Omni-car

November 17, 2009 by Caleb Kraft 26 Comments

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QB15-uSNvHA]

We stumbled onto one of [Nik Melton]’s projects, an Omni-car. It is omnidirectional, meaning it can go any direction at any time without having to turn. The body was designed by him, then printed with a 3D printer. The control scheme is what interests us though. He has found a simple way to wire it to get the job done. Sure you can see that it suffers from some pretty bad “drift” when trying to go in a straight line, but overall, we think he pulled it off well.

You might want to take a few moments to look around his project page. This guy has done a bunch of fun stuff like delta robots, strange hybrid wheel/leg robots, tesla coils, and arm mounted flamethrowers. Judging by the videos, he’s pretty young too. We think his guy has a bright future ahead of him.

RFID Door Lock – The Right Way

November 17, 2009 by Mike Szczys 40 Comments

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XT7E_GEIPVg]

[Pcmofo] has shared a well-built, well-explained example of how to implement an RFID key system for a door. We call this the right way because it is well thought out and functional. In the past we’ve seen doors that unlock via a secret knock, keypads, and RFID, but they are all non-permanent solutions capable being transplanted from one door to another. Rather than building a mechanism to turn the door handle, this implementation uses an electric strike mounted in the framing of the door to allow access. These are used for security doors in buildings and are built to keep your door secure.

The hack in this case is the electronics. Using an AVR ATmega168 running the Arduino boot-loader, [pcmofo] has prototyped a two-part design. An RFID reader is mounted outside the door with data wires running to the inside where the microcontroller resides. A hard-coded RFID card is used as a “master” to train any number of tags for entry. The master puts the device in training mode and the next tag to be read is added to the list of tags authorized to open the door.

We like messy wires and quickly thrown together devices but this is built to last and will look great once mounted in an appropriate enclosure.

Rotating Radar Visualization

November 16, 2009 by Jakob Griffith 32 Comments

[flickr video=http://www.flickr.com/photos/peplop/4106571163/]

We ask, who wouldn’t want a rotating motion and distance tracking radar? Sure in today’s day and age anyone could purchase a wide-angle sonar or IR solution that achieves the same goal, but [LuckyLarry] took it old school and made his own rotating radar. He used an Arduino, servo, and ultrasonic sensor as a base to gather data, and the open source programming language Processing to draw the data on the screen. He says it’s a little inaccurate currently, but will try out some other sensors in the future.

USB To Serial Adapter

November 16, 2009 by Caleb Kraft 21 Comments

[Spikenzie] is at it again. This time he’s posted a nice USB to serial converter. He points out that you can buy a USB to serial adapter pretty cheaply, but sometimes you want this functionality built into your project enough to justify the greater cost. In those cases where you want to integrate it, this is an elegant solution. This design was made to be fairly compact and still usable on a breadboard. As usual, you can download the files from his website. If his work looks familiar, it’s because we’ve covered his work several times before.

[via Flickr]

LED Ring Light

November 16, 2009 by Mike Szczys 30 Comments

diy-ring-light

[Jani] built his own photography ring light based on automotive LED rings. The rings he used are meant to encircle headlights on a car and are available at a low cost. The assembly is built around a filter that attaches to his camera lens. Two rings of LEDs are then glued to a case made from the plastic of a CD-R container. To diffuse the light, he sanded both sides of the clear plastic housing to make it translucent.

LED rings operate on DC power and unlike a ring flash, they provide constant light to help set up your shot. His finished project is well-built and should come in between $10-20.

Radio Assisted Drawing Device

November 16, 2009 by Mike Szczys 7 Comments

radio-assisted-drawing-device

An exhibition just wrapping up at the Russian Frost Farmers Gallery in New Zealand presented an interactive artwork hack. Called the Radio Assisted Drawing Device (R.A.D.D), it is a plotter that mounts on the wall. It isn’t computer controlled, but rather relies on a remote control with two sticks to move the plotter Etch-a-Sketch style.

A clear gantry mounts vertically and travels along the top edge of the wooden backing. A slot cut in the acrylic steadies the plotter and allows for smooth vertical movement. Obviously built by hand, the mechanics seem to have tight tolerances for precise movements of the stylus. See the exhibit in the video after the break.

Wouldn’t you love to have one of these on the wall at your next party? It adds a whole new spin on a guest book.

Continue reading “Radio Assisted Drawing Device” →

Tauntaun Costume

November 16, 2009 by Caleb Kraft 20 Comments

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=upl7F5p0DHY]

[Scott Holden] went all out this year and built an amazing Tauntaun costume. The Tauntaun from Star Wars was massive, standing 8 feet tall, and usually carrying a rider. [Scott] wanted to make it the correct size, and ultimately pulled it off. He had to build custom stilts to get the leg angle correct as drywall stilts were too straight. The rest is mainly pvc and fur. We think he did a fantastic job on this. The effect is quite nice, and we can imagine that in person it is even better.

Take note at the bottom of page 3. Apparently, he got pinned in the costume in his workshop and almost had to spend the night on the floor in the costume. That’s pretty wild, at least he was warm.

[via makezine]