Simple Dremel TRIAC Hack Repair

November 26, 2013 by 31 Comments

Dremel Repair

It’s a wonderful thing to see a clever hack repair instead of disposing of a product. The best repair approach is finding exact replacement components, but sometimes exact components can’t be sourced or cross-referenced. Other times the product isn’t worth the shipping cost for replacement parts or you just don’t have time to wait for parts. That’s when you need to really know how something works electronically so you can source suitable replacement components from your junk bin to complete the repair. This is exactly what [Daniel Jose Viana] did when his 110 volt Dremel tool popped its TRIAC after he plugged it into a 220 volt outlet.

[Daniel] knew how the TRIAC functioned in the circuit and also knew that a standard TRIAC of sufficient specifications could be used as a replacement even if it didn’t have the correct form factor to fit the PCB layout. For [Daniel’s] tool repair he had to think outside the box enough to realize he could use some jumper wires and snuggle a larger TIC206E TRIAC that wasn’t meant for the device but still applicable into the housing where there was enough free space. A little shrink-wrap and all was good again. Sure the fix was simple, but let’s not trivialize the knowledge he needed for this repair.

And if you’re wondering if it worked, he notes that he’s been using this tool for three years since the repair. We thank [Daniel] for sharing this tip and allowing us to add this to our tool belt of Dremel repair tricks.

20 Android Tablets Form An Interactive Photo Collage

November 15, 2013 by 20 Comments

You might not have a small army of unused tablets lying around, but if you did, you should try turning them into what Minn calls a “Giant Interactive Photo Array Display:” A Giant IPAD. Har har.

[Minn’s] first step was to hit eBay, hoping to find a score of low-priced, broken-yet-easily-repairable tablets. The only ones available (and for cheap), however, were resistive touch screens with narrow viewing angles. After waiting patiently for nearly half a year, [Minn] hit the capacitive touch jackpot: snagging a pile of 10″ and 7″ Android tablets. The frame is custom made to provide a solid surface for mounting and enough depth for the tablets to fit correctly. Rather than form his own brackets to hold each device, [Minn] re-purposed some IKEA cupboard handles, screwing them into the MDF backboard and clamping the tablets to them with bolts that press against the case. An adhesive rubber bumper stuck to the top of the bolts prevents any damage.

Providing power to the diverse collection required another custom solution; two 5V 10A supplies and one 9V 16A supply fit into an accompany box safely deliver the needed juice. [Minn] chose an app that will grab photos from cloud storage so he can update the collection without having to dig around inside the frame. See the result in a video below! Want to try this project but only have one tablet to spare? The in-wall tablet mount might help.

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HackPrinceton: Piano Stairs!

November 11, 2013 by 13 Comments

princeton piano

It was Hack.Princeton this weekend and [Bonnie] and [Erica] threw together this great interactive portable piano!

The setup is very simple using six LED flashlights, and six photoresistors. An Arduino Uno reads in the values from the photoresistors and parses them to a nearby Raspberry Pi which then creates the sounds. The system even automatically calibrates itself when turned on, adjusting to the ambient light conditions. They made the project for the Hackathon and after a short scare of having to move it to another staircase for the demo, they took home 2nd place in the hardware category!

Stick around after the break to see it in action — this would make a great school project to get kids interested in hacking!

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Diagnose And Repair A Yaesu FT-7800 Ham Radio

November 11, 2013 by 26 Comments

Yaesu FT-7800 Ham Radio

[Alan Wolke] aka [w2aew] was challenged to repair a friends Yaesu FT-7800 ham radio. This radio operates on two ham bands, 2 m VHF and 70 cm UHF. The complaint was that the 2 m side was not working but the 70 cm was transmitting fine. Alan started by verifying the complaint using a Bird watt meter with a 50 watt slug and terminating the signal into a 50 W dummy load. [Allen’s] bird meter is the type that has an RF sampler that can be connected to an oscilloscope for added signal viewing and validation.

After verifying that the radio was not working as described, Alan starts by glancing over the circuit board to look for any obvious damage. He then walks us through a block diagram as well as a circuit diagram of the FT-7800 radio before stepping us through the troubleshooting and diagnostics of radio repair. Even when he realizes he might have found the problem he still steps us through the remainder of his diagnostics. The skills and knowledge that Alan shares is extremely valuable to anybody looking to repair radios.

Spoiler alert. At the end of the first video he determines that the pin diodes near the final VHF output were bad. In the second video he reveals that he could no longer source these bad components. Through some clever evaluation of a more current Yaesu radio, [Allen] was able to find suitable replacement components. Lesson two ends with some surface mount solder rework tips as well as testing that the repair was successful.

And just in case you don’t know what a pin diode is, or is used for, Alan shares a third video covering just what this component is and does in a radio. You can follow the jump to watch all three videos.

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Portable PS2, Courtesy Of Cross Plane

October 28, 2013 by 11 Comments

It’s not exactly a portable, but [Downing]’s PS2 advance puts all the power of a Playstation 2 in the palm of your hands, all while being more popular that the Vita.

For the audio and video, the project uses a Cross Plane, a project from a slightly unsuccessful Kickstarter [Downing] pulled the plug on last month. When the handheld is plugged in to the Cross Plane, all the audio, video, and controller wires are transferred through a pair of cables, with the possible addition of wireless transmission should [Downing] ever want to revisit this project.

In deciding on what to use for a case, [Downing] had bought a few AG cases from Polycase but found the ergonomics severely lacking. Putting two of the case backs together, he found the resulting structure was actually very comfortable, and with a few simple modifications to add some holes for acorn nuts,

It’s a great looking project that really highlights [Downing]’s talents as a console modder. He’s also thrown his hat into the Hackaday Trinket contest by engraving the Jolly Wrencher into the back of his project, which unfortunately isn’t seen in the video below.

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DIY Pneumatic Skeleton And Air Horn Gag To Scare Those Trick-Or-Treaters

October 19, 2013 by 13 Comments

Horn_Skeleton_Gags

[Rick Osgood] has been busy making more scaring gags for Halloween. This week he’s sharing great ideas for an air horn and pneumatic jumping skeleton, both actuated by 24 V sprinkler valves. These two new gags can easily be activated using [Rick’s] cardboard floor plate switch and three 9 V batteries cleverly snapped together in series for a 27 V supply (we can’t resist dropping in this link to a 2196 V supply from 9 V batteries just for fun).

The air horn construction is quite unique using a latex balloon strategically located as a reed valve for the air to vibrate over as it rushes out making a very loud honking sound. [Rick] then connected his manual bicycle pump to an air supply so that when an air valve is actuated the bicycle pump handle with a skeleton wired to it pops up. It then lowers back down via a bleed hole in the air line. Both the air horn and pneumatic pop-up skeleton seem simple to construct and his tests show them functioning perfectly.

Being the air storage chambers are small the re-trigger setup seems too repetitive to be practical for a continuous stream of Trick-Or-Treaters. Perhaps one could hide an air compressor with a long feed line to supply the gags? Plus, using an air compressor would come in handy for other scary blasts of air. Of course you would want to lower the compressor’s output regulator to safe levels so you don’t risk blowing apart your pop-up skeleton rig or any pipes.

Follow along after the break to see how to build these two great gags and get some tips from Mr. Safety.

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Circular Saw To Table Saw Conversion

October 19, 2013 by 90 Comments

Corded circular saws are a dime-a-dozen at any old thrift store, yet table saws are a bit more of a costly investment — have you ever wondered if you could just make one out of a circular saw? [Matthias Wandel] did, and he just so happens to be very good at woodworking! He makes a lot of great woodworking videos to share on YouTube, and in his latest blog post, he shows us a rather elaborate way to convert a plain old circular saw, into a functional table saw.

While the concept seems simple, unless you do a lot of woodworking, you’ll probably marvel at how easily making things comes to [Matthias] — we know we did. By the end of the video he has a fully functional table saw that can raise and lower in height, and cut at different angles.

If you’re interested in making one yourself, he does a very thorough job explaining the process in his video — check it out after the break!

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