A Simple Servo Hack For An Iron Man Helmet

November 12, 2013 by James Hobson 12 Comments

iron man helmet

[James] makes some seriously awesome Iron Man props. In one of his latest helmet builds, he came across a handy hack to lock the faceplate servo in place.

You see, as awesome as it is walking around like Iron Man all day, you’re going to want to keep your faceplate up for extended periods of time. Simply holding the servo in place electronically is a waste of power, and results in the annoying sound of a servo under strain. On the other hand, cutting power to it will keep it in place momentarily — but it will also start to close under the force of gravity.

The solution is actually quite simple, by reprogramming the Picaxe-08M microcontroller, the board now shorts the motor terminals to hold it in place. This is called magnetic motor braking, and it works by creating a closed loop that makes it much harder to induce a current under load. We once added this feature to a motorized push-scooter — it’d stop on a dime, although you wouldn’t…

Stick around after the break to see an extremely in depth video on how he setup the entire system.

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Arc Reactor Replica Could Have Been Crafted In A Cave

June 11, 2013 by Mike Szczys No comments

Following in the footsteps of [Tony Stark] this Arc Reactor replica was hand crafted using almost no power tools. From what we can tell in his build gallery, a cordless drill was his only departure from using pure elbow grease.

[DJ Maller] started his build by cutting out a disc of acrylic for the base plate. While we might have reached for a hole saw, he grabbed a framing square and laid out a center point and square cuts on the stock. Kudos for his use of an awl (we often take the Luddite approach of hammer and nail) to make an impression for his compass point to rest in. After using a coping saw to rough out the shape he sands the round up to the line with the drill and a sanding wheel.

After drilling holes and inserting LEDs he begins to build up the replica piece by piece. What looks like a recessed handle for a sliding closet doors makes up the center. The spring-like copper coils was produced by wrapping wire around a pen then stretching to the desired shape. He added a bicycle spoke wrench wrapped with copper for some additional visual appeal before finishing the decoration off with some storm door clips.

[via Reddit]

Hackaday Links: March 20th, 2013

March 20, 2013 by Ryan Fitzpatrick 23 Comments

Giant fresnel lens is dangerous fun

Here’s an interesting, and rather dangerous, use for those old big screen TVs that are frequently listed for FREE on Craigslist. With the lens from the old TV built into an adjustable wooden frame, [Grant] was able to melt a stack of pennies, instantly burn wood, melt spots in concrete, and serve his family a cooked egg… Cool.

Projection mapping app helps create hologram like performance stage

projection-mapping-app-creates-live-desktop-stage

[Aimino] used an iPad, a mobile projector, and a mosquito screen to create a trippy hologram like stage. It might not seem like much at first, but it’s actually a pretty interesting effect. Watching the video makes me wonder what other applications this could have in the near future.

The world’s strongest magnet

worlds-strongest-magnet

At a cost of over $14 million dollars and weighing in at 35 tons, the 45 Tesla Hybrid is the strongest DC magnet on Earth. It’s powerful enough that the film crew couldn’t even safely get in to take footage of it. Over half of their camera tapes were wiped clean just while being in the same facility that houses it!

Virtual Body chair uses 4 of our 5 senses

virtual-body-chair

Created in the hopes of providing a VR experience for seniors with mobility problems who can no longer travel the world, Tokyo Metropolitan University’s Ikei Laboratory presents the ‘Virtual Body’ exhibition. Included are a 3D monitor, a pair of headphones, a fan to create breezes and spread scents, a chair that moves and vibrates, and moving foot pedals.

Iron Man laser gauntlet pops balloons with ease

functional-iron-man-laser-gauntlet

If you’re an Iron Man fan with disposable income, you might want to check out this functional full metal laser gauntlet. Built from scratch using no blueprints or guides, [AnselmoFanZero] sells them for around $3K USD.

Iron Man Faux Stained Glass Saves $4k

January 25, 2013 by Mike Szczys 28 Comments

ironman-faux-stained-glass

Check out how the light hits this piece of artwork. It’s a very convincing piece of stained glass… except it’s fake. [Sdtacoma] figured out a way to mimic stained glass using a single pane. The inspiration for the project came after seeing a real stained glass panel featuring Iron Man which was available on Etsy for $4500.

Due to popular demand [Sdtacoma] posted an album of the technique he used. Starting with some art found online he made it black and white, blew it up to size (this thing’s about five feet tall) and used posterizer to print it out using multiple sheets of paper.

The frame and pane were found at a recycled building goods store. After cleaning it up he used the paper template to lay out the dividing lines between different colored sections using Liquid Lead. The product had dimension to it (kind of like puffy paint for fabrics) which looks like the lead tracks between panes of stained glass. Once dry the color was added using an eye dropper to apply glass paint.

Incredible 1000 MW Iron Man Repulsor Beam

July 14, 2011 by Mike Nathan 55 Comments

awesome_hand_mounted_repulsor_laser

German lab technician by day, hacker by night [Patrick Priebe] has done it again, this time strapping a ridiculously high-powered laser to the palm of his hand. Earlier this year, we showed you an awesome Neodymium:YAG pulse laser pistol he built, and it seems he never takes a rest from constructing crazy laser projects.

[Patrick] is a huge Iron Man fan, and his palm-mounted laser unit was built as an ode to his all-time favorite super hero. Crafted to invoke images of Iron Man’s repulsor beam, his laser uses a 1000 mw 445 nm laser diode to get the job done. if you happen to be keeping track, that makes his DIY laser just as powerful as the WickedLasers Spyder 3 Arctic – THE benchmark in portable handheld lasers.

Like his previous builds, we can’t seem to find a whole lot of information about the laser’s construction process. We do know however, that the unit was crafted from a 2mm thick sheet of brass, which fits nicely on his hand while simultaneously acting as a very large heat sink. This large surface area allows him to run the laser continuously for three minutes before requiring a cool down, which is no small feat.

We think it’s an awesome project, and as you can see by the videos of the three separate revisions it has undergone, [Patrick] is quite serious when it comes to perfecting his wares.

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Hackaday Links: September 19, 2010

September 19, 2010 by Mike Szczys 18 Comments

6502 Gate Simulator

Ever wondered what’s going on inside that chip as the program executes? Now you can take a look at the die itself with this visual gate simulator for the 6502 processor. [Thanks Puli and Svofski]

Copper corrosion

[Moogle] cracked open his DockStar to find corroded copper. It seems that Seagate left a portion of the ground plane unprotected and it reacted badly with the shielding metal. If you have one of these devices you might want to crack it open and tin the exposed copper so that it will hold up over time.

Segway kickstand

Don’t want your Segway to flop over when you park it? Follow [Paul’s] lead in building a kickstand for the self-balancer. You can just make it out in the image above. It’s a dumbell that folds down from the handlebar tube when you’re not on board.

Tesla makes everything better

Do you like the song Iron Man? We think it’s better when our friend Nikola takes part.

No Smoking

Smoking is really quite bad for you. Plus you can’t chain smoke nearly as efficiently as this mechanical smoking machine can so don’t even try. [Thanks Ferdinand]

Arc Reactor Replica

June 19, 2010 by Mike Szczys 17 Comments

This Arc Reactor is a great re-creation of the fictional source of Iron Man’s power. It’s really just a holder for a bunch of LED’s, but it exhibits some fine craftsmanship which we enjoy in any project. This rendition is much more true to the movie than the last look-a-like we saw. These might end up being for sale (the webpage narrative is kind of weird) but you really shouldn’t be wearing this kind of thing around unless you made it yourself, or if you can add it to some kind of Iron Man simulator.

[Thanks Cr8vie]