Monthly Archives: April 2017

Hackaday Prize Entry: High Speed Sampling For The Raspberry Pi

Posted on April 30, 2017 by Fernando Gomes

The Raspberry Pi has become a firm favorite in our community for its array of GPIOs and other interfaces, as well as its affordable computing power. Unfortunately though despite those many pins, there is a glaring omission in its interfacing capabilities. It lacks an analogue-to-digital converter, so analog inputs have to rely on an expansion card either on those GPIOs or through the USB port.

Most people remain content with simple ADCs such as Microchip’s MCP3008, or perhaps a USB sound card for low frequency moving targets. But not [Kelu124], he’s set his sights on something much faster. The original …read more

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Posted in adc, Hackaday Prize, Raspberry Pi, raspberry pi adc, The Hackaday Prize | Leave a comment

Vintage Vending Machine Makes The Perfect Gift

Posted on April 30, 2017 by Fernando Gomes

Nothing says ‘I Love You’ like an old vending machine, and if it is a restored and working vintage Vendo V-80 cola dispenser then you have yourself a winner. [Jan Cumps] from Belgium was assigned the repair of the device in question by a friend. He started off with just a working refrigerator and no electronics. In a series of repairs, he began with replacing the mechanical coin detector’s switches with optical and magnetic sensors to detect the movement of the coin. These sensors are in turn connected to an Arduino which drives the dispensing motor. The motor itself had …read more

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Posted in arduino, Arduino Hacks, repair, vending machine | Leave a comment

TI 99/4A Weather Station

Posted on April 30, 2017 by Fernando Gomes

If you still have a drawer full of slap bracelets from the 1990s because, you know, they might come back, then you’ll appreciate [Vorticon’s] latest project. Sure, we see lots of weather stations, but this one is controlled by a TI 99/4A computer. This home computer from the 1980s was actually ahead of its time with a 16-bit processor.

The sensors use Xbee modules and an Arduino Uno. Of course, the Uno has more power than the TI computer, but that’s not really the point, right? He’s made a series of videos detailing the construction (you can see the first …read more

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Posted in classic hacks, retrocomputing, TI-99/4A, tms9900, weather station, wireless hacks, xbee | Leave a comment

U.S Air Force Is Going To Get Hacked

Posted on April 30, 2017 by Fernando Gomes

[HackerOne] has announced that US Dept of Defense (DoD) has decided to run their biggest bug bounty program ever, Hack the Air force.

You may remember last year there was the Hack the Pentagon bug bounty program, Well this year on the coattails of last year’s success the DoD has decided to run an even bigger program this year: Hack The Air force. Anyone from “The Five Eyes” countries (Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and of course the United States) can take part. This is a change in format from the Pentagon challenge which was only open to …read more

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Posted in Air Force, bug bounty, computer hacking, contests, D.O.D, penetration testing, US Government | Leave a comment

Afroman Makes A UHF Oscillator From A Potato

Posted on April 30, 2017 by Fernando Gomes

If you have ever worked with simple logic gates, there is a good chance that at some point you will have built a ring oscillator from a chain of inverters. With the addition of a resistor and a capacitor, you can easily make a square wave oscillator up into the megahertz range with standard logic chips.

[Afroman] received some rather special logic chips, from an unexpectedly named company, Potato Semiconductor. They specialise in making versions of common 74 series logic that smash the usual 100+ MHz barrier of the faster conventional 74 series chips, and extend their bandwidth up to …read more

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Posted in afroman, parts, potato semi, ring oscillator | Leave a comment

Automated Outdoor Lighting

Posted on April 30, 2017 by Fernando Gomes

    Steve Marriott wanted to have some automated outdoor lights. They will be controlled by an Arduino that will monitor some PIR sensors to see what is going on and turn lights on based on activity. A few tictac boxes were used to mount the outdoor electronics in. The project changed over time based […] Continue reading →

Posted in Cool Gadgets, DIY Hacks, Electronic Hacks | Leave a comment

A Home Made Air Pump From PVC Pipe

Posted on April 28, 2017 by Fernando Gomes

If you need a supply of low pressure air – let’s say enough pressure to ensure a constant supply but not enough to describe as “Compressed air” with a straight face – what do you do? Many people will reach for an aquarium pump, after all that represents a readily available and relatively inexpensive source of bubbles.

But not [truebassB], instead he built his own air pump from first principles (YouTube, embedded below) using PVC pipe. It’s a straightforward design in which the cylinder is a length of pipe with a disc of flat PVC glued to its end, and …read more

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Posted in piston pump, pump, pvc-pipe, Tech Hacks | Leave a comment

Hackaday Prize Entry: A Double Action Keyboard

Posted on April 28, 2017 by Fernando Gomes

Mechanical keyboards are the in thing right now and building your own is at least two extra levels of nerd cred. This project, entered in the Hackaday Prize, is a DIY keyboard unlike you’ve ever seen. It is a fundamental shift in the ideas of how a computer keyboard can work. It’s a double action keyboard. Press a key lightly, and one character will show up on the screen. Press hard, and a different character will show up on the screen. You’ve never seen anything like this before.

[Jaakob] designed this keyboard so that each keycap would have two switches …read more

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Posted in cherry mx, cherry switches, mechanical keyboard, The Hackaday Prize | Leave a comment

Retrotechtacular: Farming Implements in 1932

Posted on April 28, 2017 by Fernando Gomes

Few people would deny that farming is hard work. It always has been, and it probably always will be no matter how fancy the equipment gets. In 1932, farming was especially grueling. There was widespread drought throughout the United States, which gave rise to dust bowl conditions. As if those two things weren’t bad enough, the average income of the American farmer fell to its lowest point during the Depression, thanks to the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act.

Even so, crop farming was still a viable and somewhat popular career path in 1932. After all, knowing how to grow food is always …read more

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Posted in agriculture, farm machinery, farming, Hackaday Columns, john deere, public domain, Retrotechtacular, textbook | Leave a comment

72 Hours to Design Your Concept

Posted on April 28, 2017 by Fernando Gomes

The first challenge of the 2017 Hackaday Prize closes on this coming Monday morning. You have about 72 hours hours to submit your entry.

The challenge, called Design Your Concept, is really about a plan. Seeing a project through depends greatly on your ability to foresee where the pain points are. Will you get half way into your fabrication process and realize the PCB components won’t fit in the available space for your robot’s limbs? To be successful at this first round, show that you have a clear plan on all aspects of your design. It really is that easy. …read more

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Posted in Design Your Concept, The Hackaday Prize | Leave a comment