Electromagnetic 7-Segment Display Easy On The Eyes AND The Ears

January 12, 2019 by 21 Comments

We love electromagnetic displays: take the modern look of a digital readout, combine with the low-tech coil mechanism that you theoretically could create yourself, add a dash of random clacking sounds, and what’s not to like? Evidently, [Nicolas Kruse] shares our affection for these displays, because he’s taken it beyond theory and created a 7-segment magnetically-actuated display from scratch.

The display is 3D-printed, as you would expect these days. Each segment contains a small neodymium magnet, and each coil a 1 mm iron core for flux concentration. The coils are driven with a 1.6 A peak current, causing the segments to flip in less than 10 ms. [Nicolas] provides STL files for the display base, segments, and spools so you can print your own display. He’s also released the schematics and code for the driver, which uses an ATtiny44 to drive the coils through N- and P-channel MOSFETs. Initially designed to drive a passive 4×7 matrix of displays, the driver couldn’t quite manage to flip one segment without affecting its neighbors. However, for a single display, the driver works fine. We hope he figures out the matrix issue soon, because we really want to see a clock made with these displays.

You can see (and hear) a short video of the display in action after the break. The clacking does not disappoint!

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Radio Control Buggy Gets V10 Power

January 12, 2019 by 12 Comments

Amongst the more difficult machining tasks in the world are those involved in the production of internal combustion engines. Thanks to the Internet, it’s now possible to watch detailed videos of master craftsmen assembling tiny desktop V8 and V12 engines in home workshops with barely a CNC in sight. However, up until now, most of these builds have been left on the test stand to bark and wail away. No longer – [Keith] has decided that needs to change.

We’ve seen [Keith]’s work before – particularly, his 125cc V10 build, featuring fuel injection, dual overhead cams, and even a supercharger. With several micro engines under his belt now, it was time to put them to work – the V10 is getting a new home in a 1/3rd scale RC buggy.

We’re not sure [Keith] has heard the phrase “off the shelf” – even the suspension dampers on this build are custom machined. Currently up to part 5, the chassis is coming together and there are plans for a hybrid powertrain, too. Carbon fiber and anodized parts are in abundance – this build is truly a work of art.

We can’t wait to see this V10 monster tearing up the dirt – It’s an ambitious build, but if anyone can pull it off, it’s [Keith]. Video after the break.

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Cyberpunk Jacket Is The Garment Of Choice For The Streets Of 2019

January 12, 2019 by 21 Comments

Fans of science fiction and related genres have always been disappointed by real life. The future holds so much promise on paper, yet millions were disappointed upon reaching 2015 to find that hoverboard technology still eluded us. It’s not all bad, though – [abetusk] has developed a cyberpunk jacket so you can live out your grungy hacker fantasies in real life.

The effect is achieved with specially designed jacket patches. Nylon fabric is lasercut with artwork or lettering, and then placed over an electroluminescent panel. The fabric acts as a mask and is glued onto the EL panel, and the assembly is then attached to the back of the jacket with velcro.

It’s a build that focuses on more than just a cool visual effect. The attention to detail pays off in robustness and usability – wires are neatly fed through the lining of the jacket, and special strain relief devices are used to avoid wires breaking off the EL panels. The extra effort means this is a jacket that can withstand real-world use, rather than falling apart in the middle of a posed photo shoot.

Everything is well documented, from artwork creation to final assembly, so there’s no reason you can’t replicate this at home – and the final results are stunning. Our take is that electroluminescent technology is the way to go for retro and cyberpunk looks, but LEDs can be fun too – like in this high-powered Burning Man build.

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Robot’s Actions And Our Reactions

January 12, 2019 by 9 Comments

If you walk into a dog owner’s home that dog is probably going to make a beeline to see if you are a threat. If you walk into a cat owner’s home, you may see the cat wandering around, if it even chooses to grace you with its presence. For some people, a dog’s direct approach can be nerve-wracking, or even scary depending on their history and relative size of the dog. Still, these domestic animals are easy to empathize with especially if you or your family have a pet. They have faces which can convey curiosity or smug indifference but what if you were asked to judge the intent of something with no analogs to our own physical features like a face or limbs? That is what researchers at the IDC Herzliya in Israel and Cornell University in the US asked when they made the Greeting Machine to move a moon-like sphere around a planet-like sphere.

Participants were asked to gauge their feelings about the robot after watching the robot move in different patterns. It turns out that something as simple as a sphere tracing across the surface of another sphere can stir consistent and predictable emotions in people even though the shapes do not resemble a human, domestic pet, or anything but a snowman’s abdomen. This makes us think about how our own robots must be perceived by people who are not mired in circuits all day. Certainly, a robot jellyfish lazing about in the Atlantic must feel less threatening than a laser pointer with a taste for human eyeballs.

 

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Visual Airplane Tracker Runs On Pi

January 11, 2019 by No comments

As no doubt is the case with many readers, there is a Raspberry Pi running in the yard near where this is being written that tracks airplanes, listening into the ADS-B radio broadcasts that they send and uploading the data to a sharing service. This device lacks the blinky LEDs that hacking custom states it should have, though. This project from [xy72y5e] would be a great way to deal with that problem: they used a Unicorn hat to create a simple map of local airplanes. This shows the location and track of aircraft in the area on the 8 by 8 RGB LED matrix of the Unicorn Hat.

While the device here maps local planes from their radio fixes, the code that [xy72y5e] published works with the api of ADSBExchange, a site that shares flight data. This means that the map can be easily set to show air traffic at a different location to the device itself. And it wouldn’t be that difficult to alter this to show the locally detected planes, as [xy72y5e] has published the full Python code that creates the map. This would also go well with some of the other airplane tracking hacks that we’ve seen recently, such as the planespotter destination tracker or tracking airplanes by radar reflections…

[Via Reddit]

You Won’t Hear This Word On The Street

January 11, 2019 by 15 Comments

The simplest answer to a problem is not necessarily always the best answer. If you ask the question, “How do I get a voice assistance to work on a crowded subway car?”, the simplest answer is to shout into a microphone but we don’t want to ask Siri to put toilet paper on the shopping list in front of fellow passengers at the top of our lungs. This is “not a technical issue but a mental issue” according to [Masaaki Fukumoto], lead researcher at Microsoft in “hardware and devices” and “human-computer interaction.” SilentVoice was demonstrated in Berlin at the ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology which showed a live transcription of nearly silent speech. A short demonstration can be found below the break.

SilentVoice relies on a different way of speaking and a different way of picking up that sound. Instead of traditional dictation in which we exhale while facing a microphone, it is necessary to place the microphone less than two millimeters from the mouth, usually against the lips, and use ingressive speech which is just whispering while inhaling. The advantage of ingressive over egressive speech is that without air being blown over the microphone, the popping of air gusts is eliminated. With practice, it is as efficient as normal speaking but that practice will probably involve a few dizzy spells from inhaling more than necessary.

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A Turntable For Model Railroads

January 11, 2019 by 18 Comments

Way back when, before diesel-electric locomotives were a thing, trains weren’t really able to go backwards too well. Also it’s sometimes necessary to turn carriages around in a small space. For that, the railway turntable was invented. If you want to implement one on a model layout, this project from DIY & Digital Railworld is for you.

The project is at an early stage – thus far, laying out how to set up an Arduino Uno using a potentiometer to control the speed of a stepper motor, which rotates the turntable. The turntable itself is a 3D printed part sourced from Thingiverse, designed to suit the specific stepper motor used.

This has the easy part sorted – rotating a piece of track through 360 degrees to orient a train properly. However, there’s significant work ahead. Power needs to be hooked up to the rails, and a system for accurately aligning the turntable with outgoing tracks needs to be devised. This is particularly relevant for N-gauge setups, where tolerances are everything.

We’d love to know how you’d tackle the various issues to build a working model turntable in the comments. We’ve seen some serious model railroad builds before around these parts. Video after the break.

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