Author: James Hobson

1404 Articles

3D Printed Space Invader

3D Printing Different Colors With A Single Extruder

April 6, 2015 by 21 Comments

Let’s be honest, multi-extruder 3D printers don’t work the greatest — even MakerBot decided to get rid of the feature in their latest line of printers. So what are you going to do when you want to print a multi-colored object with your trusty single extruder? Pause the print like a savage and exchange the filament? No, no, it’s much easier than that — well, you’re still going to have to switch the filament.

[Jana Marie] has put together a simple script in OpenScad to split up 3D files into layers in order to facilitate printing in multiple colors (or even materials). You load in the file, tell it the print height you want to do, export, convert to G-Code, print, rinse, repeat. In between the layers you have time to purge the extruder, remove any excess skirt or support material, and then hit print again. Quite a bit easier than hitting pause and jogging the extruder out of the way (while avoiding plastic dribble coming out of your extruder!).

Meanwhile if your prints get interrupted — or fail a lot — you might be interested in this project by a group of MIT researchers. It’s an add-on for 3D printers that uses a laser scanner to evaluate how much of the part was printed, allowing you to restart a print that failed!

Robot Chicken

T-1000C: This Time The Chickens Will Be Back

April 5, 2015 by 20 Comments

For whatever reason the city [Jenslabs] lives in decided it was a good use of taxpayer money to make some giant twig chickens and put them on the boulevard in front of his house. So he decided to spruce them up a bit with some electronics.

We’re still unsure why they did this, but [Jens] recognized them for what they truly are. T-1000C — the chicken edition. Giant robot chickens sent from the future to keep an eye on [Jens] to make sure he doesn’t stop ChickenNet. Naturally they needed glowing red eyes.

Fully expecting all his hard work to be thrown out eventually, [Jens] built the upgrades out of cheap components. A few LEDs, some transistors, resistors and a LDR (light dependent resistor). That way the eyes only glow at night.  And to waterproof it all, he wrapped it in good ‘ol duct tape.

For more fun Easter hacks, why not add some LEDs to your decorated eggs?

peltier mini fridge

Building Your Own Mini Fridge?

April 3, 2015 by 58 Comments

Ever play with a Peltier plate? They’re these really cool components that kind of look like a ceramic sandwich, and when you put power into them, one side gets hot, and one side gets freezing cold! [Joseph Rautenbach] decided he wanted to try making his own mini fridge out of one — which is typically how most modern mini fridges work these days.

The peltier plate he’s using draws 12v at about 3.5 amps — so about 50W — and if you don’t heat sink it properly you could burn it out in a matter of seconds. Peltier plates only care about the temperature differential between the two sides — if you don’t take the heat away from the hot side, it will soon overheat and destroy itself.

[Joe’s] using a styrofoam cooler for the fridge with a pair of computer heat sinks and fans for the peltier plate, and a temperature PID controller he bought off eBay. The external heat sink sucks away the excess heat generated by the peltier plate, and the internal one helps spread cooled air around the inside of the styrofoam cooler. The PID controller allows him to set a preferred temperature to maintain in the box, which will then control the outputs to keep it that way.

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Laser Etched Stencils

Cutting SMT Stencils With A Laser

April 3, 2015 by 22 Comments

Prototyping your own PCBs? At a loss for how to apply your SMT electronics? Well — do you have access to a laser? [Felix] shows us a definitive way to use a laser cutter to engrave SMT stencils with ease.

The real trick here is to engrave — not to cut. Typically if you’re using enough power to cut straight through the plastic, you’re going to get melting and burning of the edges — which won’t work well for a SMT stencil. So what [Felix] found is to engrave at approximately 20-30W @ 400-450mm/s. He’s using Mylar as the material.

The results are pretty awesome — but if you’re without a laser, he also has an excellent tutorial on DIY metal SMT stencils by chemically etching soda can metal!

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Steal Our Car Loxet

Hack A Lock, Get A Free Car?

April 3, 2015 by 62 Comments

No, we’re not talking about any lock, or car for that matter. The creators of Loxet are so confident in their product, a smart lock for your car, they’ve issued a challenge to the world. If you can defeat it, you can keep the car — sadly the car isn’t anything special though.

The device, after installed on your vehicle, gives you a taste of the premium lifestyle of fancy push-to-start vehicles. It automatically unlocks your vehicle when you come near with your cellphone, and only your cellphone. It also has the option to give access to friends and family using an invite system. It controls ignition access, and works as a proximity lock.

The car is located at ul. Straszewskiego 14 in Krakow. If you’re not from Poland, [Matt] recommends you team up with a local to try your hack. The alternate prize (if you’re not from Poland or don’t want the car) is $2000.

The car is just sitting there. We’d love to see some 1st person attempts from any of our Polish readers living in Krakow! It is currently set to unlock and lock every 10 minutes. You might be able to get into the vehicle — but will you be able to take it? Let us know!

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Hackerspace Map of Europe

Finally A Hardware Hackerspace Map For The Apocalypse

April 2, 2015 by 5 Comments

In case you don’t know, our hacker brethren in Europe are pretty darn sophisticated with their hackerspaces — most of them even implement the Hackerspace API which tells the public when they are open, or closed. This allows them to tap in with hardware to create a fancy notifications for when the spaces are open!

Shackspace, the place to be in Stuttgart, had a nice big map of Europe destined for world domination in their lounge. They thought it could use an upgrade, so have been adding LEDs to represent each hackerspace. They glow green when open, and red when closed. And they built it all in one weekend flat.

If your space is not on the map, start using the Space API and let them know so they can update their project!

Sadly Shackspace in Stuttgart was not one of the hackerspaces we had the pleasure of touring during our European Hackerspace Tour!

[Thanks Momo!]

Automated Target Practice

Automated Robotic Target Practice

April 1, 2015 by 12 Comments

Fan of shooting things? Jealous of proper shooting ranges? Why not build your own automated target practice rig (link dead, try the Internet Archive) with a few servos and an ATMega168?

[Cowboy Bob] of Making Stuff decided he needed a practice target, and wanted to make it a bit more interesting than throwing up some beer cans on a fence. He’s created a highly durable 10-target “Robo-Target” which can be remote controlled or automated.  A thick piece of 1/4″ angle steel makes up the main frame of it, so if you’re practicing with hand guns it’ll take the abuse. If you’re just using  an air soft or paintball gun you probably don’t need to make it this beefy.

Five servo motors swing paper five targets back and forth on 3D printed swing arms — and since each target has a front and a back side, it gives you 10 different things to shoot at. In challenge mode it’ll even show you two targets at a time which will require you to quickfire in order to get both!

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