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Adafruit Releases New TV-B-Gone Kit

August 17, 2009 by 54 Comments

Recently, our friends over at Adafruit released a new version of their popular TV-B-Gone kit. Built in cooperation with [Mitch Altman], the inventor of the TV-B-Gone, the new kit sports four high power IR LEDs, two wide beam and two narrow beam. The four LEDs give the new TV-B-Gone increased range, with a maximum distance of over 150ft. One of the most impressive features of the kit is the fact that the new TV-B-Gone is universal and can now work in Europe and Asia in addition to the US. Users are able to select which region they want to use during the build process by soldering a resistor into the board at their region’s corresponding spot as seen in the picture above. The new TV-B-Gone kit is now available in the Adafruit store for $19.95 plus shipping.

EEVblog: The Electronics Engineering Video Blog

August 16, 2009 by 42 Comments

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v1YrANSmOGY&fmt=18]
Have you ever wanted to see what it’s like inside of a PCB assembly factory? Have you ever wondered how digital storage oscilloscopes work? If so, be sure to check out the EEVblog podcast. The Electronics Engineering video blog podcast, hosted by [Dave Jones], was created for anyone interested in learning more about electrical engineering. While some knowledge of electronics definitely helps, [Dave]’s thorough explanations and firsthand knowledge in the field of electrical engineering make the video blog easily accessible to beginners in the field. The EEVblog covers a wide range of electronics related topics, offering everything from multimeter reviews to GSM mobile phone audio design advice. In the latest episode (shown above), [Dave] discusses and demonstrates how to solve the infinite resistor problem, involving measuring the resistance at different points of an infinite grid of resistors that all have the same resistance. In addition to giving a detailed explanation, [Dave] created a 14 x 14 grid of 420 10ohm resistors to demonstrate how to solve the problem. While we’ve only mentioned a few episodes here, be sure to check out all 25 episodes of the EEVblog podcast and subscribe to the RSS feed so you’ll never miss an episode.

The Big Picture: More Robots

August 12, 2009 by 2 Comments

big_picture

The Big Picture is Boston.com’s daily news photo blog. Each day they pick a particular story and feature some of the best news photography around. Today they chose robots and have 36 photos highlighting current robot research. This is a followup to a similar post from March. It’s interesting to see all the different forms and tasks robots are taking.

Hack A Day Is Hiring

August 11, 2009 by 12 Comments


We’ve added a handful of contributors in the last couple months, but we’re still looking for more people to contribute daily posts and help expand the site.

This is a paid, freelancing position that requires professionalism, consistency, and reliability. We want to hear from people that are passionate about software/hardware hacking and growing Hack a Day. To apply, send the following to jobs@hackaday.com

  • A short bio about yourself
  • 3 example daily posts written in the style of Hack a Day
  • 3 software or hardware how-tos you’d like to see. For examples of work we’ve done in the past, look here, here, here, and here.
  • A couple sentences on how you would improve the site either through features or content
  • Any additional reasons why you would make a good fit for Hack a Day

Do not send any attachments. Having your own blog you can show off is a definite plus.

[photo:fbz]

Thank You Ian Lesnet

August 7, 2009 by 16 Comments

A little over a year ago [Ian Lesnet] joined our hacking team and began cranking out some of the best original how-tos Hack a Day has ever offered. You may remember our popular web server on a business card from last fall and we’re sure everyone is familiar with the Bus Pirate (yes, they’re still on schedule).

It’s a year later and he’s found himself with less time to contribute. [Ian] is stepping down from blogging at Hack a Day, but you’ll find him right where he started: in the comments. You can also reach him directly on whereisian.com. [Ian] will be continuing to develop the Bus Pirate. You’ll find the latest info on the Bus Pirate’s Google Code page. He’s also posted a guide to the on-board pull-up resistors as well as a self-test guide that uses the new v2.0 firmware to confirm your Bus Pirate is working.

[Ian]’s contributions will be greatly missed. We’re always excited when we add contributors of his caliber to our crew.

Tangible Holograms

August 6, 2009 by 24 Comments

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y-P1zZAcPuw]

As you watch that video, you’ll probably find yourself wondering several things about the tangible hologram project. Why haven’t we seen these simple hologram setups used more often? Where did that cool air puff system come from and why haven’t we seen more on that?  When will this be integrated into the latest Xbox/PS3/Wii? We don’t know the answers to those questions, but we would really love to play with this in person to see how convincing it is.