cross bladed axe

New Cross Bladed Axe Not For Cosplay Or Larping

Firewood aficionado and general axing enthusiast [KH4] likes to cut and split his own fire wood. To burn a tree trunk sized piece of wood efficiently, it has to be split into 4 smaller pieces. [KH4] does this with 3 axe swings, the first splitting the main log in 2, then splitting each half in half again. Although he likes swinging the mighty axe, he still would like to increase the efficiency of each swing.

Well he’s done it! This is accomplished by making a Cross Bladed Axe that has an X-shaped head. Each axe swing should split a log into 4 pieces. That results in 66% less swings for the same amount of wood split!

This projected started with two spare axe heads. One was cut in half with an angle grinder. The two axe head halves were then ground down so that they match the contour of the original axe head. Once the fit was good, the welder was broken out and all 3 axe head pieces were combined into one beastly mass.

After the new head was polished and sharpened, it was re-assembled a new hickory handle. We have to say, the end product looks pretty awesome. There’s a video after the break of this axe in action. Check it out!

Have you ever seen how these axe heads used to be manufactured?

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TRINKET EDC CONTEST DRAWING #5 RESULTS

The final random drawing for Hackaday’s Trinket Everyday Carry Contest was held tonight, and the winner is [flaming_goat] with Trinket Pocket IR Analyser/Transmitter!

ir2In addition to having an awesome username, [flaming_goat] loves IR protocols. Trinket Pocket IR Analyser/Transmitter is a standalone device to read, analyze and transmit Infrared (IR) signals. The IR portion of the project is handled by a Vishay TSOP38238 (PDF link) The 382 series is a 3 pin module. It comes in several variants, each tuned to a specific carrier frequency. The 38238 will decode IR signals at 38 kHz.

The demodulated IR signals are fed into the Pro Trinket, where they can be analyzed. Data is either sent through the serial terminal or displayed on the on-board 1.44″ TFT LCD. Source code for the whole project is up on [flaming_goat’s] GitHub repo.

[flaming_goat] will be receiving a Teensy 3.1 and an Audio+SD adapter from The Hackaday Store. If the Pro Trinket is a gateway drug, then Teensy 3.1 is the hardcore stuff. Powered by a Freescale Kinetis ARM Cortex M4 processor in a tiny package, the Teensy 3.1 packs quite a punch. You might think all that power would mean complex tools, but Teensy 3.1 is still easy to program using the Arduino IDE. The Audio+SD adapter board gives Teensy 3.1 the ability to create some pretty decent audio, thanks to the Teensy Audio Library.

This was the last weekly drawing for the Trinket Everyday Carry Contest, but there is still time to enter and win the big prizes! The deadline is January 3 at 12am PDT. That’s just about 3 days to enter – so procrastinators, get in the game!

TRINKET EDC CONTEST DRAWING #4 RESULTS

The fourth of five random drawings for Hackaday’s Trinket Everyday Carry Contest was held tonight. The winner is [davish] with his entry, Trinket Watch. 

twatch3[davish] loves the current crop of smartwatches, but he wants one he can truly call his own. He’s using the Pro Trinket along with an Adafruit 1.3″ OLED for display duties. That little OLED can show a lot more than just numbers though. [davish] already has Adafruit’s logo demo running on the device. Trinket Watch is going to start out as a simple Arduino coded “dumbwatch”. After the basics of time and date are out of the way, [davish] hopes to add a Bluetooth module and turn Trinket Watch into a full-fledged smartwatch.

trinket-prize-cordwoodWe hope [davish] enjoys his new Cordwood Puzzle from The Hackaday Store. No jigsaws here, cordwood is a puzzle that involves solder! If you get a piece wrong, it’s time to break out that solder wick and fix your mistake. The puzzle is built using the cordwood assembly technique which was popular in the 1950’s and 1960s. We’re not kidding about it being a puzzle either – there are no instructions for this kit! [davish] will know he’s got it right when all 3 LEDs light up.

teensy-3-point-1-in-storeIf you didn’t win this week, all is not lost, you still have one more chance to win a random drawing! Our next drawing will be on 12/30/2014 at 9pm EST. The prize will be a Teensy 3.1 and audio adapter as a prize. To be eligible you need to submit your project as an official entry and publish at least one project log during the week.

The main contest entry window closes on January 2, 2015 – but don’t wait for the last minute! Hit the contest page and build some awesome wearable or pocketable electronics!

Trinket EDC Contest Drawing #3 Results

We’ve held our third drawing for the Trinket Everyday Carry Contest. Once again we’ve used a Pro Trinket to pick the random winner. This week’s winner is [Scissorfeind] with his project Stylin’ safety jacket

jacket3In true hack style, [Scissorfeind] went into this project with two goals: A jacket that will be visible at night, and keep him “looking f*cking sick”. The jacket itself is a faux leather affair from a thrift store. [Scissorfeind] added some studs for bling, and he’s working on adding a ton of electronics for light.

The Pro Trinket will be driving a series of LED matrices, which [Scissorfeind] is working on turning into POV displays. The matrices come from an LED clock which [Scissorfeind] saved from the landfill. In fact, most of the parts in the jacket are upcycled from e-waste. The jacket is just starting to come together. We can’t wait to see the final results!

buspirate2

We hope that [Scissorfeind] enjoys his Bus Pirate V3.6  from The Hackaday Store. The Bus Pirate was designed by former Hackaday writer [Ian Lesnet] as a Swiss Army knife of electronic communications. If you’re trying to connect to a circuit with  SPI, I²C, JTAG, or UART, the Bus Pirate has you covered. It can do plenty more though – from reading analog data to programming components. Check out [Brian Benchoff’s] full review on the Bus Pirate V3.6 product page!

trinket-prize-cordwoodIf the pseudo random number gods didn’t smile on you this week, don’t worry, there are still two more chances to win a random drawing! Our next drawing will be on 12/23/2014 at 9pm EST. The prize will once again be a Cordwood Puzzle! To be eligible you need to submit your project as an official entry and publish at least one project log during the week.

The main contest entry window closes on January 2, 2015 – but don’t wait for the last minute! Hit the contest page and build some awesome wearable or pocketable electronics!

Trinket Everyday Carry Contest Drawing #2 Results

We’ve held our second drawing for the Trinket Everyday Carry Contest. This week we used a Pro Trinket to pick the random winner. The winner is [mikeneiderhauser] with his project WorkoutAid!

workoutaid[Mike] loves hitting the gym, but hates pulling out his phone or fumbling with his headphones to change songs during his routine. WorkoutAid is designed to fix this problem. It’s essentially a Bluetooth media display and remote. Track metadata will be displayed on a 128×64 OLED. 6 buttons will allow the user to change tracks, volume, or perform other functions. The whole device will communicate with a custom Android application through an RN42X Bluetooth radio.

trinket-prize-cordwoodWe hope [Mike] enjoys his new Cordwood Puzzle from The Hackaday Store. No jigsaws here, cordwood is a puzzle that involves solder! It’s built using the cordwood assembly technique which was popular in the 1950’s and 1960s. We’re not kidding about it being a puzzle either – there are no instructions for this kit! [Mike] will know he’s got it right when all 3 LEDs light up.

buspirate2

If you didn’t win this week, don’t worry, there are still three more chances to win a random drawing! Our next drawing will be on 12/16/2014 at 9pm EST. The prize will be the ever handy Bus Pirate V3.6. To be eligible you need to submit your project as an official entry and publish at least one project log during the week.

The deadline for the big contest is January 2, 2014! More than 60 projects are entered so far, but only the top 50 will receive custom t-shirts. The top three projects will win some seriously awesome prizes, including a Rigol DS1054Z Oscilloscope, a Fluke 179 meter, and a Hakko/Panavise soldering bundle.

So what are you waiting for? Get off the couch and get hacking!

Cordwood Puzzle Kit Without Instructions

What you see above is a cordwood circuit, an interesting circuit construction technique from before the days of integrated circuits. The circuit consists of two circuit boards arranged parallel to each other with components holding them apart. This was, for its day, the densest circuit construction technique, used in everything from late 50s aerospace tech to huge computers that filled rooms.

The folks over at Boldport have a love for interesting PCBs and are apparently aficionados of antiquated tech, leading them to create their own cordwood circuit. Here’s the best part: it’s a kit, without assembly instructions.

The cordwood puzzle assembles into a bunch of LEDs that will light up when power is applied. Not much, but there’s a few FETs in there that allow you to control them all individually with a microcontroller. The real fun is trying to assemble the kit: both sides of the cordwood circuit are identical, meaning there’s going to be holes that aren’t meant to be filled, components that will need to be soldered, and most likely a bit of swearing.

Still, this is an exceptionally small circuit for something using this construction technique. If you know of a denser and more modern cordwood circuit out there, leave a note in the comments. If you want to know what the kit looks like when it’s built, [Phil Wright] has your back.