Low-Profile Travel Keyboard Is Mostly 3D Printed

November 29, 2024 by 9 Comments

If you’ve got a nice mechanical keyboard, typing on anything else can often become an unpleasant experience. Unfortunately, full-sized versions are bulky and not ideal when you’re travelling or for certain portable applications. [Applepie1928] decided to create a small travel keyboard to solve these problems.

Meet the Micro Planck. It’s a simple ortholinear mechanical keyboard in a decidedly compact form factor—measuring just 23 cm wide, 9.5 cm tall, and 2 cm deep. You could probably stuff it in your pocket if you wear baggy jeans. Oh, and if you don’t know what ortholinear means, it just means that the keys are in a straight grid instead of staggered. Kind of like those “keyboards” at the bowling alley.

The build relies on Gateron KS-33 switches installed on a custom PCB, with a ATmega32U4 microcontroller running the popular open source QMK firmware. The keyboard has a USB-C port because it’s 2024, and all the components are wrapped up in a neat 3D printed shell.

Overall, it’s a tasteful design that packs in a lot of functionality. It’s also neat to see a mechanical design used which offers more tactile feedback than the rubber dome designs more typical at this scale. Meanwhile, if you’re cooking up your own nifty keyboard designs, don’t hesitate to let us know what you’re up to!

An homemade automated air freshener dispenser

GPS Enabled Pumpkin Spice Sprayer Knows When It’s PSL Season

November 29, 2024 by 8 Comments

Pumpkin spice, also known as allspice with better marketing, has found its way into a seemingly endless amount of products over the years. It goes beyond the obvious foodstuffs of pies and cakes; because there are plenty of candles, deodorants, and air fresheners ready to add a little more spice to your world. One such autumnal smell enthusiast, YouTube user [J-Knows], sought to automate the delivery mechanism with his 3D printed pumpkin spice aerosol sprayer.

The sprayer device uses an Arduino to rotate a small 3D printed arm that depresses the button on an air freshener cap. This design came as a result of multiple attempts to create a clip that would securely attach to a standard canister. When problems arose with the clip slipping out of place after the motor rotated, a pinch of sticky tack ended up being just the solution. With the proper amount of adhesion, the automated sprayer could now “pollute” any space it is in, as [J-Knows] described.

What took this project to another level is the addition of an Adafruit GPS module. It was coded to respond when it was within one mile of a Starbucks — arguably the organization responsible for the pumpkin spice craze. For some the company’s pumpkin spice latte (PSL) is synonymous with all things fall, and marks the beginning of the season when it is brought back to the coffee menu. Though not being a regular coffee drinker himself, [J-Knows] fully committed to the bit by taking his creation on a test trip to his local Starbucks for a PSL. Judging by the amount of pumpkin spice aerosol solution that ended up on his car dash, he is going to be smelling it into the next year.

Continue reading “GPS Enabled Pumpkin Spice Sprayer Knows When It’s PSL Season” →

Ultra-Wide Gaming Handheld Channels The Nintendo DS

November 28, 2024 by 16 Comments

“The Nintendo DS isn’t wide enough!” said nobody, ever. Most players found Nintendo’s form factor to be perfectly acceptable for gaming on the go, after all. Still, that doesn’t mean a handheld gaming rig with a more… cinematic aspect ratio couldn’t be fun! [Marcin Plaza] built just that, with great results.

The initial plan was to build a Steam Deck-like device, but using laptop trackpads instead of joysticks. [Marcin] had a broken Lenovo Yoga 730-13 to use as the basis for the build. That caused the plan to diverge, as the only screen [Marcin] could find that was easily compatible with the laptop’s eDP interface was an ultrawide unit. From there, a clamshell enclosure was designed specifically to rehouse all the key components from the Lenovo laptop. The top half of the clamshell would hold the screen, while the base would feature a small custom keyboard, some buttons, and the aforementioned trackpad. This thing reminds us of the Nintendo DS for multiple reasons. It’s not just the clamshell design—it’s the fact it has a touch control on the lower deck, albeit without a screen.

It’s an original concept for a handheld gaming device, and it makes us wish there were more games built for the ultrawide aspect ratio. This is one project that has us browsing the usual websites to see just what other oddball screens are out there… round screens in a makeup compact clamshell, anyone? Video after the break.

Continue reading “Ultra-Wide Gaming Handheld Channels The Nintendo DS” →

Waves crash near a rocky shore. Large, SUV-sized blue "floaters" sit in the water perpendicular to a concrete pier. The floaters look somewhat like a bass boat shrink wrapped in dark blue plastic and attached to a large piston and hinge. A grey SUV sits on the pier, almost as if for scale.

US Is Getting Its First Onshore Wave Power Plant

November 28, 2024 by 60 Comments

Renewables let you have a more diverse set of energy inputs so you aren’t putting all your generation eggs in one basket. One type of renewable that doesn’t see a lot of love, despite 80% of the world’s population living within 100 km (~60 mi) of a coastline, is harnessing the energy of the tides. [via Electrek]

“The U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory estimates that wave energy has the potential to generate over 1,400 terawatt-hours per year,” so while this initial project won’t be huge, the overall possible power generation from tidal power is nothing to sneeze at. Known more for its role in shipping fossil fuels, the Port of Los Angeles will host the new wave power pilot being built by Eco Wave Power and Shell. Eco Wave’s system uses floaters to drive pistons that compress hydraulic fluid and turn a generator before the decompressed fluid is returned to the pistons in a nice, tidy loop.

Eco Wave plans to finish construction by early 2025 and already has the power conversion unit onsite at the Port of Los Angeles. While the press release is mum on the planned install capacity, Eco Wave claims they will soon have 404.7 MW of installed capacity through several different pilot projects around the world.

We covered another Swedish company trying to harness tidal power with underwater kites, and if wave power isn’t your thing but you still like mixing water and electricity, why not try offshore wind or a floating solar farm? Just make sure to keep the noise down!

A replica LX System game console inspired by the UFO 50 video game sitting on a wooden desk next to a can of diet Coke.

UFO 50 Inspired LX System Looks Straight Out Of A Video Game

November 28, 2024 by 14 Comments

They simply don’t make them like they used to, and in the case of this retro LX system build, they only make what never existed in the first place. Earlier this year the long awaited video game UFO 50 released to widespread critical acclaim. The conceit of the game is an interactive anthology of a faux 1980’s game console constructed by a large group of actual indie game developers. Leave it to [Luke], who admitted to UFO 50 to taking over his life, to bring the LX system from the digital screen to the real world.

Each piece of the LX System case was printed on a multi-color filament capable Bambu Labs P1S. Dual XLR jacks wired up as USB serve as controller ports, and the controller itself is a repurposed NES style USB controller fitted with a new housing printed with the same filament as the case. Both the prominent front mounted power and “sys” buttons are functional; the latter actually switches to a new game within UFO 50. The brains of this project is a mini Windows PC hooked up to a 9 inch 720p LCD screen which is plenty enough resolution for pixelated look of the games. As impressive as replicating the whole case look is, it’s really brought together by the addition of a 3.5 inch floppy drive. It could be an interesting way to backup save files, provided they fit within 1.44 MB.

In addition to sharing the completed LX System, [Luke] has also made the print files available online along with a list of project materials used. It would be neat to see an alternate color scheme or remix for this working prototype of a console that never actually existed. In the meantime, there are plenty more games to play and discover in UFO 50…there’s 50 of them after all.

via Time Extension

Minichord Wants To Help You Find Rad Chord Progressions

November 28, 2024 by 8 Comments

If you’re good at music theory, you can probably find all the chords and progressions you need just by using your fingers and a suitable instrument. For a lot of musicians, though, remembering huge banks of chords can be difficult, and experimenting with combinations can quickly become tedious and tiring. Enter the minichord, a tiny version of the Omnichord synth designed by [Benjamin] that offers to help out by putting all the chords you need a mere button press away.

The minichord is based around the Teensy 4.0, a capable microcontroller platform if ever there was one. It’s paired with a bunch of tactile buttons which are used to tell the Teensy which chord you desire to play. Various combinations of buttons can be used to play more advanced chords, too. There are potentiometers on board as well for volume control, as well as a touch pad for “strumming” arpeggios and other fine control tasks. An online interface allows modifying the presets onboard, too.

[Benjamin] hopes to get the minichord into production; it’s currently in a Seeedstudio competition that could see that happen, based on likes on the project video. The minichord isn’t the only player in this space, of course. The Orchard synth has been making similar waves this week. We’ve seen [Benjamin’s] work before, too. Video after the break. Continue reading “Minichord Wants To Help You Find Rad Chord Progressions” →

A chocolate coating machine works in the round to enrobe mint Oreos.

Chocolate-Coating Machine Mk. 2: The Merry-Go-Round

November 28, 2024 by 16 Comments

This holiday season, [Chaz] wanted to continue his family’s tradition of enrobing a little bit of everything in dark chocolate, and built an improved, rotating chocolate-coating machine.

You may remember last year’s offering, aka the conveyor belt version. Although that one worked, too much chocolate was ultimately lost to the surface of the kitchen table. [Chaz] once again started with a standard chocolate fountain and bought a round wire rack that fits the circumference of the bowl at the bottom. He snipped a hole in the center large enough to accommodate the business part of the fountain and printed a collar with holes that he cleverly zip-tied to the rack.

[Chaz] also printed a large gear to go around the bowl, a small gear to attach to a six RPM motor, a motor mount for the bowl, and an air blade attachment for a portable Ryobi fan. The air blade worked quite well, doing the double duty of distributing the chocolate and thinning out the coating. Plus, it gives things a neat rumpled look on the top.

Want to make some special chocolates this year, but don’t want to build an enrober? Get yourself a diffraction grating and make some rainbow goodies with melted chocolate.

Continue reading “Chocolate-Coating Machine Mk. 2: The Merry-Go-Round” →