple, it’s not going to make your guests marvel at the complexity but [Paul's] come up with a unique game that we think has marketing potential.
- Tags:
- led
- Toy Hacks
- rgb
- atmega8
- color conundrum
March 8 2010, 2:14pm | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

Lucid dreaming

http://hackaday.com/2010/03/06/lucid-dreaming/

When we saw [merkz] use of an Arduino to produce lucid dreaming we were quite shocked. Unlike typical setups that just flash a light through sleep, his system monitors eye movement through electrodes and is able to send the data to a computer for graphing and analyzing. The only problem being we couldn’t find a circuit diagram or code.

Not ones to be shot down so quickly, a Google revealed this thread on making ‘Dream Goggles’, which was really a Brain-Wave Machine based on the parallel port. Some modifications of an ECG collector’s electrodes using sound cards, and you could have your own lucid dreaming.

[Thanks Phil]
- Tags:
- led
- arduino
- light
- android hacks
- electrode
- parallel port
- ecg
- sound card
- analyze
- blink
- dreaming
- graph
- lucid
- unconcious
March 6 2010, 9:08am | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

LED and fan controller

http://hackaday.com/2010/03/03/led-and-fan-controller/

Needing a front fan to keep his hard drive cool, [CalcProgrammer1] found he was unhappy with a single LED color for the fan. He swapped them out for a set of four RGB LEDs and whipped up his own controller board for the unit. It is based around an ATmega168 and patches into the COM2 header on the motherboard, providing a serial interface. [CalcProgrammer1] wrote a GUI to control fan speed, and individual LED color settings. You can take a look at and enthralling, edge-of-your-seat demonstration of how slider controls work after the break. Wouldn’t it be great if the HDD LED clock could be adapted to use a fan so that the front panel had a colorful analog dial on it?
- Tags:
- led
- rgb
- serial
- fan
- led hacks
- classic hacks
- com2
March 3 2010, 11:00am | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

10×10 LED matrix

http://hackaday.com/2010/02/26/10x10-led-matrix/

[KopfKopfKopfAffe] just finished a 3-year labor of love resulting in this 10 by 10 LED Matrix. This trumps the Shiftbrite table from earlier today by bringing an actual 100 LEDs to the display. These LEDs cost much less than the Shiftbrites, but since they don’t have their own on-board controller this project requires much more back end work. A total of 25 ATmega8 microcontrollers drive this display, in turn controlled via an RS-232 connection to a computer.

We love the Lemmings animations. It made us realize that this would be a great candidate to play Super Pixel Bros on. Check out the video after the break for snapshots of the hardware as well as videos of the matrix at play. You may also want to peruse the translated work log.
- Tags:
- led
- matrix
- atmega8
- led hacks
- lemmings
February 26 2010, 1:00pm | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

Cooling LEDs by heating the water saves on electricity

http://hackaday.com/2010/02/26/cooling-leds-by-heating-the-water-saves-on-electricity/

[Matthias] swapped out his twin-tube florescent aquarium lights for LEDs. By running tank water through the aluminum LED mounts he’s transferring excess heat into the water in the tank, in turn saving some of the electricity that would have been used to heat the tank. Couple this with roughly 35 Watts saved by moving away from fluorescent tubes and he’s got a great energy-saving hack. The LEDs used in the last aquarium light conversion were cooled by heat sinks and fans. We’d love to see this concept incorporated into that design.
- Tags:
- led
- lamp
- light
- led hacks
- green hacks
- aquarium
- flourescent
February 26 2010, 10:37am | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

Shiftbrite coffee table

http://hackaday.com/2010/02/25/shiftbrite-coffee-table/

Here’s a project we’ve been wanting to do for a while. Over at macetech.com they’ve posted an LED coffee table that uses a 9×9 RGB LED grid. For the LEDs, they used the shiftbrite modules we’ve seen before. The table is capable of displaying pre written patterns as well as accepting patterns from a computer via bluetooth. They’ve set it up to connect to a twitter feed and display to a live cam on their site. Though we would love to reproduce this, we need a little more justification than “ooooh, shiny” for the funds involved. Anyone want to donate 100 shiftbrights?
- Tags:
- home hacks
- led
- shiftbrite
- arduino hacks
- led hacks
February 25 2010, 8:57am | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

Controllable LEDs spice up the living room

http://hackaday.com/2010/02/21/controllable-leds-spice-up-the-living-room/

[Sprite_tm] brings us another great hack by lighting up the living room. Unsatisfied with just replacing incandescent bulbs with an LED alternative he went with strips of LEDs to illuminate the length of a wall. Starting with a seven-meter strip of the lights, he cut it down to fourteen pieces in order to make the RGB devices individually controllable. [Sprite_tm] whipped up a design for controller boards using RS-485 to communicate with each, and sourcing an ATtiny2313 for the PWM necessary to generate any color. As you can see in the video above, the finished project is brilliant. Oh, and the Lounge Music as a background is nice too.
- Tags:
- home hacks
- led
- rgb
- led hacks
- rs-485
- incandescent
February 21 2010, 10:01am | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

Update: most interesting game in 64 pixels

http://hackaday.com/2010/02/19/update-most-interesting-game-in-64-pixels/

[Brad] has continued working on the Super Pixel Bros game. We saw a glimpse of this a few months ago but he’s added a lot since then. The game now has enemies; one type is similar to Bullet Bill, another type drops from the sky and walks toward you, kind of like a Goomba. Game play is quite responsive and it’s amazing what he has accomplished with such low resolution. In the video after the break [Brad] mentions that a friend is working on sound effects for jumps and block breaking. We’re assuming that the audio track in the background is already coming from the LEDBOY speaker.

Which reminds us, if you haven’t checked out the hardware, do so now. That enameled wire mess makes us shudder just a bit. There many be a kit version coming that will save you the point-to-point soldering madness. If that’s part of the fun for you keep an eye out for the forthcoming release of the hardware schematics.
- Tags:
- led
- handhelds hacks
- gameboy hacks
- 8x8
- ledboy
- super pixel bros
February 19 2010, 12:35pm | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

Arduino helps you ski Copper

http://hackaday.com/2010/02/11/arduino-helps-you-ski-copper/

[Dwight's] been working on a long-term project to add a status board for the ski runs at Copper Mountain ski resort. The board will feature an 8×8 LED module for each run that displays a green O for open trails, a green G for groomed trails, and a red X for closed trails. He’s also got a status board with LEDs embedded in a trail map.

The system relies on SPI for each LED module. An Arduino Mega uses a Xbee module to pull down XML data wirelessly and display it on this board. Since the trail report is already available online it’s just a matter of parsing the data in a useful way.

He’s not quite done with the whole thing yet, but keep an eye out for it if you are planning to ski Copper Mountain.

[via Tom's Guide]
- Tags:
- led
- arduino hacks
- arduino mega
- led hacks
- sign
- 8x8
- copper mountain
- trail report
February 11 2010, 8:57am | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

Putting on a show in the rain

http://hackaday.com/2010/02/07/putting-on-a-show-in-the-rain/

Let’s face it, walking around in the rain sucks. [Matth3w] is trying to add a little whimsy to an unpleasant experience by adding an LED matrix to his umbrella. The array contains 80 LEDs that are individually addressable. This is a mutiplexed array that relies on a MIC2981 source driver for the eight rows (or rings in this case), with the ten columns handled by the Arduino. The effect is quite nice as you can see in the video after the break. Now that he’s proven this works, you might want to etch your own PCB in order to get rid of the Arduino board and prototyping shield, making it easier to waterproof the control circuitry. This would make a nice addition to your illuminated umbrella stock.
- Tags:
- led
- multiplex
- lifehacks
- arduino hacks
- led hacks
- umbrella
- arudino
- MIC2981
February 7 2010, 1:00pm | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

RGB display development

http://hackaday.com/2010/01/17/rgb-display-development/

[SeBsZ] tipped us off that he’s working on a display using RGB LEDs. He’s etched some nice surface mount controller boards to carry the ATmega8 microcontroller and NXP PCA9635 drivers. This setup uses the I2C bus to address each expansion board of 5 LED modules. Theoretically this hardware would allow for 638 RGB modules but because of power and refresh rate issues he’s set his sights on reaching somewhere between 100-125, a total of about 25 expansion boards.

There’s not a ton to show off yet. But we expect big things from the project. Partly because one of his goals is to generate a display that can be rolled up and easily moved, and partly because his large-scale light bulb displays are so impressive. Take a look at the video of his 60-bulb unit after the break.
- Tags:
- led
- rgb
- i2c
- display
- atmega8
- led hacks
- light bulb
- pca9635
January 17 2010, 4:00pm | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

Guerilla theater hits two wheels

http://hackaday.com/2010/01/17/guerilla-theater-hits-two-wheels/

[Tom] wanted to take the show on the road so he added lights to his bike using theater grade control hardware. The picture above shows three tail lights comprised of 195 LEDs. Built on perf-board, a DMX512 controller can display several patterns on each module. The lighting technician (bike pilot) controls the patterns through a series of switches on the handlebars. There’s several pages of details posted including schematics and firmware. This would bring a little extra fun the next time you ride in a Critical Mass event.
- Tags:
- led
- dmx
- bicycle
- bike
- led hacks
- dmx512
- guerilla theater
January 17 2010, 3:00pm | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

Know your resistors… tell the time

http://hackaday.com/2010/01/15/know-your-resistors-tell-the-time/

[Darren] built a clock that uses a resistor to display the time. Well, it really uses a model of a resistor. This extremely tardy entry in the Hackaday design challenge houses all of the electronics on a PCB the size of a business card. Four RGB LEDs shine up through holes in the wooden base to light bands on an acrylic tube. The colors correspond to the values used in the Resistor Color Code. In the picture above the clock is displaying 5:26 (that’s supposed to be a red band but the camera didn’t pick it up too well). The band in the center fades up over 60 seconds to signify AM, and down to show PM.

It may be late, but it’s a clever design. It looks sleek and it uses no buttons for an interface. [Darren] sourced the LEDs themselves as light sensors to display the date, and enter time setting mode.
- Tags:
- home hacks
- led
- clock
- sensor
- led hacks
- Hackaday design contest
- HackadayDesignContest
- light sensor
- resistor color code
January 15 2010, 2:08pm | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

Home made small form factor LED projector

http://hackaday.com/2010/01/15/home-made-small-form-factor-led-projector/

[Newtonn2] dropped a tip in our inbox this morning that made us quite happy. This is a step by step build of a small form factor LED based projector. While the size may not get some of you too excited at first, those of us who have built projectors before know that home made ones are usually quite large. This one is roughly the size of the small office projectors you would see in a large retailer. He’s using a 30 watt LEd for the light and we didn’t notice a lumen measurement anywhere, but it looks bright enough to be watchable. Pictures usually turn out dark, so in person, the projection probably looks more bright and crisp. Now he just needs to find a high definition LCD that size.
- Tags:
- led
- portable video hacks
- lumenlab
- lcd
- projector
- led hacks
January 15 2010, 8:02am | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

TF2 kill counter, binary style

http://hackaday.com/2009/12/30/tf2-kill-counter-binary-style/

After getting some fun new toys for Christmas, [IceColdFreezie] set up this kill counter for Team Fortress 2. At first glance, we weren’t that impressed. It’s an Arduino and a few LEDs. Then we saw that it was counting the kills in binary. We’re not sure if it gets much geekier than that. You can download the source code and try it out yourself. Just don’t make more than 31 kills.

[via littlebirdceo]
- Tags:
- home entertainment hacks
- led
- arduino
- binary
- arduino hacks
- led hacks
- team fortress 2
- tf2
December 30 2009, 3:00pm | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

Ikea Dioder hack

http://hackaday.com/2009/12/29/ikea-dioder-hack/

[Joseph] wrote in to tell us about his Ikea Dioder hack. The Dioder is a lighting system with a silly name from Ikea. It is basically 4 RGB LED bars that are connected to a controller that will cycle their colors in different manners. They aren’t individually addressable, and at $50 aren’t really that great of a deal for people who could build their own. [Joseph] thought that maybe, if the features could be extended, it could be a decent lighting system. He bought it and began searching. Disappointed by the lack of hacks available, he cracked it open and began brainstorming. Ultimately, he decided to interface it with his computer. He can now control it with software, so making an ambilight clone shouldn’t be too difficult.

He does mention that he thought of making 4 independent drivers so that each light bar could be a different color. We agree that this would be the next logical step, possibly even rewiring for individual access to each LED.
- Tags:
- home hacks
- led
- ikea
- led hacks
- ambilight
December 29 2009, 10:53am | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

MakerBotWatch

http://hackaday.com/2009/12/27/makerbotwatch/

If you didn’t get the geeky watch you wanted for Christmas you should consider building yourself a MakerBotWatch. The watch is an Arduino, using an ATmega328 microcontroller running the bootloader. The watch has two concentric circles of LEDs for minutes and hours. A vertical row of four LEDs adds in the additional resolution needed to get 60 minutes on the watch face.

The schematic and board layout are available from an SVN repository so you can make your own board. The device will go into production as a kit but currently the laser-cut bezel will not be part of it.

[via Adafruit]
- Tags:
- led
- arduino
- arduino hacks
- wristwatch
- bezel
- MakerBotWatch
December 27 2009, 5:17pm | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

Light up your limbs

http://hackaday.com/2009/12/16/light-up-your-limbs/

Here’s a Christmas tree project we can get behind. The “tree” itself is made of twisted pairs of insulated copper wire. At the end of each pair a surface mount LED has been soldered between the two conductors. All of the wire limbs converge into a 4×4 matrix. One tree uses a prototyping shield and an Arduino, the other tree is just using an ATtiny2313 microprocessor. Take a look at the twinkling tree in the video after the break.

This artful creation uses one color of LEDs. We’d love to see future improvements that incorporate multiple colors, enhance the fading effects, and perhaps add some interactivity such as pulsing to an inspiring rendition of Chestnuts Roasting on and Open Fire (which, consequently, is called “The Christmas Song“).
- Tags:
- led
- arduino
- smd
- shield
- christmas
- christmas tree
- prototype
- attiny2313
- arduino hacks
- led hacks
December 16 2009, 11:55am | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

Fabric display

http://hackaday.com/2009/12/14/fabric-display/

[Eli] is sharing the building details on her fabric based display. For lack of a better name she’s calling this a fabric Lite-Brite. This is because LEDs can be added anywhere to spell out a message or create a simple drawing.

The device consists of a positive bus of conductive thread sewn onto a regular piece of fabric. A second piece of fabric separates this from a ground plane made of conductive fabric. The LED leads are then bent into a spiral and can easily be wrapped around the appropriate part of the conductor.

We’re happy to see this creative design coming from a hacker that frequents a hackerspace; Pumping Station One in Chicago. This would be a wonderful application for banners or flags at hackerspace events.
- Tags:
- led
- Fabric
- hackerspace
- led hacks
- lite-brite
December 14 2009, 12:00pm | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

RGB Keylock Shield

http://hackaday.com/2009/12/13/rgb-keylock-shield/

Hackaday alum [Will O'Brien] cleaned up his messy breadboard with an RGB keylock Arduino shield. You may remember this two-part project from last year. It uses buttons backlit by an RGB LED to operate a door lock.

[Will] is still mulling over what type of kit options he will offer. We’re happy to see if the most important part, a laser-cut key bezel, will be available. This makes for a professional looking finish that made the original project difficult to replicate.
- Tags:
- led
- lock
- rgb
- shield
- key
- kit
- led hacks
- android hacks
- bezel
December 13 2009, 4:00pm | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

BiDi Screen, on (and off) screen multitouch

http://hackaday.com/2009/12/12/bidi-screen-on-and-off-screen-multitouch/

MIT is debuting their latest advancement in technology, a multitouch screen that also functions as a gestural interface. The multitouch aspect is nothing new, the team explains how traditional interfaces using LEDs or camera systems do work, but fail to recognize gestures off-screen.

Gestures are a relatively recent highlight with the introduction of projects like Natal or perspective tracking, but fail to work at closer distances to the screen. MIT has done what seems the impossible by combining and modifying the two to produce the first ever multitouch close proximity gestural display.

And to think, just a couple of months ago the same school was playing with pop-up books.

[via Engadget]
- Tags:
- news
- led
- camera
- multitouch
- gesture
- mit
- multitouch hacks
- natal
December 12 2009, 1:02pm | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

Word Clock redux

http://hackaday.com/2009/12/11/word-clock-redux/

[drj113] wrote back to let us know his latest version of the infamous Word Clock, now in Arduino flavor. You may remember when we originally showed you the Word Clock back in September, while much hasn’t changed, he’s added and modified a few things to make it more user-friendly. Most notably is the use of Arduino instead of PIC, while some commentators will complain this as a waste of an Arduino, it is extending the project towards those who are less technically inclined. Other changes include a new case, dedicated time changing buttons, and blue LEDs (and who doesn’t love blue).

We would also like to give [Alex], one of our commentators, a shout out with is QlockTwo. Same Word Clock concept, but used acrylic, paper sheet, and stickers to produce a much smoother look.
- Tags:
- led
- arduino
- clock
- arduino hacks
- word
December 11 2009, 8:29am | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

Bulbdial clock kit released

http://hackaday.com/2009/12/10/bulbdial-clock-kit-released/

Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories has just released a Bulbdial clock kit. This has come a long way since their first prototype, featuring three PCBs to carry the 72 charlieplexed LEDs. For accuracy they’ve included an optional header for a ChronoDot precision RTC.

With a great looking face and laser-cut acrylic case available, this may soon adorn our mantle. Time to write that letter to Santa…
- Tags:
- home hacks
- led
- evil mad scientist laboratories
- clock
- led hacks
- rtc
- chronodot
December 10 2009, 12:00pm | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

LEDboy Super Pixel Brothers

http://hackaday.com/2009/12/08/ledboy-super-pixel-brothers/

We really love this version of super mario brothers that [Brad] is putting together. It is played on an 8×8 RGB LED screen, powered by a pic microprocessor. There aren’t many details on the construction or code yet, but we expect he’ll publish it soon. We’re guessing it is very similar to his other 8×8 game system. If you really want to get a jump start, he has published some great tutorials on working with pic microprocessors.

[via instructables]
- Tags:
- news
- led
- gameboy
- pic
- nintendo
December 8 2009, 10:30am | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

LED PDF from TI (KUWTA)

http://hackaday.com/2009/11/21/led-pdf-from-ti-kuwta/

[Satiagraha] let us know that Texas Instruments(TI) has given out a neat “LED Reference Design Cookbook” PDF. The document contains 17 some odd little projects featuring different TI ICs and ways of using them to control LEDs in things from backlights to torches to solar lanterns to advanced PWM control! Sure the document is biased towards using TI equipment, but that shouldn’t stop you from recreating, modifying, and generally just having fun with their designs in your own productions.
- Tags:
- led
- texas instruments
- pdf
- led hacks
- design ideas
November 21 2009, 11:00am | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

DIY mood lamp looks store-bought

http://hackaday.com/2009/11/17/diy-mood-lamp-looks-store-bought/

[NeZoomie] built an RGB mood lamp as his first electronics project. He certainly hit it out of the park with this one, ending up with a design so clean it could be a commercial product. The controller is an Arduino board (further proof that this is a fantastic entry-level platform) that interfaces with 8 RGB LEDs. He’s built an enclosure out of thick polypropylene that does a great job of diffusing the light and adding a stylish look. The control system features a rotary potentiometer from SparkFun and what he calls a tilt-potentiometer of his own design after drawing inspiration from Hack a Day.

Blinky things are fun and that’s why we see a lot of mood lamps around here. Take a look at the video after the break and if you’ve got the parts, give this one a try!
- Tags:
- led
- rgb
- potentiometer
- arduino hacks
- led hacks
- mood lamp
- polypropylene
November 17 2009, 3:13pm | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

LED Ring Light

http://hackaday.com/2009/11/16/led-ring-light/

[Jani] built his own photography ring light based on automotive LED rings. The rings he used are meant to encircle headlights on a car and are available at a low cost. The assembly is built around a filter that attaches to his camera lens. Two rings of LEDs are then glued to a case made from the plastic of a CD-R container. To diffuse the light, he sanded both sides of the clear plastic housing to make it translucent.

LED rings operate on DC power and unlike a ring flash, they provide constant light to help set up your shot. His finished project is well-built and should come in between $10-20.
- Tags:
- led
- digital cameras hacks
- ring light
- ring flash
November 16 2009, 2:00pm | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

Bulbdial redux

http://hackaday.com/2009/11/15/bulbdial-redux/

[Taufeeq] sent in his “Circle of Light” bulbdial clock. You may remember when we showed you Evil Mad Scientist’s version a while back, and [Taufeeq] did use it as a base but he’s added some of his own little touches. Some of the changes include using a PIC with an RTC chip instead of AVR, which allowed him to shrink the board down small enough to fit behind the clock face, rather than on front. He’s even zipped everything up conveniently to help you build your own.
- Tags:
- home hacks
- led
- AVR
- pic
- clock
- bulbdial
- rtc
- circle of light
November 15 2009, 1:25pm | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

Raid the dollar store for an illuminated umbrella

http://hackaday.com/2009/11/12/raid-the-dollar-store-for-an-illuminated-umbrella/

Here’s a quick and easy illuminated umbrella that [Mikeasaurus] built. How’s this for economical? He found an umbrella that someone left on the bus, and used an LED flashlight and clear poncho from the dollar store for the rest of the parts.

The scavenged LED circuit board is the perfect diameter to fit inside the handle of his umbrella. He removed the middle LED and drilled a hole in the board for the shaft to pass through. Although not well detailed, we gather he managed to shoehorn two CR2032 3v batteries underneath the PCB to power the device. The poncho is wrapped around the shaft to diffuse the light. This is a clever solution as the flexible plastic still allows the telescoping shaft to collapse down to its most compact size.

[Mikasaurus'] umbrella doesn’t make noise or emulate the weather but it is a clever idea. The low difficulty level and availability of parts makes this a great project to do with the young ones who don’t get included in your more intricate hacks.
- Tags:
- led
- led hacks
- flashlight
- umbrella
- dollar store
November 12 2009, 1:27pm | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

Voice controlled LED sign

http://hackaday.com/2009/11/10/voice-controlled-led-sign/

120 LEDs and NerdKit, check. Python and appropriate Google Voice module, check. Blend on high for 2 minutes, bake for an hour at 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Your soufflé is done, whoops, we mean your voice controlled LED sign is done. Leave a voicemail on Davis’ Google Voice account that starts with “message” and it will be displayed for all to read within a matter of minutes. We think: make it bigger and add a security code before you can leave a message, and you’ve got the perfect recipe for some over sized message fun.

[via Make]
- Tags:
- led
- matrix
- led hacks
- google voice
- voicemail
- message
- voice
November 10 2009, 8:00am | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

Roundup: simple hacks

http://hackaday.com/2009/11/09/quickhack-ipod-hdd-to-cf-conversion/

Here’s a collection of simple hacks you can do in between larger projects. After the break we’ll look at converting an iPod from hard drive storage to Compact Flash, build an LED desk lamp using LEGO and USB power for charging, and use an Arduino shield to add network control at the touch of a button.

iPod HDD to CF Conversion

[Richard] tipped us off about converting an iPod from a hard drive to a Compact Flash card. We actually did this a few years ago. Because we frequently buy broken electronics we had an old iPod 20GB with a broken HDD. Knowing we had seen one wire-porn type diy adapter and reported on another, a quick search produced a ready-made solution.

[Richard] went the same route by purchasing a CF to 1.8″ IDE adapter and a 32GB Compact Flash card. Just crack open your iPod, unplug the broken HDD, plug in the adapter and CF card, close the case, and go through a normal iPod recovery cycle.Compact Flash is considerably cheaper than solid state hard drives which makes this a cheaper conversion than a comparable Zune upgrade.

There you have it, what once was broken is now whole.

LED LEGO Lamp

[chAos] put together a desk lamp with parts he had on hand. A broken Bluetooth headset was used for the switch, battery, and USB charging capabilities. From there he built an articulated arm and body out of LEGO. The final step to provide illumination was just a matter of wiring up a white LED. This isn’t the most beautiful LED lamp build, but it gets the job done and adds a little “I built this” pride to your desk.

Mute button connected via the network

[Justin] needed a mute button for some speakers at the other end of the room. The music was played by a Mac mini so he built a mute button that sends commands over a network. By using an Ethernet shield for an Arduino he’s able to detect a button press and send commands over an XML-RPC server to get some peace and quite around here. The device gets its electricity by using power over Ethernet. The Ethernet shield is one of our favorite add-ons, taking on the brunt of the work in getting connected.

Don’t be afraid to send in hacks of all difficulty levels. If you’ve got one that’s a bit simpler, we may feature it as part of a group.
- Tags:
- led
- arduino
- roundup
- LEGO
- ethernet
- hdd
- adapter
- lamp
- cf
- compact flash
- Simple Hacks
November 9 2009, 4:00pm | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

Electronic Jewelry

http://hackaday.com/2009/11/05/electronic-jewelry/

[Ellindsey000] posted this neat little pendant to his flickr stream. We like the way it looks, and the fact that it is a functional circuit. The schematic is even pretty neat. We would maybe wear this, as a belt buckle or something. When we looked at this though, we thought it looked really familiar. Yeah, it kind of looks like the arc reactor from Iron Man, but what we thought of was this cool looking walker. As you could probably already tell, it’s the same person. Great job again [Ellindsey000], and thanks for posting the schemtaic.
- Tags:
- wearable hacks
- led
- Jewelry
- led hacks
November 5 2009, 1:16pm | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

Apple Remote Arduino shield

http://hackaday.com/2009/11/03/apple-remote-arduino-shield/

[Computergeek] made an Arduino Shield in order to use it as an Apple remote. We like the construction technique that he used; taking perf-board and soldering the circuit and using stripped wire to interface with the pin sockets on the Arduino. He’s written the code needed to function as an Apple Remote but this shield has a lot more potential. This is an excellent opportunity to delve into the different IR protocols out there and create a universal remote for all of your random devices. We’d also want to give it a try as a TV-B-Gone.

The parts are easy to find or salvage without putting in an order. We’re not certain about his design, he should probably have invited a resistor to the party the two IR LEDs are having.
- Tags:
- home entertainment hacks
- led
- apple
- remote
- ir
- macs hacks
- universal remote
- arduino hacks
- tv-b-gone
November 3 2009, 5:13pm | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

MIT rethinking popup books

http://hackaday.com/2009/10/20/mit-rethinking-popup-books/

We know the folks at MIT are the cutting edge scientists of tomorrow right? We’re always impressed by the stuff coming out of their labs. Well, almost always. This rethinking of pop-up books does not let us down. We’ve seen some pretty complicated pop-up books. Some that made us really wonder how they pulled it off. But all of those were simply paper and card stock. At MIT, they’re wondering how we can improve the interactive experience now that the electronic components are so cheap and easily available. Even if you don’t have kids, or have no interest in pop-up books, consider this some inspiration for things like packaging and art. This looks fantastic and we know we would enjoy it. Then again, a few flashing LEDs always pique our interest.

[via Gizmodo]
- Tags:
- led
- book
- Kids
- led hacks
- popup
- pop-up
October 20 2009, 11:00am | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

Shift powered pumpkins

http://hackaday.com/2009/10/19/shift-powered-pumpkins/

[Garret] and a couple of friends totally stole our idea wanted to light up their pumpkins a bit differently this year. They used some ShiftBrites and all the corresponding shift hardware (who knew there was so much shift out there) to bring their carved orange minions to life. Yes, this could be done a lot less modulated by using a regular LED and perhaps a PIC. Maybe it’s not the most technically challenging, but hey its in the spirit of Halloween – one of our favorite holidays. Speaking of which, doesn’t that fence look familiar? Check out a video after the break. Seriously, Mutton Chops?
- Tags:
- home hacks
- led
- Halloween
- shiftbrite
- led hacks
October 19 2009, 11:08am | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

72 LED persistence of vision globe

http://hackaday.com/2009/10/15/72-led-persistence-of-vision-globe/

[Ben] told us about his POV globe yesterday. We took a look and saw just one photo and the code with no real explanation of his project. He certainly set to work over night and now we see all the goodies we look for in a great build log. He even threw the Hackaday logo up for our enjoyment. His build is well executed and he found some creative ways around the common problems in these projects. We take a closer look after the break.

[Ben's] design looks much like an actual globe, with a base, a frame, and a rotating ring mounted with its axis tilted (just like the earth). 72 surface mount LEDs are used for the display, a PC fan with the blades removed provides the rotation, and a reed switch in conjunction with a magnet is used to sync the rotation with the display parsing.

Surface mount components are meant to be placed and reflowed on a circuit board. They are usually considered too small for free-form circuits. [Ben] made this process work for him by lining up all 72 LEDs face down on the sticky side of some masking tape. This made it much easier for him to solder together the multiplex needed to interface them with the microcontroller. You can see he is using varnished wire that can be soldered directly without the need for stripping. [Ben's] using a slice of a clear DVD-R container cover as the rotating ring for the display. On the right side of the picture above you can see the completed LED multiplex installed in this transparent ring.

Getting power to the rotating part of a POV display is always an issue to consider. [Ben] tried feeding the connection through a brush motor but had problems with power loss. His next attempt involves using a headphone jack and connector as the pivot point. Regulated power and ground are passed through two of the connections and he’s had great success with this system. Above, you can see the connector before it is fully inserted in the jack on the protoboard.

A reed switch is glued to the transparent ring and is actuated when it passes a bar magnet on the frame. This allows the microcontroller to measure the rotation of the ring, and sync the display output.

[Ben's] done a great job here. He salvaged a lot of the parts, including the LEDs. He’s chosen an Atmel AVR ATmega8 for the microcontroller. This is an inexpensive and readily available chip that is pin compatible with the more powerful ATmega168 so there is a possibility of future upgrade if animations or other functionality are desired, requiring more programming space. We would suggest a decoupling capacitor on the power pins of the uC in order to help filter out any noise on the lines, especially considering the rotating connection used to provide the regulated power.

WE WANT ONE!
- Tags:
- led
- AVR
- POV
- Atmel
- persistence of vision
- display
- atmega8
- led hacks
- classic hacks
- globe
- headphone
- jack
October 15 2009, 2:00pm | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

LED Pocket Watch

http://hackaday.com/2009/10/14/led-pocket-watch/

Today, it is not difficult to find all kinds of watches with LED displays. After [Paul]’s grandfather, a master horologist and pocket watch collector, passed away, he decided to retrofit a broken watch left to him with a custom LED face. Starting from scratch, he designed a PCB complete with 133 (hand soldered) LEDs, room for a temperature controlled oscillator for real time clock capabilites, a LiPo battery, and a cell phone vibrator to provide a simulated “second hand tick” feeling. The whole watch is powered by a PIC 16F946.

This is currently version 1, and he has already begun work on version 2. He plans on adding a more compact, lower power TCXO, automatic NTP syncing, and a USB port for charging and reprogramming. He has a number of detailed videos, and we have a demo video after the break.
- Tags:
- wearable hacks
- led
- watch
- pocket
October 14 2009, 9:00am | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

Multi-touch LCD from LEDs

http://hackaday.com/2009/10/10/multi-touch-lcd-from-leds/

[Thomas] promised nearly a year ago he would give the community code and schematics of how he made his LED Multi-touch panel, but we would have to wait for his next version first. Well its finally here, bigger and better then we could ever have imagined. His new version is organized as a 48 by 32 matrix of 1536 LEDs, but he’s gone further by placing it behind a stripped LCD to make a multi-touch display. It doesn’t seem nearly as fast or accurate as the original, but potentially could be more portable than ones we’ve seen before. And yes, this time around he included how his LED matrix is made.
- Tags:
- news
- peripherals hacks
- led
- lcd
- multitouch
- led hacks
October 10 2009, 8:23pm | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

Installing a starscape ceiling

http://hackaday.com/2009/10/08/installing-a-starscape-ceiling/

[Mike Galloway] set out to install a lighted starscape in the ceiling of the baby room. We remember first coming across this type of thing at a Planet Hollywood restaurant at least 10 years ago. We’ve always wondered how difficult this type of thing is to install.

This setup involves an LED based illuminator and bundles of fiber optics. [Mike] first mounted the illuminator in the corner of the room at ceiling level and ran the bundles of fiber optics up into the attic. He then used a cordless dremel to drill 1/16″ holes, one for each fiber in the bundle. This translates to a lot of holes! Once everything was in place, he filled the holes with glue to hold the fibers in place, and snipped off the excess from the room-side using a fingernail clipper. We’ve embedded his video of the system in action after the break.

This may take some time, but it seems easy enough and now we know how these ceilings work.
- Tags:
- home hacks
- led
- led hacks
- fiber optic
- ceiling
- illuminator
- stars
- starscape
October 8 2009, 1:00pm | More »

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