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Hacked Gadgets Forum user JingleJoe from England needed a power supply for his digital camera. I love that it was all built from bits and pieces laying around. I have used some creative heat sinks such as a section of an old junction boxes when free air was just not quite enough but I have never used a piece if a tin can. I will have to keep that heat sink idea in my back pocket for use in the future. He doesn’t say but by the looks of it I am thinking that it is based on an LM317 adjustable voltage regulator. The way it powers the camera is through a double AA battery simulator made out of wood, I would love to see what it looks like but unfortunately it was being used to take these pictures. Via: HG Forum
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Matthias Paul Scholz made a cool Basketball playing LEGO Robot called NXTitzk, the name is based on a German NBA player. It can play in a user controlled mode or a fully autonomous mode. An ultrasonic sensor is used to judge how far the basket is so that the correct throw can be performed. If you would like to make your own have a look at the detailed build instructions (PDF). Video after the jump. |
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If you have ever set the wrong fusebit when programming your AVR have a look at this AVR Fusebit Repair Circuit which could help you repair the chip. There is also a parallel high voltage version to have a look at. Thanks Pawel “Did you make a mistake while programming fusebits, or purposely disabled reset pin (RSTDISBL) or ISP programming (SPIEN)? No need to buy or make inconvenient HV programmer only for unlock couple of Tiny AVR’s. This Attiny fusebit HV doctor will cure your tiny microcontrollers, by restoring all fusebits to factory settings – nice and easy. Device uses the High-Voltage Serial Programming (HVSP) to repair fusebits. First of all patient is switched to HV memory programming, then we read signature and check if it’s supported. Then the chip erase is performed if user allows it. Next the lockbits are read, if they not set, patient receives new fusebits, proper for readed model. After that, fusebits are verified, and if they pass the test – this is end of work. If not, doctor will repeat write-verify cycle 10 times, and give up when no success.”
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Make is holding a new contest for the Makers Market, enter to win some free stuff. Have a look at picture number 3 “Been lusting after something in Makers Market, but can’t quite justify the expense? Enter our tweet-it-to-win-it contest and you just might get it for free! Here’s how to enter:
Eleven winners will be selected randomly from among tweets received before 11:59 p.m. PDT on July 15, 2010. One first-place winner will receive their tweeted choice of products from among those for sale on Makers Market having value of $500 US or less. If your favorite product costs more than $500, the first $500 is on us. Ten runners-up will receive $25 toward their choice of products from among those for sale on Makers Market. Good luck and happy tweeting! Please see the contest landing page for more details, and official rules.” |
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Here are a number of quick links from the email bag here at Hacked Gadgets. Thanks for sending in all your great projects and links to cool sites. iPod Touch Internet Remote Ham Radio Station
“Using an iPod Touch as a ham radio station from anywhere in the world (via Thanks Victor. NXT Rover
“The idea was to have a treaded robot that could navigate varying terrain, turn quickly and of course, climb. Based on my experience with my other robots using the same tracks (eg UNV and DynaTrax), I found that they were not very good when it came to inclines. I figured that the LEGO rubber wheels have great traction on most surfaces, so why not slap a set of them along with the treads. However, this posed another challenge. I did not want both wheel systems in contact with the ground at all times as this would make turning tougher and be redundant.” Thanks Dave. LackRack
“The LackRack was first seen on eth0:2010 Winterlan in the no-shoe Lounge area. Its low-cost and perfect fit are great for mounting up to 8 U of 19″ hardware, such as switches (see below), or perhaps other 19″ gear. It’s very easy to assemble, and thanks to the design, they are stable enough to hold (for example) 19″ switches and you can put your bottle of Club-Mate on top! Multi-shiny LackRack can also be painted to your specific preferences and the airflow is unprecedented! “ Thanks Melvin ThoughtLab Meeting Light Project
“Often we find ourselves so busy that we need to set a visual reminder to the team that we need to have a meeting. This is a very simple project, but we wanted it to match our funky décor as well as be functional. For this project you will need a drill, hack saw or pipe cutter, a pipe bender (if you want clean lines), and some screw drivers.” Thanks Jared Valentine’s Day Heart Project
Thanks for sending in these pictures of your project Artemonster! “Works on cr2032 battery from beside. there is also micro on\off switch and PTC. Pair of Hearts Magnetic Homopolar Motor
“The movie shows two individual Hearts homopolar motors, that combine to form a single rotor. The interesting part is that I used a 10 inch bass speaker as the magnetic field, and 7 magnetic Canadian pennies as the commutator. A neodymium magnet is not required for this motor. The homopolar motor is the simplest form of electric motor, and typically consists of a conductor rotating on a battery in a magnetic field. It works by the principle of the Lorentz force.”
Thanks Rick
Workshop 88 – Hackers in Space
“My hackerspace, Workshop 88, has just started an international near-space Active RFID Tracking System
“I recently built an active RFID tracking system. It makes use of mesh iPhone Controlled Labyrinth Game
“Here is an iPhone/iPod touch controlled labyrinth game. Using touch OSC, a few lines of code in processing, a Serial Servo Board from www.botbuilder.co.uk and a couple of servos mounted on the game, you can use the iphone to play the game. Simply tilt the iphone in the direction you want the table to move, and the servos will move it to that position.“ MIDI Exercise Bike
“Something about this bike caught my attention during the Christmas break (yes, I was getting pretty bored). The bike’s computer is connected to the rest of the bike via a jack socket. So what’s the obvious thing to do? That’s right turn it into a MIDI controller” 
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If you run a server room or have tons of computer equipment in your house you might want to keep track of the room environment. Invent Geek has made a Open Source Server Room Monitor project to help us do this on the cheap. “The server room environmental monitoring system is a low cost high performance device with the same onboard features as commercial devices costing hundreds of dollars more. In addition to a low cost platform we will provide low cost sensors for many important devices to insure your equipment stays safe and sound.”
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Colin Karpfinger who is also the creator of the cool Autonomous Paintball Sentry Gun has made a great article about Ordering your Eagle PCB Designs. Learning Eagle is quirky enough but after your design is done you still need to learn about circuit board manufacturing before you can get them produced. This is because the manufacturer needs specific files that represent the layers involved in making your board. After you make a few it will all start to make sense but the first one can be a challenge. Lucky for us there is a standard that has emerged which is Gerber so once you have used one PCB house to make your boards, trying another should be painless. I think the Gear Clock PCB is the favorite PCB that I have made so far. If you are still hungry for information have a look at the Documentation that our friend Ian Lesnet put together when he was working for HackaDay, and when I was making my first board I used the great guide that Spark Fun put together. Thanks for sharing your tips with us Colin!
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