Halloween Costume Turned Positive Pressure Suit

May 9, 2020 by Tom Nardi 31 Comments

As a general rule, you probably shouldn’t be getting your Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) from the party store. But these are exceptional times, and rather than potentially depriving medical professionals the equipment they so desperately need on the front lines, the team at [Robots Everywhere] has been looking into improvised PPE. We’re not sure things are at the point where you would need to don this DIY Positive Pressure Suit (PAPR), but it’s certainly an interesting look at what’s possible when you think outside the box.

At the most basic level, a PAPR is a mostly air-tight garment that is continuously pumped full of filtered air. As long as the pressure inside the suit is higher than outside, there’s no way airborne bacteria and viruses can get in without traveling through the filter first.

For this project, the folks at [Robots Everywhere] took an inflatable astronaut costume and replaced the dinky original air pump with a much larger 12 V unit designed for inflating air beds. Upgrading the pump not only increased the internal air pressure of the suit, but also made it easier to add a HEPA filter to the inlet. As long as the suit is inflated and there are no leaks in the hose, the wearer will be surrounded by a bubble of filtered air.

Presumably, you don’t want to be tethered to the wall though, so the write-up briefly touches on how the pump system can be made more mobile with the addition of an RC-style battery pack. With the pump and batteries secured in a pouch attached to the suit, the wearer is free to venture outside the confines of their self-isolation bunker and go about their dystopian daily business.

A getup like this might seem a bit excessive, but with so many folks desperate for information on homemade protective gear, we aren’t passing any judgment. The team says you can modify a cheap painter’s suit in much the same way, but frankly, that doesn’t sound nearly as fun to us.

[Thanks to Aron for the tip.]

Touch-Typing On Fingertips? Prototype Says It Could Work

May 9, 2020 by Donald Papp 11 Comments

The fingertips are covered in touch sensors, each intended to be tapped by the thumbtip of the same hand.

Touch-typing with thumbs on a mobile phone keyboard is a pretty familiar way to input text, and that is part of what led to BiTipText, a method of allowing bimanual text input using fingertips. The idea is to treat the first segments of the index fingers as halves of a tiny keyboard, whose small imaginary keys are tapped with the thumbs. The prototype shown here was created to see how well the concept could work.

The prototype hardware uses touch sensors that can detect tap position with a high degree of accuracy, but the software side is where the real magic happens. Instead of hardcoding a QWERTY layout and training people to use it, the team instead ran tests to understand users’ natural expectations of which keys should be on which finger, and how exactly they should be laid out. This data led to an optimized layout, and when combined with predictive features, test participants could achieve an average text entry speed of 23.4 words per minute.

Judging by the prototype hardware, it’s understandable if one thinks the idea of fingertip keyboards may be a bit ahead of its time. But considering the increasingly “always on, always with you” nature of personal technology, the goal of the project was more about investigating ways for users to provide input in fast and subtle ways. It seems that the idea has some merit in principle. The project’s paper can be viewed online, and the video demonstration is embedded below.

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These LED Shades Will Blind You With Science

May 8, 2020 by Tom Nardi 9 Comments

Unless you’re particularly fond of looking at the back of 88 individual WS2812B LEDs, these “RGB Goggles” from [Mukesh Sankhla] won’t offer you much of a view. But from an outsider’s perspective, the smartphone-controlled glasses certainly make a statement. Just don’t try to operate any heavy machinery while wearing them.

The build starts off with a pair of shades dark enough that the lights won’t be obvious until they’re powered up. [Mukesh] then carefully aligned the LEDs into a grid pattern on a piece of clear tape so they could be soldered together with the fewest number of jumper wires possible. Even if you’re not in the market for some technicolor eyewear, this clever arrangement of WS2812B modules could come in handy if you’re looking to make impromptu LED panels.

To control the LEDs, [Mukesh] is using an Arduino Nano and an HC-06 Bluetooth module that’s linked to an application running on an Android smartphone. The software, developed with the MIT App Inventor, allows the user to easily switch between various patterns and animations on the fly. With such an easy-to-use interface, the RGB Goggles don’t look far off from a commercial product; other than the whole not being able to actually see through the thing.

We’ve actually seen a number of custom glasses projects over the years, as it seems that a cheap pair of shades make an ideal platform for head-mounted hacks. We’ve even found what may be the ideal power source for them.

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Custom Firmware Makes A LoRA-Enabled HAB Tracker Watch

May 6, 2020 by Donald Papp 4 Comments

High Altitude Balloons (HAB) are a great way to get all kinds of data and shoot great photos and video, but what goes up must come down. Once the equipment has landed, one must track it down. GPS and LoRA, with its long wireless range and ease of use, are invaluable tools in tracking payloads that have returned to Earth. [Dave Akerman] has made handheld receivers to guide him to payloads, but wanted something even smaller; ideally something that could be worn on the wrist.

One day he came across the affordable LilyGo T-Watch which includes GPS and LoRA functionality, and he started getting ideas. The watch has the features, but the stock firmware didn’t measure up. Not to be deterred, [Dave] wrote new firmware to turn the device into a wrist-worn GPS and LoRA chase watch.

Not only is the new firmware functional, but it’s got a wonderful user interface. GitHub repository for the new firmware is here, and you can see the UI in action in the brief video embedded below.

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Mass Mask-Making Masterclass

May 2, 2020 by Kristina Panos 7 Comments

Just as 3D printers around the world have been churning out face shields, the thread injectors of home sewists have been stitching up fabric masks. Over the past several weeks, [Becky Stern] has made them for friends, family, neighbors, and anyone in her community who happens upon the box of free masks she’s left at a nearby bus stop. This is in addition the scores she has made and donated to health care workers so they can extend the life of their N95 masks.

If you’re going to make more than a few of anything, it just makes sense to make multiples at the same time and adjust the process for batch production. [Becky Stern] has some great ideas for ramping up assembly even further that include cutting out multiple main mask pieces at the same time, and ironing the pleats of several masks round robin style so you don’t waste time while they cool.

Even if you don’t dabble in the fabric arts, her method of kitting out the process of mask making is an interesting look into small-scale production.

Our favorite idea concerns the side bindings and the straps, which are the last part of the build and take the longest to do. [Becky] makes several miles of straps ahead of time with a 3D printed bias tape folder and then sews them all into a continuous strip. She can add the short side bindings to a bunch of masks at once, feeding them in one after the other so they end up strung together like sausages. Then she can just snip them apart and keep going, having saved both time and thread. Watch [Becky] make a single mask after the break and see how easy it is.

If sewing is a no-go for you, there are plenty of ways to help the PPE effort by firing up that printer.

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Rapid Prototyping System Gives Wheels To Wearables

April 21, 2020 by Kristina Panos 7 Comments

Wearables are kind of a perplexing frontier for electronics. On the one hand, it’s the best possible platform for showing off a circuit everywhere you go. On the other hand, the whole endeavor is fiddly because the human body has no straight lines and moves around quite a bit. Circuits need to be flexible and comfortable. In other words, a wearable has to be bearable.

[Konstantin], [Raimund], and [Jürgen] have developed an intriguing system for prototyping e-textiles that opens up the wearables world to those who don’t sew and makes the prototyping process way easier for everyone.

It’s a small and portable roll-on ironing device that lays down different kinds of custom ‘tapes’ on to textiles. The conductive fabric tapes can be used as touchable traces, and can support components such as flexible e-ink screens and solar panels. Some tapes provide single or multiple points of connectivity, and others are helper substrates like polyimide tape that multiply the possibilities for complex circuits.

The device uses a modified soldering iron to transfer the tapes, which are loaded onto 3D-printed spools that double as the wheels. Check it out after the break — there’s a 30-second tour and a 5-minute exploration of the whole process.

Everyone needs to prototype, even the seasoned stitchers. The next time you’re thinking in thread, throw some magnets into the process.

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PCB Mill Turns Out Stylish Necklace

April 7, 2020 by Lewin Day 6 Comments

When needing a custom PCB, most of us will whip up design files and send them off to a board house. Prices are low and turnaround times are bearable, with quality that’s difficult to replicate at home. The old methods still have some value however, as [Bantam Tools] demonstrate with this attractive glowing hummingbird necklace.

The back side of the pendant neatly hides a button cell battery and a small SMD switch.

The necklace is made of copper-clad board, the type typically used by those who would etch their own PCBs at home. In this case, the board is placed on a [Bantam Tools] mill, which removes copper strategically and cuts out the final shape. This creates a series of traces on the back for a battery, LEDs and a small swtich, while creating areas on the other side of the board for light to shine through.

With a battery installed, the LEDs on the back side of the necklace glow through the fiberglass for a beautiful effect. With a PCB mill and a reflow oven, it’s remarkably easy to make, too. Of course, if you like your parts density a little higher, these FPGA earrings might be more your speed!