Hasta La Gadget!

Child of the ’80s? Then you’ll most likely remember those notorious PSAs about your brain and eggs, and the dangers of turning yourself into an omelette. Yeah, well turn off your inner Nancy Reagan for a second because we’ve got an Arduino hack that should have you just saying yes. New Zealand artist Rich Decibels created a homebrew brain entrainment device that uses low frequency sound and light to induce different mental states. The mod pieces together an Arduino Uno with two separate interface boards — one for pitch and separation controls, the other for LED and volume — to deliver a combo of binaural beats (two slightly out of sync tones) and flashing headset-mounted lights that’ll slow down those cerebral hertz cycles. If you happen to live in the land made famous by Frodo’s Shire, you can check out the brain-slowing goods at Thistle Hall’s Project Briefcase exhibition. Not a Kiwi? Then be sure to hit the source for an audio taste of this hacked head experience.

Rich Decibels Brainwave Disruptor scrambles your head, not your eggs originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 08 Aug 2011 20:43:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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You can do a lot in seven hours — fly coast-to-coast, slow-cook a pot roast, create a Google Maps-navigating, Wii Fit-controlled virtual Segway. Wait, what? Yes, that Nintendo-branded, dust-collecting relic of holidays past has been given a new lease on life thanks to an intrepid troop of Ivy-educated geeks, and a seven-hour hackathon. The marathon modding session, held by Stanford University’s SVI Hackspace, banded together a like-minded set of overachieving modders to produce a balance board-guided Street View romp through Google Maps. The students’ hack connects the Wii Fit board to OS X via the Osculator app, with a Node.js server processing the data and Socket.io handling board-to-browser communication. A Google Earth plug-in and pre-rendered Segway were all that was left to complete this foot-mapped joy ride through our digitized world. Video demo awaits you after the break.

Continue reading Wii Fit balance board hack takes a virtual Segway ride around Google’s mapped world (video)

Wii Fit balance board hack takes a virtual Segway ride around Google’s mapped world (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 03 Aug 2011 10:49:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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There’s a good reason why My Little Pony wasn’t marketed to boys. Shown off at the 2011 Maker Faire in Detroit, this animatronic, fire-breathing horsie got to spread a little heat thanks to the Louisville, KY-based modding duo, LVL1. The partially Wiimote-controlled mechanical filly is the result of the duo’s Hackerspace efforts, and plans are already underway to loose this steed into the great, fully wireless open. Also on deck for the hot-mouthed stallion: a flame-spewing cabbage patch doll riding companion. How’s that for a DIY-perversion of your precious 80s youth? Peep the full pyromania-tinged project after the break.

Continue reading Maker Faire pony has Wiimote-controlled indigestion, belches fire (video)

Maker Faire pony has Wiimote-controlled indigestion, belches fire (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 01 Aug 2011 12:30:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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What do you get when you cross a dj with a “Canadian roboticist?” An almost true-to-fiction Wall-E, that’s what. In this rendition of garbage-bot gone cute, amateur robotics enthusiast DJ Sures (yes, he makes music) hollowed out a U-Command Wall-E toy and fixed him up with some servo guts. The voice-activated, semi-autonomous modjob has a built-in eye camera that recognizes motion, colors and faces, coming the closest we’ve seen to replicating the CG-romantic. The whole AA-battery powered affair runs on the EZ-B Robot Controller software shown off by Sures in the video below. And unlike other past re-creations, this little guy knows how to get down without the need for sped up video tricks. Clearly, the Pixar-bred bot’s become the unofficial icon of the homebrew robotics community, so where’s his official counterpart? You listening Disney? Get cracking.

Continue reading Wall-E meets his Canadian DJ maker, turns into a real robot toy (video)

Wall-E meets his Canadian DJ maker, turns into a real robot toy (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 24 Jul 2011 05:31:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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In the mood for some homebrew iOS app-building fun? Well, Make’s got a kit just for you that bundles the Redpark Serial Cable for iOS with an RS232-to-TTL board and the 60 plus component Minitronics Survival pack for $80. Hailing it as “the first general-purpose serial cable that Apple has approved,” this limited supply pack will let you get your Arduino-tinkering hands all sorts of iPhone dirty — jailbreak not required. And if you’re the uninitiated type, the DIY magazine’s also put together a helpful, hand-holding guide to walk you through some basic first-timer projects. Hit the source to order your own Jobs-certified cable.

[Thanks, Marc]

Make’s Redpark Breakout Pack lets you build iOS apps with Arduino assistance originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 18 Jul 2011 17:32:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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