Author Archives: Fernando Gomes

3D Printed Variable Area Jet Nozzle

Posted on July 14, 2018 by Fernando Gomes

If you’ve ever seen the back end of a military jet, you’ve likely seen variable area nozzles. They’re used to adjust the exhaust flow out of the rear of a jet engine during supersonic flight and while the afterburner is engaged. Commercial aircraft, with the exception of the Concorde, don’t need such fancy hardware since a static exhaust nozzle works well enough for the types of flying they’ll be doing. For much the same reasons, RC aircraft don’t need variable area nozzles either, but it doesn’t keep builders from wanting them.

Which brings us to this utterly gorgeous design by …read more

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Posted in 3d Printer hacks, EDF, jet engine, Nozzle, parametric design, scale model | Leave a comment

Charging USB-C Devices Off Of LiPo Battery Packs

Posted on July 14, 2018 by Fernando Gomes

When it was introduced in the late 90s, USB was the greatest achievement in all of computing. Gone were the PS/2 connectors for keyboards and mice, ADB ports, parallel ports, game ports, and serial ports. This was a Tower of Babel that would unite all ports under one standard universal bus.

Then more ports were introduced; micro, mini, that weird one that was a mini USB with more connectors off to the side. Then we started using phone chargers as power supplies. The Tower of Babel had crumbled. Now, though, there is a future. USB-C is everything stuffed into one …read more

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Posted in 2018 Hackaday Prize, lipo, The Hackaday Prize, USB C, XT-30 | Leave a comment

Blinging Buttons for Pick and Place

Posted on July 14, 2018 by Fernando Gomes

With 3D-printing, cheap CNC machines, and the huge variety of hardware available these days, really slick-looking control panels are getting to be commonplace. We’re especially fond of those nice indicators with the chrome bezels, and the matching pushbuttons with LED backlighting; those can really make a statement on a panel.

Sadly for [Proto G], though, the LEDs in his indicator of choice were just boring old one-color units, so he swapped them out and made these addressable RGB indicators. The stock lamps are not cheap units, but they do have a certain look, and they’re big enough to allow room …read more

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Posted in control panel, indicator, led, led hacks, neopixel, pilot, rgb, switch | Leave a comment

Casting a 3D Printed Extruder Body in Aluminum

Posted on July 14, 2018 by Fernando Gomes

Creating 3D prints is great, but sometimes you need something more durable. [Myfordboy] printed a new 3D printer extruder in PLA and then used the lost PLA method to cast it in aluminum. You can see the results in the video below.

The same process has been used for many years with wax instead of PLA. The idea is to produce a model of what you want to make and surround it with a material called investment. Once the investment sets, heat melts the PLA (or wax) leaving a mold made of the investment material. Once you have the mold, …read more

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Posted in 3d Printer hacks, aluminum casting, casting, lost PLA, lost pla casting | Leave a comment

A Tale Of More Than One Amiga 1500

Posted on July 14, 2018 by Fernando Gomes

If you were an Amiga enthusiast back in the day, the chances are you had an Amiga 500, and lusted after a 2000 or maybe later a 3000. Later still perhaps you had a 600 or a 1200, and your object of desire became the 4000. The amusingly inept Commodore marketing department repackaged what was essentially the same 68000-based Amiga at the bottom end of the range through the platform’s entire lifetime under their ownership, with a few minor hardware upgrades in the form of chipset revisions that added a relatively small number of features.

We’ve probably listed above all …read more

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Posted in amiga, amiga 1500, classic hacks, retro computer, retro computing, retrocomputing | Leave a comment

Custom Circuit Makes for Better Battery Level Display

Posted on July 13, 2018 by Fernando Gomes

Isn’t it always the way? There’s a circuit right out of the textbooks, or even a chip designed to do exactly what you want — almost exactly. It’s 80% perfect for your application, and rather than accept that 20%, you decide to start from scratch and design your own solution.

That’s the position [Great Scott!] found himself in with this custom LED battery level indicator. As the video below unfolds we learn that he didn’t start exactly from scratch, though. His first pass was the entirely sensible use of the LM3914 10-LED bar graph driver chip, a device that’s been …read more

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Posted in bargraph, battery, battery gauge, battery meter, comparator, led hacks, lm324, lm3914, misc hacks, voltage | Leave a comment

Mademoiselle Pinball Table Gets Rock ‘n Roll Makeover

Posted on July 13, 2018 by Fernando Gomes

Once upon a time, there was a music venue/artist collective/effects pedal company that helped redefine industry in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. That place was called Death By Audio. In 2014, it suffered a death by gentrification when Vice Media bought the building that DBA had worked so hard to transform. From the ashes rose the Death By Audio Arcade, which showcases DIY pinball cabinets made by indie artists.

Their most recent creation is called A Place To Bury Strangers (APTBS). It’s built on a 1959 Gottlieb Mademoiselle table and themed around a local noise/shoegaze band of the same name that was deeply …read more

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Posted in arduino, Arduino Hacks, darlington array, Gottlieb, Microcontrollers, Neopixels, pinball, repair hacks, Teensy | Leave a comment

This Is Your Last Chance To Design The Greatest In Power Harvesting

Posted on July 13, 2018 by Fernando Gomes

This is your last weekend to get your project together for the Power Harvesting Challenge in this year’s Hackaday Prize. We’re looking for projects that harvest energy from the ether, and power electronics from solar, thermal, wind, light, or random electromagnetic fluctuations. Is it going to save the world? Maybe, but it’s a great excuse to build some really cool electronics. If you have an idea in mind, this is your last weekend to enter it in the Power Harvesting Challenge.

The Hackaday community has thrown itself full-force into the Hackaday Prize, and there are hundreds of projects entered in …read more

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Posted in 2018 Hackaday Prize, Hackaday Columns, Power Harvesting Challenge, The Hackaday Prize | Leave a comment

ERRF 18: New Products Make their Debut

Posted on July 13, 2018 by Fernando Gomes

While ostensibly the purpose of the recent East Coast RepRap Festival (ERRF) was to celebrate the 3D printing community and culture, it should come as no surprise that more than a few companies decided to use the event as an opportunity to publicly launch new products. Who can blame them? It’s not as if every day you have a captive audience of 3D printing aficionados; you might as well make the best of it.

Many creations were being shown off for the first time at ERRF, and we surely didn’t get a chance to see them all. There was simply …read more

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Posted in 3d Printer hacks, Buildini, cons, ERRF, ERRF 18, hardware, printrbot, Proto-Pasta, Venturi | Leave a comment

Supersize DIY R/C Servos From Windscreen Wipers

Posted on July 13, 2018 by Fernando Gomes

We’re all familiar with the experience of buying hobby servos. The market is awash with cheap clones which have inflated specs and poor performance. Even branded servos often fail to deliver, and sometimes you just can’t get the required torque or speed from the small form factor of the typical hobby servo.

Enter [James Bruton] and his DIY RC servo from a windscreen wiper motor. Windscreen wiper motors are cheap as chips, and a classic salvage. The motor shaft is connected to a potentiometer via a pulley and some string, providing the necessary closed-loop feedback. Instead of using the traditional …read more

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Posted in 3d print, 3d Printer hacks, arduino, Arduino Hacks, conversion, dc, james bruton, Microcontrollers, pid, servo | Leave a comment