Hackaday Links: Saturday, June 18th

June 19, 2011 by Jeremy Cook 12 Comments

Tripod CNC Machining Setup:

Here’s a strange “tripod” device using the EMC software package generally used for CNC machining. In this case it looks like something that (when scaled up) might control a sky-cam-like device that one would see at football games.

The Off-Grid Container House:

Project to make an off-grid container house. Pretty crazy idea, but definitely not developed yet. This seems like a cool idea, so hopefully this guy will come through. It may give you some other ideas, so check it out. Pizza in a cup anyone?

Iphone Window Pocket

Iphone window pocket – This Instructables article shows how to make a “window” in your pants for your Ipod. The combination of bad style and nerdiness gives a great first impression every time. Not sure how it works with the capacitive touch screen, but it should be good for viewing at least.

The Multiple AC Unit Experiment

Here’s someone who’s done some experimenting with using a central AC unit with several window units. Not bad, considering he documents shaving about 1/3 off his power bill. Maybe it could inspire something even better!

Incredible CNC “hexapod” Milling Center

Finally, this machine isn’t exactly a “hack”, but a professionally designed machining center. It uses a machining setup similar to a delta robot. Six linear actuators are coordinated to allow this CNC robot to move in five degrees of freedom with incredible speed.

The Party Popper “Security” Robot

June 19, 2011 by Jeremy Cook 13 Comments

This “security” robot is based around the Lego Mindstorms NXT platform. As shown in the video after the break, this robot is capable of firing a “popper” at any intruder the owner of the robot sees fit. It takes a decent amount of force to fire a popper, so this is pretty impressive with a Lego components by itself. If you’ve been looking for components to build your next robot, Lego might be worth a look.

This bot also features, according to the 14 year old Australian that built this, an HD webcam person ID system that sends him an email when it sees someone. It uses bluetooth for control. Lego designs have come a long way since the grey castles some of you may have built in the 80s and 90s. Be sure to check out the video after the break. Continue reading “The Party Popper “Security” Robot” →

A Simple DIY Solar Tracker

June 17, 2011 by Jeremy Cook 40 Comments

The sun is a great source of energy, however, efficiently collecting this energy can be hard to do. One thing that can improve the results of solar use is to actually track the sun’s movement. [fanman1981] hooked up his own homebrew solar tracker using some pretty clever techniques.

For this hack he used two Harbor freight 45 Watt solar kits, some struts on the bottom, and a Dish Network satellite dish bracket hooked up to an “old school” antenna motor. Although one might think this device tracks the sun using some sort of sensor, it’s actually just a matter of hooking up the device to rotate at timed interval with a remote control. This interval is figured out with the benefit of some charts on livingonsolar.com.

To see it in use, check out the video after the break. He gives a good explanation about how everything was put together, but if you just want to see it move, fast forward to around 5:26, really quite impressive.

Continue reading “A Simple DIY Solar Tracker” →

Tripod CNC Plotter

June 16, 2011 by Jeremy Cook 26 Comments

Although some may have heard of a machine like this, the CNC tripod remains an unknown machine to many in the engineering word. This particular machine is set up as a plotter, drawing incredibly straight lines, shapes, and letters.

The machine appears to have 6 servo motors, 3 working as pairs. This would simplify control and allows the pen to be held at a perpendicular angle to the paper. Once could envision this being used with, instead of a pen, a spindle and mill. Instead of the traditional movement of a CNC mill or router, this could be used to cut out complex shapes.

Additionally, if the servos were not driven in 3 tandem pairs, but were all controlled independently, it should be possible to twist the tool in a controlled angular direction. This would add an extra axis of control to an already robust CNC setup. It will be exciting to see how this technology develops in the future. Until then, check out the video after the break: Continue reading “Tripod CNC Plotter” →

Hackaday Links: Monday June 13

June 13, 2011 by Jeremy Cook 46 Comments

Tim wrote in to tell us about this simple hack where he replaced the stock button lights with some really cool Blue LEDS on an ’87 BMW. He uses some capacitors, to achieve the effect that it takes a bit for the charge to drain out so the lights stay on for a bit after being turned off. The lights themselves look really nice, so check out the pic.

Here’s an awesome coffee Table built using a large electrical board. It definitely would look good in anyone’s den, although it most likely has a low wife approval factor (WAF). This is actually based on a “motherboard wall that HAD covered before, but the “coffee table” form probably looks even better.

Finally, after the break is a video of someone washing an interactive art exhibit. Not sure if it qualifies as a hack, but it looks pretty cool to see lights following someone around when he’s washing the screen/window.

Continue reading “Hackaday Links: Monday June 13” →

An Autonomous Car Using A “Webcam”

June 13, 2011 by Jeremy Cook 8 Comments

This autonomous remote control-style car from Cornell students was designed for a senior level engineering course there. It’s main “sensor” is a low-res webcam style camera. As shown in the video after the break, this car does quite well staying within two black lines on a white surface using it’s vision processing. It also has an IR sensor to detect objects in front of the car and stop without crashing.

All “vision” computations are handled by an Atmel Mega644 MCU, an 8-bit processor. Because of the processing limits of this chip, much work had to be done to make this process computationally efficient. These students go through an incredibly detailed account of their project, focusing on the code and electrical design. Check out the video of their car in action after the break. Continue reading “An Autonomous Car Using A “Webcam”” →

The Jazari Robotic Jazz Enesmble

June 11, 2011 by Jeremy Cook 11 Comments

As anyone who’s been to Chuck E Cheese’s knows, robotic bands have been under development for years. Patrick Flanagan’s cyborg percussion ensemble, Jazari seems to take things to a new level.

As Patrick describes it, Jazari “fuses African rhythms,
algorithmic composition, computer music, and electro-mechanics into
beat-driven steamfunk.” The controls are quite unique as well. Originally, the controller was simply a Wiimote. This was limited, since one needs three fingers to hold on to it, so a new “springbok” device was born allowing all five fingers to be used to play music. The vocal part of the music is created using an Android program called “voloco”.

The video after the break should explain everything a little better, and the music itself is pretty cool. Patrick will be doing more programming and hardware work over the summer rather than touring much, but “they” should give an awesome concert once all the bugs are worked out. Continue reading “The Jazari Robotic Jazz Enesmble” →