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Author Archives: Fernando Gomes
AI Bot Plays Castlevania So You Don’t Have to
We’re not allowed to have TV here in the Hackaday Wonder Bunker, but occasionally we’ll pool together the bandwidth credits they pay us in and gather ’round the old 3.5 inch TFT LCD to watch whatever Netflix assures us is 93% to our liking. That’s how we found out they’ve made a show based on, of all things, one of the Castlevania games for the NES. We wanted to play the game to understand the backstory, but since it hails from the era of gaming where primitive graphics had to be supplemented with soul-crushing difficulty, we didn’t get very …read more
Posted in automated, Castlevania, classic game, classic hacks, emulator, Games, nes, nintendo hacks, sprite
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OpenLN: Automating Biology for Everyone
When we took a biology lab, you had to use a mouth pipette to transfer liquids around. That always seemed odd to use your mouth to pick up something that could be dangerous. It’s also not very efficient. A modern lab will use a liquid handling robot, but these aren’t exactly cheap. Sometimes these are called pipettors and even a used one on eBay will set you back an average of $1,000 — and many of them much more than that. Now there’s an open source alternative, OpenLH, that can be built for under $1,000 that leverages an open source …read more
Posted in 3d Printer hacks, Bio hacking, biology, blockly, liquid handling, openlh, science
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Brushless Motor Thrust Stand Provides Useful Data
When designing model aircraft of any shape or size, it’s useful to know the performance you can expect from the components chosen. For motors and propellers, this can be difficult. It’s always best to test them in combination. However, with the numbers of propeller and motor combinations possible, such data can be tough to come by. [Nikus] decided it would be easier to just do the testing in-house, and built a rig to do so.
The key component in this build is the strain gauge, which comes already laced up with an Arduino-compatible analog-digital converter module. Sourced for under $10 …read more
Shape Shifting Structures Work With Magnets
In The Dark Knight, Lucius Fox shows Bruce Wayne a neat bit of memory weave fabric. In its resting state, it is a light, flexible material, but when an electrical current is applied, it pops into a pre-programmed shape. That shape could be a tent or a bat-themed paraglider. Science has not caught up to Hollywood in this regard, but the concept has been demonstrated in a material which increases its rigidity up to 318% within one second when placed in a magnetic field. Those numbers do not mean a lot by themselves, but increasing rigidity in a reversible, …read more
Posted in 3d Printer hacks, 3d printing, 4d, 4D printing, batman, chemistry hacks, industrial, safety, shape, shapeshift, shift
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Manhattan Mystery of Creepy Jingles and Random Noises Solved
Here’s a puzzler for you: If you’re phreaking something that’s not exactly a phone, are you still a phreak?
That question probably never crossed the minds of New Yorkers who were acoustically assaulted on the normally peaceful sidewalks of Manhattan over the summer by creepy sounds emanating from streetside WiFi kiosks. The auditory attacks caused quite a stir locally, leading to wild theories that Russian hackers were behind it all. Luckily, the mystery has been solved, and it turns out to have been part prank, part protest, and part performance art piece.
To understand the exploit, realize that New York …read more
Posted in attack, exploit, kiosk, LinkNYC, Mr. Softee, performance art, phone hacks, phreaking, protest, social engineering, voip, vonage
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Young Entrepreneurs Learn What Really Goes Into Making a Product
Just to be clear, the primary goal of the Papas Inventeurs (Inventor Dads) was to have the kids make something, have fun, and learn. In that light, they enjoyed a huge success. Four children designed, made, and sold laser-cut napkin rings from a booth at the Ottawa Maker Faire as a fun learning process (English translation, original link in French.) [pepelepoisson] documented the entire thing from beginning to end with plenty of photos. Things started at proof of concept, then design brainstorming, prototyping, manufacture, booth design, and finally sales. While adults were involved, every step was done by the kids …read more
Posted in art, Business, design, how-to, laser cut, Laser cutting, maker faire, manufacturing, napkin, napkin ring, prototyping, selling
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Bust A Move Doesn’t Have To Be Such A Grind
PC gamers have the benefit of the mouse and keyboard, which are highly flexible when it comes to input devices for gaming. What’s more, the freedom of the platform means that it’s easy to whip up whatever mad controller you can dream of to best suit the games you’re playing. Enter [Tom Tilley] with the aptly-named Hipster Game Controller.
Yes, this is a controller made out of a coffee grinder. The hand-crank setup makes it perfect for imitating the game board in that puzzle classic, Bust-A-Move. [Tom] interfaces the controller in a perfectly hacky way – the scroll wheel from …read more
Posted in bust-a-move, coffee, coffee grinder, Games
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Reflex Trainer Puts Athletes To The Test
Being a top athlete in this modern age is a full-time job. No longer do athletes simply practice at their nominated sport of choice. They undergo strength training, full nutritional programs, cardio, and even reflex training.
Reflex training involves a series of nodes that an athlete must identify when lit up, and touch them to switch them off. By triggering them in a fast sequence, the athlete must work hard to both identify the lit node and then move to switch it off. TrainerLights is just such a system, built around the NodeMCU platform.
The system consists of a minimum …read more
Posted in classic hacks, excercise, exercise, led, NodeMCU, reflex trainer, reflex training
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Build Your Own Anechoic Chamber
For professional-level sound recording, you’ll need professional-level equipment. Microphones and mixing gear are the obvious necessities, as well as a good computer with the right software on it. But once you have those things covered, you’ll also need a place to record. Without a good acoustic space, you’ll have all kinds of reflections and artefacts in your sound recordings, and if you can’t rent a studio you can always build your anechoic chamber.
While it is possible to carpet the walls of a room or randomly glue egg crate foam to your walls, [Tech Ingredients] tests some homemade panels of …read more
Posted in absorption, acoustics, anechoic, dampening, foam, how-to, microphone, Panels, sound, speaker
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A Lecture By A Fun Guy
Many people hear “fungus” and think of mushrooms. This is akin to hearing “trees” and thinking of apples. Fungus makes up 2% of earth’s total biomass or 10% of the non-plant biomass, and ranges from the deadly to the delicious. This lecture by [Justin Atkin] of [The Thought Emporium] is slightly shorter than a college class period but is like a whole semester’s worth of tidbits, and the lab section is about growing something (potentially) edible rather than a mere demonstration. The video can also be found below the break.
Let’s start with the lab where we learn to grow …read more
Posted in biology, chemistry hacks, fungi, fungus, how-to, inoculation, lecture, mushroom, mycelium, shiitake, workshop
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