Gadget Hacks
« Previous EntriesInteractive Projector Screen
Friday, July 25th, 2008
We have seen lots of Projector Screen hacks over the last few years, this one demos the power of the system quite well. It doesn’t take much hardware to provide some fantastic results! The video game gun use is a natural extension of the technology.
DIY Laser Etching Projects
Thursday, July 24th, 2008
Baccus61 has documented some of his cool DIY Laser Etching Projects. He makes etching an image on a round bottle simple!
After the jump are a few of my favorite videos he has created.
Garage Parking Assistant - Basic Stamp Microcontroller Based
Wednesday, July 23rd, 2008
This Basic Stamp Microcontroller Based Garage Parking Assistant may be overkill for the application but that is what makes it fun. 
What fun would it be to hang a tennis ball from the ceiling when you can use technology to give you a traffic light that represents your optimal parking distance.
Underwater ROV Project
Tuesday, July 22nd, 2008
This Underwater ROV Project has lots of documentation of a cool work in progress. There are lots of challenges that were faced along the way that may save one of us some time on one of our future projects.
Here are a few videos of the unit in action.
TrackIR - Head Tracking for Game Play
Tuesday, July 22nd, 2008
This technology looks like it works very well. I have seen lots of 2 LED motion sense units but the third LED seems to add lots to the capability. Now if only someone came up with an open source version of it since the prices seem a bit high.
"As you move in your chair and rotate your head small amounts : your game-view will precisely correspond. You never have to look away from the monitor because all aspects of your motion are amplified and adjustable. There are only 6 ways you can move around in 3D space. There are 3 ways to lean, and 3 ways to rotate. The technical term for all of these movements is "6 Degrees of Freedom" (or "6DOF"). True 6DOF support is one of the main things that puts TrackIR well ahead of any other input device."
DIY XY Plotter
Monday, July 21st, 2008
Re-purposing old computer parts is great since it prevents working equipment from finding their way into the landfill. This XY Plotter is a great example of re-use of old equipment.
"This XY plotter was made by the group at Next Window and is the work of Paul Marson and Keith Colson, for the purposes of calibrating touch screens. It uses components that were salvaged from two old Kodak flatbed scanners. Belts, motors, driver boards and the stepper motors themselves are what is used for this machine and gives a resolution of 16 micrometers per step, far better accuracy that what is actually needed."
Lego NXT Rubik Cube Solver
Sunday, July 20th, 2008
The most impressive part of this Lego NXT Rubik Cube Solver is that the NXT module does the computing that solves the cube! I wouldn’t have thought that would have been possible without having a PC do the calculations.
Video after the jump.
"Tilted Twister solves Rubik’s cube fully automatically. Just place the scrambled cube on Tilted Twister’s turntable. An ultrasonic sensor detects its presence and starts to read the colors of the cube faces using a light sensor. The robot turns and tilts the cube in order to read all the faces of the cube. It then calculates a solution and executes the moves by turning, tilting and twisting the cube."
NXT BatCycle - The Dark Knight Motorcycle
Saturday, July 19th, 2008
I haven’t seen the movie yet but I hear it is good. This Batcycle is a high tech model of the motorcycle from the movie.
"To celebrate the release of Batman’s latest film, “The Dark Knight”, the NXT BatCycle was created! Armed and dangerous, the BatCycle can handle any opponents it may encounter with its’ hidden rocket launcher that expands from the body of the bike. With its’ large wheel area, the NXT BatCycle can also stand and move unaided*! The BatCycle is a possible NXT (NeXT) generation of the Dark Knight’s vehicle collection, and has been designed in terms of style to be as similar to Batman’s other vehicles (Batmobile, Batwing, Batboat, etc) as possible."
RoboTurk - Unmanned Aerial Disaster Emergency Video System
Friday, July 18th, 2008
RoboTurk is a great example of technology being used to help save lives. It uses Microsoft technology at the core to perform some very complex tasks.
"RobotTurk is a prototype Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) equipped with a camera that is capable of streaming live video of disaster struck areas to ground command stations. The helicopter carries onboard an eBox compute-unit that runs Microsoft Robotics Studio, allowing the robot to execute specific command issued by ground statation or to auto-fly or safely land. The ground stations utilizes Windows Server 2008 Media Services that capture, process and streams video. The disaster coordination users utilizes Microsoft Virtual Earth as a mapping tool and Silverlight streaming to show the overlaid video on the maps."
DIY Electric Motorcycle
Thursday, July 17th, 2008
Electric bikes are all the rage recently. But why would you simply buy one when you can make your own? That is what Stryker did when he wanted to get rid of some of hid fuel costs. Have a look at the fully documented process here.
Hack the Asus Eee PC
Wednesday, July 16th, 2008
For light use the Eee PC by Asus looks like a nice small low power computer but it is lacking some of the built in items that you may want. Have no fear this Asus Eee PC Hack shows you that it is totally upgradeable with a little skill and time.
Church Bell Automation
Tuesday, July 15th, 2008
With this circuit those videos of people pulling the correct ropes to ring the right bells in sequence may be over. The Church Bell Automation (zip project file) system allows for lots of customization, I just have to figure out where I am going to install 5 or 6 bells in my garage.
Robotic Dog Fetches Ball
Monday, July 14th, 2008
I have never used any of the Acroname microcontroller, but after seeing this Robot Fetching demonstration I am impressed by its power (and the skill of mw0868).
"This robot uses an Acroname CMUcam2+ for its eye and an Acroname BrainStem GP 2.0 microcontroller for its brain. It chases down a bright pink ball (which I made with a styrofoam ball and neon pink acrylic paint), grabs it with its dual-servo pincher, and brinks it back to its home base by homing in on another bright pink target (conveniently mounted over the iSight camera on my Mac)."
Parallax Tank Bot
Sunday, July 13th, 2008
This robot has lots of cool technology such as bluetooth, pan tilt camera, Parallax microcontroller and the list goes on. This would make for a great robotic platform for making many cool projects.
NES Cartridge Game Hack
Saturday, July 12th, 2008
Darkeru posted his NES Cartridge Game Hack in the Ben Heck forum. He has done a great job of fitting it into a standard cartridge and making it playable with a normal looking game pad layout.
« Previous Entries