10-Way Game Console Lets Everyone Play

[Bitluni]’s motto seems to be, “When you’re busy, get busier.” At least that would explain adding even more work to his plate in the run-up to the Hanover Maker Faire and coming up with a ten-player game console from scratch.

As for this being extra work, recall that [bitluni] had already committed to building a giant ping pong ball LED wall for the gathering. That consisted of prototyping a quarter-scale panel, building custom tooling to get him past the literal pain point of punching 1200 holes, and wiring, programming and testing the whole display. Building a game console that supports ten players at once seems almost tame by comparison. The console is built around an ESP32 module, either WROOM or WROVER thanks to a clever multifunctional pad layout on the slick-looking white PCBs. [bitluni] went with a composite video output using the fast R-2R ladder network DAC that he used for his ESP32 VGA project. The console supports ten Nintendo gamepads for a simple but engaging game something like the Tron light cycles. Unsurprisingly, players found it more fun to just crash into each other on purpose.

Sure, it could have been biting off more than he could chew, but [bitluni] delivered and we appreciate the results. There’s something to be said for adding a little pressure to the creative process.

Continue reading “10-Way Game Console Lets Everyone Play”

Fun Audio Waveform Generator Is More Than The Sum Of Its Parts

[Joekutz] wanted to re-build an audio-rate function generator project that he found over on Instructables. By itself, the project is very simple: it’s an 8-bit resistor-ladder DAC, a nice enclosure, and the rest is firmware.

[Joekutz] decided this wasn’t enough. He needed an LCD display, a speaker, and one-hertz precision. The LCD display alone is an insane hack. He reverse-engineers a calculator simply to use the display. But instead of mapping each key on the calculator and typing each number in directly, he only taps the four 1, +, =, and clear keys. He can then enter arbitrary numbers by typing in the right number of ones and adding them up. 345 = 111 + 111 + 111 + 11 + 1. In his video, embedded below, he describes this as a “rather stupid” idea. We think it’s hilarious.

Continue reading “Fun Audio Waveform Generator Is More Than The Sum Of Its Parts”

Reviving A Dead Zanzithophone

It’s great to hear from people who say they’re inspired to fix stuff by reading about hacks here on Hackaday. [Michael Lüftenegger] from Salzburg is one of them. About a year back, he snagged a digital horn from eBay that turned out to be dead-er than advertised and he wrote a post about how he fixed it and gave it a second life.

The Casio DH-100 is an electronic MIDI digital wind controller/synthesizer musical instrument. Your breath flows through the instrument, making it feel pretty similar to acoustic wind instruments. [Michael]’s unit had already seen some attempted, but unsuccessful repairs. Nothing that could not be fixed, except that the main pressure sensor was missing. Without the sensor, the instrument was practically useless. The eBay seller wasn’t lying when he described the unit as working with breath mode turned off!
Continue reading “Reviving A Dead Zanzithophone”