Ask Hackaday: Now A Regular Occurrence

A while back, we announced that we would be bringing new features to Hackaday. One in particular that garnished a lot of interest was our question answer type thingy. Well, in case you hadn’t noticed, that has not happened yet. Without divulging too much into the secret machinery that lies underneath Hackaday, I’ll just say that we(the writers) don’t necessarily have control over all aspects of the site. An example would be the copyright. Yes, we finally got it updated. Thanks for all of your emails. No, none of us had access to that part of the site, so don’t bother letting us know how simple that change should have been.

We are as eager as you to see some good ideas and good feedback flowing through this site, so we’re going to start a regular post, entitled “Ask Hackaday”. This isn’t entirely new, we’ve done it before actually. This is just to let you know that we intend to do it regularly, and to set some ground rules.  “Ask Hackaday” will mostly center around you, our readers, and your ideas. We will publish a question, and possibly our thoughts, but the main content will be your responses. We have a huge collective of intelligent creative readers and it would be a shame not to tap into that pool of knowledge.  When you are offering an answer, be thorough, give details, and please be kind.

Send your questions to askHAD@hackaday.com for consideration. They will be chosen based on a complicated system of random number variation involving furry woodland creatures and how we feel at the moment that we read them. Do not get offended if you question does not get published. We get tons of questions already and we don’t intend to publish them all.

Balancing Skateboard/segway

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7UKxuVliaIA]

[XenonJon] got a lot of attention for a skateboard/segway style balancing platform he took to the Makerfaire in Newcastle. He decided to try to build it the cheapest and easiest possible way in an attempt to help others build their own. The build is documented very well, however you have to email him to request the code for the Arduino. Maybe after enough requests, he’ll just pop it online. We thought this looked familiar, so we searched the archive and found this very similar setup from back in 2005. Unfortunately, that project page appears to be gone now.

POV Clock Inside Acrylic Block

This gorgeous persistence of vision clock was built a couple years back by [mb1988]. The housing is made of acrylic with a hard drive motor mounted in the center of the back panel to spin a PCB. The two-sided circuit board is home-made and includes a battery for power, ATmega32 for the brain, 32 LEDs, four display drivers, and a real time clock module. The spinning hard drive motor is nearly silent and already has threaded mounting holes on it. [mb1988] uses an optoelectric sensor to sync the display with the rate of rotation. The forum post includes download for the code and hardware details. Don’t miss the demonstration after the break.

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By Popular Demand: The OK Go Rube Goldberg Machine

We’ve received many tips regarding the OK Go video that features a Rube Goldberg machine. If you haven’t seen it yet, check out their video after the break. This is the rare instance when a YouTube video features an audio track with the full endorsement of the artists that recorded it.

Our first thought when watching this? Who are the lucky dogs who got paid to design and build that contraption? You don’t have to scratch your head over that one, the Band has posted a four-part video series talking about the machine and documenting the design meetings and build process (those videos also after the break). The engineer artists at Syyn Labs were tapped to pull off the meticulous mayhem and we think they did a stellar job. There’s been a lot of press about the work, but our favorite was over at Wired because it details the process, not the end product.

The best part about Rube Goldberg Machines is that asking “why?” is the wrong questions. The sheer joy of the build makes taking over a house or over-complicating the fulfillment of hunger worth it.

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RoBo Blower Sure To Become Stephen King Novel

Snow removal ranks right up there with laundry as one of the least-enjoyed chores. [Herb Spencer] sought to automate the process while terrifying his neighbors as the same time by building a robotic snow blower, the RoBo Blower. The heavy lifting is still handled by a gas motor which propels the snow auger. Two batteries power the electrical system that takes commands from a remote control, moving the show chute and managing the navigation.  He’s done what he can in the way of safety, adding a grate at the front, flashing light atop, an operator-controlled horn, and kill circuitry (to shut it down, not to kill the unsuspecting). All of this is wrapped up in a nice package, especially when compared to the snow blower push platform from last month.

Maybe next year he’ll work on making it autonomous? Take a look at the RoBo Blower clearing a driveway after the break.

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DIY Super Soaker

With summer just around the corner you should try out a build like this constant pressure water gun that [JLspacemarine] put together. Similar to the commercially available Super Soaker toys, this isn’t just a squirt gun but includes a water reservoir as well as a pressurized air chamber. Pumping up the air chamber allows for a constant stream when the trigger is depressed. [JLspacemarine] used a combination of hardware store items such as PVC, ABS, springs, hose clamps, and valves to bring this all together.

[Thanks Danukeru]

Tim “The Tool Man” Taylor’s Dream Ride

While surfing one of our favorite websites, we came upon this little jewel. We can’t really tell if this is hack-worthy, or just a deathtrap, so to help decide…

Mechanics crawler + 80cc motor – safety concerns = deathtrap

It’s really that final “Brakes? Why would I need to stop?” that puts this project over the edge. Regardless, check out a video after the break. And please, do not try this at home.

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