Just like the garage computer explosion of the 70’s through the 80’s, which brought us such things as Apple, pong, Bill Gate’s hair, and the proliferation of personal computers, the maker movement is the new garage hardware explosion. Today, 135 million adults in the United States alone are involved in the maker movement.
Enthusiasts who want to build the products they want, from shortwave radios to personal computers, and to tweak products they’ve bought to make them even better, have long been a part of the electronics industry. By all measures, garage-style innovation remains alive and well today, as “makers” as they are called continue to turn out contemporary gadgets, including 3D printers, drones, and embedded electronics devices.
Making is about individual Do-It-Yourselfers being able to design and create with tools that were, as of a decade or two ago, only available to large, cash-rich corporations: CAD tools, CNC mills, 3D printers, low-quantity PCB manufacturing, open hardware such as Arduinos and similar inexpensive development boards – all items that have made it easier and relatively cheap to make whatever we imagine. For individuals, maker tools can change how someone views their home or their hobbies. The world is ours to make. Humans are genetically wired to be makers. The maker movement is simply the result of making powerful building and communication tools accessible to the masses. There are plenty of projects from makers that show good engineering: Take this Arduino board with tremendous potential, developed by a young maker, as example.
The maker movement is a catalyst to democratize entrepreneurship as these do-it-yourself electronics are proving to be hot sellers: In the past year, unit sales for 3D printing related products; Arduino units, parts and supplies; Raspberry Pi boards; drones and quadcopters; and robotics goods are all on a growth curve in terms of eBay sales. There are many Kickstarter maker projects going on. The Pebble E-Paper Watch raises $10 million. The LIFX smartphone-controlled LED bulb raises $1.3 million. What do these products have in common? They both secured funding through Kickstarter, a crowd-funding website that is changing the game for entrepreneurs. Both products were created by makers who seek to commercialize their inventions. These “startup makers” iterate on prototypes with high-end tools at professional makerspaces.
For companies to remain competitive, they need to embrace the maker movement or leave themselves open for disruption. Researchers found that 96 percent of business leaders believe new technologies have forever changed the rules of business by democratizing information and rewiring customer expectations. - You’ve got to figure out agile innovation. Maybe history is repeating itself as the types of products being sold reminded us of the computer tinkering that used to be happening in the 1970s to 1990s – similar in terms of demographics, tending to be young people, and low budget. Now the do-it-yourself category is deeply intertwined with the electronics industry. Open hardware is in the center in maker movement – we need open hardware designs! How can you publish your designs and still do business with it? Open source ecosystem markets behave differently and therefore require a very different playbook than traditional tech company: the differentiation is not in the technology you build; it is in the process and expertise that you slowly amass over an extended period of time.
By democratizing the product development process, helping these developments get to market, and transforming the way we educate the next generation of innovators, we will usher in the next industrial revolution. The world is ours to make. Earlier the PC created a new generation of software developers who could innovate in the digital world without the limitations of the physical world (virtually no marginal cost, software has become the great equalizer for innovation. Now advances in 3D printing and low-cost microcontrollers as well as the ubiquity of advanced sensors are enabling makers to bridge software with the physical world. Furthermore, the proliferation of wireless connectivity and cloud computing is helping makers contribute to the Internet of Things (IoT). We’re even beginning to see maker designs and devices entering those markets once thought to be off-limits, like medical.
Image source: The world is ours to make: The impact of the maker movement – EDN Magazine
In fact, many parents have engaged in the maker movement with their kids because they know that the education system is not adequately preparing their children for the 21st century. There is a strong movement to spread this DIY idea widely. The Maker Faire, which launched in the Bay Area in California in 2006, underlined the popularity of the movement by drawing a record 215,000 people combined in the Bay Area and New York events in 2014. There’s Maker Media, MakerCon, MakerShed, Make: magazine and 131 Maker Faire events that take place throughout the world. Now the founders of all these Makers want a way to connect what they refer to as the “maker movement” online. So Maker Media created a social network called MakerSpace, a Facebook-like social network that connects participants of Maker Faire in one online community. The new site will allow participants of the event to display their work online. There are many other similar sites that allow yout to present yout work fron Hackaday to your own blog. Today, 135 million adults in the United States alone are involved in the maker movement—although makers can be found everywhere in the world.
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Tomi Engdahl says:
Stanford researchers adapt a DIY robotics kit to give STEM students tools to automate biology experiments
http://news.stanford.edu/2017/03/21/adapting-diy-robot-kit-fill-test-tubes/
Modern biology labs often use robotic assemblies to drop precise amounts of fluids into experimental containers. Now students and teachers can create inexpensive automated systems to do this in clubs or classrooms.
Now, Stanford bioengineers have shown how an off-the shelf kit can be modified to create robotic systems capable of transferring precise amounts of fluids between flasks, test tubes and experimental dishes.
By combining the Lego Mindstorms robotics kit with a cheap and easy-to-find plastic syringe, the researchers created a set of liquid-handling robots that approach the performance of the far more costly automation systems found at universities and biotech labs.
Tomi Engdahl says:
EDM for the Cheap and Adventurous
http://hackaday.com/2017/04/04/edm-for-the-cheap-and-adventurous/
Laser cutters, waterjets, plasma cutters, CNC routers – most hackerspaces and even many dedicated home-gamers seem to have some kind of fancy tool for cutting sheet goods into intricate shapes. But with no access to a CNC machine and a need to cut a complex shape from sheet metal, [AlchemistDagger] cooked up this bare-bones and somewhat dangerous EDM rig to get the job done.
Electric discharge machining has been around for decades and is used a lot for harder metals like titanium and tool steel.
EDM – Electrical Discharge Machining
http://www.instructables.com/id/EDM-Electrical-Discharge-Machining/
I wanted a way to make a steel instructables character, so I decided to make my own EDM machine to help me.
EDM – Electrical Discharge Machining is a way of cutting metal using electricity, Similar to a plasma cutter except under water. The process is very common in manufacturing of injection molds. The process can be as simple as using a small diameter metal tube to cut a precise hole in a metal block to using a carved graphite block to machine a toy shape in a metal block for injection molding. Here i will be showing you how to make your own EDM machine using simple hand tools and supplies from your local hardware store.
Electrical discharge machining is a method of removing metal using an electric sparks, similar to a plasma cutter but on a much smaller scale and under wat
The circuit necessary to power the EDM is normally very complicated for industrial equipment, but it doesn’t have to be. This design dates back to March 1968, in Popular Science, pg 151-152. It simply takes 110V AC electricity, sends it through a diode rectifier to convert it to pulsating DC and a filter capacitor to smooth out the DC a little. The 200 watt light bulb acts as a current limiter
Tomi Engdahl says:
Maker Space: Electronics, Mechanics, and Art
http://www.eetimes.com/author.asp?section_id=36&doc_id=1331551&
Rescued oscilloscope finds a new home in the electronic/robotics lab at Artisan’s Asylum.
While I often think of maker spaces as being for people primarily building electronics, Artisan’s Asylum goes far beyond that. Indeed, the Asylum has space for people who make mechanical things such as bicycles, but sculptors use the equipment to make art from scrap metal and old bicycle parts. There’s even a business where someone makes prototype models and art from duct tape.
As you might expect, Artisan’s Asylum has an electronics lab, 3D printers, and a machine shop. Members can use the facilities to develop their ideas into working prototypes. The staff and volunteers at the Asylum work with makers to develop products and even connect them with a local PCB shop to make boards. There’s even a lecture space where members can learn about technology.
Several businesses rent space in the Asylum. One such business is Clipboard Engineering, a consulting company for industrial automation.
Funding for Artisan’s Asylum comes from memberships, rent, and donations. Much of the equipment is donated and the space can always use more test equipment, tools, parts, computers, 3D printers, machine-shop equipment, and so on.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Landscape to Portrait at the Click of a Mouse
http://hackaday.com/2017/04/05/landscape-to-portrait-at-the-click-of-a-mouse/
Modern 16:9 aspect ratio monitors may be great for watching a widescreen movie on Netflix, but for most PDFs, Word documents, and certain web pages, landscape just won’t do. But if you’re not writing the next great American novel and aren’t willing to commit to portrait mode, don’t — build an auto-rotating monitor to switch your aspect ratio on the fly.
Like many of us, [Bob] finds certain content less than suitable for the cinematic format that’s become the standard for monitors. His fix is simple in concept, but a little challenging to engineer. Using a lazy susan as a giant bearing, [Bob] built a swivel that can be powered by a NEMA 23 stepper and a 3D-printed sector of a ring gear.
Ultimate Monitor Stand
http://www.makingstuff.info/Projects/Ultimate_Monitor_Stand?AspxAutoDetectCookieSupport=1
Tomi Engdahl says:
A Maker Loupe
Wearable magnifier for comfortably working with small parts.
https://hackaday.io/project/19540-a-maker-loupe
Tomi Engdahl says:
World Create Day: the Hackaday Event in Your Town
http://hackaday.com/2017/04/05/world-create-day-the-hackaday-event-in-your-town/
It’s official, World Create Day is on April 22nd. Get together with hackers in your area and create something! This is best way to meet all the Hackaday readers in your area, and a great excuse to carve out a few hours of your busy life to have fun working on a project.
The Hackaday community around the world will meetup and spend time building together on Saturday, April 22nd. If you’re like us you have a long list of projects you want to do ‘some day’, this is the day. Pack up your current build (or grab gear to start a new one), get together with some old and new friends, and hack on your projects with each other.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Build Your Own In-Fridge Soda Fountain
http://hackaday.com/2017/04/06/build-your-own-in-fridge-soda-fountain/
Who doesn’t love an ice cold soda? Lots of people, probably.
The system is based around using small pumps marketed as “6V DC air pumps” on Amazon. [Kedar] uses an indirect method of pumping the soda in this project. It’s a sad fact that it’s hard to find a cheap pump that’s safe to use with fluids for human consumption, and on top of that, many types of pump out there aren’t self-priming.
Instead of pumping the fluid directly, the pumps instead push air into the top of the sealed soda bottles, which forces soda out of another tube in the bottle. This means that the pumps themselves don’t have direct contact with the soda which is a great design when working with stuff you’re going to put in your body
How To Make Coca Cola Soda Fountain Machine – Cold Drinks Dispenser Machine at your Home Fridge
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5fPORlRqL2A&feature=youtu.be
Tomi Engdahl says:
3D Printed Key-Code is Plastic Digital Logic
http://hackaday.com/2017/04/06/3d-printed-key-code-is-plastic-digital-logic/
3D printers are great for creating static objects, but if you’re clever, it’s possible to print a functional devices. If you’re absolutely brilliant you can go far beyond that, which is the case here. This door handle with a key-code lock does it all with 3D printing using mechanism designs that look like alien technology.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Hacking a Vintage TV into an Oscilloscope
http://hackaday.com/2017/04/06/hacking-a-vintage-tv-into-an-oscilloscope/
Do you still have an old analog CRT television lying around? With the advent of digital signals, analog TV´s are going to the dumpster or the recycling center. But you can still put them to good use, just as [GreatScott!] did, by converting the TV into a crude oscilloscope.
The trick is to take control of the two deflection coils that move the electron beam inside the CRT in the horizontal and vertical directions. The video describes in detail the process of identifying the coils and using an Arduino nano in combination with a DAC to amplify the input signal in order to get the waveform in the TV screen. Step by step explanations and great editing make this project delightful to watch.
HACKED!: CRT TV becomes a crude Oscilloscope
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aScAZReGQc0
Tomi Engdahl says:
Hackaday Prize Entry: Pocket Serial Terminal
http://hackaday.com/2017/04/06/hackaday-prize-entry-pocket-serial-terminal/
The terminal emulates a venerable DEC VT-100 terminal, but since it’s built around an STM32F105 ARM microcontroller we’re sure it could emulate other models with appropriate software. It takes either a USB or a PS/2 keyboard
diy-VT100 – A Miniature hardware terminal
Miniature VT100 with all the bells and whistles
https://hackaday.io/project/13273-diy-vt100-a-miniature-hardware-terminal
Tomi Engdahl says:
Two-Piece Boxes Thanks to Laser-Cut Flex Hinges
http://hackaday.com/2017/04/06/two-piece-boxes-thanks-to-laser-cut-flex-hinges/
It sounds like a challenge from a [Martin Gardner] math puzzle from the Scientific American of days gone by: is it possible to build a three-dimensional wooden box with only two surfaces? It turns out it is, if you bend the rules and bend the wood to make living hinge boxes with a laser cutter.
Lasercuttable Flexboxes designed in OpenSCAD
https://github.com/vanillabox/OpenSCADBoxes
Tomi Engdahl says:
Four Grand Engineering Challenges
K-8 education, and life after HTML
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1331567
Industry veterans laid out four grand challenges in engineering at a National Academy of Engineering event here at the Computer History Museum—preparing the next generation of engineers, creating a more interactive medium than HTML, developing truly secure systems for the Internet of Things and responding to the bandwidth crisis in big data centers.
Engineers should spend time in K–8 classrooms as a service project, “like coaching little league — we have to grow an engineering culture,” said Alan Kay, a former fellow at Apple, Disney and Hewlett Packard. “Our notion of service has to be directed toward the next generation…the kids can’t wait,”
However, he was quick to note it’s hard to find the right balance of engineering and teaching skills and effective techniques to engage young students. For example, massive open online courses, a current rage at the university level, “are terrible,” and “you have to have some insights to use” the Internet “as something other than a legal drug,” he quipped.
“Almost nothing” will come to pass from a 2002 initiative to define the needs of the engineer in 2020, said Kay who participated in the effort. He called for engineers to think big to define bold directions.
“Why can’t engineering re-engineer itself?”
“This shows how the graph, equation and circuit diagram dance together. It gives you an intimacy with the system that you can’t get any other way,” he said, moving elements around in a demo
A handful of engineers at Google are trying to use these techniques in a new publication they launched dedicated to machine learning.
Moderator Vint Cerf characterized the work as opening the door to a new kind of literacy. However, he noted the archival challenge that “the underlying software still has to work in 100 years.”
Security expert Peter Neumann discussed the government project he works on that aims to pave a road to provably secure systems. He is a principal investigator for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency on CRASH (Clean-Slate Design of Resilient, Adaptive, Secure Hosts), a program that aims to build self-healing systems resistant to cyber attacks.
Such systems are sorely needed. Even today’s devices using a hardware root-of-trust such as ARM’s TrustZone are liable to side-channel attacks or fault injections based on monitoring a system’s power use or sending disrupting energy pulses.
“The IoT cannot possibly survive in the long run if there is no security… There’s no hope if we continue on the path we’re on of putting more and more things online that can be compromised either directly or through the network they are on,” he said, calling companies that advertise they can secure the IoT “a fantastic fraud” and “all smoke and mirrors.”
The CRASH program has developed a formal spec for a 64-bit MIPS system that uses special instructions so “if you don’t have right credentials, you can’t get at an associated object, which might be an entire database or app,”
Even if it’s successful it’s not bulletproof. “You still face key management issues, denial-of-service attacks and insider misuse like a Snowden attack, which is one of worst problems of all,” he said.
Google’s head of networking described the Herculean tasks the Web giant faces currently handling a quarter of the Internet’s traffic.
“We need a lot of help in networking, computing is at a crossroad and networking will play an out-sized role in what computing becomes,” said Amin Vahdat.
According to Amdahl’s law of needing a Mbit/s I/O for every MHz of computing, one of Google’s 50,000-server clusters needs 5 Pbits/s bandwidth. By contrast, the entire Internet is estimated to have an aggregate bisection bandwidth of 200 TBits/s.
The problem will only grow as Internet traffic and Google’s businesses grow. Handling network upgrades without disrupting services “takes fundamental architecture work,” he added.
BGP does not predict the shortest path for a job as much as 20 percent of the time, Vahdat said. With Espresso, Google essentially maintains on servers its own route maps and traffic conditions on them using application-specific signals.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Paper Pixel Display Array
A stack of standalone units that can display all combinations of 4 (2×2)
https://hackaday.io/project/21057-paper-pixel-display-array
The strip used as a closed loop has 32pixels in two rows which when taped together can display all combinations of 2×2 black and white pixels.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Easy Free Piston Stirling Engine
http://hackaday.com/2017/04/07/easy-free-piston-stirling-engine/
Stirling engines are really cool machines, invented by Reverend Dr. Robert Stirling in 1816 to rival the steam engine, they are one of the most efficient engines ever conceived. Building one is a very rewarding experience, but it has a certain level of difficulty. However, [Attila Blade]’s version of a free-piston type Stirling engine is simple enough to be built in a matter of minutes.
To build the engine you only need a test tube, steel wool, a latex glove, an O ring and some wire. The construction is straightforward as you can see in the video.
Build your own mini all free Stirling engine at 5 minutes – tutorial
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YiDs0R7E1g0&t=5s
Tomi Engdahl says:
HandCrank High Voltage Generator (AC 220V Synchronous Motor Experiment)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F7KxsG5tzck
An AC 220V Synchronous Motor is a small AC generator.
Output Voltage: 500V, Frequency : 1kHz, Current : 1.8~2.1mA
If you use Cockcroft-Walton Generator, you can make more than 30kV high voltage.
Tomi Engdahl says:
$8 3D Printed Photo Turntable uses Upcycled Parts
http://hackaday.com/2017/04/08/8-3d-printed-photo-turntable-uses-upcycled-parts/
The motor for the turntable came from the eject mechanism of an old DVD-ROM drive. An Arduino Pro Mini controls the motor’s speed using an MX1508 H-bridge chip. Power comes from an 18650 Li-Ion battery. The whole assembly spins on the head assembly from a VCR.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Shoelace Locks Keep your Fancy Footwear Firmly Attached
http://hackaday.com/2017/04/09/shoelace-locks-keep-your-fancy-footwear-firmly-attached/
So what is an aspiring hacker to do, just tie their shoelaces like a simple plebe? [Pentland_Designs] has the answer with his shoelace locks. The design is his take on the classic plastic clip found on backpacks and jackets. [Pentland_Designs] has added a twist though — a “button” which flexes a plastic ring, releasing the main body of the clip. This means the user doesn’t have to bend down when taking off their shoes.
http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2225582
A clip that gets attached to the laces on your shoes to make it much easier to take your shoes on and off. It allows your shoes to stay on tight while and use and be able to easily slip them off once you are done.
Tomi Engdahl says:
World Create Day: the Hackaday Event in Your Town
http://hackaday.com/2017/04/05/world-create-day-the-hackaday-event-in-your-town/
It’s official, World Create Day is on April 22nd. Get together with hackers in your area and create something! This is best way to meet all the Hackaday readers in your area, and a great excuse to carve out a few hours of your busy life to have fun working on a project.
World Create Day 2017
Lead a Hackaday Meetup in your city on April 22nd
https://hackaday.io/event/20822-world-create-day-2017
Tomi Engdahl says:
PC In A Mouse
http://hackaday.com/2017/04/10/pc-in-a-mouse/
[Slider2732] got his Orange Pi Zero working with a 3 watt amplifier, wireless keyboard (with built-in mouse), and car reversing monitor. But he needed a case to house it in. He remembered that he used to make parameters for ghost hunting by filling PC mouse cases with all sorts of electronics. So why not put the Orange Pi Zero in a mouse too? Looking through his mouse collection, he picked out an old Logitech optical mouse and went to work.
What’s smaller than a Pi Zero that will also run the armbian Linux distribution, OpenELEC Mediacenter, Kodi and a bunch of games?
He even set up the wireless networking for watching YouTube videos.
Build – PC in a Mouse !
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dWN4bx1vDtw
Tomi Engdahl says:
C.H.I.P SmartPhone
A Fully Open Source SmartPhone
https://hackaday.io/project/20272-chip-smartphone
DIY cellphone, works with CHIP Pro / Raspberry Pi Zero W / Liche Pi ZeroW, Uses Python and LumaOled libraries.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Orthrus
SD card secure RAID USB storage
https://hackaday.io/project/20772-orthrus
Tomi Engdahl says:
Hackaday Prize Entry: Detecting Adulterated Food Using AI
http://hackaday.com/2017/04/10/hackaday-prize-entry-detecting-adulterated-food-using-ai/
Adulterated food is food that has a substance added to it to save on manufacturing costs. It can have a negative effect, it can reduce the food’s potency or it can have no effect at all. In many cases it’s done illegally. It’s also a widespread problem, one which [G. Vignesh] has decided to take on as his entry for the 2017 Hackaday Prize, an AI Based Adulteration Detector.
AI based Adulteration Detector
To determine the type and amount of adulteration in a given substance using Image Processing.
https://hackaday.io/project/20565-ai-based-adulteration-detector
Adulteration is one of largest prevailing problem in the world. Adulteration means addition of another substance to a food item in order to increase the quantity of the food item in raw form or prepared form, which may result in the loss of actual quality of food item that can even be dangerous to health. These substances may be other available food items or non-food items. Although several techniques are used to find the adulteration they are completely complex, inaccurate and testing varies from one substance to other. There are several adulterated food substances released into the market and people cannot identify it easily. People find it difficult while choosing the best food substance. They cannot rely on chemical or manual testing while buying products from a store/grocery. Hence a suitable device that can be used for finding out adulteration in almost all substances is essential.
Tomi Engdahl says:
8-Bit Breadboard Computer is up to 8 Hours
http://hackaday.com/2017/04/10/8-bit-breadboard-computer-is-up-to-8-hours/
[Ben Eater] posted some videos of an 8-bit computer with no CPU chip that he built completely on a breadboard a few years ago. After being asked for schematics, he finally admitted that he didn’t have any. So, instead, he decided to rebuild it and keep a video log of each step in the process. You
Tomi Engdahl says:
MicroKits: Theremin Electronic Kit
https://hackaday.io/project/21047-microkits-theremin-electronic-kit
Let’s inspire the next generation with exciting and educational kits that anyone can build. Want to create your own theremin?
Tomi Engdahl says:
Trademarking Makerspace (Again)
http://hackaday.com/2017/04/11/trademarking-makerspace-again/
A British company has filed a trademark application for the word ‘MakerSpace’. While we’ve seen companies attempt to latch on to popular Maker phrases before, Gratnells Limited, the company in question, is a manufacturer of plastic containers, carts, and other various storage solutions. These products apparently provide a space to store all the stuff you make. Something along those lines.
This isn’t the first time we’ve seen someone try to glom onto the immense amount of marketing Make: has put into the term ‘makerspace’. In 2015, UnternehmerTUM MakerSpaceGmbH, an obviously German tech accelerator based in Munich, filed an application to trademark the word ‘Makerspace’. A few days later, we got word this makerspace wasn’t trying to enforce anything, they were just trying to keep the rug from being pulled out from under them. It was a defensive trademark, if something like that could ever exist (and it can’t under US trademark law). Swift and efficient German bureaucracy prevailed, and the trademark was rejected.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Customize Your Ratios with a 3D-Printed Gearbox
http://hackaday.com/2017/04/12/customize-your-ratios-with-a-3d-printed-gearbox/
Small DC motors are easy to find — you can harvest dozens from old printers and copiers. You might even get a few with decent gearboxes too. But will you get exactly the motor with exactly the gearing your project needs? Unlikely, but you can always just print a gearbox to get exactly what you need.
There’s nothing fancy about [fortzero]’s gearboxes. The motors are junk bin specials, and the gears are all simple spur gears 3D-printed from PLA. There are four gears in the train, each with a 2:1 reduction, giving a 16:1 overall ratio.
3d Printed Gearbox for Small Dc Motors
http://www.instructables.com/id/3d-Printed-Gearbox-for-Small-Dc-Motors/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Can You Build an E-ink Display From Scratch?
http://hackaday.com/2017/04/12/can-you-build-an-e-ink-display-from-scratch/
Modern displays are fascinating little things. In particular, the E-Ink displays employed in modern E-books achieve mesmerising paper like contrast with excellent standby power consumption.
MChel] has achieved some excellent success in building a simple E-Ink display. The account presented on this Russian electronics forum, graciously translated for us by Google Translate, outlines that the greatest barrier to pursing this in your home lab is creating the conductive layer that serve as electrodes for each pixel and depositing the thin layer of electrostatically charged ink pellets onto another transparent yet conductive film. [MChel] solution was to extract a small a portion of pre-deposited ink from a smashed and notoriously brittle E-ink display.
https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=ru&tl=en&js=y&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwe.easyelectronics.ru%2FHomeTech%2Fizgotovlenie-segmentnogo-indikatora-na-elektronnyh-chernilah-v-kartinkah.html&edit-text=
Tomi Engdahl says:
Prisoners Build DIY Computers and Hack Prison Network
http://hackaday.com/2017/04/17/prisoners-build-diy-computers-and-hack-prison-network/
The Internet is everywhere. The latest anecdotal evidence of this is a story of prison inmates that build their own computer and connected it to the internet. Back in 2015, prisoners at the Marion Correctional Institution in Ohio built two computers from discarded parts which they transported 1,100 feet through prison grounds (even passing a security checkpoint) before hiding them in the ceiling of a training room.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Measuring Tiny Masses Acoustically
http://hackaday.com/2017/04/13/measuring-tiny-masses-acoustically/
How do you measure the mass of something really, really tiny? Like fish-embryo tiny. There aren’t many scales with the sensitivity and the resolution to make meaningful measurements in the nanogram range, so you’ve got to turn to other methods, like measuring changes in the resonant frequency of a glass tube. And that turns out to be cheap and easy for the home gamer to reproduce.
How to weigh tiny objects using sound
http://physicsworld.com/cws/article/news/2017/apr/11/how-to-weigh-tiny-objects-using-sound
Tomi Engdahl says:
The Complex Issue Of Hackspace Donations
http://hackaday.com/2017/04/14/the-complex-issue-of-hackspace-donations/
More than one member of the Hackaday team has significant involvement in a hackspace, as member, director, or even founder. We talk about hackspaces quite rarely on these pages though, not because we don’t have anything to say on the matter but because even when we write in general terms our fellow members invariably think it’s all about them rather than the hackspace world at large.
As a space, we’ve received a lot of donations over the years, and for various different reasons.
Some of the items have limited use, but are appreciated as curios. For example, the MakerBot Cupcake 3D printer (more of a permanent loan from a member than a donation) is a fully functional 3D printer, but as a comprehensively outdated machine with a relatively tiny print bed and rather poor software support it’s not a machine that sees much use. But it’s a talking point, and serves as a good illustration of progress in 3D printing. And it plays the Imperial March much more loudly than other printers when you hook it up to that software that plays music on 3D printer stepper motors.
Other donations have proven extremely useful, and enable all members of the space to work on their projects.
A lot of our donations are good things that have a use, but might not necessarily find that use. For example, boxes of surplus electronic components, a box of low-powered lasers and optical parts, the various conference badge boards and random other electronic assemblies that have found their way into our electronics stock, or one of our largest donations, a set of interactive whiteboards from a school that was undergoing refurbishment.
All hackspaces have a junk pile of some sort. Somewhere in which items of tech or maker significance are put when it’s time to get rid of them. Some spaces have a rigidly organised timing system, in which items move from a “3 months” bin, to a “2 months” bin, to a “1 month” bin, to eventual disposal. In our case in Oxford it’s still a little more anarchic,
It’s easy to get rid of a piece of junk. This motherboard is dead, it gets thrown in the junk bin. Someone robs it of a socket or a magnetic while it’s there, eventually it gets disposed of. But when the item that’s been cluttering up the space is a donation, things get a little more difficult. It’s tied to a person, a fellow member
Tomi Engdahl says:
Hackaday Prize Entry: Wearable Micro Pump Treats Your Fever for You
http://hackaday.com/2017/04/16/hackaday-prize-entry-wearable-micro-pump-treats-your-fever-for-you/
Would you strap a tiny pump to your body and let it dose you with medication based on your current vital signs? Most people wouldn’t, while some would appreciate the convenience, and many have no choice. [M. Bindhammer]’s 2017 Hackaday Prize entry, dubbed Sense-Aid, seeks to democratize the drug delivery process somewhat by building a sensor package linked to a tiny surface-mount pump into a single wearable device.
Sense-Aid
Electronic band-aid for monitoring fever and dispensing an antipyretic and anti-inflammatory drug
https://hackaday.io/project/20913-sense-aid
As a proof of concept I will design and manufacture a small PCB (maybe flexible), which consists of a power supply, microcontroller, temperature sensor and a micro piezo pump. If the temperature sensor detects fever, the micro piezo pump starts to dispense an antipyretic and anti-inflammatory drug which is absorbed through the skin.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Desktop Factory Teaches PLC Programming
http://hackaday.com/2017/04/16/desktop-factory-teaches-plc-programming/
How to train young engineers in industrial automation is a thorny issue. Most factories have big things that can do a lot of damage and cost tons of money if the newbie causes a crash. Solution: shrink the factory down to desktop size and let them practice on that.
Luckily for [Vadim], there’s an off-the-shelf solution for miniaturizing factory automation: FischerTechnik industrial training models. The models have motors, conveyors, pneumatic cylinders, and sensors galore, but the controller is not exactly the industry standard programmable logic controller (PLC). [Vadim] set out to remedy this by building an interface between the FischerTechnik models and a Siemens PLC.
Make an interface board to connect industrial controllers and FischerTechnic construction set – for education and fun!
https://shortn0tes.blogspot.fi/2017/04/make-interface-board-to-connect.html
Tomi Engdahl says:
Hacker U.
http://hackaday.com/2017/04/16/hacker-u/
If you go to the University of South Florida, you can take the “Makecourse.” The 15-week program promises to teach CAD software, 3D printing, Arduino-based control systems, and C++. Don’t go to the University of South Florida? No worries. Professor [Rudy Schlaf] and [Eric Tridas] have made the entire course available online.
http://makecourse.com/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Easy DIY Microfluidics
http://hackaday.com/2017/04/15/easy-diy-microfluidics/
Microfluidics, the precise control and manipulation of small volumes of liquids, is heavily used in any field that does small-scale experiments with expensive reagents (We’re looking at you, natural sciences.) However, the process commonly used to create microfluidic devices is time and experience intensive. But, worry not: the Uppsala iGEM team has created Chipgineering: A manual for manufacturing a microfluidic chip.
Used while developing everything from inkjet print heads to micro-thermal technologies, microfluidic systems are generally useful. Specifically, Uppsala’s microfluidic device performs a simple biological procedure, a heat-shock transformation, as a proof of concept.
Microfluidics
http://2016.igem.org/Team:Uppsala/Project/Microfluidics
Tomi Engdahl says:
An Even Smaller BeagleBone
http://hackaday.com/2017/04/15/an-even-smaller-beaglebone/
The BeagleBone famously fits in an Altoids tin. Even though we now have BeagleBone Blacks, Blues, and Greens, the form factor for this curiously strong Linux board has remained unchanged, and able to fit inside a project box available at every cash register on the planet. There is another Altoids tin, though. The Altoid mini tin is just over 60×40 mm, and much too small to fit a normal size BeagleBone. [Michael Welling] has designed a new BeagleBone to fit this miniature project box. He’s calling it the Pocketbone, and it’s as small as the mints are strong.
The Pocketbone is based on the Octavo Systems OSD355x family, better known as the ‘BeagleBone on a chip’. This chip features a TI AM355x ARM Cortex A8, up to 1GB of DDR3 RAM, 114 GPIOs, 6 UARTs, 2 SPIs, 2x Gigabit Ethernet, and USB. It’s housed in a relatively large BGA package that makes routing easy,
Pocketbone KiCAD
Smalls mint tin sized BeagleBone (KiCAD version)
https://hackaday.io/project/19495-pocketbone-kicad
Tomi Engdahl says:
Make Glass Mirrors With Silver Nitrate, Sugar, Ammonia and Sodium Hydroxide
http://www.instructables.com/id/Make-Glass-Mirrors-With-Silver-Nitrate-Sugar-Am/
How to make a mirror silvering solution from silver nitrate, ammonia and sugar.
Glass surfaces can be given coatings of silver that make them into mirrors.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Kadmon Reactor
https://hackaday.io/project/5514-kadmon-reactor
Work a gas with entire electromagnetic spectrum for atomic hydrogen,transmutation, nuclear fusion and creation of black hole
Tomi Engdahl says:
Dust Extractor
https://hackaday.io/project/20080-dust-extractor
A 3D printed cyclonic dust extraction attachment for a domestic vacuum cleaner.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Tele-assisted first aid kit
https://hackaday.io/project/20801-tele-assisted-first-aid-kit
In distress situation you may have no time to call the help or advise. This project aimed to make “better” first aid kit.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Build Your Own PC — Really
http://hackaday.com/2017/04/14/build-your-own-pc-really/
There was a time when building your own computer meant a lot of soldering or wire wrapping. At some point, though, building a PC has come to mean buying a motherboard, a power supply, and just plugging a few wires together. There’s nothing wrong with that, but [Scott Baker] wanted to really build a PC. He put together an Xi 8088, a design from [Sergey] who has many interesting projects on his site. [Scott] did a great build log plus a video
Building an Xi 8088 PC
http://www.smbaker.com/building-an-xi-8088-pc
Tomi Engdahl says:
High Vacuum with Mercury and Glassware
http://hackaday.com/2017/04/15/high-vacuum-with-mercury-and-glassware/
If you want to build your own vacuum tubes, whether amplifying, Nixie or cathode-ray, you’re going to need a vacuum. It’s in the name, after all. For a few thousand bucks, you can probably pick up a used turbo-molecular pump. But how did they make high vacuums back in the day? How did Edison evacuate his light bulbs?
Strangely enough, you could do worse than turn to YouTube for the answer: [Cody] demonstrates building a Sprengel vacuum pump
Sprengel Vacuum Pump: The most efficient pump ever?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=viJ3T-1KZqY
Tomi Engdahl says:
Ethanol-Powered Arduinos
http://hackaday.com/2017/04/19/ethanol-powered-arduinos/
Following the time-honored YouTube tradition of ordering cheap stuff online and playing with it while the camera runs, [Monta Elkins] bought a Stirling engine that drives a DC motor used as a generator. How much electrical juice can this thing provide, running on just denatured alcohol? (Will it blend?)
The answer is probably not really a spoiler: it generates enough to run “Blink.ino” on a stock Arduino, at least when powered directly through the 5 V rail.
016 Can You Run an Arduino from a Sterling Engine?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ukfB5cGwQXk&feature=youtu.be
Answering the question you’ve been asking since you were 12, can you run an Arduino from a Sterling Engine?
Tomi Engdahl says:
Robot Targets Eyeballs, Fires Lasers. OSHA’s Gonna Love this One
http://hackaday.com/2017/04/18/robot-targets-eyeballs-fires-lasers-oshas-gonna-love-this-one/
[Michael Reeves] got fed up, and went a bit nuts. He built a robot specifically to shine laser int0 human eyes. No, not a medical robot. This ‘bot lives in a pizza box, is built from servos, duct tape, and [Michael’s] tears. It just shoots lasers at people’s eyes. Needless to say, please, don’t try this at home, or at all.
Designing such a diabolical beast was actually rather simple. The software is written in C#. Frames are captured from an old Logitech webcam, then passed into Emgu CV, which is a .NET wrapper for OpenCV. [Michael] runs a simple face detection algorithm, and uses the results to aim a laser. The laser is mounted on two R/C style servos. An Arduino forms the glue between the servos and the PC.
https://bitbucket.org/mtreeves808/face-detection-laser-system
Tomi Engdahl says:
A 4$, 4ICs, Z80 homemade computer on breadboard
https://hackaday.io/project/19000-a-4-4ics-z80-homemade-computer-on-breadboard
No iron, no cry! Simply wire it to build a mini 4MHz Z80 64kB RAM system with a Basic and Forth interpreters, and Assembler and C toolchains
Tomi Engdahl says:
Film Developing Machine
Automated C41, E6, and B&W Processing
https://hackaday.io/project/21061-film-developing-machine
Part of the reason why I don’t shoot more film is the time it takes to process. I love the chemistry side of photography, but waiting between steps is time i’d rather spend doing something else. This processing machine is a machine I can load and walk away from. It is capable of developing 135, 120, and 4×5 format film. It is also capable of E6, C41, and B&W processing.
Tomi Engdahl says:
How Makers Can Use IoT to Help the Environment
IoT can be leveraged for a more sustainable future. As makers, we can take action at home.
https://www.sparkfun.com/news/2296
Our water system is currently under major distress. Every year we lose approximately 2.1 trillion gallons of clean, treated water to leaks and other infrastructure issues. With notable population growth, major climate challenges like the drought in California and water quality issues like the Flint Water Crisis, it’s becoming apparent that we need to find better ways to capture and conserve fresh water.
On the individual scale, you can build your own IoT project for water sustainability using our very own Soil Moisture Sensor.
One of the biggest ways in which we mismanage water usage is through over-watering plants and agriculture. The soil sensor features two large exposed pads that function as probes, acting together as a variable resistor. More water in the soil means better conductivity, and therefore lower resistance.
https://www.sparkfun.com/products/13322
Tomi Engdahl says:
Utilizing 3D Printing to Make Jewelry
https://hackaday.io/project/19754-utilizing-3d-printing-to-make-jewelry
Utilizing 3D printing Impressions Jewelry Co. intends on continuing existing production as well as begin making philanthropic pieces.
Impressions Jewelry Co. (found on etsy) is a newly established business that utilizes 3D printing to perfectly align metal stamps on various products such as necklaces and bracelets.
Thank you for following our project thus far! As we continue to work on creating the best product possible we modify the 3-D jigs as necessary. We have reprinted jigs when necessary due normal wear and tear.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Binaural Alert Device for the blind (SonicScape)
https://hackaday.io/project/20899-binaural-alert-device-for-the-blind-sonicscape
Portable wearable technology for the blind , giving them a sense of any nearby threats or obstacles through a binaural soundscape system.
Tomi Engdahl says:
True-Random Number Generator
https://hackaday.io/project/21054-true-random-number-generator
Modern security and cryptography call for a source of true-random numbers. This design creates them from thermal noise in a resistor.
This design creates a random bitstream from the analog random fluctuations that are inherent in resistors. This requires a lot of gain, and typically would be sensitive to interfering signals that would overwhelm the noise and ruin the randomness of the output. This design entry is based on the circuit in my US patent 6,070,178, which has expired. This project adds a new interface to the random number generator to make it compatible with modern computers. This practical device provides anyone who needs it with access to cryptographically-secure true-random numbers. It is simple enough that many people will be able to build versions the device using a wide variety of generic components. The purpose of this contest entry is to spread knowledge of this circuit widely, in the hope that its use will make it more difficult for malicious actors to create a single point of failure in privacy and security.
Other applications of true-random numbers are gaming and engineering simulation.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Flying The First Open Source Satellite
http://hackaday.com/2017/04/19/flying-the-first-open-source-satellite/
The Libre Space Foundation is an organization dedicated to the development of libre space hardware. It was born from the SatNOGS project — the winners of the first Hackaday Prize — and now this foundation is in space. The Libre Space Foundation hitched a ride on the Orbital ATK launch yesterday, and right now their completely Open Source cube sat is on its way to the International Space Station.