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.
6,810 Comments
Tomi Engdahl says:
Smallest MIDI Synth, Again!
http://hackaday.com/2016/05/08/smallest-midi-synth-again/
Not content with fitting a tiny square-wave MIDI synthesizer into a MIDI plug, [Mitxela] went on to cram a similar noisemaker into a USB plug itself.
Besides being physically small, the code is small too, as well as the budget. It uses V-USB for the USB library running on an ATtiny85, and a couple of passive parts. His firmware (apparently) takes in MIDI notes and spits out square waves.
Nothing too amazing, until you think about the miniaturization effort. To get this thing to fit inside the metal case of a USB plug,
An even smaller, even sillier synth
https://mitxela.com/projects/silly_synth
Tomi Engdahl says:
Circuit Love With Multicolor Solder Masks
http://hackaday.com/2015/02/11/circuit-love-with-multicolor-solder-masks/
The cheapest PCBs – and therefore most common – are green solder mask with white silkscreen. It works, but it’s also incredibly boring. This is the way things were done up until a few years ago with the explosion of board houses trying to compete for your Yuan, and now getting a red, yellow, black, blue, green, and even OSH purple is possible. This doesn’t mean multiple solder masks aren’t possible, as [Saar] demonstrates with his demonstration of multicolor solder masks and circuit love.
http://www.boldport.com/blog/2015/2/10/circuit-love-a-valentines-day-special
Tomi Engdahl says:
Hackaday Prize Entry: Optical Experiments Using Low Cost Lasercut Parts
http://hackaday.com/2016/05/06/optical-experiments-using-low-cost-lasercut-parts/
Experimenting with optics can be great fun and educational. Trouble is, a lot of optical components are expensive. And other support paraphernalia such as optical benches, breadboards, and rails add to the cost. [Peter Walsh] and his team are working on designing a range of low-cost, easy to build, laser cut optics bench components. These are designed to be built using commonly available materials and tools and can be used as low-cost teaching tools for high-schools, home experimenters and hacker spaces.
They have designed several types of holders for mounting parts such as lasers, lenses, slits, glass slides, cuvettes and mirrors. The holder parts are cut from ¼ inch acrylic and designed to snap fit together, making assembly easy. The holders consist of two parts. One is a circular disk with three embedded neodymium magnets, which holds the optical part. The other is the base which has three adjustment screws which let you align the optical part. The magnets allow the circular disk to snap on to the screws on the base.
Lasercut Optics Bench
Use your lasercutter to make an optics bench.
https://hackaday.io/project/10707-lasercut-optics-bench
Tomi Engdahl says:
How to Design, Manufacture, and Document a Hardware Product
http://hackaday.com/2016/05/06/how-to-design-manufacture-and-document-a-hardware-product/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Up Your CAD Game with Good Reference Photos
http://hackaday.com/2016/05/06/up-your-cad-game-with-good-reference-photos/
I’ve taken lots of reference photos for various projects. The first time, I remember suffering a lot and having to redo a model a few times before I got a picture that worked. Just like measuring parts badly, refining your reference photo skills will save you a lot of time and effort when trying to reproduce objects in CAD. Once you have a model of an object, it’s easy to design mating parts, to reproduce the original, or even for milling the original for precise alterations.
Set-Up & Distortion:
It’s important not to try to be a good photographer, in the traditional sense, when taking a reference photo. We don’t want an interesting photo. We want a photo that’s as evenly lit, undistorted, and scaled as possible. If we took a photo of someone’s face using these methods, it would be terribly unflattering.
The real trick is just to back up from the subject. The further from the item in question, and the smaller it is in the picture, the less the overall lens distortion will affect it.
Next is skew and perspective errors. You want to take a photo as dead-on as possible. If successful, the only errors will be lens distortion and parts of the object getting smaller as they vanish into the horizon. A tripod isn’t necessary, but really helps.
Lighting is also important. You can use a harsh light to some effect to show off a detail using shadows, but it is important to note the length of the shadow and the direction of the light on paper to assist later when pulling dimensions. A bright even light that doesn’t wash out the shadows on the part is best. Think of early art projects. When you shaded in a cube or sphere you wanted the smoothest gradient possible.
Reference Scale:
I use a few things to make a proper scale for my pictures. The most useful is a grid. It can be of arbitrary dimensions, as its main purpose is to help us set-up the photo and remove the distortion later in the process. Since it sits behind the object, it’s hard to tell what size the grid is without employing unnecessary trigonometry. I typically use a cutting mat that conveniently came with a grid painted on it. It is pretty easy to find a grid pattern online to print if needed. It’s nice to have large easy-to-see squares rather than small ones.
This process is not extremely accurate, but with care and luck one can sometimes get within a millimeter.
Photo Tips:
Don’t try to do it all in one photo. If you need the outline of an object. Set-up a photo to take the outline.
If there is information on the device that can be harvested without the help of the reference photo, record it separately.
Clean the object thoroughly.
If it’s a really strangely colored or glossy object and you can afford to ruin it, spray paint it a matte grey color.
If it’s a thin, flat object, a few readers imparted this useful trick in the caliper post, a flatbed scanner will do an amazing job of reproducing it in two dimensions.
Make sure to expose the photo for the maximum amount of greys and definition on the object.
If the object is really big and it obscures the grid, there is a trick to still get the distortion out in the plane needed.
Post-Processing
In post processing, we will want to.
Remove the distortion.
Fix the lighting.
Crop the photo properly for CAD software.
Measuring Parts Badly for Accurate Reverse Engineering
http://hackaday.com/2016/04/15/measuring-parts-badly-for-accurate-reverse-engineering/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Homemade spectrometer Plab v2.5 (mod 3.0.1)
This is a kit I bought 4 months ago from Plab and I have made many modifications to it since then.
https://hackaday.io/project/11412-homemade-spectrometer-plab-v25-mod-301
This started out as a curiosity science project for me, then I started to really get interested once I started imaging spectra’s and analyzing them. Now I am so hooked, I just had to find out just how far I could take this little project (that’s the engineer in me,) and see how accurate and reliable I could make it.
I have posted the current specifications and mod’s I have done on another page, I have pitted this baby against a Spex FluoroMax spectrometer (cost$25,000.00 US) and posted my research results at Plab. http://publiclab.org/notes/dhaffnersr/04-20-2016/plab-spectrometer-version-2-5-vs-spex-fluoromax
Goals for this project:
1) To construct a reliable and accurate spectrometer
2) To make it cost effective
3) Easy to construct and modify
4) Durable and portable for field work
Tomi Engdahl says:
Super Massive Musical Instrument
http://hackaday.com/2016/05/07/super-massive-musical-instrument/
Performing music in open spaces can be a real challenge. The acoustics of the space can play spoil-sport. Now imagine trying to play an instrument spread out over tens of kilometres. The folks at [LimbicMedia] wrote in to tell us about the project they worked on to build the The World’s Largest Musical Instrument.
The system consists of wirelessly controlled air horns deployed at remote locations. Each air horn is self contained, driven by a supply of compressed air from a scuba diving tank and battery powered electronics. The wireless link allows the air horns to be placed up to 10kms away from the base station. Each air horn is tuned to a specific note of the piano keyboard which, in turn, is configured to transmit its note data to the air horns.
The World’s Largest Musical Instrument
December 17, 2015, by Manjinder Benning
http://limbicmedia.ca/the-worlds-biggest-musical-instrument/
Over the last year we had the pleasure of starting work on a very interesting and totally ridiculous project. We were tasked with building “The Worlds Largest Musical Instrument”. Sounds cool right?
So basically it is a wirelessly controlled system where a piano keyboard sends its note data to a set of, very loud, distributed air horns. Each air horn is connected to a compressed air scuba tank and is totally standalone, meaning it has its own battery, and wireless receiver and can be placed up 10 km from the location of the keyboard. So far we have built 12 of these horns, tuned specifically to the notes on a piano keyboard such that Oh Canada and God Save The Queen can be played with the system.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Hackaday Prize Entry: A Cheaper Soldering Solution
http://hackaday.com/2016/05/07/a-cheaper-soldering-solution/
Everyone goes through a few phases during their exploration of electrons, and nowhere is this more apparent than the choice of soldering iron. The My First Soldering Iron™ is an iron that plugs directly into the wall, and doesn’t have temperature control. They’re cheap, and electronics isn’t for everyone, giving the quitters the opportunity to take up woodburning as a hobby. The next step up is a temperature controlled iron, probably an Aoyue or Hakko. The best soldering iron? You’re looking at a Metcal or Weller, and your wallet will become a few hundred dollars lighter.
Your My First Soldering Iron™ need not be terrible, though. For his project for The Hackaday Prize, [HP] is working on a soldering iron that is cheap, accurate, and uses the very nice Weller RT tips. No, it’s not as good as a Metcal or proper Weller, but it’s good enough for some fine soldering work and will give the Aoyues and Hakkos a run for their money.
Soldering pen
Cheaper fine-pitch soldering setup with Wellers RT tips
https://hackaday.io/project/10140-soldering-pen
One of the problems is that a proper soldering station is quite expensive. Take the Weller XMRP for example. Amazing tips, fast heating and great for really fine-pitch work.
The tips are withing a hobbyist pricerange but the controller is expensive. Very expensive.
A few people have already built arduino based controllers for the tips. What I want is essentially that. But smaller.
it’s a small PCB that will control a Weller RT tip and allow you to set the temperature within 10 degrees.
The project has its roots in the SMD soldering station by Martin Kumm
http://www.martin-kumm.de/wiki/doku.php?id=Projects:SMD_Solderstation
Tomi Engdahl says:
SPDT16: 16-bits arithmetic unit with relays
https://hackaday.io/project/10889-spdt16-16-bits-arithmetic-unit-with-relays
Let’s imagine I could get about 200 SPDT relays. Of course I would know what to do with them
But will 200 be enough ?
Tomi Engdahl says:
An Affordable Ultrasonic Soldering Iron
http://hackaday.com/2016/05/09/an-affordable-ultrasonic-soldering-iron/
One of the most interesting facets of our community of hackers and makers comes from its never-ending capacity to experiment and to deliver new technologies and techniques. Ample demonstration of this came this morning, in the form of [Hunter Scott]’s Hackaday.io project to create an ultrasonic soldering iron. This is a soldering technique in which the iron is subjected to ultrasonic vibrations which cavitate the surface of the materials to be soldered and remove any oxides which would impede the adhesion of the solder. In this way normally unsolderable materials such as stainless steel, aluminium, ceramic, or glass can be soldered without the need for flux or other specialist chemicals. Ultrasonic soldering has been an expensive business, and [Hunter]’s project aims to change that.
This iron takes the element and tip from a conventional mains-powered soldering iron and mounts it on the transducer from an ultrasonic cleaner.
This is the first ultrasonic soldering project we’ve featured here at Hackaday. We have however had an ultrasonic plastic welder before, and an ultrasonic vapour polisher for 3D prints.
DIY ultrasonic plastic welding
http://hackaday.com/2012/01/20/diy-ultrasonic-plastic-welding/
Ultrasonic Soldering Iron
Solder to stainless steel, ceramic, or even glass
https://hackaday.io/project/11571-ultrasonic-soldering-iron
Tomi Engdahl says:
Glue Your Sumo Robot to The Mat With Custom Sticky Tires
http://hackaday.com/2016/05/09/glue-your-sumo-robot-to-the-mat-with-custom-sticky-tires/
Mini Sumo seems like one of those hobbies that starts out innocently enough, and ends up with a special room in the house dedicated to it. One day you’re excitedly opening up your first Basic Stamp kit, and the next you’re milling out mini molds on a mini lathe to make mini extra sticky tires.
Sherline Mini Mill and Lathe. With the new tools available to him, he made a new mold out of a bit of purple UHMW and some acrylic
Making Marauder’s Tires
http://www.davehylands.com/Robotics/Marauder/Making-Tires/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Don’t Ignore the Artist’s Supply Store
http://hackaday.com/2016/05/10/dont-ignore-the-artists-supply-store/
So it’s Saturday morning and you’ve found yourself with an urge to build something involving copper plates or carbon electrodes. Maybe you need a metallic powder for a chemistry experiment. Casting supplies? Pure lead? Copper mesh? Silver wire? Odd tools? Exceedingly caustic etchants? There’s a store that sells it all, and it’s not usually frequented by hackers: the art store.
If you know where to look, the store is full of useful things. Each method of expression in art has its own set of supplies
Tomi Engdahl says:
Lego Optics Lab: Polariscope
How I built a polariscope for my Lego Optics lab.
https://hackaday.io/project/11630-lego-optics-lab-polariscope
Lego Optics Lab: Worm Drive Pan/Tilt Mount
How I built a worm drive pan/tilt mount out of Lego
https://hackaday.io/project/8573-lego-optics-lab-worm-drive-pantilt-mount
Tomi Engdahl says:
Open Hardware, Software & Minds
http://www.eetimes.com/author.asp?section_id=28&doc_id=1329647&
The people who attended the 2016 Annual Gulu Technology Camp found a doorway to future that they had never seen before — who knows where it will lead them?
Imagine a camp for 10 to 18 year-olds that combines robotics, microcomputers, pcDuino, video game design with Unity, self-defense training with an international kickboxer, Samsung’s virtual reality gear, Android app design, musical performances, quadcopters, and Legos. Now imagine this camp took place in previously civil-war-torn northern Uganda.
We had a total of less than thirty students signed up on the morning of the first day.
students poured in from far and wide over the next three days.
A total of forty different Ugandan schools were represented in the camp’s final student population. The sighted students split into three different tracks — Video Game Design, Foundational Robotics, and Specialized Robotics. The fourth class section at the camp was comprised of the blind and sight-impaired students who pursued a more classical academic program coupled with things like using JAWS, a program to help blind people use computer applications to make spreadsheets and navigate the internet. Time was also spent on beauty and cosmetics tips for the young blind women, programming in Outlook, musical performance, and self-defense training with world renowned kickboxer Eric Onen.
The pcDuino microcomputer was a great alternative to buying more laptops as the camp expands and a great experience for everyone involved. The microcomputer has two different frequencies for both ADC and PWM functions, so I found myself leading a discussion about data resolution as it pertains to measuring large trucks vs. bicycles and passion fruit vs. jackfruit with an infrared distance sensor. By the end of the discussion, the whole class understood analog comparator circuit theory and the application of using the 12-bit ADC resolution to measure the weight of passion fruits (since they are smaller) and the 6-bit ADC circuit to measure jackfruit (since they are larger).
We also covered triggering system processes inside of the Arduinoish (the pcDuino’s name for its flavor of Arduino) IDE by using sensors and the mplayer software to play mp3 and mp4 files, resulting in countless student heads bobbing to local and not-so-local music. I always find it so interesting to discover what really gets people into technology.
In the Foundational Robotics track, a soft-spoken instructor named Mackenzie and his cohorts introduced students to programming, as well as sensors and actuators using pcDuino’s flavor of Scratch. The pcDuino is similar to a Raspberry Pi but with a System on Chip, an onboard ADC, and a similar pinout format to Arduino, which — when coupled with the pcDuino flavor of the Arduino IDE — allows for easy Arduino compatible shield integration.
All of the classes took time after sunset to learn how to do things like use Android App Inventor, write HTML, use Linux, and visit the Art and Gaming Room.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Train Your Brain with Neurofeedback
https://hackaday.io/project/11146-train-your-brain-with-neurofeedback
Brain hacking!! Improve your focus and concentration by training your brain using feedback from your own brain waves.
Tomi Engdahl says:
PiModulos
https://hackaday.io/project/7840-pimodulos
A module EHX Big Muff Pi clone PCB, the PCB can be populated with any version of the transistor Muff circuit
A module EHX Big Muff Pi clone PCB. Can be used to make the Big Muff Pi fuzz pedal for guitar and bass. I take no credit for the development of the original circuit, I just made a simple PCB so I can make my own versions of the pedal quicker and easier.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Hackaday Prize Entry: You Can Do Anything With A Bunch Of NANDs
http://hackaday.com/2016/05/10/hackaday-prize-entry-you-can-do-anything-with-a-bunch-of-nands/
Every few years, someone on the Internet builds a truly homebrew CPU. Not one built with a 6502, Z80, or a CPU from the 80s, either: one built completely out of 74-series logic chips or discrete transistor. We’re lucky enough to have [Alexander] document his build on Hackaday.io, and even luckier to have him enter it into this year’s Hackaday Prize. It’s an 8-bit computer built completely out of NAND gates.
Computers are just logic, and with enough NAND gates, you can do anything. That’s exactly what [Alex] is doing with this computer. It’s built entirely out of 74F00 chips – a ‘fast’ version of the ubiquitous quad 2-input NAND chip
Designing a CPU is one thing, and thanks to Logisim, this is already done. Constructing a CPU is another matter entirely.
NEDONAND homebrew computer
NEDONAND is 8-bit homebrew computer entirely built out of many 74F00 chips (2-input NAND gates)
https://hackaday.io/project/9795-nedonand-homebrew-computer
Tomi Engdahl says:
Mike Szczys Ends 8-Bit vs 32-Bit Holy War!
http://hackaday.com/2016/05/11/mike-szczys-ends-8-bit-vs-32-bit-holy-war/
If you’ve read through the comments on Hackaday, you’ve doubtless felt the fires of one of our classic flame-wars. Any project done with a 32-bit chip could have been done on something smaller and cheaper, if only the developer weren’t so lazy. And any project that’s squeezes the last cycles of performance out of an 8-bit processor could have been done faster and more appropriately with a 32-bit chip.
The 32-bit chips tend to have richer peripherals and run at higher speeds — anything you can do with an 8-bitter can be done with its fancier cousin. Conversely, comparatively few microcontroller applications outgrow even the cheapest 8-bitters out there. So, which to choose, and when?
Eight Bits are Great Bits
The case that [Mike] makes for an 8-bit microcontroller is that it’s masterable because it’s a limited playground. It’s a lot easier to get through the whole toolchain because it’s a lot shorter. In terms of debugging, there’s (often) a lot less that can go wrong, letting you learn the easy debugging lessons first before moving on to the truly devilish. You can understand the hardware peripherals because they’re limited.
And then there’s the datasheets.
32 Bit Rules!
Don’t get the wrong opinion of his talk — [Mike] is completely appreciative of many of the advanced features of the 32-bit chips.
There are a lot of problems that you’ll run into with simpler, smaller chips. And for many of these problems, there’s a simpler solution on a fancier chip. But knowing when you’re going to run into these pitfalls is a lesson best learned through experience. You can’t really appreciate how nice it is to have more UARTs than you need until you run out of them. Flexible pin-mapping seems unnecessary until you’ve spent enough time working around difficult layout problems.
The (relatively) unified and sophisticated toolchain available for programming ARM chips is a definite plus, once you know how to use it. Adding JTAG and real debugging capabilities into the project makes your life a lot easier.
The End of the Holy War?
[Mike] ends the 8-bit vs 32-bit war by saying you need to learn both, because only then will you understand which is the appropriate tool for the job. Sometimes you need a circular saw, and sometimes you need a hand saw. On the surface they both cut, but you can’t really internalize the different applications until you’re familiar with both tools.
Tomi Engdahl says:
TV Stick Out-Raspberries Raspberry Pi
http://hackaday.com/2016/05/11/tv-stick-out-raspberries-raspberry-pi/
Android-based TV sticks should be in more projects. They are readily available and inexpensive. They have a lot of horsepower for the price, and they can even boot a mainline Linux kernel, unlike some single-board computers we know. They’re smaller than the Pi Zero, so they’ll fit almost anywhere.
The one thing they don’t have, though, is I/O. Sure, it’s got a USB port, but that’s just about it. [Necromant] considered these problems and created a carrier board that fixes all that.
More Glam PCBs: An Android TV-stick baseboard
https://ncrmnt.org/2015/09/23/more-glam-pcbs-an-android-tv-stick-baseboard/
The tech specs are:
* On-board 3A DC-DC. You can power the whole thing with anything from 7 to 24 volts DC (Should’ve put a 5A one, but I’ve still got a bag of LM2596S in the closet)
* An FE1.1s 4 Port USB HUB
* An attiny2313, armed with vusb stack (it also occupies one of the ports of the hub. USB2GPIO, PWM, etc)
* 2 USB ports on the back, with power control over GPIO lines.
* One usb port on the front (with power always on)
* 3x Relays to switch whatever load you desire
* 100% arduino-free!
* Has a cute girl on the silkscreen (Thanks to Vemarish for her art, awesome as always).
* Fits a common anodized aluminum enclosure.
Normally, all android TV sticks are all 5V-powered and have all their usb port power wired directly connected to the barrel jack (or microusb socket)
Tomi Engdahl says:
Open Robots with Open Roberta
http://hackaday.com/2016/05/11/open-robots-with-open-roberta/
Tomi Engdahl says:
NeuroBytes
Build your own nervous system!
https://hackaday.io/project/3339-neurobytes
NeuroBytes are stamp-sized electronic neuron models that can be freely connected to form complex and biologically representative neural circuits. The NeuroBytes platform is currently in its fourth prototype generation with approximately 100 individual elements built to date, along with numerous accessories that help constructed networks interface with the real world.
NeuroBytes are tabletop electronic neuron simulators that can be freely connected to form simple biological neural networks. Each element of such a network has a number of inputs, called dendrites, that can be activated by upstream NeuroBytes modules or environmental sensors. The elements, roughly the size of postage stamps, can also send signals to downstream NeuroBytes via an onboard axon connector, or they can activate output devices such as servo motors.
Each NeuroBytes board is powered by an Atmel ATtiny44A microcontroller running various flavors of open-source firmware written in AVR-C. Standard devices are flashed with a simple neuron program
https://github.com/zakqwy/NeuroBytes-v04
Tomi Engdahl says:
PICTIL
Remake of the TIL311 hex LED display with recent technology.
https://hackaday.io/project/8270-pictil
The TIL311 is a nice but expensive, obsolete, power-hungry hexadecimal display. It would be cool to make a tiny module with similar functionality which solves its shortcomings. A 20-pins PIC is a solution but other decoding chips could work too. The PIC16F527 is one of the cheapest 20-pins PICs (sub-dollar), but it can’t implement the latch pin as fast as the original TIL311.
Tomi Engdahl says:
HydraBus
https://hackaday.io/project/180-hydrabus
The HydraBus is an open source evolutive multi-tool which help you to analyze/debug/hack all types of electronic bus
The Hardware help you to analyze/debug/hack all types of electronic bus, it is evolutive with the help of “Shield” hardware extensions.
Features of the HydraBus board:
Two MicroUSB port (1 OTG and 1 Device/Host)
MicroSD slot with 4bit SD and SDIO mode support in hardware (up to 48MHz about 24MB/s)
Breakout of all 44 I/O
MCU ARM 32-bit Cortex M4 + FPU up to 168MHz & 1MB Embedded Flash
Feature of the firmware (hydrafw):
JTAG scanner/debugger mode like JTAGulator
Logic Analyzer mode up to 2MHz 16chan with SUMP support
CAN1 or 2 (up to 2 Mbit/s)
SPI1 or 2 (master & slave up to 42MHz)
I2C (master up to 1MHz)
UART1 & 2 (up to 10.5Mbps)
ADC (up to 3.3V, can read internal Temperature, VrefInt, VBAT)
DAC1 or 2 (up to 3.3V, triangle, noise)
PWM (1Hz to 42MHz, Duty Cycle 0 to 100%)
GPIO up to 44 I/O configurable (PA0-15, PB0-11, PC0-15)
RNG (Random number generator using STM32 hardware RNG)
Binary Mode compatible with BusPirate BBIO
HydraFW official firmware for HydraBus/HydraNFC http://hydrabus.com
https://github.com/bvernoux/hydrafw
Tomi Engdahl says:
HydraNFC Shield
https://hackaday.io/project/293-hydranfc-shield
HydraNFC is an NFC hw shield to sniff/read/write/emulate any 13.56MHz NFC tags for anyone interested in advanced NFC research/dev/debug/hack
This shield is mainly used with HydraBus (with full support in hydrafw) but can also be used with other MCU.
The HydraNFC is less expensive, more powerful/extensible than Proxmark3 Hardware and does not requires an FPGA (with the help of HydraBus).
Features of the HydraNFC Shield board:
* Autonomous mode with 4 User buttons and 4 User LEDs.
* Use HydraBus microSD card to save or load data (up to 32GB).
* Use Texas Instrument TRF7970A NFC chipset.
* External NFC antenna can read Mifare-One at up to 8cm (tested with 20cm cable with U.FL and SMA connector).
HydraNFC is fully supported by open source HydraBus firmware hydrafw: https://github.com/bvernoux/hydrafw
Tomi Engdahl says:
Santa’s Shop
https://hackaday.io/project/11397-santas-shop
This is a techno/art installation to be displayed in the community–similar to old time holiday window displays.
More than 42 servo motors, 11 Arduinos and dozens of hand made characters fill this moving story telling art installation. Three major elves and Santa each have 8 degrees of freedom and they operate to tell a story. This display will be placed in a window or shop somewhere nearby (Gainesville, Florida) at no cost to the shop owner.
Dozens of pieces have been (and more will be) formed in clay, scanned, 3d printed and decorated. Toys have been created, modified or just discovered.
This could be the “cutting edge” of entertainment, since the characters can act out a script (robot actors).
Tomi Engdahl says:
Concrete Table Just the Way You Like It
http://hackaday.com/2016/05/11/concrete-table-swings-to-the-height-needed/
You need a coffee table, you need a dinner table. Do you really need two tables? [Shua] thinks the answer is “no”. That’s why he built this swinging countersink table out of concrete and a aluminum.
He started by making a simple half-scale prototype. Then a larger one.
Most of the construction process was pretty standard. However, the use of CNC’d pink insulation as a mold for the concrete was interesting. The foam is closed cell, so it worked fine and gave a nice finish.
https://pumpingstationone.org/2016/05/balance-coffee-table/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Converting Kids’ Hand-Drawings to G-Code
http://hackaday.com/2016/05/11/converting-kids-hand-drawings-to-g-code/
[Martin Raynsford] wrote a program that converts a black-and-white 2D image to G-code so that his laser printer could then etch the image. Not satisfied with just that, he used his laser printer to make a scanner that consists of a stand for his webcam and a tray below it for positioning the paper just right. The result was something he took to a recent Maker Faire where many kids drew pictures on paper which his system then scanned and laser etched.
[Martin’s] program, written in C#, does the work of taking the image from the webcam using OpenGL and scanning it line by line looking for pixels that surpass a contrast threshold. For each suitable pixel the program then produces G-code that moves the laser to the corresponding coordinate and burns a hole.
Drawing To Engraving
http://msraynsford.blogspot.fi/2016/05/drawing-to-engraving.html
Tomi Engdahl says:
Prototype to production: Arduino for the professional
http://www.edn.com/electronics-blogs/embedded-basics/4442018/Prototype-to-production–Arduino-for-the-professional?_mc=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_funfriday_20160513&cid=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_funfriday_20160513&elqTrackId=a8396fb2b8ef4e3c98e6e23a9beed6bf&elq=f50a6744d13b43fcb0bc7f95157d0626&elqaid=32248&elqat=1&elqCampaignId=28166
Despite its popularity among hobbyists and electronics enthusiasts, the Arduino has become infamous among professional embedded systems developers. I must admit that for the longest time I also viewed the Arduino as so simple it was nearly useless for professional developers. But I have changed my mind.
I’ve found that on a number of occasions over the last few years, rapid prototyping using Arduinos and Arduino shields has proven invaluable in moving a project forward. Despite, or perhaps because of, its abstracted simplicity, the Arduino has been key in turning an abstract idea into a defined product. For that reason, let’s take a closer at the Arduino and how professional developers can benefit from it.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Path to Craftsmanship: Safety, Cleanliness, and Documentation as Habits
http://hackaday.com/2016/05/12/safety-cleanliness-documentation-and-more-habits-that-make-your-work-better/
Looking Mains Voltage In The Eye And Surviving
http://hackaday.com/2016/05/11/looking-mains-voltage-in-the-eye-and-surviving-part-1/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Electromagnetic Teaching Aid
https://hackaday.io/project/11699-electromagnetic-teaching-aid
Create a set of designs that make teaching and intuitive understanding of the relationship between electricity and magnetism accessible
Teaching how electromagnetism works is often based around theory and is hard to make hands on, even while it lends itself to very interesting experiment since motion is often involved. This project aims to create a set designs that can help make the relationship between electricity and magnetism more intuitively understood. By starting with common components I would like to show that by simply arranging them in different ways and controlling the current through the coils
Tomi Engdahl says:
Automatic Digital Microscope
https://hackaday.io/project/10188-automatic-digital-microscope
Automated Embedded Device for the Detection of Any Microorganism using a Webcam, a Coupling Device, Computer Vision and Machine Learning
The 2016 Hackaday Prize
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Rodrigo Loza
khalilnallar
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ongoing project
2016HackadayPrize computer vision automatic machine diagnostic application Healthcare machine learning
This project is submitted for
The 2016 Hackaday Prize
Get Started: Design Your Concept
Anything Goes
This project was created on 03/14/2016 and last updated 26 minutes ago.
Description
In developing countries, some diseases are better detected using conventional methods that require the availability of trained personnel (e.g Tuberculosis). Of course, detecting diseases using more advanced molecular methods clearly surpasses the accuracy of old-fashioned methods. Nevertheless, developing countries cannot afford those techniques. In that sense, we are developing a cheap and innovative embedded device that will transform any optical microscope into an automated digital microscope. Thus, we will automatize bacterial and parasitic diagnostic procedures.
Tomi Engdahl says:
NeuroBytes
Build your own nervous system!
https://hackaday.io/project/3339-neurobytes
NeuroBytes are small (31mm x 56mm) electronic neuron models that can be freely connected to form complex and biologically representative neural circuits. The NeuroBytes platform is currently in itseighth prototype generation with approximately 350 individual elements built to date, along with numerous accessories that help constructed networks interface with the real world. Joe and Zach formed NeuroTinker, LLC to commercialize the concept on 4/15/2016. We are currently funded by a Phase I SBIR grant from the National Science Foundation.
NeuroBytes is an open source project, licensed in its entirety (hardware and firmware) under GPLv3.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Phoenix Perry: Forward Futures
http://hackaday.com/2016/05/13/phoenix-perry-forward-futures/
[Phoenix Perry] raised a lot of big-think points in her talk, and she’s definitely hacking in order to bring more women into the field and make the creation of technology more accessible to everyone. Lofty goals, and not a project that’s going to be finished up this weekend. But if you’re going to make a positive difference in the world through what you love to do, it’s good to dream big and keep the large goal on your mind.
[Phoenix] is an engineer by training, game-coder by avocation, and a teacher for all the right reasons. She’s led a number of great workshops around the intersection of art and technology: from physical controllers for self-coded games to interactive music synthesis devices disguised as room-sized geodesic domes. And she is the founder of the Code Liberation Foundation, a foundation aimed at teaching women technology through game coding. On one hand, she’s a hacker, but on the other she’s got her eyes on a larger social goal.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Boost Around Town with This 3D Printed Bicycle Assist
http://hackaday.com/2016/05/13/boost-around-town-with-this-3d-printed-bicycle-assist/
MechEngineerMike]’s bike boost is just a pleasure to look at, and, we’re certain, a relief to use. While it’s not going to rocket you down the street, it will certainly take some of the pain away. (Just like the professionals!)
It’s one thing to design a device that can fit one bicycle. It’s quite another feat if it can support multiple frames.
Bicycle BoosterPack: A 3D Printed Portable Electric Assist
http://www.instructables.com/id/Bicycle-BoosterPack-a-3D-Printed-Portable-Electric/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Jon Brodkin / Ars Technica:
Linksys WRT routers won’t block open source firmware, despite FCC rules
Technology Lab / Information Technology
Linksys WRT routers won’t block open source firmware despite FCC rules
But come June 2, a lot of other routers will block third-party firmware.
http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2016/05/linksys-wrt-routers-wont-block-open-source-firmware-despite-fcc-rules/
New rules that affect open source firmware on Wi-Fi routers will be implemented on June 2, but not all network hardware will prevent the loading of third-party software.
Linksys has been collaborating with chipmaker Marvell and the makers of OpenWrt to make sure its latest WRT routers can comply with the new rules without blocking open source firmware, company officials told Ars.
Linksys’s effort stands in contrast with TP-Link, which said it would entirely prevent loading of open source firmware on its routers to satisfy the new Federal Communications Commission requirements.
Blocking third-party firmware is the easiest way to comply with the FCC rules, which aim to limit interference with other devices by preventing user modifications that cause radios to operate outside their licensed RF (radio frequency) parameters.
The FCC wrote its rules in response to interference with FAA Doppler weather radar systems. Routers using certain portions of the 5GHz band were already required to use dynamic frequency selection (DFS) in order to detect nearby radar systems and avoid operating on the same channel. But it’s possible for users to disable dynamic frequency selection—the FCC has called this a “major cause of harmful interference.”
Most cases of interference have been caused either by disabling DFS or “devices that have been modified to operate in frequency bands in which they are not certified to operate,” the FCC says.
“Our responsibility to the open source community”
Any 5GHz routers sold on or after June 2 must include security measures that prevent these types of changes. But router makers can still allow loading of open source firmware as long as they also deploy controls that prevent devices from operating outside their allowed frequencies, types of modulation, power levels, and so on.
This takes more work than simply locking out third-party firmware entirely, but Linksys, a division of Belkin, made the extra effort. On and after June 2, newly sold Linksys WRT routers will store RF parameter data in a separate memory location in order to secure it from the firmware, the company says. That will allow users to keep loading open source firmware the same way they do now.
Other Linksys routers, such as Max-Stream devices, will block open source firmware. But continuing support on the WRT line is a natural move for Linksys, given that the OpenWrt and DD-WRT third-party firmware was originally built for the company’s WRT54G routers more than a decade ago.
“They’re named WRT… it’s almost our responsibility to the open source community,” Linksys router product manager Vince La Duca told Ars.
Using open source isn’t about breaking the rules
While Linksys’s support of open source is partly a marketing strategy, La Duca understands why customers want to use OpenWrt and similar software.
“The real benefit of open source is not breaking the rules and doing something with malicious intent, the value of open source is being able to customize your router, to be able to do privacy browsing through Tor, being able to build an OpenVPN client, being able to strip down the firmware to do super lean, low-latency gaming,” La Duca said. “It’s not about ‘I’m going to go get OpenWrt to go and piss off the FCC.’ It’s about what you can do in expanding the capabilities of what we ship with.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Hacklet 107 – 3D Printing Projects
http://hackaday.com/2016/05/14/hacklet-107-3d-printing-projects/
3D printers have forever changed the hardware hacker movement. From the original RepRap project on up through current commercial offerings, 3D printers have become an indispensable tool for hackers, makers, and engineers. While printers may not have started a desktop manufacturing revolution, they are a desktop prototyping evolution. It’s rare for a day to go by on Hackaday without a project that uses a 3D printed part in some way shape or form. These printers also continue to evolve, with new projects pushing the technology ever forward. This week’s Hacklet is all about some of the best 3D printer projects on Hackaday.io!
Tomi Engdahl says:
Custom Case Lends Retro Look to Smart TV
http://hackaday.com/2016/05/14/custom-case-lends-retro-look-to-smart-tv/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Making A Fixed Voltage Power Supply Adjustable
http://hackaday.com/2016/05/16/making-a-fixed-voltage-power-supply-adjustable/
Switch-mode power supplies are ubiquitous. Standard off-the-shelf modules in a consistent range of form factors available from multiple manufacturers. Globalized manufacturing and trade has turned them from expensive devices into commodity parts, and they long ago replaced iron-cored transformers as the go-to choice when a high-current low-voltage mains supply is required.
[Lindsay Wilson] faced a power supply problem for a motor he was working with, it required 7.4V and no off-the-shelf power supplies were to be found with that voltage. His solution was to take a 12V supply and modify it to deliver a variable voltage so he could dial in his requirement. A Chinese-made 12v 33A switch-mode supply was purchased, and he set to work.
Analysis, operation, and modification of a switchmode power supply (SMPS) for variable output voltage (28/10/15)
http://imajeenyus.com/electronics/20151028_smps_variable_voltage/index.shtml
Important note
Nearly all Chinese-made power supplies of this type I’ve come across have had very poor heatsinking of the various power semiconductors – transistors, diodes etc. Little care is taken to ensure good thermal contact with the metal casing, so I always strip the supply down, check the mounting of the heatsinks, and apply some extra thermal grease.
Fortunately, there is no shortage of inexpensive Chinese switchmode supplies with standard outputs of 5,12,24V etc. Most (all?) of these have the ability to adjust the output voltage slightly, by around ±10%. I reckoned that it should be possible to modify such a supply to provide a fully-adjustable output voltage which could be set to the desired 7.4V. This is by no means a novel idea – many people have modified supplies (a common mod is to increase the output to 13.8V, for ham radio use) – but I haven’t seen a good operational analysis of these supplies, so it’s a good excuse to do some detective work and figure out what makes them tick.
First task – get the main PCB out, scanned/photographed, traced, and a circuit drawn.
And, what you’ve all been waiting for, the full schematic
Feedback/regulation/current limiting
The voltage sense divider (dotted box on far left of schematic) results in an adjustment range of about 10-15V with the default component values. The output of the divider (top of C28) is connected to the noninverting input (pin 1) of the #1 opamp in the TL494. The inverting input (pin 2) goes to a fixed 2.5V reference (half of Vref). The TL494 adjusts its output duty cycle to make the output from the divider equal to 2.5V. The components marked “voltage loop compensation” are voodoo and have the effect of reducing feedback gain at higher frequencies.
Opamp #2 of the TL494 is used for current limiting.
Designing a new feedback divider
There’s one important difference between this and the original divider. The original had a very nonlinear adjustment, because VR1 was simply used as a variable resistor between the feedback pin and ground. The new divider has a linear adjustment, thanks to the grounded-wiper configuration.
With the values shown, the adjustment is around 4.8-15V; note that I deliberately avoided going too low, to prevent the short-circuit protection kicking in
What’s with the capacitors? Remember that the original divider had a couple of capacitors in it to provide loop compensation. Now, I really don’t know what I’m doing regarding loop compensation, but I reckoned that it would be best to try and get the gain/phase response of the new divider as close as possible to that of the old one, to reduce the chance of any instabilities.
In addition to the voltage divider modifications, I also decided to add a little digital voltmeter module to display the current output voltage.
Tomi Engdahl says:
A Dis-Integrated 6502
http://hackaday.com/2016/05/16/a-dis-integrated-6502/
The 6502 is the classic CPU. This chip is found in the original Apple, Apple II, PET, Commodore 64, BBC Micro, Atari 2600, and 800, the original Nintendo Entertainment System, Tamagotchis, and Bender Bending Rodriguez. This was the chip that started the microcomputer revolution, and holds a special place in the heart of every nerd and technophile. The 6502 is also possibly the most studied processor, with die shots of polysilicon and metal found in VLSI textbooks and numerous simulators available online.
The only thing we haven’t seen, until now, is a version of the 6502 built out of discrete transistors. That’s what [Eric Schlaepfer] has been working on over the past year. It’s huge – 12 inches by 15 inches – has over four thousand individual components, and so far, this thing works. It’s not completely tested, but the preliminary results look good.
The MOnSter 6502 began as a thought experiment between [Eric] and [Windell Oskay], the guy behind Evil Mad Scientist and creator of the discrete 555 and dis-integrated 741 kits. After realizing that a few thousand transistors could fit on a single panel, [Eric] grabbed the netlist of the 6502 from Visual6502.org.
The MOnSter 6502
http://monster6502.com/
This is the NMOS version of the 6502, not the later, improved CMOS version.
Tomi Engdahl says:
One Dollar Board Targets Students
http://hackaday.com/2016/05/16/one-dollar-board-targets-students/
The Raspberry Pi was made to be inexpensive with an eye toward putting them into schools. But what about programs targeted at teaching embedded programming? There are plenty of fiscally-starved schools all over the world, and it isn’t uncommon for teachers to buy supplies out of their own pockets. What could you do with a board that cost just one dollar?
That’s the idea behind the team promoting the “One Dollar Board” (we don’t know why they didn’t call it a buck board). The idea is to produce a Creative Commons design for a simple microcontroller board that only costs a dollar. You can see a video about the project, below.
Despite being licensed under Creative Commons, there isn’t much detail available that we could find. It appears the board uses an 8 pin Atmel CPU (and the FAQ indicates that the board will use the Arduino IDE). We’re guessing that it’s essentially a Digispark / Adafruit Trinket / ATtiny85 with V-USB installed.
But the real story is the price. The dollar price tag doesn’t include shipping or taxes, of course, but even getting the price down that low is impressive.
One Dollar Board
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/one-dollar-board–3#/
Educational electronic board a dollar cost. to revolutionize education global.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Self-Driving Cars Get Tiny
http://hackaday.com/2016/05/16/self-driving-cars-get-tiny/
There’s a car race going on right now, but it’s not on any sort of race track. There’s a number of companies vying to get their prototype on the road first. [Anurag] has already completed the task, however, except his car and road are functional models.
While his car isn’t quite as involved as the Google self driving car, and it doesn’t have to deal with pedestrians and other active obstacles, it does use a computer and various sensors to make decisions about how to drive. A Raspberry Pi 2 takes the wheel in this build, taking input from a Pi camera and an ultrasonic distance sensor. The Pi communicates to another computer over WiFi, where a neural network operates to make decisions about how to drive the car. It also makes decisions based on a database of pictures of the track, so it has a point of reference to go by.
http://anuragmishracse.github.io/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Go Ahead, Connect an Inductor and Capacitor and See What Happens
http://www.wired.com/2016/05/go-ahead-connect-inductor-capacitor-see-happens/
Here is this calculation in python (click the play button to run it).
Tomi Engdahl says:
Hacking R/C Brushless Motor Controllers for Use in Big Robots
http://hackaday.com/2016/05/18/hacking-rc-brushless-motor-controllers-for-use-in-big-robots/
[professor churlz] wrote in to let us know his results with modifying radio control ESCs (Electronic Speed Controllers) for use in a large (250lb range) BattleBot’s drivetrain. It’s a very long and involved build log entry that is chock-full of details and background.
If you want something spinning hard and fast, brushless is where it’s at. Brushless motors offer much better power-to-weight ratios compared to brushed DC motors, but some applications – like a large robot’s drivetrain – are less straightforward than others.
The Overhaul 2 Design & Build Series: #sadbot2016, The Untold Story; Or, How to Be a Brushless Hipster; Tuning the SimonK Firmware for Robot Drive
http://www.etotheipiplusone.net/?p=3985
Tomi Engdahl says:
The Art And Science Of Bending Sheet Metal
http://hackaday.com/2016/05/18/the-art-and-science-of-bending-sheet-metal/
A motor mount. A sturdy enclosure. A 43.7° bracket. The average hack requires at least one angled metal part, and the best tool to make one is still the good ol’ press brake. Bending parts requires a few extra thoughts in the design and layout of the flat patterns, so if you want to know about bend allowances, bend deduction and how to bend accurate parts even without a press, read on.
Tomi Engdahl says:
i2c Relay Expander Uses Nifty Card-Edge Connection
http://hackaday.com/2016/05/18/i2c-relay-expander-uses-nifty-card-edge-connection/
[Andrew Sowa] wanted to use an off-the-shelf relay board from Numato Labs. The board lacks a suitable computer interface, which meant that [Andrew] would have to build one, and its input connectors are screw terminals, which meant a lot of wiring. Undeterred, he created an i2c expansion board using an MCP23017 I/O port expander, and with a novel card-edge designed to mate with the screw terminals, solving both problems at once.
The board was designed in KiCad, if you are interested in creating one yourself its files are in his GitHub repository and his board is even available as a shared project from OSH Park. We’d expect the ENIG finish to be an asset with those screw terminal connectors.
The unusual profile of [Andrew]’s board mates just right with the screw terminals, without adding any connectors or wiring to his bill of materials.
16-Channel I2C Relay expander V1.0
http://andrewsowa.com/blog/2016/5/15/16-channel-i2c-relay-expander-v10
Tomi Engdahl says:
DIY Vein Finder Shows you Where to Stick It
http://hackaday.com/2016/05/19/diy-vein-finder-shows-you-where-to-stick-it/
Everyone who’s donated blood, gotten an intravenous (IV) line put in, or has taken a blood test knows that little bit of anxiety before the needle goes in. Will this be a one stick operation, or will the phlebotomist do their impression of drilling for oil while trying to find a vein? Some of us are blessed with easy to find blood vessels. Others end up walking out looking like they’ve been in a fight with a needle.
[Alex] designed this 3D printed vein finder to help his wife girlfriend out at work.
He started by studying devices on the market. Products like Veinlite use LEDs to illuminate the skin. Essentially these products are a string of LEDs and a battery. They are patented, FDA approved, and will set you back between $188 and $549 USD. [Alex] and his wife girlfriend couldn’t afford that kind of cost, so he built his own.
3d printed medical vein finder
http://www.instructables.com/id/3d-Printed-Medical-Vein-Finder/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Embrace a Maker mindset
http://www.edn.com/electronics-blogs/about-embedded/4442021/Embrace-a-Maker-mindset?_mc=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_weekly_20160519&cid=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_weekly_20160519&elqTrackId=3ffe3de224264e3c94d466f6a7ada33a&elq=5923aebb34184fbeb2e9900dfb074a58&elqaid=32329&elqat=1&elqCampaignId=28237
At the Embedded Systems Conference (ESC) in Boston last month the keynote speaker, Kipp Bradford of MIT’s Media Lab, shared his thoughts about the Maker community and its impact on embedded design. One of the key messages was that the industry should consider embracing the Maker mindset. That mindset is both an approach to design and an expectation for tools and technologies.
The Maker movement, the tech-influenced DIY enthusiast community, has been steadily growing for the last decade. One sure indication of the Maker movement’s significance is the immense popularity of events
These aspects of the Maker movement have important ramifications for traditional embedded development. Like the Chinese phone company, the development team able to turn out new products and features quickly is going to start pulling ahead of its competition in only a few product generations as it accumulates proven-popular innovations in its lineup. And if the competition comes up with something interesting, the team will be able to quickly respond.
But creating such an agile development team will require some changes to traditional development approaches. As EDN’s Embedded Study shows, traditional development spends 25% of its time just coming up with a concept and specs. The ability to rapidly prototype and test ideas and pick the ones that work can thus greatly speed time to market.
The corollary to the Maker design approach holds a lesson for technology vendors, as well. These developers want to turn their ideas into prototypes quickly, and the tools the vendor offers need to facilitate that effort.
Not every development effort will be able to follow the Maker approach. Safety-critical systems must still follow a formal process in order to secure certification. Contract designs must wait for the customer’s specs before proceeding. But for development projects few of such mandatory restrictions, embracing the Maker mindset can be a key to innovation and success in an increasingly fast-moving market.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Prototype to production: Arduino for the professional
http://www.edn.com/electronics-blogs/embedded-basics/4442018/Prototype-to-production–Arduino-for-the-professional?_mc=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_weekly_20160519&cid=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_weekly_20160519&&elqTrackId=c1405c8f97544d0da593d87eb00adbdc&elq=5923aebb34184fbeb2e9900dfb074a58&elqaid=32329&elqat=1&elqCampaignId=28237
Tomi Engdahl says:
Scratch-built Radial Solenoid Engine is Polished and Professional
http://hackaday.com/2016/05/20/scratch-built-radial-solenoid-engine-is-polished-and-professional/
There’s something alluring about radial engines. The Wasps, the Cyclones, the Gnomes – the mechanical beauty of those classic aircraft engines can’t be denied. And even when a radial engine is powered by solenoids rather than internal combustion, it can still be a thing of beauty.
New Solenoid Engine Preview #3
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=11xdApWMhHg
Tomi Engdahl says:
Tiny Wireless Capsule Camera
https://hackaday.io/project/10845-tiny-wireless-capsule-camera
A tiny wireless capsule camera for medical imaging or space-constrained environments