Author Archives: Fernando Gomes

Panelizing Boards The Easy Way

Posted on June 21, 2017 by Fernando Gomes

For reasons that will remain undisclosed until some time in the future, I recently had a need to panelize a few PCBs. Panelization is the art of taking PCB designs you already have, whether they’re KiCad board files, Eagle board files, or just Gerbers, and turning them into a single collection of PCBs that can be sent off to a fab house.

If you’re still wondering what this means, take a look at the last board you got from OSH Park, Seeed, Itead, or Dirty PCBs. Around the perimeter of your board, you’ll find some rough spots. These are ‘mouse …read more

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Posted in Gerber Panelizer, gerbers, Hackaday Columns, panel, panelization, pcb, pcb fabrication, Skills | Leave a comment

Kill the Exhaust, Not Your Lungs with the Fume Coffin

Posted on June 21, 2017 by Fernando Gomes

As if slinging around 40 watts of potentially tattoo-removing or retina-singeing laser beams wasn’t anxiety-inducing enough, now comes a new, scary acronym – LCAGs, or “laser-generated airborne contaminants.” With something that scary floating around your shop, it might be a good idea to build a souped-up laser cutter exhaust fan to save your lungs.

We jest, but taking care of yourself is the responsible way to have a long and fruitful hacking career, and while [patternmusic]’s “Fume Coffin” might seem like overkill, can you go too far to protect your lungs? Plywood and acrylic, the most common materials that come …read more

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Posted in air cleaner, carcinogens, charcoal, exhaust, fan, filter, green hacks, HEPA, laser cutter, laser hacks, LCAG, particulates | Leave a comment

Writing a New Game for the Game Boy Color

Posted on June 20, 2017 by Fernando Gomes

If you’re bored with the Game Boy Color’s offerings, it’s understandable: it’s been around for nearly 20 years, and doesn’t get a lot of new releases these days. [Antonio Niño Díaz] spent over a year coding a game for the GBC: µCity, a Sims City style game. He designed the graphics and even wrote his own music.

[Antonio] did all the programming in Assembly Language, creating modules for managing traffic and the power grid, building creation and destruction, as well as disaster simulations. He has extensive notes in his GitHub page detailing each module and describing how it all works …read more

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Posted in assembly language, game boy color, GBC, nintendo gameboy hacks | Leave a comment

Reverse Engineering The Monoprice Printer

Posted on June 20, 2017 by Fernando Gomes

When the Monoprice MP Select Mini 3D printer was released last year, it was a game changer. This was a printer for $200, yes, but it also held a not-so-obvious secret: a 3D printer controller board no one had ever seen before powered by a 32-bit ARM microcontroller with an ESP8266 handling the UI. This is a game-changing set of electronics in the world of 3D printing, and now, finally, someone is reverse engineering it.

[Robin] began the reverse engineering by attaching the lead of an oscilloscope to the serial line between the main controller and display controller. The baud …read more

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Posted in 3d printer, 3d Printer hacks, Monoprice, Monoprice MP Select Mini, reverse engineering | Leave a comment

Hackaday Prize Entry: 3D Printed Linear Actuator Does 2kg+

Posted on June 20, 2017 by Fernando Gomes

The rabbit hole of features and clever hacks in [chiprobot]’s NEMA17 3D Printed Linear Actuator is pretty deep. Not only can it lift 2kg+ of mass easily, it is mostly 3D printed, and uses commonplace hardware like a NEMA 17 stepper motor and a RAMPS board for motion control.

The main 3D printed leadscrew uses a plug-and-socket design so that the assembly can be extended easily to any length desired without needing to print the leadscrew as a single piece. The tip of the actuator even integrates a force sensor made from conductive foam, which changes resistance as it is …read more

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Posted in 2017 Hackaday Prize, 3d printed, conductive foam, diy, ESP32, ESP8266, force sensor, hardware, limit switch, linear actuator, NEMA17, stepper, stepper motor, The Hackaday Prize, wifi | Leave a comment

MRIs: Why Are They So Loud?

Posted on June 20, 2017 by Fernando Gomes

My dad was scheduled for his first MRI scan the other day, and as the designated family technical expert, Pop had plenty of questions for me about what to expect. I told him everything I knew about the process, having had a few myself, but after the exam he asked the first question that everyone seems to ask: “Why is that thing so damn loud?”

Sadly, I didn’t have an answer for him. I’ve asked the same question myself after my MRIs, hoping for a tech with a little more time and lot more interest in the technology he or …read more

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Posted in Hackaday Columns, how an mri works, Interest, Magnetic resonance imaging, Medical hacks, mri | Leave a comment

FabricKeyboard Is Piano, Theremin And More

Posted on June 17, 2017 by Fernando Gomes

Two researchers of Responsive Environments, MIT Media Lab, have put to together a device that is an amazing array of musical instruments squeezed into one flexible package. Made using seven layers of fabrics with different electrical properties, the result can be played using touch, proximity, pressure, stretch, or with combinations of them. Using a fabric-based keyboard, ribbon-controller, and trackpad, it can be played as a one-octave keyboard, a theremin, and in ways that have no words, such as stretching while pressing keys. It can also be folded up and stuffed into a case along with your laptop, and care has …read more

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Posted in Feather M0, flexible circuits, midi, musical hacks, piezo sensor, resistive, stretch, theremin, trackpad, variable resistor | Leave a comment

Hackaday Prize Entry: Yet Another Unmanned Vehicle Controller

Posted on June 17, 2017 by Fernando Gomes

To build any sort of autonomous vehicle, you need a controller. This has to handle all sorts of jobs – reading sensor outputs, controlling motors and actuators, managing power sources – controlling a vehicle of even moderate complexity requires significant resources. Modern cars are a great example of this – even non-autonomous vehicles can have separate computers to control the engine, interior electronics, and safety systems. In this vein, [E.N. Hering] is developing a modular autonomous vehicle controller, known as YAUVC.

The acronym stands for Yet Another Unmanned Vehicle Controller, though its former name – Fly Hard With A Vengeance …read more

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Posted in 2017 Hackaday Prize, flight controller, gps, modular, The Hackaday Prize | Leave a comment

Annealing Plastic For Stronger Prints

Posted on June 17, 2017 by Fernando Gomes

Much fuss has been made over the strength of 3D printed parts. These parts are obviously stronger in one direction than another, and post processing can increase that strength. What we’re lacking is real data. Luckily, [Justin Lam] has just the thing for us: he’s tested annealed printed plastics, and the results are encouraging.

The current research of annealing 3D printed parts is a lot like metallurgy. If you put a printed part under low heat — below the plastic’s glass transition temperature — larger crystals of plastic are formed. This research is direct from the Society of Plastics Engineers, …read more

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Posted in 3d printed, 3D printed parts, 3d Printer hacks, annealing, PLA, sous-vide, stress gauge | Leave a comment

Graphene from Graphite by Electrochemical Exfoliation

Posted on June 17, 2017 by Fernando Gomes

Graphene is an interesting material, but making enough of the stuff to do something useful can be a little tough. That’s why we’re always on the lookout for new methods, like this electrochemical process for producing graphene in bulk.

You probably know that graphene is a molecular monolayer of carbon atoms linked in hexagonal arrays. Getting to that monolayer is a difficult proposition, but useful bits of graphene can be created by various mechanical and chemical treatments of common graphite. [The Thought Emporium]’s approach to harvesting graphene from graphite is a two-step process starting with electrochemical exfoliation. Strips of thin …read more

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Posted in chemistry hacks, delamination, electrochemistry, exfoliation, ferrous sulfate, graphene, graphite, ultrasonic | Leave a comment