Friday Hack Chat: Is There Life On Mars?

October 3, 2018 by 14 Comments

Mars ain’t the kind of place to raise a kid. In fact, it’s cold as hell. There’s no one there to raise them if you did, or is there? Is there life on Mars? That’s the question NASA has been trying to answer for the last forty years, and with the new Mars rover, we might get closer to an answer. For this week’s Hack Chat, we’re going to be talking with the people responsible for some interesting instruments flying on the Mars 2020 rover.

Our guest for this week’s Hack Chat will be [Matteo Borri], an Italian engineer who’s been living in the US for the better part of a decade now. He’s had various projects ranging from robotics — including a BattleBot — AI, and aerospace. [Matteo] is also one of the engineers behind the Vampire Charger, a winner in the Power Harvesting Module Challenge in this year’s Hackaday Prize.

Right now, [Matteo] is working on an interesting project that’s going to fly on the next Mars rover. He’s developed a chlorophyll spectroscope for NASA and the Mars Society. This week, [Matteo] is going to share the details of how this device works and how it was developed.

During this Hack Chat, we’re going to be discussing various technology that’s going into the search for life on Mars and elsewhere in the galaxy such as:

  • Chlorophyll detection
  • Mars Rovers
  • Various other hardware hacks

You are, of course, encouraged to add your own questions to the discussion. You can do that by leaving a comment on the Hacking with Fire event page and we’ll put that in the queue for the Hack Chat discussion.

join-hack-chat

Our Hack Chats are live community events on the Hackaday.io Hack Chat group messaging. This week we’ll be sitting down on Friday, October 5th, at noon, Pacific time. We have some amazing time conversion technology.

Click that speech bubble to the right, and you’ll be taken directly to the Hack Chat group on Hackaday.io.

You don’t have to wait until Friday; join whenever you want and you can see what the community is talking about.

Retrotechtacular: Disposing Of Sodium, 1947-Style

October 3, 2018 by 55 Comments

A high school friend once related the story about how his father, a chemist for an environmental waste concern, disposed of a problematic quantity of metallic sodium by dumping it into one of the more polluted rivers in southern New England. Despite the fact that the local residents were used to seeing all manner of noxious hijinx in the river, the resulting explosion was supposedly enough to warrant a call to the police and an expeditious retreat back to the labs. It was a good story, but not especially believable back in the day.

After seeing this video of how the War Department dealt with surplus sodium in 1947, I’m not so sure. I had always known how reactive sodium is, ever since demonstrations in chemistry class where a flake of the soft gray metal would dance about in a petri dish full of water and eventually light up for a few exciting seconds. The way the US government decided to dispose of 20 tons of sodium was another thing altogether. The metal was surplus war production, probably used in incendiary bombs and in the production of aluminum for airplanes. No longer willing to stockpile it, the government tried to interest industry in the metal, but to no avail due to the hazard and expense of shipping the stuff. Sadly (and as was often the case in those days), they just decided to dump it.

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Giant Robot Arm Uses Fluid Power, Not Electronics

October 3, 2018 by 7 Comments

Fair warning that [Freerk Wieringa]’s videos documenting his giant non-electric robot build are long. We’ve only watched the first two episodes and the latest installment so far, all of which are posted after the break. Consider it an investment to watch a metalworking artist undertake an incredible build.

The first video starts with the construction of the upper arm of the robot. Everything is fabricated using simple tools; the most sophisticated tools are a lathe and a TIG welder. As the arm build proceeds we see that there are no electronic controls to be found. Control is through hydraulic cylinders in a master-slave setup; the slave opens a pneumatic valve attached to the elbow of the arm, which moves the lower arm until the valve closes and brings the forelimb to a smooth stop. It’s a very clever way of providing feedback without the usual sensors and microcontrollers. And the hand that goes at the end of the arm is something else, too, with four fingers made from complex linkages, all separately actuated by cylinders of their own. The whole arm looks to be part of a large robot, probably about 3 or 4 meters tall. At least we hope so, and we hope we get to see it by the end of the series.

True, we’ve seen terrifyingly large robots before, but to see one using fluid power for everything is a treat.

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Keep ‘Em Flying With This Monster DIY Battery

October 3, 2018 by 21 Comments

If you’ve spent an afternoon at the sticks of a remote-controlled aircraft, you’re probably well aware of the great limiter for such exploits: battery life. In the days when most RC aircraft were gas powered it was easy to cart along some extra fuel to keep the good times rolling, but now that everything except big scale models are using electric motors, RC pilots are looking for better ways to charge their batteries in the field.

Though it might seem counter-intuitive, [Adam Pyschny] is of the opinion that the best way to keep his quadcopter batteries charged is to simply use another, much bigger, battery. Rather than mess around with inverters or generators, he can simply use a DC-to-DC battery charger and his huge custom-built battery pack to keep flying.

The pack contains 36 Samsung INR18650-35E 3500mAh cells, which gives it a total capacity of 454Wh. At 1965 grams (4.3 lbs) the pack isn’t exactly a featherweight, but it’s significantly lighter than carting a small generator or even a lead-acid battery to the field.

[Adam] designed a slick case in FreeCAD and printed it in Minadax ASA-X filament, which is specifically designed for outdoor use. A particularly nice detail in the case is that the balance connector (used to charge the cells) is cleanly integrated into the side of the pack, rather than just flapping around in the breeze; which annoyingly seems the norm even on commercially produced batteries.

An interesting next step for this project would be the addition of a solar panel and charge controller to help recover in-between charges. Beyond an automated platform to swap the batteries for you, a DIY pack like this might be the easiest way to maximize the amount of time your RC aircraft are in the air where they belong.

A New Tilt On RC Car Controllers

October 2, 2018 by 4 Comments

If you are a lover of all-things remote-conteolled, it’s likely that you know a thing or two about controllers. You’ll have one or two of the things, both the familiar two-joystick type and the pistol-grip variety. But had you ever considered that there m ight be another means to do it? [Andrei] over at ELECTRONOOBS has posted a guide to a tilt-controlled RC car. It is a good example of how simple parts can be linked together to make something novel and entertaining, and a great starter project for an aspiring hacker.

An Arduino Nano reads from an accelerometer over an I2C bus, and sends commands over a wireless link, courtesy of a pair of HC-12 wireless modules.  Another Nano mounted to the car decodes the commands, and uses a pair of H-bridges, which we’ve covered in detail, to control the motors.

The tutorial is well done, and includes details on the hardware and all the code you need to get rolling.  Check out the build and demo video after the break.

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Artistic Collaboration With AI

October 2, 2018 by 10 Comments

Ever since Google’s Deep Dream results were made public several years ago, there has been major interest in the application of AI and neural network technologies to artistic endeavors. [Helena Sarin] has been experimenting in just this field, exploring the possibilities of collaborating with the ghost in the machine.

This image was generated with a landscape model using a dataset containing covers of Japanese poetry books.

The work is centered around the use of Generative Adversarial Networks, or GANs. [Helena] describes using a GAN to create artworks as a sort of game. An apprentice attempts to create new works in the style of their established master, while a critic attempts to determine whether the artworks are created by the master or the apprentice. As the apprentice improves, the critic must become more discerning; as the critic becomes more discerning, the apprentice must improve further. It is through this mechanism that the model improves itself.

[Helena] has spent time experimenting with CycleGAN in the artistic realm after first using it in a work project, and has primarily trained it on her own original artworks to create new pieces with wild and exciting results. She shares several tips on how best to work with the technology, around the necessary computing and storage requirements, as well as ways to step out of the box to create more diverse outputs.

Neural networks are hot lately, with plenty of research going on in the field. There’s plenty of fun projects, too – like this cartoonifying camera we featured recently.

A New Take On Building A Portable N64

October 2, 2018 by 5 Comments

When home consoles go mobile, whether in the form of modded original hardware or emulation, they usually take a pretty standard shape. A screen in the middle, with buttons either on the sides or below it. Basically the same layout Nintendo popularized with born-handheld systems such as the Game & Watch series and original Game Boy. Like the saying goes, if it ain’t broke…

But [Le Nerdarto] had a different idea. He came across a broken N64 and wanted to turn it into a portable console, but not necessarily a handheld one. Noticing the cartridge was about the perfect size to contain a small LCD and in an ideal position, he set out to make what is arguably the most literal interpretation of “portable N64” we’ve ever seen. It might not be the most practical iteration of this concept, but it definitely gets extra points for style.

After he stripped the N64 of its original hardware, he installed a Raspberry Pi 3 and an RC battery eliminator circuit (BEC) to get 5V out of the internal 6200 mAh 7.4V battery. [Le Nerdarto] says this provides power for the Pi, the LCD, and the various lighting systems for up to 10 hours. He’s also added USB ports in the front of the system for controllers, and an HDMI port on the back so he can still connect the system up to a TV when not on the move.

The 3.5 inch LCD in the cartridge is arguably the centerpiece of the build, and while it might be on the small side, we can’t deny it’s a clever idea. [Le Nerdarto] had the good sense to tilt the it back a few degrees to put the display at a more comfortable angle, but otherwise it looks stock since he was able to fit everything in without cutting the back of his donor cartridge out. For those who might be wondering, the “cartridge” can’t be removed, but we’ll admit that would have been a killer feature to add especially with the HDMI port on the back.

Of course, since it’s running emulators on a Raspberry Pi, this isn’t only a portable N64. The front mounted USB ports allow him to plug in all sorts of controllers and emulate classics from pretty much any console that’s older than the N64 itself. Ironically the Raspberry Pi 3 isn’t exactly an ideal choice for N64 emulation, but a good chunk of titles are at least playable.

If you’re more of a purist and want a true portable N64, we’ve covered plenty of those over the years to get you inspired.

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