Animatronics Reference

January 15, 2010 by Caleb Kraft 21 Comments

Anyone who is familiar with animatronics or even most robotics knows that almost every build is a hack if you don’t plan on reproducing it. This gallery is to show off the work of [John Nolan]. However, instead of just posting the final product, he has posted several galleries that show, in detail, the internal structures. Curious how to rig a jaw or an eyebrow? Wanna see the internals of an animatronic baby? How about building giant monster hands that are rugged and have full digit control? It’s all in the gallery.

Home Made Small Form Factor LED Projector

January 15, 2010 by Caleb Kraft 26 Comments

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mQ8Kq2wLrf0]

[Newtonn2] dropped a tip in our inbox this morning that made us quite happy. This is a step by step build of a small form factor LED based projector. While the size may not get some of you too excited at first, those of us who have built projectors before know that home made ones are usually quite large. This one is roughly the size of the small office projectors you would see in a large retailer. He’s using a 30 watt LEd for the light and we didn’t notice a lumen measurement anywhere, but it looks bright enough to be watchable. Pictures usually turn out dark, so in person, the projection probably looks more bright and crisp. Now he just needs to find a high definition LCD that size.

Hackaday Links: January 14th, 2010

January 14, 2010 by Caleb Kraft 21 Comments

We saw this home made beekeepers hood posted and actually mistook it for an art piece. We thought it was a Super Mario squid. You can see an example on this image, which is located on a site dedicated to cross stitching video game characters.

In an odd coincidence, not related to the 8 bit textiles above, we also found this Mario themed sweater. We wouldn’t wear it, but we’d love to see Wil Wheaton in it.

No. No no no. Bad Scientists. No treat for you.

There are 4 more links after the break, you’ll want to see them to get that baby out of your head.

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Google Bike Hack, Quick And Dirty

January 14, 2010 by Caleb Kraft 10 Comments

Many of the projects we post are so well thought out and engineered, they could hardly be called “hacks”. This one, however, falls neatly into the hack category. [Dave] wanted his very own exercise bike hooked to Google maps. Instead of setting up a control system and writing software to control Google maps, he simply hacked a USB game controller. He wired a magnetic switch directly into the board, where the “up” button is. Then he mounted the switch so that it would be triggered each time he rotated the pedal. Though he only has the forward movement done right now, it would be pretty easy to set up a couple more switches at the base of the handle bar for left and right.

While the experience may not be quite as nice as the more complicated one, aside from head tracking, it isn’t that far off.

Vacuum Tube Tesla Coil

January 13, 2010 by Caleb Kraft 12 Comments

[xellers] may have been in 8th grade when he built this vacuum tube tesla coil, but he did a fantastic job. Unlike most of the tesla coils we have shown, this one doesn’t use a high current transformer from a neon sign. Instead, he’s gone the direction of vacuum tubes. He spent a total of about $125 which isn’t too bad. Most of us could reduce that cost by scrounging from our parts bin.

CES: Guts Guts Guts

January 11, 2010 by Caleb Kraft 10 Comments

We knew going into CES that we had to find some pictures of guts. It didn’t matter what it was, if there were guts showing, we snapped a picture. We were a little let down that the guts we found were basically consumer goods like cameras, TVs, and tons of amplifiers. The amplifier guts were so prolific, we actually just stopped taking pictures. We were hoping for some insides of tablets and such. There may not be anything new here for you, but if you are like us, you just can’t help but look. Join us after the break for a gallery.

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CES: 3d Laser Projection System

January 9, 2010 by Caleb Kraft 16 Comments

We really really wanted to see this system. It supposedly created a 3D projection in the air. They didn’t have a system on the floor, but invited us to their hotel room for a private showing. We did manage to find the room and were welcomed in to the sight of a smaller unit that made a roughly 4×4 inch projection inside a cylinder.

It was truly 3D. It was not the old angled glass trick. They would not let us take pictures, or video. The guy wouldn’t really answer any questions at all. We are speculating that it was just intersecting lasers. You could clearly see the vertexes, as you can see in the pictures above and there was a scanning refresh effect that was visible to the naked eye. We really wished we could have seen the big unit that projected into the air instead.

Edit: One of our readers managed to find a video of what we were talking about, thanks [alex]! Video after the break.

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