Bag of Beans » diy

DIY Fiber Optic Ring Flash

Beanbag — Sat, 07 Feb 2009 00:55:44 +0000

Now this is something that I haven’t seen before. A ring flash using the camera’s built-in flash and some optical fiber.

Link (via Hacked Gadgets)

Mobius circuit board

Beanbag — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 00:42:16 +0000

A truly single-sided circuit board from Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories built on a Mobius strip with conductive ink.

In electronics, it is common to talk about single sided circuit boards. The most common type is a circuit board that only has printed wiring on one side, and components on the other side. There are also surface-mount boards, where all the wiring and components sit on one side. But aren’t all of those really just two-sided circuit boards where you only put components on one of the sides?

Here we present a method of making your own authentic single-sided circuit board.

Link

Modelling the Sierpinski Triangle with Polymer Clay

Beanbag — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 07:34:09 +0000

Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories has an ingenious how-to on creating a clay model of a fractal known as a Sierpinski triangle.

One of our favorite shapes is the Sierpinski triangle. In one sense, a mere mathematical abstraction, on the other, a pattern that naturally emerges in real life from several different simple algorithms. On paper, one can play the Chaos Game to generate the shape (or cheat and just use the java applet).

You can also generate a Sierpinski triangle in what is perhaps a more obvious way: by exploiting its fractal self-similarity.

Link

Magic-1 Homebrew CPU

Beanbag — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 06:09:53 +0000

Here’s another impressive homebrew computer. It was built with more than 200 ICs, and has similar capabilities to the original 8086 processor. It was recently demoed running a port of Minix 2.

Magic-1 is a completely homebuilt minicomputer. It doesn’t use an off-the-shelf microprocessor, but instead has a custom CPU made out of 74 Series TTL chips. Altogether there are more than 200 chips in Magic-1 connected together with thousands of individually wrapped wires. And, it works. Not only the hardware, but a full software stack. There’s a ANSI C cross-compiler for Magic-1 (retargeted LCC), a fully multi-user, multi-tasking port of the Minix 2 operating system. a TCP/IP stack and hundreds of programs.

Link (via Slashdot)
Article at LinuxDevices.com.

Related:

Stop using Ferric Chloride etchant! (A better etching solution.)

Beanbag — Tue, 04 Sep 2007 18:55:00 +0000

This instructable shows an alternative to etching PCBs with Ferric Chloride.

Ferric chloride is kinda nasty stuff. Quick to exhaust its etching power, non-reusable, kinda pricey, and ends up full of copper salts that are bad for the environment if you’re pouring them down the drain. (For instance: How to Dispose of Ferric Chloride in this FAQ. )

Wouldn’t it be nice if there were an etchant that you could re-use indefinitely so that you don’t have to worry about disposing of the copper, and that could be made in lifetime supply for like $10.00 with ingredients bought at hardware and drugstores? (And it’s prettier too.)

I got seven words for you: Copper Chloride in Aqueous Hydrochloric Acid Solution! (Exclamation point!)

Link

Photomask coasters

Beanbag — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 00:54:29 +0000

Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories came up with a great idea for making coasters: photolithographic masks.

Photolithographic masks, or photomasks are clear templates used in semiconductor manufacturing. Typically, they are made of UV-grade fused silica and have a highly intricate chrome metal film pattern on one side. These remarkable objects are exactly the sort of wonderful thing that occasionally pops up at good electronics surplus stores. We recently found a few, took some pictures (see below) and, in the spirit of re-use, made them into some classy coasters.

Link

Binary marble adding machine

Beanbag — Fri, 22 Jun 2007 18:20:38 +0000

Matthias Wandel built this clever adder that uses marbles. It is quite pleasant to watch it in action…check out the video.

It had occurred to me that perhaps with an insane amount of perseverance, it might be possible to build a whole computer that runs on marbles. My second marble machine was however much less based on logic – more on just making lots of noise.

But a few months ago, I had an idea as to how the divide by two mechanisms from my first marble machine could be cascaded together to actually function as a sort of adder or counter. Once I had that idea, I knew I had to try it at some point, and recently, I finally got around to building my marble binary adding machine.

The core of the invention is a modification of the divide by two flipflop to retain the marble that falls off the right side, and retain it until the flipflop is flipped to the left by the next marble. See small diagram above right. The retention of this extra marble allows the state of the marble accumulator to be dumped. The adder would just as well add without it, but the number would have to be read off by the angle of the rockers, rather than have the device dump the count out. Really, if such an adder were integrated into a hypothetical marble computer, reading out the result as a series of marbles would be an essential element.

Link (via MAKE: Blog)
There a few more amazing marble machines on the site here.

Related:

The Computer/Domino Connection

Book: Adventures From the Technology Underground

Beanbag — Mon, 11 Jun 2007 07:10:56 +0000

Adventures From the Technology Underground: Catapults, Pulsejets, Rail Guns, Flamethrowers, Tesla Coils, Air Cannons, and the Garage Warriors Who Love Them
William Gurstelle
Three Rivers Press, 2006

This is a wildly entertaining book filled with colorful characters and powerful, dangerous machines. Gurstelle takes us on a tour of what he calls the Technology Underground with concise run-downs of many awesome devices and the science behind them. Driven by creativity and passion, the builders like to push the boundaries with inventions that have little practical purpose other than to entertain and excite. With any complex and frighteningly powerful contraption, things don’t always work as planned, and this just makes their stories even more amazing. Those who have felt the DIY maker’s urge will enjoy the profiles of these extreme tinkerers. At just over 200 pages this is a short, fun read.

Rating: 8/10

Links:

SF Paper Craft Models

Beanbag — Fri, 25 May 2007 05:20:49 +0000

This site has some pretty sweet paper craft PDFs you can download and assemble, including this incredible AT-AT. I know what I’m doing for the next little while.

Link (via Boing Boing)

Canon PowerShot firmware hacking

Beanbag — Tue, 08 May 2007 00:29:02 +0000

This firmware hack for some models of Canon A- and S-series cameras with DIGIC II processors adds additional functionality to your camera – the biggest being the ability to shoot in RAW format. You also get a battery indicator – I can’t believe Canon doesn’t put this feature in by default.

The good thing about this hack is that you load it off your of memory card every time you turn your camera on (in some cases you can also enable auto-loading) so the original firmware of the camera is not touched, making this a fairly safe hack.

Q. What does the HDK firmware do?

A. After loading of HDK firmware you can get the following functionality:

Shooting in RAW

Live histogram (RGB, blended, luminance and for each RGB channel)

Zebra mode (blinking highlights and shadows)

DOF-calculator

Battery indicator

Scripts execution (exposure/focus/… bracketing, intervalometer and more)

File browser

Text reader

Calendar

Some fun tools and games

How-To: Make an Xbox 360 laptop (part 1)

Beanbag — Fri, 20 Apr 2007 05:07:42 +0000

Engadget has posted part 1 of a detailed how-to on converting an Xbox 360 into a laptop.

The making-of How-To for the Xbox 360 laptop will be in three parts. In today’s segment we’ll discuss the parts list, stripping down an Xbox 360 motherboard, and modding / reattaching the DVD and hard drives. The next installment will cover case design, construction and hacking the LCD display, as well as wiring the video. Part 3 will then describe wiring all the separate parts together, troubleshooting, and finishing up the unit.

Link

Viktor’s Amazing 4-bit Processor

Beanbag — Wed, 21 Mar 2007 21:01:33 +0000

This is an impressive feat: designing and building your own processor.

I’ve been a software guy all my life. However, I was always fascinated by electronics, and part of my success as a programmer was due to my thorough understanding of how computers work.

Back in 1999, I put that understanding to the ultimate test: I actually designed, and built, a simple but functional 4-bit computer from low-level electronic components (TTL logic gates.) Although this machine has less then one tenth of a percent of the speed and one millionth of the memory of a modern Pentium system, not to mention that its “user interface” is just a set of miniature switches and blinking LED lights, I still consider this a proud accomplishment.

Link (via MAKE: Blog)

Related:

Programmable Z80 Microcomputer

How-To: Make a solid-state A/V switcher

Beanbag — Tue, 20 Mar 2007 02:58:21 +0000

Engadget has posted a great how-to for building an A/V switch box.

While “solid state” may bring bring to mind electronics from the 60s (or, in some cases, yet-unreleased flash hard drives), but in this case it simply means the actual switching is done with circuitry, not mechanically. Ironically, the circuits are activated with a mechanical switch, but they could be controlled electronically if you were so inclined.

In this How-To we’ll show you how to wire up your own A/V switcher which you can expand and use any way you’d like, for composite, S-Sideo, component, even VGA signals. Sure, you can buy a newer, really expensive TV’s with multiple inputs (even component), but for those of us whose credit cards aren’t quite up to that challenge, more inputs for less cash would be rather desirable. Let’s get started!

Link

Pimp Your Router

Beanbag — Fri, 19 Jan 2007 06:43:52 +0000

I recently upgraded the firmware on my Linksys WRT54G router with the latest DD-WRT v23 SP2 firmware, and it works great. Among many other new features, I can now assign static DHCP leases, which I couldn’t do before with the stock Linksys firmware. The upshot is that now I don’t have to worry about updating my port forwarding setup whenever one of my machines’ wireless IP address changed.

If this sounds like something you’d like to try, check out the links below.

Warning: when flashing firmware, there is always a possibility of something going wrong during the process, which could potentially brick your router and render it inoperable. Make sure you understand what you are doing and the risks involved. It’s not my fault if you screw up your hardware!

It would also be a good idea to save all of the following pages locally to your computer so that you can still reference them if you lose your internet connection–particularly important if your wireless router is also your internet gateway.

Lifehacker’s article “Hack Attack: Turn your $60 router into a $600 router” came in handy. They also include a step-by-step guide.
Check if your router is supported here.
Also be sure to read the DD-WRT installation guide.
If you do manage to brick your router, read the page on how to recover from a bad flash. Save this page to your computer before you begin, just in case.

HOWTO Pan Roast Coffee

Beanbag — Thu, 07 Dec 2006 20:28:17 +0000

This looks like a good howto on pan roasting your own coffee beans.

The only way to understand a coffee is to roast it. Depending on how far you roast a coffee it can have a strikingly different flavor and body in the cup once brewed.

Typically speaking the lighter roasts will have more origin character (the beans actual flavors rather than roast induced flavor) and acidity with a muted body or mouth feel. However if you stop the roast too soon before the roast has fully developed the coffee will have a sour and/or grassy flavor. A hint of sourness in some coffees in my opinion can be a wonderful thing, but too much and well…YUCK!

Medium roasts can create a balance between the sometimes raw, aggressive origin character and the intense carbony roast flavors. Medium roasts will also have a heavier body than lighter roasts.

Darker roasts will have a pronounced roast flavor which are often carbony, pungent and sharp. Most of the beans flavor will have been replaced with roast flavors and body is usually at it’s heaviest. But roast too far and the coffee can be destroyed, with a thin body and an ashy, charcoal and/or burnt rubber taste!

Link (via MAKE: Blog)

DIY PIC based kitchen countdown timer

Beanbag — Wed, 06 Dec 2006 01:51:43 +0000

Here’s another PIC project, this time it’s a countdown timer. Hopefully, no one mistakes it for a bomb.

It’s a kitchen timer. Use it to time spaghetti, or maybe an egg. It uses two PICs, one acts as a keyboard encoder, the other drives the display and supports the timer functions. You key in the desired time and press ‘#’. It’s accurate to 1/100th of a second, which can make all the difference I’m sure you’ll agree.

Link (via MAKE: Blog)

DIY PIC Binary Clock

Beanbag — Wed, 06 Dec 2006 01:43:38 +0000

Walter Schreppers has built a nice binary clock controlled with a PIC 16F628 chip.

Link (via hack a day)

Make: The open source gift guide

Beanbag — Fri, 24 Nov 2006 08:10:55 +0000

Make Magazine has posted a great list of open source hardware and software for Makers.

There are hundreds of gift guides this holiday season filled with junk you can buy – but a lot of time you actually don’t own it, you can’t improve upon it, you can’t share it or make it better, you certainly can’t post the plans, schematics and source code either. We want to change that, we’ve put together our picks of interesting open source hardware projects, open source software, services and things that have the Maker-spirit of open source. Some are kits, some are open software projects that you’ll need to build hardware for before gifting, and some are just support for the projects/groups that do open source. Included in this guide are things you can get from the MAKE store too (we try and have as many open source goods as possible).

Link

Programmable Z80 Microcomputer

Beanbag — Tue, 21 Nov 2006 09:18:01 +0000

This is a fantastic homemade computer project. Look at the schematic for this thing. Yikes!

This is an actual computer, built completely from scratch. I began the project in the spring of 2006, while I was taking a course on microcomputers. My Z80 system will remain a work in progress as long as I can think of new things to add to it.

The current specs are:

2MHz 8 bit Zilog Z80 processor
56 KB static RAM (7 x 8k x 8 )
8 KB EEPROM
1 Mb Flash Memory “hard drive”
Interrupt controller with 8 interrupt levels
20 character x 2 line backlit LCD with contrast control
RS232 serial port
2 programmable timers
Programmable beeper
8X DIP switch and 8X LED’s for general purpose I/O
Strobe button for clocked input from the DIP switches
Parallel port programming interface with parity

…

I do all the programming on my PC, using Z80 assembly. I wrote a simple drag and drop utility in C++ that uploads the assembled code into the microcomputer’s memory.

Link (via MAKE: Blog)

Wacom Wax Off – DIY Cintiq build

Beanbag — Fri, 17 Nov 2006 00:21:28 +0000

Here’s an interesting write up for a project to build a Cintiq-like interactive pen tablet.

This is hybrid screen/graphics tablet which makes me drool. The price however makes me weep, Â£2000ish for the 20â€ version. They also do a thing called the PL at 17â€ for a more reasonable Â£500ish. Occasionally they appear on the site in their bargain basement ex-demo section. Still hard for me to justify though.

Then I had one of those â€œspangâ€ moments. None of the tech involved is new and all is readily available second hand, itâ€™s just a matter of putting it together. My Wacom at work will happily operate with the stylus off the surface, after that itâ€™s just an LCD screen, right? Anyhow whereâ€™s the fun in just buying something?

The finished product:

Link (via hack a day)