Jul 29

Nexus One Phone Rides a Rocket Up 28,000 Feet

Posted in: Hacks, Mods and DIY, nexus one, space, Today's Chili

Google’s Nexus One phone is going where few smartphones have gone before. A group strapped the Nexus One to the back of a rocket and launched it from the Nevada desert into the atmosphere to test the device’s performance up in the air.

The Mavericks Civilian Space Foundation, a group of rocket enthusiasts, used an Intimidator-5 rocket to send the device 28,000 feet into the atmosphere.

“The purpose of flying the Nexus One is to find a low-cost satellite solution,” says Thomas Atchison, chairman of the Mavericks Foundation. “The radio, processing power, sensors and cameras in smartphones potentially have the same capability as those in satellites.”

The idea is to drive down satellite cost by using off-the-shelf products and components, says Atchison.

“Today’s satellites are the size of Greyhound buses,” he says. “But I believe they are going to get smaller and more frequently deployed. This is a first-step effort.”

The Nexus One piggybacked on a rocket that was being launched alongside another one for a project called Clotho that’s trying to find out how far off the earth’s surface life exists.

The test flight with the Nexus One was to see how the device behaves under a high-G environment, says Atchison.

“If you put a Nexus One in orbit, how will it perform?” he says. “How does the device handle the thermal temperature and vibrations. We wanted to see the results.”

The resulting video from the Nexus One is below. As expected, the video is a lot of shaking, blue sky and blobs of light, but it is still fun to watch. An earlier test brought Nexus One back with a shattered screen but the device did well on its second flight.

Mavericks researchers James Dougherty and Robert Briody show the payload with a biosampling module and the Google phone.

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Photo: The shattered Nexus One post launch (jurvetson/Flickr)

[via Make and Droid Ninja]




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Jul 22

WD-40 Celebrates Old-Age with 1950s-Style Can

Posted in: Hacks, Mods and DIY, Today's Chili

Next to duct-tape, WD-40 is probably the most important tool in any MacGyver’s kit. It can be used and misused for almost any purpose, from lubricating bike chains (bad: it will just clean off any grease you have) through winter-proofing old car-ignition systems (good: What did you think the “WD” stands for, anyway) to making a tasty cake-frosting (what?).

WD-40 has been around since 1953, and now the company is “celebrating” (read “promoting”) with a Now & Then Twin Pack of the water-dispersing stuff. In the pack you get the boring modern-day can along with another tin in the original black and yellow livery. The pack is apparently a limited edition, but as it is available in Walmart, we wonder just how limited that might be.

Go pick one up and marvel that the Flux-Capacitor, the thing that makes time travel possible, was invented just two years later. Coincidence? I don’t think so.

50+ Years, 2,000+ Uses [WD-40 via the Giz]

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Jul 21

Apple Approves, Pulls Flashlight App with Hidden Tethering Mode

Posted in: att, Hacks, Mods and DIY, iPhone, Today's Chili

Apple has approved a flashlight application which contains a hidden function: Data tethering for the iPhone. The app, named Handy Light, appeared to be yet another flashlight app, but by working through some amusing network settings and then selecting the colors in the app in the right order, it lets iPhone users share cellular internet connection with another wireless device. Predictably the app has already disappeared from the store.

Handy Light is from developer Nick Lee, and cost just $1 in the App Store. You may remember the $10 Netshare, which did the same thing, and suffered the same fate. Why would you want an app to let you tether the iPhone, when AT&T has finally offered official tethering to its users? Because AT&T’s version costs $20 per month extra, and can only be used with the new, crippled 2GB per month data plans. Those holding onto their old unlimited plans are shut out.

To use the app, you need to create an ad-hoc Wi-Fi network on your computer and connect to it with the iPhone. Then, you need to configure the SOCKS proxy on your computer (changing the IP address to 13.37.13.37, ho ho). After this, you hit the secret light-sequence combo in Handy Light and you’re good to go. Sure, its inelegant, but it is (or was) also cheap. If you managed to get ahold of it while it was still on the store, it should also work with your iPad.

Full instructions for Handy Light, should you have somehow downloaded it and not actually realized its hidden dark side, you can find videos all over YouTube (just search for “handy light”) or you can read the step-by-step at App Shopper. Anyone else will have to do it the old-fashioned way and jailbreak their iPhone.

Handy Light: Tethering App Camouflaged as Flashlight [App Shopper via Macworld]

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Jul 20

Extreme Hobbyists Put Satellites Into Orbit With $8,000 Kits

Posted in: diy, Hacks, Mods and DIY, ios, satellite, space, Today's Chili

Attention wannabe supervillains: Putting your own, personal satellite into orbit is not such a far-fetched idea after all. Interorbital Systems, which makes rockets and spacecraft, created a kit last year that lets almost anyone with a passion for electronics and space build a satellite. The $8,000 kit includes the price of the launch.

The company is now ready to launch its first sub-orbital test flights in California next month.

“$8,000? That’s just the price of a cool midlife crisis,” says Alex “Sandy” Antunes, who bought one of the kits for a project that will launch on one of earliest flights. “You could buy a motorcycle or you could launch a satellite. What would you rather do?”

The hexadecagon-shaped personal satellite, called TubeSat, weighs about 1.65 pounds and is a little larger than a rectangular Kleenex box. TubeSats will be placed in self-decaying orbits 192 miles above the earth’s surface. Once deployed, they can put out enough power to be picked up on the ground by a hand-held amateur radio receiver. After operating for a few months, TubeSat will re-enter the atmosphere and burn up.

“It is a pico satellite that can be a very low-cost space-based platform for experimentation or equipment testing,” says Randa Milliron, CEO and founder of Interorbital Systems.

About 20 kits have been sold and 14 more are in the process of being handed over to customers, says Milliron.

Once the bastion of NASA and commercial satellite services, space has now become the final frontier for the do-it-yourselfer next door. Several companies are developing space products that range from orbiting payloads to lunar landers. The burgeoning private space industry has even spawned companies planning space hotels. And last month, SpaceX, a company founded by Tesla and PayPal’s Elon Musk, successfully launched its Falcon 9 rocket into orbit.

TubeSat is different because it lets and hobbyist engineers and astronomers build the satellite themselves. Each TubeSat kit includes the satellite’s structural components, a printed circuit board, Gerber files (essentially blueprints), electronic components, solar cells, batteries, transceiver, antennas, microcomputer and some programming tools.

“It’s not as easy as building a little car model from a hobby shop, but it is doable with a soldering iron and a little practice,” says Antunes. “A single person in their basement can build this satellite.”

A fully built satellite must be returned to Interorbital Systems, which will launch it into space.

TubeSat could be used for applications such as biological experiments, testing of electronic components in space, or video imaging from space.

It doesn’t always have to be a scientific experiment. Antunes’ project, called Project Calliope, will use magnetic, thermal and light sensors to detect information in the ionosphere and transmit the data back to earth in the form of sound. That sound is almost like space music, he says.

“Just like people have taken ambient sound and used it in music, artists can take this and create something out of it.” says Antunes.

Antunes, who got his personal satellite kit a few months ago, says the equipment for Project Calliope is almost ready but he still has to put together the kit.

“I need a DIY person to make the boards, get the extra electronics, add the instruments and hook everything together,” he says. “The project management takes much longer than the technology.”

Once the TubeSat satellite is ready, Antunes hopes to start testing the equipment for his Project Calliope to ensure the electronics can withstand the rigors of space, including the shaking during launch.

“A lot of off-the-shelf electronics does well in space because you don’t have to worry about about water or weather,” says Antunes. “But it still has to be tested for vacuum, shielded from the sun and the cold.”

And after all, if the launch fails, Antunes isn’t worried. Interorbital Systems has promised him a free second attempt.

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Photo: NASA’s ICESat/ NASA




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Jul 20

Hydrophobic Floppy-Drive Leaps Away from Spills

Posted in: Hacks, Mods and DIY, Retro, Today's Chili

Remember the Gesundheit Radio, a sneezing wireless manufactured back in 1972 by the fictional Attenborough Design Group? The radio would sneeze twice a year to expel dust that had built up around its tubes and dials, a spring (and autumn) clean which would help it live a longer (imaginary) life.

Well, that wonderful whimsy has been joined by more anthropomorphic gadgets from the same designers (actually a pair named Chambers and Judd). First is the Antitouch Lamp, a tall wisp of a standard-lamp which shies away when a person comes near, using cables and pulleys to bend like reed in the wind. This stops you from touching the halogen bulb at its top and leaving your greasy, life-reducing fingermarks thereon.

Better, and way cuter than a snooty lamp, is the 3.5-inch disk-drive called “Floppy Legs” (above). This sits on your desktop, wary but serene, waiting for the inevitable coffee-spill. When it comes, four legs pop out and it leaps back and stands on tiptoe, out of harm’s way.

Wouldn’t these gadgets be great in real life? A floppy drive may not be the most handy of items, but a water-fearing keyboard or even cellphone would be. Imagine your poor iPhone throwing out its tiny limbs and trying desperately to gain purchase on the shiny porcelain as it slides, slowly and inevitably, down toward the fetid toilet water. Forget the oleophobic coating. We want hydrophobic legs.

Floppy Legs [Chambers Judd]

Antitouch Lamp [Chambers Judd via Core77]

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Jul 16

How-To: Gorillapod Doubles as Awesome iPad Stand

Posted in: Hacks, Mods and DIY, ipad, Today's Chili

After publicly declaring a search for the perfect iPad stand yesterday, Gadget Lab’s benevolent dictator Dylan Tweney put this question out over Twitter: “@mistercharlie Think you could use a Gorillapod as an iPad stand?” I rushed to grab my trusty Joby Gorilla Mobile, pausing only to set down a bottle of cold German beer. Blinking as I moved out of the bright sun and into the cool dark interior of Gadget Lab’s Berlin outpost, I bent the jointed tripod into shape …

The result is best summed up by my reply: “Dylan, you’re a genius. Tested and it works great. 2 legs curled to hold iPad, one pushed out back as a stand. Steady.”

Further testing and photographing this morning led to some deeper insights. As you can see from the pictures, the stand is fashioned from the smallest of Joby’s grab-anything tripods, meant for compact cameras and cellphones. Two legs are splayed and bent up at the tips to hook the iPad’s bottom edge. The head — in this case the tripod screw — is bent back to stop scratching, although removing the screw or replacing it with the soft suction-cup attachment would also work. The third leg is bent back to balance the whole thing.

I’m amazed how well it works. The Gorillapod is sturdy enough to hold the iPad at any angle, in both portrait and landscape orientations. In normal use — typing and tapping — it is rock solid, but you can also push the iPad back to adjust the angle. For proper typing, you need to lean it back a little further. This is best done by flattening the front legs a little and curling the back leg up to meet the head, like a scorpion’s tail, providing extra support and a narrower angle. You’ll need to do some jiggling to get it rock-steady.

Because all you see at the front is the two feet curling up, it is minimally intrusive. And it even works in bed, letting you prop up the iPad on the mattress to watch a movie. Best of all, the Gorillapod folds up tiny, and is worth carrying along with you anyway because of its multitasking abilities. To see how it did in our testing (grimly hanging on to the basket of a bike while it supported a Canon G9 shooting video), follow the link below.

If you already have one, this could be the best iPad stand yet: It’s effectively free. If you don’t, it’ll cost you $30.

Product page [Joby]

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Jul 16

Giant Four-Man ‘Bike’ Could Crush Cars

Posted in: Hacks, Mods and DIY, Today's Chili, Transportation

No matter how frustrated a cyclist gets at badly-behaving drivers, there’s nothing they can really do against two-tons of glass and steel piloted by an idiot. But if you and a few friends happen to be riding the BigDog, a four-wheel, four-man-powered behemoth of a “bicycle”, you could crush drivers and their vehicles like the Hulk crushes… well, like the Hulk crushes everything.

The giant bike, made by Tom Wilson, is a “wonderfully impractical assemblage of bicycle, go-cart, and golf-cart pieces and parts, drainage pipe, steel tubing, and patio chairs.” Tom is not from the home of bike smugness, Portland, but from the equally appropriate Detroit. His big-wheeled, traffic-stomping creation will be rolling around the Maker Faire Detroit on July 31 and August 1 this year, so you might even be able to get a ride. In the meantime, head over to the Makezine blog and read the interview with Tom.

Maker Faire Detroit: BigDog interview [Makezine]

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Jul 14

ITape Solves iPhone 4 Antenna Troubles

Posted in: Hacks, Mods and DIY, iPhone, Today's Chili

Stuck with one of those non-magical iPhone 4s? Sad that, despite the beautiful retina display, the faster internet speeds, the longer battery life and the 5MP camera, you might experience a drop in signal strength when you hold it wrong?

Then iTape is for you. This innovative roll of Scotch-tape will boost the signal of an iPhone 4 when slapped over the problematic bottom-left corner of the antenna-band. In fact, the tape is simply a roll bought from the hardware store and put up on Ebay, along with the fancy picture above.

The seller, Jason Nolasco, isn’t trying to scam you: All proceeds from this practical joke go to the American Cancer Society (or so it says on the Ebay listing). Even if you aren’t interested in a $3.50 roll of iTape, you should check out the page just to see the great spoof slideshow detailing its features.

Black available now, white shipping in July (har har).

iTape – The iPhone 4 Antenna Signal Booster [Ebay via Twitter and Cult of Mac]

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Jul 13

Scan Old Negatives with a DSLR and Toilet-Paper Tubes

Posted in: film, Hacks, Mods and DIY, Today's Chili

Photographer Claus Thiim has come up with a virtually free way to scan hundreds of old negatives and slides. Best of all, it is easy and fast to make and use.

Even if you never touched a film camera, you probably have a few paper pouches of old negatives lying around, inherited from somebody like me, who has boxes and boxes full of the things. Apart from the odd drunken nostalgic night where I may go through a few boxes, they’re destined to remain unseen.

Thiim’s method eschews slow, bulky scanners and doesn’t even think about mail-in scanning services. He uses the fastest scanner he has: his DSLR. Onto the front are mounted an old manual focus (90mm) lens, an extension tube (which moves the lens forward and allows closer macro focusing). Then things get creative, with a couple of toilet-paper tubes taped to an old filter with the glass removed, along with a plastic 35mm slide-mount on the end. The mount is opened at the sides to let the film slide through.

To scan, you just move the film through and snap a frame. If your camera has live-view, you can even check framing and focus from the comfort of the rear screen.

What I like most is the speed and convenience (and of course the price). It may be a huge pain to go through tens of thousands of frames, but for smaller project this is ideal. And for people who still like to shoot film from time to time, this DIY project is made for you: shooting and developing your own B&W film is easy and requires no darkroom. Combined with this and you can shoot pricey film at almost no cost.

Thiim’s Flicker set shows the details of the setup, but it’s so flexible you can probably bend any kit you have to work. Check it out:

DIY 35mm negative duplicator [Claus Thiim / Flickr via DIY Photography]

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Jul 08

DIY Book Lamp’s Puns Don’t Stop with the Name

Posted in: Books, Hacks, Mods and DIY, Today's Chili

Since switching over to e-books for everything except cookbooks, I have a stack of dead-trees on my shelf doing nothing. As there are only so many iPad and Kindle cases I can make by gutting the hardback covers of their pages, I’m all fired up to try this great Book Lamp by Instructables member fungus amungus aka Ed Lewis.

The project is dead simple: Chop some pages from a book (Ed used the appropriately-titled Illuminatus! Trilogy from Bob Shea and Robert Anton Wilson), cut a route for the cable and insert a light. The donor lamp in this case is the $5 Lampan from (where else?) Ikea. This light also comes with a 7 Watt compact fluorescent bulb, but you could also opt for a nice cold LED bulb (avoid incandescent, though, unless the book you’re using is Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451).

Your chopping doesn’t have to be neat (look at Ed’s effort for a demonstration of just how raggedy edges can get) as it will all be hidden when you close the cover. The resulting light gives a pleasantly studious atmosphere to any shelf or side-table. I actually have a spare Lampan right here, with a broken shade. I think my weekend DIY project has just been decided upon.

Book Lamp [Instructables via CrunchGear]




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