This HCCI Engine Controlling Raspberry Pi setup reads in 240,000 samples per second. I had never heard of an Homogeneous charge compression ignition (HCCI) engine other than a diesel that simply compressed the air fuel mixture till combustion although I guess that is what some of those cars from the 80 were doing when they would continue to run after the key was turned off? I had always thought that gasoline engines needed a spark plug. But like many things if you through enough tech at it you can overcome the issues. 

“The Pi is recording data about pressure in each of the engine’s cylinders, about the angle of the crank and about heat release – and on the back of that, it’s subsequently controlling the engine in real time over a controller area network”

These Internet Controlled Robots are not available to play with all the time but if you keep an eye on the Twitter channel you will have a chance to have a look and give them a try when they are online next.

“I only put together one robot kit previously, then these two robots both started as Activity Bots.
I hooked up a Raspberry Pi with an HD camera, went through a few wifi options, and got the robot to stream video to twitch.tv and take commands from users via their chat. Later i added the Aruduino for using neopixels and some other future features. We’ve also been making dungeons around the house, made out of cardboard, making quests, and other things for people to do and explore.”

It isn’t a simply task to make a self balancing anything. But if you are thinking of taking on the challenge XenonJohn has documented his design details for this Self-Balancing Raleigh Chopper that could give you a head start.

“Data from the IMU is read by the Arduino Mega 1280. I use a Mega 1280 because they are a lot cheaper online than the 2560, and about the same price as an Uno. They have several hard wired serial outputs which means I can conveniently use one of these to send motor control data to the Sabertooth 2 x 25 Amp power controller, and another to send data to the serial-LCD screen. The Deadman switch and steering buttons (actually brake levers from children’s e-scooters) when pressed will connect their respective Mega pins to ground. The deadman is for safety, if you let go of it all power to the motors will stop after half a second. Digital Pin 12 is connected to an LED. This LED stays lit on startup and goes out after a few seconds when the machine is ready to be brought “level” at which point it will start to balance itself. The potentiometer in the diagram is actually on the left handlebar and is a Magura 5K potentiometer “twist-grip” throttle handle designed for electric vehicles. Turning it makes the machine lean forwards a little, and so it starts to roll forwards. Let it spring back and machine will lean backwards a little and slow down. It makes a very effective method of controlling speed (as well as simply leaning like you would on a Segway).”

If you think the price of 3D printers is hitting the floor check out what Mikelllc built for $60. About 80% of this EWaste 3DPrinter is recycled computer parts which is abundant and readily available.

“First of all, we learn how a generic CNC system works (by assembling and calibrating bearings, guides and threads) and then teach the machine to respond to g-code instructions. After that, we add a small plastic extruder and give an overview on plastic extrusion calibration, driver power tuning and other few operations that will bring the printer to life. Following this instructions you will get a small footprint 3D Printer that is built with about an 80% of recycled components, which gives it a great potential and helps to reduce the cost significantly.”

Mike Harrison from Mike’s Electric Stuff shows off how he used a small thermal imaging sensor and incorporated it into a custom little project with a iPod Nano screen. With a tiny bit of polish this thing would be a great product on any hardware store shelf!

If you need some computing power on the go you might want to look into adding a car computer. Sentdex shows us how he does it on the cheap, the top of the great find is the $17 monitor. It has a Raspberry Pi as the heart, an ODB interface and a camera to loop record. An interesting power management system allows the system to detect when car power has been switched off and gracefully shut down the system.

Via: Hack a Day

Murata is always pushing the envelope when it comes to demonstrating their technology in action. You probably remember the close up look we got of the technology behind Murata Girl and Murata Boy. This time they have made an entire group of robotic cheerleaders who dance in formation. They sit on top of a ball and balance as they are moving around. We have seen balancing ball robots before but the complexity of moving all of these balancing robots in unison must be quite challenging.

You need to see them in action. Click here to see the video, scroll down to see how the technology comes together.

Thanks to Amy from Murata for the info.