Hacked Gadgets Forum

July 3, 2009

Loo Log - Washroom Usage Monitoring

at 10:32 am. Filed under Complex Hacks, Computer Hacks, Crazy Hacks, Electronic Hacks, What Were They Thinking

 

If you live in a house that has more people than washrooms you have probably come across the situation where you are waiting for one to free up. Sven has come up with a solution, use a microcontroller to capture usage information and graph it so that you can see what the typical usage patten is like! Have a look at the recent graphs for some additional details. :)

"This project is about nearly daily statistical analysis and reporting of loo usage. Ever wanted to know when is the best time to go to the bathroom? ;-) The goal of this project is to get an overview of the bathroom usage and to get an idea of the loo usage patterns. With the help of statistical analysis it should be possible to get the desired information on a mathematical foundation. For that purpose an electrical switch is attached to the bathroom’s door’s lock. When the door is locked the switch is closed thus closing a circuit and igniting "occupied" lights in the rooms. This information also flows to a microcontroller that registers the status change and writes this information together with a timestamp that comes from a radio controlled DCF77 clock module into a file on a USB storage. This file is being read into a database a web application server is connected with. A CherryPy web application server contains all the the logic to evaluate and report the desired information as flash charts."


June 24, 2009

Rolling Apple Power Mac G4 Cube using LEGO NXT

at 12:30 pm. Filed under Computer Hacks, Funny Hacks

 

This Rolling Apple Power Mac G4 Cube hack will allow your computer to tell you how it feels. If you are over working it could turn and roll away. :) That would be a great concept but the guts of the mod take up the entire inside of the box. :( It still looks real cool to see a computer case driving around on a table!

Via: The NXT Step

"This creation utilizes all of the default electronics from a LEGO Mindstorms NXT set. Crammed into the iconic Apple Power Mac G4 Cube’s famous "8-inch" (acrylic) cube are a LEGO NXT programmable brick, 3 interactive servo motors and all 4 sensors: touch, sound, light, and ultrasonic. It operates in 2 modes:

  1. Autonomous mode - relying on its sensors to interact with its environment
  2. BlueTooth remote control mode"

 

 

(more…)

June 16, 2009

Chiara Robot

at 5:36 am. Filed under Complex Hacks, Computer Hacks, Electronic Hacks, Insane Equipment

 

You may remember the Hexapod Robot that Matt Denton built. I think this new Chiara Robot could give Matt a run for his money as far as features and power. Chiara  was developed at Carnegie Mellon University’s Tekkotsu lab, best of all it will be manufactured and sold by RoPro Design, Inc. David Touretzky, Gaku Sato, Ethan Tira-Thompson, and David Rice have done a great job on this system. I can’t wait till it gets released to see what its full potential is!

"Chiara Features:

  • Fully assembled and ready to run right out of the box
  • Six legs provide stable and precise holonomic motion
  • 6 DOF arm with gripper lets the robot acquire and manipulate objects
  • Digital servos: 24 Dynamixel AX-12+ servos with position and force feedback, plus three analog microservos in the gripper
  • Pico-ITX computer: x86 architecture with 1 GHz processor, 1 GB RAM, and 80 GB hard drive provides serious on-board computing power
  • Logitech webcam: QuickCam Pro 9000 on a pan/tilt mount for sophisticated robot vision programming
  • Infrared rangefinder: Dynamixel AX-S1 sensor module with three-direction IR rangefinder mounted directly below the camera for multimodal sensing
  • Networking: Ethernet plus 802.11(b/g) allows the robot to communicate with you and other Chiaras
  • Ubuntu Linux OS: widely used, free, and open source
  • Tekkotsu application development framework using C++ provides integrated vision/kinematics, teleoperation, and monitoring.
  • Audio and LED outputs: essential tools for human-robot interaction
  • USB bus lets you extend the robot by adding your own USB-compatible devices
  • Open source body design allows you to customize the Chiara by changing component shapes, adding sensors, etc."

(more…)


June 12, 2009

Green Thinking - It is easy to do your part

at 2:19 pm. Filed under Computer Hacks

 

It is nice to see all of the ways we can reduce our energy consumption. For example the hacked Kill a Watt (now called the Tweet-a-Watt) can help you monitor your power consumption. Intel is making processors that are will use less energy by changing the way some fundamental things are done, this equates to a $2 billion dollar saving in energy fees. Google been growing at an amazing rate and this means that their data centers also need to grow, you can read about their attempts to offset their impact on the planet here. HP has made some cool videos and started a Power to Change campaign that get the point across in a simple way. I must say that I am often guilty of keeping many computers running all night just to save a few minutes in the morning. I think I might have to reevaluate how I use energy.

“HP estimates that if 100,000 users shut down their work computers at the end of each day, energy savings could total more than 2,680 kilowatt-hours and carbon emissions reductions could total more than 3,500 pounds per day. This is the equivalent of eliminating more than 105 cars from the road each day.”



June 11, 2009

64 RGB-LED Color TV

at 5:24 am. Filed under Complex Hacks, Computer Hacks, Cool Gadgets, Electronic Hacks, Game Hacks

 

Remember the 64 RGB-LED Color Table that was featured last week? Well believe it or not there has been a tremendous amount of work completed on the project since then. Now you are able to connect the table to a computer and turn it into a low resolution TV or play a game of Tetris! It will be interesting to see what the final project that Edo is working on will be capable of.

 


June 8, 2009

Stealth Surveillance or Mobile Office Vehicle

at 5:41 am. Filed under Complex Hacks, Computer Hacks, Crazy Hacks, Insane Equipment, What Were They Thinking

Rich Harley from Suspicion Industries sent in some pictures of a vehicle that they just completed. This is what I call a office away from home! I know where to go if I ever start a career as a super secret spy! Instead of a limo could I rent this van for an evening?

“Here is a rather large home project we have completed - a surveillance
vehicle or mobile office. The project took around 9 months to finish
and we have pictures and build information to document progress. The
van has:

* onboard power system/batteries (10 hour runtime), plug sockets etc
* lighting
* onboard computers x 2 + TFT wall mounted monitors
* wireless router
* desk + chair setup
* furnished walls and floor
* climate control

We’ve also added a Pan-Tilt-Zoom Camera connected to the computers
for surveillance or recording use. Our aim is to hire the van to
individuals/small business, or perhaps to sell the vehicle outright.”

(more…)

June 4, 2009

Top 10 WALL-E Hacks

at 5:25 am. Filed under Complex Hacks, Computer Hacks, Cool Gadgets, Crazy Hacks, DIY Hacks, Electronic Hacks, Funny Hacks, Game Hacks, Insane Equipment, Top 5 and Top 10, Toy Hacks, What Were They Thinking

 

It has been almost a year now since the Disney movie WALL-E was released, Hacked Gadgets featured some mods that were made but there has been a huge WALL-E following and countless hours spent making case mods, reproduction robots and other hacks. Thanks to the huge WALL-E mod community for the interesting creations, if you only have time to look at one hack scroll down to the bottom and look at #1 you will be amazed! I couldn’t find any build details on the above video, I think that it was created for Disney to promote the movie but if you have some additional information I would love to hear about it.

 

 


10. WALL-E Laptop

 

This video shows the amazing process of turning a normal looking laptop into a WALL-E Laptop. The airbrushing technique is wonderful.

Link

 


9. LEGO WALL-E

 

From far this WALL-E build looks like the toy you can get from the store, it isn’t until you look closely that you can see it is all LEGO!

"A few months ago, I decided to build Wall-E, from the Disney movie that is just around the corner. Meant for a display in July, I finally was able to focus on the model and build it within three weeks - with lots of down time. Wall-E uses 2 Power functions IR controllers, so he can move and move his neck up and down. Also, his arms are on ball joints, so while not motorized, they can be posed. A mount is on the side for the arms to rest, but can be replaced with grill plates to be more accurate."

Link

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