Rail Bike Conversion Is A Success, And A Failure

May 1, 2012 by Caleb Kraft 40 Comments

There is a long tradition of hacking transportation to work on the rails. People have done it to all kinds of things for many reasons. Some are for rail maintenance, others are simply to enjoy the tracks. With as much unused railways as we have, it seems a shame to waste them. This hack turns a bicycle into into a rail bike with the use of some conduit, a cut up razor scooter, and a fork from another bike. After some tinkering with spacing to make the whole thing a little smoother on the rails, the whole thing seemed like a success. That is, until the front rail guide caught a railway tie and the rider was tossed. Not only that, the impact destroyed his bike frame.

So, does this wreck mark this as a failure? Or is this simply another step in the iterative process we all tend to use. The only difference is if he carries on to build another.

Automated Cat Feeder With A View

May 1, 2012 by Caleb Kraft 13 Comments

[Robovergne] wrote in to share his fantastic automated cat feeder with us. After researching the common commercial products he could find, he decided to build one that utilized a home made linear actuator to pull a certain amount out of a reservoir. Initially, he attempted to use microwave motors but ultimately found them to be too weak to force the bits of cat food should they get stuck. He was afraid this extra strain would cause motor failure before too long. Ultimately, he replaced the microwave motor with a fairly strong servo that seems to do the job just fine. He’s currently using an Arduino to time it all, but he does mention that he feels it is a waste of the arduino for such a simple task.

As you can see in the videos after the break, his mechanism seems quite solid. There isn’t a lot of play in the movement and the amount of food coming out seems to be fairly controllable.

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Electronic Table Top Catapult

April 30, 2012 by Caleb Kraft 14 Comments

[Unusualtravis] came up with this fairly slick electronic catapult. This easy to construct and moderately cheap rig has an arduino as the brains and controls for 3 servos. One is the release, another controls tension, and the third controls the angle. Both the circuit and the construction are very simple making this a perfect weekend project. He would have preferred it to be a bit smaller, so shoot him your design if you manage to shrink it.

We’ve always been rather fond of catapults of whatever complexity, so feel free to send in any variations you’ve worked on.

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6 Camera Face Scanning Rig

April 30, 2012 by Caleb Kraft 6 Comments

[Ajeromin] was asked to build something cool for a museum exhibit. He took the challenge, and with his facial capture device, we feel he delivered. The writeup is very short, most of the story is in the annotated images. After deciding he was going to do facial capture and convert it to 3d, he had to start planning. There are many ways to do this, but usually the person having their face captured isn’t an excited child at a museum. The presented some unique challenges in that he knew he would have to capture all the images at once, and quickly too. To do this, he lit the entire rig very well to reduce the amount of noise in the pictures and wired all 6 cameras up to snap at the same moment. He even encapsulated the circuit in a glass jar just so the kids could see more of the parts.

The next logical step would be to attach this to a 3d printer and let people buy 3d printed models of their face. The quality is certainly good enough as he shows in one of the final images.

Great job [Ajeromin]

Interactive Table Is Slightly Different Than Most.

April 29, 2012 by Caleb Kraft 7 Comments

[DanNixon] has put together this unique interactive table concept. Usually, when we see the term interactive table, we think of an LED grid. That just happens to be what we see the most of. While this table does, in fact, have an LED grid in the table top, it also has several other features and some very nice construction.

Instead of going the usual boring rectangular route, [DanNixon] decided to build a more visually appealing structure. The build log on that part alone is worth a peek. After that, he has a small LCD screen for displaying headlines and song titles as well as a compact LED matrix for some visualizations.

Great Job [DanNixon]

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Nuka-Cola Prop Looks Deliciously Radioactive

April 28, 2012 by Caleb Kraft 12 Comments

Yet another Fallout post here on Hackaday. This time, instead of the PIP-Boy, someone has built a fantastic prop for the iconic Nuka-Cola. The circuit is super simple, really just an LED array to light up the beverage just right. The construction of the base is quite nice though. If you’re a fan of functional props, or at least semi-functional (we doubt it tastes very refreshing), you’ll enjoy the build.

In case you’re wondering just what is in that bottle, it is basically just tonic water. For those who are unaware, tonic glows under UV light. [Kfklown] did add a few drops of paint to get the perfect color though. You’ll note that there are red and blue LEDs in the base as well as UV for color as well.

Westport Mini Maker Faire Is The First For Connecticut

April 27, 2012 by Caleb Kraft 5 Comments

If you’re in Westport CT, or within day-trip distance, you might want to check out the Mini Maker Faire happening there this weekend. Being held at the Westport Library & Jesup Green, there are going to be several interesting planned events, on top of the usual gathering of makers and hackers. Local hackerspaces will be in attendance as well.

Some of the planned events include a battle of the home made bands, rube goldberg events, and jam sessions with the home made bands. Check out the guest speakers as well, there are a few names there that we would love to see.