Hacked Farm Toy Plays Simon

November 4, 2012 by Caleb Kraft 10 Comments

My kids have a plastic farm toy. It moos, it oinks, it neighs, it
baas, and frankly, it grates. But since I tricked it out with an
attiny2313, at least it can play “Simon Says”.

This is what [Tom] said in his email to us. We love that when the toy annoyed [Tom], he improved it.

He started by inserting his own electronics. Using an ATTiny2313 for the brains, he proceeded to make it into an interesting game of “simon says”. Each stall is a button and has a nice bright LED in it to help you follow along. Interestingly, he preserved the original electronics as well and added a switch so he could change modes. Great job [Tom]!

Catch the video after the break.

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Capacitive Touch Business Card

November 4, 2012 by Caleb Kraft 15 Comments

[Jay Kickliter] sent in his latest electronic business card. This time, his goal was to make it much cheaper so he could actually afford to give it away. He did pretty well considering the two week timeline he mentions. This card is using an MSP430 with the capsense library to light up some LEDs any time the card is handled. While he states that it is much cheaper than his last, it is still around $8 a card, so he won’t be tossing these into everyone’s hands. He does point out though that it is always helpful to have hardware to show off at a hardware interview, and an electronic business card does that job very well.

As usual, you can read more details and download the files at his blog.

Prosthetic Foot And Ankle Have Amazingly Natural Movement

November 3, 2012 by Caleb Kraft 20 Comments

The natural movement and functional power of the ankle and foot during a step , while appearing fairly simple, are amazingly difficult to replicate with a prosthetic. Usually it requires a fast and fairly powerful motor to provide the forward push and then whip that foot up as we pull our leg forward. However, recent projects have managed to do some amazing jobs at achieving this difficult task. Belgium’s Vrije Universiteit Brussel has released the video (below the break) of the “AMP-Foot 2.0” that pulls this off very well.

The main idea behind the AMP-Foot 2.0 is to have the actuator work longer with a lower power rating while the produced energy is stored in elastic elements and released when needed for propulsion. The device is designed to provide 100% of push-off for a 75 kg subject walking at normal cadence on ground level.

[via Engadget]

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Chromium On The Nexus7

November 3, 2012 by Caleb Kraft 6 Comments

[Hexxeh] is at it again, porting the chromium OS to whatever seems to appear in front of him. This time he’s ported it to the Nexus 7. Last time we saw him, he was raspberry chomping at the pi. The details are very scarce, so we would like to issue this request.

[Hexxeh] we realize you don’t think your every-day-joe would be up to the task of putting chromium on their nexus 7. This is Hackaday however, and we know that at least a few of our readers would LOVE to join you in your efforts and could possibly contribute to your fun. Share some details with us… please.

You can see a video of it in action after the break.

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Hijinks At 50,000 Amps

November 3, 2012 by Caleb Kraft 65 Comments

http://youtu.be/uXEPy6Za6cI

So you happen to have a really beefy transformer sitting around in your living room. What are you going to do with it? Short stuff across it to watch it glow of course!

This video is exactly that. While we flip flopped between “what is this guy doing?” and “ooooh, look at it glow!”, we thought you would surely enjoy this video. If you’re in a hurry, jump to around 5:30 to see a crowbar lit up completely.

[Alan] from HackedGadgets pointed out an interesting thought. Often the government pinpoints marijuana grow houses by their electricity usage. Though he’s not using this on a regular enough schedule to realistically get raided, the thought of that misunderstanding is quite humorous.

[via HackedGadgets]

Computers Not Candy With The Geek Group

November 2, 2012 by Caleb Kraft 20 Comments

This year for Halloween, The Geek Group, decided to take a very different approach to outreach. Instead of making animatronics, or converting their giant (seriously HUGE) space into a haunted house, they held an event called “Computers Not Candy” where they teamed up with a large local company to bring 100 tablet computers to 100 youths.

If you’re not already familiar with the Geek Group, you should check them out. They’re a huge hackerspace that really seems to have their act together. They put out really cool videos regularly, our favorite being the equipment autopsies.

While we really do admire the work they did to introduce these kids to hackerspaces, we also love candy and silly spooky projects. Next year how about Computers AND Candy!

Hackaday’s Official Kickstarter Policy

November 1, 2012 by Caleb Kraft 217 Comments

we don’t have one… yet.

We’re getting inundated with campaigns on crowdfunding sites like kickstarter and indiegogo. Sometimes they’re really cool projects, sometimes they’re not. Unfortunately, they are all basically appeals for coverage on hackaday so they can get money. That immediately puts a negative taste in our mouths. Then again, if a hacker legitimately makes something really awesome, why wouldn’t we want to help spread the word?

We don’t want to stop a really cool project from being shared with you just because it is on kickstarter, but we also don’t want to serve as a crowdfunding advertising platform. It ends up being complicated, especially if the idea is really cool, but the details are sparse.

So, what do you think? Share your thoughts on how hackaday should handle crowdfunding in projects.

p.s. This started as a rant about how sick of the constant pleas for kickstarter coverage we’re getting. We’re trying to stay positive and constructive here, please do the same in the comments.