Maintain Temperature With A DIY Laboratory Dry Bath

August 5, 2017 by John Baichtal 2 Comments

[abizar] lucked into some aluminum blocks, one of which had test-tube-sized holes in it–just the thing to turn into a dry bath for his biology projects.

He stuck a 100W positive temperature coefficient heater into the bottom of the block using silicone glue, and the heater heated the block up in around half an hour. He connected a temperature controller to maintain the temperature at an ambient 95C, with a controller monitoring a thermistor to keep the block within the pre-determined range. The heater has an auto shutoff if it got too hot, so [abizar] felt safe keeping the dry bath on, unmonitored.

The aluminum block sits in a plywood box lined with rubber from an inner tube, with the heater underneath the block and the temperature controller underneath that, separated by more plywood from the heat. The result? A dry, temperature regulated bath for 20 1.5ml test tubes.

Looking to tool up? Check out the plethora of biohacking tools on Hackaday, including a DIY CO2 incubator, a basic biohacker’s toolkit, and a cheap electrophoresis rig.

Electric LEGO Longboard Now Complete With Epic Road Test

August 5, 2017 by John Baichtal 6 Comments

We recently posted about [James Bruton]’s most excellent oversized LEGO electric longboard. Well, now he has completed the project by tidying a few things and building oversized versions of classic light-up bricks to serve as headlamps and the tail light. Most importantly, he’s hitting the road with it!

He built a LEGO-looking enclosure for the battery as well, based on a 2×6 brick. The battery pack sits behind the motor with the tail light on top and holds the radio control receiver as well the twin LiPos. The head and tail lights pack 24-LED discs and are controlled by [James]’ FS-GT2B 3-channel RC transmitter. Its third channel is just a button, and he can trip that button to activate the lights with the help of a Turnigy receiver-controlled switch.

For an added touch he printed some LEGO flowers and a minifig, suitably oversized, and took the skateboard on the road. The thing has some zip! [James] kept his balance while holding the controller in one hand and a selfie stick with the other. The headlamp housings fell off, and a while later the minifig fell off. Fortunately [James] was able to snap them back into place, in proper LEGO fashion.

[James] runs XRobots and also served as a judge for the 2016 Hackaday Prize. We wrote up his Star Wars builds a while back, as well as his tutorial on mixed reality filming without a green screen.

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Simple 3D-Printed Circuitry

August 4, 2017 by John Baichtal 12 Comments

One of the problems encountered thus far with 3D-printing circuits with conductive filament is that it doesn’t really bond to anything, let alone solder, so how does one use it?

[mikey77] wrote an Instructable showing how to print circuit boards and create simple circuits, using shape of the plastic as a way to control the circuit. We like how he used using the flexible nature of the filament to make buttons, with two layers of conductive material coming together with the press of a finger.

He also created a linear potentiometer with a 3D-printed wiper that increases the ohms of the connection the farther it’s pushed. The filament doesn’t have the same conductivity as copper so [mikey] was able make resistors by stringing pieces of conductive plastic between two leads. There are also some hexagonal touch pads that turned out very nice.

We’ve published a lot of posts about DIY circuitry, including a previous effort of [mikey]’s, 3D-printed solderless circuits, plus another post about printing point-to-point circuits on a 3D printer.

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OpenCV Turret Tracks Motion, Busts Airsoft Pellets

August 4, 2017 by John Baichtal 7 Comments

In the eternal struggle for office dominance, the motion-tracking Airsoft/Nerf/whatever, the autonomous turret seems to be the nuclear option. [Aaron] and [Davis] built a motion-tracking turret that uses openCV to detect movement, before hitting a relay to trigger the gun.

There’s a Raspberry Pi controlling a Logitech C210 Pi-compatible webcam, with a stepper hat for the Pi controlling two NEMA steppers that aim the gun. The design is simple but elegant, with a rotating base and an assembly that raises and lowers the weapon.

The openCV intrigues us. We want to see a openCV-powered turret with color detection, so your own team doesn’t get blasted along with your hapless enemies. Or if guarding your cubicle, how about a little openCV facial recognition?

If you want to take a stab at your own, [Aaron] and [Davis] show how they built their project in their Hackaday.io page and their Python script can be found on GitHub. Otherwise, check out the Counter Strike Airsoft robot, the Airsoft sentry gun, and the Nerf turret powered by Slack we published previously. Continue reading “OpenCV Turret Tracks Motion, Busts Airsoft Pellets” →

Hackaday Prize Entry: Pi-Driven Google Glass

August 3, 2017 by John Baichtal 11 Comments

[Ricardo Ferro] didn’t want to buy a Google Glass, so he made his own.

The Raspberry Pi Zero Prism consists of a 3D-printed headset the side-pieces of which hold a variety of electronic components, including a Pi Zero running Raspbian Jessie, a Pi Noir IR camera, a WiFi/Bluetooth module and a whole mess of SMD tactile push buttons. Video output is provided by a Kopin 922K display module. This module is usually used in smart goggles and uses a prism to reflect information into the wearer’s field of view.

One application [Ricardo] envisions for this Open Source Google Glass is using it in conjunction with facial recognition software and the YouTube-favorite IR camera trick of seeing through clothing. No, he’s not using it for that idea, and you should get your mind out of the gutter. [Ricardo] wants to identify masked criminals. Setting aside the technological challenges of making that technology work, we think that walking around with x-ray specs is likely to get those specs broken off your face by someone who wears clothes for modesty purposes. Still, it’s a fascinating project and we love the way the prism and video assembly comes together.

Mini Hacker Breaks Down How To Build It

August 3, 2017 by John Baichtal 10 Comments

I read the other day that the hot career choice for kids these days is: YouTuber. That means every kid — yes, including mine — has two or three attempts at a YouTube show on their account and then they get into the next big thing and forget about it. On the other hand, sometimes you find someone who has a lot of ideas to share, and the dedication to keep sharing them.

[Kevin Zhou], an 11-year-old from Indonesia, has filmed around 70 videos in the past couple of years, with a fantastic variety of nerdy projects ranging from Mindstorms to Arduino to wood shop projects, and even a Blender tutorial. His projects show a lot of complexity, with serious, real-world concepts, and he shares the technical details about the various components in the project, and he walks you through the code as well.

He made a Mindstorms carving machine, pictured above, with a gantry system holding a motor steady while the user carves into a block of floral foam with LEGO bits. He does a lot of home automation projects using an Arduino and relay board, as well as a number of water-pumping robots. He doesn’t stick to one medium or technology. He has a jigsaw and in one video he shows how to build a Thor’s hammer out of wood. He prints out each layer’s design on office paper and glues the paper to a piece of wood, cutting out the cross-sections on his jigsaw. The whole stack is glued together and clamped. [Kevin]’s design featured a hollow space inside to save weight, which he cut by drilling a 1-inch hole in the center with his drill press, then threading the jigsaw blade through the hole to cut out the inside. As an amateur woodcrafter myself, I like seeing him branching out working on small wood projects.

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Motorized Turntable Created From TV Stand

August 3, 2017 by John Baichtal 2 Comments

[Robin Reiter] had a powered TV stand that only rotates around 20°, because who really needs their TV to rotate fully? He wanted to turn it into a motorized turntable for shooting videos, but first he had to hack it.

After opening it up [Robin] discovered that there was a surprising amount of electronics in the base. In addition to a DC motor, there was a potentiometer attached to a gear to give feedback, but it was set up for partial rotation so it had to be yanked out.

There was also a plastic gear with teeth around just part of the interior. [Robin] took a picture of the gear and dropped it into Fusion360, using the photo as a reference image while he re-created the gear. The new piece had teeth all around the periphery. After printing it out he glued it into the old gearbox, and now he had turned his TV stand into a motorized turntable.

If you’re looking for more along these lines, check out our posts on making parametric models in Fusion360 and turning a turntable into a waveform generator. Continue reading “Motorized Turntable Created From TV Stand” →