SMAC Mag: Spider’s Minimal Analog Control Paintball Gun

December 18, 2013 by 8 Comments

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[Spider!]’s contribution to the pantheon of paintball markers is the SMAC: a unique revision to one of Airgun Design’s ever-popular Automags. We needed our tipster, [Russell] to provide some context on the Automag’s evolution, because the brand has served as a popular hacking platform for nearly 20 years. The most frequent is a “Pneumag” modification, which converts the original, fully-mechanical trigger pull into a version where the trigger actuates a pneumatic cylinder to fire the gun.

According to [Russell], the Pneumag’s trigger must completely release between each shot to properly recharge the firing chamber. Without a full release, the gun can load extra balls into the barrel and lead to gloppy consequences. Electronic controls solve this problem, but [Spider!] favored an analog solution that captured a “less is more” mentality over a pre-fab microcontroller board. He built the circuit around a 556 timer used as a delayed re-trigger, but with a few modifications.

Swing by [Spider!]’s forum post for additional details, a cluster of pictures and a bill of materials. Microcontroller alternatives? We’ve got you covered.

Developed On Hackaday: First Version Of The Hardware

December 18, 2013 by 42 Comments

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The Hackaday writers and readers are currently working hand-in-hand on an offline password keeper, the mooltipass (click to see the project description). 

Next in our Developed on Hackaday series, we present the first version of our schematics. There’s already been a lot of discussions going on in our dedicated Google group, mainly about the project’s basic functionality. Because our firmware developers wanted to get to work, we decided to send the first version of our hardware into production a few days ago. Before going through the schematics, let’s review the required list of the mooltipass’s core components:

  • an easily-readable screen
  • a read-protected smart-card
  • large flash memory to store the encrypted passwords
  • an Arduino-compatible microcontroller with USB connectivity

We’ve been drowning in component suggestions from motivated hobbyists, so we figured we’d make the mooltipass v1 as simple as possible and then move from there. Given this device is developed on Hackaday, we also wanted future users to modify it, building completely new projects based around these main components. Keep reading for our schematics…

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Disrupting Advertisement Agency Workers With Electric Shocks

December 18, 2013 by 24 Comments

We hope this project will make you laugh as much as we did. For 4 hours, some Australian advertising executives agreed to be subjected to Electric Muscle Stimulation (EMS) controlled by people from all over the globe watching their reaction over the Internet. The public could disrupt their day with a click of a mouse. The user simply needed to go online, choose a live stream, click the ‘Disrupt’ button and watch as the EMS instantaneously zapped the volunteers. For each ‘disruption’, the company donated $1 to a local community.

The EMS hardware was designed to deliver up to 60V pulses and controlled using the MIDI protocol. The platform is powered by 8 AA batteries and receives zapping commands via UDP. Unfortunately, the resources can’t be found on the project’s webpage, but you can still have a look at the two videos embedded after the break. The total amount donated during this experiment was $5500!

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Custom Rostock 3D Printer Makes Use Of IKEA Components

December 18, 2013 by 9 Comments

After discovering 3D printers, [Turi] had to make one. This past summer he did, and it looks fantastic.

He chose the Rostock design not only because it can print big parts quickly, but also because of its mesmerizing operation. 3D printers are generally fun to watch for the first few minutes, but Rostocks tend to have an even more robotic appeal in the motion of its end effector (robotics lingo for tool head).

The cool part of this build is [Turi’s] choice of enclosure. He had an IKEA cabinet collecting dust in his basement, so he decided to make use of its drawers for the main structure of the Rostock. A bit of wood work and some matte black spray paint later, and he has one great looking enclosure! The rest of the build was pretty standard, making use of 3D printed parts, a RAMPS 1.4 control board mounted on an Arduino Mega, and a computer power supply. He did make his own control arms using carbon fiber arrows, though!

To see it up close and in action, check out the quick video after the break.

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Arduino Xmas Tree Shield

December 18, 2013 by 12 Comments

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Nothing reminds us that it’s the holiday season more than an LED Christmas Tree submission. This obviously is not the first of its kind, but [Jose] does offer up a new technique using addressable RGB LEDs.

[Jose] decided to use 20 WS2812B RGB LEDs, which if you haven’t seen before, are RGB LEDs with an integrated controller. Yep, that’s right, just power/ground and 1 data line is all that is needed to control hundreds of RGB LEDs. This LED tree’s design is simple: a custom-etched PCB cut it in to the shape of a Christmas tree. The WS2812B LEDs helped keep everything clean, so the tree lacks any ‘ugly’ ornaments, except for the required bypass cap here and there. For an added bonus, the tree’s LEDs are synchronized to music generated by an Arduino via a piezo buzzer. Why is it a shield?  Well, the whole tree plugs in nicely to a standard Arduino interface. This looks like the perfect starter project to familiarize yourself with addressable LEDs, or at least to get you warmed up before building your own infinity portal.

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Snowden Immortalized As Bond Villain In Edge-Lit Acrylic Poster

December 17, 2013 by 12 Comments

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[Wilywyrm] needed to come up with a final project for art class that commented on a social issue. Healthcare, schmealthcare, he said, and busted out this movie poster about the NSA spying scandal instead.

The circuit uses three extended-duty astable 555 timers to control the brightness of the 5050 RGB common-anode LED strips that run up the sides of the 24″ x 12″ x 1/4″ acrylic panels. Each of the three panels was laser-engraved at 600 DPI on an Epilog laser engraver and features a different aspect of the poster. There’s one for Snowden, one for Daniel Craig, and one for the text.

[Wilywyrm] tied the color channels together in the first panel to output white light. He used red for the second panel and blue for the third. A complete list of parts with build notes is available on his Google Drive. [Wilywyrm]’s notes include improvement ideas, like making all the RGB strips color-adjustable with more 555s or a microcontroller and timers.

Perhaps [Wilywyrm] could get into the clear whiteboard business after college.

Cryophone: A Dry Ice-Powered Musical Installation

December 17, 2013 by 8 Comments

cryophone

[Dmitry] is a bit of an industrial artist / hacker, and he’s recently finished this interesting and interactive audio exhibit called the Cryophone.

As you know, dry ice is terribly fun. When placed in water, it sublimates from its solid to gaseous phase rapidly, releasing carbon dioxide gas and causing a drastic (and sometimes violent) temperature change. [Dmitry’s] project attempts to amplify the sounds of these reactions and create music(?) using data from sensor inputs in the system. He uses piezo elements, temperature sensors, and an Arduino to generate an algorithmic composition from the various sensors, which a Mac Mini then synthesizes and outputs as audio in 6 channels.

The result is an eerie collection of noises that would do well in a haunted house or a horror movie. Take a listen for yourself after the break, and if you missed it, check out another unique, audio-based art installation: ‘conus.’

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