Posted Aug 28th 2008 4:00PM by Caleb Kraft
Filed under: handhelds hacks, news
You should be able to get your
hands on your Wiz as soon as October. The Wiz, also known as the GP3X is the highly anticipated follow up to the GP2X, a handheld game system that runs linux. Sporting a 533 MHz ARM processor, 64 MB of RAM, a 2.8 inch OLED display, 5 hour battery life, and 16 GB of storage, its a heck of a deal. Where else can you get a portable with those specs, bundled with Flash player 7, DivX, Xvid, and MPEG playback for $179?
These units are supposed to be as hackable as the previous version. We've seen
GPS and
USB ports added as well as
qtopia and
Windows 95 run on them.
[via
Engadget]
Posted Aug 28th 2008 10:15AM by Caleb Kraft
Filed under: misc hacks, peripherals hacks, daily
[Jon Bennett] sent us this link to his
Wifi Robot. After playing with a Linksys WRT54GL router, he was inspired to build something that would utilize this embedded Linux system. Using a thrift store R/C truck, he built a wireless robot rover. This thing can be controlled over the internet, or by laptop with a range of about 500 meters.
The router has been modified to have 2 Serial ports and a 1GB SD Card. It connects to a micro controller, which could be an Arduino or AVR Butterfly. He has supplied information for both. The truck has been mostly gutted, leaving only the chassis and electronics. He had to beef up some of the truck electronics when they fried under the load. The entire unit is powered by a pair of 7.2 Volt 3800 mAh battery packs. The most important thing on the list though, is the horn. You can honk the horn while you are driving this thing around.
The site supplies tons of information including pictures of his build, videos of it in action, speed tests, schematics, software downloads, and resource links. Great job [Jon].
Posted Aug 27th 2008 2:23PM by Caleb Kraft
Filed under: misc hacks, peripherals hacks, daily
[Kyle Stewart] sent us this
quick AVR project. He designed it to sit vertically on his breadboard to take up less space. It doesn't use any surface mount components, to make the assembly easier. You can download the schematic, parts list, and eagle files for the project on his blog.
Posted Aug 27th 2008 1:39PM by Caleb Kraft
Filed under: news
[Alex Papadimoulis] wrote about ingenuity and
hacking in high school. Immediately after the teacher's installed a new electronic note taking and test giving software, the students began hacking. They managed to find several ways to ace their tests, none of which involved studying hard the night before. Ultimately, the teachers went back to the old system to prevent such shenanigans.
[photo:
COCOEN]
Posted Aug 25th 2008 5:17PM by Caleb Kraft
Filed under: misc hacks, peripherals hacks
[Aaron Rasmussen] and his friend [Eli] slapped together this setup to see what it would be like to
run as much as their World of Warcraft characters. They used a couple old treadmills to spin some tires with makeshift mouse sensors on them. As their speed increased, so did their character. There was a decent amount of math done to figure the average speed of a World of Warcraft character, and ultimately they settled on 12 miles per hour. Not surprisingly, they found that too difficult due to the resistance in the rig as well as being out of shape. They ended up lowering the speed required to make their character go full sprint to 6 miles per hour.
Their final conclusion was that they could never run as much as their digital counterparts. Even if they were in really good shape. [Aaron] does say that it was fun enough to consider doing it regularly as a workout plan. He should wear the costume every time he uses it.
Posted Aug 25th 2008 9:56AM by Caleb Kraft
Filed under: misc hacks, daily, security hacks
[Zach Barth] has released
Ruckingenur II, the game of reverse engineering. The latest in his Games for Engineers series, it is a full game with multiple levels and live action cut scenes. Set with a military theme, the goal is to reverse engineer enemy items. Pictured above is a lock to a weapons cache.
The pixelized style is consistent throughout. Even the cut scenes have the effect. The reverse engineering is fun enough to keep you interested while you learn. There is an in game help system that keeps you on track as well. Our only suggestion is that he get some better costumes next time!
Posted Aug 25th 2008 9:13AM by Caleb Kraft
Filed under: misc hacks
In a move reminiscent of many episodes of
Home Improvement, [Xenon] decided to
soup up one of his children's toys. The Elefun is a toy the shape of an elephant that uses a built in fan to blow little butterflies into the air. They are notoriously weak and eat batteries like crazy. They don't even have a plug for a wall adapter for power.
[Xenon] dug out a 7.5 V wall adapter from an old DSL modem. Since the Elefun normally ran on 6V, he figured this would give the toy a much needed boost. He began to open things up and prepare the soldering iron when he realized that he could just jam the wires into the terminals. The battery compartment screws shut, providing nice safety against electric shock.
He ended up with a much more pleasant experience for his little boy. The Elefun now jumps to life, spewing the butterflies out with ease. It actually shoots them out so quickly, he had to make some more just so the game would last longer.
This may not be the most complex hack or the most impressive execution. [Xenon] deserves some credit though, He recognized the design problems and made his own fixes for them. There's at least one Elefun in the households of the Hack A Day staff that will be getting this treatment.
[thanks Chris]
Posted Aug 22nd 2008 2:49PM by Caleb Kraft
Filed under: peripherals hacks, daily, digital audio hacks
[D.St-Amand] is designing the
SyncMaster, a compact modular midi controller, from scratch. The design focuses on a modular build where you can swap out pieces like the one pictured above to achieve different layouts. Not only is it modular, but its very compact. Shown next to some common competitors, it looks very sleek.
Development seems to be moving forward, the pictures have been updated frequently. Lets hope to see a fully functional demo some time soon. Some more detailed information on the build might be nice as well. This may remind you of our story on
MachineCollective. While there are similarities in that they're modular, SyncMaster appears to be a much more polished and portable product. Keep us updated [D.St-Amand].
Posted Aug 21st 2008 3:15PM by Caleb Kraft
Filed under: peripherals hacks, robots hacks, daily
Hot on the heels of the
Wii missile launcher,
Das Uber Airsoft Gun Turret is here to put our past
airsoft turrets to shame. Made by [Miltron_B],
this autonomous beast not only has gorgeous LED indicators, it has lasers. Three of them. Three freaking lasers. Take a moment to wipe the drool from your chin.
We've seen plenty of turrets before, but this one really excels in design. It features two webcams for more precision detection and tracking and when set to manual mode, it can be controlled with an XBox 360 controller. He's posted great pictures of the process with a step by step break down. Tons of useful links are included to help you out.
Someone should construct a
Portal sentry gun case for this thing and add voice clips.
Posted Aug 21st 2008 10:28AM by Caleb Kraft
Filed under: pcs hacks
[Lief Bloomquist] was in need of some geeky nostalgia. He thought making a
BBS server on a Commodore 64 would fill that need perfectly. He used a PC running some routing software to make the BBS server available over the net, without any long distance charges. Anyone with an Internet connection can telnet to the BBS and join the fun.
[Jason Scott] made
BBS: the Documentary. He has interviewed [Lief] and taken some pictures of the set up. You can view them, as well as download a PowerPoint about the project
here.
[thanks HighNoon]
Posted Aug 20th 2008 1:51PM by Caleb Kraft
Filed under: news
MIT researchers have used a viral assembly method to
create a battery at half the size of a human cell. They've successfully developed the anode and electrolyte, leaving only the cathode unfinished. each electrode is only 4 micrometers in diameter.
The construction process involves taking a rubbery base and creating a pattern of tiny posts through lithography. Then they add different layers of polymers that act as an electrolyte. Finally the virus preferentially self-assembles on top of the polymer creating the anode. Pictured above is a test plate. The battery itself is too small to be seen.
[via
BoingBoing]
Posted Aug 20th 2008 9:17AM by Caleb Kraft
Filed under: handhelds hacks, playstation hacks, daily
[Eric Ruckman] sent us this awesome
Guitar Hero hack. He wanted to get a more "true to the series" game play out of his DS when playing Guitar Hero: On Tour. If you've seen the adapter that
comes with it, you'll understand his desires. He found a wireless PS2 Guitar Hero controller on EBay to hack.
He's cut a hole in the controller and removed all the guts.
In the picture above the DS fits in the hole to allow strumming in the correct position. The controller buttons are connected to the DS by wiring into the adapter. He's added an FM transmitter to the controller so he can play the sound through his home sound system.
Continue reading Hack Guitar Hero DS into a guitar controller
Posted Aug 19th 2008 11:31AM by Caleb Kraft
Filed under: ipod hacks, portable video hacks, daily
[jongscx] picked up a Myvu personal media viewer and promptly began scheming about improvements. He decided he wanted to be able to
watch any input on the device, not just an Ipod.
After some messing about with different inputs, he eventually calls Myvu to ask some questions. Surprisingly, he gets the engineer who designed the thing. The engineer turns out to be pretty helpful and is happy to help him hack the device. [jongscx] ends up finally getting it to work and posts the schematic for the world to see.
He says his hands are full with some other projects right now, but hopefully he'll do an official write up with pictures of the final product soon.
[DrNathan] wrote in to note that [RetroPlayer] was responsible for much of the work as well as contacting the engineer.
[thanks, DrNathan]
Posted Aug 18th 2008 3:30PM by Caleb Kraft
Filed under: robots hacks, news
The British military held a competition to
find the newest batch of robotic surveillance drones. The article mentions that they compete in a mockup village, but sadly we don't get to see any of the action. We strongly recommend watching the video so you can see some of the robots. There is an interesting helicopter concept that has angled props for better stability and lateral motion, but more importantly you get to see the little guy pictured above. He very well could be Wall-E's great grandfather. Though his constant buzzing around during the interviews is slightly annoying, his little camera mount looking all around is instantly endearing. If he doesn't win this contest, he may have a shot at
the [crabfu] challenge.
[via
Engadget]
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