Building a SkyCam-like camera mount

building-a-skycam

With the Olympics on there are a lot of really great camera shots shown during the events. One of the best is the overhead view, which is provided by a camera suspended between cables. It's not new for the Olympics, SkyCam has been around for over twenty years. What is new is [Dan Royer's] attempts to build his own aerial camera setup. He's not starting from zero with this project. [Dan] has … [Read more...]

CNC Table Saw Jig

table saw jig

[Woodgears.ca] seems to be a wealth of clever hacks, and this CNC box joint jig is no exception.  Although one has to manually move the jig to make the actual cut, it still gives the user a lot of extra functionality. One only has to click the mouse button to advance the workpiece.  One drawback to using a table saw, even with this jig is that some internal parts still may have to be cut. Check … [Read more...]

Fast and easy solder paste stencils

drill

If you're making your own boards with SMD parts, you might want to get a solder paste stencil. Usually made of laser-cut mylar or extremely thin steel, these stencils allow you to squeegee solder paste onto your board's pads and make assembly a whole lot easier. [Rochey] needed a stencil for a board he was working on, and lacking a laser cutter he turned to what he had available - a few bits of … [Read more...]

Hackaday Links: June 17, 2012

links-helo-built-for-one

Portal gag-video These guys make your own video editing chops look just plain sad. They put together a video demonstrating the portal gun in real life. Unleashing the beast We have this problem all the time. The noise regulations were preventing [Massimiliano Rivetti] from letting the true voice of his Ferrari be heard. He hacked into the control system and can now adjust it via … [Read more...]

Mantis9 PCB mill

mantis9

This is the Mantis9 PCB mill. It's the first time we've featured the project, but it's already well known by some as it keeps popping up in the comments for other CNC mill projects. Yes, it's made out of wood -- which some frown upon -- but we're happy with the build instructions and the especially the price tag (parts as low as $85). We did feature an earlier revision of the hardware back in … [Read more...]

Open Rail, or, why didn’t we think of this?

rail

Hackaday readers familiar with the with the CNC and automated machinery scene will be familiar with MakerSlide, the open-source linear bearing system. This linear movement system composed of special aluminum extrusions and mounting plates riding on v-wheels has been used in a lot of awesome builds including the Quantum ORD Bot 3D printer and the Shapeoko CNC router. If there's one downside to … [Read more...]

Android CNC controller

android-cnc-controller

[Matt] is the proud owner of a JGRO-based CNC router and he's been working on a way to control it without a computer. What he came up with is a way to drive the CNC machine using this Android tablet. A big part of the hack is the CNC controller that he's using. The TinyG is a board that can take commands via USB and convert them to instructions for up to six axes. In the video after the break … [Read more...]