Mario Mauerer and Lukas Schrittwieser sent in the project that has been created in the student lab over the past 1.5 years. It is a huge interactive LED disco floor which consists of 640 RGB LEDs.

“The cool thing is that each tile can detect if somebody is standing on it or
not! This information is process10 square meter ed by a Java program that allows us to write
various party-games or crazy animations on the floor. The tiles use a capacitive
method to detect the presence of someone. (RC-oscillator)

The Dancefloor includes 640 RGB LEDs, 8 AVRs, 8 CPLDs, more than 1km of wiring,
more than 10000 hand-soldered points, one FPGA and one embedded PC. The
FPGA-Board and the Embedded PC as well as the power supply have been crammed
into an Apple G5-case we’ve found on the junkyard.

The thing has been at many parties so far and it seems to be pretty robust,
beer-tight and everybody seems to love it. “

If you have a show car you need to see these cool turn signals. They use RGB LEDs to produce multiple effects, lots of the color effects could only be used when the car is in a show environment but this is sure to spice up any ride.

Via: Electronics Lab

“Why you may ask?  First off why not!  Second I take my car to cay shows and just like to have someone unique that I made myself.  Third I had bought some LED bulbs that were advertised to match the stock headlights in color but they are far from it, they ended up very blue like a typical white LED, I was guessing they used warm whites but I was wrong so after making some tail lights for my dads car I figured why not do the same to mine.”

Paweł from Poland made a great portable AVR programmer. This thing is totally custom, you can see the prototype above and then see the tiny completed version in the pictures below. This is such a nice looking design that you might just need to have your very own. Nice thing is that Pawel has provided everything you need to make your own!

“Function description:
Write – writes data from file to a selected memory of chip. Choose file from list. In case of fusebits and lockbits, writes settings bytes from txt file. File length is a length which is written to memory, rest of memory will not be touched.
Read – reads data from selected memory to a file. File is made automatically in proper directory. Name format is “x.yyy” where x is a file sequential number and yyy is the extension (bin or hex), i.e. “4.bin” or “22.hex”. Name is displayed after file saving, it’s good to notice it somewhere. Whole chip memory will be read, no matter how many data it contains. In case of fusebits and lockbits, settings bytes will be saved into txt file.
Verify – verifies data from selected memory with data from selected file. Result is “PASS” or “FAIL at x” where x is the address of first byte in which inconsistency occurred. In case of fusebits and lockbits, verifies settings bytes.
Default – resets all fusebytes to factory settings.
Chip erase – internal command “chip erase” erases whole memory and resets lockbits protection.”

When placing parts into a laser machine the first step is normally to set the height of the work so that the laser dot can focus on the exact spot that the cutting laser will hit. The dot lasers are mounted off to the side at an angle, it would be ideal if the aiming laser could be mounted directly above the work but of course this is where the cutting laser lenses are located. Rich Olson from Nothing Labs has come up with a way to determine the laser strike point regardless of the height of the work. He has done this by replacing the existing dot laser with a line laser and mounting a second line laser onto the cutting head. I think this Laser Cutter Cross Hair Alignment System should be standard equipment on all modern laser cutters. I know that I have goofed a few times when I have positioned the work before setting the table height correctly.

Via: Hack a Day

Most of us work with connectors quite often. Slap a junction box on the wall, run some wires into it and make some wire nut connections. What if you need it to be water resistant? No problem, put it in a plastic box and use water tight connectors right? Well that might work just fine if this electrical connection is to be mounted to the back of your house but what if the connection will be living on the bottom of the sea and there will be thousands of amps running thought it?

My new friends David and Derrick that I met at the All Energy 2011 conference in Aberdeen Scotland from Hydro Group PLC demonstrated the type of system that is used to make just this type of connection. What you are looking at are very large diameter power wire connections around the perimeter and a group of fiber optic connection in the center. I don’t have an immediate need for this quality of connector but when I do I know where to get it.

Hacked Gadgets was at the recent All Energy Conference in Aberdeen Scotland. There was lots of wind generation companies demonstrating their systems and components but I thought that Windspot is going after an interesting  market. Their wind generators have automatic pitch compensation which makes them very quiet so they can be used in residential applications and they are also DIY friendly since as you can see everything you need is shipped on a single pallet. Bolt the pieces together and you can start to generate clean energy. There is actually one of these systems installed in Canada, see the video below of the Gooseberry Cove, Newfoundland installation.

“Variable pitch is a passive mechanism that uses the centrifugal force produced by the turning of the wind turbine to change the attack angle of the blades, which adjust themselves in a synchronized movement, cushioned by a hydraulic cylinder, to the strength of the wind. Thanks to variable pitch, an excess of revolutions is avoided that would damage the generator and means that Windspot continues working at maximum performance even with high wind speeds. To protect themselves from the strongest winds, other turbines activate protection systems that, paradoxically, slow up their production when the conditions to produce energy are at their best. Windspot is designed to work at low revolutions. Our wind turbine does not exceed 250 rpm (WINDSPOT 3.5) while other turbines reach 1000 rpm. “

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Nicholas Skinner shares how he developed his DIY Central Heating and Hot Water Control System with us.

“Features:

• Two channel (heating and hot water) support.
• Temporary Override (ignore schedule for 30 min – 1 day), both overriding on, but also off.
• Permanent Override (ignore schedule).
• Web based interface for changing schedule / override settings.
• Schedule support for any combination of weekdays.
• Schedule support for one off custom schedules on specific dates only.
• Setting date/time via NTP (with automatic support for time zones, and daylight savings – built into Linux server).
• Support for override control via Cisco 7960 phones (already located around house / managed by Asterisk).
• Wireless from control unit to programmer (linked to network).
• Self contained system – does not require separate PC server running 24/7.”