Hackaday Podcast 085: Cable Robots Two-Ways, Cubic Raspberry Pi, Plastic Wrap Kayak, And Digging Inductors

September 18, 2020 by Mike Szczys 1 Comment

Hackaday editors Mike Szczys and Elliot Williams take a look at all the hacks from the week that was. We think we’ve found the perfect tentacle robot, and its matching controller is also a tentacle. An unrelated project uses the same Bowden cable trick as the tentacle controller to measure deflection. If you’re more of a material-science geek, refining black sand to make your own inductors is a fascinating hack. And we wrap up the episode talking SSH keys and buses that go off road, but not in the way you might think.

Take a look at the links below if you want to follow along, and as always, tell us what you think about this episode in the comments!

Direct download (60 MB or so.)

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Whimsical Solder Stand Moonlights As Toy 3D Printer

September 15, 2020 by Donald Papp 12 Comments

A few Lego pieces provide key functionality, like an articulated dispenser head.

Most of us have bent a length of solder into a more convenient shape and angle when soldering, and just sort of pushed the soldering iron and work piece into the hanging solder instead of breaking out a third hand. Well, [yukseltemiz] seems to have decided that a solder dispenser and a miniature 3D printer model can have a lot in common, and created a 1/5 scale Ender 3 printer model that acts as a solder stand and dispenser. The solder spool hangs where the filament roll would go, and the solder itself is dispensed through the “print head”.

It’s cute, and we do like the way that [yukseltemiz] incorporated a few Lego pieces into the build. A swivel and eyelet guides the solder off the roll and a small Lego ball and socket gives the dispenser its articulation, an important feature for bending solder to a more convenient angle for working. It makes us think that using Lego pieces right alongside more traditional hardware like M3 nuts and bolts might be an under-explored technique. You can see the unit in action in the brief assembly video, embedded below.

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A New Spin On A Medical Test

August 28, 2020 by Brian McEvoy 5 Comments

Most of us can say that we have taken an obsolete hard drive out of a computer and felt it was a waste to toss it in the e-waste pile. Some of us have children’s drawings hung on the fridge with actuator magnets, or maybe a vast spreadsheet suspended on a steel filing cabinet. Let us not forget that there is also a high-speed, low-noise motor in there. On some models it is separate from the PCB, so grab an Electronic Speed Controller (ESC), your microcontroller of choice, and make yourself a salvaged HDD centrifuge like [Cave Man] has. His build uses the tray as a chassis, but he modeled and printed a new face in the same style as the original.

On top, he has an OLED screen for displaying the requested speed, measured speed, and runtime. Next to the display is a four-button pad with a customized legend for setting parameters. The video after the break shows the machine running through its paces. This version accommodates the tiny capillary tubes, microhematocrit tubes, for processing raw blood. This test can calculate the packed cell volume, which professionals use to determine things from dehydration to anemia.

There are other builds out there where people have modified an old drive into the kind of centrifuge that accepts larger diameter tubes, but this was a shining example of what is possible. One good turn deserves another, so we recommend a desktop bio-lab companion, or enlist some LEGO Mindstorms to help out.

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Running A Successful Hacker Camp In A Pandemic: BornHack 2020

August 24, 2020 by Jenny List 10 Comments

You could say 2020 is The Year That Didn’t Happen, or perhaps even The Year That Everything Happened Online. All the international cons and camps have been cancelled, and we’ve spent our time instead seeing our friends in Jitsi, or Zoom.

But there was one camp that wasn’t cancelled. The yearly Danish hacker camp BornHack has gone ahead this year with significantly reduced numbers and amid social distancing, turning it from what is normally one of the smaller and more intimate events into the only real-world event of 2020.

I bought my ticket early in the year and long before COVID-19 became a global pandemic, so on a sunny day in August I found myself in my car with my friend Dani from FizzPop hackerspace in Birmingham taking the ferry for the long drive through the Netherlands and Germany to Denmark.

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Mini Marble-Powered Synth Pays Homage To Its Bigger Cousins

August 22, 2020 by Dan Maloney 8 Comments

If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, what then are we to make of something that shares only a few of the original’s design elements, operates in a completely different way, and has been scaled down to a fifth its size? Still seems like flattery to us.

Despite the changes, it’s clear where [Love Hultén] took inspiration for his miniature Marble Machine XS. Readers will no doubt see in it elements from [Martin Molin]’s original Marble Machine, the fantastic plywood and Lego musical contraption, along with his new Marble Machine X, the construction of which never seems to end. Like the originals, [Love]’s miniature version uses a lot of steel balls, albeit considerably scaled down, and it still uses a programming drum to determine where and when to drop them. But rather than strike real traditional instruments, the falling balls strike synthesizer keys, triggering a range of sounds through its built-in speaker. The whole thing is powered by a small electric motor rather than being hand-cranked and is small enough to sit on a desktop, a decided advantage over the mammoth machines to which it pays homage.

We have to say that as much as we love the hacksmanship of the original Marble Machine and the craftsmanship of its successor, the look and feel of [Love]’s machine just blows us away. We’re not sure what materials he used, but the whole hammertone paint scheme and Meccano look is a feast for nostalgic eyes.

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Manual Larson Scanner Invites You To Crank It

August 22, 2020 by Lewin Day 12 Comments

Hasselhoff make Larson Scanners famous. That’s the name for the scanning red lights on the front of KITT, the hero car from the popular 1980s TV series Knight Rider. Despite serving a solely aesthetic role, they remain a fun and popular LED project to this day. Putting a new twist on the old concept, [Pete Prodoehl] whipped up a Larson Scanner that you crank to operate.

Built out of LEGO, the project relies on a hand crank to work. The crank turns a drum, onto which is placed several strips of conductive Maker Tape – a steel/nylon material which we’ve looked at before. Strips of tape running side-by-side are bridge by segments of tape on the drum as it turns. The LEDs are switched on in the requisite pattern of a traditional Larson scanner.

The project has inspired further possibilities, such as using similar techniques to produce an electronic music box or player piano that will change tempo as the user changes the speed with the crank. [Pete] notes that turning the crank is an inherently enjoyable experience, and given the wonder inherent in hand-cranked musical projects like Marble Machine X, we can’t wait to see where this one goes next. Video after the break.

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Student Rover Explores The Backyard In Tribute

August 21, 2020 by Al Williams 3 Comments

Three students were a little sad when NASA’s Opportunity rover went silent after 15 years on the Martian surface. So they decided to build their own rover inspired by Opportunity to roam their backyards using an off-the-shelf robot chassis, a Raspberry Pi, and the usual list of parts like motors, H-bridges, and batteries.

Like the real rover, the vehicle uses a rocker-bogie system, although it is a little less complex than the version NASA sent blasting off towards the Red Planet. The plucky vehicle comes complete with miniature solar panels to recharge its onboard battery, courtesy of some dollar-store garden lights. A pair of videos after the break show how the rover is controlled, as well as the view sent back from its onboard camera.

The rover ran a simulated Mars mission as part of a school project where it had to find an object and transmit an image of it back to home base, and by the looks of it, is was a rousing success. But the young explorers aren’t resting on their laurels, and are already working on a second version of their exploration vehicle that can operate in inclement weather and includes some new tools such as a robotic arm and infrared illumination for low-light imaging.

We’ve seen plenty of Mars rover clones in the past, but there’s always room for more. Of course, if you’re looking for something a bit easier to start with, you can always go the LEGO route.

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