Hacklet 69 – Morse Code Projects

August 7, 2015 by 10 Comments

With over 160 years of history under its belt, Morse code is by far the oldest digital signaling system known to man. Originally developed for telegraph systems, [Samuel Morse’s] code has been sent over wires, via radio, and even with flashes of light. Hackers, makers and engineers have been working with Morse code throughout history. For many years, simple code keys and practice oscillators were the “hello world” of hobby electronics. In fact, a company which started out selling a Morse key has gone on to become one of the largest electronic component distributors in the world. The company still bears the name of that project: Digi-Key. This week’s Hacklet is all about some of the best Morse code projects on Hackaday.io!

key1We start with [voxnulla] and Morse key HID + ugly hack. [voxnulla] found an old key at his favorite thrift store. It was dusty, greasy, and for some reason had been painted hospital green. Once the paint and grime were removed, and the original wooden plate restored, the key actually looked pretty good. [Voxnulla] then decided to turn it into a USB Human Interface Device (HID), emulating the keyboard of his computer. An Arduino converts Morse code characters tapped at the key into keystrokes over USB. As [voxnulla] knows, when butterflies aren’t available, real programmers drive vim with a Morse key!

code2Next up is [Voja Antonic] with Daddy, I don’t have the key. If you didn’t read [Voja’s] article about Hacking the Digital and Social System, check it out! Many apartments have an intercom system where you have to “buzz” someone in, activating a solenoid lock in the door. [Voja] inserted a Microchip PIC12 series microcontroller between the speaker and the unlock button. All a user has to do is tap out the right Morse code password on the call button in the lobby. If the code is accepted, the PIC unlocks the door, and you’re in!

 

morseterminal[kodera2t] took things into the digital age with Stand-alone Tiny Morse code encoder/decoder. This project grew out of his general purpose Portable tiny IoT device project. [kodera2t] rolled his own Arduino-compatible board for this project. The tiny ATmega1284 powered computer allows him to encode and decode Morse code. A smartphone-sized keyboard and a lilliputian OLED display serve as the user interface, while rotary encoder allows for variable code speed. You can even “tap” Morse out on one of the tactile buttons!

 

morselightFinally, we have [Yannick (Gigawipf)] with Portable (morsing) 100W led flashlight. 100 watt LEDs have gotten quite cheap these days, and they’re perfect when you absolutely, positively have to blind everyone around you. These LEDs can also be switched on and off quickly, which makes them perfect for Morse code. In years past, mechanical shutters had to be used to perform the same feat. [Yannick] used a 5000mAh 5S Zippy Li-Po to supply electrons to this hungry beast, while a 600 Watt constant current boost converter keeps that power under control. An Arduino running Morse code converter software controls the boost convert and LED.  [Yannick] uses his computer to send a message over the Arduino’s serial link, and the light does the rest, flashing out the message for all to see.

If you want more Morse goodness, check out our brand new Morse code project list! My Morse is a bit rusty, so if I wasn’t able to copy your transmission and missed your project, don’t hesitate to drop me a message on Hackaday.io. That’s it for this week’s Hacklet. As always, see you next week. Same hack time, same hack channel, bringing you the best of Hackaday.io!

Long Exposure Thermal Photography

January 28, 2015 by 10 Comments

For apparently inexplicable reasons, the price of thermal imaging cameras has been dropping precipitously over the last few years, but there are still cool things you can do with infrared temperature sensors.

A few years ago – and while he was still writing for us – [Jeremy] came across an absurdly clever thermal imaging camera. Instead of expensive silicon, this thermal camera uses a flashlight with an RGB LED, a cheap IR temperature sensor, and a camera set up to take long exposures. By shining this flashlight/IR sensor around a dark room, a camera with a wide-open shutter can record color-coded thermal images of just about anything.

Since then, an interesting product appeared on the market. It’s the Black & Decker TLD100 Thermal Leak Detector, and it’s basically an infrared thermometer and LED flashlight stuffed into one neat package. In other words, it’s the exact same thing we saw two years ago. We’d like to thank at least one Black & Decker engineer for their readership.

[Jeremy] took this cheap, off-the-shelf leak detector and did what anyone would do after realizing where the idea behind it came from. He set up his camera, turned off the lights, and opened the shutter of his camera. The results, like the original post, don’t offer the same thermal resolution as a real thermal camera. That doesn’t mean it’s still not a great idea, though.

Making Manual Lens Flares With A Few Simple Parts

May 13, 2014 by 16 Comments

DIY Lens Flare

If you’re an aspiring film maker hoping to be the next [J.J. Abram] with a mild (severe?) obsession with lens flares, then this Instructable is for you!

Modern camera lenses are designed to prevent lens flare, but sometimes, just sometimes, you want a cool lighting flare in your video. Of course you could add them in post production, but that’s kind of cheating, and if you don’t have expensive video editing software, not very easy to do either.

Now you could just throw a super bright LED flashlight on set and hope for the best, but you’ll never get that cool Star Wars or Star Trek blinding purple line… unless you add something on your camera to help scatter the light! [Jana Marie] has figured out just how to do that. Continue reading “Making Manual Lens Flares With A Few Simple Parts” →

HackPrinceton: Piano Stairs!

November 11, 2013 by 13 Comments

princeton piano

It was Hack.Princeton this weekend and [Bonnie] and [Erica] threw together this great interactive portable piano!

The setup is very simple using six LED flashlights, and six photoresistors. An Arduino Uno reads in the values from the photoresistors and parses them to a nearby Raspberry Pi which then creates the sounds. The system even automatically calibrates itself when turned on, adjusting to the ambient light conditions. They made the project for the Hackathon and after a short scare of having to move it to another staircase for the demo, they took home 2nd place in the hardware category!

Stick around after the break to see it in action — this would make a great school project to get kids interested in hacking!

Continue reading “HackPrinceton: Piano Stairs!” →

Use Your Smartphone As A Microscope For Less Than $10

October 30, 2013 by 22 Comments

FY4TBHSHMMFBB4V.LARGE[Yoshinok] recently posted an Instructable on doing a $10 smartphone-to-microscope conversion. The hack isn’t so much a conversion as just a handy jig, but it’s still interesting. The basic idea is to set up a platform for the slides, and to mount the smartphone directly above. The trick, and the reason this can be called a microscope, is that [Yoshinok] embeds the lens from a cheap laser pointer into the smartphone holder. He is able to get 40x optical magnification with the lens, and even though it sacrifices quality, he uses the built-in digital zoom to get up to 175x magnification.

By itself, you could use this with a light source to magnify 3D objects. [Yoshinok] demonstrates this with a dime. But since the slide holder is made of clear acrylic, he mounted a cheap LED flashlight in the base to serve as through-sample lighting. Using this setup, he was able to observe the process of plasmolysis.

If you have kids, this is certainly a project to do with them, but we can’t help but think it will be useful for non-parents alike. This sort of magnification is good enough for simple lab experiments, and given that most Hack-a-Day readers have these parts lying around, we figure the cost is closer to $0. If you give it a try, let us know your results in the comments!

Continue reading “Use Your Smartphone As A Microscope For Less Than $10” →

An Absurdly Clever Thermal Imaging Camera

January 3, 2013 by 35 Comments

Thermal imaging cameras, cameras able to measure the temperature of an object while taking a picture, are amazingly expensive. For the price of a new car, you can pick up one of these infrared cameras and check out where the drafts are in your house. [Max Justicz] thought he could do better than even professional-level thermal imaging cameras and came up with an absurdly clever DIY infrared camera.

While thermal imaging cameras – even inexpensive homebrew ones – have an infrared sensor that works a lot like a camera CCD, there is a cheaper alternative. Non-contact infrared thermometers can be had for $20, the only downside being they measure a single point and not multiple areas like their more expensive brethren. [Max] had the idea of using one of these thermometers along with a few RGB LEDs to paint different colors of light around a scene in response to the temperature detected by an infrared thermometer sensor.

To turn his idea into a usable tool, [Max] picked up an LED flashlight and saved the existing LED array for another day. After stuffing the guts of the flashlight with a few RGB LEDs, he added the infrared thermometer sensor and an Arduino to change the color of the LED in response to the temperature given by the sensor.

After that, it’s a simple matter of light painting. [Max] took a camera, left the shutter open, and used his RGB thermometer flashlight to paint a scene with multicolor LEDs representing the temperature sensed by the infrared thermometer. It’s an amazingly clever hack, and an implementation so simple we’re surprised we haven’t seen before.

Musical Light Show Is Far Less Complex Than You Might Think

June 21, 2012 by 15 Comments

color-changing-light-tube

[Matt and Jason Tardy], who make up the musical performance duo known as AudioBody, were recently featured on Make: explaining how they put on one of their trademark segments. The most popular portion of their show features color changing tubes of light which the pair spin and fling around not unlike a higher-tech version of the Blue Man Group. While the visuals are pretty slick, the technique behind it is far simpler than most people initially imagine.

As you can see in video below, the tubes look to be nothing more than simple white lights. As the brothers work through their performance however, the tubes switch from white to blue and back again with a liquid-like transition between the colors.

The [Tardys] say that most people peg a microcontroller or other complex electronics as the source of their light wizardry, but the real answer is much simpler. Embedded in the end of each tube is a bright LED flashlight. A sliding blue filter positioned inside the tube provides the silky smooth transition between colors – no fancy electronics required.

If you would like to see how they were built, be sure to swing by the AudioBody web site for a how-to presentation by the [Tardys] themselves.

Continue reading “Musical Light Show Is Far Less Complex Than You Might Think” →