Hackaday Prize: An Autonomous Beach Art Robot

April 29, 2017 by Dan Maloney 26 Comments

Some people find it hard to look at a huge, flat expanse of floor or ground and not see a canvas. From the outfield grass of a baseball park to some poor farmer’s wheat field, trampling, trimming or painting patterns can present an irresistible temptation. But the larger the canvas the more challenging the composition will be, which is where this autonomous beach-combing art robot comes into play.

Very much still a work in progress, [pablo.odysseus]’ beach bot was built to take advantage of the kilometers-wide beaches left by the receding tides near his home. That immense canvas is begging to be groomed, and this bot is built for the task. The running gear itself is simple – an extruded aluminum chassis powered by wheelchair drives with added optical encoders and dragging a retractable rake – but the bot is bristling with electronics dedicated to navigation. A pair of Arduinos run the dual odometers, compass, and a GNSS receiver, as well as providing a smartphone interface for on-the-fly changes. The art is composed as a DXF file converted to latitude and longitude points and exported to Google Earth as a KML. That means the bot can just be brought to the beach and allowed to draw autonomously. An early test run is seen below the break; better “brushes” are in the works.

Watching the art unfold on a beach would be relaxing, like watching a zen garden being created. We’re looking forward to [pablo]’s progress on this one. Of course, art bots aren’t the only autonomous machines that big, wide beaches attract.

Continue reading “Hackaday Prize: An Autonomous Beach Art Robot” →

Hackaday Prize Entry: A Double Action Keyboard

April 28, 2017 by Brian Benchoff 31 Comments

Mechanical keyboards are the in thing right now and building your own is at least two extra levels of nerd cred. This project, entered in the Hackaday Prize, is a DIY keyboard unlike you’ve ever seen. It is a fundamental shift in the ideas of how a computer keyboard can work. It’s a double action keyboard. Press a key lightly, and one character will show up on the screen. Press hard, and a different character will show up on the screen. You’ve never seen anything like this before.

[Jaakob] designed this keyboard so that each keycap would have two switches underneath. He did this by taking regular ‘ol Cherry MX switches and modifying them so the ‘plunger’ would stick out of the bottom of the switch when it was fully depressed. These Cherry switches were mounted to a piece of perfboard, and a small tact switch soldered underneath. It’s an idea similar to what’s found in touch-sensitive MIDI controllers or the other type of keyboard. The difference here is that instead of using two switches to sense how hard a key is being pressed, it maps to two different functions.

Once [Jaakob] figured out how to put two switches under one keycap, he wired up a matrix, attached a Teensy, and took a crack at the firmware. The build isn’t quite done yet, but this is one of the most innovative DIY keyboards we’ve seen in recent memory. There’s a lot of potential here, and this method of ganging two switches together still allows for the fantastic clack and great feel of a mechanical switch.

72 Hours To Design Your Concept

April 28, 2017 by Mike Szczys 11 Comments

The first challenge of the 2017 Hackaday Prize closes on this coming Monday morning. You have about 72 hours hours to submit your entry.

The challenge, called Design Your Concept, is really about a plan. Seeing a project through depends greatly on your ability to foresee where the pain points are. Will you get half way into your fabrication process and realize the PCB components won’t fit in the available space for your robot’s limbs? To be successful at this first round, show that you have a clear plan on all aspects of your design. It really is that easy. And you can start now and still get an entry together by Monday morning.

IuT ! IoT

The Hackaday Prize is about Building Something that Matters. That concept takes shape as we move into the second challenge round next week: IuT ! IoT.

This stands for “Internet of Useful Things, *not* Internet of Things”. We’ve proven that we can get connected devices into the hands of consumers that are useless, a privacy and security nightmare, and sometimes both. There are far fewer examples of really useful connected items that demonstrate a balance of privacy, security, and utility.

Sounds like fun, right? We think so, and there are several other payoffs to boot. The first is that we’re excited to see projects that address a social good. There is great power in technology, can you wield it in a way that benefits us all? Show us what you got and you may be one of 100 finalists awarded $1000. That pool of finalists — 20 from each of 5 challenge rounds — will go on to compete for the Hackaday Prize of $50,000 and four other top cash prizes of $20,000 to $5,000.

Hackaday Prize Bring-a-Hack At Make Munich Next Week!

April 27, 2017 by Elliot Williams 10 Comments

Attention Europe! Next weekend, May 6th and 7th, is Make Munich. Hackaday wants to help you warm up with a Bring-a-Hack party on Friday, May 5th from 20:30 and on at the Munich local branch of the Chaos Computer Club.

Immediately following build-up for exhibitors at Make Munich, head on over to Schleißheimer Str. 41 (corner Heßstrasse, U-Bahn Theresienstraße) where Hackaday will be providing beer, Mate, and pizza for anyone who brings along a small project that they’re working on. We’ll have Hackaday.com and Hackaday Prize stickers galore, and a few copies of the Hackaday Omnibus on hand for those who really wow us, or just ask really nicely.

Afterwards, get a little sleep and then head back over to Make Munich on Saturday morning. We’ll be wandering around at least on Saturday, so if you see anyone in a Hackaday t-shirt, say hi! There is a lot to see.

Unlike other similar fairs, Make Munich is entirely volunteer-run, and a great way to show your support for the local scene is to help out. The deal: hang out with cool people and help run the show for four hours, and you get in free. We’ve heard that they still have some shifts open.

Saturday night is the Hebocon terrible robot battle, which is always absurd, and always worth the price of admission. (And you’ve already paid that if you’re going to attend on Saturday anyway.) Rules are sumo-esque, and if your lump of, well whatever, moves — it’s a robot and it has a chance. Battle starts at 18:30. Check out the video from last year embedded below.

If you still want more Make Munich, it goes on Sunday as well. We’ll be at home typing up the previous days’ events so the rest of you can read about it while sipping coffee.

Just in case you missed it in all the hubbub, we repeat: Hackaday Prize Bring-a-Hack at μC3, Friday May 5th from 20:30 on.

Come say hi to [Elliot Williams] and all of your other favorite Munich hackers! Bring a hack, show and tell, pizza and beer. And Mate, and probably Spezi. If you’re coming, shout out in the comments, and let us know your favorite toppings. Continue reading “Hackaday Prize Bring-a-Hack At Make Munich Next Week!” →

Hackaday Prize Entry: An Automated Still

April 27, 2017 by Brian Benchoff 27 Comments

We’ve seen plenty of Arduinofied home brewing setups, and kegerators are a fairly standard project for the types of people we hang out with. What we haven’t seen a lot of are home stills. There are unfortunate reasons for this. First off, distilling alcohol is illegal in a few parts of the world if you don’t have a license or tax stamp. Second, vapors explode. Third, wood alcohol is poison.

That said, [TegwynTwmffat’s] project for the Hackaday Prize is the coolest and the safest alcohol still we’ve ever seen. It’s fully automated, small, safe, and there are video game noises sprinkled about the user interface.

The boiler for this nano still is constructed out of a keg, but that was just the starting point. [Tegwyn] removed the bottom of the keg, installed a new bottom, and coupled that bottom to a hot plate. The top of the keg was modified to accept a 2 inch brass fitting that was beautifully welded into place. From the boiler, the alcohol vapor goes into an air-cooled condenser, and all this equipment is housed in a welded steel frame. You couldn’t make something out of aluminum extrusion that looks this good.

The electronics include a hydrometer, an electronic alcohol vapor sensor, several temperature sensors an Arduino Mega, and a GPRS module for controlling the entire setup over the Internet. At various points in the distillation process, the Arduino plays audio files of a robot voice saying what’s going on in the still.

Right now, [Tegwyn] is distilling barley wine and cider into alcohol. The volume produced isn’t much — the keg is only 10 liters, after all — but this is one of the best stills we’ve ever seen. You can check out a video of [Tegwyn] walking us through the project below.

Continue reading “Hackaday Prize Entry: An Automated Still” →

Friday Hack Chat: The Hackaday Prize

April 27, 2017 by Brian Benchoff No comments

Did you know Hackaday is hosting a fantastic contest to build hardware and software? It’s true! The Hackaday Prize will award hundreds of thousands of dollars to Hackaday community members for building the coolest hardware designed to make a difference in the world.

The Hackaday Prize has many ways to enter, focusing on several themes throughout this year. We’ll be discussing that and opening the floor to questions. Tomorrow, Friday, April 28, at noon, Pacific time, we’re hosting a Hack Chat for the Hackaday Prize over on Hackaday.io.

Our guest host for this chat is [Alberto], creator of the project that won last year’s Hackaday Prize. He’ll be in the Hack Chat telling everyone what he learned from last year’s Hackaday Prize. If we’re lucky, he might even tell us something about what building his project out in the Supply Frame Design Lab is like. It’s all very cool, and it’s going down tomorrow at noon, PDT.

Here’s How To Take Part:

Our Hack Chats are live community events on the Hackaday.io Hack Chat group messaging.

Log into Hackaday.io, visit that page, and look for the ‘Join this Project’ Button. Once you’re part of the project, the button will change to ‘Team Messaging’, which takes you directly to the Hack Chat.

You don’t have to wait until tomorrow; join whenever you want and you can see what the community is talking about.

And Tindie, Too!

Next Tuesday, we’re going to have another chat geared toward sellers on Tindie, the online marketplace where anyone can buy or sell DIY hardware.

This time around, we’re talking about Kickstarter. We roped [Zach Dunham] into this one. He’s the Design & Technology Outreach Lead at Kickstarter, and by every measure a really cool guy.

[Zach] will discuss the ins and outs of turning a hardware project into a Kickstarter campaign. Surprisingly, there’s a significant overlap between Tindie sellers and Kickstarter — some sellers test their ideas on Tindie and build up to doing a crowd funding campaign. Others complete a campaign and then come over to Tindie to sell excess inventory or second runs. Either way, there’s a great opportunity for market verification or simply getting your gear into the hands of those who want to use it.

If you want to get in on the Kickstarter chat action, head on over to the Tindie Dog Park. Request to join the project and show up in the chat sometime before 1pm Pacific on Tuesday, May 2.

Hackaday Prize Entry: HID Dial

April 26, 2017 by Brian Benchoff 10 Comments

Microsoft has introduced a few interesting bits of hardware recently, and the most drool worthy by far is the Microsoft Surface Dial. What is this magical input device that will revolutionize creative work on a computer? Basically, it’s a Griffin PowerMate — a rotary encoder and button — an interface that really hasn’t changed in a decade and a half.

[K.C. Lee] figures a device this simple would make for a great Hackaday Prize entry, so he built a USB HID multimedia dial. It’s a rotary encoder and a button. This one lights up, though, making this a gamer USB HID multimedia dial.

The electronics for this build are based around the STM8S003, an extraordinarily cheap microcontroller that will work well enough in this application. The mechanical part of this build is a little more interesting; [K.C.] says not everyone has access to fancy CNC or 3D printing equipment, so he built this model out of bits of plastic, metal, and superglue. This enclosure is literally an old superglue bottle cap, an empty dental floss spool, and bits of metal. It works, and took less time to build than it would take to design in a CAD program.

Right now, [K.C.] is working through some USB issues with the STM8 microcontroller. Once those issues are behind him, he’ll have a very cool and very useful input device sitting on his desk. It might look like parts waiting for the recycling bin, but it will be at least as useful as the fancy Microsoft version.