Atari Punk Console

January 27, 2007 by 18 Comments


It seems Hack-A-Day’s resident snow bunny has run off to Utah and left me holding the proverbial bag. How could a heart broken hacker possibly console himself? How about the soothing sounds of the Atari Punk Console? Well… soothing is a subjective term, but the screaming, bleeping, fuzzy sound generated by this simple circuit is great. Since their first post on the Atari Punk Console circuit last fall, GetLoFi has collected many different examples of the circuit. It’s just a 556, a few caps, and pots so it lends itself easily to modification. The most recent post is built in an actual Atari mouse.

Tripmate Gps Data Logger

January 26, 2007 by 7 Comments


This one is fitting – I was just checking out Suunto’s sweet gps data logging watches today. [Steve Cholewiak] sent in his diy GPS data logger. It uses an old DeLorme tripmate – these were serial gps units that ran off of internal batteries. A PIC controller reads the NMEA sentences from the tripmate. Then it stores the track data to an EEPROM. The same serial connection is used to retrieve the data later on. [Steve] did a great job writing this up, the circuit is pretty simple and he’s provided all the information you need to build your own.

Going Snowboarding Extra

January 25, 2007 by 14 Comments


I’m heading west to do some snowboarding, so I thought I’d clean out the stuff I’ve been saving for you guys.

[Nagi Punyamurthula] sent his notes on making PCBs. It’s a nice introduction if you’re new to it.

[Monster] sent in his how to on making a solder mask
He suggests using mcmaster-carr p/n 9709K61 (4 mil) or 9709K55 (3 mil) copper sheet.

[monster] and [uchobby] sent in using a scanner to take measurements on a PCB

[MoneyOx] sent in a DIY Wii sensor bar

[Tom] sent in Water cooling via swimming pool. This made slashdot, but worth a look if you missed it.

Meta is another DIY segway, similar to [Trevor Blackwells]. (I’ve actually ridden that one) Thanks [Peter]

[Zack] sent along details on using a Nintendo DS for VoIP.

[Bruce] sent in his shuffle in a hockey helmet hack. I like the pseudo-dock he created for it.

This was on engadget a while back, but we’ve been getting lots of tips. Check out the iPod in a gameboy mod.

Finally, [everyone on the planet] sent in this Xbox 360 tilt controller hack.

Thanks to everyone for their tips!

WiiBot – Armed And Pointy

January 24, 2007 by 20 Comments


[Brian] sent in his Wiimote hacking project – he and his cohort used it to control an industrial sized robot arm. Then they armed it. Keep in mind that the sword is full size. [Aaron] ended up writing a basic pattern recognition program to get it to perform they way they wanted. Response time is a bit laggy, but not bad for a one-off project. I need my own industrial robot.