Electric Vehicle Charging Heats Up

January 22, 2025 by 63 Comments

As the electric vehicle takeover slowly lumbers along, marginally increasing efficiencies for certain applications while entrenching car-centric urban design even further, there are some knock-on effects that are benefiting people and infrastructure beyond simple transportation. Vehicle-to-grid technology has applications for providing energy from the car back to the grid for things like power outages or grid leveling. But [Technology Connections] is taking this logic one step further. Since a large number of EV owners have charging stations built into their garages, he wondered if these charging stations could be used for other tasks and built an electric heater which can use one for power.

This project uses a level 2 charger, capable of delivering many kilowatts of power to an EV over fairly standard 240V home wiring with a smart controller in between that and the car. Compared to a level 1 charger which can only trickle charge a car on a standard 120V outlet (in the US) or a DC fast charger which can provide a truly tremendous amount of energy in a very short time, these are a happy middle ground. So, while it’s true a homeowner could simply wire up another 240V outlet for this type of space heater or other similar application, this project uses the existing infrastructure of the home to avoid redundancies like that.

Of course this isn’t exactly plug-and-play. Car chargers communicate with vehicles to negotiate power capabilities with each other, so any appliance wanting to use one as a bulk electric supply needs to be able to perform this negotiation. To get the full power available in this case all that’s needed is a resistor connected to one of the signal wires, but this won’t work for all cases and could overload smaller charging stations. For that a more complex signalling method is needed, but since this was more of a proof-of-concept we’ll still call it a success. For those wanting to DIY the charger itself, building one from the ground up is fairly straightforward as well.

Thanks to [Billy] for the tip!

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A light-up clock displays the day of the week.

What Day Is It Again? Check The Clock

January 22, 2025 by 7 Comments

If you’re lucky enough to work from home, you’ll soon find that it presents its own set of challenges, mostly related to work/life balance. It can get so bad that you don’t know what day of the week it is. Really. Ask us how we know.

Rather than miss a meeting (or a day off), prolific hacker [Arnov Sharma] created this day of the week clock. It uses a customized LED driver board with seven sets of three LEDs, each driven by a MOSFET. Each MOSFET is controlled by a DFRobot Mini Beetle ESP32-C3. It runs on a 2200 mAh, 3.7 V lithium-ion battery.

While this is mostly PCBs, there are three printed parts that turn it into a displayable object. We really like the look of this clock — it has just the right amount of pizazz to it and reminds us of a and old movie marquee. Be sure to check out the great build instructions.

We love a good clock around here. In case you missed it, here is the latest from [Moritz v. Sivers] that uses a caustic lens to display the time.

Make Your VR Controllers Handle Like Two-Handed Weapons

January 22, 2025 by 11 Comments

Wielding things like two-handed swords in VR can be awkward. There’s no sense of grasping a solid object. The controllers (and therefore one’s hands) feel floaty and disconnected from one another, because they are. [Astro VR Gaming] aims to fix this with a DIY attachment they are calling the ARC VR Sword Attachment.

The ARC is a 3D-printed attachment that allows a player to connect two controllers together. They can just as easily be popped apart, which is good because two separate controllers is what one wants most of the time. But for those moments when hefting a spear or swinging a two-handed sword is called for? Stick them together and go wild.

The original design (the first link up above) uses magnets, but an alternate version uses tapered inserts instead, and provides a storage stand. Want to know if the ARC is something you’d like to make for yourself? Watch it in action in the video embedded just under the page break.

VR is an emerging technology with loads of space for experimentation and DIY problem solving. We wish more companies would follow Valve’s example of hacker-friendly hardware design, but even just providing CAD models of your hardware to make attachments easier to design would be a big step forward, and something every hacker would welcome.

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‘Robotic’ Dress Uses Simple Techniques To Combine 3D Printed Parts With Fabric

January 22, 2025 by 19 Comments

By and large, our clothes don’t actively move. They’re simple pieces of fabric assembled to sit nicely on our bodies, and little more. [anoukwipprecht] created something a little more technological and confronting, though, with the Robotic Open-Source Scale Dress.

Right from the drop, you can see what the dress is all about. It’s an open-shoulder design that has eight large moving scales mounted on the front. These scales are printed, and each features its own servo for independent movement. The scale baseplates are designed to hide the servos themselves, creating a sleeker look that hides the mechanism underneath. Each baseplate is also perforated with holes, allowing it to be sewn on to the base garment in a stout fashion. The dress itself is created with thick neoprene fabric, enabling it to take the weight of the scale assemblies without sagging or pulling away from the body. You can even customize the scales in various ways—such as adding feathers instead.

The dress is a neat piece, and would catch eyes for its pointy scales alone. The fact that they can start moving at any time only increases the garment’s impact. We’ve seen some other great fashionable uses of 3D printing before, too, like these awesome printed shoes. Meanwhile, if you’re printing your own garments in your home lab, don’t hesitate to let us know! Or, even better… wear them to the next Hackaday event!

DIY Drones Deliver The Goods With Printed Release

January 22, 2025 by 17 Comments

It seems like the widespread use of delivery drones by companies like Amazon and Wal-Mart has been perpetually just out of reach. Of course robotics is a tricky field, and producing a fleet of these machines reliable enough to be cost effective has proven to be quite a challenge. But on an individual level, turning any drone into one that can deliver a package is not only doable but is something [Iloke-Alusala] demonstrates with their latest project.

The project aims to be able to turn any drone into a delivery drone, in this case using a FPV drone as the platform. Two hitch-like parts are 3D printed, one which adds an attachment point to the drone and another which attaches to the package, allowing the drone to easily pick up the package and then drop it off quickly. The real key to this build is the control mechanism. [Iloke-Alusala] used an ESP32 to tap into the communications between the receiver and the flight controller. When the ESP32 detects a specific signal has been sent to the flight controller, it can activate the mechanism on the 3D printed hitch to either grab on to a package or release it at a certain point.

While this is a long way from a fully autonomous fleet of delivery drones, it goes a long way into showing that individuals can use existing drones to transport useful amounts of material and also sets up a way for an ESP32 to decode and use a common protocol used in drones, making it easy to expand their capabilities in other ways as well. After all, if we have search and rescue drones we could also have drones that deliver help to those stranded.

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Going Minimal: 64×4, The Fun In Functional Computing

January 22, 2025 by 38 Comments

If you’ve ever wondered what makes a computer tick, the Minimal 64×4 by [Slu4] is bound to grab your attention. It’s not a modern powerhouse, but a thoughtfully crafted throwback to the essence of computing. With just 61 logic ICs, VGA output, PS/2 input, and SSD storage, this DIY wonder packs four times the processing power of a Commodore 64.

What sets [Slu4]’s efforts apart is his refusal to follow the beaten track of CPU development. He imposes strict complexity limits on his designs, sticking to an ultra-minimalist Von Neumann architecture. His journey began with the ‘Minimal Ur-CPU’, a logic-chip-based computer that could crunch numbers but little else. Next came the ‘Minimal 64’, featuring VGA graphics and Space Invaders-level performance. The latest ‘Minimal 64×4’ takes it further, adding incredible speed while keeping the design so simple it’s almost ridiculous. It’s computing stripped to its rawest form—no fancy sound, no dazzling graphics, just raw resourcefulness.

For enthusiasts of retro-tech and DIY builds, this project is a treasure trove. From text editors to starfield simulations to Sokoban, [Slu4] proves you don’t need complexity to make magic. Continue reading “Going Minimal: 64×4, The Fun In Functional Computing” →