Controlling Real World Objects From Your Lucid Dream For $15

August 8, 2013 by Mathieu Stephan 11 Comments

[Kyle Fredericks] tipped us about his first electronics project, a cheap and smart sleep mask that uses a vibration sensor to detect rapid eye movements.

As some of you may know, REM sleep is the part where you dream the most vividly and actively. If some external stimulation (sound, movement) is sent to you at this moment, it may help you take control of your dream by becoming aware of it. If not, your brain will create dream scenarios that incorporate this stimulus.

The interesting part of the concept is that the vibration sensor calibrates itself at the stage 2 sleep, when no eye movement occurs. This later allows a very accurate detection of the REM sleep stage, triggering a shelf stereo. Secondary buttons are even included in the mask sides.

[Kyle Fredericks] went to great lengths to document every step of the project, making it a perfect first step to learn electronics for beginners out there.

DIY Prescription Swimming Goggles

August 4, 2013 by Mike Szczys 12 Comments

diy-prescription-swimming-googles

We can’t see much without our glasses (which is why our habit of shaving in the shower often ends badly). Our glasses cost a bundle, but we wear them every waking moment so it’s worth it. But only recently did we break down and spring for prescription sunglasses. However, when it comes to sports we don’t pony up the dough for dedicated specs. Here’s a hack that will change that. If you’ve still got your last set of glasses on hand hack up the lenses for swimming goggles or other applications.

In this case [Dashlb’s] lenses were already small enough to fit in the goggles. He simply added a bead of Sugru around the edges to hold the lenses in place. But if you do need to cut them to size aligning the lenses with your eyes is important, so we suggest the following: have a buddy stand in front of you and mark the center of your pupil on the glasses, as well as the goggles. If you need to cut down the lenses (which are probably a type of polycarbonate) just make sure the marks match up before doing any cutting.

We might give this a try with some wrap-around sunglasses to make an inexpensive pair of prescription cycling shades.

Tools And Talent For Custom Platinum Jewelry

July 30, 2013 by Mike Szczys No comments

The diamond engagement ring is arguably the most universally adopted of all jewelry. It’s artwork that even the most common men and women appreciate, and it’s creation calls for skills that go back centuries. [Jerome Kelty] crafts custom jewelry from platinum. Here’s an in-depth look at his process.

The first step of his Instructable post is so long you might be fooled into thinking it’s the whole post. He shows off the equipment that he used in taking this ring from design to reality — we thought the use of beeswax to pick up small stones is an interesting technique.

Click through the steps to see that he starts with a cad drawing. This model is sent offsite for casting and arrives back as an oversized blank which he then begins to clean up. A range of differend files bring it to its finished shape. He preps the areas where stones will be set. A trip to the buffing wheel gives it the shine it needs before the diamonds are put in place.

Regular Hackaday readers may recognize his name. When [Jerome] isn’t making jewelry he’s building animatronics, like Predator or Stargate replicas.

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Predator Suit For Monsterpalooza Includes Over-engineered Shoulder Cannon

July 24, 2013 by Mike Szczys 11 Comments

off-the-hook-predator-suit

This Predator suit was premiered at this year’s Monsterpalooza conference. It’s nothing short of incredible. But the shoulder cannon is really what caught our attention. The thing is fully motorized and includes sound and light firing effects.

We saw a glimpse of what [Jerome Kelty] is capable of about two years ago. He was showing off an Arduino-based animatronics platform he put together for a Predator shoulder cannon that tracked based on where the predator’s helmet was pointing. But other than a video demonstration there wasn’t much info on the that actual build. This post makes up for that and then some.

A replica of this quality is rarely the work of just one person. A team of fans joined in to make it happen. After getting the molded parts for the backpack and canon from another team member [Jerome] set out to fit the support structure, motors, and control electronics into the space available. That meant a ton of milling, cutting, and shaping parts like the support arm seen above which integrates a servo motor into its rectangular outline. All of the controls fit in the backpack, with cables running to the helmet, as well as the cannon.

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Leather Wallet Making Involves More Than You Think

July 22, 2013 by Mike Szczys 2 Comments

It’s not rocket science, but ending up with a beautifully crafted leather wallet like this one takes quite a bit more than you might think.

The project starts off with already tanned leather, so that definitely saves on time. The pieces are marked out on the stock before being cut with a hobby knife. There’s still a long way to go before you can start stitching though. The thickness of the edges is trimmed down and then burnished with a rotary tool. A channel is cut just inside the edges to receive the thickness of the thread. Holes are marked with a special tool, then bored using an awl. Once stitched together the edges are sanded perfectly flush before being burnished.

Just from the look of it we’d guess it’ll hold up years longer than anything you can buy at an ordinary big box retailer.

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A Custom Cooler, Sewing Not Required

July 10, 2013 by Brian Benchoff 22 Comments

soduh

When you go to the beach or on a camping trip this summer, notice how you pack your cooler. Your beverages already come in a box, yet you remove them and put them in a larger, insulated box. [Jason] thought it would be a great idea to just add insulation to a case of soda (or other beverages, we assume) and ended up making a custom soda cooler.

The fabrication of this cooler is actually pretty simple. A layer of flexible foam is sandwiched between two layers of waterproof vinyl with spray glue. After tracing out a pattern, [Jason] then cut this fabric into panels and glued them together into a soda box-sized cooler. Simple, elegant, and something even hackers that didn’t take home ec can put together in a few hours.

As an aside, we at Hackaday seem to forget the ‘softer’ builds of fabric, foam, and paper far too often. That doesn’t mean we eschew these projects; I have a barely post-war Singer 15 sewing machine right above my workbench. Send us a tip if you have one of these soft hacks. We’d love to see it.

Video of the build below.

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Is An LED Bow Tie Ironic Or Awesome?

July 4, 2013 by Mike Szczys 40 Comments

led-bowtie

We’re not exactly trend setters when it comes to wardrobe. And so the recent revival of the bow tie as an accepted dress item confounds us. We’re even more confused by [Arichter’s] LED bow tie. Sure, the hobby electronics part of it is a win… but when it comes to fashion is he making fun of the bow tie wearers, or setting a new standard?

The tie is made of three PCBs, which lets the wings sit on a bit different plane than the center. He populated the boards with about 100 RGB LED modules which he desoldered from a couple of meters of LED strip. They draw a lot of juice and to supply that he uses a boost converter. A standard Arduino UNO board controls the lights.

If you’re still sold on the bow tie form factor we’d like to direct your attention to this long-tie version. It doesn’t just show patterns, but plays a wicked game of Tetris with you as the game board.

[via Reddit]