Intelligent Ground Vehicle Competition 2010 Day One Report

June 5, 2010 by Gerrit Coetzee 19 Comments

The Intelligent Ground Vehicle Competition (IGVC) is the precursor to the DARPA Grand Challenge, and in many ways it is just as difficult. We have the pleasure of being at the competition this year with the Tennessee Technological University Autonomous Robotics Team. The teams at the competition pull off some amazing home-brew robotics, so we’ve decided to do a short section on some exemplary robotic hacking each day of the competition.

Today’s robot comes from the York College of Pennsylvania. The robot, dubbed “Green Lightning”, features an impressive set of custom made hardware.

We interviewed the team, and got a pretty thorough rundown of their robot with pictures after the jump. Continue reading “Intelligent Ground Vehicle Competition 2010 Day One Report” →

Original NES Plays Game Boy Games?

May 11, 2010 by Mike Szczys 26 Comments

[Bunnyboy] pulled off some wizardry with this custom NES cartridge. Inside is the mainboard for a Game Boy as well as his own custom PCB with the comb connector needed to interface with an original Nintendo Entertainment System. In his own words it’s “a Super Game Boy without the Super”. The expansion port to for the handheld is still accessible for some head-to-head Tetris or use with the obscure Game Boy printer.

[Thanks Maxym]

Making A Bluetooth SNES Controller

May 10, 2010 by Caleb Kraft 10 Comments

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OP8JgqmVES8&]

[MODDEDbyBACTERIA] has posted this instructible on how to make a bluetooth SNES controller. The bulk of the parts come from a bluetooth MSI game pad, so this isn’t a scratch build, but the amount of modifications required definitely qualify this as a hack. We were quite surprised that he managed to stuff all of that back into the case as well as he did. Great job.

Nimbus, Portable N64

May 8, 2010 by Jakob Griffith 21 Comments

We love a beautiful and successful N64 portable mod, (In case that fact wasn’t already obvious). And today we would like to add [cndowning’s] Nimbus N64 to our list of favorites.

The base is made from vacuum formed plastic while the buttons come from a modified superpad and the screen is a Zenith 5inch. We couldn’t find word on battery life or weight, but for those that like a hunt, or have other questions, the build logs are available. Follow the jump for a video of the Nimbus in action.

[Thanks Fernando, and GaryC for our silly typo] Continue reading “Nimbus, Portable N64” →

Learn console hacking

April 28, 2010 by Mike Szczys 5 Comments

This bright red handheld is [Bacteria’s] portable N64 console. We’re beginning to feel a bit saturated with N64 portable hacks, having seen one that looks like a Game Boy, another in a shiny black case, and yet another in a white case. This time around it’s not just the end product, but [Bacteria] has posted a saga discussing the build progress. Check out the 20 videos on his worklog page. If you’re looking to take existing hardware and put it into a different enclosure you should pour over this resource for ideas you can use.

Wii Remote Controlled Balancing Wheel chair

April 25, 2010 by Mike Szczys 10 Comments

The Personal Mobility Robot (PMR) has a chair for a passenger and balances on two wheels like a Segway. Now the clever folks at the University of Tokyo have added Wii remote control to the platform in a full-sized version of the Segwii. We understand that adding Wiimote control to anything isn’t exactly groundbreaking at this point. That being said, if using stock hardware can increase the quality of the user interface on something like a wheelchair, while decreasing the production cost at the same time, we’re all for it.

[Thanks Erico]

Flaming Hot Brick Plays Games, Promotes Tendonitis

April 21, 2010 by Mike Szczys 13 Comments

The continuing battle for smallest console-made-portable continues with this N64 portable hack. Unlike the last two that we saw, this version opts for an over-under rather than side-by-side control scheme. This results in a small overall size, but because this thing is a thick brick we wonder if playing for hours would just leave you horribly mangled and crippled from the elbow down. [Bentomo] may have thought the same thing because he also built a breakout connector to use the original controllers (and play with more than one player on that tiny screen). If you’re a slave to the build details like we are check out his build log and the video after the break.

Continue reading “Flaming Hot Brick Plays Games, Promotes Tendonitis” →