Simple Device Answers Questions Just Like Your Boss Does

August 15, 2011 by Mike Nathan 17 Comments

executive_decision_maker

Like many of us, [Bertho] has had plenty if interaction with “Executive” types who seem to make decisions randomly, and most certainly not based upon any sort of reason. As he was picking through parts bins at his local hackerspace, he thought it would be fun to build an “Executive Decision Maker”. The device he had in mind would answer questions at the push of a button, with the kind of randomness that could only be carefully honed through years of barking orders from a corner office.

Constructed from third-rate LEDs and old CMOS chips that were lying around, the operation of the device is quite simple. Much like a Magic 8 Ball, a question is posed, and as [Bertho] states, “The Executive Decision maker automatically tunes into the aether and the subconscious of the user” pressing the “Decide” button. The device then makes a judgement, relaying its answer to the user via an LED display.

We definitely got a good laugh out of this one, so be sure to check out the video after the break to see the Executive Decision Maker in action.

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Obama-1 Desk Spy Satellite Aims For High Approval Ratings

August 13, 2011 by Jeremy Cook 22 Comments

This miniature “spy satellite” may not gain the ire of the Chinese People’s Army, but it will certainly look rad on your desk. Besides looking cool, this “satellite” is able to transmit video up to 300 feet away and has sun tracking solar panels for battery recharging. Additionally, it has a LED “thruster” and speakers.

One cool thing about this build is that the body was made out of a lamp from Goodwill. Recycled/thrift store enclosures always make a good addition to your project as they won’t break the bank. Additionally, they may yield some other bonus parts when taken apart. In this case, the lamp fit into the project scope perfectly, but anyone trying to duplicate it might not be so lucky.

Creative use of other household materials rounds out this build, with solar panels taken off home garden lights, and part of a nose hair trimmer used as the “thruster” body. This well-build project is a great example of how to convert household items into something totally different and unique.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pGqTmnSP71U&w=470&h=349%5D

Impressive Lighting Console Offers Professional Features For A Fraction Of The Price

August 10, 2011 by Mike Nathan 31 Comments

diy_dmx_lighting_control_panel

Hackaday reader [Michael] wrote in to share the build details of an impressive lighting console he has been working on for some time. He says that the 36+ channel console is on par with lighting rigs costing upwards of $5,000, but his was constructed for just around $1,000 – quite the substantial savings.

The console was constructed around an old IBM desktop computer, which handles all of the DMX output as well as preset management. An array of 20 ATMega 328Ps running the Arduino bootloader are scattered throughout the device, 18 of which are used to manage the six fader panels, while the remaining two handle management tasks. Aside from the fader banks, the console features a main control board featuring several LCD screens along with 17 capacitive touch buttons used for menu navigation and console control.

While [Michael] is finished building the board, he has just begun the documentation of the construction process. His blog should be updated regularly with more details, so be sure to check back often. Code, as well as hopefully tons of pictures and videos are all forthcoming.

[Edit: Cost comparison update]

Play-by-play Of A High Altitude Balloon Flight

August 9, 2011 by Brian Benchoff 16 Comments

[Greg Intermaggio] and [Shumit DasGupta] at Techsplosion launched a high altitude balloon last week that climbed to 90,000 feet above sea level somewhere over California. The play-by-play of the flight is one of the better stories we’ve seen on high altitude balloon builds.

The balloon, christened VGER-1, carried a SPOT satellite GPS messanger to send telemetry back to the ground. We’ve seen a few home brew balloon tracking devices, but [Greg] decided to use an off-the-shelf solution for the sake of simplicity. Like other balloons the VGER-1 carried a CanonPowershot camera with CHDK firmware.

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Hacking QR Codes For Fun And Profit

August 9, 2011 by Brian Benchoff 45 Comments

QR codes are everywhere these days, from being printed onto receipts to chiseled into granite tombstones. [Will] came up with a way to modify existing QR codes, and his hack has the potential to cause quite a bit of harmless mischief.

[Will]’s hack involves a little photo editing, transparency film, and some white-out/Liquid Paper/Tippex. After the ‘target’ and ‘destination’ QR codes have been imported into Gimp, the differences are found and the result printed out on a transparency sheet. After that, hang the transparency over the original and the QR code now goes to the URL of your choice.

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Gain Wizardly Knowledge About Crystals

August 9, 2011 by Mike Szczys 19 Comments

Make sure your test equipment is handy, then give this video series about crystal oscillators a spin. [Shahriar] of the Signal Path Blog put together a four-part video blog post totaling about an hour. In the discussion he covers the ins and outs of crystal oscillators and ring oscillators. His focus is on how these parts are used as timekeeping devices for microcontrollers. This isn’t a lecture that skims the surface of the topic, it takes you down the rabbit hole, discussing theory, how the devices are built, how to use them, and the pitfalls of doing so.

Our favorite part is in the fourth segment when [Shahriar] measures the effect that temperature has on crystals by spraying them with an inverted compressed air canister. We always thought we were just screwing around when freezing stuff like that. It didn’t occur to us that we were conducting serious experiments.

We’ve embedded the first segment of the video after the break. Continue reading “Gain Wizardly Knowledge About Crystals” →

DIY Orb Display Puts The Earth In Your Hands

August 8, 2011 by Mike Nathan 24 Comments

diy_spherical_projection_globe

[Nirav] liked the idea of having his own personal Earth at the tip of his fingers, and since that’s not happening any time soon, he decided to build the next best thing. Sure, he could have simply gone out and purchased a globe, but there is no fun in that. Instead, he shows us how he put together an interactive spherical display that won’t break the bank.

The sphere uses a Microvision SHOWWX to drive its display, which projects an image inside of a frosted glass light fixture. The pico projector gets some help from a 180° fisheye lens along the way, enabling the picture to be stretched across the entire inner surface of the globe.

[Nirav] used his 3D extruder to build a base for the globe, which attaches to the projector via a printed mounting plate. A GorillaPod was used to keep things upright while he dusted off his trigonometry skills in order to figure out how to get the image just right.

We think that he did a great job – it definitely looks to be on par (albeit a bit smaller) than the eye of Sauron globe we saw a while back. We can’t wait to see a video of this thing in action once it’s completely finished!