Woody sure knows how to have fun during Halloween! This Halloween Pumpkin is sure to put the fear into some of the trick or treaters who dare come for candy at Woddy’s house. Since Woody is a control electrician he is using some expensive gear to control his creations but the same effect could be done on a tiny budget with some hobby electronics.
"Most of my haunt is controlled by a Allen Bradly SLC 5/04. My sound is controlled from Digital Sound Repeaters, Mp3 players, and a computer 8 channel sound card.I use stand alone controllers like Prop-1,A/B pico,and VSA software. I’ve just started to teach my self mold making and sculpting. If anyone has questions or needs a little help with making your own animatronics just ask."
The Prop Master shows us how this cool Automated Halloween Coffin works. The coffin was made some plywood that was painted black, a skeleton of PVC pipe, a Halloween mask, an old suit and a sprinkler valve. Notice how the PVC has slip point that allow the system to pivot to raise a portion of the skeleton. There are also a few non-essentials that were added to enhance the scare effect, some speakers and a sound chip allow for some spooky zombie voices and the red flood light illuminates the zombie as he raises. Watch the video below to see how sit up fast the action is!
If you are into RC vehicles you need to have a look at this cool Mini V12 RC Car Engine. This is sure to make everyone who looks at it drool.
"12-cylinder-4-stroke V-engine with two camshafts below, mixed lubrication and air cooling. * 21 mm bore stroke 21 mm Displacement 87 cm ³ engine capacity to 7,25 cc per cylinder. * Compression ratio of 1:10 weight ca 4800 g speed of 950 - 5000 1/min"
This contest will run for one week (Oct 4 - Oct 9, 2008) . Ending time is based on central standard time. To enter, identify the item pictured above and give an example of what can be done with it. Please do not give the answer in the comments.
Send an email to contest @ hackedgadgets.com with "Name the Thing Contest" as the subject, and the message body consisting of:
The name of the item in the above picture
An example of what the item pictured above can be used for
The winner will be chosen at random from all of the correct entries.
Gary Teachout has put together an interesting robot that uses a Motorola 68HC11 as a brain and K’NEX for the structure. It has some smarts built into it, this includes a fight or flight reaction!
"ERC is a small computer, a few motors, some cardboard, and a bunch of K’NEX. For a long time it was a mobile robot, with differential drive, and I used it for many navigation experiments. It has an oscillating scan platform with two seven zone, convergent mode, infrared, range finders. Seven IR emitters mounted behind the upper lens (pocket magnifier), produce beams that converge with the field of view of a detector (behind the lower lens), at different distances from about nine inches away, to nine feet away. ERC divides this 360 degree view into 32 directions, and for each gets a distance of one to seven, or beyond range."
When I shut down my computers in my workroom there is an strange silence. It’s nice but feels strange since there is usually the whir of computer fans in the background. I have often though it would be nice to locate the computers remotely and simply have a monitor, keyboard and mouse in the room for each system. This passive cooling idea is interesting but you will never see this in an inexpensive off the shelf system since it would increase the cost tremendously. A small heat sink with a high speed fan is a much lighter and cheaper method of removing the heat from our modern heat producing systems.
"When designing passive cooling, first thing you have to have is lots of surface area to dissipate the heat that a modern computer produces. The second thing to take into account is the airflow. Without fans, the airflow rests solely on convection that is a very low force. This means that the places the air must go, must be open, and clear of obstacles. Convection means that hot air goes up. This would suggest that the heatsinks are lined vertically. This in turn, suggests that the case be modeled like a tower."
Garygadget15 has a great idea that puts an old motor to use providing power by consuming waste cooling oil.
"I have built a "off the Grid" home generator using a 1950’s Coventry Victor one cylinder diesel generator, I can run this on diesel or a diesel and used cooking oil mixture and have it attached to a large battery via a 40amp car alternator which supplies my garden lighting and via an inverter for 600 watts of home power and lighting. The waste heat is used to keep my garage warm as well."
I think next time I go to the junk yard I will have to see how much an old air bag is worth. These things really pack a punch. If you watch the video from Daves Farm keep watching past the first air bag test, the second one is amazing.
Estimated Time to Program: 10 minutes (or none if you use my source code)
The other day I was walking through RadioShack and found this neat little Motion-sensing Door Chime/Alarm.
Since I already had an alarm system, I decided I could simply add a motion-sensor to my existing alarm system.
Connections
1) First disassemble the motion-sensor like shown in above picture.
2) Now disconnect the speaker wires, we don't need the speaker on the motion sensor since we already have one on our alarm system.
3) Solder 2 wires to the speaker wires. Make sure to mark one of the wires as ground for later. I used a black tape to mark it.
4) When you measure the speaker outputs, you should get around 8V DC, we will need this information in order to not burn up our CB280 module.
5) You can take the wires outside of the casing through the battery connectors.
6) Assemble your motion-sensor now like shown above.
7) Now you have a motion sensor w/ 2 wires you can use to sense motion!
8) Connect the the Positive wire of the motion sensor to the middle of a 3804 TR.
Connect the GND of motion sensor to GND of the study board.
Now you can connect 5V of the study board to the right side of the 3904 TR and the P21 of the study board to the left side of the 3904 TR as shown in the above picture.
Connect a LED Output to P21 to check that motion sensor is working and the CUBLOC module will receive correct digital signals.
Now check that your motion sensor is working by turning the motion sensor to "Chime" and try flickering your hands in front of it.
The LED on the motion sensor and the study board should go off together in harmony.
Now simply unzip and download this program using CublocStudio:
Okay, today I was thinking that I needed an alarm system for my dog, so I decided to make a doggy door alarm system. Since my dog sleeps w/ me, I needed to make an alarm system for the night, to protect my apartment from other intruding dogs...
Anways, you might think I am crazy making an alarm system for furry people...
Before I made the actual system, I decided to do it with a study board that has a little breadboard.
You can get a 12VDC Piezzo Buzzer from your local Radio Shack for about 10 bucks and magnetic contact switches w/ screws for about 5 bucks.
These magnetic contact switches are neat, they are the same ones used for a lot of residential and commercial door sensors.
They are simply magnetic switches. If door is closed, the contact is open and if door is open, the contact is closed.
You can screw them into door and the wall using the holes on the switch ends.
Yes, if you got that and some CUBLOC or any type of microcontroller w/ i/o ports, you should be ready to go.
Here, we will use Comfile's CB280 embedded computer module and a 4x4 keypad and keypad controller, which will make things easier for us since we won't have to build from scratch.
(Close-up)
You will need to solder on your Keypad to the Keypad Controller first.
Then plug in black wire to GND, red wire to 5V, and rest of the pins to ports P0, P1, P2, and P3. (labeled 0, 1, 2, and 3 on the black IDC headers)
Once you are done connecting the Keypad Controller to your study board, connect the LCD to connector labeled, "CuNET".
Yes, now you have a keypad and an LCD.
Now connect the black wire of the piezo to GND and red wire to the left side of the 3904 transistor.
Connect 5V to the right side of the 3904 transistor.
Connect the middle pin of the transistor to P5 of the CUBLOC Study Board (labeled "5").
Now why are we using a transistor? Because the piezo takes about 150mA and each I/O of CB280 CUBLOC module only can take so much (<50ma).>
So when the I/O port goes on, the transistor will simply connect power from 5V pin to the red wire of the piezo.
Okay, now we have 1 more item, yes, that's right, we can put the magnetic contact switch.
Connect one end of the Contact switch to 5V pin and the other end to port P20, labeled "20" on the study board.
Now connect a wire from P20 to an LED on the study board.
This is to do a pull-down and we should be able to check the status of the contact switch using the LED.
All right, now you are done, you should have something like this:
Now download this source file diy100.zip and uncompress it.
You will find HomeAutomation001.cul and HomeAutomation001.cub.
Open HomeAutomation001.cul file in your CublocStudio.
Download the program to CB280 module.
When you move the bottom part of the magnetic contact switch, you should see the LCD displaying "open" and "close" while the piezo beeps.
Now enter "1234" as password on the keypad controller.
If you mess up, you can press "CNCL" button, which will clear the password.
You should see the Alarm Status on the LCD go ON.
Now when the door is open, you will hear the alarm go off.
You can modify the source code to change the alarm times, scheduling, menus, etc...etc...
The CB280 module supports up to 49 I/Os, so you can add up to 49 door sensors or you can add temperature chip to monitor temperature at the same time.
The CB220 and CB220 Proto Board can be substituted for cheaper alternative.
The CLCD420B can be substituted for smaller LCD such as the CLCD216G OR you can also add a graphic LCD, such as the GHLCD for expanding your alarm system...
I will try to update w/ a touch screen alarm system for more high tech alarm system in the future w/ CuTOUCH.
TraceGuard, a company which specializes in technologies and solutions for improving automated explosives detection, has developed CompactSafe, a system capable of inspecting and automatically extracting traces of explosives from items that have complex internal mechanisms such as laptops or medical devices. CompactSafe has been recently certified by the Israeli Security Agency (ISA) to replace the manual processes of explosive detection at international border crossings.
Up until now, items that are hard to inspect have been checked via manual collection methods (“swabbing”) which are far less accurate. CompactSafe is not intended to replace the standard chemical detectors currently used, but to add to their efficiency and accuracy. The system has already been field tested in Israel at the Ben Gurion Airport and at the Western Wall in Jerusalem.
“TraceGuard is very proud to have completed the ISA certification process. The ISA is known to be one of the most demanding certifying agencies worldwide. We believe that CompactSafe offers a unique solution to improving explosives detection, one of the critical challenges in border crossing and in public events. This approval allows us to start sales of the CompactSafe system in Israel and other countries” said Avi Kostelitz, CEO of TraceGuard.
CompactSafe's inspection process is done by placing the item in the machine's inspection chamber. Then, using the proprietary automated trace extraction technology, CompactSafe causes the rapid release and extraction of particles from the item by sealing and manipulating air molecules. The trace material collected is then analyzed via a chemical analyzer which displays the results on its screen.
"This technology is capable of extracting microgram levels of explosives, traces smaller than fingerprints. CompactSafe is able to extract any type of explosive trace, in both solid and liquid form," further explains the company.
TFOT has recently covered RedXDefense's portable kit that could provide a quick and simple visual diagnostic for detecting plastic explosives favored by terrorists. The device, which was designed to be used by in security checkpoints and under harsh conditions, is currently undergoing field tests in Iraq. TFOT also covered variable speed bullets as well as a spray which enables “dusting” for explosives .
More information about CompactSafe can be found at TraceGuard's official website.
I remember my Meccano set that I played with when I was growing up. Lots of nuts, bolts and pieces of metal. This Spykee robot represents the new face of Meccano that I could only wish was available when I was a kid. I can just imagine the creative hacks that we will see in the near future! Thanks to Sven for the system overview.
"
Spy robot. Spykee can be controlled within your home network using a WiFi connection. Just install some software on your PC or Mac and you can remotely send commands to Spykee. The video and sound from Spykee’s webcam are transmitted to your computer.
Telepresence. Because Spykee has a WiFi connection it can easily connect to the Internet. This opens up many new possibilities for the robot, such as remotely controlling your robot from any place in the world via Internet.
Digital music player. Spykee has a 2W loudspeaker. So just send MP3 music to Spykee and you can enjoy your music.
VOIP phone. Use the Spykee robot together with Skype, MSN or GoogleTalk to talk with your friends! Because Spykee is mobile, you can now talk with your friend from any place in your house.
Video surveillance. Spykee can be programmed to send you an email whenever it sees things that are suspicious. Your robot will now guard your room!
Infrared auto-park recharging. Mobile robots have a limited time to operate due to their batteries. Spykee is a smart robot that will automatically recharge itself when its batteries are low.
Processor. Details about the specific processor that Spykee uses and possibilities for further hardware extensions is currently not know. If anyone has some info then please post it on the forum.
WiFi. Spykee is WiFi enabled. According to its specifications the robot should work within a distance of 100m under optimal conditions.
2DC motors. Spykee has two motors that can be independently controlled so that it can drive forward, backwards, turn left and turn right.
Camera The camera has a resolution of 320×200 pixels and under optimal conditions it has a framerate of 15fps.
IR auto-parking recharge system. Spykee comes with a docking station to automatically recharge its batteries.
Lights and optical fibres Not only can Spykee make sound, it also has lights to cheer up your room!
The Message Pump project from Spikenzie Labs provides you with some surface mount soldering enjoyment and a resulting device that will allow you to display messages from your computer. Lots of computers don’t have a serial port these days so the USB connection is very handy. It is available in many forms including bare board or a kit with all the required parts.
"The Message Pump A.K.A. the USB to LCD Backpack is a device that allows you to connect a LCD display directly to your computer. It uses a PIC micro-controller, to drive the LCD and a FTDI USB to serial chip to connect to your computer. Most of the parts on the Message Pump are surface mount. If you are good or OK at soldering though hole parts then building the Message Pump will should be a problem. You may just have to change your technique a bit. Look around the web and you will find lots of tutorials on how to do surface mount (SMT) soldering. The most popular part used in this project is the FTDI USB chip. People are afraid of it because it has a small pin pitch (spacing). The version used here is the SSOP-28 package. Yes, this tight spacing does make it a bit more difficult to solder but if you have not tried, I think you’d be surprised, it’s not that hard."
You probably don’t need a Geiger Counter but wouldn’t it be fun to have one? This DIY Geiger Counter project will not only demonstrate how to build one, this circuit will also connect to a computer using USB to grab the data. Since this device used very high voltage the output to the USB is opto-isolated to protect the delicate low voltage computer circuitry.
"The Geiger-Muller tube is a simple device, it’s a tube filled with a gas with two electrodes. A high potential is applied betweens electrodes. When a ionizing particle arrived, it create a temporary conductive path between electrodes. The resulting current can be detected by an electronic amplifier. A Geiger counter is composed of a high voltage generator, a geiger tube, an amplifier and a monostable. The following schematic show clearly these 4 parts. In the second part of this article will show how to connect this counter to a USB microcontroler and a computer. "
Didn’t think a laser could retain this much power after traveling through many inches of water. But it looks like this 150mW laser somehow managed to do it. The target is flash paper, not regular paper which may have a bit to do with it but it is impressive regardless! Anyone think this is not real or staged somehow?
A group of scientists led by Alex Zettl, a Physicist at the University of California, Berkeley, has developed a nanoscale radio, with a key circuitry consisting of a single carbon nanotube. Today, any wireless device, from cell phones to environmental sensors, can benefit from the nanoradios. Smaller electronic components, such as tuners, could reduce power consumption and extend battery life. Nanoradios have potential applications in many fields, including medicine, where they could be incorporated into tiny devices that navigate the bloodstream to release drugs on command.
Zettl's team originally set out to miniaturize individual components of a radio receiver, but the integration of separate nanoscale components proved difficult, until Zettl and his students experienced a eureka moment: they realized that one nanotube can do it all. Within a matter of days, they had created a functioning nanoradio.
The nano receiver translates the electromagnetic oscillations of the radio wave into the mechanical vibrations of a nanotube. The vibrations are then converted into a stream of electrical pulses that reproduce the original radio signal, and are anchored to a metal electrode that is wired to a battery. Just beyond the nanotube's free end is a second metal electrode. When a voltage is applied between the electrodes, electrons flow from the battery through the first electrode and the nanotube and then jump from the nanotube's tip across the tiny gap to the second electrode. The nanotube - now negatively charged - is able to "feel" the oscillations of a passing radio wave, which has both an electrical and a magnetic component.
The team’s next goal is to allow their nanoradios to transmit signals in addition to receiving them. Professor Zettl says that it will not be difficult to achieve this goal, since a transmitter is essentially a receiver running in reverse.
Electron microscope image of the nanoradio - aves shown in this image were added for visual effect (Credit:Credit: Berkeley / A. Zettl and K. Jensen)
Nano transmitters could be used for a variety of purposes, such as attaching tiny chemical sensors into the blood vessels of diabetics. The sensors would be able to relay information to a detector, or perhaps even an implanted drug reservoir that could release insulin or another therapeutic on cue. Zettl says that since his paper on the nanotube radio was published in the journal ‘Nano Letters’, he has received several calls from researchers working on radio-based drug delivery vehicles. "It's not just fantasy," he says. "It's active research going on right now."
TFOT recently covered BIOTEX - biosensors, which can be integrated into special fabrics. The sensors are capable of measuring sodium, chloride, and potassium in miniscule volumes of sweat samples on the skin. Another related device covered by TFOT is the NIKE+ sports band, which collects information during running, jumping, or any other athletic activity, and analyzes the data either in real-time or later, on the user's PC.
To read more about Zettl's nanotube radio, see the University of California, Berkeley website.
This DIY Hovercraft Project was done on a budget and the results are very good based on the amount of money that was put into it.
"The workings of a hovercraft are fairly straightforward: one high-power motor with an airplane propeller forces air down through the hole in the center, which pushes the bottom of the hovercraft off the ground. This greatly reduces friction, allowing the hovercraft to scoot around without much trouble. It also makes it much more difficult to control, however: when the hovercraft turns, it will keep traveling in a straight line unless more thrust is applied. Since we are used to controlling cars or boats, the newtonian behavior of a hovercraft is challenging indeed. The body of the hovercraft is made out of styrofoam, cut with a saw and sanded to smooth the edges. The skirt on the bottom is made out of pieces of a plastic GAP bag, attached with Scotch tape and hot glue. The radio control unit was scavenged from an old boat I had, along with the drive motor mounted on the wooden supports, while the lifting motor was from my physics teacher. The battery is 300 mAh 6V NiMH (or NiCd, I forget), and I have a pair of them. They were about $6-$10 each (again, forgot) and about $12 for the 2 1/2 hour charger. The servomotor for steering was from an old RC car I had"
Virginia A. Davis and Aleksandr Simonian from Auburn University research the role contaminated surfaces have in spreading infections. Their research has led them to seek better antimicrobial coatings. In their latest research project, the scientists combined one of the world's strongest materials with one of nature's most powerful germ killers, producing incredibly tough anti-bacterial surface coatings with multiple potential applications in home appliances, medicine, aerospace, and national defense.
Scientists have searched extensively to find a material strong enough to harness the powerful, natural enzyme called lysozyme. Davis and Simonian's solution involved the first successful merging of lysozyme with single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs). Only 1/50th of the width of a human hair, SWNTs are exceptionally strong and manage to hold lysozyme in place, while other coatings lose their antimicrobial activity over time.
Professor Virginia A. Davis' team with SWNT model (Credit: Samuel Ginn College of Engineering)
"The results of this research demonstrate the significant possibilities for the molecular design of hybrid structural materials from SWNTs and natural biopolymers," the scientists stated in a report. "Such robust, antimicrobial materials have significant promise in applications including medicine, aerospace engineering, public transportation, home appliances and sporting goods."
Have a look at this Robot that is built on an iRobot platform. Have a look at the number of sensors, this thing has lots of computing power since is uses the Propeller microcontroller from Parallax.
"This is an iRobot Create fitted with a Robot Arm I pulled from an old Radio Controlled vehicle. It uses a Propeller Protoboard and motor controllers and accelerometers from Parallax to control the Arm and monitor it’s position using the two accelerometers mounted on the arm. The Create is controlled by another Propeller and uses a CMUCam1 for Color Tracking to track the object. A Sharp GPD120 IR ragne sensor is used at the Claw to determine when the object is close enough to grab. The robot is tracking the color, driving up to it until it senses the object within it’s grasp, stops, grabs the object, and raises it up. Simple example of great possibilities. And this isn’t even in ideal lighting."
Here is a list of 5 cool coil guns, either one would be fun to try out. Remember that coil guns can be dangerous, if you build one and shoot out your eye don’t say you weren’t warned.
5. The Mk II Coil RIfle
This is the second gun that Nicholas Howard has built.
“This is my second coil rifle, it has a firing energy of about 5 joules and it charges in about 10 seconds. the power source is the 12V 3.5AH SLA batery. This supplies the power to the 12v-240v inverter that provides the 240v requiered by the rectifacation circut. The 400v output from this circut is used to charge the two 400v 2200uF capacitors used to supply the energy to the work coil. it is capable of shooting through multiple soda cans.”
“Here it concerns a three speed CG in each case with three Philips condensers 450V/3700ยต. a small lead gel Akku sits above, beside it the potential transformer. the entire part is built from aluminium profiles from the building market, in the center from brass a repeating pin, which always carries senkrechten from the magazine on notice the projectile into the best position. Projectiles are standard mechanical engineering pin 5×38mm…
Unfortunately the Timing is not optimal over into PP more spacer used light barriers, part would be far better with only one coil!!!! ”
3. EM-15 coil gun
The EM-15 is a gun that the military could get lots of use from if it ever goes into production.
“The EM-15 coil gun is a handheld, battery powered (12 VDC) rifle that is capable of launching a .30 caliber metallic projectile at adjustable velocities. The electronic circuit consists of a voltage step-up transformer converter, a Cockcroft-Walton voltage multiplier cascade, a capacitor energy storage bank, a voltage comparator to set the charge voltage on the capacitor bank, an SCR switching section and a single accelerator coil. Other components of the gun are the barrel, breech loading mechanism, battery supply, capacitor bank, control panel, display, projectile, pistol grip with trigger assembly and an aluminum stock that contains all of the components.”
2. Electromagnetic Pistol: CS-P01A
Check out CoilGun Systems for a very detailed write up of the CS-Po1A.
“In this design I decided to use separate holes in the accelerator for the optical gate beam. The reason being that to machine the slot up to this point (thereby allowing beam feedthrough) would only leave a small web between each slot which could result in unacceptable accelerator deformation.
The specifications require a muzzle energy of 4.0J which equates to a muzzle speed of about 25m/s using a solid test projectile. The dimensions of the energy source are limited by the general dimensions of the gun.”
“First portable semi-automatic coilgun pistol finaly complete. This long overdue project started out 6 months ago. Initial the pistol was designed for a lower bank and energy shot level just to demonstrate 5 shots per second at 2 joules. As time passed and parts perished, the orginal designed transformed into a higher shot level and lower rate of fire. The next design will more than compensate for it all.”
