Hacked Gadgets Forum

May 14, 2012

Open Hardware High Resolution 3D Printer

at 10:26 pm. Filed under Cool Gadgets, DIY Hacks, Electronic Hacks

 

 Here is a great looking Open Hardware High Resolution 3D Printer. I think we will see a lot more 3D printers this year! The more the merrier since I would love one but I currently can’t justify the cost. With this kickstarter you could have one of these for under $2500. You can read more about it on the project site.

Via: Electronics Lab

“Specifications

Build volume varies, depending on resolution.

Resolutions in the x/y plane (horizontal) of 50 to 100 microns are possible by adjustment of the projector’s position and focus.

Resolutions in the z (vertical) build axis from 100 to less than 10 microns are possible via software selection.  Using higher resolutions in the z-axis may result in slower build rates.  We suggest using the same z axis resolution as the x/y plane.

At the 100 micron x/y pixels setting, the build area is 102.4 mm (4.03″) x 76.8 mm (3.02″) x 203.2 mm (8.0″).

At the 50 micron x/y pixels setting, the build area is 51.2 mm (2.02″) x 38.4 mm (1.52″) x 203.2 mm (8.0″).

100 microns = 0.1 mm = 0.00394″

B9Creator will ship with a basic software suite that allows you to import a model stored in standard .stl format. This software will allow you to slice the model and manually position simple supports, if needed. The software will also control the actual print process. The software will be available for current Windows, Mac and Linux operating systems.
Developers should note that our printer has an open API, anyone interested in writing or modifying their software to work with our printer is welcome to do so! Please contact us to learn more.”

 

 


May 13, 2012

Robot Motor Control

at 10:13 pm. Filed under DIY Hacks, Electronic Hacks, Toy Hacks

 

 Building a robot requires many things but movement is something that is common in all robots. There are many motor options when building a robot but no matter what type of motor you select they can’t be powered directly from microcontroller pins since most pins can only provide 20 or 25mA of current. The solution is quite simple, the microcontroller simply needs to send a signal to a motor driver chip and you let the motor driver chip do the high current work that is needed when dealing with motors.  Chris from PyroElectro written a great tutorial on how to control robot motors.

 ”The microcontroller that we will use for this part of the Building A Robot series is the PIC 18F252 8-bit microcontroller. It is manufactured by microchip, and most of my tutorials/projects on this website use the PIC. The motor controller IC that we will use is the same as some other tutorials, the SN754410NE Quadruple Half-H Driver.”

 


May 11, 2012

Alan Parekh Interview on EEWeb

at 2:45 pm. Filed under Other

 

Thanks to EEWeb for featuring an interview they did with me on their site.

 

Self Balancing Robot using the Microchip dspic33f

at 12:19 pm. Filed under Complex Hacks, Computer Hacks, DIY Hacks, Electronic Hacks

 

The Microchip dspic33f  is used for this Self Balancing Robot that from Australia put together. Bluetooth modules are used to achieve communication link between the robot and the computer running Matlab. On the computer you are able to see the many tiny changes that are needed to keep the robot upright.  The stacked round disk PCB design looks and works great in this design.

“Processor: Microchip dspic33f
Sensor: bma180 & itg3200
Sensor Fusion: modified complementary filter
Controller: PID
Motors: DC motors with Quadrature Encoder (not yet utilised)
Telemetry Module: Bluetooth to UART “


Mike Senna Wall-e Build almost complete

at 11:45 am. Filed under Complex Hacks, DIY Hacks, Electronic Hacks

 

We have featured some Wall-e builds in the past, you can see by the video above that Mike Senna’s Wall-e Build is coming to an end. He just posted a video of the current state. It is almost complete and is looking great! He has built some cool macro modes that allows some pre-programmed movements to be done while he drives the robot around.


May 9, 2012

Wifly Mini – RC Car with an Arduino as a Brain

at 11:36 pm. Filed under Complex Hacks, Computer Hacks, Cool Gadgets, Crazy Hacks, DIY Hacks, Electronic Hacks, Game Hacks, Insane Equipment, Toy Hacks

 

 

 Blair Kelly has designed a fun looking RC car. It has an Arduino mounted in the car, there are a number of sensors that allow Blair to drive the car around viewing the drive on a computer screen. There is even force feedback so when the car goes over a large bump or bangs into something he can feel it. With a head mounted display this thing would be very immersive. The camera is mounted so that it can be moved from right to left. I can just imagine what it would feel like if this right and left camera movement was linked to head movements when wearing a head mount display!

Via: Make

 

May 8, 2012

Doorbell sends message to Cell Phone

at 11:13 pm. Filed under Complex Hacks, Cool Gadgets, DIY Hacks, Electronic Hacks

 

When someone rings your doorbell wouldn’t it be nice to know about it when you aren’t home? Well this project will do just that. Pressing the doorbell will send a message to your cell phone and send you a picture of who is there. You often hear that robbers often ring the doorbell to make sure no one is at home before breaking in. I am thinking that a few of the Arduino outputs could be purposed to spray a water gun and turn on a siren. 

Thanks for the tip Clement.

 ”How does it work ?

  • 1. When the doorbell is pushed, the Arduino sends an HTTP request to the PushingBox API.

  • 2. PushingBox launches the user’s scenario and gets a picture from the web camera.

  • 3. PushingBox sends a Push notification to the user’s phone and a mail message with the picture attached.”

 

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