Help Wanted: Open Source Oscilloscope On Rigol Hardware

April 27, 2017 by Al Williams 40 Comments

We’ve often heard (and said) if you can’t hack it, you don’t own it. We noticed that [tmbinc] has issued a call for help on his latest project: developing new firmware and an FPGA configuration for the Rigol DS1054Z and similar scopes. It isn’t close to completion, but it isn’t a pipe dream either. [tmbinc] has successfully booted Linux.

There’s plenty left to do, though. He’s loading a boot loader via JTAG and booting Linux from the USB port. Clearly, you’d want to flash all that. Linux gives him use of the USB port, the LCD, the network jack, and the front panel LEDs and buttons. However, all of the actual scope electronics, the FPGA functions, and the communications between the processor and the FPGA are all forward work.

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Assistive Technology Pioneer Patrick Joyce Has Passed Away

April 27, 2017 by Mike Szczys 22 Comments

We are once again saddened to report the loss of another great hacker. Patrick Joyce has passed away after a decade-long struggle with ALS/MND. Patrick was the team captain of Eyedriveomatic, the Grand Prize winning hardware from the 2015 Hackaday Prize. The loss of Patrick comes quickly after receiving word on Monday about the death of Patrick’s teammate, Steve Evans.

Despite the challenges Patrick faced in the final years of his life he was a prolific hardware hacker. He and his team won the Hackaday Prize in 2015 for designing a system which allowed electric wheelchairs to be controlled with eye gaze software without altering the chairs themselves (which are often not owned by the user). But he was also a finalist in the Assistive Technologies challenge of the 2016 Hackaday Prize. The Raimi’s Arm project set its goal at creating bionic arms for kids — a noble and worthy challenge for everyone to undertake. Check out Patrick’s profile page and you’ll see he has also built an open source head mouse (an alternative to eye gaze controls) and a headphone robot which allowed him to put on and take off his own headphones.

I find it amazing what he achieved in his work considering the physical limitations placed before him. Patrick had limited use of one hand which he used with a joystick for mouse control. His typing was done using eye gaze. Yet he managed to design and document a number of incredible creations. This is inspiring.

Reflect on this loss to our community, but take comfort in the fact that his work lives on. Cody Barnes, the software developer for the Eyedrivomatic, plans to continue work on the project. If you are interested in helping to make that open source assistive tech available to more people who need it, now is a great time to send a private message to Cody to learn more about getting involved.

Hackaday Prize Entry: An Automated Still

April 27, 2017 by Brian Benchoff 27 Comments

We’ve seen plenty of Arduinofied home brewing setups, and kegerators are a fairly standard project for the types of people we hang out with. What we haven’t seen a lot of are home stills. There are unfortunate reasons for this. First off, distilling alcohol is illegal in a few parts of the world if you don’t have a license or tax stamp. Second, vapors explode. Third, wood alcohol is poison.

That said, [TegwynTwmffat’s] project for the Hackaday Prize is the coolest and the safest alcohol still we’ve ever seen. It’s fully automated, small, safe, and there are video game noises sprinkled about the user interface.

The boiler for this nano still is constructed out of a keg, but that was just the starting point. [Tegwyn] removed the bottom of the keg, installed a new bottom, and coupled that bottom to a hot plate. The top of the keg was modified to accept a 2 inch brass fitting that was beautifully welded into place. From the boiler, the alcohol vapor goes into an air-cooled condenser, and all this equipment is housed in a welded steel frame. You couldn’t make something out of aluminum extrusion that looks this good.

The electronics include a hydrometer, an electronic alcohol vapor sensor, several temperature sensors an Arduino Mega, and a GPRS module for controlling the entire setup over the Internet. At various points in the distillation process, the Arduino plays audio files of a robot voice saying what’s going on in the still.

Right now, [Tegwyn] is distilling barley wine and cider into alcohol. The volume produced isn’t much — the keg is only 10 liters, after all — but this is one of the best stills we’ve ever seen. You can check out a video of [Tegwyn] walking us through the project below.

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Fundamentals Of Fingerprint Scanning

April 27, 2017 by Al Williams 28 Comments

Like most (if not all) Hackaday readers, I like to know how the technology I use works. I’m always amazed, for example, how many otherwise smart people have no idea how the cellphone network works other than “it’s a radio.” So now that I have two phones with fingerprint scanners on them, I decided I needed to know more about what’s going on in there.

Sure, I assumed the sensor was capacitive (but maybe not, I found out). Plus we all know some super glue, scotch tape, and gummy bears are all you need to fake one out. However, that’s been known for about 15 years and we are still seeing phones and other devices rolling out with the same scanners. So for now, put aside the debate about whether we should be using fingerprint scanners. Let’s talk about how those sensors work.

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Friday Hack Chat: The Hackaday Prize

April 27, 2017 by Brian Benchoff No comments

Did you know Hackaday is hosting a fantastic contest to build hardware and software? It’s true! The Hackaday Prize will award hundreds of thousands of dollars to Hackaday community members for building the coolest hardware designed to make a difference in the world.

The Hackaday Prize has many ways to enter, focusing on several themes throughout this year. We’ll be discussing that and opening the floor to questions. Tomorrow, Friday, April 28, at noon, Pacific time, we’re hosting a Hack Chat for the Hackaday Prize over on Hackaday.io.

Our guest host for this chat is [Alberto], creator of the project that won last year’s Hackaday Prize. He’ll be in the Hack Chat telling everyone what he learned from last year’s Hackaday Prize. If we’re lucky, he might even tell us something about what building his project out in the Supply Frame Design Lab is like. It’s all very cool, and it’s going down tomorrow at noon, PDT.

Here’s How To Take Part:

Our Hack Chats are live community events on the Hackaday.io Hack Chat group messaging.

Log into Hackaday.io, visit that page, and look for the ‘Join this Project’ Button. Once you’re part of the project, the button will change to ‘Team Messaging’, which takes you directly to the Hack Chat.

You don’t have to wait until tomorrow; join whenever you want and you can see what the community is talking about.

And Tindie, Too!

Next Tuesday, we’re going to have another chat geared toward sellers on Tindie, the online marketplace where anyone can buy or sell DIY hardware.

This time around, we’re talking about Kickstarter. We roped [Zach Dunham] into this one. He’s the Design & Technology Outreach Lead at Kickstarter, and by every measure a really cool guy.

[Zach] will discuss the ins and outs of turning a hardware project into a Kickstarter campaign. Surprisingly, there’s a significant overlap between Tindie sellers and Kickstarter — some sellers test their ideas on Tindie and build up to doing a crowd funding campaign. Others complete a campaign and then come over to Tindie to sell excess inventory or second runs. Either way, there’s a great opportunity for market verification or simply getting your gear into the hands of those who want to use it.

If you want to get in on the Kickstarter chat action, head on over to the Tindie Dog Park. Request to join the project and show up in the chat sometime before 1pm Pacific on Tuesday, May 2.

Cheap And Easy Emergency Butane Stove

April 27, 2017 by Manuel Rodriguez-Achach 25 Comments

Homemade stoves are a very popular hack, you can find a zillion videos on YouTube, mostly on alcohol stoves, and they work great. Less common are butane fueled stoves, but [Thomas Kim] has uploaded a video on a super easy and cheap butane stove.

Like many other DIY stoves, the body is a soda aluminum can. After sealing the top side with aluminum foil, you just need to drill some holes in it. Other necessary components are a metal tube and a syringe needle that acts as flow regulator. [Thomas Kim] makes an interesting fixture that is attached to the can and lets you control the pressure on the can valve and adjust the flame of the stove via a couple of screws.

The stove works great. It is a nice and simple project if you want to start experimenting with these stoves. Safety is important of course, working ventilated area and protect the butane source from heat (in this case the feed tube keeps it away from the burner). Some other projects you may find interesting are this easy rocket stove, or even this project to make your own briquettes from waste materials. Enjoy and stay safe.

OSM (Pronounced Awesome) Hardware Makes DNA In Space

April 27, 2017 by Michael Uttmark 21 Comments

OSM stands for Oligonucleotide Synthesizer designed for use in Microgravity, meaning that it’s a device that makes arbitrary DNA strands (of moderate length) in space. Cool eh? I’ve been working on this project for the last eight months with a wonderful team of fellow hackers as part of the Stanford Student Space Initiative, and I’d like to share what we’re doing, what we’ve already done, and where we’re going.

Why space? Well, first of all, space is cool. But more seriously, access to arbitrary DNA in space could accelerate research in a plethora of fields, and the ability to genetically engineer bacteria to produce substances (say on a martian colony) could mean the difference between death and a life-saving shot. In short, it’s hard to predict the exact DNA one might need for research or practical use before hand.

First, as Hackaday tends to be a little light on biology terminology, we need to get a little vocabulary out of the way to grease the ways of communication. If you have a Ph.D. in synthetic biology, you might want to skip this section. Otherwise, here are five quick terms that will make your brain bigger so stay with me!

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