Author: Jenny List

3275 Articles

Robot Rebellion Brings Back BBC Camera Operators

December 30, 2022 by 22 Comments

The modern TV news studio is a masterpiece of live video and CGI, as networks vie for the flashiest presentation. BBC News in London is no exception, and embraced the future in 2013 to the extent of replacing its flesh-and-blood camera operators with robotic cameras. On the face of it this made sense; it was cheaper, and newsroom cameras are most likely to record as set range of very similar shots. A decade later they’re to be retired in a victory for humans, as the corporation tires of the stream of viral fails leaving presenters scrambling to catch up.

A media story might seem slim pickings for Hackaday readers, however there’s food for thought in there for the technically minded. It seems the cameras had a set of pre-programmed maneuvers which the production teams could select for their different shots, and it was too easy for the wrong one to be enabled. There’s also a suggestion that the age of the system might have something to do with it, but this is somewhat undermined by their example which we’ve placed below being from when the cameras were only a year old.

Given that a modern TV studio is a tightly controlled space and that detecting the location of the presenter plus whether they are in shot or not should not have been out of reach in 2013, so we’re left curious as to why they haven’t taken this route. Perhaps OpenCV to detect a human, or simply detecting the audio levels on the microphones before committing to a move could do the job. Either way we welcome the camera operators back even if we never see them, though we’ll miss the viral funnies.

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The Sweetest Glue In The World

December 29, 2022 by 19 Comments

Perhaps we’re not alone in having a penchant for gummy sweets, but we have to admit to never following the train of thought shared by [Lost Art Press]. Upon finding that a hide glue ingredient was raw gelatin obtained from a confectionery company, they stored away the knowledge and eventually tried making some glue using Haribo Goldbears from a gas station.

Melting the anthropomorphised sweets in a pot with a little water produced a thin glue, which was tried on a couple of bits of wood. The test joint duly stuck together, and after a few weeks for it to set it was time to test it. Simply hitting it with a hammer caused the wood to fracture, but using more traditional hide glue dissolving techniques with water or alcohol gave the expected result of parting it.

So a pretty usable hide glue for woodworking can be made using gummy sweets. We think it’s pretty cool, but perhaps given how easy it is to buy either the real thing or a PVA-based alternative, that this is one for the MacGyver file. Should you ever find yourself stranded in a gas station unable to save the world for want of a bit of glue then now you have the crucial bit of knowledge. Until then, leave out Haribo Goldbears alone!

Thanks [Aaron Tagliaboschi] for the tip!

2022 FPV Contest: Turbo Super Submarine

December 29, 2022 by 13 Comments

The projects featured on these pages frequently rule the air, the ground, the rails, and even the waves, but very rarely do they rule the deep. Building a submarine is hard, and thus it’s a challenge not taken on by all but the most courageous of builders. This hasn’t discouraged [Timo] though, who has embarked on the construction of what is shaping up to be a very nice underwater ROV build.

The design is straightforward enough, with a PVC tubing frame carrying thrusters for maneuvering, and a central tubular compartment for the electronics and a camera. Control and power comes via a wired connection, and there is a companion controller holding a Pi Pico interfaced to a PlayStation controller.

So far the craft is a work in progress, and he’s engaged in a battle with water pressure to keep in dry inside. The fittings are all 3D printed, and this means a constant battle with warped prints and collapsing infill. He’s not given up though, and is instead recovering enthusiasm by working on the shore-side controller.

We look forward to seeing this project completed, meanwhile if you’re thirsty for more underwater projects take a look at the glider which won the 2017 Hackaday Prize.

Hackaday.io FPV Contest

Film Is Dead. Long Live Film, Say Pentax

December 29, 2022 by 44 Comments

If your answer to the question “When did you last shoot a roll of film” is “Less than two decades ago”, the chances are that you’re a camera enthusiast, and that the camera you used was quite old. Such has been the switch from film to digital, that the new film camera is a rarity. Pentax think there may be an opening in the older format though, as they’ve announced in the videos below the break that they’re working on a fresh range of film cameras to serve the enthusiast market.

We don’t know the economics of the camera business, but we’re certainly interested to see what they come up with. In a world that’s still awash with cheap film cameras from a few decades ago, whatever they produce will have to be good, but given that it’s Pentax who are making the announcement we’re guessing the quality will be of a high standard.

Perhaps more interesting in the revival of interest in film is that it comes at a point when designing and making your own camera has almost never been easier. If you’re bored waiting for the new Pentax, make your own!

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Fiberglass Mesh For Stronger 3D Prints

December 28, 2022 by 32 Comments

There are many clever ways to make stronger 3D prints, be they by the use of special slicing algorithms or by unusual filaments. [Brtv-z] has taken a more straightforward tack, by making glass-reinforced prints using painters fiberglass mesh tape.

It’s a laborious technique that involves stopping the print to manually place the fiberglass at each successive millimeter of print. The resulting test piece comes off the print bed festooned with fiberglass mesh, and once it’s been trimmed, he subjects it to some tests which you’ll see in the video below the break(Russian language, but there are subtitles).

The tests are fairly rough and ready involving a hammer (we winced at the hammering in a vice, but of course this piece isn’t forged steel!) and standing on a flat piece of print balanced between two blocks. As you’d expect, the reinforced piece appears the stronger, but these tests would benefit from a calibrated set-up to quantify the strength.

So if you’re of a mind to experiment, this certainly seems like an accessible if rather tedious way to make glass reinforced 3D prints. If you then want to characterize them, remember this can be done with a bit of farmyard engineering if you have nothing better.

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Tube Audio Amplifiers Needn’t Be Complex

December 26, 2022 by 25 Comments

There’s a mystique in audiophile circles about tube amplifiers. They can have a very nice sound which is attributed to their even-harmonic distortion, but they are often portrayed as requiring rare and expensive components. You don’t need matched gold-plated tubes and special transformers wound by Japanese monks with oxygen-free silver wire when the tube you’d have found in a TV back in the day paired with a repurposed mains transformer will do. [Mikremk] demonstrates this with a simple but effective amplifier using a PCL82 triode-pentode.

It’s a conventional tube amplifier circuit in which the triode is a preamplifier for the pentode power output stage. The pentode is running in class A mode, and the high impedance of its output is brought down to speaker impedance with that mains transformer. Best of all it doesn’t need a particularly high voltage, with the 40 V DC power coming from a DC-to-DC converter module.

These amplifiers could be found back in the day in some form in most consumer electronics, and remain a spectacularly cheap way to boast a tube amp in your hi-fi even if it might not always be the best possible amp.

Laser Cut Clips Save A Lamp From The Trash

December 25, 2022 by 6 Comments

Ikea have been known for years as a purveyor of inexpensive  yet stylish homewares, but it’s fair to say that sometimes their affordability is reflected in their insubstantial construction. Such is the case with the Sjöpenna lamp, whose construction relies on rubber bands. On [Tony]’s lamp these bands degraded with age, causing it to fall apart. The solution? A set of cleverly-designed laser-cut clips to replace them.

The challenge to replacing a stretchy material with a rigid one is that it must have enough ability to bend without snapping as it is put in place. For this he selected PETG, with 0.04″ (about 1 mm thick) hitting the sweet spot. His photos demonstrate with some green tape added for visibility, how the clip bends backwards just far enough to fit over where the rubber band once located, and then flips back neatly to hold it all in place.

If you have a collapsing Ikea lamp then this will be just what you need, but this hack goes further than that. A frequent requirement for repairs is some kind of clip, because clips are always the first to break, This technique for laser cutting them is a handy one to remember, next time your design needs a springy bit of plastic.