Homemade Induction Generator

July 13, 2010 by Mike Szczys 33 Comments

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

[Tyler LaVite] tipped us off about the generator he built. He combined a 5.5 horsepower Honda motor with a 10 horsepower electric bandsaw motor. To get an induction generator to produce alternating current you must feed electricity into the system to start the magnetic flux. [Tyler’s] solution was to include a bank of capacitors totaling 230mF which charge from the motor, then release back into the system. It’s not as green as the syngas generators we’ve seen since it still uses fossil fuel, but it reuses old parts sending less to the landfill.

A Pair Of Rube Goldberg Builds

July 13, 2010 by Mike Szczys 19 Comments

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KJfhgrNQnq4]

Here’s a couple of videos of Rube Goldberg machines that [Austin] built. The one above was completed in 2008 as a commercial contest entry for something-or-other. After the break you can see his build from 2007 which was just for fun. Both are quite nice additions to our collection of the complicated devices. We especially like the use of a sub-woofer to move a ping-pong ball and a vibrating cell phone for some wireless integration.

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Key Fob Programming

July 13, 2010 by Mike Szczys 57 Comments

[Fileark] has instructions for reprogramming keyless entry devices for your car. His demonstration video, which you can see after the break, shows how to make one key fob work for two different vehicles. In this case he’s working on a couple of Chevrolet trucks but there are instructions for GM, Ford, Dodge, Toyota, and Nissan. If you need to reprogram one of these you may find this useful, but we’re wondering how it can be incorporated into a project. If you can sniff out the communications that are going on during the programming you should be able to build and pair your own devices with a vehicle. Wouldn’t it be nice to incorporate your keyless entry into your wristwatch?

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DelFly2 And DelFly Micro

July 13, 2010 by Caleb Kraft 15 Comments

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Mxq-nr9xyY]

The video you see above is the on board footage of the DelFly2 autonomous ornithopoter robot. Weighing 16 grams, it carries a small camera and can provide a live feed. If you’re amazed at the tiny size and weight of the DelFly2, check out the DelFly micro, video after the break, that weighs 3 grams. Remember when we thought 17 grams was small for an ornithopter?

All processing for the DelFly2 is done at a base station and transmitted to the flying bot to keep the weight down. The team also had to create their own brushless motor that runs at 60% efficiency and weighs only 1.6 grams. The 130mAh battery can sustain 15 minutes of horizontal flight or 8 minutes of hovering.

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Electronic Vuvuzela

July 13, 2010 by Mike Szczys 27 Comments

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

Want to annoy fellow fans but don’t have the lung power to do the job? [Hunter’s] electronic vuvuzela is just the thing you need. The plastic noisemakers were so prevalent at the world cup this year that some folks came up with audio filters to remove the sound. The electronic rendition is much smaller, using a 555 timer to mimic the instrument on a small speaker. [Hunter’s] build has buttons for five different notes which can be altered with some potentiometer. There’s no schematic but then again for something that’s annoying you don’t want to make it too easy to replicate.

Update: Hunter added the schematic to his site which spell doom for those who enjoy peace and quiet.

Programmable Drum Machine

July 12, 2010 by Mike Szczys 13 Comments

This sequencer, called Drumssette, uses audio tape to churn out some beats. [Mike Walters] built this around a Tascam four track cassette recorder. The tape inside has a different drum sound on each of the tracks, with a corresponding row of red buttons. Pushing a button adds the drum sound to the loop on that beat. He’s using a series of digital logic gates to patch through the sounds as well as clocking the device from one of the tape’s tracks. It’s pretty neat to see the focus selector used in the video after the break to sync up the beginning of the repeated drum patterns. This isn’t the first time we’ve seen [Mike’s] work. If you missed it last year take some time to review the Melloman.

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Update: Acrobatic Quadcopters Team Up

July 12, 2010 by Mike Szczys 34 Comments

We usually envision small wheeled robots when we thing about swarm robotics but these cooperative quadcopters make us think again. This is an extension of the same project that produced those impressive aerial acrobatics. It may not be as flashy, but watching groups of the four-rotored flyers grab onto and lift loads is quite impressive. There is also a shot of one dropping a 2×4 and immediately compensating for the loss of weight. We’re not certain, but it looks like team lifting doesn’t require the 20 high-speed camera rig that the acrobatics did. We’ve embedded the demonstration video after the break.

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