How-to: USB Remote Control Receiver

October 30, 2008 by Ian 126 Comments

Now that we listen to MP3s, and watch XVIDs or x264s, a computer is the entertainment center in at least one room of most homes. Unless you have a special HTPC, though, you’re probably stuck using the keyboard to pause, change the volume, and fast-forward through annoying Mythbusters recaps. PC remote control receivers range from ancient serial port designs (who has one?) to USB devices not supported by popular software. In this how-to we design a USB infrared receiver that imitates a common protocol supported by software for Windows, Linux, and Mac. We’ve got a full guide to the protocol plus schematics and a parts list.

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E Ink Shows Off The AM300 Developer Kit

October 28, 2008 by Caleb Kraft 20 Comments

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3n2xxqMQyfY]
The AM300 developer’s kit, shown in this video, has some pretty cool new features. It has the ability to show much faster animations than before, as well as having 16 bit gray scale image rendering and pen input. The animations look pretty quick, they mention this being useful for diagrams and advertisements. We just can’t wait to have our newspaper look like its covered with annoying flash banners and animated gifs.

Cellular Automata And LED Matrix Fun

October 28, 2008 by Caleb Kraft 7 Comments

Blinkomat, an LED matrix, turned out quite well. 240 LEDs controlled by an Atmega 16 is what we call a decent bookshelf decoration. The dimensions of 12×20 were chosen due to the fact that the microcontroller has 32 I/O lines. The LEDs are switched on and off using multiplexing. The brightness, controlled by pulse width modulation can be varied by 16 levels. The overall effect is quite smooth an fun to look at. He has programmed it to do other things than just cellular automata. Our personal favorite is a simple sine wave. Watch it after the break.

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Interactive Touch Capable Mirror

October 24, 2008 by Kimberly Lau 34 Comments

[vimeo http://vimeo.com/1867956%5D

[Alpay Kasal] of Lit Studios and [Sam Ewen] created this patent-pending interactive mirror after being inspired by dielectric glass mirrors with built-in LCD panels, and wanting to add a human touch. The end results look like a lot of fun. You can draw on the mirror and play games. According to [Kasal], mouse emulation is essential. The installation features proximity sensors and gesturing. Any game can be set up on it, which makes the possibilities endless… except these are the same people that built LaserGames so expect no further documentation about how it works.

[via NOTCOT.ORG]

-hard PlAYer- 8 Bit Tunes Hardware Player

October 22, 2008 by Kimberly Lau 4 Comments

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zgb_NFdTHZc]

For people who miss the golden age of Atari music, you can recreate the magic of 8 bit music with the -hard plAYer-. [Tolaemon] put a lot of thought and work into this hardware player. From the AY-38912 programmable sound generator, which used to be in old computers like the Atari or Colour Genie, to working with the YM file format, each piece is put together with the utmost care. [Tolaemon] also provides his design, firmware(ZIP), and parts list so that you can make your own hardware player.

[via Matrixsynth]

Björk Teaches You About Electronics

October 20, 2008 by Eliot 89 Comments

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=75WFTHpOw8Y]

As we often suspected, [Björk] is quite the technical mastermind. In the video above, she teaches you about the ins and outs of her television. We think she’s making a strong bid as the next person to join Prototype This! Her hacking philosophy is the same as ours: “You shouldn’t let poets lie to you.”

Jar Of Fireflies

October 18, 2008 by Eliot 14 Comments

[Randomskk] has been attempting to make electronic fireflies for quite some time and finally settled on a design he liked. His jar of fireflies uses an ATtiny13 to control a set of 12 matrixed LEDs. The green SMD LEDs are each soldered to a pair of thin wires that hang down into the jar. The software picks an LED at random to flash and then flashes it 1-3 times. The random seed is incremented each time the jar is turned on, so you’ll get 255 different patterns. The power is just a standard coin cell. The project is fairly simple electrically, but the LED soldering could prove difficult. It was inspired by this firefly jar project. Check out [Alex]’s synchronizing fireflies too. A video of the jar is available below. Continue reading “Jar Of Fireflies” →