Guide For Working With AVR Microcontrollers

March 14, 2011 by Mike Szczys 8 Comments

[Q] wrote in to let us know about the AVR-Guide he’s been working on. It looks like he’s finished posting about 80% of the content he planned for in his initial draft outline. We read through several of the sections and found them to be concise, yet able to present information in a way that’s easy to grasp. The screenshot above shows the most basic block of information to get started with AVR microcontrollers. We’ve covered the same information in our AVR tutorial series and think that reading through both will give you a strong understanding of the knowledge needed to work with 8-bit microcontrollers with confidence. But this resource doesn’t stop after the basics. If you’re looking to bolster your knowledge of all the features the AVR line has to offer there’s also sections explaining Digital I/O, Interrupts, Timers, Analog I/O, Communications, and Miscellaneous topics.

The site is called QEEWiki. We logged in using a Google account (this is hosted as a Google site) but didn’t see a way to edit the information. If this truly is a Wiki and you know how to edit pages please leave a comment about it after the break.

The Traveling Terabyte Project – Helping Those Who Protect Us

March 11, 2011 by Mike Nathan 75 Comments

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Though some people differ on what exactly a “hacker” is, there is one thing that can be said for certain – this global community of tinkerers, experimenters, and hobbyists we belong to is one of big hearts. Through our various projects and tutorials, we lead by example – sharing knowledge and offering help whenever we can. You would be hard pressed to find something that could exemplify this more than the Traveling Terabyte Project.

Started in the summer of 2006 by [Deviant Ollam], the goal of the project was to provide informational content from DefCon 14 to those friends and acquaintances who were deployed overseas in the service of the U.S. Armed Forces and their associates. This was originally done by outfitting durable cases with large portable hard drives stuffed with movies, music, and publications in order help those stationed far from their friends and family enjoy their down time a little bit more.

The project has grown by leaps and bounds while the storage mediums have shrunk accordingly. The project has recently entered a new phase, where they are migrating over to flash drives instead of hard drives, which should help spread the distribution of media immensely.

The Traveling Terabyte Project did not approach us soliciting money or publicity in any way, so by no means should you feel obligated to support the project. Regardless of our individual political leanings and views on war, we believe that helping out people who are subject to extreme amounts of stress while stationed far away from their home, friends, and family is a noble cause.

[Thanks, RenderMan]

Forum Addition: Project Requests

March 7, 2011 by Mike Szczys 9 Comments

We’ve added a new section to our forums called Requests and Commissions. First, we can’t stress enough that this is NOT a place to ask for help with illegal or illicit actions. Hackaday has always been about hacking for good and that’s what motivated the creation of this forum. Time and again we’ve seen hackers helping out others by modifying gaming controllers for the those in need or bringing mobility to the disabled. The requests forum is a great place to ask for help with these types of projects, or just to team up with hackers that have skills in areas you don’t.

So swing by and check it out. The golden rule is keep it legal and keep it legit. And do remember that this is the Internet, so think about the decisions you are making. We’re not going to swoop in to save you if you end up getting scammed by a Nigerian prince to whom you sent a thousand dollars worth of parts to but didn’t receive a completed project in return. Any arrangements you make with another user are between you two, and do not involve us.

8th ACM Conference On Creativity & Cognition Call For Papers

March 6, 2011 by Mike Nathan 2 Comments

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[Jim Davies] from the Association for Computing Machinery wrote us to let us know about a conference being hosted this fall, the 8th ACM conference on Creativity and Cognition. C&C 2011 has a lot to offer, providing an opportunity for artists, scientists, designers and educators to gather together and share their expertise via a series of group meetings, tutorials, and workshops.

We wanted to bring C&C 2001 to the attention of our readers as it is likely many of you had some level of interaction with your college or university’s local ACM chapter in the past. [Jim] wanted to point out that though the conference is slated for the first week of November, there is a deadline of April 25th for all papers and proposals. If you are interested in submitting something to the conference, it would be wise to get started soon.

The overall theme of this year’s conference is Creativity and Technology, which fits the hacking community quite well. Good luck to any of you who decide to give it a shot!

Open Source Laser Cutter (v2)

March 2, 2011 by Kevin Dady 23 Comments

The Buildlog.net 2.x Laser is a second generation open source laser cutter that definitely improves the design of the first model. The 2 axis machine (optional vertical axis is manual or an upgrade is available) boasts a large 12” x 20” x 4” workspace while being smaller than its predecessor, fitting a table top design.

The older model had a goal of being self replicating, which limited the types of materials used, the new 2.x model drops that goal and uses stronger metal parts. Electronics are now modularized that allow easier and cleaner wiring, though you will still need a controller board.

There is an XMOS based controller provided on the main page of BuildLog.net, along with mechanical drawings, schematics, gerbers, instructions for both machines, and kit parts (for the first model) along with resources for the heavy items like laser tubes and power supplies.

Bluetooth Nixie Driver Lets You Go Almost-wireless

March 1, 2011 by Mike Szczys 8 Comments

[Bob Coggeshall] has a nice Nixie tube driver board coming down the pipes. It’s not quite ready yet but you can see by the image above, it offers something that isn’t always easy to find; control for B7971 tubes which can display the full spectrum of alpha-numeric characters. This board is not limited to just one type of tube and it can be chained together with other boards to create longer displays. But perhaps the best development is the addition of a Bluetooth module. [Bob] has incorporated a Roving Networks RN-41 Bluetooth module which takes care of all aspects of the wireless protocol. This way the display is not tethered to a computer, or limited to data stored on a chip. We can’t really say that it’s wireless though, as we’d assume a set of these big tubes would rip through batteries pretty quickly. Keep an eye on this project, it will be open source once the bugs are worked out and [Bob] will also sell fully assembled and tested boards for those who choose not to roll their own.

We wonder if it would be easy to pair this with your phone and use it to display incoming call information?

Santa-pede Contest Winners

February 28, 2011 by Caleb Kraft 15 Comments

We received several fantastic entries. We laughed, we cried, we stared at our monitors in confusion, it was fantastic. Now we’re here to announce the winners of the Santa-Pede contest.

If you recall, the rules were pretty simple. Aquire a dancing santa (or other holiday dancing annoying toy thingy in the same fashion), tear it apart, build something that walks out of the pieces. We were aware that most of these have a very similar setup with one or two servos and a bit of plastic. That way everyone has a similar starting point. We were amazed at what was done with so little.

Keep reading to find out who one each of the three categories: Most over-done, best walker with no extra parts, and best presentation.

Continue reading “Santa-pede Contest Winners” →