Arduino The Documentary

January 19, 2011 by Mike Szczys 38 Comments

We finally got around to watching “Arduino The Documentary” and it’s a two-thumbs-up kind of film. What did we like? It’s a documentary about open source hardware so what’s not to like? You’ll hear the story of how the Arduino team was formed and the path they took from design to production. There are also interviews with early adopters and we even find out that Sparkfun passed on their chance to sell the original through-hole kit version of the board. It’s well made, and thanks to the Creative Commons license you can download it for free, or watch the embedded version here after the break. It’s only 28 action-packed minutes so finish up that special clock and watch it during lunch today.

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Theory Behind Evanescent Wave Coupling, Aka Wireless Power

January 14, 2011 by Mike Szczys 30 Comments

[Alan Yates] is building a persistence of vision display and needs a way to transfer power from the stationary base to the spinning circuitry. He’s decided to go with wireless energy transfer and he’s sharing all of his research and experiment data from the development process. It comes in two forms, the written version we just linked to, and a 37 minute video which is embedded after the break. If you liked some of the inductive energy transmission devices we’ve featured in the past, [Alan’s] video will fill you in on the why’s and how’s by using a combination of illustrative schematic examples and measurements on test coils that he built.

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Let Paper Dolls Teach You Science

January 13, 2011 by Mike Szczys 21 Comments

Remember how fun it was studying chemistry and physics in high school? Well we guess your recollection depends on the person who taught the class. Why not have another go at it by learning the A-to-Z of electronics from one of our favorite teachers, [Jeri Ellsworth].

You know, the person who whips up chemistry experiments and makes her own semiconductors? The first link in this post will send you to her video playlist. So far she’s posted A is for Ampere and B is for Battery, both of which you’ll find embedded after the break. Her combination of no-nonsense technical explanation, and all-nonsense paper-doll history reenactment make for a fun viewing whether you retain any of the information or not.

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Solar Monsters… You Know… For Kids!

January 4, 2011 by Mike Szczys 9 Comments

Teaching kids to solder using kits is a fun time, but most of these beginner kits are a bit mundane. Not this one, it’s a solar-powered monster project. The components and their wiring connections are printed on a sheet of paper along with a background for that particular monster. The base of the paper is glued to a block of wood and at each solder junction there’s a copper nail. This way the kids can line up the components, check the picture to make sure the polarization is correct for each, then solder onto the large and stable nail head. As you can see in the video after the break, when the solar cell collects enough electricity the transistor triggers a motor to spin the monster.

But don’t get the idea that kits are only for kids. If you haven’t tried your hand with SMD soldering yet, this kit is for you.

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Controlling Real Objects Using Minecraft

January 3, 2011 by Mike Szczys 14 Comments

Most augmented reality takes images of the real world and superimposes virtual data on top of them. [Michael Winston Dales] went a different direction, using the virtual world of Minecraft to control objects in the physical world. In the video after the break you can see him use switches that he built inside the game to turn the LEDs pictured above on and off. You’ll also notice that in-game sign instructing a player to stand in one spot to Tweet. Since Minecraft is written in Java there are some mods that allow you to hook onto in-game events. [Michael] does just that, triggering his own scripts to send data to an Arduino, or use a Twitter API. Now this something that should be used with the Minecraft ALU. It takes the sandbox method of gaming to a new place, doesn’t it?

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Calc Is High-tech For 1970’s Homebrew

January 1, 2011 by Mike Szczys 20 Comments

Just one look at that banner image and you’ve got to be thinking “that’s old”! This 1970’s era home made calculator used a 4-function calculator IC that was quite advanced for its time. The only problem is that the chip couldn’t do anything other than calcuations, which left it up to the maker of this dinosaur to get the display and keypad working. Circuit boards were made by drawing on copper clad with resist marker. These controlled the VFD digits for the IC’s output and also fed it the user inputs.

[Thanks Brian]

Custom Made Industrial Hookah

December 29, 2010 by James Munns 44 Comments

Since their invention in the 1500s, Hookahs have always been a way for craftsmen to show off skills by creating ornate, elaborate, and functional pieces of art. This still holds true today, as easily seen above. Found on the Hookah subreddit, this pipe was pieced together by recycling an old vodka bottle, as well decorating and re-purposing a number of plumbing items. Some finishing touches such as LEDs and gears to the base, as well as a set of turn-valves to the hose plugs give this hookah a very distinctive look.

As always, we at Hackaday do not recommend or promote smoking, no matter what goes into the bowl of the hookah. However, whether you smoke or not, the final product is worth appreciating. Be sure to check out the higher resolution pictures after the break.

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