Year: 2012

Tiny OLED O-scope Fits On A Breadboard

September 30, 2012 by 21 Comments

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UfAkdd9kXNY&w=470]

With a surplus of 3D printers at this year’s Maker Faire, it’s really surprising to see the most talked about tool among the makers is a simple oscilloscope.

[Gabriel Anzziani]’s Xprotolab is an extremely small oscilloscope, function generator, logic analyzer, and general 128×64 OLED display is the perfect addition to your next prototyping project. With its breadboard friendly format and USB output, it will dutifully serve as a 200kbps oscilloscope, 8 channel logic analyzer, or as seen in the video above, the perfect interface for a Wii Nunchuck or just a simple digital Etch-a-sketch.

In the video above the fold [Gabriel] shows off the functions of his tiny, if somewhat limited, OLED oscilloscope.

Giving Graphing Calculators A New Life

September 29, 2012 by 19 Comments

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Um0IeGGdIRY&w=470]

[Christopher] at Cemetech, ever frequent HaD feature for his hacked up graphing calculators, made it to the NYC Maker Faire.

He already posted on his blog he was making the trip up to Maker Faire, but we were lucky enough to catch up with him. Two things: the name of his blog isn’t ‘cement tech’, but ‘chem tech.’ Apparently he hates it when it’s mispronounced.

Secondly, he’s been turning in the TI-83s for a Casio Prizm graphing calculator. In the video above he tells us he’s gotten a few homebrew games running on the Prizm, a Lua interpreter, and is currently working on digging around the operating system.

New And Improved DIWire Bender

September 29, 2012 by 9 Comments

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xrr4peibbNI&w=470]

The DIWire bender we saw last summer made its way to Maker Faire this year with a new and improved version that is now able to bend steel even more accurately than the previous aluminum-bending version.

I chatted up [Marco Perry] (above, obviously), and he explained a new feature of the DIWire bender that makes soldering or welding creations made out of CNC bent wire even easier. The new machine features a sharpie that precisely marks where the wire should be welded.

The folks behind the DIWire – Pensa – have a ton of really cool wire sculptures at their booth at Maker Faire, quite incidentally within spitting distance of Hackaday’s Red Bull booth. Be sure to check them out if you’ve got a chance.

Fitting A CNC Machine, 3D Printer, And Vinyl Cutter In A Suitcase

September 29, 2012 by 25 Comments

Maker Faire NY is awash with new and interesting computer controlled tools, but the most unusual so far appears to be Popfab, a combination router, 3D printer, and vinyl cutter able to collapse down into a suitcase.

Popfab is the brainchild of [Nadya Peek] and [Ilan Moyer] of the MIT CADLAB. With interchangeable heads for routing PCBs, 3D printing, and vinyl cutting. A conventional machine of this capabilities would have motors all over the place, but [Ilan] used a CoreXY system to make the stepper motors stationary relative to the frame of the machine.

The electronics are standard Printrboard and Pronterface fare, but it’s still a remarkable build that also fits into a suitcase.

Pictures of the machine, the XY system (good luck wrapping your head around that, but I can tell you it relies on the differential movement of the two motors) and the lovely [Nadya] holding up the plastic extrusion head. We’ll get a video up tomorrow. after the break

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Janus: The Gatekeeper

September 29, 2012 by 10 Comments

janus-001

[Piet] wrote in to tell us about his hack that allows for his front gate to be opened without a key. Unlike this hack that we featured in August, you don’t need a subway pass, just a good memory. As explained in his article (and the video after the break) if the proper sequence of doorbell rings is input, the gate unlocks itself.

For hardware a [mehduino] is used to take the doorbell input and decide whether or not the “secret knock” has been achieved. The door can be unlocked remotely via a button on the processor. Reprogramming the code is achieved by simply holding the program button while the code is entered on the “remote ringer” button.

Be sure to check out the video after the break to see this lock in action. The housing application may not be exactly what you expect. Also of interest, is that in true hacker fashion, the bare processor is hanging by a hook on his wall! Continue reading “Janus: The Gatekeeper” →

Hackaday At The World MakerFaire In NY

September 29, 2012 by 4 Comments

For the next two days, [Caleb Kraft] and [Brian Benchoff] will be wandering around the World MakerFaire  in NY. Primarily stationed at the booth meant to show off our winning entry into the Redbull Creation contest, we hope to find some interesting things for you to read about.

We’ve already scoped out the MakerFaire and met a few people so we’re eager for the gates to open today and let in the flood of enthusiastic people. Speaking of floods, its been raining quite a bit so we’ve got our fingers crossed that we’ll get some clear patches so we can enjoy the things that require a little more space, like the “Centrifury” from North Street Labs.

While everything is going on here, it can be hard to sit down and write a worthwhile article, so those probably won’t appear until monday. In the meantime though, we will be uploading random amusing things as we find them to our youtube account.

Continue reading “Hackaday At The World MakerFaire In NY” →

Water Purification Uses Home-built Electrolysis Rig

September 28, 2012 by 58 Comments

If you plan ahead a little bit you could have your own system of water purification to use in emergencies. Everyone needs clean drinking water and this gadget will let your produce your own purification drops quite easily.

The solution contains chlorine, which is created through electrolysis. The PVC cap seen near the bottom of the image has two electrodes sticking out of it. These are titanium plated mesh plates separated by a rubber ring. The cap has a small hole in it to keep the flow rate low and the fitting at the top acts as a funnel. When you pour in a salt water mixture it passes through the energized plates and a chemical reaction splits the sodium from the chlorine.

A twelve volt power source is necessary for this to work. But since the electrolytic process takes just a minute or two you could easily source the power from batteries charged with solar cells. Check out a full build walk through and demonstration video after the break.

Continue reading “Water Purification Uses Home-built Electrolysis Rig” →