Author: Zoe Skyforest

3791 Articles

Choosing The Right RTC For Your Project

September 30, 2020 by 27 Comments

When it comes to measuring time on microcontrollers, there’s plenty of ways to go about things. For most quick and dirty purposes, such as debounce delays or other wait states, merely counting away a few cycles of the main clock will serve the purpose.  Accurate to the tens of milliseconds, they get the average utility jobs done without too much fuss.

However, many projects are far more exacting in their requirements. When you’re building a clock, or a datalogger, or anything that relies on a stable sense of passing time for more than a few minutes, you’ll want a Real Time Clock. So called due to their nature of dealing with real time, as we humans tend to conceive it, these devices take it upon themselves to provide timekeeping services with a high degree of accuracy. We’ve compiled a guide to common parts and their potential applications so you can get things right the first time, every time.

Continue reading “Choosing The Right RTC For Your Project” →

Robot Cat Takes Inspiration From Nature

September 30, 2020 by 3 Comments

Oftentimes, a project starts with a clean sheet of paper, and we set out wildly sketching towards the goal in our minds. However, it can pay to do your research first, as [Chen Liang] demonstrates with this great robotic cat build.

[Liang] began the project after being dissatisfied with existing robot animals they’d seen online. Rather than simply attempt to build a cat from memory, instead, [Liang] decided to first study a real cat to ensure the resulting robot would bear real resemblence to its biological inspiration. [Liang]’s focus was on the skeleton, as replicating the way the real skeleton worked would create a robot with more authentic movement.

Using 3D printed parts and many, many servos, we think [Liang] has done an admirable job at creating a basic robot cat platform. With an ESP32 running the show, the cat can be posed using a web interface to control the servo positions of its various joints. We look forward to future upgrades that enable fluid movement and other capabilities, particularly involving the onboard camera.

It’s not the first robot cat we’ve seen, and it’s likely it won’t be the last. If you’ve got one living in your own lab, drop us a note on the tipline. Video after the break.

Continue reading “Robot Cat Takes Inspiration From Nature” →

New Controllers On Old Nintendos With USB64

September 29, 2020 by 13 Comments

The Nintendo 64 made a big splash when it launched in 1996, not least of all for its innovative controller. Featuring a never-before-or-since seen trident design, and with an analog stick smack bang in the center, it changed what gamers expected from consoles from that day forward. Of course, those controllers are now much worse for wear, and technology has moved on somewhat. The latest development from [Ryzee119] aims to rectify this somewhat.

The result of that work is USB64, a tool designed to allow the use of USB controllers on the Nintendo 64. Using a Teensy 4.1, it builds upon earlier work to get the Xbox 360 controller working on the platform. However, the feature set has been greatly expanded, covering almost any use case imaginable. Mempacks are now efficiently emulated, and save files can be backed up to a PC via SD card. Additionally, the GameBoy Transferpak is emulated, meaning data can be transferred between GameBoy ROMs on an SD card and games on the N64. Even the N64 mouse is supported, and can be emulated with a regular USB mouse. Capable of doing all this for all four players, work is ongoing to increase the number of compatible aftermarket controllers for the utmost flexibility. [Ryzee119] also coded up a useful test ROM for the N64, which is invaluable when debugging controller hardware.

Console controllers take a lot of punishment, particularly from serious gamers, so we’re always eager to see projects that allow modern replacements to be used with old hardware. We’ve featured other great projects in this area before, too!

Fiber Optics, But… Wetter?

September 29, 2020 by 27 Comments

Fiber optics are a great way to transfer huge quantity of data at lightning speed. Thanks to the property of total internal reflection, which allows light to flow through a glass fiber like fluid through a pipe, they can be used for communications at long distances and form the backbone of modern communication networks. However, water is also able to pull off the total internal reflection party trick, and [Mike Kohn] decided to see if it could be used as a communication medium, too.

The experimental setup consists of an ATTiny85 that receives signals over its serial port, and outputs the received bits by flashing an LED. This LED is attached to a plastic tube filled with water. On the receiving end, another ATTiny85 reads the voltage level of a photodiode placed in the other end of the tube. When the ADC detects voltage over a certain level, it toggles a pin connected to the serial RX pin.

Hooking the setup to a pair of terminals, [Mike] was able to successfully transmit 9600 baud serial data through a tube full of water with just an LED and a small microcontroller. To verify the success, he ran the test again with an air-filled tube instead, which failed. In doing so, he proved that the water was doing the work.

We’ve seen other optical data hacks, too – like this awesome laser ethernet build. Video after the break.

Continue reading “Fiber Optics, But… Wetter?” →

Eight Motors Can Sure Pump A Lot Of Water

September 29, 2020 by 28 Comments

Once upon a time, 3D printing was more of a curiosity than a powerful tool, with many printing trinkets and tchotchkes rather than anything of real use. However, over the years as technology and techniques have progressed, we now see more application-ready builds. This water pump from [Let’s Print] is a great example.

The pump consists of two major pieces – a drive unit, and an impeller. The drive unit consists of a gearbox that combines the power of eight electric motors, driving a single shaft. This is all achieved with striking yellow ABS gears in a black housing. The build video does a great job of explaining how to make the project work with different motors, and how to properly use the bolt adjuster to set the backlash on the gear train. The drive unit is then used to turn a 3D-printed impeller pump which is capable of delivering a great deal of water very quickly.

When fired up, the leaky assembly makes an awful racket and a huge mess, but sure as heck shifts a lot of water while it does so. Watching the water spray off the gears as it leaks through the bearings is a great sight, and it’s clear that the device works well. We’d love to see a cost and performance analysis of this pump versus a commercial offering.

While it’s certainly not the most rugged build, it’s a fun one that nevertheless gets the job done. We’d love to see this running a foam machine or a classic slip and slide. Video after the break.

Continue reading “Eight Motors Can Sure Pump A Lot Of Water” →

PC Cases Are Still Stuck In The Dark Ages, But We Can Fix This

September 28, 2020 by 182 Comments

In the dawning of the IBM PC era, the computer case was a heavy, stout thing. These were industrial machines, built with beefy paddle power switches, and weighing as much as a ton of bricks. Painted in only the ugliest beige, they set the tone for PC design for the next couple of decades.

At the turn of the millennium, the winds of change swept through. The Apple iMac redefined the computer as a hip, cool device, and other manufacturers began to reconsider their product aesthetics. Around the same time, the casemodding scene took off in earnest, with adherents building ever wilder battle stations for internet clout and glory.

With all the development that has gone in the last 40 years of the PC platform, we’ve seen great change and improvement in almost every area. But in building a new rig this past month, this writer discovered there’s one element of the modern PC that’s still trapped in the past.

Continue reading “PC Cases Are Still Stuck In The Dark Ages, But We Can Fix This” →

Food Dispenser Shakes And Rattles

September 27, 2020 by 17 Comments

[Elite Worm] follows a strict diet that involves regularly mixing dry ingredients in varying proportions. The task grew tedious, and thus automation became a tantalising prospect. Enter the DIY shaking food dispenser.

The machine has a simple touch screen interface, with an Atmega328P running the show behind the scenes. The user can store a series of profiles, which each correspond to a different mixture of four base ingredients. Dealing with dry ingredients like oats, chia, and flax, shaking is often necessary to get things moving. To achieve this, the rig packs a hefty DC motor up top, which turns an eccentric shaft, shaking the whole rig. Each ingredient hopper has a servo-controlled nozzle, so ingredients can be dispensed in turn, with a load cell in the base measuring the weight delivered.

It’s a neat system, though [Elite Worm] notes that the device shakes just a little too much, and suspects it won’t hold up in the long term. We suspect a less violent, higher frequency vibration might be less hard on the components, but we’re sure there’ll be some quality engineering going into the next build. We’ve seen [Elite Worm]’s work here before, too. Video after the break.

Continue reading “Food Dispenser Shakes And Rattles” →