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Items by Jakob Griffith
Hack a Day
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Cardboard Androids
Posted: March 8th, 2010, 6:50pm EST by Jakob Griffith
Tags: [edit]
Who needs expensive acrylic based, microcontrolled robots with only a few sensors available when cardboard and an Android cellphone will work much better for much less in cost! The team over at Cellbots have done just that. While they did cheat a little by using a laser cut cardboard for exact measurements and including an [...]
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Don’t worry occifer, there is no blood in my alcohol!
Posted: March 7th, 2010, 6:37pm EST by Jakob Griffith
Tags: [edit]
[Daniel] wrote up a quick tutorial on interfacing with the MQ-3, or better known Breathalyzer from SparkFun with Arduino. While we would have used perhaps an op-amp/comparator based system and kept it in a much smaller package, the idea was so quick and simple and enjoyable we hoped an article might keep some hackers from [...]
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Lucid dreaming
Posted: March 6th, 2010, 10:08am EST by Jakob Griffith
Tags: [edit]
When we saw [merkz] use of an Arduino to produce lucid dreaming we were quite shocked. Unlike typical setups that just flash a light through sleep, his system monitors eye movement through electrodes and is able to send the data to a computer for graphing and analyzing. The only problem being we couldn’t find a [...]
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Home cinema 3D (or just tick off theatergoers)
Posted: March 4th, 2010, 12:23pm EST by Jakob Griffith
Tags: [edit]
After a visit to the local theater and discovering the use of IR 3D glasses (for films such as Avatar), the team over at Furrtek wondered how they worked, and more importantly, how the glasses could be manipulated to tick off audience members. While the original intentions seem a bit childish, they did mention that [...]
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Portable Squeezebox with serial
Posted: March 2nd, 2010, 9:00am EST by Jakob Griffith
Tags: [edit]
The Squeezbox media streaming systems are compact Linux WiFi enabled radios that let you stream your collection anywhere,so long as you have an AC or USB outlet nearby. But [Achim Sack] wanted to stream his collection from anywhere with no wires attached (translation). Some poking and prodding revealed a connector actually designed for a battery [...]
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Fix 0LBA and BSY HDD errors
Posted: February 28th, 2010, 3:26pm EST by Jakob Griffith
Tags: [edit]
One of the worst moments almost every hacker has experienced is a hard drive inexplicably dieing. And of course, its at the most inopportune time and you’ve had no chance to backup! Recently there has been an influx of Seagate hard drives (specifically the 2700.11s) kicking the bucket with firmware errors 0LBA and BSY. The good [...]
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WRT54GL, meet Alice
Posted: February 27th, 2010, 11:26am EST by Jakob Griffith
Tags: [edit]
When it comes to routers, there is one that is hacker’s favorite, the WRT54GL. But a slightly lesser known company, Pirelli with their “Alice Gate2 plus Wi-Fi”, seems to be a popular choice among our Italian friends. [Esteban] has done everything from installing serial and parallel ports, to unlocking firmware while installing Debian. Our personal favorite [...]
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Drilling perfectly centered holes
Posted: February 26th, 2010, 1:00pm EST by Jakob Griffith
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If you’ve ever been caught in the situation of needing to drill a clean straight hole down the center of a bolt or rod, you’ve probably tried and ended up with a broken bit or tilted hole, and a ton of cursing to boot. [Vik] let us know about this nifty trick for drilling ‘down the [...]
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RGV laser
Posted: February 10th, 2010, 6:36pm EST by Jakob Griffith
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[Carl] sure has come a long way with laser modifications, now introducing his portable RGV Full Colour Laser. Although it feels just like yesterday when he showed us his green spiro and his Lego diffraction grating projector. But enough of the past, the RGV laser is built using a White Fusion Mixing Kit and his own [...]
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‘Mod in the USA’ N900 PUSH competition
Posted: February 8th, 2010, 8:54am EST by Jakob Griffith
Tags: [edit]
Just when you think you’ve heard all you can about the N900 PUSH competition, we have some more news for you. The original PUSH competition was only for UK members, but now Nokia has introduced the ‘Mod in the USA‘ N900 PUSH competition. Similar to the original, anyone (within region) can submit a cool mod, hack, [...]
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Ask a winner updates day 5: Answers
Posted: February 5th, 2010, 9:14am EST by Jakob Griffith
Tags: [edit]
Not too long ago we asked our readers what they would like to hear about from the PUSH N900 winners and their hacks. We got some silly questions, and some serious, we asked both and now the PUSH teams have answered. The day has passed, the party is gone, and all that’s left is the final [...]
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Winners of the N900 PUSH Showcase tickets.
Posted: February 4th, 2010, 9:40am EST by Jakob Griffith
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Like all great things, they must come to an end. As such, at 10am PST, this morning – our N900 Push competition came to a close. We had some really awesome answers, some really round about, and of course the obligatory – really bad ones. For those that are just on the EDGE of your [...]
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Ask a winner updates day 4: Answers
Posted: February 3rd, 2010, 10:00am EST by Jakob Griffith
Tags: [edit]
Not too long ago we asked our readers what they would like to hear about from the PUSH N900 winners and their hacks. We got some silly questions, and some serious, we asked both and now the PUSH teams have answered. Solderin Skaters are really making progress. They’ve gotten their printed circuit boards and mounting equipment [...]
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PHP runtime rewritten, by Facebook?
Posted: February 3rd, 2010, 9:00am EST by Jakob Griffith
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Yes, its true. Facebook has completely rewritten the PHP runtime to make it faster and more efficient, and its completely open source. Named HipHop, its described as a source code transformer, changing PHP into optimized C++ which is then compiled using g++. Thus keeping the best aspects of PHP while taking advantage of the performance [...]
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Hybrid analog/binary clock, the MK2
Posted: January 30th, 2010, 7:00pm EST by Jakob Griffith
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[Kieran] let us know about his hybrid analog/binary clock. The circuitry behind the clock is nothing too new. An Arduino combined with a Chronodot to produce an accurate clock. What we really enjoyed however was the creative implementation of an old British Telecom Linesman’s Multimeter as the case. The analog meter acts as the seconds [...]
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Ask a winner updates day 2: Answers
Posted: January 30th, 2010, 9:43am EST by Jakob Griffith
Tags: [edit]
Not too long ago we asked our readers what they would like to hear about from the PUSH N900 winners and their hacks. We got some silly questions, and some serious, we asked both and now the PUSH teams have answered. The Haptic Guide team took a moment of their time for us today. Their N900 [...]
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And we’re back
Posted: January 29th, 2010, 11:45am EST by Jakob Griffith
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Several of you were rather angry with us yesterday for our competition. Those not in the loop, our email competition@hackaday.com was not correctly configured and no body could send in their entries! But have no fear, we have fixed the problem and now you can send in your guesses. To remedy the situation we have decided [...]
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Ask a winner updates: Answers
Posted: January 28th, 2010, 6:44pm EST by Jakob Griffith
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Not too long ago we asked our readers what they would like to hear about from the PUSH N900 winners and their hacks. We got some silly questions, and some serious, we asked both and now the PUSH teams have answered. Todays team interview is KAPing with the N900. They’re N900 hack is the high flying [...]
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Contest: win Push Showcase tickets
Posted: January 28th, 2010, 5:05pm EST by Jakob Griffith
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Who is ready to win some tickets to the PUSH N900 Showcase? The showcase is an event where all 5 teams from the Push N900 competition are going meet up in London and present their N900 hacks. Including N900s that fly, skate, Etch a Sketch(TM), and more. We also hear there is going to be a [...]
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PS3 hacked!
Posted: January 24th, 2010, 5:00pm EST by Jakob Griffith
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There is very little information out at the moment, but [geohot] has successfully hacked the PS3 to have full read and write access, bypassing the Hypervisor. At the moment he’s not revealing the exploit, but with this knowledge it wont be long before the PS3 finally gets whats coming. Keep track of [geohot's] progress on [...]
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Hackaday links: Sunday January 24
Posted: January 24th, 2010, 3:44pm EST by Jakob Griffith
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Everyone Remembers Free day right? [The Ideanator's] Bus Pirate came in such a nice red box – he decided to make it his permanent case. [Chico] is in the middle of making a CNC, but decided to make some music with the steppers in the mean time. What looks like an old wooden box is actually [Ludvig's] [...]
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ProtoDeck – MIDIBOX based controller
Posted: January 14th, 2010, 8:12am EST by Jakob Griffith
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[Julien] let us know about his ProtoDeck. A MIDIBOX based controller for Ableton Live using a Big Max for live patch interface. One thing that we have seen is less and less hacks for are MIDIbox projects. It is no wonder, considering now a days we have touch screen and multiple other interfaces and sound creation [...]
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Neon lamp and other crazy clocks
Posted: January 13th, 2010, 11:00am EST by Jakob Griffith
Enclosure: [download]
Tags: [edit]
Quick quiz, what came before transistors? Why vacuum tubes of course. If this clock doesn’t make you thankful for the luxury of integrated circuits, nothing will. We had never heard of using Neon Lamps as logic circuits, and they definitely produce a much cooler effect when counting. [Thanks Philippe] And finally, we’re just suckers for a good Nixie [...]
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194 Transistor Clock will blow your mind
Posted: January 11th, 2010, 10:37am EST by Jakob Griffith
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It’s nice to have tip put on our desks that we think everyone, yes everyone can enjoy. The Transistor Clock is just as its name implies, A clock that doesn’t rely on ICs. 194 Transistors, 400 resistors, 566 diodes, and 87 capacitors are all that makes this clock tick – no programing, and most importantly [...]
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Spy on your office
Posted: January 7th, 2010, 3:00pm EST by Jakob Griffith
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[Garagedeveloper] sent us his custom surveillance system, part 1, part 2, and part 3 after needing a way to find out why some cables at work were becoming unplugged (spoiler, the cleaners were messing up the wiring). At the base of the system is a web cam glued to a stepper motor. However, it gets [...]
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Max/MSP accelerometer beat control
Posted: January 7th, 2010, 10:08am EST by Jakob Griffith
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let us know about his Max/MSP Controller. Inside the device is an ADXL 335 accelerometer and 6 push buttons wired to an Arduino. The input data is sent to Max MSP, a sequencer controlling 5 audio tracks, correlating to 5 of the buttons. The 6th button controls delay. What we really liked was how [...]
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Nokia PUSH competition update
Posted: January 5th, 2010, 9:42am EST by Jakob Griffith
Tags: [edit]
A couple of readers weren’t too thrilled when the winners were announced a while back for the Nokia N900 competition. And to be honest, we even wondered on some ideas (like what does skateboarding have to do with hacking?) However, The teams have been hard at work and a picture video is starting to form [...]
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CNC project roundup
Posted: December 29th, 2009, 8:53am EST by Jakob Griffith
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We asked for CNC projects, and wow did you guys deliver! First up is [J-J Shortcut's] MDF based CNC. He’s made three thus far, with the most recent costing about 180 euro and taking 2 months to build. [Qwindelzorf] has also constructed a multitude of CNC machines including this industrial size router and this smaller miller. Finally, [Mick's] [...]
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Five updates for the Steadicam
Posted: December 28th, 2009, 9:39am EST by Jakob Griffith
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[YB2Normal] has updated his steadicam 5 times! For those that remember the original, it allowed indie film makers to create smooth and steady video. Version 2 implemented a new gimbal based on a throttle linkage in cars. Version 3 allowed the user to easily adjust angles and weights to prevent accidentally knocking the assembly. Version [...]
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(Yet another) Twitter this controlling Arduino that
Posted: December 27th, 2009, 11:49am EST by Jakob Griffith
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Christmas may be over, but we still have a couple of cool holiday related hacks for you. One being [Alpay's] Twitter based interactive Christmas tree ornaments. We tried to dig up some more information, but it thus far appears a laptop running Processing searches Twitter for specific Christmas related words (like 1337, that’s Christmas-y), sends a [...]
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VFD clock (ends the world)
Posted: December 26th, 2009, 2:00pm EST by Jakob Griffith
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We honestly thought [Jason's] VFD clock was some form of new terrorist attack when we came across the RSS. Thank goodness our relations with Russia aren’t as MAD as they used to be. The main components are an IV-18 VFD with a MAX6921 driver, which to an untrained ear do sound surprisingly threatening. However an Arduino [...]
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Better temperature readings using an aspirated thermometer
Posted: December 17th, 2009, 5:25pm EST by Jakob Griffith
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Unlike regular thermometers that can get incorrect readings because of the sun’s heat, shading, and airflow, aspirated thermometers isolate the temperature sensor from precipitation and the sun, while providing constant air circulation. Take ten 1-wire T2SS boards and combine them with DS18B20s and you’ve got yourself the start of an aspirated thermometer. A foot of [...]
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Cellphone hack-off
Posted: December 17th, 2009, 10:00am EST by Jakob Griffith
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Today we received two very interesting hacks utilizing old cellphones within a matter of minutes of each other – Of course, this means war! In the left corner we have the Mobile Mobile, a 50 cell phone collection dangling high above our heads by [James]. Loyal readers will remember his last match, a physical realization of [...]
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IntoDream, the ‘portable’ Dreamcast
Posted: December 15th, 2009, 5:50pm EST by Jakob Griffith
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What looks like an absolute mess of wires,5 fans,3 batteries, and other miscellaneous equipment squeezed into a Tupperware box on the left? At first we didn’t believe it, but it is actually [John's] fully functioning slick-looking portable Dreamcast on the right. The system runs Quake 3 for a little over 2 hours, not too bad [...]
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New pet, Project 413
Posted: December 14th, 2009, 9:50am EST by Jakob Griffith
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[Jacob] sent in his teams final project, Project 413. While sounding like something straight out of an action movie, don’t worry, it’s not the next terminator. Rather a combination of an eBox (in place of an EEE pc), omni wheels, motors, batteries, and the finishing touch – a hamster ferret ball. If this is sounding [...]
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BiDi Screen, on (and off) screen multitouch
Posted: December 12th, 2009, 2:02pm EST by Jakob Griffith
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MIT is debuting their latest advancement in technology, a multitouch screen that also functions as a gestural interface. The multitouch aspect is nothing new, the team explains how traditional interfaces using LEDs or camera systems do work, but fail to recognize gestures off-screen. Gestures are a relatively recent highlight with the introduction of projects like Natal [...]
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Saturday afternoon robot cooking
Posted: December 5th, 2009, 5:00pm EST by Jakob Griffith
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What happens when you combine an IR tracking PS3 Eyetoy, and a high-resolution projector? If you answered multi-touch display, you’re on the right track. Add a Wii Nunchuck controlled robot, a pinch of Community Core Vision tracking software combined with Processing, and the piece de resistance, a modified Memo TUIO particle system and you get [...]
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(Remote controlled robot) car vs (solar charged) tank
Posted: December 5th, 2009, 9:55am EST by Jakob Griffith
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[Matthias] sent in his team’s iPhone Robot (CAR) project in response to yesterday’s iPhone controlled solar charged tank. Unlike the tank, the iPhone car is controlled via Bluetooth BTnode and BTstack, and also isn’t solar-powered. However, both projects utilize iPhones and readily available components. We particularly liked how it not only used a multi-touch input, [...]
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Make a Mac on the cheap
Posted: December 3rd, 2009, 5:59pm EST by Jakob Griffith
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We’re not usually the type for PC case mods, but when we received the tip for the Macbook Mod of hiding a Macbook inside of two Linksys routers, we decided to make an exception on three accounts. [Tyler's] original intent was acquiring a Mac, the total price for a full functioning system was a little [...]
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Double dose of iPhone camera hacks
Posted: December 1st, 2009, 5:45pm EST by Jakob Griffith
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Why take an iPhone, a slim device that already takes decent photographs and add several macro magnifying lenses? For [Mathijs], simply because he could, But now he can take some awesome macro pictures. [Bhautik] (maker of the tilt-shift Plungercam) took the concept further. With some more trademark plumbing supplies and a lot of duct tape, secured [...]
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Voice controlled lock? Almost…
Posted: November 25th, 2009, 1:13pm EST by Jakob Griffith
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If you watched the video before reading the article (like we did) and started shaking in your boots at a voice controlled lock system, prepare to be disappointed. His spoken commands are actually to his son to press the appropriate keys on a keypad off screen, the lock is not actually voice controlled. But still, [Michael [...]
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$100 free from your favorite hobby supplier!
Posted: November 24th, 2009, 9:13am EST by Jakob Griffith
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We were wary at first when the email came in with the headline “SparkFun is having a free day” and figured surly this is in relation to recent events? But no, after 7 years of loyal customers, SparkFun is simply giving back to the community. It’s interesting to think that without their services, we wouldn’t have [...]
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SparkFun product used for immoral hacking
Posted: November 23rd, 2009, 10:00am EST by Jakob Griffith
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While we have our fun ethically hacking, its very easy to forget that sometimes our ideas could be used with malicious goals. Take for instance SparkFun’s BlueSMiRF – the device’s original intention is simply to act as a wireless serial cable replacement. After hackers discovered several PIN pads use a serial interface, they put one [...]
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LED PDF from TI (KUWTA)
Posted: November 21st, 2009, 12:00pm EST by Jakob Griffith
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[Satiagraha] let us know that Texas Instruments(TI) has given out a neat “LED Reference Design Cookbook” PDF. The document contains 17 some odd little projects featuring different TI ICs and ways of using them to control LEDs in things from backlights to torches to solar lanterns to advanced PWM control! Sure the document is biased [...]
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Axe your camera (again!)
Posted: November 19th, 2009, 5:43pm EST by Jakob Griffith
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[Maurice] let us know that his latest photography tool for hackers, the Camera Axe 3.0, is now available. The original allowed you to trigger a high-speed flash and camera from a multitude of sensors, including light and sound. The new one does all that, but also: allows multiple cameras or multiple flashes, clean up of [...]
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(Mini) Earthquake in your living room
Posted: November 19th, 2009, 8:56am EST by Jakob Griffith
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Today we stumbled upon [jimthree's] Seismic Reflector while looking at projects that employ the Processing language we mentioned a few days ago. Utilizing a Boarduino and some vibration motors from a game controller, the Seismic Reflector does just as its name implies – rattles itself around whenever there is an earthquake. While this does seem [...]
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Rotating radar visualization
Posted: November 16th, 2009, 7:00pm EST by Jakob Griffith
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We ask, who wouldn’t want a rotating motion and distance tracking radar? Sure in today’s day and age anyone could purchase a wide-angle sonar or IR solution that achieves the same goal, but [LuckyLarry] took it old school and made his own rotating radar. He used an Arduino, servo, and ultrasonic sensor as a base [...]
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Bulbdial redux
Posted: November 15th, 2009, 2:25pm EST by Jakob Griffith
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[Taufeeq] sent in his “Circle of Light” bulbdial clock. You may remember when we showed you Evil Mad Scientist’s version a while back, and [Taufeeq] did use it as a base but he’s added some of his own little touches. Some of the changes include using a PIC with an RTC chip instead of AVR, [...]
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Voice controlled LED sign
Posted: November 10th, 2009, 9:00am EST by Jakob Griffith
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120 LEDs and NerdKit, check. Python and appropriate Google Voice module, check. Blend on high for 2 minutes, bake for an hour at 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Your soufflé is done, whoops, we mean your voice controlled LED sign is done. Leave a voicemail on Davis’ Google Voice account that starts with “message” and it will [...]
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Urban Defender: location aware game
Posted: November 7th, 2009, 3:00pm EST by Jakob Griffith
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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 [...]
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Physical email notification
Posted: November 6th, 2009, 5:00pm EST by Jakob Griffith
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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?” [...]
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PUSH competition winners
Posted: November 3rd, 2009, 10:13am EST by Jakob Griffith
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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 [...]
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We’ll take the fries.
Posted: November 1st, 2009, 4:50pm EST by Jakob Griffith
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We’ve all been there; hardest decision we’ve ever had to make. College and debt or freedom but no career? Start a family or live out alone? The number 2 with a small shake or side of fries?! [Leon] sent in his random number generator, oddly enough not to just generate a number, but help us through [...]
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Happy birthday Internet, here’s $40,000
Posted: November 1st, 2009, 9:09am EST by Jakob Griffith
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Darpa has another contest coming up. You may remember some past Darpa competitions, like the 2007 Urban Challenge. Where hackers, engineers, and scientists alike came together to build autonomous vehicles. The game this year is to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Internet. The rules are simple enough, find a bunch of red balloons and mark [...]
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Cheating RockBand (again)
Posted: October 30th, 2009, 9:16am EDT by Jakob Griffith
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Sure making a robot that plays the game RockBand for you seems a little cheap at first, but no human can possibly hit that 30 triplet note straight ending in a button mashing contest. To finally get his high score [Joe] made a setup to play the game for him, on the iPhone. We’ve seen [...]
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libTISCH 1.0 released
Posted: October 29th, 2009, 9:58am EDT by Jakob Griffith
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[Florian] is proud to announce libTISCH 1.0 is finally ready for release. We told you about libTISCH just under a year ago and how it is a multitouch framework that factors more on the software side of things, instead of hardware for multitouch interfaces. A lot has changed including more widgets, more gestures, more hardware [...]
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Remote controlled claw of doom
Posted: October 27th, 2009, 9:43am EDT by Jakob Griffith
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Robotic claws are awesome, period. [Jeremy's] Remotely controlled robotic claw, thats just a whole new level of cool – even if the intention is to just pick up blocks. The setup is simple enough, a Parallax Propeller controls the whole system by first polling a web server for changes in variables that the user has [...]
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Extended IR input
Posted: October 25th, 2009, 4:00pm EDT by Jakob Griffith
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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 [...]
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(the) Best Robotics competition
Posted: October 24th, 2009, 9:10am EDT by Jakob Griffith
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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 [...]
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Ps3 laptop courtesy of Ben Heck
Posted: October 21st, 2009, 9:13am EDT by Jakob Griffith
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[Ben Heck] may be the coolest person ever (take that [Adam Savage]). You would think that after producing so many laptop versions of gaming consoles he would grow tired or we would be bored of them. But no! We love each and every new production – including his latest laptop-ified Ps3. Not too much in [...]
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RepRap – in space! (sorta)
Posted: October 20th, 2009, 9:20am EDT by Jakob Griffith
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We aren’t exactly sure how or even why you would need to RepRap in space, but we guess their team needed something to do while designing and printing their next version. They figure that if they can print completely upside down in -1G and then upside up in 1G, that 0G hopefully wont be a [...]
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Shift powered pumpkins
Posted: October 19th, 2009, 12:08pm EDT by Jakob Griffith
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[Garret] and a couple of friends totally stole our idea wanted to light up their pumpkins a bit differently this year. They used some ShiftBrites and all the corresponding shift hardware (who knew there was so much shift out there) to bring their carved orange minions to life. Yes, this could be done a lot [...]
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Finally, a keyboard for the iPhone
Posted: October 14th, 2009, 7:29pm EDT by Jakob Griffith
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We can’t say we’ve had problems typing on our iPhones here at HackaDay, must be the elfin fingers, but for [Ben Kurtz] it was a real pain. The obvious solution is to carry around an Arduino, 9 volt battery, iPhone breakout board, a ps2 keyboard, and of course the iPhone itself. Well, maybe it could [...]
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CNC router on the way
Posted: October 14th, 2009, 9:21am EDT by Jakob Griffith
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We love CNC hacks, so when [Jonny] sent in his nearly complete CNC router we were ecstatic. There are only a couple of posts thus far, and it takes some digging, but its pretty easy to understand his mindset and overall plan while making the CNC. It currently has full 3 axis movement and he [...]
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Maggy, locked and loaded
Posted: October 8th, 2009, 7:00pm EDT by Jakob Griffith
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Some readers may remember [Paul] from his project Jak, the blackjack robot; but his interests have moved toward coil gun creation. Maggy, his latest weapon, may not be the prettiest of coil gun we’ve seen, or the most environmentally friendly, but does look to be promising. Featuring a triple stage, logic based accelerator instead of [...]
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Maggy, locked and loaded
Posted: October 8th, 2009, 7:00pm EDT by Jakob Griffith
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Some readers may remember [Paul] from his project Jak, the blackjack robot; but his interests have moved toward coil gun creation. Maggy, his latest weapon, may not be the prettiest of coil gun we’ve seen, or the most environmentally friendly, but does look to be promising. Featuring a triple stage, logic based accelerator instead of [...]
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Giants roam Berlin
Posted: October 8th, 2009, 6:00pm EDT by Jakob Griffith
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I can hear the comments now: “Not a hack.” Yeah that might be true, but it’s still enormous puppets running around Berlin – that in its own right is pretty cool. The show, put on by the street theater group Royal De Luxe, is part of the 20th anniversary for the fall of the Berlin [...]
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eD, the electric DeLorean
Posted: October 7th, 2009, 11:00am EDT by Jakob Griffith
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Who wouldn’t want a DeLorean, honestly it has to be the one of the coolest cars around, what with its gull wing doors and stainless steel siding. Joking aside [Tom Neiland] and [Dave Delman] went even further, creating eD, the electric DeLorean. It contains around 910 pounds of deep cycle lead batteries, custom transmission adapter [...]
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Doom on a picture key chain
Posted: October 6th, 2009, 9:02am EDT by Jakob Griffith
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Alright, so Doom isn’t actually running on the key chain itself, but rather a BifferBoard: a small 150MHz x86 containing ethernet, serial, and even USB with only one watt of power consumption! The project is to show how easy it is to program the BifferBoard and getting it talking to other hackable items – such [...]
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RGB laser
Posted: October 4th, 2009, 9:22am EDT by Jakob Griffith
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Last month we had the pleasure of bringing you [FireMyLaser's] green laser spirograph. Just green is great for a while, but why not add red and blue for a full spectrum of color! [c4r0] steps in at this point to bring us his red green blue laser. He dug around inside Blu-ray players and DVD [...]
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Office warfare
Posted: October 3rd, 2009, 5:00pm EDT by Jakob Griffith
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a Ruler, rubber band, and a pen make a bow and arrow? How about tape, a ping pong ball, and a lighter coming together to make a ‘Zooka. We didn’t think such destructive weapons could possibly be made from office supplies, but the famous [John Austin] is here to prove us wrong. He’s been miniaturizing [...]
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SMD LED matrix
Posted: October 2nd, 2009, 10:00am EDT by Jakob Griffith
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Everyone loves a good LED matrix hack, and we’ve seen our fair share, but never a 16 by 24 hand soldered SMD one. [bear24rw] and his team needed a project reflecting the interests of one of his classes, being an EE major, an LED matrix was just the ticket. Based on this instructable, he was [...]
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Homemade Bokode
Posted: October 1st, 2009, 9:32am EDT by Jakob Griffith
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We’ve recently been getting a lot of new comments on our Bokode post from a while back, and with good reason. [M@] has managed to find a way to replicate Bokode at home, using $0 worth of equipment (before the price of microprint). To accomplish Bokode at home, it seems all you need is and [...]
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Laser triggered photography
Posted: September 30th, 2009, 9:30am EDT by Jakob Griffith
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Popped balloons or bullets fired into apples, anyone can photograph with a quick sound based camera rig. Lasers have been used forever in motion detection. And even door bell chimes have been used before for remote camera shutter releases. No, [SaskView] wanted to go further and created his Laser Triggered High-Speed Photography setup, to photograph [...]
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Gameboy Color boot ROM
Posted: September 28th, 2009, 8:00pm EDT by Jakob Griffith
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It’s only been a week since the Super Gameboy’s boot ROM was dumped by [Costis] and he’s already at it again. This time he’s managed to grab the Gameboy Color’s boot ROM. He found the newer Gameboy Color’s hardware is able to cope with a clock speed up to 100MHz, so the original clock increase [...]
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Open garage door indicator
Posted: September 26th, 2009, 9:09pm EDT by Jakob Griffith
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How many times has this one happened to you? Just coming home from work, you walk in from the garage, settle down, and pick up the newspaper. But wait, did you remember to shut the garage door? Presenting the open garage door indicator. [xjc2010] chose the simplest circuit possible, using only a switch to turn on [...]
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SLI anytime anywhere
Posted: September 25th, 2009, 9:54pm EDT by Jakob Griffith
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SLI, for those who don’t know, is the process of taking two Nvidia graphics cards and allowing them to work in parallel to render to a single monitor. In theory this doubles the power, getting more FPS for video games. Great right? Except due to encryption, only a limited amount of motherboards can actually support [...]
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Twitter, talking fish, and more
Posted: September 24th, 2009, 10:25am EDT by Jakob Griffith
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[Dan Ros] and the mbed team sent in their hack of a twitter talking Big Mouth Billy Bass. Originally the hack simply had an mbed micrcontroller and an SD card with some wav files allowing Billy to say classic quotes. Wanting to go further however, they used the mbed’s HTTPClient library to grab Twitter updates, [...]
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Berlin Hack Day
Posted: September 23rd, 2009, 12:00pm EDT by Jakob Griffith
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This past weekend, Berlin played host to Music Hack Day – an event where attendants built and tested hacks, contraptions, and software all dealing with sound, music, or the distribution thereof. Some of the hacks are simply mind blowing to see built in only a day or two. Like the location based CitySounds.fm or Tracks [...]
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Cheap Yaris cabin filter
Posted: September 22nd, 2009, 12:00pm EDT by Jakob Griffith
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[Jake] never ceases to amaze with his inventions, from his Powered respirator to his Steampunk LCD and more. Today he proves that not every hack has to be an amazing one requiring hundreds of hours, tons of soldering, and an Arduino. Instead, he was tired of being charged $50 for a $5 cabin air filter. [...]
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Laptop running on a sealed lead acid battery
Posted: September 20th, 2009, 11:00am EDT by Jakob Griffith
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[Viktor's] laptop needed a new battery; he had the trade off between carrying around a cheap but heavy sealed lead acid (SLA) battery, or buying an expensive but light Li-Ion battery. Figuring his old laptop was pretty heavy already, and having an unused SLA available, re-purposing it for his laptop wouldn’t be too much of [...]
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High altitude balloons
Posted: September 19th, 2009, 1:00pm EDT by Jakob Griffith
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We received quite a bit of tips, after posting about the 150$ high altitude balloon project, from communities and teams who had done similar tasks. There is more to these projects than simply filling a balloon and attaching a camera, so in order to allow everyone their 7 seconds of well deserved fame, we’ve compiled [...]
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Zune HD teardown
Posted: September 16th, 2009, 10:12am EDT by Jakob Griffith
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Our friends over at ifixit are at it again, how they get these devices so early before release and make a complete teardown in time still amazes us. Today they bring us the latest Microsoft media device, the Zune HD. Some features worth mentioning: The astoundingly thin, 1mm we’re talking, OLED screen. The Nvidia Tegra [...]
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Modified RX7 dimmer control
Posted: September 15th, 2009, 1:00pm EDT by Jakob Griffith
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We were a little surprised when we learned the Mazda RX7’s high beams were controlled by ECU, compared to typical cars using just a toggle switch. Ubermodder [Trent Bruce] realized how much of a pain in the rear end this can be if the ECU ever burns out, meaning no brights. By using a D-Flip [...]
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Pictures from space for $150
Posted: September 13th, 2009, 3:35pm EDT by Jakob Griffith
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Ever wanted to be able to launch a balloon into space, track its location via GPS, take some photographs of the curvature of the earth, and recover the balloon, all for the low low cost of $150? [Oliver Yeh] sent in his teams project, Icarus, which does just that. The group of MIT students found [...]
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Dot matrix clock on the way
Posted: September 12th, 2009, 1:49pm EDT by Jakob Griffith
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[Kevin] sent in his almost finished open source dot matrix clock. Sporting a hefty 40 x 16 display powered by a PIC 18F he has complete pixel by pixel control of the graphics. Combined with with a triple buffer he is at least able to output 15fps, with planned 30fps. While this has great potential [...]
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Rock Band drum set remake
Posted: September 11th, 2009, 10:58am EDT by Jakob Griffith
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We’ve seen some impressive mods for the popular video game Rock Band, from new cymbals to an air powered kick pedal, but we cant say we’ve seen someone go as far as the folks over at EDrums. They start off making their own mesh heads, a junction box to connect everything, and then a base [...]