Schlagwort: Nano
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Designing a 3D-printed EMG bionic hand as a low-cost alternative to prosthetic limbs
Reading Time: 2 minutesThe cost of a new prosthetic arm can range from several thousand dollars to tens of thousands, putting them out of reach for many people. Ahmad Ikram recognized this need and decided to design and build a far cheaper, open source version that has myoelectric capabilities. To begin this project, Ikram decided upon using…
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Enjoy the ultimate espresso machine on a budget with Gaggiuino
Reading Time: 2 minutesThere are few beverages on this planet that enthusiasts take more seriously than espresso. Aficionados care about and tune everything from steam pressure to bean roasting temperature. But espresso machines that provide both accurate and precise adjustments are very expensive — easily several thousand dollars. Fortunately, you can tackle the Gaggiuino project…
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DIY vacuum gauge controller saves big money
Reading Time: 2 minutesMeasuring vacuum works in the same way as measuring any other gas pressure, because a perfect vacuum is unachievable and so it is a measure of how close to zero the air pressure inside a container becomes. But typical pressure gauges aren’t meant to measure pressures below ambient atmospheric pressure (vacuums). That…
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Handy machine cuts and strips wires so you don’t have to
Reading Time: 2 minutesIf you only need a couple of wires, it isn’t a big deal to just cut them and strip them yourself. But if you need dozens or even hundreds of wires, that becomes a very laborious task. That’s especially true if those wires need to be a precise length, which is ideal…
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Woody brings class to the world of RPN calculators
Reading Time: 2 minutesRPN (Reverse Polish notation) is a method for writing or entering mathematical calculations wherein operators come after operands. For instance, to calculate the product of 3 and 4, you would type: 3, enter, 4, enter, multiplication. This is unfamiliar to most of us, but was common for Hewlett-Packard’s early digital calculators and is still…
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The Great Resistor lamp makes color codes readable
Reading Time: 2 minutesResistor color codes are great, because they make it easy to identify a resistor’s value by referencing a simple chart (or memorizing that chart). But resistors are also very small and their color bands are hard for many of us to see clearly. Instead of buying a magnifying glass, J built the…
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Huge LED globe becomes Halloween helmet
Reading Time: 2 minutesSome Halloween costumes are creepy, others are racy, and a few, like this one, are just plain cool. LEDs have been common since the 1960s, but they can still stand out when done well. As it turns out, one way to achieve that is by arranging 378 of them around a big…
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Control six separate RGB LED strips with a single Arduino Nano
Reading Time: 2 minutesIf youâre used to working with individually addressable RGB LEDs, then that title probably has you scratching your head â controlling six NeoPixel strips is easy with an Arduino, since each strip only needs a single I/O pin for data. But we arenât talking about individually addressable LEDs; weâre talking about conventional…
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This Valorant fan made his own functional Boom Bot replica
Reading Time: 2 minutesValorant is a free-to-play 5v5 first-person shooter game. As in most shooters, players want to avoid getting shot. One way they can prevent incoming fire is to use Boom Bot, which is a little robot that will drive forward and chase enemies before exploding — while the player stays safely hidden out of…
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Recreating Pong with an LED matrix
Reading Time: 3 minutesTennis for Two is one of the very first video games in history. It eventually inspired Atari’s Pong, which itself spawned many derivatives. Tennis for Two outputted vector graphics to an oscilloscope and had an elevation view of the “tennis court,” complete with gravity. Pong had pixel-based raster graphics with a simpler top-view. That worked better at low…
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Thriller-inspired, LED-lit jacket comes just in time for Halloween
Reading Time: 2 minutesMichael Jackon’s Thriller music video was arguably the best known of his entire career. It contains many horror themes, a delightful and memorable choreographed dance, and an iconic red jacket designed by Deborah Nadoolman. The video’s horror references make it a Halloween favorite, which is why Louise Katzovitz’s LED-lit reimagining of the Thriller jacket is appropriate…
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This handy machine automatically cuts plastic gears
Reading Time: 2 minutesMany, many mechanisms require gears, but the good news is that plastic gears are very cheap. The bad news is that you have to buy a lot of them at once and that means you need to know ahead of time what gears you need. Being able to make gears on-demand would…
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Create vector video art with an Arduino
Reading Time: 3 minutesUnless you’re very young, then you probably remember watching a CRT (cathode-ray tube) television. Those work by directing an electron beam very quickly along row after row while pulsing power to create raster images. But it is also possible to create vector images by directing the electron beam along paths instead of…
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Film camera tester helps you tune your rig
Reading Time: 2 minutesBy their very nature, digital cameras are always measuring the amount of light hitting their sensors and use that information to adjust exposure times. But film cameras require adjustment to get the proper exposure for a particular setup and even swapping lenses can change that. Traditional calibration equipment is expensive, but this…
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Can you become the next Trombone Champ?
Reading Time: 3 minutesThe first Guitar Hero game hit shelves in 2005 and kickstarted the rhythm game revolution. While it wasn’t the first rhythm game, its inclusion of “realistic” guitar controllers changed the industry. It wasn’t long before competitor Rocksmith took things a step further and let players use real electric guitars. But guitars are so common; if you…
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Crack combination locks with this nifty robot
Reading Time: 2 minutesBig names on YouTube like LockPickingLawyer show us that a skilled individual can pick just about any lock that accepts a key. As it turns out, combination padlocks are also very easy to decode and it is even possible to automate that process so that a robot can do the job. Doing…
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A DIY non-contact digital tachometer for machinists
Reading Time: 3 minutesA tachometer is a device that counts the revolutions of a rotating object, with the most well-known example being the automotive tachometer that monitors the revolutions per minute (RPMs) of an internal combustion engine. But tachometers are useful, and sometimes a requirement, in many other applications. RPM is a very important datum…
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Beating unscrupulous arcade owners at their own games
Reading Time: 2 minutesMark Rober isn’t just a talented mechanical engineer and entertaining personality, he is also something of a champion of justice for the common man. He’s already proved that several times with his famous yearly porch pirate-targeted pranks, but now he’s taking on the corrupt fat cats running arcades for children. Those arcades…
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Enhance your astrophotography quality with this automatic lens heater
Reading Time: 2 minutesNighttime photography, and especially astrophotography, requires very long exposure. To get a good picture of the stars, you might leave the shutter open for several minutes. That gives nature plenty of time to produce dew on your lens, which can ruin the photo. The solution is a lens heater, but running that…
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This DIY strain wave gearbox is strong enough to pull a car
Reading Time: 3 minutesMechanical advantage is arguably the most important engineering concept that humanity has ever learned to harness. By converting distance, like the length of a lever or rotations of a gear, into torque (and vice versa) we can overcome almost any physical challenge. But that distance can be an issue. For example, if…
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Simon Boak’s SB116 is a TI Programmer-inspired DIY calculator
Reading Time: 2 minutesSimon Boak’s SB116 is a TI Programmer-inspired DIY calculator Arduino Team — September 13th, 2022 Many types of calculators exist beyond those basic models that everyone used in elementary school. The most common is the scientific calculator, including the iconic Texas Instruments TI-83. Programmer’s calculators contain buttons and functionality designed to help…