Hacking The MyVu

January 1, 2009 by Caleb Kraft 16 Comments

myvu_3d

[Conundrum] shares with us his MyVu hacking experiences. The MyVu personal display seems like it would be a great foundation to build some decent 3d display goggles, it is fairly small and has a screen for each eye. This opens up the door to possibly driving them independently for 3d. Those giant helmets we used to use were not anywhere near as stylish as these. Apparently, some quick hacking can double your resolution or even possibly supply 3D imagery! The details are pretty sparse, but it appears as though he has gotten some of these mods functional and tested. Lets hope he posts some more information, we’re definitely interested. We normally wouldn’t post something with so little information, but we’re hoping this encourages him to give us more.

[thanks andre]

Jacob’s Ladder

December 30, 2008 by Caleb Kraft 28 Comments

jacobs_ladder

[jandgse812] shows us how to build a Jacob’s Ladder from mostly household parts. The bulk of the instructions for this project are included in the downloadable document, there is a downloadable video as well. Be sure to follow to the end where he shows us a much safer and possibly better looking revision. The Jacob’s Ladder has become standard fair for any mad scientists laboratory. If you plan on having a workshop suited for world domination, it absolutely must have one of these in it. Be careful though, the high voltage can be deadly.

Unique Method Of Home Automation

December 29, 2008 by Caleb Kraft 16 Comments

automation

[leevonk] sent us this quick and dirty home automation set up. Using photo resistors and your computer screen, you can drive as many relays or actuators as you want. [leevonk] is simply using changes in brightness on his computer screen to set off relays. This makes it easy for someone who has no programming knowledge and a tight budget to set up some automation. You could even do remote automation by connecting to your pc via VNC. Be careful taping things to your screen, wouldn’t want to damage it.

USB Servo Squirter

December 26, 2008 by Caleb Kraft 3 Comments

squirt

Here is a great project for learning how to control servos. They’ve made a USB controlled squirt gun using the USB NerdKit, a pump and a servo. This is a great tutorial to learn about PWM and controlling servos. The tutorial is very thorough, with great pictures and a video of it all , which you can see after the break.

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Working With VFDs

December 25, 2008 by Eliot 12 Comments

vfd

We love old display technology, like Nixie tubes, but they’re often difficult to work with because they require higher voltages than digital logic. Vacuum florescent displays (VFD) fall into this category. While not necessarily “old”, they are becoming far less common than LCDs. The main benefit of a VFD is that it actually produces light directly; it doesn’t require a backlight. You’ll find these displays on various players and appliances: CD, DVD, VCR, microwaves, stoves, car headunits, and others.

[Sprite_tm] had written off some VFDs, but recently revisited them with renewed interest. He started by testing what sort of voltage would be required to drive the display. It took 3V for the filament plus 15V to drive the grids. There are VFD controller chips available, but he wanted to get this working with what he had on hand. He had experience with older 40xx series logic, which can be powered by much higher voltages than 5V 74xx. His final schematic has three 4094 serial to parallel chips with an ATtiny2313 controller. A 5V power supply is dropped to 3V with diodes to drive the filament while a boost converter brings it up to 15V for the 4094s that switch the segments. While the code is specific to this display, it would be a great place to start your own project.

Multitouch MAME Cabinet

December 24, 2008 by Caleb Kraft 19 Comments

mame

[rdagger] sent us this really well done multitouch MAME cabinet build. He ha penned to find a used, and fairly worn cocktail cabinet. The monitor was damaged, keys lost, and internals had been home to mice for some time. He promptly tore out the old guts, replaced the smelly mouse damaged base and began building the projection system. For touch sensing, he’s using a web cam with the IR filter removed to detect disturbances in some IR laser beams. We’re not completely clear on how he mounted the lasers, he skips over that part. There’s nothing groundbreaking in the technology here, we’ve done multitouch many times before. This project stands out in its execution. [rdagger] has done a fantastic job, the construction looks fantastic. Check out a video of it working after the break.

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Guitar Hero Cymbal Remake

December 23, 2008 by Caleb Kraft 10 Comments

drums

[Matt] found, like many people, his Guitar Hero: World Tour cymbals left much to be desired. They were only detecting hits intermittently and starting to crack and fall apart as well. While he was waiting for his warranty replacements to arrive, he just couldn’t help by try to make his own improved version. Using about $25 worth of parts, mainly consisting of plastic plates and some neoprene material, he managed to make some pretty fantastic replacements. A video of them working might be a nice addition, but the writeup was pretty detailed otherwise.