PET-Gaming Computer Module

August 24, 2010 by Jakob Griffith 9 Comments

This 64×48 full color LED display goes much further than we expected at first glance. The display is actually a computer with a Zilog eZ80F91 core utilizing an FPGA for the hardware interface. Some nifty applications currently built include mostly games, but there is also visualizations, network file systems, video streaming, and even a MIDI synth.

It originally looked to be more of a console, with controllers, game pads, and cartridges, but the latter ended up not working out. What else would you do with a giant LED display?

A Different Take On Electric Motor Cars

August 23, 2010 by Jakob Griffith 43 Comments

[Craig Carmichael] has been hard at work on his electric hub motor for cars. Unlike typical electrical vehicles the plan is to bypass the transmission, differential, and everything else all together by connecting directly to the hub of the wheel. The goal of giving greater thrust and still allowing the use of a gas engine if need be.

There’s really too much detail for us to even begin to try to explain the entire project in a short recap, but [Craig] builds the entire motor (from magnets to coil windings) and wires his own controller (from schematic to finished PCB), all while documenting the process thoroughly for those wishing to make their own.

One-handed GameCube Controller

August 12, 2010 by Mike Szczys 10 Comments

[Hasse] built a one-handed video game controller for his brother. He fit everything he needed into the body of an existing controller and came up with a very usable system. The controller will be right-hand only, so the left shoulder button was moved underneath the right side where your middle finger can get at it. This leaves the d-pad and the left analog stick to account for. By combining an ATtiny44A, an accelerometer, and a digital to analog converter the controller can sense motion. The microcontroller reads in the accelerometer data, gives user feedback via four added LEDs on the d-pad, and the DAC feeds the appropriate signals back into the controller as if you were using the stick. There is even a switch to select whether the motion data is mapped to the analog stick or to the d-pad. We’ve included a demo video after the break.

Find that you also need some one-armed typing assistance? Check out this half-qwerty keyboard hack. Continue reading “One-handed GameCube Controller” →

Out Now: EL Coat, Coming Soon: EL Hat

August 10, 2010 by Jakob Griffith 41 Comments

[Render] says his coat is simply “enhanced with EL wire”, but we know the truth. He’s secretly an alien that can’t block out all of his glowing green skin with a the black coat. No? Fine,

You can put away the sewing machine, [Render] simply used a needle and fishing line to attach ~50-70 foot of electroluminescent wire to the outside of a coat he picked up at a local clothing shop. Solder and program in an inverter and controller board thanks to SparkFun, and you’re ready to go.

Just double check all your connections, high voltage directly on your person is not fun. Trust us.

Servo Controller Board

July 18, 2010 by Mike Szczys 17 Comments

This board is [Eric Seifert’s] venture into working with AVR microcontrollers. He has worked with PIC microcontrollers in the past and used the goal of developing a servo controller board as his motivation to try the grass on the other side of the fence. He found he likes the AVR line for its ease of development under Linux, a feature we also appreciate. What he ended up with is a tiny board that controls up to eight servo motors. If you’ve got a project that is spilling over with servo-controlled limbs, maybe this will save you some development time.

NES Controller To USB Gamepad

June 30, 2010 by Mike Szczys 24 Comments

Regular Hackaday reader [Osgeld] is at it again with this USB conversion for an NES controller. This is a ubiquitous hack that we started seeing very early on, sometimes involving an adapter kit, and other times including things like a thumb drive and USB hub. But this time around is truly a bare-bones version. He’s using an Arduino but it’s really just an AVR ATmega168 running the bootloader. We’d wager this can be done with an ATmega8 just as easily. Grab a couple of diodes (we never seem to have the 3.6v zener diodes around when we need them), a couple caps and resistors, a crystal and you’re in business. The hack wires each button to a pin and implements a keyboard HID that can be mapped for any purpose you desire.

Massive MIDI Station Ditches The Monitor

June 12, 2010 by Mike Szczys 15 Comments

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8WQU-Lrm3D8]

Who need’s a touch screen when you’ve got 800 inputs each backlit with an RGB LED? This impressive controller was built by Ander for use in his performances. He did it with the intent to get rid of the computer monitor in his setup. We think there’s something to be said about that. It seems weird to go to a performance and see the artist staring at a screen the whole time. Unfortunately we don’t have too many details about the hardware but we can tell you that he’s using Ableton Live on the software side of things.