RGB Glasses Built From PCBs

January 16, 2021 by Zoe Skyforest 8 Comments

Shutter shades were cool once upon a time, but if you really want to stand out, it’s hard to go past aggressively bright LEDs right in the middle of your face. A great way to achieve that is by building a pair of RGB glasses, as [Arnov Sharma] did.

The design intelligently makes use of PCBs to form the entire structure of the glasses. One PCB makes up the left arm of the glasses, carrying an ESP12F microcontroller and the requisite support circuitry. It’s fitted to the front PCB through a slot, and soldered in place. The V+, GND, and DATA connections for the WS2812B LEDs also serve as the mechanical connection. The right arm of the glasses is held on in the same way, being the same as the left arm PCB but simply left unpopulated. A little glue is also used to stiffen up the connection.

It’s a tidy build, and one that can be easily controlled from a smartphone as the ESP12F runs a basic webserver which allows the color of the glasses to be changed. It’s not the first time we’ve seen a flashy pair of LED shades either! Video after the break.

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3D Printing Without Support Material Thanks To An Additional Axis

January 16, 2021 by Zoe Skyforest 52 Comments

Fused Deposition Modelling (FDM) 3D printers which squirt out molten plastic layer by layer are by far the most popular type in general use. Most machines extrude plastic through a nozzle above print bed, and struggle to produce parts with overhangs without using support material. However, a German team of researchers have recently come up with a solution.

In a prototype built by researchers at the Zurich University of Applied Sciences (ZHAW), a standard Cartesian printer has a third rotary axis added, upon which the nozzle can rotate. Additionally, the nozzle is angled at 45 degrees to the print bed, rather than the usual perpendicular setup. This allows layers of a print to be built up in such a way that support material is not needed for the vast majority of typical overhangs. This is particularly useful for hollow parts, where removing support material can be particularly difficult.

The team believes that such technology could be implemented on existing printers by way of a simple upgrade kit, and we can imagine a few experimenters will be champing at the bit to try it out. If you do, be sure to drop us a line. Alternatively, consider using a marker to make removing supports easier. Video after the break.

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Doing WiFi With Software Defined Radio

January 16, 2021 by Zoe Skyforest 12 Comments

Software defined radio lets RF hardware take on a broad spectrum of tasks, all based on how that hardware is utilized in code. The bladeRF 2.0 micro xA9 is one such device, packing a fat FPGA with plenty of room for signal processing chains on board. As a demonstration of its abilities, [Robert Ghilduta] set about writing a software-defined WiFi implementation for the platform.

The work is known as bladeRF-wiphy, as it implements the PHY, or physical layer of the WiFi connection, in the 7-layer OSI networking model. Modulation and demodulation of the WiFi signal is all handled onboard the Cyclone V FPGA, with the decoded 802.11 WiFI packets handed over to the Linux mac80211 module which handles the MAC level, or medium access control. Thanks to the capability baked into mac80211, the system can act as either an access point or an individual station depending on the task at hand.

[Robert] does a great job of explaining the why and the how of implementing WiFi modulation on an FPGA, as well as some basics of modem development in both software and hardware. It’s dense stuff, so for those new to the field of software defined radio, consider taking some classes to get yourself up to speed!

Lego Tank Fires Soccer Ball Cannon

January 15, 2021 by Zoe Skyforest 5 Comments

Back in the 20th century, Lego Technic was a popular toy designed to teach kids about mechanical technology, and be a lot of fun to boot. Motors and pneumatics were available, but by and large you had to move your creations and make the noises yourself. That’s not the case these days, as the [Brick Experiment Channel] demonstrates with this impressive Lego tank.

The drivetrain is straightforward, using standard Lego tank treads with each side given its own motor for easy skid steering. However, the real party piece is the slingshot cannon, which launches Lego soccer balls at 60 km/h. Utilizing several motors, it’s complete with elevation adjustment for accurate ranging, and a 6 round magazine so you can (slowly) prosecute your targets with rounds downrange.

What really makes this build great is the control system, with the tank being controlled by a PS4 controller via Sbrick, a device that lets Lego motors be controlled via Bluetooth. We’d love to build a couple of Lego vehicles and have them blast away at each other. We’ve seen the technology used before for a secret heist robot. Video after the break.

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You’re Going To Flip Out Over This Rocket League RC Car

January 15, 2021 by Zoe Skyforest 10 Comments

Rocket League is a video game famous for being wildly popular despite being virtually unplayable without several hours practice. It involves hyper fast cars playing soccer, complete with the ability to flip, jump, and rocket boost into the ball. [mrak_ripple] decided he wanted some of that action in a real RC car, and set to work.

While rocket boosts were out of scope for this build, [mrak_ripple] was pretty confident he could build a jumping, flipping RC car modelled after the Rocket League Octane vehicle. Initial experiments involved a custom 3D printed spring mechanism, but the results were underwhelming. Instead, in the true hacker spirit, a jumping mechanism was taken from an existing toy, and installed in the car instead. This was combined with a mechanism built out of a brushless motor with a flywheel added to generate a flipping moment in mid-air.

The final result is impressive, with the car flipping relatively cleanly once refined and lightened from its original design. We’d love to see a two-axis build that can front- and back-flip as well. It’s a step up in complexity from the last build we saw from [mrak_ripple], the amusing mashed potato trebuchet. Video after the break.

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Basics Of Remote Cellular Access: Connecting Via VPN

January 14, 2021 by Zoe Skyforest 9 Comments

You’ve got a machine hooked up to the Internet via a shiny new cellular modem, which you plan to administer remotely. You do a quick check on the external IP, and try and log in from another PC. Try as you might, SSH simply won’t connect. What gives?

The reality of the modern internet is that most clients no longer get their own unique IPv4 address. There simply aren’t enough to go around anymore. Instead, most telecommunications operators use Carrier Grade Network Address Translation which allows a single external address to be shared by many customers. This can get in the way of direct connection attempts from the outside world. Even if that’s not the case, most cellular operators tend to block inbound connections by default. However, there is a way around this quandary – using a VPN. Continue reading “Basics Of Remote Cellular Access: Connecting Via VPN” →

Hex Matrix Clock Does It With Six Sides

January 13, 2021 by Zoe Skyforest 18 Comments

LED matrixes were once a total headache, requiring careful consideration to make the most of limited I/O pins and available microcontroller resources. These days, addressable LED strings have made it all a cinch. Thus, going a little out of the box isn’t so daunting. [w.r.simpson] did just that with this hex-matrix clock.

Relying on hexes instead of a normal Cartesian grid requires some attention to how the rows and columns are laid out, but the Instructable goes through the necessary coordinate system to address the display. The whole display was built without a 3D printer, instead relying on some basic craft skills and a picture frame as the enclosure. Strips of WS2812B LEDs were used to build the hexagonal matrix, run by a Adafruit Metro Mini 328. To give each hexagonal pixel, or hexel, a crisp outline, a shadow grid was built using black paper to stop the light bleeding between the display segments when switched on. Smoked plexiglas wasn’t available, so instead, tinted window film was used to darken the front of the display.

The result is impressive; while some glue marks from the shadow grid are visible closeup, from a distance the final product looks incredibly futuristic thanks to the hexagonal layout. We can imagine this would make a great set dressing in a futuristic film clip; we fully expect to see this concept in the background of the next Ariana Grande single. If this build isn’t enough six-sided fun to sate your appetite, consider getting into Super Hexagon too!