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There will be two prizes this week (one winner for each prize). The first is a cool remote control watch. Have fun messing with your friends or the TVs at your local hangout. The second prize is two of our new 1 foot LED lighting strips. These 12 volt LED strip lights can be installed anywhere such as under your cabinets, in a shed or in a vehicle. The strips come in 7 different colors so you could also use them for accent lighting. This contest will run for one week (Oct 10 – 16, 2009) . Ending time is based on central standard time. To enter, identify the item pictured above and give an example of what can be done with it. Thanks to Heikki for sending in the images of the item to guess. Don’t forget about the Hacked Gadgets Halloween Contest that is still running, there is still time to get your entry in for that! Please do not give the answer in the comments. Send an email to contest @ hackedgadgets.com with "Name the Thing Contest" as the subject, and the message body consisting of:
The winner will be chosen at random from all of the correct entries. ———————————–———- Added November 6, 2009 The item to guess was the SAAB HEADLAMP RELAY(thanks to Heikki for sending in the pictures) The winner is Steve B. (watch) and Robert Y. (lighting strips) (There were 55 entries) ————————————–———-
Below is a picture of the the prize product.
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Guysoft shows us how to create a Bumble-b LED Matrix Computer Interface. I have never used a Bumble-b but for $17 how could you go wrong? It seams like one of the best ways to communicate directly via USB to a computer. Via: HG Forum "After getting my LED matrix to display messages, I wanted to make use of the USB port, and get the matrix to work as a USB device, this was much simpler than I expected. Once I had the code to control the matrix, it was simply a matter of copying it and using LUFA. LUFA (Lightweight USB Framework for AVRs) is a library that will let you get the Bumble-b to work as a USB device." |
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This POV Fan Display Hack by Hacking with Gum required a bit of reverse engineering to determine how the device worked in the first place, then a way to re-program the operation of the device to display a new message. Thanks Craig. "It turns out that Cenzic made it very easy to access the fan’s EEPROM chip, and with a simple RS232-to-I2C interface you can re-write the EEPROM on this device to make it display whatever you like. "
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Wow if I run into someone this Halloween with effect makeup that looks as realistic as the video above it will certainly send shivers up my spine. It demonstrates that you can really step it up from the production rubber mask that most people pick up at the corner drugstore. Have a look at the tutorials listed for more Halloween scar techniques.
On a related note there is a frightening trend in body art. It is called Scar Tattoos. Don’t look at the images below if you have a queasy stomach. We all have a few scars here and there from the inevitable misfortunes of living life but a scar tattoo is the deliberate mutilation of the skin to form a raised tattoo from the resulting scar tissue! You wouldn’t catch me even considering doing something like this for a second but I guess it appeals to many people. |
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This is a cool scale mod. The Weight Logging Bathroom Scale saves the the time stamped weight for each use to an SD card. This allows the data to be plotted and analyzed. The method that the weight was taken from the existing digital scale platform is real interesting. The original LCD data lines were snooped on to determine what value is being displayed! Thanks Jorge. "First I thought that I could read the sensors and got an analog voltage relative to weight but I couldn’t find a way to do it. Next a friend at work give me the idea to try read the signals that went to original LCD, and it was a simple and easy way to have what I need
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Dan Bricklin is one of the developers behind VisiCalc back in 1979. Dan hasn’t slowed down since VisiCalc, in Bricklin On Technology he shares his visionary thoughts with all of us. It is written in an interesting way, many sections are filled with blog posts and views on how technology will influence our lives. As a true Engineer he is always attempting to solve the needs of his fellow man with elegant technical solutions. Have a look at the two videos below where Dan reads a few excerpts from his book. Thanks for an interesting read Dan!
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Norris Labs has created an interesting Robot called the ChessBot. It doesn’t actually play the game but rather has the ability to move the chess pieces around the board. Just imagine playing a game of chess on this system via webcam instead of playing virtual chess on the net. "ChessBot takes a hybrid approach that produces a more visually interesting way to move a chess pieces. It uses a Lynxmotion AL5D robotic arm to pick up and place pieces but does not rely totally on the arm to provide placement. The arm itself is mounted on a mobile platform (called the Cart) that can align the arm precisely with any row or column (called Rank and File in the chess world) on the chessboard." |
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The original LCD have 15 pins, 3 backplanes and 12 segments. I did understand how the LCD signals works reading this application note. The segments signals have voltage that can be read directly by the LPC2103. The backplanes signals can’t be ready directly by the LPC2103 (I think) and then I made a very simple voltage detector using a LM258 opamp so I get a "trigger" signal every time the backplane signal get near is maximum value."
