Zero To Custom MacroPad In 37 Easy Steps

October 21, 2024 by Dave Rowntree 5 Comments

[Jeremy Weatherford] clearly has a knack for explaining projects well enough for easy reproduction but goes way further than most and has created a four-part YouTube series detailing every step from project inception to the final assembly, covering all aspects of 3D modelling and PCB design for a custom MacroPad design. Many tools are introduced along the way, all of which help reduce complexity and, by extension, the scope for errors. As every beginner hacker knows, early successes breed confidence and make for better and more ambitious projects.

Part 1 covers the project motivation and scope and introduces a keyboard layout editor tool. This tool allows one to take a layout idea and generate a JSON file, which is then used to drive keyboard tools. XYZ to produce a usable KiCAD project. The tool only generates a PCB project and an associated netlist file. No schematic is created; you don’t need one for a simple layout.

Part 2 is a walkthrough of the design process in KiCAD, culminating in ordering the PCB from JLCPCB and assembling the surface-mount parts. This particular design uses a controller based on the Sea-Picro RP2040 module, but there are many options if you have other preferences. [Jeremy] shows what’s possible with the selected suppliers, but you need not follow this step precisely if you have other ideas or want to use someone local.

Part 3 covers exporting the mechanical aspects of the PCB out of KiCAD and into a 3D CAD program, specifically OnShape. [Jeremy] covers some crucial details, such as how to read the mechanical drawing of the keys to work out where to place the top plate. It’s very easy to plough straight in at this stage and make a design which cannot be assembled! The plan is to use a simple laser-cut box with a bottom plate with mounting holes lining up with those on the PCB. A Top plate is created by taking the outline of the PCB and adding a little margin. An array of rectangular cutouts are designed for the keys to protrude, lining up perfectly with where the keys would be when mounted on the PCB below. The sides of the case are formed from laser-cut sections that lock into each other and the laser-cut base—using the laser joint feature-script addon tool from the OnShape community channel. A second feature script addon is used to auto-layout the laser-cut components onto a single sheet. A CAM application called Kiri Moto is used to export for laser cutting and is available on the OnShape store.

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OnShape To Robot Models Made Easier

February 28, 2021 by Al Williams 7 Comments

We live in a time where our phones have computing power that would have been the envy of NASA a few decades ago. So, in theory, we should be able to simulate just about anything. Thanks to [rhoban], robots you design in OnShape — a popular CAD tool — are now easier to simulate using several common simulation tools.

Electronic circuits are pretty easy to simulate, because we typically draw schematics and circuit simulators can capture those schematics readily. But simulating physics for robotic designs is a bit trickier. Gazebo and Pybullet both can use SDF files or URDF. However, building those files is often a separate process from actual physical design even though you probably did the design using a CAD tool. Even if you don’t use OnShape, you can probably import your preferred format and then bridge to the simulation file format without having to manually recreate your design. You can see the author walk through the process in the video below.

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Reachy The Open Source Robot Says Bonjour

January 14, 2021 by Roger Cheng 11 Comments

Humanoid robots always attract attention, but anyone who tries to build one quickly learns respect for a form factor we take for granted because we were born with it. Pollen Robotics wants to help move the field forward with Reachy: a robot platform available both as a product and as a wealth of information shared online.

This French team has released open source robots before. We’ve looked at their Poppy robot and see a strong family resemblance with Reachy. Poppy was a very ambitious design with both arms and legs, but it could only ever walk with assistance. In contrast Reachy focuses on just the upper body. One of the most interesting innovations is found in Reachy’s neck, a cleverly designed 3 DOF mechanism they called Orbita. Combined with two moving antennae at the top of the head, Reachy can emote a wide range of expressions despite not having much of a face. The remainder of Reachy’s joints are articulated with Dynamixel serial bus servos though we see an optional Orbita-based hand attachment in the demo video (embedded below).

Reachy’s € 19,990 price tag may be affordable relative to industrial robots, but it’s pretty steep for the home hacker. No need to fret, those of us with smaller bank accounts can still join the fun because Pollen Robotics has open sourced a lot of Reachy details. Digging into this information, we see Reachy has a Google Coral for accelerating TensorFlow and a Raspberry Pi 4 for general computation. Mechanical designs are released via web-based Onshape CAD. Reachy’s software suite on GitHub is primarily focused on Python, which allows us to experiment within a Jupyter notebook. Simulation can be done within Unity 3D game engine, which can be optionally compiled to run in a browser like the simulation playground. But academic robotics researchers are not excluded from the fun, as ROS1 integration is also available though ROS2 support is still on the to-do list.

Reachy might not be as sophisticated as some humanoid designs we’ve seen, and without a lower body there’s no way for it to dance. But we are very appreciative of a company willing to share knowledge with the world. May it spark new ideas for the future.

[via Engadget]

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Custom Calculator Rolls D20 So You Don’t Have To

March 17, 2019 by Tom Nardi 19 Comments

There are a number of sticking points that can keep new players away from complex tabletop games such as Dungeons & Dragons. Some people are intimidated by the math involved, and of course others just can’t find enough friends who are willing to sit down and play D&D with them in 2019. While this gadget created by [Caleb Everett] won’t help you get more open minded friends, it will take some of the mental gymnastics out of adding up dice rolls.

In its current form the device saves you from the hassle of not only having to roll various combinations of physical dice, but adding up all the faces after the fact as well. In the future [Caleb] plans on adding more advanced software features which will allow for tricks not possible with real dice, such as increasing the likelihood of rolling numbers which haven’t been seen in awhile. Now that the hardware is put together, he’s free to dig into the software side of things and really get creative.

Inside the 3D printed case of his calculator there’s a Adafruit Feather M0 Express, a 128 x 32 OLED display, and a 2200 mAh lithium ion battery that lets him go mobile. The keys, which are Cherry MX clones, are wired directly to the digital pins of the Feather board as [Caleb] found that easier to wrap his head around than doing a matrix. This ended up working out as he had enough pins, but does stifle future expansion a bit.

Even if you aren’t into the sort of tabletop gaming which would benefit from an automatic dice roller and tabulator, we think [Caleb] has come up with a very neat form factor for similar pocket sized gadgets. It reminds us of the Handlink from Quantum Leap; before the prop department swapped it out for a jumble of gummy bears later on in the series, anyway. Since he’s shared the link to the OnShape project, you can even tweak the design a bit without having to suffer through modifying the STLs.

Many of the electronic dice we’ve seen in the past have tried to emulate the size and appearance of traditional dice, so it’s interesting to see this approach which goes in the opposite direction entirely. Critics might say that at some point you’d be better off just using a software application for your smartphone, but we’re not in the business of complaining when people produce interesting pieces of hardware.

Hackaday Links: May 22, 2016

May 22, 2016 by Brian Benchoff 33 Comments

Lulzbot’s TAZ 6 has been released. Lulzbot’s printers consistently place in the top three of any 3D printing list, and the TAZ 6 will likely be no exception. [James Bruton] was one of the lucky ones who got a review unit, and first looks are promising. The TAZ 6 has the auto bed leveling found in the Lulzbot Mini, and a ‘power tower’ for all the electronics. There are completely unconfirmed rumors (or someone told me and I forgot who) that the power tower will be available separately at some point.

The most impressive circuit we’ve seen this ~~week~~ ~~month~~ year is the dis-integrated 6502. It’s a discrete 6502 CPU, about a square foot in size. It’s slow, but it works. RAM and ROM is easy to make embiggened, which means someone needs to build a dis-integrated 6522 VIA. Who’s game?

[Jeremy Cook] wanted to learn another CAD package, in this case Onshape. Onshape is the ‘first cloud-only CAD package’, which has one huge bonus – you can run it anywhere, on anything – and one huge minus – it’s in the cloud. He designed a bicycle cupholder.

Last week, several thousand Raspberry Pi Zeros shipped out to retailers in the US and UK. For a time, Pi Zeros were in stock in some online stores. Now? Not so much. Where did they all go? eBay, apparently. It’s called arbitrage, and it’s the only risk-free form of investment.

Remember those ‘bed of nails’ toys, that were basically two sheets of plastic, with hundreds of small pins able to make 3D impressions of your face and hands. No, there is no official name for these devices, but here’s a Kickstarter for a very clever application of these toys. You can use them to hold through hole parts while soldering. Brilliant.

You should not pay attention to 3D printers on Kickstarter. Repeat after me: you should not give money to 3D printers on Kickstarter. Here’s a 3D printer on Kickstarter, promising a 3D printer for $74. I own several hats, and will eat one if this ships by next year.

Remember bash.org? It’s being reimplemented on hackaday.io.