LED Stand For Lego Saturn V Boldly Goes Where No Lego Has Gone Before

January 13, 2018 by Richard Baguley 10 Comments

Hackers everywhere have spent the last couple of weeks building the remarkable Saturn V Lego models that they got for the holidays, but [Kat & Asa Miller] decided to go an extra step for realism: they built a stand with LED lights to simulate launch. To get the real feel of blast off, they used pillow stuffing, a clear acrylic tube and a string of NeoPixel LEDs. These are driven by an Adafruit Trinket running code that [Asa] wrote to create the look of a majestic Saturn V just lifting off the launchpad with the appropriate fire and fury. They initially were not sure if the diminutive Trinket would have the oomph to drive the LEDs, but it seems to work fine, judging by the video that you can see after the break.

Continue reading “LED Stand For Lego Saturn V Boldly Goes Where No Lego Has Gone Before” →

3D Print A Home Automation Switch

January 13, 2018 by Al Williams 15 Comments

If you are the kind of person who won’t use cheap Sonoff modules to control AC powered devices, we don’t blame you and you should probably stop reading now. However, if you don’t mind a little exposed AC wiring and you have a 3D printer, you might be interested in the second generation of [530 Project’s] in-wall light switch.

The 3D printed switch fits a standard box and uses the guts of a Sonoff controller. These work with all the popular ecosystems such as Alexa and Google Home. And they are cheap. Like, really cheap. If you already have a 3D printer, even counting the cost of the filament these are going to be a small fraction of the cost of a commercial switch. You can see a video about the device, below.

Continue reading “3D Print A Home Automation Switch” →

Inexpensive Display Jumps To Life

January 13, 2018 by Bryan Cockfield 19 Comments

If you’ve ever been to a local fair or amusement park, chances are you’ve seen an illusion known as Pepper’s Ghost. To perform the illusion, essentially all that’s needed is a thin sheet of plastic or one-way mirror and a light source. Get it right, and you’ll have apparitions popping up in all kinds of interesting places. With just the right software, though, one of those places could be in your own 3D display.

Using just a tablet and a sheet of plastic rolled into a cone, a three-person team was able to create a 3D display using the Pepper’s Ghost illusion. Using special software that the team developed, an image is altered so that when it reflects off of the plastic cone the image appears as a 3D rendering of the original picture. The rendering is perspective-correct and offers a novel way to interact with a 3D model without needing expensive equipment or special glasses.

If you do have some fancy equipment sitting around, like a computer monitor and some plexiglass, similar 3D displays have been made which utilize similar effects. Right now the team that developed this one haven’t made their code open yet, but have promised to release it soon so that others can build their own displays.

Thanks to [bmsleight] for the tip!

Home Decorating With Tiny Arcade Cabinets

January 12, 2018 by Tom Nardi 19 Comments

Thanks to the general miniaturization of electronics, the wide availability of cheap color LCD screens, and the fact that licensing decades old arcade games is something of a free-for-all, we can now purchase miniature clones of classic arcade cabinets for about $20 USD. In theory you could play these things, but given they’re less than 4 inches in height they end up being more of a desk novelty than anything. Especially since it seems like most of the effort went into making the cabinet itself; a classic example of “form over function”.

Unfortunately, if you want to buy these little arcade cabinets to use as decoration for your office or game room, they aren’t particularly well suited to the task. The “demo” mode where the game plays itself doesn’t last for very long, and even if it did, the game would chew through batteries at an alarming rate. [Travis] decided to tackle both issues head on by powering his Tiny Arcades over USB and locking them into demo mode.

The stock power for the Tiny Arcade comes from three AAA batteries, or 4.5 V. This made it easy enough to run over 5 V USB, and a four port USB charger is used to provide power to multiple machines at once. Forcing the game to stay in demo mode wasn’t much harder: a 555 timer was used to “push” the demo button with a frequency of every 10 seconds or so to keep the game up and running. A simple timer circuit was put together in the classic “dead bug” style, and sealed up with liquid rubber so it would play nice with the insides of the Tiny Arcade.

Since his little machines wouldn’t need their stock power switches anymore, [Travis] rewired the speaker lead through it. So now the machine stays on and in demo mode as long as it’s plugged into USB power, and you can flip the switch on the back to turn off the sounds. Perfect for sitting up on a shelf or the corner of your desk.

Usability issues not withstanding, there’s a pretty big (no pun intended) following for micro sized arcade cabinets. We’ve seen projects ranging from modding a Game Boy Advance to even tinier scratch builds.

Continue reading “Home Decorating With Tiny Arcade Cabinets” →

Warhammer 40K Model Rocket Launcher

January 12, 2018 by James Hobson 5 Comments

[Daniel L]’s friend has a passion for Warhammer 40K. [Daniel] himself has a similar zeal for perfection in details. When he remembered a long-forgotten request to build a working rocket launcher for one of his friend’s Warhammer 40K models — well — the result was inevitably awesome.

The MicroMaxx motors — one of the smallest commercial rocket motors on the market — he had on hand seemed to fit the model of the Hyperios Whirlwind anti-air rocket tank. Modeling and 3D printing all the parts proved to be easier than assembling the incredibly detailed model — on top of sanding and filling gaps, a perfect paint job was no simple matter.

The launcher has two main circuit boards: a STM32F407 microcontroller brain, a low-power A20737A Bluetooth module, and a voltage regulator. The second has the constant current source and MOSFET output stages for the rocket igniters. Pitch and yaw handled by a pair of RC servo motors. [Daniel L] has also gone the extra mile by creating an accompanying iPhone app using the Anaren Atmosphere IDE — it’s simple but it works!

Continue reading “Warhammer 40K Model Rocket Launcher” →

Rolling Robot With Two Motors, But None Are On The Wheels

January 12, 2018 by Donald Papp 4 Comments

This unusual 3D printed Rolling Robot by [ebaera] uses two tiny hobby servos for locomotion in an unexpected way. The motors drive the front wheel only indirectly, by moving two articulated arms in a reach-and-retract motion similar to a breaststroke. The arms are joined together at the front, where a ratcheting wheel rests underneath. When the arms extend, the wheel rolls forward freely. When the arms retract, the wheel’s ratchet locks and the rest of the body is pulled forward. It looks as though extending one arm more than the other provides for rudimentary steering.

The parts are all 3D printed but some of them look as though they might be a challenge to print well due to the number of small pieces and overhangs. A short video (embedded below) demonstrates how it all works together; the action starts about 25 seconds in.

Continue reading “Rolling Robot With Two Motors, But None Are On The Wheels” →

Reverse Engineering A Pirate Nintendo Arcade Board

January 12, 2018 by Lewin Day 23 Comments

The Nintendo VS. System was a coin-op arcade system based on the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) hardware. By being so closely related to the home console, it made it easy to port games back and forth between the two. Being an arcade system, there was significant financial incentive to pirate the boards and games, and many years later such a pirate board landed on the desk of [kevtris], who decided to reverse engineer it for our viewing pleasure.

The board in question runs Super Mario Brothers, and rather than using actual Nintendo hardware it instead relies on a standard MOS 6502 to recreate all the functions of the of the original CPU. A Z80 is pressed into service to emulate the original audio hardware, too. With much of the functionality recreated in TTL logic chips, the board is power hungry, drawing a ridiculous 3 amps when powered up. We wonder as to the fire safety of such machines all crammed into a hot, sweaty arcade of yesteryear.

[kevtris] does a great job of reverse engineering the system, even providing a full PDF schematic for the bootleg board. An old SEGA controller is hand-wired into the board to provide both game controls and act as a coin switch to allow the game to be played.

We’d love to hear the story of how these machines actually came to be, and the design process involved, but for now that may remain one for the ages. Arcade piracy was something the big companies fought against for years, with varying success – and we’ve seen arcade DRM hacked before.

[Thanks to Jero32 for the tip!]

Continue reading “Reverse Engineering A Pirate Nintendo Arcade Board” →