Sand Flea literally leaps tall buildings in a single bound

sand-flea

The hidden abilities of this robot that is no larger than a dinner plate are quite impressive. It doesn't let an obstacle like a building get in its way. The Sand Flea, like its namesake, posses a remarkable jumping ability. When it encounters a tall obstruction two levers incline the front of the robot and it launches itself up to thirty feet in the air. In the case of a one-story build this … [Read more...]

Wireless camera mount offers pan and tilt functions

building-a-wireless-pan-tilt-system

[Chris] put together a bunch of common components to create this wireless pan and tilt system for a security camera or a robot. The motorized base is simple enough, using two servos to make up a mount for the digital camera. In this case he used a parts package which is designed to mount the servos perpendicular to each other. You could also 3D print, our build your own brackets quite easily. … [Read more...]

Floppy autoloader takes the pain out of archiving 5000 Amiga disks

floppy-autoloader

Archiving data from old floppy disks can be a tedious process at best. Poorly labeled disks combined with slow transfer speeds put it high on the list of things we would rather not do, and it turns out that [Dweller] was of the same opinion. With an estimated 5,000 floppies in his collection, he finally decided it was time to clean house. With no idea of what was stored where, he decided the … [Read more...]

Loudest telepresence robot ever

loud-telepresence-robot

This telepresence robot will never let your Skype callers sneak up on you. [Priit] built the project, which he calls Skype Got Legs, so that his distant friends could follow him around the house during chats. But as you can hear after the break, the electric drills used to motorize the base are extremely loud. Noise pollution aside, we like the roughness of the hack. It's utilitarian but seems … [Read more...]

New dirigibles are power plants in the sky

floating-power-plants

We wonder if a floating wind turbine generator (translated) like this one would alleviate some of the complaints we hear about ground-based turbines. This huge helium-filled structure is designed to generate electricity at high altitude, where winds are stronger and blow much more consistently than near ground level. We've read complaints at the unsightliness of wind farms, and the noise that … [Read more...]

10,000 posts

10000-posts

According to our CMS calculations (we use Wordpress), this is Hackaday's ten-thousandth published posts. We meant to build a confetti cannon, but we were too busy looking for interesting projects to feature multiple times per day. We'd like to thank everyone who documents their projects to share what they've been up to in basements, garages, or hackerspaces with the ecosystem of hackers … [Read more...]

The RC transmitter that does everything

remote

[Demetris] sent in a project he's been working on over the last year. It's called the Open Source Radio Control, and promises to be a modular platform for every imaginable remote control transmitter need. If you'd like to control a bipedal android or a 3D aerobatic model plane, the OSRC can do it while transmitting video from the cockpit down to your hands. Last summer, we caught wind of the … [Read more...]