http://www.odeo.com/channels/5178-Hack-a-Day no Fresh hacks every day Fresh hacks every day Fresh hacks every day en 40 Sun, 08 Nov 2009 10:53:50 -0800 Sun, 08 Nov 2009 10:53:50 -0800 http://www.odeo.com/episodes/25421488-Gamecube-to-go [Hailrazer] built a handheld GameCube so he could take his gaming with him. The final product is quite nice, providing a large display and about 3 hours of play time on the lithium polymer batteries. Starting with the case from a Kidz Delight Datamax game, he used Bondo to alter the case but still provide a professional look. The display is a five-inch PlayStation One LCD Screen from which he also incorporated the speakers. At least four controllers were cannibalized for use as the buttons, sticks, triggers, and directional pad. Our favorite feature is the totally exposed optical head mounted on the back. We’ve embedded video as well as a picture of the optical drive after the break. This goes so far beyond just making the GameCube an all-in-one system. If you like this build, check out the Nintendo 64 and Dreamcast mods on [Hailrazer's] YouTube channel. [Thanks Palmer] [Hailrazer] built a handheld GameCube so he could take his gaming with him. The final product is quite nice, providing a large display and about 3 hours of play time on the lithium polymer batteries. Starting with the case from a Kidz Delight Datamax game, he used Bondo to alter the case but still provide a professional look. The display is a five-inch PlayStation One LCD Screen from which he also incorporated the speakers. At least four controllers were cannibalized for use as the buttons, sticks, triggers, and directional pad. Our favorite feature is the totally exposed optical head mounted on the back. We’ve embedded video as well as a picture of the optical drive after the break. This goes so far beyond just making the GameCube an all-in-one system. If you like this build, check out the Nintendo 64 and Dreamcast mods on [Hailrazer's] YouTube channel. [Thanks Palmer] [Hailrazer] built a handheld GameCube so he could take his gaming with him. The final product is quite nice, providing a large display and about 3 hours of play time on the lithium polymer batteries. Starting with the case from a Kidz Delight Datamax game, he used Bondo to alter the case but still provide a professional look. The display is a five-inch PlayStation One LCD Screen from which he also incorporated the speakers. At least four controllers were cannibalized for use as the buttons, sticks, triggers, and directional pad. Our favorite feature is the totally exposed optical head mounted on the back. We’ve embedded video as well as a picture of the optical drive after the break. This goes so far beyond just making the GameCube an all-in-one system. If you like this build, check out the Nintendo 64 and Dreamcast mods on [Hailrazer's] YouTube channel. [Thanks Palmer] tag:odeo.com,2009-11-08,25421488 Sun, 08 Nov 2009 10:53:50 -0800 no Hack a Day nintendo, Playstation, lcd, mod, gamecube, nintendo hacks, Datamax, Kidz Delight http://www.odeo.com/episodes/25421489-Centipede-shield-design-contest Our friend [Garrett Mace] from macetech has finished a prototype of a new shield which allows the Arduino (or any other microcontroller with I2C) to add 64 digital I/O pins using only 2 of the analog pins. Currently he only has a few pre-production boards, and rather than selling them he is throwing a contest to win them. The contest is looking for people who have a specific project in mind that could use the centipede, and on Friday November 13th he will pick his favorite two. To submit an idea, just head over the Arduino forums and post an idea complete with details and relevant schematics, etc. We will be sure to follow up with the winners of the contest, as well as let you all know when the Centipede Shield makes it into production. Our friend [Garrett Mace] from macetech has finished a prototype of a new shield which allows the Arduino (or any other microcontroller with I2C) to add 64 digital I/O pins using only 2 of the analog pins. Currently he only has a few pre-production boards, and rather than selling them he is throwing a contest to win them. The contest is looking for people who have a specific project in mind that could use the centipede, and on Friday November 13th he will pick his favorite two. To submit an idea, just head over the Arduino forums and post an idea complete with details and relevant schematics, etc. We will be sure to follow up with the winners of the contest, as well as let you all know when the Centipede Shield makes it into production. Our friend [Garrett Mace] from macetech has finished a prototype of a new shield which allows the Arduino (or any other microcontroller with I2C) to add 64 digital I/O pins using only 2 of the analog pins. Currently he only has a few pre-production boards, and rather than selling them he is throwing a contest to win them. The contest is looking for people who have a specific project in mind that could use the centipede, and on Friday November 13th he will pick his favorite two. To submit an idea, just head over the Arduino forums and post an idea complete with details and relevant schematics, etc. We will be sure to follow up with the winners of the contest, as well as let you all know when the Centipede Shield makes it into production. tag:odeo.com,2009-11-08,25421489 Sun, 08 Nov 2009 08:00:52 -0800 no Hack a Day arduino, Prototype, i2c, macetech, Centipede, arduino hacks http://www.odeo.com/episodes/25418724-MindFlex-teardown Maybe we’re just imagining things, but it seems to us like brainwave control is the latest trend in toys. Similar to Uncle Milton’s Force Trainer, Mattel has recently released the MindFlex, a game that involves moving a plastic ball up and down through an obstacle course that you control using your brainwaves. Naturally when [Alpha] saw this, he decided to take it apart and document what he found. After disassembling both the headset and the base, he found that most of the chips were covered in black resin making them unidentifiable. However, he was able to find identify one chip, the NeuroSky TGAT1-L64 D498Q-010 0924. Judging by the name alone, we would guess that this is the chip that makes the brainwave control possible. While there’s no mention as to whether you’ll be able to interface with this like you can with the Force Trainer, we’re sure that it’s only a matter of time before someone figures out how to use this to control more than just a... Maybe we’re just imagining things, but it seems to us like brainwave control is the latest trend in toys. Similar to Uncle Milton’s Force Trainer, Mattel has recently released the MindFlex, a game that involves moving a plastic ball up and down through an obstacle course that you control using your brainwaves. Naturally when [Alpha] saw this, he decided to take it apart and document what he found. After disassembling both the headset and the base, he found that most of the chips were covered in black resin making them unidentifiable. However, he was able to find identify one chip, the NeuroSky TGAT1-L64 D498Q-010 0924. Judging by the name alone, we would guess that this is the chip that makes the brainwave control possible. While there’s no mention as to whether you’ll be able to interface with this like you can with the Force Trainer, we’re sure that it’s only a matter of time before someone figures out how to use this to control more than just a floating plastic ball. Maybe we’re just imagining things, but it seems to us like brainwave control is the latest trend in toys. Similar to Uncle Milton’s Force Trainer, Mattel has recently released the MindFlex, a game that involves moving a plastic ball up and down through an obstacle course that you control using your brainwaves. Naturally when [Alpha] saw this, he decided to take it apart and document what he found. After disassembling both the headset and the base, he found that most of the chips were covered in black resin making them unidentifiable. However, he was able to find identify one chip, the NeuroSky TGAT1-L64 D498Q-010 0924. Judging by the name alone, we would guess that this is the chip that makes the brainwave control possible. While there’s no mention as to whether you’ll be able to interface with this like you can with the Force Trainer, we’re sure that it’s only a matter of time before someone figures out how to use this to control more than just a floating plastic ball. tag:odeo.com,2009-11-07,25418724 Sat, 07 Nov 2009 13:30:57 -0800 no Hack a Day Mattel, neurosky, brainwave, toy hacks, mindflex, mind control toy http://www.odeo.com/episodes/25418725-Urban-Defender-location-aware-game What do gangs, territories, cities, and glowing blue balls have in common? No, not that one drunken night you can’t seem to remember, rather a new location aware game called Urban Defender. The concept behind the game is simple. A player hold a ball that knows its current location and can notify you if needed via LEDs and a speaker of changes in its environment. He or she then runs around the city until the ball tells them of an unclaimed or enemy territory. Bounce the ball against a building and that territory is now claimed. The ball itself is a prototype combination of an Arduino, Accelerometer, vibration motor, LEDs, XBee, batteries, and wire all packed inside of an industrial rubber gym ball. Unfortunately after testing the Urban Defender team found the GPS and a few other components would need to be kept outside of the ball and on the player. Finally, a project that warrants the use of an Arduino. Anyone up for a game? What do gangs, territories, cities, and glowing blue balls have in common? No, not that one drunken night you can’t seem to remember, rather a new location aware game called Urban Defender. The concept behind the game is simple. A player hold a ball that knows its current location and can notify you if needed via LEDs and a speaker of changes in its environment. He or she then runs around the city until the ball tells them of an unclaimed or enemy territory. Bounce the ball against a building and that territory is now claimed. The ball itself is a prototype combination of an Arduino, Accelerometer, vibration motor, LEDs, XBee, batteries, and wire all packed inside of an industrial rubber gym ball. Unfortunately after testing the Urban Defender team found the GPS and a few other components would need to be kept outside of the ball and on the player. Finally, a project that warrants the use of an Arduino. Anyone up for a game? What do gangs, territories, cities, and glowing blue balls have in common? No, not that one drunken night you can’t seem to remember, rather a new location aware game called Urban Defender. The concept behind the game is simple. A player hold a ball that knows its current location and can notify you if needed via LEDs and a speaker of changes in its environment. He or she then runs around the city until the ball tells them of an unclaimed or enemy territory. Bounce the ball against a building and that territory is now claimed. The ball itself is a prototype combination of an Arduino, Accelerometer, vibration motor, LEDs, XBee, batteries, and wire all packed inside of an industrial rubber gym ball. Unfortunately after testing the Urban Defender team found the GPS and a few other components would need to be kept outside of the ball and on the player. Finally, a project that warrants the use of an Arduino. Anyone up for a game? tag:odeo.com,2009-11-07,25418725 Sat, 07 Nov 2009 12:00:37 -0800 no Hack a Day Ball, game, arduino, gps, vibrator, accelerometer, xbee, Location Aware, arduino hacks, urban defender http://www.odeo.com/episodes/25414395-Servoelectric-guitar-is-a-keytar-with-strings [Keith Baxter] has undertaken something of a ‘Mount Everest’ of guitar modifications. He’s developing a Servoelectric guitar that trades frets for a keypad. It is still a guitar in the sense that it has a body, strings, and pickups to sense the strings vibrations and pass them to an amplifier. The left hand, which traditionally would shorten the strings as needed by pressing them against a fret, now changes string pitch using a keypad. This is an interesting fusion between traditional guitar and 80’s phenomenon, the keytar. Each string is connected to a different servo motor. When a key on the keypad is pressed, the corresponding servo adjusts the tension of that string, bringing it in tune at the new pitch. His original design involved a lot of custom circuitry but he’s evolved the project to include an Arduino controller. This second generation both simplifies the control circuitry and improves upon it. We’ve embedded some video after the break.... [Keith Baxter] has undertaken something of a ‘Mount Everest’ of guitar modifications. He’s developing a Servoelectric guitar that trades frets for a keypad. It is still a guitar in the sense that it has a body, strings, and pickups to sense the strings vibrations and pass them to an amplifier. The left hand, which traditionally would shorten the strings as needed by pressing them against a fret, now changes string pitch using a keypad. This is an interesting fusion between traditional guitar and 80’s phenomenon, the keytar. Each string is connected to a different servo motor. When a key on the keypad is pressed, the corresponding servo adjusts the tension of that string, bringing it in tune at the new pitch. His original design involved a lot of custom circuitry but he’s evolved the project to include an Arduino controller. This second generation both simplifies the control circuitry and improves upon it. We’ve embedded some video after the break. In the first example you can see the strings adjusting for each new pitch. In the second, take a look behind the guitarist… what do you think he’s got planned for those giant capacitors? [Keith Baxter] has undertaken something of a ‘Mount Everest’ of guitar modifications. He’s developing a Servoelectric guitar that trades frets for a keypad. It is still a guitar in the sense that it has a body, strings, and pickups to sense the strings vibrations and pass them to an amplifier. The left hand, which traditionally would shorten the strings as needed by pressing them against a fret, now changes string pitch using a keypad. This is an interesting fusion between traditional guitar and 80’s phenomenon, the keytar. Each string is connected to a different servo motor. When a key on the keypad is pressed, the corresponding servo adjusts the tension of that string, bringing it in tune at the new pitch. His original design involved a lot of custom circuitry but he’s evolved the project to include an Arduino controller. This second generation both simplifies the control circuitry and improves upon it. We’ve embedded some video after the break. In the first example you can see the strings adjusting for each new pitch. In the second, take a look behind the guitarist… what do you think he’s got planned for those giant capacitors? tag:odeo.com,2009-11-06,25414395 Fri, 06 Nov 2009 15:09:51 -0800 no Hack a Day guitar, arduino, misc hacks, servo, arduino hacks, servoelectric, fret http://www.odeo.com/episodes/25414396-Physical-email-notification One day computers will exist in every part of our lives. You’ll be standing in the shower, lathering up  when Chantal, your holographic computer controlled AI partner, informs you in a cool voice you have a new email. How splendid, it must be the office letting you know there is no work today! “Anything else?” You ask; “Negative” her electronically synthesized voice responds. Over at TINYenormous they’ve made this dream come true – minus the holographic computer controlled AI partner bit. Rather its simply a physical email notification system consisting of an LED and Arduino with some python code. We like the concept but prefer our Google Desktop with Gmail setup instead. Perhaps by using a small wireless server and rechargeable batteries, it could make a great dinner table centerpiece notifying you of the latest email. How simple, or how complicated would you make a setup? [Thanks Madmaze] [Update] Dan made a wireless version from XBee modu... One day computers will exist in every part of our lives. You’ll be standing in the shower, lathering up  when Chantal, your holographic computer controlled AI partner, informs you in a cool voice you have a new email. How splendid, it must be the office letting you know there is no work today! “Anything else?” You ask; “Negative” her electronically synthesized voice responds. Over at TINYenormous they’ve made this dream come true – minus the holographic computer controlled AI partner bit. Rather its simply a physical email notification system consisting of an LED and Arduino with some python code. We like the concept but prefer our Google Desktop with Gmail setup instead. Perhaps by using a small wireless server and rechargeable batteries, it could make a great dinner table centerpiece notifying you of the latest email. How simple, or how complicated would you make a setup? [Thanks Madmaze] [Update] Dan made a wireless version from XBee modules and includes an LCD. J4mie is the original inspiration for the project. Have your own notification system? Tell us in the comments, And we’ll place it here! One day computers will exist in every part of our lives. You’ll be standing in the shower, lathering up  when Chantal, your holographic computer controlled AI partner, informs you in a cool voice you have a new email. How splendid, it must be the office letting you know there is no work today! “Anything else?” You ask; “Negative” her electronically synthesized voice responds. Over at TINYenormous they’ve made this dream come true – minus the holographic computer controlled AI partner bit. Rather its simply a physical email notification system consisting of an LED and Arduino with some python code. We like the concept but prefer our Google Desktop with Gmail setup instead. Perhaps by using a small wireless server and rechargeable batteries, it could make a great dinner table centerpiece notifying you of the latest email. How simple, or how complicated would you make a setup? [Thanks Madmaze] [Update] Dan made a wireless version from XBee modules and includes an LCD. J4mie is the original inspiration for the project. Have your own notification system? Tell us in the comments, And we’ll place it here! tag:odeo.com,2009-11-06,25414396 Fri, 06 Nov 2009 14:00:29 -0800 no Hack a Day gmail, email, arduino, notification, arduino hacks http://www.odeo.com/episodes/25414397-Cold-cathode-art-piece-controller [Andrew] built a light box for an exhibition last year that displayed different colors statically. After showing it off, it went unchanged but future improvements remained in the back of his mind. Recently, he pulled it out again and hacked together a controller to drive the colors individually. He’s actually reusing some of the hardware he built for a different project. At its core is a PIC 16F628 that actuates the lights using relays. In this case, only four of the eight on the board are used to control red, white, blue, and green cold cathode tubes. The video after the break shows the device randomly rotating through different patterns. This is a nice start to making the piece more interactive and we can image adding web-controlled color changes, or perhaps some Daft Punk inspired functionality. [Andrew] built a light box for an exhibition last year that displayed different colors statically. After showing it off, it went unchanged but future improvements remained in the back of his mind. Recently, he pulled it out again and hacked together a controller to drive the colors individually. He’s actually reusing some of the hardware he built for a different project. At its core is a PIC 16F628 that actuates the lights using relays. In this case, only four of the eight on the board are used to control red, white, blue, and green cold cathode tubes. The video after the break shows the device randomly rotating through different patterns. This is a nice start to making the piece more interactive and we can image adding web-controlled color changes, or perhaps some Daft Punk inspired functionality. [Andrew] built a light box for an exhibition last year that displayed different colors statically. After showing it off, it went unchanged but future improvements remained in the back of his mind. Recently, he pulled it out again and hacked together a controller to drive the colors individually. He’s actually reusing some of the hardware he built for a different project. At its core is a PIC 16F628 that actuates the lights using relays. In this case, only four of the eight on the board are used to control red, white, blue, and green cold cathode tubes. The video after the break shows the device randomly rotating through different patterns. This is a nice start to making the piece more interactive and we can image adding web-controlled color changes, or perhaps some Daft Punk inspired functionality. tag:odeo.com,2009-11-06,25414397 Fri, 06 Nov 2009 13:00:01 -0800 no Hack a Day daft punk, pic, home hacks, cold cathode, 16F628 http://www.odeo.com/episodes/25414398-Didgeridoo-modded-to-include-electronic-manipulation It’s not a bazooka, but this altered instrument makes it look like the player is toking off of some type of weapon. [Kyle] wanted to take the already mysterious sounds produced by a didgeridoo then capture and alter them electronically. The physical build of this project is nothing short of beautiful. He’s mounted several curved control boards to the outside of the instrument. The controls feature six push buttons, five toggle switches, and six potentiometers that interface with an Arduino. The sound is picked up by the device then sent along with the switch settings to a computer via Bluetooth. The computer then works its magic to create the wicked audio effects heard in the video after the break. His article, linked above, includes several diagrams detailing the synthesis process. They’re a little beyond our understanding but if you know what’s going on, please share your insight in the comments. It’s not a bazooka, but this altered instrument makes it look like the player is toking off of some type of weapon. [Kyle] wanted to take the already mysterious sounds produced by a didgeridoo then capture and alter them electronically. The physical build of this project is nothing short of beautiful. He’s mounted several curved control boards to the outside of the instrument. The controls feature six push buttons, five toggle switches, and six potentiometers that interface with an Arduino. The sound is picked up by the device then sent along with the switch settings to a computer via Bluetooth. The computer then works its magic to create the wicked audio effects heard in the video after the break. His article, linked above, includes several diagrams detailing the synthesis process. They’re a little beyond our understanding but if you know what’s going on, please share your insight in the comments. It’s not a bazooka, but this altered instrument makes it look like the player is toking off of some type of weapon. [Kyle] wanted to take the already mysterious sounds produced by a didgeridoo then capture and alter them electronically. The physical build of this project is nothing short of beautiful. He’s mounted several curved control boards to the outside of the instrument. The controls feature six push buttons, five toggle switches, and six potentiometers that interface with an Arduino. The sound is picked up by the device then sent along with the switch settings to a computer via Bluetooth. The computer then works its magic to create the wicked audio effects heard in the video after the break. His article, linked above, includes several diagrams detailing the synthesis process. They’re a little beyond our understanding but if you know what’s going on, please share your insight in the comments. tag:odeo.com,2009-11-06,25414398 Fri, 06 Nov 2009 10:58:39 -0800 no Hack a Day arduino, synthesizer, didgeridoo, digital audio hacks, arduino hacks http://www.odeo.com/episodes/25412596-Servo-database Starting a new robotics project and want to find the perfect servo for the job? It can be a real pain in butt sometimes. This is where ServoDatabase.com comes in. They’re compiling specifications and reviews on servos. We love seeing these databases pop up. Remember the online chip reference? You simply can not have too much reference material. [via makezine] Starting a new robotics project and want to find the perfect servo for the job? It can be a real pain in butt sometimes. This is where ServoDatabase.com comes in. They’re compiling specifications and reviews on servos. We love seeing these databases pop up. Remember the online chip reference? You simply can not have too much reference material. [via makezine] Starting a new robotics project and want to find the perfect servo for the job? It can be a real pain in butt sometimes. This is where ServoDatabase.com comes in. They’re compiling specifications and reviews on servos. We love seeing these databases pop up. Remember the online chip reference? You simply can not have too much reference material. [via makezine] tag:odeo.com,2009-11-06,25412596 Fri, 06 Nov 2009 06:49:32 -0800 no Hack a Day reference, database, servo, tool hacks http://www.odeo.com/episodes/25408663-UDK-Make-the-next-Gears-of-War Ever sat down from a long day of hacking and thought to yourself  “I wish there was a cool video game out there made just for me. Better yet, made by me!” Today is your lucky day with the release of UDK – Unreal Development Kit. In days of old, the only solution to satisfying your game creation desires was a cheap game making kit, or adding to the millions of Source mods. Epic has changed tables by now allowing anyone to use their engine (non-commercially of course) to create the game of their dreams; who knows, maybe even the next Unreal Tournament. UDK is currently limited to PC, but plans are in the process for PS3 and Xbox360 development. For those who cant wait, we suggest checking out XNA. Whatever tools you use, ever made a cool game? Tell us in the comments! [Thanks Kinigit] Ever sat down from a long day of hacking and thought to yourself  “I wish there was a cool video game out there made just for me. Better yet, made by me!” Today is your lucky day with the release of UDK – Unreal Development Kit. In days of old, the only solution to satisfying your game creation desires was a cheap game making kit, or adding to the millions of Source mods. Epic has changed tables by now allowing anyone to use their engine (non-commercially of course) to create the game of their dreams; who knows, maybe even the next Unreal Tournament. UDK is currently limited to PC, but plans are in the process for PS3 and Xbox360 development. For those who cant wait, we suggest checking out XNA. Whatever tools you use, ever made a cool game? Tell us in the comments! [Thanks Kinigit] Ever sat down from a long day of hacking and thought to yourself  “I wish there was a cool video game out there made just for me. Better yet, made by me!” Today is your lucky day with the release of UDK – Unreal Development Kit. In days of old, the only solution to satisfying your game creation desires was a cheap game making kit, or adding to the millions of Source mods. Epic has changed tables by now allowing anyone to use their engine (non-commercially of course) to create the game of their dreams; who knows, maybe even the next Unreal Tournament. UDK is currently limited to PC, but plans are in the process for PS3 and Xbox360 development. For those who cant wait, we suggest checking out XNA. Whatever tools you use, ever made a cool game? Tell us in the comments! [Thanks Kinigit] tag:odeo.com,2009-11-05,25408663 Thu, 05 Nov 2009 14:49:21 -0800 no Hack a Day game, XNA, unreal, home entertainment hacks, development kit, udk http://www.odeo.com/episodes/25408664-Welcome-back-HackaDay-links While browsing the web for new and interesting hacks to show you guys, we run across all kinds of interesting stuff. Often, we would love to share them with you, and get your thoughts, but they just simply don’t have enough information or aren’t hacks at all. This is where HackaDay Links come in. Occasionally we’ll gather up some interesting stuff and post it all at once. These probably won’t be hacks, so if you’re not into seeing other interesting stuff, just wait for the next post. We used to do these posts from time to time, and we’ve decided to start again. Without further adieu, here are the links: 1.Medgadget has a pretty cool crutch system which uses your upper leg for support instead of your arm. Seems like a better way of building support for digitigrade legs to us. 2.VR pods sure are looking funny now days. Seems like you could do this on your own pretty easy with some simple dome projection. 3.We were unaware of The Gadget Show, till we... While browsing the web for new and interesting hacks to show you guys, we run across all kinds of interesting stuff. Often, we would love to share them with you, and get your thoughts, but they just simply don’t have enough information or aren’t hacks at all. This is where HackaDay Links come in. Occasionally we’ll gather up some interesting stuff and post it all at once. These probably won’t be hacks, so if you’re not into seeing other interesting stuff, just wait for the next post. We used to do these posts from time to time, and we’ve decided to start again. Without further adieu, here are the links: 1.Medgadget has a pretty cool crutch system which uses your upper leg for support instead of your arm. Seems like a better way of building support for digitigrade legs to us. 2.VR pods sure are looking funny now days. Seems like you could do this on your own pretty easy with some simple dome projection. 3.We were unaware of The Gadget Show, till we saw this post on DVICE. For those that don’t want to sit through it all, they do two projects. One is a wearable computer jacket with a projector built into the sleeve, the other is a set of iPod controls built into some horribly gaudy high heels. We shouldn’t judge the fashion though, they probably know fashion better than us. 4.These massive robotic arms have been all over the net for the past few weeks. The video is sort of neat, with cool cgi effects, but all he does is wave them around somewhat lethargically. We do hope to see something more soon. 5.Princess Leia, sunbathing. We had to share. Thank us later. 6.You could win [Ben Heck]’s PS3 laptop. Unfortunately you have to spend a bunch of money at the score. Just in case you’re curious, they value it at $7500 While browsing the web for new and interesting hacks to show you guys, we run across all kinds of interesting stuff. Often, we would love to share them with you, and get your thoughts, but they just simply don’t have enough information or aren’t hacks at all. This is where HackaDay Links come in. Occasionally we’ll gather up some interesting stuff and post it all at once. These probably won’t be hacks, so if you’re not into seeing other interesting stuff, just wait for the next post. We used to do these posts from time to time, and we’ve decided to start again. Without further adieu, here are the links: 1.Medgadget has a pretty cool crutch system which uses your upper leg for support instead of your arm. Seems like a better way of building support for digitigrade legs to us. 2.VR pods sure are looking funny now days. Seems like you could do this on your own pretty easy with some simple dome projection. 3.We were unaware of The Gadget Show, till we saw this post on DVICE. For those that don’t want to sit through it all, they do two projects. One is a wearable computer jacket with a projector built into the sleeve, the other is a set of iPod controls built into some horribly gaudy high heels. We shouldn’t judge the fashion though, they probably know fashion better than us. 4.These massive robotic arms have been all over the net for the past few weeks. The video is sort of neat, with cool cgi effects, but all he does is wave them around somewhat lethargically. We do hope to see something more soon. 5.Princess Leia, sunbathing. We had to share. Thank us later. 6.You could win [Ben Heck]’s PS3 laptop. Unfortunately you have to spend a bunch of money at the score. Just in case you’re curious, they value it at $7500 tag:odeo.com,2009-11-05,25408664 Thu, 05 Nov 2009 13:20:17 -0800 no Hack a Day links, Hackaday links http://www.odeo.com/episodes/25408665-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. [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. [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. tag:odeo.com,2009-11-05,25408665 Thu, 05 Nov 2009 11:16:35 -0800 no Hack a Day led, jewelry, wearable hacks, led hacks http://www.odeo.com/episodes/25406932-Laser-etching-fruit Ever annoyed by those pesky stickers on your fruit?  They never seem to pull off in one piece and they always leave a little glue behind. Well, the industry might be moving away from them in favor of laser etching each piece of fruit. They are using a low energy carbon dioxide laser to etch the skin. The FDA is in the final stages of approval for using this in the states. It is already in use in New Zealand. We might find this a bit weird, but we’ve seen weirder.   [via slashdot] Ever annoyed by those pesky stickers on your fruit?  They never seem to pull off in one piece and they always leave a little glue behind. Well, the industry might be moving away from them in favor of laser etching each piece of fruit. They are using a low energy carbon dioxide laser to etch the skin. The FDA is in the final stages of approval for using this in the states. It is already in use in New Zealand. We might find this a bit weird, but we’ve seen weirder.   [via slashdot] Ever annoyed by those pesky stickers on your fruit?  They never seem to pull off in one piece and they always leave a little glue behind. Well, the industry might be moving away from them in favor of laser etching each piece of fruit. They are using a low energy carbon dioxide laser to etch the skin. The FDA is in the final stages of approval for using this in the states. It is already in use in New Zealand. We might find this a bit weird, but we’ve seen weirder.   [via slashdot] tag:odeo.com,2009-11-05,25406932 Thu, 05 Nov 2009 10:00:37 -0800 no Hack a Day etching, fruit, home hacks, laser hacks http://www.odeo.com/episodes/25406933-Automated-coffee-bean-roaster We’ve featured several different ways to roast coffee beans over the years. This is the next logical step. [Nightlife31] shows us how to use an Arduino and a popcorn popper to create a fully automated coffee bean roaster.  You’ll have to modify your popcorn machine to be controllable. This means installing your temp sensor and relays. You can see a basic schematic for that in the project page. The rest involves making a fairly simple circuit on an Arduino protoboard attachment. The end result is quite nice. We wouldn’t mind waking up to some freshly roasted coffee beans in the morning. We’ve seen these done with PID controls,  and directly controlled by a computer. There’s even this one that has a much more involved build with a convection oven mounted on top instead of a popcorn popper. We’ve featured several different ways to roast coffee beans over the years. This is the next logical step. [Nightlife31] shows us how to use an Arduino and a popcorn popper to create a fully automated coffee bean roaster.  You’ll have to modify your popcorn machine to be controllable. This means installing your temp sensor and relays. You can see a basic schematic for that in the project page. The rest involves making a fairly simple circuit on an Arduino protoboard attachment. The end result is quite nice. We wouldn’t mind waking up to some freshly roasted coffee beans in the morning. We’ve seen these done with PID controls,  and directly controlled by a computer. There’s even this one that has a much more involved build with a convection oven mounted on top instead of a popcorn popper. We’ve featured several different ways to roast coffee beans over the years. This is the next logical step. [Nightlife31] shows us how to use an Arduino and a popcorn popper to create a fully automated coffee bean roaster.  You’ll have to modify your popcorn machine to be controllable. This means installing your temp sensor and relays. You can see a basic schematic for that in the project page. The rest involves making a fairly simple circuit on an Arduino protoboard attachment. The end result is quite nice. We wouldn’t mind waking up to some freshly roasted coffee beans in the morning. We’ve seen these done with PID controls,  and directly controlled by a computer. There’s even this one that has a much more involved build with a convection oven mounted on top instead of a popcorn popper. tag:odeo.com,2009-11-05,25406933 Thu, 05 Nov 2009 07:05:01 -0800 no Hack a Day coffee, roast, home hacks, arduino hacks http://www.odeo.com/episodes/25400978-Mac-Mini-%E2%80%93-getting-a-little-more-useful We’re pretty sure Apple decided to implement an IR sensor in their Mac Mini line simply to mock the user. For those who are unaware, the built in sensor only works with the standard Apple Remote; unless you happen to have a programmable PDA or similar you’re SOL. An alternative solution would be to install a USB IR receiver. But then your beautiful Mac Mini is forced to sit alongside an ugly black box. Why not have the best of both worlds? [SqueeZe] wrote an (almost) entirely non invasive tutorial for placing a USB IR receiver inside his Mac Mini. Reminds us of a certain hack a while back, but the objective was to get the IR receiver outside of the unit rather than inside. Different people, different worlds. [Thanks Kiran] We’re pretty sure Apple decided to implement an IR sensor in their Mac Mini line simply to mock the user. For those who are unaware, the built in sensor only works with the standard Apple Remote; unless you happen to have a programmable PDA or similar you’re SOL. An alternative solution would be to install a USB IR receiver. But then your beautiful Mac Mini is forced to sit alongside an ugly black box. Why not have the best of both worlds? [SqueeZe] wrote an (almost) entirely non invasive tutorial for placing a USB IR receiver inside his Mac Mini. Reminds us of a certain hack a while back, but the objective was to get the IR receiver outside of the unit rather than inside. Different people, different worlds. [Thanks Kiran] We’re pretty sure Apple decided to implement an IR sensor in their Mac Mini line simply to mock the user. For those who are unaware, the built in sensor only works with the standard Apple Remote; unless you happen to have a programmable PDA or similar you’re SOL. An alternative solution would be to install a USB IR receiver. But then your beautiful Mac Mini is forced to sit alongside an ugly black box. Why not have the best of both worlds? [SqueeZe] wrote an (almost) entirely non invasive tutorial for placing a USB IR receiver inside his Mac Mini. Reminds us of a certain hack a while back, but the objective was to get the IR receiver outside of the unit rather than inside. Different people, different worlds. [Thanks Kiran] tag:odeo.com,2009-11-04,25400978 Wed, 04 Nov 2009 16:00:08 -0800 no Hack a Day Mac, HTPC, infrared, IR, home entertainment hacks, macs hacks, non invasive http://www.odeo.com/episodes/25400980-Hack-a-Day-into-the-future Through the years, our reader base has grown like we never could have imagined. We thank everyone for reading, and owe our gratitude to all  who have sent in submissions. We live for them. The more high quality submissions you send in, the more we’ll post.   Along with you, we’ve taken part in some really great projects and enjoyed the writing of some really great people. Now it is time to share our plans for the future with you. We have two announcements that we would like to get your thoughts on. #1. Content: Hack a Day first started as an offshoot of Engadget. It was a place where we were able to look at things from a hacker perspective. Contrary to what some people believe, it wasn’t all hardcore electronic engineering. It wasn’t even all projects.  We had fun, and discussed our thoughts on many things that weren’t that complicated. As we move forward, we will be covering a wide variety of posts. From simple things, like teardowns to the amazingly c... Through the years, our reader base has grown like we never could have imagined. We thank everyone for reading, and owe our gratitude to all  who have sent in submissions. We live for them. The more high quality submissions you send in, the more we’ll post.   Along with you, we’ve taken part in some really great projects and enjoyed the writing of some really great people. Now it is time to share our plans for the future with you. We have two announcements that we would like to get your thoughts on. #1. Content: Hack a Day first started as an offshoot of Engadget. It was a place where we were able to look at things from a hacker perspective. Contrary to what some people believe, it wasn’t all hardcore electronic engineering. It wasn’t even all projects.  We had fun, and discussed our thoughts on many things that weren’t that complicated. As we move forward, we will be covering a wide variety of posts. From simple things, like teardowns to the amazingly complex projects that inspire us all. We intend to get you original content from the perspective of people who are not just consumers, but hackers of all different skill levels. We are working to make it easier to browse the site, with your specific interests in mind. Our first motion was to add the “Classic Hacks” category which gathers up the more complicated projects.  We’re open to other ideas of how to best categorize the content to make your experience better. #2. Social Interaction: Since the beginning of Hack a Day, we have been inundated with questions and requests. People are asking for help on existing projects as well as trying to break into the complexities that can lay in front of a beginner. We’ve seen unofficial Hack a Day forums come and go, but we think it is time that we did something ourselves.  We’ve been working behind the scenes on a really slick system which allows people to ask questions, get answers, and even rate and give feedback.You will hopefully see this appear in a matter of weeks as we finish up the last bits. We look forward to seeing some of you shine, sharing your knowledge with the hacker community. Through the years, our reader base has grown like we never could have imagined. We thank everyone for reading, and owe our gratitude to all  who have sent in submissions. We live for them. The more high quality submissions you send in, the more we’ll post.   Along with you, we’ve taken part in some really great projects and enjoyed the writing of some really great people. Now it is time to share our plans for the future with you. We have two announcements that we would like to get your thoughts on. #1. Content: Hack a Day first started as an offshoot of Engadget. It was a place where we were able to look at things from a hacker perspective. Contrary to what some people believe, it wasn’t all hardcore electronic engineering. It wasn’t even all projects.  We had fun, and discussed our thoughts on many things that weren’t that complicated. As we move forward, we will be covering a wide variety of posts. From simple things, like teardowns to the amazingly complex projects that inspire us all. We intend to get you original content from the perspective of people who are not just consumers, but hackers of all different skill levels. We are working to make it easier to browse the site, with your specific interests in mind. Our first motion was to add the “Classic Hacks” category which gathers up the more complicated projects.  We’re open to other ideas of how to best categorize the content to make your experience better. #2. Social Interaction: Since the beginning of Hack a Day, we have been inundated with questions and requests. People are asking for help on existing projects as well as trying to break into the complexities that can lay in front of a beginner. We’ve seen unofficial Hack a Day forums come and go, but we think it is time that we did something ourselves.  We’ve been working behind the scenes on a really slick system which allows people to ask questions, get answers, and even rate and give feedback.You will hopefully see this appear in a matter of weeks as we finish up the last bits. We look forward to seeing some of you shine, sharing your knowledge with the hacker community. tag:odeo.com,2009-11-04,25400980 Wed, 04 Nov 2009 13:00:08 -0800 no Hack a Day News, Announcement, future, troll http://www.odeo.com/episodes/25400981-25-Scariest-experiments Warning: This video contains actual footage of a severed dog head, kept alive. Watch at your own peril. [Annalee] over at io9.com has gathered together the 25 scariest science experiments.  There are some truly frightening pieces, like the cyborg beetles which we’ve seen before, all the way to silly stuff like the guy who re grew his thumb using pig powder. Next time you’re thinking of admonishing someone for creating a flamethrower, or a super fast scooter, consider for a moment that they’re not burning peoples nasal passages to stop masturbation or creating zombie severed dog heads like the one in the video above. Warning: This video contains actual footage of a severed dog head, kept alive. Watch at your own peril. [Annalee] over at io9.com has gathered together the 25 scariest science experiments.  There are some truly frightening pieces, like the cyborg beetles which we’ve seen before, all the way to silly stuff like the guy who re grew his thumb using pig powder. Next time you’re thinking of admonishing someone for creating a flamethrower, or a super fast scooter, consider for a moment that they’re not burning peoples nasal passages to stop masturbation or creating zombie severed dog heads like the one in the video above. Warning: This video contains actual footage of a severed dog head, kept alive. Watch at your own peril. [Annalee] over at io9.com has gathered together the 25 scariest science experiments.  There are some truly frightening pieces, like the cyborg beetles which we’ve seen before, all the way to silly stuff like the guy who re grew his thumb using pig powder. Next time you’re thinking of admonishing someone for creating a flamethrower, or a super fast scooter, consider for a moment that they’re not burning peoples nasal passages to stop masturbation or creating zombie severed dog heads like the one in the video above. tag:odeo.com,2009-11-04,25400981 Wed, 04 Nov 2009 10:26:28 -0800 no Hack a Day scary, masturbation, misc hacks, Medical hacks http://www.odeo.com/episodes/25400984-Stereoscopic-3d-with-a-PIC-micro [Pyrofer] sent in his stereoscopic game project and we are just giddy with excitement. He has hacked apart an old TomyTronic 3D handheld viewer and put new guts in. He’s using a PIC micro to push stereoscopic imagery to twin LCDs. He wrote all code from scratch including the 3d library, wii nunchuck driver, and LCD driver. This thing even has bluetooth so he can play multiplayer if he ever makes a second one. The whole unit is kept alive via a lithium polymer battery so you don’t have to worry about any cords other than the wii nunchuck.  This thing is awesome, we would love to play with one. You can see a video after the break. [Pyrofer] sent in his stereoscopic game project and we are just giddy with excitement. He has hacked apart an old TomyTronic 3D handheld viewer and put new guts in. He’s using a PIC micro to push stereoscopic imagery to twin LCDs. He wrote all code from scratch including the 3d library, wii nunchuck driver, and LCD driver. This thing even has bluetooth so he can play multiplayer if he ever makes a second one. The whole unit is kept alive via a lithium polymer battery so you don’t have to worry about any cords other than the wii nunchuck.  This thing is awesome, we would love to play with one. You can see a video after the break. [Pyrofer] sent in his stereoscopic game project and we are just giddy with excitement. He has hacked apart an old TomyTronic 3D handheld viewer and put new guts in. He’s using a PIC micro to push stereoscopic imagery to twin LCDs. He wrote all code from scratch including the 3d library, wii nunchuck driver, and LCD driver. This thing even has bluetooth so he can play multiplayer if he ever makes a second one. The whole unit is kept alive via a lithium polymer battery so you don’t have to worry about any cords other than the wii nunchuck.  This thing is awesome, we would love to play with one. You can see a video after the break. tag:odeo.com,2009-11-04,25400984 Wed, 04 Nov 2009 08:00:38 -0800 no Hack a Day 3d, home entertainment hacks, portable video hacks, classic hacks, stereoscopic http://www.odeo.com/episodes/25400986-Knock-detecting-lock [Steve] shows us his version of the knock detecting lock system. The idea is pretty simple, knock in a certain pattern and the door unlocks. We’ve seen it before several times. This solution is somewhat cleaner than the others, not only in physical design, but also in how you reprogram it. Simply push the reprogram button and enter your new knock. We’re a bit surprised that the suction cups actually hold it on the door. Maybe it’s just us, but we can never seem to get those things to hold very well. There are lots of great pictures as well as the source code available on his site. [via HacknMod] [Steve] shows us his version of the knock detecting lock system. The idea is pretty simple, knock in a certain pattern and the door unlocks. We’ve seen it before several times. This solution is somewhat cleaner than the others, not only in physical design, but also in how you reprogram it. Simply push the reprogram button and enter your new knock. We’re a bit surprised that the suction cups actually hold it on the door. Maybe it’s just us, but we can never seem to get those things to hold very well. There are lots of great pictures as well as the source code available on his site. [via HacknMod] [Steve] shows us his version of the knock detecting lock system. The idea is pretty simple, knock in a certain pattern and the door unlocks. We’ve seen it before several times. This solution is somewhat cleaner than the others, not only in physical design, but also in how you reprogram it. Simply push the reprogram button and enter your new knock. We’re a bit surprised that the suction cups actually hold it on the door. Maybe it’s just us, but we can never seem to get those things to hold very well. There are lots of great pictures as well as the source code available on his site. [via HacknMod] tag:odeo.com,2009-11-04,25400986 Wed, 04 Nov 2009 07:00:31 -0800 no Hack a Day arduino, knock, lock, security hacks, arduino hacks http://www.odeo.com/episodes/25400987-Hacky-Thanksgiving Friends, pilgrims, send us your hacks. Most especially, your Thanksgiving hacks. We had a wonderful time over the past six weeks collecting and highlighting your Halloween props and now it’s on to the next holiday. Did you build your own deep fried turkey rig with some special features? How about that pie making robot you built for last year’s celebration?  Can’t live without your twittering cornucopia? Document it and send it to our tip line! All Thanksgiving themed hacks will be considered but only the well documented and creative entries will be featured. If you just joined us, here’s a roundup of the Halloween Props we encountered this year: Halloween props: Techy Jack-o-lanterns Halloween props: Servo eyes Halloween prop: glowing spooky eyes Shift powered pumpkins Animatronic winged demon terrorizes local garage A modular Halloween with grid beam Scare ‘em silly with a moving pumpkin Halloween prop: Bigmouth billy bass Halloween props: Low cost popup Quo... Friends, pilgrims, send us your hacks. Most especially, your Thanksgiving hacks. We had a wonderful time over the past six weeks collecting and highlighting your Halloween props and now it’s on to the next holiday. Did you build your own deep fried turkey rig with some special features? How about that pie making robot you built for last year’s celebration?  Can’t live without your twittering cornucopia? Document it and send it to our tip line! All Thanksgiving themed hacks will be considered but only the well documented and creative entries will be featured. If you just joined us, here’s a roundup of the Halloween Props we encountered this year: Halloween props: Techy Jack-o-lanterns Halloween props: Servo eyes Halloween prop: glowing spooky eyes Shift powered pumpkins Animatronic winged demon terrorizes local garage A modular Halloween with grid beam Scare ‘em silly with a moving pumpkin Halloween prop: Bigmouth billy bass Halloween props: Low cost popup Quoth the Raven: hack some more Halloween prop: portable black light Halloween props: DMX controlled skeleton Halloween prop: the ground-breaker Piecax the Poltergeist reinvents the Knock Block Halloween props: Alien Costume Halloween Props: Pie of Sauron Halloween props: Skeleton springs from coffin Halloween prop: DIY fog machine Halloween props: flying crank ghost disclaimer: boiling oil is dangerous, that’s why it used to be used for torture. Always consider your own safety! [Turkey photo source] Friends, pilgrims, send us your hacks. Most especially, your Thanksgiving hacks. We had a wonderful time over the past six weeks collecting and highlighting your Halloween props and now it’s on to the next holiday. Did you build your own deep fried turkey rig with some special features? How about that pie making robot you built for last year’s celebration?  Can’t live without your twittering cornucopia? Document it and send it to our tip line! All Thanksgiving themed hacks will be considered but only the well documented and creative entries will be featured. If you just joined us, here’s a roundup of the Halloween Props we encountered this year: Halloween props: Techy Jack-o-lanterns Halloween props: Servo eyes Halloween prop: glowing spooky eyes Shift powered pumpkins Animatronic winged demon terrorizes local garage A modular Halloween with grid beam Scare ‘em silly with a moving pumpkin Halloween prop: Bigmouth billy bass Halloween props: Low cost popup Quoth the Raven: hack some more Halloween prop: portable black light Halloween props: DMX controlled skeleton Halloween prop: the ground-breaker Piecax the Poltergeist reinvents the Knock Block Halloween props: Alien Costume Halloween Props: Pie of Sauron Halloween props: Skeleton springs from coffin Halloween prop: DIY fog machine Halloween props: flying crank ghost disclaimer: boiling oil is dangerous, that’s why it used to be used for torture. Always consider your own safety! [Turkey photo source] tag:odeo.com,2009-11-04,25400987 Wed, 04 Nov 2009 05:55:37 -0800 no Hack a Day turkey, Thanksgiving, roundup, Halloween props, thankgiving gadgets http://www.odeo.com/episodes/25400988-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. [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. [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. tag:odeo.com,2009-11-03,25400988 Tue, 03 Nov 2009 15:13:23 -0800 no Hack a Day apple, led, remote, IR, home entertainment hacks, macs hacks, tv-b-gone, universal remote, arduino hacks http://www.odeo.com/episodes/25400989-SSD-upgrade-for-24-iMac The hard drive in [Jason's] 24″ iMac was on the blink. He decided that instead of just swapping out the bad drive for a traditional unit he would upgrade to a solid state drive. Tearing apart high-end hardware like this can be a bit nerve-racking but luckily the drive is mounted right behind the screen so he didn’t have to take everything apart. The SSD he picked up was 2.5″ but the mounting hardware in the iMac is only setup for 3.5″ form factors. We would have used a bit of hackery to make it work but [Jason] went with an adapter kit. Uh-oh, once installed there was no problem with the mounting but the SATA cable didn’t reach far enough to plug it in. The cable snaked around under the motherboard and would have been a lot of work to swap for  a longer one. He ended up removing all of the mounting screws except for one coercing the drive close enough for the connection. It worked for him and it can for you as well. If you do this make sure to devise yo... The hard drive in [Jason's] 24″ iMac was on the blink. He decided that instead of just swapping out the bad drive for a traditional unit he would upgrade to a solid state drive. Tearing apart high-end hardware like this can be a bit nerve-racking but luckily the drive is mounted right behind the screen so he didn’t have to take everything apart. The SSD he picked up was 2.5″ but the mounting hardware in the iMac is only setup for 3.5″ form factors. We would have used a bit of hackery to make it work but [Jason] went with an adapter kit. Uh-oh, once installed there was no problem with the mounting but the SATA cable didn’t reach far enough to plug it in. The cable snaked around under the motherboard and would have been a lot of work to swap for  a longer one. He ended up removing all of the mounting screws except for one coercing the drive close enough for the connection. It worked for him and it can for you as well. If you do this make sure to devise your own mounting scheme so that you don’t hit the same snag. [Photo: AppleInsider iMac teardown] [via TUAW] The hard drive in [Jason's] 24″ iMac was on the blink. He decided that instead of just swapping out the bad drive for a traditional unit he would upgrade to a solid state drive. Tearing apart high-end hardware like this can be a bit nerve-racking but luckily the drive is mounted right behind the screen so he didn’t have to take everything apart. The SSD he picked up was 2.5″ but the mounting hardware in the iMac is only setup for 3.5″ form factors. We would have used a bit of hackery to make it work but [Jason] went with an adapter kit. Uh-oh, once installed there was no problem with the mounting but the SATA cable didn’t reach far enough to plug it in. The cable snaked around under the motherboard and would have been a lot of work to swap for  a longer one. He ended up removing all of the mounting screws except for one coercing the drive close enough for the connection. It worked for him and it can for you as well. If you do this make sure to devise your own mounting scheme so that you don’t hit the same snag. [Photo: AppleInsider iMac teardown] [via TUAW] tag:odeo.com,2009-11-03,25400989 Tue, 03 Nov 2009 12:27:20 -0800 no Hack a Day iMac, SSD, macs hacks, hdd, solid state drive http://www.odeo.com/episodes/25400990-8-bit-device-quenches-iPhone-envy [Peter] deserves an award for doing more with less. He’s built a handheld device based on an AVR controller that has features normally associated with much more powerful devices. Here’s what it doesn’t do: no phone calls, no text messages, no accelerometer, and best of all no app approval needed. What it does do is leverage inexpensive, readily available components combined with common homebrew development techniques to create a touch sensitive handheld. The demo video embedded after the break details the device playing video, rendering 3D objects, and displaying pictures and ebooks with touch scrolling. All of this is running at 60 fps for a smooth picture. The whole thing is no larger than the 320×240 LCD that he salvaged from a broken MP3 player. An Atmel AVR ATmega644 microcontroller ties together the display, a resistive touch screen, and a microSD card for storage. The chip also controls the backlight, a Lithium Polymer battery, and uses USB for PC conne... [Peter] deserves an award for doing more with less. He’s built a handheld device based on an AVR controller that has features normally associated with much more powerful devices. Here’s what it doesn’t do: no phone calls, no text messages, no accelerometer, and best of all no app approval needed. What it does do is leverage inexpensive, readily available components combined with common homebrew development techniques to create a touch sensitive handheld. The demo video embedded after the break details the device playing video, rendering 3D objects, and displaying pictures and ebooks with touch scrolling. All of this is running at 60 fps for a smooth picture. The whole thing is no larger than the 320×240 LCD that he salvaged from a broken MP3 player. An Atmel AVR ATmega644 microcontroller ties together the display, a resistive touch screen, and a microSD card for storage. The chip also controls the backlight, a Lithium Polymer battery, and uses USB for PC connectivity, charging, and even a mouse or keyboard interface. He etched the PCB himself for surface mount components and managed to do it with just four jumpers needed on the underside. This is a big leap forward from the last AVR based touch sensitive device we saw. All of the functionality seen in the demo is run using 4k of memory and 32k of programming space. Because [Peter's] powering this at 3.3v the system clock is limited to 12MHz but he’s managed to make it work. We asked him to post code and schematics and he didn’t hold back. Head over to the microtouch project page to download the code, Eagle CAD files, and PCB artwork. All of the demo files are there just waiting for you to build on his hard work. When you’ve got something running, don’t forget to share it with us! [Peter] deserves an award for doing more with less. He’s built a handheld device based on an AVR controller that has features normally associated with much more powerful devices. Here’s what it doesn’t do: no phone calls, no text messages, no accelerometer, and best of all no app approval needed. What it does do is leverage inexpensive, readily available components combined with common homebrew development techniques to create a touch sensitive handheld. The demo video embedded after the break details the device playing video, rendering 3D objects, and displaying pictures and ebooks with touch scrolling. All of this is running at 60 fps for a smooth picture. The whole thing is no larger than the 320×240 LCD that he salvaged from a broken MP3 player. An Atmel AVR ATmega644 microcontroller ties together the display, a resistive touch screen, and a microSD card for storage. The chip also controls the backlight, a Lithium Polymer battery, and uses USB for PC connectivity, charging, and even a mouse or keyboard interface. He etched the PCB himself for surface mount components and managed to do it with just four jumpers needed on the underside. This is a big leap forward from the last AVR based touch sensitive device we saw. All of the functionality seen in the demo is run using 4k of memory and 32k of programming space. Because [Peter's] powering this at 3.3v the system clock is limited to 12MHz but he’s managed to make it work. We asked him to post code and schematics and he didn’t hold back. Head over to the microtouch project page to download the code, Eagle CAD files, and PCB artwork. All of the demo files are there just waiting for you to build on his hard work. When you’ve got something running, don’t forget to share it with us! tag:odeo.com,2009-11-03,25400990 Tue, 03 Nov 2009 12:22:00 -0800 no Hack a Day iphone, handhelds hacks, AVR, Touch Screen, atmega644, classic hacks, microtouch http://www.odeo.com/episodes/25400991-Woz%E2%80%99s-watch-makes-air-travelers-nervous [Steve Wozniak], Last of the freelance hackers and Greatest swordfighter in the world, lives a hacker life you couldn’t even dream about. The folks over at medGadget ran into him and learned about his watch. In their interview (embedded after the break) [Steve] shows off the Nixie tube wristwatch that we can only assume he created himself. The watch consists of two tiny tubes, a PCB, and battery. There must be an accelerometer in there because the display is switched off unless the watch is held at a certain configurable angle. Once held in the correct position the display flashes the hours, then the minutes. The time is set by two buttons inside the watch’s case. [Steve] goes on to explain the trepidation his fellow passengers have when he disassembles the watch mid-flight and starts to monkey around with the buttons inside. Not to be stopped at electronic tomfoolery, he also shares his delight in sneaking ceramic knives on board so that he can properly cut his steaks. ... [Steve Wozniak], Last of the freelance hackers and Greatest swordfighter in the world, lives a hacker life you couldn’t even dream about. The folks over at medGadget ran into him and learned about his watch. In their interview (embedded after the break) [Steve] shows off the Nixie tube wristwatch that we can only assume he created himself. The watch consists of two tiny tubes, a PCB, and battery. There must be an accelerometer in there because the display is switched off unless the watch is held at a certain configurable angle. Once held in the correct position the display flashes the hours, then the minutes. The time is set by two buttons inside the watch’s case. [Steve] goes on to explain the trepidation his fellow passengers have when he disassembles the watch mid-flight and starts to monkey around with the buttons inside. Not to be stopped at electronic tomfoolery, he also shares his delight in sneaking ceramic knives on board so that he can properly cut his steaks. Lifestyle aside, the small Nixie clock packages we’ve seen don’t even come close to this. We assume this is pretty hard on the battery and wonder if the watch gets hot if you’re stuck in a long meeting and constantly looking at the time. We can get over both of those limitations just for the cool factor alone. Update: Reader [Stephen] left a comment pointing to the origin of  the watch. It is controlled by a PIC microprocessor, boasts a four-month battery life at 50 viewings per day, and there’s some code available.  It is for sale but currently out of stock. [Steve Wozniak], Last of the freelance hackers and Greatest swordfighter in the world, lives a hacker life you couldn’t even dream about. The folks over at medGadget ran into him and learned about his watch. In their interview (embedded after the break) [Steve] shows off the Nixie tube wristwatch that we can only assume he created himself. The watch consists of two tiny tubes, a PCB, and battery. There must be an accelerometer in there because the display is switched off unless the watch is held at a certain configurable angle. Once held in the correct position the display flashes the hours, then the minutes. The time is set by two buttons inside the watch’s case. [Steve] goes on to explain the trepidation his fellow passengers have when he disassembles the watch mid-flight and starts to monkey around with the buttons inside. Not to be stopped at electronic tomfoolery, he also shares his delight in sneaking ceramic knives on board so that he can properly cut his steaks. Lifestyle aside, the small Nixie clock packages we’ve seen don’t even come close to this. We assume this is pretty hard on the battery and wonder if the watch gets hot if you’re stuck in a long meeting and constantly looking at the time. We can get over both of those limitations just for the cool factor alone. Update: Reader [Stephen] left a comment pointing to the origin of  the watch. It is controlled by a PIC microprocessor, boasts a four-month battery life at 50 viewings per day, and there’s some code available.  It is for sale but currently out of stock. tag:odeo.com,2009-11-03,25400991 Tue, 03 Nov 2009 10:20:15 -0800 no Hack a Day woz, wearable hacks, nixie, Steve Wozniak, wristwatch, classic hacks http://www.odeo.com/episodes/25400992-Improved-arm-mounted-flame-thrower [Everett] is at it again with Prometheus, an arm mounted flame thrower.This is the third generation of the project and makes some huge advances over the second generation we saw last year. We’d say he’s reached cinema/stage-performance quality with his design. The self-contained system is completely arm mounted with a fuel reservoir mounting behind the elbow. The new version adds an adjustable flow valve actuated by a servo motor to regulate the flame size. An arc generator has been incorporated to replace the lighter from the last version. A microcontroller measures wrist angle and takes care of creating the arc and regulating the fuel supply. Prometheus is small, controllable, and frightening. See a full demonstration as well as some video of the prototyping process after the break. Does this make you wonder how much burn cream [Evertt's] needed over the years? Extended demonstration video. Build log video. [Everett] is at it again with Prometheus, an arm mounted flame thrower.This is the third generation of the project and makes some huge advances over the second generation we saw last year. We’d say he’s reached cinema/stage-performance quality with his design. The self-contained system is completely arm mounted with a fuel reservoir mounting behind the elbow. The new version adds an adjustable flow valve actuated by a servo motor to regulate the flame size. An arc generator has been incorporated to replace the lighter from the last version. A microcontroller measures wrist angle and takes care of creating the arc and regulating the fuel supply. Prometheus is small, controllable, and frightening. See a full demonstration as well as some video of the prototyping process after the break. Does this make you wonder how much burn cream [Evertt's] needed over the years? Extended demonstration video. Build log video. [Everett] is at it again with Prometheus, an arm mounted flame thrower.This is the third generation of the project and makes some huge advances over the second generation we saw last year. We’d say he’s reached cinema/stage-performance quality with his design. The self-contained system is completely arm mounted with a fuel reservoir mounting behind the elbow. The new version adds an adjustable flow valve actuated by a servo motor to regulate the flame size. An arc generator has been incorporated to replace the lighter from the last version. A microcontroller measures wrist angle and takes care of creating the arc and regulating the fuel supply. Prometheus is small, controllable, and frightening. See a full demonstration as well as some video of the prototyping process after the break. Does this make you wonder how much burn cream [Evertt's] needed over the years? Extended demonstration video. Build log video. tag:odeo.com,2009-11-03,25400992 Tue, 03 Nov 2009 09:00:18 -0800 no Hack a Day fire, x-men, prometheus, wearable hacks, pyro, classic hacks, burn baby burn, flame thrower http://www.odeo.com/episodes/25400993-Server-not-as-think-as-you-drunk-it-is [Janos] pulled off a unique case mod by fitting a computer system inside of a whiskey bottle. Inside you’ll find a 733MHz processor, 256MB of ram, a 40GB hard drive, and a 60 watt power supply. The specs seem a little light but since this mod is from 2006 we certainly understand. Using the right server software this will still keep up with today’s demands. It sounds like the hardest part was putting holes in the bottle. After a few failed attempts, [Janos] found a professional glass grinder to cut the openings for him. The whole thing was running a little hot and instead of filling the bottle with oil (oh, how we wish he had) he added a second fan in the bottle’s neck and drilled some air intake holes. This brought the temperature under control while preserving the boozy look of this creative enclosure. [via Lifehacker] [Janos] pulled off a unique case mod by fitting a computer system inside of a whiskey bottle. Inside you’ll find a 733MHz processor, 256MB of ram, a 40GB hard drive, and a 60 watt power supply. The specs seem a little light but since this mod is from 2006 we certainly understand. Using the right server software this will still keep up with today’s demands. It sounds like the hardest part was putting holes in the bottle. After a few failed attempts, [Janos] found a professional glass grinder to cut the openings for him. The whole thing was running a little hot and instead of filling the bottle with oil (oh, how we wish he had) he added a second fan in the bottle’s neck and drilled some air intake holes. This brought the temperature under control while preserving the boozy look of this creative enclosure. [via Lifehacker] [Janos] pulled off a unique case mod by fitting a computer system inside of a whiskey bottle. Inside you’ll find a 733MHz processor, 256MB of ram, a 40GB hard drive, and a 60 watt power supply. The specs seem a little light but since this mod is from 2006 we certainly understand. Using the right server software this will still keep up with today’s demands. It sounds like the hardest part was putting holes in the bottle. After a few failed attempts, [Janos] found a professional glass grinder to cut the openings for him. The whole thing was running a little hot and instead of filling the bottle with oil (oh, how we wish he had) he added a second fan in the bottle’s neck and drilled some air intake holes. This brought the temperature under control while preserving the boozy look of this creative enclosure. [via Lifehacker] tag:odeo.com,2009-11-03,25400993 Tue, 03 Nov 2009 08:00:32 -0800 no Hack a Day server, whiskey, pcs hacks, Case mod http://www.odeo.com/episodes/25401002-PUSH-competition-winners Nokia team PUSH is proud to announce they have winners from the contest they held over the past two months. You may remember when we first told you about the competition, but here’s a recap. All you had to do was think of a good hack for the Nokia N900! Winners will receive funding and other resources to make their hack come alive. What possible hacks made the cut? Haptastic – A compass and map? Not any more with this wearable guide that can lead the way. KAPingwiththeN900 – Flying high with this aerial photography project LIGHT HACK CREW – Bring light graffiti to the N900 Rocket Pocket – Just Bonkers! An N900 in orbit, we love it! SolderinSkaters – Tony Hawk who? It’s all about Solderin Skaters! Nokia team PUSH is proud to announce they have winners from the contest they held over the past two months. You may remember when we first told you about the competition, but here’s a recap. All you had to do was think of a good hack for the Nokia N900! Winners will receive funding and other resources to make their hack come alive. What possible hacks made the cut? Haptastic – A compass and map? Not any more with this wearable guide that can lead the way. KAPingwiththeN900 – Flying high with this aerial photography project LIGHT HACK CREW – Bring light graffiti to the N900 Rocket Pocket – Just Bonkers! An N900 in orbit, we love it! SolderinSkaters – Tony Hawk who? It’s all about Solderin Skaters! Nokia team PUSH is proud to announce they have winners from the contest they held over the past two months. You may remember when we first told you about the competition, but here’s a recap. All you had to do was think of a good hack for the Nokia N900! Winners will receive funding and other resources to make their hack come alive. What possible hacks made the cut? Haptastic – A compass and map? Not any more with this wearable guide that can lead the way. KAPingwiththeN900 – Flying high with this aerial photography project LIGHT HACK CREW – Bring light graffiti to the N900 Rocket Pocket – Just Bonkers! An N900 in orbit, we love it! SolderinSkaters – Tony Hawk who? It’s all about Solderin Skaters! tag:odeo.com,2009-11-03,25401002 Tue, 03 Nov 2009 07:13:44 -0800 no Hack a Day nokia, Competition, push, cellphones hacks, N900 http://www.odeo.com/episodes/25401003-Augmented-Xylophone [Ania's] been working on extending a xylophone in a project called Multixylophoniomnibus. She’s fitted a piezo sensor on the bottom of each xylophone key, interfacing it with an Arduino. When a mallet hits a key the corresponding box augments the sound in one of several ways. It looks like she’s prototyped a box that twangs a rubber band, one that uses a solenoid to clap mini cymbals together, one that rattles a glass full of beads, another that vibrates a glass full of water, and yet another that rattles a chain. It’s nice to see how versatile the xylophone is for instrument hacking. Her Flickr set is linked above but we’ve also embedded some prototyping videos after the break. Motors jumping around when the keys are struck. Motor vibrating beads in a glass. [Ania's] been working on extending a xylophone in a project called Multixylophoniomnibus. She’s fitted a piezo sensor on the bottom of each xylophone key, interfacing it with an Arduino. When a mallet hits a key the corresponding box augments the sound in one of several ways. It looks like she’s prototyped a box that twangs a rubber band, one that uses a solenoid to clap mini cymbals together, one that rattles a glass full of beads, another that vibrates a glass full of water, and yet another that rattles a chain. It’s nice to see how versatile the xylophone is for instrument hacking. Her Flickr set is linked above but we’ve also embedded some prototyping videos after the break. Motors jumping around when the keys are struck. Motor vibrating beads in a glass. [Ania's] been working on extending a xylophone in a project called Multixylophoniomnibus. She’s fitted a piezo sensor on the bottom of each xylophone key, interfacing it with an Arduino. When a mallet hits a key the corresponding box augments the sound in one of several ways. It looks like she’s prototyped a box that twangs a rubber band, one that uses a solenoid to clap mini cymbals together, one that rattles a glass full of beads, another that vibrates a glass full of water, and yet another that rattles a chain. It’s nice to see how versatile the xylophone is for instrument hacking. Her Flickr set is linked above but we’ve also embedded some prototyping videos after the break. Motors jumping around when the keys are struck. Motor vibrating beads in a glass. tag:odeo.com,2009-11-02,25401003 Mon, 02 Nov 2009 12:00:30 -0800 no Hack a Day xylophone, digital audio hacks, arduino hacks http://www.odeo.com/episodes/25401004-ArduiNIX-Nixie-shield-for-Arduino Flock of Butterflies has just published their third post in a series about the ArduiNIX, an Arduino shield that drives Nixie tubes.We’ve featured Nixie tube projects such as a single tube clock, free-formed Nixie circuits, and tubes in a bottle. Now the hurdle of handling high voltage tubes while protecting low voltage logic circuitry has been taken care of for you. The shield can be purchased as a kit but the Eagle CAD files are also available, allowing you to etch your own circuit board. Although this is meant for the Arduino there is nothing to keep you from using it as a driver with any microcontroller. The board listens for 5V logic levels to switch the multiplexed display of up to eight tubes. Get your hands on some Nixies and give this a try yourself. Related: ArduiNIX Part 1, ArduiNIX Part 2 Flock of Butterflies has just published their third post in a series about the ArduiNIX, an Arduino shield that drives Nixie tubes.We’ve featured Nixie tube projects such as a single tube clock, free-formed Nixie circuits, and tubes in a bottle. Now the hurdle of handling high voltage tubes while protecting low voltage logic circuitry has been taken care of for you. The shield can be purchased as a kit but the Eagle CAD files are also available, allowing you to etch your own circuit board. Although this is meant for the Arduino there is nothing to keep you from using it as a driver with any microcontroller. The board listens for 5V logic levels to switch the multiplexed display of up to eight tubes. Get your hands on some Nixies and give this a try yourself. Related: ArduiNIX Part 1, ArduiNIX Part 2 Flock of Butterflies has just published their third post in a series about the ArduiNIX, an Arduino shield that drives Nixie tubes.We’ve featured Nixie tube projects such as a single tube clock, free-formed Nixie circuits, and tubes in a bottle. Now the hurdle of handling high voltage tubes while protecting low voltage logic circuitry has been taken care of for you. The shield can be purchased as a kit but the Eagle CAD files are also available, allowing you to etch your own circuit board. Although this is meant for the Arduino there is nothing to keep you from using it as a driver with any microcontroller. The board listens for 5V logic levels to switch the multiplexed display of up to eight tubes. Get your hands on some Nixies and give this a try yourself. Related: ArduiNIX Part 1, ArduiNIX Part 2 tag:odeo.com,2009-11-02,25401004 Mon, 02 Nov 2009 11:00:09 -0800 no Hack a Day high voltage, shield, nixie tube, arduino hacks, ArduiNIX http://www.odeo.com/episodes/25378721-inPulse-watch-gets-BlackBerry-data-via-Bluetooth [Eric] just told us about the watch he developed that displays info from a BlackBerry via Bluetooth. The watch displays updates, message alerts, incoming call information, and… tells time. Setup and control is handled with the BlackBerry keypad. The device is charged with a micro-USB connection and will last for about four days without a recharge. We’d chalk up the rather long battery life to the use of an OLED display, which will use less energy when a portion of the display is left black. So why is it here? Well, he’s got a couple of blog posts that detail two of the final prototypes that you might find interesting. What else? Oh yeah, his original prototype used an Arduino with a Nokia 3310 LCD display. For those of you who continually call the Arduino a worthless toy, looks like it’s good enough to use when taking a product to market. [Eric] just told us about the watch he developed that displays info from a BlackBerry via Bluetooth. The watch displays updates, message alerts, incoming call information, and… tells time. Setup and control is handled with the BlackBerry keypad. The device is charged with a micro-USB connection and will last for about four days without a recharge. We’d chalk up the rather long battery life to the use of an OLED display, which will use less energy when a portion of the display is left black. So why is it here? Well, he’s got a couple of blog posts that detail two of the final prototypes that you might find interesting. What else? Oh yeah, his original prototype used an Arduino with a Nokia 3310 LCD display. For those of you who continually call the Arduino a worthless toy, looks like it’s good enough to use when taking a product to market. [Eric] just told us about the watch he developed that displays info from a BlackBerry via Bluetooth. The watch displays updates, message alerts, incoming call information, and… tells time. Setup and control is handled with the BlackBerry keypad. The device is charged with a micro-USB connection and will last for about four days without a recharge. We’d chalk up the rather long battery life to the use of an OLED display, which will use less energy when a portion of the display is left black. So why is it here? Well, he’s got a couple of blog posts that detail two of the final prototypes that you might find interesting. What else? Oh yeah, his original prototype used an Arduino with a Nokia 3310 LCD display. For those of you who continually call the Arduino a worthless toy, looks like it’s good enough to use when taking a product to market. tag:odeo.com,2009-10-26,25378721 Mon, 26 Oct 2009 16:22:03 -0700 no Hack a Day watch, Blackberry, bluetooth, cellphones hacks, wireless hacks, arduino hacks, inPulse http://www.odeo.com/episodes/25378722-Head-mounted-computer-with-Linux-WiFi Most wearable computers we’ve seen feature a head-mounted display tethered to a small PC system in a backpack or worn on a belt. Here’s a slick little system that does away with the cord, fitting the entire system in the glasses. [Pascal Brisset’s] WXHMD is based on the tiny Gumstix Overo Fire computer-on-module which features a beefy, 3D-capable OMAP processor that runs Linux. The Gumstix is interfaced with a Vuzix VR920 head-mounted display that includes a three-axis accelerometer and compass. Tying these together is a custom video digital-to-analog converter board of [Pascal’s] own design, created using direct-to-PCB inkjet printing techniques. For less than $1,000 total in parts, the result is a spatially aware six ounce computer, with display and battery and all, that fits neatly over the bridge of one’s nose. It’s a fantastic hack and a nicely documented project, though even the device’s creator himself questions whether having a pair of microwave transceivers and a LiPo batte... Most wearable computers we’ve seen feature a head-mounted display tethered to a small PC system in a backpack or worn on a belt. Here’s a slick little system that does away with the cord, fitting the entire system in the glasses. [Pascal Brisset’s] WXHMD is based on the tiny Gumstix Overo Fire computer-on-module which features a beefy, 3D-capable OMAP processor that runs Linux. The Gumstix is interfaced with a Vuzix VR920 head-mounted display that includes a three-axis accelerometer and compass. Tying these together is a custom video digital-to-analog converter board of [Pascal’s] own design, created using direct-to-PCB inkjet printing techniques. For less than $1,000 total in parts, the result is a spatially aware six ounce computer, with display and battery and all, that fits neatly over the bridge of one’s nose. It’s a fantastic hack and a nicely documented project, though even the device’s creator himself questions whether having a pair of microwave transceivers and a LiPo battery strapped directly over one’s eyes and brain is such a good idea. [thanks w3pt] Most wearable computers we’ve seen feature a head-mounted display tethered to a small PC system in a backpack or worn on a belt. Here’s a slick little system that does away with the cord, fitting the entire system in the glasses. [Pascal Brisset’s] WXHMD is based on the tiny Gumstix Overo Fire computer-on-module which features a beefy, 3D-capable OMAP processor that runs Linux. The Gumstix is interfaced with a Vuzix VR920 head-mounted display that includes a three-axis accelerometer and compass. Tying these together is a custom video digital-to-analog converter board of [Pascal’s] own design, created using direct-to-PCB inkjet printing techniques. For less than $1,000 total in parts, the result is a spatially aware six ounce computer, with display and battery and all, that fits neatly over the bridge of one’s nose. It’s a fantastic hack and a nicely documented project, though even the device’s creator himself questions whether having a pair of microwave transceivers and a LiPo battery strapped directly over one’s eyes and brain is such a good idea. [thanks w3pt] tag:odeo.com,2009-10-26,25378722 Mon, 26 Oct 2009 15:20:26 -0700 no Hack a Day linux, wearable, omap, hmd, wearable hacks, gumstix, linux hacks, classic hacks http://www.odeo.com/episodes/25378723-How-to-overlay-images-by-using-Greasemonkey Today we’re going to take a look at writing scripts for the Greasemonkey add-on for Firefox. This add-on allows us to use JavaScript to make changes to the way webpages are displayed on our browser. These changes can only be seen by a copy of Firefox that is running a particular script. As an example, we’re going to write a script that adds a border to the banner image of each article on Hack a Day by overlaying the image you see above. Find out how it’s done after the break. Our Goal: We want to make the top image for each article look like it has been printed with a white border and then taped on each corner to the page. This is an effect that we used to use on our posts and a Greasemonkey script is a good way to re-implement the effect if you miss that image style. What You Need: Install Firefox Install the Greasemonkey add-on. Download and install our script: hackaday_nostalgia.user.js How It Works: Greasemonkey runs JavaScript on top of the pages that have bee... Today we’re going to take a look at writing scripts for the Greasemonkey add-on for Firefox. This add-on allows us to use JavaScript to make changes to the way webpages are displayed on our browser. These changes can only be seen by a copy of Firefox that is running a particular script. As an example, we’re going to write a script that adds a border to the banner image of each article on Hack a Day by overlaying the image you see above. Find out how it’s done after the break. Our Goal: We want to make the top image for each article look like it has been printed with a white border and then taped on each corner to the page. This is an effect that we used to use on our posts and a Greasemonkey script is a good way to re-implement the effect if you miss that image style. What You Need: Install Firefox Install the Greasemonkey add-on. Download and install our script: hackaday_nostalgia.user.js How It Works: Greasemonkey runs JavaScript on top of the pages that have been loaded by Firefox. The first part of the file is a set of comments that tell Greasemonkey what it’s dealing with: // ==UserScript== // @name           Hackaday Nostalgia // @namespace      http://hackaday.com // @description    Overlay photograph border and taped corners for article images at Hack a Day. // @include        http://hackaday.com/* // ==/UserScript== The name, namespace, and include lines are all required for the script to work. Name is what you want to call your script. Namespace is a URL that identifies the script uniquely in case there are two scripts with the same name. Include tells Greasemonkey what pages this script should be applied to. In our case we only want to monkey with the images on hackaday.com so we’ve included all addresses from that domain. Now that we’ve identified what pages we want to alter, we can parse the document and pull out the elements we want ot change. The first thing to do is examine the page source of our target: <div class='snap_preview'><p><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-17747" title="plotter-with-300w-laser" src="http://hackadaycom.files.wordpress.com/2009/10/plotter-with-300w-laser.jpg?w=470&h=313" alt="plotter-with-300w-laser" width="470" height="313" /></p> With a little digging we can find the line you see above that includes the IMG element for the title of a post. We’re in luck, the page builds each post wrapped in a DIV of the Class ’snap-preview’. We can use Greasemonkey to parse the page looking for these DIVs and then alter the first IMG element in each one: //get all DIVs of the snap_preview class var allDivs, thisDiv; allDivs = document.evaluate( "//div[@class='snap_preview']", document, null, XPathResult.UNORDERED_NODE_SNAPSHOT_TYPE, null); In the code above we are using the evaluate function to pick out DIVs that are in the ’snap-preview’ class. We load them into an array called allDivs which we can then step through: //step through each DIV for (var i=0; i<allDivs.snapshotLength; i++) { thisDiv = allDivs.snapshotItem(i); //Alter the first img of each DIV var image = thisDiv.getElementsByTagName('img'); //Make sure we've got an IMG in this DIV if (image[0]) { //Save original source URL var orig_src = image[0].src; //Concatenate for CSS use orig_src = 'url(' + orig_src + ')'; //Set original as background image[0].style.background = orig_src; //Set Hack a Day overlay as image image[0].src = 'http://hackadaycom.files.wordpress.com/2009/10/had_frame.png'; } } This block of code is where the magic happens. A loop is used to step through each DIV we grabbed in the previous code snippet. We grab the IMG element by using the getElementsByTagName function. All IMG elements are put into an array called ‘image’, but we only want to alter the first image in each post so we’ll always reference image[0]. For the image border and tape effect, we used the GIMP to create a PNG file that has transparency where we want the original picture to show through. We need the original picture to be behind the overlay so we’re making it a background image using the CSS property ‘background’. The PNG overlay is then set as the new SRC for the IMG element. That’s all it takes, now images will be overlayed with the border image you see at the top of this post. Benefits and Drawbacks: There are some drawbacks to using this system; the overlay covers up the borders of the original image, older posts that already have this image effect will have it applied again, the overlay will be stretched to match each original image which can look weird depending on image height, and the overlay image we’ve provide is of rather low quality (you can probably do better yourself). Our method uses a very small amount of code and doesn’t require the original image size to be recalculated. The Next Step: Now that we’ve showed you how to do this much, you may want to take it one step further. The original picture style also made the images black and white. Can you make the script do this as well? To get started in the right direction, you might want to look at the Pixastic JavaScript image manipulation library and its desaturate function. Overwhelmed? If you need some help deciphering what we did here just use your online resources: Dive into Greasemonkey: An online book to help you learn greasemonkey scripting HTML Dog: A best practices guide to HTML and CSS http://www.htmldog.com/ Today we’re going to take a look at writing scripts for the Greasemonkey add-on for Firefox. This add-on allows us to use JavaScript to make changes to the way webpages are displayed on our browser. These changes can only be seen by a copy of Firefox that is running a particular script. As an example, we’re going to write a script that adds a border to the banner image of each article on Hack a Day by overlaying the image you see above. Find out how it’s done after the break. Our Goal: We want to make the top image for each article look like it has been printed with a white border and then taped on each corner to the page. This is an effect that we used to use on our posts and a Greasemonkey script is a good way to re-implement the effect if you miss that image style. What You Need: Install Firefox Install the Greasemonkey add-on. Download and install our script: hackaday_nostalgia.user.js How It Works: Greasemonkey runs JavaScript on top of the pages that have been loaded by Firefox. The first part of the file is a set of comments that tell Greasemonkey what it’s dealing with: // ==UserScript== // @name           Hackaday Nostalgia // @namespace      http://hackaday.com // @description    Overlay photograph border and taped corners for article images at Hack a Day. // @include        http://hackaday.com/* // ==/UserScript== The name, namespace, and include lines are all required for the script to work. Name is what you want to call your script. Namespace is a URL that identifies the script uniquely in case there are two scripts with the same name. Include tells Greasemonkey what pages this script should be applied to. In our case we only want to monkey with the images on hackaday.com so we’ve included all addresses from that domain. Now that we’ve identified what pages we want to alter, we can parse the document and pull out the elements we want ot change. The first thing to do is examine the page source of our target: <div class='snap_preview'><p><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-17747" title="plotter-with-300w-laser" src="http://hackadaycom.files.wordpress.com/2009/10/plotter-with-300w-laser.jpg?w=470&h=313" alt="plotter-with-300w-laser" width="470" height="313" /></p> With a little digging we can find the line you see above that includes the IMG element for the title of a post. We’re in luck, the page builds each post wrapped in a DIV of the Class ’snap-preview’. We can use Greasemonkey to parse the page looking for these DIVs and then alter the first IMG element in each one: //get all DIVs of the snap_preview class var allDivs, thisDiv; allDivs = document.evaluate( "//div[@class='snap_preview']", document, null, XPathResult.UNORDERED_NODE_SNAPSHOT_TYPE, null); In the code above we are using the evaluate function to pick out DIVs that are in the ’snap-preview’ class. We load them into an array called allDivs which we can then step through: //step through each DIV for (var i=0; i<allDivs.snapshotLength; i++) { thisDiv = allDivs.snapshotItem(i); //Alter the first img of each DIV var image = thisDiv.getElementsByTagName('img'); //Make sure we've got an IMG in this DIV if (image[0]) { //Save original source URL var orig_src = image[0].src; //Concatenate for CSS use orig_src = 'url(' + orig_src + ')'; //Set original as background image[0].style.background = orig_src; //Set Hack a Day overlay as image image[0].src = 'http://hackadaycom.files.wordpress.com/2009/10/had_frame.png'; } } This block of code is where the magic happens. A loop is used to step through each DIV we grabbed in the previous code snippet. We grab the IMG element by using the getElementsByTagName function. All IMG elements are put into an array called ‘image’, but we only want to alter the first image in each post so we’ll always reference image[0]. For the image border and tape effect, we used the GIMP to create a PNG file that has transparency where we want the original picture to show through. We need the original picture to be behind the overlay so we’re making it a background image using the CSS property ‘background’. The PNG overlay is then set as the new SRC for the IMG element. That’s all it takes, now images will be overlayed with the border image you see at the top of this post. Benefits and Drawbacks: There are some drawbacks to using this system; the overlay covers up the borders of the original image, older posts that already have this image effect will have it applied again, the overlay will be stretched to match each original image which can look weird depending on image height, and the overlay image we’ve provide is of rather low quality (you can probably do better yourself). Our method uses a very small amount of code and doesn’t require the original image size to be recalculated. The Next Step: Now that we’ve showed you how to do this much, you may want to take it one step further. The original picture style also made the images black and white. Can you make the script do this as well? To get started in the right direction, you might want to look at the Pixastic JavaScript image manipulation library and its desaturate function. Overwhelmed? If you need some help deciphering what we did here just use your online resources: Dive into Greasemonkey: An online book to help you learn greasemonkey scripting HTML Dog: A best practices guide to HTML and CSS http://www.htmldog.com/ tag:odeo.com,2009-10-26,25378723 Mon, 26 Oct 2009 10:39:51 -0700 no Hack a Day firefox, javascript, Greasemonkey, HackIt, image overlay, hackaday nostalgia http://www.odeo.com/episodes/25376354-Halloween-props-Servo-eyes If you’re wanting to spice up a Jack-o-lantern, why not give it some spooky eyes that will look around? [todbot] shows us how to set this up using an Arduino and 3 servos. His rig uses a hobby servo to control the entire head’s orientation and a smaller servo for each eye’s movement. Their motion is random, but quite convincing. He has them all stuck together with  popsicle sticks, but you would probably move the location of the large servo to rotate the entire pumpkin, or whatever other prop you put it all in. You can download the Arduino sketch and give it a try your self. We might suggest building a simple rack and pinion rig to rotate both eyeballs with  a single servo. [via HackedGadgets] If you’re wanting to spice up a Jack-o-lantern, why not give it some spooky eyes that will look around? [todbot] shows us how to set this up using an Arduino and 3 servos. His rig uses a hobby servo to control the entire head’s orientation and a smaller servo for each eye’s movement. Their motion is random, but quite convincing. He has them all stuck together with  popsicle sticks, but you would probably move the location of the large servo to rotate the entire pumpkin, or whatever other prop you put it all in. You can download the Arduino sketch and give it a try your self. We might suggest building a simple rack and pinion rig to rotate both eyeballs with  a single servo. [via HackedGadgets] If you’re wanting to spice up a Jack-o-lantern, why not give it some spooky eyes that will look around? [todbot] shows us how to set this up using an Arduino and 3 servos. His rig uses a hobby servo to control the entire head’s orientation and a smaller servo for each eye’s movement. Their motion is random, but quite convincing. He has them all stuck together with  popsicle sticks, but you would probably move the location of the large servo to rotate the entire pumpkin, or whatever other prop you put it all in. You can download the Arduino sketch and give it a try your self. We might suggest building a simple rack and pinion rig to rotate both eyeballs with  a single servo. [via HackedGadgets] tag:odeo.com,2009-10-26,25376354 Mon, 26 Oct 2009 08:00:15 -0700 no Hack a Day Halloween, arduino, eyeball, home hacks, arduino hacks http://www.odeo.com/episodes/25376355-Halloween-props-Alien-Costume [creatrope] sent in this slick Alien costume that he made for his son. The costume does look decent, but not professional. For something tossed together from parts around the house, it looks fantastic. The real kicker, is the fact that it has the retractable inner mouth. The retractable mechanism is constructed from Legos and extends when his son opens the mouth. We think he did a fantastic job with this costume, but if you’re looking for something a little more polished, check out this Alien made by [Asy0uw1sh ] you can see a little more detail on how it works here. [creatrope] sent in this slick Alien costume that he made for his son. The costume does look decent, but not professional. For something tossed together from parts around the house, it looks fantastic. The real kicker, is the fact that it has the retractable inner mouth. The retractable mechanism is constructed from Legos and extends when his son opens the mouth. We think he did a fantastic job with this costume, but if you’re looking for something a little more polished, check out this Alien made by [Asy0uw1sh ] you can see a little more detail on how it works here. [creatrope] sent in this slick Alien costume that he made for his son. The costume does look decent, but not professional. For something tossed together from parts around the house, it looks fantastic. The real kicker, is the fact that it has the retractable inner mouth. The retractable mechanism is constructed from Legos and extends when his son opens the mouth. We think he did a fantastic job with this costume, but if you’re looking for something a little more polished, check out this Alien made by [Asy0uw1sh ] you can see a little more detail on how it works here. tag:odeo.com,2009-10-26,25376355 Mon, 26 Oct 2009 07:19:04 -0700 no Hack a Day costume, alien, home hacks, Halloween props http://www.odeo.com/episodes/25372833-Extended-IR-input We’re not sure why [Roteno] prefers to have his TV and cable boxes not face him when he’s sitting on the couch, but to each their own. You may already see many problems with this setup: discoloration from LCD viewing angle, difficulty playing Wii, oh and most importantly – not being able to change the channel with his IR remote. [Roteno] was lucky enough, however, to have an IR remote input on the back of his cable box. All it took was a 3.5mm jack and a spare IR receiver and he was back in business. Sure it’s not as technical as some of our cable or IR hacks and we would like to see someone try this who doesn’t have as easily accessible IR input on the back of their cable box. But either way, here’s one more step to never having to leave that couch. We’re not sure why [Roteno] prefers to have his TV and cable boxes not face him when he’s sitting on the couch, but to each their own. You may already see many problems with this setup: discoloration from LCD viewing angle, difficulty playing Wii, oh and most importantly – not being able to change the channel with his IR remote. [Roteno] was lucky enough, however, to have an IR remote input on the back of his cable box. All it took was a 3.5mm jack and a spare IR receiver and he was back in business. Sure it’s not as technical as some of our cable or IR hacks and we would like to see someone try this who doesn’t have as easily accessible IR input on the back of their cable box. But either way, here’s one more step to never having to leave that couch. We’re not sure why [Roteno] prefers to have his TV and cable boxes not face him when he’s sitting on the couch, but to each their own. You may already see many problems with this setup: discoloration from LCD viewing angle, difficulty playing Wii, oh and most importantly – not being able to change the channel with his IR remote. [Roteno] was lucky enough, however, to have an IR remote input on the back of his cable box. All it took was a 3.5mm jack and a spare IR receiver and he was back in business. Sure it’s not as technical as some of our cable or IR hacks and we would like to see someone try this who doesn’t have as easily accessible IR input on the back of their cable box. But either way, here’s one more step to never having to leave that couch. tag:odeo.com,2009-10-25,25372833 Sun, 25 Oct 2009 13:00:27 -0700 no Hack a Day tv, IR, input, home hacks, cable box http://www.odeo.com/episodes/25370577-DIY-plotter-with-laser [Viacheslav] built a plotter that is fast and accurate. He wanted to take it one step further and added a laser in place of the pen. The 300 mW unit does a nice job of wood-burning any pattern sent to it, but isn’t strong enough to serve as a laser cutter for anything other than thin-film. We wonder if it can be used to cut solder paste stencils for surface mount PCB production. In the video after the break you can see some plotting that uses a pen. In addition to writing on paper, [Viacheslav] has tested this as a method of applying etch resist to a copper clad board for PCB production. He’s able to achieve 0.8 mm pitch but the production process is limited by the resist pen’s tendency to wear out quickly and to only prevent etching for a short period of time (compared to toner transfer resist). Just like with his touch sensitive keypad project, he’s taken the time to thoroughly document his work. Build notes, pictures, CAD files, and source code are all ava... [Viacheslav] built a plotter that is fast and accurate. He wanted to take it one step further and added a laser in place of the pen. The 300 mW unit does a nice job of wood-burning any pattern sent to it, but isn’t strong enough to serve as a laser cutter for anything other than thin-film. We wonder if it can be used to cut solder paste stencils for surface mount PCB production. In the video after the break you can see some plotting that uses a pen. In addition to writing on paper, [Viacheslav] has tested this as a method of applying etch resist to a copper clad board for PCB production. He’s able to achieve 0.8 mm pitch but the production process is limited by the resist pen’s tendency to wear out quickly and to only prevent etching for a short period of time (compared to toner transfer resist). Just like with his touch sensitive keypad project, he’s taken the time to thoroughly document his work. Build notes, pictures, CAD files, and source code are all available for your perusal and hackage. [Viacheslav] built a plotter that is fast and accurate. He wanted to take it one step further and added a laser in place of the pen. The 300 mW unit does a nice job of wood-burning any pattern sent to it, but isn’t strong enough to serve as a laser cutter for anything other than thin-film. We wonder if it can be used to cut solder paste stencils for surface mount PCB production. In the video after the break you can see some plotting that uses a pen. In addition to writing on paper, [Viacheslav] has tested this as a method of applying etch resist to a copper clad board for PCB production. He’s able to achieve 0.8 mm pitch but the production process is limited by the resist pen’s tendency to wear out quickly and to only prevent etching for a short period of time (compared to toner transfer resist). Just like with his touch sensitive keypad project, he’s taken the time to thoroughly document his work. Build notes, pictures, CAD files, and source code are all available for your perusal and hackage. tag:odeo.com,2009-10-25,25370577 Sun, 25 Oct 2009 11:44:42 -0700 no Hack a Day pcb, resist, laser hacks, cnc hacks, classic hacks, wood burning, plotter http://www.odeo.com/episodes/25370580-Double-sided-surface-mount-PCB-population Above is a video detailing one method for populating a two sided surface mount PCB. We covered using a stencil to apply solder paste for a PCB a few weeks ago. In the comments there was a debate about the virtue of using stencils as well as a question about how two sided boards are populated. This was a good question because reflowing a board twice can cause components on the underside to fall off. [Wim L's] comment mentions that there are a couple of methods for two sided population. In the video you will see that a stencil is not being used, but instead, paste is applied by a pedal actuated syringe. The paste is applied to the underside of the board first, then a teeny dot of epoxy is added to hold the component in place. Each part is then positioned normally and baked in a reflow oven. This process both reflows the solder, and cures the epoxy. When the board is reflowed a second time, the epoxy holds the bottom components in place as the top solder reaches its melting point. This... Above is a video detailing one method for populating a two sided surface mount PCB. We covered using a stencil to apply solder paste for a PCB a few weeks ago. In the comments there was a debate about the virtue of using stencils as well as a question about how two sided boards are populated. This was a good question because reflowing a board twice can cause components on the underside to fall off. [Wim L's] comment mentions that there are a couple of methods for two sided population. In the video you will see that a stencil is not being used, but instead, paste is applied by a pedal actuated syringe. The paste is applied to the underside of the board first, then a teeny dot of epoxy is added to hold the component in place. Each part is then positioned normally and baked in a reflow oven. This process both reflows the solder, and cures the epoxy. When the board is reflowed a second time, the epoxy holds the bottom components in place as the top solder reaches its melting point. This method of applying solder paste is slower than using a stencil. But if done correctly, every component can get the amount of solder needed. Above is a video detailing one method for populating a two sided surface mount PCB. We covered using a stencil to apply solder paste for a PCB a few weeks ago. In the comments there was a debate about the virtue of using stencils as well as a question about how two sided boards are populated. This was a good question because reflowing a board twice can cause components on the underside to fall off. [Wim L's] comment mentions that there are a couple of methods for two sided population. In the video you will see that a stencil is not being used, but instead, paste is applied by a pedal actuated syringe. The paste is applied to the underside of the board first, then a teeny dot of epoxy is added to hold the component in place. Each part is then positioned normally and baked in a reflow oven. This process both reflows the solder, and cures the epoxy. When the board is reflowed a second time, the epoxy holds the bottom components in place as the top solder reaches its melting point. This method of applying solder paste is slower than using a stencil. But if done correctly, every component can get the amount of solder needed. tag:odeo.com,2009-10-25,25370580 Sun, 25 Oct 2009 10:39:14 -0700 no Hack a Day epoxy, pcb, surface mount, reflow, tool hacks http://www.odeo.com/episodes/25369181-Halloween-Props-Pie-of-Sauron [Richard] combined creative carving with vacuum tube electronics for a unique pumpkin offering. He used the stencil-and-cut method of carving, making use of an inexpensive carving kit for great results. He salvaged an LED module from a flashlight to provide the internal illumination, but it’s the center feature that we like the best. [Richard's] used a glow-transfer counting tube, or dekatron, which provides something like a circular cylon eye to the project. There’s a video of this after the break. You might not have access to a wicked-looking dekatron but we’re guessing you’ve got a microcontroller and some LEDs lying around that can serve as a stand-in for one night. We’d love to do a reader jack-o-lantern roundup, so if you build something, send us a picture! [Richard] combined creative carving with vacuum tube electronics for a unique pumpkin offering. He used the stencil-and-cut method of carving, making use of an inexpensive carving kit for great results. He salvaged an LED module from a flashlight to provide the internal illumination, but it’s the center feature that we like the best. [Richard's] used a glow-transfer counting tube, or dekatron, which provides something like a circular cylon eye to the project. There’s a video of this after the break. You might not have access to a wicked-looking dekatron but we’re guessing you’ve got a microcontroller and some LEDs lying around that can serve as a stand-in for one night. We’d love to do a reader jack-o-lantern roundup, so if you build something, send us a picture! [Richard] combined creative carving with vacuum tube electronics for a unique pumpkin offering. He used the stencil-and-cut method of carving, making use of an inexpensive carving kit for great results. He salvaged an LED module from a flashlight to provide the internal illumination, but it’s the center feature that we like the best. [Richard's] used a glow-transfer counting tube, or dekatron, which provides something like a circular cylon eye to the project. There’s a video of this after the break. You might not have access to a wicked-looking dekatron but we’re guessing you’ve got a microcontroller and some LEDs lying around that can serve as a stand-in for one night. We’d love to do a reader jack-o-lantern roundup, so if you build something, send us a picture! tag:odeo.com,2009-10-25,25369181 Sun, 25 Oct 2009 06:00:28 -0700 no Hack a Day cylon, home hacks, dekatron, Halloween props, jack-o-latern http://www.odeo.com/episodes/25365145-Use-iPhone-to-run-yourself-over The Spirit of Berlin team has developed an iPhone app to remotely control a minivan. They didn’t have to do much to the vehicle to get this working because the platform was  developed for the 2007 Darpa Urban Challenge. The iPhone connects with the driving circuitry via WiFi and offers a gas button, a break button, and a steering button to enable the accelerometer for turning. The front camera video is transmitted to the iPhone in real-time. In the picture above you can see the operator in the center of the van’s camera view. It looks like the van’s top speed is limited, but remembering our own ineptitude in piloting RC vehicles, we hope this doesn’t result in a Darwin Award. We’ve embedded a video after the break. Everyone loves to see some Mario Kart reeneactment. You can catch some around 2:28 into the video. Enjoy. [Thanks Miketron] The Spirit of Berlin team has developed an iPhone app to remotely control a minivan. They didn’t have to do much to the vehicle to get this working because the platform was  developed for the 2007 Darpa Urban Challenge. The iPhone connects with the driving circuitry via WiFi and offers a gas button, a break button, and a steering button to enable the accelerometer for turning. The front camera video is transmitted to the iPhone in real-time. In the picture above you can see the operator in the center of the van’s camera view. It looks like the van’s top speed is limited, but remembering our own ineptitude in piloting RC vehicles, we hope this doesn’t result in a Darwin Award. We’ve embedded a video after the break. Everyone loves to see some Mario Kart reeneactment. You can catch some around 2:28 into the video. Enjoy. [Thanks Miketron] The Spirit of Berlin team has developed an iPhone app to remotely control a minivan. They didn’t have to do much to the vehicle to get this working because the platform was  developed for the 2007 Darpa Urban Challenge. The iPhone connects with the driving circuitry via WiFi and offers a gas button, a break button, and a steering button to enable the accelerometer for turning. The front camera video is transmitted to the iPhone in real-time. In the picture above you can see the operator in the center of the van’s camera view. It looks like the van’s top speed is limited, but remembering our own ineptitude in piloting RC vehicles, we hope this doesn’t result in a Darwin Award. We’ve embedded a video after the break. Everyone loves to see some Mario Kart reeneactment. You can catch some around 2:28 into the video. Enjoy. [Thanks Miketron] tag:odeo.com,2009-10-24,25365145 Sat, 24 Oct 2009 14:04:32 -0700 no Hack a Day iphone, darpa, transportation hacks, remote control, autonomous vehicle, iphone hacks, urban challenge, mariokart http://www.odeo.com/episodes/25365146-Desktop-Decepticon-repurposes-cell-phone We’ve got a few old cell phones sitting around and apart from salvaging the LCD screen we’re not quite sure what to do with them. [Gingerpete50] turned his into a desktop Decepticon figurine. This masterpiece is a delightful conversation piece and when he’s tired of it decorating his cubicle, we’re sure there will be plenty of people he can hand it down to. The figure doesn’t transform back into a cell phone and it uses a few extra parts he had on hand, but neither of these things bother us. What it does have is some articulated joints and a few LEDs that you can see above. We haven’t tried our hand at custom model building, but after seeing this you can be assured it’s on our list. We’ve got a few old cell phones sitting around and apart from salvaging the LCD screen we’re not quite sure what to do with them. [Gingerpete50] turned his into a desktop Decepticon figurine. This masterpiece is a delightful conversation piece and when he’s tired of it decorating his cubicle, we’re sure there will be plenty of people he can hand it down to. The figure doesn’t transform back into a cell phone and it uses a few extra parts he had on hand, but neither of these things bother us. What it does have is some articulated joints and a few LEDs that you can see above. We haven’t tried our hand at custom model building, but after seeing this you can be assured it’s on our list. We’ve got a few old cell phones sitting around and apart from salvaging the LCD screen we’re not quite sure what to do with them. [Gingerpete50] turned his into a desktop Decepticon figurine. This masterpiece is a delightful conversation piece and when he’s tired of it decorating his cubicle, we’re sure there will be plenty of people he can hand it down to. The figure doesn’t transform back into a cell phone and it uses a few extra parts he had on hand, but neither of these things bother us. What it does have is some articulated joints and a few LEDs that you can see above. We haven’t tried our hand at custom model building, but after seeing this you can be assured it’s on our list. tag:odeo.com,2009-10-24,25365146 Sat, 24 Oct 2009 11:51:37 -0700 no Hack a Day model, figurine, cellphones hacks, decepticon, repurpose http://www.odeo.com/episodes/25363792-Vodaphone-ringtone-music-commercial When we first saw Vodaphone’s ringtone commercial where 1000 cell phones perform a section of the William Tell overture, we just assumed it was some slick video editing, not to be taken seriously. Apparently, we were wrong. They actually did this. They actually sent text messages to all the phones in correct timing to play the music.  In the video after the break, you can see some details on how they pulled it off. They had to perform this during non peak usage hours to ensure that all their texts went through. We think this project is pretty impressive. Actually, we still don’t know how they pulled it off, we can’t seem to predict how long a text message will take to reach its destination with any kind of reproducible accuracy. [via Makezine] When we first saw Vodaphone’s ringtone commercial where 1000 cell phones perform a section of the William Tell overture, we just assumed it was some slick video editing, not to be taken seriously. Apparently, we were wrong. They actually did this. They actually sent text messages to all the phones in correct timing to play the music.  In the video after the break, you can see some details on how they pulled it off. They had to perform this during non peak usage hours to ensure that all their texts went through. We think this project is pretty impressive. Actually, we still don’t know how they pulled it off, we can’t seem to predict how long a text message will take to reach its destination with any kind of reproducible accuracy. [via Makezine] When we first saw Vodaphone’s ringtone commercial where 1000 cell phones perform a section of the William Tell overture, we just assumed it was some slick video editing, not to be taken seriously. Apparently, we were wrong. They actually did this. They actually sent text messages to all the phones in correct timing to play the music.  In the video after the break, you can see some details on how they pulled it off. They had to perform this during non peak usage hours to ensure that all their texts went through. We think this project is pretty impressive. Actually, we still don’t know how they pulled it off, we can’t seem to predict how long a text message will take to reach its destination with any kind of reproducible accuracy. [via Makezine] tag:odeo.com,2009-10-24,25363792 Sat, 24 Oct 2009 10:00:30 -0700 no Hack a Day cell phone, cellphones hacks, william tell, vodaphone http://www.odeo.com/episodes/25363793-Halloween-prop-glowing-spooky-eyes Would you like some spooky glowing eyes that light up and play a sound when someone gets near? This circuit makes it pretty simple. It uses a single phototransistor to detect someones presence. Instead of having a preset threshold that needs to be met, it simply triggers any time there is a sufficient change in the amount of light it detects. If you put one of these in a nice dark spot, your halloweeners will only see the LEDs and perceive them as eyes. It might also be cool to somehow add motion to this. We’re running out of time to prepare for Halloween, don’t forget to send in your projects. [via HackedGadgets] Would you like some spooky glowing eyes that light up and play a sound when someone gets near? This circuit makes it pretty simple. It uses a single phototransistor to detect someones presence. Instead of having a preset threshold that needs to be met, it simply triggers any time there is a sufficient change in the amount of light it detects. If you put one of these in a nice dark spot, your halloweeners will only see the LEDs and perceive them as eyes. It might also be cool to somehow add motion to this. We’re running out of time to prepare for Halloween, don’t forget to send in your projects. [via HackedGadgets] Would you like some spooky glowing eyes that light up and play a sound when someone gets near? This circuit makes it pretty simple. It uses a single phototransistor to detect someones presence. Instead of having a preset threshold that needs to be met, it simply triggers any time there is a sufficient change in the amount of light it detects. If you put one of these in a nice dark spot, your halloweeners will only see the LEDs and perceive them as eyes. It might also be cool to somehow add motion to this. We’re running out of time to prepare for Halloween, don’t forget to send in your projects. [via HackedGadgets] tag:odeo.com,2009-10-24,25363793 Sat, 24 Oct 2009 08:00:06 -0700 no Hack a Day News, Halloween http://www.odeo.com/episodes/25363794-the-Best-Robotics-competition If you give a mouse a cookie, he will ask for a glass of milk. If you give a team of geeks a box full of parts ranging from aluminum to plywood to motors to RF interfaces, they will build a robot. Introducing Best Robotics, a volunteer group that gives schools a box of hardware and 6 weeks to build a robot that will compete against other schools for the title of champion. This past Saturday the17th, the OKBest regional competition was held and I, HaD writer [Jakob], was lucky enough to be invited personally to not only watch – but compete. Check out our full breakdown after the jump. First an explanation of the competition. Each year the ‘goal’ changes but always includes several of the same concepts. Remote controlled robots must pick up different items for points, assemble something for multipliers, and signal a tie breaker. This year the robot’s task was to scavenge and collect tennis balls, racket balls, soup cans, beach balls, and 6inch PVC pipe sections... If you give a mouse a cookie, he will ask for a glass of milk. If you give a team of geeks a box full of parts ranging from aluminum to plywood to motors to RF interfaces, they will build a robot. Introducing Best Robotics, a volunteer group that gives schools a box of hardware and 6 weeks to build a robot that will compete against other schools for the title of champion. This past Saturday the17th, the OKBest regional competition was held and I, HaD writer [Jakob], was lucky enough to be invited personally to not only watch – but compete. Check out our full breakdown after the jump. First an explanation of the competition. Each year the ‘goal’ changes but always includes several of the same concepts. Remote controlled robots must pick up different items for points, assemble something for multipliers, and signal a tie breaker. This year the robot’s task was to scavenge and collect tennis balls, racket balls, soup cans, beach balls, and 6inch PVC pipe sections – easy right? Well not when those tennis balls are catalysts, racket balls are water, soup cans are energy, beach balls are CO2, and the PVC represents benzene. See where we’re going, if not think chemistry. It gets harder when you learn almost none of those game pieces are in play unless you send an IR signal to the game field. We haven’t even gotten to the 2 foot size restriction in all 3 dimensions and the finite parts list. Those who want to read more about the game and rules this year can find it here. So how did I get the chance to compete? Well, being team captain really helps. Meet team ENHS. The past two years we’ve come nearly in last place and this this was our third, and potentially final time to partake within Best; it was time to stop being the underdogs. Our robot design included an undercarriage ’stomach’ and frontal ‘mouth’ that could be raised and lowered to capture the tennis balls, racket balls, and soup cans. We decided against attaining CO2 and benzene after finding we could achieve a max score of about 21 million points without them. The control system, programming, and IR commands were all handled by yours truly – while the rest of the team did most of the construction – and painting. The great thing about Best is that if you don’t have an engineering degree, or even know what a motor does. There are awards that can actually get you to first place by best documentation, most enthusiasm, best T-shirt design, most interesting interview, and several others. But it still exposes people to robots and their construction, hopefully to influence them towards a career in technology. So how did we actually do? 5th place overall out of 12. Not to bad considering last year we got 18th out of 17 teams (we don’t know how we managed that either). Win or lose, the experience, knowledge, and fun we gained from the competition will last a lifetime. The competition however will not, as funding for Best has declined over the years and our region next year will not play host. Hats off to the best year of Best. If you give a mouse a cookie, he will ask for a glass of milk. If you give a team of geeks a box full of parts ranging from aluminum to plywood to motors to RF interfaces, they will build a robot. Introducing Best Robotics, a volunteer group that gives schools a box of hardware and 6 weeks to build a robot that will compete against other schools for the title of champion. This past Saturday the17th, the OKBest regional competition was held and I, HaD writer [Jakob], was lucky enough to be invited personally to not only watch – but compete. Check out our full breakdown after the jump. First an explanation of the competition. Each year the ‘goal’ changes but always includes several of the same concepts. Remote controlled robots must pick up different items for points, assemble something for multipliers, and signal a tie breaker. This year the robot’s task was to scavenge and collect tennis balls, racket balls, soup cans, beach balls, and 6inch PVC pipe sections – easy right? Well not when those tennis balls are catalysts, racket balls are water, soup cans are energy, beach balls are CO2, and the PVC represents benzene. See where we’re going, if not think chemistry. It gets harder when you learn almost none of those game pieces are in play unless you send an IR signal to the game field. We haven’t even gotten to the 2 foot size restriction in all 3 dimensions and the finite parts list. Those who want to read more about the game and rules this year can find it here. So how did I get the chance to compete? Well, being team captain really helps. Meet team ENHS. The past two years we’ve come nearly in last place and this this was our third, and potentially final time to partake within Best; it was time to stop being the underdogs. Our robot design included an undercarriage ’stomach’ and frontal ‘mouth’ that could be raised and lowered to capture the tennis balls, racket balls, and soup cans. We decided against attaining CO2 and benzene after finding we could achieve a max score of about 21 million points without them. The control system, programming, and IR commands were all handled by yours truly – while the rest of the team did most of the construction – and painting. The great thing about Best is that if you don’t have an engineering degree, or even know what a motor does. There are awards that can actually get you to first place by best documentation, most enthusiasm, best T-shirt design, most interesting interview, and several others. But it still exposes people to robots and their construction, hopefully to influence them towards a career in technology. So how did we actually do? 5th place overall out of 12. Not to bad considering last year we got 18th out of 17 teams (we don’t know how we managed that either). Win or lose, the experience, knowledge, and fun we gained from the competition will last a lifetime. The competition however will not, as funding for Best has declined over the years and our region next year will not play host. Hats off to the best year of Best. tag:odeo.com,2009-10-24,25363794 Sat, 24 Oct 2009 06:10:17 -0700 no Hack a Day best, Competition, Robotics, robots hacks, HackIt, enhs http://www.odeo.com/episodes/25358792-Halloween-props-Skeleton-springs-from-coffin [Tony's] trying to scare the kids again this Halloween. This year’s creation is a skeleton that springs up from a coffin. His creepy coffin is built from plywood and in the classic style it gets narrower at each end. Inside, there’s a full-sized rubber skeleton affixed to a 2×4. Pneumatic rams are used to lift the lid and spring forth the skeleton from the dead. He’s planned his performance well. The finished system uses a fog machine and looped audio for ambiance. A motion sensor detects innocent victims approaching, kills the music, opens the coffin lid, and adjusts the lighting. The coffin is right next to the door so when the doorbell is pushed and the skeleton springs upright this should scare the bejesus out of you. See how effective this in the video after the break. [Tony's] trying to scare the kids again this Halloween. This year’s creation is a skeleton that springs up from a coffin. His creepy coffin is built from plywood and in the classic style it gets narrower at each end. Inside, there’s a full-sized rubber skeleton affixed to a 2×4. Pneumatic rams are used to lift the lid and spring forth the skeleton from the dead. He’s planned his performance well. The finished system uses a fog machine and looped audio for ambiance. A motion sensor detects innocent victims approaching, kills the music, opens the coffin lid, and adjusts the lighting. The coffin is right next to the door so when the doorbell is pushed and the skeleton springs upright this should scare the bejesus out of you. See how effective this in the video after the break. [Tony's] trying to scare the kids again this Halloween. This year’s creation is a skeleton that springs up from a coffin. His creepy coffin is built from plywood and in the classic style it gets narrower at each end. Inside, there’s a full-sized rubber skeleton affixed to a 2×4. Pneumatic rams are used to lift the lid and spring forth the skeleton from the dead. He’s planned his performance well. The finished system uses a fog machine and looped audio for ambiance. A motion sensor detects innocent victims approaching, kills the music, opens the coffin lid, and adjusts the lighting. The coffin is right next to the door so when the doorbell is pushed and the skeleton springs upright this should scare the bejesus out of you. See how effective this in the video after the break. tag:odeo.com,2009-10-23,25358792 Fri, 23 Oct 2009 13:00:42 -0700 no Hack a Day pneumatic, skeleton, home hacks, pneuma, Halloween props http://www.odeo.com/episodes/25358793-SparkFun-gets-a-cease-and-Desist [Nate] over at SparkFun Electronics has posted a cease and desist letter he received from SPARC industries.  Apparently their legal department feels that his name is close enough to theirs to ignite a legal battle. They are demanding that he transfer his domain to them immediately to extinguish the flames. This all seems a bit silly, his name isn’t really at all like theirs and his product isn’t similar either.  To add to the peculiarity of this, going to their site throws up a big red malware warning for us (in chrome). [thanks IraqiGeek] [Nate] over at SparkFun Electronics has posted a cease and desist letter he received from SPARC industries.  Apparently their legal department feels that his name is close enough to theirs to ignite a legal battle. They are demanding that he transfer his domain to them immediately to extinguish the flames. This all seems a bit silly, his name isn’t really at all like theirs and his product isn’t similar either.  To add to the peculiarity of this, going to their site throws up a big red malware warning for us (in chrome). [thanks IraqiGeek] [Nate] over at SparkFun Electronics has posted a cease and desist letter he received from SPARC industries.  Apparently their legal department feels that his name is close enough to theirs to ignite a legal battle. They are demanding that he transfer his domain to them immediately to extinguish the flames. This all seems a bit silly, his name isn’t really at all like theirs and his product isn’t similar either.  To add to the peculiarity of this, going to their site throws up a big red malware warning for us (in chrome). [thanks IraqiGeek] tag:odeo.com,2009-10-23,25358793 Fri, 23 Oct 2009 12:30:13 -0700 no Hack a Day News, Lawyer, law, sparkfun, sparc http://www.odeo.com/episodes/25358794-Poddwatt-Tube-amp-with-mp3-in-mind [Bruce] has designed a push-pull tube amp that has enough gain to connect to a portable audio player. The design is closely related to his OddWatt offering from a few years ago. The new amp has many redesigned circuits and the new hardware choices drop the price tag of the parts by about $50. This little wonder pumps out 5-7 watts and [Bruce] is please with the end result. It doesn’t put out quite as much low-end as the KT88 amp we saw last year, but compared to some other iPod speaker solutions this provides stellar audio. [Bruce] has designed a push-pull tube amp that has enough gain to connect to a portable audio player. The design is closely related to his OddWatt offering from a few years ago. The new amp has many redesigned circuits and the new hardware choices drop the price tag of the parts by about $50. This little wonder pumps out 5-7 watts and [Bruce] is please with the end result. It doesn’t put out quite as much low-end as the KT88 amp we saw last year, but compared to some other iPod speaker solutions this provides stellar audio. [Bruce] has designed a push-pull tube amp that has enough gain to connect to a portable audio player. The design is closely related to his OddWatt offering from a few years ago. The new amp has many redesigned circuits and the new hardware choices drop the price tag of the parts by about $50. This little wonder pumps out 5-7 watts and [Bruce] is please with the end result. It doesn’t put out quite as much low-end as the KT88 amp we saw last year, but compared to some other iPod speaker solutions this provides stellar audio. tag:odeo.com,2009-10-23,25358794 Fri, 23 Oct 2009 12:08:18 -0700 no Hack a Day mp3, ipod, home entertainment hacks, classic hacks, high gain, tube amp http://www.odeo.com/episodes/25356315-Make-your-own-SNES-games-with-developer-cartridge Have you always wished that you could develop games for the Super Nintendo but couldn’t because you were only 4 years old when it was released in 1990? Here’s a second chance. [Max] and his team have created a SNES developer’s cartridge that allows you to load your own code, run it on the SNES, and debug as needed. At its core is an Atmel AVR ATmega644 that is running a boot loader, allowing for firmware updates via USB. Once the system is powered on, ROM code is sent over USB to the 16 megabits of onboard SRAM. A debug terminal can be connected with an RS232 converter, providing status information and allowing some register manipulation. We can believe there are a few hardcore SNES fans out there who will take the time to write custom code. We could also see this being used for the purposes of SNES sythesized music. But is there a wide demand for this type of hardware? If you’ve ever looked into developing for the SNES, let us know in the comments. Have you always wished that you could develop games for the Super Nintendo but couldn’t because you were only 4 years old when it was released in 1990? Here’s a second chance. [Max] and his team have created a SNES developer’s cartridge that allows you to load your own code, run it on the SNES, and debug as needed. At its core is an Atmel AVR ATmega644 that is running a boot loader, allowing for firmware updates via USB. Once the system is powered on, ROM code is sent over USB to the 16 megabits of onboard SRAM. A debug terminal can be connected with an RS232 converter, providing status information and allowing some register manipulation. We can believe there are a few hardcore SNES fans out there who will take the time to write custom code. We could also see this being used for the purposes of SNES sythesized music. But is there a wide demand for this type of hardware? If you’ve ever looked into developing for the SNES, let us know in the comments. Have you always wished that you could develop games for the Super Nintendo but couldn’t because you were only 4 years old when it was released in 1990? Here’s a second chance. [Max] and his team have created a SNES developer’s cartridge that allows you to load your own code, run it on the SNES, and debug as needed. At its core is an Atmel AVR ATmega644 that is running a boot loader, allowing for firmware updates via USB. Once the system is powered on, ROM code is sent over USB to the 16 megabits of onboard SRAM. A debug terminal can be connected with an RS232 converter, providing status information and allowing some register manipulation. We can believe there are a few hardcore SNES fans out there who will take the time to write custom code. We could also see this being used for the purposes of SNES sythesized music. But is there a wide demand for this type of hardware? If you’ve ever looked into developing for the SNES, let us know in the comments. tag:odeo.com,2009-10-23,25356315 Fri, 23 Oct 2009 08:34:30 -0700 no Hack a Day snes, Super Nintendo, AVR, debug, atmega644, nintendo hacks, develop's cartridge http://www.odeo.com/episodes/25356316-Hot-air-pencil-for-under-20 Here’s a project from back in 2001 that might be of interest to some of you. It is a guide on how to build your own hot air pencil for SMD soldering.  He is using a super cheap 45W soldering iron from “the shack” combined with a pump type desoldering tool and an aquarium pump. He says it works pretty well, and we don’t see why it shouldn’t. This is a pretty elegant solution. There are also some more recent versions of this mod, but the idea is basically the same. [thanks Stuart] Here’s a project from back in 2001 that might be of interest to some of you. It is a guide on how to build your own hot air pencil for SMD soldering.  He is using a super cheap 45W soldering iron from “the shack” combined with a pump type desoldering tool and an aquarium pump. He says it works pretty well, and we don’t see why it shouldn’t. This is a pretty elegant solution. There are also some more recent versions of this mod, but the idea is basically the same. [thanks Stuart] Here’s a project from back in 2001 that might be of interest to some of you. It is a guide on how to build your own hot air pencil for SMD soldering.  He is using a super cheap 45W soldering iron from “the shack” combined with a pump type desoldering tool and an aquarium pump. He says it works pretty well, and we don’t see why it shouldn’t. This is a pretty elegant solution. There are also some more recent versions of this mod, but the idea is basically the same. [thanks Stuart] tag:odeo.com,2009-10-23,25356316 Fri, 23 Oct 2009 07:08:47 -0700 no Hack a Day solder, smd, tool hacks, heat pencil http://www.odeo.com/episodes/25356317-Psystar-taunts-Apple-a-second-time As if bankruptcy shenanigans and an unresolved exchange of lawsuits with Apple weren’t enough, Mac clone maker Psystar is really swatting the beehive now with the release of Rebel EFI, a $50 software package that promises a straightforward installation of Mac OS X on a variety of commodity x86 systems. Setting up one’s own “Hackintosh” system has traditionally been a painstaking process of duplicating the OS install disc and fiddling around with various kernel extensions. Rebel EFI claims to do away with all this, bringing click-and-drool simplicity to the Hackintosh experience. The package can be downloaded free of charge in order to test compatibility with one’s hardware before committing to buy; in this trial mode, the system is limited to two hours run time. Minimum requirements include an Intel Core 2 Duo, Core 2 Quad, Core i7, or Xeon Nehalem CPU. Normally we’re all for voiding warranties, challenging EULAs, and sticking it to The Man, but some have been calling Psystar’s unde... As if bankruptcy shenanigans and an unresolved exchange of lawsuits with Apple weren’t enough, Mac clone maker Psystar is really swatting the beehive now with the release of Rebel EFI, a $50 software package that promises a straightforward installation of Mac OS X on a variety of commodity x86 systems. Setting up one’s own “Hackintosh” system has traditionally been a painstaking process of duplicating the OS install disc and fiddling around with various kernel extensions. Rebel EFI claims to do away with all this, bringing click-and-drool simplicity to the Hackintosh experience. The package can be downloaded free of charge in order to test compatibility with one’s hardware before committing to buy; in this trial mode, the system is limited to two hours run time. Minimum requirements include an Intel Core 2 Duo, Core 2 Quad, Core i7, or Xeon Nehalem CPU. Normally we’re all for voiding warranties, challenging EULAs, and sticking it to The Man, but some have been calling Psystar’s underdog image a charade, claiming the commercial Rebel EFI software is simply an uncredited derivative of open source efforts such as the Chameleon bootloader. Whether or not this proves true, it will be interesting to see how this whole surreal skit plays out between Apple, Psystar and the open source Hackintosh community. As if bankruptcy shenanigans and an unresolved exchange of lawsuits with Apple weren’t enough, Mac clone maker Psystar is really swatting the beehive now with the release of Rebel EFI, a $50 software package that promises a straightforward installation of Mac OS X on a variety of commodity x86 systems. Setting up one’s own “Hackintosh” system has traditionally been a painstaking process of duplicating the OS install disc and fiddling around with various kernel extensions. Rebel EFI claims to do away with all this, bringing click-and-drool simplicity to the Hackintosh experience. The package can be downloaded free of charge in order to test compatibility with one’s hardware before committing to buy; in this trial mode, the system is limited to two hours run time. Minimum requirements include an Intel Core 2 Duo, Core 2 Quad, Core i7, or Xeon Nehalem CPU. Normally we’re all for voiding warranties, challenging EULAs, and sticking it to The Man, but some have been calling Psystar’s underdog image a charade, claiming the commercial Rebel EFI software is simply an uncredited derivative of open source efforts such as the Chameleon bootloader. Whether or not this proves true, it will be interesting to see how this whole surreal skit plays out between Apple, Psystar and the open source Hackintosh community. tag:odeo.com,2009-10-23,25356317 Fri, 23 Oct 2009 06:05:54 -0700 no Hack a Day apple, osx86, downloads hacks, macs hacks, psystar, hacintosh http://www.odeo.com/episodes/25349199-Unreasonably-bright-bike-light-apparently-hunts-deer [Jukka] wanted a bike light that wasn’t afraid to go into the woods during the dark winter. He put together a lamp that uses eight 3 Watt LEDs to pump out 1680 lumens (english translation). The high power LEDs were mounted on a large aluminum heat sink and use lenses to optimize the beam of light. The system uses a 2 amp driver board that he assembled himself. Power is provided by sixteen AA Nickel Metal Hydride batteries that are housed along with the driver circuit in a water bottle. This more than doubles the output of the last bike light we thought was too bright. Where will this lumen-arms-race stop? [Thanks Sami] [Jukka] wanted a bike light that wasn’t afraid to go into the woods during the dark winter. He put together a lamp that uses eight 3 Watt LEDs to pump out 1680 lumens (english translation). The high power LEDs were mounted on a large aluminum heat sink and use lenses to optimize the beam of light. The system uses a 2 amp driver board that he assembled himself. Power is provided by sixteen AA Nickel Metal Hydride batteries that are housed along with the driver circuit in a water bottle. This more than doubles the output of the last bike light we thought was too bright. Where will this lumen-arms-race stop? [Thanks Sami] [Jukka] wanted a bike light that wasn’t afraid to go into the woods during the dark winter. He put together a lamp that uses eight 3 Watt LEDs to pump out 1680 lumens (english translation). The high power LEDs were mounted on a large aluminum heat sink and use lenses to optimize the beam of light. The system uses a 2 amp driver board that he assembled himself. Power is provided by sixteen AA Nickel Metal Hydride batteries that are housed along with the driver circuit in a water bottle. This more than doubles the output of the last bike light we thought was too bright. Where will this lumen-arms-race stop? [Thanks Sami] tag:odeo.com,2009-10-22,25349199 Thu, 22 Oct 2009 13:00:03 -0700 no Hack a Day bike, light, transportation hacks, nickel metal hydride, led hacks, lumens