We recently saw this Rotating LED Globe that was built by Csaba Bleuer. Gleb left a comment with a link to 32 LED Spinning Globe that his friend Riko built. The site is in Russian but if you use Google Translator you will be able to see that is going on. The design is interesting, power is being delivered by a rotating coil, an ATTiny is the microcontroller and the PCB was made using the iron on method.

If you are interested in having a closer look at how it works Riko provides the schematic and source code on his site.

For indoor flight this Quadcopter uses 4 Sharp IR sensors, they are able to determine the range of obstacles by bouncing IR light off an object and calculate the angle of return. The flight is amazingly stable, this quadcopter allows for automatic takeoff, landing and hovering.

“For the IR range finder (Sharp GP2Y0A02) I needed to use a separate Arduino Pro mini (again we don´t have any analog input free). This module connects to the ArduIMU via Serial port so we need to choose between GPS of range finder (outdoor-indoor decision). Respect to the IR distance sensor, the first version was a moving head with a servo but this had some problems with vibrations that affect stability and also has a poor scanning rate, here is a photo of this prototype. Finally I decided to use 4 fixed sensors.“

Chris Farnell and Michael Helms built this multi-stage coil gun that has a wireless iPhone (or touch or iPad) interface. The project was a year long build while they were at the University of Arkansas taking Electrical Engineering.

“What begins as a simple project grows in the minds of able youth. The credit for the four stage coil gun and the 8051 controlled charging circuitry goes to Chris Farnell. I built the base and the turret to be controlled via a wifi hub mounted to the base and an iPhone, iPod touch or iPad using OSC protocol for communication to the Arduino microcontroller.“

If you are looking for a doorbell that you can hear from anywhere in your house have a look at this Train Whistle Doorbell by Pete Mills. He has hacked into a cheap wireless doorbell system for activation. Have a look at the video on his site for the explosive result when it is activated! Pete has a schematic on his site if you want to see how it ticks.

“Circuit wise, this doorbell came with an led on the front that blinks when the bell is activated. So, when I was designing the circuit in my head, thinking I would have to tap into the circuit board to get a logic signal; turns out I could just make a simple circuit to ‘watch’ the led; a photo transistor with a 10k pulldown works a treat.”

The prize this week is a loupe magnifier, this will let you get a close look at whatever you are working on. This contest will run for one week (May 15 – May 21, 2010) . 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.

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 name of the item in the above picture
• An example of what the item pictured above can be used for

The winner will be chosen at random from all of the correct entries.

———————————–———-

Added May 22, 2010

The item to guess was a Cam Shaft

The winner is Fahd M. (there were 172 entries)

————————————–———-

Below is a picture of the prize.

If you are a retro gamer have a look at this cool Typewriter Joystick, no it isn’t just a gutted typewriter with a joystick mashed in. Many of the keys are functional through to the computer that it is connected to. It might not be the most agile gaming interface but it is certainly one of the most creative I have seen!

Via: TechEBlog

(more…)

Samer Mohammed has built an optical link that can be used to send audio using an inexpensive laser beam from a laser pointer. Samer has sent in the block diagrams so you can see how the system has been constructed.

“This project demonstrates the use of laser in optical communications. the project consists of a transmitter and receiver that will support a one-way communications link between two separate locations. It is mainly built from a few ICs, operational amplifiers and transistors. It is possible to transmit music, voice and data. The laser used in the transmitter is a simply a laser diode that it used in cheap laser pointers and at the receiver, the laser sensor is a photo-diode.”