Recreating Unobtainium Weather Station Sensors

November 26, 2024 by Zoe Skyforest 20 Comments

Imagine you own a weather station. Then imagine that after some years have passed, you’ve had to replace one of the sensors multiple times. Your new problem is that the sensor is no longer available. What does a hacker like [Luca] do? Build a custom solution, of course!

[Luca]’s work concerns the La Crosse WS-9257F-IT weather station, and the repeat failures of the TX44DTH-IT external sensor. Thankfully, [Luca] found that the weather station’s communication protocol had been thoroughly reverse-engineered by [Fred], among others. He then set about creating a bridge to take humidity and temperature data from Zigbee sensors hooked up to his Home Assistant hub, and send it to the La Crosse weather station. This was achieved with the aid of a SX1276 LoRa module on a TTGO LoRa board. Details are on GitHub for the curious.

Luca didn’t just work on the Home Assistant integration, though. A standalone sensor was also developed, based on the Xiao SAMD21 microcontroller board and a BME280 temperature, pressure, and humidity sensor. It too can integrate with the Lacrosse weather station, and proved useful for one of [Luca’s] friends who was in the same boat.

Ultimately, it sucks when a manufacturer no longer supports hardware that you love and use every day. However, the hacking community has a way of working around such trifling limitations. It’s something to be proud of—as the corporate world leaves hardware behind, the hackers pick up the slack!

Humans Can Learn Echolocation Too

November 26, 2024 by Zoe Skyforest 50 Comments

Most of us associate echolocation with bats. These amazing creatures are able to chirp at frequencies beyond the limit of our hearing, and they use the reflected sound to map the world around them. It’s the perfect technology for navigating pitch-dark cave systems, so it’s understandable why evolution drove down this innovative path.

Humans, on the other hand, have far more limited hearing, and we’re not great chirpers, either. And yet, it turns out we can learn this remarkable skill, too. In fact, research suggests it’s far more achievable than you might think—for the sighted and vision impaired alike!

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Building A Pi-Powered LED Chess Board

November 25, 2024 by Zoe Skyforest 12 Comments

If you live near Central Park or some other local chess hub, you’re likely never short of opponents for a good game. If you find yourself looking for a computer opponent, or you just prefer playing online, you might like this LED chessboard from [DIY Machines] instead.

At heart, it’s basically a regular chessboard with addressable LEDs of the WS2812B variety under each square. The lights are under the command of an Arduino Nano, which is also tasked with reading button inputs from the board’s side panel. The Nano is interfaced with a Raspberry Pi, which is the true brains of the operation. The Pi handles chess tasks—checking the validity of moves, acting as a computer opponent, and connecting online for games against other humans if so desired. Everything is wrapped up with 3D printed parts, making this an easy project to build for the average DIY maker.

The video tutorial does a great job of covering the design. It’s a relatively simple project at heart, but the presentation is great and it looks awfully fun to play with. We’ve featured some other great builds from [DIY Machines] before, too. Video after the break. Continue reading “Building A Pi-Powered LED Chess Board” →

An Over-Engineered Basement Monitor

November 25, 2024 by Zoe Skyforest 10 Comments

[Stephen] has a basement that depends on a sump pump. What that means is if the pump fails or the power goes out, the basement floods—which is rather undesirable. Not wanting to rely on a single point of failure, [Stephen] decided to build a monitor for the basement situation, which quickly spiralled to a greater degree of complexity than he initially expected.

The initial plan was just to have water level sensors reporting data over a modified CATS packet radio transmitter. On the other end, the plan was to capture the feed via a CATS receiver, pipe the data to the internet via FELINET, and then have the data displayed on a Grafana dashboard. Simple enough. From there, though, [Stephen] started musing on the possibilities. He thought about capturing humidity data to verify the dehumidifier was working. Plus, temperature would be handy to get early warning before any pipes were frozen in colder times. Achieving those aims would be easy enough with a BME280 sensor, though hacking it into the CATS rig was a little challenging.

The results are pretty neat, though. [Stephen] can now track all the vital signs of his basement remotely, with all the data displayed elegantly on a nice Grafana dashboard. If you’re looking to get started on a similar project, we’ve featured a great Grafana guide at a previous Supercon, just by the by. All in all, [Stephen’s] project may have a touch of the old overkill, but sometimes, the most rewarding projects are the ones you pour your heart and soul into!

E-Ink Screen Combined With Analog Dial Is Epic Win

November 25, 2024 by Zoe Skyforest 52 Comments

Analog dials used to be a pretty common way of displaying information on test equipment and in industrial applications. They fell out of favor as more advanced display technologies became cheaper. However, if you combine an analog dial with a modern e-ink display, it turns out you get something truly fantastic indeed.

This build comes to us from [Arne]. The concept is simple—get an e-ink display, and draw a dial on it using whatever graphics and scale you choose. Then, put it behind a traditional coil-driven analog dial in place of the more traditional paper scale. Now, you have an analog dial that can display any quantity you desire. Just update the screen to display a different scale as needed. Meanwhile, if you don’t need to change the display, the e-ink display will draw zero power and still display the same thing.

[Arne] explains how it all works in the writeup. It’s basically a LilyGo T5 ESP32 board with an e-ink screen attached, and it’s combined with a MF-110A multimeter. It’s super easy to buy that stuff and start tinkering with the concept yourself. [Arne] uses it with Home Assistant, which is as good an idea as any.

You get all the benefits of a redrawable display, with the wonderful visual tactility of a real analog dial. It’s a build that smashes old and new together in the best way possible. It doesn’t heart that [Arne] chose a great retro font for the dial, either. Applause all around!

3D Printed Boat Uses Tank Tracks For Amphibious Propulsion

November 23, 2024 by Zoe Skyforest 16 Comments

Boats normally get around with propellers or water jets for propulsion. Occasionally, they use paddles. [Engineering After Hours] claims he is “changing the boat game forever” with his new 3D printed boat design that uses a tank tread for propulsion instead. Forgive him for the hyperbole of the YouTuber. It’s basically a modified paddle design, but it’s also pretty cool.

It works on land, even if it doesn’t steer well!

The basic idea is simple enough—think “floating snowmobile” and you’re in the ballpark. In the water, the chunky tank track provides forward propulsion with its paddle-like treads. It’s not that much different from a paddle wheel steamer. However, where it diverges is that it’s more flexible than a traditional paddle wheel.

The tracked design is actually pretty good at propelling the boat in shallow water without getting stuck. In fact, it works pretty well on dirt, too! The video covers the basic concept, but it also goes into some detail regarding optimizing the design, too. Getting the float and track geometry right is key to performance, after all.

If you’re looking to build an oddball amphibious craft, maybe working with the snowmobile concept is worth your engineering time. Continue reading “3D Printed Boat Uses Tank Tracks For Amphibious Propulsion” →

Drilling Rig Makes Accurate Holes In Seconds

November 23, 2024 by Zoe Skyforest 19 Comments

Drilling holes can be quite time consuming work, particularly if you have to drill a lot of them. Think about all the hassle of grabbing a part, fixturing it in the drill press, lining it up, double checking, and then finally making the hole. That takes some time, and that’s no good if you’ve got lots of parts to drill. There’s an easy way around that, though. Build yourself a rad jig like [izzy swan] did.

The first jig we get to see is simple. It has a wooden platter, which hosts a fixture for a plastic enclosure to slot perfectly into place. Also on the platter is a regular old power drill. The platter also has a crank handle which, when pulled, pivots the platter, runs the power drill, and forces it through the enclosure in the exact right spot. It’s makes drilling a hole in the enclosure a repeatable operation that takes just a couple of seconds. The jig gets it right every time.

The video gets better from there, though. We get to see even niftier jigs that feature multiple drills, all doing their thing in concert with just one pull of a lever. [izzy] then shows us how these jigs are built from the ground up. It’s compelling stuff.

If you’re doing any sort of DIY manufacturing in real numbers, you’ve probably had to drill a lot of holes before. Jig making skills could really help you if that’s the case. Video after the break.

Continue reading “Drilling Rig Makes Accurate Holes In Seconds” →