Hasta La Gadget!

It’s days like today where you realize just how badly you need to scratch that DIY itch, and Adafruit‘s newest two circuit boards couldn’t be landing at a more opportune time. Both of these bad boys are classified as Gadget Gangsters, which makes ’em viable for purchase without any additional investigation. Should you choose to, however, we’ll have you know that the Propeller Platform USB is an open-source platform for building your own electronics projects with a new eight-core Parallax Propeller chip; the ProtoPlus model adds video / audio support as well as a “prototyping area.” Tutorials are available in the source links for those inexperienced with Spin, and at just $50 / $15 (respectively), we’d say they’re well worth the purchase if you’re looking to simply get your toes wet. Better known as “become hopelessly addicted to modding” ’round these parts.

Adafruit Propeller Platform USB entices DIY electronics builders, ‘Gadget Gangsters’ at large originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 29 Nov 2010 05:02:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It’s not uncommon to see Mr. Android and Sir Arduino team up in the world of homegrown robotics, but Squirt has managed to hop out of the me-too crowd with a downright charming control scheme (and even more charming looks). Put simply, this water gun robot was designed to “water plants and chase away raccoons,” but from a broader perspective, the creator was looking to demonstrate how robotics could be used in small irrigation and well systems. Better still, this is far more than just a robot that’s controlled remotely via smartphone; if you switch it into ‘guard mode,’ it’ll search and destroy — pelting anything “that moves” with a blast of water. And yeah, it can also be controlled via SMS, so even the cats can’t celebrate too quickly once the owner heads out for work. Hit the source link to find out more on how this masterpiece was constructed, or head beyond the break for a quick demo vid.

Continue reading Squirt water gun robot pesters raccoons, takes orders from Android (video)

Squirt water gun robot pesters raccoons, takes orders from Android (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 24 Nov 2010 05:57:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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What, you didn’t think the Kinect open source community would just take a break for the weekend, did you? Microsoft certainly wouldn’t want that, and after seeing how much shadow puppetry warmed our hearts, we wouldn’t want it either! Thankfully, someone in this world can now track a wooden stick to emulate a lightsaber in real time, bringing one classic meme that much closer to actuality (and the promised Star Wars Kinect game not even parsec closer to release). If that’s not enough, we also have a demo made that converts hand-waving to MIDI notes — which, as creator Ben X notes, puts him one step closer to Ableton Live integration — and a pretty pretty wild visual of body dysmorphic disorder (and a chubby cat) courtesy of the powerful open source Cinder library and a Vimeo user who goes by “flight404.” If those were appetizer and two-part entree, respectively, our post-meal coffee would be a pretty sharp critique on Kinect Joy Ride — where it seems, on at least one track, you can nab a bronze trophy by staying as still as humanly possible. All the footage you seek is after the break.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Continue reading Kinect lightsaber, and other inevitable milestones for the open-source robot eye (video)

Kinect lightsaber, and other inevitable milestones for the open-source robot eye (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 22 Nov 2010 16:20:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We’ve seen quite a few programming projects lately, from CPUs built in the world of Minecraft to a full-blown Game Boy emulator in JavaScript. And now? Wiremod forum member Techni has taken the CHIP-8 virtual machine and got it up ‘n running in the Garry’s Mod sandbox for the Source game engine. Sure, CHIP-8 has been around since the 70s, and since it’s small and easy to program it has a following that persists to this day — but that said, we never expected to see it running Space Invaders from inside a game of Half-Life 2, in all its 8-bit glory. That’s what we call progress! Or at least a satisfying hack. See it in action for yourself after the break.

[Thanks, Jason]

Continue reading CHIP-8 emulation comes to Half-Life 2, you can finally retire your Telmac 1800 (video)

CHIP-8 emulation comes to Half-Life 2, you can finally retire your Telmac 1800 (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 15 Nov 2010 20:46:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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So what has technology modder extraordinaire Benjamin J. Heckendorn come up with for his Ben Heck Show this week? Why, a laptop designed to fit on a airplane tray table, thanks to a special swiveling screen. The Coach Section Laptop is a modified Toshiba Satellite with aluminum arms affixed to either side, with slots down the middle upon which the screen’s pegs slide. Thumbscrews then tighten to keep the display in place in either of two modes: the standard laptop configuration, or the floating display-over-keyboard setup you see immediately above. Ben himself admits that we’re looking at a rough proof of concept for now, but we imagine he’ll have a seamless variant on eBay before long — just as soon as he can figure out where to put that precariously dangling display cord. Video after the break.

Continue reading Ben Heck modifies Toshiba Satellite for cramped flights, throws TSA the peace sign (video)

Ben Heck modifies Toshiba Satellite for cramped flights, throws TSA the peace sign (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 07 Nov 2010 23:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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