3D Printer Gets A Big Resolution Improvement

April 1, 2011 by Mike Szczys 48 Comments

[Jose Carlos Veloso Junior] has been working on his 3D printer to improve the resolution. We looked in on his project back in October when he was printing the blue busts like the one seen above.

We were impressed by the resolution he was able to achieve back then, using liquid resin that is cured with visible light. The resin creates a thin layer on a glass tray, and is cured when a projector shines precisely positioned light from below. The cured resin is then lifted on the Z-axis, and the next layer in the printing process is hardened by the projector’s light.

Well, this newest rendition far outperforms the initial iteration. The bust on the right looks like it’s been hand-buffed to remove the layer lines, but it actually just came off of the printer. [Jose] made a video of the new equipment in action, which you can watch after the break. He’s keeping most of the juicy bits to himself but he did tell us that the improvement he achieved were due to multiple changes in the process. He tweaked the software to use a more precise curing time, the resin formula has been improved, the ability to isolate pixels without hardening resin around them has been stepped up, and he’s made changes to the way the printer is calibrated and how it lifts the hardened model.

This is fantastic. Kudos to you sir!

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Kinect Produced Autostereograms (Magic Eye Pictures)

April 1, 2011 by Mike Szczys 8 Comments

[Kyle McDonald], working collaboratively with [Golan Levin] at the Studio for Creative Inquiry, has come up with an application that can produce autostereograms. These are pictures that appear to be three-dimensional thanks to a visual illusion created by forcing your eyes to adjust focus and vergence differently than they normally would. The program is called ofxAutostereogram and it comes with a couple of examples. Both are show in [Kyle’s] video (embedded after the break), starting with a depth image of a shark. This combines with a texture tile, then is processed through the openFrameworks software in the package to produce the final image.

If that’s all it did you might find it rather unimpressive… these images have been around for some time although they were never so easy to produce on your home computer. But the second example is a pretty fantastic one. You can use a depth image from a Kinect as the starting point. As seen above, there is a preview window where you can adjust the clipping planes in order to include the correct depth. This also allows you a preview of your pose. Once it’s just right, snap a pick and process it through the software.

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Thanks For Ruining A Good Thing, Or TRYING To!

March 31, 2011 by Kevin Dady 44 Comments

It seems that there has been some shenanigans happening with the OSHW logo voting page as some are using scripts to game the system for their favorite design. Why? Who knows… How? Well one of the advocates of OSHW [Bill Porter] set about figuring that out, and things should be patched up now, though that still leaves 3,122 faulty votes to weed out on the final day (April 5^th).

While it is hard to imagine how someone would be so attached to a logo to write a script just to game votes, its not that surprising considering that we can be a pretty outgoing bunch when it comes to certain topics. Organizers are asking if you’re one of the listed IP addresses, and had good intentions to fess up, and tell which logo(s) you voted for to make the process easier. If not, well, “this is not going to stop everyone’s good efforts.”

If you’re just now getting wind of the OSHW logo voting check out our previous article highlighting this event, and to get more details.

Screaming Altoids Tin Just In Time For April Fool’s

March 31, 2011 by Mike Nathan 13 Comments

altoids_screamer

Maker [Dino Segovis] has started on a project he calls “Hack a week” where he will be putting together one hack or project per week, for a full year. The first installment of his video series was finished just two days before April Fool’s, and appropriately enough covers the construction of a circuit you can use to prank your friends.

The “Altoids Screamer” is a simple circuit based on a 555 timer that he built into a standard Altoids Tin. The 555 timer is used to generate a loud pitched squeal whenever the tin is opened. This is accomplished by wiring up the 555 in astable mode, and connecting it to a speaker to output the sound. A micro switch is installed inside the tin to detect when the top has been opened, triggering the “scream”.

While it’s not the most complex circuit we’ve seen, it definitely gets the job done and is easy enough to build in time for tomorrow’s festivities. It is a great hack for the office, the library, or any other quiet place.

Continue reading to watch [Dino’s] first Hack a Week video demonstrating the prank’s construction. If you are interested in some more of his work, be sure to check out this automatic ball launcher and this other 555 Screamer toy.

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PCBs Without Any Substrate

March 31, 2011 by Mike Szczys 52 Comments

[Kimio Kosaka] is taking the concept of free-formed circuits to the next level with O’Baka Project No.7. It’s a fully functioning Arduino board, without the board. The traces are there and provide all of the support for the rest of the hardware. You can imagine the fragility of the package so it won’t be a surprise to learn that O’Baka Project means ‘stupid’ project.

We don’t think this manufacturing process is completely worthless. The ‘board’ seen above looks quite interesting and might be a good idea when building a show-piece where you want the circuitry to be seen. [Kimio] describes the process he used to achieve this look. The first step is to design a single-sided circuit board; he used EagleCAD. After printing out the traces he used 0.46mm steel wire to trace out each connection. Now heat up that soldering iron – [Kimio] recommends using high-acid flux to ease the process of soldering to the steel.

We think this would nicely compliment projects like LED cubes that use the circuit itself as a support structure. See this Arduino alternative from several different angles in the video after the break.

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“Stupid Expert” Builds A Machete Slingshot For The Impending Zombie Apocalypse

March 30, 2011 by Mike Nathan 50 Comments

Sometimes people build things for the simple challenge of building. This is one of those cases.

The gentleman you see in the image above is [Jörg Sprave] of The Slingshot Channel. He is a self-proclaimed “Supid Expert” on the subject of slingshots and has taken his love of flinging things at absurd velocities to a whole new level.

His latest creation is a machete slingshot, which is really more accurately described as a machete crossbow. Measuring over six feet long, the impressive apparatus fires a specially altered machete with an insane amount of force using thick rubber bands. In the test firing shown in the video below, the machete is embedded up to the hilt in six layers of very thick cardboard, requiring quite a bit of work to remove.

As he states in the video while brandishing his bloodied forearm, building such a device is extremely dangerous, and should be limited to “Stupid Experts” . In no way should you attempt to build one of your own.

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Jacob’s Ladder Makes Itself At Home In A Floppy Disk Box

March 30, 2011 by Mike Szczys 14 Comments

[Plasanator] adds a bit of safety to his Jacob’s Ladder by housing it in a familiar enclosure. It doesn’t take very many components to make one of these, but to get the high voltage you’ll need some type of coil. He’s using one from the electrical system of an old car, then building around it with a big 15mf 220V capacitor, a dimmer switch normally used in household wiring, terminal blocks, and some braising rod or coat hanger for the spark to traverse.

The video after the break shows this in operations, and we’d agree with [Plasanator] that this is a wonderful addition to your Halloween decor. Of course you want to keep fingers away from the dangerous bits and that’s where the enclosure and key lock come into play. Were not sure what he made the upright cylinder from, but the base is a blast from the past. Remember when one of those used to sit proudly on every desk as a tribute to how important the information you had on had really was?

Don’t want to play with high voltage like this? You can build a fake using EL wire.

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