Month: December 2013

Battlebots In The Sky

December 14, 2013 by 50 Comments

Here’s one of those ideas that makes us wonder: “Why didn’t we come up with that?” The LVL1 in Louisville, Kentucky is hosting an event they call the Quadcopter Ultimate Aerial Combat Competition (QUACC). Kudos to them on coming up with a very professional name for the event. At risk of drawing cease-and-desist orders from the defunct TV program, we’ll always think of this as Battlebots in the Sky. (Lawyers: please don’t make us take that down… it’s an homage to the awesomeness that was at least the first few seasons of the show).

So why are we publicizing local events on Hackaday? It’s not the event, but the idea that’s spectacularly worth sharing! You’ve got to check out their contest rules as well as the Q&A list. Registration is closed, but the lucky ones who claimed a spot for the low price of $40 will be issued a regulation quadcopter today. They have a week to play around with it, testing out different ideas for disabling their enemy. A match ends when either one competitor defeats the other, or when a competitor’s battery runs dry. A new battery is the issued to the winner for use in the next round.

We’d love to hear your ideas for weaponizing (or adding countermeasures to) these delicate, lightweight aircraft. Aerosol accelerant and a BBQ igniter? How about shielding and a type of EMP, or some other system that will disrupt controller commands of your opponent? Obviously if you launch a similar competition at your hackerspace we want to hear about it!

[Thanks Gerrit]

Wii Nunchuck-Controlled Tetris On A Raspberry Pi

December 14, 2013 by 1 Comment

tetris

[Vince] teaches an Embedded Systems class at the University of Maine, and some of his students were working on video games for their finals. He decided to “test the hardware” that the students were using by putting two 8×8 displays, one 4×7 segment display, and a Wii Nunchuck on the I2C bus. He then wrote a version of Tetris that accepts trigger presses and accelerometer input for control. Judging by the video (embedded after the break), the Raspberry Pi runs the game without issue. The bus is, of course, more than capable of handling everything.

Unfortunately, [Vincent] had some trouble getting the controls just right. Sometimes dropping a piece can cause the next to drop too quickly, and the accelerometer control seems a bit too sensitive. We imagine using the joystick for rotation and adding some strategic pauses in the game could help. He graciously released the source code for the project, so maybe we’ll see some embracing and extending in the near future.

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UsbXlater For PS4 Keyboard And Mouse Action

December 13, 2013 by 20 Comments

USB

[Frank Zhao]—an awesome guy, an inadvertent Hackaday contributor, and an Adafrut fellow—has come up with a device to use a keyboard and mouse with Playstation 4 games. He calls it the UsbXlater, and even if [Frank] can’t get it working with his PS4, it’s still going to be an awesome tool.

On the board are two USB ports and an STM32F2 microcontroller. The micro provides a USB host interface and a USB device interface, enabling it to translate mouse movements and keystrokes into something a PS4 can understand.  While this project was originally designed to use a keyboard and mouse on [Frank]’s shiny new PS4, it’s not quite working just yet. He’s looking for a few gamer/dev folks to help him suss out the communication between a keyboard/mouse, the UsbXlater, and a PS4.

Of course, even if this device is never used for what it’s designed for, it’s still a very, very interesting tool. With two USB ports, the UsbXlater could act as a signal generator for USB devices and hosts, analyze USB traffic, or provide other applications that haven’t even been thought of yet.

[Frank] is hitting his head against the wall trying to figure out the PS4 protocol, so if you have some USB skills, feel free to hit him up for a blank PCB, though preference falls to people who will game with it and to those with a USB traffic analyzer. If you lack the skills for USB development, [Frank] is still looking for a better name for his device.

Flying Spaghetti Monster Display

December 13, 2013 by 91 Comments

[Anthony Liekens], one of our favorite hackers from Belgium, recently completed this large (and awesome!) Flying Spaghetti Monster LED display!

With so many different holidays in December, [Anthony] decided he wanted his family to celebrate a slightly less traditional deity. The body is a massive 4′ by 8′ wooden board that we think [Anthony] cut out by hand, with a total of 300 RGB LEDs driven by an Arduino. Chicken wire mesh provides support for the LEDs in the FSM’s mouth and eyes. [Anthony] built everything in his very own backyard hackerspace called the Open Garage, which is a fantastic neighborhood hackerspace (and we should know—we stayed at his place during our European Hackerspace Tour!)

[Anthony] has a bunch of videos showing off the display on his personal YouTube channel, but stick around after the break for a quick sample that features the Flying Spaghetti Monster in the front window of his home.

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Arduino Controlled Beer Brewing Machine!

December 13, 2013 by 12 Comments

[the_meatloaf] just put the final touches on his fully automated beer brewing machine using an Arduino.

The project was part of his computer engineering degree, and it took [the_meatloaf] and two mechanical engineer friends a year to design and build the entire system from scratch. An Arduino Mega with a 4-button interface allows you to program, save, load, rename, and run up to 26 different recipes saved to the EEPROM.

An automated system like this removes most of the guesswork from an otherwise complex brewing process. The machine starts by heating the water in the first keg using a 2000W heating element, after which the water transfers into the mash vessel via servo valves, where it’s stirred by a mixing motor. The machine then drains the wort (the resulting liquid after mashing) and sparges (adds more water to the mash tun) the grains as programmed: thanks, [Chris,] for clarification! The wort is brought to a boil for the programmed amount of time, while a servo-controlled “hopper” automatically adds the hops.  Finally, a counter-flow heat exchanger rapidly cools the solution to room temperature using ice water, then dispenses the solution for fermentation.

Though [the_meatloaf’s] biggest project to date was quite the accomplishment, he unfortunately won’t get to enjoy it. The sponsors who covered the $1000 budget reclaimed the machine. Drat.

[via Reddit]

3D Printed, Solderless Circuits

December 13, 2013 by 47 Comments

3d printed board

If you’re looking for yet another alternative to etching your own PCBs, then check out this new Instructable on 3D printing test circuits!

[Mikey] decided to try out this method when he needed a small board prototype. He designed the perfboard to have a standard thickness—only 1/16th thick (~1.6mm)—with thin, recessed channels on one side and through holes on the other. [Mikey’s] circuit board allows you to stuff your components in, hold them down with a piece of tape, and then fill the channels with some kind of conductive material. In this example he’s used a highly conductive paint.

This 3D printed option probably won’t suit all your circuit-building needs, but it could provide an excellent shortcut for your next hack! As always, there’s a video after the break.

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Roboxotica (Barbot Festival In Vienna)

December 13, 2013 by 9 Comments

minecraft-cocktailbot--verse-publications

Just this past week was this year’s Roboexotica 2013! The annual event was the world’s first and is perhaps the finest festival of cocktail serving robotics out there!

Founded 15 years ago in San Francisco, Roboexotica brings together scientists, hackers, and artists from all around the world to build the most awesome drink dispensing technologies. It’s also an opportunity to discuss innovation, science fiction, and the world of robotics to come — after utilizing some of the robots of course!

The photo above is of one of the popular bots from this year — it’s called the Minecraft Cocktailbot. It dispenses the liquor out of its floppy drive, but only when you control it from inside a game of Minecraft!

More of the barbots present at Roboxotica can be found on the main site. We think our second favorite is the Bunnybot. It defecates peanuts — the mightiest of all  in pellet-form bar food.

Stick around after the break to see the Minecraft Cocktailbot in action!

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