Man Made Rainbow Uses ONLY Sunlight And Rainwater

January 13, 2011 by Mike Szczys 20 Comments

This rainbow is and is not natural. It’s the product of rainwater and sunlight so in that respect it’s natural. But as you can see, it’s not raining. This is an art installation that uses captured rainwater, stored solar electricity, and irrigation equipment to float a heavy blanket of mist in the air. The prismatic effects of the suspended water particles separate the sunlight into various bands by wavelength and a rainbow springs into existence.

We’ve done this before with a garden hose in the back yard. It might be fun to try to build a version that recycles the water as this does, perhaps using a rain barrel as a reservoir. It would certainly be much easier than pulling off that water-based 3-D display we’ve been meaning to undertake.

[Thanks Xb0xGuru]

Pin Header Sizing Machine

January 13, 2011 by Mike Szczys 41 Comments

[Ammon Allgaier] built a tool that can break apart pin headers with a high level of precision. In the video after the break he demonstrates the built-in features. They include an adjustable stop to select the number of pins you’d like in each chopped segment. There’s also a small groove in the input side which the plastic frame of the header rides in. Just insert until it is touching the stop, and push down to break the header at the correct location. A couple of springs return the cutting tooth to its resting position, allowing you to make quick work of chipping up a 40-pin blank. This machine will become a nice companion for that automatic wire cutter.

This is great for single headers but we’ve long been on the lookout for a reliable way to snap off double pin headers. Far too often we make mistakes when trying to use two pair of pliers. If you know of a better way, please share your method in the comments.

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Turning A One-armed-bandit Into Web Slots

January 12, 2011 by Mike Szczys 14 Comments

[Kyle Kroskey] just finished his first Arduino project, adding web control to a slot machine. He started with an IGT S+ model which were extremely popular in Vegas and Atlantic City casinos for years, but are now being replaced with more modern versions. His grand idea was to modify the machine so that it can be controlled from a PC, then unleash a live stream so that the Internets can play.

This turned out not to be too hard, there’s just a few controls he patched the Arduino into; the button for maxing out the wager amount, and sensors that measure coin inserts and payouts. In order to keep the peace he disconnected the speaker but rerouted the audio into a PC so that it can be played over the streaming feed. This make sure it’s quiet in the room without sacrificing the online fun. The PC is running Ubuntu and controls the video feed, a screen detailing jackpot data above the machine, and facilitates passing webpage player requests to the Arduino for machine control.

For another fun slot machine hack, check out this gaming device turned bartender.

SkyWalker: A Really Really Tall Bike

January 12, 2011 by Mike Szczys 37 Comments

[Brad Graham] enjoys building bikes. He threw together a tall bike called the SkyWalker and then shared the build details (link dead, try the Internet Archive version). It’s got everything you’d expect in a fixed-gear bike; a seat, pedals, steering, and two wheels. You’ll have to do a bit of climbing to get into the saddle but the incorporated ladder doubles as passenger space. [Brad] says the thing has no problem supporting up to four riders at a time. Check out the video after the break to see that the ladder and large-height steering frame make the bike easy to stop and start without leaning on something. Wow.

We’re thrilled and scared at the same time. At least that over-under tandem had full-sized wheels. But those tiny rims on this oblong creation? Yikes!

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Quit Your Job And Build A Pipe Organ

January 12, 2011 by Mike Szczys 23 Comments

[Raphi Giandiulio] grew tired of designing expensive things for Texas Instruments, so he quit his job and built this organ. Now there is some back story here, [Raphi’s] dad was a professional musician and [Raphi] played trumpet through college. He is a mechanical engineer by trade and that’s where a lot of the expertise for the instrument design came from. The project and the website that documents it are very large in scope, detailing the design process (including CAD drawings), the build, and a tour of his woodshop. The instrument includes 250 pipes and took about four years to finish, concluding in 2007. We weren’t surprised to learn that [Raphi] now has a new job… building organs.

Perhaps you’d be more interested in hacking an existing pipe organ?

[Thanks M]

Hold, Fast, And Max Features On A Digital Caliper

January 12, 2011 by Mike Szczys 67 Comments

While adding an RJ-11 connector to his digital calipers [BadWolf] slipped, shorting out a pin and accidentally discovered new features. He intended to add a port for reading measurement data electronically, but after the slip-up an ‘H’ appeared on the LCD screen and the measurement was frozen at the same number. At first it seemed like he may have killed the device, but this is actually a hold function. A little bit more playing around and he discovered that a combination of button presses can also enable a fast function which speeds up the rate at which the display changes its reading. There is even a max function that only updates the display if the reading is higher than any previously displayed measurement. These are nice features which he uses by connecting a momentary push switch between two of the output pins, details we gleaned from the annotated video after the break. He doesn’t say which pins work for him, but we’d bet one of them is the ground pin on the port, and the other is one of the two data pins. Do some investigating with your own calipers and let us know what you find in the comments.

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Intro To Circuit Bending

January 11, 2011 by Joseph Thibodeau 54 Comments

Electronic musical instruments are a lot of fun for a hacker because, with a small palette of tools, know-how and curiosity, they are easily modified. As with any hack, there is always the chance that the subject will be ruined, so it’s not necessarily worth the risk to muck about inside your thousand-dollar pro synthesizer. Luckily for all of us, there are shovel-fulls of old electronic musical toys littering the curbs and second-hand shops of the world. These fun little devices provide ample opportunity to get familiar with audio electronics and circuit bending techniques.

A note on definitions: the term “circuit bending” can be synonymous with “hardware hacking” in the world of audio electronics, and we have seen some debate as to which term is better suited to a given project. We welcome you to share your viewpoints in the comments.

Keep reading to get started.
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