Low-Cost, Arduino-Compatible Drawing Robot

October 24, 2015 by Rud Merriam 9 Comments

Bringing women into technical education at times seems to be an insurmountable challenge. As a counter, a small drawing robot created by [MakersBox] might help. The robot was used in a ChickTech workshop for teen girls.

640px-Turtle_draw — “Turtle draw” by Valiant Technology Ltd..

The goals for the robot were to have an easy to build, easy to program robot that did something interesting, and was also low-cost so the workshop participants could take it home and continue to learn. These requirements led [MakersBox] to the Adafruit Pro Trinket 3V, stepper motors for accuracy, and a 3d printed chassis to allow for customization.

Another version of the Arduino should work without any problems and even possibly a Raspberry Pi, suggests [MakersBox]. With the latter’s more diverse programming environment opening up a lot of possibilities

Drawing robots like this for education are not new. [Seymour Papert] created one of the first turtle robots, seen at the left, in the 1980s. He even created the Logo programming language and adapted it for use with the turtle. An interesting similarity between [MakersBox’s] and the original turtle is the drawing pen is in the center of both.

Hat tip to our friends at Adafruit.

A rose, is a rose, is a rose, even if drawn by a robot, after the break.

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An Internet Connected Earth

October 24, 2015 by Brandon Dunson 28 Comments

It shouldn’t come as much of a surprise that more than half of the world’s population doesn’t have an Internet connection. It’s tricky to get an exact figure on this, however the number of people without connection is commonly agreed to be somewhere around 2/3rds of the population of the planet. There are some heavy hitters working on this problem with some pretty interesting solutions.

OneWeb is an outfit with [Richard Branson] as the front-man who plan to launch low orbit satellites to communicate with ground terminals. The ground terminals would rebroadcast the communication signals from the satellites resulting in 2G, 3G, LTE, and WiFi signals for those near a ground terminal.

SpaceX is throwing its hat in the ring with a little helpful funding from Google and Fidelity to the tune of $1 Billion.

Perhaps the most surprising is [Zuckerberg’s] solar-powered internet laser beaming drones. The idea is that these laser birds will circle over an Internet dead-zone like buzzard over a dying buffalo (reaching?) and provide connectivity to those below. The solar drones will fly at an altitude of 20km which is a pretty good ways up there, and they are believed to be able to stay in flight for months at a time. There’s a Facebook PhD explaining this in a video after the break, thanks Dr. Facebook.

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Boeing’s New Microlattice, Now The Lightest “Metal” Ever

October 23, 2015 by George Graves 55 Comments

Mr McGuire: I just want to say one word to you. Just one word.

Benjamin: Yes, sir.

Mr McGuire: Are you listening?

Benjamin: Yes, I am.

Mr McGuire: Plastics.

You may recognize the above dialog from the movie “The Graduate” starring a young [Dustin Hoffman], whose character is getting advice about what line of work he should get into after university. Maybe Mr McGuire’s advice should have been “Microlattice.”

If you take a step back for a moment and survey the state of materials, you’ll see that not much has changed in the last 50 years. We’re still building homes out of dead trees, and most cars are still made out of iron(although that is starting to change.) It’s only been just recently has there been advances in batteries technology – and that only came about with the force of a trillion-dollar mobile phone industry behind it. So we’re excited by any new advance we see, and Boeing’s new “Microlattice” tickles our fancy.

Boeing isn’t giving away the recipe just yet, but here is what we know: it’s 99.99% empty space, making it extremely light. It’s so light, that if you drop it, it floats to the ground. It’s also compressible, giving it the ability to absorb energy and spring back (you can see it in action in the after the break.) It’s made by creating a sacrificial skeletal structure the shape of the final lattice, then coating that template with nickel-phosphorus alloy. The temporary inner structure is then etched away, leaving a “microlattice” of tiny interconnected hollow rods with wall thickness of about 100 nanometers. Of course it doesn’t take a rocket surgeon to figure out why Boeing is interested in such materials, they are eye it as an extremely lightweight building material for planes and spacecraft.

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Use The Esp As A Serial Adapter

October 23, 2015 by Brian Benchoff 22 Comments

One of the most useful tools in the hardware hackers toolbox is a USB to serial adapter. With this, you can flash new firmware to routers, and ply the vast binary seas of embedded hardware. The common form of the USB to Serial adapter is an FTDI breakout board. This requires drivers, though, and there is actually a simpler – and wireless – solution: the ESP8266 WiFi module.

Despite being the best little IoT device on the block, the ESP8266 was originally designed to be a USB to WiFi adapter. In our haste to build WiFi throwies, WiFi blinkies, and freaking WiFi server farms, we seem to have forgotten that there’s still a use for a device that turns a 3.3V TTL into a WiFi connection. It’s the perfect device for reflashing a cheap WiFI router with new firmware, or just providing you with wireless serial connections to go along with your wireless Internet.

This project uses jeelabs’ ESP-link firmware for the ESP8266. It’s a simple bridge between WiFi and serial, and can function as an AVR programmer in a pinch. The web interface for this firmware is very nice, but you really don’t need it; the entire purpose of this firmware is to be even more transparent than an FTDI USB to serial adapter. For the next time you’re flashing a router with OpenWRT, don’t bother digging out the USB adapter; an ESP is all you need.

Making A Crossbow For The Zombie Apocalypse

October 23, 2015 by James Hobson 27 Comments

Curious if he could, [Gignathiosis] decided he wanted to try building his own crossbow. So he did.

He built the entire weapon using hand-tools, minus a drill for the holes, though he could have gotten a brace for that bit. The most impressive part is that he used a hacksaw to carve up a block of aluminum into the trigger release — a job normally done by a mill. The only modern components on the bow is the limb (which he ordered off Amazon) and a bit of tactical rail for his scope. The end result is a gorgeous hand-made cross-bow.

There’s just something so satisfying about manufacturing old technology using hand tools. It probably has something to do with the thought that, if you ended up back in time somehow, you could use your 21st century knowledge as a hacker to change the world… and maybe become a ruler — or a magician — as long as you don’t do something that results in your entire existence vanishing.

Though if you really wanted to mess up history — take back a fully-automatic crossbow with you instead.

Atmel Introduces Rad Hard Microcontrollers

October 23, 2015 by Brian Benchoff 88 Comments

The Internet is full of extremely clever people, and most of the time they don’t realize how stupid they actually are. Every time there’s a rocket launch, there’s usually a few cubesats tucked away under a fairing. These cubesats were designed and built by university students around the globe, so whenever a few of these cubesats go up, Internet armchair EEs inevitably cut these students down: “That microcontroller isn’t going to last in space. There’s too much radiation. It’ll be dead in a day,” they say. This argument disregards the fact that iPods work for months aboard the space station, Thinkpads work for years, and the fact that putting commercial-grade microcontrollers in low earth orbit has been done thousands of times before with mountains of data to back up the practice.

For every problem, imagined or not, there’s a solution. Now, finally, Atmel has released a rad tolerant AVR for space applications. It’s the ATmegaS128, the space-grade version of the ‘mega128. This chip is in a 64-lead ceramic package, has all the features you would expect from the ATmega128 and is, like any ‘mega128, Arduino compatible.

Atmel has an oddly large space-rated rad-hard portfolio, with space-grade FPGAs, memories, communications ICs, ASICs, memories, and now microcontrollers in their lineup.

While microcontrollers that aren’t radiation tolerant have gone up in cubesats and larger commercial birds over the years, the commercial-grade stuff is usually reserved for low Earth orbit stuff. For venturing more than a few hundred miles above the Earth, into the range of GPS satellites and to geosynchronous orbit 25,000 miles above, radiation shielding is needed.

Will you ever need a space-grade, rad-hard Arduino? Probably not. This new announcement is rather cool, though, and we can’t wait for the first space grade Arduino clone to show up in the Hackaday tips line.

Hacklet 81 – Tracked Projects

October 23, 2015 by Adam Fabio 7 Comments

Sometimes wheels just don’t cut it. When the going gets tough, the tough make tracks. Continuous track drive systems – aka tank treads, or tracks, have been around for centuries. The first known use in relatively modern history is a system designed in 1770’s by [Richard Lovell Edgeworth]. Since then there has been a slew of engineers, hackers, and makers who have contributed to this versatile drive system. Today, tread systems find their way into plenty of robotics and transportation projects. This week’s Hacklet is all about some of the best track drive projects on Hackaday.io!

We start with [jupdyke] and Modular Continuous Track System. [Jupdyke] has made a project out of making the tracks themselves. These tracks are strong – shore 70A urethane rubber is no joke! Quite a bit of research and experimentation has gone into this project. [Jupdyke] started with 3D printed parts, before moving on to molded 2 part rubber. The rubber is cast in custom machined aluminum molds. The molds are even heated to ensure a quality casting. Rubber alone doesn’t make a track though. The backbone of these tracks are machined steel pins. The pins go through the treads and connect through roller chain components. We’re betting a set of these tracks could easily carry a person!

Next up is [williamg42] with Expandable Ruggedized Robotic Platform. [Williamg42] describes this vehicle as “able to operate in harsh environments”. We would shorten that to “It’s a beast”. Some incredible machine work has gone into this robot, especially on the suspension and idler wheels. Everything is made of metal – the frame is 8020 aluminum extrusion covered in plates. The suspension is aluminum and steel. Motors are mini-CIM motors. This robot isn’t lacking on brains, as a BeagleBone black controls it through a custom cape board. Next time we go out on a desert trek, we want this ‘bot at our side!

From the mind of [TinHead] comes TTBN Alpha, a TelePresence robot. TTBN alpha is based on a Raspberry Pi. Rather than start with Raspbian, [TinHead] built his own lightweight Linux distribution with buildroot. Control is through a web interface. The operator’s view of the world is through the electronic eye of a Logitech C110 webcam. [TinHead] printed his own tracks, using straightened paperclips as pins. Two servos modified for continuous rotation serve as the main drive motors.

Finally we have [Hendra Kusumah] with Surveillance Robot Camera (SUROCAM). SUROCAM was [Hendra’s] project for both the 2014 and 2015 Hackaday Prize. The chassis is based upon the common RP5 robot kit. This robot’s DC motors are driven by the classic L298n driver chip. Unlike TTBN Alpha above, SUROCAM uses a full Raspbian install, so this Pi is ready for anything. The code is written in Python, and pagekite and ngrok to help make connections to the outside world.

If you want to see more tank treaded rovers, check out our new tracked projects list. Did I miss your project? Don’t be shy, just 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!