Day: August 20, 2019

Rocket Jacket Looks Sharp For CCCamp 2019

August 20, 2019 by 2 Comments

Making your own clothing can be fun, but it’s even better if you can throw some LEDs into the mix and give a new meaning to the term “glow up”. [arturo182] did just that with this custom rocket jacket for CCCamp2019.

We’re getting kind of a stained-glass vibe here.

To create the jacket, a 3D printed frame was created in the shape of CCCamp’s rocket logo. This was then filled with hot glue to act as a diffuser, and fitted with WS2818B LEDs. A Digispark is used as the microcontroller, with its compactness serving well for the wearable application. The assembly is then sewn into the back of a hoodie, with cardboard used on the inside as a backer to help keep things flat and support the weight of the hardware.

Hot glue works great as a diffuser in this application, and animation is easy thanks to the addressable LEDs used in the construction. It’s a great way to get a neon-like look, and we fully expect to see more of these glowy wearables in future!

Dirty Tricks For 6502 Programming

August 20, 2019 by 30 Comments

We know the 6502 isn’t exactly the CPU of choice for today’s high-performance software, but with the little CPU having appeared in so many classic computers — the Apple, the KIM-1, The Commodores, to name a few — we have a real soft spot for it. [Janne] has a post detailing the eight best entries in the Commodore 64 coding competition. The goal was to draw an X on the screen using the smallest program possible. [Janne] got 56 bytes, but two entrants clocked in at 34 bytes.

In addition to the results, [Janne] also exposes the tricks people used to get these tiny programs done. Just looking at the solution in C and then 6502 assembly is instructive. Naturally, one trick is to use the existing ROM code to do tasks such as clearing the screen. But that’s just the starting point.

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Get Ready For Games Night With 3D Catan

August 20, 2019 by 13 Comments

Settlers of Catan is a staple for boardgaming aficionados. Some fans like to express themselves by building a custom set of their own, and [Maclsk] is no different. Enter 3D Catan!

The models for the various pieces were designed in Blender, a great open source 3D modelling program. They were then printed on an Anycubic i3 Mega, taking about 80 hours and using 700 grams of PLA filament. With 116 game pieces, there was plenty of filing and sanding to do.

With this completed, it was then time for paint. [Maclsk] shows off a strong understanding of model painting fundamentals, from dry brushing to using PVA glue to give water elements a glossy sheen. If you’re new to the techniques, sit down with your local Warhammer players – they’ll be more than able to point you in the right direction.

Overall, it’s a great build that really pops on the gaming table. We’ve seen other die-hard Catan fans come out with their own builds, too. Video after the break.

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A Range-Extended Electric Van

August 20, 2019 by 75 Comments

The only thing limiting the range on any electric vehicle isn’t really battery technology, but cost. Customers don’t want to pay more money for an electric car or van that does essentially the same thing as one with an internal combustion engine. This in turn limits the amount of batteries manufacturers put in their cars. However, with enough money, and thus enough batteries, electric cars can get whatever range you want as [Muxsan] shows with his Nissan e-NV200 that gets over 400 miles kilometers on a single charge.

The Nissan e-NV200 is a battery electric vehicle (also available as a badge-engineered Chevrolet van in North America) with a drivetrain from the Nissan Leaf. This means that all of the components from the Leaf basically plug-and-play in this van. [Muxsan] took an extra 45 kWh of batteries and was able to splice them in to the existing battery pack, essentially tripling the capacity of the original 24 kWh pack. Some work was needed to the CAN bus as well, and the car’s firmware needed to be upgraded to reflect the new battery pack, but a relatively simple modification otherwise, all things considered.

While watching the video [Muxsan] also notes how much empty space there is all around the van, and Nissan could have easily upgraded the battery pack at any time to allow for more range. It also took the car 10 hours on a 6 kW charger to charge completely, but that’s not unreasonable for 430 miles of range. If your high voltage DC chops are up to snuff, it’s not impossible to find old Leaf batteries for other projects, too.

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Lithophanes Ditch The Monochrome With A Color Layer

August 20, 2019 by 10 Comments

3D printed lithophanes are great, if a bit monochromatic. [Thomas Brooks] (with help from [Jason Preuss]) changed all that with a tool for creating color lithophanes but there’s a catch: you’ll need a printer capable of creating multi-color prints to do it.

A video (embedded below) begins with an intro but walks through the entire process starting around the 1:26 mark. The lithophane is printed as a single piece and looks like most other 3D printed lithophanes from the front, but the back is different. The back (which is the bottom printed layer) is made of up multiple STL files, one for each color, and together creates something that acts as a color filter. When lit from behind, light passes through everything and results in an image that pops with color in ways that lithophanes normally do not.

The demo print was created with a printer equipped with a Palette 2, an aftermarket device that splices together filament from different spools to create multicolored prints, but we think a Prusa printer with an MMU (multi material upgrade) should also do the trick.

[Thomas] already has a lot of ideas on how to improve the process, but these early results are promising. Need a gift? Lithophanes plus LED strips make great lamps, and adding a cheap clock movement adds that little extra something.

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Circuit VR: Advanced Falstad Logic With Geniac

August 20, 2019 by 2 Comments

I find that if I’m trying to make a point with a student or a colleague about a circuit, sometimes the Falstad online simulator is worth a few thousand words. You can draw the circuit, play with the values, and even see the current flow in an intuitive way as well as make traditional measurements. The simulator not only handles analog but also digital circuits. At first glance, though, the digital functions appear limited, but if you dig deeper, there is a custom logic block that can really help. I dug into this — and into how switches work in the simulator — the other day in response to a Hackaday post. If you use Falstad, read on!

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Behold The Crimson Axlef*cker (Do Not Insert Finger)

August 20, 2019 by 21 Comments

Are your aluminum extrusions too straight? The Crimson Axlef*cker can help you out. It’s a remarkable 3D printed, 4-stage, 125:1 reduction gearbox driven by a brushless motor. Designer [jlittle988] decided to test an early prototype to destruction and while he was expecting something to break, he didn’t expect it to twist the 2020 aluminum extrusion shaft before it did. We suppose the name kind of stuck after that.

Internals of the first prototype, shaft of BLDC motor just visible at top. Twisted 2020 extrusion output shaft at bottom right.

[jlittle988] has been documenting the build progress on reddit, and recently posted a fascinating video (embedded below) of the revised gearbox twisting the output shaft even further. He’s a bit coy about the big picture, saying only that the unit is part of a larger project. In fact, despite the showy tests, his goal is not to simply obtain maximum torque. We can only speculate on what his bigger project is, but in the meantime, seeing the gearbox results is some good clean fun. He first announced the gearbox test results here, and swiftly followed it up with some revisions, then the aforementioned video. There’s also an image gallery of the internals, so check that out.

The Crimson Axlef*cker is driven by an ODrive brushless dual-shaft motor and an ODrive controller as well; that’s the same ODrive whose open source motor controller design impressed us so much in the past.

Between projects like this one and other gearboxes like this cycloidal drive, it’s clear that custom gearbox design is yet another door that 3D printing has thrown wide open, allowing hobbyists to push developments that wouldn’t have been feasible even just a few years earlier.

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