Cheap XY Table Using Hobby Servos

September 30, 2008 by Caleb Kraft 6 Comments

[CarlS] wanted to build a low cost x y table for display on teletoyland.com. He realized that to keep cost low, he could use hobby servos instead of stepper motors. Exact precision wasn’t a big issue here, so the hobby servos would be perfectly acceptable.

Though Linear hobby servos are available, he decided that the cost was prohibitive. He used normal hobby servos, but had to modify their internals to get the exact amount of travel necessary. Many people modify the hobby servos for continuous rotation, but this would cause a loss in the ability for exact positioning. Instead, he replaced the potentiometer that measures the position of the servo with a 10 turn potentiometer. This allowed him 10x the travel.

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PS3 Eye As A Webcam On Windows

September 30, 2008 by Caleb Kraft 12 Comments

The NUI Group has been working hard to bring the PS3 Eye to windows. From the factory, this device has pretty impressive specs, but no windows drivers. After a bit of hacking, they’ve developed a driver for it and released it on their forums. The main reason they are so interested in it is that it can capture full frame at 60 frames per second, making it perfect for multi touch sensing. Now that they’ve got it working with windows, they’re working on a custom PS3 Eye filter for touchlib.

[via PS3 Fanboy, thanks vor]

Hack Your Rear Projection TV To Be Bigger

September 29, 2008 by Caleb Kraft 21 Comments

Want to get a bigger tv but can’t afford it? If you Have a rear projection TV, why not just get a bigger screen? That’s exactly what was done here. They dismantled the old TV, mounted it and enclosed it theater style, with curtains. They then mounted a new screen in front of it and voala, bigger TV. He doesn’t talk about how much brightness was lost, but there had to be some. The final picture looks great.

[thanks BonMul]

The Pinnacle Of Modern Robotics: Bar2D2

September 29, 2008 by Caleb Kraft 8 Comments

[Jamie Price] directed us to this photostream of the build for Bar2D2. Though it isn’t the first bartender bot we’ve covered. It very well could be the best executed. Bar2D2 can travel around the party dispensing bottles of beer, shots, and even cans. The construction looks fantastic. You can follow along in the photostream from the very beginning. It is currently radio controlled and can party for about 8 hours per charge. The next planned upgrade is a system that allows you to choose a mixed drink from a database and Bar2D2 will mix it up.

As you can see from the pictures, Bar2D2 is the life of the party, attracting pretty girls and cheesy sci-fi tv pirate astronauts too.

Knit Touchpad

September 26, 2008 by Caleb Kraft 9 Comments

[Plusea] made her own touchpad using some anti-static gloves and an Arduino. This proof of concept is fairly small, but the system could be scaled quite large if you could find the fabric. She cut apart the anti-static glove, mounted it and wired it to the Arduino. A special piece is made to fit over the finger that is also wired to the Arduino. The location of where she touches is determined by the resistance between the finger and each corner. Watch the video on the instructable to see how it measures.

She mentions that there are a few different ways to build it, some which would not require anything on your finger, but would use another piece mounted behind the touchpad. The method she is currently using though, would allow for the fabrick to be any size or shape, even molded around something.

History Hacker Show Pilot Tonight

September 26, 2008 by Caleb Kraft 48 Comments

[Bre Pettis], the former host of the Make podcast and member of NYCResistor has gotten his own show. Debuting tonight on the History Channel, “History Hacker” will be exploring our technological past through hacking. He reminds us on his site, this is just the pilot, it has to get ratings to have more episodes. [Bre] suggests watching it with the family as it should be educational and fascinating. Catch it tonight at 8pm and midnight.

8 Bit Digital Sampler Kit, Bendable Too

September 26, 2008 by Caleb Kraft 7 Comments

No, it’s not flexible, its bendable. As in, you can hack it to sound different by connecting parts in random ways. “Where’s the Party At?”, or “WTPA” for short is a bendable 8 bit sampler made by [Todd Bailey]. Still curious what it is? Watch his video showing it in action. The video is huge, 93Megs, so be patient. The overall attitude of this project is built around hacking. Consider this quote from his page ” I’ve got lots of things to poke, bend, illuminate, invoke, distrust, regulate, and otherwise get jiggy with. It’s like being 15 at the mall again! “. Sounds like fun to us.

[via Create Digital Music]