Tag Archives: Geeky

ELLO 2M DIY Laptop: A BASIC Computer

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Today, even single board computers are locked in an arms race of size and power. There’s nothing inherently wrong with that, but Konstantin Dimitrov thinks that for budding programmers and electronic engineers, simplicity and soul will go a long way. That’s why he designed the ELLO 2M, a DIY laptop that’s mostly made of stacked circuit boards.

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The ELLO 2M’s body consists of six PCBs, while the keyboard’s keys are simply punched on a metal sheet. The computer is controlled by Geoff Graham’s Micromite, a 32-bit PIC microcontroller based on his version of BASIC called MMbasic. It also has a 7″ 800×480 LCD touchscreen, three microSD cards (two are removable), an RF module, a speaker, a 4500mAh battery and an optional prototyping board with 1156 holes.

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Konstantin hopes that the ELLO 2M is simple enough that the people who use it will learn to maximize the hardware’s capabilities and be focused on honing the fundamentals of programming or electronics.

Pledge at least $65 (USD) on Crowd Supply to receive just the ELLO 2M’s boards in return; pledge at least $180 to receive a fully built computer as a reward. Check out Konstantin’s GitHub page for the ELLO 2M’s documentation.

[via Gadgetify]

Wooting One Analog Mechanical Keyboard: Xinput, Where X = All Keys

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Back in February, we heard about the Wooting One, a mechanical keyboard that can take analog input like the buttons on modern gamepads. Wooting recently launched the keyboard on Kickstarter, and it’s revealed that all of the peripheral’s keys will be analog, as well as a general idea of how they’re able to pull that off.

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The secret behind the Wooting One actually lies in a new type of keyboard switch developed by Adomax, which are called Flaretech optical mechanical switches. While most mechanical switches use pressure to detect when a key is pressed, keyboards using Flaretech switches have an infrared emitter and a light sensor sensor on their circuit boards that detect both how far and how fast a key is being pressed. Voila – analog input.

Another advantage of Flaretech switches is that they can easily be replaced with other MX-type switches, which means you can have different switches on every key if you want. That should do wonders both for customization and repairability.

I don’t know if Flaretech or Wooting implemented this, but in any case Windows computers will detect the Wooting One as either a keyboard with simple on or off input or as an Xinput device with analog input. When it launches, you’ll have to switch between the two modes, but Wooting says they hope to add a hybrid option in the future; i.e. you’ll have some keys are detected as Xinput device while some remain as a keyboard.

Assuming Flaretech switches are the real deal I have no doubt that more companies will adopt this revolutionary technology. But for now, Wooting got dibs. You can pledge ~$155 (USD) on Kickstarter to receive a Wooting One keyboards as a reward.

[via Slash Gear]

Mechanical Giant Squid Kinetic Sculpture: Mechateuthis

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Barry Crawford said that when he was a kid, he dreamed of growing up to be a robot. Sadly, his childhood dream hasn’t come true yet. But he did become what he calls a “gizmologist”, making mechanical artworks, furniture and jewelry. His latest ongoing project is the Mechateuthis, a crank-operated mechanical giant squid.

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The Mechateuthis (named after the giant squid’s genus Architeuthis) may look like it’s made of old materials and found objects, but it actually has over 600 hand-fabricated moving parts. Its tentacles, beak and fin are operated indirectly by eight hand cranks that are situated on fence posts along its perimeter. An Arduino turns the motion of the cranks into signals for the sculpture’s motors, which in turn activate the various moving parts. Here’s Make’s interview with Barry at the Maker Faire Bay Area 2016:

Barry originally made Mechateuthis for Burning Man 2015. Here it is blowing people’s minds at Black Rock:

I’d love to see a desktop version of Mechateuthis. And a Godzilla-sized one.

[via Make:]

 

Colin Furze’s Flamethrowing Guitar & Smoking Bass: Through the Fire & Vapes

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The crazy inventor Colin Furze promoted Intel’s new TV series America’s Greatest Makers by making a flamethrowing guitar and a bass that’s literally smoking. He may be a Brit, but he’s a great maker all right.

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Colin actually made not one, not two, but four mods for this promotion. For the flamethrowing guitar, Colin attached three blowtorch heads to the head of a guitar. He then installed several pipes, a gas reservoir, an igniter and a solenoid valve on the guitar’s body. He can trigger the flames manually, but he also used an Arduino 101 and a program where he can set flame patterns for automated operation.

In keeping with his theme, Colin mounted the Arduino 101 as well as a gas tank inside a guitar amplifier, so that the sound, the electronics and the gas are all coming from one box.

The smoking bass is simpler but no less cool. Colin routed smoke from a smoke machine to holes that he drilled on the guitar’s body, as well as to pipes along the instrument’s neck and head. He added a computer fan to the mouth of the smoke machine to push the smoke along and prevent the hot vapor from melting the plastic pipe that connects to the bass. He also mounted the smoke machine and a bass amp into a single base, and attached strobe lights to the guitar to take it to 11.

We just saw Mad Axes: Furze Road.

 

Star Trek Shuttlecraft Tent Concept: Summer Camp, the First Frontier

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Geeky product designer Dave Delisle came up with a really cool idea for Trekkies’ away missions here on Earth. He thought of a tent that would be shaped like a Federation shuttlecraft.

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As Dave points out, the tent also doubles as a reference to Star Trek V, which opened with Kirk, Spock and McCoy camping at Yosemite park. Although I doubt fans would want to be reminded that that film exists.

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Another cool aspect of Dave’s concept is that the plastic thrusters beside the tent are actually the halves of the tent’s carrying case.

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Land on Dave’s website to see more of his concepts.

 

Steam on PS4 Hack: Steamote Play

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Alert the masters! YouTuber OsirisX must be banished, for they have orchestrated an unholy union. OsirisX installed Arch Linux on a PlayStation 4 that still had version 1.76 of its firmware, and then installed Steam on the desktop OS. Blasphemy! Convenience!.. consoles are computers too!

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OsirisX says they used GitHub user fail0verflow’s patched Radeon libraries to make Arch Linux run on the PS4. You can skip to 4:12 in the video below to see Steam chugging along on the console.

Just you wait Sony and Valve. I’m sure the Raspberry Pi 14 will be powerful enough to run all the games of my generation.

[via Ubergizmo]

DIY 3D Printed Apple III Raspberry Pi Case: Palm-sized Flop

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YouTuber Charles Mangin is a big fan of Apple’s classic computers, even the apocalypse in a box known as the Apple III. Last year, Charles designed a Raspberry Pi case based on the disastrous PC. It may not look like much, but it’s actually a physical representation of Charles’ love for Apple (and making).

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Charles wanted to have the case 3D printed, but he didn’t have an Apple III on hand, so he designed the case from scratch. First he made outlines of the case using patent drawings and photos that he got online. Then he turned those outlines into 3D models, with tons of refining and adjusting in between. It took him about 20 hours of drawing, plotting and refining to make sure that his replica case was accurate. Then he uploaded his 3D models to Shapeways and ordered a print. You can skip to 14:52 in the video below to see the finished case, but you really should at least skim through the video to see Charles hard at work and play.

If only the Apple III team was as obsessive as Charles.

[via Hack A Day]

Google Science Journal App Helps You Conduct Basic Experiments: Research Engine

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Smartphones and tablets are packed with sensors. Normally they’re used by apps or the phone itself, but now Android users can take advantage of their mobile device’s light sensor, microphone and accelerometer to gather and record data with the help of Google and Exploratorium’s new Science Journal app.

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Science Journal indicates the amount of light, sound and acceleration in a given axis using either an audio feedback or with a graph. You can then record your results and perform multiple runs to verify your findings. Skip to 0:52 in YouTuber play button’s video below to see the app’s interface:

Science Journal can also obtain data from other devices, such as an Arduino computer, over Bluetooth. To build on the app’s capabilities, Google partnered with several electronics and maker shops to create beginner kits. These kits make it easier to appreciate what you can do with the data you gather as well as different ways of obtaining information. For instance, SparkFun’s kit lets you build a wind spinner and also comes with a light sensor and a temperature sensor.

The Science Journal app is available for free from the Google Play Store. Check out Google’s Making & Science website for more details about the app.

[via The Next Web]

3D Printable Hydraulic Robots: Print, Pump, Play

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One of the dream – or nightmare – scenarios involving robots are ones that would automatically replicate or create other bots. One of the biggest hurdles for such a system is putting a robots’ parts together. But researchers at MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) figured out a way to create fully functioning robot bodies or parts with no assembly required.

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Instead of making robots with separate moving parts that need to be put together, the researchers focused on making hydraulic robots. To do this, they had to come up with a way of printing both solid and liquid materials in one go. They went with an inkjet 3D printer, which allowed them to use up to eight different materials at the same time. They also had to figure out the proper orientations and print resolutions to make sure that the liquid materials won’t interfere with the solid parts while they’re being printed. The result is a highly customizable system of printing robots – such as the one in the image above – that need only a motor and a power supply to function. The method also allows for printing parts such as a soft gripper or a gear pump encased in a housing.

We already know that it’s possible to integrate electronic parts within a 3D printed object. Imagine if we can figure out how to print batteries or some form of power supply along with the robot’s body. That’s some weird science right there.

[via MIT via Ubergizmo]

DIY Cheese Ball Machine Gun: I’ll Give You a Snack You Won’t Believe

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One of YouTube’s star makers NightHawkInLight made a gun that fires cheese balls using an electric leaf blower, several PVC pipes and a large cheese ball container.

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It’s a fairly simple toy, but building it isn’t as straightforward as you might think. You have to insert a small wedge or ramp inside the pipe, right after the leaf blower’s mouth and just before the T-section that connects the cheese ball container to the rest of the pipe. The ramp will prevent the powerful blast of air from going up to the container and make it easier to suck the cheese balls out.

I love how YouTuber Christopher Perry dropped by the video’s comments to say they’ve been searching for years for a guide on making this exact same toy. Some people just have their goals sorted out.

[via Reddit]