Day: January 15, 2009

Debian On The G1 Once Again

January 15, 2009 by 7 Comments

g1

[ghostwalker] dropped in on our previous Debian Android post to let us know that he had streamlined the install process. The first time around, it quickly became difficult to complete the process because firmware updates had taken away root access. Hackers have since figured out how to downgrade from RC30 and install BusyBox. All you need to do to put Debian on your phone is download the package from [ghostwalker] and then run the installer script. This isn’t technically a port since Debian already has ARM EABI support. What would you run on your phone if you had access to the entire Debian package tree? A video of Debian starting up is embedded below.

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How-to: Prepare Your Eagle Designs For Manufacture

January 15, 2009 by 47 Comments

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Cadsoft Eagle is a multi-platform freeware circuit layout program. Lots of open source hardware is designed in Eagle, and it’s become a hobbyist favorite. We use it for all of our hardware designs.

There are several ways to turn an Eagle design into an actual printed circuit board (PCB). We’ll show you how to save Eagle designs as industry-standard gerber files that are accepted by any PCB manufacturer. You can use the gerbers to order a single prototype, or a full panel.

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Power Suit For Japanese Farmers

January 15, 2009 by 24 Comments

power_suit

Researchers at Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology have been demoing a new power suit. It’s intended to be used by people hand harvesting in the farm industry. The 55 pound device supports the worker’s joints as they squat and reach. Within three years, they hope to have the cost within $10K. We’ve seen quite a few power suit devices this year, but research has been going on for many years, as you can see in our power suit roundup.

[Thanks Lane]

Smart Attic Fan

January 15, 2009 by 5 Comments

fan

[Andrew] lives in Hawaii where the climate usually doesn’t necessitate heating and cooling systems. Usually, some open windows and doors will cool the house down enough. This relies on the breeze though, and that isn’t always there. [Andrew] came up with the solution of automating an attic fan to circulate air depending on outside temperature. Sure, he could have just installed a fan with a switch, but he wanted it to do all the work itself. He used a PIC16F877 as the brains and made the pretty control panel shown above.

Tape Measure Generator

January 15, 2009 by 39 Comments

generator

[Dr. West] wanted to do his small part to help save the planet. He has built a small generator from a stepper motor and a tape measure. The tape part of the tape measure was replaced with some cord. The spring loading mechanism makes the string re-wind automatically, which is nice. He shows it attached to one leg, with the string tied to the other, generating power while he walks.  This is cumbersome, but seems fairly effective. You can see him waking around in a video after the break. Would this benefit from a flywheel or friction drive to keep the motor spinning after each pull?  How can he rig it to feed off of the motion of only one leg to avoid tripping hazards?

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