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I posted to hackaday.com

Making a smaller keyboard

http://hackaday.com/2010/08/31/making-a-smaller-keyboard/

The keyboard on [Marek's] laptop stopped working. He didn’t want to buy a replacement so he decided to start using an external keyboard. But hauling around a full 104-key model is a bit of a pain so he decided to make himself a shorter keyboard. He basically chopped off the 10-key pad on the right side of the board. This had the unexpected consequence of removing the screws that hold the top and bottom of the case together so he ended up adding a few extra screws to shore it up. You may be wondering how the key matrix still works if a portion of it has been cut off. [Marek] used the simple trick of folding the extra part of the membrane over and covering the unused contacts with some tape.

If you try this you should consider getting rid of the directional arrows and editing keys as well. There must be a way to map those keys elsewhere. Perhaps the half-qwerty keyboard hack will give you some inspiration for that.
- Tags:
- peripherals hacks
- laptop
- small
- keybaord
- short
August 31 2010, 1:00pm | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

Arduino based thermal printer

http://hackaday.com/2010/08/30/arduino-based-thermal-printer/

[Manuel] built his own thermal printer based around an Arduino. We’re a bit confused about the parts, his webpage specifies an EFA-1019HW2 print head but the bill of materials on his github shows EPT-1019W2. We can’t find a source for either product number, but we did find similar thermal line printers for as low as $32.00. The controller boards on the other hand look to be around $150 so building your own is a definite win. [Manuel's] version can print 96 points and has a font set that prints 32 characters per line. Check out the video after the break and let us know if the noise of the print head is a deal killer for you.
- Tags:
- peripherals hacks
- arduino
- paper
- panasonic
- thermal printer
August 30 2010, 12:52pm | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

USB Typewriter

http://hackaday.com/2010/08/30/usb-typewriter/

[Jackzylkin] has posted an instructible showing, in detail, the process of creating a USB typewriter. He takes us through the process of disassembling the typewriter, mounting all the sensors where the little hammers strike, and wiring it all up to a custom board to interface with the computer via USB. While he is selling the board, the schematics are available if you want to build your own. We think the clickety-clack of a real typewriter could be very satisfying to the touch, though it might drive your co workers insane. The younger ones might also quiz you as to what that archaic machine is. We’ve actually seen this done before, way back in 2005.
- Tags:
- peripherals hacks
- keyboard
- usb
- classic hacks
August 30 2010, 9:00am | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

Microsoft engineers reinvent the Optimus keyboard

http://hackaday.com/2010/08/20/microsoft-engineers-reinvent-the-optimus-keyboard/

Looks like Microsoft has come up with a pretty slick little keyboard. It’s very much like the Optimus, which has an OLED screen in every key, except that it doesn’t have a screen in every key. Instead there’s just one screen on the whole unit and they keys have been overlayed on top while allowing the image to show through. Brilliant really, since this should drastically reduce the $2400 price tag of the original. That is, if you could buy the device. Microsoft’s not selling this hardware (yet anyway), but offering it up as test hardware for the UIST Innovation Contest. It will be interesting to see what the students come up with. This keyboard should be easier to program for since it involves manipulating just one screen. There is also extra space at the top that is touch-sensitive. See for yourself after the break.

[Thanks FaSMaN via Gizmodo]
- Tags:
- peripherals hacks
- keyboard
- contest
- microsoft
- multitouch hacks
- uist
- innovation
- optimus
August 20 2010, 8:20am | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

Brain wave skimming on the go

http://hackaday.com/2010/08/16/brain-wave-skimming-on-the-go/

Master EEG hackers [MOG] and [Tim] over at the Makers Local 256 have been working on creating a Bluetooth EEG listener made from a Mattel Mindflex. This build is based on an earlier build of theirs, but this version ditches the Arduino in favor of a basic serial to bluetooth adapter for the sake of power efficiency (as well as not having to keep an Arduino strapped to you head). We have covered a few Mindflex hacks before, but this seems to be the most useful in a practical sense. They have included the code for a Bluetooth serial data logger, and the earlier build shows a good example of captured data visualization.
- Tags:
- peripherals hacks
- Toy Hacks
- bluetooth
- Medical hacks
- mattel
- mindflex
- Mentok
- mind flex
- MOG
August 16 2010, 5:00pm | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

One-handed GameCube controller

http://hackaday.com/2010/08/12/one-handed-gamecube-controller/

[Hasse] built a one-handed video game controller for his brother. He fit everything he needed into the body of an existing controller and came up with a very usable system. The controller will be right-hand only, so the left shoulder button was moved underneath the right side where your middle finger can get at it. This leaves the d-pad and the left analog stick to account for. By combining an ATtiny44A, an accelerometer, and a digital to analog converter the controller can sense motion. The microcontroller reads in the accelerometer data, gives user feedback via four added LEDs on the d-pad, and the DAC feeds the appropriate signals back into the controller as if you were using the stick. There is even a switch to select whether the motion data is mapped to the analog stick or to the d-pad. We’ve included a demo video after the break.

Find that you also need some one-armed typing assistance? Check out this half-qwerty keyboard hack.

[Thanks Wim and Jeroen via Tweakers]
- Tags:
- peripherals hacks
- controller
- gamecube
- dac
- accelerometer
- hand
- attiny44
August 12 2010, 8:09am | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

Make your own Mindstorm sensors

http://hackaday.com/2010/08/06/make-your-own-mindstorm-sensors/

[Stewart Allen] acquired a Mindstorm kit about a month ago and he’s already building his own sensors for it. He wanted a more accurate range finder with a narrower measurement field than the stock sensor. Mindstorm has the option to communicate with sensors via an I2C bus. [Stewart] set up an ATtiny45 to act as a the slave on the bus, facilitating the analog measurement of the distance voltage by using and lookup table, and handling the data transfer with the NXT brick. His testing setup is pictured above, with an AVR Dragon for programming the tiny45 and a Bus Pirate for sniffing the I2C data during the development process. The sensor, looking great on a professionally made PCB he ordered, requires a simple driver that [Stewart] hammered out for use with leJOS, the alternative Mindstorm firmware we’ve seen before.
- Tags:
- peripherals hacks
- sensor
- nxt
- mindstorm
- rangefinder
- lejos
August 6 2010, 8:29am | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

RGB VU meter

http://hackaday.com/2010/08/05/rgb-vu-meter/

[Simon Inns] turned out this VU meter with a 16 RGB LEDs. He’s using three 16-bit TLC5940NTG LED drivers for the project. They’re not cheap chips but they do a great job. If you were looking to save on parts [Simon] found there’s more than enough brightness and any loss due to multiplexing would not be a problem. The device connects to a computer via USB thanks to the PIC 18F2550 which he’s used in his past VU meter projects. One of the design choices he made was to use a switching power supply. The LM2576 (datasheet) has no problem sourcing 3A at 5V and in addition to two electrolytic capacitors which are commonly used with linear regulators, you just need to add a diode and an inductor.

The meter offers several different configurations which are set on the PC side of things. These include the colors that are used and if the entire bars is used as one meter or split into sections to display both audio channels. Check it out after the break.
- Tags:
- peripherals hacks
- pic
- VU meter
- usb
- 18F2550
- lm2576
August 5 2010, 4:00pm | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

Teensy credit card reader

http://hackaday.com/2010/07/24/teensy-credit-card-reader/

Here’s a hack that makes business sense. [PT] recalls last year’s HOPE conference when their booth was using a virtual credit card terminal for purchases that required manual entry of card information. This year they’ll have the same virtual terminal but this magnetic stripe reader will fill it out automatically.

A magstripe reader (reading only, no funny business here) from Mouser grabs data from the card. A Teensy microcontroller board, which identifies itself as a USB keyboard, automatically fills out the virtual terminal from the parsed data. The real question, are his customers comfortable sliding their plastic through a hacked reader?
- Tags:
- peripherals hacks
- magnetic
- reader
- classic hacks
- credit card
- Teensy
- magstripe
July 24 2010, 8:00am | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

Hands-free input

http://hackaday.com/2010/07/20/hands-free-input/

This is a concept input device that [Tech B] built for disabled users. The device uses an accelerometer along with a piezo sensor (right click) and a push button (left click) to function as a mouse. The Arduino that resides in a breadboard on the side of the hat communicates with the computer over a serial connection, using PySerial to translate the microcontroller data into cursor commands with the power and ease of the Python programming language.

During development [Tech B] made a proof-of-concept video using a Basic Stamp which you can watch after the break. He found that this input device was less complicated, more accurate, and much less resource intensive than his webcam IR tracking system.
- Tags:
- peripherals hacks
- mouse
- hands free
- accelerometer
- handicapped
- diabled
July 20 2010, 12:42pm | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

OpenWRT on a Seagate FreeAgent Dockstar

http://hackaday.com/2010/07/17/openwrt-on-a-seagate-freeagent-dockstar/

The Seagate FreeAgent Dockstar aims to make all of your stuff available online. It serves that purpose but sometimes you just want more options for controlling your hardware and running some scripts. [Eric Cooper] put together a guide for installing OpenWRT on the Dockstar by building your own kernel and loading it onto the internal storage. Once you have a kernel that will play nicely with the hardware, you can install it by tunneling in through SSH; the same method you would use if you wanted to run Linux on this hardware. If you have problems along the way, [Eric's] also included a guide for cracking the Dockstar open and connecting a serial cable.
- Tags:
- peripherals hacks
- Linux
- ssh
- serial
- openwrt
- seagate
- freeagent
- dockstar
July 17 2010, 5:51pm | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

Connecting a Nokia 3310 LCD using an AVR

http://hackaday.com/2010/07/06/connecting-a-nokia-3310-lcd-using-an-avr/

In this instructible, [wkter] takes us through the process of running a Nokia 3310 LCD display using an ATmega8. This instructible isn’t a beginners project as he assumes you already have a strong understanding of how to work with these components and their programming languages. He is very thorough with information though, providing datasheets, pinout diagrams, and source code. Once you get this down, you could go a little further and make Conway’s game of life.
- Tags:
- nokia
- peripherals hacks
- atmega
- AVR
- lcd
July 6 2010, 9:30am | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

Microcontrollers access the web

http://hackaday.com/2010/07/01/microcontrollers-access-the-web/

[Kenneth Finnegan] is back with another video showing some cool stuff he’s doing to connect his microcontrollers to the internet. Usually, we see this done with a prebuilt module like an iobridge. [Kenneth] is using a Microchip ENC28j60 module for the communication and he’s managed to stuff it all onto a tiny Electroboards piece. [Kenneth] is starting to become a regular around here.

[via HackedGadgets]
- Tags:
- peripherals hacks
- iobridge
- network
- 10base
July 1 2010, 9:00am | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

Live fire Half-life

http://hackaday.com/2010/06/23/live-fire-half-life/

We don’t know how we missed this when it first came out, but there is a hack out there that combines a .22 caliber pistol with the video game Half-life. Simple is best and that motto is in use here. A wall was built down range to use as a projection screen. Accelerometers mounted on the drywall report vibration data from the bullet strike which is used to triangulate its location. This targeting data is then sent to the game interface.

As you can see in the video after the break this works like a charm. The [Waterloo Labs] personnel that developed this are also responsible for that iPhone controlled car. The antics we witnessed in that project carry over to this one as they illustrate using the setup to play Half-life with a couple of shovels at 2:12 into the clip.

[Thanks Entropy]
- Tags:
- peripherals hacks
- shovel
- gun
- accelerometer
- pistol
- half-life
June 23 2010, 11:39am | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

USB hub used for In System Programming

http://hackaday.com/2010/06/07/usb-hub-used-for-in-system-programming/

Did you order that 4-port USB hub because it was almost free but now it’s just sitting in your junk box? Why not turn it into an In System Programmer for AVR chips? [Paul] came up with HUB ISP as an answer to the chicken-or-egg problem we’ve seen with other diy programmers. It uses the data wires from four different USB cables to program AVR chips, enlisting the help of a 74HC00 NAND gate along the way. You do not need to have a programmed microcontroller as all the magic happens on the software end of things. The one caveat is that [Paul's] method currently only works on Linux machines.
- Tags:
- peripherals hacks
- AVR
- isp
- programmer
- usb
- hub
- 74hc00
June 7 2010, 11:14am | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

Printing with pressure

http://hackaday.com/2010/06/04/printing-with-pressure/

The video of [Thibault Brevet's] printer makes it look like he’s actually designed a vinyl cutter (watch it after the break). But at the end of the printing process you see that the top layer was actually a piece of carbon copy paper and the magic was happening underneath. The print head applies enough pressure to transfer the blue-ish printing ink onto the paper giving the result seen above. He’s driving this with an Arduino and feeding data using Processing.

[Thibault] left this link in the comments from the LEGO printer post. Shame on him for not tipping us off as soon as he posted info on this hack. Don’t underestimate yourselves, if you hack it we want to hear about it!
- Tags:
- peripherals hacks
- arduino
- printer
- processing
- pressure
- carbon paper
June 4 2010, 9:43am | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

HID crafting with a PIC and a joystick

http://hackaday.com/2010/06/02/hid-crafting-with-a-pic-and-a-joystick/

[Amr Bekhit] converted his gameport joystick to use as a USB joystick. Much like a universal USB joystick interface, this uses an additional microcontroller to talk to the serial bus while monitoring the controls on the stick. [Amr's] discussion about creating HID descriptors is clear and easy to understand. What he’s laid out can be translated to any custom HID your heart desires. Give it a try with that old peripheral that’s been gathering dust in the corner.
- Tags:
- peripherals hacks
- pic
- usb
- Joystick
- hid
June 2 2010, 4:00pm | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

LEGO printer built without NXT parts

http://hackaday.com/2010/06/02/lego-printer-built-without-nxt-parts/

[Squirrelfantasy] built a printer using LEGO pieces. It’s not a Mindstorm project but instead depends on some type of development board and some auxiliary components on a protoboard. We couldn’t get a good enough look to tell exactly what makes up the electronics so start the debate in the comments. We feel this is a printer and not a plotter because the stylus moves on just one plane while the paper feeds past it but that’s open for debate as well.

Guess this answers the question of why aren’t we building our own printers? Some folks are.

[Thanks Haxorflex and many others, via DVICE]
- Tags:
- peripherals hacks
- Toy Hacks
- LEGO
- printer
- pen
- plotter
June 2 2010, 11:00am | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

USB morse code keyboard

http://hackaday.com/2010/05/27/usb-morse-code-keyboard/

Looking for motivation to practice morse code [BenB] built this morse code keyboard. It uses USB and is recognized as a standard keyboard thanks to the V-USB stack running on the ATmega168. The project is rounded out with a clean look thanks to the chewing gum container that serves as an enclosure.

His design is simple enough that any morse key you have on hand can be used. You could even adapt that glove coder you built a couple of years back.
- Tags:
- peripherals hacks
- keyboard
- arduino
- morse code
May 27 2010, 10:31am | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

One-armed coding using a half-qwerty hack

http://hackaday.com/2010/05/26/one-armed-coding-using-a-half-qwerty-hack/

[Matthew Daughtrey] is going to have one of his paws out of service for a while following some hand surgery. Making a living as a coder seems a bit harder with one hand but he was able to find some solutions online only to balk at price tags reaching $600. He came up with a way have similar functionality on a standard keyboard with creative key mapping and a few auxiliary buttons.

The product he’s trying to mimic is the half-qwerty keyboard produced by Matias Corporation. It sounds crazy, but you can easily use your right hand to type all of the letters the left hand normally would just by mirroring the key locations. That big gray thing you store in your mellon and frequency put at risk handles this automatically. You should give the demo a try. We found that we’re quite good at it and only get confused when switching between the two halves of the keyboard.

But we digress. [Matthew] wrote a script that will mirror all the key mappings when he holds down the Windows key. He then hacked a second keyboard to extend momentary push sensors as seen above. He plans to use them with a partially mobile thumb after the surgery, or to build a foot pedal (we say build the pedal). An elegant hack that is a pittance compared to the official hardware.
- Tags:
- peripherals hacks
- diabled
- half-qwerty
- one hand
May 26 2010, 2:00pm | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

Keyboard input for PlayStation

http://hackaday.com/2010/05/20/keyboard-input-for-playstation/

Anyone who has tried their hand at RPG Maker 1 (or any text input with a controller) knows how difficult it can be typing long paragraphs into the console. [Thutmose] is here to save the day with Kupid 1.0 (2.0 in production). A PICAXE takes ps/2 keyboard input and converts it to a series of d-pad button presses for PS1 and PS2 controllers, providing quick data entry compared to the previously monotonous task.

We’re happy to learn that the source code and hardware is released, meaning it has the potential to be easily adapted to any controller/console.
- Tags:
- peripherals hacks
- keyboard
- Data
- entry
- playstation hacks
- ps2
- playstation
- PICAXE
- text
- ps1
- kupid
- thutmose
May 20 2010, 8:47am | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

Shredding to Street Fighter

http://hackaday.com/2010/05/19/shredding-to-street-fighter/

Strumming to punch and changing frets to move, [Alan Chatham] plays Street Fighter using his guitar. It’s been modified to use OpenChord, an open source guitar controller package he developed. This was originally meant to be used with Guitar Hero and the like but as he mentions in the video after the break, it is open source so you can do whatever you want with it. In this case, he’s patched into a PS3, showing yet another way to use your own hardware on that console. Unlike alternative guitar-like interfaces you won’t have to relearn how to play. You just need to adapt your favorite songs to fall in line with butt-kicking controller combos. For the adventurous you can build your own but [Alan's] got kits available too.
- Tags:
- peripherals hacks
- playstation hacks
- ps3
- guitar
- street fighter
- openchord
May 19 2010, 1:00pm | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

Mister Gloves, gesture input

http://hackaday.com/2010/05/19/mister-gloves-gesture-input/

This two handed glove input setup, by [Sean Chen] and [Evan Levine], is one step closer to achieving that [Tony Stark] like workstation; IE, interacting with software in 3D with simple hand gestures. Dubbed the Mister Gloves, the system incorporates accelerometer, push button, and flex sensor data over RF where an MCU converts it to a standard USB device, meaning no drivers are needed and a windows PC can recognize it as a standard keyboard and mouse. Catch a video of Mister Gloves playing portal after the jump.

While amazing, we’re left wondering if gesture setups are really viable options considering one’s arm(s) surly would get tired?
- Tags:
- peripherals hacks
- 3d
- handhelds hacks
- wireless hacks
- gesture
- input
- portal
- two handed
- tony stark
May 19 2010, 9:05am | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

Super quick and cheap trackball

http://hackaday.com/2010/05/18/super-quick-and-cheap-trackball/

[Elgatoandaluz] has posted this guide on how to tear apart a standard optical mouse and build a custom trackball. He’s using a ping pong ball , mounted above the laser as the trackball itself, which seems like it would be a little lite, but functional. The case is scrap cardboard. We really like that you could toss this together relatively quickly and have a custom layout. He recommends using Sakasa Mouse for inverting the axes and X-control for mapping the buttons(direct download).
- Tags:
- peripherals hacks
- trackball
- mouse
- trash
May 18 2010, 9:53am | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

Midi gloves

http://hackaday.com/2010/05/12/midi-gloves/

We’re being inundated with glove-based peripheral hacks. This is another final project from Cornell, keyboard out of the equation by adding 8 piezo sensors to a pair of gloves thereby shunning the pinky finger. We like this one because it’s easy to build and the midi interface implementation is well documented if you want to build your own.

As you can see after the break, this is easy to use with music software like Garage Band because it is a standard MIDI device. In addition, a MATLAB interface allows for custom mapping in case you want to change what each finger does.

We remember our first introduction to glove-based performances with Tod Machover’s Bug Mudra many years ago. We hope the music input hacks we’re seeing will lead to a whole new generation of music innovators.
- Tags:
- peripherals hacks
- digital audio hacks
- midi
- piezo
- glove
- garage band
- matlab
May 12 2010, 1:10pm | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

More glove-based interfaces

http://hackaday.com/2010/05/10/more-glove-based-interfaces/

You may remember seeing the golf glove air guitar hack last month. Here’s two more uses for gloves with sensors on them.

On the left is a glove interface with flex sensors on each digit as well as an accelerometer. The VEX module reads the sensors to detect sign language as a command set. A shake of the hand is picked up by an accelerometer to delineate between different command sets. See it controlling a little robot after the break. This comes from [Amnon Demri] who was also involved in the EMG prosthesis.

Straight out of Cornell we have the SudoGlove, seen on the right. [Jeremy Blum] and his fellow engineering students bring together a mess of different sensors, sourcing an Arduino and a XBee module to control a small RC car with added lights and a siren. There’s embedded video after the break. You may want to jump past the music video for the description that starts at about 3:52.

Sign language glove interface

SudoGlove interface
- Tags:
- peripherals hacks
- robot
- rc
- glove
- flex sensor
- sign language
- vex
May 10 2010, 1:00pm | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

FPS controller hacks getting easier

http://hackaday.com/2010/05/10/fps-controller-hacks-getting-easier/

It used to be a major production to build a gun-form-factor FPS controller but commercial tech has adopted many of those traditional hacks over the years. Now, [Nirav Patel] is playing Cube with a Wii zapper and a SpacePoint. All that was really required to make this happen is a patch to Cube, the open source FPS.

[Nirav] has plans to make this controller wireless using a BeagleBoard. We’re wondering if there’s support for using the Wii motion plus? We’ve seen motion plus Arduino connectivity, as well as direct PC connectivity. The Wii remote already connects to Linux, what about pulling that data down from the Bluetooth connection? If you’ve done this, send us a tip about it.
- Tags:
- peripherals hacks
- wii
- fps
- cube
- motion plus
- zapper
May 10 2010, 12:00pm | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

Making a bluetooth SNES controller

http://hackaday.com/2010/05/10/making-a-bluetooth-snes-controller/

[MODDEDbyBACTERIA] has posted this instructible on how to make a bluetooth SNES controller. The bulk of the parts come from a bluetooth MSI game pad, so this isn’t a scratch build, but the amount of modifications required definitely qualify this as a hack. We were quite surprised that he managed to stuff all of that back into the case as well as he did. Great job.
- Tags:
- peripherals hacks
- snes
- bluetooth
- nes
- nintendo hacks
- classic hacks
May 10 2010, 9:34am | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

Reuse that PDA as a WRT terminal

http://hackaday.com/2010/05/07/reuse-that-pda-as-a-wrt-terminal/

[Michu] used his old Palm IIIc to make a serial interface for his OpenWRT router. It’s a matter of cracking open both the router and the Palm device, then connecting the TTL lines from the router to the MAX 3386e level converter chip inside the Palm. From there, Pocketterm can connect to the router’s serial terminal.

A lot of us have old electronics lying around that work perfectly well. It’s nice to find hacks that make them useful again.

[Thanks Isama]
- Tags:
- peripherals hacks
- terminal
- serial
- openwrt
- palm
- iiic
May 7 2010, 2:56pm | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

Custom headphones solve wire tangles

http://hackaday.com/2010/05/01/custom-headphones-solve-wire-tangles/

One complaint we hear about often is ear-bud’s cables getting tangled within backpacks. [Andrew] was having this “spaghetti” wire problem, and also wanted to listen to his music with ear protection on – where ear-buds are usually uncomfortable. The latter problem is fixed by placing speakers inside of folding ear protectors, and the cable is managed with a 3.5mm disconnect.

For those who can’t make disconnect-able headphones but still suffer from tangled headphone wire, we recommend proper wrapping technique for your wire, and a small carrying pouch. With the combination of the two, we’ve never had a tangled cable.
- Tags:
- peripherals hacks
- headphones
- speakers
- ear
- ear-buds
- protection
May 1 2010, 4:00pm | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

USB VU-meter

http://hackaday.com/2010/04/22/usb-vu-meter/

WaitingForFriday’s [Simon Inns] is quite possibly the USB interface and PIC master. This week he let us know about his VU-meter repurposed as a computer performance monitor using a PIC18F2550 and his open source USB Generic HID communication class. With PWM the meter’s needles and RGB LED can be accurately set and even dampened for CPU usage, network usage, HDD utilization, and even memory usage. Oddly enough, in his software we didn’t find the ability to use the device as a VU-meter – go figure.
- Tags:
- peripherals hacks
- led
- pic
- rgb
- pwm
- VU meter
- usb
- hid
- needle
- PIC18F2550
- waitingforfriday
April 22 2010, 8:00am | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

Racing sim with real car parts

http://hackaday.com/2010/04/18/racing-sim-with-real-car-parts/

[Alex Rosiu] picked up this instrument cluster from a 1992 BMW. After some trial and error he’s hooked it up for use with a racing simulator. You can see how amazingly well it works in the video after the break. An Arduino Mega takes incoming data from the PC and actuates the appropriate indicators on the module. [Alex] didn’t stop there. He got his hands on a full dashboard and is working on fitting a joystick in as an H shifter. Keep an eye on this one, we think it may one day become a full-blown motion simulator.

[Thank Nikescar]
- Tags:
- peripherals hacks
- bmw
- instrument cluster
- racing
April 18 2010, 8:12am | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

Zune gets hacked, OpenZDK

http://hackaday.com/2010/04/17/zune-gets-hacked-openzdk/

Here is one that really got some of us at the HAD offices excited (yes, we own Zunes). The introduction of the Open Zune Development Kit. Sure, there was XNA, and we even toyed around with it. But anyone will quickly realize just how limited XNA is, especially with older hardware.

OpenZDK is in its infancy, with only one application thus far (don’t worry, you can still use XNA apps too). But we wanted to give it a shout out and let the hacker community make this potential into a reality.

[Thanks Galen]
- Tags:
- peripherals hacks
- digital audio hacks
- firmware
- games
- xna
- apps
- zune
- Zune HD
- applications
- openzdk
April 17 2010, 2:03pm | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

PWM fan controller for external hard drive

http://hackaday.com/2010/04/14/pwm-fan-controller-for-external-hard-drive/

[Alan] noticed that his external hard drive was getting quite hot to the touch after a few hours. He says that it was probably designed to handle the heat sufficiently, he thought it would be fun to beef it up. He’s using a pic 12f675 microcontroller as the brain and an LM35 temperature sensor. The Fan speed is varried in 8 steps from 35 degrees C to 45 degrees C.
- Tags:
- peripherals hacks
- tool-hacks
- pic
- pwm
- fan
- classic hacks
April 14 2010, 9:05am | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

SNES Controller + USB + Accelerometer

http://hackaday.com/2010/04/09/snes-controller-usb-accelerometer/

As we posted about [Atarity]’s XBMC hiding in an SNES controller, we were finishing work on a tutorial for [Adafruit]. The tutorial combines a Teensy USB development board with a 3D accelerometer inside of an SNES controller. The Teensy is programmed to poll the SNES controller buttons and read the accelerometer values. The buttons are set to keystrokes and mouse buttons, and the accelerometer values are processed into mouse movement. Programmed to play Portal, we created a video showing how to use the device. You can see it after the break.

It was not quite as easy or quick as the typical PC gamer left hand: WASD, right hand: mouse stance. However, we can think of a number of other games that could be improved with the use of a device that, with a bit of hacking, could time keystrokes as the user needed. With a bit more hacking, the device could be made to brute-force passwords. What else would you do with this?
- Tags:
- peripherals hacks
- snes
- usb
- nintendo hacks
- portal
- Teensy
April 9 2010, 1:48pm | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

iPad teardown

http://hackaday.com/2010/04/03/ipad-teardown/

Its been quite a while since we’ve featured something from iFixit. But when we saw they had torn apart the next greatest Apple product, the iPad – released today, and how everyone on our team loves it, we thought why not also let our user base enjoy the destruction informative teardown as well.

In both the original and the FCC teardown, we see some awesome features and tricks Apple implemented. Most notably the two separate 3.75V lithium polymer cells, not soldered to the motherboard, allowing users to easily replace the battery if need be. However, in the opposite respect, more components than ever are being epoxied to the board, making the iPad much more rugged.

We’re left wondering, with everyone able to see the beautiful insides, does it change anyone’s mind on getting an iPad? Or would you rather make your own?
- Tags:
- peripherals hacks
- Features
- apple
- teardown
- ipod hacks
- fcc
- battery
- ifixit
- ipad
- insides
- product
April 3 2010, 5:13pm | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

What input device? Just use your arm

http://hackaday.com/2010/03/31/what-input-device-just-use-your-arm/

This one could be a game changer. [Chris Harrison] and a team of researchers are showing off a method of using your arm as an input device. An arm band worn by the user picks up acoustic signatures created by tapping on your arm with the other hand, or taping your fingers and thumb together on the same hand. They’re achieving accuracies in the 82-97% range but it gets even better. Take a look at the video after the break and see what they’ve done by adding a pico-projector to the arm band in order to use your arm or hand as a touch display.

We liked seeing the concept mice from October, but the future of input devices might already be attached at the elbow.

[Thanks Wilfite via BBC News]
- Tags:
- peripherals hacks
- arm
- input
- tap
- acoustic
March 31 2010, 8:10am | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

XBMC hiding in an SNES controller

http://hackaday.com/2010/03/23/xbmc-hiding-in-an-snes-controller/

Here’s another SNES controller converted to house a USB system. The one we saw last time used a kit as an adapter for the controller but this version uses a home-built PCB and an ATmega8 microcontroller with the latest revision of an open source adapter for NES and SNES controllers. As you can see after the break, [Atarity] built the adapter, then added it along with a USB hub and thumb drive so that he could run a copy of XBMC from the controller. Now he’s got XBMC as a way to launch emulators for those classic games, as well as play traditional media.

You will be seeing more of this type of mod soon. We were tipped off that an in-depth tutorial for SNES controller hacking is on its way, although that is unrelated to [Atarity's] work.
- Tags:
- peripherals hacks
- snes
- controller
- xbmc
- adapter
- usb
March 23 2010, 1:49pm | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

Massive no-touch physically-interfaced display

http://hackaday.com/2010/03/23/massive-no-touch-physically-interfaced-display/

[Daniel] wrote in to show us the project his group has been working on. It is a massive display wall consisting of 28 projectors and 30 computers. With a resolution of 7168×3072, viewing a 13.3 gigapixel image is a treat. That treat is made even stronger by the fact that navigating the image is done multitouch style with a touchless system built from web cams. We’ve seen lots of projects come out of the NUI group with similar interfaces, but none that used the webcams like this. Usually, the webcam is detecting some kind of interaction between the person and an infra red light source. Maybe that is happening here and we just don’t see it.
- Tags:
- peripherals hacks
- multitouch
- nui
- multitouch hacks
- gigapixel
March 23 2010, 9:30am | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

1-Wire LAN with an LCD

http://hackaday.com/2010/03/23/1-wire-lan-with-an-lcd/

[Viktor], one of our favorite avid hackers, has been playing around with 1-wire systems all this month. What started out as a MicroLAN Fonera has turned into an iButton interface, to a 1-wire powered hub, and finally a 1-wire character driven LCD. Anyone looking at 1-wire systems or OWFS could surely benefit from his testing.

However, if you still haven’t gotten your fill of 1-wire goodness, let us remind you of the 1-wire HVAC and IPv6 to 1-wire protocol translator.

[Thanks Juan]
- Tags:
- misc hacks
- peripherals hacks
- Data
- lcd
- interface
- 1-wire
- hub
- hvac
- ibutton
- IPv6
- fonera
- microlan
- OWFS
March 23 2010, 8:10am | More »

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