http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=svzXxuQIKlc&feature=player_embedded There isn't a hacker out there that isn't interested at least a little bit in the prospect of building a mission specific rocket to explode someone off the face of the planet... without killing them. We got a tiny taste of what is coming when they let us watch their engine test a few weeks ago. Tomorrow, May 19th, they are … [Read more...]
Conductive ink circuit experiments
May 18, 2012 By 12 Comments
This glowing LED is proof that the experiments [Nvermeer] is doing with conductive ink are working. We're filing this one as a chemistry hack because you need to hit the lab ahead of time in order to get the conductivity necessary for success. He reports that this technique uses a copper powder suspended in an epoxy intended for spray painting. Before mixing the two he etched the powder in … [Read more...]
Scavenging from consumer electronics to make a flame-powered phone charger
May 18, 2012 By 32 Comments
[Gigafide] just finished building this flame-powered phone charger. The concept is not new. He grabbed a Peltier cooler and used the temperature differential between a flame and a heat sink to produce electricity used by the charger. If you search around here enough you'll find plenty of candle-powered devices, and a few hacks that use a Peltier device in a bit more interesting way. But we really … [Read more...]
Adding kilometers to a radio meant only for meters
May 18, 2012 By 25 Comments
The NRF 24L01+ radio transceiver can be found in a lot of wireless project builds. But it's only meant to work at a range of a few meters. [Achu Wilson] found that he could greatly extend the range by as much as 2 kilometers. All he needed to do was build this high-gain antenna. He already had an idea of what he wanted to use the RF link for, so a directional antenna is no a problem. He chose … [Read more...]
Printing circuitry on a RepRap
May 18, 2012 By 20 Comments
Over on the RepRap blog, [Rhys] has been experimenting with molten metal to build circuits with the RepRap. Last June, [Rhys] found a neat alloy made of Tin, Bismuth, and a little bit of Indium that melts at around 130° C, and has just the right properties to be extruded with a standard RepRap setup. The results were encouraging, but the molten metal quickly dissolved the brass and aluminum … [Read more...]
Teaching BeagleBone to play with LIDD displays
May 18, 2012 By 5 Comments
[Chris] hasn't managed to get his hands on a Raspberry Pi yet, so he ordered a BeagleBone and got down to business. He was surprised to find that there isn't much info out there about using LIDD type displays with the hardware. This protocol is used in many of the 320x240 smart LCD modules on the market, so he hammered out his own drivers and is sharing the details. The system is designed to … [Read more...]
How to build a competitive battle robot
May 18, 2012 By 10 Comments
Ever wonder what's under the hood with a competitive battle robot like this one? It's usually a big secret as teams don't care to give their competition any help. But [AlexHrn] decided not only to give us a peek, but also shows us his step-by-step build process for Phoenix, the 30 pound flipping battle robot. [Alex] has already seen quite a bit of success with a different robot, but he couldn't … [Read more...]
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