Spiralbrain is building a cool robot that can see what is around it by using IR. The robot base is a RP5 Tracked Chassis which looks to be quite a versatile robotic platform.  Is it just me or does it sound like a small angry dog when it slowly growls and inches forward, then gets frightened and lurches back. The PIC 18F4550 code is sure to be available when the project is complete just like the other projects.

“List Of Components added till now:

1. PIC18F4550 – USB Bootloader, RS232 debug interface
2. L298N H-Bridge driver
3. GP2D02 IR distance sensor with laser tracking
4. SFH 9240 IR Reflective Interrupter for movement tracing
5. PS2 Joypad, it works! (for testing only)
6. 74HC07″

We featured a cool GPS Puzzle Box earlier this year that Markus built. It was based on a version that Mikal Hart created. Turns out there is quite a bit of interest in these GPS Puzzle Boxes, Mikal has since written a Make article which will be published in the Fall 2010 edition of the magazine. He has also been contacted by newspapers, movie directors and TV shows wanting to know more about his creation. Mikal has built many more of these boxes, so many that he decided to get a custom PCB made so that assembly is much easier. Geocaching.com met up with Mikal and made an interesting video about him, the box and the future of reverse geocaching.

Looks like the Martin Jetpack is getting closer to being available. With an anticipated price tag of $100,000 it won’t be in most people’s budget but for the work that has gone into development that price seems quite reasonable. To make final testing a bit safer they have converted it so it can be controlled remotely.

“We have converted one of the Martin Jetpacks to remote control so that we can push the flight envelope without risk to a pilot. Here is the first flight – Ray is flying the jetpack from the ground, and he has been replaced on the Jetpack with “Lead Ray” – a 80kg box we can move up an down to test center of mass effects on flight performance.”

BlindType is the coolest typing aids I have ever seen, and we have seen our fair share of crazy typing systems. I don’t do much mobile typing, I have tried the T9 predictive text entry system and hated it. I use an iPod Touch to view emails when not in the home office and unless the reply can be very short I tend to wait until I am at a real keyboard to answer. I can see this application changing that. The only reason I hate typing on the Touch is because the keys seem to be too small for my fingers and I spend too much time backspacing and correcting mistakes. With BlindType I could keep typing and it looks like BlindType will magically figure out what I meant to type. It’s sure to be a hit when it’s available. I wouldn’t be surprised to see one of the big players buy them out to be able to use the technology exclusively on their platform.

Via: Diggnation

The prize this week is a mountaineering clasp that is sure to add some flair to your keychain or provide a cool way to clip your backpack in place. This contest will run for one week (August 14 – August 20, 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. You don’t need to know the make and model just what it is in general, and what this type of thing is normally used for.

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.

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Added August 28, 2010

The item to guess was a Pneumatic wire stripping machine

The winner is Tom L. (there were 45 entries)

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Below is a picture of the prize.

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Dig that GameBoy Advanced out of your closet for this GameBoy and PIC Microcontroller Hacked into an Analog Meter project. Ken Kaarvik used a PIC24HJ128GP502 to run the project, what is really cool is that the GBA doesn’t load the program from a cartridge but rather directly from the PIC microcontroller! This isn’t the first project that Ken has done with a Game Boy, have a look at lots more here.

“The GBA is able to link two or more systems together though it’s serial port and only requires a single cartridge to boot up both GBA’s. My circuit emulates the master GBA with the cartridge.“

If you are into robots you need to have a look at Ron’s TheOldRobots.org site. This Tomy Omnibot 2000 robot that Tomy made cost $600 back in 1984. In modern dollars that would work out to be around $1250.I remember seeing the ads and wanting one but at that price I can see why I never did get one. If you have one and want to make the second arm movable have a look at this page.