Fresh hacks every day
Bicycle commuters are often in a battle with drivers for space on the road. [Hammock Boy] does all of his commuting on two human-powered wheels, and is quite interested in not getting hit by a car. He decided to ply his hobby skills to build a device that helps keep him safe. It's not just a tail light, it's a sensor that shines brighter the closer a car is to the back of the bike. The sensor … [Read more...]
If you want to go high bandwidth, fiber optics is the way to go. From trans-oceanic cables to the yet-unseen 'fiber to every home,' fiber optics allows a lot more bandwidth than a copper cable. In low-bandwidth applications, fiber optic cable transmits data using one color of light. There's a way to get more bandwidth out of a fiber optic cable, as [Shahriar] found out while experimenting with an … [Read more...]
A couple of years back [Bryan's] iPod went on the fritz. It wasn't completely broken, as long as he kept it really cold it still worked. So what was he to do with the crippled device? We've all heard of elevator music. [Bryan] decided to invent refrigerator music. First he needed some speakers. A trip to the Goodwill store netted him a pair for under $5. They need A/C power, and the project … [Read more...]
Last Wednesday I posted a video review of the new STM32F0-Discovery board which is built around an ARM Cortex-M0 chip. I speculated that it should work with the open source project aimed at programming these discovery boards. I tested it out and a connection could be made, but no code could be flashed. So I spent a few hours over the weekend and added support. My updates are already in the … [Read more...]
[Gil] sent in an awesome paper from this year's SIGGRAPH. It's a way to detect subtle changes in a video feed from [Hao-Yu Wu, et al.] at the MIT CS and AI lab and Quanta Research. To get a feel for what this paper is about, check out the video and come back when you pick your jaw off the floor. The project works by detecting and amplifying very small changes in color occurring in several … [Read more...]
When [Michelle] was making a sign language translation glove, she needed a bunch of flex sensors. These flex sensors cost about $10 a pop, meaning her budget for the project was eaten up by these bendy potentiometers. Since then, [Michelle] figured out a great way to make extremely inexpensive bend sensors using anti-static bags and masking tape, allowing her to start her project once … [Read more...]
If you want to improve the reliability of your electronics, just cover them in silicone or epoxy. Potting, as this technique is called, protects your project from impact and loose wires, but most of the time ends up as a gloppy mess. [Charles] figured out an awesome way to make pro-looking potted electronics using silicone and a few supplies from the emergency room. On one of [Charles]'s trips … [Read more...]
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