GP2X USB Host Mode

February 12, 2006 by 25 Comments

gp2x USB host mode

Amongst PDAs, cellphones, portable game consoles, and digital audio players USB host mode isn’t that common. The lack of host mode is why you can’t plug your iPod into your PSP. The iPod camera connector is a partial work-around for this problem. The Linux based GP2X gets more interesting with this new development. Using the GP2X’s USB host requires building a special cable for its expansion port. The port features JTAG, serial, audio, and video pins as well. USB host mode opens the doors for any number of USB peripherals to be used with the GP2X: larger storage from a hard drive/iPod, full sized keyboard for use with a command line, WiFi provided by USB adapter. There is the potential to do anything that you could do with a standard PC. If I had known this I would have bought a GP2X without a second thought… so, after two thoughts I bought one and it showed up last Friday evening. I’ll let you know how it works out.

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Flat Response Microphone And Amplifier

February 11, 2006 by 10 Comments

flat response microphone

Pete (AC7ZL) wrote in to tell us about his latest project: building a flat response microphone and channel amplifier. You may remember his previous project: building a crystal radio from modern junk. Sounds are “colored” by their surroundings; things like furniture, wall coverings, drapes and building materials all affect the way something sounds. To measure the effect that a space has on sound you need a microphone with a flat frequency response. The core element of Pete’s mic is a modified Panasonic WM61A condenser capsule. He rewired it so that it had a broader dynamic range and could handle a higher SPL at the cost of reduced gain. To boost the signal to a usable level he built a preamp with three stages of amplification. He’s got schematics and a more detailed description on the site.

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Geodesic Dome Shelter From Cardboard

February 10, 2006 by 17 Comments

geodesic dome

Here are some really thorough instructions for building geodesic domes. This particular set of plans was developed by some Burning Man attendees who wanted a comfortable structure that would stand up to the elements. The dome is made of 30 triangles cut from double layered cardboard, 5 wood triangles with vents, 5 wooden doorway triangles, and 5 cardboard doors. The majority of the triangles are bolted together to form pentagons that are then bolted to each other. With all of the triangles painted and seams sealed with duct tape the structure is water proof. All of the dimensions and assembly instructions are provided to create a dome 12’7″ in diameter and 6’3″ in the center.

[thanks l0cke]

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Power Glove Mouse

February 9, 2006 by 14 Comments

power glove

Feeling a bit nostalgic, Hack-A-Day reader Brandon has been hacking on a Nintendo Power Glove. The original Power Glove was sold by Mattel as a unique controller for the NES. It used ultrasonic sensors to determine orientation and could detect four different positions per finger. The finger’s resistance varies depending on how much it is bent, so Brandon used an LM339 comparator to determine the mouse clicks. For the actual mouse interface he used the guts of a Gyration mouse. He’s got a video of the beast in action plus links to an original Power Glove ad.

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Hack-A-Day Extra

February 9, 2006 by 18 Comments

playstation 2 linux kit

I told my friend that I would promote his radio show, but we would probably DOS the streaming server. He said, “Go for it!” If you are interested in dance/electronica, listen to You are so beautiful, beautiful robot every Thursday, 7-9PM CST. Click for the live stream.

[Sean Hillmeyer] notified us that DC480 will be handling the TCP/IP Enabled Contest at Defcon again this year. The contest rules are on their site. We saw at least one of the entries last year.

It has been nearly a month since I put one of these posts together. Which means our Team Hack-A-Day folding team has produced over 12.5 million points and are now in the top 50. Watch out team “Linux”?! Continue reading for lots of links.

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AccelR8, A Homemade G-meter

February 8, 2006 by 11 Comments

g-meter

Jesper has created an automotive performance meter using a handful of ICs. The key chip is the ADXL202 from Analog Devices. It measures acceleration while the AVR 8515 keeps track of time and does all of the calculations. All you need to do is enter the weight of the vehicle and the meter will calculate your 0-60 mph time, 60-0 braking distance, and maximum horsepower. There is a complete schematic on Jesper’s site, but the code still needs to have a few bugs worked out. This project is essentially a reproduction of the first generation G-TECH/Pro meter (bunnie has a picture of the original board). The new generation G-TECH meters are fun to play with and do interesting things like determining the engine RPM by measuring the noise in the electrical system.

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3D Board Modeling With Eagle And POVRay

February 7, 2006 by 15 Comments

eagle 3d

Sometimes the two-dimensional layout of a circuit board doesn’t tell the whole story so Matthias Wei?r created Eagle3D. Once the board is laid out in EAGLE you export it using the Eagle3D tool. The tool has predefined parts that it then uses to render the board in 3D using POV-Ray, a free ray-tracing program. There are a lot of parts included already, but you can define more using POV-Ray’s Scene Description Language. Using POV-Ray you can also make 3D movies your board